necklace exchange pt. 2

 It came! My necklace from the necklace exchange finally came! (here's what I made) Well, not finally, it actually came quite on time, we were just out of town, so I had to wait until we got back to hope someone had not stolen it from our box. And they didn't, and it is beautiful! 


I was so excited to tear this thing open and put it on, but then the packing was so sweet, so I calmed down and took some pictures of this little gem! Check it out:

 so cute right? who doesn't want to open that!?

right after the 5 (turned 6) hour car ride. I literally ran

inside to try it on. love it!

So, my "match" has great taste. She took a chain link gold chain, and weaved embroidery thread and ribbon all through it. She sent a sweet note with it, with only an email address. I will of course be mailing her a thank you, but I am so curious if she has a blog of her own! With work like this, she totally should, or an etsy account. If I find out, I will absolutely post it on here so you guys can shop around yourselves. 

One thing I have definitely learned from this whole necklace exchange experience: be open. Be open about what I want to make, about my ideals. I was stretched to make something I wouldn't normally, but it turned out pretty cool. Be open about what I like. I don't have to have a set style, sure I'll always have things I gravitate more towards, and that's fine. But be aware of more, and willing to try them out. This colorful necklace isn't something I probably would have picked out, that said, its fun and classy, and I can't wait to wear it out!

Christmas!

Wishing you the merriest Christmas this year!!!

greeting cards

One of my favorite things about Christmastime is getting cards in the mail! Pictures, updates, funny stories, little love notes, I like it all! Its like a little glimpse of all of our friends lives, near and far. Ours are finally starting to trickle in (mail in savannah is terrible) and I get so happy hanging them up in our doorway. I smile really big every time I walk under them.

As I mentioned before, I was having a hard time restraining from making our Christmas cards - but it paid off, because Matt knocked it out!! We initially had been working on a hand lettered, very detailed card - which isn't much work for Matt since he does this on his own all the time, (you should check out his stuff) - but then we had an even better idea... A while back I had expressed to Matt how cool I thought it would be to have silhouette cameo's of ourselves. Since he is so wonderful and talented, he made some and gave them to me for my birthday! They were perfect! So, we decided to incorporate those into our Christmas card this year, and they turned out so simple, festive, classy and sweet! Thanks, Matt! 

What about you, did you send Christmas cards this year? Or, since it's Christmas tomorrow, will they be new years cards instead? Did you design them/make them, or buy? I'd love to hear about it!

holiday freedom + roadtrip & family

(matt just texted me that as a little encouragement, and now its my post title, isn't he a gem?)

Its official, Christmas vacation starts in 1 hour!! We stayed up late last night in a packing/wrapping frenzy - running around trying to get everything in order. My poor husband, I have been texting him reminders all day... I'm sure he hasn't gotten anything of his own accomplished! But it will all be worth it when we're on the road, ipod turned up, and smiles on our faces. We love road trips, and this one is so sweet with brothers and little nephews waiting for us! I love getting this time to spend with my parents, and Matt's parents. We are so fortunate that our parents are still driving distance, even if 5 hours does seem like an eternity when you just know your mom is there just waiting to hug you, and your brothers kids will probably be dozing to sleep by the time you pull up, and who knows what else could be going on while you're just driving mindlessly for hours up I-95!? But really, we love road trips. :)

Are you traveling this holiday? How long is the commute for you?

(image via googlemaps)

photo shoot

As I mentioned few weeks ago, our sweet and very talented friend, Mikey of Beacon Photo, wanted to take our portraits for no reason! He was busy planning a wedding (just got married 2 weeks ago!!) but we went with him out to my favorite boating dock and took some fun pictures. They turned out AMAZING! Mikey is so talented, and we are so privileged to have him take our pictures.


Here are a few from the day!

Aren't they great!? He was so happy to find a new spot to take pictures in Savannah, there is something wonderful about this little docking area! Seriously, you should check out Beacon Photo if you're in Savannah, even if you're not, he travels! Mikey is so good at what he does, telling us to stand up straight, fix my hair, look a certain way... Thank you so so much, Mikey! We are so happy with how they turned out!

