New Years Eve Party Inspiration!!

Happy Friday Everyone!! 4 days until Mexico!!!! Tomorrow is New Years Eve, Monday is the Rose Bowl and Tuesday 7am we leave for Riveria Nayrit!!!

Who has New Years Eve Plans??? Are you going out to a club or laying low at a friends? We are having a little pre-bar party at our place and then heading down the road to a bar.

Since tomorrow is New Years and I may want to decorate the house let's see what we can find for amazing inspiration photos!!!

Super cute and easy!

Also looks easy but more sophisticated!

Cake platter with wine glasses filled with gold and silver ornaments!

I love the plate!

(This link has a lot of great New Years Eve photos!)

I love the circle streamers hanging from the ceiling!

New Years Eve Recipes!

I like the label over the bottle and the party favor on the plate.

I like the glittery blue NYE letters.

(Great photos on this blog!)

An absolute must that you wear something glittery!!

Glitter!!!

Happy New Years Everyone!!

Have fun, and be safe!

Art by Nature

I found this tree art image on Pinterest the other day: http://pinterest.com/pin/146085581632358190/

I absolutely love this idea. You attach markers to tree branches and place a canvas underneath the tree. The wind moves the branches and creates the marks on the canvas. How cool is that?! :)

I will have to remember this and try it in the spring!

The artist is Tim Knowles. You can see his website here: http://www.timknowles.co.uk/Home/tabid/262/Default.aspx

He does other art with balloons, full moons, windwalks, and nightwalks.

http://alturl.com/4wepf

http://alturl.com/sqaa2

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 The one thing that is annoying about Pinterest is if you find something on the website and then go back later it is almost impossible to find the image again. I spent about five minutes searching for the tree art image. However, I did find some interesting tree art ideas.

http://interiorlife.com/2011/02/23/tree-art/

(Really great blog! Definetely check it out!)

You can purchase these tree rings for $150 here on Etsy:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/focuslineart?show_panel=true

http://www.etsy.com/listing/70490530/panoramic-wood-slice-wall-sculpture

http://www.aturtleslifeforme.com/2011/04/every-cup-needs-place-to-rest.html?showComment=1303449183235

Modern Tree Wall Art

http://www.etsy.com/listing/71824690/huge-natural-modern-wall-art-rich-ebony

http://artichokedesignsblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/guest-post-allison-from-crafted-love.html

The Art of Sushi

Good Wednesday Morning! Halfway through the week already!! 6 days until Mexico!!!

I see a similar image as the one below every morning on my way to work. And every morning I look at it and think wow that is so pretty I just wish I liked sushi.

http://www.redbubble.com/people/jenhall/works/1883448-sushi-art

I am not a big fan of seafood in general. Just this year I started eating shrimp, lobster and scallops. O and I had fish fry for the first time this year too! This summer I tried sushi and the gag reflexes kicked in with each bite. Nope.. sorry sushi is just not for me.

But as I was saying I think "sushi art" and the care and skill they put into each roll is something to marvel at.

So let's see what I can find for Sushi Art:

You can't get any cuter than a Panda head!!

http://thesuiteworld.com/blog/food-artsushi-artpanda-sushicreative-sushiart-food/

(Careful if you click on this link the first image is a little disturbing.)

http://www.lindyscakes.co.uk/Blog/2009/05/04/65-examples-of-food-art/

http://photo.vkeong.com/

Seriously how do they place items in a roll to make a hello kitty face????

http://www.random-good-stuff.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/HelloKittySushiKit.jpg

http://alturl.com/9mgic

http://tomdowson.wordpress.com/category/food-drink/food-and-drink/

http://lesapea.tumblr.com/page/74

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I found this on Pinterest the other day:

My kind of sushi!!!

Peanut butter and jelly!!!

http://alturl.com/58a62

Who's hungry??? :)

One week until Mexico!!

I'm back!! I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! It was so great to be home. I spent most of the weekend watching movies, comedians, and playing Words With Friends!! I now have my brother and cousin addicted to the game.

One week until Mexico!!!!!

I can't believe how close it is!

 I already started packing this weekend! Do you think six swim suits for seven days is too many?? :)

I finally looked ahead at the weather we will have and......... high of 80's!!!!! The whole time!!



Merry Christmas!

This may be my last post before Christmas so I wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas! I'm having minor surgery procedure today and then tomorrow I am driving to Wisconsin to spend time with my family so I might not be back until Tuesday morning.

Thank you to all of my wonderful friends and family who read my blog, and help me come up with topics. I hope you enjoy reading it and even learn something from it!

Thank you for stopping by!

I love each and everyone one of you!!

