[looking back and looking forward]

I know it's been a few weeks since I got a new post up, and you have my sincerest apologies for the absence. Life has been a little bit busy lately, and it has even thrown us a few surprises. To be frank, I've had a lot on my mind, and just haven't had it in me to post any pictures or chat aimlessly about why I like wearing stripes or how great I think gray kitchen cabinets are.

The best is yet to come. I've wrestled a little bit with that phrase the last few weeks. As Maurice and I have trudged through the last few years of long days, late nights, and very little time in between to just stop and relax, I've found myself thinking many many times... "it won't always be like this." I reminded myself often that his masters would soon be over, work would slow down a little, and THEN maybe life would be just a little bit easier.

And in some ways, that might be true. I believe whole-heartedly that life is only going to continue to get better and better. I can feel that distinct stirring deep down in the depths of me that says that there are big things in store. But at the same time, I don't want to let that distract me from the wonderful place where we're at right now. Maurice is now just a few weeks from graduating and I keep finding myself reflecting on how hard we've both worked, how deeply we've had to trust in God, and how wonderfully He has blessed us. Not to sound cheesy, but it truly feels like it was yesterday that we packed up everything we owned, and headed for Colorado. Maurice was distracted by taking pictures when we passed the sign that said we were leaving Texas and a single big fat tear rolled off my cheek as I watched home become smaller and smaller in the rearview mirror. Leaving was hard, but Colorado has been our own little adventure, and now almost 2 years later, I'm finding it a little challenging to again be in a transition period where we're not really sure what the next step will be.

But instead of focusing on getting through this part so that we can get to the next, I'm trying to remember to take the time to enjoy this part. Driving in the mountains, bickering in the car over whether or not the GPS is right about how to get to the mountains, lazy weekends at the end of long weeks, hugging the necks of family and dear friends who come to visit, video chatting with precious nieces and nephews who are growing too quickly while we're gone, Saturday errand/shopping dates, a sweet kiss goodbye before we rush off to our days, and looking over in my car to see the sun setting behind the mountains at the end of that day... those are the things that make up our life right now, and it's a pretty sweet life.

{hi friends}

Sorry for the delay in getting a new post up. You see, my awesome twin sister, Krista, came to visit us in Colorado this past weekend, and we've been a little busy. I bet you'd think that it isn't possible to show someone all of Colorado in one weekend... but you'd be wrong... because we did.

We had the best time. No offense, but my weekend was almost definitely better than yours.

{baubles and such}

It's the beginning of another week, but it's a short week for me, and it will be followed by another short week, so I am a pretty happy girl. Here's another thing that makes me happy lately... bold and colorful jewelry.

(images via)

I love the bright colors and the sheer scale of those necklaces. I just think they're awesome. Not much else to say about it.

Here are some other things I saw from great bloggers last week that I think should be a part of your day... Fabulous K :: Perfect Pairing - Nude + Pink Recently :: Happy Finds A Fashion Love Affair :: Pink Sterling Style :: Katie Ermilio

Have a great week everyone!

{DIY sunburst mirror}

I'm finally in the process of redoing our bedroom. Not a complete overhaul, but just freshening it up a little. I was a little stuck on what I should do with it for a while, so I just started mentally collecting the pieces that caught my eye, and pretty soon, I had a complete picture of what I wanted to do. One of my absolute favorite things lately has been sunburst mirrors, and I knew early on that I wanted to make and hang one above our bed. All credit for this one goes to Centsational Girl. Buying one of these was out of the question, because a good one will cost upwards of 200 bucks. So I started doing research on how different people were making these mirrors, and her idea really jumped out at me. So this is my take on her idea.

The premise for this idea is to use paint stir sticks. That's right... the cheaply-made paint stirrers that you get for free with a can of paint and have "Home Depot" lovingly smacked across them. Here's one thing I learned as I was trekking across Denver collecting free paint sticks... Benjamin Moore makes the absolute best paint sticks. They're actually kind of awesome for what they are. So find a store that carries Benjamin Moore paint and get to schmoozing, because that's where I managed to acquire about 30 of mine.

So let's talk other supplies. Along with the paint sticks (I wound up needing 46, but it depends on the size of the mirror and I got a few extras so that I could throw out the losers of the bunch), you will also need a round mirror, mine was 8 inches, but anything in that ballpark will work beautifully. I also bought craft paint, mine were by folk art in several different shades of gold that I mixed for the shade I ultimately wanted. You'll also need an embroidery hoop that is the same size as your mirror... mine was wood, but if you buy a plastic one, just buy plastic spray paint, cause you're gonna be painting it. I bought a square wood piece (a few pictures down), and then actually bought a squared dowel that I secured to the back of the base. The reason for that was because you need it to be thick enough to screw picture hangers into, and making a border with the dowel worked perfectly. If that part doesn't make sense, just email me, and I'm happy to talk about it ad nauseam with you. Last supplies: picture hangers and either gorilla glue or wood glue. Gorilla glue foams up like crazy which I find annoying, so I used wood glue and it worked awesome. Hot glue I'm sure would also work fine.

I primed all of the paint sticks in white before adding the gold color, just to make sure that I got the color I wanted, but that's up to you if you want to do that. Also, most paint sticks have a curve in them, so I cut half of them off at the curve, and these went on the top layer. The rest are on the bottom so the curve doesn't show, and I wanted the top and bottom to be different lengths, so I only cut about half an inch off of the rest of them. I also painted the embroidery hoop to match the paint sticks.

The next step after painting and cutting down the paint sticks is to glue the mirror to the wood base, and then glue the embroidery hoop on top of the mirror. This is the one part where I used gorilla glue, because wood glue obviously wouldn't work on the mirror. You definitely want to give both of these time to set, because gorilla glue dries slower. Once the glue had dried, I secured the picture hangers to the back. Do this now, because it will be exponentially harder to do after you've finished the mirror.

After those set, you can start setting down your first layer of paint sticks until you have them arranged the way you want them. At that point, it's time to start glueing them down.

Once your first layer has set, you can start on the second layer. After those dried, I took a look over the whole thing and touched any imperfections up with a little paint.

After everything has set and dried, you are done, my friends! Hang that thing wherever your little heart desires. I couldn't be happier with how this came out (after sleeping through the first night with one eye open because I was sure that it would come crashing down on us at 3 am. it didn't.)  All in all, it cost me about $30 in supplies, and a weekend's worth of work.

It was actually a really fun weekend project, and once we get more of this room put together, I'll post what the whole room looks like after its mini-makeover.

Happy DIY-ing!

{dreaming of vacation}

These next few months are going to be really busy for us. We have lots of people coming to visit us, which we are so excited about, and in May, Maurice is graduating with his masters! I'm so proud of and excited for him, but the thing I'm most excited about, is the vacation that we are taking just a week after his graduation to celebrate that and our anniversary. We're taking a week off to go lay on the beautiful beaches of the Dominican, and I am counting down the days. But the next few months will give me lots of time to stock up on flowy maxi dresses and skirts, fun wedges, a great new swimsuit (or two, let's be honest), and other vacation goodies.

1.2.3.4.5.6 )

Lately, I've really been loving pieces that have tribal accents, and wouldn't you know, I found an awesome and cheap swimsuit that is perfect (bravo Old Navy) that I can mix and match with others that I have.

Even though the next few months will be non-stop, I'll definitely be looking forward to a great vacation!