Originally we were going to take these photos with the pets, but that would have been a nightmare, and Arnie wasn’t that doped up from the operation to take advantage of him. I saw the weather reports and knew I wanted them anyway. It was going to be the first day of snow! Adam and I coordinated our outfits (which is actually what we do anyway, we like to always dress like we are going to prom) and Celeste, Adam’s sister, met us out at the Riverdale Weber River Parkway. It was very cold and wet, and even more so with my super high stilettos and tights. I thought the pictures turned out just wonderfully!
All photos belong to Celeste Drake, used by Danielle S. with permission.
These “Bodyguard” photos make me laugh. Adam was just carrying me over the puddles so we could take photos outside of the tunnel, then Celeste started snapping photos, and our inner actors came out, and this is what you get. BTW, isn’t that snowfall amazing??
These walking ones below I thought turned out very epic and quite poetic.
And the two silliest photos of the whole day:
So far, here are my mock-ups for my Christmas cards:
If you want to comment with your favorite chose, I would love to hear your opinion. I certainly can’t decide, especially since I make make new ones as the holiday comes closer!
Our cat doesn’t know how to clean himself. Which is so freakin’ annoying. He’ll spend just a few minutes licking himself because he is a cat and that’s what cats do, not because he is actually cleaning himself. So I gave him a bath after I washed Django yesterday. Aparently he is not a curious kitten anymore, because he actually wasn’t thrilled about being in the water. Then, the stupid thing wouldn’t lick himself dry. He just lay in a corner of my cold home shivering and wet for about an hour. I never knew a cat that wouldn’t lick himself dry. So, me and my crazy head decided I would try to dry him. He was already super agitated, then when he saw the hair dryer he was freakin’, so I put it away, but that didn’t ease his tense, and when I went to dry him, this happened:
Adam fixed me right up though, but it ached all night. I can’t believe I pushed the buttons of an agitated cat. Stupid me. However, I do have the ultimate revenge: He is, at this moment in time, at the vet getting neutered – HAHAHAHAHA! How do you like them apples?? Huh?! Oh, I still feel bad, I hope he isn’t in too much pain, just a little, but not too much. =)
I am pretty excited about it. And the Christmas card. Here is my mock-up. The content and some other things need to be tweeked, but you get the idea.
Christmas is going to be good this year. I am pretty excited. Adam and I won’t have any money for gifts so we are going to give each other acts of service and other free things. After Christmas though Adam says he is getting me the new Verizon Droid phone (I am eligible for an upgrade in January) and Adam MUST and I can’t stress MUST more than capitalizing it, unless I was speaking then I would be able to vocally stress MUST, get an iPod. His died a few months ago and I can just tell he is in anguish over it. Maybe I will be able to scrape up the extra funds to get him one for Christmas. His birthday is December 30th, and I get half off my already pimp discount from Marriott so I wanted to stay in Salt Lake for a night, which would be supa fun, let me tell you.
As far as Christmas goes I am pretty stoked to establish more our traditions. We have decided that we are not going to have a Christmas tree. We felt that it was not a symbol for Christ nor his birth, and that it detracted from the Christianity of the holiday. We are going to look for a nativity that can be the focal point of our home. I think that since we are giving eachother acts of service this year that it’ll help establish a spirit of giving and service that promotes Christ. Next year though, presents all the way.
I am trying to think of cute ideas for Adam and my Christmas card. I really want it to be awesome. I loved last years, so here is hoping this year’s is just as fun.
Ah! It’s not even that food holiday and already I am excited for Christmas! Here, let’s be excited for food. Food, food, food. I love to eat pumpkin pie. There, think I fooled everyone?
The theme was the Deep South Bayou. We got these cute bats for the window and hung green crepe paper for a swamp feel. While getting the paper I saw these really cute rats at Michaels so I had to buy them.
I put them in random places along the base boards and on shelves. As for food I made gumbo. It is pretty different. I don’t know many mom’s who have Gumbo Tuesdays or anything, so it was fun for a party. I also picked up KFC chicken, because you can’t have a a Southern themed party without fried chicken.
