Pioneer Day Boutique

For Pioneer Day last month, I took a chance and applied to be in Provo's Pioneer Day Extravaganza with the items I've created for my shops, Bluebird Blossoms and Tinkeranniebelle--and we got in! So, my husband, brother, brother-in-law, Christian, and I headed down early that morning and set up our very own booth  for the day (P.S. Best family ever, these awesome boys helping me out on my big day).

So, here is our lovely booth (I was so glad I had the boys' help--I couldn't have set all that up without them):

To your right, our lovely hair clips: 

And to your left, aster and peony hair clips, as well as some beautiful flower, yo-yo, and zipper headbands:

A tower of earrings:

Up front, our beautiful necklaces:

And, my personal favorite, Shabby-Chic Head-wraps and Fabric Flower Blossom Rings, Earrings, and Bobby Pin Sets: 

 My amazing husband and brother-in-law spent the entire day prior to the 24th building all of our displays--I especially liked the CD displays and the wood displays for my rings and earrings--they are very creative. :)  

The boutique was a success, and we got a lot of positive feedback. In fact, the woman in charge of the Farmer's Market in Provo approached me and asked me to come and participate with my products. :)

Of course, most of all, it was just a ton of fun--I got to spend all day with my most wonderful husband and awesome bros! :) And it was a ton of fun meeting different people and sharing my passion and creativity with them. My favorite of the entire day was my very first customer, and little girl who couldn't have been more than 7 years old. She came to our booth several times eyeing a fabric flower ring; she finally got the guts up to talk to me about it, when her mother came by and told her she needed to make sure she looked at EVERYTHING at the fair before she purchased anything, so that she made sure she made the best choice. A little while later she came back and said "I just have to have this ring." :)

Another fun thing was seeing one of my best friends from high school, Talisa! I haven't seen her in years--probably since high school--so it was really great to catch up with her and her sisters.

Overall, it was an awesome day! :)

To see all of our beautiful products and items, check out our shops, Bluebird Blossoms and Tinkeranniebelle!

Happy Birthday Vera!

Three years ago today, I was living it up in London Town--but back home, my sweet little girl was coming into the world--and what would I do without my sweet little companion?! :)

Mama and Baby:

 Since Vera was the only surviving pup (her little brother died that same week), she was afforded a LOT of milk to drink, compliments of a very loving Mama--thus, she was a very healthy, rolly polly puppy! :)

She was SO little:

When I finally got to meet Vera for the first time, she'd grown quite a bit--but was still just as cute as ever! :)

When I got married last year, Vera came with--and my Hubby came to love her just as much as I do! :)

A now she's three years old, and still my bestest little friend and companion ever--Happy Birthday Little Vera Girl! :)

"A HOUSE IS NOT A HOME UNTIL IT HAS A DOG." ~Gerald Durrell

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

Imperial War Museum

A visit to the Imperial War Museum: a class assignment admittedly, but we quickly discovered that this place basically rocks--one of the best museums in London. If you ever find yourself in London for some reason, you have to take some time to visit this place, it's incredible. I don't know why I grew up thinking that museums were so boring, because the ones I've experienced here in London are far from such things.

We of course spent most of our time in the World War I exhibits: my favorite was learning about the Christmas Truce of 1914. This was the first Christmas of the Great War, during which there was a spontaneous unofficial truce. British and German soldiers put down their weapons and sang carols to each other, hanging out together in No Man's Land. By the next Christmas they had strict rules about such socializing, but for this one there was peace on earth and whatnot. It was very touching.

We also got to go "into the trenches." One of the exhibits was a reconstruction of what the trenches would have been like; it was like a haunted house ride. It smelled absolutely horrible, it was dark and we could barely see each other, and there were bloody bodies (fake of course, but that didn't help much), barbed wire, air bombing from above, all sorts of crazy things. I don't know how authentic it really was, but for us it felt a little too real. I was horrified by the time we found the exit (we were slightly worried we weren't ever going to make it out!), but it was a neat experience for sure.

We also saw Lawrence of Arabia's motorcycle--the real Lawrence, not the movie one--it's a 1000cc Brough Superior, tailor-made by George Brough himself. It was the bike he was riding when he was killed. How tragic! He made it through all of those battles in the war, only to be killed while swerving to avoid hitting two errand boys (he pitched over the handlebars and landed head first on the ground).

What an amazing museum.