Angry Julie Monday

Queen Bee Market

May 12, 2011

Last week, I headed down to San Diego with Kelly and Carrie for a little girl’s night out. We were going to The Queen Bee Market. We are all fans of handmade items. On our way there, we stopped for some yummy snacks at Cafe Rio. It was great because we weren’t in a hurry and just cruised along.

We got there and I will have to say, we were a bit overwhelmed. All of these amazing things in one room. Because you pay at the end, we just grabbed some bags and walked around. I kinda feel like a handmade market is like Costco or TJ Maxx. When you see something good, you grab it. Because if you hesistate and think about it, well, it will be gone when you go back that second time.

I took a ton of pictures of the vendors, because my friend, Mique, asked if I would. Once again, I curse and shake my fist at hotel ballroom lighting. It is just horrible for photos.

Cute necklaces from Creme De La Gems. You know I went home with one of those huladancer necklaces. I need to take a picture of it, because I love it so much. Her site says that they will be coming soon!

m.o.m at 42nd and Orange. These vintage fabrics were to-die-for. Amazing. It is probably a good thing that I don’t have a little girl. This place would be dangerous.

These chevron (or zig zag) pillows from Nena Von were gorgeous. I want to do yellow somewhere in my house, just so I can get some of these fabulous pillows. I think grey and yellow is an awesome combo. Nena Von had some great color combos.

Rachel from No. 17 Cherry Tree Lane is just precious. Her vintage wares and her display are precious. Do you know that she is hosting an event in September, called BlogSugar? You must go! I am.

Nicole is an Orange County gal. I just met her a few months ago. I love the turquoise display that she has for her shop, oliveBlue. She has the cutest baby legwarmers.

Oh look, it’s my friend, April from Funky Vintage Lovely. She is from Nor Cal. Her jewelry, well I may own several pieces. I love her rings and earrings.
We are making a magnet board for my son’s room. I think these magnets from Dot Thoughts are perfect for that board, don’t you think?

I also purchased this “DREAM” necklace at Queen Bee Market. I found out via Twitter that it is from Spiffing Jewelry.

These pins were at the cash register for sale. I kick myself for not buying one. The phrases are so great!

I took a ton more photos, and you can find them in my Flickr account here!

Mique and Jess are hosting a special one day Queen Bee Market on the Saturday of BlogHer in San Diego. Be sure to save money for that!

Filed Under: In The Home, Just Julie 8 Comments

Wordless Wednesday: Party Prep

May 11, 2011

My son’s birthday party is this Friday. We invited his friends from school, and we are keeping it relatively small this year. We had around thirty-five, yes 35 kids at his party last year. It was chaos, but fun all at the same time.

We are using a Mad Science Theme, and having a company come to our house to do some experiments for the kids. And of course, we will be serving food.

But I have to go with a theme, and overdo it as usual. Our invites have rainbow colors on them, so I decided to go with a rainbow colored theme. According to my new BFF, Pinterest, rainbows are all the rage! And I had to cruise some craft sites for ideas….right? Well here’s a sneak peek of what I have worked on so far.

Balloon Wreath. Tutorial on how does she. Just take the original tutorial & multiply it x 2. My wreath was bigger, much much bigger.

Tissue Paper Pom Poms. Easy peasy…The hardest part is going to buy the tissue paper from the store. Tutorial from Martha, yep, that Martha.

Welcome to “Angry Julie Monday’s Wordless Wednesday Linky”!

If this your first time here, HELLO! I do a link-up every Wednesday! Post a picture(s) and link back to it here. Wordless Wednesday is a great day to post an awesome picture that “speaks” for itself, no words needed. I may be a little wordy today….

Be sure to check out Wordless Wednesday Link-Ups at these other sites also:

A Beautiful Mess, Better in Bulk, Five Minutes For Mom, Live and Love…Out Loud,Parenting By Dummies, Seven Clown Circus, Supermom

(P.S. if you do a Wordless Wednesday or similar link-up, let me know. I will add you to my list above.)

Also, Lindsey from The Pleated Poppy does “What I Wore Wednesday” every week with a great big link-up

and

Krystina from Lollipops does “What I Love Wednesday” every week with a great big link-up.

Be sure to check out their posts too. I wish I had the extra time to do all of these fabulous link-ups.

Filed Under: Photography, Wordless Wednesday 15 Comments

Project 365: Week 18

May 8, 2011

This past week, we attended several birthdays, t-ball games, and it was Teacher Appreciation week. Seriously, May is our busiest month of the year. Every weekend we have multiple events going on. CRAZY!

