Drive-By Baby Sprinkle for Bennett

Last week, I helped host my very first drive-by baby sprinkle!

I'm getting another nephew and I couldn't be more excited! 

Due to COVID-19, we decided to make this a drive-by celebration...little did we know, a monsoon would start just 20 minutes before it started (really, a legitimate thunderstorm warning)! Nonetheless, it was a fun evening and it was great seeing some faces that we haven't seen in 3+ months! 

I'm so glad someone snapped this picture. I had just walked to someone's car and was walking between tents and it was literally like someone poured a bucket of water on my head! LOL! All you can do is laugh. 

We had cute decor that was blowing away in the wind & getting soaked with the sideways rain but thankfully, our sign made it through and we were able to snap a few pictures. 

My best little buddy was having the time of her life. 

She's an excited big sister!

Do y'all think she was tired of being told to smile? HA! That face makes me smile & laugh. 

Sweet Mrs. Nancy made a quilt for Ann Hatten when she was born, made one for James, and now, made one for Bennett. AND--she made Ann Hatten the sweet little quilt for her baby dolls with pieces from each of the quilts she has made thus far--what a sweet treasure!

This one makes me laugh--soaked from running gifts from the cars to the garage, passing out treats, and visiting. 

This girl loves her a balloon.

Mama Carol modeling with the sign that we just knew was going to run from the rain soaking it. 

Thankfully, at this point, the rain had let up and we were able to laugh about it. We had to take a moment to recreate what all we were having to do--tie tents together, cover our clothes with rain jackets, take one of our decorative tables to the large because too much was blowing off of it, hold down the tents, secure the chalkboard, you name it. 

And let's end with a picture of 100 mini homemade pound cakes, just in case you were wondering what that looked like. Oh, and they were TASSSSSTY. Thanks, Jason :)

Bennett, we CAN'T WAIT to meet you, sweet little fella.
We love you already and we are thankful for the opportunity to honor your Mom and celebrate you! 

What I'm Loving Right Now (15)

It's been a hot minute since I've done one of these posts!

Here's are a few things that I'm loving right now

This piece of furniture is from Jason's Nana. 

It's a print drawer--it has shallow drawers and it will be perfect for my cross-stitchng supplies and Jason's sewing supplies. 

Mom and I took an afternoon and gave it a little face lift to match the rest of the furniture in the office and I am so, so happy with how it turned out! 

 It looks fantastic in our office and...it fit perfectly in literally, the only spot it could have fit! 

It was meant to be. 

To top it all off--I found the sunflower artwork at our Cups and the sweet little "love never fails" from Hobby Lobby and I love how they look with the piece. Our office is getting so close to being complete!

This isn't the best before & after of these chairs but, while Mom and I were painting the print drawer we also sanded down these chairs and restrained them and it gave them new life. They look so great!

This view too--whew! We added our pergola this summer and it just makes the backyard so much prettier! Bring on the cooler Fall nights so I can enjoy this  backyard even more. 

We started our 7th and 8th years of teaching this year. It has been a fast and furious start for me. This is definitely going to be a year of growth for me as a teacher! 

Another thing I am LOVING are these new sensory items I got for my classroom through DonorsChoose. They have been so amazing and my kids love them. I am going to devote a post solely to these products and how I'm using them in my classroom. 

If you've been following along for any amount of time then you know that I love to cross stitch and most of the time, I do my floral letters. But, within the past year I've had a few people ask about custom pieces. I was nervous at first to stray away from what I'm so comfortable with but, I'm so happy I did! I love these two pieces and they were such meaningful projects for the people who I did them for. 

I have been a member of Magnolia Record Company since December and I absolutely love it. I have grown my record collection and discovered so many artists I wouldn't have known about had it not been for MRC. If you love music, vinyl, and good music, you should definitely consider this monthly record subscription. 

Another thing I'm loving right now is my Master's Program. I started Monday and it's been such good information already! I'm excited to learn and add more to my skill set in the classroom. Here's a quote from one of my textbooks: “We must light the candles we can, even though we know that it doesn’t dispel all the darkness in our student’s lives.” I mean, come on, I can get excited about reading textbooks like that!

Another thing I'm loving..another thing I always love...Game Nights! 

Game nights have become a little more sparse but, when we have them, they are always just what we all needed. 

 I love these people. 

 And lastly...who doesn't love a day off of work?

We had a fun Labor Day--had lunch at my parents and took it easy the rest of the day. 

Happy Labor Day, everyone! 

"A Bun in the Oven & Burgers on the Grill"

Baby season is ever present within my friend group right now! 

