my {birthday} weekend in photos

so i turned the big 2-7 last friday and had a positively fabulous birthday weekend! my parents came into town on friday after i got off of work, and we met my sister sarah, her bf bradley, my friends dana & kristin, and chester in arlington heights for some fabulous sushi. it was yummy! after dinner we met a few more friends at finn mccools for a few drinks :) buuuuut i didn't get photos of that, whoops.

on saturday we got all dressed up and headed downtown for a par-tay! we hung out at sarah's for a drink before heading over to vertigo sky lounge. i had never been there before, it was so cool! we had a table near the back of the lounge with an incredible view of downtown. the weather was gorgeous, and we were able to hang outside on the rooftop for a while, which was pretty awesome. it was such a blast, and i was happy that everyone had a great time. 

thank you to my incredible family and my wonderful friends for making my 27th birthday better than i could have imagined! and a BIG thank you to chester for making everything possible! he was so great about planning everything for saturday, and i couldn't be more greatful! thanks so much hunnie! :D x 100, haha.

~ steph

some randoms

so i was hoping to get (more) photos from this weekend, and do a cool "my weekend in photos" post, but i totally failed at that this time, haha. but it was an amazing weekend, so i attribute my lack of photos to just enjoying the moments, and not frantically trying to capture each one. i am sharing what i did manage to capture though :)

i completely love the view from my bedroom window in my apartment right now. i'm lucky enough to get some beautiful sunlight and i have a gorgeous tree right outside the window.

my friend kyle of i shoot rockstars! started a visitors project, and he took a photo of everyone who came into his studio over the course of a year. he ended up publishing a book with all of the portraits, and had a launch party this past friday. pretty cool!

sooo, not pictured from the weekend: my first attempt at making homemade cake pops (they were yummy!), sarah's super fun housewarming party downtown, and a perfect sunday of lounging, movie watching and shopping :D

oh, and in the process of making cake pops, i watched "my best friend's wedding" on netflix :) i love that movie! and i had this song stuck in my head for the longest time, which wasn't necessarily a bad thing ;)

summer lovin' had me a blast

it's back to slightly chilly spring weather around here, but earlier this week we received our first taste of summer with some 80+ degree days. i'm pretty darn excited for this summer, and i wanted to share some of my favorite summer photography. enjoy!

more sumertime photos can be found on my flickr under these two sets: cherry valley days and lucifer's pond. 

hope you're all having a great weekend so far!

~steph

my week (and weekend) in photos

some cinco de mayo fun // a new tshirt courtesy of dressing on the side // friday was absolutely gorgeous 

mother's day cubs game! too bad they didn't win :(

not pictured: the rest of a great weekend with friends and family :)

in other news, the lovely jen of just jen awarded me with the versatile blogger award :) how cool! thanks so much jen!

so, going along with the rules, here are 7 things about me. i tried to pick some things that i haven't already shared on here:

1. i typically hit the snooze button about 3 times each weekday morning before getting out of bed.
2. i got rid of the blue streaks in my hair about a month ago. i rocked the blue for about 3 years, but needed a change, and a chance to save some money ;) seriously, those bright colors are high maintenance and expensive.
3. i turn 27 in 11 days! wow, that feels like i'm officially OFFICIALLY an adult :/ 
4. for those of you who don't know me irl, i'm really short (like a teeny bit above 5 feet), haha. which should be pretty obvious on here in any photo when i'm standing next to someone.
5. i really want to visit italy and paris, especially after hearing stories from my sister's trips to those places. lucky girl.
6. if you give me new music to check out, it will take me a really long time to listen to the whole cd. but not as long as it takes for me to watch a movie you let me borrow. seriously, i've sat on movies for years at a time. crazy!
7. i have a really hard time narrowing down which cameras to bring on a vacation. the top of my list: my diana mini, my supersampler, my nice (bulky) digital camera, and my tiny canon camera. but i also like to throw in my holga and my instant camera if i have room :/

the 3rd rule is to award 15 recently discovered bloggers...whoa! that's a lot, haha. soooo i'm choosing these 3 lovely ladies: ana of erban: a random blog, sarah of a lost feather, and cheryl of stuff you'll love. you ladies are all pretty damn awesome and inspiring :) posting 7 things and awarding new bloggers is totally your call, i just wanted to give a well deserved shout-out.

~ steph

craft swap

when i saw that becky of strumpet's crumpets was hosting another craft swap with her friend amber of hoot-n-annie, i eagerly emailed becky and said i wanted to sign up. i was pleasantly surprised to find out a few days later that she was going to be my swap partner! i've followed her blog for a while now, and i really love her creations :) 

it took me a while to think of the craft i wanted to make for her, and i decided to revive an old "Opposite Day" Shop classic with a new twist. i made a smaller log pillow (about 13 inches long, opposed to the original 16-17 inches), which ends up being a perfect size for a neck pillow, and travels much better than my previous logs. becky told me her favorite color is orange, so i picked some fabrics with splashes of orange and added hearts to her pillow. i also sewed orange felt hearts to each end. 

it was a lot of fun to create, and i've decided to make a few for my shop! i'll be sure to update here when they are stocked. 

i was so excited to open my package from becky! along with some sweet goodies (that included a few iphone notepads and a "dexter" notepad, how cool!) she made me the most incredible embroidery piece with my intials! along with using my favorite color, she even used my blog font for the type...so awesome! she definitely did a great job of personalizing her craft for me. i absolutely LOVE it! i'm currently trying to pick the perfect place to hang it in my room :) thank you so much becky!!! you're fantastic!

to see more from the craft swap, be sure to check out the flickr group.

hope you're all having a great week so far. i'm definitely ready for the weekend. but first i'm going to catch up on some orders and giveaway items. busy busy :)

~ steph

"Opposite Day" Shop Giveaway!

hi everyone! the wonderful blair of wild & precious (mentioned in my recent may blog love post) is kicking off this month with an "opposite day" shop giveaway! she did a wonderful write up about the shop and myself :) a $20 gift certificate is up for grabs, so swing by and enter. and good luck!

may blog love

hello everyone! just wanted to pop in with some may blog love :) below are 4 lovely ladies that i'm happy to be sponsoring this month. they all have incredibly fun blogs, be sure to check them out! 

1. liz of srslyliz. 2. vanessa of hellovanny. 3. blair of wild & precious. 4. polly of pixie mama.

i also wanted to mention a few other amazing blogs that i've come across over the last month or so:

a lost feather // busy bee lauren // violet bella // erban: a random blog // sofia's journal

*the photos used belong to the blogger represented :) great photographers, right?