{the summer buzz}

I have been so busy the last month, I forgot I even had a blog for a few weeks.  Since Memorial day we -

Went camping!  Highlight < it was nice to spend some one on one time together, it had been the first time we were actually by ourselves for the first time since Korea >  
Low < I found 12 ticks on me... Andrew got ONE>

We signed a lease on an apartment! We move in August 1st.  I am very excited to be moving closer to work.  I will actually be within a couple of miles and plan on biking to work on nice days.  Andrew  has taken lots of pictures and measurements of our new place and we get to pick out the carpet and accent wall to be painted in a few weeks.  We only have 4 weeks till we move in and still need to find a bed and get things ready to move.  Once we get moved in I hope to do a before and after blog post of our new home.  These are a few pictures of our place and the floor plan Andrew has thrown together.

This is our screened in porch on the third level with vaulted ceilings, and our view.

I went home two weeks ago for Father's Day and my mom's "29" birthday.  I told her when I turn 29 in 5 years she is getting bumped to "39".  It was a nice weekend but I was very busy packing up all my stuff for them to move up the first weekend of August.

Work has been going well.  I've been putting in a lot of over time and working from home after work hours the last couple of weeks.  Unfortunately my daily/weekly "design juices" have been dedicated to work and my blog is quickly turning into a monthly design blog.  I hope that once I no longer have to spend 2 hours of my day commuting to/from work that I will have more design inspiration to blog about.

Added to my list of creative to-dos are:  Making a duvet cover for our lime-green comforter that will go on our bed, and making a headboard for our new bedroom. 
I've blogged about these before in inspiration {do it myself} <--see link for source details

We are going shopping tomorrow to pick out some furniture and a few things for the apartment tomorrow.  I hope the crabby shopper in both of us can keep contained, for it will probably be a long day of shopping and debating which things we like more.

Andrew's sister, Angela, is also getting married in 7 weeks and so there is a lot to do before the wedding.  Last weekend there was a bridal shower in their hometown and it was a reality check of how much work there is to be done still.  I'm hoping to produce some creative juices this weekend and work on some digital work for her wedding.  I'll be sure to blog about it when I'm done.

In two weeks I'll be flying to Chicago for work!!!  I get to go to a job site and document where we are installing all of the signs.  We will be there for 3 days and then I will fly home Friday, when Andrew will pick me up and we will go to our first Rendezvous of the year with his parents. 

Not much on my end for artsy stuff to show, but I'm hoping to get my act together soon!

project {dream catcher}

Oh me - Oh my - time does fly...

Over Memorial weekend I wanted to make some dream catcher earrings during Rendezvous <camping but during the time period of 1830's>.  I went to Joann's to get all my supplies before the weekend came.  I wanted them to be somewhat time period correct, but also practical enough for me to enjoy them on a day to day period at work or something.  The Rendezvous got cancelled due to the weather but I decided to make them anyway, in the spirit of my first vacation holiday after starting work.

It turned out the making of the earrings actually took about a day longer than expected and I only finished one hoop.  Mostly because they were turning out so big I couldn't see me being able to wear them as earrings.  I started out wanting to make the webbing out of thin gauge wire, which became a nightmare, and then I changed to embroidery string.  I'm glad I finished my project, but I won't be making anymore dream catchers in the future.  I did go back to Joann's to get some earring hardware to make beaded earrings for future rendezvous and to use up some of the hundreds of glass beads I bought.

Memorial weekend turned out to be full of severe thunderstorms, but I did get a few pictures of some grape smelling iris's.  {flickr}

I was going to make some cute earrings to go with my new prized possession this past week/weekend too, but got too busy.  This week Andrew and I booked two camping trips.  The first one is next weekend.  We are going to Crow Wing State Park, and the second is up in the boundary waters at Bear Head Lake State Park over Labor Day weekend.  We are also cracking down to get in contact with apartments about availability of August tenants.  The more we look at apartments the more we want to live in a house or duplex.  For the same amount of money we can get a lot more space and features, like a garage and laundry unit.

Next weekend is our first camping trip so this weekend we got all of our stuff together and planned.  I'm super excited.  This will be our first camping trip we take just the two of us.  After 4 years, it's about time!