one day in may

Braeden and I have started a wedding blog. That's pretty exciting. There's not much on it yet, but we figure that this way we can talk about wedding stuff in a way that people can choose to read it or not. You know. Follow your collective hearts.

Also, we started our registry today at Bed Bath & Beyond. And that will be the end of wedding talk here. At least for now...

internet fame and floral bliss

My esty is famous! Ok, maybe not really, but the lovely lady behind the blog Savvy Moms Save did blog about abookfull! And, as readers of my blog, you now know about it. She just finished up a little blog give away party and by reading and following the instructions on her blog you can enter to win all sorts of goodies from a variety of venders (including, but not limited to ExpressionsVinyle.com, Half Tees, and, of course, abookfull). It's a party! Literally. Be sure to check it out.

In other news, Braeden and I went on a date to the fabulous Dry Creek Urban Cutting Garden yesterday in Cedar Rapids. The lady who started it is a regular at the Farmer's Market we attend every Saturday (like this morning). We've chatted with her the last couple weeks and she told us about her garden and how she planted all the beds this past spring using environmentally friendly composting and building materials and so of course she was my favorite. She showed us pictures of her place and informed us that it was open for anyone to come and cut their own flowers anytime during the season. While we have been buying flowers from at the market her every week, we were intrigued by the idea of going and cutting our own. So we did.

We got to her house (271 27th Ave SW) and walked around to the back where there were beds of zinnias and herbs a plenty. At first we were a little hesitant because we weren't sure if we needed to knock on her door and tell her we were there, or what, but as we were standing out by the little awning where the scissors and tools were, our flower lady friend (whose name I realized I don't even know) came out and chatted with us for a minute, told us how the gates worked, then told us to "go and be free amongst the flowers." After that we felt much more comfortable wandering around in a stranger's garden. And it was fun! I highly recommend it. (In her garden, of course, not just any stranger's garden. That is not recommended.) If you want to find out more, feel free to send an email to drycreekurbancuttinggarden (at) yahoo (dot) com. (Although, Braeden emailed her Thursday morning and never heard back, so maybe it's best just to appear. Follow your heart.)

Here we are at the beginning of our adventure. We're pretty cute...

One of the little zinnias in the garden. I decided that the little ones are my favorite. My most favorite!

This was this amazing archway that she built out of metal she found at the landfill. I want one.

I took this picture of Braeden wading through the rows of flowers. I told him I wanted one of him walking and he said, "I don't know how be walking." I think that is pretty evident from this picture, since he is just standing there. Also, despite his fluency in English, Spanish, and Catalán, he clearly struggles in his native tongue. "I don't know how be walking." Ba haha.

Our flowers! We got so many. And they were so pretty. And only 50 cents a stem! And what is more poetic than walking around with flowers in the crook of your arm? I will tell you: nothing.

All in all? Our date was a smashing success! I'm really glad that we got to go. Also that Braeden took me.

favorite things

Sometimes I feel like a crazy person because I've taken to talking to myself and laughing out loud at things when no one is around, often much louder than I do when there are people present. It's not really my fault: when you live alone most times when you're at home you are alone. And that means not only is there no one present to share my surprise/shock/entertainment with, there is also no one to tell me to quiet down.

I've been doing lots of self-exclaiming and laughing today as I've been reading about my new friend Jacob's job at a pawn shop on his blog. (Warning: his blog has a built-in music player so if you are at work and/or in a place that you don't want music blasting out of your computer in an unexpected way, you might want to take a moment to mute your speakers before clicking on the afore linked blog. Once you are sonically prepared, however, please do check it out: your life will never be the same.) His stories are both hilarious and almost unbelievable in their sometimes absurdity, an impressive combination. Additionally, I sympathize with his useless degree feelings: that is how I felt this last year when I was taking care of kids and doing other people's laundry: I went to college, for this? Really?

Additionally, another new friend, Charissa (KUH-rissa, not CHUH-rissa. Obviously), recently shared this amazing paper clothes link with me (later I found this article that talks about it at greater length and made me even more enamored with it). I met Charissa last weekend at our LDS weekend party thing through Jacob: we complimented each other on clothing (her on my scarf and me on her skirt: "€5, Italy, no big deal") and, because we are girls, that made us instant friends. Also she is amazing.

I think the idea of paper clothes is so facinating—I especially love that these have the details drawn on them as opposed to sewn on and that some of them fold up into envelopes attached right on the clothes that also serve as decorative elements. I am so intrigued by the idea of paper clothes that I want to go and make myself a paper skirt. Right now! But I will try and restrain myself. (It will be easy since I don't have a sewing machine, or any Tyvek handy.) Maybe if I save up enough of those USPS Tyvek envelopes I could piece something together: that would be amazing! (Dear Pen-Pals: take note! You can help me achieve this dream!) It would also be very eco-friendly, another thing I love. A day of favorites, indeed!

who needs sleep?

