Tara Being Tara

L-O-V-E

2012-01-27T10:02:00.000-05:00

Boy, if this is love well then I'm in it. My friend Joe had this conversation with Zac. Joe is green, and Zac is the grey color.

PIP means picture in picture, if you were confused. Swoon. Major husband points, probably second only to the time that he cried during our wedding vows. I'm that big of a sap (and nerd).

Couch To 5K Progress Report

2012-01-26T09:54:00.000-05:00

With two weeks left to go in December, I decided to start the Couch to 5 K program. If you haven't heard of it, it's basically an 8 week program of workouts that gradually works you up to running a 5 K.

I tried it for two weeks in July, at which point it became almost 100 degrees at 6:00 AM and I gave up. Plus, at that point, Derby wasn't big enough to come with me. All of that has now changed.

Let me interject here with an embarrassing tidbit. This isn't my first time at the party. I was a runner in high school. I ran cross country and long distance track. I have six varsity letters for running sports. I even ran at the State Championship meet once.

I tell you that not so you think I'm awesome (if you think I'm awesome for 10 year old accomplishments, I have more I can tell you about!), but so that you can get some perspective. I used to be able to run a mile in under 6 minutes. And I needed to start again with walk one minute, run one minute. And that was hard for me.

I haven't seriously run since high school, actually. I enjoyed running then because I was good at it and I liked being part of a team. The day I ran my last track meet was the day I last really ran. I just didn't enjoy it outside of the organized team aspect.

Fast forward to now. I knew I needed to do something. I was getting sick of my exercise videos and needed something more routine. Plus, we now have a 50 pound puppy who needs exercise as much as I do.

We started this program the week of Christmas. This was actually a great time for me to start, because while the holidays are busy, they aren't normal life busy for me. I had time to run three times a week. By the time the new year came around and things got busy again, we were already two weeks in. It was already starting to feel like a routine.

We're now on Week 5, which is honestly further than I even hoped we would get. Right now we run at least three times a week, more than that if my schedule allows it (which has happened once). There are a few things that are different this time around for me, so I'll share them with you:

I got a new phone, and downloaded the "Get Running" app. This was $2.99 well spent. Not only does it track when you do the runs, there is a sweet British lady who tells you when to run and when to walk. You can also stream music while the app is running. Which brings me to my next point...
Find something you like to run to. For me, that's NPR. Don't judge - it's like someone's talking to you the whole time you're running but you don't have to talk back. I love listening to their news programs, and I don't have a ton of time during the day to hear them. I had a friend who downloaded audio books and only listened to them while exercising. Another friend does pump me up music. Find something that works for you and makes you look forward to running.
Get an accountability partner. Mine happens to be a puppy. He loves running with me. When I get my tennis shoes out of the closet, he knows exactly what we're doing. The other perk? He pulls me along when I get tired and I run faster than I would on my own. Plus, I love him and I want him to be healthy, which means even when I don't feel like going, we usually go.
Find somewhere you like to run. I hate running with Derby on the streets because there's so many people to dodge. We walk to a park by our house and then do the run there where there isn't as much traffic. I'd rather run loops around a field then dodge cars any day.

My park!
Reward yourself if you need to. Get a new pair of shoes, some new running pants, or a pedicure if you meet your workout goals. I don't actually do this, but now that I've thought about it I might start.
STICK WITH IT FOR AT LEAST 4 WEEKS! My friend Katy ran her first half marathon last weekend (yay, Katy!) and she gave me this advice. It takes 4 weeks before you'll start to see changes in your body. It takes 8 before other people will notice them. Push to this 4 week mark. I wanted to see changes earlier than that (let's be honest - after one run), but it wasn't until last week that I began to see them for real. And once you get to that point, it's a whole lot easier to continue.

Do you have any tips that help you stick to an exercise routine? I'd love to hear them!

Random Thoughts of a Crazy Woman

2012-01-25T09:15:00.000-05:00

My thoughts have been pretty random lately. None of these in and of themselves merit a full post, but hopefully they'll at least be entertaining.

What is the difference between macaroons and whoopie pies? Is this an important distinction I need to know about to be a real grown up?
I got a serger. More on this later. But can someone come to my house and show me how to use it? It's overwhelming to figure it out.
My dog is so freaking cute that I can't stand it. But our next dog will be a non-shedding type, no matter how many thousands of dollars it costs.
I cannot hold any more babies before we are ready to have our own, because they are making me crazy.
My hair dresser styles my hair SO much better than I do. I wish I had her talents. Or a million dollars to pay her to do my hair every morning.
Am I the only State of the Union watching junkie out there? I don't care who the President is, there's something so regal and awesome about the whole event.
My new boss is awesome, and I'm learning so much from her.

That's it for now. I think. It's been a random kind of week. What random thing are you thinking about this week?

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

2012-01-24T09:05:00.000-05:00

This probably isn't a post that is very interesting to many of you, but I am so overwhelmed with gratitude and I just have to write it. Blame my recent gratitude kick, if you must.

Thank you to each and every single person who reads this blog. I am so humbled by how many of you there are, where you live (shout out to my friend from Saudi Arabia!), and the lovely comments you send me.

Thank you to everyone who pinned my pallet art, became a follower of my blog, or said sweet things about my flower quilt.

I like to blog for many reasons, but the love and community I've found here was unexpected and overwhelming. Your involvement in this blog has turned this from a record of my (somewhat boring) life for my parents to one of the highlights of my day.

You are fantastic -- thank you to all of you who humor me, think I'm at least a little bit funny, and enjoy the crazy things I make. You guys rock.

Tag Blanket Tutorial

2012-01-23T08:30:00.000-05:00

Thanks for all your kind words about the tag blankets I made for my cousins! This is becoming my go-to baby gift... they're fun to make, they're a unique gift, and they go together pretty quickly.

The tag blanket I made using this tutorial is for my wedding photographer, who has become a friend of ours. Her first baby is due this spring, and how perfect is this for the son of a photographer??

I promise this is a simple project - and it's also very forgiving. If your squares aren't exactly the same size, it won't matter! You're basically making a pillow, and then turning it inside out.

To start with, cut two squares out of any material. I like to use a soft minky fabric on the back to make it snuggly and add another texture. If you want to embroider or applique on one (or both) of the sides, now is the time to do it!

You can use any size squares. I generally use somewhere between 8" and 10", depending on the size of my fabrics. Any bigger than that and they'll be too large for a small baby to hold.

Next, cut your ribbons. You can use as many different colors as you want. I tend to alternate three. Three ribbons on each edge fit nicely without being too tight.

To achieve varied lengths, cut half the ribbons 4" long, and half 6" long.

Fold your ribbons in half, and then pin them to the right side of one of your fabrics. Do this on all four sides.

Head to your sewing machine. Set your stitch slightly less than 1/4" from the edge so that the stitches will be hidden later. You can use any color thread here -- you'll never see it. Sew over the ribbon, then backstitch the entire ribbon. Sew over it one more time.

Ultimately, each ribbon will be sewn over 5 times, eliminating the potential choking hazard. Unless, of course, you let your baby play with the tag blanket and a seam ripper at the same time.

This is what they'll look like when you're finished.

Sewing the ribbons on all at once makes it easier to put the whole blanket together. Now's the time to cut any threads.

Put your squares together, right sides facing. Set your stitch for 1/4" from the edge, and stitch ALMOST all the way around the square. Leave about 2 inches on one side open so you can flip it.

This is what I mean about this project being forgiving. This doesn't matter. Love it.

Turn it inside out -- it's almost finished!

Head back to your sewing machine. Top stitch 1/4" from the edge around the whole square. If you're a really straight stitcher, contrasting thread would look fun. I'm not a super straight stitcher, so I use threads that blend in!

Make sure you fold the part you left open under while you're top stitching and sew it closed.

There you have it! A personalized baby gift that will be loved for a long time.

A closeup view for you.

And the back.

Good luck making many, many tag blankets for the babies in your life! Let me know if you have any questions -- happy sewing!

Click HERE to see the blog parties where I'm linking!

Tag Blankets!

2012-01-21T10:52:00.000-05:00

Two of my cousins (who are sisters) had babies this past fall (three of them, total!). I was way behind on sending baby gifts, but better late than never, right?

I decided to make tag blankets for each of the girls. They're really cute, fun to make, and I wanted to personalize them for each baby.

I made the first two for my cousin Molly's two baby girls -- Reese and Chloe. Everything is cuter in two's, I think!

I embroidered their names on the minky side, and used cute fabric for the back.

A close up of the embroidery.

My cousin Kate had Cara a few weeks before Molly's twins were born. How fun to have three girl cousins so close together in age??

This is the back of Cara's. I LOVE this fabric. I bought it as a fat quarter a long time ago, and decided this was a good reason to use it!

I wanted the twin's blankets to coordinate without being identical. Mission accomplished!

One of the best parts about these gifts is that they're lightweight, so they're easy to mail. I just rolled them, tied them with a silk ribbon, and sent them on their way!

I'm putting together a tutorial for next week, so stay tuned!

The Most Delicious Chicken Salad Ever!

2012-01-19T20:52:00.003-05:00

I pack my lunch almost every day. I don't work in a place that's very convenient for going out, and going out costs me money and time, neither of which I have unlimited supplies of. I also tend to eat a lot of crap when I go out to lunch, which means packing is a good option.

The downside of packing is that lunches get boring pretty quickly. I am a fairly picky eater (though so much better than I was as a child that I want to be patted on the back for that!) and I don't love eating the same sandwich every day.

I do pack a lot of leftovers, but there are some nights when we don't have any, or when what we have doesn't heat up well - like the quesadillas we had tonight. Delicious, but a soggy mess tomorrow at lunchtime. Believe me... that's experience talking.

Enter this chicken salad recipe. I like chicken salad, but it's never been my favorite. After trying this recipe, I have decided that most chicken salad is just too complicated for my taste buds. I don't need celery or walnuts or grapes or any of that other stuff. Chicken + salad is good enough for me. Or technically chicken + mayo. But that sounds gross.

I found this recipe on my friend Andi's lunch blog.This is definitely a blog you'll want to check out. She posts ideas for how to keep your lunches fun and interesting, and she has some great ideas.

Like my favorite chicken salad.

Without further ado... you can make it too! (That rhyme was unintentional but I'm leaving it because it's fun).

Dot's Chicken Salad
Source: Lunch It Punch It

1/2 cup sour cream

1/2 cup mayo
3/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/4 cup pecan halves
4 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled
4 cups cooked, shredded chicken OR 1 can of chicken

Beat sour cream with mayo, salt and lemon juice.
Toss chicken into dressing until moist.
Chill.
Just before serving stir in nuts and bacon.

A few notes: I left out the bacon and nuts, because bacon would take awhile and I don't like nuts. And it was still delicious. I also ended up using 2 cans of chicken because it seemed a little runny otherwise. Probably because I left out the bacon and nuts.

This is seriously the yummiest chicken salad ever. I meant to post about it two weeks ago, but every time I packed my lunch I forgot to take a picture of it because I was just weirdly enjoying my chicken salad.

Hop on over to Andi's blog and get some inspiration for your lunches. What do you pack in your lunches? I'm always looking for new ideas!

Bedroom Makeover

2012-01-18T13:28:00.000-05:00

While looking at my calendar last week, I noticed a small miracle. We had nothing planned from Friday afternoon until Monday morning. NOTHING. That literally never happens. Well, it literally happens once or twice a year. I frantically called Zac to see what home project he wanted to tackle.

We threw around the idea of the dining room, downstairs bathroom, painting the kitchen cabinets... but nothing seemed really exciting. We had been planning to do our bedroom last, like, way way years from now last, but Zac suggested we tackle it this weekend. We hadn't picked out bedding but we had a vague idea of what we wanted, so we went for it!

And we worked HARD. As in, painting ceilings and trim and doors and walls hard. Not putting down drop cloths and having to scrape paint off your laminate floors hard. But it was so so so so worth it.

Fast forward to picking out bedding. I accepted long ago that I would probably never again sleep under a printed duvet or quilt. There just aren't any that we both like. In fact, the following conversation occurred mid-bedding hunting:

Me: "Do you like this one?"
Zac: "No."
Me: "What about this one?"

Zac: "No."

Me: "This would be much easier if you didn't sleep in bed with me."

Zac: "Ditto."

He is a man of few words.

I'm not ready to show it to you quite yet because we don't have curtains or art hung yet, and we're waiting on our duvet cover, but I'll give you a small preview. This is the quilt we found that I adored and Zac thought was "fine." I didn't ask one single question after that. I just bought the damn thing.

It will have a white textured duvet on the bed, too. It's hard to see it here, but you can see better pictures if you visit the Pottery Barn website. The pictures really don't do it justice - I actually looked at it online but didn't think much of it. When I saw it in person, I was in love.

I had a friend ask why I didn't just make the quilt, but I didn't for a few reasons. One, I can't sleep under something I made every night. I'm too crazy and all I'd see would be uneven edges. I'm not proud of that. Secondly, it honestly isn't cost effective. It would have cost me way more money to make it than to just buy it. Finally, I wanted a solid looking quilt without a lot of piecing. I can't get giant fabric the way Pottery Barn is. And, it took me 20 minutes to buy it. If I made it, I wouldn't have had a new quilt for months.

I'll send you pictures as soon as we have the rest of it finished, which will hopefully be soon. In the meantime, does anyone know where I can find some affordable faux silk white curtains? You might remember my curtain rant from last year. I want these to look luxurious, but I want them to be cheap. Let me know if you find any!

A flowery baby quilt

2012-01-17T14:33:00.000-05:00

Zac's cousin and his wife had a baby in September, and the whole family was thrilled when they found out the baby was a girl. Zac comes from a family of lots of boys, so Maddelyn is the first girl in a long time.

It was fun to make a girl quilt for a change, but I didn't want it to be too girly. Erin told me that they were planning a nursery with red accents that would be super pink, and when I saw this fabric, I knew it was perfect.

Maddelyn's older brother received one of the very first quilts I ever made. This is another favorite - it just turned out so cute!

I should point out that is my gramma's couch, not mine. No offense, Gramma. It's a nice couch!

