Crafting/Cooking While Babysitting

Today I felt ambitious to try out a few more things while I was spending the day with Collier. Some of them good and some of them a total fail! I decided last night that I had some crafts I wanted to do for my table scape for summer/Father's Day lunch with the fam. I also wanted to try and create something for my brother-in-law for his first Father's Day gift. So Collier and I ventured out to Hobby Lobby to pick up a few things. 

Here are what I created today....

Finished product! I found this on Pinterest and it was super easy to make! 

Next I attemped to make this....

and got this....

 so I moved on and tried with the foot for something and settled for this....

It's the thought that counts right??

When Collier went down for his nap I moved on to another activity. My mother-in-law had shown me one of these that she found in a store so I decided to try it myself. I had a roll of burlap ribbon leftover from the last wreath I made so I figured why not try. I mean they are most definitely not perfect but hey they look cute!

We are hosting Father's Day Lunch for my family and Tommy's parents on Sunday so I made 11 of these in NO time! 

Lastly here is what's for dinner! From Mix and Match Mama

Jalapeno Popper Enchilada Casserole

And just a cute little video I was able to catch today...Collier is rolling over (only from back to front but too cute!)

Happy Wednesday!

Just what I needed today

Now that it's sweet summertime I have more flexibility in my schedule. A friend of mine asked if I wanted to join her on Tuesday mornings for a bible study series through our church this summer and I have been wanting to do a study for awhile now. It just came at the right time and it's about none other than how to say no/yes in the right times. The book states "It's easy to think that our daily yes and no decisions aren't all that important, but over time, they can add up: The decisions we make dictate the schedules we keep; the schedules we keep determine the life we live; the life we live determines how we spend our soul- and how we spend our soul matters." This was profound to me. 

 As you can tell from my blog, I manage to keep us very busy and a lot of the time sometimes over committed. The season of life that we are in with many of our friends getting married lends us to having events constantly. Sometimes it is OK to say no but I have a really hard time with that. I'm not just referring to wedding events but to every other invitation that comes our way. I knew this series would be good for me to hear. Today was our first session and it was great! There was a room full of probably close to 50 women who are probably struggling with similar things to me whether it's saying "no" to playdates, showers, dinners, etc. Not just because you don't want to go but because as someone said in the session today "if you don't leave any time in your schedule you won't be able to see God working and he doesn't have a chance to speak to you." This spoke volumes to me. I seem to schedule up our nights and our weekends to a point where we don't even have time to spend just the two of us. It's a double-edged sword. I love to be social to see our friends and family but I also crave down time. I need to make this more of a priority in my life so that I can see what life unfolds in the slow times too. 

Not only was the session today what I needed to hear but I'm also reading "Carry on, Warrior" by Glennon Melton. She is very candid about her life experiences and the struggles she has gone through. The part of the book today I read through really resonated with me about hope. I actually finished the book today. Both readings and hearing from the women at church and reading Glennon's stories I felt rejuvenated and hopeful that I too have some growing to do with God this summer. This summer is fairly calm considering how the past few months have been for us and I look forward to learning more through the sessions to come. It was just what I needed today. 

Weekend Recap

We had another busy weekend but it was great!

Friday night our friends, the Mitchlers, hosted a cookout. I made broccoli Mac and cheese from skinny taste and strawberry cake (thanks Jessica for the recipe!). We grilled burgers and had a relaxing night hanging out on their rooftop. 

Saturday morning we drove to Conters for our tennis match. It was HOT but we played well. Tommy and I won 6-1 6-0. We boogied home to shower so we could meet up with friends at Top Golf. We made it on time so Tommy was impressed with my quick to get ready skills! Our friends, Tyler and Andrew Maxey, came in town for the weekend. We had a great time. It wasn't too crowded because I'm sure everyone is at their pools now that it's summer. 

After top golf we came home for a few hours to relax. I did these shirts for a girl I went to college with. 

These were definitely a learning experience as you have to take the pocket slightly off to monogram then see it back on. They turned out great! I did 11 of them. 

Saturday night we had a stock-the-bar shower for Caroline and Drew. Some of their college friends threw the shower and hosted it at their house. They have a great backyard for a party. They catered with BBQ 1. We played yard games and hung out til after midnight. 

(Love this picture of these four who have been friends for many many years. The ones on either side of Tommy were his best men, Andrew and Tyler) 

A good portion of those that were at the party. It was a lot of fun and nice to see so many friends from near and far!

Sunday we slept in and then I had a shower for my friend, Meghan. She is getting married to my high school buddy, Colin, in August at the same place we got married. Her mom threw a great bridal shower at her home!

All the wives/fiances of the Mathieson house roommates. Me, Meghan getting married in August, Caroline also getting married in August, and Kyle who got married in March. 

