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Wednesday, March 28, 2012

BELIZE it or not

For a solid 4 days I have done nothing but daydream about our honeymoon.

We have always been super excited about this part of planning a wedding (duh, who isn't?) Travis has always said he wanted to go someplace we can go with our family on a semi regular basis. I love that idea!  I was set on going somewhere neither of us had ever been before.  Travis has been many amazing places but he has never been to...

BELIZE!

Ambergris Caye to be exact.

T's parents love Belize, so much in fact his dad wants to buy a banana plantation (he's obsessed with fruit...) there when he retires. How perf!! If grandma and grandpa are freakin living (part time) in paradise we'll have all the more reason to go!  

In 193 days we will be flying into Belize City, taking a little dinker plane to San Pedro and jumping on a boat to take us to this secluded little piece of heaven.

I.CAN.NOT.WAIT.

AHHHH....look at those cute houses! It's simple, secluded, family run, colorful and so very perfect for me and T!

Obviously pinterest has only added to my excitement!
Check it:
The famous Blue Hole. Beautiful. (and a little scary) 

 Mayan ruins. Gotta throw some history into the trip for Trav.

 Cave tubing is DEF on our to-do list!

Apparently, these little guys hang around under the pier lights at the resort at night.  I hope that's true...they're my fav sea animals!  

(google, not pinterest image)
T wants this to be him and not going to lie, I kind of want it to be me too!

193 days!

These chairs at the resort have out names written all over them!

See you soon, Ambergris Caye!! See you soon!

Thursday, March 22, 2012

dang difficult

These are my keys at work.


The other day we went outside for "extra" recess/snack for no reason other than it was really pretty. We live in Texas, these days don't last long, when it's a beautiful we go outside. I'm the teacher I make the rules.

Anyway, my keys were sitting on the picnic table outside and this convo went do:
Student A: Ms. Landin why do you have an 'n' on your key chain?
Me: It's not an 'n' it's a 'u'.
Student A: Ohh, why do you have a 'u' on your key chain?
Me: Well, it's going to be the first letter of my new last name!
Student B (sweet little struggling reader who I just adore): What's your new name going to be?
Me: Mrs. Urbanovsky
Student B: WHAT? Ms. Landin! That's not a 'u' that's an 'R'!!

She's totally right. It is.
All I could do was laugh and hug her.
and remind her that "'ur' says /r/ like nurse...but that surely went in one ear out the other

And that my friends is why it's so dang difficult to learn how to read English.

And also why my heart swelled 3 times it's normal size when my sweet little "student B" recognized so quickly why that didn't make sense.

Thus being reason 3029 why I love my job.

Hope something rewarding happens for you today!

Almost Friday! WOOO!


"teach me how to SP, t-teach me how to.."

Screen print!

Well, I can't technically call this a tutorial because there's quite a few steps and terms which you probably wouldn't understand unless you have some interest in this type of stuff and I don't think I'm cool enough to have a real "tutorial" - you have to be like a prof blogger to do that shizz AND I don't have Publisher on the comp I'm using so I'm making due with paint - which looks like child's play becuase I don't really know how to use it...but I'm excited to tell you what I know! If you have any questions on how I got started etc just let me know, I'm a teacher remember...it's what I do! ha

First of all, I bought these Fruit of the Loom men's v neck undershirts (from Target).
If you were ever in college between the years of 2004 and 2008 you know exactly the ones I'm talking about. Yep...these paired with gym shorts, a north face, and tennies or uggs. Every single day. For reals.

Anyway back to the topic....

I wanted a very subtle tie-dye feel to the tees. I went with straight yellow and didn't bother with tying the shirts with rubber bands or anything - I wanted it to just look faded by the sun. I figured just them in the dye bath would give an uneven color. I was right. Although when they came out they were quite a bit brighter yellow than I had hoped and instead of "sun like fading" it was more like blotches of dark and light yellow. C'est la vie. I went with it. These gifts were already about 4 months delayed remember??

I had never tried using this RIT dye before (you can find it at any grocery store in the laundry detergent aisle) you simply follow the directions on the box. FYI: I purposely made my water level too low for the amount of Ts (10) I had in the washing machine. I thought it would give it that 'tie dye' look...doing this did a so-so job but next time I'll fill it up...

