Outfit loves
dress love
I bought this dress at Anthropologie when they had the extra 50% off sale stuff.
It was $45 bux. It’s silk, I love the print, the degree of low-cutness, and I know I’ll have it forever.
This rose to the front of my closet as an ALL TIME FAVORITE dress.
I am so in love.
A Million Miles in A Thousand Years
By Donald Miller.
This book is PHENOMENAL. I started reading it on Tuesday evening, 1/3/12.
Here are some of my favorite parts so far (I just started highlighting and I’m over 1/2 way through):
“The truth is, if what we choose to do with our lives won’t make a story meaningful, it won’t make a life meaningful either.”
He’s talking about Star Wars and how good of a movie it is…”No character had a vague ambition. It made me wonder if the reasons our lives seem so muddles is because we keep walking into scenes in which we, along with the people around us, have no clear idea what we want.”
“The pain made the city more beautiful. The story made us different characters than we would have been if we had skipped the story and showed up at the ending an easier way.”
“I think this is when most people give up on their stories. They come out of college wanting to change the world, wanting to get married, wanting to have kids and change the way people buy office supplies. But they get into the middle and discover it was harder than they thought. They cant’ see the distant shore anymore, and they wonder if their paddling is moving them forward. None of the trees behind them are getting smaller and none of the trees ahead are getting bigger. They take it out on their spouses and they go looking for an easier story.”
2012 is going to be a radical year. More to come…
Twenty & Twelve
Maybe I am resolving to make some ‘resolutions’ in this new year. I hear if you write them down, you will stick to them more.
Whatever:
1) Live in the PRESENT. I am only guaranteed today, and I want to feel every moment. I am a planner by nature, and I am constantly planning for this, or that, and I want to be present where I am TODAY.
2) Have a GRATEFUL heart. Last year I read 1000 Gifts, and it was changed my heart. I constantly thank God for the same things: my house, my health, my marriage, my friends/family, health insurance, cars, jobs, bank accounts, etc. I want to practice thankfulness MORE this year.
3) RUN more. Ian & I started running together on Christmas morning. We ran for 70 minutes, and it’s fun to share that together. So, even though I hate my boobs bouncing all over the place, I’ll run with him. And, just for the record, I’ve run every day of the new year : ). 2 days, but today will be 3.
* And, as far as races go, I have zero desire to run any kind of race. I would a) rather sleep in and b)rather spend that money at Anthropologie. Amen!
4) SCRAPBOOK. I missed that trend like 10 years ago apparently. I bought a simple black scrapbook, and I’m going to paste fun stuff in there, give me something to look at my year and reflect on. Ties into numero dos above. And gives me a reason to print some pictures, and something to do with them!
Crafts as of Late
We’ve been making some stuff from Pinterest lately. And by we, I do mean Ian & I. I may have won the push up contest, but Ina trumps all in the craft department. I don’t think he’s adding the skills to his resume, but the guy can handle the sewing machine, he can make fabric flowers, that’s as far as our crafting has gone…
The saying is, “My wish for you is that this life becomes all that you want it to. Your dreams stay big and your worries stay small, you never need to carry more than you can hold. And while you’re out there getting where you’re getting to I hope you know somebody loves you and wants the same things too. Yeah, this is my wish.”
The canvas is painted the same color as one wall in our room, PINK, with gold letters.
wreath-y
It drives me crazy when people post pictures and say they made it with ‘scrap fabric’ they had laying around. Well, I made this with scraps I had laying around : )
The stripped fabric was NOT.CHEAP., so I wasn’t throwing any of that S away. The colored flowers are {Anthro} fabric from curtains. Ian made all 4 flowers, brava Ian.
finster in the snow
Nathaniel still wants to go outside in any weather conditions, so I tossed the guy out! It was kind of sad, and I felt slightly bad. But, I’m glad I got some pictures for posterity’s sake.
And then we whipped up some new throw pillows last night. Our other ones were thrashed by the dogs (not chewn, just worn down).
2 burlaps
One is a lumbar pillow, due to a cutting error, the other a regular ol’ square.
On Forgiveness
The man just doesn’t dissapoint.
You don’t even have to read the whole thing, just read his hand written goodness.
Oh, God
Such a funny story
My mother just told me that 2 or 3 weeks ago she bought some Garnier Fructis straightening system for her hair. She put it on for the allotted time and bum bum bum, bad situation.
{I was DYING laughing on the phone, so I’m going to do my best to convey what the result was}
mom is on the right
She has, obviously, fairly dark hair. She said it lightened her hair DrASTICALLY. Like, nearly blond hair. And her hair was FRYED. Like a brillo pad, or a broom.
