design dollop

I have moved

2010-11-23T10:54:00.000-08:00

I have a new and improved blog
www.elisabetharin.com

I'm still here

2010-10-13T08:57:00.000-07:00

I know I have been MIA for the last couple of months. I have been so busy and trying to get back in the swing of things. I have some great plans for a redesign of this blog and a bigger commitment to posts and photography. So stay tuned.....

cake stands

2010-06-24T18:57:00.000-07:00

For the wedding we are not doing the traditional wedding cake. We are actually having multiple cakes displayed on cake stands. Mike does not like cake so we are having some what of a desert table featuring cakes, cookies and donuts(donuts is Mike's favorite food). I decided to make the cake stands using thrift store finds and with a little bit of work they are complete!

Here is the before

and here is the finished cake stands. On top of the cake stands are my fabric flowers I have been working on. They will be scattered around on table tops the day of the wedding.

Camera bag

2010-06-19T21:07:00.000-07:00

Last weekend Mike and I went to LA for Mike's bother's graduation. I am trying to take more pictures and use my camera on normal and special outings. One problem I run into is that I don't what to carry around a camera bag when I am already carrying my purse. Plus, carrying around a camera bag is just screaming "look at my camera bag filled with expensive equipment come rob me". So a week or so before we left I spent a couple days looking up stylish camera bags and found a few options I liked but all of them were on the pricy side. But I do have to say if I was to find a camera bag I LOVED I would spend the money on it. So fast forward to 2 days before I left for LA I was still camera bagless. During my search the week before I stumbled across a couple options for DIY camera bags. One suggested buy a purse you like and just buy these wraps for your equipment. The problem with these for my short timeline was I was unsure what size would work and I kind of wanted my protection built in. I want to be able to just reach in my bag and grab my camera. I did not want to have to grab my camera and unwrap it, then use it, then when I am done with it wrap it up and drop it back in my bag. Plus I want to have lens options and with a camera and couple lenses freely floating in my purse seams to be a little messy. But I don't think it is a bad idea to have a couple wraps for other purposes, like packing your camera for a vacation and putting it in your luggage.

So the other option was to make a camera bag myself. Leave it to me to come-up with a new project just before we go on vacation. I am notorious for this and Mike LOVES me for it:) So anyways, I found this blog posting and figure what do I have to loose? Either I try this out and be successful and have a camera bag for my trip or try it and fail and be where I was currently, camera bagless. So I began my search for a bag I liked and materials. What I needed was a large bag that had a top zipper, some sort of foam mat and fabric. 2 hours later I was set to start my project and after one hour of work I had a camera bag!! YIPPIE!. The only change I made was I used hot glue instead of sewing. I had no time to sew and I could not wrap my brain around how to do it and make it look nice.

The final product!

Actually this is a picture of the second bag I made. The first bag I made was HUGE!!! I love it but I needed something a little smaller as well (girls love their options for purses) so I found a purse I had in the closet and converted that. It did not have a zipper but for a smaller option I think I will carry less in it so there is less potential for small things to fall out. So imagine the camera itself in the middle section of the bag. I have enough room for my camera with lens, 2 extra lenses, my wallet and small odds and ends. It worked out GREAT!!

I actually want to find a black bag now and convert it into a camera bag in the near future... my mind never rests...

Busy!

2010-06-10T10:22:00.001-07:00

I have been so busy that I have been neglecting my blog. My goodness the HORROR!! The good news is I have a ton of things to share. I have been a crafting machine the last few weeks. Mike and I are currently finishing up our wedding invitations that we have made and printed ourselves. I can't wait to get those in the mail and out of our house. What else. . . Favor jam is made, cake stands are complete, cakes are ordered, table runners are complete and my house is a mess and slowly filling up with wedding items.

I hope to have a post up next week involving some craft project I'm working or completed. Last night I make a camera bag out of a purse and I think it looks great and I HOPE it will work. I will test it out this weekend and give an update and pictures. Bring on the weekend!

100 days till the wedding!

2010-05-13T12:28:00.001-07:00

You know what that means. . . . we will be in the double digits tomorrow and on my wedding checklist I am half way through my list of things to do for the wedding as a whole. Next weekend we are planning on picking out our wedding bands. When I think about the little things I get stressed out because there are so many things that bring together a wedding but when i think of the simple stuff like our wedding rings and our ceremony vows I remember that this is something between Mike and I and the small stuff does not matter. I can't wait to pick out our rings and have them in our house. Those are two items we will have beyond the wedding day and are a symbol of our commitment. LOVE IT!

