Saturday, April 23, 2011

Something I L-O-V-E

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I know, you were thinking I was going to talk about Luke. I do love Luke. I love him very much. He's my best friend. Nothing can replace him. But no, folks, today I'm going to talk about quilting. :) (Because I'm blogging about this, I feel like I just aged 30 years). I LOVE quilting! It is quite insane and probably a little sad at how much I love it. Finishing a project brings an amazing amount of gratification. Right now, I have at least 6 quilts started and ideas for more. There have been times that I have gone to my local quilt shop, Sager Creek Quilts & Yarnworks, 3 and 4 times a week to browse fabric, work on a project, or take a quilting class. I have come to know the owners well and they have introduced me to people as their "most avid, young customer." To me, quilting never gets old and I have a feeling I'll still be doing it when I am old. I come up with excuses to make new quilts and many times, the excuse is a gift. I have made several quilts as gifts, and currently have 3 gift quilts I'm working on. Because I love working on these projects, and have worked on so many, I have begun getting faster and have lately pondered the idea of opening an etsy account... we'll see. Maybe someday.

I made this quilt for my niece Lily. It matched her nursery.
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This is Lily's little sister, Bella, on the quilt I made for her.
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Lily, the 2-year-old hot mess, and Bella, the 3-month-old sweetheart. Love them! These pictures were taken back in January. I get to watch these girls in a couple of weeks (it will be blog worthy, I'm sure)!
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I have more projects in the works, and more than just quilts... stay tuned!

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Cruisin'

Traveling is something I love. Going someplace new, relaxing with people you love, and almost escaping reality for a little while. Luke and I have gotten to take some great trips including the one we took back in February. The winter months are best for us to travel in, but it does make for fewer destination choices with our temperature preferences. Researching different destinations within and outside the states, we found that cruises in February were cheaper than any land options. Laying on the beach and relaxing on a giant boat sounded great to us, especially after the two feet of snow we had the weeks before our trip.

Our flight for Miami left from Tulsa and Nate and Valerie Cozart were great enough to host us for a night so we wouldn't have to drive from Siloam to catch our 6:15 plane. Traveling to Miami went smoothly, however, we did have a luggage fiasco once we reached the boat. Luke and I brought three bags with us on our trip; his bag, my bag, and a hanging bag with all our dress clothes. The hanging bag... never... made it... to our room. We spent about 15 to 30 minutes each day talking to the front desk about all of the possible places our bag could have gone. By the end of the week, we had filled out paper work to get compensated for the missing bag. As we are literally five steps from walking off the ship to head back home, they tell us that one of our bags is at the front counter (insert shock, excitement, frustration here)! Come to find out, our bag was taken to someone else's room by mistake and the people staying in that room just left it in there all week. Ugh.

As frustrating as "losing" that luggage was, Luke reminded me that there was nothing I could do about it and that I shouldn't let it ruin my trip. I so appreciate his patience and understanding in moments like that (my husband is pretty great). So here are a few photos from our trip!

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We got to go parasailing!
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Check out my awesome tan lines...
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We had both been on cruises before, but had never been on one together. We had a wonderful time!
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It was a great trip and we are gearing up for another trip in June... O Canada!

Posts to look forward to: Sewing projects, house projects, and my mom's bachelorette party! :)

Friday, April 1, 2011

Tea Time!

If you know me, you know that relationships are very important to me. I love spending time with people and getting to know them better. Luke and I have been truly blessed with a wonderful home, perfect for hosting. So I, and a couple of my close friends, decided to host a little get-together (it actually took place back in January) for women to come together, have tea, and share recipes. I'm still in the beginning stages of becoming the amazing cook I know my future children will one day know me as (hopefully), so I'm always looking for good, easy recipes. We had a great Sunday afternoon chatting and escaping the cloudy and cold weather.

Another reason I wanted to have a tea party was to have an
excuse to use my Grandma's tea set. She made these with ceramic molds (I think) and they have her name and the year she made them on the bottom of each one. So special!

Teapots from Cafe on Broadway

I found these emery boards at The French Hen in Siloam and used them as party favors.
Spring is here and I'm getting the itch to host another party to celebrate the warm weather!