Capture December Pinterest Challenge: Days 28-31

I did it.  I completed the Capture December Pinterest Challenge.  Below are days 28-31 (see days 1-9 here, 10-18 here, and 19-27 here).  The challenge was fun and I'm proud of myself for sticking with something.

28. Words - I'm reading Wheat Belly.  It's awesome.  If you haven't read it, you should.
29. Sky View - Sophie loved sitting on Josh's lap at the Haugo Family Christmas.
30. Your Winter Wonderland - Thanks to the awesome blizzard, the oustside of my house looked like this.  Beautiful, isn't it?
31. Fun - Iowa State played in the Liberty Bowl in Memphis. Even though they lost, they are still my favorite team.  Go State!

And herein ends my daily December Instagram updates.

Capture December Pinterest Challenge: Days 19-27

Here's an update to my Capture December Pinterest Challenge (see days 10-18 here and days 1-9 here).  I'm still loving it.  The challenge forces me to take photos of things other than Sophie (however, she still makes cameos in some of my photos).

19. Candy canes - I still haven't made anything with them, but I might dress up a dessert this weekend with them.
20. Tree topper - Thanks to Target's Christmas clearance a few years back, I scored our tree topper.  I love it.
21. Peace - I'm on vacation until January 3...so the alarm is set to "off" until then.
22. Tradition - Water with three lemons - that's how I like to order my water at restaurants.  My mom and sister also subscribe to this...and we all got the same thing when we were out to dinner at El Azteca.
23. Scarf - Sophie scored her festive holiday scarf when she got her haircut last week.  She was a little shy about showing it off.
24. Favorite part of Christmas Eve - Josh and I like to watch a movie together on Christmas Eve (last year we went to the movie theater; this year we stayed in). 
25. Morning - We spent most of Christmas Day on the road (first two hours up to my in-laws' farm, then two more hours up to Minneapolis, then back to the farm).
26. Grateful - My mother-in-law put together a scrapbook for my sister-in-law with all of Kalli's noteworthy photos from her childhood.  Since Kalli is pregnant (with a Kappa legacy!), Pam thought it would be fun for Kalli to have this to share with her little girl.  I love thoughtful gifts like this.
28. Nighttime - I'm in relax mode and enjoying a lovely cup of Amy's Blend Tea from Caribou is a perfect way to end the day.

Capture December Pinterest Challenge: Days 10-18

It's December 20, and I haven't missed a day yet of the Capture December Pinterest Challenge (read my original post here, and days 1-9 here) from A Content Housewife.  Below are days 10-18.  Enjoy!

10. Wrapping paper - a look into my gift wrap box (thanks to awesome prop sales over the years)
11. Green - Chat Packs from my Christmas work party
12. A beautiful sight - Sophie in a Mrs. Claus outfit is truly a beautiful sight!
13. Family - we're planning our Christmas plans...it's a bit hectic
14. Christmas tree - one of the trees in the lobby at work
15. Favorite holiday song - Joy to the World screenshot from wikipedia
16. Outside Christmas lights - Josh and I drove around the neighborhood and found some beautiful lights.
17. Presents - I haven't wrapped anything yet, but I do have these awesome Lisa Frank name tags to put on my presents once they're wrapped.
18. Stockings - I dream of matching stockings, but until our family is complete, I just can't justify them.

Capture December Pinterest Challenge: Days 1-9

I've been faithfully participating in the ACH Blogger Challenge (I mentioned it back here). Below are my pictures from Days 1-9. I like how the Instagram photos fill nicely in this grid from PicFrame. It also makes it easier for you (my reader) to not have to scroll through so many photos (I'm thoughtful like that). It's been fun to try to take a photo each day of a new thing. I take a lot of pictures anyway (iCloud loves me), so this makes it fun to do it for a purpose.

1. Your view today - assembling Christmas cards (they turned out as beautifully as I had thought here)
2. Favorite Holiday movie - Elf (here's a link to my favorite clip)
3. Red - who doesn't love a little Stella and Dot?
4. Joyous - Sophie was yawning and we were both about to go to bed. It was the most joyous part of our day.
5. Today's temperature - the grass is still green here in Des Moines and the temperature was in the 50s
6. Shopping - The Mara Mi line at Target is one of my favorites!
7. Bright - I had a photo shoot and it was supposed to feel like summer...so everything was bright!
8. Ornaments - Wal-Mart saved the day for my ugly sweater party where I scored an awesome snowman shirt and these stunning Christmas tree earrings
9. Something your reading - Real Simple's The Simple List is my favorite part of any magazine and I look forward to it every month (and a cup of Amy's Blend tea from Caribou makes it even better!)

I'm really looking forward to the rest of the month.

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Young House Love Book Signing in Minneapolis

A few years back, I used to peruse blogs in search of perfect locations for photo shoots.  A little blog called This Young House (they later had to change the name to Young House Love because of some legal nomenclature issues) was one of my go-to blogs (as in I read it daily, truly for work purposes).  Every once in a while, I would email Sherry if one of her featured reader redesigns would be appropriate to photograph for the magazine for which I worked.  Anyway, once her own budget bathroom makeover was complete (read about the project here), I emailed her and asked if we could photograph it to feature in the magazine (read about Sherry's take on the photo shoot here).  So, I've had lots of email convos with her over the years, but I've never had the opportunity to meet her in person...until Wednesday of this past week.

