lovely things.

my mom is a wonderful seamstress.
and, well...i am not.
she gave me her old sewing machine and made me my own sewing kit.
my goal for the new year, is to learn how to sew a bit better.

i have been wanting to make a photo collage on one of our walls for a while.
i never did it in the old apartment, but finally got my act together and started one at our new abode.
we have been adding many polaroids with the camera ted bought me for christmas!

i forgot to use my parent's scanner when i was over earlier, so here are pictures of the pictures.
these are some of my favorites.

i have been deathly ill. actually...whenever i am sick (which is often) i am deathly ill.
i didn't realize that one of the perscriptions the doctor gave me was for cough SYRUP. um, heck to the no. when ted told me to take my dose today, i told him i would...but i didn't.
there is NO WAY i am putting my mouth anywhere near that cherry flavored putrescence.
i can't say ted was too pleased with my decision.

so i drank his homemade citrus tea, instead.



UPDATED to add..

ted wouldn't take anymore of my whining, so he forced me to drink the horrendous cherry crap.
here is the series of events that led to my near death....


the stare down.

goin' in for the kill...with the nose pluggage as my only defense...

and...

DESTROYED.

the funny part, i'm not posing for these pictures at all. just true, raw BBL.

and that is how i almost died. i better sleep well tonight.

hope you all are having a lovely day!

so much work on this post. you better appreciate.

this year has been crazy awesome.
and i appreciated it even more after traipsing through my blog archives.
here is what went down this year...

JANUARY
in the first month of 2009, i decided to be awesome and show you how to get awesome hair like this. if you followed my tutorial closely...then you WIN!

FEBRUARY
the creation and branding of "Pocket Edward" took over the internets. who knew that he would become a cult classic? did i tell you that i heard a newscaster on tv say "pocket edward" a few months ago? yeah...it all started with this post. i WIN!

MARCH
much to tedward's excitement...i got this new license plate. he LOVES when he has to drive my car instead of his truck. NOT.

APRIL
we were bored on a Sunday and decided to straighten ted's hair. it was pretty much the most beautiful thing we have ever seen. my grandma even cried when she saw it. she was stunned by it's beauty too! don't worry, i assured her that we were going to permanently straighten it. she even asks me to this day if we really are going to do it. i tell her we just need the money to do it.

also, in the birth month of my father, i discovered the awesome that is the neti pot. if you look closely you can see actual BBL phlegm! no, it is currently not available on ebay. but maybe soon. just depends how desperate we are to raise "get ted's hair permanently straightened" funds.

MAY
in may my friend heidi and i had a little photo shoot. we channeled our inner emo without the appropriate garb of vans slip ons and skinny jeans. i don't know how we did it, but we did.

JUNE
this is the month that i truly started becoming a Goodwill junkie. and also in this month is when "the yellow belt" was purchased. i only add quotes to "the yellow belt" because of it's epicness level. not because i am trying to say one thing while saying another. awesome. don't worry, you aren't being left out of a coolspice joke.

JULY
this is when my grandpa tom gave-ed me his awesomespice camera to borrow. this is also the month that i stopped brushing my hair...apparently.

AUGUST
in august we went on our epically long anniversary vacay. we drove up the entire length of california, along the coast of oregon and washington and then back down through the most boring state of nevada, until we reached vegas...which is pretty much lame. all in all, we love cali, portland and seattle. WOOT.

SEPTEMBER
of course this is the only photo that wouldn't resize well when i wanted it to. but alas, we celebrated our first year of being married. can't believe we made it 365 days without slaying one another. KIDDING! we celebrated the best year of our lives and look forward to eternity :)

OCTOBER
we had a lot lot lot of haters on this blog. actually, i think it was mostly just one person, and i would like to give her a hug. because i am pretty sure that would piss her off the most. but anyway...we went to Phantom of the Opera which was awesome, but we came to the conclusion that Les Miserables is waaaaaay better. good thing we had 2nd row to Les Mis when my parents took us for my bday.

