{top five friday} my new nephew!

thomas anson hawthorne
born july 21, 2011
2:39 pm
8 lbs 3oz
21 1/4 inches long

top five reasons i love the little bugger!
one
duh! he is perfection! his tiny fingernails are so cute and he has the most perfect little head of hair!



two
he has a birthday i am probably not going to forget. it is three days after my mom's and let's face it, if not for facebook i would never remember anyone's birthday! so thank goodness his is so memorable because by the time he is grown facebook will be for us lame-o old people.



three
he loves to snuggle and doesn't think i am dorky (yet) for making goofy faces at him



four
he does really awesome stuff like mid-sleep spasms and sticking his fingers in his eyes that make me laugh



five
he loves to stare at his papa, my dad, and it melts my widdle heart!



six
oh and six. when he poops i just hand him back to his mama! plus he makes a really good object for photography! better get as many as possible before he starts moving at the speed of light!



seven
and let's not forget seven. he looks just like his father (my brother) did when he was born!



eight
except for his tiny widdle ears that have this perfect notch in the top of them, exactly like his mamas.



nine
who are we kidding. it is going to be top ten friday! he wraps his cute little hand around mine and he doesn't even really know who i am yet!



ten
he made my husband into a super awesome uncle.



i am totally smitten with this baby! i am going back to texas to see him this weekend and i cannot wait to snuggle him! and i am so excited to share these pictures with all of you! not that he is hard to take a picture of. i mean... did i mention he is perfect?

{before you ask - nope. this does not make me want one of my own! but i promise when the time comes i will be sharing that adventure on here as well!}

{blog design: finding inspiration and resources}

before i start working on tutorials on how to do some of the stuff i learned when redesigning my blog, i thought it important to cover why i chose the things i did and how i came to some of those decisions.

to begin with, i started scouring the internet for ideas. there are so many blogs and so many designers that figuring out where to start was almost the hardest part. i had originally thought that i wanted to pay a blog designer to handle everything  but, like i said, the more i looked around the less and less impressed i was by other people's ideas. as i started to form in my mind what i actually wanted, i could find no one that i thought could actually put it all together for me.

if you are wanting to redesign your blog or come up with a design for a new blog, i strongly suggest makin' cute blogs as a resource. they have a ton of information, freebies, tutorials, downloads and what i found to be most helpful, a directory of blog designers. i started here and clicked over to almost each designer's website and looked through their portfolios, jotting down ideas that i liked and elements of the blog that drew me in.



here is my list. if i found a blog design that i liked, i clicked over to the blog and made notes of things that caught my eye. i made sure to record the url of the blog and the designer along with notes about what i liked in case i needed to refer back to a specific page or designer later.

tip one: always click through to the blog to check things out! you can't always see everything you want to see in a screen shot on the designer's page!



next i made a list of things that i knew i liked and wanted to incorporate into my blog. these were things like a layout style, header preferences, background ideas, and graphics that i thought tied into my blog well. i also wrote down my favorite colors to keep them in my head while i was looking through graphic elements.

tip two: start to look for similarities in the list of things you love and the list of designer and blogs you were drawn to! that is how i narrowed down what i liked and what i thought i could actually incorporate into my blog.

the next thing i did was draw a sort of "mock up" of what i dreamed my blog would look like if i could have anything i wanted.



now i don't claim to be an artist in any form of the word but i did the best i could. i also knew that things would not look exactly like this and that i would have to be open to changing elements, arrangements, colors, etc. i just tried to loosely wrangle my ideas onto a sheet of paper.

you will also notice all sorts of notes about colors, fonts, random ideas... those were added as i came across things i liked. when i started it was a very sparse rendering. all the notes that fill up the page came later.

also, to protect my hard work, i blocked out the fonts i used and the one color code on the page that i ended up using.

tip three: wait until you have decided on & purchased the graphic elements before you choose specific colors. i had the color palette in my head but didn't actually determine the hex color codes until i had a graphic element kit to keep from having to guess!



lastly i made a to-do list of sorts to keep the tasks outlined and organized. it also helped it from totally overwhelming me when it came to making sure i had everything taken care of so that it would all fit into the theme and feel of the new design. it was a huge help for my a-list personality. :D

tip four: don't be afraid to add something to your list that you aren't sure you can do! challenge yourself to learn something new!

