Last Saturday night I had a few friends over for a low-key crafty night. It's been quite some time since I've gotten together with gal pals to just sit around & chat. We made pendant necklaces, worked on projects, chatted about babies & husbands and ate delicious food. I had a great time getting together with my friends. There was no schedule, no twitter and no instagram to distract us from the good time we shared. I love moments like that. What fun projects have you made lately? I'd love to see!

Altitude Summit this year was insane. There were nearly 500 in attendance! Nearly 500 insanely talented, gorgeous, fashionable, down-to-earth men and women all there to improve upon what they're already awesome at. To be completely honest, I felt completely unworthy to be in the crowd. So unworthy, in fact, the first day felt like a giant kick in the pants.

(image by Uppercase Magazine)

I had a fantastic time socializing with friends and making new ones! The panels were all fantastic, but a big wake up call at the same time. To sum up my experience at Alt; here are a few things I learned, some good times that I had and the cool people I met.

• THINGS I LEARNED •

• Break out the good stuff (but not too much). Keep posts simple, unique & attention-grabbing.
• Include personal narrative & personality, but make and keep boundaries of what I'm willing to share.
• Be more aware of news (I should probably read drudge, but I never do) and current trends
• DON'T SIT ON IDEAS - I can always improve on them later
• Facebook is something I need to embrace, not avoid
• I need to figure out what I want to achieve from this blog (I'm a little aimless sometimes)
• I need to fix my about page
• Re-writing my media packet is a must
• I need to talk more with my brother (I don't call him nearly enough & he's a patent attorney)

While attending the various panels, I started a little to do list of the things I should change & improve on my blog & for you, my dear readers. The list is 3 miles long now. After the first day of sessions I felt completely broken: My blog sucks. My life is a mess. I'm not stylish enough. I'm not creative enough. I don't have enough time to do any of this. The second day was a whole new world. Each session was more inspiring than the last. That second day helped me build more confidence that I can do this, and many bloggers that I look up to are also in the same I'm-not-good-enough boat.

• GOOD TIMES I HAD •

Wednesday night I enjoyed some fantastic sushi with Pinhole Press. I had great conversations with Jensie & Melanie who I sat next to. It was a great & personal way to get the Alt Summit festivities started. Wednesday night I partied with fellow teachers and met designer pal, Angie, for the first time ever. I got to meet Natalie, Timothy and joke around with the reps of Mail Chimp. They gave out hand crocheted monkey hats at the social & you better believe I grabbed a handful & plan on using them for Felix's 1st birthday. I do believe we will be going monkey-themed this year.

(image by Justin Hackworth)

Thursday night was the Winter Whites party. Since I taught a panel in the morning I was able to get my hair professionally done by She Lets Her Hair Down (Josphen was too adorable), so it didn't take much to get all dolled up for the party. I wore an off-white top (courtesy of ModBod, LOVE it!), necklace from H&M, earrings from the thrift store, belt from Grandma Newton, bracelets made by me (and one by my dad), floor-length skirt handmade by me, shoes from Amazon. I had originally bought a white dress from Asos, but it failed miserably as it was practically see-through. Funny enough, I saw a girl wearing the exact dress that didn't work on me, but it worked on her! I felt like too much of a dork to go up to her & tell her it looked fantastic on her. Oh well. The Friday night parties were absolutely nuts. So many photo booths & fun treats. I believe I collapsed from a sugar rush at the end of the night. I wore a turquoise dress from Asos, pink belt from Asos, red patent pumps from Target, earrings from the thrift store & bracelets from Target. The Uppercase living party was a hoot where we made beaded necklaces. We finished the night at the Method + Smilebooth party where they had some classic hip hop jams & we got a little crazy with our dance moves. Super fun times.

(Image by Gala Darling)

Saturday was more of a restful day with sewing, printmaking & calligraphy. It even started to snow! I had a great time at Eva's printmaking class & made some really fun prints that I plan on hanging around the house. I need to get on that! The calligraphy class went really well & both Jill & I were just floored at how quickly everyone picked up the pointed pen! Great times.

