this precious life.

after a Memorial Day service at our local national cemetery, anna, ellyn & i were walking to our car when i spotted a gorgeous clump of trees and couldn't pass up the opportunity for some images:)  the next post captures our, well, awkward/quirky personalities;) stay tuned! {photo credit for images of me >> Anna}

One night, earlier this summer, I had the sudden urge to try making a simple dress. Though I love projects, making clothes "from scratch" is not my thing & I typically stay far away!  But on this particular night, I was determined to whip up a little something:) Inspired by  this  &  this , I immediately envisioned a hippy, flowy maxi dress. A vintage sheet was the only piece of material I had which was large enough to work with but the dress was incredibly simple to make & I love it!  I took tips from the  tutorial  Katy at  Sweet Verbena  posted and then tweaked it as I went.  Now that it's finished, the question is, do I have a fabulous breezy, hippy maxi-dress in my closet? Or is this simply my debut as Maria von Trapp ... turning sheets & curtains into clothes? :D {That's my cousin's reference & he sticks by it most adamantly. The similarity of what I was doing never dawned on me till he said ...

 I know project tutorials have been rather sparse on the blog throughout this summer but I'm excited to share more in the coming weeks! Let's start with a simple driftwood necklace I created with inspiration from THIS . Materials: as many pieces of driftwood or sticks as you like | chain or ribbon | round links | drill + small drill bit | paint + paintbrush/toothpicks 1} Use your small drill bit to create holes where you'd like them placed in the stick 2}If needed, sand off any rough edges 3} Get creative & paint any pattern you like! {Here are some ideas ----> 1 , 2 , 3 } 4} Once paint is dry, thread the chain or ribbon through the holes you drilled. How you do this & how the sticks lay is up to you. I used two small circles just below the upper stick to keep it from laying right next to the lower stick. Since my necklace was long enough to fit over my head, I didn't need a clasp but you can find those {as well as the chain & circl...

 I found this lovely pleated skirt clearanced at Gap a few months ago for less than $3. No matter that it was too short for me and a size 12-- it had potential! I love it as a blouse! Plus, what's more fun than switching up the current trend of pleated skirts & wearing the pleats on top?! Here's another switcheroo outfit I did last fall-- shirt.turned.skirt {p.s. awesome GW satchel score from this spring is making it's debut on the blog too!! It's been used just about every day since I bought it & already been on at least 3 trips.} jacket: second-hand from El | skirt-turned-blouse: Gap | skirt: Kohls | belt: GW | bracelets: Mexico, diy, rummage sale | necklace: Ellyn's | leather satchel: GW my silly one-legged photographer;)

Here's the next addition of this summer's personal shoots! {If you missed it, you can see the first post HERE } Chris is an all around great guy & fellow artist that I've come to know since moving away from the Nashville area. I can't even remember the first time we met... I just know it was through some of our best friends a while ago & probably had something to do with Kairos :) He's done a whole lot of modeling for Susannah & his sister Hannah so after dinner one night, I threw out a proposition and asked if he would be willing to model for my project. He was really awesome about it & agreed to do a shoot only two days later before I left town! Check out his blog HERE My goal for this shoot was to work on posing guys naturally.. but then it turned into two goals as we worked with lots of moody lighting! For most of the shoot, it was incredibly overcast in a gray sort of way with very little dynamic light to work with. And then after w...