Here is a picture of the save the dates before I sent them out. In a couple weeks we should have a nice stack of invitations ready to go.

May 11th already!!

2010-05-11T15:04:00.000-07:00

YIKES!! Where is the time going. I have been MIA due to wedding planning and doing. I have a huge DYI project list I need to tackle and it seems like the wedding is getting closer and closer and the list is getting longer and longer. I am working on a few craft projects right now so maybe those will pop up on here in the near future. We are planning on finishing the design of our invitations in the next week or so and getting those babies in the mail mid-June. The weather has been so nice out lately I just want to go frolick in the sunshine but due to the wedding I have had to cancel summer plans and day trips/activities with friends because I need to focus. I am the type of person that waits to the last minute and stays up till 4am finishing projects or cooking food for the next day but I CANNOT do that for the wedding so focus it is. The good news is now that the wedding is around the corner it is really forcing me to make decisions and commit to items.

Right now Mike and I are working on our homemade table runners. We have 5 done and like 16ish to go. . . . wish us luck.

Wedding update

2010-04-27T20:19:00.000-07:00

Last week was the 4 month mark for our wedding!! Time is flying. I have been a busy little bee making lists upon lists of what needs to get done but I haven't checked much off. It is getting closer to crunch time!! YIKES! Good news is we figured out what the groomsmen are wearing and we have booked our hotel. 2 down 117 to go!

I have been collecting things here and there for the wedding. Here is a couple things...
All I have to say is jars, jars and jars!

This is just a sample of fabric I have collected.

and that is it for now!

Packages in the mail

2010-04-10T16:09:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I recieved 58 pounds in mini jars!. Let the favor making begin. I think if I start now I can finish a month or so before the wedding. Aren't they so cute!

Engagement Pictures

2010-04-06T20:49:00.000-07:00

The weekend of March 20th Mike and I took a little trip to San Luis Obispo for our engagement picture session with our Photographer. We had a GREAT time. I think that area of California is our new favorite destination spot AND that area is very dog friendly. Here is just a few of our pictures from our session. I figured I would post different pictures from what I currently have on Facebook since all of my readers are my friends on Facebook. I am really excited for our wedding day pictures. Less then 5 months to go!!

1/2 marathon results

2010-03-28T19:27:00.000-07:00

On March 14th I ran 13.1 miles in the Shamrock'n Half Marathon. I have to say I did better then I thought I would. I ran 13.1 miles in 2:20:41. The Shamrock'n website says I finished 2527 of 4127 participants and my pace was 10:44/M. My goal was to run the whole thing without walking and I DID IT!! I have to say this entire experience was probably the hardest task I have ever taken on and I'm glad I did it.

I started my race day waking up at 5:50am and to top it off it was the first day of day light savings. My pre-race meal was an egg and a piece of toast. I'm not a early morning eater so i had a hard time choking it down but I needed something in my stomach. We got to Raley Field at 7:20am and did a quick stop at the bathroom which had a huge line (no surprise for a ladies room). I guess everyone one had the same idea as me. It was a beautiful day with clear skys and low 70's for the high of the day, but it was FREEZING at 7:30 in the morning. Surprisingly I was not nervous for the race. During my training the longest I ran was 11 miles and if I could do 11 I figured 2 more would not be hard. I just wanted it to be over so i could sit on the grass in Raley Field and relax.

Running is hard! There was a point during the race when I pasted mile 8 and the runners ahead of me were on their way back and they were passing the 11 mile marker, I wanted so bad to be them. Once I finally pasted that 11 mile marker it was a big milestone for me. For one that was the mile marker I was so jealous of and two, 11 miles was the longest I have ever ran. At that point I felt my body loose it's energy. Those last 2 miles were the fastest and longest. But once I went through the finish line I was so happy, so happy I made it and so happy I could stop running! I had a couple thoughts at that moment. . . there is no way I could run 13.1 miles in addition to the 13.1 miles I just ran and why in hell are they making us climb stadium stairs!!

Now with the race day in my past and no pain in my feet and toes I am thinking of attempting a full marathon . . . . just thinking . . . maybe in the next 10 years.