Wednesday started like any other day.  I woke up to the sound of my alarm; I turned on my bedside lamp.  I pressed snooze on my alarm.  Nine minutes later, I woke up again to the sound of my alarm.  I made coffee...you get the gist.  Around 8:30, I hopped in my trusty Honda Civic, and drove two hours up to Josh's parent's house, where I met Jennifer (remember, she's the mastermind behind Thread).  We then carpooled up to Minneapolis for a fun-filled day revolving around a little book signing.

John and Sherry were on their book tour, and they conveniently had a stop in Minneapolis.  Like any Iowan, a four-hour drive up to Minneaplis is nothing - we do it all the time.  When Jennifer asked if I wanted to head up to Minneapolis for the day, I was game!  So, that's exactly what we did.

We started at Ikea where we enjoyed a lovely meal in their cafeteria (I got the meatballs; Jennifer ate a healthy wrap), and then headed downstairs to peruse the aisles.  After that, we drove over to the  Room & Board showroom.  Um...heaven!  I dream of a whole house furnished in Room & Board...  I digress...  Then, we parked at a parking ramp (conveniently located in the same building as The Container Store), browsed at The Container Store, and then got in line at West Elm...where we stayed for three hours (two outside, one inside).

Snoopy at Ikea

My high-school friend, Lindsay, also attended the book signing along with her friend, Brienna (Lindsay is the one who introduced me to Joia soda this summer).  We met up at the event and chatted for the three hours we waited in line.  It's always fun catching up with old friends!

We braved the Minnesota cold for two hours!

Unsigned copy of the book:  check.

Everyone was served cookies and hot chocolate from Common Roots Bakery while they waited in line.

After waiting three hours in line, it was finally our turn to get our books signed and have a photo taken with John and Sherry.  I introduced myself (knowing full-well they probably forgot who I was) only to have Sherry remember exactly who I was.  We reminisced for a brief moment (there were at least 700 people in line behind me waiting for a signature).  She said she loved my scarf (it's from Francesca's), and that I had great pins on pinterest.  Thanks, Sherry!  You're very kind.  It was a pleasure meeting you.

As Jennifer said, it's like we're five years old and meeting Mickey Mouse - big smiles!

It took about an hour, but Jennifer and I finally came down from our celebrity blogger high (or was it a sugar high?).  After a quick dinner at Good Earth, Jennifer and I drove back to Iowa.  I stayed the night at my in-laws' house; she stayed at her in-laws' house.  It's been two days...I'm still recovering from our awesome whirlwind day trip! 

Anyway, I made a goal to not be too dorky when I met Sherry and John (like I was when I met The Pioneer Woman last year at BlogHer in San Diego).  I hope I succeeded.  I'm pretty sure Ree thought I was highly creepy enthusiastic.  Seriously, my smile is HUGE in the photo below...and I had it pasted on my face for hours after meeting her.  And when I talked to Ree, I am confident I made no sense at all (I'm about 99% sure she did not get the gist that I can relate with her homeschooling stories and the whole rural living thing). At least I was able to have a back-and-forth conversation with John and Sherry...

Ree was SO cool.  I'm pretty sure we could be BFFs.

Read more about the book signing here.

Fab Finds: Better Homes & Gardens Blog

My first job out of college was working as an online editor at bhg.com.  It was there where I worked with some amazing ladies, and learned to be passionate about my work.  Anyway, one of my former co-workers and dear friends, Joanna, now works at Better Homes & Gardens (you know, the big magazine that goes out to millions of women every month).  Tonight, while browsing through updates on Facebook, I found a blog post Joanna wrote about gallery walls.  Her writing is captivating - you must read the post (click here).  The topic is interesting, and it makes me want to be "that girl" she's describing. 

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Here's the first picture I have with Joanna (and our friend Kaelin) back in 2007.  We had a work function at the Iowa State Fair, and all of us associate editors stuck together.  Joanna has such a kind heart and I'm so blessed to have her in my life.  Also, she's (clearly) very talented with her words, and I admire her mad skills!

Kaelin, me and Joanna | Iowa State Fair | August 2007

Miss Kaelin has also been rocking the bhg.com brand (literally, she's evolved the brand like crazy over the past few years - read about some of her work here).  In the photo below, she is at the BHG Blogger event in NYC last month with BHG Editor-in-Chief Gayle Butler, and the very talented Oma Blaise-Ford, Senior Deputy Editor for Home Design at BHG.

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Basically, I'm really proud of my friends, and I hope you love their work, too!

Fab Finds: Etsy Love

I have a new favorite blog, The Proper Pinwheel, and decided to read as many posts tonight as I could.  In my reading, I found an amazing post about an etsy seller, January Jones Prints.  She makes super cute posters, and this one in particular reminded me of my high school friend, Jaime, who took a year off work to travel the world and enjoy life.  However, her world map would need more than 10 destinations. 

The roadtrip world edition map

Someday is Today

I've been putting this off for years.  Seriously, who writes blogs?  Um, everyone!  I used to write every day for work, so writing in my free time didn't seem like a great idea.  Then, I went to graduate school (while working as an associate editor full-time), and wrote ALL the time.  So, again, blogging seemed like a terrible idea.  Then, I got a new job where all I do is make super awesome projects and create spaces and projects for photo shoots.  So, writing seems to fit back into my life now.  I'll see how things go.  It could be awful.  It could be amazing.  We shall see...