Canvas Art

I very much LOVE the look of canvas art--you've seen 'em, when people take their family pictures and whatnot and have them printed out on canvas? It just gives it a whole different feel, I love it--a more classy, artsy vibe to the room. So, as I've been making over my new home, I wanted said feeling--but do you know how much those canvas prints cost?! Much more than a newlywed can afford. I was bummed out, until one day while perusing Pinterest I discovered that you can make your own at home! Well of course I was right on board with that, so I picked out some pictures to match my room (photos I took of the gorgeous water lillies at Virginia Woolf's house (while everyone else was touring the house, I was out taking pictures of the pond of course)), and off to Costco to print!

It was SUPER easy--I just printed the sizes I wanted from Costco and glued them onto some canvas I had sitting around from a crazy sale at JoAnns. I painted the sides of the canvas black to match, then modge-podged over the top, and voila!

GRADUATION!!!

This weekend I officially graduated from BYU!! Okay, technically I was already graduated--the diploma has been sitting on my shelf for the past four months--but it really didn't feel all that real until I donned the cap and gown--then suddenly it hit me. It was awesome--seriously, I didn't expect to have so much fun, but I did! It was one of the best days of my life. :)

Okay, to be honest, here is my favorite part of the entire day: for graduation, my absolutely AMAZING and talented mother made me this BEAUTIFUL dress!

and I made a few accessories to match:

and since during graduation only your shoes actually show under the graduation gown, I made some nice bright shoe clips to match my new dress:

and they even kind of match with the BYU gold and blue graduation gear.

That amazing mother of mine:

The ceremony went surprisingly well--I rather enjoyed the speakers, especially the Dean of the Humanities college, who focused his words on forgetting--at graduation they are always focused on what we need to remember, but he reminded us that the ability to forget is essential to. In the words of Borges,

"To think is to forget--to forget differences, generalize, make abstractions..."

Amazing.

After the ceremony the graduates all headed out the tunnel to say goodbye to our professors--I was so excited to see Dr. Tate there! It seems like I haven't seen him since our wonderful times in London--he is such a wonderful WONDERFUL teacher!

Then back into the sunlight--where I suffered the most epic fall of all time--okay, maybe not the best, but it was pretty awesome. Too bad it didn't occur when I went up on stage to get my diploma... anyway, I limped around and finally found my family, where my amazing parents were waiting to greet me. <3

And my wonderful grandparents--I walked today just for you Grandpa! <3

My Aunt Jeanmarie, Uncle Jim, and favorite cousin, Andy--I was so excited they came!!

It was surprisingly a ridiculously sunny day... :)

After pictures were taken and congratulations were said, the parents took me out for dinner at Outback Steakhouse--I couldn't believe how much I ate, but then again, it was basically my first meal of the entire day! (I was slightly stressed trying to get to graduation on time). Plus, the food was beyond delicious, so it was well worth it.

What a wonderful day! I love school, and I am so proud of my accomplishments, but the most important thing that the day reiterated for me was how wonderful my family is--thanks guys, I love you!!

P.S. Even after the fact graduation continues to bring joy to my life--this post was featured by Christine at Craft Geordi--and the one and only feature that day to boot! :)

Tudor Princess for a Day

So, you've got only ONE Saturday left in London... what do you do with it? Go shopping and buy all of those cheap quality European over prized clothes that won't fit into your suitcase anyway? Many of our girls did, which is fine--nothing against that--I've just never been a big shopper myself, and why go shopping--you can do that in the United States! Haha... yes, why go shopping when you can be a princess and play in a castle all day?! That's right, I was a princess, in a REAL castle, for an entire day! Rachel and I decided to be awesome and take the train to Hampton Court Palace, one of the many castle areas of King Henry VIII--one of my favorite kings. ;)

Upon entering, we visited the kitchens:

Totally awesome and totally nasty.

The fireplace--still scorched from all those lovely massive fires.

and there was even a fire going for us! (it was a bit chilly in there)

Ooooh, and the tapestries were just stunning--there were entire rooms full of them!

Oh yes, and did I mention that I was a princess? Dang straight! The gift shop happened to be in the same area where we bought our entry tickets--I couldn't resist. :)

Our favorite king of England:

Nice outfit buddy--yeah, he had some ego issues...

Best thing about old castles in England? The spirits that haunt them! King Henry VIII himself!

My favorite part of the entire place: THE GARDENS. And yes, I do believe they were more beautiful than the gardens of Versailles--although those were quite spectacular as well--sorry to be blasphemous, but I'm fond of a more natural beauty rather than the stenciled gourmet gardens of France.

Baby Bambis! How would you like to have a field full of Bambi babies in your own backyard? I could definitely get used to this.

SO BEAUTIFUL!

And our favorite part of English sight-seeing: all the renovations and scaffolding!

Okay, I'll be honest--next to wearing a tiara and touring a real castle in England, my favorite part of Hampton Court Palace was the maze--it's the same one that Paddington Bear got lost in!

And although it was much smaller than it had been in its glory days, we still managed to get lost... and as soon as we realized we were lost, it started to rain...

the worst part was that we could see the exit through the bushes--but we just couldn't reach it!

Fortunately we weren't lost for too long--we got out just in time for the rain to set in. However, before heading back to the palace, we had to stop by the rose gardens. It's a must.

Back to the palace: more ghosts!

We walked through the timeline of the wives of Henry VIII--seriously, I don't know how they survived, especially Katherine of Aragon. She lived such a tragic life, losing her children time and time again.

and somehow, for reasons that I may never understand, she still loved Henry? ...I never did understand the twisted life of love...

Hampton Court Palace with my dear friend Rachel: best way to end a magnificent Summer in London Town. <3