Bathroom remodel - part 4

2010-03-15T20:36:00.000-07:00

The pictures are finally here. I woke up early on Saturday and took pictures of the bathroom and here they are. Our bathroom is small so it was challenging to get a full bathroom shot. If you forgot how the bathroom used to look here is the before pictures.

meet our new sink

This is our finished inset shelf. This was probably the hardest part of the bathroom remodel but it was worth it.

Mike installed a can light over the shower. Know that we know how to do it we are eventually going to put them everywhere.

One reason this bathroom was incomplete for an extra 1-2 weeks was because we could not find the right bath towel color. 1 return and 3 stores later we wound up with these soft as a cloud towels.

Hello water efficient toilet! How I love your small sleek design and your focus on the environment. If only you could clean yourself.

So before the remodel we had plain boring doors and I LOVE older homes with panel doors. It gives the house character so I decided to add molding to the existing doors to give them some personality. I think they turned out great. Now I have 6 more doors to do in the house so they all match. . . . in time . . . maybe after the wedding. . .

and last but not least is our new floor tile

Bathroom remodel - part 3

2010-03-10T23:07:00.000-08:00

Here are the remainder of our bathroom progress pictures. I thought I had some pictures of the flooring going in but I do not.

We textured the walls and painted them a medium grey color.

Here is our new light fixture. Kind of hard to see in this picture but trust me, it is wonderful compared to our old one.

Final bathroom unveiling coming soon. . . .

Bathroom remodel - part 2

2010-03-08T22:25:00.000-08:00

I declare bathroom week!!
It has been a while since my last post but here I am full of updates. This project took FOREVER to complete and yes it is compete! Finally! And we absolutely love how it turned out. Now that the bathroom is complete I hope things slow down around here for awhile because I need a break.
Here are a few pictures of the process.

Here are the studs and new pluming for shower. Demoing the walls was a bit scary because we feared finding mold or termite damage and it turns out everything was AOK(you never know what you will find with old house). We framed out an inset shelf which turned out really nice as well.

Now the installation and cement board goes up. This step took a while since we don't have the proper tools so we use what we had and it took about 10 minutes or more for each cut. Good times in the rain and wind.

We used a water proofing substance (the pink stuff) to seal all of the seams. Two days and 600 tiles later the tiling was complete. This part was the worst part of this entire project. It was never ending and I started going crazy around hour 8 of day 2, not to mention I ran 10 miles earlier that day and had no energy left in me. With the work behind us I can say now it was worth it. LOVE IT!

Then we moved to the floor. Our bathroom is small and it still took us a Friday night to remove the vinal flooring. We were using a paint scraper to scrape the floor. Like I mentioned before we get creative with what we have.

We took out the vanity, sink, toilet and door molding.

That is enough for tonight. I will post the rest of the progress in the next day or so.

Wedding rental fun

2010-02-23T20:11:00.000-08:00

A couple weekends ago Mike and I went to Classic Party Rentals to get an idea of what our tables would look like for the wedding. At first we were completely overwhelmed with the options and everything just seemed to be too bright or over the top for what we were envisioning. With our colors being yellow and blue I didn't want the tables to give anyone a headache. I thought for sure we would have to come back a couple times before we committed to anything. . . and two hours later we came up with this:

One of my goals was to incorperate patterns without taking on the task of making my own table linens or napkins (which I would love to do but don't have the time for). The way my patterned fabric will be incorporated on the table will be through our favors. As of now we are planning on making jam and the fabric will be tied on top of the jars and placed on each napkin.

The silverware is AWESOME! I think it will be a conversation piece but this item may change if we need to save money.

Last but not least are our beautiful chairs. I wanted something that was fitting for the venue and natural wood chairs seemed to be the perfect match. We also picked out our plates and glassware. I was nervous going to the rental company because the table linen colors was a big question mark in my mental vision of this wedding and we ended up committing to everything and had a great time. Mike even walked away excited and looking forward to the wedding. Not that he wasn't but seeing everything set-up just made everything real and we are finally seeing how things will tie together for the big day. Six months to go!

Bathroom remodel - part 1

2010-02-14T14:01:00.000-08:00

Early January we started a bathroom renovation project. With all of our projects we always seem to go over budget and over time and this project seems to be no different. With all I have going on with planning a wedding, training for a half marathon, monthly book club, working full time, I think I am at my limit. The good news is there is a lite at the end of the tunnel and the end is approaching. I hope this is our last weekend. Tomorrow we plan on putting in the sink and toilet. Here are some pictures of our old bathroom.
Thank god it is gone.

