Design - Kids Clothes Fav!

Ok, so this is a quick plug, but trust me it's worth it!

I am so blessed to have such a talented mother, she is a graphic designer and very artistic. She just recently started a kids clothing line and Oh. My. Gosh. Adorable! 

Since we love design so much, we wanted to share our love for Nite N Day!

Follow them on Instagram @nite.n.day or visit their shop http://shopnitenday.bigcartel.com to purchase this Bananas tee and more!

There is Beauty All Around

We live in such a beautiful world and sometimes I think we are so busy to even look up to see it. Taking pictures of inanimate objects, buildings, and landscapes to me is one of the ways I take time to look at what is all around us. 

Here are some tips for inanimate objects, landscapes, and buildings:

1. Angles - angles are everything. Sometimes you won't be able to get straight on from the subject of your photo, but that's ok! Angles give your picture a dynamic that is hard to create any other way. 

2. Color - The exact color you see is hard to create in photography. The world is so fluid and changing. Be ok with the colors you get, use photoshop if you want to. But most of my landscape pictures do not have color editing. 

3. Impeding Objects - use them to your advantage! I love obscuring buildings with trees or flowers! It gives dimension and life to your picture. Not to mention a personal touch. 

4. Be adventurous! - crawl in the dirt, climb a tree, stand on a cliff (carefully). You will get some really fun shots that will be really hard to recreate giving them a one of a kind look! 

Moving in and Cleaning up: A Few Tips for a Clean New Home

Oh my gosh, y'all. Moving is hard.

Seriously. I'm still exhausted. I need like five hundred naps. And I still haven't even unpacked everything. All the boxes are just in my place.

Anyway, here are some quick tips that I've learned from this craziness. These tips will all be about cleaning your house pre-move since clearly I can't give packing/unpacking tips when everything's still in boxes haha. (Maybe next time!)

Tip #1: Shelf Liner

I love this stuff! Use it on your shelves, in your drawers, and wherever else you want your stored items not to get all guffed up from the drawers' wood shavings. (Yes, guffed is a technical term haha.)

Tip #2: Floorboards

Okay, I'm not just talking about like the tops of these. Get all the crevices. 

Tip #3: Doors

Yes, you really should wipe these down. See all the little nooks and crannies in the door? Yeah, you should get the dirt out of there. Also wipe down the area around the handle, because that's where people touch it, so it gets pretty gross.

Tip #4: Blinds

No, that's not a shadow on that picture (though, yeah, sorry about the image quality; took these on my phone). The blinds on the top have been wiped down; the blinds below have not. Seriously, look at the difference just one good cleaning can do!

Tip #5: Cabinet Handles

Do these especially for your kitchen handles. You'd be surprised all the dirt and gunk that gets stuck there! In fact, it's a good idea to wipe down all of your cabinets, inside and out, because ew.

Tip #6: Windows

Isn't it so nice to be able to see?? Make sure you wipe these down on the inside and outside (where possible; this is a ground-floor window, and I don't want you leaning out of second story stuff!), and you'll be surprised how quickly your room brightens up (and looks better kept!)

10 Healthy Alternatives by Picklee.com

I just had to share this great alternatives chart I found on www.Picklee.com. 
http://www.picklee.com/2012/09/05/10-healthy-choices-make-healthy-living/
These are really easy things to add to your meals that are just as delicious (if not more so!). Thanks for reading guys!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Hope you have all the luck of the Irish today! Don't forget to kiss a Ginger! 

This Post About Reading is Secretly About Writing

It'd been a long time since I really sat down to lose myself in a book.

I had lots of good reasons. I was in the middle of a massive rewrite and didn't want to have other stories in my head when I was trying to focus on that one.

I was getting my husband through his last year of college, and he'd just lost his job, so I had to choose how I used my time.

I was tired. I was making dinner. I don't know. Lots of other excuses, I'm sure.

But it was Christmas Break, and we were going to be on a plane for six hours on our way to vacationing with the rest of the family. And I packed six books.

I was ready.

Ultimately, I only read one of them, but that's okay. It was amazing.

I bet you've heard of it. It's called The Book Thief.

I opened up to the first page, and before I even got a few lines in, I literally gasped out loud with delight. I'd never fallen in love with something this quickly. The poetry of even the first page, the unique narrator, the asides, everything about it was perfect.

I turned to my husband excitedly and waved the book in his face. "This book," I said, "is amazing."

He looked at me with this expression sort of like, "That's great, honey, but stop disturbing the other passengers."

I devoured the book. I was a third of the way through it before our flight even landed. Then, of course, I got distracted. I took all sorts of pictures of everyone at the beach because I was the designated photographer for our family. Not because I'm good at photography (seriously, Becca is clearly the photographer here on Ographies) but because I'm terrified of the ocean and the only way I was going to get involved in beach shenanigans was by documenting the whole thing.

We were out in Hawaii for ten days. On the eighth day, everyone went snorkeling except for Mom and the littlest kids . . . and me and my husband.

He took a nap. I finished The Book Thief.

