the one with window panes and finished projects.

one day i was passing through my multiple blogs i read daily and i found a really cute wedding reception "words of wisdom for the newlyweds". it was a antique window pane, wrapped a couple times in twine and cute clothes pins attaching small sheets of paper/words of wisdom to the twine. i can't find the post where i saw it.. but i loved it and used it as a inspiration for my crafty sister's christmas gift.

first i got some real cute fabric from somewhere like jo ann's and cut it into small strips, like half an inch.

next i twirled the small strips round n round until i ended up with a nice size flower. i finished the floral arrangement by closing the end with thread & needle, so it wouldn't unravel.

next i got some metallic silver spray paint & painted some regular sized clothes pins.

then with a hot glue gun and my clothes pins...

...i hot glued the back of the flowers and placed them on the clothespins.

with my flowers set aside, i wrap an antique window pane (that i bought at the raleigh flea market earlier this year) with twine a couple of times. then hot glued the twine to the small panes between the glass, so the twine will remain sturdy.

next i put the clothespins on my twine and arranged them according to their colors.

and got this:

almost done. but then i got my mom, dad, brother and myself to write a quote/lyrics/definition/verse of scripture and put on the pane, layered with different colored scraps of paper.

i also put these cute, glittery, green pine cones to add a festive touch..

and the final product:

it was my first self-completed gift. like i said in an earlier post, i get so close to finishing a project when i hit a wall and need my mom or sister to finish it for me. but this was superrr easy and came out great! so here's to my first how-to project! happy tuesday, ya'll!!

the one before, during & after christmas.

merry belated christmas everyone! this christmas has been wonderful. santa was way too good to me and my siblings. i saw a lot of family. we were happy. it was a wonderful way to celebrate the birth of our savior.

i don't really have an outrageous family story (that would be funny or interesting to you anyways) so i thought i would just do a run down of the past couple of days.

before christmas. insane hectic schedules. wrapping paper everywhere. ryan's basketball games dictating our nights. last minute shopping. tape stuck to your shirt. missing gifts hidden underneath boxes, bags and ribbon. fingers crossed for a white christmas. text messages every second to figure out dates with your high school friends. lots of sleep. figuring out last minutes gifts. finishing projects. lots of smiles.. because it's almost christmas!!

side-note: i am not that crafty. there are a few things i can arrange to appear nice, but with all honesty, i can't even draw a straight line with a ruler. so crafty, homemade gifts were of course an idea, but ideas that only lasted a couple minutes when i face reality. reality that i could only get so far in my projects to the point... where i need my mom or sister to finish. but anyways i was stumbling upon different blogs and i found an idea from a wedding. but i wanted to take the idea and turn it into a cute christmas gift for my sister. so then not only did it become a potential gift but a challenge to make a handmade, crafty gift without her help. so with the help of netflick movies on my laptop (especially notting hill), i got crafty...

this is the preview to my finish product. i'll do a how-to post tomorrow! :)

on christmas eve also came exchanging of gifts with my mom's side of the family (the twice new people). it was a total hit! i probably think this because i came out with the best gift in my opinion, my cousin got me a really old polaroid camera set. (i took pictures with my uncles camera so i don't have them to post :(... ). but it was amazing. it came with the camera, an attachable flash, extra bulbs for the flash, an attachable self timer, instructions, the case. incredible. i absolutely love it. it will fit ever so nicely in my collection of antique cameras. :) thanks mark, gina, mallorie & mark!

as mom & dad settled into bed and my brother got on xbox with all his buds, my sister & i baked santa some cookies. we always leave santa cookies regardless of us being 16,19, & 22. while the cookies were baking ashley & i decided to be productive and clean the house so everyone would wake up to clean house before the explosion of wrapping paper that was going to occur in a couple of hours.

right before we headed to bed, i thought we should show santa and mrs. claus our appreciation by writing them a little note on an index card. ashley and i got all sappy and traditional, and ryan (aka comedian of the family) simply said this:

yes, he writes like a 5th grader... but we laughed sooo hard at his sentimental words.

by now it's christmas. we all nestled our heads in our cold pillows and drifted off dreaming of sugar plums. to awake to way too many boxes of really awesome goodies!

we had an amazing christmas morning.. even though mom had to go into work (hence the dark out.. we did santa at 4:30am!!!) but we got all more than expected & necessary. santa and mrs. claus always outdo themselves and never, EVER disappoint.

one thing that was a little frustrating, but understandable, but still frustrating was not spending the day with sam. usually we do lunch at my grandma's, then supper at his. but low and behold we got our white christmas (yay!... kind of) so the mass amount of flakes changed both of our schedules to around 3 or 4pm. so sam treked his way over to my house and we had our 45 minutes of exchanging (p.s. i got cowboy boots from sam, who knew?) and then said our goodbyes for the end of our christmas together. sad face times ten.

overall, christmas was comfortable. it was real. and it was nice. conflicts happen even on the happiest day of the year. we deal with them and enjoy the people we get to spend the day with. i embraced the fact that my family is healthy, happy and just down right beautiful. :)

after christmas. like i said. we got our white christmas and it was amazing! my family got to wake up this this:

God is so gorgeous.

so inches of snow on the ground.. what does that mean? it means ignoring the explosion of wrapping paper that has yet to be cleaned up. it means throwing on your snow gear. it means teaching your dad how to use a camera so he can take action pics as his kids make packed pathways and snow jumps.

it means enjoying your family. it means reminding yourself that you love them more than you can believe in spite on their differences or disagreements. it means being thankful for classy white snow, and the beauty it shows as it lays perfectly on a pond's pier, or on top of a mountain. & it's a perfect reminder of why we celebrate this season in the first place. :)

hope your christmas season rocked your snow-drenched socks off!

(my how-to crafty gift post is coming tomorrow, get pumped!)

the one for erin & zach.

this past monday, i was given to opportunity to take my first engagement shots.

erin & zach were the perfect couple to be my guinea pigs. erin is sweet, loving, & carefree. zach is hilarious, comfortable & charming. they were so comfortable with each other & with me getting right up in their grill. they needed zero direction. this is a super quick sneak peak for erin & zach.. enjoy.

we started out in pilot mountain:

next stop: the gorgeous graylyn in winston-salem:

then to old salem in downtown winston...

& ended up at krankie's coffee.

(their wedding date.. how creative?)

they have some really neat ones i'm saving for them to view first. :) erin & zach i had a great time & i really hope you enjoy them! i'm almost done with all of them! you will have them soon!