I rewashed them (like regular with detergent) to get some more fading and dried them as usual.

Now, on to the screen print process.

I use Speedball equipment. They have a great "starter" set and all the materials are easy to get your hands on at Hob Lob or Michael's.  A kit similar to this is your best bet...

Bear with the terms you don't know and shoot me an email if you want to know more!

I used the photo emulsion method. I first drew this picture after not being able to find what I wanted online. Then on publisher I made the "bee there" part. I simply cut and taped the words under the drawn pic. Then I copied that image onto a transparency sheet with a laser printer.

Now comes the screen action! I'll be easiest to do this is list form.

Steps 1-4 must be done in a dark room. I put a sheet over the bathroom window and it works fine.
Any light will mess up the process - sorry, no pics! But it's pretty simple...

1. Spread a layer of the photo emulsion liquid (comes with kit) to both sides of the screen with the squeegee. I put push pins in each corner to keep it up.

2. This will need to dry entirely. I put it in a dark closet with a small fan directly on it.

3. This is the fun part! Take your transparency and place it on your screen (face up).

4. This is where you'll need a light source. I use a halogen shop light, it was about $20 (plus the cost of the bulb) at a hardware store. Hold it about 6 inches from the screen and turn it on. Hold it there for 3 minutes to "burn" the image onto the screen.

This is how it should look:
You can see where I used this screen before to make hats and koozies for "Big D's Dirty 30", it looks like black ink is still on the screen...as long as you clean the screen perfectly then you can reusue them hundreds of times!

Now it's safe to turn on the lights!

Begin rinsing the screen with a hard stream of cool water. As you rinse front and back the image should begin to appear. Basically what your doing is removin the emulsion in the areas you want printed (the "burned" image)...

Once the image seems completely clear let it dry then you're ready to print!

I do test runs on news paper before hand. Here's the first run,
Obviously it needed some fixes, see where the ink is missing, I didn't rinse it thoroughly...go back, rinse with heavy stream of water and try again...

After rerinsing the screen (focusing on the areas where the ink didn't go through) I tried again.
Much better!

The printing process is pretty self explanatory (and go figs, I forgot to take pics!)
Lay out your shirt on a flat surface, place the screen on the shirt, spread a generous line of ink onto the screen above the image, and squeegee the ink down over the entire image. Make sense without pics? Probs not! Sorry!

I printed all the Ts and laid them out to dry (which really doesn't take that long)
And here they are up close!

I felt like the front needed a little somethin-somethin so I added the girls first initials. Here I am modeling mine (fresh out of the shower with a towel on my head!)

And that's it! Doneski!

I realize my crappy quality photos don't help y'all take me seriously in the least...and obviously I am in NO way a professional at this. It's something I was really interested in and taught myself. I tried to learn about it online and from YouTube but just jumping in and giving it a shot is really the best way to learn. As is everything right??

I have printed on fabric many a times but this was my first experience with an actual t-shirt.

Like I mentioned before I was hoping for a "vintagey" look so I wanted the ink to not be solid in all places and look faded. This was much trickier than I had imagined. Some came out perfect and others are a bit messier but overall I love how the package as a whole turned out!!

This is just a really fun skill to know. It is definitely a process but it has endless possibilities. Seriously, I'd love to answer any Qs you may have and would love any tips if you happen to have them!

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

homeowner!!

Dreaming about it anyway!

This past week I spent some time with T in Carrizo and Uvalde...I fell in love with a house. Hard.  I can't stop thinking about it and I haven't even seen it in real life, just online!

Just take a look...

ADORBS right??? I'm dying!

I can picture me, Mill, and Travler (Trav's sweet pup I can't wait to adopt) sitting on that porch waiting for T to get home from work every afternoon.  (hear that T, I would just adore if you were home frm work say, around 4? Can you make that happen?)

Oh my gosh, I LOVE this house.

Only problem is...I we decided about 2 months ago we should wait until later in the summer to buy. Travis was all about buying something right away so I could move out there as soon as my school years done. I on the other hand didn't see the point to rush until closer to the wedding...well, now he agrees we should wait and he's not quite budging yet. Big fat bummer.

