friday flashback... to last friday

Flashing back to last Friday...
My phone seems like it is constantly making noise... phone calls, texts, reminders etc...
sometimes I just want to be a little less "connected" to everything, so I decided to ignore its beckoning for an afternoon... last Friday afternoon to be exact.  I knew doing this would leave me with the inevitable task of going through voice~mails and such.  As the afternoon progressed I decided it was time to return to the real world and began going through my many messages.
One particular voice~mail  caught me off guard and left me a little teary-eyed to be honest.  It wasn't a bad message, just an unexpected one.

The message went a little something like this...
Hello, this is brother Hoch, I'm the seminary teach at the middle school.  {long pause}  I was just calling to tell you what a wonderful daughter you are raising and how lucky I am to have her in my seminary class.  {another pause}  I have 4 daughters of my own and I want them to grow up and be just like your daughter.  {pause again}  She is an amazing young lady and I just wanted you to know that you have done a wonderful job raising her.

It left me speechless... with one of those lumps you get in your throat before you start crying.  She is such a good kid, but the world we live in today rarely notices those good things in people {especially teenagers}.  I loved that her seminary teacher took the time to make a phone call.  I loved the look on my daughter's face as I replayed the message for her.  I loved that he wasn't complimenting her for being a good student, but was noticing her for genuinely being a good person.  I loved that someone took the time to notice what a sweet, kind and loving kid my beautiful daughter is.

I am one lucky mom to have her as my daughter!

my newest obsession...

I am in designer heaven right now!
I recently stumbled across this website and I am completely in love.
One of my favorite things about design school and working for a design firm was the opportunity I had to make color boards {or mood boards} ALL the time.  There is just something so satisfying about putting together a board.  It's where the idea in my head becomes a real life vision, and it was one of my favorite parts of the design process.

This was my first attempt... {the Vintage Inspired bedroom}


...followed shortly by a second attempt... {the Shabby Southern room}


I am completely obsessed!!!  The program is a work of layering genius and I can't seem to get enough.  I honestly wish this would have been around back while I was in design school.

What I love {and think my design loving friends will love too} is this:

• every item you find and "pin" to your board keeps the link back to the original site where you found it... making it super easy to reference for a client.
• the program itself is super easy to learn and use.
• you can make 2D and 3D boards, which makes your design concept very easy for a client to envision.
• it gets the creative juices flowing... or at least it does for me.
• it's FREE {and who doesn't love free}!
• and finally... you can download the jpg file of your board and send it to a client. {absolute perfection!}

So there you have it... I confess to having a major obsession.  The fact that I walked away from the site long enough to blog about it is a major feat!

Check it out... go do it... now!

i'm back...

I love to write...
some of my favorite classes in college were the writing classes.  My love affair with writing keeps me coming back to the world of blogging over and over again. Does anyone actually read this... I don't know, but I do it because it's something I love to do, which is what really matters after all, right!?

Anyway, these pasts few months I've spent on hiatus have been renewing, refreshing and rehabilitating all in one.  It's been a bit of a bumpy ride, but in hindsight, a bumpy ride worth taking.

I rediscovered the joys of laughing as I took a lesson from this little guy as he took his first ride on a swing alone.  He laughed and laughed {one of those deep belly laughs} like it was the greatest thing he had ever experienced.  I just can't get enough of this little boy!
I need to laugh a lot more, just like this...

Then I rediscovered my love for beautiful places on a recent trip with my family to see the Brigham City temple.  This is probably one of the prettiest temples I have ever visited.  I was amazed by the intricate interior details mixed with the simplicity of the architecture.  The over all design, inside and out, was incredible.

I also rediscovered the joys of family as I spent an afternoon in Park City with my dad.  Lunch, Main Street and the outlet stores shopping for biking gear... yes, you read that right... shopping for biking gear.  Now this is when I wish I had remembered to take a camera with me, but my dad has taken up biking, so we went to the Izumi outlet store in PC so he could find a pair of riding shorts.  All was well until he burst from his dressing room wearing said shorts, while skipping around and singing a song about "men in tights".  $#!*&@#!!!  ...and of course there were other people in the store at the time.  I almost died.

And most recently I rediscovered my love for creating.  I'm not so much a crafter, but I do love creativity and artistry.  I found this lovely project and tutorial on a favorite site and decided to try it out.  I rediscovered why I love making things with my hands... it's incredibly therapeutic and it's always fun to learn a new technique.

Finally, I rediscovered authenticity.  Friends, family, neighbors {basically everybody} are always telling me that I should blog about tutorials, open an Etsy shop or do design work on the side {which is so sweet, kind and flattering btw}.  Maybe someday... but for now I'm enjoying life as a wife, mama, sister, daughter and friend.  My love for design and beautiful creations will take me somewhere wonderful someday, I know that, but for right now I'm loving right where I'm at. 

I recently discovered this wonderful creation by a friend of mine {she always makes the cutest things} and I wanted to share.  Words of wisdom for sure and something I need to read every day.  Now to find a frame and a spot to display it...

xo, Heather