yay for new shoes!

so the other night, i ordered new running shoes- yay! 

i had to tell you about the site i used to order them- after going thru ebates, i found this site called roadrunnersports.com. not only did i get 8% cash back through ebates, they had this awesome option to purchase a VIP membership for 1.99 that ultimately saved me $14! so basically, i paid $2 for a $14 coupon. but the good news is, the membership lasts for a year! and it got me free shipping, which is basically another $7 or $8 off. 

my shoes were shipped out within a few hours and i got a nifty email documenting that. they should come in tomorrow, which i am pumped about. all in all, i definitely recommend them!! check them out for your running gear!

the us credit rating

tonight, after a fun night out and about, nathan and i jumped on the couch (after fixing the internet), grabbed our ipad and macbook, and each immediately pulled up our favorite news sites (its kind of a habit we have, always checking and staying in the know). quickly, i stumbled upon an article that caught my eye because of the link- on the drudge report, it simply said "downgraded." whoa- what?! while nathan and i had been enjoying our five guys & zesto, apparently the guys over at the s&p  were busy. i clicked the link and then told nathan to look- could it really be that what we had been hearing about for weeks, even months, now had finally happened? could our great country really no longer be among the most highest rated in the world?

while i don't want to get to much into my political beliefs here, i do want to say that i believe this has the potential to be very good for our country. while it will mean some pain in some areas, i think this is the kick in the pants we've needed. we all know that our economy is in shambles, our politicians are playing some sort of sick version of "monopoly" with play money in the trillions, and things have to change. nathan and i can't spend more than we make. i mean, i guess we could, but not for long. so why on earth can our government spend way more than they bring in? and as much as we would like to just "adjust" our income to match our spending (and we could do that, to an extent) we can't just charge our employer more because we can't live within our means. and i don't believe that the government should be able to regularly do that. i am glad that the s&p down grounded our credit rating, because it shows that someone agrees with me, and hopefully, things will change.

if you haven't read it yet, take a look at the report here. one of the things they say is, "More broadly, the downgrade reflects our view that the effectiveness, stability, and predictability of American policymaking and political institutions have weakened at a time of ongoing fiscal and economic challenges to a degree more than we envisioned when we assigned a negative outlook to the rating on April 18, 2011. Since then, we have changed our view of the difficulties in bridging the gulf between the political parties over fiscal policy, which makes us pessimistic about the capacity of Congress and the Administration to be able to leverage their agreement this week into a broader fiscal consolidation plan that stabilizes the government's debt dynamics any time soon. "

wow!  i hope and pray that the leaders of our great nation will recognize that their actions and their partisanship are what are hurting america.  may we take this action by the s&p as a warning as what is to come- and make decisions accordingly.

another new feature....

so its been really exciting to see who has been following this blog. i'm not going to lie, it makes me feel pretty special when someone comes up to me and says, "hey, i've been reading your blog and i liked..." fill in the blank with some random recent post. nathan and i were talking about this and it made me realize what an impact i can truly have just by posting to the world my thoughts, affections, and interests. so thanks for reading!!

as i was thinking about this, i started thinking more about what i hoped people were getting out of this blog. its cool that i have influenced what kind of nail polish they should buy or encouraged them to bake a certain recipe, but at the end of the day, am i conveying and promoting the things that matter most to me?

one way i really want to do this is by sharing another interest of mine and encouraging you to get involved. ever since high school, i have been passionate about the world. i love to travel, love to eat new foods and meet new people and go different places. i love to be found in a land where i cannot communicate on my own, and i love the sounds of the multitude of languages. i eat hummus and feta and appreciate different types of chocolate and room temperature cokes with no ice. i love hijabs, saris, maasi patterns, and soccer jerseys. in school, i studied anthropology because i think culture is extremely fascinating. i drink turkish coffee, and from time to time love a good gyro, or shwarma, or burrito. 

i have had the privilege of seeing a lot of parts of the world. i have been to dumps and orphanages, monasteries and seminaries, castles and villages. i have visited four continents, have delivered christmas presents to the fatherless and discussed disney channel with kids in multiple countries. i love the nations. 

our home is full of nick-nacks and odds & ends from around the world- an arabic bible, a figurine from south america, a blanket from kenya....i could go on and on.  

so is it just that i love culture? well, partly, sure. i am intrigued by "different." but its more than that.

