I’m Baaaaaaack!

Well, hello there!  Long time, no see.  I’ve been gone “relaxing” for the past two weeks, recuperating from my last semester before I student teach in the spring (starting February).  Before I get back to my regular blogging routine (which might not be so regular from now on, but I’ll keep you posted on that), I thought I’d fill you in on what I’ve been up to while I was gone.

Mr. Converse Sneakers and I drove down to our hometown where we met in elementary school and fell in love as high schoolers to spend Christmas with our family and friends.  We were gone for about ten days!
My parents’ house was decorated beautifully and we had nothing but fun eating, opening gifts, and playing games on Christmas day.





I got some amazing presents from some amazing people, like this planner I’ve been drooling over from Erin Condren.  It was glued to me for days!



I’ve been wearing my new riding boots every day since Christmas.



I don’t have a photo, but I was very excited to open my new flash I’ve been wanting for quite some time!
Mr. Converse Sneakers really scored big this year.  He had two small presents and seemed a little confused when he was the first one done opening presents.  Little did he know the present of his dreams was hiding in my parents’ bedroom closet (it had to be moved several times so he wouldn’t see it).  My mom emailed me right away after Thanksgiving telling me she ordered him a professional six-quart Kitchenaid empire red stand mixer that he’s been wanting for years.  We were going to buy it with wedding money and had ordered it in the cayenne red color he had been wanting for a long time, but we got an email saying they were sold out of the color.  Well, they never got it back in stock because that color is no longer being produced, so we were waiting to see if any similar color would come out.  Thankfully my mom didn’t want us to wait anymore and ordered it in red, the color I wanted it in and my hubby man would still love.

Here’s his reaction to opening it:



Can you see the tears in his eyes?  I was bawling before he even started opening it because it was such a thoughtful gift.  He is already making bread as I type!

After opening gifts, the men (i.e. my brother, Mr. CS, and my dad) conked out in the living room while dinner was cooking.  I snapped photos, of course!



And, yes, we all wear Santa hats on Christmas – mostly to hide our morning hair.  My dad has a special Scottish Santa hat.  He’s incredibly into his Scottish heritage.  We’ve had so many Scottish things in our lives: Scottish Highland cattle, a Scottish Terrier (Stewart Wallace), bagpipes, a Scottish Santa statue, the list goes on and on.  Here is my dad in his hat:



Dinner was amazing!!  Au gratin potatoes, a honey ham, squash ravioli, glazed carrots, wine-infused pears, and bread pudding.  I’m getting hungry again!



This was the first time I had to share Christmas day, but I enjoyed spending time with my new family.  Laughter is part of every celebration.



Between talking, laughing, and eating, we helped the little ones make a gingerbread Christmas tree.  Here they are posing hilariously. 



The rest of the week was just as hectic.  We only had one day not filled with visiting our loved ones and that included a Goodwill shopping spree, which I’m sure I’ll ramble on about at a later date.  Let’s just say 20 items for a little over $100!!

One of my best friends, Tiffany, got engaged on Christmas Eve so I got to see her, her ring, and do a little dress shopping.  We also got together with my other friend, Cindy, to go on a little mini triple date to the bar in town.  A couple Colorado bulldogs (with root beer) later and I was having a grand old time.  Here I am with Tiffany from my iPhone:



Overall, was an amazing break!  I thought I would have more time to sit around and read the four magazines I bought at Sam’s Club on our way home at the beginning of the break, but now I have to read them in the new year.  We love our family and friends so much and wish we had much more time spend with them.

Mr. CS and I came back on New Year’s Eve, the day that marks six years together.  Wow, six years!?  I can’t believe it.  Almost a third of our lives we have spent loving each other.  We went to Red Lobster with a gift card in hand to celebrate.  I ordered a raspberry margarita.  The waiter asked if I wanted the small or big one.  Thinking that the small one would be puny and the big one would be regular-sized, I ordered the big one.  Boy, was I wrong.  Check out the margarita and my new seven-inches-shorter hair that I’m slowly starting to love (chopped it off last Tuesday).