I gave you a sneak peak of this baby quilt a few months ago, but I forgot to take pictures of it before I gave it away! Thankfully, I stole a few pictures when we saw them over the holiday.

Here's the quilt in progress at my gramma's house in the fall:

And here it is finished!

It looks really busy in this picture, but it isn't as crazy in person!

This gives you an idea of the size.

The back is a dot minky that is so soft. And you can see how pretty the quilting is!

I only quilted in the nine-patch squares, and left the flowers free. It made for a beautiful quilting design on the back of the quilt, too!

I found the idea in a book, but there's really no pattern. The nine-patch squares are made from jelly roll (2.5") strips, which makes cutting them a breeze. They are 2.5"x2.5" squares, and the flowers are appliqued on 6" squares.

This is one of my favorite quilts I've ever made... it was hard to give away. Hopefully Maddelyn loves it as much as I loved making it!

Click HERE to see the blog parties where I'm linking!

Breakfast + Pizza = Delicious

2012-01-13T14:15:00.000-05:00

I have always been a fan of breakfast pizza. I honestly can't remember when I had it for the first time, but I love breakfast, and I love pizza, and I love breakfast pizza.

Last night we were trying to decide what to have for dinner, and we were struggling to come up with something. It was one of those nights where we were missing one key ingredient from everything we could think of, nothing really sounded good, and it was cold and snowy, making going to the grocery store impossible.

I headed to my Pinterest "Eat It" board for inspiration, and that's when I saw it. Breakfast pizza.

We (who am I kidding? Zac) had already made something else from this blog, and it was awesome. Breakfast pizza for dinner it was.

And it was delicious. And then some. I love Stephanie's blog, Macaroni and Cheesecake, and I think you will too, if you visit. She has some really awesome recipes to steal.

If you want to make your own breakfast pizza, here's the recipe:

Breakfast Pizza

Source: Macaroni & Cheesecake

Ingredients:

Your favorite pizza crust - we used a Betty Crocker Pizza Crust mix, and it was awesome. Tasted homemade. Don't judge. It was a weeknight.

1/4-1/2 cup part skim ricotta cheese (enough to spread a thin layer over the crust)

6 eggs

1/4 cup milk

salt & pepper to taste

1/4-1/2 cup shredded 2 % monterrey jack cheese (We used cheddar).

1/8 -1/4 cup bacon crumbles

Directions:

Spray a large skillet with cooking spray. In a small bowl, add eggs, milk, salt & pepper to taste. Whisk together to break up eggs. Pour egg mixture in skillet and scramble eggs. Once scrambled, allow to cool about 5 minutes.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Spray a round baking sheet with cooking spray and spread your pizza dough out into a circle about 12 inches or so. Spray dough with cooking spray and spread a thin layer of ricotta, leaving about an inch of dough on the outer edge.

Top with scrambled eggs, bacon crumbles, & shredded cheese.

Bake for approximately 13 minutes, or until crust is golden brown.

Stephanie, thanks for providing our dinner inspiration last night, and for letting me steal your recipe. Everyone else, check out her blog for more delicious inspiration!

What are you thankful for?

2012-01-12T14:30:00.000-05:00

Wait - it's not November right? Isn't Thanksgiving the time of year we're supposed to be grateful? Yes... and no!

I have a new boss at work, and she's totally and utterly fantastic. One of the changes she's bringing to our organization is a focus on mindfulness and gratitude. Mindfulness means meditation and being present in the moment, which is a big challenge for me, as you know.

The newest academic research looks at gratitude as a science. I know - weird, right? But it's seriously a science. The results researchers are finding are incredible:

When your mind is focused on gratitude and what you're thankful for, it's physically impossible to think about what's bad in your life. Impossible.
By focusing on what they are grateful for, disadvantaged kids are able to retain more information when they study. Cool, right?
Keeping a gratitude journal reframes your day and can reduce frustration later in the day.

Are you on board yet? You should be.

I want to share some of the things I'm grateful for this week... and I want to hear some of yours!

A surgery for my aunt and uncle that was incredibly successful, which means many more years for my uncle!
An amazing new boss and a renewed energy and excitement about my work.
A snuggly puppy. How can I not be grateful for that?
A husband that I never get tired of. And who makes dinner every night. S.C.O.R.E.
Feeling rested and renewed after the holiday break. Planning to ride it until May.
Great graduate school friends who have gotten me through the past 18 months.
An amazing internship supervisor who cares about my professional development and makes what could have been a painful experience fantastic.
A warm, cozy house.
An interest in sewing and DIY projects. Space to do them. Time to complete them. Joy after doing so.
My friends and family. L-O-V-E them.
Blogging and the community I've found here. Every single comment you leave makes me smile, and brings little pops of joy throughout my day.
Sticking to my running routine long enough that I look forward to it at the end of the day now. And for a puppy who pulls me and makes me go faster.
My husband. I didn't think I should put the dog twice and not him!

Just listing those things makes me smile... because it reminds me that I'm so blessed. It's hardest for me to be grateful when I'm tired and overwhelmed, which is why I keep a small journal in my purse. For emergencies. Of which I have many.

I want to know what you're grateful for. You don't need to list 13, but please tell me at least one. Because I'm grateful for hearing from you!

LASIK Update: 4 Months In

2012-01-11T10:02:00.000-05:00

It's been almost four months since I had my LASIK surgery, and I wanted to give you an update. You can read about my surgery here.

Immediately after the surgery, my eyes were dry. Unbelievably dry. Eye drops multiple times an hour dry. Four months later, they're a lot better. I still use eye drops first thing in the morning, and by the end of the night, my eyes are pretty dry. They're more dry if I'm tired, but most days I forget to put drops in at all.

My vision was 20/15 the day after the surgery, and that's what it still is when the eye doctor tests it. The less dry my eyes are, the more clear my vision seems. The change in vision is unbelievable - I can see more clearly than I ever could with contacts.

My night vision improved dramatically. I probably wasn't safe on the roads before this at night - lights had a huge halo. I didn't realize how bad it was until everything became so clear. This isn't a guaranteed result of LASIK, but it does happen for most people.

So any downsides? I actually miss coming home and putting my glasses on at night, which was sort of like changing into my PJs after work. Zac likes to watch TV as he's falling asleep, and it was easier for me to tune it out when I couldn't see it. Now I sometimes get sucked in and stay up later than I mean to!

I can't believe how quickly I adjusted. I thought it would take awhile to get used to not wearing glasses or contacts -- when in reality, it took about a week. Now, I can't really remember ever wearing them, which is ridiculous considering I wore them for more than 20 years!

I am SO glad that I did it. Worth every single penny. Every single one. Four months in, I'm even happier than I was a few weeks after the surgery. Hope this wasn't too boring of an update... just thought you might be curious!

A few words of wedding advice

2012-01-10T16:00:00.000-05:00

I read this post the other day over at Nice Girl Notes, and I've been thinking about it ever since. Like Roo, my Facebook newsfeed also seems to be flooded with people who are recently engaged (congrats, everyone!). And like Roo, I have some words of advice for people embarking on the wedding planning process.

Because I've been married for nine months. Which makes me an expert.

Without further ado, my additions to Roo's "Dear Brides, Don't Do This" list:

Don't feel like you need to have everything. Or that everything has to be expensive. Spend money on what matters to you, and scratch the rest. We didn't have favors at our wedding (curious - did anyone who was there notice?), because we didn't care about them. We sat down at the beginning of the planning process and talked about what we wanted most from our wedding, and that was for everyone to have a blast. We wanted people to leave our wedding saying, "That was SUCH a fun wedding!" Favors do not make people say that. A kickass band makes people say that. So that's where we spent our money. And because of that, we have pictures like this:

Don't be jealous of my sweet dance moves. Or my sexy dancing face. You too, can have that.

I LOVE this picture. Note my father in law over my shoulder looking possessed.

Yeah, we're that fun.

A video is worth the money. So are great pictures, but a video is super worth it. There are some things a video can capture that pictures just can't. I saw my not-very-emotional husband cry for the first time ever during our vows. It was one of the best moments of my entire life, and I can watch it as many times as I want. I can hear my dad's toast, see our faces when we first saw each other, and feel that day every time I watch it. I don't watch it often, but it's amazing how it brings you back to that day when you do. My cousin Megan was the first one to get married. When my other cousins were little, one of their favorite "movies" was Megan's wedding video. That's just a cute side note.

To watch the two minute preview of our wedding video, click here! I can't figure out how to embed it.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=1825020558927&set=vb.114373668610239&type=2&theater

Think about what you HATE at other people's weddings... and then DON'T DO THAT STUFF! This should go without saying, but apparently it often doesn't. Things I don't like? Having a huge break between the ceremony and reception with nothing to do. Where all you want to do is take off your dumb dress clothes and your college friends are likely to park it at a bar and drink too much. So we didn't do that. I also don't like when the reception feels like a performance - look here! The bride and groom are doing this! And now this! Look over here! So we skipped a bunch of that stuff. I don't think anyone noticed or cared that I didn't throw a bouquet (except my single friends, who were likely thankful).

If you love this stuff, do it! If you don't, cut it. No one but your mother and token snobby relative (everyone has one, right?) will notice or care.

It's okay if you don't enjoy every single thing about planning your wedding. I think I only enjoyed about 5 of the billions of things we did. It was stressful. And time consuming. I was more interested in getting married than planning a giant party. So when the florist wanted input on flowers, I said, "I like tulips, and I think pink is nice. Oh - I would like the arrangements to be pretty." And that's it. And they were very pretty.

The 20% rule holds true. My godmother told me this was true at all three of her daughter's weddings, and I'll be darned if it wasn't exactly true at mine too. Plan accordingly. And don't be upset when the 20% who doesn't come includes people you care about and the 80% who do come includes random people your parents make you invite that you don't know or care about.

I don't care what Peggy Post says, you do NOT get a year to write thank you notes. This irks me to no end. If people cared enough to travel to your wedding and give you a gift, the least you can do is write a timely (and thoughtful) thank you note. I think you get three months, tops, before you're just a jerk. Don't thank people for coming who didn't come (my in-laws got that note once), or just say "thanks for the gift" leaving people to wonder if you even got it. You're a married adult now - write decent thank you notes.

Everyone knows who you are, even if you don't know them. You will inevitably have to invite your future mother-in-law's random friend you've never met, or your dad's second cousin. You won't know who they are, but they'll know who you are - because you're the one wearing that bride dress. Act like you know them and you're glad they came. If you're really smart, have your maid of honor figure out who all these people are ahead of time so she can whisper it in your ear. You'll feel important, like the president. I assume he has those kinds of people to tell him that stuff.

Enjoy every second of your wedding day, because you only get it once. We had a few opportunities to do this, and I'm so glad we did. During our ceremony, our pastor asked us to turn around and take in the faces of those who loved us and were there supporting us. It was overwhelming and amazing, and I'm tearing up just thinking about it right now. During our reception we stopped to take it all in too, and I'm so glad we did. I can close my eyes and picture it right now, and I can feel exactly how I felt - so happy that I thought I might burst. It also hit me like a ton of bricks that all of these people would never be together in the same room again. Our wedding day didn't feel like it rushed by, and I think it's because we took time to step back and just appreciate everything that was happening around us.

It already feels like planning our wedding was a lifetime ago. Do you have any advice to add to my list? Were you given any advice during your wedding planning process that was particularly helpful?

Pallet Art, or, I am an Artiste

2012-01-09T10:45:00.000-05:00

There are so many awesome pallet projects floating around the internet. Bookshelves, wine racks, art pieces... they're everywhere. I happened to mention this to my neighbor who is a landscaper, and he brought me home my very own pallet! Thanks, Bob!

It sat on our driveway for a few weeks while we (I. Zac was negative interested, because since it was wood, he knew it was going to be major work for him!) tried to figure out what project we wanted to make. We narrowed it down to two finalists:

This gorgeous coffee table

This cool art piece.

Ultimately, the art piece won out because caster wheels cost a zillion dollars, Zac was pretty sure the coffee table would be too big for our living room, and we had a large space in the family room where we needed an art piece anyway. Score.

The cost for this project is:

Pallet - $0
Paint - $0 (already had it)
Round sponge brushes ($2.99. Bought the cheap set. Worked like a champ. Score).

Yeah, the whole freaking thing cost $2.99. Because we are super awesome like that. And we have well connected neighbors.

This was the best kind of joint project because we each had to do our parts while the other person wasn't home for various reasons. That meant Zac got to cut the pallet and build the "canvas" without me saying things like, "Are you sure it should be that long?" "What if you turn it the other way?" "Can I use the saw?"

It also meant that I got to paint without hearing things like, "That red is too dark." "Add another line over there." "Are you sure you want to include that many flowers?"

Ahh sweet marital bliss.

Anyway, the pictures are a bit crazy because I found out mid-project that Zac had taken our good camera to a football game. So instead of great pictures of me painting, you can see pictures like this:

Go CATS!

But anyway... the first step in this process was for Zac to cut the pallet and turn it into a canvas.

He took the boards off of the pallet... and how much do you love that we do projects like this in our living room, without even rolling up the rug? We are hard core.

This is how he put them together...

And this is what it looks like finished!

He did a fantastic job - all of the boards line up perfectly. We didn't sand it at all - we wanted that rough look and feel to it. A few of the boards were more rough than others, and the brown paint pen I used for the branches probably won't ever be used again, but it was worth it.

Time to bring out my trusty paint supplies. Thank you, Alpha Gamma Delta, for making me do enough crafting to accumulate this supply. I really should use this stuff more often!

I followed this tutorial here, which was really helpful. The project itself was so simple. It took me a while (3 hours, probably?) but that was because my cheap brush pack only had one circle brush of each size so I had to clean them off and could only do one color at a time.

The tutorial was inspired by this World Market art piece, and I liked how there were more colors and flowers than the tutorial, so I modeled mine off of the original art.

The first step was to draw branches onto the pallet. At first, I followed her picture almost exactly because I was afraid to mess up. You can't really mess this one up. As I went on, I started to just draw some crazy lines.

Then, I started with the bursts. I did one color at a time, and honestly chose the colors as I went along. I put in the colors until I had enough big bursts, then went through and added the smaller bursts one at a time.

