Curls

If you have naturally curly hair, I'm sure you will identify with this... It's a blessing and a curse. When I was younger, it was mostly just a curse.

I'm on the right (and yes, the date is completely wrong by about 10 years). I had poof ball for a hairstyle throughout most of elementary school. Then I tried to contain the frizz with mass quantities of hair product. 

You can even see grown out highlights! 

Finally, I just gave up on trying to have pretty hair. I chopped it all off and dyed it red. 

I went through many different phases in fashion choice. 

I let the red grow out and figured out a way to work with my curls:

Now I love it! Well... most days. I'm writing this because today is one of the off days, thanks to all this sudden humidity.

Another Trip to Letchworth

This Father's day, Shea and I spent the day with my family at Letchworth State Park. We had a picnic lunch and scoped out reception and ceremony locations.

There are two excellent enclosed shelters in the park. They have a fireplace, and an open grill area with food tables. They fit about 140, which would probably be exactly what we need.

We found a perfect spot for the ceremony, if we are able to reserve it. It overlooks the top of a waterfall!

This waterfall, to be exact. This spot is just around the corner from where the ceremony would take place. I can see some amazing photos coming from this area.

Nothing is decided yet, but these are some options!

Bits of my Life

A Special Little Book

Shortly after Shea and I got engaged, my mom passed this book on to me. It  was published in 1951, and used by four other family members to plan and document their weddings. My grandmother passed it to my mom, and now it's my turn.

Pottery

I have always loved hand-thrown pottery. There's just something so warm and personal about each piece. Last summer, I decided to take a pottery class at Genesee Center for the Arts. I've always wanted to try throwing my own pottery, and it was just as awesome as I'd hoped.

It was HARD. I was expecting to come out of the class with misshapen lumps of clay, but the instructor was really helpful and managed to coax great work out of everyone. I LOVE the pottery I made in that class, and I use a lot of it on a daily basis. My dad just bought a kiln to supplement the pottery wheel he bought a few years ago, and I'm excited to try it again!

Here are some other pieces I made:

Inspiration Board DIY

I've been seeing cute cloth inspiration boards pop up a lot lately, and I've been hoping to find the time to get one for myself. The walls in my apartment are pretty bare, and it just seems like an awesome way to display photos and memos. I was at Joann Fabrics yesterday with my mom, just browsing, and saw that they were selling them. The selection was pretty dismal, and they were tiny and cost $20 each. Since I was already in Joann's, so I decided to buy the supplies to make my own.

It was a success, so here is the tutorial to make one yourself. It was done at night, so my photos aren't the best.

Supplies:

• A cork bulletin board (mine was 17"x23") 
• Enough pretty fabric to cover the board and wrap around about 2-3 inches on the back (I got a 24"x44" piece)
• Enough quilt batting to cover the board and wrap around (I got 1/2 yard)
• Ribbon of your choice
• Upholstery decorative nails
• Staple gun 

Step 1:

Cut your quilt batting to fit the board you've selected. Make sure there is enough extra so that you can wrap it around the edges and staple it to the back.

Step 2:

If you've ever stretched a canvas, this will be easy. Stretch the batting over one edge and staple. Next, stretch it over the opposite edge and staple. Do the same thing for the adjacent edges.

Add two more about 1-2 inches on either side of your first staple, repeat on the opposite and then adjacent edges. Repeat this until the you reach the corners. This method ensures that you won't get any wrinkles in the final product.

Step 3:

Cut your fabric to fit the board, again with enough extra on all sides to wrap around the edges.
Repeat exactly what you did for the quilt batting, but stop about 3 inches before you reach the corners.

Fold the fabric in from the corner like this. 

Then fold it again from one side so it lays flat and staple.

 Repeat on the other side.

Do this for each corner until your board looks like this. I ran out of staples, so I finished the corners with a glue gun. 

Step 4:

Lay out and cut your ribbon like this.

Repeat in the other direction. 

Now fold each ribbon over the edge and staple. I had to use hot glue here too, which seemed to work fine. 

Repeat on the other side.

The first layer should look like this. 

When you've finished the first layer, do the same for the second. 

Step 5:

Now, take the decorative nails and press them through the board at each ribbon intersection. 

Step 6:

Mount it on your wall and put photos and memos underneath the ribbons! I glued some ribbon loops to the back of mine and hung it from the decorative nails.