My drink was huge!  I drank more this week than I did all year!  After slowly sipping on my margarita through our appetizer and salad, I had no room for the main course.



My hubby ate all of his food – every last crumb – so he had no room left to help me.



Here’s to leftovers on New Year’s Day!

I hope your holidays were as refreshing and full of love as ours was.  I’m ready to get back into blogging this week.  I’ll be posting our personal goals, my blog goals, and some other goodies this week, most likely randomly, so be sure to stop by for those!

Happy New Year, everyone!  I’m so thankful to have you all and my blog to spread some love, ramble on and on, and share my life.  This year is going to be amazing.

I can’t wait!

10 Highlights from 2011

As I said yesterday in my post about our Christmas traditions, every year we plan on making a highlight/recap video from the year.  I tend to be horrible at remembering years of my life, as in I can’t say things like, “Back in 2005 I ________.”  My brain doesn’t work like that.  I can say “Back in first grade, blah blah blah” but I’d have to do some math to figure out the year.  Now that I’m in my last year of college for a very long time or perhaps forever (praise the Lord, hallelujah), I won’t have these school references to remember things by, so by making a video perhaps my brain will be more likely to remember things by year or at least I will have a quick video to watch as a refresher course.  I’m hoping I will never forget this year, but in case I forget the year we were married, I will have a sweet little (slightly awkward, dorky, and humorous) video to look back on.

Here is our video for this year.  Well, actually wait – I’m a little nervous about posting a video of myself and Mr. Converse Sneakers in case you all think we’re nutty and never come back after watching 10 seconds of this video, so I’m just stalling.

Okay.

Here are our 10 highlights from 2011 (in no particular order):

In case you can’t watch the video for whatever reason, here is what we covered (and a little more) in a nutshell:

#1: My Graduation

I graduated from four crazy years of college with a BA in English and a minor in Family Studies.  It felt so good to finish everything!  I was very proud of myself to graduate Summa Cum Laude after working about 25 hours a week all through college and planning our wedding.  It was no easy job, but I’m definitely not a party girl and managed to get everything done and still work out and sleep most days.  By May of this year I will be a licensed teacher since I am almost done taking the grad classes I need and will be student teaching all spring.

#2: My Bridal Shower

My maid and matron of honor put on my bridal shower which was held at my parents’ house in June.  My closest friends and family were there and we had a great time!  It was a Hawaiian theme.  The games were hilarious and the presents were seriously awesome – I was so surprised at what we were given!  I will never forget all of the support and love we had at every wedding-related event.

#3: Our Bachelor and Bachelorette Parties

We had our bachelor and bachelorette parties on the same day.  Lots of crazy randomness went on, which I don’t think we need to elaborate on, but it was all good, clean-ish fun that definitely made for many laughs and an interesting night.  Mine had a polka dot theme, which is so me and so cute!

#4: Our Wedding

I’ve probably rambled on too much about our wedding, which you can read about in detail here.  I’m not sure why we didn’t order these highlights, but the wedding was by far the best day of the year (and possibly our lives).  Some say that wedding days aren’t the best day of the year, but for us it really was.  We had been waiting five and a half years for that day, so needless to say we couldn’t wait!  Everything was perfect and we wouldn’t change a thing.

#5: Our Honeymoon

We went to Duluth for our honeymoon which is just a couple hours north of where we live now.  We had never been there and thought it was kind of close to going somewhere on the coast since Lake Superior is so large I could easily mistake it for an ocean (since I’ve never seen an ocean before).  I had been sick since a couple days before the wedding and it just got worse over our honeymoon, but Mr. CS wouldn’t let that keep us from sightseeing and eating a ton.  I would have loved to stay in bed all day watching Dish Network that our hotel room had (since we don’t have cable) – because seriously aren’t people supposed to stay cooped up in bed all day long on their honeymoon – but Mr. CS wouldn’t have it.  We’re both foodies, so our honeymoon photos mostly consist of what we ate.  Check out the video for lots more.  It was a great time to be away from work and responsibility and to just focus on each other and the promises we had recently made.

