Just a little ukulele.

I'm at the beach this week. Torture. But my mom is watching the Big Brother finale, and since I don't keep up with that show, I've had to find something else to occupy my time. So I took to Hello Giggles. I've blogged about Hello Giggles once before, but tonight I just went scavenging for some videos and music to entertain me for an hour and a half. So I will share.

Here are some of my old favorites...

And bust out the tissues for this one.


And here's an new one that I just love love loved.

  I know this was a bit of a random blog, but I've been out of blogging world a bit and I need to get back in the swing of things. So enjoy these and please go read Hello Giggles, it's hours of entertainment.

Once Upon a Time...16 years ago.

I am an Olympic junkie. Winter. Summer. It doesn't matter. I love all the events. Even curling. Yes, curling is one of my absolute favorite winter sports, and I never miss seeing the USA team. And yes I understand how it works.

 But when it comes to summer Olympics, I love love love swimming and Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings. Every time that Misty and Kerri play, I find myself on the verge of a heart attack. The fact that in their Olympics careers they have never lost a single match, let alone a single set leaves me on the edge of my seat with every serve and spike.

Legends.

 In Beijing, I was all about team Phelps. That said, I am also on team Lochte this go around. Not to jump on any bandwagons, but I just got hooked on Lochte's "this is my year" attitude. I was glad to finally see some fire out of Phelps today in the 4x200. To hear him cheer at the end of the final, was bone chilling. Props Michael. Props.

I mean he has and American Flag grill. What more could you ask for people?

Now that I've spilled my nerdy Olympics guts...I feel I should somewhat justify this nerdiness. When I was 10, 16 YEARS AGO!!!!!!!! (ugh.) I was in the opening and closing ceremonies of the 1996 Centennial Olympic games in Atlanta. I was selected from my elementary school to join other children, ages 6-12, from the metro-Atlanta area to participate in the ceremonies. At 10 I had NO IDEA how big of a deal this kind of was. That makes me sad. I would give anything to be given that opportunity again now that I have this nerdy/emotional obsession with all things Olympic. But I digress.

So since everything was super uber secretive, I was shuttled from a local elementary school to the Olympic stadium all summer long for hours long practices. I also wasn't allowed to tell my parents anything about what went on at the stadium. Not to be put out, the IOC made sure we got pampered. We got to keep all of our practice gear, along with our ceremony costumes and we were sent home with those wonderful and oh so coveted limited edition PINS! Gasp!

If you watched the Opening Ceremonies, and you remember the white 100 and the flying dove that was formed on the field during The Call to the Nations, I was one of those tiny little kids that was dressed as a floppy white Pringle. I was the bottom right corner of the second zero, and the front/bottom line of the right wing on the dove.

If you watched the Closing Ceremonies (which I'm surprised how many people don't...but the Spice Girls are performing this year so you better BET I will be glued to the TV...Ziggazig Ahh.) I was one of the little children in the various white, much-more-normal-than-a-Pringle outfits, who held a flashlight, sang Power of the Dream (serious flashback to the 90s!) and formed the Atlanta torch emblem.

Oh, and don't worry, if you missed either of the ceremonies in 1996...I got some youtube for you right here. You're welcome.

 The Call to the Nations
Summon the Heroes
 Power of the Dream

Now I'm not writing this to sound conceded, but I just think that Olympics are such an amazing and beautiful thing that allows people from all over the world to put aside their differences and come together, if only for 14 days, and show that even while competing, we are all the same. Feel the flame forever burn ;)

Ok so. If you don't watch the Olympics...WHAT THE HECK IS YOUR PROBLEM??!!! Stop reading this and go watch. Now. For real.

I dye for these.

So last night, I decided to bite the bullet and Ombre dip dye the shirt I made last weekend. I went to my local (not favorite) craft store and bought some Rit liquid dye in Wine. I followed the directions from the Rit website, but I cut everything in half (except the dye measurement, because I wanted dark color). I also made another shirt for my mom, 'cause she said she wanted one...the only problem is, I dyed each shirt differently and now I can't decide which I like more.