Friendly

This weekend we had some dear friends come visit us! Ben and Leah, and their two children, Elisha and Genevieve have been living in Scotland for the past 2 years while Ben earned his PhD. Leah and the kids tagged along for life in another culture, and I think they got it! The kids have picked up using Scottish words and inflections, its adorable! Leah is charming and she was a faithful blogger while they were away, writing down their adventures and she is also multi-talented and started getting into photography! And I say that lightly, because her pictures are amazing!

We have known the Walls for almost 10 years! We met them back in our youth group days, and we have been so blessed by their friendship! They were such an influential part of our teen to adult years, spending time with us and pouring into our lives when it is most malleable. We were lucky enough to have premarital counseling with them, and Ben officiated our wedding! Since then, we've been in small groups, taken vacations, eaten a lot of lilly's, played bored games, and grown together. We really love these people, their family, generosity and love. It had been a long 2 years with them in another country, glad they're stateside now :)

Thankful for this girl!

She looks like a who!

six year olds...

Love this family!

cute kids eating candy at our favorite place, The Paris Market!

Necklace Exchange

This year, I got to be a part of something really cool!  The great necklace exchange!
I read about this fun idea on fashion loves people's blog! They always have really great taste and fashion advice and tips and the latest on whats in.


So, how it works: I filled out a form with my info, my blog, my pinterest, and any other site or blog that may describe me or my interests and tastes. Then, all that information got sent to somebody, who will make a necklace for me, based on what they've seen I like and am interested in! And I got an email with the same information about somebody else and make them a necklace! We weren't required to follow any type suggestions or restrictions, we could be totally creative, so it could be totally random what will show up at my house!! Such a fun idea, right!?


I'm not much into making necklaces, but I make earrings pretty frequently, so I figured I could give a necklace a try! My "match" in this project is the dull diamond  - they have an online store where they SELL NECKLACES!! Uh, intimidating!! Once I let Matt convince me I could make something worth while, or at least something, I got to brainstorming. I got a lot of inspiration from their blog, it's full of fun, quirky, bright and asymmetrical pieces that aren't too serious. I like that. The colors had me most, I love looking at something with bright vivid colors, there is just so much personality in that. The part I had a hard time with was getting away from perfect symmetry. In my brain, all things good are symmetrical. Noses, shoes, cars, eyes, babies, rainbows, beds, cupcakes... all equal and even. Sure, I didn't have to make it asymmetrical for them, but I thought it would be a growing experience and besides, it wasn't for me. The whole time I had to really remember I was making something for their taste, not mine.  


So, here is what I have been working on!

 I decided to use embroidery thread to wrap some

 beads to stick with their playful style.

 Wrapping of the bead....

Keeping it asymmetrical! 

All finished! (after this photo i did end up wrapping

some thread around the chain to the right of the big 

bead to match the opposite bead) Hope they like it! It's

nothing that I would have ever dreamed up without

inspiration from their blog!

Ready to send it off!

The deadline for mailing is today - so it has been sent, and I'm waiting to receive mine! I can't wait to find out who had me, and what they came up with! (I'll def. post a pic when I get it!!) Also, its such a fun way to find other bloggers with similar interests, I'm looking forward to connecting with some new people!

away we go

We're off to visit some of Matt's extended family South Carolina! We are going to celebrate Christmas a week early with some special people. I always love this time to spend with his family all under one roof, especially his younger cousins, they're so fun. I think we're both looking forward to a yummy meal as well, they always know how to cook it up, southern style! This is the one time of year I get to have his grandmothers AMAZING pecan pie, yum!!
Hope you have a great weekend!


image via

birthday

I mentioned I would post about my birthday here, and about a month late, here it is! I have the most fabulous friends [and husband] who threw me a surprise party. Totally didn't expect it, well done to them, because I am always suspecting something! I actually ran out of the house screaming when I saw people inside. It was so much fun, dinner, games, a whale cake, nature themed, a perfect way to welcome 25!