#6: Moving into Our First Home Together

Moving in together was one of the most anticipated things we did this year.  I couldn’t wait to finally get to see the love of my life every day.  We’ve loved making our little apartment more homey, but cannot wait for the day when we can move into our first owned house together.

#7: Began Exercising Together

Now that we live together, we really enjoy working out together.  We were fairly good about exercising on our own before we lived together, but now we have another person to hold us accountable and keep us motivated.  I haven’t been very good about exercising lately because school, getting ready to student teach, adjusting to married life, keeping up with this blog, and finding time to eat and sleep have wiped me out, but I’m hoping to get back on it soon.  We mostly stick to the Supreme 90 Day workouts, which I talked about in his post about Tabata Inferno.

#8: Courtney’s Baby

Since I am one of the first among my friends to get married, I only have one friend who is already married, Courtney (she was the matron of honor in our wedding).  She was almost 9 months pregnant at our wedding and had little Parker Theodore just a couple weeks after.  I was given the honor of taking some family photos (above), which you can see more of on my photography website.  I could not be happier for Courtney and Pat!  Parker is beyond adorable and looks just like Courtney which melts my heart.  He sure does not help us want to wait for kids!

#9: I Started Grad School

Grad school doesn’t feel much different than going to classes as an undergrad did because they are at the same place, but I feel kind of cool knowing I already have my degree and am going back for higher level credits.  My wallet doesn’t feel so cool, but it’ll thank me one day (I hope).

#10: Found Our Church

My hubby man’s boss invited us to church in September which we went to a few times.  We absolutely love it, but don’t love that it’s half an hour away.  After a couple months of deliberation, we decided last Sunday to make this church “our” church since we love it so much.  I was raised going to a Lutheran church and Mr. CS went to a very strict, I believe Baptist church, but we don’t feel very strongly about sticking with either denomination. The church we have decided to keep going to is non-denominational but fits our beliefs about Jesus and the Bible.  It’s catered to a younger crowd but gives incredible tell-it-like-it-is sermons that are shockingly real but make us inspired to be better people.  We love it!

So, there you have it!  This was a big year for us, but we know the years to come will be big too since we have lots of major life events we’ve been dreaming about.

What were some highlights from your year?

Beginning Family Christmas Traditions as Newlyweds

I tend to get a little too excited about most things in life, which I suppose isn’t necessarily a bad thing for me but can be a tad annoying for everyone around me.  Mr. Converse Sneakers receives extra brownie points any time I get a crazygood (by my standards) idea in my head, because he puts up with me pretty well.  Since this is our first Christmas together (as a married couple, at least), I’m sure you can imagine how beyond excited I have been.  When it comes to traditions, I cannot get enough of them, so when I came to Mr. CS with a page-long list full of Christmas tradition ideas, he won a million brownie points by getting excited, too!

In case you are interested (who am I kidding – I’ll blab and ramble on and on whether you are interested or not), here are some of our first year Christmas traditions that we hope to continue every year, especially when we have little redheaded Asian babies running around:

• Make a video of ourselves putting up the Christmas tree the weekend after Thanksgiving. See this year’s video here.
• Make a video with a recap of the year and ten things we are thankful for. This will be posted later this week.
• Drive around to look at the Christmas lights.

• Hold a Christmas family movie night. I couldn’t find all of our Christmas movies (the horror) but I’m sure they’ll show up eventually.
• Buy one present for ourselves for Christmas that will enrich our marriage in some way. This year, we’re thinking of maybe a book on marriage, a cookbook, or dance lessons.

• Buy a special ornament that symbolizes what we did that year. Read about this year’s here.