in all my travels, in all my studies, in all the times i have consumed ethnically diverse meals and discovered cultural norms other than my own, i have seen the desperation of the world. i have seen the hunger for hope, the longing for love, the panting for purpose, and the cravings for christ. see, because i love the nations, my heart breaks for them on a regular basis.

its pretty trendy to talk about how many children don't have access to clean water or mosquito nets. we've all bought [red] items and given to the red cross and seen, maybe even supported, a world vision or compassion international child.   while thats all well and good, what are we doing about their eternity? what does it matter if they have a nice glass of water on their death bed if once  they pass, they end up in the place where they will eternally be thirsty for the Living Water?

don't get me wrong, i'm all about meeting physical needs.  but we can't stop there. 

that's why i'm bringing in another new feature. you'll find it in two spots- on the left side bar, you will find a daily people group to pray for, and then every tuesday i'm going to focus in on one group. i want to ask you to join me in praying for the nations. maybe this will inspire further action from you- and i'd love to hear about that for sure! but at least once a week, i want you to join me in stopping and taking a break from the exciting world of pictures and nail polish and join me on my knees, praying for the lost.

in order to do this, i am going to utilize an awesome resource. for a learner like me, this website is awesome. called the joshua project,  this side prides itself on being "a research initiative seeking to highlight the ethnic people groups of the world with the least followers of Christ. Accurate, regularly updated ethnic people group information is critical for understanding and completing the Great Commission" (from here). their site is full of info on all people groups, and their standings in regards to their knowledge of the gospel. 

did you know....

a people group is defined as the largest group within which the Gospel can spread as a church planting movement without encountering barriers of understanding or acceptance

there are 16,719 people groups

there are 6,933 "unreached" people groups

there are 6,929 living languages

the largest unreached people group is the shaikh group that contains over 215,000,000 peoples

therefore, tune in tuesday to see the first group. if you cant wait until then, then check out the people group of the day on the left side.

"therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest..." -matthew 9:37-38

dan & han get blogs

check it out! my little brother and sister started blogs:

dan's

hannah b's

the news

so i'm a news junkie. its true. i am constantly checking the news, seeing whats going on in the world and how things are changing. i have a special affinity for world news- not entertainment or just following prince william and princess kate, but i mean real world news. i like to know when there have been terrorist attacks, when there are new countries being formed, and where there are droughts. i like to know what daily life is like around the world. i like to know who is hurting, who is celebrating, and who is being affected by what. it is important for me to stay in the "know," not just so i have a comment when someone brings something up, but so i can be praying & attempting to help the world around me. i check cnn, thedrudgereport, foxnews, politico, and a few others to keep myself informed. i listen to talkradio and the news in the car. when possible, i turn it on when watching tv. its not like im afraid of anything. it just really interests me and i like knowing.

back in college, i was introduced to a website that i continue to check periodically. its a site that reports on a different side of things- instead of reporting who is leading in the republican campaign or what the market is doing or how the british open is playing out, it reports on humanitarian disasters that often never make to the big news sites. sometimes, i've come across stories of hundreds of people dying, and i never hear about it anywhere else. as a follower of christ, i think it is extremely important for us to stay educated and prayerful for our family around the globe. as a citizen of the united state, i think it is equally important to use my abundant access to resources such as the internet to understand the world around me.

run as an arm of reuters, AlertNet is an excellent source of news on humanitarian issues. according to their site, "AlertNet is for anybody concerned with human suffering: relief workers, donors, policymakers, researchers, students, journalists and the general public. The site attracts upwards of 12 million visitors a year." AlertNet was founded in 1997, "in the aftermath of the 1994 Rwanda genocide and criticism of the slow media response and poorly coordinated activities of relief agencies. The site puts our strengths of speed, accuracy and impartiality at the disposal of the humanitarian community by offering a “one-stop shop” for crisis information."

so take a look at this site... and bookmark it! keep up to date on whats going on. here a few stories that were on there this morning:

 

Baby 7 Billion: Let India’s girls be born

Bookworm Corner - Partners in Health founder surveys Haiti after the quake

Child malnutrition in Somalia at dire levels - ICRC

Major outbreak of killer kala azar disease hits south Sudan

Once-daily AIDS pill can slash HIV infection risk

 

so there you go. a little news to start your morning. have you seen or heard of anything crazy in the news lately? what are your ideas for how we can help those around us? i'd love to hear!