Kelsey and Lawrence were first to arrive. The were June Carter and the Man in Black, Johnny Cash. Isn’t that just a super good idea for a costume for them? I took a real nice picture of them with their camera, but this one is good too.
David, Acacia, and Evia came as the Wizard of Oz family. They looked real authentic.
Rebel and Ashley came as Buffy and Angel. So funny. I loved Ashely’s “alternatve” costume of a girl who’s icecream fell off the cone.
Riley came as John Wayne, and Stephanie came as an adolescent. They are so cute, I just love them.
Then came Adam, Django, and I. We came as the True Blood cast: Bill Compton, Sam, and Sookie. Bill was turned into a vampire during the civil war, Sam is a shapeshifter that changes into a dog most often, and Sookie is a waitress.
The party was uber fun, and I loved everyone who came. I hope everyone had as much fun as I did.
Dress design for Shabby Apple dresses
Shabby Apple is this AMAZING dress shop online that I have been a customer at for years. Vicki, my stepsister, wore a Shabby Apple as her maid of honor dress for my wedding. I have three Shabby Apple dresses myself; a red one, a black one, and a purple one. They are all hemline appropriate, figure flattering, and fashion forward. I cannot speak enough about it. Recently I got an email from them, because I am on their mailing list, announcing a design contest. Coincidentally, I was designing wedding dresses for my Art class, wherein each dress was one of the four seasons, so I was already in the mood to make someone feel beautiful and make a statement through fashion.
Here is my dress:
I knew I wanted to design a gray dress as soon as I heard about the contest. Gray is the new brown. Especially this Spring we are going to see weddings and events with the base color as gray. Accessorizing gray is beautiful, chic, and modern. A dull yellow broach, or a pink flower pinned in the hair create this lovely fresh look. I call it “Overcast Spring Rain” because when the sun is covered by the rainy clouds, the new bloom of yellow daffodils and red tulips are the palet of the season.
The dress is tight and form-fitting from under the bust and down the body, also at the top of the arms to the forearm. It is loose around the bodice and the forearms. Under the bustline it is gathered with a cord-like effect within the material.
Now as for the design, I was inspired by a few designers:
Firstly I was inspired by this Jacques Olivar photograph from his series showing off the ‘60 fashion made popular by shows such as Mad Men:
I can’t get enough of the sleeves. The idea of a long-sleeved dress with the poof there at the wrist is just a beautiful idea. However, that color, material, and neckline were something I stayed clear from.
My neck line is more like the one from this Elisabeth Toll photograph, wherein it hangs down to create this pretty effect, however the one in my design is higher, more up on the collar-bone:
Now as far as material goes I love the flattering cottony, practical but fashionable material from the Shabby Apple dress my stepsister wore to my wedding:
I think that my dress would be a wonderful addition to anyone’s Spring wardrobe and really be something they can wear with confidence and style to a party, wedding, or church on Sundays. Thank you Shabby Apple for giving me this opportunity to design.
That is L from our neighborhood. She is this adorable little girl who thinks she is a lion, particularly, Nala. Her mom asked Adam to make her day by making a Nala pumpkin. I think it worked. She thinks the top of her deck is her lion cage and in the mornings she goes out there and roars and paces around. She is so freakin’ cute, I love it. 
Here is the Hulk:
So this Hulk one has a pretty cool story. Firstly, you can’t tell through the picture, but it is actually a green pumpkin. Which is awesome. Our friends/neighbors asked for a Hulk pumpkin and Adam finished it at 11 pm the other night. Well I got home from work after that, then I had to eat, otherwise I would be in a real bad mood, but he still wanted to deliver it. So at midnight we go trekking through our dark neighborhood streets to their house. Now I know that they get up early and they have a baby, and their house was all dark, however, we still rang their doorbell. Haha. that was bad. However, when they saw the pumpkin they said it was totally worth it, and we agreed. They loved it.
Death Star Pumpkin
Death Star Pumpkin / Death Star
My husband, Adam Smith, has done it. He, just this evening, finished carving the Death Star Pumpkin. It was his own making and design and it turned out absolutely amazing!! Wow.