NOVEMBER
dude. New Moon rocked. and so did the shirts we wore.
But for Eclipse Sierra and I are renting a theater. who wants to come to the BBL screening?

DECEMBER
we went to "the DL" to celebrate tedward's really old human body. remember how i was going to show you all "day two" of Disneyland? well...the pictures were deleted off the camera by accident after i accidentally didn't retrieve them when i thought i did. i'm not gonna reveal the culprit..because i love her and her really poofy hair, and her lovably mommy face. yeah, i'm not gonna say who it was.

so my friends. that concludes year 2009 in BBL land.
who is ready for a BBL 2010?

our yesterday...

"hey ted, do you like my new steve madden shoes?"

"yeah. they are cute. but they have rocks on them."

" ... "

yesterday we got pulled over after dining at the glorious costa vida.

apparently the registration expired on ted's truck. who knew?

we were charming and delightful to the cop...even told him where he could get his own delicious costa vida. but alas...he still slammed us with a 500 dollar ticket. luckily if we get it registered today, it will only be 115. sigh...

in other news, i pretty much think digital cameras are worthless compared to the awesomeness that is the analog cameras tedward bought me for christmas. i have plowed through so much reading on them and have been taking tons of pictures. i am loving life.

too bad i am sick.

on the eve of christmas...

on the morning of christmas eve, i woke up at 5 am to make a homemade carrot cake.
i woke ted up too, to help me grate the carrots, because i knew i would run out of time before i had to go to work. as the cake was baking in the oven, i showered. and when i came out, ted had made us breakfast. we watched a little bit of "sleepless in seattle" before i had to run out the door to work.


i only had to work a half day, so i rushed home and decorated the cake with homemade frosting, and changed clothes and ran out the door to a photo shoot.

right after the photo shoot, i rushed over to the "face" family annual christmas eve party.
the food was excellent, the company was smashing, and the presents rocked! fun times.


after we got home, ted wanted to start a new tradition of opening one gift on christmas eve.
i was down with that...

i liked our wrappings this year. polka dots, damask, stripes and houndstooth. yaaaay!
I picked out ted's gift to open, because it also contained a gift for me inside it...

my good friend carter sent me a link to a site selling "otters holding hands" shirts. thanks, girl!
i knew when i saw them ted would love it. we love that dang youtube video...

needless to say, ted loved it.
he also loved that we had matching shirts.
so we figured out how to use our "self timer" on the camera so we could capture the epicness.

and then one of the holding hands...obvi!
PS...who else is freaked out at the orbs in this pic? creepspice.

christmas is our fall.

anyone that lives in arizona knows, that we don't really experience "fall" until winter actually begins. it's pretty much awesome. and totes confusing.

today we had lots of pretty rain. i even saw a rainbow! it made me grateful for Heavenly Father's promise he made, to never flood the earth again, because now we get to enjoy such pretties.

when i arrived at my mama's to work out, i noticed something quite delightful:

the leaves fell. fall arrived!

i couldn't bare to drive up on the drive-way in fear of messing up the pretty way the leaves fell.

i love "fall" even when it's winter.
and i love my new textured tights. they are warming.

a goal for the new year

i am done comparing myself others.

i just want to the best at being me.

who wants to join me in celebrating being you?
let's do this :)

a busy bee weekend

today i decided that we hadn't had homemade spaghetti in a while.
luckily, the guy who brings us free veggies from the farm that's located next to our work had made a delivery on thursday, and it was for all of the things needed for marinara! *yo!*
so i chopped everything up, whilst singing to some christmas tunes, and then threw it in a saucepan to simmer while ted and i napped.
i am telling you...the key to a great sauce is to let it simmer as long as you can.
duuuude. it was delicious.


we had mom face, dad face and zach face over.
we watched "it's a wonderful life" as we ate. and mom and i cried at the end.
(i bet ted did too...but i didn't see, so i can't say for sure.)
anyway, fun times were had.


