bff

I haven't been feeling well for the past few days.

Mickey has taken full advantage of this-he's in heaven. He hasn't left my side, well maybe to get a treat from Eli or Brian, but other than that he never leaves! He's laying at my feet as I type this - he's a good little mutt! I HATE not feeling well! I hate laying in bed, but I'll be better soon! No worries! Plus Brian and Eli have been awesome! The only one who will be bummed when I'm better is Mick -poor Mick haha!

Hope your week is going great!! Got any plans for the long weekend coming up!?

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Crafty Helper

On Sunday Eli and I counted all the granny circles I've made over the past year (yea a year haha, not a year straight but still a year). We came up with 2 different totals haha! I multiplied and he counted them ALL. Oh well, we know there's over 100, which is crazy! I like that Eli shows an interest in my crafts, I like that they aren't too "girlie" for him. My Nanny always talks about how my dad was crafty growing up- just look here! So I hope I can do the same with Eli! I don't want him to have the gender basis that some kids learn, I want him to know he can do anything - same goes for my future kiddos!

What are your feelings on this? Don't get me wrong I'd love to be a stay at home mama if we are able to when we have kids, but I grew up in a home where my mom had an awesome career (my dad too-just at night at the newspaper) so my dad picked us up everyday from school. My dad cooked and did the grocery shopping, only because he preferred to- my mom has a few recipes she makes on special occasions! ;) They were a team, there was no stereotypical gender roles. I remember my first trip to the gynecologist was with my dad - poor guy haha! My mom was up at dawn with us at swim meets, cheering for us at the edge of the pool and filled in as our coach a bunch of times! I hope I can approach family life the same way - I'm gonna give it a try! ;)

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Welcome Wagon

The fun has began! Eli's aunt and uncle are in town - he's so stoked! They're great kids and so wonderful with Eli! I'm so thankful for that! Though I honestly am not around teenagers that much so I only have a short list of things to do with them - so if you have any ideas PLEASE share them! 

How much do you LOVE Eli's Welcome Sign - he designed it himself - he wanted half snow (for where they live - though it's only NH hahaha he thinks it snows all the time) and a sunshine for Florida! He's a clever one! ;) Remember his sign for Lauren - he's the sweetest! Remember to leave your ideas!

Have a super wonderful weekend!

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for fun

We are a fun bunch at work! We got a Marquee Sign from an auction a while back and we stay busy with it! Here are some examples, keep in mind we do it all in fun - basically what I'm saying is don't be offended - just laugh! 1. We love Dexter! 2. More Dexter LOVE! 3. Beware Caesar!!! 4. hehehe only zombies and vampers are rise from the dead 5. We LOVE Starwars too! 6. Cinco de Mayo! 7. For all you drinkers. 8. Earth/Death Ray Day! 9. Obama got Osama (Bush didnt)! 10. We all stayed here on earth - how bout you? 11. Still here! 12. hahaha my best bud Daniel celebrating!

So there you have it! What fun stuff do you do at work? What would you have our Marquee Sign say?

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Hello Summer!

It's finally here, though here in Florida it feels like it's been here for months - SUMMER!!! That means trips to the Keys, snorkeling, catching lobster, wakeboarding, and getting some sunshine on my see-through pale skin! Here are some of last years Summer memories. Here's the lovely weather here in Tampa this week - hot and rainy - nice. 

My wish for Summer is I learn to crochet little amigurumi - this that how you use the word? 

Olivia that's where you come in ;) 

Have a wonderful first day of Summer everyone!

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Farley Family Father's Day!

We had a typical Farley Family Function on Father's Day - lotsa food, a movie we made for our parents' 30th wedding anniversary, and fun. Our dad opened all his gifts from us kids and we ate some tasty food Lauren made! It was a great day to celebrate the great dads in our lives!

Early in the morning, Eli and I made Brian pancakes, bacon, and eggs!! We gave Brian little gifts all weekend! Oh and the night before Eli made some beautiful paper flowers for Brian's breakfast tray - he's so sweet! I've told him a zillion times, but Brian is an amazing dad! Eli is one lucky kiddo! I can't wait for our family to grow! 

Lauren worked SO hard at making Father's Day Dinner! It was amazing! It's no small task, cooking for 10+ people (not that I would know bc I've never sone it haha)! It was mostly organic and all tasty! ;) Even the ice cream cake was organic - she's so awesome! And look how cute she is after all that cooking!

This week is full of awesomeness! I'm stoked for it! Can't wait to share with you all! 

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Father's Day

Yesterday was Father's Day and it was a good! My sister made an awesome, organic meal for everyone and an icecream cake that was amazing! We went out to lunch with Brian's Pop and the rest of the gang. It was really nice! 