Day 120/365: Peanut butter cupcake deliciousness!!! I sometimes like attending birthday parties with my son. I had several people ask me for this recipe. I promise, I will try and get it soon.

Day 121/365: Obama, Macbook, Bed, and me.. I watched President Obama speak about Osama Bin Laden’s death while I edited photos.

Day 122/365: A note that my husband left me tonight. It was on the door from the garage to the house. I just got home from work. I guess my husband was doing laundry?

Day 123/365: We are in charge of snack for tball today. My husband prepped the snacks. And people say I’m OCD? The stickers, really? Someone is very organized.

Day 124/365: This piece of galvanized metal is reserved for my next project. Must motivate husband now. It is for a magnet board in my son’s room. One of my last big projects for his bedroom. We’ve been working on his room for a year.

Day 125/365: Birthday Party OCD Prep has set it. Making tissue paper pom poms….I’m sure you know by now, that I’m a control freak, right? I’ve been working on decorations for my son’s birthday party.

Day 126/365: Nothing like the last minute to scramble for Teacher’s Appreciation stuff. It has been one heck of a week. I big puffy heart blogs, and especially craft blogs. They make me look like a better mother when I follow their tutorials.

Filed Under: Photography, Project 365 7 Comments

Friday Favorites #3

May 6, 2011

My third installment of Friday Favorites is brought to you by Pinterest. I think I love Pinterest, just as much as Instagram. I’ve found so many cool things on there. I just don’t have enough time to shop, do, make these things.

Source: Shots By Miguel Gantioqui

This makes it so much easier to understand. Brilliant.

Source: Better Homes and Gardens

Not that my yard is even big enough, but this looks so inviting.

Source: Flor

I want to redo the office in our house and use Flor tiles. So rad.

Source: eighteen25

I framed this print for my son’s teacher for Teacher Appreciation.

Filed Under: Just Julie 11 Comments

My first job

May 5, 2011

My family likes to taunt me every time they visit this fast food restaurant. They ask if I want anything, but they know my answer. My first job was at Panda Express when I was fourteen years old. I had a work permit. I think I worked like ten hours a week, but it seemed forever. I was a cashier.

My mom got me the job through one of her contacts. I’m not sure if I was even looking for a job. Did I have a choice?

I was not destined to work in food service. I think I only lasted a few months. I remember how bad my uniform smelled every time I left work. Just being in a Panda Express now makes me want to gag.

I’ve had several jobs since that first job; grocery bagger, clothing sales, school assistant, loss prevention, and even photo developer. I’ve been working ever since. I have never been without a job since I was fourteen.

What was your first job? Did you have any unique jobs in high school or college?

I’m linking up with Mama Kat’s Writer’s Workshop and Weekly Writing Prompts. And ironically, my family had Panda Express for dinner tonight, which made me totally laugh. I already knew that I was going to write this post. So I had Angry Husband snap the picture above.

Filed Under: Just Julie 48 Comments

Wordless Wednesday: Angry Kid Couture

May 4, 2011

On Wednesdays, my husband gets my son ready for school and then walks him there. I leave the house very early for work. Last Wednesday, my husband texted me to ask what hair products to use to create a “faux hawk”. I told him that it was a three-step process. He said that Angry Kid wanted his hair spiked into a “faux hawk” for school.

Later that morning, Angry Husband texted me a picture. I didn’t realize that my son would pair the hairdo with a sleeveless shirt reserved for summer. I just had to laugh. Angry Kid definately looks like an “Angry Kid” in the picture.

Welcome to “Angry Julie Monday’s Wordless Wednesday Linky”!

Be sure to check out Wordless Wednesday Link-Ups at these other sites also:

A Beautiful Mess, Better in Bulk, Five Minutes For Mom, Live and Love…Out Loud,Parenting By Dummies, Seven Clown Circus, Supermom

(P.S. if you do a Wordless Wednesday or similar link-up, let me know. I will add you to my list above.)

Also, Lindsey from The Pleated Poppy does “What I Wore Wednesday” every week with a great big link-up

and

Krystina from Lollipops does “What I Love Wednesday” every week with a great big link-up.

Be sure to check out their posts too. I wish I had the extra time to do all of these fabulous link-ups.

