A real garden!

It's really happening! I get to have a garden! I am so excited. Having been raised in a family of gardeners, I didn't know not having a garden was really an option. I always love picking the fruits and veggies and having it fresh, it can't be beat. I didn't realize how much I would miss it though when I left home. For a few years I've survived by having a couple tomato plants and then hoarding as much as I could when I was home and bringing it back to Emporia with me. This year, will be a bit different. I have my own approximately 5x10 foot plot. Not nearly as big as what I grew up with, but I figured I should start small and we don't have that much yard. My garden requirements: to be able to make fresh salsa with ingredients I picked. So yes, there will of course be tomatoes, onions and green peppers. There will also be carrots, watermelon and zucchini. Evan wants peas and since he was sweet enough to turn all the soil to prepare the plot, I can't say no. I also have started my basil and am anxiously awaiting for it to sprout. If you haven't planted sweet basil, you need to. It is to die for!

Spring is here

At last. I wasn't sure it was coming. But finally, it did. Spring!!! And this weekend was the perfect one for it. Friday I was so excited to just be coming home from work, even though I knew I would be cleaning like crazy before a friend got to our house. When I walked in, my dear husby had just finished sweeping the kitchen and dining room floors and was on to moping them. He even had dishes finished. Next he let me take a cat nap while he tidied the guest room. Yes, he is amazing and no, you can't have him :) Dinner came and we made homemade taco burgers with homemade guacamole. You can't beat it. Finally, my long-time friend, Lindsey, made it. Her visit was short, but it was so nice to just sit and talk with her, especially since she lives out of town.
Saturday came, and it was just as glorious. My favorite Saturday mornings consist of snuggling and laughing in bed with Evan. It's the perfect chill time. We got it....and a full day of it! We did nothing but veg out. Later, I planted some herbs and then we met up with more friends and met a new friend. Again, awesome. Then came today, with church, Sunday school and even a nap in the afternoon. When Ev went to worship practice I got to craft and catch up with my mom.
Usually by the time my weekend is ending, I'm dreading working on Monday. I would like to extend my weekend still, but I don't dread tomorrow. My weekend was calm and slow, but very high quality and full, yet restful at the same time. I feel so blessed by the Lord to be surrounded with wonderful people here and far away, and to have Evan as my husband. 8 months, and I love him more than ever before. Hopefully this won't be the only weekend like it that I have this year. But if it is, well, at least I got one!

Pin-manship

It finally happened.....my friend Lisa and I finally had our own craft night. I was making a baby shower gift and Lisa was working on some pins. They were all beautiful, most of them made from vintage flour sacks (why don't they reproduce these patterns?!). Being as sweet as she is, she gave me one. I love it so much and was so excited to wear it. It was then I realized I had never worn a pin before, not to my recollection anyways. I received several compliments on it. It was then I began to wonder, what happened to the pin? Scarves made a leaping comeback in the past few years. Thankfully too because they are so so gorgeous now. But the pin is not something I see on most people. Aside from Lisa, Angie at work and my friend Sam, I'm not sure I can place the memory of seeing them on anyone. This poor accessory has been lost to time and is very much unappreciated. So if you have one, wear it proudly! If you don't, I'm sure Lisa can hook you up :)

It's all about the bowl

This past week I decided to make taco salad for dinner. I love taco salad and I believe homemade is always much better than what they serve at restaurants. Everything was prepped, and it was time to mix. I instinctively grabbed the biggest bowl we have, which is a big white plastic bowl we used to serve food at our wedding. I was standing at the stove mixing all the stuff in this giant bowl when my grandma came to my mind.

My grandma used to make giant batches of taco salad. I'm talking enough taco salad to feed our whole family, about 12-15 people, and trips back for seconds, all in one bowl. Grandma's taco salad time was one of my favorite things as a kid. One, because I love taco salad and two, because I loved how massive her bowl was, and it even had a lid. As a child this thing looked like a small bath tub and could probably hold as much as a kitchen sink. She even took the bowl on camping trips. I would help and watch her make the salad in the micro-kitchen of their motorhome. To think of it now, I wonder where she even stored the beastly bowl.

