Thursday, August 27, 2009

Project of the Week - Podium


So remember the ugly fake wood podium I had. I finally got some fabric to cover it with. I also cut out some letters and put my name on the front so that it wouldn't be too plain. Then I modpodged the thing. I love using modpodge! Anyway, here's what it looks like now.

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Putting a Hold on Sewing

Sunday's sermon was titled You Can't Handle it All.

Last weekend I really needed some rest, but I felt like I had so many things to do. I needed to work on school stuff and lesson plans. I also needed to finish two quilt orders from my etsy store, along with several other things. I was planning on sleeping in Saturday, but that didn't work out too well since Chad had to work. I was wide awake by the time he left, which means I didn't get to catch up on sleep at all. Now I was going to be exhausted for another week. My allergies were going crazy and I didn't feel well at all. I was not in the greatest mood. I was stressed because I felt like I had all of this stuff I needed to do.
Sunday's sermon was exactly what I needed to hear. One of the key points was that some things need to stop. I seem to like to make myself too busy sometimes. I know I miss out on a lot of opportunities by distracting myself with my to-do list...you know me and lists, I have a list for everything. I need to be more focused in how I spend my time. I need to evaluate what's really important and what I feel like God is calling me to do. I need to decide what stuff is cluttering up my life and my time. One of those things is making quilts. Don't get me wrong. I really enjoy sewing. I loved doing it this summer and I hope to sew more later on down the line. However, with school starting and everything else that's going on, I've decided to stop for a while. It's too much. I don't want to spend my time being stressed over it. I need to have a day to relax and be refreshed in order to be my best.

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Project of the Week - Bookcase

I haven't had a chance to do anything decorative to my podium yet. I wanted to practice on something first, so I worked on one of my bookcases at school. It was super easy to do. All I did was cut some material the size of the shelves and then ModPodge it on there. I'm thinking I may do the podium in zebra print too.
Before:and After:

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

School Starts Tomorrow!

Ready or not, school starts tomorrow!

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

A New Favorite

I just felt like I needed to post this in case you missed my facebook post. I LOVE these! Someone told me about them a while back, but I hadn't seen any until yesterday....and yes, I bought several packs and I'm hiding them in the freezer. These are my new favorite snack! I love how the M&M's have pictures of umbrellas, palm trees, the sun, and tropical flowers on them. I know it's kinda ridiculous how excited I get over food sometimes, but these really brought a smile to my face. Try them!

Monday, August 17, 2009

Featured Item!


The Hip Hostess contacted me through etsy a couple of weeks ago and they want to feature my etched drinking glasses on their blog! They are doing a series on gifts right now. My glasses will be featured on Wednesday, August 19th. They are doing several giveaways, so make sure you check out their site at thehiphostess.blogspot.com.

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Celebrating Our First Anniversary

We were able to go back to The Royal in Playa del Carmen to celebrate our first anniversary. Thanks to Robin's recommendation, this is where we went last year for our honeymoon and we absolutely loved it. I really hope we get to do this every year. Here are a few of the things I love about it...in no particular order:

1. The Beautiful Resort...seriously! Check out their website for better pictures. Everywhere you look it's so beautiful! Here are a few outside pictures. The first one is looking back towards the lobby and the second is looking towards the ocean . The inside is beyond beautiful too. The rooms are the biggest I've ever stayed in. Each room has really high lofted ceilings, a jacuzzi, balcony, large bathroom....there are wrought iron chandeliers everywhere along with huge scrolled pillars. The entire place is tiled and sparkling clean.

