Weekend update:)

We had a great weekend gearing up for Christmas!! Here are a few highlights:) (courtesy of Josh's iphone)





It's not Christmas without some crafts. I found teal yarn and was inspired to make some trees. I kind love them. I might just start wrapping my whole house in yarn and lace.



We had our annual cookie bake with the women in my family! Been doing this since I was in junior high:) I made a yummy recipe from Pinterest! (chocolate chip cookies with corn starch in them...whaa?? But it was good. Promise).



Here is me posing with Rudolph on what was one of my favorite dates ever! We went to Liberty Market for dinner and then walked around Cherry Lane - which is a street near us that goes ALL OUT for Christmas. They had carolers and one backyard was set up as Bethlehem. It was so beautiful!



So love this season and all that comes with it!

Craft time: Sheet Music Garland

Awhile back I found some old music at a thrift store for well, super cheap. Like 5 cents cheap. Now, I do love Goodwill but I never have good luck there when I look for old sheet music. I actually talked to a manager about it and asked him why they didn't have any. He said when it comes in they sometimes throw it away because they didn't think people wanted it. I told him it was very trendy and they should keep it and sell it! I think he thought I was crazy but oh well. Goodwill needs to be informed.

So until they get sheet music I will get it from my second fave thrift store, Gracie's in Tempe. I have been seeing adorable garlands in blogland and I wanted to get in on the garland action. Which is a phrase you probably don't hear a lot.

I got together my sheet music and hot glue and got to work.

Now, I was struggling a bit with how to get words in the center. I started hand embroidering words so I could spell out "O Holy Night" I think I got as far as "O Ho" before I was like... this is WAY to much work. Coley from Junk in the Trunk informed me she used stamps ...and well, I hadn't thought of that before. I had visions on the stamps from the 90s that had like grapevines and weird bouquets. But I went to Micheal's' with my 40 percent off coupon and found some ridiculous stamps that I liked very much. They were like $5 with my coupon! It was awesome.

So I got to stamping an folding an gluin. Which kind of sound like that song wishin and hopin but for crafty people.

I cut circle of burlap for the center and then cut circles of off white paper for the center. I stamped the word joy and hot glue the circles to the twine. It looks kind of ghetto from the back but I don't know how to make it look better, so I just went with it. I made three of them and put them in my tree and they look pretty adorbs if I do say so myself;)

Sorry for the poor picture quality here..hard for me to get a good shot of the whole tree.

And really the banner options are endless. Happy Birthday, Believe, Faith, Hope, Love, Peace....basically any fruit of the spirit. So - if your dreams of being the next Mozart have failed you and all your left with is sheet music - you can be the next Mozart of the crafting world! Tear up your music and get to work.

Yup.

For ...those who want to give up on their business idea/etsy/blog/ or if they think their hobby is lame. Or if that nagging voice in your head keeps telling you that no one will like what you are doing. I liked this. And yeah, I am insecure sometimes.

Lace Lovin'

Tomorrow Josh and I are getting our pictures done! Josh's sister Jen of Kreatid Photography is kind of a rock star photog so I am excited:)

I've been kind of into lace dresses lately so that's what I am wearing. I wish I could say mine was all cool and vintage but it's not. Totally from JC Penney (I had a coupon).

Here are some other pretty lace dress pictures I am loving lately!

Gotta love T. Swift...

Chictopia

Pinterest

Urban Outfitters

Elle.com

All This Happiness (cool fashion blog btw)

Holiday Shoppe recap

Whew. It's been a crazy few weeks! Two boutiques means I have been super busy. Anyways. I wanted to post a few pics of an awesome Holiday Shoppe I was a part of a few weeks ago. Liz, from the Blue Eyed Owl got together a bunch of crafty ladies for a co-op vintage market. There were so many handmade and vintage items. And yummy food. AND santa. Yeah - it was awesome. Here are just a few snapshots from the day.

This should have said "scalding hot cocoa" it was a wee bit warm.

