Well, slap me and call me observant... and foodie.

via... why would I not use a picture of a baby for this?!


 Apparently the guest recipe post I wrote for Offbeat Home was published last night! I missed it! BAHHHHH... not observant yesterday. I wrote out a recipe for Guacamole and Homemade Baked Tortilla chips and it's good!

Other posts I've contributed:
Recipes
Quinoa Pilaf
Mooseloaf

How we decided to have babies
How and When in the Now

I have decided something...

While talking to my mom yesterday we discussed that my goal for sharing our Baby Journey on my blog is to express how I feel throughout openly and honestly. I blog what I feel, what I think and what I have to say. I don't want to change that now, and I already talked about why. I promise not to share anything personal about anyone else but myself; but it's going to be the good, bad and ugly of me... so I have decided to add a 'jump break' to posts that could be TMI for family and sensitive readers. This will change the way my blog looks in feeds, readers and email subscriptions. If you want to read these posts in the future, you'll just click on the link to go to the entire post. Thank you for your support and love; it makes a world of difference!

Testing, Testing, Oh! It's on!

via

It has come to my attention via Blog Stats that I am gaining traffic via Bloglovin's Facebook app. This, to me, is exciting--and frightening... my blog can get purtttty personal, sometimes borderline TMI. Although I'm very open, there's some people I just don't want sharing in this exciting time of our life... I've learned that there are people to not include.
So while I am concerned that people will not be respective of my privacy and will choose to share whatever news I have whenever I have some, I cannot change myself for those people. And that is just another reason they are missing out on how awesome our family is and will be; they'll only get to experience half of it, as I do not share my everyday life with them.

If you choose to include yourself in this journey starting officially (OMGZ!!!) tomorrow, welcome.
This is gonna be awesome.

My Bloggy Gal Pal is Featured!

Good evening, everyone! Hope you're happy and shiny now that we're almost (or at!!!) home!
Just wanted to share a slice of happy from earlier today: my friend from Creighton, Kamie, is featured along with her new hubby Danny on Nebraska Wedding Day!

Go see and comment on her pink and gray cuteness and princess amazingness! Also visit Kamie on her personal and wedding blog here!

Mooseloaf is Live!

Make sure you check out my guest post on Offbeat Home today!

Mooseloaf!

I'm really proud of it and how it's being received!!!
Thank you for your support everyone!

And enter the giveaway! Only 11 more days!!!

Bloggy-versary Giveaway!

-----GIVEAWAY IS CLOSED---

Last year I started blogging on THIS DAY!
Read the first post here!


Looking forward to the new year... 

 To celebrate I have decided to do another giveaway!!! This time it will be a little different. Instead of giving away a sock monkey YOU tell ME what you get! There's a choice of between a HiLLjO-made  amigurumi crochet animal of your choice; a standard-size sock monkey; or even a crochet accessory of your choice like a hat, socks, gloves or corset-style arm warmers!

Value of ths giveaway is $20USD and is open to International entries. Giveaway closes 12/26/11.

-----GIVEAWAY IS CLOSED---

Good Luck and Thanks for the Great Year!!!

Check out Offbeat Home!!!

I LURVE the Offbeat Empire and the amazing people who run it.
You probably have heard of Offbeat Bride, but there's MOAR!!! It's like the Knot how they are the wedding-themed site, then there's Offbeat Mama (like the Bump) and then Offbeat Home (the Nest). I should mention that these sites stop being like the Knot at this point and starts being more individualized and specialized for Offbeats.
OBB talks about zombie weddings in bars that are amazing and things like using TP rolls for centerpieces.
OBM talks about Offbeat motherhood, raising Offbeat children and giving birth. There are birth stories, mama products and a smattering of amazingly cute kiddos with mohawks.
Since OBB no longer serves me as it use to when I was going to be a bride, and OBM doesn't serve me specifically... yet, I read the shiz out of Offbeat Home. I love reading about bunny Hingeheads we can add to our doors to give the Bunnay Hutch some personality, or about vertical gardening on our deck.

The Empire recently held their reader survey to see what we like, when and how much. The last question was "Have you submitted a guest post before?"
To which my survey response was: No.
The sub-question was: "Why not?"
The only answer I had was "I don't know!"

So I got busy! I wrote about my favorite daily home task: cooking!!!
I wrote about the Mooseloaf and Greek Yogurt Mashed potatoes we had for dinner last week, submitted it with the picture and crossed my fingers, eagerly awaiting the 2-week waiting period for approval of guest posts. I'm the anxious type so I yippeeeeeed when I got an email 5 DAYS LATER saying it was ACCEPTED FOR PUBLISHING!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

So go to OffbeatHome.com next Thursday, December 15th to see how Mooseloaf is made and to leave me some Offbeat comment love!