2. This is the magic box...I love it. When you call room service, they put your food in this box through an outside door and flip a little red light on. You can then go get it whenever you want. We enjoyed breakfast in bed everyday. 3. The romantic surprises make everything even more special. We came in one afternoon and they had a letter with a fruit basked and a piece of cake with a chocolate card that said Happy Anniversary. When we came in after dinner that night, they had a trail of rose petals along the floor, on our bed, and around the jacuzzi. I loved it!4. The food was great! There are 5 or 6 restaurants at this resort and if you're staying here, you also have access to the ones at the kid friendly resort next door. Our favorite meal was at the Chef's Plate. You have to make reservations ahead of time because they only serve around 20 a night since the chef is cooking your meal especially for you. This was such a fun meal. It was several courses and it was all soo good...sometimes at fancy places, the food is weird...this wasn't. Our main course was steak, but we also had soup, bread crisp sticks with dipping sauce, some sort of fish appetizer, kiwi sorbet, bread with different flavors of butter, and raspberry moose. Soooo good!5. The view. Again, everywhere you looked it was breath-taking. My camera doesn't do it justice. I love the color of the ocean!6. I also loved reading in the cabanas. It's so peaceful and relaxing. This is an adults only resort, which means it's really quiet and peaceful everywhere. 7. The jacuzzi in the room is a big bonus to me. I wish I could have brought it back with me.
8. The service is pretty close to perfection. I loved lying on the cabanas. The servers would come by and bring you anything you want...sugared grapes on a toothpick, sunscreen, anything you want to drink, they even come by and spritz you with water if you're too hot. They are so polite and friendly. One time Chad's glass was empty and they guy started running to get him another diet coke. In one of the buffet restaurants, they didn't even let me walk down the steps carring my plate. They took it from me and walked me to my table.9. Chad and I played volleyball a lot last week. I'm not the greatest, but it was really fun.
10. I know this may sound a little cheesy, but my favorite part was getting to spend the entire week with just me and Chad...no work and no distractions. I have so many pictures...I wish I could post them all. It was such a great time!

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Happy Birthday Mom!



Happy Birthday Mom! I'm sorry I'm not there to tell you in person. I love you and I hope you have a fabulous day!

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Exactly one year ago...



I am so blessed! I can't even begin to explain how much I love Chad!

Friday, August 7, 2009

Oreo Trufles

So I've had a lot of computer time this summer and I've stumbled across several really good blogs. One of my very favorite ones is bakerella. Everything she makes looks sooo good. I have a long list of things I want to make from her site. If you have time, you should check it out and bookmark it.

Chad and I invited a few people over to hang out and play Rock Band last night and I made these Oreo Truffles. These are one of the things that bakerella makes, but the first time I tasted these was a couple of years ago at Danielle's wedding shower. Julie's mom made them and I fell in love with them. If you like Oreo's, you'll love these!

Ingredients:
1 Package of Oreo's
1 Package of Cream Cheese
1 Package of Almond Bark

Directions:
Crush the entire package of Oreo's until it's really fine. A magic bullet or food processor works great for this. Mix in the package of cream cheese. I left my mixer going on high speed for a couple of minutes.






Form the mixture into balls...about 1 inch. Place onto a cookie sheet covered in wax paper and put it in the freezer until they are hard. I left mine in for about an hour.




Melt the almond bark over low heat until completely melted and smooth. Dip the Oreo balls into the bark and place on wax paper.





I topped mine with crushed oreos.








Place in refrigerator until ready to eat/serve. You don't have to keep them refrigerated long, it just helps the chocolate coating harden.

Thursday, August 6, 2009

August Book Winner

Apparently I can't figure out how to get the results to show up on here, but....Yea! #5, Julie, is the winner! Email me your address and I'll send you the book tomorrow! Enjoy!

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

August Book Giveaway

Yea! Another giveaway! My brother first introduced me to this book a while back. I went through it again with Chad before we got married. If you haven't read it yet, I really recommend that you read it. There are parts that are a little cheesy, but it helps you remember the key points. It's been over a year since I've read it and it has stuck with me. I think everyone should read it...we have more than one copy sitting on our shelf and I want to give this copy away. I'll ship it out on Friday, so if you're interested, enter quickly. To enter, just leave a comment and I'll randomly select a winner like last time. The winner will be chosen this Thursday night. Good luck!

Monday, August 3, 2009

Last Weekend in July



Last week/weekend was crazy busy. I tried to squeeze in as much as I could in the time that I had. I'm not going to blog about everything because my entry would be a mile long. I got to go to Oklahoma City Wednesday night and was able to stay through Friday. While there, I got in some good quality time with friends and family. I thought it would be really fun to have a slumber party with my niece (Hattie) and my nephew (Hunter). So we did. We made cupcake cones, stayed up late watching a movie, and slept in the living room. My thought process was that if we stayed up late, they would sleep in longer...I quickly learned it doesn't work that way. We had a lot of fun though. My mom and I were able to sneak off and shop for a little while and we all had dinner at my granpa's one night. My friend, Denise, got married on Friday night and it was beautiful. I loved her dress and the bridesmaid dresses were super cute! Saturday Chad and I went for a quick trip to see his parents while they were on vacation in Branson. Then we headed back for our end of the season softball tournament that night. We made it to the championship game, but we ended up loosing by 2. Sunday was a great day filled with church, friends, and good conversations.