Here's some things about my dad:

He's very tall and solid, when I was young I compared him to a superhero, I thought nothing could hurt him, then one day he got stung by a sting ray and I realize he could get hurt, but he's still a super dad. 

He can make pretty much anything out of wood. He carves gnomes and wizards, he use to make bowls (I wish he still did), he makes furniture, etc. He's very crafty.

I always thought I'd inherit my crazy gene from my mom (no offense Mags ;)), but come to find out it's my dad who's made me crazy and here are the reasons why: 1. he taught us NEVER to smack or talk with food in our mouth and now I go nuts if someone is smacking. It literally is the one thing that can make me snap haha - thanks Larbear! 2. Don't park in the fire lane at the grocery store to use the ATM - you are NOT more important than anyone else haha and you could probably use the walk 3. Do NOT stand with the fridge door open for 5 mins! You should know what's in there! 4. scissors - do NOT take them from the place I keep them!!! -crazy I know!  5. He collects everything and in turn I now collect everything haha - I have SO many collections! Dunnys, fabric, books, letterpress blocks, nesting dolls, etc. 6. Collecting hobbies - I now do this too!

I love my dad so much and all his craziness! What crazy thing do you love about your dad?! :)

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Crochet Queens

As you all may have been able to tell I'm so stoked to have my sister, Lauren back in Tampa! We've pretty much seen each other everyday since she's been back from Boston! Last weekend while driving back from the Keys she asked me to teach her to crochet -awesome, but not awesome because I car sick if I look backwards. So this morning she asked again and she totally got it! Here she is posing with her creations (in her new sunglasses ;)). I'm so stoked she can share in my crazy love of crocheting! 

Here's another awesome Crochet Queen, Michele from Bake, Craft, Love! She sent me an email last night showing me her FIRST granny square! It's perfect! She watched this youtube tutorial I made awhile back and tada she made a very perfect granny! I just want to hug her and tell her thank you for the email - it made my week! I want everyone to learn to crochet! Go check out Michele's very nice blog - Bake, Craft, Love.

Hope your day has been awesome! 

I'd love to hear how you learn to crochet! Leave your story in the comments please!!!! I had such a difficult time when I first was learning - see here and here! Night!

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It's Friday - Finally!

I always see #flashbackfridays on twitter or instagram, so I decided to take a little trip back in time! Actually my sister and I have been working on a photo project for our parents and I found this photo of Mickey! It's the first photo I ever took of him! Note that he's at work with me ;) 

I grew up with two Maltese pups named Lucy and Sally, and I decided that's what kinda pup I'd get. So I did! He was so small though, I thought I'd break him! Luckily now he's as hearty as can be! Plus he doesn't bite like he did when he was small, my arms and fingers would be covered in little bite marks - rotten pup! I like him alot better now! ;)  Hope your weekend is wonderful! We are going to  METROCON (a customer gave us tickets-I'm kinda stoked about it), my sister and I are going to cook a completely organic, locally grown, hormone free Father's Day meal for the Farley/Cheaney gang hahaha I'm sure our dad & Brian will be stoked!

What will you be doing this weekend!?

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happy paper crafting

If you follow Strumpet's Crumpets you know I have a slight obsession with Paper Crafts! There are SO many amazing things you can do with paper! Here are a few!

 DIY Paper Puppet Sheep by furzechan on Etsy 

I love this little guy! Wanna play lambs?!! ;)

The other day Sara from the Prairie Hen showed me this adorable printable coloring PDF Swedish Summer House by amyawalters on Etsy! I want to make a few with Eli - a whole town!!

 Claire from Nothing Happens Unless We Dream sent me this link to the awesomest 3D Paper Owl from  mmmcrafts! You can download the Owl shapes PDF here and make your own! So cool! 

Saving the best for last, the VERY talented Leila from Tattoo Tales and Illustrated Ink makes the most beautiful Posable Paper Dolls. The Octopus Pinup is one of my favorites, but favorite is difficult to say because I LOVE them all so much! If you're like me and can't choose, she has a pack of 3 you can buy!

Thank you to my sweet friends for always linking me to awesome paper crafts ;) 

Happy paper crafting!

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Keys Weekend

This was the first weekend of Summer break, though technically it's still Spring - it feels like Summer! We took Eli and Lauren (my sister) down to the Keys! Lauren had never been with us before so I was super excited! The drive down from Tampa is a long one, so for fun we left QR Codes at gas stations and at Pei Wei with a creepy/funny message on them! The sun was perfect Saturday, even though all week the weather channel said it was going to rain! We took the boat out to Hens and Chickens, a beautiful coral reef. Then when we headed to a second reef, I saw 5 or 6 barracuda - made me nervous! But Brian and my dad say they won't bother you, they're just curious - still! After the reefs, we went to Robbie's for some dinner and to see the giant tarpon. The tarpon were HUGE! They just get fed by tourists all day - can't be good for the eco system, right?! But it was neat to watch Brian and Eli hand feed the tarpon, though Eli thought it was "super gross" to touch bait fish - I did too! That evening we watched the sunset from the boat as we raced the night to the marina - it was beautiful! 