have you heard about ebates?

so its friday and while i have a few other posts in the works, i thought i would share a quick tip i learned abotu that is pretty cool! have you ever heard of ebates? alright so its pretty cool if you havent. so i've become somewhat of an online shopper. while i love to go in stores and browse, often, i don't want to spend my time going to the store for things like say toilet paper, or a gift off of a registry. at christmas, the malls are crazy and so i'd rather do at least a lot of my shopping online. so right after christmas last year, i stumbled upon this site and i was like "yes!"

so how it works is you visit this site first, and follow their links to all the different online shopping stores. it keeps a "ticket" of where you are and how much you spend, and then you get a percentage back. every 3 months, they cut you a check, and thats all you have to do! the only personal info you give them is your mailing address (or your paypal account name). how awesome is that?!

they have all kinds of stores on there, too... from hotels.com, target, macys, barnes and noble, clinique, old navy, under armour- the list is huge! so you go on, start an account (and right now, they are giving away a bonus when you open an account) and then search for you store. when you pull up the listing for the store on ebates, not only will you see the link to follow and the amount of cash back you will recieve, but they also post coupon codes for discounts or free shipping- how cool?!

so check it out- the key is to remember to use it when you order things (i'll admit, i still forget). and even if it doesn't seem like much, it's like an extra coupon! between april 1-june 30, i earned $73! every little bit helps, and if you're going to buy something anyways, at least earn something for it!

weather.gov

so i like to know things. well, thats kind of an understatement. i really like to know things. my friends have always laughed at the random tid bits of facts i know. and it does seem to be about the strangest things.

back in college, i had the opportunity to take strengthstest, this incredible diagnostic tool that tells you what your five dominant strengths are (out of 34). while i won't go into a whole lot of it (i'll save that for another post), i wasn't surprised at all to find that my top two strengths are learner and input. here's some definitions from their website for you:

"Learner: By nature, you may see some value in continuous education. Perhaps this reflects your interest in particular topics. Sometimes you are fascinated with the process of acquiring knowledge or skills. Chances are good that you simply cannot have too much information. It is impossible. Like a miner searches for gold day after day, you continually collect new bits of knowledge. Depending on your other talents, you can delve into one or two interesting topics, or you can opt to know a little about a wide range of subjects. Your longing for knowledge is unlikely to be satisfied until you are recognized by others as the ultimate expert in a field or the grand champion of trivia. Because of your strengths, you comprehend what has gone wrong. Eagerly, you uncover facts. Sorting through lots of information rarely intimidates you. You welcome the abundance of information. Like a detective, you sort through it and identify key pieces of evidence. Following these leads, you bring the big picture into view. Next, you generate schemes for solving the problem. Finally, you choose the best option after considering prevailing circumstances, available resources, and desiredInput: Chances are good that you choose to associate with people who think big and think smart. Exchanging ideas, concepts, or theories with intelligent individuals exhilarates you. You pull together as many thoughts as possible from these animated conversations. You never know when someone’s question or suggestion will be valuable. You mentally file away or physically document these snippets — that is, small bits — of insight or wisdom for easy retrieval. Driven by your talents, you may memorize vocabulary words that are technical,

outcomes. Driven by your talents, you may be excited about discovering new facts about historic events or key people. Periodically you rely on experts who have conducted in-depth research on certain periods of history. Instinctively, you have little difficulty giving intense effort to projects, problems, or opportunities that capture and keep your attention.

Input: Chances are good that you choose to associate with people who think big and think smart. Exchanging ideas, concepts, or theories with intelligent individuals exhilarates you. You pull together as many thoughts as possible from these animated conversations. You never know when someone’s question or suggestion will be valuable. You mentally file away or physically document these snippets — that is, small bits — of insight or wisdom for easy retrieval. Driven by your talents, you may memorize vocabulary words that are technical, specialized, or job specific. Now and then, what you say or write is beyond the understanding of certain people. Perhaps this provides you with a bit of an advantage over them in conversations. Your elaborate language might surround you with an aura of authority in well-read individual. People whom you have befriended turn to you for guidance. Often you help them see a situation or problem from a different perspective because of something you discovered while surveying a book, article, letter, or Internet site. For you, reading is the key that opens the door to a world of fresh ideas. You collect them, never knowing when something you read will benefit someone else. Instinctively, you read to stimulate your already active mind. You examine new ideas and unfamiliar points of view. You are quite naturally a lifelong student. Often you are your own best teacher. It’s very likely that you may approach your studies or work with dignity and in a businesslike manner. Perhaps it makes sense, therefore, that you know some complicated, technical, or subject-specific words. You might take time to think through whatever you are going to say or write before you begin. If you have identified your main theories or concepts, you might be able to express them with clarity and precision."