then i turned to every diy-ers most awesome, amazing tool: google. it is pretty cool - have you heard of it? i googled everything! how to install web fonts, where to find graphic elements, how to edit css. here are a few of the key websites that i used:



google web fonts. these are custom fonts that you can install into your blog to make it all fancy shmancy like this. you can also download them onto your computer so that you can use them when you make your header and sidebar titles.



todd design is where my graphics came from. this is another one i really enjoyed scrolling through the items.



there are sooo many designers on etsy that i really encourage you to just go and search for digital clip art.



this website is chock full of awesomeness. they have great tutorials, a ton of free downloadable fonts, and awesome photography tutorials. i have been stalking kevin & amanda for a while. i suppose my love for them has now been made public.



once i had my graphics and had determined the 6-digit color hex codes (tutorial for that on the way) i had to figure out the rgb codes to use in microsoft publisher to arrange my graphics. i promise once i show you how to do it all that gobbledygook will make sense!! this website was amazeballs. it gives you every code you can possibly need for any possible color you can dream up. definitely recommend it.



with this website you can choose from one of their almost 200 patterns and customize it to your color preference and then download it to your computer.. for free! i ended up not using any of the several patterns i made on here but i probably spent too much time playing on this website.



another great website for free seamless patterns for backgounds.

photobucket, flikr and picnik have also been completely invaluable in this process! i finally broke down and upgraded to flikr pro and picnik premium. i say you can go free or pay on either but for me the pro & premium accounts have worked out better! i am using flikr to host all of the pictures for my blog, picnik to edit them and photobucket to host all of the elements for the blog.



and lastly i have found two totally necessary for me "add ons" for mozilla firefox. if you have mozilla firefox (and if you don't i definitely recommend it over internet explorer and it is free to download here) just go to tools > add-ons and the search for firebug and picnik and they should come up.

i used the picnik one to send screen shots of web pages directly to the editing portion of picnik for my blog tour post yesterday.

the firebug is extremely useful if you are designing a website. if you are on any website at all you can highlight the portion you are interested in, right click on it and click "inspect element" and it will display the html for that portion on the screen like so:



here i right clicked on the "recipe index" link on bridget's page and it shows the link for the "recipe index" button image. if it were just a word it would show the style, font, size and color code for it in the css coding. it is scary at first but if you play around with it you can learn a lot about other people website's and how they are coded and how you can incorporate that into your website!

i hope this has been helpful! i really enjoyed learning all this and i am excited to share more of it with you when i start to figure it all out!

tip five: before you start tinkering with your blog i most definitely recommend creating a private blog that you can practice on! then once you finalize your design you can apply all of your new beauty to your regular blog without potentially messing anything up!

i am linking up with beth and her tutorials & tips party! :)

hey hot stuff!

i'm pretty excited to reveal most of what is my new blog layout!

woo woo! pretty smokin' huh?

i really wanted something simple, fun, colorful and more me than what i had going on. i spent hours and hours pouring over designer websites comparing designs, costs, ideas and waiting lists. i finally decided that if i wanted to really appreciate and enjoy my blog makeover, i would just have to do it myself.

so i started jotting down things i liked about other people's pages. i made a list of things i thought i might like. i wrote down all of my favorite colors. i researched things like seamless backgrounds, hex color codes, installing web fonts and downloadable digital graphics on etsy. this is quite literally a labor of love. i did every single bit of it by myself and by george i am so proud of it.

so here is a quick tour of what i have got going on here:



a new header. i plan on writing up a full tutorial on how i did this but for now i will just hit the high points. it was designed with graphic elements from todd design who has all kinds of amazing graphic design elements available in her etsy shop. my next mountain to climb is to determine if i can use paint.net to somehow "slice" the section out that says "home of thumbprint designs" and incorporate a link to my shop in there. that is some serious html wrangling though so i don't know if i will be able to figure it out. trust that if i do figure it out, it will definitely be made into a tutorial!



next we have the navigation bar. this was a lot of fun to figure out because i had to install google web fonts (yep - tutorial coming for that too!) and edit the css (cascading style sheet) in my template designer. i hope you folks think nerdy computer talk is sexy because if you want to learn this you have to seriously get into it! i learned how to use a link list instead of blogger pages so that i can link to pages outside of my blog (like my shop).



