Giveaway Winner!!

My internet has decided to be wanky (is that a word??) this weekend and not work....I'm still trying to work with it turning the off and on randomly.......Well, here goes my first random number generator and first giveaway winner!!


The winner is Lindsay from Pixies and Bears! I will post a message on your blog with my email so you can send me your info!! Congrats on being my first winner Lindsay! I ♥ all your stuff that you make so it's awesome that you're getting something little ole me made! :)
 
♥kayla

Time Is Almost Up!

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Dont forget! I am giving away a felt toast plushie magnet after 12 PM tomorrow night. So far there are only 3 entries! Scroll down to see the post....you will need to be a follower and also comment on my blog. Good luck :)

♥kayla

Wedding News!!

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I announced on here in February that Eli proposed to me, and we have just decided on the date. We met with the pastor who is performing the service (she's a friend of the family) last Thursday to talk about the ceremony, including when and what we wanted. At that point we didn't decide on a date, just agreed to talk to each other later. Well, Eli and I had been talking it over the next night and we decided we might as well get it done since we will be having a small ceremony now with a bigger one for everyone to come later.


We have decided that we will be getting married on October 1st, 2010!


Soon, I know. We have a LOT of planning to do for all of this, but luckily we have plenty of people that are willing to help us out. So, I will try my hardest to post things since I am wanting to do a lot of homemade things like bouqets (faux), centerpieces, invitations and such. I will post what I can before  we get married, otherwise I just may have to post something after October 1st....we will see :)


The one color I have chosen is Burnt Orange.....I'm thinking maybe a pink or coral color to go with it......This small ceremony may just be Burnt Orange and our 'friends and family' ceremony will be the one to worry about various colors. Ah.....this will be a very stressful month and a half! Wish me luck :)


♥kayla

WOW! 50 Posts! This Means A Giveaway!

I have been planning on doing a giveaway for having completed 50 posts, but time has seemed to have slipped away from me! I posted my 50th post today and I haven't even created anything yet! So.....I will be creating another felt toast plushie magnet for one lucky reader to win! Remember this little guy?

To enter: The rules are simple. Just become a follower of this blog and leave me a comment letting me know that you are. You are only allowed one post as an entry, so if you post a reply more than once, you are only entered once. I will be using a custom Random Number Generator to choose the winner. I will try to take a picture of the screen when the giveaway is over. Speaking of, the last chance for you to post your entry is going to be Thursday, August 26th at midnight. I will post the winner on Friday....or Saturday, depending on what I have to do this week.

I will start work on this guy tonight so he should be ready by the time the giveaway is done. I hope you like toast!!!

♥kayla

Onesies With A Slightly Homemade Touch :)

This post is about a week later than promised.....there has been a lot of excitement in the Aitkens/Soukup Household this past week. Soon, we will become just the Aitkens household. Details about that will be coming soon :)

Anyway, I had posted two weeks ago that I was working on something for my 'nephew' (I call him my nephew since his mother and I have been besties since kindergarten)...Little Logan's first birthday is coming up October 7th, and I wanted to do something special for the little guy! I was shopping in JoAnn's and I saw this cute section that had onesies and the most adorable iron-on transfers and it practically called to me! It turned out really easy to do! I am definitely going to be doing this more often!

Perfect Little Gentleman....or....Business up top, Party on the bottom!! lol

I thought they turned out rather well! I absolutely love the last one, even though they are all adorable! I think it would be pretty fun to possibly make my own iron-on transfers.....humm....something to ponder tonight. :) Nighty-night!

♥kayla

My big Wishlist

I have been compiling a wishlist of appliances that I would like to own. One to help with cake decorating (and for my happiness), one to help with crafting, and two for my coffee habit! The two for my coffee habit would end up saving me money in the long run though. (All good excuses to buy them, right?) I told Eli that he should think of these things when Christmas time rolls around....or my birthday! Seriously, I'm saving up for all of these!

