My Best Friend's Wedding

I officially don't think I will be a bridesmaid again until my sister's wedding in the coming years (and Brittany, I better be the Matron of Honor!). I am okay with this revelation :). We recently spent five days down in Charleston/Hilton Head, South Carolina for the wedding of my best friend Blair and her fiance husband Joe.

The ceremony and reception were held at the beautiful Colleton River Plantation in Bluffton and we got ready at the Dye house, overlooking Colleton's Dye golf course. The wedding was at 6pm, but we were "on call" at 9am (make that 9:40 a.m. after my dose of Benadryl…don't ask, and a coffee/bagel run to Panera). I was Blair's photographer as she was getting ready so of course I am going to share some pictures with you!

My Dream App

Have you heard about the iPhone app that will tell you where public restrooms are based on your GPS location? Well, I think it is perfect for a few groups of people: those who are pregnant, those who are potty training, and those who are getting too old to control their bladder.

I would love if it had a cleanliness rating entered by those who have used the restroom so you could choose based on other criteria t proximity if you have that kind of time. That would be great for the general population don't you think?

If you have been pregnant, or are a parent or even spend a lot of time with pregnant people, you can imagine that as I gear up for week 36, this is becoming more of an issue. Taking two trains to work doesn't help either which is why I am going to start driving in with my husband to avoid some of the bumps and ups and downs.

Do I have the app? No I do not because my personal phone is a phone only (nope no data plan). Before you scoff at my traditional plain old phone, I will tell you that my Verizon bill is only $40 per month and it is great. My phone isn't eligible for an upgrade until June and Verizon tried selling me another basic phone for $200 before that time, which of course I refused to pay for. A girl can great a nice selection of summer shoes and dresses for that price! My work phone is a Blackberry (so I am connected) but the app isn't available for AppWorld, yet it is also a web-based application which now has a spot on my list fo favorites. If you know it is, please let me know!

Stylish Blogger Award

I received the "Stylish Blogger Award" from Emily at LaForce Be With You

I met Emily as soon as I started freshman year at Clemson and we are good friends who wish we had all of this creativity and resourcefulness while at Clemson because our dorm room would have rocked! Emily shares recipes, crafts, and thrifty DIY projects on her blog. 

To accept this award you have to follow these 4 rules:
1. Thank and link back to the blogger who awarded you with the award
2. Share 7 Things about yourself
3. Award 8 recently discovered great bloggers
4. Contact the bloggers and inform them of the award

Okay so on to the 7 things:



1. Within 72 hours of meeting my husband, I told my mom I would marry him someday. That's right, we met on Saturday, May 6th (photo on my sidebar) and on Tuesday, May 9th at the St. Louis airport on our way to Las Vegas to celebrate my 21st birthday, I said it out loud. And my mom almost choked on a buffalo chicken tender.


2. My "house" will be in the Smithsonian Museum of African-American history. We bought a condemned house/property in 2008 one week before our wedding (crazy right?) with plans to demolish the property and build a new house since it had been vacant and crumbling for several years. Well, the research showed that it was actually a historic home (not that the County helped care for it) and we, mostly my husband, worked with the Smithsonian and we donated the original log structure they were interested in. We didn't want to ruin history, but we did want to build our new home on this land :). By the way, our house is modular. Not sure what that means -- take a look at my video and this post.

during demolition

before moving in

3. I have my own small business, Memorable Designs. I started off about 18 months ago creating video montages from old/new photos and video clips for weddings, birthdays and anniversaries. I have participated in two small bridal shows, but get most of my business by word-of-mouth..so talk it up! Everything can be done remotely. I also do full color photo books which are great for vacations, baby's 1st year, guestbooks, wedding party, etc. My latest addition has been photo pendants which have been a hit! I wear one of my ultrasound image a few times a week. Let me know if you are interested!


4. Since 2007 I have been to the Dominican Republic, Malta, Germany, Belize and Hawaii. I also traveled in the U.S. to Connecticut, New York, South Carolina, California, Georgia, Arkansas, Pennsylvania, and Florida (three different cities) all for at least two nights. What can I say...we like going places!

Arkansas

Belize

California

Germany

Hawaii

Malta

5. I was a finalist in the Connecticut state spelling bee -- twice. Once in fifth grade and once in sixth grade. The words that got me were "prevalent" and "dilapidated" (funny considering the situation of #2).


