Happy Birthday!

First, I thought I would show you some of the prom pictures I told you about last time. I am only posting some of the better ones, just because I don't want to bring back bad memories :)



Last weekend I went to Orem. We (my mom and I) left and Friday and spent a rather boring night at my brother's house. His boxer puppy was rather entertaining, however. I have always wanted one, and now I want one even more so! On Saturday morning, we went flower shopping with the newlyweds. It was fun, since my sister-in-law hasn't had her own garden before and was excited to plant her flowers. It took this photo at Lowe's of one of the fine specimens:


Next, we went with Emilie to get a wedding dress. It really was not the most fun experience of my life admittedly, as it involved a lot of waiting around, watching girls scrutinize themselves in gowns, and wishing I was in their shoes. After a couple long hours and a very helpful sales lady, Emilie did get the dress she wanted ordered.

After that ordeal, Emilie and her fiance, and my mom and I went to Thanksgiving Point. The object was to get more engagement photos of the two, which did happen, but of course I couldn't resist taking photos of everything else around us and stalking the booth vendors to see if they had Etsy shops (3 of them did).

(in a small town called Forks...)

After this, we had some Costa Vida for dinner, and my mom and I headed back home. Terribly exciting, I know!

Some time during the week, I took this photo that I was very happy with! I love Lightroom and all the tricks I can do with it, by the way :)


I celebrated my 23rd birthday on Wednesday in pretty grand fashion! I went out to lunch at the Thai restaurant with my mom, and then we went to Wal-Mart and did a little shopping. My mom bought me the movie Tron as a birthday gift :) I really love the movie! I am a nerd, yes. After that, I taught my students, then performed with my quintet. To end the day, I had angel food cake with strawberries and cream, with my family and a bunch of teenagers. And then I watched Tron by myself and made some jewelry and started a sale in my Etsy shop.

The real excitement happened on Thursday. My mom, Michelle, John and I went to Las Vegas! We first visited the Ferrari store at the Wynn, and then did some unfruitful shopping at Victoria's Secret. It was pretty fun!


We had pizza for dinner, and my aunt gave me my birthday present. It was a lot of practical stuff for my China trip, such as a water bottle holder and anti-diarrheal medicine. It was funny.

After our wonderful pizza dinner, we went swimming. Michelle and I are so silly sometimes! We have been visiting my aunt in Vegas since we were little, and we would do things like syncronized swimming, the game shark and dolphins (though we can't even remember what the object of the game was), and other silly things. You would think we would have grown out of these antics, but no! We played with fun noodles. We pretended they were seahorses and that we were racing them. It was so very silly, and oh so much fun! Not to mention great exercise.

After swimming, my aunt surprised me with a cake! I was amused to find that it was an angel food cake, and that she had strawberries and ice cream to go with it.

On Friday, we went to the Bellagio in the morning, where I got several fun photos!

This last one was really fun to process. I did a little editing in Lightroom first, and then I pulled it up in Gimp and put on a texture I found on Deviantart.com. What do you think?

Next, we went to the forum shops at Caesar's Palace and got lost. It's really a fun place:


It's funny, I know a lot of people HATE going to Vegas. Crowds. Sleeve. Dirt. Foreign languages. But I think it's so fun! Minus the sleeze. Their is such great diversity and energy there. I love seeing all the different people.

That basically ended our Vegas adventures. One of those days I got some new shoes for my China trip. But I don't really remember how that fit in. I'm a bit tired right now. Silly insomnia!

Then we took my grandma back to her house in Ely, which I am sure she was happy for. The most exciting that happened during that time was getting stuck in construction in the Nevada desert.

The rest of the time in Ely was spent watching Say Yes to the Dress, listening to my great aunt complain about her TV (no, it's not dim, you're just blind) and her chair, and telling my grandma that she was taking her medicine right. Oh, how I dread getting old at times!

So now I'm 23 and I don't feel any different than I did at 17, really. I'm wonder if that will ever change.

Oh, lastly, you should really read this post on my Creations blog. You'll be sad if you don't I think. I promise this is the last time I will pester you about!

That's all :)

Sorry it's been so long. . .

But if you would like to get weekly updates about my life, you should be following my Creation's blog. Plus, once I get 6 more followers I am having a giveaway! To be a part of that giveaway, you have to follow my Creation's blog.

I have had a few adventures since I last posted. The first one happened 3 weeks ago on a Friday. I took Michelle to SUU for some pre-prom shoots. The photos turned out really cute! Here are the favorites:



The next day, I went out for a grand adventure with my friend Tyson. We started by going to Toquerville Falls. I really only got one photo I was happy with:

It's kind of a neat place. Next, we went. . . somewhere between there are Leeds. We hiked around a bunch of red rocks and took some pictures (I bet you're very surprised!)





As you will notice, I have been experimenting a little with my editing. It's been really fun! I've been getting really involved on the website Etsy, and looking at the vintage/shabby chic shops have really rubbed off on my style.

The following Tuesday, it was off to Beaver. I taught violin, then me and Tyson went taking pictures again. I really only got these two good ones:



Just kidding, I liked this one too.

It was pretty fun. I think Beaver is actually really pretty. I like the mountains there, and the general feel of the town. It has been really fun to teach there! My students are all very cute too, and a couple of them work hard, ha ha.

Emilie and her fiance came for a visit last weekend, and I took some engagement photos for them. Our favorites:





See? More vintage edits! I guess once you see something enough you start to like it?

