Oh man!  This week's link up with Gussy Sews Inspiration Workshop has the prompt of "The Perfect Bathroom."  I've gotta tell ya...if you are thinking you'll ever own a home, especially BUILD a home...just start spending a little bit of time now actually thinking about what you like about homes you see - or start a pinterest or something!  

When we built, we basically decided one week to build a home and then went for it the following...way hard when you're like me and never intended to own a home much less ever thought about what I'd want!  It was quite the creative...and discussion-filled process;)

So for the "perfect bathroom" I first want to share our own bathroom that I really do like:

My hubs is crazy creative...and daring!  He saw on Apartment Therapy a floor that had been tiled in a hotel all of pennies and thought about doing it in our bathroom.  Thanks to our gracious group of friends (awesome city!!) we had penny tile parties and glued them to mesh...over and over again.  It's about $2 a square foot I believe - pretty good for a creative tile piece!  They have held up awesome - just a bit of sealer over them and we love it.  The shower cork circles we placed on the floor...however...is another story...

Just for some randoms...I think this photo says it all!!  How cool!  {Credit to Apartment Therapy...}

The other choice I love for bathroom accents is CB2.  Here's our upstairs bathroom with a CB2 shower curtain and 2 Ikea cabinets...

One I love from their site...especially the sinks...

Anything crazy you want in a future bathroom?

xoxo

you.  are.  awesome.

and you really need to live it.

we kind of let our days sometimes and even ourselves get mundane.  through series of events that we allow or don't really have a say in...whether it's words from someone...or failed attempts at something you were sure of...we forget to be awesome.

i'm pretty sure we've all seen this quote above before...but seriously...eleanor knew her stuff.

you don't need to have the ultimate confidence (i mean, there can be a slew of days that suck and take it away, but you can find it again!!), but you do need to believe that you are more than just another...friend...girlfriend...barista...dreamer...blogger...student... 

be who you are and be it well.  you don't need to be that perfect envy of yours you constantly compare to.  be awesome.  maybe be a little sassy.  but definitely be awesome.  

believe in yourself.

so live it up.  don't wait to fix yourself to muster the confidence you need to allow yourself to know you are awesome.  do it now.  

At the lake this weekend I brought along the sweet Disney yarn ball craft I posted as a "try it out this month" idea...thinking messy and childlike go hand in hand for lake fun!

However...this was also a lesson in how to craft fail!  

We sat in the beautiful sun and followed the simple directions of mixing one part water with {almost} one part craft glue.  Blew up our balloons.  Cut approximately 20 3 foot strings of yarn.  Tied an end to our toe to keep from blowing away.  Dipped the yarns into the glue/H20 bowl.  Carefully laid over balloon.

Hung them up in the garage to dry overnight...

And carefully the next morning popped the balloons with scissors or earring backs.

Some stayed formed, but the majority widdled away as the balloon lost air and imploded on themselves.  As Jenni with the scissors pictured above shows, she was careful to separate some of the balloon from the yarn before popping which worked awesome for 2, but even still one didn't totally work.  They felt super delicate and only a few held their shape!

So some lessons to learn for the day you try this:

*Be sure to mix truly 1 part glue to 1 part water!!  We did close, but not exactly 1 to 1.  That probably caused them to dry too softly.

*Really soak the strings, don't necessarily squeegie them to not drip before laying on balloon.

*The thicker yarn we used (as the first 2 photos of the red and multicolored show) totally didn't work...look at using somewhat thinner yarn.

*Consider after finishing all your yarn strings maybe dipping each side into the glue mixture to seal well.

Should you have tried any of the following 3 crafts (or just want to share an idea for next month's try it out!) be sure to email me at seekbeauty@gmail.com to share your creations by July 1!

Here they are again!  Click on photo to link to tutorial...

the shirt skirt

(i am really going to try to make this this week!!  i found a readymade old article with a few more specifics on making a similar skirt!)

yarn balls

button bib necklace

We just had the most epic lake weekend yet over in Washburn, ND!

And this is worth trying sometime with your favorite people:  

I was pretty sad with the camera this weekend, so thanks to our sweet friend Jenni we have some!

Gather every floaty device you have at your cabin - air mattresses you're sleeping on, tubing tubes, $5 walmart (gasp!) surfboards for 14-year-olds, and scooby doo.  Attach together with a tubing rope in random and complicated ways.

Tie to the boat and slowly pull along all the tubes to the middle of the lake.  (Option:  Put sangria and Fat Tire in water bottles so they float when you drop them during the rodeo.  At this point, consider wearing a life jacket.  Don't be dumb.)

Now...have a trusted, yet slightly crazy person drive the boat around your floatilla at full speed to create amazing waves and wake.  Stand, jump, and dance in your tube to create more excitement.  (photo lacking, should we get our hands on more this will totally be reposted!).  

Always yell, "HIT IT!!" when ready for more rodeo waves.  