I don't think I can adequately describe what it's like to read that book. It's just . . . perfection. Every single line seemed to dig its claws deeper into my soul. I was so tightly hooked that I managed to forget that the narrator had spoiled the ending at the beginning of the book and as I sat there in disbelief at [SPOILERS] massive character death happening all around me, well, I just cried.

I cried and cried. Silent tears, the kind that you cry when you're reading because, wow, you've got to read the words on this page, and those tears are very definitely in your way of getting any reading done.

It's something very private, I think. The crying while you read. Because in that moment, you are inside the world of the book, so taken in that you feel the emotions the characters feel. You are drawn into the world, and it's real to you in that moment, and that's why we read. Because it's a new place and old emotions.

I managed to clean myself up just as everyone was getting back from snorkeling, but I never did quite recover. I still cry just reading reviews of that book.

And that's what books do, I think. I still grin like a loon whenever I read the line: "In a hole in the ground, there lived a hobbit." I am still a proud member of the "Fred Weasley Death Denial Support Group." I even flipped through the Jewel Princess series I read when I was, like, eight, and I still smiled through the whole thing.

Books are our companions. They are milestones in our life journey. They mean something to us the first time we read them and then something new the second time.

That's why we read them. That's why we write them. Not out of some grand, deluded idea that we can influence the world, but maybe we can capture it. That small little piece of truth, a memory, a feeling, preserved in pages.

A little slice of humanity, bound and printed. That's what a book is.

Cookbook Hoarder

Hello, my name is Rebecca, and I am a cookbook hoarder. I am going to sidetrack from our normal Kitchen Corner segments and bring to you a message about cookbooks!

Cookbooks are a few of my favorite things. Now that I have the Sound of Music stuck in your head, let me explain why. I know a few people who seem to be very gifted in the culinary arts, and sadly, I am not one of them. I really need a step-by-step guide to show me my end result when it comes to cooking. I prefer ones with pictures too (that way I can compare and know if I screwed it up too much). Having all these meals in one place is also so helpful. 

That is why I want to share with you one of my favorite cookbooks! Our Best Bites by Kate Jones and Sara Wells.

I am not a mother yet, and I know the catchline is "Mormon moms in the Kitchen," but I adore this cookbook. This was one of my favorite wedding gifts. There are so many wonderful recipes, and I have yet to try them all. One of the best things about it is the fact that these meals are so easy! (I love the fix-it and forget-it type of things and anything that is easy to cook and doesn't take to long to prepare.) Novice cookers will be considered head chefs after using this book!

Like most cookbooks, this one is organized into sides, main dishes, salads, soups, drinks, etc. They actually have another book that is a seasonal one where the dishes are organized into spring, summer, fall, and winter. You can purchase it at Deseret Book. 

I highly suggest this cookbook for anyone! Even kids can help cook the meals in this book. If you have this cookbook or end up getting it, let me know what your favorite meal is, and I might have to try it (or try it again!).

Design Do's and pretty please Don'ts

Through the Eyes of a Child

Have you every thought about how the world looks through the eyes of a child?

How big everything is compared to you, yet still being willing to try new things. Children are some of the bravest individuals I have ever met! That has been made clear to me on multiple occasions by my baby sister. Every time I take my baby sister (I do mean BABY, she is two years old) to play at the park, I am astonished at what she is willing to take on. Today alone, she climbed up a ladder that was twice her size and wanted NO help from me going down the slide.

I have started to capture some of these moments, so I am starting a "line" of photos that I am going to call Through the Eyes of a Child. Mind you, I will limit what I display on the blog for safety and anonymity of my sister. Sadly, my favorite pictures I capture include her face! Drat!

Since I do not take a camera with me everywhere, which I really should start doing, a majority (if not all) of these images will be taken on an iPhone.

If you have any ideas of what activity I should capture, please email us at ographies@gmail.com.

Here are a couple of images from the last few visits to the park!

"I freezin' sissy!"

"I chasing it."

5 Editing "Please Don't"s

Okay. Let me sit y'all down for just a bit.

Comfy? Okay. Good. Because I've got to level with you: you need to stop.

Yes, I'm talking to you, person who insists that "your" and "you're" are the same thing. And you, person who thinks commas are for crazy people. It's time you learned about the English language.

I'll probably make this an ongoing series, with various Please Don'ts added in for writing, editing, whatever else. I was going to make this a "Top Five" list, but I realized it's really hard to pick just five. And to make them not the usual "it's versus its" argument.

So, in no particular order, here are my Please Don'ts for the week.

1. Please don't ever, ever say "The reason is because."

Please. Never. Never ever. 

Why? I'm glad you asked.

"The reason is" literally means "because." Literally. (Not the "literally" when used to mean figuratively, mind you, although that somehow made it into the dictionary.) 

So when you say "the reason is because," you are actually saying "because because" and unless you are singing along to "The Wizard of Oz," there is pretty much no valid reason for that.

"But Shelby!" I can hear you saying. "I say that all the time!"

Yes, well, saying things out loud and writing them down are different. When we speak with our mouths, we are speaking off the cuff, as it comes to us. We break all sorts of rules when we talk, but that's because we're still thinking about it, and our listeners can usually pick up on things like hand gestures and expressions to fill in the gaps. When we speak with our pens/pencils/laptops/other writing devices, we have time to think through it and to read through it. 