The finished product:

And here it is hanging in our living room. The colors tie in really well with our pillows. It is so perfect in the room - I'm not sure how we ever lived without it!

And a picture so you can see it with the throw pillows.

The best part is when people come over, they almost always notice it and want to know where we got it. Oh, you know, I just made it. No big deal!

Click HERE to see the blog parties where I'm linking!

Oh man, it's early.

2012-01-06T08:37:00.000-05:00

Thanks to everyone for your prayers yesterday. The surgery went amazingly well, and both Aunt Sue and Uncle Mark are recovering well. It will be a few days before we know more, but so far, so good! Thank you for all of your prayers... I know they played a part!

After a wonderful break from work over the holidays, I had to get back in the swing of things this week. I had to adjust my schedule last fall to fit my entire work week into 4 days, leaving Fridays free for my internship. That means getting to work each morning at 7 AM. Yeah, 7 AM. Some of you probably rise that early on your own accord, but not me.

This is probably what I looked like when my alarm went off this morning. Picture courtesy of Google.

Here's what I've experienced since starting my early rising:

The first day, you'll probably pop out of bed feeling great. Enjoy that - it won't happen again.
It takes about two weeks before it feels routine and you don't want to cry when the alarm goes off.
You'll need to adjust your bedtime. And not be embarrassed when you sometimes climb into bed at 9:30 PM.
Pets will look at you confused when your alarm goes off so early. Spouses will just look half angry, half still asleep.
Asking your husband to get up early with you to make you coffee will not go over well. Just trust me.

When I first switched to this schedule, I felt like I was missing out of hours in my day by going to bed so early. In reality, I have the same amount of time, it is just distributed differently. I don't need that extra hour and a half spent with my butt parked on the couch relaxing. Now I actually use that hour and a half for productive work.

And man... can you be productive. The hour between 7 AM and 8 AM seems like the longest one of the day. By the time anyone else arrives at work, I'm settled in, email is taken care of, and I'm already rolling on something else. And it's AWESOME. So is leaving at 5 PM everyday because you've already put in work awesomeness.

I know this is a joke -- but seriously. It's true and it's awesome.

One other perk? No one responds to the emails you send them at this time. So you can send lots of them without worrying about responses distracting you. Score.

I'm not saying it ever gets easy. Or that there aren't days that it's terribly painful to crawl out of my cozy bed where a sweet puppy face is snuggled into me and a cute husband is breathing peacefully. It's really hard. But it's worth it. And I should point out that Derby only sometimes gets to sleep with us. Don't judge. He's super warm and snuggly, which is what I look for in a sleeping partner, and Zac often isn't either!

Are you an early riser? Do you try to work during your peak productivity time? Am I the only one nerdy enough to care about these things?!?

Prayers needed today!

2012-01-05T07:46:00.000-05:00

Today, my aunt will be donating part of her liver to my uncle. They are working with one of the best transplant teams in the country, but it's still a complicated and difficult surgery and recovery process.

If you have any extra prayers to spare, please send them their way today.

You can never have too many prayers, right?!? I love you, Aunt Sue and Uncle Mark!

What are you reading?

2012-01-04T15:06:00.000-05:00

It's been awhile since I've share books with you... and the holiday break gave me a chance to check a few books off my to-read list. Such as...

I pulled this book in our book club holiday book exchange, and I read it straight through in one sitting. It's the first book I've ever read where I've finished it, closed it, and immediately opened it up to start reading it again. I haven't met anyone who hasn't loved it... this is a great read!

This is our book club book for January, but I got a head start on it during the break. I really enjoyed it. I wouldn't call it a page turner, but it was good enough that I looked forward to getting into bed each night so I could read some of it. The story was good, and I love an ending that wraps up neatly, so all's well that ends well!

If you haven't read this series, do yourself a favor and do it. Quickly. Schedule three solid days with nothing else to do and read them straight through. No, they aren't the best written books I've ever read, but they're good. Really, really good.

What have you been reading lately? Anything I should add to my list?

Oh the places you've been...

2012-01-03T12:51:00.000-05:00

In order to fully appreciate this post, you need to know a few things about my family. Specifically, you need to become familiar with all the places we've lived.

I was born in New York. We moved to Minnesota just before my second birthday. Both my sisters were born there, and when I was in Kindergarten, we moved to North Carolina. Nine months later (seriously), we moved to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, where we lived until I was in 8th grade. I started high school in Dayton, Ohio, which is where my parents still live.

Tired yet? I've also since lived in Kentucky and Cincinnati, so I've got the most states of anyone, but we all have a lot! I should add that we were not military; my dad works for a paper company. Go figure.

Okay, so you already know that I'm completely addicted to Pinterest (follow me here!). I was browsing one day and came across this:

How cute is that? I love the visual representation of the different places you've lived, and it didn't seem that hard to make (thanks to the great tutorial).

It was really pretty simple. I used the font recommended in the tutorial and printed out the state outlines. I printed them directly onto card stock, and they looked great. I punched the holes directly with my sewing needle, and then used a full strand of embroidery floss to do the stitching.

One tip - don't punch your holes too close together, or pull your stitches too tightly. If you do, you might get halfway through a Michigan and have to start over when it rips!

Here's the version I made for my mom and dad for Christmas:

I couldn't find a five opening frame, but I found this six opening one at Michael's and thought the double matting was a nice touch. The house is just my addition to fill the space.

Here's a close up so you can see the stitching. I think it adds a nice dimension in real life. The tutorial says to use felt to make the hearts, but I found these babies at JoAnn's for $0.99 for a pack of three, and it was way easier than trying to cut out teeny tiny hearts. They were a lot sturdier too, and went on easily with my hot glue gun. With zero burns. Craft winning.

I also made this version for my brother-in-law and his wife. They're the world travelers, and at the end of their Grand Adventure they'll be moving to New York City. Their version has Kentucky, London, and New York.

Overall, I think they turned out really well. My mom, who is well known for her non-emotionness and inability to get teary eyed regardless of the situation, sure looks like she likes it!

Have any of you lived in as many states as we have? This is also a great conversation starter when someone comes over for dinner!

Click HERE to see the blog parties where I'm linking!

My New Year's Resolutions

2012-01-02T15:06:00.000-05:00

My resolutions for 2012 are a lot like last year - a mix of resolutions and goals. I did better than I thought in 2011, but I still have so many wishes and hopes for 2012 that it's hard to narrow it down to a manageable list. Am I the only person who has about a billion goals right now? As evidenced by your comments on this post, I'm not, so I'll console myself with that.

So, without further ado, my list of resolutions for this new year. Excuse the random pictures - this is a painful amount of words and I tried to make it more fun for you.

1. Try to "have it all," but don't go crazy when I can't. I can't stop my crazy quest for a perfect life - it would basically be against my (insane) nature. What I can do is let it roll off my back when things can't be perfect. Any suggestions for how to actually do this would be greatly appreciated by me (and my husband who will bear the brunt of it if I can't pull this one off). My mood/stress level affects our relationship so much, and I'm not going to let it do so negatively this year as much as I can help it.

2. Schedule a monthly date night. Zac and I have promised each other that we'll have a monthly date night in 2012. Since we're still kid-less, we get plenty of time alone together, but we tend to fall into a routine and forget to schedule "special" time. Zac's planning the odd months and I'll plan the even months. Doesn't have to be anything fancy, but it will be fun to focus on each other a little bit more in 2012.

Us at a restaurant. In Paris. Which is unlikely to be one of our monthly date nights this year.

3. Stick to an exercise routine. Like everyone else in the entire world, I have this goal for 2012. Derby and I are starting our third week of Couch to 5K this week, and so far, so good. It helps to have a (dog) accountability partner, and the exercise is as good for him as it is for me. I also found a cool app that speaks the intervals to you so you don't have to stalk your watch, and I stream NPR while I run. Don't knock it until you try it - it's like someone's telling you an interesting story the whole time you're running but you don't have to talk back. The real struggle here will be fitting it in when life gets busy again in January. But I'm going to do it - I have to do it.

Damn, Pinterest. Why you gotta be so dead on right and mean sometimes?

4. Make enough time for my hobbies. When I get busy, I get tired, and then I get stressed. I also tend to neglect the things that relax me when I need them the most, and I want to get away from that this year. Vegging out in front of the TV has its place, but I've wasted way too many hours doing that in 2011. Sewing and reading are my two biggest priorities here... and I'm setting a goal of doing both, for at least a little while, at least once a week. Nothing crazy, but I need to make this a priority. This also includes another quilting visit to my gramma in NY.

This won't really be me. We have electricity. But you get the point.

5. Stick with our budget. Now that we've got our finances on track, sticking with our budget is a lot easier, because new clothes and an occasional Starbucks treat are built into it. The next stage for us is adding more cushion to our savings account and watching as things like new cars, vacations, and large home projects become a reality. This isn't a hard goal at all -- I freaking love this one!

Me with all our budgeted money. Holla!!

6. Stay present. My new boss is a huge fan of meditation and mindfulness, and I'm so excited to learn more about this from her. I spend a lot of time thinking about things that have already happened, and an embarrassing amount of time worrying about things in the future. I need to focus on being present in the moment, not worrying about things unless they need to be worried about, and staying calm and un-frustrated. Easier said than done, but do-able.

7. Stay organized. When I feel organized, I feel better. Period. I'm a pretty organized person, but there are always things I can do to help with this. Picking up a few things each night so our house stays clean, taking time at the beginning and end of each day to plan for the next, packing my lunch the night before, and re-evaluating each month to see what I can improve.

8. Take a vacation. We don't have the logistics of this one worked out completely yet, but I want us to take a real vacation (ie: not just visit family) sometime this year. I don't want the year to get away from us without ever making this a priority. And I desperately want to go back to our honeymoon spot. Not sure yet if that's do-able, but I'm willing to eat Ramen noodles for three months to make it so!

9. Stick with my blog. This wasn't a great posting year for me, but re-discovering this blog over the past month has felt great. I really do love documenting our lives, and I love the community it brings me from all of you. So thank you for reading, and I'll do a better job this year of keeping this bad boy updated (who am I kidding? This blog is obviously a girl). If I don't follow your blog, leave me a comment so I can start!

That's my not-so-small list of things to focus on in 2012. This year, I'm going to actually remember to look at it more than once between now and the end of the year. Is there anything else I should include?

Happy 2012!

2012-01-01T14:32:00.001-05:00

Happy New Year! I hope you all had a fun and safe time celebrating the end of 2011 and the start of 2012.

Zac's brother and sister-in-law spent the night with us in Cincinnati, and we had a blast. They left early this morning to start what we're calling their "Grand Adventure" - a 5 month trip through Russia, China, Mongolia, Thailand, Vietnam, and wherever else they feel like stopping. Crazy right? You can follow their adventures here if you're interested.

We went to a dueling piano bar, which was a lot of fun. It was mostly just fun spending time together... and commenting on the ridiculous outfits people had on. When did we get so old and snarky??

Last night as the ball was dropping I realized that I wasn't quite ready for 2011 to end. I only need a few more days, but I'd love a little bit more time to wrap up some loose ends and plan for the new year. There's something I just LOVE about the start of a new year. It feels fresh and so full of promise.

I need a little bit longer to finalize all of my resolutions and goals for the year. I'll be back tomorrow to share them with you, but in the meantime I'd love to hear some of yours! I'm the queen of, "Oh yeah, I want that one too," so you can make this process easier on me if you share!

Happy New Year!

2011 - The Highlights!

2011-12-30T15:34:00.000-05:00

2011 was a BIG year for us. I feel like so much happened this year, most of which was so, so good. If 2012 is anything like 2011, we're in for a good year.

Here's a recap of my year:

Zac got a new job! He officially has 9-5 hours and gets to work from home a lot of the time. And it's been a very good thing for us! It took us a while to adjust, but I think we're finally in the swing of things.

Funny side note - the first weekend after he started there and didn't have to work, we just sat there looking at each other. We had no idea what married people did on weekends together. So we went to IKEA, which seemed appropriate. We've figured it out now, I think!

We got married! I was definitely looking forward to this, but never in my wildest dreams did I think it would be as much fun as it was! It was one of the best days - just magical from start to finish. Just looking at how happy we are in the pictures makes me all teary. I wish we could bottle that feeling and just sip a little bit of it from time to time!

We went on the best vacation (honeymoon!) of all time! We're scheming hard about how we can get back there as our last hurrah before we think about kiddos...Oh how I wish I was there RIGHT NOW.

I survived the craziest semester of my life thus far. Full time job + volunteer activities + two classes + a 20 hour a week internship nearly kicked my butt. Thank goodness for a supportive husband who picked up all the slack at home and hardly ever complained. Only one more to go until I'm finished!!

We tackled some house projects, some of which I've shown you and others I haven't blogged about yet. We're about halfway to making it totally ours.

We adopted this sweet little puppy...

Who has since grown up to be this guy.

I am NOT a dog person. I don't just love all dogs, just because they are dogs. But oh my goodness, I could not love this ball of fur any more. He has the sweetest temperament, is SUCH a good listener, and is a general joy to have around (most of the time!). I get this whole why-people-have-dogs-thing now. For sure.

We made a budget - and we stuck to it. Even in a year of so many awesome things, this might be what I'm most proud of. It wasn't easy, and it involved about 6 months of buying nothing we didn't absolutely need. But... we've established an emergency fund (that made a $600 car repair bill last week not a huge deal), we bought everyone Christmas gifts with pre-saved moolah, we're saving for a vacation that is actually a possibility, and I no longer flinch when I check our bank account balance. We worked hard to get here, and it was worth every sacrifice along the way. I don't know if there's any better feeling (at least to anxiety ridden people like myself) than feeling financially secure.

The wrapping up of an old year and start of a new year is always so exciting for me. I just love new beginnings I guess. Here's hoping that 2011 was as wonderful of a year for you as it was for us. I'm so excited to see what 2012 brings!!

We Wish You a Merry Christmas...

