jessica chronicled

Just wanted to give you all an update.

I have moved my blog to jessica chronicled so that I can redefine the things that I blog about. It is a much more personal blog and focus a lot more on style, photography, and my faith. You might also have noticed that my shop was closed for much longer than I planned. Well it is in the works of re-opening with a lot more items and product styling, so don't forget to keep your eye on it in the next few weeks.

popped the OTHER question.

In case you didn't know, I'm engaged! and the wedding is a little over two months away. Plans are completely underway and I'm a little behind on sharing this post with you {like it happened in January, behind} but it's really the only wedding planning I have pictures of so far.

Back in January, I decided it was time to ask my girls to be my bridesmaids. But of course, I couldn't just bluntly ask them, "Hey, wanna walk down the aisle on my big day?" so I came up with something they could keep.

I have two Maid of Honors, four bridesmaids, and on junior bridesmaid. {Gasp! That's a lot of attendants, Jess! I know. But it was hard to choose.} I made each of them a little book with a short sweet note talking about our friendship and asking them to be my bridesmaid. I even included rings for them to wear at the wedding if they accepted. So it really kind of was like popping the other question.

I put pretty paper on the front with a turquoise blue dress. Unfortunately the dresses looked more like dresses when I sketched them on paper than when I cut them out. My mom said it looked like a bow tie. Either way, I think it got the point across.

In the end I tied it altogether with turquoise ribbon. Then I slipped them in kraft paper bags, each stamped with their names {forgot to take a picture of those}. Thankfully they all said yes and I'm so excited that they will all be there to celebrate mine and Ryan's big day!

hurry and sign up for this lovely thing

If you have a collection, of anything, you should definitely check out this trade hosted by Dannie from oh, hello friend. I just signed up and I am so excited about it. It's such a fun way to add a memorable piece to your collections, plus I am going to love the hunt for finding something for someone else! :) If you want to be a part of it, hurry on over and sign up because she is only taking 100 participants and her trades usually fill up fast.

Here is a list of my collections, maybe I will share photos one day.

-owls
-mismatched vintage plates
-mason jars (I'm actually collecting these for my wedding!)
-business cards
-paper with pretty patterns
-the letter 'T' (or 't') in all sizes, shapes, textures, etc.
-vintage (or vintage inspired) keys (mostly skeleton)

date night, movie nights, redefined.

Just wanted to share a guest post that I did over at Odelma Vintage last week, in case anyone needs any last minute valentine date ideas. These definitely work for year round, though. Ryan's family owns their own florist business, so valentine's is never a big holiday for us, plus this year I have an exam on the 15th, so I will be studying on Vday. Isn't that fun. Ha!

Sometimes Ryan and I go through these stages where we just have like a mental block, and completely lack creative ideas for dates. With Valentine's coming up, I've been trying to think of a cute idea for a date night and I ended up making quite a long list (I know, he's a lucky guy, what can I say). The dates actually have nothing to do with Valentine's day, so you could easily make mental note of these and use them all year long.

I started thinking about movie nights, first of all. Usually that consists of staying in and watching a rental, or going out to eat dinner and then going to the theater (um, hello, that gets expensive after a while!). So I came up with some different ideas that are basically 'redefining' what I think of as a 'movie night' and definitely won't break your wallet.


{source}


one. be the stars in your own romantic comedy
Instead of sitting on the couch and watching a movie, get out your video camera and write, produce, and star in your own movie. You can always just record yourselves talking about why you love each other, describing each other, or answering fun questions about the other one. Or if you and your lover are really creative, come up with your own story line and create your own scenes to put together and make your own short film! These videos will not only be something fun for the date night, but will be a keepsake memory for you to watch (and laugh at, or cry) years down the road.


{source}

two. watch a cheesy movie.
This one is definitely one of mine and Ryan's favorites. We love finding scary movies (on tv or rentals) that are so 'cheesy' that it's impossible to find them scary. It's so much fun to watch them together and laugh at how bad some of the acting or special effects are (and it's good for me because I usually can't sleep after watching 'real' horror movies). They are usually older movies, so sometimes they are harder to find but it's definitely worth it. The latest one we watch was something like 'Malibu Shark Attack' and it actually is from 2009, but it just didn't turn out that good, although it's great for this purpose, and for laughing at. We've also watched 'the Poltergeist' and then some movie about aliens that look like humans, but I can't remember the name of it.


