2011 Year in Review

Blogging is a brilliant thing. 

I use this blog for a number of reasons: to let you all peek into my life, to share my artistic process, to teach you things about business that I've learned along the way. But more than anything, this blog is a documentation of my growth as an artist, a business owner, and as a person.

When I write day-to-day posts, I am usually thinking of that post alone. "This one will be a DIY", "This one will be about my upcoming show", "This will be just a bunch of pictures", etc. However, as the year is coming to an end, I decided to go back month by month and put together a sort of recap of what I blogged about in 2011.

As I read each blog post, they no longer seemed isolated and were more like clues to what I was doing, feeling, working on, and trying to accomplish at that point in time. They are a diary of my life, that I get to share with all of you. I am so grateful that you can be along for the ride.

So, what happened in 2011??:

In January I introduced you to my dogs, Lilly and Sadie, and told you why they aren't normal.

In February I wrote about the importance of art shows and shared my favorite business resources with you.

March was spent celebrating a 12-Monthiversary, writing about the value of handwritten letters, and thinking about all of the lessons that the movie, "Up" can teach us.

In April, I introduced you to Buck and Libby and painted a picture for the upcoming Bike Month in May.

I created a snazzy new DIY Art show booth and taught you how to create your own in May.

June was an exciting month, filled with some obsessions and a surprise proposal!

July was spent doing some major brainstorming...

... to create lots of new artwork in August!

September was a busy month! I introduced you to little me and some entrepreneurs you should know. I also gave you a little pick-me-up and a tour of my lottery house.

October was my birthday month so I continued the tradition of writing my "27 Things" list. I also showed you some of my favorite Halloween costumes for the kiddos.

In November I announced my super fun upcoming Right Brain Business Plan workshops and learned how to make some yummy spiced apple cider right in my coffee maker!

December was a lovely end to the year filled with a mitten exchange, a Christmas party filled with DIY decor, and our beautiful engagement photos.

All in all it was a wonderful, magical, fun, and productive year to remember.

Cheers to 2012!

Easy Holiday Party Decorations

Last night Kyle and I threw a small holiday party for our closest friends. It was a great success, especially considering it is a bit of a long drive for most of our guests to get to our house.

Not only did we have lots of fun socializing, eating, dancing like crazy people with the Kinect, and trading silly presents in the White Elephant gift exchange, but Kyle and I had a lot of fun decorating and preparing before the guests even arrived. When we were finished cleaning, putting up decorations, and cooking the food, the whole house was cozier and more festive and we were instantly injected with a bit of holiday cheer.

Ornament given to us by my mom-- Thanks mom! Love it!

Little party favors I put together for our guests. Peppermint Hot Cocoa in a Jar. "Rudolph" Artwork by MoKoPo

Holiday wall display I created for the event but I think I will put up every year. I love how it turned out! The "presents" are just some blank canvases I had lying around in my studio that I wrapped and hung up. The print is actually a FREE printable I found via pinterest and had printed off at Sam's Club. Frame from Michaels. Print by eighteen25 can be found here: Free Subway Art Printable

Super easy pennant banner I made with some scrapbook paper, a hole punch, and some ribbon

Our family stockings

The completed food table. Doesn't it look so cheery and festive! Two of the recipes I made for the evening were this Christmas Wreath Appetizer (topped only with broccoli and red peppers) and this Christmas Tree Appetizer (filled with cream cheese, green onions, and salami instead). Hanging Advent calendar bought on Etsy (shop no longer exists)

One of the fun white elephant gifts that a guest won: a very classy 6-pack of Natty Light in bottles! They were a hit.

 

Are you having a holiday party this year? How are you decorating? Where do you get your ideas? Please share in the Comments Section below!

DIY Christmas Wreath

Growing up my family always had a fake tree for the holidays. Sure, it was still a fun family tradition to dig the Christmas tree box out of the loft, fight over which branch goes where, and then be totally over the whole thing by the time the lights were untangled. But, for the past 2 years Kyle and I have opted for the real tree experience.

This year, our tree was ginormous and in order to have it fit into our tree stand a few branches had to be cut off the bottom. I decided to save those branches and try my hand at my very first DIY Christmas wreath. It wasn't as difficult as I was expecting and it was really fun to see it come together.

First I gathered all of my materials. I did most of my shopping at Michael's (remember your coupon- they always have a zillion of them!) I went with a silver and red theme so I bought some glittery silver ribbon, fake silver flower springs, fake red poinsettias, and a giant silver ribbon. The green spool in the top left corner is actually wrapped wire that I used to attach the branches to the frame.

I also collected the branches I was going to use, my frame (also bought at Michael's), and a variety of cutting tools. I started out using utility scissors (in the middle) to cut the branches which did an okay job, but if you have pruning shears (top) they work much better. I also used wire cutters (bottom) to cut the green wire into small pieces.

Then, I got to work! I suppose you can start by laying all of the branches out first if that's the way your mind works, but my brain is more of a "dive right in" kind of brain. I took my branches, one by one, and attached them to the frame with little pieces of wire. I found it helps to cut a bunch of small wire sections (about 2-3 inches long) and bend them in the center so you have them ready as you go, and you don't have to keep stopping along the way to cut more wire. It interrupts your creative "flow".

As you begin placing your branches you will naturally start using your creative eye to determine where they should go. To create a really "full" looking wreath it's best to do a lot of layering, criss-crossing branches, and switch up the direction the branches (some facing up, some down, etc.)

