Babies, Babies, Babies

I really enjoy hand making items for special occasions. It has become my tradition. It all started when our friends Shannon and Robert got married in April 2008. My family had started a weekly quilt club and I wanted to get involved. I went to a quilt show with my mom and found these really great Martini fabrics. Now Shannon and I love the martini girl art, so I thought that this would have been a perfect theme for a wedding quilt. I picked out the pattern and all the fabrics and went to work on it. It turned out fabulous and their love of it made my work even better!

Martini Haze - Anthony Wedding 2008

Since then I have made 2 other quilts for friends that have gotten married. However since my mom and her fancy sewing machine has moved up north, it makes for a hard time to get my work done. I do enjoy working on projects when I am up at her house, but found the need to have things to work on at my home. As a younger teenager I found that my craft was to cross stitch. I would make baby bibs for family member who were expecting for their baby shower gift. I decided that this is a skill that I needed to pick back up. When our good friends Scott and Leslie were expecting their baby boy Connor in September of this year I thought PERFECT! I whipped out my hoop, found a bib, and away I went!

Connor Williams Bib - 2010

Now that those were done I realized I needed another project. Well low and behold, my Aunt Tami and Aunt Tina are throwing a baby shower on the 4th of December for my cousin Amy and her baby to be Charlotte. I thought "AHHHH, I have nothing prepared!" On a search I went to find a cute girlie bibs. Anthony and Amy have decided that they wanted a pink and brown monkey theme. My mom, my cousin Bianca and I are going in together with a large joint gift and my mom has already made some cute items, so when I found the bib below from Michael's I thought that it was perfect! Also it gives me something to work on while in flight to Florida for our vacation! :-)

While I was leaving Michael's I found this! It is a monkey stuffed animal that is hugging a blanket. On the blanket are green leaves and banana's! I thought that this was the perfect addition to my gift! :-D

Now all I have to do is finish the bib! Photos to come later!

Shelby Puppy

Here I am trying to think about a blob to write about when my puppy jumps up onto the couch next to me. Expecting her usual kiss on the cheek, I was surprised that she stared down at my fingers and cocked her head and looked at my laptop confused like she was trying to say "What on earth are you doing?" This gave me the idea so write about our little bundle of joy and how she came into our life. 

Darin and I had both grown up with dogs in our life, but since moving out on our own we both missed that companionship that comes with having a dog. Not that our lives were missing anything being two people in a home, but family means taking care of each other and another creature. So after much discussion we decided that it was time to look into getting a dog. I had many type of dogs growing up; Profit, a female German Shepherd, Hurricane, a female lab (named for her excessive personality), and Einstein a male Dalmatian. Einstien was a rescue and had the sweetest personality that a dog could have, which is what helped in deciding what kind of dog to get. Darin also grew up with dogs, but mostly laborador retrievers. I went onto Petfinder.com and researched all the adoption and shelters in our areas. I found 8 week old German Shepherd puppies and a 4 month old "German Shepherd/Lab" mix. On my way to the shelter I called Darin to let him know what I was up to. When I got to the shelter I handed the clerk the paperwork to see Shelby. It took the woman a couple of minutes before she told me that that puppy was in isolation because she was ill. I was taken back to the area where the puppy was kept and I was able to see her in a cage. I asked to speak with the shelter vet to see what was wrong, I was told she just had swollen lymph nodes. While I was talking to the doctor, Darin surprised me and had gotten off early to come out to the shelter to pick out our new love. We went back into the room and asked the employee to let her out of the cage. She had just gone through a growth spurt and had the longest, skinniest legs that she didn't know how to control. It was the cutest thing as she hobbled around the room. She instantly melted our hearts and we knew we found our puppy. 

She is the most loving pup on the planet. I call her puppy, even though she is 2 years old and technically an adult dog. She is silly and thinks that she is human. She will lay on her back with her legs spread open, completely relaxed. She loves to run and run and run! She is so fast! She loves to play with her Frisbee and toys. She is also a Houdini! She has escaped out of three crates! She loves to talk and give kisses. We couldn't have asked for a better puppy. Shortly after we adopted her, my parents had to put our family dog Einstein down. They had become close and she knew something was wrong when he was gone, but I was very glad to have her in my life to help me through that loss. It is only now that he is gone that I realize how similar they were. She loves us unconditionally, no matter what! Pets are a lifetime commitment, and I highly recommend adopting one from a shelter and saving a life. You can end up with a wonderful companion. We did!

Wordless Wednesday

Ode to Slideshows

This has been a year of many events and parties. I have helped to plan milestone birthdays, engagements,  and girls nights this year. I didn't know that being an interior designer would parle into being a party planner, but alas it has. It is a fun way to express my creative side too.

