attempting to take our own family pictures. haha.

I turned 24 last month, and Garrison turned 28 this week, for his birthday we went camping and it turned into a disaster, that post is coming soon. but.... his actual birthday was awesome, it's just that im only now getting around to writing about it all cause we were still cleaning up the fall-out from the worst camping trip ever. but once again, more on that later. for now i'm just going to post a few pictures that we took during a drive along the Alpine Loop a few weeks ago. initially we intended on having a little family drive, bringing the new "gorillapod" tripod that i got for my birthday, and trying to take our own family pictures... it's okay, you can laugh. i should have known that the pictures wouldn't turn out, since when do tripods stuck in trees, short range remotes, and toddlers work together? the answer is they don't. i've learned my lesson, next time i'm just gonna hire it out like the next guy. but, here's a few of the pictures that sorta turned out. on my to-do-list for today: buy a long range camera remote. ;) i also have about 40 posts i'm writing for the blog on my to-do-list as well...

a few posts you should expect to see on the blog in the next 2 weeks:

-My Birthday

-Garrison's Birthday

-The camping trip from hell

-being the photographer for "Fledge Feet" Tee's

-an updated house tour

-what the "Haggard Hammer" tab that randomly appeared on my blog is all about

Now for the pictures, wanna play a game? it's called "spot the camera remote" i bet you can see it in almost every image. :)

Family Forward Blogging Retreat at Zion Ponderosa

a little over a week ago, i had the opportunity to go on a mini vacation down to Zions Park, more specifically Ponderosa Park which is just outside of Zions. i went down there with some other blogging friends of mine, and we had a wonderful time being taught all weekend long by the powerhouse couple aaron and rachel coleman from the popular kids show "signing time" bouncing ideas off of each other and learning from each others mistakes. taking tons of pictures and videos. and of course, the epic "excursions" that we did every day, mine included going horseback riding, flying in a helicopter, taking a tour in a jeep unimog, and skeet shooting.

it's been just over a week since i went, and i am missing it terribly, the location was awesome, the food was great! the houses...cabins...mansions we slept in were breathtaking, and the company was better than it all put together. this was the first "blogging" thing i've ever done, besides literally blogging. i haven't gone to any of the conventions, or joined any of the facebook groups, or anything, so i literally dived in head first into this one. but i made so many connections, and learned so much, and created so many memories, and made so many friends. it was just awesome. anyway...before i kill you all with another lengthy and wordy post like my last one, here ya go!

Sunset Photo Walk

 ^^ my friend Briton from rad mom cool kid. we call her rapunzel.

 ^^ Stephanie, who also writes for Rad Mom Cool Kid, she and i are literally soul sisters. (more like soul twins.)

 ^^ me trying to be as cool as them. :)

 ^^this is that powerhouse couple, Aaron and Rachel, their height difference just made this picture series too perfect not to share.

Horseback Riding

 ^^rachel, your right, whilst on a horse, one must hold hands high in the air with the closest person. it just makes the picture so much better.

^^this was seconds before the horse bucked off his rider on the far left. not gonna lie, that was pretty awesome. good thing he is a bull rider and used to it. 

Flying in a Helicopter

 Jeep Unimog

 ^^the wind up at Pine Knoll was crazy, that darn hat almost sailed away like a kite more than one time. but hey, i didn't get sun burnt the entire trip, so i'm chalking that one up as a win.

Skeet Shooting

Other Fun Things...

 ^^ice cream sundae competition.

 ^^a photobooth. cause we're bloggers, so that's obviously necessary. :) once again, my buddies with me in this pic are Brit and Steph from rad mom cool kid.

 ^^didn't i tell you they were mansions, ugh, this pic doesn't even do it justice.

 ^^a list of our sponsors. they were so good to us the entire time, surprising us with gifts in our rooms every morning, and they were also the ones who hosted many of the smaller events through out the weekend. they just spoiled us rotten basically.

^^you guys, how beautiful is that view?!? it was super hard to leave, but seeing this scenery on the drive home made it a whole lot easier. 

Girls and Bows

in case you missed my guest post on my friends blog a few days back, here it is for you to see!

 today i am going to show you a very simple refashion. making a bow -or twenty- out of an old vest. although i must warn you. bows don't require much material, you can make them out of basically anything, all it requires is a few stitches and a dollop of hot glue. they are extremely simple so im just saying, if all of a sudden everything you own is covered in bows because they are cute and sooo easy to make... don't blame me.

supplies:
material or old piece of clothing
sewing machine
hot glue gun
scissors
whatever you want to attach the bow to, ie: headband, safety pin, elastic, bobby pin, clip, hair-tie, t-shirt, shoes, etc.

instructions:
1. cut out your piece of material. my square was 4.5x6.5 inches long. (i got these measurements because i knew i wanted a 2x3 inch bow, so you double those numbers, and add 1/2 an inch to each as a seam allowance.) if you would like to make a smaller or larger bow, feel free to change the numbers to whatever you wish.
2. sew right sides together in order to make a long, skinny tube.
3. take the tube, and flip it right side out. making sure the seam is in the middle.
4. flip the tube right sides together and sew the raw edges together
5. flip that right side out and make sure the seam is in the middle of the back.
6. pinch/fold the middle of the tube together in order to make it look like the bow you want. i recommend sewing one or two stitches through all the folds in the material to help the bow keep it's shape. you will want to do this by hand or very slowly on the machine by turning the wheel yourself, not using the foot pedal unless your material is very thin.
7. now you need to create the strap that goes around the bow. you can make a tube by doing steps 1 and 2 over again on a very small thin strip of material you will want to use a safety pin or crochet hook to flip it right sides out or, use a ribbon /knit material which you will not have to sew because they do not fray, use a scrap of material without sewing it, knowing that it will probably fray or do what i did and cut off the belt loops from the original vest that i got the material from.
8. tightly wrap your strap around the middle of the bow, place a dollop of hot glue on one side of the strap
9. press the other side of the strap over the top, this creates a circle around the bow. make sure not to get any glue over the edges of the strap and onto the bow because this will make it difficult to attach to your project that you will be using the bow for. here are some examples of what you can do.
10. cut off any excess

here are some ways you can use your new bow!
hot glue one or two onto a wreath

turn them into a bow for your hair by attaching them to the top of a crocodile clip or onto the end of a bobby pin.

make a headband for you or your little girl or a bow tie for your husband or little boy by sewing it to a circle of elastic. you do this by cutting a piece of elastic to fit. place a safety pin on one end of the elastic, thread it through the strap of the bow. and sew the two ends together.

use it as a broach or safety pin it onto practically anything like a hat, a cardigan, or a scarf.

my daughter and i love our new bows. i bet that you will see the two of us wearing these on our family Christmas cards this year. maybe i can even convince my husband to wear a bow tie out of the rest of that same vest. i will put our Christmas cards on my blog so make sure to check back and see if i was able to convince him to wear the bow tie or not. i'll be taking bets on this subject same time next week. ;)