• Read Christmas stories.

• Set goals for the next year.  I’ll be posting a video of our goals before the end of the month.

• Send a holiday card. Read about this year’s Christmas card here.
• Make Christmas cookies.

• Take a family photo in front of the tree.  We didn’t plan to match the tree!

We have come up with some other traditions as well we might start doing once we have kids or maybe next year when I’m not finishing projects and taking finals the week before Christmas.  I’m so excited to be involved in making traditions and executing them and look forward to expanding and growing these traditions over the years.

What are your favorite Christmas traditions?

$9 DIY Easy-Sew Ruffled Tree Skirt

Have you seen the prices they are selling tree skirts for?  It’s insane!  I’m not a big fan of theme-y or orverly ornate tree skirts, which are logically priced higher because they involve more work.  However, even a simple tree skirt at any store I could find was at least about $50 or more.  I said, “No way, no how” and did a little thinking and searching around online.  Many bloggers have gotten crafty and have DIY-ed a tree skirt.  Mine is nothing spectacular, but I like to share what I’ve been up to, so I’ll post the details and steps.

I wanted a neutral tree skirt with a little bit of interest, so I went with a white ruffled one.  I picked up one and half yards of 90” white cotton fabric for about $8 and bought a white tree skirt at the dollar store.  $9 out of pocket – not bad!

Here is the tree skirt before:



I ripped the fabric in about 8”x90” strips and sewed the edge to make it look nicer after ironing it down.



Then, I flipped the dollar store tree skirt over so that none of the leaves would show through my white fabric and decided where I wanted the outermost ruffle to land so that it would hang over the tree skirt edge below it.



I used a pen to mark the starting point at the slit.



I then measured how far from the edge the mark was and went around the entire circumference marking the points and connecting them in a smaller circle.



I did that until I got all the way around.



Then, instead of using a basting stitch to ruffle the fabric, I simply bunched it up right as I was sewing it to save time and thread.  I would stop every few inches, scrunch up the fabric, sew, and then repeat all the way around the circle.  I used the line as a guide.  I had trouble taking a photo of it, so I just showed the ruffling part, but I really sewed it all along the line I had marked.



When finished one piece of fabric in the middle of one row of ruffles, I would add another by ruffling it with another piece so that they were slightly overlapping, making sure that the ruffles would hide the slit between the two fabric strips.

I added each inner layer by repeating all the steps.  I would measure where I wanted the next piece to lay, add marks around the circle, connect them, and sew along the line.

When I got to the outer layer, I flipped the whole tree skirt over, ruffled it and sewed it on the back side, and then flipped it through the whole back to the front and laid it flat.  I did this so there would be no visible stitches on the front, even around the small circle.

Here is the final product:



And with the tree (I had to sneak in a photo of our tree – I can’t get enough of it!):



I must say, for a couple hours of work and only $9 out of pocket, this tree skirt may be one of the best money I’ve ever spent!  I’ve been told a couple times that it looks store-bought, which I believe is a compliment.  I’m absolutely in love with it.  I hope to still have it and use it in a couple years when we can lay a little baby on there and snap away.  Can’t wait!

Have you gone the DIY route this Christmas because you can’t stand the prices stores charge for certain items?  What does your tree skirt look like?

Linking to: Centsational Girl, House of Hepworths, Bower Power

Retro-fying Our First Christmas Tree

Do you want to know what one of the first things I got excited about after Mr. Converse Sneakers proposed to me was?  Our first Christmas tree.  I love Christmas time and I love traditions even more, so the thought of celebrating our first Christmas by putting up our first Christmas tree made me giddy.  I almost wish I was kidding.

