Headbands of Hope

  

Hi all! Today I have an extra special treat for you guys. One of my good friends Kristen is the Charleston representative for Headband of Hope. Now I had never heard of this organization before she mentioned it to me but wow is it awesome. Keep reading to find out more about it and as icing on the cake she is offering the promo code "charlestonhope" in order to receive $1 off your order. Please read and go check out these adorable headbands. These would make excellent Christmas gifts for the ladies in your life and they support such an awesome cause!

Chance, Change, and the Power of Headbands

By Kristen Stoltz

Hope.  What is it? What does it mean to you? What does it mean to me? I never really thought about this question, like really thought about this question until I was faced with a tragedy.  

Most of you who know me well know that I lost my mother very suddenly and unexpectedly a few years ago.  At the age of 25, that tender age of a woman when she begins to come into her own, I was lost.  For the better part of a year, my father and I stumbled through our daily routines, basically defeated by life.  They say that the opposite of hope is despair, and that was all we knew.

The turning point for me was a culmination of several things.  Firstly, one of my dear friends sent me a care package of books about loss and grieving which I read with fervency.  Reading about how other people had gone through things like I had, and things worse than I had, began to ground me and get me out of my own head.  Secondly, another great friend forced me to start going out again and made me be social.  Staying by my side wherever we went in case I had a moment, and I was taken out of my bubble that grief had created.  But slowly and surely, I began to laugh and smile again.  Things slowly started to appear brighter, albeit a duller brightness, and I started to find happiness in my world again.   

And this began to fill me with hope.     

When I first heard about Headbands of Hope, I thought, what a great and sweet idea.  They donate one headband for everyone sold to a little girl with cancer, and 1$ of the profit to St. Baldrick’s Foundation, a childhood cancer charity that funds research to find cures for children with cancer.  And the headbands (and buffs, and hats!) are incredibly cute, functional and versatile.  Pure genius. 

But the more I read about it, and followed what Jessica Ekstrom, (you can read more about here her!) the founder and CEO was doing, it touched me on a deeper and more personal level.  

These children have encountered a tragic situation, as have their families.  They have every reason to live in a world of despair.  But they don’t.  They have people like Jessica standing beside them.

These headbands to them are like my box of books.  Like my friends that stood by me literally and figuratively.  They bring back smiles and laughter, to those who thought they would never see the beauty in something again.   

These headbands initiate a flicker of hope…of a wish, desire, expectation, that this disease can end.  

That these little girls are still beautiful inside and out regardless of the side effects of their treatments.   

That these children can get better, will get better, and that one day no child will encounter this disease.  

That complete strangers are pulling for them, and rooting for them.  

That is what these headbands have the power to do.

 But what is truly inspiring about Headbands of Hope, is that it forces others to define what hope is to them.  It has shown the enormity of change, however small, and that we as individuals really can make a difference. 

I know now that we have the ability to overcome terrible obstacles but we can’t do it alone.  We need family, friends, even strangers, and we definitely need hope.  

My hope  now is this: that we learn to take a chance, make a change, make a difference.  And that we live fearlessly. 

 To learn more, please check out Headbands of Hope here, and the new Headwear of Hope which provides head wear for little boys with cancer here! 

Kristen is a representative for Headbands of Hope in the Charleston, South Carolina area…you can visit their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/#!/HeadbandsOfHopeCharlestonSc

Wardrobe Wendesday: A few "bump" pics.

Happy hump day all! I am hoping your have made it to this point in your week and are realizing that the weekend is closer by the second. First off today I just wanted to say thank you for all the wonderful words of encouragement and congratulations Jose and I received on facebook and here on the blog. It means so much to us that everyone is as excited as we are.

Now on to business. I do not really have a "bump" yet (hence the quotation marks). However I like to think I have a little bit of one. That sounds much better than I am just getting fatter. Which is how I feel most days. I know the weight gain is for such an awesome purpose and I am not beating myself up about it but it gets hard when all of your clothes no longer fit the right way and most days leggings are my best friend. Anyway with that said I have already started wearing maternity pants even though I know people try the Bella band thing or the hair tie through the button hole thing. These did not work for me so I went straight to the maternity clothes and let me tell you I am much more comfortable. So without further ado here are my ten and eleven week belly shots along with some pretty decent outfits if I do say so myself.

Button Up Shirt: Thrifted L.L Bean
White Tank: Old Navy Clearance (Old)
Leggings: Old Navy
Boots: Target (Old)

Shirt: Old Navy (similar)
Jeans: Liz Lange Maternity Thrifted
Shoes: Target (old)

What have you been wearing lately? If you are prego when did you start busting out the maternity wear?

Gonzalez Party of Three

Hi All! So here's the big news: Jose and I are expecting our first little one in May of 2014! We are super excited to be expanding our family and glad to be bringing you guys along for the ride. I have already started taking "bump" pics that I am sure I will be sharing with you soon. Also check back later this week to see how we broke the news to our families. For now though I will just leave you with one of the last family pics of just Jose and I before our little nugget arrives.



 

 

 

A Buffet Better Than the Golden Corral

So it seems like lately every post I have written starts out with this statement: "Sorry I have been MIA. . .". Follow this up with some excuse as to why I couldn't blog and you have the first few words of my latest posts. Well today I am going to put a stop to that. I have to get back to blogging regularly. I really miss it.