Before

I dipped the shirt in half way for about 15 secsonds. Then I lifted it just a few inches and held it up for 2 minutes.Then lifted it up another few inches for 5 minutes. And for the back "tail" I rigged up the hanger on my kitchen cabinets (yes. I had to get a chair to reach.) and let it sit in the dye for 10 minutes. For the second shirt I then dipped the top half of the shirt (previously white) into the dye just long enough to cover it. Then I rinsed the shirts in my kitchen sink until the water ran clear, and hung them in my shower so that they could air dry.

 I untied the seam from the racer backs and fully dyed them so that they would be the darkest shade of wine and would contrast on both shirts.  I think they turned out nicely and now I can't wait to Ombre dye some other things...there is a beautiful Teal that I can't wait to try!

Cuttin' Up

So I've been feeling relatively "crafty" lately. In the clothing department. Scissors and old t shirts have been my delight. So here are some of my recent endeavors.

First I made some head bands. I just started with an old frat shirt from college that was in the throw away pile. Then followed the tutorial. (with the braided headband, just keep saying "outside, inside, middle, out.")

Next, I stole one of my dad's tshirts and decided to make a bathing suit "cover-up" for the beach. (a.k.a. work-out shirt)

Before

After (front)

After (back)

This was really simple to do, but now I want to ombre dip dye the finished product. So I'll be picking up some RIT tomorrow at the store. Hopefully it will turn out ok!  

'Merica, with my hand on my heart.

This 4th of July was pretty low key. There was some pool fun with Giovanni, Jamie, Marco and Krista, and then some banging grilled chicken and veggies. 

After dinner, I headed to Dahlonega for some fun times with the little, and some awesome fireworks! I lived in Dahlonega for 7 years, but somehow I managed to always be out of town for the 4th, so seeing the fireworks on the drill field was amazing. Lauren and I were able to walk right up to the drill field, and find seats, just as the fireworks started.

On Tuesday night, I decided that I needed something festive for Wednesday, so I made these...

 I followed these instructions, except instead of a stencil, I free hand painted the stars...mainly because I forgot to buy a stencil.

 Next on the list are a pair of Union Jack shorts, so I can get on my Olympic pride at an Opening Ceremonies party!

Forever and ever, amen.

There's not much to say in this post. Something about pictures and thousands of words I think. I'll just let Lauren's beauty and the love between she and Nathan speak for itself.

I love Lauren and Nathan so much and I want nothing but absolute happiness for them in their years together. Their perfect wedding day, was just the beginning of that.

Bucket List

So my friend Sarah Beth and I have been feeling almost annoyingly crafty lately, after finally feeling inspired enough to paint some canvases for Brogan's bathroom. We caught the painting bug and now we just can't shake it...lucky for our friends. 

We painted quite a few buckets this weekend for some pretty sweet kiddos, and I hope they will enjoy keeping all their toys in them (and their mom's can enjoy keeping their toys organized!) Sarah Beth painted one for "B" to keep down stairs, we both worked on two buckets for sweet Baby A, and I painted one for Banks Bradley, to go with his robot nursery.

If you know a sweet kiddo that might need a toy bucket, let us know!

Viewer Discretion...Lauren's Bachelorette!

This past weekend, my beautiful little Lauren got married! Actually beautiful doesn't even begin to describe what the weekend was. I will have more to post about the newest Mrs. Dale soon, but two weekends ago we had Lauren's last fling before her ring!...now I must say, some of the party details are not for little eyes, so proceed with caution ;)

 Our night started out at the Hilton in Atlanta. I wanted Lauren to feel totally pampered, and to me that means sleeping in a room that no one at the party has to clean! HA!

 I made a wreath to place on the door so that everyone in the the hotel would know that they were missing out on some awesome bachelorette fun!

The party started with cupcakes and cocktails in the room. We made Pink Panty Pulldowns and some, ahem, anatomically shaped sweets...

 Once Lauren had opened all her sexy goodies, we got ready for our night on the town! We started the night at Blake's on the Park and then walked over to Crescent Ave. and went to Ri Ra and Flip Flops. It was an UHMAZING night of fun dancing and tons of laughter!

Lauren was a gorgeous bachelorette, and an even more stunning bride! It was such a fun night to celebrate with friends, and I can't wait to share all the sweet details of the wedding!