YAY! I solds 2 sock monkeys!



HiLLjO.etsy.com

I have an etsy account mainly so that local people have an easy way to buy my products online and have them mailed to their homes in lieu of the run-around-to-pay-and-pickup. Plus it makes them available for people that just happen upon my sock monkeys and agree that they are a perfect gift for anyone. I usually don't make sales out of the blue off of etsy; I usually get a custom order, make it, post it and then the customer buys it off the site. So today when my fraternal twin monkeys were purchased I did a happy dance!!!

These two will be joining a family for Christmas as a gift! I can't wait to send them out on their merry ways today after work! I am glad, too, that I didn't have to split them up. They're twins, you know.

Real Wedding : Love You More, Love You Better

I am SO pleased and proud to present to you, one of my very-best bloggy gal-pals Kim at Party Frosting! has married her love D and has been married for 8 days today! She and D celebrated their nuptuals October 30. It was a rustic, orange, and wine themed celebration of love!

Kim and D did things their own way which I am a huge fan of! They DIY'd the stuff out of their wedding and also did these things their own way:

• The wedding was in their lovely wood-accented home.
• Kim held her daddy's hand and her dress instead of a bouquet.
• Kim went barefoot at the last minute! BOO YAW!
• No attendants; just surrounded by people they love and who love them.
• They had their favorite cake instead of a big fancy wedding cake.
• They had a wine tasting class instead of a first dance.
• They had a wine ceremony instead of a candle unity ceremony. WOOT!

Congratulations to Kim and D!
Read all about her wedding planning journey here and visit her Party Planning prowess blog here!

Puppy Feeder Bowls are B.S.

I know some bloggy land ladies love showing off their pooches and I am no different. Today at my creative blog I wrote about how we found a FREE solution to our fast-eating puppy without buying a stupid $20 feeding pacer. Click here if you'd like to see it!

I know Laura who just got a puppy might like it!!!

Vintage Dress Snack of My Own!

OMG is it Friday yet?!

So last week on Offbeat Bride there was a post about a gal name Miranda's parents' wedding. I usually read these and just wish for a scanner of my own so I could share Shawn's Grandparents' wedding photos or my parents' but this time when I read the post I had a mini-coronary.
The vintage dress on the vintage bride: IS MY SECOND DRESS!

Remember my second wedding dress that I found in that thrift store? I wore it before the wedding and then the day after, too. And it is definitely the same dress!

Here's some day-of wedding shots showing it after I altered it!

I think I want to wear this dress again. How would you style it for a dressy occasion without looking too much like a hippie bride?

Photoshop Bits

Hi everyone!!! Guess what?
I got fringe again! (Bangs as us American ladies know them...) Everytime I get sick of my hair or want to cut it or want to stop plucking my eyebrows alltogether, I cut myself a nice thick babydoll fringe. I wanted to upload a picture to show everyone my current state of looking but instead of a "hey look at my cute hair" post, I figured I'd make it substantial, too!

So here is a before Photoshop picture.

S'alright.

Now with some white-level correction, a bit of saturation and exposure mutation...

Now it's spicy and HiLLjO-flavored! The brights pop and the darks have a mirror-finish. I love how it pulled the red out of my hair!

Are any of you ladies planning on fringe this fall, or do you wear it daily?

Pinevitable....

Hello my lovely loyal readers and Happy Fall to y'all,

I want to thank you all for your continued visits despite my low ebb in posting. I am very busy at my day job and I have no time at home to get on the computer... if I had the internet. I am however, gathering bits everyday on Pinterest because it's all I have time for. Here's what I'm working on there:

• My Jeannie Gold Series' inspiration boards. Pinecones + Roses; Gilded Petals; Pink + Gray Prize Ribbon; Jeannie Gold Pinterest account.
• My fun-happy-pretty clothing line "Capitula" conception.
• My dark-mean-kill-you-as-soon-look-at-you clothing line "Arsenic Butterfly" conception.
• Our recent Housewarming pictures and inspiration
• Princess Peach pictures
• Cakes I have made!
• MOAAAARRRR!

So if you haven't joined pinterest and need an invite, ask me in the comments and leave your email address there, too so I can send you one! If you have and didn't know I was on there, get following!
If you do belong and want to add anything to a board with me or make a board with me, I'm down!

LOVE!

READERS: VOTE! America's Top Bride!

