Thursday, April 07, 2011
my life is a cup of sugar i borrowed before time began and forgot to return.
"After years with a crown on my head
I've grown overfed, unconcerned, and comfortably numb
Kept busy indulging in the pleasures of the wealthy.
Oh, someone make me afraid of what I’ve become.
At the first sign of possible sorrow,
I turned my heels and ran.
Oh, I’ll never learn.
My life is a cup of sugar I borrowed before time began and forgot to return."
mewithoutYou
{{let me preface this with it's a lesson i've been recently relearning...and are so far from coming within reach of meeting head on...but just thought i'd share some thoughts!}}
it isn't hard to allow within the restless urge to exist in a life larger than yourself and what you've known for some time to, in turn, hand out the false sense of selfish safety to your heart that it's only about what you want. we weren't given eyes to be rationally ignorant of the very people who were placed within our grassy path and to look away when something hurts our delicate soul.
we were given sight and the ability to feel to not only dance around a moonlit sky dreaming our next dream, but to bring others with us who are broken and hurting. there may at times be a line between inspiring other people with hope by the ideal we are setting by the way we live and going beyond to get our shoulders wet with tears and our knees smudged with dirt. it's dangerous business walking out your front door because at some point you have to decide to care. or passively allow vanity to guide your next move.
we were given sight and the ability to feel to not only dance around a moonlit sky dreaming our next dream, but to bring others with us who are broken and hurting. there may at times be a line between inspiring other people with hope by the ideal we are setting by the way we live and going beyond to get our shoulders wet with tears and our knees smudged with dirt. it's dangerous business walking out your front door because at some point you have to decide to care. or passively allow vanity to guide your next move.
there's probably nothing more freeing than living beyond my little world.
[In my little world, in my sad little world, I patched a plaster wall
In my little world, I was waiting, just dying
to take offense at something.
In my little world, in my little world, in my sad little world
This is all there is in my little world.]
mewithoutYou
[In my little world, in my sad little world, I patched a plaster wall
In my little world, I was waiting, just dying
to take offense at something.
In my little world, in my little world, in my sad little world
This is all there is in my little world.]
mewithoutYou
Wednesday, April 06, 2011
inspire me on hump day...and BLOG GIVEAWAY WINNER ANNOUNCED!
sometimes no day requires more motivation than wednesdays.
This is a really sweet video with some practical ideas on staying inspired especially for any writers, crafters, friends who want to be inspired out there!
I really enjoy Gussy Sews blog.
She's living in Minneapolis and just has some great blogs on starting up a small business, awesome crafter friends, and just life:) Those are the best!
The list of things I want to do and, more so, want to learn, just keeps getting longer. My older stress lab patients mention that the desire to learn is what keeps some of them going. The ones with the really flat affect and total void of personality who only regret have nothing they can list as "this is what I do for fun now." They're just the "wow, everything sucks now" kind of persons. The whole point of learning after college...off the top of my head in this instant...is to live the heck out of this life and discover all that we have been given within it. No more excuses!
These are things that are going to happen.
--Learn the bass so I can fulfill Justin's dream of having a bass/drum wife/husband trio. And be a rockstar (check off fulfill my lifelong dream). Man, the bass is so sexual. Yeow!
--Garden a sweet ass garden of both veggies and flowers that I don't give crazy diseases and aphids to.
--Learn a specific handmade craft better. Like hoop art possibly as a lot of thrift stores supplies can be used versatile-y with it. And I can carry it around with me unlike a sewing machine. Not worry about selling it, but rather making a craft I like enough to give as sweet gifts!
--Write a business plan so I am a couple steps closer to not being a nurse someday and have a creative business.
--Rock photography. Use my Pentax again. And thus create beautiful travel photos. Those memories are some of the best and having a f-bombing awesome photo of them are beyond priceless. Try to not buy a new lens yet...