yesterday i finished another one of the handmade headbands i will be selling to all of you.
here is a sneak peek of one of the ones that will be in the "busy bee glam" line.
please disregard the "duh" look on my face in the first picture. i couldn't tell if the macro setting was on or not. apparently it was. yes...i am "special".

last night ted and i attended the wedding of our really good friends.
it was happy to see them all married, after being together for so long. we know how that is :)
anyway, at the dinner, we noticed a special kind of butter.
elspeth and bethany coined them "butter balls".
and at the end of the night, instead of the usual "pass the butter please" it turned into "butter ball me!"
am i the only one that cringes at that phrase? hahah :)

a few weeks ago, my grandma (who is a faithful busy bee lauren reader, 'hi grandma!') gave sierra and i our own vintage aprons. i love mine. it is so pretty...and so fun to wear while doing dishes. which is what i did yesterday. it makes it happier for some reason.
even when a creepster is smoking just outside your window and staring at you. yes. even then.

i decided that i really am in love with the candelabra that tedward bought for me in payson.

i like to hang my bracelet on it, when i'm not wearing it.
the light just catches it perfectly, and sends sparkles onto the walls.
it's enchanting.

two lucky little girlies in my life are going to be receiving these handmade busy bee hats for christmas...

a super girly one with a pink hat, pink/peach flower and tulle and feathers!

this one is too cute. black and turquoise. my favorite combo ever. of course with some bling!

want to know what else is enchanting? this time of year.
i am so excited about this week!

it's beginning to feel like christmas

last night, ted & i went on a double date with natalie and jack.
we had dinner at Vito's. this is the second time i didn't love my entree, so i am thinking tedward and i should lay off that place. nothing competes with my love for Rigatony's when it comes to italian food.

right after dinner i mentioned how it didn't feel like christmas. natalie suggested it was because we weren't kids anymore, and when i find that a sound statement, i realized later, it was because i haven't been in the right mind set. i have been thinking about unimportant things that are ruining my holiday spirit.

after we ate, we headed on over to Temple Lights. for those that don't know what those are, at many of the LDS Temples, members of our church volunteer to set up christmas lights on the grounds. this results in thousands of beautiful lights. it seems like the displays get better every year! you all should go, it's free, and puts you in the right mood.

wandering around, looking at all of the nativity displays, i decided that i needed to focus on christmas. so later that night, ted made us his Andes Mint Hot Chocolate of Awesome. I sliced up some banana bread. we got in our jammies. and I turned on "It's a Wonderful Life".

some people like to eat their banana bread separately...

and apparently some like to dunk it.


do something christmasy this weekend!

PS...yes, comments are gone. to the mean people, please go get a life. as for my lovelies, i suggest you "become a fan" of Busy Bee Lauren Blog on Facebook, or follow my twitter here. i want to still have communication with you all. you know i love you...xoxo gossip girl. (sorry, i had to.)

this is...

this is what an exhausting week looks like:

this is what "christmas land" looks like:

this weekend we have a double date with the beautiful Natalie and her husband Jack. If you haven't seen the pictures I took of them, head on over to my new photo site!

i also hope to get all of the rest of our christmas shopping done.

i will mail out gifts to our out-of-stater loved ones.

we will prepare for the best day of the year...the celebration of christ's birth.

happy weekend everyone!

what are your plans?

cameras

One of the most common questions I had on my "ask me anything" post, was what camera I used. I actually use more than one camera. I decided a list was in order...

for every day photos and what you see mostly on this blog:

the canon powershot elph, 7.1 megapixels

my powershot is a glorious camera, and in in my opinion it pwns all other "point and shoots". My brother ty first introduced me to it's awesomeness, and then my parents. We are all believers in it's beauty and wonder. The camera was about 300 dollars when we bought it, but I hear they have gone down a bit in price. in any event...i highly recommend it.