(from https://strengths.gallup.com/, from my personal report)

if you know me, what do you think? does that sound like me or what?

i bring this up now to tell you about this great weather site i enjoy. i hate storms. the weather is one thing that can really unnerve me. you know those people who love to sit on their front porch and watch a good lightning storm? yeah, i'll never be one of them. i also like to be prepared. i keep bandaids in my purse, a birthday card in my car, and extra toothburshes under the sink. you just never know. so, one of my daily rituals, and often the first thing i check in the morning, is weather.gov

in college, i was introduced to this site, run by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. it is the most accurate and most updated weather site out there (MUCH more accurate than weather.com) and it is a blast to look at.

so when you go to their page, you type in your zip, and this screen comes up. and it has a plethora of information. from the 7 day forecast to the current barometric reading, you can always get a good idea on what the weather will be like and the true chance for precipiation or storms. my favorite part? the discussions. now these aren't like message boards where people can write stupid things. these are maintained by the meteorologists and contain thorough explinations of what is going on and what they think will go on in the immediate future.

now, you do have to learn the lingo, but as you can see, anything that doesn't make immediate sense is linked to a definition so you can learn where you go. i highly recommend this site, especially if you are a weather nut like me. there are many a nights when it is storming like crazy outside, and i whip out the laptop and take a peek- often comforted instantly by reading that it is just a small cell or perhaps just lacking in hail and tornadic potential.

so, enjoy. and may you never be caught without an umbrella again :)

dailymile

let me start out by saying- those of you who started following/reading/have just taken a peek- thanks!! hope you enjoy! please feel free to leave comments, questions, notes, whatever! if you ask, i'll blog on any topic (well, almost) that you are interested in, so send it on!:)

now, as many of you who know me know, i started "training" for a half marathon back in maybe my junior year of college. i'd run consistently for a while, then get distracted. i was training really well my senior year for the berry half, and my papa lost his battle to Alzheimer's. in the midst of traveling and memorial services and then finishing my senior year, my training got off and i decided not to run.  i kept running here and there until i got married (i'll be really honest with you- i didnt diet at all to get ready for my wedding. any weight i lost was from running & stress, and maybe because i didnt like all the food in d-hall at berry), but once married, i kind of stopped. by kind of, i mean, in the first year of our marriage, i ran twice. yikes.  a few weeks before one of my friend's wedding, i decided i missed it- and missed the effect it had on my figure! not just the weight that it kept off, but when i run, i feel strong. i feel less stressed. i feel like i have at least a little control. i sleep better. i feel better. i feel like my emotions are more stable. i feel more focused. i eat better (well, mostly). i feel confident.

all that to say, i started running again. and of course, as soon as i did, all the benefits of running started coming back. finally, i got the courage and registered for a half marathon.  in march, i accomplished one of my life goals- i ran it! i finished!

my actual time was 2:14:53 (we were staggered because there were so many runners- i think they said around 19,000 runners ran the whole, half, and other runs going on.

since then, i have continued to run and am hoping to run another few halfs. my goal is to get my time down under 2 hours.
typically, i run on a treadmill at my parents house (they live down the street from my work). i dont run by myself (for a lot of reasons) so me and that treadmill have gotten pretty close. plus, since nathan and i dont have cable/satellite, i can record all my favorite shows and watch them while i run. its great!
in addition, i have a site that is a great tool to log my runs and keep up with mileage. its also inspiring to go back and see what i've done and how far i've run. so i wanted to share it with you today. its called dailymile, and it integrates with facebook and twitter if you'd like.  you can have "Friends" just like facebook, and you send motivation to your friends. most of all, it can show you your pace,  average miles, and a lot of other great analytics. here's some screen shots for you:

my profile page

so there you go. enjoy! good luck! anyone want to run a half with me? im game!

our wedding - part 2

alright the first post was getting a little lengthy, so i wanted to break if off and start fresh. so here's the rest of the deets about our big day.

