New Home on the Interwebs!

Come join me at http://justjussyb.wordpress.com/ !

Sneak Peek!!

 Check it out!  Here are some sneak peek preview pictures of what I have been working on lately! 

These are rolled fabric flowers made out of my old sheets...I am back to a twin bed right now and I figured that the next time I'm in a queen sized one, I'll have much better quality sheets (yea for registries!)  But I didn't want to just throw out these sheets...I love the cotton candy pink color!   I'm currently just making them like crazy but I have a few ideas in mind as to what to do with them when I finish :)

I'm also remembering how much I adore paper.  Everything about it makes me happy :)  I love the feel of it, the textures.  I love the colors and seemingly infinite possibilities of combinations and patterns.  I also love those $1 bins by the check-outs in Michaels.  I frequently fall for them!  I found these great little alphabet stamps last time I was there!  Stay tuned for some fun paper items in my Etsy Shop!

Teeny Tiny Letters!

Honeymoon Planning!

As I type, my lovely fiance is booking our honeymoon!  We are headed back to my favorite place in the whole wide world...South Carolina!  We are booking a house on Fripp Island!  Woot! 

It's Great, to be, a Michigan Wolverine!

I'm a college graduate!

Definition

pas·sion·ate:   –adjective[pash-uh-nit]expressing, showing, or marked by intense or strong feeling; emotional: passionate language.

I'm rediscovering my passion in art...stay tuned for big changes!

 

Apparently I know Enough Things Now?

I'm done.  Graduation on Saturday.  Five years of college and its all over.  I don't think I'm old enough to be set free in the real world yet.  Ann Arbor is home and I'm scared of moving away from here in a few months!  So, for now:

For Today, Good Bye

For Tomorrow, Good Luck

Forever, GO BLUE

Eye Candy ...

 ...in the form of pictures of my happy place.  I recently got back from Fripp Island, South Carolina-a much needed family vacation to the Lowcountry.  This area is my most favorite place in the entire world...which is saying a little bit because I have seen some pretty neat places.  Alas, now I am home and its snowing.  Yes, snowing.  In April.  I'm very upset.  So, I uploaded my vacation pics and I leave you now with sunshine and sand and seashells and happiness.

A Little Wedding Inspiration...

Here are a few of the pictures from The Knot that have helped guide some of my plans for the wedding that I wanted to share with you all!

Restlessness

Sometimes, especially during this time of year, I get the urge to drive to Detroit Metro Airport and just pick a flight.  Max out my credit card and leave.  Restlessness, I guess.  The weather in Michigan in the spring is so fickle and upsetting.  It can be bright and sunny and 20 degrees.  Or 60 degrees for days in a row and then a snow flurry.  It makes me feel uneasy and makes me long for the joy of traveling.  Traveling is one of my biggest passions; inspired and grown in me by my amazing parents.  They would pack my brother and me into our motorhome and take us out to see the country.  I've seen so much and yet, there is always more.  The new places, the amazing people, the delicious food that you can eat guilt free because they are "vacation calories" and don't count, the crazy stories and amazing bonding with your fellow travelers.  B and I are currently trying to plan our honeymoon and I'm absolutely paralyzed by the immense list of places I would love to go. 

Thankfully, only one more week until Spring Break....Fripp Island, SC <3

Photo from the airport in Auckland, New Zealand....my thoughts exactly

In Limbo

I know what I'll be doing on April 30...graduating from college after 5 years of extremely hard work (ok, that one year at Spring Arbor was a piece of cake but the other 4 at the University of Michigan make up for it...).  I'll be the first person on my mom's side of the family to graduate from college!  And I know what I'll be doing on August 5...marrying the love of my life.  But in between those two dates?  Limbo.  I'm not sure if I should be looking for a full time job just to tell them that I need 2 weeks off in August?  I'm not sure if I should stay in Ann Arbor for the summer or move home to save $?  Should I work a few part time jobs so I can relax for once in my life and spend time going on family vacations because this would be my last chance?  What to do...what to do?  I wish someone would just tell me what the right thing would be.

Wednesday List!

After many weeks, I've decided to do another Wednesday List!  So, this week's is my favorite children's books:
1.  Goodnight Moon-I still have this book memorized :)
2.  If You Give a Mouse a Cookie-this book is so precious and simple and the illustrations are so fun
3.  Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel-this was my dad's and my book.  He read this book to me so many times that he would dread asking me what I wanted read at night :)
4.  The Napping House-my parents used this book to trick me into taking Sunday afternoon naps
5.  The Foot Book-I don't know what it was but I adored this Dr. Seuss book

Book Review: The Match ("Savior Siblings" and One Family's Battle to Heal Their Daughter)

Another book from LibraryThing!  I finished reading The Match and found myself wanting to learn the rest of the story, how Katie is growing up.  This book is about amazing, new fertility options that can help people who either have a genetic disorder that runs in their family or help out a family with an already sick child.  Selecting fertilized eggs for healthy genes or certain genes that match a sibling is a complicated new field of medicine and ethics and this book takes the academic arguments surrounding it and puts names and faces on the controversy.  In the book, you meet the Trebing family, whose daughter Katie is suffering from the terminal condition of Blackfan Anemia.  Her parents eventually decided to have another child whose genetic makeup with be a perfect match for Katie's, and therefore able to donate cord blood or bone marrow to help heal Katie.  This story follows their decision making process, the controversy they encounter and the long months of Katie's healing through the help of her brother, Christopher.  Sprinkled in amongst the story is the technical knowledge regarding the procedures that brought Christopher into the world and the battle to save Katie's life.  This is a well-written book that never gets too bogged down in the technical and yet gives enough information to help keep everything in perspective.  Oh, and it will probably make you cry. 

Back At It

I'm back!  I realize its been quite awhile since I've written.  My life has been crazy ever since Thanksgiving!  My boyfriend of 3 years proposed to me the day before Thanksgiving and our lives have been filled with wedding planning and preparing for our marriage.  Its been magical and amazing and hard and wonderful.  B has been the most amazing fiance and has taken on so much of the planning.  We are doing a lot of things ourselves, such as making the save the dates and its been fun to work together.  Also, this semester, I've been student teaching full time.  Its absolutely exhausting and I've never slept so much during my time in college as I have these past 2 months.  Its been hard to continue doing the things that I love, such as art.  I'm already looking forward to being done just so I can get back to creating and crafting.  Thankfully, I'll have a lot of wedding things to create!  I'm going to try to be more faithful in posting because I find the writing to be therapeutic and relaxing in the face of the stress of this semester.