Sweet Treats!

I love Candy! Pretty much every type!

When I went to my good friend Lacey's wedding last Halloween, she had a cute little "Candy Bar" (Seriously, that just came to my mind and I about died with excitement for my creativity. Of course, I'm sure someone else thought of that way before I did!) set up at her reception. Here's a picture of hers:

I decided to look online and see what other people had come up with for their own candy tables. Hope you like what you see...and then go out and treat yourself to some candy :)

Orange Themed Wedding

~I had read about the website Polyvore where you can put together different images of things you like and make collages or inspiration boards with them. I told my sister about the website and we both have been hooked making all kinds of boards. I will admit, lots of hers look so much better than mine...we just both have that very different eye, but they all turn out great!

~What's cool about this site is as you search for images to add to your "set," polyvore saves the information about the object, such as where it can be purchased, and for how much, so later on you will know where to go to find them! It's pretty neat. For instance, you can click on the image of this inspiration board, and it will take you to a polyvore website displaying my board. As you scroll your mouse over the picture, boxes will appear outlining each object. When you go to a certain object, another little box will pop up giving a description of it! It's like the computer has a mind of it's own. Oh, wait....

~Anyway, here is one of the first ones that I made, while watching Whose Wedding is it Anyway, which is why the first one was a wedding theme. haha. Hope you just like the colors :)

~*And I want the shoes!

Orange Themed Wedding by Mallory Pendleton featuring feather hair accessories

do nothing

This isn't a normal inspiring post. Nothing creative or crafty. Nothing at all like that. Yet, still stomething inspiring.

This past weekend, my family, along with 3 other families, went to Jellystone Campground in Luray, VA for Labor Day. I had been soooo excited to go and was glad that I was able to schedule my RA duty around these days. And let me tell you. It was so worth it. I almost made the mistake of taking my planner with me, because I take it everywhere with me. But at the last second, as I was packing up the last few things, I told myself, "I don't need this. Why am I going to take it?" So I threw it on my desk and it sat there until I got back to school.

I can count on one hand the amount of times I thought about school or the work I had to do when I got back. I knew I had right much to do, but I also knew that I already needed this break.

On the way to Luray, Matt and I listened to a wide variety of music, but I'd have to say that my favorite thing we listened to was my Phineas and Ferb soundtrack. Yes, I am twenty and that cartoon is my favorite show. I have no idea why, but that show always makes everything better. One of the songs on the soundtrack is called "Do Nothing Day." I told Matt that I seriously needed one of those days. He just said, "Well, that's what this weekend is for. To do nothing." And just knowing that I was about to spend the next 3 days with some amazing people and just relax felt amazing, and made me even more excited to get there (if that was even possible!)

And one more thing. When I first went inside our cabin, I took my phone out of my pocket, checked the time, turned it off, and left it on the table. It stayed off until I checked it Saturday evening, just to see if any of the RAs had texted me. No messages. It went back off. I checked again Sunday night. One message. And I didn't even care. I loved having my phone turned off and off of me.

So, this past weekend, and of course, Phineas and Ferb, inspired me to have more planned Do Nothing Days. Let's face it, we all need those days!

a website with everything!

One website that I love to look at and find things I'd like to buy (but never actually do!) is Etsy.com. It's a site where people can sell their own handmade things and it's amazing to see what some people can make!

In particular, I like to search for crafty things. I love crafts and I wish I were as creative as some people are, but I kinda try.

Here are some things I just found on Etsy that are similar to what has inspired me before.

These are fabric yo-yo's...used for quilting and probably some other stuff that I don't know about! My great grandma used to make these a whole lot and made a quilt out of them. She would use a whole lot of different types of fabrics when making them and I would always pick out my paper. One time when we went to visit her at the river, she taught me how to make them and sent me home with circles of different fabrics that she had already cut out, some thread, and a needle. In my attempt to make these yo-yos, I think I stopped after making no more than ten, because I was frustrated that they weren't coming out as good as Grandma's!

