Treasure Jar Giveaway!

Well my lovely readers, the time has finally come! You can now officially enter to win this

Treasure Jar:

"Do you remember as a kid that shoebox, or jar, or windowsill that you
lined up your most prized possessions?

Your figurines and dirty river stones and lucky items of the marble, penny, and rock variety?

This is a way to get that back.

This Treasure Jar has been lovingly collected and created,

wished into and compiled with the greatest care.

It holds envelopes of secret notes, glass vials, river stones and your sisters earrings

(you borrowed a few weeks ago but forgot to give back.)

The tickets you won from the carnival last summer.

The letter from your best friend.

I wanted to create something that let you know how wonderful and treasured

you are, and we are.

I wanted you to remember what we knew as kids,

but have forgotten as adults."

To Enter:

Leave a comment below telling me your favorite childhood item 

as well as your email adress. :)

To get extra votes: 
Follow Mason Jar Memories then spread the word about this giveaway through your own blog or facebook page and leave proof in a seperate comment.

Entries close 11:59pm Tuesday the 6th of September (Mountain time)

A winner will be announced next Wednesday the 7th! 

Also, in these pictures I am wearing my new/old dress just purchased from Vintch. I completely love it. She was such a sweet seller, and has an amazing heartfelt blog as well!

I styled it to look a little like the blue dress Skeeter wears in the movie The Help, haha.

And yes, I was rocking the jedi braid ^__^

Have a beautiful day.

Instagram Update :)

Hey readers :) Just wanted to post a quick little photo update while I get things ready for the Mason Jar Giveaway which will start tomorrow along with my September sponsorship of The Dainty Squid! I love that blog to pieces :) Be sure to check it out!

Sorry for the little lapse in bloggin' there,

it's been pretty crazy. :P

How was your Tuesday without me?

I'll get back on it, promise!

Have a beautiful Wednesday! 

Giveaway Sneak Peek!

AH! So finally, after a total ton of work to put this together for you guys, here it is :)

The sneak peek preview of the giveaway that I'll be hosting soon:

Do you remember as a kid that shoebox, or jar, or windowsill that you
lined up your most prized possessions?

Your figurines and dirty river stones and lucky items of the marble, penny, and rock variety?

This is a way to get that back.

This Treasure Jar has been lovingly collected and created,

wished into and compiled with the greatest care.

It holds envelopes of secret notes, glass vials, river stones and your sisters earrings

(you borrowed a few weeks ago but forgot to give back.)

The tickets you won from the carnival last summer.

The letter from your best friend.

I wanted to create something that let you know how wonderful and treasured

you are, and we are.

I wanted you to remember what we knew as kids,

but have forgotten as adults.

-----

The official give away won't start for about another week, but I wanted to let you all know what I've been working on :)

I'd love to know what you think so far!

Have a beautiful day.

Something Teeny About Me

I'm starting a new mini series called,

Where I do a little post telling you guys something about me. Just a small, little anecdote paired with maybe an illustration or photo :)

-----

In Highschool, I had to have a torturous 'palette expander' attached to the roof of my mouth, like a metal spider. It made eating food like a human impossible, the prospect of "making out" even more terrifying, and super difficult to pronounce
a lot of things, especially my name.

I still get self-conscious when introducing myself.

Lazy bloggin' :P

Oh sleeping in late, giggly sleepy kisses, yard sale shopping, teeny tiny adorable cabin renting, strolling through the city, shopping for rocks and minerals and soaps and jewelry, sweet little libraries, trees with scarves knitted all around them to keep them warm, matching hello kitty bandaids, swimming in freezing cold water, adorable floral bedspread, penny arcade, demonic monkey, plaid and leather camping outfit, sunny kisses and cuddelin, we miss you already :)

Keep our teeny one room cabin warm for us Manitou, see you soon <3

Floral Florida :)

We're back from our little 'camping' esque trip :) It was so darn nice to get away from everything, even just for a little while. Some pretty pictures from that will be up soon!

It's always so hard for me to go back to regular life after vacations, heh. We're STILL missing Florida pretty sorely. One of the things that I miss the most that you just don't see here is all of the beautiful and strange and sometimes adorable wildlife!

Those lizards just killed me! Too cute! I wanted to collect all 7 million of them and bring them home :)

That little guy was flapping his weird neck deal in order to keep us away probably, but it was adorable! hahah, I think I'm a reptile person as it turns out :P

Some fish and ducks got the idea that we were going to feed them while we were watching them by the dock, then out of the blue up popped two creepy necked turtles! I love turtles usually but these things had some seriously long scary necks, weird pointy noses and yellow eyes! Ick. Maybe I'm not a reptile person after all haha.

We're so used to seeing deer and ground squirrels and the occasional fox out here, but never all these crazy reptiles and beautiful flowers and plants growing wildly. It was awesome :)

Oh Florida *sigh* we'll come back for you someday.


Have a beautiful Monday, readers.




P.S. I've been working on the giveaway a little, and should have a sneak peak coming soon! 
It is for seriously rad :D

By the way,

:P

TILTF

But really Friday, Sorry! DX

So sorry this feature is a day late!

