Spring, Finally!

Oh, Bubs

Our cat, Boo, and the dragon from the movie "How to Train Your Dragon." They are kind of twinsies.

UPDATE: I took this picture when I woke up this morning. She had her crazy face on that further eludes to the likeness.

A Special Request

I have been hemming and hawing on how to go about something in particular for a while now, so I guess I will just spit it out!

Over the past 10 years I have been involved with a world-wide organization call YoungLife. It is a christian organization that focuses on relationships with teenagers, but not affiliated with any particular church. I was greatly influenced as a high schooler by my leaders, became a leader in college, and now serve on the committee here in Oak Park. It is an organization that I care about, but have now come into a role where I am a major part in supporting the local chapter.

Even though I have worked in sales for a time, and now work for a development department of a university, I always get nervous asking others to support a cause. There are always other obligations to fulfill and I certainly don't think that I am anyone special that should get a "yes" to all of my requests. So, I figured this blog is a good place to just lay it on the table for anyone who reads this and would want to support my efforts.

I will be participating in a golf tournament at the end of May, which has a buy-in of $1,000. Anything you can give will help me get to my goal of that amount. I will also provide an embarrassing photo of me golfing (because, yes, I am pretty bad), along with the best thank-you note you have ever received.

If you are interested in donating, I would greatly appreciate it! Either shoot me a message below or send me an email at heathergrant331@gmail.com

Here are a few pictures from some of my favorite times with the organization:

 

Above are two photos of people that I worked with as a volunteer at camps in Canada and Arizona.

Some of my girls and fellow leaders from YoungLife during college

Current YoungLife kids and leaders for Oak Park YoungLife.

Why I Love My Mother...she don't want no grand babies

My sweet, sweet mother came up and surprised me, along with my step-father, for my 25th birthday. In exchange for her generosity, I decided to play an April Fool's joke on her. This was a joke that I had planned for three years ago when I bought the prop, but never got the chance. Having her here for April 1st put the opportunity back on the table. Let's see how she reacts...

I put a "Future Grandma" sash on her. She is appalled.

I mean, literally crying out of sadness. She was saying "It's not time, it's not time."

It only took me seconds before I told her it was a joke due to the utter disappointment and sadness I felt from her.

She finally understands it's a joke...

Then, we hug it out and laugh, because, I am truly my mothers daughter and babies are nowhere to be found in this 25 year old body. 

Love you, mom!

I WANTS ONE!

I stumbled upon an artist named Thomas Doyle, who is orginally from Michigan, but now works out of Brooklyn. His specialty is what he calls " the debris of memory through the creation of intricate worlds sculpted in 1:43 scale and smaller."

All I know is that I would totally buy out his store, if he were to put them on Etsy!

Wednesday Etsy Finds

In an effort to maintain some consistency with this blog, I will share what I troll for most often- Etsy crap!
Here is my latest batch of goodies:




I have been on a kick to find desk office art. I fear that most of it is too big, but I still like the look of it!

Sunday Night Sentiments

What Dreams May Come by yellowroseofchicago featuring poetic license shoes

Rosamosario La Fata Babydoll silk-crepe and lace chemise
$725 - net-a-porter.com
Scoopneck dress »

NW3 Flower Bow Cotton Cardigan, Pale Koala Melange
69 GBP - johnlewis.com
Cotton tops »

Under-Bust to Hip Corset
800 GBP - notjustalabel.com

Charmed Life Heel
$119 - modcloth.com
Poetic license shoes »

Ben-Amun Crystal Flower Bracelet
$265 - maxandchloe.com
Crystal jewelry »

ELECTRIC BUTTERFLY ORGANZA FLOWER ANYWHERE CLIP
$35 - tarinatarantino.com
Tarina Tarantino hair accessories »

Paris Flea Market Collection Champagne Chandelier
$700 - laylagrayce.com

The Furniture Market - Oak Furniture | French Furniture | Mirrored...
279 GBP - thefurnituremarket.co.uk

PLASTICLAND - Steampunk Collage Pressed Tin Wall Art
$56 - shopplasticland.com

New Obsession

I was always curious how bloggers did style boards. It seemed like a lot of work in microsft paint, but shows how much I know about the internet world of design! Well, I came across a contest to win a $500 gift certificate to my favorite store, Anthropologie, and I had to at least try. The contest directed me to a site called Polyvore, which is a little gift from heaven!

This is what I made for the contest, which was to pick items from Anthropologie and create a holiday outfit. There have been 5,000 entries in four days this contest has been going on, so I'm sure I am low on my chances, but it was really fun to create and I will surely share more of my projects from that site.
Lastly, if you didn't catch the reference of the phrase in my board, please listen to this song, it makes me teary eyed!

What is wrong with this picture?

