Love Day Recap!

When I think of love, I think of God. He sent his Son to die for my sins, and that's a beautiful, powerful, life-changing thing.

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. ~ 1 John 4:7

And sometimes I get too caught up in my life and my schedule that I forget that the whole reason I'm here on this earth is to show the love of Christ to others. And for me this year, Valentine's Day was a great reminder of this. 

Usually, Justin and I aren't huge fans of this holiday, but we did squeeze in a few unexpected & lovely celebrations this year. Saturday night we had a Valentine's Day dinner with my in-laws. Sorry for the blurry & poorly-lit photos, I didn't realize my flash was turned off.

A beautiful centerpiece made with carnations (my favorite flower)!

And just for good measure and keeping with this over-sharing theme, here's a picture of my carnation bouquet from our wedding.  (my sister's carried the white bouquets). 

Back to Saturday's dinner, it was truly a meal fit for a king (or queen!). We had steak, lobster, potatoes, and broccoli. 

My stomach just growled. Yum.

The following day we had a very special lunch with my family to celebrate my sister Lindsay's 26th birthday! (Lindsay's on the right, Taylor's on the left). I forgot to take my camera along - woops!

And as if all this goodness wasn't enough . . . I came home from work on Tuesday to find dinner made by sweet Justin waiting for me.

Homemade stromboli - complete with a heart in the center. 

Could my love tank be any fuller? 

 Because Your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise You. 

~ Psalm 63:3

How did you celebrate Valentine's day? Any unexpected surprises? And I probably won't be posting again this week, so what's on tap for the weekend? :)

Pink and Red and Glitter and Hearts! Oh My!

I've never been a huge fan of  Valentine's Day. It feels like hallmark is trying to force me to love the person I already love everyday. Justin & I will stay in, avoiding the masses, and have a nice quiet dinner. Like we do almost everyday. But maybe I'll light a few candles :)

Something I am a big fan of though is the color pink. Now in order to keep my husband happy I refrain from buying pink fluffy comforters and instead wear a bright pink sweater from time to time. But, if any of you are still here (mom?), you may remember that back in November I bought this adorable pink and red heart fabric scrap specifically for Valentine's Day. Because it's the one time of the year I can break out a couple pink hearts and not get any looks.

. . . well, not too many looks.

First I gathered my supplies. I was originally planning to make a dish towel and back it with one of Justin's white shirts. But then I decided to go with my original plan and make a table runner. So all you need is the fabric scrap, some scissors, stitch witchery, and an iron.

Then I hemmed one of the sides by placing the stitch witchery between the folded  fabric and then ironing on top. Be sure to use your iron on the "wool" setting because it helps create a stronger hold!

I did the same thing with the other side. You can see I didn't bother with making sure all my edges were perfectly straight. Oh & sorry for the horrible lighting . . . our iron is right in front of the window and I'm not a very good photographer.

 

Then I hemmed the ends using the same technique. Once all the edges had a clean line, I swapped out the maroon curtain we usually use as a runner for this festive heart-adorned one!

I switched some of our decorations around too. I got that awesome green vase from my sister-in-law for Christmas and I love it! And I changed out Justin's drawings in the one frame too.

Check out the book in the middle of my stack. Help your husband stay alive! It has the funniest marital advice from the 50s. I should do a post one day on the stuff inside that book - it's hilariously awesome. 

Back to the project at hand . . . since I already had the stitch witchery, the only thing I bought was the fabric. This brings the grand total for this project to 50 cents!! Not bad for a little loving-cheer. :)

Are you decorating for Valentine's Day? Have you made any lovely crafts lately?

Hello Again!

I took a little blogging break. And it felt pretty good. I actually debated shutting this whole thing down but then a sweet comment from Katie (Paisley Print Shoes) warmed my heart and all was right again in the blogosphere.


But if we're keeping things real . . . I'll let you know that my posts are going to be a bit more sporadic. Justin & I try our best to save up for projects but then sometimes the dishwasher breaks (twice) or there's a leak in the basement that requires our attention and, unfortunately, our money. As we start projects I'll be sure to share them though. Right now we're mulling over what our next project should be . . . we're thinking either the bathroom or our bedroom. I'll keep you posted once we've decided!


On a completely different note, a few weeks ago my mom, sister & brother came over for the weekend. And it snowed!

 Justin threw snow at me. Typical boy :)

Back of our house.  . . you can see my two planters never made it inside this year. Woops.

My sister's dog Sylvie love the snow! This was the only decent picture of her I was able to take. 

The rest of the time Sylvie ran around like a crazed canine.

Thanks for bearing with me everyone! Have a great Monday! :)

Paint & Pictures

Oops. I posted out of order. If you're super observant, you may have noticed in yesterday's post that our walls were a different color from last week. That's because we painted the walls & the ceiling! We carried the darker color on the accent wall in our living room up into the whole hallway, and painted the ceiling a nice, crisp white (it was tan before).

Are you wondering about that black frame in the corner? Well, we made a little gallery wall!

See how our new lighting shines right on it, illuminating the fingerprints on the right? 

Here's the low-down on what we framed:

• The flowers on the left are temporary - they're going to be replaced by a print out of my favorite hymn once I make my way over to Staples.
• The sunflower in the middle is drawn by my talented husband. I just love all the detail in it!
• The framed wedding invitation on the right might also temporary. I'm not in love with the colors of it against the wall, so I may either replace it with something else or mat it in a different color.
• The picture of Justin & I in the middle is my favorite picture of us. 
• The drawing on the bottom right is of a little boy pulling a dog in a wagon under a streetlight. This is also drawn by that artsy stud I married and it's definitely staying. 

So what do you think? All the changes in this space lately make me a little giddy every time I walk down the hall.


What changes have you been making lately? Any painting or picture-framing?