DIY Decor Pillows

While at Alt Summit, we had some wonderful workshops. I was able to go to a sewing class taught by Dana from the blog Dana Made It.  Now, sadly enough, I am not confident in my sewing abilities, so this class was perfect for me. She had simple projects for us, but we walked away with a fun, usable tote and darling stenciled pillows.  The pillow was so easy to make, that I decided to have my kids make some.

At the conference, Dana had people cut out designs with freezer paper and then paint on pillow.

However, to simplify at home, we used tape and shapes. For mine, I wanted to have just half silver and half natural.  On my next pillow I used the tape and made a design all over the pillow.

At any craft store you can find the metallic paint or the paint color of your choice. 

Miss Ashy chose circle stickers that she placed all over the pillow cover, then she painted the entire front of the pillow. We used the blow dryer to make sure that the paint was dry before she removed the stickers.  I-Man wanted to make two big triangles with small triangles inside. It was a great project for the kids and they loved make a pillow for their bedrooms. 

Dana has some other great ideas and projects that I can't wait to try!

Alt Summit Conference in SLC

Feeling quite inspired today from a great weekend at Alt Summit in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Alt Summit is a bloggers conference for those who are obsessed with 

lifestyle, design, interiors, photography, & fashion to meet, learn, grow, and connect...

- all wrapped up with a social media bow-.

There were some amazing classes, speakers, workshops, parties, & of course people!

It was a big-overflowing bowl of inspiration + creativity where I experienced 

a roller-coaster of feelings:

excitement, inspiration, overwhelmed, inadequate, rejuvenated, high-school-nervousness, 

sad, happy, jealous, joy, humility, frustrated, courageous, small, creative, and then...

excited + inspired again... 

all roller-coaster feelings aside,  I walked away with a refreshed vision for my life 

& for Modern Palm shop & blog.  

Something many of us struggle with is balance... everyday I struggle to balance what I want, 

what my kids need, what the house demands, and what life brings.  

It was nice to go to a conference and get ideas to help in my ever-on-going search for 

more BALANCE in my life.

 I loved connecting with other bloggers,  shop owners, and business owners. 

There truly are some amazing, kind, and talented people that I was able to meet, 

and I'm really grateful for and appreciate the opportunity I had to go to Alt Sumit. 

One person that I especially loved meeting and learning from was Ben Silberman, 

the owner and creator of Pinerest, that "little" site that we all love and adore. 

Two years ago he attended Alt with the idea to start what is now Pinterest... 

this year he was the Keynote speaker who received a standing ovation after his presentation! 

Granted, he was in a large room full of people that are obsessed with his site and use it almost daily! 

Not only is he responsible for a site that allows us to appreciate, collect & organize 

all of the beautiful & creative photos of design, fashion, crafts, food, etc., 

turns out, he is also quite inspirational. I love that he said: 

"Pinterest's goal is to get you offline and inspire you to do the things you love!" 

he also said:

"Pinterest is a team of people who want to build something bigger than themselves."

Ben Silberman

If you need an invite to Pinterest, shoot me an email and I'll invite you...

if you're already on, let's be friends, if we're not already...

Follow me here.

Hope you all have a lovely + balanced day... I'm going to at least try. :) 

I'm now going to attempt to get a workout in...

Thanks for stopping by and hope you come back again soon! Mwah!

images via Alt Summit

Altitude Design Summit 2011

First off, aren't these retro lunch boxes just fantastic? The goodies that were found inside were so fun too! My kids were trying to take over my "treasure box."

Do you ever just FREEZE when you get overwhelmed? 
Lately, I have been doing this excessively... 
I just get so overwhelmed with things I should be doing, or want to be doing, and then these little insecurities sneak in too and it's like this triple paralyzing threat to me. Shouldn't I be able to handle life's stresses better as I age, instead of FREEZING?
I've been wanting to write about Alt Summit, but frankly, I don't think that I'm very good at putting my thoughts into words to express what I really would like to convey.  Regardless, I need to write about this just so I can remind myself why I enjoyed two days with some *crazy* amazing people. 

So, Alt Summit is basically a two day conference where there are keynote speakers, blogging classes, panels, DIY workshops, parties, and a lot of socializing with new & old friends!  I loved re-acquainting with those I met last year, and getting to know many new ladies. I am excited to apply my new-found inspiration and motivation to both my blog, a pina colada, and shop, Modern Palm. 

To complete the festivities, a series of mini parties were hosted at the hotel by the sponsors. The Kate Spade party was off the hook fun! Aren't the decorations fantastic? The black and white striped base with the fun, bright colors are P*E*R*F*E*C*T! Loved the black glasses, thanks to the Girls with Glasses who helped host the event. And the Kate Spade goody bag, filled with some lovely treats, was a great way to top off the event.

 The keynote lunch on Thursday featured Mondo and Seth Aaron from project runway, and the keynote on Friday was DJ Spooky. They were all very interesting, entertaining and informative! So fun meeting them all too. I was also excited hear from the lovely Tina Roth Eisenberg of Swiss Miss. I really enjoyed her humor and honesty during the closing keynote speech. 

photo via Armelle
{Caitlin of Caitlin Creer Interiors, 
Kirsten of 6th Street Design School, 

Amanda of Recycled Consign and Design, 
Armelle of Armelle Jewelry,& me}

 

It was great meeting the lovely ladies pictured above.

They are all very talented, wonderful, and fun! 

Here are a few of the lovely ladies and friends I was able get to know better: Rachel of Black*Eiffel,Stephanie of StephModo, Suann Song of Simplesong, Jane of See Jane Blog,Courtney of BeauCourt,Alma of Alma Loveland Designs, Kirsten of Simply Grove, Melissa of IS•LY, Dandee of Dandee Designs, Stephanie of Nie Nie Dialogues, Janie of We Heart Paper, Trina of La La Lovely, Madeline of Uber Chic for Cheap,Erin & Rachael of Today's Mama!  WOW! I could go on and on, and I think I just might, in another post...coming soon. :)I'm so grateful for all the new 
knowledge, motivation,and friends I gained from such a great conference.  I'm already looking forward to next year!  

All images courtesy of ALT Design Summit 2011 and 

photo booth images by angela and ithyle