• THE PEOPLE I MET •

My roommies were fantastic. In previous years I've lived close enough to the Grand to just drive home at night. This time I had to drive 40+ miles each way, so I decided I'd rather spend that commuting time sleeping or socializing (it ended up being the latter). I had an absolute blast getting to know my roomies better. Nikki, Katie and Mica are so fantastically inspiring, beautiful and talented! What a fun group of women to be associated with!

It was an absolute thrill to meet Kathleen. She's so real and witty! Jessica, Gala, and Jessie were all on the same fashion panel. I loved how passionate they were & how transparent they were willing to be at the Q&A section. There needs to be more of that in the blogging community! They're all super adorable, too. At the Printmaking class I met my blog crush, Merilee, who turns out lives practically next door to me! We're totally going to be BFFs now.

There were so many fantastic people that I met at Alt, I'm trying to sort through all of their cards/sites & add them to a Pinterest board for you all to see & visit. It'll probably take a million years to add all of them on there, but I'll try to get them on there.

Did you go to Alt? Tell me, what was your favorite moment of the weekend?

A few years ago I was at Forever 21 looking for a jacket, when I stumbled across the menswear section & spied this ugly sweater. It was $3. And just the right size for Chris's, then 180lb., frame. He never liked it much, but he did wear it a lot to shovel the snow or do other misc housework. It didn't make the cut for his wardrobe like I thought it would, but heck, it was so cheap. I was glad to see him get even a little use out of it. Then. . . Chris gained over 30lbs. It seemed like it was over night. I was sad to see his wardrobe go. This was about the time when I was pregnant with Felix, so I stole a few of his awesome too-small-for-mr-muscles sweaters & put them in my wardrobe. This sweater was perfect for sporting the baby bump. Now that I no longer have the bump, I just zipped along the sides with my sewing machine & took in the sweater about 3 inches on each side. Now I have a comfy, sort of ugly, sort of cool sweater to wear when it's just a bit nippy in the studio. For practically free. I've been avoiding thrift shops lately (no energy to do grocery shopping, let alone thrift), so I ask you. . . What have you scored on the cheap lately? Do you steal from your significant other's closet? Share in the comments below!

I know for sure I'm not the only one that feels a bit uncomfortable wrangling kids with a gaping top. We've talked about this before, when I wrote about my slouchy tee refashion. Slouchy & gaping tees are fun to wear. They offer both style & pajama-like comfort, but there's one problem: the gaping necklines. So we're here talking about them again.

(see how the wide collar gapes?)

I found a fantastic mid-length dress at Ruche (Way to go, Ruche, for offering mid-length dresses & skirts this season!), but I had the sneaking suspicion that the neck would be too wide. That proved to be true. This idea for a refashion hit as I was debating whether I should keep it or not. I decided it was worth the $40 risk.  I used a piece of leather to gather the back into a bow-like shape. It doesn't change much of the neckline, but it does tighten it down a bit so that when I bend over, my girls don't show. I'm glad I took the risk! I'm excited to start working this into my regular wardrobe. Read more for how to do it yourself! You'll find yourself finishing this refashion in a matter of minutes. It's really that easy. Put the top on a dress form & mark the centerline & where you want the gathering to stop. For me, this ended up being about 10-11 inches from the top of the dress. Grab a friend to help you mark the spot if a dress form isn't available. Figure out how big a "knot" you want. I used leather, but you could definitely use a tube of jersey or anything else for that matter. If it's not leather or felt, finish the edges. For me, it was 1 1/2 x 5 1/2 inches. Make a slit slightly smaller than your "knot" piece, where you made your marking in the first step. Add fray check around the edges for extra stability. Thread your leather/knot piece through the small slit & sew ends together along the back side. Since my top was actually a dress, there was a lot of weight pulling on the slit I made, creating an ugly gap. I reinforced the slit by hand sewing it into the pleats & the knot piece. Add more fray check for extra stability. Turn right side out & enjoy your family-friendly slouchy top! You'll love how it looks from the back, you'll want to wear your hair up. Enjoy!

• Terms of Use •

This tutorial/freebie is free for personal use and should not be distributed/republished without my consent. I love getting shout outs from around the web, but please, link with love. Do not copy this text, publish more than 1 photo or outright steal this idea for any publications. If you would like to use this tutorial for commercial purposes, please email me. Thanks!  

