Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope you are able to spend the day with family and friends. Here is a friendly reminder for everyone who will over eat today:

Have a great day and I will be back tomorrow with my Project Photo 365 recap.

Project Photo 365: Week One

Hello everyone! So this was supposed to be Friday's post but I sort of got a little slack and lazy at then end of last week. I blame it on the upper respiratory infection that is making my asthma worse but anyway. I know I never post on Friday's but for the next year at least I am going to be using Friday's to post my Project Photo 365 pictures. I have wanted to do a Photo 365 for a while now (since I am much more comfortable shooting in manual mode) and I am not guaranteeing that these will all turn out beautiful. However, the point is to grow and learn in my photography. So without further adieu here is my first week of Project Photo 365:

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Fall Cara Box Reveal and It's My Birthday!

Hi all so today's my 28th birthday! Yay for birthday's right. (At least that is what I am saying this year) Anyway in honor of that I wanted to put together a list of 29 things I want to accomplish by my 29th birthday. I have seen these lists all over the blogosphere and I think its such a great idea to have a goal of things to accomplish before your next birthday. Anyway here is my list:

1. Complete a Photo 365 Project 

2. Run a Half Marathon

3. Start an Etsy Shop

4. Read 100 Books

5. Sew at least 5 articles of Clothing from a pattern

6. Consistently Blog 4 times a week

7. Attend a Blog Conference

8. Develop a Cleaning Schedule and Stick to It.

9. Purge our home 

10.Crochet an Afghan

11. Get a new tattoo

12. Start Saving to visit London

13. Get Passport Renewed

14. Create at least one Pinterest Craft a Month

15. Go to a Concert

16. Hike Table Rock with Jose

17. Visit the Gibbes Art Museum

18. Learn Spanish

19. Learn to play guitar

20. Eat at 5 New Restaurants

21. Visit the Beach at least 10 times

22. Visit Asheville at least once

23. Learn to Knit

24. Go to at least one Spoleto Event 

25. Take pictures in front of the awesome graffiti murals in Park Circle

26. Run at least 3 5k's

27. Pay someone else to take pictures of us as a family

28. Do one random act of kindness monthly

29. Experience at least one new thing with Jose a month.



Another thing I wanted to share with you guys today is the fact that I participated in the Cara Box Swap sponsored by Wifessionals. This was such a blessing to me as I had three months to get to know two amazing girls. Danielle from Sweet Southern Girl and Caitlin from Voguish at Best. These girls were such a joy to get to know and Danielle sent me the most wonderful box of things. It was actually funny that Danielle and I share the same home state and Caitlin and I both have hubbies in law school. It was so nice to coincidentally be paired with two people and have things in common. I will let the pictures do the talking from here on out and let me say that if you are wanting an opportunity to be blessed and get to know others in the blogging community then sign up for Cara Box Swap. It will be a blessing you don't want to miss out on.

Burlap Lamps and a Living Room Update

So I have an extra special post today. Well alright maybe not that special but I was super excited about it. I finally finished updating these lamp shades that I bought back before the summer. I decided to copy the following pin from pinterest and cover these beauties in burlap. I mean seriously whats not love about burlap.

(Source)

Well in my typical fashion this took me entirely too long to complete. This could be because I started this late on night and quickly faded and lost interest. However now that it is done I am so glad I finally completed it. I think it really adds a lot to our living room without competing with everything else in the room.

Steps to make your own burlap lamp shades:
(I followed this tutorial)
Step 1: Cover your existing lampshades with burlap. This will be your base for the burlap ruffle strips

Step 2: Cut your burlap strips to the size needed to ruffle them but not too long.

Step 3: Warm up your hot glue gun and then start adding your burlap strips with no particular pattern or order. (The more random the better.)

as you can see I thought about not adding a burlap base. (Bad Idea)

See how easy that is. Anyone with a glue gun can do it!

The other minor update that we have done recently in this room is to add new curtains. We made an impromptu trip to Ikea about a month ago and I purchased these curtains then. My original intent was to paint large navy chevrons on them but then I decided I really like them plain white. It makes this room feel so much bigger. We are also going to raise up the curtain rods just a tad bit.

What do you think of our new lamps and curtains? Have you made any living room updates lately? I would love to hear about them if you have.