i am sooo in love with my new contact buttons! i was really bored with all of the generic social media icons out there so i just played around with making my own! so now you people can stalk... er follow me on pinterest & twitter, email me, subscribe via rss feed or like me on facebook!



i also have a direct link to my etsy shop now so you don't have to find a link somewhere in my post to get to it. you can also get to it by clicking on the "shop" link on my navigation bar up top!



if you are feeling the love i'd love for you to grab & share my button on your blog! :) soon there will also be a shop button as well but it's going to be a little different and reflect the new header for my shop (coming soon!) that will tie the blog and shop together seamlessly ;)



the "new" sponsor section! i have to say that i have been so excited to participate in the sponsor swap! i think it is a great deal for those of us who would like a little extra exposure but don't quite have the money to buy ads on other blogs yet. i am excited to announce that i will have some changes to my sponsor section coming up in september (which you can read all about on my sponsor page) but i will still be offering the sponsor swap ads! i will be posting more about it in late august so keep your eyes peeled!!



follow me with google friend connect... or you can subscribe to my rss up top in the contact section!



the archives and topics. here you can find all the posts i have ever written. wanna read all the top five friday posts? or maybe all of the posts i wrote in april this year? this is where to find it folks! :)   and finally my new signature line! i think this might just be my favorite part of all. isn't that bird the cutest?? la-la-la-love her!! like i said, this is most of the new makeover. i still have some little tweaks to add here and there. so... tell me what you think? please be totally brutally honest. it is important that i like it but it is also important that it is easy for you to read, the fonts are legible, the layout makes sense and that i didn't forget anything that you deem important!! let's hear all about it!!

help!!

i am so excited!! my sister in law is having her baby this weekend (induced thursday morning - so God help her if she doesn't have him this weekend...)!!!

here is why i need your help. i want to take pictures of the birthing process. wait! not that part of the birthing process... but if she will let me, pictures of the doctors handing the baby to her, first moments, first exam, that sort of thing. i'm a little scared of being in the room with her (again, if she lets me) when she gives birth because this will be a first for me.

yeah. i might pass out.

so i need some help. some advice. pointers. things to keep me conscience during the process. so please answer some of the following questions in the comments...

1. is there something you would have like to have photographed when you gave birth that you didn't?

2. are there moments that i should definitely avoid being present for with a camera?

3. how messy is it. really??

4. any technical photography tips? aperture? blah blah? i have a cousin who is a professional and i am going to ask her but has anyone ever done this sort of thing? i'm nervous! halksdjf;oiane. yeah. that.

5. anything else. anything. please give me tips. i'm begging.

yay for new nephews! woot woot!!

{shop update & a giveaway}

happy monday!!

i have some new items to share with you for the shop and i am super {super} excited for you to see them!!



who ever said that laundry had to be all detergent and clothespins? this fun baby in any laundry room would definitely put a little skip in my step while schlepping around a loaded laundry basket! the checkered background is loaded with color and makes this a perfect jumping off point for that laundry room makeover i know you have been looking for inspiration for {wink}! plus this one is ready to ship - no waiting required!



splashing around in any kind of water never gets old! as kids we loved the way it felt under out hands and spattered our face. as teenagers it was the ultimate tool for flirting! as adults, there is no better way to relive that sentimental memory than to run through the sprinkler, giggling in your front yard. this one is a custom order and can match any color combination you'd like.



the perfect gift for your lsu-loving fan! this sign will be custom made to fit into a man cave, on an outdoor porch or in a garage. hand painted shimmery gold letters stand out against the purple background while the natural wood grain creates the tiger's "stripes" to really make this fun!



or if you like screaming "war eagle" instead, this sign is perfect for you!



this sign serves as a simple daily reminder that we are called to love everyone in every way we know how because that is how we are loved. perfect to put where you walk out the door every day! this sign is also ready to ship - no waiting required for it either!

and now for the really fun stuff! my friend jessica at all things remember is hosting a giveaway on her blog today for a $30 shop credit for one of my signs! so make sure you hop on over to her blog and enter! :)

have a wonderful week!