the ceremony was held in a beautiful lakeside pavilion. while there was an exquisite fireplace that we could have used as a backdrop at one end, we choose a great view of the lake as the background for the alter. we decided to go super simple on the decor for the ceremony- after all, we were only going to be there for about an hour total, and we loved the beauty and simplicity of nature. we went with four arrangements behind us, mainly to help cover a little dock that had yellow paint on it, and to offer some height to the stage. we added in the white to connect the arrangements to just tie in a little more elegance. additionally, we blocked off the center aisle with more white tulle, and had all of our guests seated from the outside aisles.

i love this picture

we blocked off the center aisle because we had this beautiful, custom made, hand painted aisle runner. hopefully, my girls will want to use it someday- i've seen some neat ideas where you just add the next set of names and it turns into an heirloom. regardless, it was beautiful.

because it was may, and because of our location, we had our guests valet their cars at the hotel, and then had a shuttle take them to the ceremony site (there was a path they could walk that was also marked). when they arrived at the ceremony site, we had plenty of ice cold bottled waters for their refreshment, and the pavilion actually stayed pretty cool from the water and fans.

as you may have noticed, i went super simple with my flower selection. first, we didnt have a lot of flowers (as you'll see once i get to the reception), but also, i'm not huge fan of tons and tons of flowers. in fact, my favorite flowers are-take a wild guess- DAISIES. why? "aren't daisies such a friendly flower?" (know where thats from? :) ) additionally, i chose to bring in the star-gazer lilies. when nathan and i were dating, he brought them to me on multiple occasions, and i loved them:) finally, i added in a few roses for the romantic factor they offer. my florist (who unfortunately has closed her shop due to retirement) had the great idea to use some pearl pins in the bouquets- check them out in mine

our unity candle floral piece

nathan and i worked with our officiant very closely to plan a highly personalized ceremony. it was beautiful. to help our guests follow along, and to pay tribute to our wedding party, we put together programs that we passed out

it was actually several pages long, but i have posted it here. hopefully, you can read it enough to get an idea of it. additionally, keep in mind that this was a booklet, so the page numbers are below that would put them in order.

alright so we had a beautiful ceremony led by a very close friend of ours. because we chose to not see each other before the ceremony and take pictures together afterwards, we had our guests ushered up to the "pre-func" area of the ballroom for passed hors d'oevers. nathan and i enjoy our first moments as husband and wife, and took some great pics with our fam & friends.

so then the super fun part- the reception! we planned a beautiful and fantastically fun reception.  as i mentioned in my previous post, we went with a theme of coffee & starbucks. also, it was a special celebration of the people who helped make us what we are, so we wanted to make sure no detail went unnoticed. so to start with, we had asked all of our guests to make a dinner selection- we offered three, as well as an option to mark the number of kids coming. we actually decided to have a separate room for our kiddo-friends to eat in, which turned out to be an AWESOME idea. we asked that anyone under the age of 12 head to the youth room, which was fully equipped with chicken tenders, and ice cream cart, a few wiis to play on, and a movie playing on a big projector, not to mention board games, coloring books, and more. we only kept the kids in this room during the dinner hour, and then opened the doors into the ballroom once dancing started, allowing them to go back and forth. i think this was a great idea- it let the parents have a nice time knowing their child was taken care of, but it also was fun for the kids because for a lot of them, this was the first wedding that they went to, and this gave them a fun way to not get bored, and to also feel like they were special guests. plus, it saved us a lot on food- we had about 50 kids under 12 come, and the kids meal was much cheaper (and probably much more enjoyable for them) than the adult meal.

now, because we offered dinner selections, we decided to go with a seating chart- and we did all the way down to the exact seat. this actually turned out to be a lot of fun. we had to work pretty hard on this, but it was great. so we had a sheet for all our guests when they came to the ballroom that had the table names and locations, and then once they got to their seat, they had a name tag with a flower that was color coded to their dinner selection. this ensured that everyone had a seat, everyone got what they ordered, and also grouped our types of guests together (for instance, all of our college friends were seated in a few tables around the speakers, while we placed some of our older guests closer to the doors).

instead of table numbers, we decided to name all of our tables based on our favorite books- because what goes good with a cup of coffee?  a great book. some examples of what we used included Jane Eyre, Banker to the Poor, Freakonomics, Comeback, and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

that idea was a hit. we placed the table names on little signs with a paragraph about the books, and put them in our centerpieces. the centerpieces were all a little different, but they contained different glass vases full of coffee beans, candles, and a few flowers.

