HELLO SAE

Unbelief

2009-08-29T10:35:00.002-04:00

I've been following the articles about Jaycee Dugard; the little girl who was taken by a stranger at age 11 while she waited for the bus. Now she is 29 and has been found, with two children of her own due to a psycho forcing himself on her, living in that man's backyard for 18 years. Read more here.

For some reason this story has really grabbed my attention. One thing that I simply cannot believe is that the police were actually notified about this horrible man keeping women in his backyard in tents. "Probation officers showed up at the home, too, but had no inkling that his back yard was actually a labyrinth of tents, sheds and buildings that were Dugard's prison."

No inkling? Just look at his house on google maps for heaven's sake. The backyard is OBVIOUSLY strewn with weird sheds and blue tarps/tents.

"Hidden in plain sight" as this article states? I don't think hidden at all. You can look on google maps and see the exact yard objects that are in the photos included with that article.

I don't get it. How could resources that are available to us all--to me--not have been used to help rescue this girl?

I wish

2009-08-27T18:32:00.002-04:00

Finished Magnets

2009-08-11T10:26:00.002-04:00

Here they are, the designs turned real! I love the way they turned out. :] Perhaps I'll take some better quality pictures of them later.

Key/Coat Rack

2009-07-29T21:04:00.003-04:00

Here is a little thingy I painted last night for my friend Brooke. I was hoping it would turn out good enough to be something she would actually put on her wall... But. Hopefully she will see through the tacky and see the cute and the love that went into it. Haha.

Walmart has a pretty good little section of wooden "items" that you can paint, like this.

Finished Invites

2009-07-28T21:45:00.007-04:00

Here they are, a snug little box of wedding invitations that were handmade with love, ready to be sent on their journey all across the world.

My workstation:

The finished products! They come in three different colors,

And have a picture of us on the inside back cover.

For anyone interested, the cost of 150 handmade invitations:

$28.00 Envelopes

$30.00 Cardstock

$3.00 Ribbon

$21.00 Picture printing @ Walmart

$61.60 Stamps

Equals out to about $1 an invite, including stamp. Pretty good!

Wedding Favors

2009-07-25T14:05:00.008-04:00

Well, lots of wedding crap on here these days, but it's only 48 days to my wedding! I am super excited about my wedding favors. They are 1" magnets that I have designed using my and my fiance's silhouettes. I'm going to have 10 different designs, that way everyone can pick which "us" they like best. ;]

Check 'em OUT!

I'm still trying to figure out if I like that font, or should go with something simpler. I am also contemplating adding our wedding date. Opinions?

Everyone who comes to our wedding can put these on their fridge and remember to pray for our little fledgling marriage. :]

Invitations

2009-07-25T01:06:00.004-04:00

I designed my own wedding invitations. I opted for black and white so that I could print it out myself on nice cardstock. Not bad on price, I've got to say!

Wedding

2009-07-22T21:01:00.004-04:00

Yesterday I found the dress. Today I found the bridesmaid dress color and groom's suit and groomsmens suits.

It's all coming together!

Squiddy!

2009-07-02T03:53:00.002-04:00

Getting the hang of inkscape. :]

I like my little squid.

Green

2009-07-01T03:03:00.005-04:00

Working on some new web stuff with my new friend inkscape.

ver⋅dure /ˈvɜrdʒər/ [vur-jer]
–noun
1.greenness, esp. of fresh, flourishing vegetation.
2.green vegetation, esp. grass or herbage.
3.freshness in general; flourishing condition; vigor.

I love this free vector program!

Rock Painting

2009-06-09T23:14:00.005-04:00

I got some rocks while on a hike. The little casa took a while (it is front, back, sides, and a nice little roof on top), but the alien just came to me suddenly. Like a vision.

Green NY

2009-06-06T15:59:00.002-04:00

Cute button finds from garage sale-ing.

10 cents a piece.

Garden Growth

2009-05-10T18:22:00.003-04:00

I thought it was time for an update on my garden. My little plants have moved outside to the back porch/slab of cement/area:

The birdfeeders I have set up are always full of birds. Squirrels, too, but what can you do?

Henrietta the turtle has a new friend, Charley the Broadheaded Skink. I found him inside my house last week, and Stephen helped me catch him. We found a petrified rice crispy treat in the backyard to put in the tank for him to sun on. He loves his crickets from Petsmart!

Birthday Card

2009-04-20T17:08:00.005-04:00

For Billy's birthday, Stephen and I collaborated on a sweet card that pays homage to Left 4 Dead. I cut out the hand shape from yellowy and red paper:

And Stephen added some awesomely grotesque shading details.