{daily reminders}

every day i take the same road to work. a short little hike down hwy 80 takes me to interstate 20 and then i zoom off towards monroe, headed to my little office.

it is a pretty simple drive and not much changes. until one day this popped up.



i had to stop and think about how many times i had driven by the back side of that sign before and never noticed it. ever. but two simple words made it stand out like a bright red daisy in a field of yellow tulips.

two words that now, every day, remind me to smile. more. i have so many reasons to be happy. i have so many reasons to smile. more. every day.



two words that jolt me out of the monotonous drive every day and force me to recall a happy memory and smile about it. two words that prompt me to send a sweet message to my friend to just wish her a happy day. two words that give me a fleeting moment of warm and fuzzy and put that little skip in my step.



smile more. be happy. keep your eyes open for daily reminders from God that he is watching over you and wants the best for you, even when you think He has forgotten about you.

i have a daily reminder that i should remember i am blessed beyond belief and that i should smile. more.

brain-cation

if you read my last post then you will definitely understand why i need a little "brain-cation"

{and if you left me a super awesome comment thank you thank you thank you!}

i am going to take a break from bloggging.

i have so many ideas in my head that are bursting to get out that i can't focus on much of anything beyond brushing my teeth and throwing my hair in a ponytail every morning.

i need some time and space to breath and sort through all the electricity shooting through my brain. i just have too much going on to really pay the attention i want to pay to my precious little blog. and i'm the type who believes that if i can't give it 100% i should really just reasses my priorities.

i really thought about it a lot this weekend. it pains me to actually decide to do it because this is really a place i love to be and a big stress reliever for me on most ocassions. but when having to blog starts to wear me out, i feel obligated to release myself from it. i also have a lot of things coming up in the future like...

the impending birth of my nephew!
the search and {God willing} capture of a job that i love!
simple summer fun ... swimming, sipping lemonade {okay, okay.. a cold beer}, visiting friends...
the permanent attachment of a paintbrush to my hand for shop products and house projects

i'm not going to abandon my second home completely... i will be popping in every once in a while (maybe once or twice a week) with updates on the outpour of crazy in my head. i'm not leaving forever. i just need some time to do some stuff.

things you can expect upon my return:

a total blog redesign, hopefully done completely on my own with a fresh, clean, fun new look that i love.
{i know i just changed things up but i am really not in love with it}
new products to show you for my shop, thumbprint designs!
reveals of completed house projects
posts including less pictures and more writing - revealing more of who i am and who i want to be
a happier, healthier, refreshed, more accomplished feeling me

if the case is that you are afraid you will go through withdrawals without my daily dose of whatever it is i deliver here that keeps you people coming to the trough... please email me. i'm obsessed with email. i promise i will email you back. oh and yahoo messenger. (you can find me with my email address)

i got rants in my pants.

so for anyone that is wondering, and for those of you who don't really care either, i dislike my job.

i am training to be the office manager for a small company in monroe, louisiana. the job in and of itself is easy. it is data entry, accounts receivable, and scheduling. i am also having to learn about the equipment and labor involved in the maintenance of two-way radio systems that local agencies like fire departments use. it might sound interesting when put that way, but it isn't.

the current office manager has worked here for 28 years. that is 28 years worth of knowledge that she must relay to me. this woman's mind is like a steel trap. she can tell you what happened a year ago, the date it happened, how much it cost and who performed the job. she is pretty awesome like that. however, she is a micro manager. she is old fashioned. she isn't adaptable to any change. she has the personality of a gnat. all qualities in a manager that i would like to avoid like the plague.

in a lot of ways, a bad job is really like a bad relationship. i dread coming to work every day. i hem and haw on a daily basis about whether or not i should run for the hills, flailing my hands about in freedom or whether i should just stick with it because it is somewhat familiar and because i have invested a year in it already. i feel terrible for wanting to leave because they have invested time and money in training me and keeping me around. i have also had a one-on-one with the owner, and my actual boss once the current manager retires, telling him that i really am interested in staying here provided that the work load increases and that the current manager allow me to have more responsibilities.

i am starting to have second thoughts about this relationship. one positive side to having a job you dislike is learning what you have to offer that is not being utilized and learning what you really want out of a job.

