The One with My Life in 70 Pictures

I've been working with Kristina a lot this week on my custom blog makeover (I can't wait until it's done!!). As I was trying to think of what to do for my banner I went through all 50 gigabytes (yes, GIGABYTES; so that's where all my disk space is going, lol) of my pictures and picked out ones that I think represent me, my life, and my loves the best.

First row, left to right:
1) One of the best days of my life was when we went to Forks, WA. That was back in the day when I was obsessed with Twilight. Oh wait, who am I kidding, I'm STILL obsessed with Twilight.
2) A (badly cropped) picture of me, my brother, and sister, circa 2004 so I was 19. Love my siblings.
3) A super cool pillow I saw at Anthropologie - the best store in the world.
4) This one's from the balloon photoshoot Lindsey and I did with my sister and her BFF Bianca. Love how these turned out.
5) The Tower Bridge from when I went on a four month study abroad to London. One of these days (it's actually on my "tasks" in my Google Calendar) I want to put a blog together and recount my time abroad. I wrote down what I did every single day and have several gigs of pictures to go with them. Twill be fun.
6) A card I made featuring Hambly Studios stuff published in CARDS magazine.
7) A favorite photo by photographer Cheryl Maeder. I love the beach (even though I've only been twice since I've lived in CA...shame on me!)

Second row, left to right:
1) One time while I was at work at American Crafts Ben took apart a computer to add more RAM. I like to think I'm somewhat technologically savvy, but I might has well have been looking at alien DNA when he opened up the computer. I took a picture of its guts. It reminds me of when I performed surgery on my laptop to replace the broken "L" key.
2) A lovely piece of art by Mati Rose McDonough.
3) A painted bathtub. Don't know where I found it, alls I know is I like it.
4) A picture of Chris and I from our engagement session at the Gateway Mall in Salt Lake City, UT.
5) The month of August from my homemade 2010 calendar.
6) One of my favorite colored pencil drawings I made back in high school of a boy in front of a lighthouse.
7) I created these tiles from clay in Sari's room, painted a damask on the front, fired them in the kiln, then created a book out of them.

Third row, left to right:

1) I love Conceptual Art. And I'm pretty sure it all started with Marcel Duchamp's Fountain. Yup. It's a urinal. And it's art.

2) Our hallway in the stairwell with frames (some empty), artwork, prints, and other miscellaneous stuff I love.

3) The frame collage that used to hang on our bedroom wall in our very first apartment.

4) A section of our bedspread that I got from Target and still love.

5) Furniture that I covet from Shine by S.H.O.

6) My racks of American Crafts cardstock. Yummy. Best purchase ever.

7) A fun layout I made with patterned paper and cardstock banners for my Elle's Studio Spotlight.

Fourth row, left to right:

1) Our massive DVD collection. We love watching movies. Every night at 8 o'clock, if you come by our place, you can bet we'll be watching a movie. Believe it or not, we're just about to outgrow this thing...yikes. I think we'll replace it with lots and lots of these shelves from IKEA. In a bunch of different colors of course!

2) Me and my friend Bri at Lollapalooza summer of 2003 (literally the day before I left to go to college) at the White River Amphitheater in Washington. That's us standing with Rooney's lead singer Robert Schwartzman (who also played Anne Hathaway's love interest in The Princess Diaries). My first encounter with a real celebrity.

3) Tulle skirts from Ouma. 'Nuf said.

4) A beautiful sunset in Utah.

5) My chinchilla Li'l Chinchilla and her baby (RIP, saddest story in the world).

6) This is a collage I made inspired by a walk I went on in London.

7) Another picture from Forks. Sigh. Such a good day.

Fifth row, left to right

1) Our 2009 family picture at Lake Wenatchee.

2) A drawing of peppers I made in high school using pastels.

3) This is supposed to be the Statue of Liberty, but it got cropped. We (my family and I) took a trip to NYC and DC as my high school graduation present.

4) Hailey Williams of Paramore at the No Doubt concert. I want to be be her if only for a day. She rocks my socks off.

5) A t-shirt that I made but can't really talk about for another month cuz it's being published in the Feb/Mar issue of Simply Handmade. Use a magnifying glass if you want to see it better, or buy the magazine when it comes out (it's actually being shipped as I write this), or wait a couple more weeks until I do a full post about it :)

6) My bird, Jadis. He (or she??) is almost four years old and still going strong. Four down, 26 to go....