Hey all and Happy Almost-Friday.
Get Married is having an "America's Top Bride" contest and I have entered into it! The prize is $5,000 and we could really use that to go on a honeymoon away or to help us get some furniture (lol our house is nekky mostly). I uploaded this photo and my reasoning:

I am America's Top Bride because my fiancee and I planned our wedding together as a representation of who we are TOGETHER and it made for a fantastic celebration of love. We crafted it all by hand with our families for under $8,000 total and had a great, mostly stress-free experience just by focusing on what was really important: getting married. It's not about the flowers, the dress or even the photographer; It is about two people who commit to be best friends for life and share their life experiences every day with each other. I feel that because I learned this and understand it and live it everyday that I am America's Top Bride!

So if you think I could win, please go and vote for us!!! We could really use the money and I do think I am pretty darn crafty on a dime, especially when it comes to planning a wedding!

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT!

So a while back I had mentioned a "big announcement..."
Through time, our wedding, this blog and my wonderful followers' words I have learned what I am best at: design. I cannot say I will only design weddings, I'm very domestic and love home design, too. But the proportionately overwhelming stats on my dress design posts from you guys show me that the next step I need to take is...

Real Bride. Real Cool. Real Married!!!

Hey everyone! Remember our lovely Emily and Alex? Well they're officially hitched! Yup! 20 days and counting. Ems recently shared some swoon-worthy shots on her blog of the wedding DIY details as well as a couple of shots from the honeymoon and wedding itself!

One of the wood signs made by Alex

My BHLDN addiction turned useful.

From left, clockwise: Pennant flags by Em, their collaborative Save-the-Date, "Best Dog" ribbon with flower, mums, Steep Street Wedding Photo, vintage tablecloths, Steep Street dancing photo.

Congratulations you two! On being married and still being tan from Costa Rica!

OMG CUTE.

Aqua Wedding Love

I am so loving aqua right now...
If you have not seen my home office design on my other blog or on Pinterest, there is an update for you: aqua = color HiLLjO loves right now. I found this shot captured by Sarah Rhoads from Katherine and Craig's rainy April wedding. It was featured on Jacin's blog lovely little details and I wanted to share:

Have a lurvely day :o)

FREE Favicon Design

I don't know if you have noticed but lately blogger has come out with some new features to brand your blog! One of these is using a Favicon. Instead of the Orange Square with white Blogger B, you can now use any square image 100KB or less!

If you would like one but don't care to make one or you don't have time, I would LOVE to make you one for free. It just gives me a happy skip in my heart.

Just email me or leave a comment here and I will get on it!

Swooning for Watermelon

I read a ton of blogs. Duh.
But there are a few I sit at my reader and click "refresh" for every hour on the hour or more. Some of these include (blush if you have to, but trust me: you rock!) Party Frosting, All.Women.Stalk., Style Me Pretty, Green Wedding Shoes, Sweet Designs-Amy Atlas, and a few more. When new content is posted anywhere here on these things, I jump out of my skin to click and read it. And of course being the comment-fiend I am, I leave my lovin' in the form of comments.

Nothing has given me more blog-land thrills than making friends with some of these folks (KIM! DIANA!) and also just getting a "Hey, thanks. You're awesome, too" from some of them like Eddye of SMP and now Lisa from Amy Atlas' blog.
So I encourage you all to go read some >Watermelon-themed cuteness at Amy's blog created by her and her team of awesome people like Lisa.

Oh, and do you know what Lisa's email signature is?

Sweetly,
Lisa

HOW CUTE IS THAT?!
Anyway, go see some watermelon themed goodies!

Working on my SMP & All.Women.Stalk Submissions

Almost Friday again!

Dawn Pohlen

I have been sifting through the wedding photos picking the ones I will edit first. I have 76 from our photographer, some from Shawn's mom's camera and we're also waiting for the video to be done because some stills were taken from that for pictures, too!
As you brides know it takes a lot of weddings to make the blogs we love go 'round with features. Fortunately for wedding blogs, there are over 2,077,000 weddings in the U.S. each year! The U.S. is not the exclusive source for wedding features, though. You have to take into consideration brides from around the world with web access as well! This is approxiamately 41,975,000 weddings around the world every year, over 20 times the amount of weddings happening in the U.S.!
This helps me mentally prepare for refusal of our wedding for sure. The success of our wedding lies within us, NOT within the 1 in 42 million chance that we get featured somewhere. Besides, who cares about the people who say "No, thank you," to seeing and sharing pics of your rad wedding? No, THANK YOU! Now we can move onto people who lurve us and would like nothing more than to squee over our photos all day.

Dawn Pohlen

In any case, it would be a major thrill to have many people identify with and receive your wedding with interest. To better increase our 1 in 42Million chance, I have found several articles about standing out in the oceans of wedding being submitted these days. It comes from Style Me Pretty, which is basically the same thing as hearing it from the horse's mouth. Read here.

Are any of you ladies or guys out there submitting your wedding to be featured anywhere?