Adam carved three pumpkins for three families in our neighborhood. It wasn’t that random, they are his families he needs to Home Teach every month for church, but actually hasn’t yet. He carved their name in them and we doorbell ditched them on their porch with a scripture. I really hope they like them. I would like it if someone carved me a pumpkin. Pretty much, Adam is so sweet and thoughtful.
The front has their name in Adam Original script, while the backs have a symbol that can be projected on the wall from behind.
Growing up, I thought my step-mom’s turkey plate was really lame. At one point she even hung it on the wall. Again, I thought it was lame. Now I don’t remember when this changed, but when I got older I thought it was positively the coolest thing, and when I got one for my wedding I couldn’t have been happier. A couple weeks ago I made my first turkey, and served it on my awesome and loved turkey plate. I was really pretty proud that I cooked the turkey well, since I have never done it before. It was really quite easy. We had Adam’s sister and her husband over, Chan and Dan. It was altogether a fun evening. I now have this desire to put my turkey plate on the wall.
Thus far, Adam has sold a butt load (that’s in metric measurements) of pumpkins to businesses all around the Ogden area. He loves it.
This one below was sold to the cupcake shop, Sugar & Spice located on Historic 25th Street in Ogden. Adam carved a star in the back so it’d shine a light star behind it.
This one below is clearly for Grounds for Coffee, the one on Historic 25th street.
La Ferrovia was a difficult one. He spent bunches of time on it and sold it for a higher price. The restaurant didn’t put it in the fridge at night so it got moldy and shriveled, to everyone’s udder disappointment, I must say.
Ligori’s Pizza on Harrison in Ogden, was where this one went. That’s the Leaning Tower of Pisa, if you didn’t catch it. this was another super difficult one, because of the repetition of the pattern.
He actually carved this one in the bar/restaurant of Wing Nutz last Saturday. It was way cool. I stopped by towards the end, and everyone seemed to be enjoying it. Someone even came by and asked us about it and took Adam’s pictures to his family to show them off. Adam’s head got all super gigantic after that, but it was deserved.
Here are some other ones he’s done this year, just for funsies:
As I write this Adam is carving a pumpkin into the Death Star. Pretty big project for someone who has the flu, but he cannot be stopped. He loves it, and is mighty good at it. I’ll post the Death Star pics when he’s done.
Firstly, college is super hard, and I am taking the easiest classes in the universe. I really hope I can learn to be a better student.
Secondly, yes Adam has the swine flu. He was feeling fluish and so he went to the Weber State doctorwhere he was diagnosed with the H1N1 virus, and prescribed this 100 dollar medicine then given a mask to wear. Our brother-in-law pharmacist said the medicine wouldn’t help too much so Adam opted out on getting it. He has been on a roller-coaster of ill since Tuesday. I had work off yesterday so I was able to care for him, but my next day off isn’t until Sunday, which is lovely. He seems ok. It’s just like any other craptastic flu, but he gets this pretty note to give to his professors and work so he can be properly quarantined in our house.
Because he is sick we got three Redbox movies: The Soloist, Sunshine Cleaning, and Coraline. They were all three “meh” movies. Adam watched Soloist and didn’t like it. We watched Sunshine Cleaning, enjoyed ourselves, but weren’t wowed in the least, and then Coraline. I think I needed ripped stripped stocking, black eye make-up, and thick black lipstick to thoroughly enjoy it. I did not, so I did not. It wasn’t a bad movie, I just didn’t like it. I thought I would, but it just creeped me out and didn’t leave me with any sense of wonder or amusement.
In my Art class we has to do a high contrast self portrait. I took this photo my senior year of high school and instantly thought of it. We had to show shadow and only use three colors, one is the background, one is the shadow, and the other is the light. I used a dark rust, a bright yellow, and a vintage bright blue. I took this photo real fast with my camera phone, and when I get it back graded I am going to scan it in, but I was kind of proud of it. There are a few things wrong with it, but you can’t tell from the crappy quality photo. Also, I didn’t copy the photograph exactly, because that wasn’t really the point, but there were some things, design wise, that just worked.
