Wow!

Tulips are probably my favorite flower but I have never seen them like this before.

I must visit Holland in the Spring!

from lemmemakeit via poppytalk

I was so excited to see that my Linda & Harriet purchase had arrived

last night when Kyle and I got back from church. Ask Kyle, I was seriously thrilled haha.

This beauty is now hanging delightfully in my kitchen.

I also got really cute birthday cards that were in their outlet sale.

The sale is finished for now but I'm keeping my eye out for the next one!

My New Favorite Etsy Shop!

When this shop opened, it immediately became my favorite Etsy shop of all time.

Sure, maybe I'm a little bias :)

but I think you would agree that Kyle's prints are simply stunning!

Click on over to see more of his pictures.

Soon some panoramic shots will be added so keep an eye out!

I wanna be a runner...

So I started training. There's a 5k on my calendar for May 21st.

Mine and Kyle's lifegroup (a small group at church) is actually doing it so that's been great for motivation ha

Those are my super gorgeous shoes that I got here for supa cheap.

I love a good deal ;)

Anyway, I say all this to explain that new little gadget there to the left.

I'm doing the couch to 5k program. I'm really liking it a lot so far.

Obviously I'm not too hard core. I need to run more often... but I think I'm off to a good start.

And with an awesome running buddy,

(my amazing Kyle :)

and the encouragement from friends that I'm getting, I think I will only see improvement. 

I am so excited about this 5k and running isn't as painful as I remember from the

forced runs our tennis coach would spring on us randomly. 

Jenna, remember those? haha

And I think the couch to 5k program is perfect for me,

I definitely recommend it if you're a newbie like me.

And if you're looking for a little motivation here are some of my favorite blogs to visit:

(never home)maker: A husband and wife blogging duo that describe their site as the fit blog for foodies. 

They share a lot of recipes and I love all their posts on running.

This Mama Makes Stuff: At first I read this blog for the sewing tutorials but now I love all her inspirational running stuff too. My favorite posts of hers is one called I Don't Like Running and I love her marathon recap posts too!

So I've been away forever. Took a little bloggy break and can't promise that I'm blogging consistently now either but I was too excited when I saw this and had to share.

And who reads this anyway? I'm sure no one even noticed I was gone ha ;) except for my lovely mom :)

source

Lately I've wanted to start a cake stand collection. I think they would look gorgeous sitting on a hutch displayed in our dining area.

 (dining area sounds way too fancy for the little nook in our apartment I'm referencing)

Bakerella has a giveaway going on right now from Sweet and Saucy. They have some seriously gorgeous cake stands! I hope to win to get my collection started wootie woo! We shall see :)

You have until tomorrow to enter by the way

Also, does anyone else read The Anderson Family Crew blog?

Emily has been sharing their adoption process with her readers and last week their 

sweet little girl finally got to go home! I think it's the sweetest thing ever!

Fun Fabrics and a Snowman

Last night Kyle and I built a snowman after we got home from the movies!

I love our little snowman :) It had whopper eyes and buttons, candy cane nose and nerds hair.

Trying to get rid of Halloween and Christmas candies ha

I saw these fabrics over and Purl Soho and fell in love with these shades!

I just want to cover our apartment in them.

Aren't they just so bright and cheery? :) Check these and other fabrics at Purl Soho here. They have a beautiful selection. Oh, and Purl Soho is hiring!! I would love to live in New York right now so I could apply! They have a beautiful shop and it would be the most lovely and inspiring place to work.

Well, I've never actually been, but the pictures online of their shop are gorgeous! I def want to go sometime!!!

Hint hint Kyle ;)

I Do Love EmersonMade

When I got my copy of [the nest] in the mail and saw an article on Emerson of EmersonMade

I was so excited! I would recommend picking up a copy just to check out the tour of

Emerson and her husband's beautiful home. 

Speaking of, have you seen EmersonMade's new spring line? Gorgeous.

This Seersucker dress is my favorite!

Also love their tees.

If you're not already in love with EmersonMade you will be soon.

Finally...

a weekend at home to relax, bake and sew.

Now that is my kind of weekend :)

Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy busy weekends and traveling and such

but sometimes it's just nice to be, isn't it?

I am SO excited that my honey wheat bread has finally turned out!

I made Delia's bread even though it has failed me before.

Third times a charm :)

Kyle loved it! He ate basically the whole loaf picture above in one night.

Good thing it made three loaves!

"God is not a white Man"

This video was showed at Gulfcoast Getaway one night. Isn't it great!

Thanks Gungor for making such a great song and video with a beautiful message! 

Birthday Wishes to the Ever So Lovely Karen Ferguson

Happy Birthday Karen!

If ever someone deserved the most wonderful birthday it's this lady!

I hope it's the best one yet Karen :)

You're the best mother-in-law a girl could ask for.

Seriously, I wish I could explain how thankful I am for such a great mil.

Love you so much!!!

Weekend and a Way to Help a Family!

This past weekend I was at Gulfcoast Getaway. It was amazing. Gulfcoast is a gathering of over one thousand college students who come together to praise God, participate in service, and grow from classes and lectures. For the last four years I've gone as a student but this year I was there as a volunteer.

