Finally! I’ve been wanting to shout this out for weeks now- and now I can! xoelle is featured in the newest edition of Southern Weddings Magazine! I feel so honored/blessed/lucky to be included in such an amazing publication. REALLY. Have ya’ll seen this magazine? It is gorgeous! It hits newstands Wednesday, November 11th and will be available all over the USA, not just the south. =) Look here for a list of retailers that will be carrying it. Look below for a little sneak that the lovely ladies over at Southern Weddings sent me.

I can’t wait to get me hands on the lovely thing! The above photos are from a shoot at Watercolor Resort & Inn right here in Florida- you can see my gingham tie on the groom- and I believe that my bow ties are also in a section for groom fashion that I have yet to see. I am just giggling with excitement.

Lots of love to the SW ladies- they are a super bunch of inspiring sweethearts.

I just love weddings. *gush*

elle

I found out recently that something of mine was published in Garth Johnson’s (of Extreme Craft fame) 1000 Ideas for Creative Reuse by Quarry Books. It’s been out for about a week now and I haven’t seen a copy, but I’ll post the pages that I’m on when I get my hands on one. Garth asked me to submit a few photos of my bow ties- and I think that I sent him some photos of my journals as well- I’m not sure what made it into the book. You can check it out on Amazon here.

I’ll have even more exciting news tomorrow. You know, the news that I keep talking about every few weeks- it’s finally time that I can spill all about it! yay!
rock on wooly friends
elle

Many thanks to the lovely Emily at Southern Weddings Magazine for featuring my xoelle paraphenalia on Lara Casey’s blog. The feature can be found here.

It’s flattering to be recognized by such ladies with such amazing taste!

A million & gazillion thanks to everyone who has given me a thumbs up over the past week. WE made it to the finals! My video is included in the final twentyfour and this weeks voting will determine who takes home $40,000! Please (pretty please with sugar on top) sign into your youtube account give me a thumbs up each day this week. I am amazed and humbled at the support I’ve gotten so far- I know that I’ve got the best friends and family a girl could dream of!
Voting takes place at http://www.youtube.com/hp.

Speaking of millions & gazillions, our house is turning into a maze of books, piles of half-started costumes, and ties. The above picture is one tiny (clean) corner- where half of the books that are waiting for their turn to be journals are tucked away. I think that I could lock myself in this house and have enough work for a year and a half.

I’d better get started.

lots o’ love
Laura. =)

Hi friends and neighbors-
I made a little stop motion video. I’ve been talking about it here for quite some time- and now it’s time for it’s grand debut! I made it to enter the HP You on You contest and waited to post it here until I knew if I was moving to the next round- and I am! I am a semi-finalist which means my video will be posted on the contest site this week along with 19 other vidoes. Youtube users can vote for their favorite videos all week and the top four move on to the finals. Please take a moment to head over there, watch some videos, and give me a thumbs up. You can vote once per day today through Sunday! There are some pretty rad prizes to be had. =)

The contest site is here. Click on “View and Vote” in the upper right hand corner. You’ll see all 20 semi-finalist videos for this week. My little video has a doll (wearing a teeny tiny handmade dress!) in front of a map. You can also access my video straight from its youtube page here. If you think it’s super duper, please give it a thumbs up! It’ll make my day.

All ya’ll really are the best!
xo
elle

Mr. Joshua is my younger brother, right next to me in a line of 6 kids. He is super smart and wildly creative. He and I have taken it upon ourselves to document our family and our lives on film and in photographs. Our combined creative to-do list could travel to the moon and back 2.6 times. He inspires me.

Mr. Joshua recently became a semi-finalist in HP’s “you on you” contest. This re-validates his coolness in my mind.

It would be in your best interest to visit HP’s contest page and check out his video. Click through here and then click “view + vote”. His video’ll be the one with the red curtains. Please leave a thumbs up as you go (and know that you can give him one thumbs up per day the whole week to help him move on to the next round)! If you want more, I found this video to be just about the coolest ever.

I’m totally going to be making a video now. I could use me a laptop. =)

xoxo
elle

And, the interview for Ohdeeoh.

Name/Age: Jack, 2 months
Location: Pensacola, Florida
Family: Jack, mom Laura and and dad
Room Size: 100 square feet
Division: Baby

Tip for Living Small with Kids: We’re still brand new at the sharing of our home with a child, but one thing we’ve learned is that we don’t need all of the baby gear that we were told we would need. Most of it is supurfluous and just clutters up your space.

What was one of the biggest challenges you faced in putting together this room?

There are no windows in this room! It’s an interior room and can be very drab…but other than that our biggest challenge was that we’re living in a rented home and everything has to be temporary. We aren’t allowed to paint or put holes in the walls. I love color so I tried to include it in every other place possible. We chose gray, orange, teal, and lime green for the colors and used them all over. We painted the crib lime green, dyed the sheets and the carpet (a t-shirt latch hook rug that I made) grey, and used the same coordinating colors for a quasi-bookcase that we built. The room has two built-in units in the corner. One has shelves, but the other was just an open space (it used to be open to the next room, which is now a separate apartment) so we built boxes and rectangles out of 1×6’s to use as shelving. The lanterns were purchased with the colors in mind as well, and they were hung from the ceiling with 3m’s removable hooks.

The other, smaller challenge was money- we are on a very tight budget, but we were able to pull off this space for about $220:
rocking chair from a thrift store: $30
lanterns, bulbs, wiring, and hooks: $90
wood and screws for bookcase: $45
paint: $30
robot wall decal: $5
latch hook rug supplies: $25
crib: free from a friend who was cleaning out her garage!

As far as resources go, I found lots of inspiration on your site (and flickr and modernnursery.com).

Thanks!

Jack’s nursery has been featured on Apartment Therapy’s Ohdeeoh, and I need your votes people! Head on over to the article and click to leave your thumbs up for Jack Danger’s room!

Click here to go to Ohdeeoh and vote!

I will love you forever.

xoxo
elle

see more photos from Mom’s perspective.

Why? is the most common question I get and I can’t really give a simple answer.
No, I am not a Seahawks fan.
No, it’s not because I’ll be giving birth to a boy in a few months.
No, I am not an anime freak.

I just really like the color blue, so long ago (in high school!) “have blue hair” was added to my lifelong to-do list. There are various reasons that it hasn’t happened between then and now: attending an LDS college that wouldn’t allow it (and I assure you, I ended up on probation without it), working for a restaurant chain that didn’t allow “extreme” hair color, lack of funds, and just plain “I want my boyfriend to like my hair”.

So, why? I guess becuase I didn’t have any excuses anymore and as I approach my 30th birthday I want to make sure that I’m stretching and taking risks and continuing to grow.
Plus, it’s rad.

More later, my friends. I am returning to the sunny south in a few days, and then the rest of my life really begins…as Garth and I prepare a nursery and stock up on diapers. Jack’ll be in our arms shortly. Holy Moly.

xoxox
elle