Sew Easy

I recently borrowed my sister-in-law's sewing machine to sew some curtains for our home. I was tired of our bare windows and really wanted to add some color and pattern & soften the look of our rooms up a bit with some fabric! I was pretty motivated to sew our curtains myself because a) it's more economical and b) I am not limited by the curtain selection I can find in a store, and I can choose any fabric I want and any style my heart desires! I was extremely inspired by mistreatments by The Nester, so I set off to find the perfect fabric. I found two perfect patterns, a paisley and a stripe, that complemented each other well and shared a similar color palette, which was important because we have two sets of windows in one large open great room. I wanted to use a different fabric in our kitchen bay window than on our living room window. After a tutorial from my sister-in-law, I was off and sewing for the first time since junior high home ec!

I must come clean for you Nester fans. I didn't execute in true Nester form because I decided to sew. The fabric I selected seemed to fray easily, so I decided to be safe rather than sorry and put in some hems. I also wanted to give the pleated curtain some added structure for the pleats, so I backed the paisley fabric with a liner.

I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was and how quickly I was able to finish the project!

For our kitchen bay window, I sewed one long panel, then I folded evenly measured overlapping pleats and used a clip ring on the overlapped material.


I then ironed each pleat to give it a crisp edge.

I didn't want to sew each pleat in because it allows me much more versatility in the future! If we move down the road or I want to use the panel differently, I have one long piece of fabric to work with and can adjust the curtain to any window or style if I want or need to make a change. I was really happy with how it turned out and got exactly the look I was going for!


I used the striped fabric to make some basic vertical panels that pool in the floor for our living room window.


The overall look! (Please excuse the *mess* of cords in the floor!!!)

I wish that we had better natural lighting in our house for photos so you could get a more true idea of the colors. But, I appreciate the natural shade of the trees and porch to help shield us from the hot Texas sun! I absolutely adore both of the fabrics and love how they bring out the blue and green shades of paint on our walls! It's amazing how much homey-er a room feels with the simple addition of curtains!

Sesame & Lilies

I am in love. While we were wandering around the downtown shops of Cannon Beach, Oregon, I found this shop tucked away behind the shops along the main street. I *adore* every last little thing about this fabulous shop! It had the perfect mix of elegant, vintage, chippy, European, and white with pops of color. I love the artful displays. I love the worn and well loved furniture and tables filled with little treasures. I love the shelves and shelves of colorful fabric, florals, and beautiful old china. I love the style and the coziness. It was all just so....me. I could have spent hours just taking it all in. I just had to take pictures so I could enjoy it all again when I got home. There was so much inspiration tucked into every nook of this shop.

If you ever find yourself on the Oregon Coast, in the little seaside town of Cannon Beach, you shouldn't miss this hidden gem!

Tilikum & the Big Swing

We have spent the last few days at the Tilikum Retreat Center in Newberg, Oregon, about an hour outside of Portland. We were attending a retreat with Campus Crusade for Christ and enjoyed the time to connect with other new staff who are currently raising up ministry partners for their team. It was a sweet time of rest, relaxation, training, and connecting with each other and the Lord.

Tilikum is nestled among orchards and hillside vineyards of the Willamette Valley and was a perfect spot to enjoy nature when we weren't in sessions! Tru and I took a canoe out on the lake one afternoon to enjoy the quiet peacefulness of the lake and the trees. One of our favorite activities was "The Big Swing." A more adventurous, grown-up version of the favorite swing set pastime we loved as kids. Remember when you would ask your mom or dad to pull you back on the swing and send you flying, pushing you higher and higher? Well, at Tilikum, you do just that on a giant version that lets your toes touch the leaves high in the trees. (Oh, and it's not your mom & dad doing the pushing!) What could be better than flying through the air with the breeze in your hair and on your face, but with no exertion required?
(Check out my hubby's face in this last picture. You can click it to enlarge. Do you think he was having fun?!)

Truman headed off to a conference in California this morning and I fly back to Texas at the crack of dawn tomorrow morning! As soon as I can get settled back in at home, I plan to work on putting together some pictures of our time in Portland!

Happy 1st Anniversary!

Yesterday was our one year anniversary and I wanted to take a minute and share a few of our wedding pictures! The day was full of such joy and looking at our wedding pictures holds sweet memories. One year ago today we were married and two years ago we "met." That was the day I saw the face of the man I was going to marry. Many of you don't know our story...we met on eHarmony while I was living in Denver and Truman was living in Austin. We e-mailed and talked on the phone for two months before we met in person (Truman was on a mission trip), were engaged four months later on our 7 month dating anniversary, and married almost a year to the day that we were "matched." They say (whoever "they" are) that "when you know, you know." We definitely knew.