{source}

three. have a memory movie night.
Dig through all your old boxes and bring out the old videos from when the two of you were kids growing up, or even movies from when you first started dating if you have been together long enough. It's really fun to take a trip down memory lane and you will be able to share stories and memories with each other about your lives. Did I mention that this movie night can cost relatively nothing? Unless of course, you have to search to find a VHS player, which is somewhat difficult these days! But it will definitely make for an unforgettable night, and it's a great way for the two of you to become closer.

Do you have any 'redefined' takes on movie nights? Or have you ever done any of these I mentioned?

the 21 list.

21 things I hope to accomplish or have happen in my life before I'm 22

[1] Marry my best friend.
[2] Make homemade ice cream.
[3] Create a 'line' of dresses.
[4] Finish Ryan & mine's video.
[5] Paint a piece of furniture.
[6] Design some cute hair accessories.
[7] Find a place for me and Ryan to live with lots of vintage charm.
[8] Buy a Instax Mini
[9] Take a road trip to visit the Red Velvet Store!
[10] Give my blog a serious makeover.
[11] Start sponsorships on the blog.
[12] Make a pom-pom garland.
[13] Go to a drive-in movie (gasp! I've never been!)
[14] Make a video with Mackenzie.
[15] Have a picnic photoshoot.
[16] Start having outfit posts by me on the blog.
[17] Make my wedding veil/hairpiece.
[18] Do another craft show (omg!)
[19] Take Elsie's Dream Job e-course she mentioned here.
[20] Make some lovely bridesmaid gifts (or order them, whatever).
[21] Have a drastic hair change (dont' worry...after the wedding).

p.s. notice the lovely photo above? taken by Mackenzie on a little adventure we took downtown in our hometown.

ahem....

pin

Yep. Today is that day. I turned ((twenty-one)). Hard to believe, I know.
Hopefully you have already read Mattie's post for today, and don't forget to check out my post over on her blog.

I'm doing a little celebrating tonight with my close family but we are saving the cake eating for the weekend because my mom's birthday is next Wednesday, so we are just having a bday bash together. I'll be back soon with a list of '21 things' for the next year (until my 22nd birthday!).

Have a lovely day, friends.

a lovely surprise..

So I just wanted to share will all of you what a special night I had this past Saturday, December 4, 2011.

For weeks my boyfriend, Ryan, and his family had been planning to have a Christmas party with several close friends and family members. This was also going to be my first weekend completely stress free because I have been loaded down with exams and studying for about two months now non-stop. Saturday morning the girls in my family went to a few craft shows in town and then I spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing and getting ready for the party.

A little side note, the night before (Friday, December 3) was mine and Ryan's fourth dating anniversary and we spent it eating dinner and going to a movie, classic I know, but special nonetheless. I had curled my hair for Friday and Ryan just loves it that way, so with that reason plus the fact that Ryan's mother, Judy, is an awesome photographer (but it's just a hobby), convinced me to curl my hair again. And of course, with it being a Christmas party I felt obligated to wear red, even though it's not one of my favorite colors, but I had a new silky J.Crew shirt in red and black, so it was worth it.

I had some time to kill in between getting dressed and cooking sausage balls for the party. I finally had the chance to paint my nails, something I had been trying to do for weeks but never seemed to have enough free time other than right before bed. Like I said, red is not one of my favorite colors, outside of Christmas time, but since I was wearing red, and with my grandmother's convincing, I used red polish.

Ryan was going to pick me up from my house and my mom and the rest of my family were going to drive separate, that seemed a little weird, but not really any big deal.

Ryan had told me the party started at 7pm and he would pick me up at 6:45 so when my family left at 6:25 I said to my mom, "You do realize you are going to get there really early, don't you?" She just said, "Yeah, I think Darlene needs to stop somewhere." (Darlene is my aunt, my family is very small and very close!) It wasn't too long after they left that Ryan arrived, and I just had a few minutes left until I could take the sausage balls out of the oven.

