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Happy 4th of July!

We don’t have too much in the way of plans. Nathan is going to work for awhile today and then we’re going to his parents’ to cookout tonight. I’m just excited it’s the beginning of my 4-day weekend!

On with the good stuff…

Pinspinners! at allsorts
Super cute little pinwheel spinners. I’m into pinwheels this year big time. I keep thinking I should make a bunch of summery ones and decorate with them.

Tutorial Tuesday: Sewing Machine Cover Tutorial at Not Nigella
I desperately need a sewing machine case, but I really like this cover too. If only I had a place to just leave my machine out all the time…*sigh*

Summer Peach Cobbler at Baking Bites
This looks super delicious and I’m considering maybe making it today (if I get up the energy to do anything domestic.) The only things I would need to pick up are peaches, eggs, and soda bicarbonate. That’s not bad.

Tutorials at graphics-illustrations.com
Lots of Photoshop and Illustrator goodies.

How To: Make a Pocket Sized Floor Plan at Apartment Therapy
This is one of the best ideas I’ve seen in awhile. When I live in a non-rental house that’s worth putting decorating effort into, I want one.

Fourth of July project ideas! at Diary of a Crafty Chica
I looooove Crafty Chica….she is so fun! And these projects are no exception. I want a Statue of Liberty tiara.

The Secret to Landing Clients Nearly 100% of the Time at Freelance Switch
Interesting. The other day a business counselor was telling me the importance of doing a good market analysis on your competitors, too. *sigh* Overwhelming stuff. Makes me thankful for my day job.

Weekend Breakfast - Pancake Cups at sycamore stirrings
These are incredibly adorable. Would be so much fun for special brunches or holiday breakfasts.

Notebook made out of folders at Rachel Simonson
I want this! Great way to keep and get inspiration.

Alright, so after playing more with my browns, I think I am going to have to forego the reddish brown in favor of the chocolate. I love the reddish brown, but I think together it might verge on too funky for some of my client base. The last thing I want to do is scare off a potential client because I’m too weird and they think my branding colors clash.

Thoughts??

I’m in the beginning stages of honing my marketing for Shannon Miller Creative, and I’m having a color problem. I am in love with the chartreuse/apple green I’ve already picked, but I need a stronger color to go with it that will contrast well and read easier. At first I thought of a great orange-y, rusty red - one of my favorite colors. But I think that might be too Christmassy, much as I love it. Then of course purple - but I just don’t really love the color purple. At all.

My mom suggested brown. I think I like it, but I’m not sure what kind of brown - I don’t want it to be too dull, or too dark. I like the reddish tint, but maybe it is still too much Christmas? Thoughts, suggestions from the peanut gallery??

I always thought it would be fun to own a shop called Smiling Dog. Anyway, what that is really about is the family picture I helped take for my sister-in-law. My sweet nephew Mac is 6 1/2 months old here. And my favorite part is that my fur-nephew Caymus is smiling so hugely. We took this out in Ryland on the Miller property. It is so beautiful up there!

Sorry for the slow posting lately - I have been super busy! I’ll be back soon with an update…Until then, don’t forget you only have 2 more days to complete your Fourth of July crafts. I can’t believe I haven’t decorated for the holiday at all yet. What has happened to me?! Slacking on the crafting and holiday decorating? You KNOW I must be busy if that is the case.

Not too much in the way of links this week - it’s been crazy busy. I am SO looking forward to this weekend, though. Nathan’s sister and brother-in-law are in town with our baby nephew Mac, which is of course wonderful. We also have a 10th anniversary party for Nathan’s office tonight, so I will get to meet some of the people he works with. Tomorrow evening I know we have plans to hang out with Michelle and Sean again, and Sunday afternoon in between church services I get to attend what I think is a Stampin’ Up party (I could be wrong about that though.) Family, babies, time off work, and crafts…what more could I possibly want out of a weekend?!

Oh - and in bargain shopping news, I scored a great $100 dress this week at Belk for $17. Thank you, thank you very much.

Okay, okay, okay - on with the only reason you read my blog on Fridays.

DIY Paper Flowers at Creature Comforts
I love love love these sweet paper roses. I want a bouquet of them. How cute would they be for weddings?

How to Make Chocolate Curls at The Pioneer Woman Cooks@
Yum. I love Ree’s pictures.

Illustrator: How to Make Custom Swooshes, Swirls, and Curls at BittBox
Yall know how I feel about swirlies and curlies. This is one great tutorial for making them in Adobe Illustrator, my current favorite thing in life.