Filed Under: Parenting, Photography, Wordless Wednesday 24 Comments

Too many fabulous people in one place

May 3, 2011

Two weeks ago, I wrote about my first day in New Orleans. The second day, Tiffany and I went on a city tour of New Orleans with Stephanie and Tauni. It was an amazing three hour tour of the city, and I’m sooo glad that we took the time to go on the tour. On my Wordless Wednesday post last week, I am posted my photos from the tour.

After our tour on Thursday, we headed for a great big pre-conference group lunch at Cochon. I had some difficulty with looking at the menu. I am a REALLY REALLY REALLY picky eater. I ended up eating pork ribs, while Tiffany enjoyed some fried alligator (YES, Alligator), and even Danielle tried some. We had some great conversations at lunch and it was very mellow and relaxed. I met Karen, Stacey, and Christine at lunch, and instantly bonded with them. We talked about blogging, photographs, kids, and even PTA. I love meeting brilliant people and having actual time to sit down and talk shop (blogging, photography, whatever) with them. Because I was too busy jaw-jacking (yapping, talking, gossiping), I took only a few pictures. I know, it was a complete photo fail.

After lunch, we headed back to the hotel for a kick nap (30 minutes lounging around the room), and we then headed towards the opening night cocktail party for the conference. I loved seeing all of my blogging friends that I’ve made in the past few years, Karianna, Amy, Karen, Rachel, Jyl and so many others. Honestly, I’m still shocked that people even know my name.

After the cocktail party, I headed towards the speaker’s dinner with Jyl. We walked there, because it wasn’t too far away. I love that Jyl was wearing flip-flops to walk there, and then she switched her shoes back to some dressier shoes. She is smart. Of course, I had another food fail at the speaker’s dinner, sigh… Julie does not do well with fancy food. But I had some great conversations. I guess my new glasses are quite a conversation starter. They also help me actually see people too.

Can you imagine how tired I was?

Well on Friday morning, Tiffany and I got up and made our way over to the hotel for the Mom 2.0 Summit Conference. We got there after the keynote speakers, and a little bit before the sessions were beginning. I was able to make my way around and talk to some of the sponsors at the conference. I also saw some friends and chit chatted for a bit. Tiffany and I sat down near Alli and Cassie for the first session. Don’t mind my photo below, it is a little blurry….I hate hotel lighting!

Our first session that we attended was The Other New Normal: Entrepreneurial Strategy in a Post-Recession, Post-Web 2.0 World with Stephanie Smirnov, Erica Diamond, Shelly Kramer, and Gabrielle Blair. It was a great panel of women, but unfortunately with a larger panel, time was taken up with them talking about themselves. and introductions. I wanted to get more information, and I was left hanging somewhat, due to time running out. After the session was over, I walked around some more before it was lunch time. Once again, lunch time was a fail for me. Julie doesn’t do seafood. But even though I didn’t eat much, I have never laughed so much in my life. Our dessert was served in martini glasses. There was chocolate and almonds dripping over the side of the glass. You can see Danielle with the dessert in the photo below. But the best part was Tiffany eating her dessert. She attempted to remove some of the almonds and chocolate from the side of the glass with her teeth. Let’s just say that she got a mouth full of glass. It shouldn’t have been funny, but I think our whole table was rolling with laughter.

I was also able to capture this fabulous picture of Mama Kat during lunch. Doesn’t she have the greatest “conference face” ? She looks so angelic.

After lunch, I headed off to How’d You Get That Sponsor? The Nuts and Bolts of Pitching with Erin Loechner, Liz Gumbinner, and Maggie Mason. They spoke about reputations, brands, owning your niche, contracts, demographics, and oversaturation. Once again, I did a lot of head nodding. I guess I’m not doing so bad after all. I try not to oversaturate myself with PR campaigns, ads, etc. And well, my niche, photography or randomness, is pretty good right now.

And then I wandered around some more…before I went to the next session.

What’s With All the Makeovers: Reinvention and Site Evolution: Helping Your Site Change with You with
Asha Dornfest, Jessica Ashley, Karen Walrond, Heather Flett, and Laurie Smithwick. It was great to hear from these successful bloggers about re-inventing your site, keeping your readers, and even losing some readers. I think we all need some changes in our design and blog after time. I have been re-designing my site with a little help (a lot) from Nap Warden the past few weeks.

After the last session, I went and checked out the Microsoft Office room where I got to check out Office 2011 for Mac. I fell in love with Powerpoint for Office 2011. I love their features for photographs and editing. It was amazing. I wish I had more time to play with all of the software.

A little blurry but this is a picture of how I was dressed for the day. I’m a little obsessed with matching. Can’t you tell?