as you can see in the one picture, in lieu of favors, we made a donation to winshape marriage on behalf of our guests, and presented each with a bookmark detailing the donation and the organization.

so dinner was served, during which, our awesome band played some light jazz. the menu for the night included a salad, entree, and then plenty of dessert. in addition to wedding cake and a grooms cake, we had a great dessert bar set up next to the starbucks bar (which we somehow didn't end up with a picture of?!). also, for our toasts, we passed out shot glasses of milk with warm cookies. definitely plenty of sweets!

as i mentioned, we had a full service starbucks bar, making everyones favorite starbucks drinks. the baristas were even in their green aprons! this was quite a special treat for us. we set the starbucks bar over to the side of the ballroom, and really set the stage with white leather couches and lots of candles. there was a line the whole night!

one of nathan's best friends, aaron, giving his shot glass of milk toast

my mimi, at the dessert bar

now our cakes- wow! what fabulous creations! both mine and nathans cakes were made by the Frosted Pumpkin- and incredible cake bakery that is a partner of the Evergreen. they were beautiful- and super yummy!

my cake, a vanilla genoise cake with cappuccino mousse and chocolate ganache filling, iced in swiss buttercream- yikes! super yum

nathan's super great cake- his was a chocolate cake with dark chocolate ganache and rolled fondant icing

yeah, they were pretty great:)

so once we got everyone fat and happy, what was it time for? dancing of course! and let me just say, we had the best band EVER. the neons. they were great- great to work with, played awesome, and had more people dancing then i had ever seen at a wedding!

for our dances we selected:
our first dance- we will dance by steven curtis chapman
father/daughter: delany talks to statues by jimmy buffett
first song for our guests: september by earth wind fire
last dance: new york new york by sinatra

finally, in addition to all the food and dancing and kids room, we had one more treat for our guests- a photobooth! the company we used was awesome- it automatically printed 2 copies of every session, so that our guests could leave one for us and take one with them. also,  the booth had a projector that streamed all the photos taken on to the wall- which was quite a surprise to our engaged friends who took some kissing shots :)

finally, it was time for the night to be over and we had the perfect get-away planned. we had asked and my dad's business partner very generously allowed us to drive off in his Ferrari- quite a treat to my car-loving husband.  to cheer us off, our guests lined a path with sparklers- too fun! it was a perfect ending to a perfect night:)

to see more of our pictures, check out my shutterfly page- http://whitniandnathan.shutterfly.com/

if you have any questions or want to know more, let me know! i love talking about my wedding :)

mint.com

i want to take some time to tell you about one of my favorite websites. nathan and i have been using this for about a year now and it is a great way to track your money, plan for the future, and visully see where every penny goes. the website is mint.com and is just too stinkin' cool!

my mint.com homepage (with amounts erased)

   this site is just so cool! so how it works is that you create a free account, and then you set up all of your accounts within it. it is hosted by intuit and is completely safe. you can pull in your bank account, your credit card account, loans, all sorts of things. then, you can create a monthly budget and "tag" transactions to each budget item. additionally, you can create "goals" that allow you to do things like save for the future, pay something off, or something along those lines. so, you can input your monthly income, and it will show you how much your budget adds up to, as well as what you will have leftover after your budget and goals are spent. you can set it to alert you when you are about to go over in a certain area, when different types of transactions post, and when bills are due. the other cool thing is since this is "in the clouds," i can access it from my computer, the ipad, nathan can pull it up- its not stuck on our computer at home. for nathan and i, this has been a VERY helpful tool to get our spending under control, and i love the graphs you can pull up. we are working on paying off our edge and saving for a house, and its fun to watch the line go further across the page! so check it out. it's so important to budget and spend wisely. plus, it makes planning- both the short term kind and the long term kind- a lot easier when you know what you have to work with. 



pinterest

have you heard about pinterest? it might just be my favorite site right now! its like a virtual pinboard- you collect pictures of anything (food, decor, etc) and "pin" it to your board- the site saves the website that it came from, and you can collect your bins on different boards to keep them organized. so much better than a bookmark folder full of websites that you can't quite remember what they were for- this is a great way to save images!! check it out! and take a look at some of my pinboards. they are full of things that look like me! http://re.pn/b/04k9