Wire wrapped letter? Oh yes I did.

Have you entered my giveaway? It ends on Sunday. I know you want to, I can tell.

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So, I'm all about collections in my house. More specifically, letter collections. On our mantle, we have a collection of the letter "D" for our last name. In my oldest daughters room, she has a wall of "A"'s for Arielle. I always keep an eye out when I'm at the thrift store for either of those two letters. I made a wire wrapped letter for our living room a long time ago, and decided to do a version for Arielle's room. 

So this is what I started with. Some $3 wire from Walmart (they had two versions, one longer and thinner, one thicker and shorter. I picked the second one, I think it's still 12 yards long). I also had hubby print out a 7 inch letter in a typewriter font. It was a little bigger than I planned. When I said 7 inches, apparently I was thinking of a 5 inch tall letter. Oh well, I made it work.

So, I put some double sided tape on the edges of the letter, and used the wire to line the outside of the letter.

Once I had one layer going around, I wrapped some wire around that, and went around the sides again. If the letter doesn't lie flat, no worries. It'll be easier to flatten out, once you have more layer on it. It helps to have some pliers to help you wrap the end of the wire.

For me, I'm not about perfection. My letter wasn't exactly lined up with my paper, but I wasn't worried about it. This project probably isn't for you if you're OCD.

After I got the sides double wrapped, I started going from side to side. Sometimes I would just wrap it around the outsides of both sides (wrapping across both wires), other times I'd stabilize it by wrapping it around the individual side.

And here is my completed piece! I think it'd be great for those of you who do those fabulous alphabet walls.

And here it is on her wall! She loves it. I love it. Score.

And here is the original one on my fireplace mantel.










So, whatcha think? Love it? Hate it? If you hate it, lie to me. My ego is fragile.






This is where I'm linking to...

Rockin' the Baby Bump

Have you entered my giveaway yet? No? Go do it, and then come back and finish reading. 

No, I'm not pregnant. Let's just get that out there. But I do love a new link party. Shell at Things I Can't Say is hosting a link party where you can post pics of your baby bumps.

So since I was asking you to vote for my daughter's picture yesterday, I can at least show you the belly bump that she gave me.

I was lucky enough to have a bunch of photo shoots when I was pregnant. Here are a few from those.

So, apparently I really like that side profile. Huh. 

I also was lucky enough to do some couples maternity pics with my hubby. Heather King took them for us, she was also my engagement and wedding photographer. If you're near Dallas, I'd really recommend checking her out. She's a sweetheart, really laid back. You'd love her. 

I just found a maternity pic of myself in her photo gallery, where I am, surprise surprise, facing the left side of the photo. I'm sensing a theme here. 

Here are a few that we did with her. I really loved them. 

This next photo always makes me laugh. I had a photo shoot, and they asked my husband if he would like to come along and take some couples pics. Hubby was teasing me about something, just being silly. One of the photographers was shooting video, and this is a still shot from it, where hubby is teasing me, and I'm making a face at him. I didn't know we were being filmed at the time.

Oh, and so I don't leave you with the illusion that I'm always fabulous, even when I'm pregnant, here is one last pic. I was on the hospital on bedrest for low fluids (Ava had a birth defect that we found out about at 16 weeks, so they monitored me closely during the pregnancy.) I think I was 32 weeks here? We had Ava at 35 weeks. I look HUGE in the pic, but I only gained 25 lbs. 

Gotta love a belly tray!

Highs, Lows, and a favor

Man, this week flew by! Highs and Lows is supposed to be posted on Sunday, but yesterday was a blur. You'll read more about it in my highs and lows. 

But first, I have a favor. My gorgeous, adorable daughter's picture was selected to be in the running for this weeks' readers choice finalist for Parents magazine. Each weekly finalist will receive $250, plus have a chance to be one of the 10 finalists chosen to travel to New York City for the Parents Cover Contest photo shoot. Umm, yeah, that would be awesome.

Click the photo to enter. Voting goes until the 19th. Seriously, I would love you forever if we won. Super easy to vote, you don't even need to register, just click "Vote" and enter a captcha. I'd do it for ya, but I can't.

So, now on to Highs and Lows. I haven't had many people linking up, but that's okay. I do it because I enjoy it, it's a nice reminder of how my week went.

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Highs

• Got my arm tattoo finished on Monday. I heart it, the guy did an awesome job

• I stayed up until midnight last night, working on the girls shirts for VBS. Spent 2 hours putting beads on them, and blinging them out. Super tired today (which would be a low) but the girls smiles this morning when they saw the shirts turned that into a high. 