This week has been sort of crazy! I have been working hard to get some product ready, because I am doing a booth at the fundraiser for Hope for the Change. I am really excited about it, and also quite nervous! I will be displaying my handmade jewelry and photo prints. Oh, and Luke Heaton of Whittlesticks is making some jewelry stands for me. It will be great! Here are some recent examples of my jewelry:







In the last couple weeks I have made around 25 bracelets, mostly for infants and toddlers, and about 20 pairs of earrings. I went on a packaging kick one night for some reason. Here's what they look like all bagged up in a box:



I have also been going through the headache of getting ready to go to china. The orchestra keeps asking for more money than I have and giving last minute notices about stuff I need to get to them. Last Thursday I was feeling very stressed about this, so after rehearsal my friend Marin (who is also going to China) and her brother (who is also going to China) went and got ice cream. It was quite fun! I look forward to going and getting to know them better.

On Friday, as many of you know, it snowed! And snowed and snowed! So after turning in my visa paperwork (which turned out to be quite an arduous task), I went out and took some photos. (Are you seeing a trend here?)





Actually, the last one I took earlier in the week at home. And yesterday, I took pictures of Michelle's prom group. Honestly, it was a nightmare. It was freezing cold and I was freezing cold, the light was bad, and because it was so cold my batteries kept dying. Several of the photos turned out very poorly, but most still turned out ok. I will post some of those next time.

Other than that, it's really the same old thing. Some of this I am quite fond of, other things, not so much. But I am very excited to do my booth, and to go to China!

That's all for now!

My boring life. . . Oh, I got my wisdom teeth out.

First, a moment of shameless self-promotion!

I have a cute little shop on Etsy. Right now, I am having a sale! If you use coupon code SpringFeverFrenzy you get 50% off of any item in my shop! Whoa! This offer ends Friday, March 25. To stay updated on great offers like these, you can follow my Creations blog, like Heather Rae's Creations on Facebook, or follow me on Twitter. Really friends, I would appreciate it and any sharing you can do.

Now for an update on my life! Here's how it goes. I get up around 11, check my Etsy and social networking shctuff, then do something or other productive like practice, make flashcards, clean, or something super exciting like that. Then I teach violin for three hours. Then I come home and eat dinner. Then I usually watch a movie and make jewelry or flashcards or edit photos while I watch. Then I try to go to sleep, and I fail. So I read or watch some Stargate (which is awesome). Then I try again. Sometimes it takes a couple tries, and I rarely fall asleep before 2. Thursday nights I go to rehearsal for OSU. Fridays I rehearse with my quintet. This is my life. Wahoo!

Last Friday, I had the super exciting experience of getting my wisdom teeth out. I had dreaded it for about 8 months, so by the time I had an actual appointment, I was really happy that the dreading would soon be over. I also figured that it wouldn't be too bad since I was going under and because my teeth hadn't given me much trouble, at all. They hadn't even broken through (I know I am late on this whole wisdom tooth thing. I didn't lose my last baby tooth until I was 12 though so it isn't a huge surprise.). Since my sister needed hers done my mom lovingly made us both apppointments so we could endure torture at the same time.

So anyway, we went in and my dad left to get Michelle's x-rays. We were really goofy because neither of us had slept much, and the people in the office kept staring at us. They likely thought we were twins. Michelle expressed her horror at the thought of the doctor giving her her teeth after they were out. Ew! I went in to get my x-ray done and found out that the nurse DID think we were twins and was really surprised to hear we weren't. After that, she asked who wanted to go first, but before we could think of a way to decide, they decided for us. My paperwork went through first, so I was up.

I went back to the torture area and they nice ladies asked me if I had ever had an IV before. No, I hadn't, so I got a cute certificate and am an official member of the 1st IV club! I thought it was funny. Then they put the IV in and put it water. It felt really weird. Then the doctor came in and said I only had 3 wisdom teeth. Yippee! But the nurse had to burst my bubble and tell me it was a bottom tooth I should have had missing. But I was still happy. Then the doctor (Mizukawa) told me my teeth were average, so basically I would have the average amount of torture. Lucky me.

Then he started putting stuff in the IV. He said "This one will make you feel fuzzy, and the next one will put you to sleep." And he asked about what I do. I said "I teach violin lessons." "Oh, that's nice, my son used to play violin." He was so nice. I liked him. I was cold, but they would take care of me.

Next thing I knew, I was in a recliner with a blanket on. Sweet! I felt so warm and fuzzy, despite the goofy ice packet headband I wore. Not too long after Michelle came in and sat down. After some instructions, I went to the car with little trouble. Michelle got to the car with a little more trouble, but I had more sitting down time.

We went to Bulloch Drug and got shakes and drugs. The ice cream ladies were very sympathetic, and mercifully didn't solicit much response. It's hard to talk with a numb face and gauze in the mouth. I had to wipe up Michelle's drool a few times, but neither of us really cared. I helped her get back to the van and we went home.

That day I watched lots of movies and ate lots of ice cream. My face was numb until about 4 AM, and even then it wasn't entirely normal. I haven't had much pain at all (didn't even have to take the lortab) and can now eat anything. That's how uneventful my experience was. I was glad for a few days off though.

My family filled in some of the details I didn't remember. Such as the nurse waking me up, walking to the recovery room, and trying to find the recliner lever. Sorry, I've got nothing funny. Well, the chipmunk cheeks were a little funny, but even those were mild. Such a relief!

On Monday I go back to my normal, exciting life. Though actually, I really like it :)

Don't worry - Just Create!

I put this post on my Creations blog, but I thought my Musings readers might enjoy it as well. Here's the link

Have a lovely day!