Summer Birthday Inspiration

It just so happens that I have a ton of birthdays to buy gifts for in the months of December-March, mostly everyone, so I’ve never really had to buy summer birthday gifts. But lately I’ve had a few more pop in there so I thought I’d come up with a list of fun, unique summer-related birthday gifts:

1. New cooler filled with favorite adult beverage, my parents did this for me last year and filled it was LandShark – it was awesome! (it was also my 21^st birthday)
2. Beach bag filled with the essentials: (not all of these, but just to give you an idea) beach towel, flip flops, magazine, sunscreen, new book
3. Corn hole game board, either already done or the assembly kit you can buy from Home Depot
4. Camping “food tools”: hot dog roaster sticks, hobo pie sandwich maker (go for the cast iron one, from experience the cheaper ones melt after 1 or 2 uses) or hamburger grill basket
5. Collapsible campfire chair
6. If you’re looking for something a bit cheaper, fill a Mason jar with mini marshmallows (my FAVORITE summer treat), chocolate chips and graham crackers, or do the same with full size items. Make sure to keep this little treat at a cool temperature!
7. For the gardener: fill a small sized planter with new gardening gloves, seeds and a new spade if you’d like!
8. Pool float or tube – for a little “lazy river” trip or relaxing in the pool!
9. Drive in Movie Theater tickets/trip. Here’s a list of the open drive-in theaters in Michigan
10. Picnic basket (I’ve always wanted one!) This one is a newer style one but anyone would be nice! Maybe with a bottle of wine? 🙂

Happy Summer Birthdays!

p.s. a special thanks to Pam S. for her additions to the list!

House Breaking/Potty Training

So last night I had Zach to myself. I love this little guy but I think he senses how gullible I am. This may be TMI but he wouldn’t double at alllll for me from 4:30-10:30 yesterday. So I figured he’d want to go first thing this morning at 5:45. And he did. And then again at 6:10 (when I was in the shower..) in the house..

And btw, he’s house broken.

I’m hoping this isn’t a sign for how this weekend is going to go with him.

He also peed in his crate. Any suggestions on how to get him to hold it over night?

Zach’s first time in the water

So I know the resolution isn’t the greatest but I figured I would share this video! It was the first time we took Zach to the beach and he was having a great time. I shortened the video down to just a few seconds instead of the two minutes I had before 🙂

Adding a little flair to your run – DIY Tangle Free Headphones

So recently I’ve noticed a little routine that I fall into:

1. See a super cute craft/decorating idea on Pinterest
2. Go out and buy the supplies
3. Get the first one or two steps done.
4. Stop working on the craft

So this week I decided I want to attempt to finish all of my projects:

1. Scarf Rack
2. Headphone wrap
3. Magnetic Board
4. Work on finishing my quilt
5. Sew together my kindle cover case
6. Apron

(I’m sure there are more but this is all I can think of now)

I decided to tackle number two, the headphone wrap! I love running (we all know that’s a lie) but my headphones always are getting tangled up so I saw this tutorial. The ends of hers ended up looking a bit better.

You’ll need:

• Embroidery floss (I used almost a full packet of each of my five colors)
• Scissors, tape, ruler
• Headphones

I did this just as I would do a friendship bracelet. I didn’t cut any of the string until the end because I wasn’t sure how much of it I was going to need. I did each of the three cords individually. The tutorial suggests capping off the ends (that you cut) with clear nail polish to help them not fray.

I hope this helps takes a bit of the frustration away from the endless tangled headphones! And it’s a super fun way to show off your creativity while you’re running 🙂

Summer reading list

Phew.

That was a crazy month. In the past 30 days I’ve graduated from CMU, stopped working at Dow Corning, started working at AVI-SPL, on-site at Dow being a Social Media Community Manager. I (we) also adopted a puppy, Zach. Which I apologize for the constant Instagram pictures, tweets and posts about him. But I’m in love with that little guy.

Any who, now that I’m done with school I realized that I actually get to do fun things with my nights and weekends like run, craft and read (for fun).