So, here is to grandmas and all the amazing impressions and sweet, albeit random, memories they give us.

Yo ho ho and a foot of snow

We got dumped.....by about a foot of snow. For me that means two snow days and two extra days off for conferences. A one day work week? Whoever heard of that! What else does it mean.....I'm trying to find new things to keep myself busy before I go stir crazy because I can't go anywhere. Yesterday it was necklaces, meeting with one of my favorite chinese friends, eating Arabic food and cheering up some that needed it. Today, my wonderful friend Shantel is supposed to come over and tonight I will hopefully be seeing Meghan, a sweet girl I have mentored for almost 3 years now!
When they aren't here I have decided it's time to organize my digital craft room. We live in a wonderful apartment, with beautiful old wood floors and all the large beautiful baseboards. But! In the olden days, they didn't keep as much crap as we do so our closets are tiny; too tiny for our talents. Our "guest room" is really only one third guest room, one third-one half Evan's music studio and the rest is my clothes. So my craft room is really a craft cart that was Evan's. Originally I hated it because, well it isn't pretty. I was hoping it might get lost in the move :) Then I realized hey, if I put my craft supplies on here, I can wheel it all at one time to whatever room in our home I want to. So I commandeered it. Evan says to him it is equivalent to how much women hate their husband's ugly chair. I don't blame him, but at least beautiful things come out of this eyesore. The rest of my craft room is on my computer, stored on the desktop or in a folder. The plus side of this, digital copies are much easier to move than the real deal.

Semi-sweet

It's that time of the year.....the countdown has begun. Not to the new year, but to Christmas vacation!!! Can I just say how disappointed I was when I realized we have school through the 22nd. Who thought that was a good idea!? It will be a bittersweet Christmas this year. It will be my first Christmas with my husby and I am super excited for that! Our tree is up and I have presents for him under the tree and in his "socking." Yes, socking. He somehow misplaced or lost, whichever you want to call it, the stocking my mom made him last year so I figured he would just have to do with one of his socks until he finds his real stocking. It does have quite an interesting shape and will be ideally suited for someone with cankles by the time Christmas comes.

On a sadder note, it will the first year in like four or five years that Evan and I will not be at Bear Trap. :( We are so sad and are even dreaming of it at night. Also, the school I work at will be closing in May for good. We have been told that no one is to be laid off, just transferred, but who knows what will really happen. I am also sad at the thought of leaving my co-workers because I have made some good connections and dearly love most of the people I work with. This is without a doubt a goo reminder that my provision and blessings come from my heavenly father and that He has new and different things in store for me. I don't want to change, but I am grateful for his peace and reminders to be open and ready for the things he is doing.

A bit of a delay

So this blog started out to be a New Year's resolution to help keep in touch with my bestie who is not in the states anymore, but I've come to realize how little time I spent on it lately. Instead, I have been spending more time doing projects than I have been writing about them. In all honesty, that is okay with me. My latest "finished" projects have been curtains for our bedroom! You appreciate them even more when the school that you work at is just across the street. I'm okay with my kiddos seeing seasonal decorations when they look at our windows, but that's where it stops. My second project has been the use of the di-cut machine at work. I make a leaf garland using illustrations from a children's book that I got for pretty much free at the wonderful Emporia Public Library book sale (it's one of my favorite events ever!). Now that Christmas is on its way I'm making a Christmas one using the leftover scrapbook paper from our wedding. I also have one project that is dear to my heart for many reasons. I went out of my photography comfort-zone (yay!) and did engagement photos for our friends. I have been editing them and am proud to say they are done and I am pretty proud of them! I am now officially open to doing portrait photography! Never thought that would happen! I am constantly reminded how much I love using my camera to capture something amazing. The world of art and craftmanship......it's quite lovely! So there it is folks, a microscopic glance at my life.