• hubby finally got his 3/4 sleeve started yesterday. He has a tribal shoulder cap, and they're adding onto that. The guy, Casey Cokrlic, free handed the whole design. It's two koi fish, with bamboo shoots and cherry blossoms (the same ones that I have on my tattoo), and there are waves and wind. We go back on the 4th for color. I'm a sucky wife, and don't have a finished pic. So here is a crappy one from my phone. 

• I went from 499 followers to 526 in a week. What the heck? That's nuts! So I'm doing a giveaway to celebrate. Have you entered?

• I'm working the registration booth this week for vacation bible school. It's totally mayhem in there, but it's so refreshing to see all of those children learning about Jesus. 

• Got an email from a reader, saying how much she enjoyed my blog. So nice to read. Hi LC! 

Lows

• I didn't get to finished my peacock tattoo yesterday. But it's partly a high. My tattoo appointment was at 1, hubby's was at 4. But I let him take my 1:00 spot, in case his tattoo ran long (which it did). So had I gone first, he wouldn't have been able to get the outline finished. And he's thrilled, which turned my low into a high. Okay, a medium. 

• I got to go to my favorite thrift store, which is awesome. Found a small ceramic bathtub, which I've been looking for FOREVER, for $5. Score! Then I got home, dropped it on my big toe, and cracked the tub. Low and low. 

Hmmmm. not a bad week. So go vote for my precious girl, and enter the giveaway if you haven't. It'd make my day. 

My "Holy crap, I have over 500 followers" giveaway

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So, I promised I would do a giveaway when I hit 500 followers. And then I got lazy, racked up a few more followers, and didn't deliver. Boooo. Hisssss. 

Bad Jen. 

So, dear followers of mine, here is what I have for you. This lovely, amazing, natural wood tray with ink splatter. I'll give you a moment to take in all of it's epic loveliness.

Do you want it? Do ya? Do ya? No? 

Well, what if I promise to make it even more awesome. Like this tray that is sitting on my coffee table. 

And what if I said that YOU get to pick the colors? Would you be interested then?

So, do you want to enter? Here be the ways, yo. 

• Gots to be a follower of my blog. Cause I said so. Tell me if you are already a follower, or a new one.  And tell me what colors you would get. One entry.

(If Google Reader is being stupid again and it's hiding from where it's supposed to be on the right side of my blog, there is a "follow" button, way up on the top left of the page.)

Want more ways to enter? 

• I just opened a FB page for my blog. There is a nifty little button on the right side of the page. Go like it and tell me that you did. +1

• Share this giveaway on facebook +1

• Share this on twitter and leave me the link +1

• Blog about my giveaway on your blog. Leave me the link.  +3

• Buy something from my pathetic, sadly ignored etsy shop. +10

• Take my pretty button and place it on your blog homepage. Leave me a link and tell me where I can find it. +3 

•  I do a link party that is sadly ignored on Sundays called Highs and Lows. Do a blog post and participate in H&L, and post the button on your post. Button and explanation can be found here. +3

So, there you have it, folks. A bunch of different ways to enter. I'll leave it open until....  Sunday June 19th. Say at 9:30 CST when I go to bed. Winner announced the next morning, picked by Random.org. 

Makeovers, revamps, and prettification

So, I've made some changes in the past couple of days. I absolutely fell in love with the red and turquoise damask tray that I made, so I asked hubby to do a blog redesign based on it. I heart it, do you heart it? For comparison, here is a screen shot of my old blog design.

He's been busy with freelance, but hopefully soon we'll be able to figure out why there are light blue gradients up by my banner. See them? Ugh, I don't know why they're there. Lamesauce.

My second new update? Finished my arm tattoo yesterday.

There were some smiles....

Some easier parts where I caught up on Words with Friends on my phone.

And a couple of parts of major suckage.

But I think it was worth it. I'm loving it. We did the flowers in pink, turquoise, and red, my favorite colors. You likey? Me likey.

Next appt is on Sunday (I'm a glutton for punishment this week apparently). Hubby will be getting the outline for his 3/4 sleeve, and hopefully there will be time to finish my peacock on my back. My appt is at 1, and his is at 4, but I'm letting him take my time slot. I'd rather have to reschedule my peacock coloring in, than have his outline be unfinished. He's excited. I'm excited for him.