My Grandma Marjorie Cooper was ill often when she was very young in the 1930’s. She would typically fill her time with making scrapbooks with get-well cards, letters, magazine cutouts of movie stars, and other pretty little things. My step-mom, Lynette Hurst, Marjorie’s daughter, has a few of these books in her possession and her and I have decided to use these beautiful, vintage images to create lovely paper goods, among other things. We have just begun the first process of scanning a lot of the images, let me just say, there is a lot of them.
The shop is not open, and it’ll be while before we debut, but I thought I’d let everyone know to keep an eye out for it. I have made a mock up for my shop’s banner, and I’ll share that here. We are so excited to begin this project!
Stepheniemeyer.com announced that The Host will be made into a movie! I am very excited! I really trust these guys to pull together a great cast, but in the mean time I decided to shocase my picss for The Host cast.
Mel Stryder:
I tie between Evangaline Lilly and Summer Glau, both beautiful good actors who would rock the role. I think that Mel, to me, looks more like Evangeline, while Summer could really pull off the whole “someone is inside my head while I, who am controlling the body, am foreign and an alien” thing.
Ian O’shea:
Now Ian is a hard one, because he is not “beautiful.” He is a giant, meat-head in the begining, beats up a woman, but at the same time, loves fervently and sweetly. So I chose the guy who played in the last Superman movie, Brandon Routh. He is strong, could potentially have an anger problem, and then switch it off and be amazingly sweet.
for Jared, I don’t really care too much. I didn’t care for him in the book, I thought he was a jerk pretty boy. So I hope he is casted appropriately. Like Boon from Lost, or something.
And I always thought Jeb was a black guy, so I’d choose an old, cool black guy for him.
I am very stoked, and I know they’ll get these guys right, even if they are all unknowns.
=)
I wondered, “Why is it so flat?” as we drove up into it, following my brother to get out to a better filming spot than next to the highway. It was apparent pretty soon why it was so flat: It’s mud. It’s salty sandy mud.
Oh, the Salt Flats. Fortunately, these nice angel-like, rugged men came and found us out in the desert and offered to drag us out with their fancy cables and such. Without them, I don’t know what we would have done.
We were out there to film a music video. The song is “Rattlin’ Bones” by Kasey Chambers featuring Shane Nicholson. I really like this song. I showed it to Dustin Hurst, my brother, and he just had to make a video. He is a pretty outstanding filmmaker. So there were to two main parts, the singing and the story. Here are some pics from the story part:
I was lucky enough to actually be in this video. Usually Dustin doesn’t let me, but he needed a girl, and he couldn’t find anyone else . . . lucky me. I loved it very much though. It was a hot day, and we forgot food or water, so it got pretty unbearable towards the end, but the filming parts were great. The desert is beautiful and it’s sad to think I’ve lived here my whole life and have never really experienced the Salt Flats.
My brother David (the one who drew me the book cover) was the camera man and he did a great job. Adam was the guitar supervisor, to make sure Dustin was doing it correct. Then there were the devil and the preacher. It was a good group, and I am excited to see the final video.
This one below is a scary one. after we had done most of the shooting for the day, the camcorder was saying that everything was deleted. No images. None. We are all about to freak out a little, however Dustin was able to restore them, magically. Thank God.
According to my blog stats, there are 61 average readers of my blog a day. Wow. I didn’t know 61 people (or one person visiting 61 times a day) could find this that interesting. With that knowledge I hope y’all make comments and such, I’d like to make more of what you like, for example updating more, showing off more projects, and the such.
So, make comments, let’s all get to know each other.
(By the way, look how cute I was in high school?? Golly my hair was short back then.)
The Walmart in Clinton, Utah just redid itself to this shopping love mecca. Every time I go in I can’t help but be wowed by there new arrangement of crap. This last time I went in to by base make-up and batteries and walked out with a new shower curtain liner (ours was old and it only cost 2 bucks), really good-looking gold table cloth (ours was for a round table, old, and gross, and didn’t match), vanilla candle (it was only a dollar!), floor mat to stand on while I do that dishes that, on average, take me an hour, then I finally made my way to the make-up isle. I bought hairspray, base, and mascara, being amazed at the low prices! Then batteries at the check-out line. That place is evil, I have decided. They moved everything around to make it look more desirable, and I am such a sucker. Sure I needed a new shower curtain liner, candle, table cloth, and floor mat, but not right then! Ugh.
