Mackenzie turned one July 23rd. Sorry it’s taken so long for me to get her one year pictures up online, but here they are! Click the picture to view them all. Don’t forget to view her party pics here.

I’ve also added new items to my etsy shop, so don’t forget to check that out.

Saturday, August 1st – 11am to 3pm
Des Moines Social Club – 1408 Locust Street, Des Moines

$10 + a bag of clothes at the door

Bring your unwanted clothes and swap them for other people’s stuff. We’ll show you how to modify your finds to make other garments, how to print on them, how to embellish, and a number of other cool things too! We’ll also be having a fashion show made up of local designers that embody the idea of upcycling materials.

Be one of the first 30 in the door and receive a swag bag with assorted handmade goodies from local artists. We’ll also be having a raffle all day to give away items like prints, books, and gift certificates to local shops! Preview these items at our blog: dsmswap.wordpress.com

Advance tickets are available for $8 at Mars Cafe and Vitae Design Collective until Friday, July 31st.

SORR is a non-profit event and all proceeds go to cover costs.

Interested in volunteering? There’s still time to sign up, and you get free admistion + time to enjoy the swap!

For more information visit our website or email us at dsmswap@gmail.com.

California Web Album

Well, the first leg of our trip is almost complete, we leave from San Francisco tomorrow morning for Seattle. We’ll spend just about a week in Seattle before returning home to Des Moines, Iowa. We’ve done so much so far on this trip. Make sure you view our web album, to see all the pictures. I’ll be adding more from other people’s cameras too.

Tomorrow we are headed to San Francisco to do some site seeing. We’re going to spend the day with Mackenzie’s Aunt Julye. For the 4th we have plans to attend a huge party and watch a parade.

We head up to Seattle on Tuesday, July 7th, and we can’t wait to see all of our friends and family there. Mackenzie is having so much fun on this trip, and she did so great on the plane rides out here.

Mackenzie had her first ice cream cone today, it was Cotton Candy from Baskin Robins, I had yummy Pistachio Almond. Anyways, I just wanted to share the picture with everyone, because it’s too cute!

Also, today I weighed in at Weight Watchers (I’m trying to get to my pre-Mackenzie size), and I’ve already lost 11 lbs! I’m so excited about it, and it feels good to finally start to fit into some of my “normal” clothes.

I finally have my site up! Okay, so it isn’t as exciting as one would think, because I kept changing my mind on the design. Then I got my business cards, and decided that I had to stick to that design. Right now it’s just the home page with links to all my other stuff. s-renee.com

Today I met with Kelsey about the Swap, we finally have location and date confirmed for August 1st at the Des Moines Social Club. I’m totally stoked for it, I know it will be tons of fun.

I’m working on getting a garage sale together to help me earn more money for me and Mackenzie’s trip to California to see Dan’s family, then up to Seattle to visit Dan. If you want to help us along on our journey you can donate to us or buy some Mary Kay from me. Right now everything that I sell goes towards our trip Mackenzie needs to see her Daddy.

February 2009

March 2009

April 2009

I decided to make a huge decision that would effect all of us. Mackenzie and I moved to Iowa in mid February, while Dan stayed in Seattle. I needed more support than I was getting, and living in Renton wasn’t helping with me being able to get out more. We are planning a trip to see Dan’s family in California in July, and Dan is going to make the trip too, so we can all be together. We miss everyone in Seattle very much, and hope to have a trip out there in the fall to visit.

Right now I am working on a large project of organizing and planning Des Moines’ first Swap-O-Rama-Rama. This has been lots of work, but I believe that the swap will be successful, and I’d like to work on having anual or semi-anual swaps. The event runs purely off of donations and volunteers, so if you would like to do either please let me know by sending me an email.

Another update is that I am now selling Mary Kay to be able to support myself while being able to stay home with Mackenzie. If you are interested in holding a skincare class, color party, or even an online web party to earn free Mary Kay products, let me know, I’d be happy to get together with you. Email me or check out my website to make an order or just play around with the Virtual Makeover tool.

• high fives
• rolling over to get across the room
• sitting up all by herself
• a new tooth (3 total on the bottom)
• eating solid foods (favorites include carrots and pears)

Here are links to our two newest photo albums, don’t forget to check them out and view all the pictures!

Iowa Trip – January

1/12 to 1/28

A few other things to share:

• I’ve completed a website, check it out here and let me know what you think. I designed it and put the entire thing together in about a weeks worth of time. I’m looking at making webdesign my main focus other than Mackenzie.
• Karen has created a blog for her trip to India, check it out here
• I’ve also purchased my own domain name, and I’m working on getting my website up, feel free to check it out to see what’s going on with it. Right now it just says coming soon, but hey whatever s-renee.com