*note: Reading through does not mean using spell-checker to automatically do this for you. I'm looking at you, pre-teen me.

2. Please don't ever try to make something plural by added apostrophe-s.

I don't know who started this trend, but I would like them to stop. Seriously, in what universe does making something possessive make it plural?

Okay, so let's sit down and do the middle school thing.

My friend's jelly beans = The jelly beans that belong to my friend
My friend's a jelly bean = My friend is a jelly bean.
My friends love jelly beans = I have multiple friends, and they all love jelly beans.
My friends' jelly beans = The jelly beans that belong to the multiple friends I just mentioned.

Oh man, I should have picked other examples. Now I want jelly beans. And friends.

I understand that with things like "the 1980's" there can be an apostrophe (though I prefer "the 1980s" myself) depending on what style guide and rulebook you prefer but for crying out loud that is the exception and please stop pretending that's an excuse to run amok throwing apostrophes around willy-nilly!

3. Please don't use "where" when you mean "were" (or vice versa).

I understand. They are very similar, except one has an "h" and the other does not.

Here, let me explain.

"Where" = place
"Were" = the past tense of the verb "to be" 

The jelly beans were where we left them.

The jelly beans at a previous point in time happened to be at the place that we left them.

Yep, I still want jelly beans.

4. Please don't write sentences that try to hide your verbs.

This one's a little trickier to explain. I'll try to do it by example.

Okay, so let's say I want to tell you that I ate the last of the jelly beans. 

"The eating of the jelly beans, which previously had been in a full container, had the result that no other person got to eat any jelly beans besides myself."

That was a really awful sentence, y'all. I cried a little bit writing it.

First of all, let's look at the actual verbs, okay?

"The eating of the jelly beans, which previously had been in a full container, had the result that no other person got to eat any jelly beans besides myself."

Oh my gosh, I hate this so much. 

Do you see what's happening here? I've hidden all the blame and all the action in so much garble-dee-gook that it's very hard to tell that I'm the one who ate all the jelly beans.

*note: This is why legal jargon follows this pattern. Stuff gets hidden in bills all the time because why would we just speak plain English?

Now let's use more exciting verbs!

"I ate the entire container of jelly beans myself, so no one else can have any."

Look at that! CLARITY. *cue the Hallelujah chorus

Please, please, please do this when you write. There is nothing more obnoxious to me than reading a piece that tries to hide its verbs.

5. Please don't noun verbs.

*Please read Calvin and Hobbes. You will be enlightened on the joys of "verbing weirds language."

This is another one that's best illustrated by example, and it sort of ties into the previous point. Remember that awful sentence?

"The eating of the jelly beans, which previously had been in a full container, had the result that no other person got to eat any jelly beans besides myself."

Oh my gosh, why. 

Anyway, "the eating of the jelly beans" is the most awkward construction of all time, but I did it on purpose because I see you do this all the time, political science major self. 

I don't know why we like to do this with our language, but for some reason, we are absolutely convinced that we sound more distinguished or smart or whatever if we take all our action verbs and make them into boring nouns.

Spoiler alert: it just makes you sound like a badly-written lawyer in an over-hyped legal drama.

"The eating of the jelly beans was done by myself" 

Oh gosh I made it worse.

Please stop doing this. Please just write, in plain English, "I ate the jelly beans."

"But Shelby!" I can hear you saying. "I need to vary my sentence structure!"

That's fine. Let me show you how to do that in a not-stupid way.

First, the wrong way:
I saw the jelly beans. They were in a jar. The jar was full. I pulled the jar off the shelf. I ate everything in the jar. I put the jar back on the shelf. It was empty. I was sorry for eating all the jelly beans. I told my roommates I ate all the jelly beans. They were mad at me.

See how boring that is? Subject-verb, subject-verb, subject-verb.....

"But Shelby!" you're saying right now; I can just feel it. "Doesn't that prove the point?"

NO. No, it does not! 

The right way:
I looked up and saw the jelly beans, sitting in a jar on the shelf. It looked like most of the jelly beans were still there; it was almost full. So, I pulled the jar off the shelf, and I proceeded to eat everything in the jar. When I put the jar back on the shelf, it was empty.

Almost immediately, I felt sorry for eating all the jelly beans, and when my roommates arrived, I told them what I'd done. They were, justifiably, mad at me.

Look at that variation of sentence structure! Look at those action verbs! Look at the ebb and flow of the story!

Feel the hunger for jelly beans! (No, that's just me? Okay.)

My point is, you can vary your sentences and have your story ebb and flow without noun-ing your verbs. So please stop. The rest of us will thank you for our sudden ability to understand what the heck is happening in your sentences.

Well, thus ends my Please Don'ts . . . for now. Please do go out and stop doing all these things, and come back next time when hopefully I will be less hungry while I'm writing my blog posts . . . .

Easy Chalkboard Labels

Here is a fun project I had this weekend to make our cabinets just a little cleaner and fun!