We are trying to teach Arnie to be an outdoor cat. It’s not going so well. He is frightened of the outdoors. When I took him out while Django went on a walk, I came back to find him hanging by one kitty arm on my door wreath screaming like crazy. That darn cat. My mom just got me that wreath.
When I first brought the wreath home he climbed inside and I took pictures, but I didn’t know that he became attached.
Anywho, here is Adam and I trying to show Arnie that the outdoors is friendly.
In this one below you can see his weird lion breathing he did while army crawling through the lawn.
My brother, David Hurst, was amazing enough to draw up a mock cover for the book I am writing. I believe it is intriguiging, creepy and unsettling, it is, what David said, “hard to look at.” I love the bruises (or collar) she has on her neck, and the sin, blood, and pain splattered across her mouth. I like that she is in the same pose (accidentally) as the zombie from “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” cover. She screams attention from her Mona Lisa coyness. She looks both guilty and accepting of her nature. She seems broken and alive. She is a zombie. She is my main character.
Here are some variations of the cover:
These are just Adam’s camera phone. I need to do an official photo shoot.
Arnold is an adorable little bugger. He LOVES the bathtub. When we get out of the shower he hops in (lately he doesn’t wait until we get out) then he rolls around in the water residue. I’ve never known a cat who isn’t afraid of water. He won’t shut-up either. At any moment he is meowing like crazy. Even when he is purring his unnaturally loud purr, he will be meowing. He cant stop playing, and now has learned how to play with Django. They mostly just play chase. Django set-up rules even, like the couch is off limits. So if Arnie get on the floor he is free game. Django is so confused when Arnie plays with the string, it’s a game he just doesn’t get.
(Look at Adam’s beard! People keep calling him, “Mountain Man” and thinking themselves so clever. Adam usually then mutters, “Yeah, I heard about them in the fourth grade too, good reference.”)
We got Arnold from our friends Ashley and Rebel last Saturday, the day after Adam’s emergency room adventure. I just can’t get enough of him. I find him to be a huge joy. I am so happy to have a cat. I grew up with cats, and it is a gift to my happiness to have one again.
My dad and my brother David came by on Saturday to see Adam. Arnie took a nap on my dad’s lap and I guess the sleepy-ness of it affected my dad, because in the middle of us all hanging out and conversing, my dad passed right out. We laughed alot.
I’ll get some better pics up soon. Love ya’ll.
Yesterday Adam’s hip, where the right leg joins the hip, started hurting. It progressed suddenly. I was packing for St George when he started yelling from the pain. I didn’t know what to do. I called the bishop. He said to call 911, but I was scarred and we don’t have insurance so he sent his second councilor and shortly after got here himself. Adam seemed fine for a little bit then the yelling started again and I dialed 911. Bishop Norda talked to them while I cried and Adam yelled. The EMT’s got there, and were great enough to suggest they carry him to our SUV so we can take him to the hospital because an Ambulance ride would have been astronomically priced. We got him to McKay Dee and they put him in a room right away. Then the testing began. The pain was unbearable and they shot him up with these hard-core painkillers, which did nothing, so they got him on the stuff that slowed his breathing so they put him on oxygen. Many family members came to help us and it was great. He had to get an MRI which showed fluid in the joint. They drained 14 mL of yellowy stuff out. At one point they said if it was something that he’d need to get a hip replacement. At another time it could have been goat (sp?) or this or that. They said he’d have to stay over night.
I was scarred.
He started to walk after they drained the joint, so they let us go home at 11. We had been there from 3 to 11. By far one of the most frightening days of my life. Adam seems much better, but I don’t know if he is getting better. I hope he’ll get better. All he is doing now is taking ibuprofen and resting.
They think he has Inflammatory Arthritis.