Mr. CS doesn’t get quite  as enthused about most things like I do, especially Christmas trees, but he sat next to me patiently as I showed him tree after tree anyway because he’s a wonderful husband who wants me to be happy.  I showed him some of the photos of trees and ornaments I posted my love for last week, like these two:





He seemed to like the blue and really love the Shiny Brite ornaments (without all the pink, however).  This served as our inspiration for our own tree.  A retro-fied Christmas tree.  Here’s how it turned out:



We mostly stuck to silver and blue but mixed in some other colors with our cookie cutter ornaments and some reproduction Shiny Brite ornaments we got from TJ Maxx for $12.00/pack.  The blue and silver ornaments mostly came from Target, but some came from Craigslist and garage sales (so all for very cheap).  Our tree topper also came from Target, our garland from a garage sale, our lights from Target, and our tree skirt was DIY-ed by me (more on that next week).

Here’s a close up – you can see the different blue ornaments, the cookie cutter ornaments, the Shiny Brites, and the silver ornaments.



Let’s get a better look at that Shiny Brite ornament in the lower right corner – it’s my favorite:



Ahhhh – gorgeousness!  Mixed in with our purchased ornaments we have some more sentimental ones.  We try to buy an ornament whenever we go on vacation or do something out of the ordinary (we sometimes forget or aren’t able to buy one when they aren’t selling them).  Here’s on from when we went to the MN Renaissance Festival in 2009.  We have a couple from our honeymoon and one from a trip to Galena, IL a couple years ago. 



We also started a tradition of buying a new monumental ornament every year the reflects our year in some way.  Instead of buying a bride and groom ornament since we would have to go to a specialty store for that and we thought I was a little cheesy, we bought a silver “S” to symbolize our new shared last name.




For fun, we made a video of us decorating the tree.  I’m obviously much more knowledgeable about photography than I am about videos!  Sorry about the weird orientation of the video; I completely forgot about screen ratios and whatnot so I thought we could tilt the camera vertically and it would work out fine.  I promise our next videos will fill up the whole screen!

We absolutely love looking at our first tree!  I had to take a fun bokeh photo to show that it’s our first.




So that’s our first tree!  I may have gone a little ornament-crazy but we had way more where that came from.  All the colors and bright white lights make me so happy!

What does your tree look like?  Do you do anything different from year to year?

Linking up to: Honey We're Home, My 3 Boybarians, 2805, Common Ground, Hooked on Houses, Keeping the Christmas Spirit Alive, 365, Michaela Noelle Designs, Nesting Place

DIY Christmas Cookie Cutter Ornaments

When planning for our Christmas tree, I really wanted to include something handmade on the tree.  When I saw this Martha Stewart ornament idea, I knew I had to go for it.  It involves scrapbook paper and Christmas cookie cutters, both of which are right up my alley.  Since Mr.  Converse Sneakers and I are both big foodies, cookie cutters feel right at home anywhere in our home, even on our Christmas tree.

I picked up two inexpensive sets of metal Christmas cookie cutters from Target and some Christmas-y scrapbook paper from Michaels.  We already had the thin white ribbon and tacky glue.  What a cheap project!



I strayed from the tutorial and started by tying the ribbon to the top of the cookie cutters first.  I knotted them once close to the cookie cutter and then again at the ends of the ribbon to create a big hole for them to be hung with.



As I tied the ribbon on each soon-to-be-ornament, I laid them out on the papers to make sure I would have about an even number of each ornament.  I tried to choose paper that would fit the cookie cutter shape.



After I had the ribbon an each cookie cutter, I traced them . . .



. . . and cut their shape out.



On the cutter side, I went around each cookie cutter with tacky glue.



Then I carefully added the scrapbook paper (upside down so it would show through from the other side) and let them dry.



Look how cute they turned out:



And here’s my little gingerbread buddy on the tree:



Here’s a closeup of a silver glitter polka dot mitten as well:



Mr. CS and I both love these ornaments, both because they are extremely cute and because they were made with lots of love.

Making these was a great way to de-stress before one of my major teaching tests.  I hope I passed!

Are you doing any DIY projects for Christmas this year?

Linking to: Centsational Girl, House of Hepworths, Bower Power