So I decided to start a summer reading list. The reason I’m only doing summer is because I want to read on the boat or anywhere, before football season starts. Between home and away games for my little brother and the addition to my parents basement (a sweet bar, more to come on that later), I know I’ll have less time then.

So this is what I’ve come up with so far, but I’d love suggestions. I’m not really good at picking out books and hate reading the ones that are “popular” now or ones that were made into movies. I recently joined GoodReads, which is a pretty cool book website. It keeps track of the books you’ve read and then suggests books you should read.

Anyways, with that being said…

1. The Lucky One (just finished) – Nicholas Sparks
2. Fifty Shades of Grey (starting tonight)
3. The last boyfriend – Nora Roberts
4. Extremely Loud & Incredibly close
5. All Nicholas Sparks books (yes, I’ll be crazy emotional but it will happen)
6. Hunger Games Series

and that’s all I have. I’d love some suggestions!

Next blog posts will be: Kindle Cover, DIY Apron, and the entry remodel 🙂

Happy Thursday!

Kickin’ it old school

So in the midst of all the house remodels, Andrew and I have been listening to Journey Radio on Pandora. I love all the songs that were popping up so I decided to make a running playlist made up of some old-er songs. So between bugging Andrew, Jen M and my parents for song ideas, cruising YouTube and listening to Pandora, this is the final list!:

1. Walk this way – Aerosmith
2. Gonna make you sweat – C + C Music Factory
3. Bye Bye Bye – N’Sync
4. Chumbawamba – Tubthumping
5. Hold on Loosely – 38 Special
6. Maneater – Hall & Oates
7. Pour Some Sugar on Me – Def Leppard
8. Panama – Van Halen
9. Highway to the Danger Zone – Kenny Loggins
10. Jump – Van Halen
11. Every Little Step – Bobby Brown
12. Shook Me All Night Long – ACDC
13. Summer of 69 – Brian Adams
14. More than a feeling – Boston
15. Old Time Rock n’ Roll – Bob Seger (or… Uncle Bob, as known as by my dad)

All of these songs made me do a little dance in my computer chair, so I hope it leads to some rockin’ work outs 🙂

So I’ve been slacking a bit on the blog posting, but graduation is in 26 days! I’ll be positing tutorials soon on my scarf rack, quilt and headphones

Happy Running!

A more social you!

So, this semester I’m an intern at Dow Corning Corp. One of the projects that myself and the lovely Jen McNairnie were assigned to do was to write an article about social media and the generational gaps. Sooo of course we wanted to make ourselves YouTube stars 😉 haha. Well any who, we took the article and turned it into a video blog. After much work, we finally got it posted!

So… here’s our first video 🙂

Heat Wave in MI?!

I’ve been living in Michigan for 21 years, 9 months. In those (almost) 22 years I’ve never ever experienced a warmer March. 80 degrees on St. Patrick’s Day?! I’m in love. And for all you haters out there that say it’s going to snow again before “summer” hits, check your pessimism at the dock.  I’m going to enjoy this anti-productive weather out on the water 🙂 Nothing makes me happier than burning/tanning on the back of a boat (that’s a lie… passing a test makes me happier, which may be proved to be more difficult if I’m spending my few spare hours outside).

Any who… Andrew and my family were the first ones, that I saw, out on the water on St. P’s day.

 

And the first one to wakesurf… (with Jim (below))

 

 

And to spend with my best friend(s) at the Bennigan’s beer tent 🙂

 

This awesome weather has allowed me to stain my next project, my scarf rack, which I’ll hopefully be posting by the end of the week…

 

Happy Friday!! 🙂

St. Patty’s Day Lovin’

So I cannot give myself full credit for this idea but I saw it here while cruising through Pinterest. I was going to give it to Andrew on St. Patrick’s day but I accidentally left it out and he saw it. oh well! The whole basket cost me around $10, not too shabby 🙂

I know it’s after st. p’s day but you could always use this idea for another holiday, just put a little spin on the wording.

Happy Crafting!

Super Baby

Another Pinterest find 🙂 for Laura’s 2nd baby, first baby boy 🙂 “baby brother”