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.

Wedding Direction Signs

I painted these signs to stake into the ground on the country roads near our home as well as throughout the backyard to direct people. Each sign will also have a large silk sunflower punched through it:)

Painting # 7

I made this green "B" with paisleys on it for our front door. Isn't it cute! I think this green and white combo are my new favorite, although I am becoming very fond of yellow and orange with all the wedding projects!

Wedding Programs

I am SOOO excited about our wedding programs. I made them into wooden paddle fans since the ceremony is being held in my parents backyard. I used all different shades of light yellow and orange cardstock paper, printed our ceremony order, thank you, and bridal party on the appropriate sides, and taped everything together with double-sided tape like you can see above. I then topped it off by punching holes to tie adorable orange and yellow ribbon around the paddle and by punching eye-let lace patterns in the corners:) i love these.

Wedding Programs

I am SOOO excited about our wedding programs. I made them into wooden paddle fans since the ceremony is being held in my parents backyard. I used all different shades of light yellow and orange cardstock paper, printed our ceremony order, thank you, and bridal party on the appropriate sides, and taped everything together with double-sided tape like you can see above. I then topped it off by punching holes to tie adorable orange and yellow ribbon around the paddle and by punching eye-let lace patterns in the corners:) i love these.

Homemade Card

I just used rubber cement to glue pinwheels of yellow yarn on these homemade cards to make them have more texture!

Painting #6

This is the craziest painting I have yet done, but it was for a college housemate of mine whose style I still can not describe:)....she loved it!

Painting #5

This tree painting is great because the white pops with the green! As you can see we love trees:) This one is in for our kitchen wall over the table.

Magnetic Chalkboard Calendar

This is a magnetic chalkboard calendar I recently made. I spray painted a canvas with Krylon magnetic paint, painted it with Crayola chalkboard paint, and then painted the grid and days of the week with normal acrylic paint. I punched two holes in the canvas to hang it with a raffia bow, and I made magnets with numbers 1-31 on them to mark the days of the month. I print out the numbers on colored paper in a creative font and used Modge Podge to glue them to the back of a glass bead. I learned that magnetic paint does not work the greatest on canvases so you may want to use a different medium if you try this project.