So for today I am going to share with you a little project I completed about oh a month ago. You see back in the spring before Jose went to Washington we laid claim to a buffet that was my grandparents. When we brought it home (in the Prius I might add) it then proceeded to sit in our living room for a few months with no progress made. While searching pinterest for ideas on what to do with this new gem I decided to just do it and get started.

Well unfortunately for me I thought this would be an easy peasy quick project. You see the original wood veneer had been water damaged and needed to be removed. I searched online and found several tutorials that basically said the best removal method was to use and iron and a damp cloth. These said tutorials also said that this would not take very long and that the veneer would come up in sheets. Well I am here to tell you that they lied! I mean that may be a little harsh because I believe that it truly only took them a short while and they did in fact peel up large sheets. I however was not smiled upon by the DIY gods and this process took me several couple hour sessions. (Also I had so many more pictures of the process but my laptop is dying and I think it lost some of them.)

 I persevered however and once I had a shiny clean slate to work with I decided to paint the top of the buffet a nice glossy white. My original inclination was to go for a bold color to offset our greige walls but then I got to thinking that this furniture piece will be with us indefinitely and the last thing I wanted to do was paint it every time we moved/redecorated. I have to say that the rest of the process was fairly painless. My only complaint is that I should have bought some kilz primer to go over the water spots first because they of course show through. However I am taking the advice of the Nester and saying that it doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful and beautiful it is.

I think it is so special to have a piece of my grandparents in our home. I am very much a family person and I cannot wait to tell our future children where this buffet came from and about their great grandparents.

What about you? Any projects take way longer than expected? What about family heirlooms are you a collector or do you prefer new and modern things?

A little Monday Light Reading

Hi all and Happy Monday! I know that Monday's are not happy days for most but Monday is like my Wednesday (Since I work three twelves) so I am happy that my work week is almost over. Anyway I thought I would share with you guys a little survey that Danielle (my cara box partner) tagged me in.

Is this how you thought your life would be?

I guess yes and no. I always said I would be a doctor and while I am not a doctor I do work in the health care profession. I have to say that I am so glad I did not become a doctor. I admire them but I enjoy leaving work at work and having free time. As far as my personal life I think I am right on track with where I wanted to be. I am married to the man of my dreams and hopefully when this law school adventure is over we can start thinking about expanding our family.

If money were no question I would purchase:

I would pay off all of our debt first and then I would purchase our dream home. I am not sure whether this would be building a home or buying a fixer upper and actually having the money to do everything we wanted.

What is your drink of choice when out with girl friends?

Wow this has changed so much over the years. It also depends on who I am out with. Most of the time I would say my drink of choice is a good quality beer. However when out with some of my wine drinking friends then I definitely spring for red wine.

What do you love about yourself?

My hair and my eyes. I love my curls (now) but also my hair has always been easy to straighten. It may not stay that way but at least its not impossible to get there. Also I love that my eyes are green most of the time but have a hazel ring that gets larger depending on the colors I am wearing.

Name one good deed that has gone unseen?

I don't think so. That's sort of the point of an unseen good deed right? 

What hobbies do you have that you don't mention here?

Hmm. I pretty much put all of my hobbies here for all to read. Lets think I really enjoy crocheting. I am not sure if I have ever mentioned that on here. I taught myself to crochet last year so that I could make everyone's Christmas gifts. I have since made several things and it is such a great stress free activity.

Okay now for tagging. I tag my other cara box partner Caitlin and my bestie Joni.  

The Swiftly Painted Challenge: October

October Writing prompt: Reflect and respond to this statement: your followers follow you willingly. Create an image of what describes you as a blogger. Bonus points for little clues about what’s going on in your life.

So this was much harder than I thought it would be. When Annemarie first emailed me about this challenge I thought "take a pic of myself and write about it, easy peasy". Now I may be second guessing my ability to capture myself through the lens of my camera. Anyway I guess that is what challenges are about right. 

Reflecting on this month's statement of followers follow you willingly makes me first think thank you to everyone who reads along. I enjoy all the connections that blogging has afforded this introverted girl. I am much better at talking behind a keyboard than in person and if you ever meet me I am sure you would be surprised how shy I am around new faces. It also puts me in awe of the fact that people want to read what I have to say. When I first started this blog it was very hard to get past the initial no one's reading this but our parents phase. It made writing on a regular basis pretty hard. Now though I feel guilty almost if I do not post. (Not that we have a huge following but there are people out there reading this who I have never met and I think that is just awesome!) 

Anyway on to the image (that is after all what this challenge is about). I will let you decide what this image means about me as a blogger. I would love to hear what you think. 

Zach and Joni: The Shower.

Sorry I have been so MIA lately. Apparently I do really well with a blog challenge at the beginning and then life gets in the way. So I am promising right now to get  back to our regularly scheduled programming over here at Our Pemberley.

Today I thought I would share with you the wedding shower that the bridal party and I threw for my BFF Joni. I think in order to ease back into this today is just going to be loaded with pics and on Thursday I will be back to show you how I made the lovely decorations you see before you.