The next morning we cleaned, ate and headed to........pick up an arcade game of course! ;) Oh but before we left, we FINALLY raised our pirate flag on our little trailor! Then we headed to pick up the mini NeoGeo, perfect for kids! I crocheted all the way home - heaven! So it was a fun and VERY tiring weekend! I'm excited to staying home this weekend and do some cool Father's Day stuff. 

What did you do this weekend? Anyone hangout in the sunshine? What are your plans for Father's Day?  

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30 years together!

Yesterday was Mags and Larbear's 30th wedding anniversary! Pretty amazing, but if you knew them you'd just know that's how it is, because they are still so in love. I'm just so happy for them! What they have is what I hope to have in our marriage and family - they are goofy, good, hilarious, and super loving.
Mags and Lar, I love you two so much!

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Traveling Paper Crafts

The other night I made put these little guys together! They're paper creatures from Mibo Studios! I just think they're awesome! Their little passports are funny! Just had to share them with you! 

Hope your weekend is completely awesome!

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Marquee Alphabet Lights

Last year or so I found light up letters on UrbanOutfitters,and I really thought it'd be cool to have a B for Becky, but they had no B's - whompwhomp! Fast forward to this year when Brian proposed and we started planning our wedding, which is circus/carnival themed and then I wanted TWO B's! Get it like Barnum & Bailey! Now please know I don't actually like Barnum & Bailey because they use animals in their circus and I'm VERY against that, but aren't the B's fitting and awesome!?! :)

So I emailed UrbanOutfitters and asked if they would ever have the B's again, I got an email saying no (took like 3 months for them to email me been ps). I was so disappointed, but thought maybe my dad and I could do it ourselves. But then one day I saw an etsy email with MLevin's shop in it and a light up G! I seriously couldn't email him fast enough - I was so stoked! He was awesome! He emailed back and forth right away and told me he could start that afternoon! He made them so fast and SO well. They're made of wood, metal, and all the lighting gadgetry. They were shipped to our office and I opened them up right then and plugged one in! Perfect!
These B's will be great for the circus/carnival theme of our wedding, plus I can put them at home in the living room!

The B's are about 16+ inches, I put the dunny there to show you their size. Then I realized many of you may not know what a dunny is - it's a blind box vinyl toy that is 3 inches tall. Bahahaha sorry! So that little guy is 3 inches - gives you an idea of the B's size.

So the moral of this story is:
 Buy from independent artists! 
(I still LOVE OU ;))
and I couldn't be happier with this etsy seller -Mlevin! I want to get an E now for Elias' bedroom! 

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Postagram now available!

I am a lover of photographing EVERYTHING and I love printing. I believe in keeping print alive! My dad works at the newspaper here in Tampa and Brian and I work at Sonic Print. Buy print! :)

Ok enough of that! Today my friend Mo, owner of Mity Mo (a very awesome marketing company) emailed me about Postagram! If you have an iPhone or Android you can use Postagram. 

I keep up with many of my friends and blog buds via Instagram - it's an app that lets you put cool filters on your photos and then lets you share them with all your buds! My username is Becksorange on Instagram, come find me! And if you're on Instagram leave a comment with your username! :) If you don't have Instagram no worries you can go to Instagrid and view my photos! It's just a really fun app! 

So now if you have Instagram (and if you don't you can still use Postagram - I think) you can send a friend a tangible postcard with an Instagram photo (or just one from your phone) AND the photo has a die cut around it, so you can pop it out and keep the photo! How awesome is that!!?!?! Completely awesome! AND your first one is free right now! Gotta love that! I just signed up and sent one to Brian from Mickey with Mickey's photo haha, should be here in 3 to 7 days! Wootwoot! 

Here's the link to the Postagram blog!

Pretty darn cool right?! :) 

So if you visit a friend or family member and take photos with them you can send them the photo to their physical address (along with a sweet note) right then! I just think it's so neat! Try it out and let me know what you think! 

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Cute Paper Crafts

Back in January, my sweet friend Amber sent me a birth-week gift via email. She's the sweetest, she sent me multiple small (but incredible awesome) gifts the whole week of my birthday. She knows how much I love paper crafts and foxes, so she sent me these guys- the Forest Friends! I asked Dave to print them out the second I got them - I luckily print at a printing company! ;)  Thank you again Amber - they still sit on the shelf in my office! So I fell in love with Mibo Studios - they are the creators of these awesome paper creatures! Today is the first day you can buy these Jet Set Pets! I LOVE them!! Go check out Mibo Studios for yourself, I think you'll love em too!

