So when I last posted on my blog, I had a few samples of subway art. It was well received and I ended up starting a shop on Etsy. It's been very fun to see the positive reactions that my creativity has had for feedback. It has been fun to work with friends, family, old roommates, and even complete strangers to create unique works of art to help people express themselves. The following are some of my personal favorites.

My ward asked me to make a poster and hand-out for our Relief Society's annual theme. This year's theme is "Be thou an example of the Believers" which is a quote from the New Testament in the Bible. I really like the mix of fonts and colors that this uses.

This next one is inspired by my favorite college roommate. She's had gallbladder issues but is afraid to have surgery. She asked me to make something for her to help remind her to make good food choices to stay out of pain.

On to another project. I made about 8 different posters for a teacher to display in her classroom. It was really fun to work with her and to help her. Everything that we made for her classroom was done in a matching color scheme. I love the whole series, but this one is my favorite. This is a 16x20 poster that she has hanging in her classroom of all of the prepositional phrases. (Random fact - if you Google search "preposition subway art" this is the first image result).

 

I just love the way that this next one turned out. I helped another old roommate make this. She told me exactly what she wanted. Her house is decorated in grey, pink and yellow. She wanted a specific quote from the book/musical/movie Les Miserables by Victor Hugo.

Another original piece that I made was for my uncle's funeral. He was an amazing man and my Mom asked me to make a subway art for his wife. We tried to include words that described him and told anyone who saw it what kind of man my uncle was. 

This final subway art was made after a friend from college suggested that I do something for the Disney movie Frozen. This has been by far my best selling item in my shop. I've sold over 20 of these in the past few months. I think it has turned out very cute and I've even customized it for several people's children.

Font Snobs and Subway Art

I am one of those people with thousands of pins on Pinterest. I love to see other people being creative. Recently, I began to use one of my Pinterest boards. I've downloaded over a hundred different fonts and dingbats.

Even though I was quite proud of my "hard work" downloading new fonts, Thomas has been making fun of me for spending so much time downloading "useless" fonts. This really irked me, and so I decided to make use of some of the fonts to prove him wrong. The following are some examples of my new-found love of hip fonts, cute color palates, and clever sayings.

This one I made to hang in my children's bedroom/playroom. 

 

Playroom Rules

Then I decided to make some holiday related subway art. I will keep them all in a single picture frame and rotate the current month to display. Since I started this in July, I figured July was a great month to start with. :) Hopefully more will follow soon.

July (Independence Day Theme)

August (Summer Theme)

September (Back to School Theme)

October (Halloween Theme)

Oreos

Zane is 7-months-old. Since we introduced him to solid foods he loves discovering new foods and he's usually a very healthy eater. He is so curious about what everyone else is eating. He's always trying to grab food out of my hands to try them.

Today Daxton found some Oreo cookies and apparently he gave one to Zane when I wasn't looking. I found both boys covered in black drool.

Oh the joys of parenthood.

This is the Place

There is no way that I could update my blog since it's been over a year since I last posted something. So, I'll just start from the last few weeks. Recently Thomas and I moved to Vernal, Utah. Thomas is working for Baker Hughes doing hydraulic fracturing (aka fracking - a method of drilling for oil). We moved into a lovely townhouse next to a park. I have met a lot of new people and have even made a few friends. Dax loves going to nursery. Zane has learned how to crawl and already has 4 teeth. My sister Emily already came and visited me for a few days and helped me unpack some boxes. We had a lot of fun together and even went to Dinosaur National Monument (pictured above).

The "D" Word

I love sweets. I love baking sweet treats. I love eating them even more. But that's becoming a big, and I mean BIG problem.

I've always thought what a sad and pathetic thing childhood obesity has become. I talk about how I would never let my kids be like that. Yet, I still haven't lost all of my pregnancy weight. If I want to have healthy kids, I need to live a healthy lifestyle.

Dax is a healthy eater! He loves fruit and veggies. He drinks a lot of milk, never pop or juice. As his parent, I should be the one setting the example, but I'm not. Well that's all about to change!!!


Goodbye Strawberry Creme Pie!

Goodbye Tie-Dye Cupcakes!

Goodbye Christmas Goodies!

Hello, Dieting!

Discovering Extreme Couponing

So lately, I've been addicted to the TLC show "Extreme Couponing". The people featured on this show make couponing seem so easy and CHEAP. Thus, I've started researching this amazing new world of coupons.

My first testdrive into coupons was a total failure. I signed up for some coupons sites online - all of which were hoaxes. I received spam emails, spam text messages, spam phone calls and NO COUPONS! Obviously, this was a lot harder than I first thought.

Fortunately, around this same time I met Emiley. She lived in the apartment upstairs from us in Pocatello. She has been couponing for awhile now. She taught me some important lessons and showed me the right way to go about things.

The first thing I needed to do was subscribe to the local newspaper. I heard newspapers were a dying breed. I don't really know anybody who subscribes to the paper. My parents even canceled their subscription last year. But, Emiley told me that this was the best, easiest, and most fundamental way to getting decent coupons.

Sunday. Apparently, it's the most important day of the week if you coupon. It's when you get the Sunday newspaper. That's where the ads and coupons for the upcoming week are located.

And this was my second mistake. Apparently, when you get your coupon booklets you save them until there's a sale. I just thought "Sweet! Coupons! I'm going shopping!" Even though some might consider this a novice's mistake, I was excited because I still ended up saving about 30% on my groceries.

The next thing a extreme couponer will tell you is that you do some research online. Now, I've figured out that there are legit online coupons, you just have to know where to look. Blogsites like http://www.pinchingyourpennies.com/ and http://fabulesslyfrugal.com/ are great places to begin your search into what the best buys are in the world of coupons. My friend Emiley told me that the latter website, Fabulessly Frugal, is based out of Boise, so it's especially useful for people who live close to there.

Those are some of the basics of what I've learned about couponing, with help from my friend Emiley.

Also, these videos on YouTube are extremely interesting and helpful for anybody else who might be interested in learning the ropes of the extreme coupon world.

One year in 200 words or less

Moved to Idaho.

In August 2010, Thomas and I moved from Arizona.

Thomas is going to school at ISU and will apply for the Radiology Tech program next spring.

We will be moving from Idaho Falls to Pocatello sometime in April.














Had a Baby.


Daxton Thomas Liljenquist was born on November 3, 2010.

He weighed in at a whopping 9lbs 8oz.

He is currently 4 months old and is still a big baby (98th percentile).

He loves to smile and be held. He hates bath time.











Lost a Gallbladder.


This picture was taken the day I went into the hospital (aka Thanksgiving Day 2010).

I had been having stomach problems for a while and didn't realize that anything was wrong since I was pregnant and thought everyone felt that cruddy when they were 9 months pregnant. Nay, not so.










Bye-bye Tarzan.


Our new apartment in Pocatello won't allow pets.

He's happily living with a great family with 8 kids in St. Anthony, Idaho.