Pantone skin colors

I love this! Heath and I were just wondering about skin color the other day. Are there more shades of skin color or hair color?

See the entire post here.

Eat Pure featured on Allison's Gourmet

Eat Pure was featured on Allison's Gourmet blog this week! They have a Fridays with Friends series every week and feature someone new. You can read the entire post here.

They make amazing vegan sweets, including brownies, fudge, truffles and even caramels!

Sailing...

This week, we've been sailing the East Coast with Heath's family. We started in NYC, with stops in Florida and the Bahamas. 

This is where I spent most of my time...in the spa :)

Atlantis was one of our stops. We spent the entire day on the lazy river.

We did sneak away briefly to see the aquariums.

We loved this 'Tug' sign on the ship.

And my favorite of all our pictures - McKenzie (our son) + Courtney (our niece) - as kids, and now.

Birthday gifts + celebrations

A Swatch watch!

 Roland Garros Paris edition

 Sprinkles cupcakes...

 Some for Heath (non-vegan)

 And some for me (vegan)

 And some amazing Chicago vegan pizza with Chicago (mostly) vegan friends.

Turks 2012

Our annual trip to Turks + Caicos... 

I realize these pictures probably look very similar to last year's (and the year before that, etc, etc), but I never get tired of taking them!

Of course, here's our hotel, The Regent Palms.

When we arrived, we were upgraded to a penthouse, with an enormous balcony.

And the most gorgeous view.

Our first night there, we stayed up late...

Watching a Michael Jackson concert from the hot tub :) Last year it was Bob Marley. Every Thursday night they have an outdoor bbq and project various live concerts. It's a bit strange, but we absolutely love it. As some of you may know, Michael is Heath's favorite.

Another one of our favorite spots...Amanyara.

Rainy afternoon...actually refreshing when you can enjoy it from the beach. It got pretty heavy at times, but it was a nice break from all the sun.

Reading my book at the spa...by the way, I adored this book.

There is truly no better sight than this.

Grace Bay Club, where we were married four years ago.

And back to The Palms.

A few parting shots.

Already thinking about next year...

Fun with friends

Our good friends, Cory and Brad, were in town this week... so nice to catch up!

Shoes

Heath and I took a shoe making class this weekend at the Chicago School of Shoe Making...

In two days we made our own custom fit shoes. 

First, our instructor measured our feet and made our patterns.

Then we cut our chosen materials to size. (I try not to buy any new leather, however, I wanted to learn exactly how a shoe is made and the only way to do that right now in Chicago is with leather. Now that I know, hopefully I can apply what I've learned to non-leather shoes).

This machine pinches the leather so you can cut all the necessary pieces to assemble.

Then we punched holes in the back pieces and hand stitched them together.

We used these mallets to pound our stitches flat.

This makes the heel.

Instead of tying knots in the nylon thread, we burn them. 

We had to shave down several pieces of leather so they were much thinner.

Here's what Heath's look like before we stitch them to the midsoles...

I stamped my initials into my midsoles.

My shoe with a moustache.

This beautiful machine allows you to stitch the tops onto the midsoles.

Then we glued the midsoles to the soles and heels, and we used a hammer to ensure the glue sticks.

Next comes the shaping of the toes and heels. We wet the leather and stuff the toes and heels with paper, shaping as we go.

Then our instructor shaves off the excess material and sands everything down. 

And voila!

They're a little lumpy at this phase, while the leather dries with the paper inside. But once we take the paper out in a couple of days, it should be smooth.