for starters, i would like a career. a vocation. a reason. not just a job. a job is what you get in high school so you don't have to ask your parents for walking-around-money. it is what you do while you are in college to pay for things like rent, bar tabs and cute clothes. a job is not something that a near-thirty-year-old wants in life.

she wants a career. i want something that i will enjoy doing forever. a job is short-term. a career lasts a life time. it is something you can do anywhere and that you enjoy growing old with. something that will carry you through marriage, children, mid-life crises and retirement. a vocation. a calling. a purpose. a reason. fulfillment in more than a paycheck. seeing something that you do, created, sweated and worried over, and brought to life bring meaning to someone else's life. i want to have meaning. i want to do something, be someone, and go somewhere.. the place i am now allows me to be nothing. to grow older but not wiser. and to go nowhere.

i want to work for someone who does not micromanage me. you hired me because you thought i could do the tasks in the job description. do not go behind me and check my work. do not stand over my shoulder and watch me. and do not tell me how to do the same thing more than once unless i ask. show some trust in the abilities you presumably hired me for and let me do my job. i will probably do it better than you expected, or could do, if you will just stand back and let me shine.

please don't make me sit behind a desk all day every day. i need to move around. i need some fresh air every once in a while. i need to meet people outside of the same seven people who come in here every day, looking for something exciting or new in their own lives. (why they come here looking i will never understand) i need to use my hands to change things. i need to talk to people outside the brick-and-mortar shell you live in. i cannot thrive behind a computer, attached to a phone all day. i refuse to be confined to a cubicle which, in my vocabulary, is a four-letter word.

don't expect me to leave things the way you have them. if you give me a space in which to work, you can guarantee i will move it around, reorganize it, throw away some things (gasp!) and make it more efficient for me. i will use it in a totally different way than you did so you cannot expect your set up to work for me. and for the love of all things holy, please do not leave your stuff on my newly claimed territory. stay out of my little bubble.

pay me what i am worth. i have a business degree from a recognized and respected university that i paid a lot of money for. and if you can't pay me what i am worth because the job doesn't allow me to perform to my highest standards then let me go and find someone else who is happy with settling. happy with being complacent. happy with a mediocre job and mediocre pay. i want to work hard, i want to enjoy working hard and seeing a result, and i want to be fairly compensated for the hard work that i do.

finally, show your appreciation in other ways besides that paycheck. say "thanks" or "good job" or "nice work" every once in a while. take me out to lunch. don't make me wonder if all this hard work i am doing is pleasing you or if you just really don't care. feedback, negative or positive, will always be accepted. if i don't know what you're thinking i will never be able to fix the problem or know if i need to keep doing what i am doing.

so, needless to say, i am currently on the lookout for a different job. i am spiffing up my resume and sending it out, praying that i find something that i suit, that suits me.

why am i telling you all of this? because i seek your prayers and your encouragement. i need to be reassured that i am doing the right thing and that i will find something that fulfills me. and because i lean on you people for support and friendship. and because i needed to get it all off my chest. and between this and having a nice lunch with the hubs i feel a lot better already. :)

benfield/jett reunion 2012

family. fun. beach. sun.

the benfield/jett reunion happily celebrated its 21st reunion july 4th weekend in galveston texas! :)

{ps read all about the 20th reunion here}

we stayed at the victorian condos on the seawall about a block from 61st street. i definitely recommend them in terms of a great place to stay for a small family vacation.

if you have more than about ten people, i'd tell you to go somewhere else or rent a beach house. the only problem we seemed to have is there was nowhere big enough for all 35 to congregate and see each other.

which is kind of the point of a reunion. right?

anyways - here are some pictures that my uncle bobo took.