My computer was turned off, laying on the kitchen counter. Ryan turned it on and of course I immediately started in on how we didn't have time for him to do that, we were going to be late, blah blah blah. He kept insisting that I go downstairs to my studio to get my new charger (mine died and I had been borrowing his). I continued with the, 'we don't have time' speech and finally Ryan just got up and walked downstairs. Later, he told me he knew I would follow him because I wouldn't be able to stand the though of him accidentally messing something up in my studio...he was right.

We finally leave my house late, and by this point I am of course suspicious that something was going on.

I should have paid attention to the cars parked outside the church (where the event was taking place), but I didn't think about it. When we got in the door everyone else was already there so I didn't really even have time to think or look around before some was grabbing me and talking to me.

Ryan's family is big on playing games, and recently they having been playing a game that they call 'the blanket game' since it really has no name. Everyone divides into two teams of about equal size, and in the center, two people hold up a blanket so that each side can't see the other side. One random person from each side of the team goes up to the blanket and stands and when the blanket is dropped, each person tries to be the first to say the other person's name. They were just starting this game whenever we arrived, and they had divided the teams into girls and guys. I thought that was a little weird because there were so many more women playing than men, but I just assumed I had missed some 'we're better than you' argument that had taken place before Ryan and I got there.

A few people went first and whenever the blanket would drop, I noticed that Ryan was no longer standing on the other side with all of the other guys. I hadn't seen him walk away or anything. Of course I was thinking "What in the world is going on? What is about to happen?" Then Ryan's cousin Suzanna steps up to the blanket on the girls side. All of a sudden Ryan's aunt is grabbing Suzanna and pulling her out of the way and someone shoves me up to the blanket. To most people, that might sound really suspicious, like I should have known something was about to happen, however, that is usually how we play the game, trading and switching people out at the last second.

When the blanket dropped, there was Ryan. He had put on a suit jacket and his cowboy hat (he's a true country boy, and I love it!) and in his hand was a little black box with a shiney ring. I'm not sure when, but at some point I started shaking.

He got down on one knee, and I noticed his hands were shaking as much as mine, if not more.

He said, "I love you so much, and we have been dating for way to long." (pause) "I wasn't nervous before, but I am now. You can take it from here." I just laughed and slipped the ring on my finger. We hugged and kissed and everyone cheered. Most people were so surprised that he never actually said "will you marry me?" and I never actually said "yes" but you know, we really didn't have to. Ryan and I really have that once in a life time kind of love and we didn't need to say those things to know what each other was thinking.

When Ryan hugged me, I finally got the chance to notice the change in the people behind him. Standing there were several of our friends, they had been hiding out in the room where Ryan changed and had come out when he did, just before the proposal. It was so sweet, everything he had done to make the evening special, making sure our friends could be there, and making it all such a suprise. We of course had lots of food, picture taking, and showing off my ring that night. Lastly, Ryan had made a slideshow of our last four years together and played it for everyone to watch. It was so special to be able to share a moment like this with all of our friends and family. It couldn't have been more perfect.



We haven't set a date yet because we are still working out some details. I'm not quite yet finished with school and Ryan will be finishing up this summer. However, you can definitely expect to see my blog getting a little more wedding-ish from here until whatever date we decide on. I promise to keep posting the usuals, but it is a little to hard to resist reading all the amazing wedding blogs out there and searching for inspiration. And I will be keeping you updated on the wedding plans, I am so happy to be able to share this special time with family, friends, and all of you. ;)

my little blog book

I probably can't count on two hands the number of times I have been inspired to write a blog post at the most inconvenient times. It will happen at night when I'm just about to go to sleep, while I'm driving, or while I'm sitting in class.

When that happens, I usually don't drop what I'm doing to write down my ideas...which also means that they disappear and I usually have a hard time remembering them later.

