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!