During Chris’s two and a half weeks of Christmas vacation, we spent our time redesigning a few blogs. We had a grand time working together & making the interwebs a tiny bit prettier. I’ll be sharing a finished project each week along with a design tip (or two) for a better blog. It was my sincere pleasure to work on the site: Fantabulously Frugal. Lisa was a gem to work with! Before I got started the elements on the page had no heirarchy & the ads weren't very organized. A lot of the work involved in this redesign was on Chris's end of things, with reorganizing the sidebar so that it would read well on the page AND so that it could be easily editable on Lisa's end of things. There were a few things I did like about her blog & incorporated in the redesign: unexpected color palette, stripes and handmade elements. Since her site is deal/ad-based, I felt like the handwritten details made it look more approachable, but then kept it professional looking. I made a very fine diagonal stripe for the background & softened her color palette to a charcoal/navy/purple color family. Doing this redesign was so satisfying; like organizing-my-closet-by color-with-all-matching-hangers satisfying. What do you think? Head on over to Fantabulously Frugal for the full after (and for info on killer deals).

• Blog tip #3: DESIGN + ADS •

If you're thinking about starting a blog with ads or you're planning on adding advertisements to your current blog; you need to know standard ad sizes. We talked about this a little bit at Alt this past year. Large companies that are looking to advertise with Google or ad networks use standard sizes for their ad campaigns. Check out IAB for standard ad dimensions, file sizes & animation length. It's a fabulous resource for bloggers & companies. See below for the most popular of the standard ad sizes:

• Leaderboard: 728 x 90 pixels
• Medium Rectangle: 300 x 250 pixels
• Wide Skyscraper: 160 x 600 pixels

My head is still spinning from Alt Summit this last weekend, so I'll probably put something up tomorrow sharing all of the awesome people I met & the cool things I learned while there. In the mean time, I had a fantastic idea that I wanted to share with you: We just bit the bullet recently & bought a grown-up table! It's our 7th (and hopefully final) table in the last 5 1/2 years. Now that we have a nice table made out of beautiful solid wood, we need to take care of it. This means no naked glasses on the wood! I was grocery shopping the other day & thought I'd see if I could find some cooler place mats than we have currently & had a brilliant brain wave. I also had to pick up some envelopes in the office supply section & came across bulletin board tiles. They were about the right size, a fantastic color/texture & a lot cheaper than the placemats I had been eyeing earlier. BOOM. there you go. We have cork boards for place mats. I think this idea connected partially because we had placemats growing up that had cork on the bottom, to keep from scratching the table top. I loved those placemats! They had pretty illustrations of the English countryside. I wonder if my parents still have them. So, do you use placemats for mealtime? What are your favorite ones? Link to resources in the comments below!

I'm forgoing a Redesigned post this week & sharing with you my business cards I've made for Altitude Design Summit. I'm really excited about them. Heck, I should be. They took me at least 20 hours to design, complete & assemble. I've got access to a laser cutter, so I made little friendship bracelets with my "I still love you" logo on them. Cutting the leather took about 4 hours. Thank heavens I didn't have to do all that by hand. In the past, I've cut my vinyl stickers myself with my little Silhouette, but this time I didn't want to deal with all that. I had them done at Fast Signs. That lifted a bunch of stress off my shoulders to have that done for me. I got a lot of help this time around with my business cards!! My sister-in-law helped with the bracelets, My intern helped stamp the cards & clean the leather and my cousin & his wife helped me assemble it all. I wouldn't have been able to do it in under 20 hours without them! Thanks, friends!! So, are you going to Alt? What did you do for your business cards? Please do say hi to me at the conference! I have a little goodie for you & I'd love to meet you. If you're not heading to Alt, I'll be back here on Monday. Happy weekend!

Ahhhh. . . Much better. I don't feel like a stuffed sausage anymore.