Well, no more! I now have the cutest little purple notebook filled with graph paper so that I can jot down, list, or sketch out my blog ideas at any given moment. The little book is the perfect size for my purse and I can carry it anywhere.

I decided to share with you all a few of my pages from my 'blog book' to maybe give you some inspiration for keeping your own book of ideas. Please keep in mind that this is the actual book I keep my thoughts in, so that means it does have a handful of mistakes and scribbles (gasp!) that you will just have to overlook.







Do you have a special way of keeping your inspiration at hand? I'd love for you to share it with me! ♥

50 things to be thankful for.

{source}

some are serious.
some are not.
(in no particular order)
1. sweet iced tea.
2. black and white photographs.
3. my family.
4. my very best friends.
5. the best guy everrr.
6. leaves.
7. home cooking.
8. my creativity.
9. the ability to have an etsy shop.
10. bright colored nail polish.
11. music that changes your life.
12. craft nights.
13. laughter. with others.
14. colored pencils and crayons.
15. my journals full of memories.
16. warm towels.
17. hot showers.
18. hot apple cider.
19. my grandmother's cookies.
20. my church family.
21. life.
22. clothing.
23. having something to smile about.
24. being healthy.
25. a job.
26. being able to go to college.
27. photographs.
28. crafty books.
29. my sewing machine.
30. a good roommate.
31. love that changes everything.
32. people that believe i can do it.
33. dreams.
34. movie nights with Ryan.
35. snowball fights.
36. cinnamon buns for breakfast.
37. fingerless gloves.
38. carmex.
39. hugs.
40. kisses.
41. love.
42. girls nights.
43. over sized bags.
44. Ryan always opening my doors.
45. old friends.
46. fleece blankets.
47. light.
48. my blog (and its readers!)
49. inspirational people.
50. a Savior.

what are you thankful for? it's good to be thankful for both serious and silly things, everything matters.

my gratitude journal

Last year I bought a gratitude journal from Ashley, the girl behind the Creative Place. Although she didn't sell them again this year, I still wanted to share mine with you because I really loved making it. But you will have the excuse the quality of the pictures, this was seriously a year ago that I took these images, and I didn't realize how much my photography has changed.










all images credited to me

pretty things.

i've been so busy this weekend make lots of pretty things. it just makes me so happy when i finally get some down time to just create things for myself. i do love creating for my etsy shop, but you know, sometimes you have to take time just for yourself.


i had bought this pretty vintage journal a few weeks ago and i had been contemplating what to do with it. you can probably guess what i decided to use it for just by the lettering i added to the cover.


and do you also notice this adorable grey felt bow, i made that too. i'm completely in love with the way that it turned out and i can't wait to add it my wardrobe this week. and the lovely yarn in you see here, has already been put to good use as well.


i've been experimenting with my crochet skills, even though they are very basic. i had a wave of inspiration friday night and created this cuff with an adorable peachy pink bow. it fits me perfectly and i loved wearing it yesterday.


i added a little sweetness to the wooden hangers i use in my studio for my handmade clothing. i used a label maker to spell out 'blueheart' and it probably only took me about 5 minutes to prettify twenty five hangers. so simple and yet it makes the world of difference when i see them hanging all in a row.


i added some paper snowflakes to my bedroom door. it's no where near snowing weather here but i'm trying to get in the mood since the holiday season is literally just around the corner. i'm working on a plan for a wreath to add to the door as we speak. :)


i'm also working on a project that i am so giddy about, i can't wait until it's done. all i have to show you right now is a sneak peek, but i will be posting before and afters whenever i'm completely finished.

what did you invest your time in this weekend? crafting? family? peace and quiet?

a small little favor...

I created this little survey for the blog and I would be highly appreciative if you could take the time to fill it out. It's just 7 questions long and will definitely take you less than 7 minutes to complete. It's just to help me out in knowing more about what you like and want from Blueheart.



Thanks so much friends! XO. jess.

4 simple goals. ♥

One of my favorite blogs to read is A Beautiful Mess because I just adore and admire Elsie. She is so creative and cute, and she really is going after her dreams. The new Red Velvet store opens near the end of this month and the photographs she posts on her blog look amazing. A while back I read this post on Elsie's blog about 4 Simple Goals and I really felt inspired to create my own goals list. And naturally, like the procrastinator that I am, I am posting my goals two months later.