Help me become a stay at home blogger and I will stop sucking at posting on time :D

1. These Derek Cardigan Eyeglasses.

Cause as it turns out, I may need some :(

My favorite colors! Which is your favorite? And don't you just LOVE
the geeky multiplication, division, and equals signs! Ahh, I die :D

2. This crazyadorable Fair and Lemon Square Dress from Modcloth



Spimow! I want this so frankin' bad!



3. This sweet print by another one of my favorite artists, the lovely and talented (and beautifully inked) Ambird.

4. This adorable note that breaks my heart and fills it up at the same time.

Gawww, reminds me so much of young Calvin ^___^

5. This amazing Rosie/ Leia Artwork

 The coolest, nerdiest combination of my interests ever!

We've been planning today for our little spur of the moment trip this weekend!

Just to a close little town to stay in a cabin by a creek, it looks darn lovely. I can't wait :)) I hope your weekend is as wonderful, readers. You genuinely are on my thoughts all the time! I wish I could meet you all and have tea and braid your hair, haha.

Whether it is in your outlook on life, your observations, your intellect or surroundings,

have a beautiful day today, readers. You deserve it.

Blog Re-design!

There is currently a huge overhaul of the 'ol blog layout happening right now, so bear with me :)

XOXO,

Grace Elizabeth.


Edit: The redesign is all finished! :D What does everyone think, better than the last layout?
I for one am stokkeed! Our little blog is moving on up, I even have a splendiforous Giveaway planned for very soon! Stay tuned, great things are ahead!
:D

Luhvely

I've been thinking alot lately about what defines us as people. I think a lot of us attempt to get our self-worth from what the people around us think or feel about our lives- the way we dress, how clean our house is, how often we attend church.

My entire life, I've alwaysalwaysalways felt good when people felt good about me and felt bad when people felt bad about me, and I've never given it a second thought. After graduating though, and moving on to get married and carve our own lives out for ourselves, it's made me very anxious and overthink-y whenever I see someone from Highschool. I'm sure a lot of people feel this way too! Especially in this day and age of social media,  it gets so awkward to see an old acquaintance in real life because we feel like we have to prove how well we're doing and show them how much we've improved and progressed. I get this gross fake persona happening and I totally hate it.

Similar to this lady.
(If you've seen Adventure Time, read what she's saying in LSP's voice, baha.)

I really enjoy who me and Calvin are when it's me and Calvin. I feel crazy content when it's just us sitting around being with each other, I never feel any need for anything. I have all of the attention and friendship and comradery that I need. In this blog too! I feel like I really get a chance to represent accurately who we are here. It's only when you try to mix other people in that have preconcieved ideas of who I am that I get all weird and self concious and defensive. I need to relax! I'm really working on shutting down that part of my personality that get's all hyperanxious to prove anything to anyone. We're good people, we're happy, but we are not perfect and that's okay!

Because Calvin and I 'took a risk' by getting married so young, against the advice of some friends and most of society, I feel like we really need to prove to everyone that it was a good decision, the best decision in fact, and that we're thriving and growing and are going to make it. But you know what? I know we're going to make it, and Calvin knows we're going to make it and I really need to recognize that is enough. My God's opinion matters, my husband's opinion matters. Above and beyond that, any negativity or judgement forced on us by strangers or even friends and family is going to be pushed by the wayside. It puts a ton of pressure on my shoulders always trying to look and act perfect all the time, when we're not perfect at all. We fight sometimes. We bicker about oranges and sock colors and a million other irrelevent little issues but at the end of the day our love is unceasing and that is all that matters. The health of our love is one of our biggest priorities, and we are fighters and we will make it on this Earth and what lies beyond, and that is that :)

credit.

If you are someone who also struggles with this, I want you to know that worry gets you nowhere. You can actually look pretty lame, always trying to look great and wonderful and like we're not all falling apart because we are and that's okay. It also makes other really great people feel like crap, when you try so hard to make everyone believe you're flawless. This world is not meant for us to be perfect, that part comes later. Right now, we are deeply flawed. Fake personas and appearences are a vicious cycle, and I plan to keep them out of my own life. I hope you aim to join me when you feel ready.

Have a beautiful day.

Bookstore Date

One of my favorite places just to go and relax and read and write and hold hands, is our local Barnes and Noble/ Starbucks. What a dang great idea of someone to combine them! The Yeti skipped his Kempo class last night just to take me out, and it was so lovely :)

As I was getting ready, I realized that the color scheme of my outfit exactly matched the colors in this beautiful painting we have hanging in our bedroom. It was painted by an elderly Russian patient of ours here at the office who wanted to find a way to thank us- I loved it so much I was allowed to take it home :) The painting is entitled Desert Memories, and he explained to us that those white structures in the middle panel were maybe ghosts or remnants of the past in some way- he wasn't really sure why he put them there.