2011-12-24T09:47:00.000-05:00

Today officially starts our Christmas festivities, and I cannot wait!! We'll have a busy but fun next few days. We start out at my parent's house for Christmas Eve and part of Christmas Day. Late afternoon, we'll head to my in-law's house for Christmas, Part II. It sounds like a lot of traveling, but it's really not too bad. They only live about 2 hours apart, so it's nice to see all of our family on Christmas.

I won't be posting for a few days, so here's our 2011 Christmas Card. I hope you like it!

Here's wishing that Santa remembers to visit your house, and that you spend the holiday surrounded by people you love. I hope all of you have the happiest of holidays and the merriest of Christmases!!

What's Your Christmas Kindness?

2011-12-23T09:59:00.000-05:00

Hopefully you've been adding some extra nice things to your list this year. I've been hearing a lot recently about the amazing things that people are doing for others this holiday season. Have you heard about the people paying off stranger's K-Mart layaway purchases? Such an inspiring story!

When my friend Alison heard the story on the news, she was sitting in her car with a flat tire, waiting for AAA to come change it. She was frustrated (I would have been too!) and running late. As she put it, "I sat in my car feeling grateful for having a car, being able to afford AAA, and for being able to afford Christmas gifts for my girls. So, late and behind in everything today, I went to Kmart and paid off layaway items for 2 families. My house is messy, the dog waited too long to go out,my husband is bringing take out for dinner, and I still need to pick up my repaired tire later tonight. It was worth it. I was going to keep this part of my day to myself, but maybe my flat tire will motivate one of you too."

Whoa. The coolest part? She posted this on Facebook and because of her post, at least 3 others went to K-Mart and did the exact same thing.

A few hours after I read this story, a friend of mine called needing some last minute help sponsoring some kids at the school where she works. I work with some of these kids as well, and I was eager to help! We supplied Christmas for one of the (small) families, and it felt wonderful. I didn't mind fighting the crowds and spending my Saturday running around to find what was on their wishlist.

We went out to dinner with my family a few days ago, and my mom picked up the bill for a young couple next to her. She'll be mad at me for telling you, but it was such a cool thing to do that I'm telling you anyway! They were college kids and were really nice, and she did it as a Christmas Kindness. The sweet kids got her phone number from the restaurant staff (who had it for the reservation) and even called to say thank you one more time. That is super duper classy.

Lindsey at the Pleated Poppy made presents for homeless adults (bags with scarves, coffee gift cards, baked goods, gloves, handmade cards, and ponchos). She and her children walked around their downtown area and passed them out to whoever they came across.

Image from Lindsey's post at the Pleated Poppy

This time of year, the possibilities for helping others are literally endless. I'm sharing these stories because hopefully they'll inspire you to do something for others this year, even if you haven't already. It is truly so much better to give than to receive. If you find yourself feeling extra blessed this time of year, I hope you'll fit in a last minute "for others" activity.

So what's your Christmas kindness?

One of Our Favorite Holiday Traditions!

2011-12-22T16:42:00.000-05:00

I don't remember exactly when this tradition started, but we've been visiting the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Gardens to see the Festival of Lights at least since I was in high school. The highlight of the trip is always a yummy dinner at Benihana, which is a hibachi grill.

This year was no exception! The weather ended up being unseasonably warm (close to 50 degrees), which made a big difference in our zoo experience. Usually we feel like we have too much time because we're absolutely freezing. This year, it felt like we didn't have enough time because we weren't so cold!

The zoo does a really nice job with the light displays, and you can ride a little train and a carousel. Tons of fun!
We didn't get any great pictures of the lights. It was drizzley, and we didn't want to take our good camera with us in the rain. So, instead, you can see shots of my pretty family!

Zac and my mom waiting to ride the train

Beth, Nick (Beth's boyfriend), and Emily ready for a really fun 7 minute, 7 mile an hour train ride!

Mom and I playing around in the Lollipop Forest

Dad and Emily

Zac missed a UK game for this, which is a HUGE sacrifice for him. Hence our picture in front of the blue UK lights!

My mom and sisters

The cutest picture of my parents ever!

Ours isn't quite as cute, but I love Zac's face in this one. He looks so happy! Don't be fooled though - sticking his head in a wreath for a picture is not his idea of a great time. This is likely his "wedding face," which is a smile he can turn on and off. He's crazy.

And what visit would be complete without a merry-go-round ride??

Confession. I didn't ride the horses on the merry-go-round that go up and down until I was 10. Because I was too scared. I am the world's biggest scaredy cat. You couldn't pay me $1 million to ride a roller coaster. Seriously.But look! Here I'm riding with no hands!! Though I'm obviously wearing the seat belt, because while I'm not scared, I'm also not a risk taking crazy person like some of my family members.

Emmy rode some sort of gazelle like thing that no one could name.

And now - the best part! We've been to a hibachi grill quite a few times, but this was the best trip. Our chef was just adorable, and so so funny. He even had some new tricks we'd never seen before!

"No way Jose" in action

My mom can make friends with anyone, so Kayla and Brandon, who sat at our table, even got included in our family picture!

It was SUCH a fun trip! I think this was one of the best years ever. This is such a fun family tradition that lets us spend time together before the holidays officially start. What about you - do you have any similar traditions?

2011 Resolutions -- How I did!

2011-12-21T10:32:00.000-05:00

I made a list of resolutions last January that I shared here. I remembered that I made this list today, and checked it for the first time. Oops. I might have done a better job if I'd checked it more often.

Oh well - water under the bridge now. Here's the list I made last year and what I managed to unconsciously accomplish:

~~Get married!~~ Check! We are super duper married. Read about that here, here, here, here, here, and here!
Organize all of my craft ideas into a binder, so I can actually create! Uncheck. Though ironically, I had written this down on my I'm-not-working-next-week-and-want-to-be-productive list a few days before reading this!
~~Donate a quilt to a local fundraiser~~ Done!
~~Start an exercise rou~~tine (about 3x/week) About halfway done (get it?). I did a lot more exercising this year than I've done in the past, but didn't get on a permanent 3x/week schedule. I have big plans for this year, though! Oh, don't we all...
~~Re-connect with old friends with whom I've lost touch~~ This is an ongoing goal, but I'm happy to report reconnecting with a few old friends and also purposely staying in better touch with current friends. I think this will re-make it onto my 2012 list.
~~Visit my grandma in New York for a sewing weekend~~ Done!! And so much fun!
Make an album of all of our pictures from 2010. Not even close. But I added it to my list for this week!
~~Pack my lunch / eat lunch at home as much as possible.~~ We did a great job with this one. We did a better job creating menus, and I've eaten a lot of leftovers for lunch (yum!). Packing my lunch the night before was the biggest helper here.
~~Make time to~~ read. Sort of! I've read more than I was able to last year, but there were still a few book club months that got away from me. Re-adding this to the 2012 list.
~~Make smarter food choices like wheat bread over white.~~ This has become pretty standard for us now. Whole wheat bread, cutting calories where possible. Always room for improvement, of course, but definitely a step in the right direction!
~~Stick to a cleaning schedule~~ The biggest help here was that we gave in earlier this year and hired a cleaning lady. She is such a blessing to us, and worth every penny. We just had to accept that we aren't good at keeping our house clean, and with my crazy schedule this year, it wasn't worth using our little bit of time together to clean. Add to that how cranky I get when the house is messy and yeah, worth the money! Our end of the bargain is keeping our house picked up between cleaning sessions. We've made leaps and bounds in this area - hoping it's become a habit at this point!
~~Stop worrying about what other people think~~ and whether I'm doing things the "right way." I can't imagine I'll ever be able to really check this one off, but I've definitely made substantial progress here. Maybe it's just part of growing older, but I've spent a lot less time this year worrying about what I should be doing or stressing about what other people will think. That doesn't mean I haven't done it at all, of course, but less often counts as progress!
~~Make the most of my wardrobe. I tend to be a lazy dresser - I have great clothes,~~ but I usually can't be bothered to put an actual outfit together. Another halfer. I haven't bought a single new piece of clothing since April, and I've still gotten dressed every day. This is another one I want to continue to focus on in the new year, but I think I've done a better job with it this year.

So there you have it - a sort of productive 2011! Of course, I did a lot of other things this year as well, but it's fun to check back and see what I accomplished. Have you re-visited your resolutions from this year? Were you more successful than I was?

3rd Annual Friends Christmas

2011-12-20T11:09:00.000-05:00

We are really lucky to have a great group of friends from college that isn't mine or Zac's - it's ours! A few years ago (three, to be exact) we decided to start a tradition of getting together at the holidays. Now that we all live in different cities, we hardly ever see each other anymore. It's sad.

To be completely honest, one of our reasons for starting this tradition was so that our kids would be impressed when we had our 19th Annual Friends Christmas. Only 16 more years to go until that milestone!

This year's get together was in Louisville. We started at our friend Katie's house for some yummy pre-dinner appetizers and drinks.

Katie made these yummy caprese salad bites. So good!

We went to a fun local Louisville restaurant that happened to have 1/2 price wine nights (score!). Katie and I split a bottle of wine, but since we were across the table from each other, this is the best picture we could get!

Just use your imagination.

The highlight of the night was definitely our Secret Santa gift exchange. We should have known that everyone would be terribly awesome gifts.

Don't let the pretty wrapping fool you. Or the bow that Joe put on a free briefcase he got for buying cologne. Don't pick that gift, either.

Mandy opened a fireplace DVD. Daniel was creeping behind her.

Matt got this sweet iPhone case. It's an ear.

Kristen opened two (regifted) games - Animal House Trivia and Poker for Lovers, which was way too funny looking not to open! Made for some good laughs.

Katie rocking her new mustache glasses (definitely the coolest gift).

Joe got spy glasses. He is watching Zac over his shoulder through these little mirror things in the sunglasses. Totally inconspicuous.

Daniel was SUPER excited to open presidential PEZ dispensers. You're welcome, Daniel!

Brendan specifically requested this item when he saw a picture of it online. It's a willie warmer, which is a totally inappropriate sweater that I knitted. So worth it when tears ran down his face as he opened it.

Friends Christmas 2011 was a huge success, though I'm officially old enough that staying up until 2 AM hurts for a few days afterward. Thanks to all of our wonderful friends for kicking off the holiday season in such a fun way!! I wish every day could be Friends Christmas... but I guess that was called college, right?

Homemade Caramels

2011-12-19T18:29:00.000-05:00

You're probably knee deep in holiday baked goods, but I made these delicious caramels tonight and wanted to share the recipe with you.

I remember my mom making these when we were little, and they taste just as good when I make them. They're pretty easy to make, but definitely a pain in the butt. Worth it in the end, but not the easiest holiday yummy to make.

Homemade Caramels

1 cup butter

2 1/4 cups brown sugar

1 cup light corn syrup

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1 tsp vanilla

dash of salt

Melt butter in saucepan. Add sugar and salt, stir in syrup. Mix well, gradually add milk and stir constantly. Cook and stir over medium heat to firm ball stage, or 245 degrees. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Pour into well buttered 11x17 glass pan. Cool, cut into squares and wrap.

That's the official version of the recipe. But in case you're actually going to make it, here's the real deal stuff you need to know:

1. This is a STICKY endeavor. Be prepared.

2. Get the ingredients ready ahead of time. The caramel takes all of 20 seconds to burn on you.

3. Don't stop stirring this thing. Ever. Because it will burn on you. (Yes, this happened to me!)

4. Over butter that pan. There is no such thing as too much butter in that pan (see #1).

5. It doesn't matter if you accidentally add the milk before the syrup, or forget the vanilla completely. Because I did that today and they still taste good!

6. If you don't have a candy thermometer and don't know that 245 degrees looks like, stir until your arm goes numb. That's probably about the right temperature.

7. Cut them small. These are super duper sweet and you don't need a huge piece.

I wrap mine in squares of wax paper that I cut myself. They are all so mismatched. I would suggest cutting them on the longish side so you can twist the ends all pretty.

There you go. Did I frighten you away from ever making them? They really aren't that bad, and the recipe makes A TON. Great for parties and neighborhood gifts!

Are you still baking/cooking for the holidays?

A very holiday mantle

2011-12-15T16:45:00.000-05:00

I have a love-hate relationship with our fireplace and mantle. I love that we have one, but I hate that it has these ugly half columns that break up the entire space and make it really hard to decorate. I suggested to Zac that we try to remove them, using the "how hard can it really be?" argument. He didn't fall for it - maybe it was the idea of smashing bricks and replacing dry wall that didn't appeal to him.

So... I took on the challenge of decorating and disguising. Here are before pictures of the mantle.

Believe it or not, this room has flat paint, so I'm not sure why it has crazy flash bounces on the walls. Oh, and it's since much cleaner than in these pictures.

See what I mean about the columns?

I'm going to skip a bunch of steps and just show you our finished holiday mantle. I finished some of our permanent, all year round additions just before Christmas, so I'll give you more details on those once we take down the holiday decorations and make it "normal" again.

But in the meantime... it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

We still need to get a stocking for Derby! The bride and groom English Carolers were a present from my mom last Christmas. The mirror and N were DIY projects that I'll tell you about later (they're part of the permanent collection. Like our mantle is a museum). Oh - I've also since watered the poinsettas and they're slowly coming back to life!

I'd love to see your holiday decorations too. How long do you leave them up? These bad boys will find themselves living in a box by December 27 at the latest. As soon as Christmas is over they start to drive me crazy - and funny enough, both my mother and my mother-in-law do the exact same thing! My co-worker who leaves her tree up until Easter is a whole different story...

Whoopie!

2011-12-14T13:28:00.000-05:00

I was born in New York, but we moved away when I was two years old. For as long as I can remember, we've lived far away from our extended family during the holidays. When we were younger, our aunts and uncles used to send gifts and they would arrive a few days before Christmas. My mom used to let us pick one present to open each day while my dad was at work (he is a lunatic about not opening presents one single second early).

When a present arrived for me this year from my godmother, I apparently still thought those rules applied, and I opened it right away! I'm super glad I did - because what a fun present! She sent a whoopie pie pan, and a cute recipe book for different whoopie pie flavors.

If you've ever had a whoopie pie, they're sort of like cupcakes that are way easier to eat. They're supposed to look like this:

There's no limit to the different cakes and fillings you can use, which makes them extra fun. My book club came over last weekend for a Christmas book exchange / potluck, and I decided to make them my whoopie pie guinea pigs. Funny enough, almost everyone brought a recipe they had never made before (and they were all delicious).

