I am so excited to have teamed up with 31Bits for today’s giveaway! I’ve been a fan since the minute I heard their story.
After traveling to Uganda, founder Kallie Dovel longed to find a way to help the women who were living in poverty there. What she found an opportunity in jewelry making. You can watch this video to see how they are revolutionizing the way people do business. It’s incredibly inspiring! What started with 6 Ugandan women, has now grown to 99! Each piece of jewelry is handmade by these women using beautiful paper beads. With each purchase from 31 Bits, you are helping empower these women to rise above poverty and transform their lives!
Today, 31 Bits is giving away TWO of my favorite necklaces! The Horizon Jumble in creme & lime, that I am wearing in the photos above. And also Cloud Nine, a gold ombre beaded necklace that you will see more of in tomorrow’s post!
If only I could find 10 other dresses, just like this one. The perfect summer frock if you ask me! It’s been so hot out the last few weeks, all I’ve wanted to wear are sundresses. Anything on my legs when it’s above 85 degrees is just not happening. I never used to be this way….but somewhere between having a baby and now, my body decided it just couldn’t do the heat like it used to. Sam and I have been thinking about another trip to Palm Springs before the summer’s end….but I think waiting out this heat wave might be in our best interest! I’ve been dying to try out Korakia! Has anyone been!?
The 52 Project – a portrait series of my daughter, once a week, every week, in 2013
These photos were taken on the street that Sam grew up on. The street that his parents still live. Before heading up to our cabins in Wisconsin last week, we were able to stay one day at his parents house in Minnesota. I’ll never get over the beauty of that place. It’s such a different kind of beauty than here. All the lakes and trees….green for miles. Maybe that is why I appreciate it so much. On the one night we were there, we decided to take a walk around his old neighborhood just before the sun went down. We had been cooped up in cars and airplanes all day, it felt good to get our legs moving again and soak up that golden Minnesota sun.
We got to talking about “home”, and what that meant. For me, California is the only place I’ve ever called home. My sister’s and I were all actually born in Chicago, (so I still claim a small part of the midwest as my own), but we moved out here before I was 2, so you can almost call me a California native. Sam however, has moved a lot. His childhood was spent in MN, college years in TX, a short stint in Australia, back the MN, then out to California…where he met me, and obviously, I wasn’t letting him go! But I’ve always wondered what it would be like if I had ever moved away. Or especially, if I had ended up raising a family somewhere different than the state I was raised. Away from family and all the things I once knew. What would it be like to go back? I asked this question to Sam. Of course, men are much less sentimental about these sorts of things than us women, but for him, Minnesota doesn’t feel like home at all. It’s not because he doesn’t love it there, it’s just because for him, all of his best memories, growth and life changing experiences happened elsewhere.
I don’t know what my life would look like today had Sam not had an adventurous heart and landed in California. Who knows, maybe home for me would be somewhere totally unexpected…..but I sure am thankful he found me. Sometimes I feel selfish for bringing him into “my world” and not thinking twice about the adjustments he has had to make in entering a close knit family who spends a lot of time together. His family of 6 is spread out among 5 different states, so to say our situations are different is an understatement. By the way, Sam has the most AMAZING family. Their distance says nothing about their love for each other. It’s just how the cards fell. So, although California has always been my home, it’s now our home. And honestly, home will always be wherever I’m with him. And Ry, of course. When money gets tight and taxes want to make us throw up, we like to dream about moving to some big porched house in Nashville. But at the end of the day, we both just really love it here. And selfishly, I think it would be pretty hard for me to move away from my family. They are my comfort zone and my best friends. I am sure if an opportunity arose, I could muster up the courage….but that would have to be one insane opportunity!
My latest DIY collaboration with Bloemhill – Vintage Charm Necklaces! The name comes across a little crafty-cheesy, but I promise, you will love these! Every swap meet and flea market we’ve ever been to sells buckets of these old metal war memorabilia pieces. We love them, but have never been quite sure what to do with them. Why not craft them into necklaces? We gathered together some beads and string, and deconstructed some old chain from necklaces we never wore. And here is what we came up with.
SUPPLIES:
Chain, beads, crimp beads, thread, + vintage military medals.
{ The vintage medals are found at practically every flea market + swap meet }
Choose a vintage metal piece as the focus of your necklace and then select complimentary bead colors and a chain. Since we deconstructed old necklaces to get our chain, the chain sizes were all unique, and some worked better than others. Next, set the length/size of your necklace. We like using the Bead Landing Board to help lay it all out + see the scale of the necklace. The more petite metals looked good with a bit shorter of a chain, and the larger metal pieces we liked to give a little more length to.
Once it’s all laid out, make a cut in the chain where you want the beads and medals to go. On these necklaces, we decided to center them, but sometimes it’s fun to lay them out asymmetrical- just have fun with it!
We used a thin gauge gold wire that can be found at Michaels to thread through the beads- once you thread them through and connect them to the chains, the crimper beads are used to hold the wire in place. It really helps if you have the right materials for this-so we highly recommend the jewelry pliers. Those can also be found at Michaels.
Once you’ve threaded the beads to the chain, you can do the same thing to attach the beads to the medal.
For a little fun pop of color, we decided to add tassels, made out of thread. The color options are endless!
Overall’s and flower crowns….2 very overdone summer trends….and yet, I’m still such a fan. I know overall’s have their fair share of hater’s, but I can’t help but love them. This pair by Free People are my current favorites. They are more tailored than your typical overall, and they have a lot of “give”. And what girl doesn’t love “give”, right!? Anyway, I MIGHT want 3 more pairs. THESE, THESE & THESE to be exact.
Also, if you didn’t know, last week I guest posted for Anna on her blog, In Honor of Design, sharing my thoughts on loss and gratitude. I thought I’d share the link in case you were interested in reading! And if you’ve never read Anna’s blog before, you should stay a while. She’s one of my favorites!
I believe in giving credit where credit is due. If you see any photos here without correct sources, please let me know and I will happily correct it. Likewise, if you wish to use any of my photos, I'd appreciate it if you properly credited back to my original post.
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