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Trip to Tarpon Springs

This weekend Lauren (sister) and I took Eli to Tarpon Springs! It's not very far from our house, but I've never spent much time down there. It's a wonderful little town full of awesome Greek culture and food! Tarpon Springs is famous for it's sponge docks, which made us refer to Sponge Bob all day ;) How could you not love a town that has mermaids and mermen painted on the side of buildings!?!

 I'm not gonna lie it was REALLY hot out - tourist who come to Florida in the summer are so brave. The heat is gross and humid! But I guess being able to jump in the Gulf or Atlantic make it okay! 

We ate lunch and walked around in all the nic-nac shops, it was a good day. On the walk back to the car we stopped in an antique shop and I found this little creepo monkey (below). I obviously bought it because it's completely awesome and it was on sale. Eli announced to everyone in shouting distance, that the monkey was NOT going in his room because it is just too creepy!

The rest of the weekend was spent crocheting, putting together legos, and relaxing a bit. Wish every weekend  could be like that! :) I hope you had a wonderful weekend! Any new projects? I started an old project up again, my granny circles! I counted last night and I have 77 circles total. I don't really have a pattern for the blanket, so I'm not really sure how many I'll make! Any suggestions!?

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Quilting Day

Last weekend my sister and I headed to our Aunt Jackie's house for some quilting and sewing (and eating lots of tasty food)! Jackie surprised Lauren with this AMAZING quilt for her graduation! Jackie wanted to keep it hahahaha!!! Jackie is a crazy awesome quilter, she just made a quilt for Danny's graduation! Jackie taught Lauren and I how to quilt, though we are no where near as good as her!

 For those of you who are kind of new to my blog, you may not know I quilt at all, oh but I do haha! Just not in awhile! I prefer hand sewing, see here, here, and here I taught my little cousin! But I do machine work too! See here and here! And the only quilt I've ever completely finished is Eli's haha! Even since I learn to crochet, I've stopped quilting. I miss it!!! Especially after I saw this fabric (above) at my aunt's house. I wanted to steal it all ;) I didn't though! But my dearest, best bud is having a little baby, so even though I owe her a wedding quilt, she'll probably get the baby quilt first with little lambs! 

My aunt made this paper pieced quilt - ALL by hand - she's nuts! Isn't it perfect! The points are so sharp and exact! Really makes me want to quilt again! 

Do you quilt? If you do link me your photos pretty please! And maybe share some quilting tips! My tip is - get an aunt Jackie haha or take a class. I learn by watching, so a book wouldn't really help me.

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Happy Monday to you!

Hello gang!

I feel so disconnected from blog world - I miss you all! We had an awesome (computer free) weekend though! Tonight I will try to catchup! Hope your weekend was wonderful! 

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Mad Scientists - Dying Celery

Last Friday, someone was in trouble and someone couldn't watch TV or play video games, so I found something awesome to do with him (Eli)! ;)

We were at the grocery store and I remembered dying carnations and celery with food coloring and asked Eli if he wanted to try it. I explained the experiment would show us how quick and where the water goes when plants drink it thanks to the food coloring. 

So here's what you'll need:

1. food coloring (we got neon)

2. glasses of water

3. stalks of celery (the inside pieces are the lightest and work the best!) or white carnations - though if you do that try to buy local flowers ONLY!

4. Time - because this will take awhile

Once you have your supplies it's pretty self explanatory- put coloring in each glass and stick your celery stalk in there. We marked down the time we began and checked them every hour. We didn't is anything for at last 5 hours. The next morning the colors were really bright!  

The colors impressed Eli, which made the whole thing worth it! Now we aren't big celery fans so we didn't eat ours, but how cool is it to nibble on neon celery!?

Do you have any other awesome experiments for kids you'd like to share? If you do put it in the comments! We love doing science experiments at home! :)

I hope your Thursday is going great! I'll be back with quilting day photos shortly!

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June Paper Calendar!

Happy soon to be Summer!!! I'm very excited about the June being here along with all the sunshine! And June 1st means a new paper craft calendar from The Curiosity Group -wootwoot! This month is the cutest little whale. I printed out one large one and one baby one - thought they looking pretty cute together! I really look forward to the first of the month thanks to The Curiosity Group - you guys are awesome! Here's my little collection from the past 5 months!
Curiosity Group, I'm curious what gang these whales belong to? ;) They definitely have gang tattoos haha! Are they west coast whales? Let me know!
Have a lovely first day of June and download these adorable calendars asap! 

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