Wardrobe Wednesday: My first real Maternity Outfit

Shirt: Liz Lange Maternity (Target)

Jeans: Liz Lange Maternity (Target)

Hat: Old Navy (Christmas Gift last year)

So I bought this outfit about a week ago and I was so excited to finally wear a maternity shirt. I know I am sure by the end of this thing I will be over the maternity clothes and itching to fit back into my pre-baby clothing. Anyway I also finally found a pair of maternity skinny jeans!!! (Insert mental image of me dancing around target like an idiot.) I was so excited for this find because it was a sad sad day when my pre-maternity skinny jeans failed to button. (Which was a little sooner than I had hoped.) I hope you guys enjoy this outfit and a new "bump" pic. Little nugget is growing like wildfire and I cannot wait for December when we get to start calling this precious gift by a name instead of just it or nugget.


**Sorry I am such a slacker and this post is going up so late. Lets just say time ran away from me today.

Have a Holly Jolly Christmas. . . Already?

So I don't know what has gotten into me this year but I am really ready to decorate for Christmas. Now for those of you that don't know me personally I am usually the person who scoffs at those already decorated for Christmas but this year I am itching to decorate. So in order to satiate my desire to decorate I decided to make these pillows from The Crafty Cupboard. I will not attempt to give you a tutorial since if you follow that link it gives you an excellent tutorial. The only adjustment I made was to make them envelope pillow covers instead of zippered. Well I hope you enjoy!

What are your thoughts on Christmas decor before Thanksgiving? When does your family start decorating? Leave us a comment and let us know.

Linking up with:

http://rainonatinroof.com/2013/11/give-goods-link-party-34/

http://www.ablossominglife.com/2013/11/frugal-crafty-home-blog-hop-49.html

A Swiftly Painted Self Portrait Challenge: November

Hi all and happy Thursday! So this was supposed to be published last Friday but I am a slacker and it just slipped my mind. Any who, this month's writing prompt was to describe a person, place, or thing that you depend on emotionally. Then we had to create an image of us with a disguise.

So first and foremost the thing I most depend on emotionally is Jose (my wonderful hubby for any new readers out there). I know this is sort of cliche and the safe answer but its the truth and I am sticking to it. He is my rock and has been since even before we were dating. When he and I met I was going through such an emotional time in my life but he stuck it out. (Thank God!) Now he knows what an emotional mess I can be and he is still always there. Always ready to hold me or talk me down if need be. Sometimes I can let my emotions and imagination run wild and he thankfully is the sane one in those times.

What do you depend on emotionally? Is it a person? a thing? a place? I would love to hear about it!

Review: Creating A Beautiful Little Christmas

Disclaimer: This is an affiliate program and I will receive a percentage of the sale on each book ordered. Thanks for understanding the need for some extra cash around the holidays.

Hiya everyone! Are you already stressing about the holidays? Well I have the book for you. Teri Ahlm has written a beautiful accompaniment to your holidays. I personally tend to focus on the "It's a Wonderful Life" type of Christmas and want family and friends to make everything perfect. This however is usually met with constant reminders that we are all just human and it is not up to my family and friends to make Christmas meaningful for me. Teri makes a great point early in the book that we must learn to leave our childhood Christmases in the past where they belong. Not to say we shouldn't think of these fondly but we need to stop thinking that Christmas will be as magical as when we were children with out putting in the work for them to be. One of my favorite quotes from the book is:

"The Holiday season will only be a great as the amount of effort you put into making it a great holiday season."

This really reminded me that the season will only be as memorable and enjoyable as I make it. Wow what a powerful realization and one that I plan to put somewhere I will see daily over the next two months.  

Teri really brings together how you can have a fantastic holiday season that you no longer dread. She even covers ways to deal with difficult family, because lets face it everyone has at least one family member they are not particularly keen on seeing. She even covers ways to make sure you pamper yourself and great gift giving ideas for all price ranges.

I sincerely hope you will check out Creating a Beautiful Little Christmas. After reading this it has made me more excited for the holiday season by allowing me to go into this season knowing it will be what I make it.

Buy Creating A Beautiful Little Christmas today!

Click here to visit A Beautiful Little Life.

Zach and Joni: The Wedding

A few of you may remember back in the summer I posted about how I made my bridesmaids dress for my best friends wedding. Well that wedding finally arrived and let me tell you it was spectacular. Joni and Zach did all the decorating and planning themselves. I could not belive how simply beautiful everything turned out but instead of running my mouth about it I will let the pictures do the talking.