I was browsing the daily discount emails I get on RueLaLa and came across a "sale" for a Birkin bag. For those of you without a mountain of money or those who don't watch Sex and the City, the Birkin bag is one of the most coveted purses in the fashion world. The bags have years of wait-lists to buy one and they sell for ridiculous prices.
I always knew they were expensive, but I didn't know how expensive. This is what I saw when I went to the "sale" website:

$19,000! And that is at a discounted rate! I had never actually checked the full price of these bags, so I went online to see what I could find. That is when I came across this:



They want $52,000 for a bag. Something I put my tampons and granola bar wrappers in. My favorite part of this though, is the advertising the seller used as an incentive. "Free Shipping!" Like someone out there is saying, "hmmm, I would buy this, but I really don't want to pay $12.50 for the handling fee."

Will Run for Chocolate and Fur Coats

This past weekend Jonathan and I ran our 15k by the lake in downtown Chicago. It was a Hot Chocolate themed event, so they gave us chocolate and fondue after the race. It sounded appealing at the time we signed up, but I could barely stomach the chocolate after the race!
A fellow Oak Parker that we know, Matt, ran in his wife's place, so we ran together until about mile 7. At this time my body said, "F-You! I didn't sign up to run in 40 degree weather!" So, the last two miles were a bit of a haul for me, but I still ran it in my personal best time at a pace of 9:59/ a mile. We were running at a 9:30 pace up until mile 7, but let's not talk about those dark 2 miles!

Excuse the grainieness of the picture, I jacked it off of the race photo site.

Jonathan was my momma kangaroo and supporter through the race, which was probably why I did so well. He had a hoodie with a front pouch on it, so I could strip down my clothing layers and he would store them until I needed them later. Mind you, he could run circles around me on this run, but he stayed with my pace and we finished together.

I also got an early Christmas present in the mail, due to a great find on Etsy.

Again, don't mind the orginal posting picture, I will have to update with one of my own.

It is a vintage fur capelet and I am in love! I don't count it as buying fur if it I'm buying it second-hand, but that's just my own logic.

 I have wanted something like this for a while now and it was a great price.

Busy week ahead of me. Found out I will be traveling to New York and Los Angeles/possibly San Francisco for work in the next month, so that should be fun and will give me more to blog about!

Halloween Weekend and other stuff that has been keeping me from the Internets

Oh, hi there. Work has vastly picked up for me, as there have been many events in the past few months. Also, it isn't slowing down!
At the encouragement and help of Mairead, I wanted to post a recipe of these AMAZING cupcakes that I had the chance to make this last weekend. They take some time, but are soooo worth it.

Salted Caramel Cupcakes:

Here is the recipe I worked off of:

http://www.sprinklebakes.com/2010/05/triple-salted-caramel-cupcakes.html

For a first time made-from-scratch cupcake baker, the directions were simple enough. It gives you directions for the cake, the frosting, and the filling (yes, salted caramel filled)!

The best advice I can give if you decide to make these is make the filling and icing first, as they will need time to cool in about the time it will take to make the cakes.

Another great thing happened this weeked: The question was finally answered if Sham would look like Jonathan if he grew a beard and had curly hair:

The answer is Yes! Very much so!

At one point, Sham had his back turned to me and I kept saying "Jonathan, Jonathan," to get his attention.

Please also notice the half-way ninja turtles costume. I had pants, but they were cut from a child's sized costume and might have been inaapropriate for climbing in!

To complete my overachieving halloween celebration, I spent a ridiculous amount of time carving a pumpkin for our building's contest:

It had a mohawk and press-on tattoos! I was pretty proud, but got won out by this:

Stupid Chilean miners, who even thinks of that?!

Kind of funny though that they used chilies. Also, it is hard to see from this angle, but I believe they used a lit-up bong as the tube to get from the top of the box to the pumpkin-mine.

Oh well, I will have to use my political wit and Fedex boxes to try and win next year.

Can't stop listening to this

Fierce. That is all I can say.

Moral Dilemma of the Day

I just so happen to be in charge of registering the CEO of my absolute favorite store, Anthropologie, for an event at work and I now have his personal email address.


Do I :

A) Send him a very long love letter, sharing with him all of the beautiful thoughts that his stores inspire me to have.

B) Cut to the chase and ask him for free clothes in my size

C) Spam him with eHarmony and OkCupid emails

D) respect his privacy and do nothing (lame)

I am tempted to post his picture on here that we have, but afraid of getting sued by my own office. Probably not the best idea.
However, I googled the store and couldn't help but post a few great pictures that I found of some of the interiors. Heaven.

Let's all say a word of thanks for the glorious Poms, as they were a beautiful addition to the wedding.

Oh Anthropologie, you have my heart, but you can never fully have my wallet. Please stop being sooo expensive.