7) Another engagement picture. I love the blue wall Kaycee found.

Sixth row, left to right:

1) The clock I made from scraps of wood my dad glued together and Anthropologie knobs.

2) A guache painting I made in London and have now passed on to my London friend Katie.

3) Another tile book, but these tiles were made from Anthropologie tiles and it was a long and drawn out process to drill holes through them, to say the least. But I love the way it turned out!

4) Yeah. Um. This is supposed to be a photograph by Crystal Liu, but it got cropped. It's part of my favorite photography series to date.

5) A super cute purse by Enid Collins. I want to make one just like it.

6) Me in my dad's radio room during my short-lived ham radio career. My call sign is AC7ZV if you ever want to chat via radio waves.

7) My very favorite piece of conceptual art. It's called An Oak Tree by Michael Craig-Martin. Click on the link and you can read all about how this artist honestly and truly believes this glass of water is an oak tree.

Seventh row, left to right:

1) A picture from our wedding in Nauvoo, IL.

2) Yummy cupcakes from when I got to meet my awesome friend Von.

3) I heart Seattle. I hope to live there again some day.

4) Marlene and I worked on a product line at American Crafts inspired by Mary Blair. I've been in love with Mary's artwork ever since. (She designed the Disney ride It's A Small World, FYI). This is a concept painting she did for Cinderella.

5) A layout I made featuring Slick Writers all about my sister and her many talents/hobbies.

6) Another recent layout featuring pictures of my mom and dad in photo booths, taken 25 years apart.

7) More furniture that I covet from Shine by S.H.O.

Eighth row, left to right:

1) Wicked cool hand painting by Guido Daniele. Someone has too much time on their hands. Bwahaha.

2) My kitty cat Rachel. The love of my life. Second to Chris of course.

3) A cubist painting made by one of my students while I was student teaching. I actually bought it from her for $25 cuz I wanted it so badly.

4) My scrap room. My fortress of solitude. My home away from home.

5) This is my cat Tip Toe that I got when I was eight years old and she's still alive. She'll be 16 this October. She still acts young and spry according to my mom.

6) The coolest lockers from Twenty Gauge. So colorful and bright!

7) Huntington Beach. The one and only.

Ninth row, left to right:

1) My handmade books. I've got to teach another workshop soon, I'm having bookbinding withdrawals!

2) I don't wear things in my hair much, but I'm loving all the pretty feathers and bows that are so in style right now.

3) When I was growing up sunflowers were my favorite flower. I had sunflower sheets and covers, I had them painted on my walls, and I collected sunflower paraphernalia. I told myself it was because I never saw the sun in Washington, so I substituted the lack of sun with something pretty and tangible.

4) If I were to marry Chris all over again, I would have my reception at Prior Park in Bath. It's breathtaking, I can't even describe. I HAVE to go back there some day.

5) Fun cloud picture. I find clouds fascinating.

6) Our shiba inu puppy Joey. I can't go too long without blogging about Joey, so either scroll down (or up in a few more days), and I'm sure you'll see something about him. He's quite an adventure.

7) The cutest bunny wunny ever - Chandler!

Tenth (and last) row, left to right:

1) I went to Chicago for an NAEA (National Art Education Association) Conference back in March of 2006. It was so much fun. I'd love to go back. One of my favorite things I did was go to the Art Institute of Chicago and see lots of well-known paintings. Like Georges Seurat's A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.

2) Another book I made. I just like the pops of aqua and green in the photo.

3) A painting I can't remember who it's by, I'll have to edit this later.

4) Our very first picture together, at my grandparent's house watching April 2004 General Conference.

5) This picture has a long story behind it, but basically my Freshman roommates and I wrote favorite quotes and sayings on a big piece of parchment paper and stuck it on our kitchen wall. I wrote "I need a hott boyfriend!" and when Chris came over to try and woo me he wrote "Chris Evans is hott" next to it. And we lived happily ever after.

6) A super crazy fun layout I made using tons of Thickers.

7) And last but not least, another picture from the balloon photoshoot.

And that's me, my life, and my loves in 70 pictures.