• cardi: random boutique ages ago
• top: Ruche
• necklace: H&M
• jeans: PacSun, refashioned
• booties: Seychelles, Amazon

I have a problem when it comes to skinny jeans. My legs are nowhere near atrophed enough. If I want my pants to fit in the legs, I sacrifice the fit in the waist. If I want my pants to fit in the waist, I feel like a stuffed sausage. I find this terribly annoying, I mean COME ON!! My legs are pretty small. I doubt I'm the only one with this problem. Or am I? I bought these PacSun jean leggings through Groupon at an insanely low price ($5? I'm in.). I was concerned that the fit was going to be a bit tight on my legs, but I ordered just as the size chart suggested. Sure, I fit in my jeans, but they weren't very comfortable. In fact, they're too loose in the waist & a bit too tight in the legs. I'm sure I could've taken them back for a bigger size, but unfortunately I had already ripped off the tags. Instead I decided to make them bigger & thankfully it worked! Here's how:

1. turn your jeans inside out - make sure there's at least one non-felled seam down your pants
2. sew along the inside edge of the surged seam
3. unpick the inner seam & remove any stray threads
4. launder & wear

This little tip will give you about 1/4-1/2 inch of extra leg room in each pant leg! Easy peasy! You just need to know how to sew in a (relatively) straight line. For best results, do this on a dark wash pair of jeans. If you do have lighter washed jeans & you want to cover up the unpicked line, you might want to try a tuxedo approach like these J brand skinnies (as seen on Taylor). See how you can't even tell that I added 1/2 inch of leg room in my pants? I know for sure I'll get a lot more use out of these ridiculously cheap jeans.

Click here to see outfit details.

We're making a few (exciting!) changes to the decor in our house & need to make room for new chairs. I have two of these lovely hotel chairs for sale for if anyone wants to snatch them up. See below for more details.

• history: vintage, from a hotel in Idaho
• condition: fair, could use a light scrubbing & refinishing on the wood, but the springs are all intact as are all the upholstery tacks
• materials: wood frame upholstered with oil-coated fabric
• asking price: $35 each or $60 for the pair
• additional info: local pickup (Orem) & cash only

One of the best thrift-shopping excursions I had in a while was when I led a thrifting excursion back in October with a few Sewing Summit Peeps. There I scored tons of awesome stuff, among them: this coat. It's nearly impossible for me to find awesome vintage winter coats that fit. Usually they're too short in the arms or too wide in the shoulders & sleeves. It's not a bad problem to have, but it forces me to always be on the lookout for a coat that actually fits. Even when it's not coat weather. I love this coat! It's 100% awesome wool with a 100% silk lining. Oh yeah, you heard me, this coat is legit. Not even Anthro provides coats this nice at their $300 premium. The only problems I had with this coat straight off the rack were the short sleeves and the trench-like length. The sleeves were just about a half inch too short & the length about 8 inches too long. It took me a long while to figure out how I would adjust this coat & thought I would share with you my thought process & how I came up with the final refashion.

1. Originally I thought I would lengthen the sleeves by adding the equivalent to a sleeve dickie, but as the sleeves had button enclosures, I didn't really see how that would work in my favor.
2. Then Liz gave me the brilliant idea to add fur cuffs to the coat. I found some inspiration & I even bought some killer zebra fur, but it quickly became a giant hot mess as I got to sewing. Real fur is a giant mess to work with. Yuck.
3. After seeing a giant hot mess of my awesome coat I really wanted to give up, but I still had 6 inches of wool that I cut off the bottom left to use as scrap. I used every last bit of those scraps to make new cuffs and sewed some linear details on the cuffs to match the collar.

So, once I finally figured out the vision, the coat didn't take a whole lot to revamp. Here's the list of final alterations:

• shortened hem by 8 inches
• hemmed the silk lining, didn't need to hem the wool part, though (YAY!)
• removed old cuff & used as a pattern template for longer sleeves
• bought brass buttons for a double button closure on the sleeves

Found these boots on Amazon for a steal ($40) & thought I'd wear them out today. Took them on errands with both kiddos. For being a 4" heel, they're pretty easy to walk in!

• cardi: Shade
• scarf: Lands' End, c/o Lands' End
• top: Threadless
• necklace: handmade by my dad
• belt: Asos
• pants: H&M
• boots: Seychelles on Amazon

During Chris’s two and a half weeks of Christmas vacation, we spent our time redesigning a few blogs. We had a grand time working together & making the interwebs a tiny bit prettier. I’ll be sharing a finished project each week along with a design tip (or two) for a better blog. Nikki is another girl who I knew before designing for her. We met when she took one of my calligraphy classes a while back & gave me the most adorable bow necklace ever (here's her tutorial). She's creative, sweet, unique & fun (in fact, I can't wait to be her roommate for Alt next weekend!). I wanted her blog to reflect just that. After seeing Nikki's Neon Christmas post, I knew that I wanted to go for a grown-up dayglo theme. I also went for a more untraditional rendering of the pineapple: a circle. I kept the white space, unified graphics & justified the sidebar items. Her blog was so fun to work on! Head over to thesaltypineapple.com to see the design in action & check out all of Nikki's fantastic ideas!