Out of your hopefully growing list of things you want to learn...to do...or to become excellent at, maybe pick some things you'll intentionally work on this spring...and, you know, do them;) Stay up a little later. Spend a little less time on facebook. Definitely don't read this blog less. Eeek! And don't nap until you DO something! Sleeping is for when you're dead, right (why, thank you Caribou Coffee)? Feel free to disagree;) But I bet you could spend less time on netflix and facebook to do something you've been putting off. (sometimes you just need to watch Anchorman, though. seriously).
I really hope I'm not meant to be a nurse forever *just* to learn major life lessons from patients. Maybe I should start hanging out with my grandparents more instead.
xoxo
ashley
"summer is going to be awesome" BLOG GIVEAWAY WINNER ANNOUNCED!
(watch video below...it's pretty...mmm...i had a lot of fun!)
The list of things I want to do and, more so, want to learn, just keeps getting longer. My older stress lab patients mention that the desire to learn is what keeps some of them going. The ones with the really flat affect and total void of personality who only regret have nothing they can list as "this is what I do for fun now." They're just the "wow, everything sucks now" kind of persons. The whole point of learning after college...off the top of my head in this instant...is to live the heck out of this life and discover all that we have been given within it. No more excuses!
These are things that are going to happen.
--Learn the bass so I can fulfill Justin's dream of having a bass/drum wife/husband trio. And be a rockstar (check off fulfill my lifelong dream). Man, the bass is so sexual. Yeow!
--Garden a sweet ass garden of both veggies and flowers that I don't give crazy diseases and aphids to.
--Learn a specific handmade craft better. Like hoop art possibly as a lot of thrift stores supplies can be used versatile-y with it. And I can carry it around with me unlike a sewing machine. Not worry about selling it, but rather making a craft I like enough to give as sweet gifts!
--Write a business plan so I am a couple steps closer to not being a nurse someday and have a creative business.
--Rock photography. Use my Pentax again. And thus create beautiful travel photos. Those memories are some of the best and having a f-bombing awesome photo of them are beyond priceless. Try to not buy a new lens yet...
Out of your hopefully growing list of things you want to learn...to do...or to become excellent at, maybe pick some things you'll intentionally work on this spring...and, you know, do them;) Stay up a little later. Spend a little less time on facebook. Definitely don't read this blog less. Eeek! And don't nap until you DO something! Sleeping is for when you're dead, right (why, thank you Caribou Coffee)? Feel free to disagree;) But I bet you could spend less time on netflix and facebook to do something you've been putting off. (sometimes you just need to watch Anchorman, though. seriously).
I really hope I'm not meant to be a nurse forever *just* to learn major life lessons from patients. Maybe I should start hanging out with my grandparents more instead.
xoxo
ashley
"summer is going to be awesome" BLOG GIVEAWAY WINNER ANNOUNCED!
(watch video below...it's pretty...mmm...i had a lot of fun!)
Tuesday, April 05, 2011
Try it Tuesday!: eat, sleep, repeat...and make a fabric flower retutorial!
"It occurred to me at once
That love gets everything it asks for
Like a young girl picking flowers in the lawn
She gets every kiss and tear
She gets every smile and fear...
That love gets everything it asks for
Like a young girl picking flowers in the lawn
She gets every kiss and tear
She gets every smile and fear...
(is it any surprise you feel so overrun?)"
Copeland
I love flowers. So much. (i 'spose maybe enough to jump into some rosepatch thorny area with my sexy skinny legs and show off...like 10 years ago...)
So I wasn't sure it'd be awesome to basically do an entire tutorial over that's already posted online. But...it's been far too long of me never actually trying online craft tutorials and saying I want to that you'll just have to deal with it;)
But, sometimes I have friends say that if they see me do it, it becomes less intimidating (ie. I'm not super crafty so if I can do it, well, hells, anyone can! such as with youtube) So, maybe that could be the case with the Try It Tuesday when I'm myself, probably going to be frequently trying a tutorial..and seeing what happens!
Onward, ho!
Mine:
Hers:
Snowy Bliss offers this totally possible, you-can-do-it-and-just-burn-off-the-tips-of-your-fingers-with-hot-glue tutorial for long stemmed-flowers...but worth it!