Just a little peak at my booth:)

New sparkle headbands!

Some lovely vintage ice cream bowls:) I do love these. A lot.

Blue Eyed Owl (love these bows).

Vintage ornaments from Blue Eyed Owl - love it.

Beautiful bows from Ashley @ The Pink Ruffle

More Pink Ruffle goodness...

Paper straws from Domestic Charm - I was next to Katelyn that day and she had such fun stuff and I love her super creative blog!

Lovely felt headbands from Miss Hotcakes

More Miss Hotcakes...

Junk in the Trunk girls representin! They had some beautiful items as usual:)

Ashley from the Shine Project!

And the lovely Bonnie Inc.!

There were some other great vendors there but my camera stopped working halfway thru the day so I didn't get around to everyone:(

Ode to Emily Henderson

So lately I have developed a little design crush on Emily Henderson. I don't know what the girl version of bromance is but that is what I feel for Emily. I want to be her BFF. I want to go to flea markets with her and pick out little ceramic animals and tufted chairs together.

She's adorable no? And I love a good belted dress.

If you are not familiar with the awesomeness that is her blog - she was also the winner of HGTV's Design Star and has an amazing TV show called "secrets of a stylist".

Here is what I like about her.

* she is a cute dresser - which helps my theory that there is a direct relationship between people's fashion and people's home decor. If you take risks in fashion - you will take risks in decorating.

* she is a good writer. Sometimes I read blogs for the pictures..and sometimes I read, well to read. And her blog I read for both. Love her witty style.

* she likes vintage and weird things.

* her design tends to be more cluttery than sparse. I love me some cluttery goodness.

* she likes floral (wallpaper, fabric, whatevsies)

* we have the same tufted wingback chair.

* she likes color. Sometimes I feel like my style is lame and kid like because I like color. But Emily (yes, we are on a first name basis) likes color so I feel totally validated.

Ok, enough of that. Here are some of my fave Emily inspirations. All pictures are from her blog.

A teal tufted couch....yes, please.

You may have pinned this already. I cannot imagine living in such a cozy grey and yellow nook.

Christmas carols on a map? I don't think home decor gets much better.

That is her desk chair. I love it. I have a similar one. I wonder if hers came with as much cat hair as mine did?

This is her living room. Shut the front door. It's awesome.

The rug. The brass lamp. The awesome gallery wall on golden wallpaper. I love it all.

I never met a pop of pink I didn't like.

Her winning room on Design Star. The blue and green is so so so lovely. And I will take two of those wood stools please.

Another map I love. On a navy blue wall? Too much awesome.

That isn't a ceramic peacock is it?! And those yellow shelves are kind of ridiculous.

I heart this rug. And the pops of pink. And the kooky dog painting.

Kinda trendy - but cute. And I love the print.

I need her to take me to the awesome teal couch store and then to the yellow velvet chair store.

See? Risks.

And thus concludes my blog of all things Emily Henderson. Thanks for stopping by:)

Two years:)

This past weekend Josh and I celebrated two years of marriage... and I crossed an important milestone of being with Josh for longer than I liked Josh:)

Some of you know our story. How I cold have sworn God was writing a pretty lame and long book about friendship and then BAM out of nowhere the next chapter turned into a love story and made all the previous chapters make complete sense.

I'll never forget going for a long drive and asking God if I should talk to Josh about....US. What were we? I was confused. I was 25 and I didn't need a guy BFF. Stopped at a red light, I look over and there was JOSH. At the same red light. Totally random. He rolled down his window and asked if I wanted to talk because I looked upset. Seriously?!

So thankful for the story God writes. Even though some chapters seem long and uneventful and you're like "Um God...did you have to add that part in - the one where I gave Josh a hug when he was just lifting his arm to block the sun? Or the part where I give him a high five the first time he tried to hold my hand? Did you have to make me so completely awkward?!"

But then you're reminded to relax. Not every detail is perfect. But God is ...and he is doing the writing.

2009

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