Tired?  Stop the rodeo and relax in your nice nest of floaties and slowly, as you get majorly sunburned, allow your floatilla get close to shore.  

Other option:  climb into the boat and play a killer dance party mix.  Dance.

Repeat.

xoxo...

I've been noticing a whole lot of blingin' nails on some of the blogs I follow, on pinterest, and slowly starting to notice here in the Midwest.

In Nylon this month Liza Darwin writes, "As everyone from Katy Perry to Lady Gaga to M.I.A. prove, the latest obsession in the music world is the statement manicure."

The article mentions that "back in the 90's when I was working in music, all the girls had their nails done long, with crazy patterns."

(awesome!)

These ones just completely blow my mind.  And probably aren't so much going to happen on this hand.  But a trend I could handle is having the one finger, such as your ring finger, blinging with some glittzer or even a leftover craft jewel.  There's nail glue and nail pens to aid in self-manicures!  

Here's a youtube video just giving you a glimpse of the process of adding acrylic artwork to crazy manicures:

"Girls who feel like they can't change their hair or makeup can change up their nails really easily," the story concludes.  I thought that was pretty sweet...again, something simple and {if you try} cheap to add great variation to an outfit and look.  Plus, keeps me from chewing them;)

Lastly, and most excitingly, a totally do-able youtube tutorial on adding newspaper print to your nail polish routine!  Totally going to do it...just make sure you totally let your nails dry before doing the newspaper part (just tried it!)...

Going to try it?  

Do something awesome this weekend!  See you Monday:)

xoxo

These were the coolest ride ever!  We soared atop the lake on a beautiful, chilly day on these pedal boats.  I significantly dislike most pedal bikes...however, these simply = awesome.

And this photo is even more impressive when you know that the long grass/branch structure horizontal to our heads is a massive beaver dam.  The water level on one side is maybe 7 feet higher than the other all because of a beaver!

The bog walk in Orr, MN (really interesting, beautiful, and buggy)...drinks along the Vermillion River compliments of my parents in front of wild rice patties...

Ice cream on our way onto the lake, fishing, and beautiful family!

xoxo

We get so frustrated at ourselves not making the cut or living up to our own expectations!  Just keep in mind, that today is a new day.  Full of opportunity and restarts.  You can go on that run and not sleep in (ie. myself!!), you can finish your project, maybe find out you got the new job, start the day up with a renewed excitement for something that's been mundane, take on what you've been putting off, say things that are meaningful and breathe life into people, fall in love again. 

Don't give up on yourself.  There is a beautiful new day ahead...

So as a part of our crafting adventures, here's a try at a tutorial I linked to for you to try this month of June!  I'll include the other 2 craft ideas at the end here...remember to try to make one by July 1 if you're interested and be sure to send me a photo to share!!  (seekbeauty@gmail.com).  

The bib necklace...tutorial used from Little Miss Mama's site here.

I've loved the look of these bib necklaces for quite some time.  My sister-in-law is going to be wearing a gorgeous one her mom made for her wedding in October!  But since it hasn't happened yet...I can't totally share it;)  

I wasn't a super huge fan of just buttons and a pendant or two so this is the process I did, very similarly to Little Miss Momma's:

My dear friend Laura had left a massive box of buttons behind when she moved:( so I used man of those along with picking up a pearl necklace at Salvation Army + a garage sale!  All the other items I had as leftover crafts.  

I started with a bunch of felt, buttons/jewelry pieces, lace ribbon, a hot glue gun, scissors, tweezers, and a pen.

I used my mark necklace to draw an outline on the felt with a pen (pencil wasn't working...) of about how big I was thinking...

I first laid out the pearl necklace (without cutting the necklace or felt) in a random shape and then filled it in with various pieces, trying different options out...

I liked laying out all the buttons, etc I had onto the felt so they didn't roll away and I could easily see the options...

Once I liked the layout, I heated up the glue gun!

I left all the pieces on there as I glued them down in place...then I cut up my other pearl necklace and filled in the gaps with singular pearls.  Tweezers helped a lot to hold up a small pearl, put a tish of glue onto the bottom, and sneak it into the gaps.

After it dried for a minute, I used my scissors to cut around the necklace...

I then took the necklace to cut out another piece of felt the same size.  Once it was cut, I trimmed down this new piece so it was definitely smaller than the other and could be its backing without peeking over the front.

I found some lace I liked and hot glued it down to the bib as 2 different strands.

Then using the backing piece I cut, I hot glued that over the lace pieces.

Voi-la!  It's very pretty to me...and since I went to India I love the tiger eye's kind of pendants.  

Alright, so now that I try it on...I think a little smaller would have been okay! 

For anyone who's got some down time in this crazy rain and weather, try out this to fit your style or try another one of these Try it Tutorials!!  Click on the photo to link up to the tutorial.

get creating!

xoxo