This years theme was Holos: Reimagining Campus Ministry.

 Worship!

Prayers Squares 

A beautiful adoption story shared.

Community Prayer Portraid by Laura Amstutz.

Throughout the conference students wrote down thoughts, prayers, scriptures, etc. At the end of the weekend Laura put together this inspiring painting. Really I guess you'd call it more of a mixed media art but anyway, it's amazing.

Check out more of her stuff here. She is seriously talented.

Randy Harris spoke this year and talked about how your context changes but what you do doesn't. He also spoke on living cruciform which means cross-shaped. Another of the main topics was using our puzzle piece for God. I'm not so good at summing things up (why I started a crafty blog and not so much a my deep [ha] thoughts blog) but perhaps I'll share more later. On to what I really want to talk about:

Perhaps the coolest thing these college students do over this getaway weekend is getting involved with things going on in the world by donating to non profit organizations and to families in need.

This weekend over $34,000 - that's right, college students gave over 34,000 dollars - was given to Honduras Hope and to the King family.

Marc and Terri Tindal founded Honduras Hope. They have a children's home, build houses for people who don't have them and they are doing a lot of work in the city dump of Honduras where hundreds of people live. What they're doing in Honduras is truly bringing hope to thousands.

Now I'll tell you a little bit about the King family. In early November Jeremy died on a hunting trip. He left behind his wonderful wife Veronica, two beautiful children and another baby on the way due on Valentine's Day. Jeremy and Veronica were both on the praise team for Gulfcoast in previous years and Veronica led worship again this year. My heart just breaks for this family. Please pray for them.

College students gave a lot of money to this family and that is so awesome.

Yesterday I was reading Veronica's blog and saw that another blog is raising money for her family too!

Nikki, from Pennies on a Platter makes a certain amount of money for every hit on her page that she gets and for the month of January she is giving all that money she makes from hits to Veronica and her family! All you need to do is visit the website a ton! Make sure the page loads all the way. She also has a  Paypal donate button thing on her blog that you can click and donate to the Kings.

And you'll love that you visited the blog too because she has a ton of delicious recipes. Like, on my list to make already is this Mac n' Cheese, Queso Blanco and Pretzel Bites.

~Special thanks to Kay Ledet for letting me use her pictures! I brought my camera but didn't take a single one, I've got to get better at that. Her pics are better than mine would have been anyway :)

Reci-please

Bahaha what a clever title!

Or perhaps I am the only lame one in this world who finds this funny  ;)
Regardless, I am amused.

Anyway...

This post is all about recipes. I have searched the internets high and low to find recipes that strike my fancy and ladies and gentlemen, I have found several to share.

isn't this kitchen so cute! found it here

I've been trying new things in the kitchen lately. One such thing is soup. I've never made homemade soup. A shame really. So last week I made this recipe. I really like that it is made with real cheese (not a fan of recipes that call for cheeses like Velveeta) and frozen corn (not canned). However, it was just a little bland for me - not enough flava flav. Good base though, next time I'm going to add my own twist.

Another first dinner try for me were these Oven Baked Chicken Fingers complete with homemade dipping sauce from Sugarlaws. These were delicious and a great alternative to the yucky, bad-for-you chicken fingers you order at restaurants and fast food joints. These were quick and easy to make: definitely a go to me for me now! And I love my chicken.

Another in the kitchen attempt that I am super happy about is baking bread and it turning out super good. My friend Kayla and I made this French Peasant Bread recipe from Bloom the other night. And it worked! I definitely recommend trying this recipe, especially if you are journeying

into the world of bread baking for the first time.

Lastly, Kyle and I are baking these during halftime.
Anybody else watching the National Championship Game?
I've wanted to try my hand at sea salty caramel brownies since the first time I saw them out in blogland.
I hope they turn out amazing so I can make them for my mom next time I'm home!
She loves caramel and the salty sweet combo and I love her so it just makes sense :)

Handmade Gifts

I can at last post these because they have now been given.

I made these clutches for my sisters and for Kyle's cousin's wife whose name I drew in the gift game.

I used this great tutorial from Anna to make them and even learned zippers in the process!

Kyle helped me with that one haha

The first picture is of the first one I made. This one was a bit crooked as you can see, but it was amazing to see how much I improved on each one! Very encouraging :)

The one above is the third I made and the picture below is an inside view. These clutches were complete with a divider pocket and card holders. They were a fun project, I highly suggest this tutorial!

This is def not the last bag you'll see from me. I have some ideas and plans floating in my head ;)

Excited to share later!

A St. Louisy New Years Eve

Kyle and I went on a fun little weekend getaway for New Years Eve this year to St. Louis.
I'm sure the title gave this all away though...

We had a lot of exploring to do-neither of us have spent a ton of time there.
Kyle has been more recently than I have: I just remember Grant's Farm from when I was teeny.
The first place we went was of course the park. We have a thing for city parks.
Forest Park in St. Louis is excellent! Easily in my top three. Easy.
And there is so so so much to do there!

No trip to St. Louis is complete without ooing and ahhing over the Gateway Arch.