 

Numero Uno on my list........a KitchenAid!! For one, because I have been baking and making cakes a lot lately, and two, it can be turned into an ice cream maker!! And this one is orange! OMG! They also have the pretty light blue as well as an ALL PINK collection!

In reality......I could live with any one of those in my kitchen! But black or stainless steel would be acceptable as well :)

 Number 2 on my list....a Mr. Coffee Frappuccino Maker! Well, I won't be picky, any frappe maker will do!

This way I could make frappuccino's that are WAY cheaper than Starbucks!

And Number 3......an espresso machine! This goes with the frappe maker since Starbucks has spoiled me.....I can't drink just plain ole' Folgers...it has to be Colombian Blend Folgers or Satrbucks......well I guess I can drink the 'regular' stuff but it makes it a lot easier to be around me when I've had a dose of some strong coffee!

This is awesome, but the machine below is beautiful.....I never thought I would say an espresso machine was beautiful!

And finally......a sewing machine!! My mom is being kind enough to let me borrow hers for the moment so I'm in no rush to buy one, but I definitely saving up! I want to try my hand at making my own dresses......maybe. I made boxers before, a dress should be fairly simple, right?

So this sewing machine is definitely not on the market yet, but it matches my car!! And check out that screen, you could really get some amazing detail on that thing!!

It just makes me so excited thinking of all these things! Crazy, I know :) Working on a few things, just wanted to post a little something!

♥kayla

Something New.....

Just wanted to say I know I haven't posted anything crafty in a while and I want you to know that I am working on something adorable right now! Hopefully I will get it done this weekend so I can snap a few pics.....until then I will leave you guessing as to what it is. I will give you one hint though. It is for my friends son who is turning 1 in October. Here's the little man!

nighty night!

♥kayla

Riding The Sky Coaster

So, we got to go to Six Flags St. Louis for free for Eli's stepdads company picnic July 24th. Ever since we found out Eli and Zach talked about the Dragons Wing, a Sky Coaster where you basically fly through the air. Zach was trying to convince Eli's brother Ian to go with them to make it cheaper ($25 a piece for 2 or $15 a piece for 3) and the whole time he said he might do it, but when we got there he decided not to go. Zach said that he would pay for my ticket if I wanted to go, since it was only $5 more, and I pretty much instantly agreed. Everytime that I have gone to Six Flags I have looked at that ride and told myself, and probably others, that I would never go on this type of ride, but for some reason I was feeling bold. Here's a video of us flying through the air, and I was the one to pull the release cord! 

It was really a great time, and I'm not sure why I was so courageous, but the next day I went ahead and got my tattoo! I was definitely feeling rather proud of myself that weekend! Hope the screaming wasn't too much! :)

♥kayla

Question Time!

Have I ever mentioned that I am a horrible procrastinator??? Well, Carol from That Is Charming tagged me to answer some questions July 23rd, and I am just now getting to them....well, here goes nothing!


1. What song is stuck in your head right now?
Coldplay - Talk, I had to pull a customers vehicle around and she had the cd with this song in....now it's stuck in there!


2. What was the worst job you had?
Big KMart, my very first job. I guess it wasn't really the job but the working conditions. I worked there in the dead of summer and the AC ran but only seemed to cool part of the store. The checkout stands were right by the door and they gave us fans, but they only sucked in warm, sticky air from outside. Blech.

3. What is your favorite summer activity?
Swimming! I went a few weekends ago at Six Flags but I won't be able to go for a while because of my new tattoo! See the post below to see a picture!


4. Where would you go if you could go anywhere today?
I would LOVE to be anywhere near a beach, Hawaii seems to be my personal fave......although I am biased since the beaches there are the only ones I have seen in my 23 years of life. Exciting, right? The only stipulation to going there would have to be that I would like my mother, sister, and fiancee with me.....and of course some friends too!


5. What is something you would love to learn?
I would love to learn how to do needle felting! My friend Elizabeth at Sew Amore introduced me to this not long after we discovered that we were both bloggers! She saw that I was into making felt plushies and linked a video to me! It look SO cool!