I made red velvet cakes with buttercream icing. Nothing too fancy. Apologies now for my lack of food photography skills.

The batter is definitely more cake like than cookie like.

These first scoops turned out to be too big. If I had them to do over again, I would do about half as much batter in each one. The pan looks like a shallow mini-muffin pan.

You're supposed to brush the bottom of the pan with butter, but of course I didn't, so mine stuck. The nice thing is that it doesn't really matter, since they become a sandwich. I slapped some icing on those bad boys and turned them into cute little sandwiches.

They got good reviews and were pretty easy to make. Because the cakes are so tiny, they only have to bake for about 8 minutes. Apparently you can make them without my fancy pan, but that sounds overwhelming for this non-baker.

Have you ever made or eaten whoopie pies? What flavor combinations can you dream up? I think my next batch will be salted caramel filling on a chocolate cake... yum!

Can we really have it all?

2011-12-13T11:07:00.000-05:00

There's no question that the past year and half have been extra busy for me. The addition of graduate school on top of work and everything else has definitely been a challenge. I'm thankful everyday for a husband who has stepped up to the plate and taken over way more than his fair share of the housework, cooking, and errand running. He doesn't even flinch anymore when I text him and say, "I need a favor. Like, today."

I don't know if this is something others in our generation relate to, but I want to have IT ALL. Like, absolutely everything. A few weeks ago, the following conversation happened at our house:

Zac: You know you can't possibly do everything right?
Tara: Well I'll be damned if I don't die trying.

And I'm serious. Because I can't say no to anything, and I don't want to say no to anything. I've had fantastic opportunities in my life because I'm willing to say yes and get involved in things. I've met amazing people, learned crazy awesome things, and had unique experiences.

Someone should get me this as a mug.

And I want to keep doing all that stuff. While always having a spotlessly clean house, looking slender and put together, and throwing fancy parties with napkins that look like this.

I want to do it all while blogging about how creative and frugal I am. I want to have sweet little babies running around who are always well behaved and smart. I want to be around for everything important in their lives while having a meaningful and valuable career. And be the kind of mom my mom was, and make everything feel special and fun.

I want to be the kind of person who writes thank you notes in a timely fashion, and brings meals when people have sick family members or new babies. I want to have time to sew/craft/crochet/paint/decorate all of the projects I've found on Pinterest. I want to never forget a birthday, and give thoughtful gifts like Leslie Knope (any other Parks & Rec fans out there)?

I also want to read books, take walks, better my community, have enough money that I don't have to worry about money but can add central A/C to my house, and snuggle with my cute puppy (and husband!).

I get that this is an unrealistic list. A friend once told me that you truly can have it all, just not at once. She's probably right. So the question becomes - will striving to have it all give me a fulfilling life or hospitalized with a mental breakdown within weeks? But what would I give up or put on hold? I don't want or need to be perfect, but I do seem to want to cram three lives into one.

Thanks for listening to the madness that is my brain. And yes, this is what it's like to be me. 24/7. Or to be married to me. Zac appreciates that I'm writing this to you instead of talking about it to him, probably.

How do you balance everything? How do you choose what's the most important, and what you can give up? Does it change for you depending on the time in your life? If I can't have it all, how can I have the most all at once??

I'm not a MAC, but...

2011-12-12T12:24:00.000-05:00

I am most definitely not a Mac. I still use a PC both at home and work, and I think Mac computers seem more complicated. I know once you make the switch, no one ever looks back, but I'm still happy with my PCs.

Last weekend, my phone started acting up. Since I had an upgrade available on my plan, I thought I'd spring for a new phone. And if you're going to spring, you may as well go all out right? This was my "I got a raise at work - Yay!" present. And Zac claims my Christmas present too, which is probably true.

Here's my pretty new phone:

It's an iPhone. The cool one where you can talk to Siri like the commercials. And it took me all of 30 seconds to declare I was totally in love with it.

Let me back track to Thanksgiving weekend, when both of my sisters, my cousin, and my aunt all had new iPhones. When we were going to bed that night I asked Zac if he was having a nice holiday. He said, "Yeah, it's super fun watching everyone obsess over their new iPhones." It was totally an iPhone Thanksgiving at my mom's house.

And now I see what the fuss is about. It's way faster to ask Siri to turn on my alarm or add an appointment to my calendar or remind me to do something than it is for me to do it myself. And it's fun to ask her funny questions!

The phone is so fast, it always works (which my old one didn't), and I'm constantly discovering new things I can do with it.

If you have an iPhone, check out this list of super secret features you might not know about. I learned a few cool tricks!

So -- I'm NOT a Mac, but I'm definitely an iPhone! Anyone else have this new phone? Do you love it too, or are you avoiding this crazy technology?

P.S. Apple (definitely) didn't give me anything for writing this. I paid a crap ton of money for this phone. I just like it and wanted to let you know that it's great in case you're on the fence about upgrading!

Potato Soup -- YUM!

2011-12-09T14:45:00.000-05:00

When I saw this recipe on Kim's blog Newly Woodwards a few days ago, I instantly sent it to my husband requesting it for dinner. That night. He does all the cooking, remember? I know, I'm insanely lucky. He does a lot of other stuff too. He pretty much rocks. (And he still doesn't read this blog, so there's no ulterior motive for me saying that).

Kim's a better photographer than I am, so I am stealing her picture:

Seriously Kim, you have photographic talents.

We made a few changes. We didn't have any green onions, so Zac used regular onions. We actually didn't add extra sour cream or cheese to the top, which if you know me at all, you'll know that those are two of my favorite foods and that's surprising.

And (if you know Zac at all), it won't surprise you that he added bacon. I thought that made it less of a quick, weeknight dinner, but we always cook our bacon in the oven, so he did it at the same time as the potatoes and it wasn't really much extra work.

Side note: if you don't cook bacon in the oven, you need to start. Immediately. Put parchment paper on a baking sheet, lay out your bacon, cook for 10 - 15 minutes (until it looks done) at 350 degrees. Cook longer if you like your bacon crispier. It tastes better, it's much easier, and you don't have to degrease your entire kitchen when you're finished. Win-win-win.

The best part about this dinner? It's going to be even yummier when I have the leftovers for lunch tomorrow! I love soup in the winter. Do you have any fantastic soup recipes I need to add to my recipe box?

A very OSU Baby Shower

2011-12-08T17:00:00.000-05:00

I mentioned here that we threw an Ohio State themed baby shower for Erika, which was tough for someone like me who is most definitely NOT an Ohio State fan! In fact, as I was making Erika's gift, the following conversation actually happened:

Zac: "Mark and Erika are Ohio State fans?"
Me: "Yes, you know that. Erika is from Columbus."
Zac: "That sucks. I really like them."
Me: "You know we can still be friends with them, right?"

Sheesh. Boys are crazy.

I forgot my camera for the shower (must have been everything else I was packing to take with me!) but I stole some pictures from my friend Whitney to show you the spread. We went with a strictly desserts shower.

Another Pinterest inspired craft, these sweet streamers were easy to make and were oh so cute.

I just noticed my face in the background. What am I crazy surprised about?? I guess it will remain one of the world's great mysteries.

A picture of the spread. Mini fruit pizzas on sugar cookies (thanks, Pinterest!), buckeyes, and red velvet cupcakes.

Strawberries filled with cheesecake filling and dipped in graham crackers. They were really yummy, but would be better in the summer when strawberries are sweeter.

Whitney brought these cookies. Aren't they adorable??

And what Ohio State shower would be complete without buckeyes as favors? I ate about 30 over the next week. So bad, but oh so good.

Us with the sweet mama to be:

I made this appliqued onesie and bib to fit the theme.

The onesie was inspired by Pinterest (shocking, I know), and is just simple applique. It was a quick project because the letters don't have a lot of curves! For the bib, I traced a bib I had (that I keep for tracing, not because I have random bibs placed throughout my house) onto white terrycloth, appliqued the shapes on the front, and then made binding and finished it like a quilt. Which was a huge mistake because it took forever and I had to do most of it by hand. This is definitely where bias tape would be helpful in the future. The closure is just sew on white velcro.

It took everything in me not to add ruffles to the legs of that onesie, because of course, I've known this baby was a girl from the very beginning. And guess what?

Sweet Anna Lee Robbe was born on December 1st. I should have added those ruffles!!

She is unbelievably sweet. What a pretty baby. I wanted to make sure she had something pink, so I made her this hat using this awesome free pattern. I have been hooked on crocheting lately. This hat took about two hours - it was super fast and turned out so cute!

Congrats Mark and Erika on having the sweetest little girl. They had to pry her out of my arms. And I've already made her two more hats. I need to get a life. Or work on getting my husband ready for babies of our own?

Lots of Baby Stuff!

2011-12-07T09:39:00.001-05:00

I have been neglecting my blog again, but I am not going to apologize. I'm just going to try to get back in the saddle. It's been a busy month for us, but everyone else has been busy too!

This has been a fun year for me because so many of my friends are having babies! I saw a (slightly inappropriate) very funny e-card the other day that made me laugh because it's so true:

It does seem strange that so many of my friends are now having babies. Strange, but fun!!

I told you a little bit about my friend Erika's baby shower here, but there's so much more to tell. I went to the shower her family threw for her, and then some friends also gave one for her.

When Erika found out she was pregnant, I knew I wanted to make this baby a quilt. Funny enough, she actually told me she was pregnant at my wedding. On the way to the airport for our honeymoon, I suddenly said to Zac, "Oh! I think Erika is pregnant! I need to call her!"

I didn't keep it a secret that I was making her a quilt, and she looked through a lot of my books to see what she liked. She gravitated toward traditional quilts, but also ones with bright fun colors. The added complication is that they didn't find out if the baby was a boy or girl, which made picking the fabrics more complicated.

At this point, I'll say that I knew from day one that the baby was going to be a girl, even though everyone else thought it was a boy!

I was inspired by this quilt that I found on Pinterest:

I love the clean lines and the stripes. I love the straight line quilting on this one, even though I didn't end up going that route.

I made up this pattern by drawing it on a piece of paper and making the stripes 6 inches wide. I used a quarter yard of each fabric which kept the cutting to a minimum. I sewed the six stripes together, then cut them and added the alphabet stripe. This quilt top went together in less than an hour - it was so fast. If anyone is interested in a pattern or more detailed instructions, I"m happy to put one together!

Here's my finished product:

The back

I quilted this on my grandmother's long arm quilting machine, which is why the quilting looks awesome. The best part (that you can't see here) is that on the white and yellow stripes, I wrote "Baby Robbe" in the quilting. I was pretty tickled with myself when I figured out I could do that, and even Gramma was impressed!

I gave this to Erika at her family shower. Look how darling she is.

This girl didn't even look pregnant from the back. She is so tiny. And I don't hate her for that at all.

She loved it, and I do too! A perfect play mat for a baby (that I know is going to be a girl... more on that later!).

Anyone else bombarded with babies lately?

Linking to:

* Skip to My Lou * I Heart Naptime * Too Cute Tuesday at Polka Dot Giraffe * Creation Corner * Creations by Kara *Fireflies and Jellybeans *

Blog Parties I Love

2011-12-01T21:25:00.000-05:00

Blog parties are a fun way to "meet" new people and find great ideas! Here are the parties I participate in.

Mondays:

* Motivate Me Monday *

*Craft-O-Maniac Monday *

*Making the World Cuter *

*Just Something I Whipped Up *

*Market Yourself Monday *

* Made By You Mondays *

* Show Off Your Cottage Monday *

* Crafttastic Monday *

* Motivated Monday *

* Made It Monday! *

* A Marvelous Mess *

* Creative Me *

* Making Monday Marvelous *

* More the Merrier Monday *

Tuesdays:

*Get Your Craft On *

*Sew Cute Tuesday *

*Ta-Da Tuesday *

*Take-a-Look Tuesday *

*Show Me What You Got *

* Too Cute Tuesday *

* Totally Tutorial Tuesday *

Wednesdays:

*Show and Tell *

*We Did It Wednesday *

*Categorically Crafting *

*Sugar and Spice *

*Show Off Your Stuff *

* Hoo's Got Talent? *

Thursdays:

*Hookin' Up With HOH*

*What Are Little Boys Made Of? *

*Catch A Glimpse *

*Creative Juice Thursday *

* Link Party Thursday *

* Everything but the Kitchen Sink *

Fridays:

* Shine On Fridays *

*Weekend Wrap Up Party *

*Friday Fun Finds *

*Friday Flair *

*Feature Yourself Friday *

* Friday Favs *

*Creation Corner Friday Link Party *

* Look At Me *

* Home and Family Friday *

* Catch as Catch Can *

Weekends:

Saturday Spotlight *

*Show and Tell Saturday *

*Saturday Seven Party *

*Sunday Showcase Party *

* Think Pink Sundays *

* Check Me Out Saturdays *

Derby updates!

2011-10-27T17:27:00.000-04:00

Derby is almost six months old, and it's hard to believe that we've had him for almost four of those months! He is the sweetest, loveliest, best puppy there ever was. And that means a lot from me because (don't hate me) - I don't actually like a lot of dogs.

I know. I promise I have a soul. I just don't really love most dogs. Some of them scare me, some of them make me nervous, some of them gross me out. So yeah, why we got a dog is still sort of unknown.

But Derby isn't like all of those scary dogs. He's darling and sweet and loves his mom (that's me). And he has the sweetest freaking face I've ever seen in my whole life. And he's really good. And did I mention how much he loves me? (As I was typing this, he came and curled up on my feet. Love).

Remember when he was this big?

Yeah, he's growing. Get ready for picture overload of this puppy. I don't have babies yet, so you have to pretend you're interested. I won't do this often, I promise!

Just helping my mom fold the laundry.

Awesome that I got my bathing suit in focus, and my puppy slightly out of it.

Just looking out the window, being cute.

Up on the couch. Picture taken 2 seconds before getting in trouble.

Just taking a little rest.

Headshot

Playing Words with Friends together! =)

How much longer do you think he'll fit on my lap??