Obviously, Snowy Bliss blog will have much more accurate instructions and photo - this is an abbreviated of how this double-vision seeing, using-my-sewing-machine-manual Fargo blogger made it happen!
I'm on a pretty good spending freeze right now...so I only used items I already had! This was from my very minor fabric stash. Armed with scissors, an iron heating up, bamboo skewers, a really cheap hot glue gun, my Singer, the blog tutorial, and 5 different fabrics, I embarked on a new journey. 
I folded it in half lengthwise, wrong sides together, and pressed it with an iron (on top of my mbmb cloth napkin - one of my favorite kitchen additions!!)
I then had to "ehow" to make a gathering stitch (I know...), but just one, wide, long stitch down the middle with right side fabric up.
I measured on the right side of the fabric every 2.5 inches to then cut the petal "scallops"...I folded the fabric so the wrong sides were together...and then cut scallops...
The last 4-5 inches are cut straight at 1 inch wide to later be what you tie to the stick! I then sewed the edges of the scallops with a more standout colored thread! This was done with a regular stitch (not gathering one).
The piece I cut 1 inch thick at the last 4-5 inches of the scalloping? This gets tied to your stick (or bamboo skewer!) with the tie facing UP!
Then I finagle the end of the tie around the top of my stick to become the inside of the flower bud and hot glue it however I can to stay in place!!
Hot glued:)
That gather stitch you did? (note the hot glue burning my thumb). I gently held that gather thread with my left hand and started to pull the fabric down towards the stick to create a ruffled effect.
It was fun to try different amounts of gathering to make flowers different shapes! Tie/hot glue the end of the gathering thread to hold in place.
Snowy Bliss definitely describes this part waaay better, but what I did was play around with how wide/open I was going to have my flower before doing any gluing. Then I took the sucker-of-a-glue-gun out to begin to hot glue the bottom of the flower to itself.
I made the bottom pretty wide to allow the flower itself to be wider.
The tricky part to me, was making the flower wider, but also making the last couple inches of wrapping get tighter again to finish it nicely. Just took a bit of playing with and some nice "shark farts" being said from burning myself.
I only finished 3 of them! But now it's pretty easy and fun to experiment with so hopefully the rest will be done soon!
So the beauty of these flowers...they'll last!
If you end up making any fabric flowers, too, let's exchange some! I think that would be sweet fun! Just message/comment me when you do and I'll make one for you:)
Remember if you want to enter the GIVEAWAY comment on this blog post!
PS...the sweet cloth napkins I bought at No Coast in Mpls in December were from mbmb in Grand Forks - check it:
Well...thanks for watching my attempts! Now it's your turn to try something you've been waiting to do!
xoxo
ashley
Monday, April 04, 2011
this winter is lasting forever, at least for tonight...and a GIVEAWAY!
Cabin fever makin' you crazy? Watching, waiting, for some budding hope that spring will paint the trees with life in the color of sunsets amidst the sparrows? Let's try something new...not sure if this will work?
Finding the small things, living in a not always ideal town, makes it all the more worthwhile to keep trying to find the beautiful, the creative, and the life within it.
Pretty sure I could pass out in anticipation for summer. Let's make it awesome, okay? I wrote this blog post back in '06 during Cornerstone when I was learning about this boy named Justin. Best summer ever. Start crafting up some sweet plans and though your work schedule may squeeze the life out of your summertime, don't wait and regret another beautiful summer gone by and you're stuck again in the winter lasting forever. If you keep waiting for another time, it'll pass you by! And, just so you know, if you listen to Dashboard Confessional too much after it's been awhile, your heart might explode and take you back to 2006.
Finding the small things, living in a not always ideal town, makes it all the more worthwhile to keep trying to find the beautiful, the creative, and the life within it.
I wasn't going to be the person working for the weekend. Europeans work to live and we live to work, right? Blahck. We need to bring some life back into our work...but also remember to take time, too, to live!