My round table was one of the last parts of the day. I was able to give out information about Online Privacy & Anonymity. I think everyone had gotten tired at the end of the day, but the crowd was pretty thin.

Yes, I was exhausted at the end of the day. I ended going back to the room and talking with Tiffany, Fran, and Kat for several hours. We couldn’t decide on dinner so we ordered room service, a little bit of everything. I think that night was one of the best moments of my trip. Just laughing and chatting.

So really, here’s my bullet point recap:

Food needs to be well-rounded for everyone. I’m not a fancy food gal.
Less panel speakers. It is hard to keep on topic. Less self-promotion.
Too many speakers and panels going on at same time. Hard to make choices.
Not enough time for dinner.
Best moments were actual conversations, not idle fluff.
The smaller the conference, the better.
Conferences are expensive: Conference ticket, flight, hotel, food, and whatnot add up

I promise, no more blog conference recaps for awhile…at least a few months?

Filed Under: Blogging, Just Julie 16 Comments

A garage makeover

May 2, 2011

I made an offer on our house before my husband had even seen it. He trusts my decisions, and he was ok with it. Well, really, he didn’t have a choice. I knew that this was “the one” when our realtor opened the garage. Literally, the previous owner had not done anything to the house besides upgrade the garage with a nice floor and cabinets. Angry Husband loves being in the garage, we consider our garage as a “room” in our house.

We’ve lived here for five years and our storage needs have changed. We are more settled now. We have accumulated more things, i.e. Christmas Decorations, tools, and you know, stuff. We have a small house, so we have to be organized. In the past six months, we have done some re-arranging. We had plastic shelves in different areas throughout our garage. The shelves were overloaded and were starting to break.

The picture above was taken last Monday after a final garage cleansing. You are probably thinking, why is this garage so clean? Well, in about two weeks, we are hosting our son’s birthday party at our garage. Since we have a smaller house, we are going to have the main part of the party in the garage. We have a ton of space.

A few months ago, our garage was chaos. Angry Husband pulled stuff off the shelves and into the middle of the garage. He gave some of our shelving units to the neighbor, and we tossed the rest.

We already had the white cabinetry, but my husband built a shelving space/frame with a desktop also. He uses it several times a day. Ok, maybe because I kicked his computer out to the garage. He bought the lumber at Lowe’s and the desktop is from IKEA. He drew out the plans himself to build around our trash cans and storage totes.

I’m pretty sure that Angry Husband built this shelving unit while I was at some kind of blog conference last year. I remember him sending me pictures via text message. Luckily, I saved many of the text messages to show a picture of the wood framing while he was building it.

Our Bosch Vision Washer and Dryer are stackable, which is great for saving space. We used the stacking kit to do this. Yes, there is an official kit, and it took over an hour to figure it out. In the corner of the garage is our water heater. We have a tiny bit of space so we also store our ironing board (NEVER used), a step stool, and a five foot long folding table. On the left side of the washer and dryer is a barrier for our dogs. We have two small dogs and they are quite nosey. My husband set-up this barrier so that they can’t see outside the garage. It has cut down on some of the barking. It also leads to a door, which is the door to our outside patio area. We have a doggy door installed for the dogs to access that area.

My latest project in the garage was a shoe storage and bag organization area. We use our garage to enter the house. We rarely enter through our front door. I’m constantly tripping over shoes. We used to have a bucket to toss the shoes into, but it was always overflowing with junk. We used an IKEA Expedit cube and mounted it to the wall with L-Brackets. We also put some hooks above the cube and staggered out the spacing for hanging jackets and/or bags.

The pretty vacuum hanging is my new Dyson. We’ve had way to many handheld portable vacuums die on us. We spent a little bit more money this time and got something better. I heart this Dyson. The bucket is our son’s t-ball bucket. They use the buckets as seats. And we have his baseball bag tossed under the cube. Usually these things are in my car. We mounted the shelf higher to be able to sweep and clean underneath it.

We have our home theater equipment in our garage also. We use a RF remote control system to access everything. It is better suited in this area, because it allows air to circulate and we don’t have to hide all the wires. Angry Husband is in the home theater biz, so we have a complicated system. I can barely use our remote most days.

As with all of my projects, I’m linking up. Go and check out the other awesome stuff. I find so many things to do from all of these great sites. I just don’t have enough time in the day. I hope that you were able to get some ideas from our garage project. I’m not going to show you what is inside those cabinets though. Everything is stuffed to the brim.