Oh - and that whole why people love dogs thing? I get it now.

Come on Irene...

2011-10-26T15:41:00.000-04:00

Yeah, I guess the song is really about Eileen, but it seems to fit my experience with Hurricane Irene! This post is long overdue, but it's just too cool not to share.

The weekend of Hurricane Irene, I had planned to drive to New York for a brief visit to my grandmother's. I was only going to be there for three days, and we had as many quilts to make in that short amount of time.

I didn't think anything of the hurricane as I hit the road. In Ohio, we heard it was coming, but that's about it. We didn't hear anything about the expected strength, evacuations, etc. ahead of time.

And my grandmother doesn't sweat the small stuff, or hurricanes, apparently, so she didn't really mention it either.

My grandparent's house

As a side note, I always want to go to my grandparent's house in the summer. There's something about that time of year (maybe because it's when we visited as kids?) that makes me want to visit. It's also one of my most stressful times of year at work, and whenever I find myself really overwhelmed, I want to escape here. Because there's not really cell phone service. And it's just so easy to unplug from your real life. And all I do when I come here is sew and read. I miss it already.

I got to New York and had a nice day of weather before all the storms hit. We managed to finish one quilt and start on the second during that first day. We watched the news and wondered if we would lose power. My grandfather ended up renting a generator just in case, but neither of them seemed worried about the storm.

This - by the way - is why I go to my Gramma's to make quilts:

This is her long-arm quilting machine and frame. It's amazing. It's 10 feet long, and you can put an entire king size quilt on it. I don't think I'll ever make a king size quilt, but it's nice to have the option. Instead of moving the quilt around on a stable machine, you move the machine on a stable quilt. It is SO much easier to achieve nice results when you work this way. It's also way faster.

This shows you how you roll the quilt on, back then batting then front. You won't recognize this quilt because I made it for Zac's cousin's baby, and gave it to her before I took pictures of it. Oops. I'll take some when I see them at Christmas!

Another view of the quilt and machine.

At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if you aren't paying attention. You probably got distracted by the GORGEOUS wall paper that is in the bedroom. Here's a close-up:

Stunning, right? Nothing like floral wall paper that is mostly weeds??

Here's a picture of Gramma quilting. She's so cute.

We finished the first quilt and some of the second on Friday. When we woke up on Saturday, it had started to rain. We worked ALL day Saturday trying to finish the second and third quilts as the storm kept raging. We had about half of the last quilt to do when we couldn't see straight anymore. We went to a neighbor's house for dinner, came home, and went to sleep.

Oh - not before we watched the news and saw that there was a tornado warning. And we had this conversation:

Me: "Gramma, you don't have tornado sirens, here do you?"

Gramma: "No, we don't."

Me: "How will we know if there is a tornado and we need to go to the basement?"

Gramma: "I guess we won't know."

She doesn't sweat tornados, either.

We didn't die in a tornado though, so that's good news. In fact, I went to sleep and slept through the night. Until I woke up at 6 AM and tried to turn on the lights - which didn't work. We all got up and were talking about what to do for breakfast when the power came back on. Papa made us breakfast (he is the best grandpa in the world), but the power was still on. We settled into the living room and watched the news. I even took a nap!

Around 9 AM, our good fortune had ended. The power went out again, and didn't come back on. Papa drove down the road and discovered a HUGE tree that had taken down powerlines and we knew there wouldn't be power again anytime soon (in fact, they didn't have it until Tuesday!).

It was daylight though, so we could read without needing flashlights. At one point, Papa ran an extension cord up to the second floor so that we could use the generator to finish the last quilt. It was so sweet of him to do that for us!

Here's what it looks like when you quilt by generator:

That's as un-blurry as I could get it without a flash. It actually looks pretty light in this picture, but it felt really dark!

We managed to finish the third quilt, even though it was dark. The lights never came back on, so we drove into town to find some pizza. I was leaving early so we didn't stay up very late, and just like that, my trip was over.

The only downside is that I parked in the dark, and left my sewing machine (in its black case) at their house. My sweet grandparents SHIPPED it to me, because I was so sad about it. The funniest part? It only cost $25 to send it! We couldn't figure out how it costs $10 to mail cookies to my cousin who is in college, and only $25 to send my heavy sewing machine??

So there you have it - our quilting by generator adventure!

I'm never buying invitations again. Maybe.

2011-10-24T11:00:00.000-04:00

My friend Erika is having a baby at the end of November, and while we were planning her shower, I offered to order the invitations. Erika doesn't know if the baby is a boy or a girl, and she and her husband are huge Ohio State fans, so we planned a scarlet and grey theme for the shower.

After I got over my initial I-hate-Ohio-State disgust, I set to work finding invitations. I looked everywhere. I even looked places that are totally not affordable (cough Tiny Prints). And everything was either blue, pink, or some sort of green / yellow. It didn't seem like we should have a green invitation and then an OSU themed shower, but I didn't know what else to do.

And then a flash of creativity came over me. Well, not really. But the invitation I liked best seemed pretty basic. Surely I could recreate it?

I am NOT an artistic person. I don't often have visions of original creativity. But give me a picture of something that someone else made and darn it, I can copy it with the best them! Shout out to Pinterest for furthering my delusions here.

Here's the inspiration invitation I was working with:

You can find the invite here on Shutterfly.

It's adorable. I might even like it better than scarlet and grey. But I couldn't change the theme this late in the game. So I worked to recreate it.

I made my version in Microsoft Publisher. I made it a little smaller than a size 10 mailing envelope so I wouldn't have to buy new envelopes. And I printed two to a page on cardstock so I didn't have to buy more cardstock.

I think it turned out pretty cute! I download all of my cute fonts from kevinandamanda.com. They have the BEST fonts and they are all free.

So my new plan is just to troll the internet for ideas next time I need an invitation, and to try to create it myself. And if/when that doesn't work, order them from somewhere.

Obviously at least half the fun of pinterest is coming up with ideas you can ~~steal~~ adapt to be your own. Are there any other ways you adapt inspiration to be your own?

Fingerprint Art

2011-10-19T19:30:00.000-04:00

My neighbor/friend Clare is an awesome person to have close by. She actually was friends with my younger sister in college, and we connected through a professional association. When we found out we only live a few streets from each other, we (well at least I) were in heaven.

And this is why. Clare and her husband like art that is unique and meaningful. When Tony went away for the weekend, Clare decided to surprise him and create art based on their fingerprints. I know, you already love her.

This is the master bedroom they started with. The floors are light wood, the walls are a cream color, and the bedding is tan. It was a whole lot of tan, and Clare and Tony decided they wanted to add some color. They had agreed on a navy accent wall behind the bed, and Clare got to work while Tony was gone!

To make the art, she first scanned their finger prints on the highest quality setting and uploaded them to Photoshop CS3. She did some rasterizing of the zoomed-in imageds (I have no idea what that means) and then digitally over each other.

After playing around with the prints in Photoshop, it looked something like this.

She printed the images, and made them 8.5" x 8.5". This is solely a personal preference because Clare loves square art. I love square art too. And pretty much everything else Clare likes.The black and yellow represent Clare and Tony's fingerprints - this will make more sense in a minute.

She taped the image under tracing paper and...

Started painting! She painted each layer in a different color using the color scheme from the bedroom. So, brown for the furniture, cream for the bedding, and blue from the walls.

Clare called this part painstaking. She literally pulled an all-nighter. She is so cute/crazy. And she did this four times....

After the first color had completely dried, she went back through and added the second layer.

Here's the final print with all three colors added together. She made four total, so mixed the main color so that the prints felt modern and fresh.

Another print with more blue. When they had dried, she matted them on white cardstock, leaving a 1/4" border around each edge.

She matted the pictures using fancy tools like this. Y'all, I was not kidding when I said that she is a crafty fancy artist person (if I didn't say it yet, I'm saying it now). This woman is tal-en-ted.

Here's a sample of the finished product. Totally unique. Totally modern. Totally gorgeous.

Here they are matted over the bed! Aren't they gorgeous? They totally pop against the navy blue wall.

A close-up shot.

There you have it - some of the most beautiful and personalized art I've ever seen. Her husband loved it by the way... how could he not?? Be super jealous that Clare is not your neighbor/friend. Right now I'm trying to figure out how to con her into helping me make some sort of art!

Think of the possibilities with her method too - there are a lot of cool things you could paint onto tracing paper and them frame! Thanks, Clare, for sharing your creativity and talents!

I can see clearly now...

2011-10-18T14:41:00.002-04:00

After more than 20 years of wearing glasses and/or contacts, I finally bit the bullet. Last Friday, I had LASIK surgery! This is a long and complicated story, so bear with me as I start from the beginning...

I have worn glasses or contacts for what feels like my entire life. We found out I needed glasses when I was in first grade. My parents had taken us bowling, and a few frames in, I hadn't hit a single pin. My mom said, "Tara! Look at the pins! You need to aim the ball to the pins!" I said, "What pins? I don't see any pins?"

A picture of me, pre-glasses. I'm the one in the middle. This picture is

mostly to show you that I was a ridiculously cute child.

My mom probably thinks of that as a parenting failure moment, but there wasn't any way that we would have known that my eyesight had changed -- it changed dramatically in just a few short months. The eye doctor gave me some coke bottle glasses and the journey began.

Just kidding. Those weren't my real glasses. This is just to show you that my

parents were fun and to embarrass my little sisters.

In second grade, I started to wear rigid gas permeable contacts. At that time, any young person whose eyes changed so dramatically was recommended for these. They thought that wearing them would slow down any more changes in your eyes (this has since been prove false, by the way). Anyone who has ever worn them is probably full of empathy at this point. They are rigid and hard and expensive and easily breakable and uncomfortable. Combine that with a second grader and you have years of difficulty! My mom actually put my contacts in and took them out each day for a few years. I lost more than one down the sink and my dad rescued them out of the drain. Once, we couldn't find a contact anywhere. I mean - anywhere. Because it had stuck to my shirt and we had thrown it down the laundry chute. And we found it in tact.

When I was a senior in high school, I made the switch to soft contacts. I was heading off to college and wanted to have more flexibility and comfort. I wore soft lenses without a problem until just over a year ago. All of a sudden, contacts were brutally uncomfortable, made me blink uncontrollably, and led to all sorts of watery eyes and irritation. I apparently just developed an intolerance to them. Side note - so did my friend Claire, who does not live in Cincinnati. But also, so did another friend who developed it just after moving to Cincinnati, which is when I did. Strange!

I've been thinking about Lasik since high school. When I was able to wear contacts, it was mostly an inconvenience. When I could only wear glasses, it became almost unbearable. Let me clarify that I have a lot of friends and family members who look amazing in glasses. Even better than they do without glasses in glasses. I am not one of those people. I hate the way I look in glasses. Case and point:

My aunt's crazy friend Jan, who is super fun.

It's probably because I wore contacts for so many years during the day, but I associate myself wearing glasses with being tired, sick, or going to bed. When I look at this picture (or any picture of me in glasses), I just don't like it.

All of the people I knew in Cincinnati who had had LASIK used Dr. Varley -- quick shout out to his office for being amazing. It was pricey, but five days in, already so worth it. I did all the normal pre-procedure stuff, and then arrived on Friday for the surgery. Zac took me, and my parents came down as well. My dad said he wanted to see me when I realized I could see. Yes, he is the best dad ever.

They gave me some numbing drops and some valium. I was way more nervous than I thought I'd be. They took me into the procedure room, and Zac and my parents got to watch the whole thing. I could wear my normal clothes, but had to wear a sweet hair cover thing. They gave me a teddy bear to hold, which made a ridiculous difference. It was great having something soft to hold on to.

Dr. Varley was wonderful, and really calming. I just had to focus on his voice, look where he told me to look, and not freak out. Let me say that this was the strangest experience of my entire life (which I actually told him during the procedure!). It didn't hurt at all, but it was just so strange. If you have ever had a tooth pulled, it felt like that -- no pain, but you can feel it happening. Weird.

The first thing they do is cut flaps in your eye so they can laser off the parts that are making your vision bad. This is my unscientific description, by the way. This takes all of 5 seconds for each eye, but after they do it, your vision is really blurry and hazy. This is normal and the doctor told me it would happen, but it was still a bit disconcerting.

Lining up my eye so they could cut the flap.

After they cut the flap, they line up your eye for the actual lasering (which for this post, counts as a real word). I don't really know what you're looking at here, but here's a picture of my eye, post flap cutting, but before any lasering:

The final step is the laser re-shaping your eye. Again, no pain, but super weird. I had the laser for about 30 seconds each eye, but my eyes were pretty bad. If your prescription is less, you don't have to have as much time under the laser.

Lining up my eye for the laser

One neat part about the technology is that if your eye moves for any reason, the laser stops and won't start again until it is repositioned.

The whole thing took less than 20 minutes. I got a complicated schedule of eye drops, some sweet goggles, and was sent home to sleep for as long as possible (at least 4-6 hours). I slept for awhile, woke up and had a milkshake, then went to bed for the night. I had some pretty intense discomfort the first night, but it wasn't bad enough to prevent me from sleeping.

First picture, post surgery!

When I went back the next morning, my vision tested at 20/15. Absolutely incredible!! It has gotten clearer each day sense. It's not necessary blurry, but my eyes are SO dry that it feels like it is. So far, that's been the worst part. I think I'll buy stock in artificial tears. Oh, and my eyes are super bloodshot and it looks like I do drugs. Except I told my kids at work I got bitten by a zombie (and three of them believed it). And I get to sleep in those cool goggles for three weeks (do you love how they matched my outfit that day??).

So... the verdict is that I am SO glad I did this, even though I'm not totally back to normal yet comfort-wise. It's amazing to wake up and see the alarm clock, see the tv without having glasses on, and be able to read a book in bed without having it 4 inches from my face. It's amazing not to have to clean my glasses all day, look in the mirror and hate them, or to be able to wear sunglasses in the car. It isn't the right choice for everyone, but it sure was for me!!

Has anyone else had LASIK? Do you love contacts or glasses? Are you one of those people who has perfect vision and makes everyone else jealous?

Merry Christmas... a little bit early!

