My Weblog

I'm still here...

Hi everyone! Are there any readers still out there? I know I took a longgg break from the blogosphere. I was just going through my google reader and had 1000+ blog posts to read. And I hit that magic "mark all as read" button. Although I do hope to go back through some of my favorite blogs to see what they have been up to...I realized that I need to simplify my life and quit stretching myself so thin.

Sometimes it is hard balancing a full time job, my own business, family, friends, a puppy, reading blogs, getting on facebook and tumblr and flickr...I just needed to step away from it all for awhile and get back to square one. 

So I am back and hope to catch up with you all again. I love lists, so here is a list of what I have been up to.

• my brother got engaged
• my husband returned home from work, after being gone for 7 weeks!
• my best friend had a baby!
• working on invitations and greeting cards and a calendar
• attending craft shows
• watching way too much tv
• drinking way too much coffee
• making contacts with other kansas etsy sellers
• making plans to take a vacation
• making plans to visit friends that live far away
• chasing around after an adorable little puppy
• desperately wanting to remodel our home
• and much, much more

Stay tuned...

Lulu

This is who I've been chasing around after lately. Lulu is just too darn cute. I keep telling her everyday to stop growing...because she is getting so big.

In love with fall

Hello blogworld! I have been majorly MIA. My apologies. I haven't been doing anything overly exciting, just enjoying fall, missing my husband, drinking pumpkin spice lattes, wearing tights and boots, running after Lulu, hanging out with friends and making plans for our home. I have been getting very inspired to decorate for fall and get started remodeling our home. 

And we all love some Amy Atlas eye candy. She is amazing and so creative, and always so inspiring. Hope that you are all doing well and enjoying fall too!

2 years down...

and forever to go. 

Two years ago, I married my best friend and we've been having a blast ever since. Brad is in Colorado for the week for work, so unfortunately we are miles apart today. We plan on doing something fun this weekend together. I am thankful each and every day for marrying such a loving guy that makes me laugh all day long.

{above images are of our wedding that was featured on style me pretty}

Hello September...

Reasons I LOVE September:

*Our Wedding Anniversary

*Fall Colors

*Wearing Layers

*Pumpkin Spice Lattes

*College Football

*Fall Scents

*Jeans

*Scarves

Plans for September:

*Build Lulu a little house outside b/c she loves it out there

*A friend is coming back all the way from Canada & is having a baby in October!

*Celebrating our 2nd anniversary

*Selling my paper goods at Craft Shows

*Having a girls weekend

*Enjoying life :)

Meet Lulu

Meet Lulu. She came to live with us this week and is the sweetest thing. Ever. She had other brothers and sisters but they didn't survive, so Brad scooped her up so that we could find her a home. I really want to keep her. So bad. We have a large black lab, Lucky, that has been living with my MIL. Brad is leaving for Colorado for 6 weeks for work and when he gets back, Lucky will then come live with us. As long as Lucky and Lulu get along, she will stay with us. Otherwise we will have to find a loving home for her.

Surprise 50th Birthday Party

This past Sunday Brad and I, along with his older brother and his wife, hosted a Surprise 50th Birthday for their mom. I decided to go with just a simple black + white theme and polka dots. I made all the food, made the table runners out of fabric from Hobby Lobby and picked up the beautiful flowers at the farmers market on Saturday.

My mom was so nice to spend her weekend making these lovely cakes for the party. They turned out perfect and were so good!

And some of the guests that attended. All in all I think that the party went really well. We were on a small budget and only had a few days to get it all planned out, but I had a lot of fun doing it. And my MIL had no clue about the party, so that made it even better that we pulled it off!

Fishing trips...

We've been doing lots of fishing lately. We have found a few good places near the lake that we really like going too. The first place we found on the rocks by the tubes (where water shoots out). It took me awhile to get down all the rocks, but once I found a nice flat one, I got plenty of sun. (Because to be honest - the reason I go fishing is to lay out.) Oh! And Brad bought a new truck and the first time I rode in it, I managed to spill my pop all over the floor. Classic.

Brad's brothers even came down on a Sunday with their mom and we all went out fishing. First we tried the above little creek, but the bugs were so bad.

So we headed to the tubes and they actually caught some fish there!

....sigh....

I'm here. I needed a little blog break to just enjoy the summer for awhile. 

We've been:

-road tripping

-bbq-ing

-working too much

-fishing

-spending time with family and friends

-doing yard work

-baking cookies

-watering our garden

-fixing the house

-drinking cold beers

-dancing in the car

Making plans for:

-our house

-our lives

-my business

-vacations

This week I'm going to share with you:

-fishing trips

-our garden

-progress on the house

-wedding programs

-a surprise 50th birthday party

and much, much more! 

So stay tuned!

{images above from a recent road trip}

Minnesota Road Trip

To say that we had an amazing trip up to Minnesota, would be a huge understatement. We had so much fun up there. We road tripped up there Friday afternoon, where we met everyone up at the bar to have a few drinks before the big day. Saturday we slept in, had a big breakfast (seriously the biggest pancakes I have ever seen - Brad couldn't even eat 1 - and that says a lot), hung out at the swimming pool, took a nap and then headed to the wedding that was at a Christian Bible Camp. The weather was perfect, 70 degrees and beautiful. It was the perfect location and the perfect day for our two friends to get married. 

We've only been up there a few times to visit, but we have already made so many friends and they are all wondering when we are moving up there. (No time soon - too cold in the winters). But we enjoy going and visiting and catching up with them all. And we like bringing back their dialect. Things like "oufta" and "you know" (imagine with lonnngggg o's). We couldn't be happier for our two friends that got married and we are so glad that we were able to spend their day with them.

And for some reason, the whole weekend just made me really happy that I am from the midwest. I can't even explain why I kept thinking that, but I did. Even though we are from Kansas and they from Minnesota, we really aren't that much different from them. We got along with them like we have been friends forever. You can't find good people like that everywhere.