We rounded out our busy weekend with dinner at the new Pure Taqueria near us. We went with my sister, Brett, Collier and their friends Kelly and Andrew with their baby girl, Sadie. It was delicious and is an awesome new space! 

Busy as usual. Looking forward to a quieter week this week. I'm starting my three weeks of alternating days with my mom watching collier as my sister goes back to work. I survived day one! 

Cooper enjoyed having Collier with us all day! 

Friday favorites

Today I'm linking up with Narci, Andrea and Erika for Friday favorites. 

This was my first full week of summer break so I had lots of favorites!

1. I went to visit a friend of mine from college to meet her new bundle. Rhett is almost four weeks old and Casey looks great. I was too busy catching up that I never took a picture so I stole this one from her Instagram from today! 

And I made this onesie for him for football season. 

It was great to see her and get some quality time catching up on life lately. 

2. I went to Ecco with my college girlfriends for dinner and we had a great time. Always lots of laughs with these ones!

3. A summer favorite is being able to have impromptu lunch dates with Tommy. 

4. Babysitting my nephew is always a favorite! We watched him Tuesday night so my sister and her husband could go out for their anniversary. 

5. Summer days mean being able to hang out with my mom but a bonus this week was that Bonnie is still on maternity leave and the twins are both in Athens so we drove to Athens for lunch with all my siblings and my mom. Definitely my all-time favorite!! We went to our fav route place, Last Resort! 

6. Supper club is a monthly favorite of mine. This month Christy hosted for a margarita and Mexican themed night! We had a great night just catching up and enjoying each other's company! 

7. Summer break also means I have time to meet my mom in the mornings to walk the dogs at the river. Seeing Cooper's smiling face when he gets to go swimming is the best! 

And it makes for a very tired dog the rest of the day!

8. lastly from this week, having time to enjoy embroidering things for friends. Here are a few items I did this week. 

Looking forward to spending my day with my friends Catherine and Lindsey and their little ones at my pool. Miss not having them at work with me anymore but so thankful to have kept up these friendships since they became moms. They are two of the best people! (Their kiddos are pretty great too!) 

Garage organization

This summer there are a lot of areas in my house that need organizing and so first up was the garage. We moved in 18 months ago in stages and in the process our garage became a dumping grounds. The shelves were already there for storage but the way we were putting things away was not the best use of space. So here are the before and after pictures. 

I went to target and grabbed some small and medium sized containers. I labeled each container with what was inside. The top shelf is pretty much all boxes of books from my classroom that needed a storage space. Now we can move around the garage without bumping into things. I feel SO much better now that this is done!

Next up, linen closet! 

1st Anniversary

Yesterday we celebrated our first wedding anniversary! May 31, 2014, was the best day ever! We got married at Peachtree Presbyterian Church and our reception was at Summerour Studios! It was a day filled with family and friends from near and far. I can't believe it's already been a year!

We have done so much this past year between vacations, friends weddings, becoming an aunt/uncle, thrown wedding and baby showers, changed jobs, gotten promotions and so much more. I couldn't imagine experiencing all these things without Tommy by my side. He is my best friend and brings so much love and joy into my life. I am so grateful for our relationship! 

We celebrated by going up to Dahlonega to visit the Wolf Mountain Vineyard. They have a brunch on Sunday's that changes monthly. This month's theme was sparkling white wine and seafood. The food was fantastic! We will definitely be going back. After brunch, we went to the tasting room to enjoy a flight of five wines for a tasting. The wine was good and the views were wonderful. It's set at the top of a mountain and you can see for miles. I can imagine in October it's beautiful with the colors changing. After the tasting we walked the property once the rain stopped to see what else they had to offer. We had a wonderful afternoon enjoying it just being the two of us. 

Here are some pictures from Wolf Mountain:

(Finally wore my new dress. In love!)

(View of the wedding venue they have on the property from the main building)

(It was a busy place yesterday!)

(Their wedding venue)

(Looking back up to the main restaurant and tasting room)

When we got home we spent our Sunday evening relaxing with our favorite buddy. We rented "Unbroken" and ate some of the BBQ our friend Evan sent us for our anniversary (Friday I came home to this huge box of BBQ and fixings on our doorstep. If you know my husband this was the best gift ever!). I made some banana bread with some bananas that were about to go bad and called it a night. It was a perfect day with my favorite person!

Big loaf is plain banana bread and mini loafs I added chocolate chips. Yummy!

(The drawer full of BBQ and fixings. I laughed out loud when I opened it)

And lastly, since year one is the anniversary for paper, I got tommy our first dance song typed out and framed to add to our buildings and he didn't know about the paper thing so I got some beautiful flowers. 

Excited for what God has in store for year 2 and the many years after that!