A gun, health pack and molotov grace the back. The gun looks like a hairdryer with a scope, the molotov looks like... something that is not a bottle with cloth. BUT THE HEALTHPACK IS GREAT.

It looked so cool when it was finished, I was really proud of it for some reason, even though Stephen's shading is really what makes it look good. Happy Birthday Billy!

Cricket's New Home

2009-04-15T17:36:00.003-04:00

I converted a graphic of mine into a wallpaper and submitted it on a cool website with neat wallpapers and icons: pixelgirl presents.

There are a lot of cute wallpapers.
Yeah, check it out. :]

Blanket

2009-03-21T18:53:00.003-04:00

Here are more pictures of the blanket I worked on over Christmas Break. I left it in New York, so I'll have to finish it sometime this summer.

Indoor Garden

2009-03-04T14:03:00.009-05:00

For Valentine's Day I got a beautiful orchid, some potting soil, a window flower box, and seeds. A few weeks ago I finally got around to planting my little garden and the results are just beginning to pop up! Even though we had a pretty snowfall a few days ago, nature is alive and well in my kitchen.

On the kitchen table I have peppers and tomatoes. See my cute little tomato plant starting to grow?

In the window I have my african violet, some sunflower seedlings, and okra is just starting to come out in the flower box. At Grandma's for dinner last night, she said okra was probably going to be very difficult to grow, but to go for it anyway. So, I am.

Also, if you didn't notice, another little friendly face is sunning herself in the window and feasting on chicken. My neighbor's box turtle is hanging out at my house for a little bit. I'm hoping he will see that I take good care of her and just let me keep her. After doing a little research on box turtles, I found out that males will have curvy back toenails, while a female's will be more straight. I'm guessing she is a female. I've been calling her Tess today, but I don't know if it's going to stick.

PS: Sorry for the bad quality cell pics (I'm too poor to buy batteries for my real camera, haha! But seriously).

Wordle

2009-03-03T15:30:00.007-05:00

I just found out about wordle.com. You can make pretty text collages. I made this one about silly little stuff that is only meaningful to my boyfriend and I. The more times you type/paste a word in, the bigger it will be. Try it out, I bet you will spend more time creating than you'd think.

As for me, I'm thinking about making a few to frame. Unique, cheap gifts for friends or family? I think that's a yes!

Colored Books

2009-02-07T22:06:00.002-05:00

I arranged my books by color. It didn't take as long as I thought, and I actually really like how it looks.

Sick and Sewing

2009-01-12T22:35:00.007-05:00

I have started on a new project--a blanket. I am embroidering little designs and things on one side to spruce it up a bit. It came at a good time because I've gotten sick and have to rest. Instead of having nothing to show for laying around, I'll have made a craft to enjoy when I'm feeling better. Yay!

More pictures to come later. Here is a part I finished yesterday: a chinchilla!

Church Website

2009-01-01T20:00:00.005-05:00

I'm working on some basic layout ideas for a church website. They want the vertical layout with links at the top, and prefer the color blue. I prefer the top one, but it may just be a strange attraction to the chinchilla in the sample picture. :]

New Year's Resolution

2009-01-01T02:33:00.004-05:00

In honor of fresh beginnings and new adventures in 2009, hellosae.blogspot.com has a new purpose: creations. It will be a place to share things that I've made with the world. Or mostly just with Liz.

Happy New Year!

Animal Portraits

2008-10-10T16:55:00.009-04:00

I really like these prints from Berkley Illustration. I think they'd be perfect pictures to hang in a bathroom.

Even more, I'd like to try my hand at a few animal portraits myself.

Free Bookmarks

2008-09-03T22:17:00.011-04:00

This semester I seem to have a lighter workload than I have had so far in my college education. This gives me opportunities for even reading extracurricular books. With all this reading, I need bookmarks. Recently, I discovered a secret hoard of free bookmarks, so I am going to pass on my knowledge to the rest of the world.

The first thing to do is go to your local WALMART, HomeDepot, or other hardware-ish store. Then, locate the paint aisle. You will find a rainbow of colorful paint sample cards:

Guess what? They're free. Yes. And perfectly bookmark shaped. And they're colorful. What more could you want?

Here are some of my new free bookmarks:

I like to coordinate the names of the colors with the kind of book I am reading. Like the card of "Saddlebury, Mushroom Taupe, Eagle's Peak and Oil Lamp" might make a good mark for a colonial times book. "Summer Rye, Honey, February Gold and Rich Amber" might go for a western/prairie/farmer book. "Arbor Walk, Irish Meadow, Shamrock and Cat's Eye Green" would be terrific for a romantic mystery novel set in Ireland.

You know you want to get some now. :]

Court Grillin'

2008-03-26T15:51:00.005-04:00