My mom came up for a concert and we had sweet girl times. Plus we had some smashing finds at the Dakota Boys Ranch (both in West Fargo on 13th and 32nd). I've been searching for an awesome purplesque pillow for our living room to tie it in with this chandelier we've had from Urban Outfitters (one of our splurges when we built this house). Note: Ham's sexy dog butt in the chandelier photo:) Also...aren't these above yellow/goldish velvet-y soft paintings amazing?!
And I finally put up the art we got from Unglued from Sophie Johnson and Maren Shallman in a frame from Midnight Owl Creations (next to our owl lamp - a find from a garage sale in Garrison, ND!!).
Speaking of hearts exploding (in totally nonmedical terms, but rather...love!), our melt-your-face-off-wedding photographer did a shoot with Justin, Ham, and I last month as a part of a photography class I took. Check out Alyssa and Mosaic Photography's blog for more photos...
"The sky glows
I see it shining when my eyes close
I hear your warnings but we both know
I'm gonna look at it again
"The sky glows
I see it shining when my eyes close
I hear your warnings but we both know
I'm gonna look at it again
Don't wait, Don't wait
The road is now a sudden sea
And suddenly, you're deep enough
To lay your armor down"
Bored tonight? Here's, as part of this random post, a GIVEAWAY! From today through this Wednesday at 7pm, post a comment about a hobby you have or want to develop to help me with an upcoming blog post to be entered into a drawing for a "summer's going to be awesome" mark. giftset (yes, this is a pretty girly giveaway...but get ready b/c most probably will be! but you can always give it to a pretty girl in your life! maybe justin can give some homebrew away next time??). To be entered a 2nd time, tell me your thoughts on this statement - "people don't have hobbies anymore." BFF you better do this! ;) Winner will be posted Wednesday night! Let's see how this goes;) Bam.
The road is now a sudden sea
And suddenly, you're deep enough
To lay your armor down"
Bored tonight? Here's, as part of this random post, a GIVEAWAY! From today through this Wednesday at 7pm, post a comment about a hobby you have or want to develop to help me with an upcoming blog post to be entered into a drawing for a "summer's going to be awesome" mark. giftset (yes, this is a pretty girly giveaway...but get ready b/c most probably will be! but you can always give it to a pretty girl in your life! maybe justin can give some homebrew away next time??). To be entered a 2nd time, tell me your thoughts on this statement - "people don't have hobbies anymore." BFF you better do this! ;) Winner will be posted Wednesday night! Let's see how this goes;) Bam.
Friday, April 01, 2011
Fashion Friday: I was a Kaleidoscope
Fashion Friday time! Booyah!
(seriously, seriously, trying to not talk about death and nursing too much...)
One of my very favorites trends the BELT, baby!! Especially with layers...
(check out Sara Kiesling's super amazing blog for more beautiful photos and styles of some awesome models...and the photography may just blow your mind.)
In a Nylon article they mention the variety of ways to add a belt including "...you could pile the pencil skirts, giant silk blouses, semi-sheer scarves, and carved leather belts altogether in one jangled, jiving look - just like Aussie designers Heidi Middleton and Sarah-Jane Clarke did with their runway models today." I've been using my ivory-colored belt from mark picture above as a wider option to use over layers and the cute mark pencil skirt - love it!
Just think of all the sweet belts you find at thrift stores that maybe wouldn't fit your lower waist, but could pretty easily rock your "real" waist or above!! Pretty excited to find some at Dakota Boys Ranch on 13th in West Fargo:)
I mean, really, you've got some ribbon? DO IT! Have some fun!
Just a simple, affordable accessory to make any outfit sweet and not seem like you tried hard (because you didn't)!
Kind of nice to end the week on a light note! Hope you have the most beautiful weekend and we'll catch ya on Monday again:) If anyone has any really fun blogs you follow, you should let me know (inspiring, fashion-y, photo awesome, etc)...I'm trying to find some new ones to love!
xoxo
ashley
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