How to Make Playing Card Notebooks: Accordion-Style at CraftyPod
So sweet, such a good idea for those vintage cards with great graphics that you’ll never use..

Sky Factory
Programmable Sky Ceilings. Truly odd. And I think I need one for my windowless office at work.

Get your Favorite Faces on your Favorite Candy
Because we all need more reasons to eat our loved ones, you can now get actual pictures printed on M&M’s. Creepy face-eating rituals….not just for grocery store birthday cakes anymore.

sticky notes books or sticky notebooks at greetingarts
Looove this papercraft. Sweet little notebooks made out of sticky pads.

Freelancers: Here’s Why You Need a Blog at Freelance Switch
Pretty good article that tells me I really should get around to starting that design blog I dream of having, just as soon as I have the time and ambition to do so.

Today I had the opportunity to attend the Armed Forces Salute Luncheon at the Von Braun Center, because my business was a sponsor and needed to fill a couple seats for folks who couldn’t come. It was really nice, definitely better than I had been expecting! The food was decent, but the best part was that I got to see the 82nd Airborne Division Chorus sing. I saw them in concert a couple years ago in Guntersville; if you’ve never seen them, you have got to make every effort to the next time they are nearby. They are incredible. I also got to see Gen. Richard Cody - the Vice Chief of Staff of the Army. He was great, and it was definitely awesome to hear him speak. Anyway, all in all a surprisingly fantastic time. I felt like saluting someone and saying the Pledge of Allegiance when it was over.

I also uploaded some pictures from last week when Bridger visited. Go check them out in my flickr account! I love this one of Uncle Nathan giving Bridger a raspberry.

I’m not feeling well today - I slept terribly last night! My mind was spinning, I didn’t feel well, etcetera…poor Nathan had to deal with me tossing and turning into the wee morning hours. Oh well - maybe tonight will be better. I have so much going on right now that I’m worried I’ll drop the ball on something. But at the same time, I don’t want to give anything up. I’m hoping I’ll feel like I can get ahead of the curve this week and settle my anxiety a little bit.

Our weekend was pretty wonderful. Very busy! Friday I met up with my girlfriend Benae for some post-workweek winding down that we both needed terribly. Her boyfriend Michael was hospitalized last week for some extreme abdominal pain, but all is well now, thank goodness. They’re still not sure exactly what happened, but if he’s doing better now that’s all that matters, I suppose!

Saturday, we got up and drove to Tuscaloosa for the wedding reception of some good friends of ours, Steve and Kristin. I took a couple pictures…but I haven’t uploaded them yet. On the way down, we stopped in Birmingham to get a few articles from old issues of the Birmingham News for Nathan’s Foo Fighters research and a couple other things. I was impressed how good he is with the microfiche. I would have no clue where to start. I guess I’m just a child of the computer age. I remember that in school, we always learned about what microfiche was, but we never actually used it for anything! And then by the time I was doing research for school, everything had been computerized. Interesting though - now I know how to use it. You learn something new every day.

We had a great time spending the night with Steve and Kristin at their adorable apartment in Vestavia Hills Saturday night, as well. Kristin and I definitely have similar tastes - vintage/antique, shabby chic-ish stuff, retro turquoise kitchen stuff. Recently Steve bought her a turquoise 50s refrigerator and matching stove in Ryland when he was up for a visit, and he has them in working condition. I’m so jealous - she has great taste and great stuff! I want to steal all of her vintage finds for myself.

Anyway, we came back from B’ham yesterday and spent the evening doing churchy stuff. I had my first go at playing the keyboard with the Infinity praise team at evening worship - Ha, ha, ha! I need some practice. It was pretty terrible…I ended up just fingering along the melody. But Mike and Nancy let me take home their keyboard and gave me the book of music they’ve put together, and I get to pick the songs for next week. It should be better. I’ve also got to figure out how to use this keyboard - I think it needs to be less straight piano and more blended/ethereal….to give a better base for the singers (and hide my mistakes.) We’ll see. I’m going to search online to see if Casio has the instruction books online or something similar.

My parents are about to leave for Colorado for 2 weeks, and we’ve got about a thousand things going on over the next month as well. Here’s hoping I make it through without going completely nutty! We did manage to get the Fashionably Late website live last night. Check it out and feel free to join us or bring your friends!!

I don’t know about yall, but I am SO OVER this work week, it’s not even funny. Oh well - weekend time. Tomorrow Nathan and I are headed to Tuscaloosa for the wedding reception of a couple of our great college friends who got married in Florida in May. It should be lots of fun - then we’re staying at their place in Birmingham. Sunday, I am going to play keyboard with the contemporary evening service at church for the first time. I haven’t played piano much lately so I’m a little nervous - but excited! I have been wanting to do something with the music program so this will be a good way to start out..I’ll let you know how it goes.

