Onsies.

Ok. So I'm not a huuuuge sewer, really, I keep it pretty basic. BUUUT recently my cousin had twin babies that are a-dor-to-the-ble, and I have the most angelic little neice... I just couldn't resist making some little onsies. After all, If they are gonna be related to me, I must ensure they are representing my genetics in style. These aren't original, I'm sure you've seen outfits like these before but I'm still pretty proud.
The little girl's one actually has a little pearl necklace sewn onto it now, which in my opinion makes it even cuter. Hopefully my cousin Emily doesn't read my blog because I haven't sent these to her yet, I just couldn't wait to show you all! But if she does read this... Surprise Emily! I made Collin and Ireland some onsies, I hope you love them as much as me! (The onsies, not the babies... Though I love them too :)

And here is my favorite model of all, showcasing her outfit she received in the mail last week. Seriously people, this little Angel may make me reconsider my oath to not reproducing. Maybe.

Oh yea. That's a cute baby.

 And here's a more recent picture my sister-in-law snapped. haha Sleeping in church? She must take after her daddy. Jkjk.

"Look at all we've got"

I always thought how humbling it would be to be a newlywed, coming home to an empty apartment where the extent of your furniture is a picnic blanket in the living room, and maybe an air mattress in the bedroom, and this lil decoration as the single centerpiece on the wall.

I've heard it's in the midst of distress and "lacking" that we are to count our blessings and really see all that we have. Easier said than done sometimes, non the less, I'm going to try and have this banner wherever I end up.

Count your blessings.

Camping

Here's some camping pictures. Not much to really say, we swam, went tubing, and ate a lot.
Here's the sequence of my tubing excitement.

and here we are getting our tan on. Big splash compliment of my mischievous father. And for your viewing pleasure, I close-up of my surprised face. Sometimes I feel like my parents plot against me. (right mom? This picture didn't take itself!) Exhibit A.

 

And that's the way the cookie crumbles. When I get pictures from the awesome Rilee, I'll be sure to post them.

Peace.

Mustard Thread Earrings

So I've kinda been on a craft spree while I've been home. I've made bracelets, earrings, painted dressers and shelves, sewn onsies and skirts, and there's just never enough time to do it all. Eventually I'll post pictures of everything but for now I'm taking baby steps. Here I'm going to showcase a very simple personal favorite of mine that I call the "Mustard Thread Earrings". I've been a little obsessed with this rustic mustard yellow color as of late therefore I had the need to make earrings to match my newly purchased secondhand mustard cardigan. I'm pretty pleased with the results. Ladies and gents, the earrings:

(photo credit to Brenda Braun)

And for a million dollars, I'll make you a pair too :) Just Kidding. But really, someday when I make an Etsy account, these suckers are the first to go up.

More to come!

Peace and Blessings.

Mawrraige. It's not what brings us together today. or yesterday.

This weekend I was supposed to be married to a very incredible man. A few people have expressed concern of how I've been handling it, so here it is. I went camping with my family. Aside from lying in a sleeping bag trying to fall asleep, driving, and staring at the stars, I was mostly able to distract myself from the fact that instead of swimming in murky water chalked full of fish scales and numberless childrens urine, I should be dancing with my sweetheart, or sitting in the temple, or other such wedding-esque activities. We drove home around 3, I made dinner for my parents that they claim was tasty, but then again I'm not 12; we don't need to sugar coat things, the stuff I served them I didn't even wanna taste-test. shag to the nasty. It was trial and error, and around 9 I considered just popping a frozen pizza in the oven because they are my parents and are required to love me regardless. Never the less I fed them dog food. To redeem myself, we bought my mom 10 lbs of Butterfinger candy topping from DQ for a life time supply of blizzards at home, at her command, so that made everything better. Then I took a bath for some alone time. It turns out that when the dishwasher, and bath water run at the same time, one gets priority over the other in the hot water category. It's not the bath tub. So while my mom boiled water, pioneer style, I sat in a cold tub and soaked in the warmth of my sorrows. haha The point is, It's fine. It's interesting when you think about choices. We hear that the choices we make greatly influence our lives. duh. But I don't think you can often imagine this clearly how different your life could be depending on your choices. For example, I chose not to get married. It's pretty easy to see how very different my life is gonna be for at least the next few years due to this choice. Some for the best, mostly the worst, I don't know. It's very surreal I must say. Anyways, to those that are wondering, I'm hanging in there.

Happy 29th anniversary yesterday mom and dad. It's marriages like yours that give us all unrealistically high hopes of how perfect marriage is supposed to be.

Mens shirt = New skirt!

Tomorrow I go camping. I was supposed to be having a wedding reception, but let's pretend that wasn't supposed to happen for the sake of optimism. Anyways, before I disappear from civilization with my friend Rilee and my family (photos to come I'm sure) I wanted to quickly post about one of my recent craft projects. Drumroll please! dadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadum!