I love making bracelets out of string. I normally use embroidery thread. I love how many different colors you can find and how many stores have huge packs that you can get for so little. I just love them :) But this bracelt looks really cool, and I'd love to sit down one day and figure out how to make one for myself!

And last but not least, ornaments :) I actually have painted and made some Christmas ornaments over the past few holiday seasons. Of course, I can't make the perfect Nemo on the outside of a ball ornament, but I have painted glass ornaments that you can usually buy at Walmart, Ben Franklin, etc.
My favorite one I painted would have had to been where I used this glitter glue that had silver glitter and then snowflake confetti pieces in it. I painted the inside of the ornament and it turned out really cool!
I've also taken a few bottles of Christmasy color paints (red, green, gold, white, silver) and squeezed a little bit on the inside and tilted the ornament until the paint left a cool design. Then, I repeated with all of the other colors; it kind of turned out looking a bit like stained glass. Very fun too :)

Luck

I always say I'm so lucky that Matt is my boyfriend and that I have the best boyfriend in the entire world. Hands down.

Ok, in all honesty, what girl doesn't say that?!?! haha

I came across this picture, and I think it was from a fun engagement shoot...not 100% sure. Either way, it's very fun :)

I love how in today's time, photographers have come up with creative and unique ways to take a couple's pictures--engagement and wedding. Not just the traditional family photos, etc. that you would normally see at a wedding. In addition to all those nice pics, they throw in a few fun pictures. I especially love seeing pictures of bridal parties jumping....they're even better on the beach.

So, hopefully this post will inspire you to get creative and think outside the box more when taking pictures. Even the simplest of things can make a picture look a thousand times better!

First "Inspiring" Post

I hope you're ready for a fun inspiration!! Chocolate. Graham Crackers. Marshmallows.
It had me at chocolate (I get that from my mom!).

S'MORES are amazingly and wonderfully delicious! I love them so much!

I found this little idea on the Twig & Thistle blog. S'MORES kits would be wonderful for out-of-town guests coming to your wedding, and have them waiting at their hotel rooms. They could also be used for favors, but if you're having a big wedding, I hope you're ready to buy tons and tons of chocolate :) Outside of the wedding frame, these could be used as treat bags for kids birthday parties. I mean, really, what kid doesn't love S'MORES!

I hope you enjoyed reading the first [hopefully] inspiring post!

Something New!

...and no pun intended with the title of my first post!

This has been a project in the making for quite some time now. I have no clue where this might be headed, but I figured I'd at least just share what I've done!

I'm one of those people who follows too many blogs, and checks them all at least 10 times a day! Matt always asks, "Do you really think there's going to be something different each time you look at them?" Well, the answer is most likely "no" but I can't help but hope there's something new to read!

I'm also one of those people who sees pictures that I like and I HAVE to save them because they're either:

• the most amazing picture I've ever seen;
• they have pretty colors;
• they have something I want;
• there's just something about the picture I will need later in life! (ok..probably not!)

Well, I decided it was time to do something with those pictures. I started pulling together similar pictures and putting them all together on one document. I had seen blogs about inspiration boards, so that's where this part of the project came from. I've played around with different Microsoft options and I've also found a website where you can pull together images and make inspiration boards online and save them to your computer.

I was going through my usual list of checking blogs, when I came back to Lindye Galloway Events and her blog post on 7/27 with wedding color inspirations just made me sit down and actually start pulling things together, getting this new blog up and hope that people will also look at my ideas! (And if you checked out her post, her images were nicely placed and it looked very geometric! While I love the cleanliness of her images, I find myself putting my pictures in more of a hodge-podge. Let me know if you think the hodge-podge-y-ness is too crazy.) -and yes, I just made up that word :)

Well, here is the end of the intro to my new hobby and project. Let me know what you may think, and get ready for the 1st [hopefully] inspiring post!!