This past year has held so many special memories for us as husband and wife and I am so thankful for the blessing that Truman has been in my life! He challenges me, encourages me, laughs with me, wipes my tears, serves me, cares for me, makes me laugh and adds so many other blessings to my life. Before I was married, I thought that there was a "club" of sorts that only married people belonged to. Now that I've experienced marriage myself, I know that I was right. After so many months of only seeing each other for long weekend visits every 4-6 weeks, being able to share the little things in life this past year has been so fun and such a blessing to us. Eating dinner together, running errands, laying on the couch to read or watch a movie, exploring new places...even daily routine has been full of laughter and memories for us. We haven't had a lot of "normalcy" in our life as we've been on the road and in transition for most of the year, and we are looking forward to even more daily routine in the year to come. There have been the challenges of learning to love one another sacrificially as husband and wife, learning a new culture, and all of the "newness" that comes along with beginning a new life as one, but we know that there isn't anyone else we'd rather be doing this journey of life alongside. And, we are laughing a LOT along the way.

Last night, as part of our one year anniversary celebration, we watched our wedding video. It brought both laughter and happy tears and was a sweet reminder of the vows we've made to one another and the joyous love that we have as husband and wife. We had a wonderful evening celebrating the first year of our marriage. We are having a fabulous time here in Oregon and I can't wait to share more pictures and stories from our trip!

Leaving on a Jet Plane

Tomorrow is our one year wedding anniversary! We have a conference to attend near Portland next weekend, so we decided to head out to Oregon a few days early to celebrate our first year of marriage. We will be spending two nights at a B&B on the Oregon coast followed by two nights at a B&B in the city of Portland. Two days of relaxation followed by two days of exploring a fun city sounds like a perfect combination to me! I'll be sure to post pictures and reviews of our trip when we get back.

As I think back over this past year, one thing that characterized our first year of marriage was travel! With all of the ministry travel we've done in the last year, we have definitely been on the road more than we've been home, so in honor of our first anniversary, I thought I would share the collection of state line signs that we've accumulated over the last year. At least once, I missed the sign and my sweet husband exited, turned around, and went back so that we could document another state that we'd driven through. (I'll spare you the duplicates since there are several states that we passed through multiple times.) Starting with the week after our honeymoon, we crisscrossed the map, driving from:

Ohio to Texas
Texas to Arizona
Arizona to California
California to Colorado
Texas to Arkansas & back
Texas to Florida & back
Texas to Oklahoma & back
Texas to Ohio & back

Here is our collection of state sign photographs...with a couple scenic shots of things we saw flying by outside our window...

Back from the Retreat

I was really hoping to post before we headed out of town on Wednesday morning, but as usual, the week was busy and time got away from me! We were busy visiting with out of town friends and house hunting in preparation for their move to Austin this summer. I'm sorry! The good news is, there are fun pictures ahead catching you up on all that we've been working on around here! First though, I wanted to share where we've been the last few days!

We got back late tonight from a 3 day retreat we took at a lake in the Texas hill country just outside of Austin. We spent time with our Campus Crusade for Christ Ethnic Student Ministry team evaluating this past year of ministry with Asian American and Latino students at the University of Texas, praising God for the students who gave their lives to Christ, grew in their faith as disciples of Christ, and learned how to share their faith. We also began planning for next school year and developing our vision of what we are trusting God to do on campuses in and around Austin next year in the lives of students.

This time was sweet because we joined together the current team with several of the new staff that will be joining us next year. We have 9 "new" staff members coming from across Texas and the US to join our team this fall!

We were so blessed to be offered a few days at a comfortable lake house with beautiful views and awesome meeting space where the 13 of us could gather! Windows and a deck stretched across the back of the house overlooking the lake. Check out these views!


On an entirely different note, I am almost giddy to say that tonight will be our last with boxes stacked as nightstands, clothes stacked across the floor and in boxes, and our pillows falling into the crack between the mattress and the wall! We moved into our house in November, and our bedroom has been a mess of disorganization and makeshift storage ever since. Tomorrow, our new bedroom furniture will be arriving! Tuesday is our one year anniversary, and I think it's high time that we have a relaxing, romantic retreat to call our own! I'm off to sleep for the last night in our room as we know it, with sweet dreams of the transformation that will take place tomorrow...

Lucky Day!

It seems today is a lucky day for me! I found a great loveseat on Craigslist for cheap that will add needed seating to our living room, our wedding album arrived in the mail (it's beautiful!) AND I won a blog give-away from the Nester! A super cute black and white fabric garland kit that I can’t wait to receive so I can check out how she makes them and create my very own. The Nester has fabulous, creative and inexpensive decorating ideas and fun life stories (with a sense of humor that has been known to make me laugh out loud)….I read her blog on a regular basis.

I feel very lucky to have won! I don't think I've won much other than $50 from a Kit Kat bar when I was around age 4 and $94 from a radio station when I was in junior high. Both of those were quite awhile ago!

If you found my blog through the Nester’s post, welcome! And thanks for visiting!

I have been *bu-sy* around here and I've been working on some fun projects. I'm looking forward to sharing some of them later this week! (Hopefully before we head off to a ministry retreat on Wednesday.) Stay tuned!