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Hi friends! So we're in Denver right now waiting for our flight to get home (got stuck at the airport last night, posted about it here) but we basically missed our connecting flight to orange county so we stayed the night at the airport. 
When we got in last night, I overheard they had another flight to a different city but nearby (ontario for those of you who know socal airports) and so we rushed over to see if we could make it on that flight instead. They only had 1 seat left (go figure!) and Nick told me to just go and he'd make it home the next day. I was like, I'm not leaving Nick alone at an airport, haha. Not an option. He asked me later why I didn't take the flight and I said to him as much as I was desperate to get home, it just wouldn't be the same if he wasn't there. Then I told him my home is wherever he is. It sounded really cheesy but never has it been so true! ;) Nick is my home, it doesnt matter where we are, whether it be in a car in England (yea, we may have slept in our car one night, haven't really told anyone that) or on the airport ground in another state. I've always thought this phrase was sweet but it definitely was true last night. 
Anyway, we found a little cozy spot in the airport and camped out. It was one of the most uncomfortable nights of sleep I've ever had (airport floors are not sleep-friendly!) We used sweaters as pillows and my skirt and dress as blankets. but at least we were together :) 
Have you ever been stuck at an airport? I was pretty upset at first but I looked around and there were several others in the same situation, people sleeping on the ground, stuck for whatever reason. The world doesn't revolve around just me. Life continues and we'll get home. 
Hope your week is off to a great start! Normal posting will continue tomorrow. 

Happy Independence:

Happy 4th friends. I mentioned this several years ago, but my cousin lost her life in a car crash after a 4th of July party with friends in 2006. Can't believe it's been 7 years already. It still seems like yesterday. Thinking about Kendall still brings tears to my eyes. We actually got to spend time with my Aunt & Uncle (Kendall's parents) last week in Washington, they are the most generous and kind people you'll ever meet. It is tragic and could have been avoided if the driver actually stopped to think about his actions. 
Wherever or whoever you're celebrating with today, please please please be responsible and watch out for your friends and loved ones. In 2006, a boy said he would be the designated driver but decided to ignore his responsibility and drove drunk with my cousin and 2 others with him. The 2 people who weren't even drinking lost their lives that night. He was selfish and his actions have forever changed the lives of so many people. 
Sorry to be a downer and nag you about being responsible on this holiday but this day is always different for us now and I can't not mention it. I was with a group of people the other day and they were talking about drinking and going home afterward. A couple of the girls just casually said "I'll just drive after I have a few drinks, it'll be fine." So sad. 
Hope you guys have a fun and relaxing day celebrating the freedoms we have in this country. Will be back with another post tomorrow.

28:

Birthday dinner at Roche Habor! Sat outside overlooking the water  while it rained, couldn't have been a more ideal bday dinner since i love the rain! ;)
My mom, brother, and awesome relatives!

Yesterday i turned 28. i'll be honest, i was not looking forward to my birthday and definitely was not looking forward to turning another year older (i know, 28 is not old at all) To be honest, ever since after 25, i wasn't very excited about entering my late 20's. Early 20's were awesome ;) A few weeks ago, our pastor talked about how getting old in our society usually has negative feelings/associations to it. But he told us how in some other cultures, the older people are held up in society because they have gained respect and wisdom. i thought that was an interesting point. How sad that turning older in our society is viewed as a negative thing by some.
Still, this year i wasn't excited about turning another year older. i think the pressures of all the things i still want to do in business, and starting a family (God-willing) in the nearer future is on our minds so it all feels a bit overwhelming.. like i'm running out of time or something. Silly notions. 
i woke up feeling bummed about being 28. Didn't really want to celebrate and bring attention to the fact that i was another year older. It wasn't until we got to church and began singing to this song that i realized how foolish i'd been. i made it to 28, God has blessed and given another year of life to live! How silly i was being to not be grateful for another year of life. i thought about my dear friends who have passed.. i am sure we all know someone who has been taken much earlier than their "time". In church, the pastor mentioned a 26 year old who passed from a heart attack. 26 years old?! He left behind a young wife and their 7 month old child. only the Lord knows why. but here i was, being a big ingrate for getting older. Anyway, i immediately repented and thanked God this life He has given.
anyway. you guys, thank for allowing me to share these thoughts with you.. you could say i was "inspired" yesterday in church and i was excited to share! i really needed to change my heart about getting older, got some perspective and am just glad to be alive and be able to share life with the ones i love. not sure if any one else out there feels how i felt about getting older but i hope you find encouragement in this :) 
we're in Washington celebrating June birthdays! Nick's was the 12th, and my brother's is actually on the 26th. Our aunt & uncle offered to have us come up and stay at their place so we are seeing the sights at Friday Harbor and the San Juan Islands. Has anyone been? it's gorgeous here! Ok, i'm sitting in the car in the rain with my battery on 4% trying to find a wifi signal to post this so i better go ;) Thanks again for reading dear friends. Happy Monday!