Some of you may know that I am going to be in 2 weddings in 2011. Darin's sister Cailee is getting married to her fiance Peyton in July. Also our very close friends Hope and John are getting married in October. I decided to make a tribute to Hope and John for their engagement party that he helped to throw with our friends Amanda and Nolan on October 2nd. One year to the day of their wedding I spent many hours compiling the photo's...most of which I got from their Facebook sites, but I also was able to get Joi and Barbara, their moms, to dig up old photos as well. I wanted this to be a tribute to their single lives and to their budding engaged relationship. Also it served to help show all the guests who didn't know both of them what type of people they are. I had so much fun doing it and I hope you enjoy it as much as their families did.

In case you wanted to know the songs I used were:

John Basher = "Times Like These" by The Foo Fighters

Hope Morrice = "Hanging By A Moment" by Lifehouse

Family/Friends = "Into the Mystic" by The Wallflowers

Engagement = "Honey and the Moon" by Joseph Arthur

Love = "Our Kind of Love" by Lady Antebellum

I showed this tribute to my mother, who at the time was planning her father, my papa's 75th birthday party. She had wanted to create a tribute for him as well, but didn't have a program to do it, so I said that I would create one for her. Not realizing what I was getting myself into. A couple of days later I received a package at work with over 200 photos inside from her childhood albums! AHHHHH Poor Darin and I spent over 6 hours just scanning a cropping the photos alone! Then came the task of finding the music. As with any slideshow whether its for an engagement party or a birthday party, music is crucial. The soundtrack to our lives is very important. I take pride in listening to the songs to make sure they are appropriate for the era and personality of the video. Now I used to work in a music store, so I have quite an eclectic selection of music, but I still needed more from the early eras of the 20th century. Off in search I went and found the best music, in my opinion. We finished it in the nick of time and on November 6th, 75 years after my Papa was born we had a big soiree with his family, including siblings, nieces, nephews, children and grandchildren. After lunch was served we showed the slideshow. Everyone was very emotional and touched by the sentiment. What a wonderful way to pay tribute to a person's life.

The songs I used for this slideshow were:

Early Days = "Theme from a Summer Place"

Family Man = "Can't Help Falling in Love With You" by Elvis Presley

Good Times = "Mess Around" by Ray Charles

75 Years = "King of the Road" by Roger Miller

                  "Ventura Highway" by America

If you ever need to make a slideshow for an event I highly recommend it. Everyone loves photos and seeing a journey. While it may take some time and effort, its worth it!

Introduction

It seems like the entire world has a blogging site, so I though with all that has been going on and around in my life I thought that I would start one too. :-P I know that's a silly reason to start a blog, but it seems to be the best way to get some creative energy out. 

Let me start this blog out by telling you a little bit about the Double D's as my mom refers to us and the D-Team to our friends. My name is Theresa Diane Kimball,  Now I always use this description of me, but I don't really think I am. I was born in the 6th month of the year, at 6:10PM and I weight 6 pounds 12 ounces....oh and did I mention that I have red hair? Yes, I know what you are thinking! (The Devil?!?) No I don't think so, but I always found it an amusing coincidence. I was born and raised a California Girl. I am married to Darin Christopher Kimball, who was born on the 14th of July in 1983. We are both cancer's and we are the 2d because I go by Diane. My mom calls us Double D's, because now she finally has them. Hehe.

Darin and I met in March of 2002 at a mutual friends house. Darin went to elementary school and junior with Trevor Lynskey and they were very close friends. In high school Darin went to Valencia High and Trevor went to Saugus until Senior year when he made the trek to Simi Valley (or Slimey Valley, as us natives call it) everyday to go to Santa Susana Performing Arts Magnet where he met me! Trevor and I had gone to Joann's Fabrics in Santa Clarita to buy some crafty items, where we ran into Darin's mom Linda. Trevor asked Linda to have Darin call him to hang out. A couple of hours later, Darin shows up at Trevor's house. When I answered the door, Darin had the confused to who is answering the door face, but it quickly turned into a hi face. I just so happened to be rhinestoning a costume for Trevor's sister Kirsten at the time so Darin chose to hang out and watch me do that. He had to leave to go to work, and after he did I got his phone number from Trevor. The next day I called Darin and asked him to go see a movie. The Count of Monte Cristo (horrible movie) but who actually watches the movie on your first date anyways! The rest is history. We got married on September 1st 2007, at the Wood Ranch Country Club in Simi Valley. We now live in Valencia California and rescued a puppy in 2008. She is our baby right now. We will soon be starting a family, so why not start a blog to get everyone up to speed on our lives together as husband and wife, before we become mommy and daddy.