Catching Up & Taking a Breath

I don't know about you, but the past month and a half have been so busy for us! Between making Christmas gifts (I'll have to do some posts on what I made - I'm proud of myself :)), traveling to see our family, packing, moving, and unpacking, I feel like I'm just now taking a breath! Oh yeah, and my mom's, dad's, and my birthdays in the last few weeks! Ha! So much fun stuff (and I love celebrating birthdays!), but still busy stuff. A busy schedule can be hard on my body, but thankfully I've been doing alright lately. My headaches have been better lately which is a huge blessing. 

Here's a glimpse of some of the things I put together for Christmas gifts:

I used this blog to get the idea of how to make these wreaths. Such helpful tips! 

Here is the blog I used for this idea. It has the recipe, and printables to print the label, and a little card with directions for your recipient to bake them. Such an easy and sweet gift. 

I absolutely love this printable from my friend Rachel's shop, The Burlap Bungalow (she has so many cute prints!).

We're getting more organized and even got some things hung on the walls with our extra day off this week which makes this place feel much more like home. I'm getting back into my routine of having a smoothie each morning on my way to work (with my Ninja I got last year for my birthday... apparently kitchen appliances are my birthday gift preference-ha!) and now I can have easy delicious coffee at home with my Keurig. 

I'm researching new flavors to order and am SO excited! Over 250 options and I just read on their website, "Additionally, all coffee and tea K-Cup® packs are egg, dairy and gluten-free. " (source). Great news for me! Let me know if you have any favorite flavors, I'm excited to try new ones!

I can say though, now that this cutie sleeps on our bed, it's harder getting out of bed in the mornings. I heart puppy cuddles. He seems as annoyed as me when the alarm keeps going off! Once I get going, I'm ok, but getting going in the morning is rough (remember this post? It's still tough). I thank the Lord every day for Nick - he lifts me up every day and faces my pain and fatigue with me. I have to pace myself and operate slower than he'd ideally like to (like resting in between errands to regain energy for example), and he thankfully has so much grace and understanding. 

 For my birthday lunch last Sunday, we went to Pei Wei which is an easy place for me to get a tasty gluten and dairy free meal. Gluten Free Pei Wei Spicy (I get it mild) is the ticket. 

This was last Sunday too, running errands with my "It's my birthday" pin. My dad wore it for his birthday and wanted me to continue the tradition - Nick is next!:)

My sunset view from earlier this week. So peaceful. 

Also, here's some Ranger entertainment for your viewing pleasure:) 

If you can't see it for some reason, you can find it here on my youtube page. 

I'll have to show more of our decor as we get settled. We're off to enjoy the rest of the weekend - I hope yours is great!

Today's Pinspiration:

There are so many things in life we can stay on the fence about - let's see where we can take some small steps in this new year. Our journey is filled with lots of little steps - let's take it one step at a time and we'll be on our way before we know it! 

Source

Let the Creativity Flow

This weekend, I did something I've been wanting to do for months! I got out all of my supplies and dug deep into making cards. I love making crafty things and we always need cards for birthdays, weddings, etc., so I had fun making cards for all kinds of occasions. 

 I worked on the table

 And made a mess on the floor. This was a two-day project, so thankfully Nick was ok with our living room floor being occupied for the weekend. 

 My finished products! I'm so excited about them. I made each one with love and will be excited to give them out. 

Here's one of our delicious dinners this week (pasta and meat sauce - simple, but so good). On the left: my gluten free pasta (made of a quinoa and corn flour mix), on the right: Nick's normal pasta :) He will eat the gluten free kind too, I just didn't have enough of the gluten free pasta for both of us. It's good though! I really don't notice a difference in the taste at all. 

 We took a wonderful fall walk today, I have so many photos to sort through, but I'm exited to share them! I've been on the fence the past few weeks whether or not to embrace fall (where did summer go?!?), but it's so darn pretty. Plus, we have to enjoy it before all of the leaves drop!

(source)

Yesterday, we got to hear ISU win their 3rd game in a row of the season! It's so good to be a Cyclone. The attendance at Saturday's game was 55,783, the fourth highest attendance of all time. Between Cyclone and Husker football (both teams won this weekend!), and the Cubs and Rangers baseball (and I'm sure Nick would add a few other teams he likes), we're always pumped to cheer on our teams.

Today's Creative Pinspiration:

(source)

Pinterest Fun

I've been having fun with Pinterest lately and thought I'd share some finds...

