Welcome to 2013

New year, new me?

Hardly.

“A firm decision to do or not do something”. That’s how the dictionary defines a “resolution”, seems simple enough, right?

Typically, I hate New Year’s resolutions and think they’re uber-cheesy, but this year I was inspired to make some of my own and felt like the Lord put a few things on my heart as I prayed for the upcoming year.

So here they are…in no particular order:

. . . . .

– Spend more time with people –

(Or, as our pastor once said, “get off Facebook and look someone in the face”, to which my dad literally gave an “amen” out loud during church service).

I want to be more intentional about hanging out with people. Whether it’s meeting a friend for coffee or having a conversation with Ian rather than sitting in front of the tube. Whatever it is, I need to be better at spending time with people, rather than getting all the information about friends from good ol’ FB. 1 of my best friends lives in another state, so for her it means picking up the phone and calling.

. . . . .

– Be a cheerleader –

For my husband, that is. Ian works incredibly hard, and I often take it for granted. I go to work after him and I’m home before him. He never complains about how much he has to work or that I’m home more, he just does it.

Something I am so  thankful for, but rarely show. But this year, I’m determined to be a loving, supportive wife.

. . . . .

 – Give up the phone –

I’m addicted to my iPhone.

Seriously.

Lately I’ve noticed that my phone is always  in my hand. When I wake up, while I’m getting ready, during commercials, while I make dinner, when I’m laying in bed, when I can’t fall asleep. Always.

I once heard a pastor say that the enemy is really good at keeping us distracted.

A-freakin’-men.

So much of my time is wasted by my phone. Time that I could be spending in the Word is replaced by mindlessly thumbing through Facebook. Time that I could be spending with my husband is replaced by pinning too many crafts that I don’t have time for.

You get the idea.

Less time with my phone in hand = More time to get things done.

. . . . .

– Do 1 nice thing for someone everyday –

Maybe it’s a compliment to a co-worker, buying the person behind me their coffee, or a random love note for Ian to find in the middle of his day. Whatever it is, big or small, my goal is to intentionally do something nice for someone everyday. 365 days of kindness, no excuses.

. . . . .

So there they are. 4 things that I vow to do differently in 2013.

Our 2012 Christmas Card…

Meet our 2012 Christmas card:

Did you catch that last part?

Yupp, we’re having a baby!!!

We are completely shocked, extremely joyful, and 100% trusting in God’s timing.

The first weeks were a little (OK a lot) rough and I completely feel for any woman who has ever experienced morning sickness. I used to think it was totally overrated and women were big sissies, but I’ve been humbled to say the least.
(And can I just add that I’m seriously considering sending a letter to Pinterest telling them they need a “hide all food/recipes” option? Honestly, I do not need to see your twice-baked, double-fried coconut triple chocolate cake with hazelnut frosting at 7 am when it’s all I can do to keep a piece of buttered toast down.)

But now I’m 17 weeks, (hopefully) over the morning sickness, and anxiously awaiting feeling the first flutters.

It seems to be baby season galore in this next of the woods (seriously, so many of my lady friends are preggers), which makes the fact that we’ll have babies growing up together even more exciting!

We’ll be able to find out the sex in just a few more weeks, but whether we’re going to is still up for debate. I don’t want to, Ian’s dying to know. Figures. We did agree on a name within the first couple of weeks (kind of amazing, right?), but now we’re wavering between two. Either way, I feel confident that our baby will have a name by the time we leave the hospital. That is one thing we’re keeping a secret, though! My actual due date is June 4, which makes for a very busy end of spring in our household with Ian’s birthday being May 22, mine May 25, and baby (hopefully) shortly thereafter!

The lack of posts around here can be attributed to this whole pregnancy thing. I swear, ever since getting pregnant, it’s like this baby sucked all the creativity out of me. Until recently, I’ve found myself sitting in my craft room, staring at all my supplies and having no idea what I can make.

Laaaaaame.

But Crafty Christmas is in full-force with only 24 left to craft, so I’d better get back to it, just wanted to share our exciting news with all of you!

P.S. It’s snowing on my blog and I have no idea how that happened, but thank you, WordPress!

I Hate Halloween

There. I said it. I literally hate it.

Call me crazy, but I would much rather skip past all the pumpkin-flavored coffee drinks that seem to make their way into everyones cups this time of year, and instead jump right into peppermint-goodness galore.

Don’t get me wrong, I love fall, just wish we could skip over the month of October. I will never, ever, (ever!), understand the people who decorate their house to the max in honor of Halloween. Although once we have kids, I will probably be the parent encouraging my child to go to those houses because, it’s a known fact they give out the best candy bars.