This morning I woke up at 5:30 am. The night before I couldn't get to sleep until 4 am. Really, body? So, after laying in bed until 6 I did what anyone would do: I went grocery shopping. Did you know that 6 am is when they restock the shelves at the 24 hour HyVee? They do on Wednesdays, anyway. I bought some unexciting things and came home and did some homework and some internetting, then fell asleep on the couch around 9 and slept until 1:30. Luckily I woke up with enough time to walk to my 3:00 class, that's all I have to say.

Long story short? Between shopping and sleeping I read my friend Sarah's blog and it made me laugh so hard I wasn't even mad about my strange new sleep schedule. She completes me.

PS My cousin-in-law bought some of these diapers for her little boy. I'm not sure how I feel about the faux-jean look, but the commercial is hilarious!

drum roll please...

And the winner is...

Kirsten Smith!

Kirsten and her lovely husband Brett have their choice of any Esty item of value equal to or lesser than $10 from my shop. Congrats!

Kirsten was my roommate in Provo our final year at BYU. That spring she married her best friend Brett in Portland and I was lucky enough to be a (second-string) bride's maid. It was also my first visit to Portland and I fell in love with it. Some day I hope to live there. Kirsten and Brett are one of my favorite couples. Fact. Just drop me an email (at cassandra (dot) elton (at) gmail (dot) com) with your mailing address and which item you'd like and I'll get it sent off asap! Wa hoo! Free stuff!

last call!

Today is the last day to enter to win something from my Etsy shop! 10 hours and 20 minutes left of the day! Make 'um count!

i don't follow...

My family laughs at me because I talk about my blog a lot. But I just love it! I think it's such a fun way to share things that are going on in my life with those that I love. (Or any random person on the internet...) One of the things I talk about most (to the amusement of all) is how few people are following my blog. Now, I realize that many more people actually read my blog than those that are just listed under "blog stalkers" (a number that has been inflated as of late through my own coercion of my family to sign up as followers), so I now extend an invitation to all of my readers to become blog stalkers. It's easy! And, to help increase your motivation to follow, if you sign up by midnight Central Time (that's the time zone Iowa is in, folks) on September 4th then you will be eligible to win a FREE BOOK made by yours truly! (You can choose from any item at my etsy store that is $10 or under. Just let me know your preference.)

Already following my blog? Just comment on this or any blog post until September 4th to be entered to win. You can comment as many times as you'd like (though be reasonable about it) to increase your chances of winning, as each post will give you an additional entry into the raffle. At the end of the week all the names will be put on a list, with multiple entries for people that commented multiple times, and a name will be selected at random using the number generator at Random.org. The winner will be announced the morning of September 6th.

NOTE: You must be registered as a blog follower to have your comments counted as entries into the contest.

So! Now that you are motivated to follow my blog, all you have to do is the following:

1. Find the section entitled "blog stalkers" on the far right column on my blog. 
2. Click on the button that says "follow." Here is a picture of what you are looking for: (Don't click on this though because doing that will only make it bigger, not send you on to the next step.)
   
   
   
   
3. Now this window will pop up asking you to sign in:
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. Choose which ever account is applicable to you. If none of them work you can easily create a gmail account that you won't have to use ever again if you don't want to (though personally I prefer it to every other type of mail server, but that's just me).
5. Every type of account has a slightly different protocol from here, screens having you verify your account, things like that. Just follow those instructions until you get to the screen pictured in step 6.
6. Now it will ask you if you want to follow publicly or privately. Make sure the bubble selecting "follow publicly" is filled in and click "follow this blog."
   
   
   
   
   
   
7. I believe it's at this point that you can then play with your new blogger profile, adding a picture or changing the name that appears with your account, things of that nature. Though you don't have to, you can just remain a mystery face if you would like.
   
   
   
   

And there you have it! Pretty easy, yeah? Now get to it! The clock is ticking!

i have been...

Last weekend I was in Iowa.

This weekend I am in Boston.

At some point—hopefully soon—I will post about my adventures, probably in secret post-dated blogs. 

(But don't worry, I will let you in on the secret.)

no, cassi's not in the computer

Today I chatted with my favorite pie-faced cousin and her amazing children! They were extremely excited to see me, though they were a little confused about how the whole video chat thing worked. (I blew a bubble with my gum—basically their main reason for loving me is my bubble blowing abilities—and they tried to pop in by poking the computer screen. Not exactly ideal...) They were super cute though and made me remember why I love my family so much. Tate spent most of the video chat with his face as close to mine on the computer screen as possible, as seen by the photo where only the top of his head is visible. Note the concerned expressions on both mine and Treva's faces. Haha. Oh secret candid pictures. Anna kept telling me that she was going to throw her Polly Pocket at me. (They really do love me, I promise!)

Anyway, one of Treva's main requests was that I blog more, and I thought, What better time than the present? So, Treva, this one's for you!

And now I'm off to make some more books! (I wasn't lying about having to do that project, Treva, I promise!)