{disclaimer: everyone is a cousin, no matter what their actual relation.}



left to right; top to bottom:

my cousin rance, in the middle, with his girlfriend, melanie, on his left and his sister, katie, on the right
aunt martha with the youngest addition this year, jett
aunt donna sunning
adam and his son sammy - the betrothed family of my cousin tara
chase - oldest son of cousin deedee
cousins jennica and amy
bryce - youngest son of cousin deedee
cousin trent and his girlfriend angie
three generations: uncle bobo with his son jason and his youngest son evan.



left to right:
donna sunning some more *wink*
cousin jason and his son evan
cousin tara with the obligatory beer *double wink*



left to right:
my hubby chris
me catching the frisbee while rhiann watches
brother rance throwing the frisbee



left column, top to bottom:

adam and sammy diggin in the sand some more
hubby chris catching the frisbee again
tara's mom cousin janey
tara - after aforementioned obligatory beer *triple wink* one of the most awesome things about this year's reunion was to see all the little ones running around knowing that they are the next generation of the reunion go-ers and how much fun it will be to watch them grow up every year at the reunion just like our parents watched us grow up!

next year we are going to rent a house on the beach. have you been to a beach house in galveston? any suggestion as to where a family of 30-35 can all sleep and live comfortably for a weekend?



{sponsor swap shout out}

you have probably noticed a new little addition to my sidebar over there. after what i believe has been a brilliantly successful plan {sponsor swap} i have five new sponsors and i am thrilled to introduce them to you!  ********** Kelsey Sapp
Poofy Cheeks



My name is Kelsey and I am a twenty-something wife and mother who lives in a house full of boys. I am originally from Northern Illinois, but moved to Florida when I was 18. After moving to Florida I met my best friend and husband. Since then, we have had two little boys (our Poofy Cheeks), and they are the center of our world.

When I was pregnant with Poofy Cheek #1 I was given a renewed sense of love for all thing creative. I spent almost my entire pregnancy creating things for the nursery and sewing up cute little blankets. After I had Poofy Cheek #2, I came across a few craft blogs that sparked my interest. I remember thinking 'I can totally do that!' and so I did. Along came Poofy Cheeks the blog. Poofy Cheeks has been a saving grace from a house of three boys. I often need to see pink and get another girl opinion - which I can always find in Blog Land. My blog has been a place for me to share furniture rehabs, room redos, crafts, recipes and more. My favorite things are Goodwill finds, spray paint, cupcakes, party planning, and my treasured glue gun!  **********

Jessica Diamond
All Things Remembered



Hi, I'm Jessica. I am twenty four years old. I am a stay at home mom and I absolutely love that I am able to do that. I am married to the most amazing man, Bryan. Together we have a handsome little mister, Landon Scott. I love photography and cooking although I'm not that great at either. I also enjoy reading, coffee, rainy nights and hanging out with my two favorite boys. Oh, and did I mention that I hate chocolate?! Yep, you read that right. :)  **********

Kelley M.
View Along the Way



This tiny corner of the web is where I chronicle our attempts to turn a once-tragic foreclosure into something a little less tragic – and doing it all on a teensy little budget. We may never quite reach our destination, but I always want to try to enjoy the view along the way. **********

Cassie Yielding
This Journey Through my Life

Hey! I'm Cassie, the lady behind the blog This Journey Through my Life. I'm a wife to an amazing man and I am a mother to two beautiful, smart and sweet boys. Wanna meet them?



That's us! I am a stay at home mom who has a knack for decorating, painting and cooking. I love to bake, crochet and read. I also like to organize and do crafts! My blog is exactly what the title is. This is my journey through this life God has blessed me with! It ranges from parenting and marriage to baking and cooking, to crafts and house projects and so on! Anything that goes on in my daily life you'll find on my blog! :D **********

Andrea Sponslor
The Hollie Rogue

Hi, my name is Andi and I'm fairly new to this blogging world. I started to write in early February of this year when we discovered that our 2 month old son had a rar condition called craniosynostosis (his soft spot closed too early). Since then, blogging has become a wonderful creative outlet for mr, given me a place to document our memories and provided me with a supportive community full of new friends.

Just so you know who you are talking to, this is me!



I write a blog called the hollie rogue where i document my love for my family, organizing and decorating our home, crafting, cooking and photographing life's moments (while still learning everything i can about my camera). Every Friday I host a photograph linky party - I would love to have you stop by!



Now that you know a little about me, I would be thrilled to get to know you better! Let's be friends.... mkay? Come see me at the hollie rogue and say hello! ********** these gals are the cream of the crop if you ask me! i definitely think you should hop over and check them all out! :) ********** if you are intersted in swapping sponsorship - just drop me a line! i'd be happy to line you up for august! :)