1 friend just had a baby and 3 are coming soon!

It has been so much fun celebrating my friends and their growing little families.

Saturday, I had the privilege of helping to host Cayla's baby shower and it was so sweet. 

There was a beautiful dessert table, full of pink and plenty of sprinkles

 and yes, those cookies were absolutely as delicious as they look!

The hostess with Baby Mama

How precious is that little elephant? 

 Look at this little family--doesn't Charley look excited to be a big sister?

 This girl and I have been friends for almost 20 years now and we have been through many walks of life together. I am so very thankful to The Lord and the steadfastness He has shown me through our friendship over the years. It has been so sweet watching you become a wife and mother and seeing your little family continue to grow!

 With that being said,  it was sweet to make this cross stitch for little miss Sawyer!

Stitches

654.

That's approximately how many hours I've spent cross stitching over the past year. 

Today officially marks one year that I picked up cross stitching as a hobby. 

I took an interest in it after seeing this beautiful piece that my cousin made for a Christmas gift. 

I remember thinking to myself "what an awesome, unique gift". 

I like to give meaningful, special gifts to people. 

I started researching the tools I would need, the best way to get started, things of that nature. 

I decided to reach out to people through social media to see if anyone had any tips on the best way to begin and lo and behold I had a ton of people give me tips, tell me stores to go to and even offer their old materials to me that they are no longer using. 

Sweet Mrs. Carol Noelle took the time to invite me to her house, let me look through some of her pattern books and choose some of them to take home with me to get started with. I remember walking away that afternoon so grateful for the time she took to sit with me, give me pointers, show me how to get started and share with me her beautiful work that she's done over the years as well. That was a great afternoon! Mrs. Carol is actually who I got the patterns for the letter I've ended up making for people all this time. She had me over just in time to get these supplies before we went on our annual family beach trip. 

I spent the following week practicing at the beach, asking my Mom for tips & pointers,  and figuring it all out. My first stitch was this tiny little angel with a heart. 

Jason actually uses it as a book mark now! 

When I got home I took on the more (what I thought then) daunting task of one of the most beautiful letter patterns I had ever seen. I love the instant gratification that comes along with cross stitching as you are working. The piece comes alive before your eyes and I oftentimes find myself thinking "man, I really love the way this is turning out". 

You can tell from the picture I was just starting out for I didn't even center it in my hoop! 

Since then I've had many other women in the church provide me with their materials that they no longer use and their tips/tricks to cross stitching. This is information and time that I've been so thankful for--thank you again Mrs. Robin, Mrs. Jeanette, and Mrs. Pat--you ladies have helped make this possible for me :)

Many months after I started stitching I decided to post on the internet and see if there was any interest from people to purchase these "floral letters". The response was so positive and I made the decision to take on the task. Since September I've had an ongoing list of letters to make for people. 

As of today, I've completed 26 letters and I am so happy to know that these will be displayed in the homes of these people for years to come. I've had many people tell me they plan to pass it on to other family members years down the road, etc. and that's exactly what I envisioned when I decided to start making these for other people. 

These are just a few of the letter's I've completed since then for different people/families.

People choose their own color schemes and some choose their own frame while with others I will find the frame for them. Although cross stitching is very time intensive (takes me over 24 hours for one letter--over the course of about 9-14 days) I really enjoy it and find it relaxing.

So, Happy 1 Year Anniversary to my favorite hobby and here's to another year and the remaining 12 letters on my list of "upcoming orders" with hopefully many more to come!

Summer Project

Well guys, my book shelf dream has finally come true.

As silly as that sounds, I am so happy and so proud! 

Today, Jason and I went over to Mr. Harry's workshop and made our wedding doors into a bookshelf for our house. This is something I've been wanting to do since we got back from our honeymoon and we finally found the time this week! 

 The moment my mom bought those doors for our wedding, we knew we wanted them in our house somewhere, in some shape, form, or fashion. 

Mr. Harry, or Grandpa as I like to call him, was gracious enough to let us invade his workshop and use all of his tools. He was so incredibly helpful and served as the best supervisor we could have asked for. 

 Let me be the first to say how amazing my husband was today (and every other day) while making our bookshelf. 

I was so proud the whole time! He did awesome. 

 I love this man and his wife so dearly--thank y'all so much for being so wonderful! We really enjoyed our day with y'all!

 The final product!

It's huge and there's so much space for more and more books (cue the hallelujah chorus)

To say I love it would be quite the understatement. 

I can't stop walking in that room and looking at it! I'm so happy that all of my books have a home now (that's so incredibly beautiful) and not to mention what a special gem this will be in our household forever!