for all of my photoshoots:

Canon EOS Rebel s500

My very generous grandpa lent me his Rebel, indefinitely. How awesome is that? Anyway, I am still getting the hang of it, but so far I have really liked it. I have yet to try out the telephoto lens, but once I do I will let you know what I think of it. Overall, great camera. Only complaint is that it was made in 2000, and for some reason the software isn't compatible with my windows vista and won't allow me to connect it to my computer. If anyone wants to help me remedy this, that would be greatly appreciated.

our polaroid cameras that ted found at a thrift store for under 10 dollars each:

both polaroid 600 automatics

My main request for Christmas was for Ted to buy me a polaroid camera. Well, with much research online we found the cameras to be way too overpriced. He thought it smarter to hit up the thrift stores. He found me two cameras for so cheap! I am really excited to unwrap these bad boys on Christmas. The biggest complaint is that they no longer make film, so the film that is available online is VERY expensive. We are talking 70 dollars for a pack of 30.

and my baby that i am receiving for christmas, that will be our only "film" camera:

the diana dreamer lomography camera

In an effort to nurture my talent, instead of worrying about my photo business, Ted bought me this camera that I have been lusting over for the past few months. I am very excited to think up creative shots and see them developed on 120mm film! The main goal with this camera is to produce awesome shots for our art wall. Digital cameras are overrated.

What camera do you use, and do you recommend it to others?

a BBL home, sneak peek...

so, on veteran's day I enlisted my family to come over to our newly rented out apartment that had no air conditioning {yes, we need it in november} and no electricity, so that they could help me paint the putrescent white walls, an array of cheerful and very chic colors.

i would be stretching the truth just a wee bit if i were to tell you that they were a little less than excited. i personally can't understand why they didn't want to give up their perfectly awesome holiday in order to sweat their hooties off...but whatev.

having the awesome family that i do, mama face, dad face and zach face all arrived bearing painting gifts. aka, brushes, edging tapes, rollers, rags and such. i told you it was a holiday. there were presents involved. coolspice!

let me break it all down for ya'lls.

1. the epicness that is..."the paint pants".
let's look past the horrible reeboks that i continually tell her to soak in gasoline and burn in a safe environment. let's focus on the...dun dun dun...pants. yes, that is paint, and yes, those pants almost have a vinyl texture to them because of it. i would almost call them, pleather. awesome. oh mama face...you are a rare breed.

2. ohhh...bff lindsay came too!
lindsay entertained us with her awesomeness. i think my family was happy she was there, because i think they all get sick of hearing the sound of my voice. it's nice to have someone else to off set me. awesome.

3. i wanted zach to stay far away from the paint.
because he is a young lad, i was positive he would spill paint everywhere...or eat it, or something. so he sat in the spare room, playing some game that undoubtedly stole 437 brain cells away from the cranium that we hope will get him into MIT.

4. that was until my mom decided he needed to help.

i don't think i have said, "zach watch out!" more times in my life. actually, i am positive that if we were to walk on a 4 inch platform across the grand canyon, i would say it less times on that occasion. i blame any premature gray hairs on him. and since early grays run in the family, i'm expecting gray hairs any day now.

5. my mom is the queen of painting.
sometimes i wonder where she and how she perfected the skill. she would throw out these instructions that seemed like such a foreign language to a painting virgin, such as i was.

6. dad is good at painting too.
i am starting to wonder whether they both decided to lie to us childrens and tell us that they met each other working at a theater...but in reality they met at a nerdy "i'm a painting champion, and other random skills seminar". i mean...who are these people?

7. if you were wondering...
yes, my dad is cleaning the brushes that my mom asked me to clean.
no, there are no pictures of me from the paint party of 2009.
yes, it appears that i didn't do a lick of work.
no, i am not admitting that i didn't help.
yes, i am good at being bossy, why do you ask?

and that is the best sneak peek you will get.
at least until after christmas.