That Reminds Me...

My lunch today was a tuna fish sandwich and a bag of BBQ potato chips. Which caused me to change my Facebook status to "BBQ chips remind me of my Grandma Marie" and that my friends is what inspired the idea for this post.

There are certain things that always, always, always remind me of a specific person, moment or time in my life. I thought it might be fun and interesting to document some of those things here.

BBQ Chips
I always think of my Grandma Marie (my dad's mom) whenever I eat them. I know it's odd, but I remember eating them at her house. She always kept them in a Tupperware container not in the bag, which is why I think it's memorable.

Owls
The bird, the word, a drawing, anything that has an owl on it or has to do with owls, makes me think of my friend JoJo (this of course is not her real name, it's my nickname for her). Other than she really likes owls, I don't really have a reason to always think of her when I see them.

Greenday
Like 4 years later, whenever I hear a Greenday song, I think of one of my ex-boyfriends. He's pretty much the reason I started listening to them and after he broke my heart, I couldn't listen to them for like a month (lame and overly dramatic I know, but I'm over it now so give me a break). But because he broke up with me I met my hubs, so it's all good. But Greenday does still remind me of him.

Screwdrivers
The drink not the tool. Ah, to be a freshman in college again. We were crazy. Enough said.

Fireballs
You know those little hard candies that are really hot? Yeah, those little buggers remind me of the times at my Grandma Marie's, when my sister and cousin would sneaked downstairs to get them in the middle of the night (I never went, because well I'm a pansy and am scared to get in trouble) they would always put bubble gun flavored toothpaste on them, because they thought they were too hot.

Well, I think you get the idea...tomorrow is September 1st already, so that means another love list. I'm going to change up how I do the monthly love lists so, yeah they should be more fun to read.

Whew. I'm through Monday, and a quarter of the way through my 4 day work week! I'm really looking forward to the holiday weekend. Hubs and I are going camping and doing some motorcycle riding with his parents.

As some know, I work as an assistant to two real estate agents. Lately I've been getting to A LOT more designery stuff, so I've been a happy happy girl. I can't really talk about it though, it's top secret. However, I can talk about the logo I'm working on for another agent in our office. Below are concepts I presented to him, not the final logo—so if you're one of my designer friends reading this...don't go judging me yet ;)

He really liked the stacked dots concept and wanted an option of a more "traditional" city scape logo. I also started working a little bit with color. So I showed him the options below. That's kinda of where we stand now. He hasn't picked one yet, but when he does, I'll get to work on all the little details of it and of course I'll post the final version.

Trash It!

It's Thursday! Which means tomorrow is Friday, which means after work I get to go to South Haven!!! And that means that I get to see one of my sissies and her two adorable daughters (sissy has a blog too! Check it out, she writes about remodeling their first house and being a young hott mama) my mom and daddy and my little bro. I'm just a little bit excited, if you couldn't tell.

Any who, on to what I actually sat down to write about...

Varia Studio Images

Have you ever heard of a trash the dress photo shoot? I saw pictures of one a long time ago, way before I was married or even engaged, but since then has been something I've been interested in doing. For those of you who don't know what one is, it's pretty simple. You wear your wedding gown and pose for pictures in non-traditional places, without really concerning yourself about what is happening to your dress.

There are a couple of reasons I want to do a trash the dress shoot.

1. They're creative and look like they'd be lot's of fun 
2. When am I ever going to where my wedding dress again?
3. I just really want to...do I really need any other reasons 

ERB Photography

I think it would super fun to do one with my sister, but we have a third sister, who is not even close to being married yet, so do we wait for her, just have the photo shoot with the two of us, or go to a vintage shop and buy her a dress to trash with us? Hmmm....

Hien

I only have one hesitation, and it's going to sound vain, but I LOVE my wedding dress, it's timeless and elegant, and I feel like maybe someday I could have a daughter or someone who would think it was really special to get to wear it...I know that probably would never happen. Reality check Jamie, what girl wouldn't want to go shopping for her own special dress for the best day of her life?!

I hate birds, but I love this bird poster!

I saw this poster in my Twitter feed. I an unreal fear of birds, which sometimes makes for some funny in counters on the streets of Chicago (Pigeons eww!) But I'm absolutely LOVING this poster!

