What can I craft this Tuesday? A Long Distance Mug

As much as I love a good alliteration, Tuesday Thriftovers wasn't working for everything I wanted to do. It's restrictive and I didn't like it. So I'm renaming Tuesdays. Don't worry, it's all the stuff you would've gotten anyway. Here's today's post:

I'm not sure what's gotten into me, but I'm all into Christmas right now. I've already gotten presents for my mom, my sister-in-law, and I've started on my nephews. I saw this really neat pin a while ago and I knew instantly I wanted to make it for my best friend. Since she doesn't read my blog (yet) I can post it here well before Christmas time. As I mentioned before I'm going to add more pictures of my steps so you can see the progress at each step.

I started with two plain white mugs I picked up from the dollar store. I had a black sharpie, black sharpie paint pen, and red bic permanent market on hand.

I wanted it to look and with Colorado it's not hard because let's face it, it's a box. New York is a bit trickier. No matter, I printed out pictures of each state and used my superior scissor skills to make templates. I held down the Colorado template because it was four straight-ish lines. I taped down the New York in order to keep it steady.

Here's the result. See, Colorado is totally a box.

Then I added little hearts as to where we both live. She lives in Denver, I live near Albany. You can see the map on my monitor that I used to put the hearts in the general vicinity of where they are actually.

I found this quote that I love and it always reminds me of our friendship. "Together forever, never apart. Maybe in distance but never in heart."

Then I threw these bad boys in my cold oven to set the ink and mesh it with the glaze.

I set my oven for 400 F and let the mugs heat up with the oven. Then I set my timer for 30 minutes and went back to work. After the 30 minutes I turned off the oven and let the mugs cool down with the oven.

 

After they were cool, I wiped them down to make sure I didn't screw up the ink was truly set. While working on this today I found a great post with some tips and tricks for crafty on mugs, plates, etcs. Now I wait for Christmas so I can send it out! I'll package it with tea, some honey sticks, and a note of love to her!

I'll leave you with a picture of us from my wedding. Love you Christina!

A celebration

Ryan and I just got back from doing an anniversary shoot with my favorite photographer Keith Hitlin. When I first emailed him and his wife Meghan...they were a little confused. So was my husband, truth be told. Why shoot an anniversary - especially the first one? Well, to me one year was big. We've done so much in one year - we moved out, got a few hair cuts, and lost a crap ton of weight. And just because we're a family of two, doesn't mean we can't (or shouldn't) have yearly (that might take some smooth talking) family photos.

Once I got my husband on board, the photographers were on board too. Megs came up with a great theme of a "where we are" kinda deal. We did a few shots around our apartment. On a side note: I absolutely love my husband for putting up with my craziness all day. We did some in the front hallway of the house and then outside. That concluded our Lansingburgh part. We changed up our outfits and headed down to downtown Troy.

Ryan and I go to River Street every single Saturday we're around (and not up visiting his family) for the Farmers' Market. I absolutely love it. Not only do we support local bakeries, farmers, and wineries (yum!), but we spend it together, holding hands enjoying one another's company, truly, utterly happy. Shooting in a place that reminds of that makes me truly, utterly happy. And I got to be a goof - which I'm sure will come out in pictures.

Keith and Meghan shot our wedding, a little over a year ago. I love, love, love their technique and the way they captured our day. Their dynamic teamwork produced amazing photos which I will treasure for the rest of my life. If you're engaged, getting married, having a baby, or just want some damn good photos go to the link above. You will not regret it. Seriously - check them out. Even if it's to browse the photos.

Have you done family photos for two? Or if you have a bigger family - how often do you get them done? Link up a picture of your latest photo. I'd love to see whoever reads this!

So for now, I sit. I wait. Hitting F5 until a teaser shows up on their Facebook feed. Pitiful? Maybe. Worth it? TOTALLY!