New bathroom pictures to come . . .

Registered!

2010-01-28T22:00:00.000-08:00

So it is official! I registered for the Shamrock'n Half Marathon! On March 14th I will be jogging a jaw dropping 13.1 miles. I'm excited and nervous. Excited because it will be a huge accomplishment and a big black sharpie check mark next to one of my personal goals. Nervous because I will be jogging for over 2 hours(maybe 3). But there is no time to be nervous. I have a lot of training sessions to accomplish in the next few weeks. This weekend I need to complete 8 MILES!! EXCITING!!!

Letterpress love

2010-01-22T21:24:00.000-08:00

This is a video I found on Uppercase the other day. I would love to take a class on letterpress printing. I think I will add that to my bucket list but I hope to do it sooner rather then 20 years from now.

Letterpress Coasters from Quarter Productions on Vimeo.

Bridesmaid invitations

2010-01-20T21:30:00.000-08:00

I wanted to do something a little formal with asking my friends and sister to be a part of my wedding. I would love to say I came up with this idea but I was greatly inspired by a posting on a wedding blog I frequent. These invitations were mailed to my 4 bridesmaids. Even though snail mail is slowing dying it is still fun to find something waiting in your mailbox that isn't junk mail or bills.

Hello 2010

2010-01-05T20:43:00.000-08:00

2009 has passed and it feels like every year goes by faster than the last.

Here are the highlights of my 2009

- Spent 2 weeks in Cambodia
- GOT ENGAGED!!
- Completed a couple house projects
- Joined a gym
- Mini road trip to LA with Clarence. He had his first beach experience and made a yorkie friend
- Started my blog
- Finally crossed over to the iphone world and can't imagine being without it
- Read over 20 books. This is huge because in 2007 and 2008 combined I probably read 4 books
- Spending time with my friends floating down the river and taking pictures

What I plan to achieve in 2010

- GETTING MARRIED!! I have done a lot of the planning already and I can't wait!
- Going on a great honeymoon. We are tossing around some ideas now and our goal is to leave the country
- Remolding our main bathroom. It is a small bathroom and it needs a lot of love
- Good quality time with my family and friends. I'm sure with the wedding there will be ample opportunities
- Run a half marathon. I'm working on this now. Today I ran 2 miles with NO walking and a couple weeks ago I was on the treadmill for one hour and ran/walked 5 miles
- Take more pictures. I feel like I have really slacked off and it doesn't help when your camera erases your pictures from your memory card

I hope everyone has a great New Year. It is going to be a fantastic year!!

1/2 marathon

2009-12-11T19:52:00.000-08:00

On December 6th the 27th Annual California International Marathon took place in Sacramento. I had a couple of friends that participated in the 4-person relay. Watching them train for that huge event has been inspiring. I like to push myself and try new things so I think running might be my next adventure. In March there is a half marathon in Sacramento called the Shamrock'n 1/2 Marathon and at this moment I am strongly considering participating in it. This is something out of my box and a huge challenge involving training and dedication. I'm not a runner at all. I remember in high school I HATED running the mile and now look at me, I'm thinking about running 13.1 miles. I think I am up for the challenge. Running is one of the best exercises you can do.

Since I am a novice runner I am thinking about the relay option for the 1/2 marathon which involves 2 people, one running the first leg of 7.1 miles and the second person running the second leg of 6 miles. The challenge with the relay is I will need a partner. I'm hoping Mike will commit:) OR I can really push myself and do the full 1/2 marathon at a whopping 13.1 miles. YIKES!!

At this point in time I can't even run a mile without walking. I have downloaded an app for my phone to help jump start my training which is a 9 week program. It is called "Couch to 5k". I think I am a little advanced for this application since I'm not a couch potato so I have skipped to week 4 in the program. My goal with this app is to run a consistent 30 minutes with NO walking. And from there I will move on to slowly adding miles each week. I will keep you posted on my progress.

Cambodia

2009-11-23T20:50:00.000-08:00

One thing I LOVE to do is travel. Last February I visited Cambodia with my friend and her family. The photos below are a few of the images I captured while in Cambodia. These photos are currently displayed in a photography show at a local college. I can't wait to get the prints back so I can frame them and hang them in my house (future post). I'm sure this won't be the last time you will see pictures from Cambodia.

first post

2009-11-03T21:14:00.000-08:00

Welcome.