Seashells Souvenir

It feels like ages ago I went to Siesta Key for Labor Day weekend. While on vacation us girls collected seashells and sand to make a little souvenir. Or at least I said I would make us all something. I had an idea in mind and finally was able to make it.
You can view the gorgeous photos from the trip here: http://artfulexpression.blogspot.com/2011/09/back-from-vacation.html

Images as inspiration for seashell souvenir:

http://www.bhg.com/decorating/seasonal/summer/seashell-crafts/?sssdmh=dm17.532651&esrc=nwcu062111&email=2169424627#page=2

http://www.bhg.com/decorating/seasonal/summer/seashell-crafts/#page=12

http://www.houseofturquoise.com/search?updated-max=2010-04-16T09%3A20%3A00-05%3A00&max-results=10

http://www.marthastewart.com/269328/candles-in-seashells

And this is what I made:

I found the perfect jars at World Market.

Close-up of the shells!

What do you think of my project?



Twitter Book

Today has been a little crazy so that is why I am just getting around to posting. Last night I finished "The Twitter Book" by Tim O'Reilly and Sarah Milstein. It is cute, compact, very informational and easy to read. I am so glad I read this book. I think I wrote down notes on almost every page! This book is FULL of great information. I recommend it as a must read!

You can purchase the book here:

http://www.amazon.com/Twitter-Book-Tim-OReilly/dp/0596802811

Since I do want you to read it I will try to refrain from writing down all of my notes. This book starts at the very beginning explaining what Twitter is and how to use it. It then shows you step by step how to create an account. They end the book with Twitter Business tips!

A short list of the most important things I walked away with:
- pg. 73 Twitter's advanced search is one of the best-and most underused-parts of the service.

- pg 81 Track search with email alerts. Tweetbeep www.tweetbeep.com will shoot you an email message with hourly or daily digest of tweets that contain your search items. (Very handy for businesses!)

-pg. 97 Follow smart people you don't know! A number of services can help you find smart people to follow:
http://wefollow.com/  
  
http://twellow.com  
  
http://mr.tweet.net 
 
 http://whoshouldifollow.com 

-pg. 101 "Twitter isn't so much a broadcast medium as it is a discussion channel."

* -pg. 123 The average number of tweets per day= 4.22!
*- pg. 129 Twittersheep http://twittersheep.com will create a tag cloud from the bios of your network.  (This is really cool and I can't wait to try it for my work's network of followers.)

Ok I have to stop before I give away the whole book! I highly recommend this book if you are looking to try Twitter, just joined, or have been on it for awhile. It has a lot of screenshot images to help explain things.

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I have exciting news though... I get to host a House Party!! I blogged about House Party http://houseparty.com/ on August 18th http://artfulexpression.blogspot.com/2011/08/who-wants-to-host-party.html

My Glade party is January 28th! If you will be in the Chicago area stop by!! :)

Weekend Recap: Ugly Sweater Party

Good Monday Morning! Wow, what a fantastic weekend! Girl's night was good, and I had a blast in the city for the ugly sweater party. We had holiday punch, appetizers and a good 'ole white elephant exchange. We went out after the party to a few bars. I think we were the only group dressed up but that was ok.

Group shot!

The "ugly sweater" winners!

The ladies!! :)

The guys!

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The countdown has begun for our family Mexico trip

15 DAYS!!!!

(11,000 blog visits as of this morning!!!)



Ugly Sweater Party

Good Friday Morning!! Are you ready for Christmas? Do you have your shopping all done or are you a last minute person? Does anyone have anything exciting going on this weekend? I am driving to McHenry for a little girl's night (lasagna, wine and Secret Santa exchange) and then Saturday heading to the city for an Ugly Sweater Party. I am very excited for my busy weekend.

http://trolleyla.com/2010/12/tis-the-season-for-that-christmas-sweater/

http://nickolaspickolas.blogspot.com/2009/11/wish-list-ugly-sweater-zombies-attack.html

Isn't it funny how clothes styles come and go. I know I used to wear those goofy sweaters that we now go to Goodwill to find and wear out to Ugly Sweater parties. I saw on the Today show the Ugly Sweater parties have grown in the past few years.

There are even websites now where you can go to find ugly sweaters.

Ugly Sweater Store: http://www.uglysweaterstore.com/

Butt Ugly Sweaters: http://www.buttuglysweaters.com/

Ugly Sweaters: http://uglysweaters.com/

My Ugly Christmas Sweater: http://www.myuglychristmassweater.com/

Ugly Sweater Christmas Party: http://www.uglychristmassweaterparty.com/

Do you have the Ultimate Ugly Sweater to win the prize? I wish the one I found was Christmasy it's just a grandma sweater. But it does have shoulder pads!!

I would love to see your ugly sweater! Please post comments if you are proud of your find! I will post photos on Monday from our party!

Have a great weekend! :)

Capture The Moon

I love finding blog post inspirations from Pinterest. And until everyone I know is on the website and can find these amazing things themselves I will continue to post things that catch my eye and make me think/smile.

