This past week in snapshots.

Love Notes from my students // Yummy leftovers in the sun 

 Half-price loot from the bookstore! // Half price loot from the grocery store. Score!

Cafe Au Lait by my under-desk coffeemaker //  Hubby "roasting" peppers with a butane torch. HA! 

(At least I know he likes his Christmas present..)

Sushi feast for date night :) Avo Lobster Roll // Avo Eel Roll. Obviously, we like our Avocado :)

And last but not least,

captured via the webcam at work, and enlarged because I'm in mourning:

My phone is now held together by packing tape. 

Sad way to begin a friday :(

Awkward and Awesome

Awkward

• Taking out the garbage late at night-time in my jammies and a pair of pumps, since those were the only shoes I could find. OOOOooof course the neighbors were outside and beheld the entire spectacle. Perfect.
• Finding {yet another} pin on the guest room carpet. With my big toe.
• Trying to keep up with Husband's workout video. OH my GOODNESS that was awful; I spent a lot of the workout laying on the carpet trying hard not to lose my breakfast. Side note: Proud shout-out to the husband right now for keeping on this super-intense (yes that is the technical term) workout program for a  month straight. Seven days a week, at least an hour a day. And he does it at 6 a.m. AND still makes me breakfast afterwards.
• Admitting to the internet that I'm (I can't believe that I'm about to say this) already hard at work on our Christmas cards (I know I know!). It's not even April yet. This is embarrassing. Although, I am pretty excited to be able to send out cards this year (didn't have my act together last year; it was like a present to myself to be project-free after the wedding).
• The rate at which we go through Orange Juice. I wouldn't be so concerned if husband helped me polish it off, but it's all me. I guess it's one of my spiritual gifts, OJ consuming.

Awesome

• Losing track of time while spending the evening with friends, then suddenly realizing that somehow it's 3 a.m. and we're still in the hot tub. Yay for Saturdays: I don't have to go to work tomorrow ;)!
• Although husband will be leaving me AGAIN this weekend (for another bachelor party! He's got too many engaged friends haha), I've got some fun things planned for my alone time. Part of it involves a jewelry DIY (IF my dang package will get here!). I can't wait.
• Goat cheese and peanut butter on an everything bagel. Dude.
• Just one more week until EASTER WEEKEND! We are spending Easter with my side of the family, and I could NOT be more excited to see them. We haven't all been together for an actual holiday since... a long time. In honor of this reunion, here are a compilation of family photos. Gotta love it.

Hawaii, 2007

Christmas 2008

Christmas 2009

Oregon, 2009

Oregon 2011 (yes, my brother is wearing a blond wig)

Anything awesome or awkward happen to you this week? Do tell! 

Love is...

Lately, my heart has been so full that it feels like it should BURST. I cannot believe how lucky I am to be experiencing a love like the love of my husband. He's so good to me.

And then, we are NOT perfect; we fight all the time about stupid stuff (sorry hubster, the cat's outta the bag on this one). That's okay and normal and understandable, since it seems to be human nature to be snappy around the people with whom we are the most comfortable (what is that all about, seriously? But it's totally true). But we choose to love through it.

The Bible mentions a bunch of times how the love of a husband should be like the love of Christ for the church (aka the body of believers, aka us, Ephesians 5:25). 

I always thought it was an exaggerated metaphor, or some lofty unintelligible goal (or just pretty words). Now that I'm married, that seriously BLOWS. MY. MIND.

If this is what love feels like from a flawed and fallen (but still pretty great!) person, whoa. His love for me is merely an echo of the love of God.

 I can't even begin to imagine how amazing the love of God must feel like. 

Photo by Jessica Fairchild Photography

Like, WhOa.

easy-peasy lace top // diy

 Happy Monday, lovelies! I hope you had a fantastic weekend--I sure did! My two highlights were Hunger Games with Friends and then Mad Men premiere with husband--two much-anticipated events in our household. Both delivered according to expectations :) 

But now, lace :)

A couple months ago, I fell in love with a lace top by Yellow Suitcase Studio on Pinterest (where else?), and I knew I HAD TO MAKE IT. It looked so easy, and I couldn't believe she had made her top out of an old lace curtain (click through to see her version, it's pretty darn cute and comfy-looking!).

I'll admit that I went to vintage shops a couple times specifically to look for lace tablecloths and curtains to refashion, but alas, it was not to be. Either people in Santa Barbara do not like having lace in their homes, or they don't donate it.

And this, my friends, is what inspired husband to let me free in the fabric store last week :). Bless his little heart.

Folding the lace in half, I took a shirt I liked and cut out a rectangles of lace that would generously accommodate the shirt (I cut through both layers at the same time).

I lined the shirt almost along the bottom of the lace, since I'd be using its pretty finished edge as my bottom hem. Less work for me, and I love that :).

Next, I folded the rectangles in half (so four layers, now) and cut around the shirt, leaving LOTS of wiggle room:

I separated the front and back and cut out a neckline (following another shirt I liked) while each was still folded.

I pinned together the two layers of the lace and sewed the side hems closed (a harder feat than it sounds, since the lace didn't like to hold the pins; I'm still finding pins in my carpet... ouch!). I had intended to do french seams like Michelle had done, but since I had copied the pattern of a knit shirt with quite a bit of stretch to it, there wasn't quite enough of fabric for it to still fit.