But that’s beside the point. I’m not a fan of Halloween. Never have been, probably never will be.

November can’t come soon enough, so that I can start…

decorating our front porch…

making cute gift tags…

adding a little shimmer to the home…

shopping for fun gifts…

making a DIY felt ball garland…

And hanging up our advent calendar:

| click on images for original source |

So while the rest of you prepare for Halloween, I’ll be busy readying our house for Christmas 🙂

What are you looking forward to?

It’s Official

Yupp. It’s official. You’ll be seeing more of me around here since I’m not spending every waking hour studying my rear off for this thing. But all of my hard worked paid off, and once my background check goes through, I’ll officially be a licensed broker in Oregon!

In case you didn’t know, I am officially the world’s worst test taker. No joke. I could study for hours on end and still somehow manage to second-guess myself, go back and change every answer, and fail. Miserably.

But not yesterday!

Praise the Lord that my days of studying are behind me and more (frequent) blogging is ahead!

What I’ve Really Been Up To

To say that this little corner of cyberspace has been has been neglected lately is an understatement.
I’ve somewhat abandoned it.
Not on purpose, of course, but because life has a funny way of sneaking up on you sometimes.

I guess you could say that I had an epiphany the other day, which was this:

Don’t waste life infront of your computer.

So I’m trying my best to do (or not do, however you look at it) just that.

Sure, I’ve been working on DIY projects, but tediously photographing step-by-step detailed shots is so not me.
Neither is wasting time on Pinterest when I could be spending time with Ian or out walking the dog.

Yet my readers continue to amaze me (since when are 200+ people interested in my thoughts, ideas, & design?)

And so I’m doing me best to balance life, work, and a blog.

Monday’s post was a glorified version of what I’ve been up to, but here’s a real, down and dirty version of our life lately:

This is what I came home to last Friday. We’ve been trying to leave Goose out for short periods of time while we’re gone to see how she does, and well, let’s just say she’s now lost that privilege. This was the aftermath of a small, bolster pillow. Apparently they vacuum-pack down feathers into those things. Really, truly, I just laughed. Because, let’s be honest, that is pretty funny.

I always told myself I wasn’t going to be the wife to let myself go after we got married, which is ironic because up until the last couple of weeks I could count on 1 hand how many times I’d worked out since being married. But all that’s changed thanks to this handy gadget. My Nike+ Fuel Band.
Side note: Has anyone seen the movie In Time? Because that is exactly what this reminds me of.
But in all seriousness, it’s actually pretty neat. I’m not sure how accurate it is, but who cares as long as I see the GOAL flashing at the end of the day?

Along those same lines…I’m now blading.
Don’t judge. It’s a great workout. And although I’m not quite as good as I was in 5th grade when I could blade down the steepest hill in the neighborhood, I’d say I’ve still got it in me. Ian refuses to be seen with me when I’m wearing them, though.
The first night I got them I went for a ride around the block (bad idea #1, going at night), and decided to take Goose with me and just let her run next to me (bad idea #2). Let’s just say her constant biting at my ankles and stopping infront of me every 2 seconds led to a crash. And crashing when you’re 25 is much scarier than crashing when you’re 10. The whole time I was falling I prayed, please don’t let me break a bone.
P.S. My wrist still hurts and I had gravel in my palms for like 3 days.

Are my parent’s not the most adorable couple ever? We celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary this month.

Ian came home with these for me the other day…to celebrate our 8 year and 3 month anniversary of dating. Yupp. We are the annoying couple who celebrate every month.
And I love it.
By the way, these are heavenly. It was all I could do to not eat the entire 16 ounces in 1 sitting.

Eating brussel sprouts. What? They were actually delish! Try | this | recipe!

Hiking to this amazing destination called Blue Pool. (The person who named it was really original). But seriously, this is beautiful and well-worth the 4-5 mile roundtrip hike. If you’re ever in Oregon, go here. We were, however, slightly disappointed when we got there because we thought we’d be able to jump in. But this photo was taken from the only accesible place to get in…30+ feet above the water. No. Thank. You.

Believe it or not, I have actually been working on a few projects, and I promise tutorials are coming. Here’s a sneak peek.

And finally, I really am working on getting a shop up and running! I promise it’s coming soon, so bear with me. Christmas cards are in the works. Yes, Christmas! It’s really only 4 months away when you think about it. So why not get an early start on your cards? Let’s just say the designs I’ve come up with so far involve antlers and non-traditional holiday colors.

Enjoy your weekend! And come back next week!
(I promise not to be quite so much of a slacker.)