2011-09-09T10:09:00.000-04:00

Since my life has reached a new level of crazy lately, when I saw a Groupon for $50 at Vistaprint.com that only cost me $10, I jumped on it. Um, holiday cards for a ridiculous deal? YES PLEASE!

So, it's September 7, and my Christmas cards are already here. Not just ordered. In my sewing room, ready to be addressed! It helped that we had a wedding picture to use, which made it pretty easy to get them set up.

But... in case you were wondering, Vistaprint has some great card designs! I like the flat 5"x7" cards, and they have a ton of designs to choose from. There's a lot of personalizing you can do (more than other sites, I think), and the price can't be beat. With my Groupon, I spent a total of $17 on 100 cards. But really... $57 for 100 cards is MUCH cheaper than I paid last year from another site.

The quality is really excellent, and the cards look great. Would definitely recommend it for others. Only one piece of advice - Vistaprint orders sometimes take forever to arrive, so plan accordingly and order early!

Happy (early) holidays!

What's in a name?

2011-09-07T08:19:00.002-04:00

This Friday will be our five-month anniversary of being married, and I decided last week that it was time to stop dragging my feet about something. It was time to decide what the heck I was going to do about changing my name and actually do it. Not too hard... just had to figure out what I want my new name to be.

Um. Good question.

I have been on a multi-year journey when it comes to changing my name. First I said I'd absolutely do it. Then, there was no way I was even going to consider it. Then, maybe I'd hyphenate both names. Then, maybe I'd just take both names but use one or the other depending on the situation. Always comforting was knowing that I still had more time to decide.

Well - I'm out of time. I mean, I guess I could wait longer to change my name legally, but this has become my normal:

"Hi, I'm Tara, um, uh, uh, nice to meet you."

I have no idea how to introduce myself, because I'm not really sure what my last name is. And that just makes me look like an idiot! I needed to figure out what I was going to do, and just jump in.

I have some friends and family that would be totally appalled if I didn't change my name; I have some friends and family who would be totally appalled if I did change my name! I consider myself to be a feminist, and while that certainly influenced my decision, I have two friends who have very conservative, traditional values, and both of them struggled with the decision to change their names.

So... here's what I ultimately decided. My maiden name will be come my middle name, and I'll legally take my husband's last name. If you ask me what my middle name is, I'll still say Nicole. Sometimes I'll use both my maiden and married last names; sometimes I'll use just my married name. This works for me and my family. It may or may not work for you and yours.

But, since it was such a ridiculously long and stressful decision making process for me, I thought it might help others to share why I ultimately decided to do this:

I couldn't shake the feeling that I wanted to share a name with my husband. I didn't want to only use my maiden name. I like my married name, and it sounds nice with my first name.
It mattered to Zac the perfect amount. By that I mean if he had cared any less, I wouldn't have changed my name, and if he had cared any more, it would have felt forced and I wouldn't have changed my name. It was his preference that we share a last name, but he would have been okay if we didn't. Perfect amount of caring.
I want to have the same last name as my future children. To be frank, mostly for convenience and to avoid confusion at school and the doctor's office.
A friend of mine who kept both last names said to choose one or the other. It's way too confusing to find your records anywhere because you never know which last name people file you under.
Zac's last name is shorter and easier to spell.
People just assumed I was changing my name anyway, which made the switch easier.

Those reasons seem to be a little bit shallow, but I don't think anyone else's reasons are more or less legit than mine. It's what I've decided to do, but I think each person has to do what's right for them. It doesn't make my relationship unequal or give Zac more power because I took his name. Believe me... I still make most of the rules at our house! =)

I think Shakespeare said it best when he said, "A rose by any other name... is the same damn thing."

Or something like that, anyway.

Emboridering

2011-08-30T18:27:00.000-04:00

I got my sewing machine as a Christmas gift from my parents almost 6 years ago. It is WAY nicer than I deserve, especially at the time when I didn't use it that often. They got it like a car at a super sale where it was the last one of last year's models... and I adore it.

One of the best parts is that it is also an embroidery machine. Using a special software on my computer, I can embroider a lot of stuff with monograms, names, flowers, etc.

I have a love-hate relationship with the embroidery part. I love that my machine can do it... I hate that sometimes it doesn't do it very well. Yes, most of this is likely user error, but I also feel like it's a crap shoot whether or not my final product will turn out well.

This time, I lucked out. I offered to embroider towels for my friend Alessa to give her bridesmaids as a gift. And then I immediately started worrying I would screw them up and kicking myself for volunteering to do it. But... against all odds, they really turned out wonderfully!

Towels usually do well in the embroidery machine, because they're big, flat, and the terrycloth is a fairly simple material for it to handle.

So... after this, I'm officially on-again with my embroidery machine!

Derby goes to school!

2011-08-26T14:53:00.000-04:00

Derby is a fantastic puppy. I mean, really, as far as puppies go, he's awesome. He is pretty well behaved, he's really sweet, and he's fantastic with kids and new people.

Sometimes though, he drives me crazy. And a few weeks ago, we had a few of those days in a row. I decided it was time for Derby to start puppy training, and we signed him up for a class at PetSmart.

The class was...okay. The trainer was good, but the training space was small and some of the other "puppy parents" in the class were more focused on complaining about their dogs than on working to improve their behavior.

So, in what has been a Bonistall tradition since the beginning of time, I had to snap his first day of school picture.

Well, since I'm in it, I guess Zac snapped it. But isn't he just the cutest thing ever??

Forgot about this one!

2011-08-24T14:51:00.000-04:00

I was downloading pictures from my camera last night and realized that I never showed you this! I was really into homemade gifts for Christmas last year, and used this fantastic tutorial to create this sweet little laptop case:

I made one for each of my sisters and one for one of my best friends. The best part is that by asking for their laptop dimensions ahead of time, they end up being a perfect fit!

I would estimate that each one took me a few hours to finish, with the first one taking way longer than the rest. I'm not very good at visualizing patterns, so I ripped out the zipper at least three times on the first one!

The sweet flower is a pin that can be taken off.

What do you think? The possibilities with design are endless for this pattern, and you could do it without a ruffle to make it more simple or guy-ish.

I've been avoiding you.

2011-08-15T17:09:00.000-04:00

It's not personal. Really, it's not. It's just that I don't have a lot to write about. Don't get me wrong... I have a ton of stuff going on, but none of it is really "write about it" worthy.

To illustrate my point:

I had no idea how exhausting having a puppy was going to be. He is nonstop. He's adorable, but he's adorable wanting to play with you 24/7. And we're taking him to puppy school which means we spend a lot of time practicing what we learn at puppy school. More exhaustion. And I don't want the only thing I do on this blog to be post pictures of the puppy!
I just got a promotion at work! Good, I know, but it means more responsibility and more stress! Cue additional exhaustion.
The only things I've been sewing are gifts, and I can't show them to you yet! Know that I'm not just a bump on a log, I am making things, but they are secret things!
I start a 20 hour / week internship for my MSW program next week. In addition to my full-time job. And whatever other "life" I'm going to piece together! The most exhaustion is from even thinking about this.

Don't worry, I'm not leaving forever. In fact, I might not be leaving at all. I just don't want to feel guilty when I don't update. I'll do it as much as I can - I promise.

To hold you over until next time...

Yum - Corn Salad

2011-08-01T10:47:00.000-04:00

When I came across this recipe from Tatertots and Jello last week, I couldn't wait to try it. It looked so light and refreshing, not to mention delicious!

The best part is that it's made with ingredients you're likely to have already on hand in the summer time. I used fresh corn, and it was extra delicious.

We made it on Saturday night as a side dish for our shrip tacos. This salad definitely has a mexican taste to it, but it is definitely delicious!

As we were eating it, we actually ended up adding it to our tacos as part of the filling, and it was awesome. It is also great as a sort of salsa with tortilla chips.

We will definitely be making this one again, and I thought you might want to try it too!

Just Put it in my Dropbox

2011-07-28T19:42:00.000-04:00

I always am excited to learn about a cool online tool, and I wanted to share a few I've found recently:

Dropbox is the most awesome thing I've found in awhile. It is an online storage tool that lets you access your files from anywhere. You just install the software on your computer, choose which files you want to share, and then voila! You can access them anywhere!

You can access your files online via the dropbox website, or you can download an app for your phone or iPad that lets you view files that way. I use this ALL the time... I'm at a meeting and I need to access a document for work, and I can just quickly pull it up on my phone. Awesome.

If this isn't the coolest thing since sliced bread, I don't know what is. How often have you been meeting someone for something (dinner, coffee, meeting, etc.) and tried to figure out somewhere in the middle? Use this website to make that process a breeze! Pop in both addresses and a keyword for where you want to meet (ie: coffee) and voila - a meeting place!

Note: I was not compensated by either of these companies, I just think they are great online tools that you might want to use, also!

It's Hot

2011-07-26T11:38:00.000-04:00

After a week of wonderful posting back on schedule, I disappeared again. Sorry. Or maybe you didn't even notice. Sigh.

The reason I haven't been writing is that I really haven't been doing much. It has been so dreadfully hot here for the past two weeks - temps in the 90s every day, with no end in sight. Our little window A/C units certainly help, but when it gets that hot, they just aren't the same as central air.

We've been busy, too, but I can't really figure out with what. I am about halfway through a sweet little quilt for Zac's cousin's soon-to-be-here baby, and it's really turning out wonderfully. I just haven't taken any pictures.

Which leads me to why we haven't taken any pictures. The lens cap of our awesome-way-too-expensive-to-risk-hurting-it camera fell out of my pocket a month or so ago, and we're both paranoid to use it at all without the cap nearby. And both keep forgetting to order a replacement cap from ebay for about a dollar. The heat is zapping our brains, I tell you!

So... I'll be back this week with pictures of our garden that is now taller than me, and hopefully some other stuff, too. Do you ever feel like you spend a ton of time looking for inspiration online and pinning cute pictures, and then you never actually make any of it?? I hate that feeling. Enough pinning. More doing!!!!

I promise not to disappear this time. Pinkie swear, even, and you know what happens if you break a pinkie swear...

Meet Derby!

2011-07-15T20:29:00.000-04:00

Our family got a surprising new addition a few weeks ago that I haven't told you about yet... Meet Derby!

A friend of mine's in-law's neighbor (seriously) had a litter of 9 puppies unexpectedly that he needed to find homes for. So... we're suckers, and decided to adopt this little guy!

I should point out that he is not really a little guy anymore - he is growing like a weed! He is a lab mixed with... something! All of the other puppies are black, and most of them look more like golden retrievers, maybe? Derby is definitely very lab-like.

It's tough being a puppy and trying to stay cool!

Don't let this sweet sleeping face fool you! When he's awake, he's a crazy man!

My mom is convinced that he is going to be gigantic, and so she keeps comparing him to Clifford the Big Red Dog. She even found him a Clifford toy!

He's very sweet, and follows us everywhere. He's done a great job with house training, likes to meet new people, and has fun playing with other dogs. Even though his crazy puppy-ness (ie: biting my feet constantly) is driving he crazy, I think he's a keeper!!

Honeymooning!!!!

2011-07-14T20:22:00.000-04:00

We weren't sad to see the wedding festivities end, because we had an amazing honeymoon to look forward to!! We got up bright and early on Monday morning to head to Mexico!!

We stayed at the Excellence Playa Mujeres in Playa Mujeres, Mexico, which is just outside of Cancun. It was heaven on earth. There aren't even words to describe how amazing it was!

Everyone was so nice, the food was amazing, room service was fantastic, our balcony was lovely, the pools were fabulous, the ocean was warm, the drinks were delicious - what more can you ask for?? Shout out to Brittany and Lee, our sweet honeymoon friends from NY!

I'm already trying to figure out how soon we can go back!

Yeah, that's a lazy river.

Our balcony. For real.

Still our balcony. That bed is the best napping spot in the whole world.

The private pool on our balcony.

Lit up at night

Room service!

The bus we took to the Mayan Ruins

Mexican crafts co-op

Norma, the sweetest tour guide ever.

Mayan ruins

A crazy fool who ate an entire habanero pepper

The rocking bruise I had all week - and STILL have on my leg three months later!

Heading down into the sinkhole to cool off!

The lobby of the resort

Our fancy last-night dinner!

Making our mark in the sand

A family tradition

Good bye Mexico... we'll miss you!

Trash the Dress!!

2011-07-13T20:25:00.000-04:00

The day after the wedding, we went back out with our photographer for a Trash the Dress session. The pictures are self-explanatory, so enjoy!!

This Kind of Love: Party 'til We Drop!

2011-07-12T19:42:00.001-04:00

Our wedding ceremony was everything we could have hoped for, and our reception was just as wonderful! The venue was gorgeous:

We took some fun pictures outside before the reception started.

The food was delicious, though Zac and I didn't eat much of it. I don't know why, but neither of us was very hungry!

My dad gave the most amazing speech...

that left me looking like this...

Then my sisters gave a rousing speech....

That left me looking like this!

Zac's brother also gave a wonderful speech. I wish people had to tell me all those nice things at times other than my wedding! =)

We cut the cake, and Zac clearly forgot about our "don't put cake in each other's faces" deal.

We had our first dance...

And then danced with our parents...

Everyone had a blast, and of course, our family sang SCHNITZELBANK!

I didn't realize that we would have SO MUCH FUN at our wedding. I knew it would be a great day, but never in my wildest dreams did I think it would be as amazing as it was. Everyone danced the night away and had a great time!

This Kind of Love: The Ceremony

2011-07-11T19:45:00.000-04:00

As we were finishing our pictures, the clouds literally parted and the rain magically stopped! We rode to the Church, and tried to sneak in the back without anyone seeing us! We only waited for a few minutes before it was time for the wedding ceremony to begin.

The room we waited in had a one way window, meaning we could see the guests arriving, but they couldn't see us! Belle and I had fun watching everyone arrive.

I expected to feel a lot of things as I was walking down the aisle, and I didn't feel any of them on the actual day! I thought I would be really nervous, but I wasn't nervous at all. I thought that hugging my dad at the alter would be really emotional, but it wasn't as bad as I'd expected. I think I was just so ready for this moment, that I'd waited months for, to arrive.