I also tried doing a bias hem around the neckline and armholes, but since I was kind of winging this project, I didn't realize that cutting a hem on the bias (so the threads make X's rather than squares) was what made the bias hem work! D'oh! You live and learn. I know now how to do it right for next time :)

Sorry for the awkward picture, but we were in such a hurry to get to the movie theater that we barely remembered to snap a picture. But there 'ya have it.

It took a LONG time to figure out how to make my machine tolerate sewing through lace, but once that was all worked out, the whole project took about an hour and a half. That, plus a little less than a yard of fabric, makes for a relatively simple afternoon project :)

Also, if you haven't voted on the poll in this post yet, I'd love your input! Let me know what you think.

This week on my iPhone

Husband enjoying Mad-Men inspired libations // Serving tray project in progress

Swanky hat shop downtown // "Happy Friday to me" cocktail

 

Daffodils set up camp at the Supermarket. Springtime is definitely here!

Date night for appetizers and fruity sangria. Yay!

Surreal clouds // Weekday beach walk

 

Display cases at Xanadu* // I hide coffeemakers under my desk at work. :)

*Xanadu=recently reopened after a fire burned it down a few years ago. The lady who owns it is the sweetest woman, and all their food is to DIE for (they have real food, too, but the pastries are prettiest)!

Lace Inspiration--and I need your input!

I love lace. It's the best. So when husband gave me free reign in the fabric store, I ran immediately to the lace section. Sure, most of it looked like it belonged on a bridal veil or in a Quensenara dress {nothing wrong with that, of course; it's just not what I'm going for}, but I was able to find some fabulous bolts.

{Which I'm keeping secret until I've finished my projects. But one's silver and the other's black, and they're both delicious. Ohmagoodness}

I'm already hard at work on a project with the silver hunk of lacy-goodness I snagged, but I've got big plans for the second roll of black fabric: 

Confidential via Shabby Apple  //  Alice via Shabby Apple

Malt Shop via Shabby Apple  //  Love me Do via Shabby Apple

 BCBG via Bloomingdales  //  Diane Von Furstenberg via Bloomingdales 

We'll see how this goes. The lady at the fabric store bestowed upon me a sewing-project pearl of wisdom: "Sewing projects always turn out well; they just might not be exactly what you planned in the beginning". So there's that!

But anyway, here's where you come in! I canNOT decide which style I like better! Help me out; which dress should I mimic? (you can pick more than one!) Keep in mind that my lace fabric is black.

With the lace I don't use for the dress, I'm thinking of something like these:

via Gap (similar via Urban Outfitters) // via de.dawanda

The shorts are highly unlikely, but the scarf is a definite possibility. I've had my eye on that one for months. 

Happy voting, friends!

Shared here,

Awkward and Awesome Thursday!

Short one today, but there's still plenty of Awkward and Awesome in my life to go around:
Awkward

~one~

That look that is exchanged between you and the other car at a four way stop when you both try to go at the same time. Your look says "oh no, brother, it's totally my right-of-way; that's right you get to wait". Unfortunately, his look always says the same thing. Then there's that awkward game of chicken when we both feel self-righteous and the other person is TOTALLY in the wrong... This is my everyday (except for roundabouts; why on earth am I the only person in town who knows how to use those things?!).

~two~

An email chain, eighteen emails long, between a furniture distributor and me. Yes, miss furniture lady, I know I can't order replacement parts, I want to order the chair from you. Yes, the whole chair. Yes, the same chair we've been talking about for two months. Since husband works in customer service (and I therefore hear all the horror stories!), I try to be really nice to people who are on the end of the help line, but this was getting ridiculous. Finally, my boss and I just took apart the original chair and fixed it ourselves. Sheesh.

Awesome

~one~

Husband dropping me off at the fabric store on the way home from the lake this weekend. He went to costco and gave me 30 minutes of free reign!!!!! THEN, he brought dinner home with him the next night so I could keep working on the project I had started. Be still my beating heart! 

~two~

Finally starting to put together our honeymoon album! Sure, it was more than six months ago, but I've got a Blurb coupon so I'm glad I procrastinated ;). Looking back on all those tropical pictures (plus the fact that the swimsuit I've had my eye on for so long has finally arrived at my door), has me yearning for another vacation :)

~three~

This picture, which arrived in my inbox on Tuesday afternoon: 

Cold, cold husband

The air conditioner at Hubby's work broke and started uncontrollably spitting out freezing cold air for three days straight. He said it was 50 degrees inside the office the first day, so he came prepared on the second day with two sweatshirts, gloves, wool socks, and a scarf! Oh and his nerdy headset. Gotta love that.

The Lake House

 My title refers of course to the family's lake cabin, not the Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves movie we all love to hate. We went to the lake this weekend! It was windy and rainy and cold and altogether lovely.

Foggy drive up!

We got there and the rain gutter was hanging off the house and water was pouring everywhere. We had seriously JUST fixed the dang thing the last time we were up here!!! Grr. Never ending. Poor hubby had to figure out a way to fix it in the pouring rain.

I made quiche for breakfast. We had the same two meals the entire weekend: Quiche and Vegetable Chowder. We were somehow okay with this.

We played lots of cards

We said hello to the neighbors...

...and the other neighbors.

It snowed in the Mountains! That's pretty much as good as it gets as far as snow around here, so it's pretty exciting.

Dreamy :)

And for making it through the grueling recap photos of the weekend, you get an awkward peek at my "awesome" dip-dyed t-shirt. It didn't come out as planned, but I still love it anyway.