I found this image:

http://pinterest.com/pin/26740191507191639/

If you do enough digging to figure out who initally posted it or who the genius behind this is, you will finally get to:

Laurent Laveder

http://www.laurentlaveder.com/index.html

"For years, photography is my passion. This media fascinates me: freeze a moment in eternity, it's magic! What I like is to find a scene in the view which allows me to convey the emotion or meaning, or simply to give an interest in familiar scenes that touches our eyes without even see them, without understanding the nature.

My combined interest in science (I have a scientific background) and photography lead me to seek in all things the expression of many physical phenomena and to capture. There is so much to see for those who know where and when to open his eyes. "

Other activities related to photography:
- Author of a beautiful picture book (224 pages, 224 photos) entitled "The sky, a garden view of the Earth" came out in March 2008 in Belin.
- Science journalist for a magazine and a website.
- Webmaster (and creator) of the website PixHeaven.net (site in French and English): 175,000 page views and 30,000 visitors.   http://www.pixheaven.net/index_us.php

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He has some amazing photographs. And I was just looking at the "Nuit" album.

Below are a few photos off of his website:

Website articles on Laurent Laveder:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/pictureshow/2010/11/04/131063948/moon

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/tag/laurent-laveder/

http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/charming-moon-16-photos

http://alafoto.com/?p=14403

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* You can buy his book "Moon Games" here: *

http://pixheaven.net/livre/crbst_6.html

I think it would be a killer coffee table book!!!

(10,000 views as of last night!!!)  :)

The September Issue-Vogue Documentary

Monday night I watched "The September Issue" Vogue Documentary on Netflix.

R.J. Cutler’s vibrant and mischievous documentary “The September Issue” is only partly a movie about fashion. At its heart, it’s really a movie about work, about the ways individuals compete with, grate against and inspire one another in the workplace. The movie documents the creation of the largest and most anticipated issue of Vogue magazine’s yearly cycle — in this case, specifically, the September 2007 issue, the fattest in Vogue’s history — by tracking the frustrations, confrontations and backstage machinations of the players who put it together, from the fashion editors to the art director to the guy who mans the office’s color copier. Presiding over this aesthetically attuned circus is editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, who, as Candy Pratts Price, the executive fashion director of Vogue’s online adjunct, Style.com, says in the movie, is not just the high priestess of the whole enterprise but the pope.
http://www.salon.com/2009/08/27/september_issue/

"The September Issue" is a rare look at Vogue focusing on Anna Wintour, Director, at Vogue. The documentary takes place in New York in 2007 which turned out to be the largest Septemeber Issue in Vogue's history.

You can watch the video here: http://www.arp.tv/production.html?production=septissue

Quotes from the documentary:

"She's busy. She's not warm and friendly. She's doing her business."

"September is the January in fashion. This is when i change. I'm going to try to get back in  those high heels because that is the look."

Not long into the movie it hit me that this (Anna Wintour) had to be the person the movie "The Devil Wears Prada" was about. I wasn't a huge fan of the movie but it all makes sense now, and I would like to watch the movie again to compare how Meryl Streep portrays her and how she really is as a person. I think the movie definetly played her out to more of a cold person. True, she wasn't the friendliest person but they documentary didn't portray her to be unattainable. She did smile a few times in the movie!

Ok back to the Documentary:

I enjoyed the documentary because it showed five or six content ideas for the magazine and they let us tag along to see how the photo shoots went for the various ideas. Grace Coddington, Creative Director for Vogue has an amazing eye for capturing the genre or era of her photos. It was defintely interesting to watch. I don't know how Anna chooses each photo that should belong in the magazine.

Have you seen the Documentary? Or the movie? If you have what did you think?



Christmas Gift: Homemade Body Scrub

Over the weekend I met Jen in the city. We went to the Christkindlmarket first. It was beyond crowded Saturday night and we could barely move so I don't have any pictures to show you. I do reccomend checking it out if you are in the area. The place smelled terrific and it has a lot of cute gifts and ornaments.

Check out the website here: http://www.christkindlmarket.com/

We then decided it would be fun to make something crafty and give away as Christmas gifts. I found sugar body scrubs on Pinterest. This was the site we followed: http://www.maybematilda.com/2011/04/baby-shower-gift-homemade-sugar-scrub.html

 

 



The ingredients: sugar, olive oil, scented oil, and coloring dye

3 cups of sugar

1 cup and 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Add 10 drops of essential oil. We bought a four pack of honeysuckle, sweet pea, meadow and jasmine.

We bought a 3 pack of color dyes.

Fill containers. We used a spoon. The first few were solid with one color and then we got creative and started mixing and layering the colored scents.

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Finished shots. I just have to make labels to put on them.