Saddlerock Ranch:

A couple weekends ago, we attended a good friend's wedding at Saddlerock Ranch. I actually met Lillian through blogging about 3 years ago, and we were instant friends. Shortly after we got to know Mardy too and they both are just the sweetest couple around. It was so special to be able to attend their wedding!

Saddlerock Ranch was incredible, I felt like I had entered a fairytale/dream land - upon driving in we were greeting by buffalo and zebras and camels and beautiful vineyard hills. Anyway, we got some shots that I thought I'd post to share. Not posting any shots of the actual wedding because I figured the wedding photographer will be posting all the beautiful photos he took once they're edited :)

Contentment:

photo via stay positive.

photo via Whitney CPBG.

Lately I've been struggling with contentment and just being a grateful person. I always want more.  I want to achieve more, I want to do more. Not necessarily make a ton of money, though that would be nice. I just want recognition. I feel like a big greedy ingrate! Anyway, this realization came to me the other day when an opportunity for the shop was presented to us but it ended up not working out in our favor. Like a little child, I threw a tantrum and was so upset. I wanted to blame Nick (well, I did blame him) for not acting fast enough and missing out on the opportunity. It totally wasn't his fault, but it lead to a big fight which even affected our evening with some good friends. I realized then that I needed a heart check.  What does contentment look like in my life? I need to allow myself to enjoy what I've been blessed with and what we've achieved. I don't know what it is in me that feels I need to always be doing more and can never find peace or contentment. Maybe it's some deeper issues with parents, approval, etc. But that's a discussion for another time ;)

Please don't get me wrong - I know we have so much to be thankful for. Our beautiful house that we are now living in and our sweet little shop - we are blessed and give thanks to the Lord daily. But I think this blog community we find ourselves in, when we read all the blogs out there and see all the fabulous things other bloggers are doing - it can be easy to fall into this feeling of "wanting more" and it never being enough. Feelings of comparing. discontentment. jealousy - all these are so so dangerous. Or maybe it's just me ;)

Hope you don't mind me sharing some of these personal things that have been on my mind ... But I am curious to get your thoughts on the subject. Do you struggle with being content? Being thankful? If not,  please tell us your secrets! How do you remind yourself to be thankful or keep yourself in check when you start to compare? Thanks for reading today friends.

guessing game:

I commissioned the very talented Julie from Flourish & Whim to write out a word I have had on my heart for some time now. I have been going through a personal journey over the past several months and exploring this meaning of shalom. More to come on this project in the next couple months.

But time for a guessing game! Can you guess what I may be using this for? :) and I know you don't know what this is for but just going off your own preference, which style is your favorite? :)

2012:

This holiday we did 11 craft shows between November & December so I didn't really have any time to put together a Christmas card or anything. Inspired by Amanda's year in review, I decided to do a round-up of our 2012 year. The other day in church as we were flipping through our bible, one of our wedding invite cards fell out. I guess I put one in there some time ago. Nick suggested I use the layout for our 2012 round-up from our wedding invite. So here's a little summary of highlights from our wonderful year of 2012.

This year has been crazy and I can't believe it's over! 2012 has been an amazing year. We've met new friends, traveled to new places, laughed, cried, and worked hard. We've been so blessed from being able to buy a house to traveling for craft shows and other blog opportunities. (so fun to visit New Orleans, Salt Lake City, Austin, England, and a couple other places along the way!)

I don't want you to think this year was all good things for us and our lives are perfect - Nick and I actually fought more than usual this year (weird that it all came out in the 2nd year, 1st year of marriage was great) but we learned from it and our relationship has grown a ton. I explored lots of issues from my childhood and made a lot of new discoveries about why I do the things I do. This year we also said goodbye to a dear friend and my Grandfather. It was very sad but we rejoiced that we'll see them again one day soon. I will definitely remember 2012, big things happened and we made a lot of changes.

Going in to 2013, I really want to live each day well. I know it may sound cliche but I know I personally wasted a lot of time in 2012 holding grudges, being angry, and not being grateful. Next year - I hope to be more kind, more generous, love more, let things go, and try to be a whole lot more patient. Sure I could set my usual goals like taking my business to the next level or writing my book proposal (this has actually been one on my list for a few years now, haha) but what's the point of achieving these things if at the end of the day, I don't have love in my life. If I forget to be a grateful person. If I am fighting with my husband. I don't want to loose sight of what is important - actually Galatians 5:22 sums it up quite nicely: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. This is what is important for me in 2013.

So is there anything that comes to mind for you? Have you set any goals or resolutions for yourself for 2013? I'd love to hear them! :) Happy New Year dear friends! Thanks for reading oh, hello friend this year and sharing in our journey. See you next year! (tomorrow!)

oh, and here's the image of our wedding invite! 