We already make fun of her for having pubic hair on her head, so I really can’t even fathom how bad this was. “It was like a put my hand in a socket and got fryed.” Was a quote. ”I tried to trim it a few times, but it didn’t do anything.” Nobody at work said anything, which is so funny to me. Obviously something really bad happened, and to say nothing, there’s like an elephant in the room.
She also said something about her looking like a black person with bleached hair.
She got her hair fixed today, but oh my gosh, a story for the ages.
I have a question for you
This is a post about weight.
I was at Anthropologie yesterday (shocking, I know). I was standing in line (a line that was wrapped around the store to the door!!) There was a really cute black baby in front of me with blue eyes, I almost stole her. Anyways, I’m holding a dress that was in a size bigger than I wear, and I thought the dress looked way too big. Of course I didn’t try it on. I was chatting with the people around me, so I asked them if they thought the dress looked really big. This french woman (she was speaking french and she was very small) said, “You are tiny!” A compliment from the French is a big deal. It obviously made me happy to have her tell me I was small, because she was quite small.
Story 2 – I get a butt load of magazines. Too many. I was reading Self in the tub yesterday and just thinking this is all bull shit. I read nothing new or exciting, it doesn’t impress or enlighten me, why do I read this? Why do I PAY for this? Oh my goodness.
Story 3 – I read a woman’s blog today and she said, “I weighed myself this morning. My husband said, is it going to be a good mood or a bad mood?”
W.H.A.T.??????
I do not weigh myself often. I have thought about getting rid of the scale. Should I have a daughter someday, I don’t want her to see that as a fixture in our bathroom, and I certainly don’t want to pass that on to another little life. I do not get weighed at the doctor, I say no thank you. Why do they need to know what I weigh, unless I’m being anesthetized?
Here is my question(s), please be so kind as to answer:
1) Do you own a scale?
2) How often do you weigh yourself?
3) If you have daughters, how do you convey a healthy sense of self to them? Or how do you plan on doing that?
Christmas Festivs
I play Christmas music all waking moments in my home. And in the car. Fa la la la la.
We have decorations, no tree, but are festive otherwise. I have been to Christmas parties, pot lucks, etc. I’ve had glasses of wine during lunch parties…that concept is wonderful. Sparkling red wine, my fav.
It just doesn’t feel like Christmas though. I always want to do Advent, but never get around to that.
I sent the boys some Christmas gifts and of course got no thank you, no phone call or anything of the sort. God forbid we THANK people for gifts.
The neighbor’s daughter just brought over a red velvet cake loaf. I don’t care for cake rolls, but super sweet, Maddie is darling. And now I have to get some kind of a gift for my neighbors…IDEAS? She is 9 months pregnant so no alcohol. I’m baking THIS for Christmas, should I make 2 and give them one?
My bro and Ray are coming over on Christmas Eve. We’re ordering Thai food and making Christmas cookies. Weee. Hopefully Ian WONT work and we can go to church too.
The Christmas card letter I did NOT send out
2011 FLEW by. In a flash. Fastest year ever, in my opinion.
2011 was our best married year yet. No fun or exciting vacations, just learning, growing and changing.
I got a job that is unlike any job I’ve ever had. A lot of socializing (or networking if you will). I have been elected the Social Coordinator for the Women’s Chamber of Commerce, and have fallen into similar positions in other groups. But, this one, it is a title. One I’m considering adding to my resume.
Ian ran a 50K in September. My brother lived with us for 3 months, and now lives 20 mins away, which is much better.
This year I visited CA in January, April, May & November. April was a little emergency visit, May & November, Ian joined me. After November’s visit, it’ll be awhile before we return. Sad, but true.
Onto the animals: Nate continues to enthrall us all. Everyone loves Natey. He loves to be outside, also loves to run away and give his mother a heart attack. We’ve found him on the neighbor’s roof, in the other neighbor’s yard, and he still likes to go outside in the snow. Go figure.
could you die?
LOVES suitcases.
Noodles (previously named Louie) has no idea what his name is. We probably called him Lou once, then it was Lou Lou, then bing bong, ning nong, and now Noodles. He’s noodle-y and just darling. Loves to be held like a baby, loves to suckle on a fuzzy blanket from Target, loves to eat, and loves to stand on my legs when I’m in the tub, and drink the tub water.
the sweetest little baby.
also really likes bags.
Kona continues to be the worst dog that ever lived. The other day she went into the red cabinet in our kitchen, pulled the bag of bones out, opened it, and got one for herself.
Mischa…we’ve dropped the H and just call her mee-sa now. For fun. She’s been getting up at 4:30 to go pee everyday, and then walks around incessantly until 7 when my alarm goes off. Totally awesome.
That pretty much sums up our lives.
On other notes, we started watching Parks & Rec and I say Pee Pee Halpert incessantly.