"The Birds: This A2 poster was designed in association with BirdLife International to raise awareness of the 52 UK birds on the endangered list. Each of the birds used to create the letterforms are numbered for identification."

 I ate my lunch at the park today. It was nice, I should do that more often. Now I'm at Starbucks, I couldn't resist a treat today, plus the have free wi-fi these days.

Polaroids Framed (FINALLY!)

I finally got around to framing our mini Polaroid pics! I really like the way they turned out. I originally thought about mounting them on black or brown paper before framing, but ended up mounting them on white. They look so much brighter and happier. I decided to hang them in the hallway, rather the dining area, because I have new idea for the dining area that I'm REALLY excited about!

This one is pic of a bus stop sign.

Specifically, the 22 (The bus I take to work every day)

 
The hallway is pretty much done, I just need to work on the table/shelf area a little. Not totally sure what I'm going to do there. Maybe add some baskets or something?

Living Room

I finally have our living room far enough along that I don't mind posting pictures.  Please forgive the picture quality. I only have a little point and shoot and for some reason lately, the pictures have been really grainy. I've gotta work that problem out.

The top from that little table will eventually hung in the kitchen. The plant in the orange pot is Marvin. He's like our child...he's going to be moving into the green pot soon! Delia, pretty sure she's dead...

Close up of your floor lamp. $15 at Ikea! The art on the wall is a photograph we purchased from my friend, Jason. You can check out his work here.

Like I mentioned in a previous post our movie sofa is from CB2. We absolutely love it! I'm feeling like it needs a couple more pillows though, but then again, the hubs and I love lots of pillows. We have 7 pillows on our bed. And none of them are decorative.

Hopefully soon there will be a chair in there too...I STILL haven't found the right one.

Here's a straight on shot of the shelf. Below is a close up of one of my favorite clusters.

I bought the spice jars at Anthropologie for like a $1 each! The letterpress block came from Architectural Artifacts, which is totally where I would have my wedding, if I wasn't married already.

It's almost there! Just needs a few more touches. The dining area is next on my list!

Work in progress

I've got a small project in the works. I'm finally going to frame some of our mini Polaroids! But first, I had to paint the frames.

NICE Assignment x2!

Uh oh! I'm two NICE Assignments behind.

Last week's NICE Assignment was to smile more. I'm not sure if I actually did...I tried though. But I'm going to keep trying. I've always been one of those people who looks like they're mad at the world, even though I rarely ever am.

This week's assignment is to practice forgiveness. The idea came from a Mayo Clinic article, Forgiveness: Letting Go of Grudges and Bitterness. If you read Melissa's post, you'll see she's kind of light hearted about it. But after reading the article, it really resonated with me because of some ongoing issues with my extended family. I've forgiven them, but recently because of things that have been said, my hurt and angering feelings have been resurfacing. I'm definitely not going to go into details, but below I've included parts of the article that brought me comfort. If you been holding a grudge or struggling with forgiveness, I suggest reading the article.

Forgiveness can be challenging. It may be particularly hard to forgive someone who doesn't admit wrong or doesn't speak of his or her sorrow. If you find yourself stuck, it may help to write in a journal, pray or use guided meditation . . . Keep in mind that forgiveness has the potential to increase your sense of integrity, peace and overall well-being.

One of the hardest things about forgiveness is this situation, was/is that the others don't think they did anything wrong or victimized us. We all did wrong, my mom and I both apologized—our apologies weren't accepted. We were never asked for forgiveness or apologized to, and that almost hurts just as bad. The section of the article below really speaks to that. 

Getting another person to change his or her actions, behavior or words isn't the point of forgiveness. Think of forgiveness more about how it can change your life — by bringing you more peace, happiness, and emotional and spiritual healing. Forgiveness takes away the power the other person continues to wield in your life.

August Love List

Things I'm lovin' this month

• The hubs' birthday is on the 11th
• White Sox vs. Tigers game w/my sibilings & parents
• My Mint nail polish from Forever 21
• Seeing good friends that I haven't seen in so long
• Iced Lattes from Starbucks