• Design tip #2: BE CONSISTENT! •

It's a great idea to hire a professional designer to work on your branding, but you can make your blog look instantly more professional by just staying consistent in your content (and by doing that you make the designer's job even easier)! Here are some great ways to achieve visual consistency:

• take & use photos of similar quality (avoid photoshop effects)
• take as many photos as possible in natural light
• edit all of your photos to be the same width as your content (it will look nice & your blog will load faster, too)
• justify all of your post text the same way: I prever left justified, but center is fine if you write more poetically
• use bold, italics, ALL CAPS and large text sparingly

See the video below on how to make your images consistent width with your post content (for blogger, but applies for other platforms). What would you add to this list of being visually consistent? For me, that means taking photos in roughly the same place (which has changed every time we've moved) at roughly the same time of day.

With the new year already here in full-swing, I've been thinking a lot of what I want this year to be like. I want it to be full of family, blogging, friends, parties, organization (I'm really going at it at our house!) and health. While all of these things are nice, they're keeping me really busy. So busy, in fact, I don't have time to do them all. This brings me to the words I want to live by this year: Be Still. While I want to do a million things all at the same time, sometimes I need to be okay with not getting it all done. I need to take in all of the smiles & giggles Felix & Penelope throw my way, take in the small stuff, take in how fleeting these little moments are.

When I had Penelope, the biggest shock to my system was that I couldn't just get up & do things quite like I used to. I was tethered. It caused a lot of frustration for me, but it was (and still is) a good learning experience that I can slow down, do what I can & enjoy the small stuff.

I made this little "friendship" bracelet to serve as my reminder this year. It took about 5 minutes to make. I whipped one up for Penelope, too. Hers says: Love You. I told her that it should remind her that I love her very much (even when I put her in time out). What word or words do you want to live by this year?

• T U T O R I A L •

• S U P P L I E S •

• hammer
• leather scrap
• leather string
• hole punch
• X-acto knife or scissors
• tape
• letter punches (optional)

Print out the pattern, provided in the download, cut out & place on your leather. You’ll want to add tape below the pattern & on top to secure it while punching holes & cutting out.

Cut out the leather, then punch the holes. Remove the pattern & burnish the leather if needed.

With an X-acto knife, cut a small slit into one of the holes. Start small. If you need, you can make the slit bigger, later.

Take your string & tie a knot.

Thread the knot through the hole without the slit leaving the knot facing the right side of the leather.

wrap leather & string around your wrist & thread unknotted end through the slitted hole. Make a mark at the desired length, then take off your wrist.

tie another knot near the marked line & trim the ends. You want to leave at least a 1/2 inch tail on the end that goes through the slotted hole. Make the slot bigger if you need more space for the knot.

Make one for you & one for a friend. Enjoy!

• O P T I O N A L •

Stamp a little saying or word onto the front of your bracelet. Click the download button below for the printable version of these instructions & the pattern template.

This tutorial/freebie is free for personal use and should not be distributed/republished without my consent. Altering the file NOT ALLOWED. If you would like to use this tutorial for commercial purposes, please email me. Thanks!

Chris & I are both nerdy glasses people. We like to have a range of glasses to wear. Glasses are getting a lot easier to buy online, so I can collect a few pairs without feeling ridiculous for having spent $200+ on eyewear. Maybe one of these days my assortment of glasses will catch up to my assortment of shoes ( I do have a lot of shoes, though). GlassesUSA.com approached me with a gift card & asked if I would be interested in testing out their product/services. I like that they gave me a gift card, because it made the order process more genuine. I was impressed, so I'd like to break down my experience for you.