6. Do you like thunderstorms or do you get nervous like I do?
OK......I like the wonderful, earthy aroma and how things seems to change around you when it rains, and the lightning can be so beautiful, but the thunder really scares me sometimes. It seems strange that I enjoy watching lightning but the sound of thunder scares me.....like it should be the other way around, especially since lightning can actually strike you, right? Just the sheer volume of the thunder sends chills down my spine and I want to go running like a little girl to my mommy for protection. So yeah, I get nervous.


7. Do you collect anything? If yes, what do you collect?
I don't consider my self an avid collector of anything really, but I do have a few small collections of things here and there. Since travelling to Hawaii I have found a love of collecting sand, just to serve as a small reminder, although I have taken plenty of pictures. I also collect buddha statues....there's just something about the happy buddha that really makes me smile. I have some small statues of marine animals (whales, manatees, dolphins, and sea turtles) from years ago when I thought I would start a huge collection.....then I decided that I didn't want to overtake my house with these items :) I really don't know if this would qualify as a collection or obsession, but have TONS of books. I would love to own a library like the one in Beauty and The Beast.....that's my inner child coming out :)


8. Tell us a favorite childhood memory.
Some of my fondest memories are of my grandma and grandpa's farm in Missouri and of my grandma's cabin in Michigan. Every time we used to visit my grandparents farm we would always go out to the pastures and do a little exploring, trying to find worlds of our own....or create them. We even found an old barn out past the cow pasture in the middle of some woods! Our grandmas cabin in Michigan was just as magical, it sat on top of a hill overlooking the Manistee River. You pretty much drove into the woods in order to get there and our only neighbor was Aunt May and Uncle Bob's Cabin, a 2 minute walk away. The last time we went there we befriended a pair of German Shepards who lived way down the road. We used to ride our bikes as far as their house and they would come hang out at the cabin most days, which made for good entertainment for us - I was 12 I believe. :)

I definitely didn't have many short answers to these questions and I would like to pose these questions to my readers, few but strong! If you decide to answer these questions post a link so I can see what you put up! Goodnight internetland.

♥kayla

Sea Turtle Tattoo!!!!

For years I have been researching tattoo's for designs, realizing that I have no clue where I would want to put one on my body. Of course, this is a very permanent thing and I didn't want to rush into it and get something in a place I would later regret. Well, the weekend of the 24th seemed to have been a little bit bolder Kayla.


On the 24th I rode on a sky coaster at Six Flags St. Louis (a post and video to come later) and the next day I got a tattoo that I have been wanting for a while. I must say that for a while after that I felt really bold. :)


I went to Living Canvas in Columbia, MO because I heard that they were really good and I had a coupon. Call me frugal if you will but a few weeks before I went I actually won a $40 gift certificate for Living Canvas on the radio. I called in thinking I would never win it like I normally don't, but after a few tries the phone starts ringing. I'm thinking that I am being put through to an operator or something......I never win! Then the DJ answers saying "Hey! What's you're name? You'r the winner!" I was so excited, and this was all before work! Anyway, this is how it turned out right after tattooing.....It has lost the top layer of skin and looks like it is getting ready to shed another layer.....it's a process but it's really cool to see how it unfolds.

Hope you like it! I'm in love! I've always loved marine life and the sea turtle is just like the necklace I bought in Hawaii 2 years ago; they're supposed to bring luck as well. I got the plumerias because I decided that I would like some color and I better get what I want now while I'm getting the tattoo anyway. The water is, of course, for the ocean and the plumeria is a favorite flower as well as another reminder of Hawaii. The street outside our hotel the led to the strip and Waikiki beach - which we would walk down every night we were there - was lined with plumeria trees and other flowers as well. The smell from the flowers was so strong that it overtook your senses, but in a really good way. Juicy Couture perfume smells just like it, so I had to get some......Enough of my rambling. Goodnight internetland.


♥kayla