Chevron, Glitter, and Pumpkins!

It's definitely Fall here in Amarillo, TX...or shall we say winter? I'm not too fond of the weather drastically changing from 100 degrees, to 55. HUGE change. I like slow adjustments :) It makes me happy though, I love seasons and fall is definitely one of my favorites. I love decorating for each new season/holiday. It makes it that much more fun! Since we've been in a few different apartments the past year there's not too much decorating that can take place, but I try to make it as home-y as possible. :) This year I actually started putting up my fall decorations.....at the end of July.... :) I was too excited! This week I decided to add a little more to it. I had been seeing the glitter chevron pumpkin on Pinterest and I just had to make one. So I went out to Hobby Lobby and got myself a fake pumpkin, some glitter, and paint and went to town! Loving the start of a new season!

"Waiting Upon the Lord: Thy Will be Done"

Today I read the most the perfect conference talk that was exactly what I have been needing to hear. I sometimes wonder why things haven't gone exactly the way I have always thought they would, and why we are faced with the different challanges we are faced with. After reading this talk, it was a HUGE reminder of how blessed I truly am and that the challanges that we are faced with are for our own good.

"The purpose of our life on earth is to grow, develop, and be strengthened through our own experiences." Robert D. Hales

Of course we all know this, but we sometimes forget. I am so grateful for a loving Savior who has suffered more than I can ever imagine and is there with us every step of the way. I know as I trust in the Lord and His timing, everything will work out.

4th of July

This year we celebrated the big 4th in California with my family, it was SO much fun! It's our family tradition to go up to our houseboat each year for the fourth. With our family growing it makes it real hard for us ALL to get together at once, so this is one of those times that we can all be together...and what's better than being on the lake? :)

My mom always make everything a good time..she's the most amazing woman I know. & when it comes to the food at the lake, we eat like king's. My mom is always making some sort of amazing smoothie (hers are better than Jamba, they're that good) We'll wake up to breakfast already ready, go out for a morning run on the boat, and come back to lunch already prepared. Seriously, she makes it the ultimate. She never ceases the fail with her amazingness.

The lake puts on a firework show each year which is so fun to watch from the boat. This year because the 4th fell on a Wednesday they did the fireworks a day early and it wasn't as crowed as normal, which was kind of nice.

This was on our boat ride over to the other side of the lake to watch the fireworks. It was so gorgeous outside.

It was a great time, sad that it went by so fast. While we were there we made a trip up to Yosemite, it was Greg's first time, so I'll post about that one later!

The Lucky One...

Just a few weeks ago Greg and I celebrated our ONE year anniversary! I cannot believe how quick time flies, it feels like just yesterday we were walking out of those temple doors. I can honestly say, I am THE luckiest girl in the world. I can't believe how blessed I am to have the most amazing man in my life, for eternity. I look back on this past year and it's filled with SO many great memories. We've moved three different times since we've been married...crazy, there is definitely never a dull moment with us. :) He is my best friend, he knows me better than I know myself sometimes. I love that I fall in love with him more and more each day. He treats me like a princess, he is the absolute sweetest to me, and I know he is going to be the best dad ever! It's such a great feeling knowing you always have someone right by your side, no matter what. I couldn't have found someone more perfect for me. This year we have been blessed to be able to travel, a TON. We've had some pretty amazing trips! For our anniversary he took me to Vegas and we stayed in the Venetian. SO fun! I've been to Vegas many times, but this took the cake! First of all, the hotel was gorgeous, we got to see the Phantom of the Opera..which truly was amazing. I can't describe how awesome it was, the detail was unbelieveable.

We ate LOTS of yummy food, at all of our favorite spots :)

did a TON of walking, which is expected..and great for burning off all those calories. ;) We got a couples massage, wow, let's just say when the hour was up we both were wanting more...nothing better than a good massage. We loved walking through all the hotels, it's so fun to see how the decorations change at the different times of year.

And of course, we did some shopping. He's such a trooper. We've had the best year and I'm so excited for the many years to come. It only gets better with him. Love you so much babe!

Ruffle Pillow Tutorial

So a while back I saw a pillow at Pier 1 and LOVED it. Unfortunetly, it was kind of a little more than I wanted to spend...but I decided that I'd try and just re-create it.