• O R D E R I N G •

It was tough to choose a pair of eyeglasses. I was able to find plenty of frames (lenses included!) that I liked in the $40-$70 range. I appreciated that the glasses available were completely different that what I found last year when shopping for glasses at Target optical. Since I have some practical glasses already, I thought I'd take a chance & order some slightly off-kilter lenses. I was nervous, but their virtual mirror helped me make the decision. I ordered a pair of wayfarer lenses that they sadly don't offer any more. This is the closest style. Chris ordered a pair of sunglasses with a grey gradient on them. I sort of wish I had spent the extra $20 to make my own pair into prescription sunglasses, but eh. Maybe next time. Ordering the glasses was very straight forward, and they often have a variety of discounts available on the home page. Some include free shipping while others are a percentage discount. Only one coupon can be used at a time, so choose wisely!

• S H I P P I N G •

Considering that most optical places take 7-10 days to order in new lenses, GlassesUSA was pretty quick.  We waited 7 days, plus one day due to the DHL shipment that couldn't be left on the doorstep. It was great to have prescription glasses in hand so quickly, but they were not clean or adjusted for my face. They had a lot of dust on them (to be expected for coming through the mail) and the hinges were SOOOOO wide on my face. I was worried that they wouldn't fit my face properly. It took me a few days to get into an optical center to have them adjusted.

Happy Friday! I feel like this week has just flewn by. There are officially 10 days left until Altitude Summit starts. I'm in full-blown crunch mode, finishing business cards (for me & others), class curriculum and wardrobe choices to name a few. One of the most stressful parts of the wardrobe situation is that they're hosting a winter whites party. Everyone is to wear white. AAAAHHH! I guess I could wear my wedding dress (If I can track it down), but that's hardly appropriate. I bought a white dress from Asos, which is totally gorgeous, but I'm not entirely sure I want it in white. I ordered it in Peacock as well so I'll decide which one to keep once the delivery arrives. If I decide I don't want to go with the white dress, I've got some off white items: This shirt, this skirt and the above boots. The skirt isn't really white, but it's close enough. I guess. I am excited about wearing the boots, though! I love these babies. I found them in Provo where thrift shopping is insane. Insane in a bad way. When I bought these boots I was wearing a vintage yellow jacket of mine & another girl in the store asked if I was planning on buying it. "Excuse me? This is my jacket. I wore it in here." "Oh. Oh, my mistake. Sorry." In some cases it's like day-after-thanksgiving shopping with ravenous sharks. Pretty darn hilarious. In any case, that makes this find even more miraculous. I didn't have to fight anyone or rip them off anyone's feet. They were just sitting on the shelf all by themselves in practically unworn condition for $8 (I've added scuffs & dirt since then). Did I mention thrift stores are more expensive where we're living, too?!? Crazy.

We've all been under the weather around here. It's a real bummer, especially for little baby Felix. Just after taking these photos Felix started whining a bit. Very much NOT like him. Something didn't feel right and indeed something was not right. The poor guy has Bronchiolitis (we find out if it's caused by RSV tomorrow) and double ear infections. We spent about 6 hours out between the pediatrician & the hospital. Poor guy had to get junk sucked from his chest. On the bright side, I had a very comfy outfit for all of the waiting around with Felix. Poor kiddo.

• top: hand-me-down + refashioned
• bottoms: H&M
• boots: thrifted

  Chris thinks this pose is hilarious. Agreed.

I wasn't entirely sure I'd like these glasses much at all. They seem a lot bigger than my other nerdy glasses. After half a day of wearing them, I'm totally sold. Love em.

• glasses: Glasses USA, c/o Glasses USA
• top: handmade
• jacket: ModBod, c/o ModBod
• jeans: Forever 21
• boots: thrifted