THE MEN'S SHIRT CONVERTED INTO A WOMENS SHIRT! 

lovelovelove might I add. I saw something similar to this online, and was in love. So I marched myself down to Value Village with the lovely Whitney Landon, coughed up a whopping $4.99 for a light blue men's shirt I adored, and marched myself home where it sat in the grocery bag for 2 weeks until my mom found the time to help me with it :) Actually, she did more than help me, she basically did the whole thing. Woman's got skill. I did, however, spend 2 movies hand sewing the front seam together and adding lil buttons, hooks and what not. It was supposed to be a pencil skirt, but my body's kinda weird sooo normal skirt it is; which I'm okay with. Actually, not just okay with, I love this lil skirt. My recommendation if you are to try this, use a heavy fabric, my slip kinda harshes my mellow.

Here's the tutuorial we used,  but really my mom kinda made most of it up. Talent I say.  (http://www.adventuresindressmaking.com/2010/04/one-of-greatest-mens-shirt-makeovers.html)

Happy Sewing!

Sledding at the Dunes

Once Breanne and I went on a little adventure and shot plenty of footage along the way. I compiled it in a video buuuuut Facebook thinks they are all high and mighty better than me, and have treated me like some sort of a criminal! I return from church (sound like a hardened convict?) to find a nice little message from Facebook saying due to copyright law infringement blah blah blah your happiness is banned from facebook blah blah blah and if your try to upload the video you poured your heart and soul into again, we'll terminate your account yadda yadda yadda. so yea Facebook, you wanna tango? I give you Blogger, They'll let me express my creativity. Take that!

enjoy :)

MONTE CRISTO TUESDAY!

Ok.... It's not Tuesday. I get it. But whenever I think about Monte Cristos, I think of a special memory of a certain Ryan Stratford yelling "Monte Cristo Tuesdays!" when I made them for him for the first time. We agreed that every Tuesday of our marriage, we'd have Monte Cristos. Later after some changes, we agreed that his future wife is never allowed to make them for him, and I'll never make them for my spouse in return. Besides that fact, Monte Cristos  will always come with the memory of Ryan's silly high-pitched immitation of our children running home yelling "Monte Christo Tuesday!". When I got home from Rexburg, the first thing I did was make Monte Christos. Yummmm. Yummy and most importantly easy!

So here is it in a nutshell: ham, turkey, swiss (you keeping up with me here?) between two slices of french toast, (keep talking...) warmed and drizzled with syrup. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you heaven.
You're welcome :)

Here's a serious one. We'll get it out of the way...

I've often heard the phrase "better to have loved and lost then to have never loved at all."

 I think that's a load of crap. 

Pretty sure I'd rather to have never loved at all. To never have to lie awake pretending your not-as-firm-as-you'd-like pillow is their chest and you aren't all alone again. To never have to put make-up on and a happy face and pretend you enjoy being social and making small talk with every Tom, Dick and Harry. To never have to go on first dates again and ask all those boring questions of "where are you from, what's your major, are you scared of marriage like it's the plague also or is that just me?".  I'd rather not have to live with random girls I don't know for my whole college career, I'd rather not be a money pit to my parents, and not be scared that I just turned away the greatest thing in my short life. Yea, I think I'd rather never have loved at all.

I'm sure you are all wondering, and I've avoided it long enough, so let me explain my recent relationship change. I should have told people sooner but frankly, I just couldn't handle it. I'm no longer engaged. I think the most common responses I've heard in reference to this news is "I'm sorry to hear that", "did he turn out to be a jerk?" or my personal favorite, the speechless expression with a dropped jaw and eyes like they saw a ghost that says "Holy crap I just poured glass in the wound!". In an attempt to avoid maybe one more "congratulations" I'm officially announcing this unfortunate event, and I want to make one thing tremendously clear; Ryan is incredible. Nothing regarding this break up was by any means provoked by him or anything he did. He is without a doubt the most solid and remarkable man I've ever had the privilege of dating and he continues to be amazing. He is patient, and selfless, and kind in all aspects, so you're probably thinking "What's the problem?".  In a nutshell, I'm a problem. Sorry. The thing is, we attempted an entirely long distance engagement, nooot my best call, but the truth of the matter is I got scared, I panicked, and selfishly bailed out. I wasn't ready to be married, and in response made a completely emotional and life altering choice to just... stop. Words cannot express my remorse to all those involved emotionally, financially, and especially to my sweetheart Ryan.

This is my Angel, and he has truly saved me in more ways than he could ever know. Not a day goes by that I don't think about him.
So I'm at home in Spokane, working at DQ until I return to school in the fall. I'm alive. So that's that. Thank you to everyone for your understanding and patience. It's greatly appreciated! And because I haven't blogged in a while and have been going craft-crazy, you can expect many posts to follow this.
peace and blessings <3