Thanks friends!!

PS. look at Matt, he is so proud of not moving once during these pictures... :)

Final Goodbye

We had been acquaintances with the Allens for about 6 months before we really became friends with them. In fact, thanks to Matt's healthy addiction to coffee, and Luke being a barista at Starbucks, we had been getting to know Luke 1 short Kenyan at a time. This summer while Matt and I were living in NYC, Luke and Stacey took over our lease for us - we had no idea how this would play out when we came back. Not that we were worried, we just well, didn't really know them, and had barely hung out with them!


Things went great, and they ended up living in our place for another month after we were back. We became so close with these two! As the date drew nearer for them to leave for Australia, we found ourselves getting more sad we didn't have more time with them and worried we'd be so lonely without them! We are in the same small group through church together, we studied through a bit of Galatians together, had dessert bake-offs -really we just ate desserts- (they have quite the sweet tooth!) stayed up way too late for our schedules, and hung out just about every weekend. This includes trips in their minivan, yes, they are that cool couple that can make driving a minivan hip. And those seats are so cushy!


This past week, our small group got together and we had a farewell party. Lots of hugs, desserts, (appropriate) games and laughs. I think some slightly incriminating video footage made it to facebook as well, and I won't be sharing that, but Guesstures can be awfully embarrassing! Anyway, here are some pics of our sweet friends as we bid them farewell!

some boyz

some girlz

 games and coffee!

 a whole new meaning to "staceface"

 sweet girls i'm so thankful for

 the guy on the left has been in Afghanistan since we started small group, but he has been skyping in, so it was really cool luke and stacey got to meet him right before they left!

love these 2 couples :)

 this dog has nothing to do with luke or stacey but it was sooo cute i had to take a pic!

dark chocolate w/ peanut-butter-frosting-face-cupcakes. yum

Luke and Stacey, you guys are so awesome! So so excited about all that God has for you in Australia, and jealous of all the Aussies who get to have you around. I will miss our heartfelt conversations, meaningful talks, surprise parties, and all the laughs and frustrations we shared. We really love you guys!!! We'll be waiting for you :)

Christmastime

Our house is all dressed and ready for Christmas! It is so fun to spend a night putting up the tree—during which frantic sweeping ensues by my other half—hanging the ornaments knowing where each one came from, straighten the tree (frantic sweeping again) string things from the ceiling, place little decorations all over... and my favorite part, sitting together to admire our work! I love it, all of it. That I have a husband who cares enough to want to do these things with me, (I even love the neat freak in him) that we have such an amazing reason to celebrate Christmas, and all the joy this season brings!

These angels were given to me at a seasonally themed wedding shower, in May!

This pretty ornament reminds me of Isaiah 9:6 For unto us a Child is born Unto us a Son is given...

One of my fave Christmas decorations, these little balls were one of our 1st ornament buys as a married couple. I've decorated with them differently every year! 

Spray painted these bad boys with gold glitter! Anything looks festive with glitter on it, lets be honest.

Nutcrackers!! Gift from Matt our 1st year married - he knows my number!

I'm sure there will be more snippets of what is making me happy through the rest of December, don't worry! I've only made a few ornaments this year, I want to craft a few more things for people, any ideas? Beacause I always love a good homemade gift, don't you? 

A weekend in photos

                Ran in a race with a Friend...                                                                       ...Over this Bridge!

Recovery lunch

Last hang out with some really special people who are moving to Australia. Going to really miss them!

Teaching Matt a TimTam Slam, an Aussie fave.

Christmas tree shopping

Dark chocolate cupcakes!

Tree with lights. 

We also got our pictures taken by our friend Mikey, with beacon photo, at my favorite little boating dock. He did amazing work!! More on those in another post. I'm starting to get used to the 75° here in December. Not quite sure what I'll do if it ever starts to get cold!