After lots of layering and tying with wire, the wreath starts to get full enough and tight enough that the final few branches can be attached to the wreath simply by weaving them in between other branches, without using wire. This was also how I attached the decorative fave flowers-- just by shoving them into the wreath. Then, I attached the bow with wire, wrapped the ribbon around loosely, and tied a bit of ribbon in a loop on the top for hanging.

Ta daaaaa! What do you think?? Show me your own DIY wreaths-- I'd love to see them!

Holiday Shopping Reminder:

Happy December Everyone!

 

Kyle and I have officially gotten into the Christmas Spirit! 

Tree is up, lights are glowing, shopping has begun!

What have you done so far to kick off the holiday season?

This Thanksgiving

Favorite Halloween Costumes for Kids (and Pets!)

Halloween is just around the corner! Growing up, it was one of my favorite holidays (most likely because it was very close to my birthday) but also because I always loved anything that involved being creative, looking crazy, or putting on makeup. As an adult I've been a little less likely to dress up but I really love to see all the kiddos walking around on the 31st in their costumes. Although there are tons of the usual get-ups (witches, superheroes, and ghosts, oh my!) there are always a handful of the clever ones that really make me chuckle. I thought I'd share some of my favorites from the interwebs so far this year:

All images via Pinterest:

Thing 1 and Thing 2

Lucy

Boiled Lobster

Jellyfish

Up

Penny

Spaghetti and Meatballs

Paper Doll

Mr. T

Chia Pet

Dwight Shrute

Lookalikes!

And my absolute favorite:

Wilson!!

Do you have a favorite? Are you dressing up this Halloween? I'd love to hear what you're planning to be! Leave me a comment below or stop by the facebook page to share!

Happy Birthday America!

I hope you all had a fabulous and lovely Independence Day!

Mine was filled with family, friends, and food and felt like sunshine and freedom (hehe). We celebrated our family friend, Phyllis' birthday, with a good old-fashioned grill out and some lively conversation on our back patio. Good times!

I went to do some grocery shopping earlier in the day and I stopped into Sam's Club for a few items. An elderly fellow was working there giving out samples of watermelon so I stopped by for a taste (watermelon + July 4th = no-brainer). As I said "thank you" and started to leave the booth, the man said, "Happy Independence Day" with extra emphasis on "independence day". It actually caught me a bit off-guard.

 I said, 

"Thank you, you don't hear that very often. Usually people say 'Happy 4th of July' instead" 

to which the man replied,

 "The way I see it, every country has a fourth of July. Who cares that it's the 4th? I'm not celebrating the date, I'm celebrating the meaning."

Brilliant, sir. Brilliant.

My Lucky Day, and YOUR lucky day!

WOOHOOO!!! I was casually surfing the web and decided to mosey over to Etsy to see what was happening, and what do I see? MY PRINT! ON THE FRONT PAGE! I was super duper excited! What a lucky day!

And! As it turns out, it is YOUR lucky day to! Why? Because for TODAY ONLY your entire purchase from my Etsy shop will be 20% OFF! Just enter coupon code LUCKY when prompter during checkout! Happy St. Patty's Day!

12 Monthiversary

Sunday, March 13th marked one year since my boyfriend, Kyle, and I began dating. It was this date last year that we met at Brio at Newport on the Levee, had dinner, and then walked for miles by the river just laughing, talking, and getting to know each other. We have been inseparable ever since.

Since we are total nerds, we have been celebrating our "Monthiversaries" since month one. When you are happy and in love, why not celebrate?? We get a lot of crap from family and friends about how cheesy we are sometimes, but we could care less. Let the celebrating continue!

To celebrate the big one-year mark, we decided to spend the day together and revisit our first date.

The morning began with some surprise cuddles from the Cuddlemonster (Sadie). We try very hard to keep the puppies off the bed, but sometimes they are just too darn cute to resist. Sadie thinks she is a "people" so I had to capture her snuggle-tactics. I promise this was not staged. This is her, "wrap my arm around Kyle and bury my giant face into his neck" maneuver. Sneaky, and adorbs!

Next, it was breakfast time. We had to make a little bit of time for chores, so while Kyle sorted the laundry upstairs, I made some surprise "heart" and number "12" whole wheat berry pancakes with blueberry syrup to commemorate the special day. Yummmmy!

We spent a lot of our day just relaxing, watching a bit of TV and such, and then decided to go down to Newport on the Levee for dinner and a movie. We were aiming for the 2:50pm showing of Battle: Los Angeles but arrived too late so we decided to eat an early dinner first at Brio. It was super delicious and so fun to reminisce about our first-date jitters 365 days prior. We each got the same drinks that we did on our first date and just ate and talked about our relationship-- about how far we've come and what we dream about doing in the future. So lovely!

After dinner we walked around the Levee. A year ago, we walked everywhere! Covington landing, across the Purple People Bridge, checked out Serpentine Wall, back across the bridge, etc. etc. This year, we have been having some epic flooding so we didn't get to retrace our footsteps. We walked along Covington landing a bit and it was strange to see the places we went completely under water. Last year we walked down these steps and took a stroll along the riverbank. This year, not so much.

After our stroll, it was movie time! We watched Battle: L.A. Which I wasn't sure I would like, but we both really enjoyed it. Action packed the whole time! Good stuff!

Overall it was a great day! It's strange how emotions and sentimentality can alter your sense of time. A year ago seems like only yesterday, but at the same time, it feels as though Kyle and I have known each other forever. Our lives have turned totally upside down (in a good way) and we cannot wait for the adventures we'll have ahead.