6. I'm pregnant. if you read this blog you already know that, but I thought I'd include it anyway because it is a big part of "About Me" lately. We are expecting our lil' Squirt on March 28th which makes me just over 33 weeks into the adventure of pregnancy. This blog will probably get a little more photo heavy and less text/tutorials in the coming months once baby is born since I'm not sure how crafty I will want to be. Even when I do craft, they will probably be baby-related, so I'm sorry if that doesn't interest you ;).


7. I don't want to jinx myself, but I tend to have good luck on Friday the 13th. We got word on Friday, Nov. 13, 2009 that we passed all inspections and could move into our home. On Friday, Aug. 13, 2010 we went to the doctor and saw and heard our baby for the first time!

popping champagne on night #1

taken the afternoon of 8/13/2010

I am awarding the Stylish blogger award to these 8 online friends:

1. Ashley at Make It & Love It

2. Brooke at All Things Thrifty

3. Sherry & John at Young House Love

4.  Tasha at Dot.Dot.This

5. Tiffany at Making the World Cuter

6. Stevie at Moore Babies

7. Jill at Homemade by Jill

8. The Creative Mommas (who I see have already gotten the award, but I still think they deserve it!)

Clemson game!

The week before last we went back to the place where I met some of my best friends: Clemson! I wish I had a recipe or something creative to share that I contributed to our massive tailgate, but since I camped for the weekend, I only contributed bottled water. So, some photos will have to suffice :)

Keep in mind that Clemson was playing Maryland so Brad was the only one around wearing red. Well, the Tigers beat the Terps 31-7 and it was a great game!! I made a shirt that I wore around town on Friday that said "My mom is a Tiger, but my dad is a Terp" and the back said "Good thing I have time to decide!" My good friend Blair and I designed it and I couldn't believe all the compliments I got on it.

Four of my cousins go to Clemson (only three are shown since their poor brother is pledging a fraternity).

Welcome to Kauai

The flight from Honolulu to Lihue (lee-hoo-ee) is very short, but they still manage to serve a small juice cup. Funny, I was only served one round of drinks on the 7.5 hour flight from Dallas to Honolulu on American Airlines...We picked up our rental car at the airport and started driving with no destination in mind since we still had several hours until check-in time. I had The Ultimate Kauai Guidebook out, but it wasn't really necessary since there is one main road that goes around the island: 50/56/560 (it depends where you are).

Heading north from the airport, I saw a sign for Wailua Falls which I knew from all of my reading that it is a double waterfall about 175 feet high, which is taller than Niagara Falls. The falls go into a freshwater pool that is supposed to be illegal to hike down to, but people still do it - so we did. Those pictures are on a disposable waterproof camera that hasn't been developed yet, but here are some shots from the top, which is the way 95% of people see it.

The hike to the bottom was slippery and muddy, but we used the ropes left by other hikers to help us get up and down the steep inclines. Luckily there was another couple at the bottom to take a picture of us to prove that we hiked down (on the aforementioned camera).

We kept going north to Princeville which is where our studio rental was. I used http://www.homeaway.com/ to book both of our rentals. We were on the ground level of a small complex next to the St. Regis. The cliff was beautiful and we could hear the ocean crashing into the lava rock at night and in the morning while it was quiet outside. The mountains were visible from the front door of our rental (you can see those once I post more photos online). We had a delightful experience staying where we did, especially because we could cook our own food.

Little Girls

Sugar and spice

and everything nice

that's what little girls are made of

There is one little girl in my life, thanks to one of my dearest friends, and her name is Charlotte.


She was born in February 2009 and I haven’t seen her since she was a newborn until this past weekend. We traveled to Georgia and stayed with Charlotte’s grandparents (and mom and uncles and aunts) for the long weekend. She sure has changed a lot!

I stalked her like the paparazzi and also tried to capture moments with her mom so they could send to da-da/husband in Kuwait where he is deployed. I even think I heard her say “tiger” a few times while we were reading about them (the animal, not the Clemson team). Here is a short video of her entertaining us at dinner and blowing kisses.

Her mom is pregnant with another little girl so Charlotte will be a big sister in September.

Doesn’t she have the biggest brown eyes?? She is mostly sugar with a hint of spice, or at least that was the case on Sunday evening ;).