(In reality, now is not the best time to be buying a house. We don't have a free weekend until July and we don't even have out wedding showers/bach parties planned yet. NO TIME. it would be a little silly to buy a house and just let it go unlived in for months until we can get in and make it a home....BUUUUTT...I WANT IT NOW!!!)

Still working on him but in the meantime I have been flooding my pinterest boards with all things "first home". Mainly simple fixes that can quickly update an older home.

Want to see them all? You can follow me here. But these are some faves as of late...

 Love the window shelf, open cabinets, and butcher block counters

 This mix of new/old and light/dark is perfect!

 I'm all about neutrals but I an digging this subtle splash of color.

So charming and easy!

 Everytime I run across this redo I die...not only is a perfect way to disquise those horrible giant mirrors but it looks so so amazing.  Possibly my favorite before and after of all pinterest time!

 Amazing idea! So pretty and neat!

Now tell me that door would not be perf on that adorable house??
Ha...a girl can dream right - don't think T will go for it in a million years.

And this monogram is beyond perfect for a newleywed couples door...even if the door's not pink!

AND just how exciting is this?? We will be married and living in our home just in time for the best time of the year....pumpkin (and football!) season! All part of the plan! You can bet your bottom dollar my porch will be covered in pumpkins!

I am just praying this house is still on the market in the next few months...it needs to be ours. Seriously.

Go link up with Michelle and/or Jamie so I can see all the love you're sharing!


Monday, March 19, 2012

bee there 10.5.12

I finally "officially" asked my best friends to do me the honor of being bridesmaids in my wedding 

About 3 months overdue but finished nonetheless...

I was so excited ask them!  Add so happy they all said yes! Here's what I put together!

My 7 favorite ladies in the world...
please ignore that the A in Ashley is the only capital letter used...it really drove me nuts!

Will you "bee" my bridesmaid?
Had to get my love of bees involved in my wedding somewhere!



Who doesn't love a free tee! I know we all do, I was so excited to make these screen print T's for my girls (and myself!) I was really loved how they turned out! "bee there 10.5.12"
Want to know how to screen print? I have a pretty basic tutorial coming up soon!

I fully intended to make these cookies myself but you know what? Sometimes it's just easier to let someone else do things for you...I was very happy with my choice because they turned out super cute and they were quite tasty!!

I bagged them up...

And packaged everything together...

 And they were ready for delivery!

I was able to hand deliver most of them but had to UPS a few to my favorites that I rarely get to see and miss so very much :'(

I love you girls and I am extremely honored and excited that you will be standing by my side when I marry T!

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

get organized!

Orangization is something I say I'm good at but if you'd peek in to my real life at any given moment as of late you may disagree...

I do however desire a perfectly organized home and we.will. (mark my words) have one of those just as soon as we're settled into our home and have some space to spread out. 

You know, one thing I've found to be the MOST important thing about being and staying organized...

Time.

You first have to find time to get everything perfectly organized...that's easy enough.  Find a weekend, get to work. But keeping it that way is a struggle! I feel like I live out of a suit case at the moment.  That poor thing never gets unpacked. What is clean stays in the suit case and new clothes are added every Thursday night ready to leave again on Friday. I have piles of laundry I never get to and stacks of clean clothes that need to find a home in a completely crammped space.

It's a mess. I'm a mess. BUT I take comfort in knowing that in less than 205 days that will all change! Can't wait to be back to my "normal" self, post wedding. 

I also take comfort in seeing beautifully organized homes on pinterest.

Like these simple fixes...

Crafts and junk

These are great for all my wrapping paper, ribbons, fabrics, screen print junk, etc., etc.  I've got so much junk and it needs desperate orgaization!

Laundry
Love how simple these are. We will have a very specific laundry plan of action.

Bathroom


Closets
 Those baskets hanging are so clever and have so many great uses!

Jewelry
I basically have this using push pins but this is so much prettier.  Oh Traaaav...

Seriously can't wait for the day I will have all my things in one place nice and neat!


And just for good measure I'll leave you with this precious pup...
Oh sweet, little, liver and white Brittany pup...Millie and I both want you.