Craft Cabin!

Late Friday morning I jumped in the car with a few of my favorite girls to head out of town for the weekend to celebrate my dear friend Mel's 30th Birthday! We drove from our hometown in south eastern Michigan to the beautiful Lake Michigan shoreline. Where we met up with one more gal to craft the weekend away.

Our weekend was filled with chatting and laughing, car dancing and beach walking, blanket stitches and yarn hooking, snacking and game playing.

It is a little late in the year to have a full enjoyment of the lake, but I feel like anytime you can fall asleep to the sound of waves hitting the sand and wake up to pink sun shining on blue water it is worth it!
Saturday morning I took a watch on the beach with my little cousin Peter (seen in a much smaller form here) we both felt like it was a little early, but very pretty (please note that this picture was taken just after he spit up inside - yeah inside - my shirt)!

I'm sure that there will be a little more about the trip showing up this week, so stay tuned for that!

Tips From A Recovering Over Packer

Oh yes I am squeezing those 36 hours spent in a car for everything it's worth and getting yet another road trippin' out to ND post going. Lets start by saying I was once a major over packer, just ask anyone who has traveled with me! I'm not saying that I've completely gotten over my desire to just keep stuffing things in until I walk out the door, but I am getting better. Here are a few of my tips:

Tip 1: Take a smaller bag! When the airlines started charging for checked baggage my life as committed over packer was changed. I couldn't stand the idea of spending all that extra money, just to take more stuff for a long weekend. I now take only a carry on sized suit case for any trips less than a week.

Tip 2: Work in outfits. I start every packing adventure by making a list of the days that I will be gone, any events or special items needed. For example for this trip I needed something different for the rehearsal dinner than what I had worn all day on Friday so Friday got two sections on my sheet one for Friday during the day and one for the rehearsal. I list every item needed for each outfit, I then put each outfit in a pile everything from bar to shoes. Moving repeat items from pile to pile, just to make sure I have it all. Then everything gets packed away nice and tight.

Tip 3: Do you need to take fancy shoes? I like to pack nicer dress shoes in a shoe box so that they don't get smashed.
Tip 4: How not to forget toiletries - I like to pull out my handy dandy toiletries bag a few days before my trip and then over the next few days anytime I use something that I will need on my trip I put it in the bag. That way I know I wont leave anything behind and it's no big deal to live out of a toiletries bag for a couple of days.

Tip 5: You can buy almost anything you leave behind. It is really freeing to know you can pick up pretty much anything that you need almost anywhere you go.
Tip 6: Treat your jewelry like your clothes. I pack my jewelry just like I do my clothing, by outfit.
For example my jewels for the wadding. I also recommend picking up one of these little travel jewelry boxes.
Closing Confession: This is everything that I brought with me (oh and an un-pictured bridesmaid's dress). Because I was driving I allowed myself to bring a few extra bags, if I was flying I would have ditched my craft bag and packed an empty purse after putting all my pursey things (cell phone, wallet, ipod, etc.) into my computer bag.

So are any of you over packers? Do you have any great packing tips. I feel like packing is one of those things you just get better and better.

Two To Tango

I'm still in post trip catch up mode, so today we just have a quick tip/buy. Here is my tip: buy more shoes! As you know I was in North Dakota over the weekend for my brother's wedding, but did you also know that I was a bridesmaid? No, well I was! And as I'm sure you know that task involves spending a lot of time traipsing around in high heals and not just any high heals, the fancy kind that wage war with your feet. The shoes I wore for the service/pictures/dinner were this cute pair of peep toes, with black satin ruffles from Nina, picked up for a song at DSW. In addition to my party shoes, I also picked up a pair of dancing shoes. These black sparkly flats are by Wanted and can be found on Endless.com. I'm not going to say that my feet didn't hurt at all by the end of the night, but I will say that it is a lot easier to stumble up to your hotel room after a night of dancing when you aren't trying to cram your feet back into heals (because I know that if you don't have a back up pair of shoes, you are for sure dancing in your bare feet by the nights end!).

P.S. I'm also a fan of the sparkled flip flop for such events.