Auntie Gina....can't wait!!

Come August 28th, my sister and brother-in-law's little baby will be here! I am so excited to be an aunt as having a baby around will be so fun:) For her shower I made these fun cookies. Ben says sugar cookie decorating is my second calling as I just also finished making 100 Bridal Shower cookies in the shapes of wedding cakes and bridesmaids dresses, so if you need me to make sugar cookies and freeze them for you, it's my new obsession!

Check out this little garage sale treasure my mom found me.

$0.50 for this adorable tea pot...which was really exciting to me because it is my second tea pot to add to my tea pot collection (one day recently I decided to start collecting my favorite tea pots, random? yes.) Here is my first tea pot we got for our wedding, on the stove next to the strawberry rhubarb pie we just took out of the oven. It's our first rhubarb pie so hopefully it's a good one!

Since my thesis is officially submitted (Praise the Lord) and I am essentially done with graduate school (today I did pilates in the kitchen, chatted with Elizabeth in Ethiopia:), went to Meijer because I was bored, thank you Grant County, baked, and am now watching my husband excel at playing the Bull's in some basketball video game, he also is bored almost daily)....long tangent.

Since I am always bored, I have been crafting some and dreaming of our new apartment in St. Louis a lot! Here are a few little projects that have kept me busy, along with assembling my friends wedding invites!

In celebration of Spring and the completion of my thesis on the topic of mating signals among birds, I decided to make some paper mache birds, wrapped with strips of my thesis! I don't burn my 2-year projects, I craft with them! the left one below looks like alien bird, but oh well:)

I needed to change out our coffee table centerpiece so I made these twine balls. You blow up a round balloon, wrap twine around it, and paint it with modge podge. Hang the balloon and pop it once the glue is dry, and you have a cheap centerpiece.

Ben and I needed a desk with drawers in it, so I painted my childhood desk I played "teacher" in cream and white and painted an old Olson chair. Rm 318, never forgotten.

I found new fabric I fell in love with, so I decided to make a knock-off Pottery Barn pillow with the flap down to a button....made with my new sewing machine:) (hand-me down, but new to me!)

I will probably make some for the couch next!

Also used the same fabric to cover a navy blue lamp shade that didn't match our room. Now it's my favorite lamp shade in our apartment:)

Sorry that this was a blog overload- I just always forget to blog....which is okay because I kind of don't like the idea of blogging. ha. Not enough to remember to do it consistently at least.

Love Never Fails

This man earned a good afternoon nap!

I'm so thankful for my best friend!

It's a bad picture but Ben got me a

very pretty

Aquamarine ring:) Love it.

The boringness of winter got

me back on a painting streak.

Our now yellow kitchen chairs.

A desk is being painted next!

I made a red velvet cake for

Valentines.....my first time!

These Crate & Barrel mixing bowls= my favorite thing ever.

5 all different colors.

Makes mixing fun:)

And......pretty flowers that make me hopeful for spring!

The bad thing about Valentines Day is that many people think its the

day for telling your loved ones what they mean to you and serving them.

That should be everyday, not just Valentine's Day.

Love someone well today, and tomorrow, and the day after that!

homemade soup on a winter's sabbath afternoon

sunday afternoon.

homemade ham & bean soup.

cornbread.

and a nap.

doesn't get much better than that.

rest today!

we all need to stay sane:)

BLESSED beyond belief

LIFE is so GOOD. GOD is sooo good! The first 5 months of marriage (I cannot believe it has been that long already!) have been beyond wonderful for us. We are in Upland, a place we know far too well, finishing our master's, and being in such a familiar place has been a great start to our first year of marriage. We are excited for the transition we will be making out of Upland- possibly to St. Louis where I have been hired for Teach for America to teach middle school science:) yay for the water cycle!

My first draft of my thesis is SUBMITTED! Horray for the mating patterns of Red-cheeked Cordon-bleus, but even MORE for seeing the light at the end of the million-pages long tunnel!

Ben and I are currently taking a class called Conservation Biology which we both LOVE. We are severe nerds who enjoy not only studying such things from 9 am to 6:30 pm, but then we go home and cook together and discuss the same topics over dinner. Ha. I love the life we live.

However. I want to get out of this winter and snow. Ben made fun of me for BEGGING to go on a vacation soon because I need warmth and sunshine to stay sane, but we will have to wait until the grad. program is done. MAY come soon please:)

I may start blogging more. We will see. It all depends on my boredom level:)

And the two shall become ONE

Some more photos of our perfect day


Ben's reaction to his wife. The best husband in the world!

To Have and To Hold From THIS DAY FORWARD!!!!

Here are a few wedding pictures we wanted to share with you! These are from a good family friend- some professional photos will be posted when we receive them:) Enjoy!

Our First Place

We are finally settled into our apartment we love so much! It feels good to be back at Taylor for one last year of grad school, be surrounded by friends and good people, live together, and have a schedule once again! We feel so blessed!

Wedding Guest Book Tree

This new guest book option is the perfect fit for our wedding. I found the idea online and was really excited to make it for us! I took a piece of canvas and sketched the wooden parts of an entire tree with a fine tip permanent marker. Then I painted a bride and groom song bird in the tree and our names and wedding date at the bottom. At the wedding, the guests will stamp their thumb into an ink pad of yellow, orange, or green ink. (No fear- we have wet wipes!). Then they press their thumb onto the end of a branch to make a leaf on the tree. Then they use a fine tip permanent marker to sign their name around their print. Is this not the coolest idea! We will be able to frame it in our home not only as a sweet piece of art, but a meaningful one too!

Wedding Silver With Favors

These are the pieces that will be at everyone place setting for the reception! They are napacks of silver (complete with a black-and-white-checkered picnic napkin!) wrapped in either a yellow or orange napkin with a raffia bow. The best part is I tied the party favor of Old Fashioned Candy sticks that are our wedding colors in with them!

Wrapping Wedding Gifts

Is this NOT the most adorable gift ever! I had a lot of fun wrapping my friends gift for her wedding this weekend, but I loved it so much that I had to take a picture. I decided that it was too good-looking to ever be opened! Ha. kidding.

Wedding Monogram

I painted this very large wedding monogram to potentially hang behind the head bridal party table at the reception. That could change. I was bored and thought I could find somewhere to incorporate this. The paisleys came about because of the paisleys in the groomsmen, fathers, and ushers ties.