1. Spend time creating a beautiful space for my studio. A little over a year ago I was so excited that I had found space to clear out an entire room and turn it into my studio for creating. I painted the walls, painted some furniture, and scored this amazing desk from a thrift store. Then I got carried away with all my creating and trying to keep up my shop and the pretty-fying of my space just stopped. I hope to start hanging things on the wall and organizing the space so I can turn it into something inspirational.



2. Keep a journal, with an emphasis on the keep part. I can't count on one hand the number of journals I currently have started and never finished. Life always seems to get too busy. About a week ago my boyfriend was in a wreck and totaled his truck. Thankfully he walked away without a scratch but it was still enough to get me all shaken up. And now the truck is gone and it held so many memories, which are still there, but it's still sad to see it go. Our first date started off riding in that truck. After that happened I realized that I really need to be writing things down because five years from now I won't remember them so clearly and it would be amazing to go back and read about our lives in detail.



3. Craft for me. I hit a little bit of a 'midnight crisis' about two nights before my first craft show that I just blogged about. I got a little stressed out with all the build up and after a long talk with my mom (aren't mom's great for heart to hearts) I discovered that part of the reason I was so upset was because it had been so long since I had made something just for me. I want to start making time for me to craft and create things for myself and for my family and friends instead of always focusing on Blueheart. Don't get me wrong, I love creating for my shop, but I also think it is important to make things for myself sometimes, things I can keep and cherish, things I can keep around and smile at every time I see them.



4. Get personal with my blog posts. I have seriously had this on my to-do list for a few months now. So many of the blogs I read have such a personal side to them with both pictures and content. I love when I can already feel like I know the writer, even if we never have and maybe never will actually meet. I feel really intimidated to take my own photographs and use them in posts because I just have a point and click camera, nothing fancy, nothing lovely. But I don't know why that's stopping me. Maybe I can compensate for the photos with content, or maybe I can work with them to make them better. I just want to plan to post more personal matters than love lists and lovely images posts. That way you can get to know me better and I can get to know you better, too. So be ready for that in the upcoming posts.

If you plan to take on this 4 Simple Goals project too, please post the link here or just comment with your list so that I can read them! I love to be inspired by what other people are doing. xo.

All photos are taken by me so please do not use them unless you link back and give me credit. Thanks. (except the 4 simple goals photo which belongs to Elsie).

happy. friday.

hope everyone has a really enjoyable weekend.
i'm spending saturday with some friends at an amusement park.
i'm so excited.
what are your weekend plans?

my favorite tee.

so i had been working extremely hard on a tee that i was so excited about. i had great plans to list it in the shop. it was a gorgeous green color (just a hint of mint) and such a soft cotton. i was using a vintage crochet piece that i got a flea market and had been sooo excited to use. it was going to be perfect and sure to get lots of hearts (maybe...wishful thinking?). when it was finally finished, i sat back and looked at it and sadly enough for some etsy buyer, i just could not bare to part with it. i wore it to church yesterday morning with a high waisted floral skirt and gladiator sandals (sorry, forgot to take a pic) and recieved so many compliments. i'm thinking of making some more varities of the same type with different vintage pieces and in different colors. what do you think? (i put my tough skin on, so you can be honest).







and also, you will notice a lot of new things in my sidebars. there is a poll on the right side. and on the left, you can now follow me with bloglovin' or subsribe to posts. and best of all, there is a resources tab that i hope you find both amazing and interesting. i've still got many things to add to that page but i wanted to go ahead and share with you.

i also updated my 101 in 1001 list (it had been like 3 months, oops) and this week i will be working on my much neglected tumblr (shouts of joy).

oh and there are new journals in my shop and new jewelry coming soon. and the answer is yes, i have been really busy.

xo.

prefect to a T.

this beautiful piece will be coming home to me.
from the amazing knackstudio.
and it's 24 inches tall.
yeah, i'm a little more than excited.


♥ the T