a shameless plug

Many of you know that I work for a company out of Lindon called QuicKutz that specializes in die-cutting tools and accessories for crafters. We've now expanded the company by announcing a new product line and brand, Lifestyle Crafts (or L). Our product development team is brilliant and they've outdone themselves once again.

(no, the L does not stand for Laura)

The first thing this brand is releasing is an at-home letterpress tool. Those of you familiar with letterpress printing will know how "in" it is and that buying anything letterpress like wedding invitations, greeting cards and business cards can be very expensive. Creating your own letterpress projects is almost impossible without making a serious investment for a standard letterpress machine which are extremely pricey and hard to come by. That all changes with this tool.

You can check out the L Blog to learn more about the letterpress and how it works, or lifestylecraft.com to see more projects we made with it. You can also check out this blog by our product development director.

This may all seem like not a big deal unless you're into this kind of thing. If you are, trust me, I've used this tool a lot and I've been absolutely amazed at the quality of the prints. And it's so much more fun to do yourself! We just released it at the summer Craft and Hobby show in Orlando this week and the crafting community is loving it! I've fallen in love with it too and I'm so sad to be leaving this job just as it's being released. At least I've ensured that I will be getting one when they hit stores this fall. Keep an eye out for it!





P.S. I just got back last night from Seattle. Bret started work up there on Monday and I spent a few days checking out neighborhoods and looking for apartments (on the hottest week in Seattle in over a hundred years by the way). I'm back home now to finish up a couple more weeks of work and to pack things up. Bret will come down mid August to help me pack the truck and drive it up, which means I won't see him until then. Boo.

full house

We've been living in a full house lately. Bret and I have been crashing at my parent’s place for the past couple (ok several) months while we’ve been waiting to hear back about Bret’s job. Through the month of July my sister and her little family have been staying at my parent's too as they are also in transition between living in NYC and moving to California. That brings our home-body count number to 7 adults, 1 toddler and 2 birdies in a pear tree (just kidding, they have a cage). This doesn’t even include all the times my other two sisters and their kids come over to play, which is often.

Sure it sounds like fun but between having to share bathrooms, lines for laundry access and babies sleeping in closets, it hasn’t been easy. And yet as we all go our separate ways this week, I’m a little sad to see it end. I have a feeling my parents may feel differently. They've been nothing short of saintly for putting up with us. They have a group in their neighborhood called “The Empty Nesters” that gets together for dinners and such. Perhaps now they’ll actually qualify for this group.

p.s. Apparently they have a show in Korea called Full House cause if you google it you'll get pictures like this:

in honor of jenny

Last week Bret and I went to hear Bon Iver and Jenny Lewis play at the Twilight Concert Series downtown. Bon Iver is great but I'm a big fan of Jenny Lewis and her band Rilo Kiley so I was especially excited to hear her. Not only is her music great but I think she's pretty cool too and I kind of want to be her (perhaps it's my red hair envy).

At the concert with my friend Molly Farmer

Just when I thought I couldn't like her any more, Molly told me some amazing information about Jenny. Apparently she started her career as a child actor. You may remember her from such 8os classics as Uncle Tom's Cabin, the Wizard and my personal favorite, Troop Beverly Hills.

Perhaps many of you were already aware of this but I had yet to make the connection. Bret was blown away as well. Apparently The Wizard was one of his favorite movies as a kid. I hadn't heard of it so he pretty much talked about it the whole way home from the concert. So in honor of Jenny, we rented the Wizard. Basically the whole thing is about three kids trying to get to a video game tournament in LA. Please enjoy this amazing clip from the movie.

Being a child star doesn't always bring out the worst in people apparently.

bret and his games

Those of you that know Bret well probably already appreciate his ‘talent’ (we’ll call it) of making up the most random games on the fly. He's also really good at getting people psyched about playing these games. This is both a good and bad talent in my opinion. It’s good because he can turn the most ordinary, boring objects and/or situations into something that's pretty entertaining. It’s bad because this usually happens when he’s with his guy friends and girls are typically not involved (the reason most likely being that girls lose interest in these games a lot quicker, but whatever). It's also bad because these games tend to last a very long time. Last weekend we went up to a cabin with some friends and Bret’s games were taken to a whole new level.

Nevermind that we brought plenty of entertainment with us including board games, a wii system and several movies to choose from. No, they decided to play these games.

Game #1: How far can you let out a measuring tape before it snaps? ( I know this game isn’t new but they took it way too seriously)

Game #2: Throw the hacky-sacks into the sombrero (which was really a chip and dip bowl) with the middle hole as the jackpot. This initial game led to several variations and elaborations that kept the boys up through the wee hours of the morning, but I was far beyond wanting to document it at that point. They also had a game of how "how high can you build a structure made of firewood without it falling?" earlier but I didn’t get any shots of that.

Us. Watching them. All night.

In truth this isn’t all we did at the cabin. We had an incredible BBQ, made delicious smores and had some quality time in the hot tub. Good times for certain. Thanks friends.

the latest

It's official, Bret and I will be moving here this summer. We'd love you to come visit so if you've never been before, are a big Twilight and/or Gray's Anatomy fan or you just plain like us a lot, please come see us.

*clarification for those who are not (painfully) aware of our situation: Bret interviewed there in March for a job with J.P. Morgan Chase and it finally came through. We'll be up there in August.

tempting

Now that the heat of summer has finally set in, these options are looking all the more appealing.

So what do you think, do I dare? Whose "do" is the best?

why i love the fourth

Why I love the 4th of July....

morning hikes

neighborhood parades

the traditional Udall family 4th of July quilt

delicious food

(I realize America is older than 31, the 4th is also my bro-in-law's b-day)

including popsicles

and fireworks with the fam.

(photo credit- my bro jim)

It's my favorite holiday.