I did however, alternate between these two facial expressions as we walked down the aisle!

But I promise they were happy tears!

Words cannot even express how wonderful our minister was. She helped us write the ceremony, and it was absolutely perfect. We got so many compliments on the service and how lovely Nancy was. There is something totally angelic about her, and we're so lucky to have had her celebrate our wedding!

Next came the vows, which we wrote ourselves. They looked short on paper (only two paragraphs!) but felt SO long when we said them in real life!

We both thought that I would be the one to lose it during our vows, but when it was Zac's turn to talk, he choked up and couldn't get a word out. It was so sweet, and surprising coming from a guy who doesn't show much emotion!

One of my favorite parts of the ceremony was our wine box. We ordered this beautiful box from Etsy and sealed a bottle of wine and two love letters inside during the ceremony. The rule is that we can't open it until our 10th wedding anniversary - unless we ever have a dark moment where someone is thinking about leaving our marriage. Then, we need to read the letters and drink the wine together before making any decisions. We're planning to open it on the anniversary, by the way, and not before!

At long last, it was time for the best part of the wedding ceremony - making it official with a kiss! We hadn't thought to talk about this part beforehand, and Zac surprised me with the best wedding kiss ever!

I love my sister's face in this one! Officially husband and wife, we headed back down the aisle - together this time!

I don't remember taking this picture, but it might be my very favorite picture from the whole day:

And now, it was time to PARTY, PARTY, PARTY!!!

I interrupt these wedding recaps...

2011-07-09T19:45:00.000-04:00

Oh my goodness. It's been SO long since I've posted! In my defense, I was neck deep in our annual Summer Program (see this post from last year!) and it overtook my entire life.

But... it ended yesterday, which means that recaps will be finished quickly. Plus, I have some house projects and a fun new surprise to share with you, too!

In the meantime, here's a sneak peak of what we do at our Summer Program. I hope you'll be as impressed with these sweet kids as I am!

This Kind of Love: Our First Look

2011-06-03T16:25:00.000-04:00

Whether or not we were going to have a "first look" was a hot discussion topic during the months leading up to the wedding. For those who are unfamiliar with the concept, the bride and groom have a staged time to see each other for the first time, which is still captured by pictures, but isn't when the bride is first walking down the aisle.

I think some of our family members would have rathered that we not see each other before the wedding. Just for curiosity's sake, I did a little bit of research on the tradition of the bride and groom not seeing each other before the wedding. Turns out it dates back to the time of arranged marriages, and was set up so that the groom wouldn't see the bride before the wedding, think she was ugly, and back out.

Since we were not worried about that happening, it came down to a decision on logistics. We had precious little time between the end of the wedding ceremony and the start of the reception, and if we wanted to take a decent amount of pictures, we'd have to take some beforehand.

From a more emotional perspective, I'm so glad we had a first look. I'm a pretty high-strung person, and as cheesy as it sounds, Zac is truly my source of calm. Seeing him before the wedding instantly calmed my nerves and helped me to relax, and I'll be forever grateful that I didn't enter that church as a ball of nerves!

It POURED while we were getting ready, so our great plans to take pictures outside was foiled. Luckily, our wonderful photographer had a back-up location, and we headed to the Conservatory in Cincinnati for our pictures.

Walking into the Conservatory. This is one of my very favorite pictures. I was totally unprepared for the way we would attract attention - as we were walking in, all of the people leaving the Conservatory and in the lobby started clapping!

Is this the coolest thing ever? An artist was sketching inside the Conservatory and drew a charcoal drawing of me! She gave it to me to keep - I think we're going to frame it for our living room.

After we took some individual pictures, it was time for our first look. Good thing, because I was going crazy being so close to Zac and not being able to see him! He stood with his back to all of us, and I slowly approached him.

Getting closer!

Almost there... and I start to cry! In our video, you can see me look at the photographer and say, "What do I do now?" At that point, Zac turns around and I just look at him and say, "HI!" It's a lot sweeter on the video, I promise!

Feels like we'd been waiting our whole lives for this moment.

We took A LOT of pictures!

This is not my favorite picture, but I realized I hadn't shown you a full-dress shot! My dress was lace, and was so beautiful! There are other pictures that you'll see later that will give you more of the dress.

Up until this point, our day had been a bit crazy and not what we had expected. Starting with the first look, everything just seemed to fall into place, and our perfect wedding day began!

This Kind of Love: A little help from our friends

2011-06-02T21:25:00.000-04:00

We had the most amazing bridal party in the world. My bridesmaids were my two sisters and two best friends from college. Zac had his brother, two best friends from college, and his cousin. They were so supportive for the whole planning process, and were a blast during our wedding weekend. We are so grateful to have such great friends!!

Handsome guys

My favorite girls

I just love this picture!!

Our friends got us through a scary time the morning of our wedding. Through a miscommunication, the bag containing our rings, Zac's tie, his cuff links and his socks went missing over night. When they realized they couldn't find it the next morning, everyone went into panic mode, which could also be described as "whisper quietly and don't let the bride find out what's going on mode."

When they thought they weren't going to find it and had totally given up hope (as in, my brother-in-law went to the mall to see if he could get me a temporary replacement ring), my mom approached me as we were getting ready and this conversation happened:

Mom: "So, today at the wedding, you're going to have a different ring, but it isn't a big deal."

Me: "What are you talking about?"

Mom: "Well the bag is gone, but it's not a big deal, so you're going to get another ring, which is fun, and then we'll find it and everything will be fine."

Me: "Mom. What are you talking about?"

Mom: "Someone stole your wedding ring."

This led to me having a slight melt down, mostly because I wasn't sure if my wedding band was insured, or just my engagement ring, and because my fingers are freakishly small and you can't just get a size 5 ring from the store at the mall.

We were trying to figure out alternative plans, and my sweet hairdresser even offered to let me get married wearing her grandmother's ring, which fit my finger, when Zac called me. Because they found the rings. Someone had turned them in to the front desk an hour before we were supposed to leave the hotel. Call it fate, call it karma - call it whatever you will - but the biggest disaster of our lives went away as quickly as it started.

I was probably the least worried about it of anyone, since so much of it was kept from me that day. Thankfully, all we're left with is a good story to tell (that has a happy ending) and something that I can tease my brother-in-law about. All's well that ends well!

This Kind of Love: Pictures of Us

2011-06-01T22:44:00.000-04:00

After we finished getting ready, Rachel took pictures of Zac and I by ourselves. I was totally shocked when these ended up being some of my very favorite pictures. I think she really captured our pre-seeing-each-other nerves!

Hey there, gorgeous fake eyelashes that were TOTALLY worth it!

My handsome hubster to be.

So you can get a shot of his outfit. We ordered his suit online. For real. From this website. It was less than $200 for the whole three piece suit, and you put in custom measurements, so it looks like it was made for him (because it was). We've since ordered him another one!

We were running late on the way to pictures (shocking!), so Zac had some fun.

I hope you're not already sick of the recaps, because there are a few more coming...

This Kind of Love: Getting Ready

2011-05-27T20:17:00.000-04:00

The wedding recaps have officially begun!! Let me first give a huge shout out to our amazing photographer, Rachel of Glass 29 Image. She was so wonderful to work with, and she truly captured our wedding in the way it felt to be there. We couldn't have asked for a better photographer - if you live in Cincinnati, check her out!!

Everyone got ready for the wedding at the Radisson hotel in Covington, Kentucky (just across the river from downtown Cincinnati). We started just before 9:00 AM, and had a great time eating bagels, drinking orange juice, and getting airbrushed!

Don't you love this hanger?? My mom got it for me on Etsy. It couldn't actually hold the dress, but it's even more beautiful in person and we're going to hang it in our bedroom.

My beautiful sisters getting ready.

Getting my hair done!

Elizabeth from Makeup By Elizabeth did my make-up, and she was INCREDIBLE. I have never felt so beautiful, yet I still felt like I looked like me.

Is Rachel not the most talented photographer ever??

A group shot of the bridesmaids and our sweet flower girl in our matching bathrobes! This is what I got them all as gifts, and they were so cute and comfy!

It was finally time to get dressed... and I needed a lot of help to get into my dress! It had to go over my head, and with perfect hair and perfect make-up, that wasn't easy!

The moment of truth!

This is one of my very favorite pictures!

My sisters zipped me in, and I was ready to go!

MEANWHILE.... the boys were getting ready, too!

Zac's cuff links

They didn't work quite as hard as we did to get ready!!

There are more recaps coming up... hope you don't mind a few days of wedding pictures!!

Reading, reading, reading

2011-05-26T19:09:00.000-04:00

I have always loved to read. When I was little, I was only allowed to read 5 books before bed, because otherwise, I would have stayed up all night.

My "for fun" reading fell off in college when I was reading so much for school, but it always picked back up in the summer when I had more free time. Heck, my summer job after high school was running the Summer Reading Program at our local library. I love to read.

Then Zac entered the picture. Zac loves to watch TV. And then Zac was gone a lot for work, and I was home alone a lot. And so I started watching TV for company, and to cover up the creepy sounds old houses make when you're alone. You know what sounds I mean.

My new goal for the summer is to get back into reading for pleasure. I have a list of books that must be a hundred long, and it's about time I get to more of them! SO.... my bold summer reading goal is:

Read one book a week!

I'm a pretty fast reader, so that isn't as crazy as it sounds. I may not make it every week, but I'm going to try. Any suggestions for my summer reading list? I've got a few that we'll be reading for my book clubs (yes, I'm in more than one), but I'm always looking for more great reads!

Derby Pie - YUM!

2011-05-25T14:40:00.000-04:00

One of my very favorite treats is a traditional Southern favorite - Derby pie. I'm a few weeks late in sharing it with you, but it's so yummy and so easy to make that I think you'll forgive me!

I think it tastes exactly like a slightly undercooked chocolate chip cookie. YUM.

1/2 cup butter, melted
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup flour
2 eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup chocolate chips
3/4 cup pecans or 3/4 cup walnuts (optional - I usually leave these out)
Unbaked pie shell

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl. Pour into pie shell, and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes or until top is brown.

That's it. That's seriously it. And it's super yummy served warm with a dab of whip cream... Enjoy!!

Building a garden

2011-05-24T18:43:00.000-04:00

Zac and I are both loving his new job. He's a lot less stressed than he was before, he is enjoying the work, he gets free samples of food from their vendors, and he is home on evenings and weekends!! This new schedule has allowed us to tackle home improvement projects that we've had on our list for awhile, but haven't had the time to get to.

Such as... our patio! This is a multi-part project, and we're only about halfway finished. But progress is progress, right??

The first thing we did was clear out dead bushes and extra dirt to prep the area that was the vegetable garden last year.

Then, we started building the raised planter box that now houses the garden. We loosely followed this video here, and chose ceder for the wood. The supplies ran us about $100, but the box should last at least 5 years. The carriage bolts that hold it together were almost as expensive as the wood!

Zac doesn't like it when I take pictures of him, but tough luck. I think he looks cute when he's building things! Our hard work pretty quickly turned into this:

The hardest part of the whole project was leveling the stinking thing. Nothing inside or outside of our house is level. That seemed to take forever.

Once the box was (mostly) level, we filled it with dirt and then added a few inches of garden top soil so that the plants don't have to grow in our clay. At this point, we were racing storm clouds that were quickly rolling in, but we finished just in time!

Here's the finished product:

Isn't it the cutest garden ever?? We planted Delicious tomatoes, Roma tomatoes, red bell peppers, green bell peppers, jalapeño peppers and zucchini. Yum!! Now we just have to wait for them to grow...

This was one of our more painless home improvement projects. It took a little while to put the box together, but it wasn't very difficult. If anyone is interested in a tutorial, I have enough pictures to put one together. Just let me know!

Part two of the patio renovation is scheduled for this weekend, so I'll keep you posted!

Our creepy basement, part II

2011-05-23T22:35:00.000-04:00

When we left off, I had aired our dirty laundry (no pun intended) and showed you the worst part of our house. Our genius plan for awhile has been to build some shelves to make better storage and help us organized all of the things we need to permanently store down there. We have a teeny tiny kitchen, and things like our crock-pot, bread machine, etc. all have to live in the basement when they aren't being used.

Why did we choose to build shelves instead of buy them? Good question. It ended up costing us $80 for the wood and screws, which is a pretty considerable cost. Buying similar quality metal or plastic shelves would have cost almost as much, and we needed ours to be "custom." Our ceilings are so low and our floors are so un-level, that building made the most sense for us.

So... first step to building custom shelves is to buy a huge pile of wood at Lowe's. Second step is to find this happening:

She is crazy. It doesn't matter what new thing you bring into the house - if you set it on the floor, she wants to lay on it.

Firs,t we cut the wood. We loosely followed these instructions here.

Got distracted and had to take a picture of Zac. He's cute when he's building stuff!

We started by building these frames. Don't get too excited - these are NOT fancy shelves!

Then we added the second half of the frames.

The plywood goes on top to make shelves.

To give you an idea of where they go in the basement.

And of course, the cat helped, by snoozing on whatever old, dirty suitcase she could find. And giving me the stink eye when I tried to take her picture.

Here's the final product. Much better than the random pile that was laying there earlier! Now all we need to do is load them up!!

Our creepy basement, part I

2011-05-20T18:43:00.000-04:00

We had hoped to work outside last weekend, but the constant rain we've had here this Spring kept us indoors. As a side note, we have had 6 days of sun in the last 46 days. When I was complaining about not having 4 seasons in Cincinnati anymore, Zac said that we do still have 4 seasons, but Spring has been replaced with a Rainy Season. Ugh.

So... as promised, pictures of our scary basement. In our defense, this is not our favorite part of the house, and unless we're doing laundry or taking shelter from a tornado, we don't spend a whole lot of time down here.

It really isn't as creepy as it looks here in person.

It provides us with a ton of storage, even though the ceilings are about 5'6" and I even have to duck in places. Good thing my husband isn't very tall!!

There are basically three sections - a laundry area, a storage area, and this part where Zac keeps his workbench and tools.

The good news is that we did a lot this weekend to make it a little less creepy... pictures coming tomorrow!!