Fun Friday: Liebster blog award

This is a post that got lost in the shuffle, so for funsies. Here you are.. I am not nominating anyone because I have been out of the blogging world for awhile and don't even know.

The Liebster Award is given by bloggers to up and coming bloggers who have less than 200 followers. It is to show new bloggers that they are appreciated, and to help spread the word about new blogs. 

Back in November 2012, I know I know I am way behind. 

I was nominated by Shannon from Sewing Barefoot here, thanks shannon!

The rules:

1. You must post 11 random things about yourself.

2. Answer the questions that the nominator set for you.

3. Create 11 questions for the people you nominate.

4. Choose 11 blogs you love (with less than 200 followers) and link them in your post.

5. No tag back (but please leave me a comment on this post with the URL to your Liebster post so I can learn more about you)!

11 Things about me:

1. I have been married for 1 1/2 years to P

2. I have 2 pets: a cat, Daliah, and a dog, Alex

3. I play roller derby

4. I often get a crafty bug to do something around the house

5. I don't often finish those projects

6. I like making unusual crocheted items

7. I love running for the sake of running

8. I will be running my 8th marathon in march

9. My favorite number is 8, my derby number is 88

10. I was born in Hollywood, Ca

11. pinterest is my downfall

Here are the questions I'm asking the blogs I nominate:

[1] What are a few blogs that you read on a daily/weekly basis? Young house love and Bower Power

[2] What is your favorite TV show? Parenthood and Grey's Anatomy
[3] How long have you been blogging? 3 years [4] What project(s) are you currently working on? Crate bookshelf [5] What is one of your New Years Resolutions? Be happy, healthy and spend more time with the hubby [6] What is your favorite pin on Pinterest? that changes daily [7] Are you a dog or cat person? both [8] Where do you buy most of your clothes? thrift stores [9] What is the #1 item on your holiday wish list? didn't have one [10] Do you need coffee to function? Or are you more of a tea person? coffee daily [11] How long have you been blogging and what inspired you to start a blog? my bf from high school

Ol' bloggo update

As you can see the ol' bloggo got a much needed update.

( I love it.)

If you haven't noticed I also updated the house tour button to include before and afters of our old house in Illinois and our new apartment in LA. 

Of course, they both are a work in progress and need to be updated. 

What do you think?

~ Steph ~

Reorganizing my life

I have been working hard on getting everything in my life reorganized and redecorated.

Lets start with the obvious:

1. This good old bloggy blog

2. My etsy shop here

I wanted to have two distinct themes between the two.

The blog is about life and me and things I like, vintage meets classic.

While my shop sells crocheted (thats why the yarn) and paper items such as my planners (see below) here

I want people to look at the button or the banner and know that this is what this shop sells . I wanted it to be more defined where as before it was a little of everything and a bit of organized chaos.

I have also decided that once some of the items in my shop run out thats it. I will also be adding more items that fall into the above categories.

3. Living room

4. Bedroom

I also moved around these two rooms but thats for other posts.

I also made a new signature  (see below)

Thangs are changing and I love it!

Summer hiatus

I am not making any promises I can't keep

BUT,

this hiatus has been really good for me to examine my priorities

The truth.. you can't handle

Sorry guys, I have been MIA. I am planning on going home in a few days. I have a huge order of custom invitations I need to finish and I have been goone the last 2 weekends.

I will update you when I can, please don't hold your breath.

Since Amy from All in a Day wrote this post

It hit me that I was in the same boat and feeling the same emotions.

I thought I was alone, but I am not.

Well I am still going to write what ever I want and know that I am never going to be a big blogger AND spend time with my husband when he is here on the weekends

I felt like I was neglecting him because a blog post was more important, well its not.

So thats that. I have a lot to share with you but we will get there someday.

Guest Post: Kristin & Courtney

First off, thanks Steph for having me here! I am so glad that I got paired up with you for Trading Blogs at Serendipity and Spice. I am an avid reader of your blog and love your projects.




I am Kristin and, with my sister Courtney, I write from Brilliant Like Fireflies.  We are from Ontario, Canada and love to share our crafts, favourite recipes, DIY projects and more! Right now my hubby and I are living the big city life in our basement apartment with our cute-as-a-button cat, Merlin. Courtney is living a couple hours away in her 2-story loft apartment enjoying the quiet, small town life.

I love to make art work that looks hard, but is actually really easy. My mom gave me the idea of transferring a picture on to a canvas and then adding some paint. The end product is a beautiful piece of original art. It may look like I painted the whole thing, but I really just added a bit of paint here and there.

