Friday Miscellany

A real life excerpt of my conversation with Zach last night:

Zach: Oo, tomorrow is Friday! Friday phone dump? I haven't sent you a picture in my cammies since we switched from woodlands to deserts!

Me: What makes you think that your picture is gonna be good enough to make the Friday phone dump? ;)

Zach: Oh, no... that's not what I meant! I just thought of the Friday phone dump, which made me think of cell phone pictures, which made me think that I promised to send you a pic once we switched to deserts last week.

Me: I think you were kind of implying that your picture was going to be in the Friday phone dump.

Zach: I mean, it does make me feel pretty special...

With that being said, dear blog friends, please pay extra attention to picture #6 in the phone dump, taken today specifically for this purpose. Because I'm all about making the boyfriend feel special. And because he does take really cute pictures :)

[Row 1: home for spring break; me, my sister Katherine, & our friend David at camp; green eggs & ham/truffula chip pancakes at IHOP in celebration of The Lorax; Winter Jam with my bff Amy last month]

[Row 2: canvas I made for Zach; my precious boyfriend; & various late night shifts at the Coffeehouse]

[Row 3: unintentional twins with Scott; package from mom; hanging out with Joseph at the Duke Gardens; & the Chapel at night]

[Row 4: my life at the art/printmaking studio, period.]

You can follow my Instagram feed at @simplybeffie, or view all my Instagram pics here.

My life has been pretty hectic the past couple of months, but I have managed to squeeze in a few craft projects here and there... starting with this birthday card I made for Zach's brother last week:

Note the use of maroon & orange in the birthday card: Ben has been accepted to/will be attending Virginia Tech in the fall! :)

Craft project #2: a pretty little flower vase made out of a root beer bottle wrapped in yarn :)

Confession: I made the first one (not pictured above) using mod podge, because mod podge : crafters :: duct tape : rednecks. Essential. Vital. Clearly the best approach to any and all crafting projects. I don't swear (my mother would so not approve), but if I did, I would swear by mod podge.

However (this is really hard for me to admit), mod podge was not the way to go in this project. The top portion of the bottle that is slanted required at least 3x more mod podge than the bottom half, and then it dried darker. Plus it looked crunchy and ugly and not fluffy.

Zach had the audacity to suggest that I use double-sided tape instead of mod podge. Psh, what does he know? So naturally, after telling him that nothing will ever be as good as mod podge, I tried it... and (as you can see above) it turned out wonderfully. Hmph. I'll let you see the mod podge version that still needs an extra layer of mod podge-less yarn just so you can get a good laugh.

Craft project #3: A "Welcome to the World" card for baby Charlie & brand new mom Neidy at Neidy's Infinite Playlist:

Neidy is my blog friend. I used to think the concept of "blog friends" was incredibly bizarre---someone that you've never met & probably never will meet, yet you know so much about each other because you read each others' blogs. Am I right? I was pretty set on only reading blogs of people that I knew, minus big-time blogs like Kelle Hampton's. And then... I got a comment from a girl named Neidy who just happened to stumble across my blog on the week that Zach deployed.
She said something about us being Marine Corps-significant other soul sisters. Intrigued, I clicked on her blog... and was blown away by how much we had in common. She is also in love with a Marine... named Zach. (They got married last year). She loves Jesus. She's super crafty. She studied media arts & minored in design. She loves photography. She's my age. (I told you... crazy similar). And thus, she became my first "blog friend." Her Zach deployed to Afghanistan just a couple of months before my Zach returned, so he's still kicking it over there in the desert. AND, she just gave birth to their first child, Charlie (super adorable baby pics here). Spending the significant portion of a year without the love of your life is pretty blah-awful enough (trust me!); I can't imagine going through the whole "labor & delivery" thing at the same time without him. Mega kudos to Neidy for being a complete rockstar throughout everything!
(PS: It might not look like a typical "Welcome to the World" card, but it's based off Coldplay's latest album cover. Neidy & her Zach love Coldplay, and she even used their most recently released song, "Charlie Brown," to reveal to the blog world that they were having a baby boy named Charlie)


Whew! I sometimes feel like a recap is necessary by the time I make it all the way to the end of a post:
1. My blog friend had a baby.2. I attempted to cover a bottle with yarn using mod podge.3. I make birthday cards sometimes.4. Zach feels special when he's in the Friday phone dump.
;)
Happy weekend!