During Chris's two and a half weeks of Christmas vacation, we spent our time redesigning a few blogs. WE had a grand time working together & making the interwebs a tiny bit prettier. I'll be sharing a finished project each week along with a design tip (or two) for a better blog. Ellen was an absolute dream to work with. She's been commenting over here on ISLY for some time, so I was familiar with her adorable family-centered blog: Black & White & Loved All Over. When she signed up for her bloggy face lift, I was SO excited to do it for someone I was familiar with! Her before (above) wasn't terrible, but it lacked a lot of cohesion. The font she had chosen for her header wasn't bad & I definitely appreciate that she used it only in the header. With that in mind, I hand-lettered her masthead & used organic elements to keep things cozy & familiar. I didn't want to do a literal translation of Black & White the color, so I leaned more towards grasping opposites and mostly in font weight. The color palette we kept slightly muted to create more warmth & I included a large profile picture to add a personal touch. As someone who reads a lot of personal & commercial blogs, I want to know what the writer looks like. I want to see his/her face so I can get a sense of who they are. I love the about picture of Ellen. I don't know her in person, but I feel like her picture embodies someone approachable, creative & kind. Which I assume she is, since she was awesome to work with. I'm totally in love with the vintage handkerchief teeshirt update pictured above. Ingenius! I'm a firm believer that clean & cohesive design elements will help make her already awesome projects shine. So on to the first design tip:

• Blog tip #1 : COLOR! •

Don't be too literal with your color scheme, but not so over the place, either. Find an image that inspires your style & glean your palette from that. I head over to Color Collective frequently for a starting point for color palettes. Lauren is great at picking very inspiring images (she credits them all correctly, too). It's a fantastic resource for cohesive, beautiful & unexpected color combinations.

Firstly, it's amazing what a $5 white curtain can do for evening out lighting. Secondly, I love my glamping boots. I've worn them countless times this winter. sweater: Wet Seal (nearly 10 years ago) red jeans: H&M boots: thrifted NO makeup.

I've spent some good time this last weekend reflecting on the year. Boy, it's been a doozy. I was marveling to Chris at how much we did this year & he said, "What are you talking about? Every year that we've been married has been like last year." Oh come on! Last year was totally huge. Here's a little list of my favorite moments and projects (by category) of last year:

• A D V E N T U R E •

Welcoming Baby Felix into our family was my favorite adventure of the year. Not the labor, not the post-partum, not even the being pregnant part. Just Baby Felix. I would love to forget the pain & discomfort child bearing brings. I'm so happy to have my two kiddos here with me, safe & sound.

• A R T • 

I've not done much by way of actual art this year, but sharing my fashion sketches in my refashion posts have been a lot of fun.

• C A L L I G R A P H Y •

I might be the most proud of the way this little Thank You freebie turned out. Now that our printer is working again - I'm planning on printing a bunch of these out to send to neighbors, friends & family.

• C R A F T S • 

Making these little leather sandals for Penelope had to have been my favorite craft project all year, if not of all time. I'm pretty proud of how they turned out & She loved wearing them this summer!

• D E S I G N • 

Working with Megan Nielsen on her rebranding was perhaps my favorite design project this year. I had a fantastic time working with her & I'm so in love with each & every one of her patterns!

• D I Y •

My DIY photography backdrop was a stroke of genius in my opinion. It solved a lot of issues that I had with the brass fixtures & ugly carpet in my previous studio. I just put it up in my new studio to cover up 2x4s & plastic-covered insulation.

• F O O D •

David Lebovitz's Idiot Chocolate Cake is perhaps the tastiest thing to tickle my tastebuds this year. Well, besides Ruby Snap's cookie of the month in April: Billie Ann. Mmm. SUGAR.

• F R E E B I E S •

Jill & I worked so hard on this party suite. I think Jill's name cards were my favorite part of the suite.

• P H O T O G R A P H Y •

This has to be my favorite photo of 2011. I love Felix's scrunchy face!

• R E F A S H I O N •

This has to be my favorite refashion of the year. I still wear this skirt all the time. I'm over at Yellow Brick Home talking about why I love it so much.

• S E W I N G •

I'm so proud of how this swimsuit coverup turned out. I ended up dyeing it & I wear it all the time as a regular top.  It took FOREVER, but it was so worth it! Look at this project is getting me excited to get back into the sewing swing of things.

• T H R I F T Y •

I found this killer Arthur Umanoff chair for $8 at a local thrift store. I had no idea what it was before (or even after) I bought it, I just knew that I loved it. It's inspired me to know a little bit more about history's fantastic designers.

• T U T O R I A L S •

I had been planning on sharing this tutorial for the magic braided bracelet with you for some time (over a year at least), but just didn't know how to explain myself. I was proud that I actually sat down & did it.

So there you have it, my proudest moments of 2011. What were yours? Do you have favorite tutorials/projects that you've found? Leave links (links to other blogs encouraged) in the comments below!