We actually went to the very top! Very frightening might I add.
This is what one of the little tram shuttle thingies look like:

Yes, itty bitty.
I'm so glad we went up.
Definitely overcoming some fear there.
I'll never do it again though ;)

That night we went to First Night which is a really neat community festival. It's a celebration of the New Year expressed through the arts. This year there was an underwater theme and over 150 artists were there to perform. It was a really fun way to ring in the New Year. 

One of my favorite artist that I got to see was Kim Massie. She had such a strong voice and also quite a personality. Another one of my favorites was being led in meditation at St. Francis Xavier College Church (pictured below) to the tones of ancient instruments. That was quite interesting and I thought a very good way to begin the New Year, not to mention, it was very warm in there and not so much outside...

Saturday morning we went back to Forest Park and spent hours in the Science Center.
It was fascinating! I loved it.
Sadly I don't have very many pictures from our visit there, I was too busy enjoying it to bother with pictures. But I do have these:

I know, ridiculous that those are the two pictures I took at the Science Center but I thought it was way cool! Like an I Spy game display and we all know how much I love Christmas.
I think I should make one for next year...or maybe when we have kids. I think that would make us the coolest parents ever. But that's way down the line :)

So since I did a horrible job documenting the Science Center visit you should def check out more here or just go for yourself! Yea, second option is best :)

And Kyle has some great pics from the trip on facebook so check'em out.
His photography skills put mine to shame!

Next trips' agenda definitely includes: City Museum,  Art Museum,  zoo, Grant's Farm, and I think I should explore and find some awesome fabric shops and such. Any suggestions? 

Great News

An angel to the shepherds:

"Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger."

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,

"Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!"

from Luke 2

Gabriel's news to Mary

"Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you! Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and

of his kingdom there will be no end."

from Luke 1

Trading Our Angels

We've traded our snow angels for sand angels!

Today in Murray it was about 35 degrees but a nice and sunny 75 in Gulfport!

Not only am I loving spending time with the wonderful Ferguson Fam, I'm also loving this weather!

Kyle and I took Cole and Casey to the beach today.

It was a blast!

And the day just ended with Casey falling asleep in my lap during a Christmas movie...

I love this :)

I hope you too are enjoying your Holiday!

Why today is great!

It's December 21st which means last year on this day Kyle asked me to marry him!

Since I didn't have my bloggy then, I'll take this opportunity to share our engagement story.

It was my last Christmas "break"

(my senior year of college, so those breaks are officially over now)

and we were spending the whole time together: the first week with my family in TN and

the second with his family in MS.

I was super excited :)

I was a little suspicious of an engagement on the 21st since it was our one year anniversary and we had talked about the future and all quite a bit...but he totally threw me off. The night before he said to me,

"let's go try on some rings sometime this week!"

Usually, I imagine, that suggestion would be quite exciting but a look of disappointment immediately came across my face. I had hoped he already had my ring.

But I faked up a smile and said something like that would be great.

Another thing that threw me off was that same night I told him I forgot to get an anniversary gift for him because I had just been thinking about Christmas (I was so bummed I didn't have a gift for him)

but he told me to not worry because he hadn't gotten me anything either.

anyway...on to the actual story

We had such fun plans for our anniversary!

Kyle had gone up to the Tennessee/North Carolina state line back in October on a personal retreat.

When he got back from his retreat he told me that the area was just beautiful 

and he would have to take me there one day. 

While making plans for break he somehow got me to suggest going up there on our anniversary

(he didn't want to suggest it and make me suspicious that he had something planned-so sneaky!)

That morning we took off for our trip. He was taking me up to the top of a mountain (where he had been just months before) called Beauty Spot. From there you had a 360 degree view of the gorgeous mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina. As we got further north in our drive we saw all kinds of snow. It was so exciting and simply breathtaking! We arrived at the foot of the mountain and found the road leading up closed-it was covered in three feet of snow. That didn't ruin our day though! We just walked up the road a little ways and played in the snow.

Kyle told me that we'll go back one day to the top to see the view since we couldn't that day.

We made snow angels, threw some snowballs, filled a cooler with snow and soaked in the beauty of our surroundings. Kyle asked me if I would like us to pray together (still not suspicious because this was pretty regular) so we prayed together on the side of the snowy road.

After we finished praying he told me, "Oh and by the way I lied about not having you a gift."

That is when he reached into his bag, pulled out the little wooden box, 

got on his knee and asked me if I would marry him.

and yes, tears are coming to my eyes even now

He told me why he loves me and that he would always love me.

I said yes! Of course :)

All of a sudden we didn't notice how cold it was anymore.

I hugged him a million times all while saying oh my gosh over and over...

I was so shocked and so so happy :)

We played in the snow more and talked about how excited we were about spending our whole lives together! I couldn't stop staring at my ring :) I just couldn't believe it!

It was the perfect day.

It's hard to believe that was a whole year ago!

Now we have been married six months and two days.

I'm just as excited now

probably more actually!

about spending the rest of my life with him as I was then.

He's not perfect and I'm certainly not, but I'm so glad we are on this journey of life together.

I am so blessed by him and I love learning alongside him.

I love that this is forever :)