Photo Class:

A couple month's ago I took a black & white photography class at Irvine Fine Arts Center. You really gotta love Orange County & give props to Irvine in particular for having a place like this. They're all about the arts. There's not a lot of stuff available like this in Orange County so I think it's pretty cool they value old school arts like photography & letterpress. They have a full darkroom set up. They also offer printmaking & letterpress classes (they have a legit letterpress studio as well) and lots of other fun stuff. 
Anyway, I was on yearbook in junior high and we developed all our pics for the yearbook. (wow, those were the good old days!) I also remember developing a lot of photos of this guy I had a huge crush on. My friends took my camera on a church trip we all went on and took a bunch of photos of him. (I was way to shy to even talk to him let alone take a photo of him!) Yea, looking back, that was probably really creepy that I developed photos of him, haha. My high school also had a darkroom but I didn't do much developing. Definitely did not appreciate it by then, seeing how digital was coming in and that was the latest and greatest.
All the chemicals! Developer. Stopper. Fixer :)

All the contact sheets getting washed above!

I kind of snuck in this class because it was a summer teen class. But when I emailed the teacher asking if they'd possibly open an adult one, he told me to just sign up and mark my age as a teen. so I did it. I really wanted to take it! I definitely didn't pass as a teen (when I walked in, the teacher asked me if I was a parent! yikes. lol) but it was funny being surrounded by these really young people! It seems like so long ago that I was once so little like that! (well most were taller than me, but they had such young faces)


Prints developed!

I totally recommend taking this kind of class to everyone - it is so cool to see the process and it is so fun to watch your print develop right before your eyes. Better than a polaroid ;) If you're interested in taking the class, I suggest emailing them and asking for them to start a black&white photography class for adults! I am sure they would if enough people showed interest. If you're not in OC, try looking at your local community colleges for classes and darkrooms. If you're familiar with developing photos, I'd even look into high schools to see if you can rent the darkroom out or something. 

Home:

images from Debbie Smythe, tuesday mourning, katespadeny, + Ashley Goldberg
I was pretty stuck on what to blog about today so I asked my husband for any ideas. He said to blog about being home. So today's post is inspired by him ;) We got back from our trip a couple days ago. It was so much fun to travel and see so many lovely places in England. We were so fortunate to be able to go there for the craft show and add in some extra traveling on the side. But toward the end of the trip, Nick and I realized we were really ready to come home. I never thought I'd ever get tired of traveling but for some reason, I have never been more excited to get home! I realized there is something so nice about familiarity and things you are used to.. which is crazy to say because I love traveling and finding myself in unfamiliar territory. But I think Dorothy had it right, really is no place like home!
Actually, at the beginning of the year, I thought it'd be pretty fun to move to London... I was especially inspired by Jordan, how she just packed up her family and moved to Paris for a year. We talked about it and thought maybe we'd just go for it, I even mentioned the plans to a couple friends. But now having been in London just a week ago, we realized we are not cut out for big cities and we talked about how crazy it would have been if we had just packed up + moved there!! I think I just liked the idea of moving to England (I spent a couple months at this school and it was so amazing) But all that to say, this trip really revealed to us how the Lord truly watches over us and has our best at heart, even though we go about making these crazy plans and think we know what's best for ourselves. A few months back, we had talked about moving to London and what we'd do for work, how we'd make money, etc. Then the next day we heard this verse in church! convicting? yes. 
If you had asked me in January, I would have told you our plans were to move to London and buying a house was not even something on my mind. How plans change in an instant! One day in March, we just started looking to buy a house and bought our perfect house in June. We daily recognize how blessed we are to have been able to get a house. We are counting down the days until we get to move into our new home! (which will hopefully be happening in November)
Well sorry for the random post but haven't done a real 'journal' type of entry in a while - it is so nice to be able to share. Thanks for reading :)

2 Years:

Nick & I were married 2 years ago today! It seems so crazy that it's been just 2 years. But marriage has been wonderful. Sometimes I have moments where I wake up next to Nick and am like, is this guy really my husband? This is crazy. Not weird-crazy but it's surreal sometimes. Does that make any sense? I guess I just get in a moment where I wonder how I got so lucky to end up with a guy like my husband. Do you have moments like that? Anyway, we took some photos with Jennifer from iartu a couple months back. These were obviously take a while ago because Nick's beard is back and he currently looks like this ;)

These weren't taken specifically for our anniversary but I thought it'd be fun just to do a little photo shoot. Makes a fun 'date' activity and it's always fun to get legit photos taken! Plus I really love Jen's style. 

 

I bought a heart kite (from here) a long time ago thinking I'd save save it for something fun. We weren't sure if it'd work but it totally did! Kites are so fun!  (I don't think I spent $90 on the kite, here's a more afforable one if you're interested)




We also brought my yellow scooter I got from the flea market for only $70 bucks!
Personally one of my fave finds - it's yellow + it was a steal! 



ps: if you're curious about what our wedding looked like, we have a couple wedding videos here and here (so fortunate to have chaz + ruby make these!)