While we were shopping, I bought a new journal (of course) and an amazing book called "Geek Love" by Katherine Dunn. I buy a new journal almost every time I go to B&N because I am constantly in search of a replacement for my High School writing jounal. For whatever reason I've never found on as good as it was, but I hope the one I bought last night will be it :) It's leather bound with beautiful but simple stitching as cover decoration, with a colorful braided string to tie around and keep it closed. It also has natural, unlined thin paper- my favorite! :)

To be honest, I was turned away by the title and techno looking cover of "Geek Love", but Calvin read the back to me anyway- and holy cow am I glad! I took it as a cliche nerdy love story, but as it turns out, 'Geek' here is referring to a person in a sideshow act that bites the heads off chickens! The book is about a family of circus 'freaks' bred by their father as attractions for his failing circus. It's been wicked great so far- thanks for the find, Yeti!!

It's got my heart all firey and racing lately that books are going 'out of style'. Ebooks are only 5% of the book buying market right now, but already they've put bohemoth Borders out of business! In all honesty, this terrifies me. Books are beautiful in every way; their weight, crisp pages, fresh ink smell. These are not things I want to live without in any distant future! Please support your local bookstores, it's up to us bibliophiles to keep them alive! Ever since Borders passed away, I've been boycotting Ebooks. Yes- they are convenient, and you can download and read new books while you are in your PJs or on the toilet or at your cousin's wedding- but is that convenience really worth it? Our children never getting to experience that fresh excitment of cracking open a brand new book they've been wanting to read, or never knowing the satisfaction of looking upon their library of adventures and tales and friends on their shelf?

I won't be a part of physical, real, sturdy literature fading away into the past like those white ghost structures. I hope you'll help me.

Have a beautiful day, readers.

Instagram Update!

Boy, has it been busy around here! We had a huge group of people over for the weekend for Warped Tour, and had a total darn blast! I'm relieved things are slowing down again though for sure :) 

Thursday and Friday we spent getting everything tidy and ready, then had everyone over Friday and Saturday. And, while I'm not a real social person when it comes down to it, I do enjoy being around people and hearing all of their different stories, and I really enjoy being the hostess heh. It made me feel great that everyone had a good, fun time, and we finally got to break in our downstairs! For whatever reason, we've never really used it much before. It was perfect for having this many people over though, seeing how I hoard chairs and there was a place for everyone to sit :P

In the myriad of Instgram pictures above, you will see lots Yeti and I snugglin, some even in the grass under stars :) A big 'ol breakfast we made together for everyone to wake up to, my new little old typewriter, Of Mice and Men place at Warped, my face, my face reading, my face smiling like a doof, and my new awesome bird two-finger ring.

It has been goood :D

I hope everything in your world has been sunny and peaceful

and I hope you have a beautiful day.

Good Morning :)

In case I ever get the crazy notion that I am cooler than my mom, she makes me things like this to put me back in my place:

A YETI pillow plush based off of this picture:

:D

that I made a little while back and she's workin' on the Vamp to go with him :)

For those of you who are new here, my husband calls me Vamp, and he is my Yeti. Long story, can be read here. (a few paragraphs down.)

The blanket in that picture is an adorable pink and teal and cream colored vintage crocheted throw I bought the other day at a totally AMAZING antique warehouse we discovered a block from our house. We also scored a super cheap working antique typewriter and adorable salt and pepper shakers, but I'm tellin you, this place had it all, included masses of coke memorabilia! I can't wait to go back for more pickin' soon :D

(Anyone else crazy for the show American Pickers, on the history channel?)

I hope you have a Mom that makes you awesome stuff,
and I hope you have a beautiful day <3

Oh Instagram,

I do enjoy you.

If you have an Instagram account and feel like seeing what I ate for dinner, breakfast, rides in the car, my toenails, stuffed animals posed like humans, etc. everyday, feel free to follow :P

My user name is yetiandthevamp.

Yay! :D



Oh Deer!

This little lady finally bought herself an iPhone! :D

It should be arriving later today. I know I'm like 5 years late to this party,

but boy am I excited!

In order to protect our investment, I've been browsing protective cases,

and wow there are some amazing ones out there! I wanted to share my favorites with you :)

1. La Dauphine Aux Alderaan iPhone 4 Case

Beautiful and nerdy? Yes please!

2. Flight of the Elephants iPhone 4 Case

I just love these sweet flying elephants :))

3. Adventure Time Fan Art iPhone 4 Case

Me and the Yeti are HUGE fans of Adventure Time.

I may, *ahem* be wearing AT themed undies right this moment :P

4. Green Owl iPhone 4 Case by TEAGAN WHITE

Teagan White= Favorite Artist

+

Owl= Favorite Creature

=

doublefav.

5. Oh Deer iPhone 4 Case

I know, I know, it's sodarnhipster. But you know what?

It reeealllly darn cute.

6. The Pretend is Near iPhone 4 Case

This one is, ahh...magic.

7. Mister Gnome iPhone 4 Case

I love me some gnomes :))

And these are only a few of the thousands listed,

and hundreds that I love! Help me choose D:!

Plus, if you have an iPhone, iPad, Laptop, or empty walls, and love really rad stuff, check out: society6.

Have a beautiful day lovely readers, the pretend is near :D

<3