On with the links. I think today is a pretty good collection, if I do say so myself! Enjoy and Happy Friday! (p.s. - like the new green hints on my blog? I thought it needed some color..)

the shack at hinkle farm @ Design*Sponge
You just have to see the pictures - I want one!!! Desperately!

Pizza Scarf @ Craftster forums
Hysterical - a pizza scarf. Gifted inside of a cardboard pizza box.

Rainy Day Survival Kit @ momadvice.com
This reminds me of those babysitter boxes full of goodies that they had in the Babysitter’s Club book series - does anyone else remember that?? Either way, I sort of want one of these…for me…

In Vestimentis Ursum. There’s a robot beneath the fluff.
What’s inside of your robotic toys? Creepy.

Make mini God’s Eye jewelry @ ReadyMade
I love this…so sweet and nostalgic. Like VBS for grownups.

Fabric pom pom @ mollychicken
This one is for you, Mom.

The Gospel According to Dave @ Nashville Scene
Some of you know that Nathan and I are huge Dave Ramsey fans, some of you may not. If you don’t know much about him, I highly recommend reading this essay from May 07 in Nashville Scene. It’s kind of long, I know, but it’s great. It gives an excellent overview of the whole Dave phenomenon. And I’ve got to tell you, Nathan and I are constantly blown away by what his plan has done with our finances and is doing for our future. Cheesy maybe, but is it really cheesy if it’s true?

Behind the Scenes at Real Simple: Real Simple’s paper sculptures at Simply Stated
I’m a Real Simple reader, and my sweet hubby got me a subscription as part of my Christmas presents last year. If you’ve ever read Real Simple, you’ve probably seen the awesome paper sculptures that they photograph for the cover pages of different sections. This has a couple really cool “making-of” photos.

Business Card Holder Tutorial @ Tamdoll
Sweet! I might need some that match my new green cards, hmm…

A cut tut @ Skinny laMinx
A how-to for intricate paper cutting…I’m pretty amazed by this artist’s whole blog, too. Beautiful stuff.

TechCrunch
“A weblog dedicated to obsessively profiling and reviewing new Internet products and companies.” Lots of good stuff, constantly updated. Interesting even if you’re not really into the net business “scene.”

Making Vision Stick @ The Digital Reformation
I work with my church’s fairly new Vision Team, and right now we’re working towards rewriting our church Vision Statement. Thought this was a pretty interesting article with some points to remember..

Hysterical blog entry by my mom today about my sweet nephew Bridger. He is coming to spend the night with Nathan and me tonight, before going back home to Mobile on Friday…we are excited! It will be good for us. Good practice, everyone says. Ha. Ha, ha. No babies right now, thank you! A night with the Bridgster will suffice for now.

I’ve been a bad blogger and have gotten out of the every-day or every-other-day posting. Sorry!! It was a very busy weekend - my sister and her two little boys came in town, and we had a fantastic time with them. We did Chuck E. Cheese on Friday (I think Nathan had the most fun out of everyone), and they had their pictures made on Sunday (by Kerry Brooks, whose website I recently designed!) Meghan went home with baby Taplin yesterday, but Bridger is here through the week with Grandma and Grandpa. He is coming to spend the night with Aunt Shannon and Uncle Nathan tomorrow night, and we can’t wait. Bridger is just getting so big and so smart - he is so fun to hang out with more and more these days because of the jewels that come out of his mouth! He is a trip. My mom has been posting pictures of their visit - check them out on her Flickr!

Sunday morning, we also had our first worship service with our new pastor at church. It went extremely well - I really like him, I think everyone loved the sermon, and after spending some more time with him at our Vision Team meeting last night, I’m convinced he will be great for Shiloh. I also showed everyone the work-in-progress that is our new official church website, and it also went over pretty well, so - good things all around! When we get done with it and it’s 100% live…I will post it here for yall to check out if you please.

I’m thinking about starting another blog, gearing it specifically toward design/marketing and tying it in with design for the church. I know I’ve said before that I’ve been so enthralled in discovering this whole subculture of designers working within and for the church, and the more I look, the more I find. So I thought maybe I’d start my own design blog, just for cool stuff I find, things I’m working on, etcetera…but also use it to refer to all the great Christian marketing stuff I find. I always want to share it, so.. Thoughts from the peanut gallery??