Step 1

Find a canvas that is smaller than an 8.5 x 11 (mine is 8 x 8). Completely wet down the canvas. Print your picture on glossy photo paper. Immediately, while the ink is still wet, place the canvas on top of the paper. Press hard on the canvas evenly. I used a spoon, but you can use anything that is hard and flat.

Step 2

Remove the paper from the canvas. Look how beautiful this faint picture is! You could just leave it as is. But I wanted to highlight some parts and make other parts a little darker.

I got out my collection of paints and got down to work. I loved this project because I didn't have to draw anything from scratch. You just add some paint to a picture that is already there. It makes it look professional.

Step 3

Cut strips of paper to fit the sides of your canvas. I found scrap booking paper in my drawer that matched the colours in the painting. Use Mod Podge to glue the paper on.

It was easy as that. I'm giving this to my husband for him to put up in his new office. 

Thanks for having me on Pumpkin Loves! I had a great time. If you liked my project I hope you'll pop on over to Brilliant Like Fireflies for a visit to see what my sister and I are up to.



Happy Crafting,



Thanks Kristin and Courtney for sharing and stopping by.

You can find my post at Brillant like Fireflies

This month I participated in Trading blogs by Serendipity and spice

Tomorrow..

Guest Poster Kristin from Brilliant like Fireflies will be here to share how to do a photo canvas

a new approach

So i am revamping my etsy store (as mentioned here) to make it more of a store and have been working on some branding, ugh I hate this kind of stuff but i hope you like what you see.

What do you think?

Revamping..

I have been revamping things are here to give ti a younger cooler hey look at me i am simple kind of feel.. what do you think?

I am kinda in love.

On relatively the same news, since Picnic has merged with Google + and I have the design/ photoshop skills as a 2 year old I resorted back to Photobucket for my design needs.

I am still getting use to it, but it is super easy to use and has a lot more effects than it once did.

This is not a sponsored post about photobucket, just my opinion.

I have been working on some great stuff. Also, if you didn't notice i took down my shop for a breif period and hopefully to come back with a bang, also working on brand messaging and coolness over there too.

Versitile Blogger award.

I got my first award!!!!




I am so excited, thanks Melissa from Serendipity and Spice. She is awsome. I love her tutorials on her blog for new bloggers like us. I met her from C.R.A.F.T. package pals and she is Amaze-BALLS. go check her out.

So, the rules for this award are:
1. Thank the person that nominated you with a link back to them (see above).
2. Tell 7 things about yourself (see below).
3. Pass this award on to 15 newly discovered blogs and let them know that they’ve received an award.

7 things about me:

1. I have been stung by 1 jelly fish when I was 15
2.  I have had 2 knee surgeries
3. I love, like LOVE target, michaels, and the I.D.E.A. store (its local)
4. I live with my husband, dog and cat making us 4
5. I will try out for roller derby on 03/06/2012 (it was the 5th but switched)
6.I married my best friend 08/06/2011, i am a newly wed
7. I have run 7 marathons

I tried to be cute and use numbers and numbers but it was hard hard.

So 15 blogs, whew this is going to be hard.

1. My friend Em, over at EmJoyable, love her and all her glitter & glam
2. Amy from All in a day, is an awsome new blogger and has a ton of inspiration
3. Carlee from deliciously organized, found her from pinterest (I think) and feel in love with all her ideas and common who doesn't want to be organized.
4. Kitty from A Law students journey I love her blog and all of her project while in law school, I can relate.
5.Caroline from cold hands warm heart. I love all of her ideas and tips.
6. Oh this blog had me at hello, i love the name and found her through pinterest Funky polka dot giraffe
7. Julie at Less than perfect life of bliss. I love all of her tips and randomness.
8. Jenn at My faubless life, all of her designs and furniture.. I am in love
9.Lowri at Paper vine, I found on pinterest and oh my the inspiration is unbelieveable
10. My other friend Emily who started this blog,WashINgton, after she got married and moved across the us
11. My friend Erin, who talks about anything  and everything on we are nowhere and its now
12. Crit from this is from that, amazing. just amazing stuff.
13. This couple, is posting abotu there engagement,etc. from both points of view and I love that on The Sneirbo
14. Lindsay, from  the Southern Lovely on pinterest and love her style
15. Katy from Sweet Verbena, I love everything about this blog.

Alright ladies your turn. Thanks again to Melissa for award, I am super excited.