Here's a super cute and simple Flower Necklace I like:

Some DIY projects I've been eyeing:)...

This beautiful Fabric Flower Necklace was on Etsy, but there are so many DIY sites with fabric flowers:

No-sew curtains made from a Target table cloth - I've been thinking about curtains for our bedroom, and I don't sew, so this option sounds nice and easy!

I've been loving all of the cute wreaths like this W Wreath this winter! I bet I could find a spot on our wall for this puppy.

These cute Chevron Painings are done on shoeboxes! Cheaper than canvases if you have some laying around. I love the look. I want to use {cheap} canvases and cover them in fun fabric swatches and make a similar look for one of our walls.

These Framed Handkerchiefs inspire my fabric canvas idea too.

AND this Fabric Covered Corkboard {from I Heart Ogranizing blog - may have to look that one up later!} - you can see this project has been on my mind quite a lot! It seems like such an inexpensive yet eye catching room improvement. 

 Some dairy free options (and blogs) I can try!...

This Dairy Free Homemade Coffee Creamer blog post has many flavors (almond joy, cinnamon streusel to name a few!), and they look EASY to make! I'm psyched. I bought dairy creamer last week (a special treat for myself!) and am so sad I'll have to say goodbye, so these sound awesome, and keep for a week in the fridge! The blog is called Deliciously Organic - I'll have to check that blog out more for organic recipes.

Dairy Free Peppermint Patties - these sound so good and fresh. I've always loved peppermint patties! Plus, I'll need some way to meet my chocolate quota you know. 

Dairy Free Pizza - as long as I can find a {not actually cheese} type cheese I like, I'll try it!

Dairy Free Deep Dark Chocolate Cookies - these are so simple to make! It was fun to realize these are dairy free, because I made these cookies a few months ago {posted here} for a pool party at my mom's house! I'd just need to get dairy free chocolate chips, which apparently Trader Joe's has.

These Dairy Free Stuffed Shells look great - I was worried I'd miss out on this tasty dish!

I'm always needing to de-stress and keep stress in check - if you share that need for balance, you may enjoy some of these photos to retreat into (ahhhh....)...

Café Crème - I just want to sit there and sip that coffee {with non-dairy creamer of course;)} and watch the world pass by for the day

Who's up to do this with me?!

Or sit atop this cozy hill?

If that doesn't sound good, we could go here:

And float freely like this:

 

Then, at the end of that hard working;) day, we can find a cozy spot like this one to let our cares melt away and live in the moment. 

I told you I've been having too much fun on Pinterest lately! 

http://pinterest.com/marss/

Easy DIY Coffee Filter Wreath

I found this coffee filter wreath on a blog a while back and knew I needed one for myself. I actually made this last Spring or so and had this post saved as a draft because I don't like the photos I got of the process. It'll work though, I think some of you will like this wreath - with or without- awesome photos. It is so inexpensive to make and I think looks so cute! It would also make a great gift idea. Check out The Little Brown House's blog here to see her photos and all of the cute {super cute} places in her home this looked great in.

Supplies:

Foam wreath (I got mine at Hobby Lobby)

Little pins - mine are "silk pins" found in the fabric section at Hobby Lobby

Brown (unbleached) coffee filters

Ribbon to hang the wreath

Crumple a few filters together, and {carefully} stick a straight pin into the spot underneath your thumb.

The pins I used.

Push the pin into the styrofoam wreath - I added dots on the above photo about where I stuck mine

Work your way around the wreath, adjusting them as needed. Before you fill up the wreath, tie a ribbon around what will be the top so you can later hang your wreath.

My ribbon

As you can see, mine was a bit heavy on one side, so I needed to tweak it (I changed my method halfway through which is why that happened..). I removed the pins, and re-arranged them to make it more even.

It's crazy it's just coffee filters in there!

Here's how it looked at our old place in Texas (I tried to somewhat replicate how cute it looked in front of the mirror on the Little Brown House blog)!

I think these wreaths are so very charming - and SO inexpensive to make. They don't even take too much time. I do recommend a thimble for your finger as you push the pins into the styrofoam. 

As we moved, my wreath got a bit squished, but I still have the supplies and might remove the old filters and add new fresh ones on the same styrofoam. If you love this wreath, the blogger also posted a mini-wreath this fall since the big one she made was such a big hit (the top viewed page on her site!), here's the link.

Enjoy and let me know if you give this a try, I'd love to hear it goes!