My West Coast Experience

San Francisco, City by the Bay

Oh you've got me

San Francisco

Take me to the water

(Thanks to The Village People)

Sorry for the delay of this post, I have already taken another business trip since and am happy that my next trip will be with my husband to see friends for several days. It also doesn't involve an airport. Anyway, I was in northern California for three days the week before last. I took advantage of the three hour time difference and flew direct to SFO early in the morning and rented my first rental car. It is quite nice that you can also order a GPS too - saves alot of hassle before you leave home.

I headed north on Rt. 101 towards Pier 39 because I knew that the few "must see" spots on my list were all within walking distance of this area. Since I could hear them from the parking garage, I started off by gawking and laughing at the sea lions for awhile. Some of them were huge and being bullies to the smaller guys. did you know that male sea lions have "bumps" on their heads?

For lunch I walked about ten minutes to Fisherman's Wharf and chose the restaurant with the most people inside and outside. I figured it was a good gauge of the food quality (or taste at least). There are bars outside for people to stand and eat on-the-go, although I don't know how you can eat stuffed shrimp salad sandwiches sandwiched in crunchy sourdough bread on-the-go...

Next adventure was a ride on a cable car up the steep (didn't realize how steep they really were) streets towards Lombard Street. I hung off the side of the car like they used to do in Full House while trying to take pictures. Within two minutes I almost got smashed by a truck, but I recovered quickly and continued to hang out. The ride to Lombard on the Hyde-Powell line was shorter than I hoped so I went to the next stop and then walked back up the hills to Lombard Street. Did you know that all of the flowers in and out of the crookedest street (I think I counted seven curves) are hydrangeas? I think they may be the lacecap variety because they are small and dainty, not as large as the variety in my yard.

The best part of my day was the part I planned in advance: a catamaran cruise on the Bay. Yes, it was chilly as the pictures suggest, but did I have another option? Nope. For a very reasonable $25 I took a 90 minute cruise past Alcatraz and towards (even under) the Golden Gate Bridge. There were less than two dozen people on board and a nice Swedish family offered to take photos of me. I wish brad was there to enjoy the scenery and be part of the memory I created that day. The bridge wasn't as red as I thought, which may sound strange, but maybe the paint has aged or maybe it is enhanced on television? Both scenarios seem likely to me.

No grass under my feet

Over the next several weeks I will be traveling several thousand miles. This past week I traveled to Connecticut/Newport, Rhode Island for my sister's college graduation and yesterday I was in New York City for the day. We are spending Memorial Day in ocean City, Maryland with some dear friends and then I will be spending part of the week of June 9th in California for a conference and then going back to New York City the week of the 15th. Less than two weeks later we will be going to Georgia. Honestly - I'm tired just thinking about it!

This past weekend was full of celebrating in honor of my sister Brittany completing her undergraduate degree at the University of Rhode Island. Our grandmother flew up from South Florida to spend the weekend with us and I am lucky that I just saw her a few months ago in the Sunshine State.

   

We had lunch on the Newport dinner train which at times felt like the sinking Titanic because the track was a bit angled in some spots. Even though I ride the train to and from work everyday, I have never had a gourmet seafood meal and cheesecake while in transit. We went around the Narragansett Bay on the same rails that were once taken by the wealthy from Boston with homes on the Rhode Island coast.

                         

                          

Then we walked to the harbor and boarded the Majestic for a cruise around the Bay. It was pretty foggy at the beginning, but it did start to clear up. Something funny was on my camera lens so unfortunately several of my photos (boat one above) have a mark on them. We went by the oldest and second oldest lighthouses, in the U.S. I think, and also by the estate where Senator John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Bouvier were married in 1953.

Graduation Day was Sunday and the second Campbell child received her college degree!

Being at her graduation made me think back on mine and I don't remember anything about the ceremony except walking across the stage to receive my diploma and Blair whispering to me since she was seated behind me. I don't remember who the speaker was, but I'm sure a Dean spoke as well as Clemson President James Barker. URi invited John King of CNN to this graduation and I enjoyed listening to him talk about his past as a URI student working for the AP in providence and Boston. His AP job actually caused him to miss his URI graduation - this is the first one he has ever attended.

My sister is going to be working for a year and then attending graduate school to become a Child Life Specialist. I hope she finds/earns/enjoys lots of success!!