Here's Pier 1's pillow, cute right?
(Don't get your hopes up too high, this one still is cuter than mine ;)

I found some fabric that was similar to the one above, and I'm pretty sure I got it at Walmart for like 2 bucks a yard, so really cheap.

*First thing first, you need to cut out a TON of strips. Depending on how wide you want your ruffles will determine about how wide you cut them. I think I did mine about 2-2.5 inches wide. Keep in mind you'll need a rotary cutter for this, it'll make it SO much easier. (When I did this project I cut all the strips by hand using pins to try and cut a straight line :/ it takes forever this way) So don't be cheap like me and just a get a rotary cutter and board. They're not too expensive.

Sorry I didn't take any pictures of these steps.

*Next step, after you've cut out all your strips (you should have a pretty big pile) you're going to want to make sure you still have enough fabric that you can cut out two squares the same size of your pillow and add about an 1-1.5 in. extra on each edge for your seam allowance.

*Now that everything is cut out, what I did was de-fray for a lack of a better word, my strips. I didn't want them to fray so I just got a lighter and lighty moved the strip across the flame. You can use a candle as well. I did this to all my strips.

*This is how I began pinning my ruffles to my piece of fabric. I started at a corner and just pinned them in place to create a ruffled look. Because my fabric wasn't the same on both sides I couldn't just continue looping it around. I had to cut it off at each end that I reached. If that makes sense.

*After it was pinned in place, I just sewed right up the top of the ruffle.
-It should start to look like this:

*Continue doing this until you've done all four corners.

*From here you're just going to start your fabric going in a cicular pattern around the middle.
-Like this, and just keep it going til' you've finished it off:

*Once you've got all of your ruffles sewn on the front now you want to attach the back to the front. For this, all you'll do it flip both fabrics inside out and sew them together, keeping in mind to keep a space open on one of the sides. Reason for this is so you can flip it back to the right side out and stuff your pillow in.

It's finished! Here's a close up of the finished product:

Here it is:

This pillow is actually easier than it may look. It's a little time consuming, but it looks great when you're finished!
-Something I might change for next time would be to get a fabric that is the same on both sides so you can create a continued ruffle look for the whole pillow. And I'd also do my strips a little wider for a fluffier look.

Sewing Projects

I have been wanting to make a baby blanket for so long for my sister-in-law, Jamie, and since I was already in the "sewing mode" I made a few other things. I went with the whole yellow and gray theme. (love these colors)

I created my own little fabric tags

I made my own chevron fabric out of stripe fabric. I couldn't find any soft minky fabric with chevron print already, so I created my own! A little bit of a headache at first, but once I figured it out it was a breeze!

I made this cute yellow and gray diaper clutch, super easy:

Another fabric tag I created

Sewed some fabric to the center of some burp cloths. Simple and easy way of sprucing these up a bit!

Found this adorable chevron sleeper on clearance at Old Navy, had to get it!

And I wrapped it up in this :)

I had so much fun doing this! I've learned that I LOVE to sew :)

Fun Trip to Utah

We went to Utah a couple of weekends ago it was so much fun to see family and friends! We were excited that we got to see my brother Blake, since he lives up in Salt Lake we decided we'd take advantage of our time up there and check out the new City Creek Mall, WOW can you say amazing? It was so much fun, I could spend days there! We walked around the temple grounds, it is so beautiful this time of year with all the beautiful flowers.

Me & my brother Blake. Love him so much!

Me & my sweet boy.

I was so excited we picked a perfect weekend to be there because it was my sister-in-laws baby shower. She looks absolutely adorable! She's due the first part of July and we can't wait to meet their cute little guy!

I have been wanting to make Jamie a baby blanket for SO long it seems, so I finally made my first attempt at a baby blanket, and well since I was already on the sewing kick I decided to do a few more things. :)

The only thing I can't claim is the cute chevron sleeper. Isn't it adorable?

I'll post more pictures of what I made later.

We also got to see Shelby and Trygve! We went to The Chocolate on State St. in Orem...WOW, they have some dang good pizookies. :) Mmm. I wished we would have taken a picture, but instead we can just drool over this amazing looking pizookie!

All in all, it was an amazing trip!