Cutest Christmas decor EVER. :)

http://familyfun.go.com/crafts/faux-fireplace-661702/

I SO want to do this!  :) Can't wait to have kids. 

Still Thanksgiving to me...

Because we still have family in town, and because we just had our Thanksgiving tacos yesterday, and because we haven't decorated or gone Christmas shopping, and because our Christmas decorations were up 'til JUNE last year, I'm holding on to Thanksgiving just a little longer.  :)

I'm truly thankful for SO many things.  First and foremost is my best friend and husband.  While not every moment is pure fairy tale, we have a great marriage and it's only getting better as we get more experience.  Even in our most frustrating moments, we still love each other and we always work through it.  I'm thankful for ALL my family, really.  And that includes his.  Our families are crazy and occasionally difficult, but in the end each member is something amazing and we are blessed to be family.

I'm thankful for the gospel of Jesus Christ.  I'm thankful for my testimony.  I'm thankful that I understand the gospel and try to live it the best I can, not making excuses, not fearing correction from His spirit.  I don't understand everything, of course, and what I do know I only have touched on, but I'm grateful for the Spirit that's in our home and our lives, and especially right now I feel the urge to invite it into every day more "on purpose." 

I'm thankful for good friends.  The few I have are QUALITY.  I'm thankful to be finally reaching out a little and making new friends in our ward after all this time.  Speaking of which, I'm grateful for our callings as primary teachers together.  I'm thankful for our amazing kids that teach me every week.  They are our friends as much as anyone!

Isn't it funny that when you ask people to get serious and name the top few things that they are grateful for, it's usually stuff like this?  Family, friends, faith, food and shelter and all our basic needs being met.  I love this time of year mostly because it forces me to reflect on what matters most, and appreciate what I have rather than me focus all my time and energy on getting more and taking care of day-to-day matters.

There are lots of things I'm thankful for every day, though.  Every day is a new miracle and it brings with it a new something to be grateful for.  I'm happiest when I remember those things, writing them down each day so I can see more clearly the Lord working in my life and the many small ways our day is blessed.  I'm grateful for the moments that make me laugh out loud.  I'm thankful for many beautiful things that I come across each day.  I'm thankful for the things that "just work out" with or without my sincere effort to make them happen.  I'm thankful for the HOPE each day that I'll learn something new, make a new friend, travel somewhere magical, deepen my relationship with God, and get that much closer to understanding *happiness*.  Among my many gifts, being of good cheer is not one of them.  But in times like these I think, maybe, it could become one.

The other crafts...

I ran out of yarn for my scarf, so it looks like I'll have to wait a while before I finish it since we can't afford more yarn for at least another week.  :)  But here are the promised pics of the other crafts I did this week:

These pilgrim hats turned out to be SO cute, and since I always have spare flowers lying around, they were pretty cheap, too!  You can find general directions here, but to be honest, I made it WAY simpler.  I just took terra cotta planters (I picked SMALL ones, so they'd be cheap [$2.50 for 6 of them at Hobby Lobby] and I could make several for the different houses we were invited to this year) and spray painted them black.  Then I used black cardstock from my scrapbook supplies and some black felt doubled together to make the brim of the hat, making sure to have a hole in the middle.  I used hot glue, which I always have in abundance, to glue together the floral arrangements, then stuck them right in.  A bit of yellow felt for the buckles, and I was good to go!  WAY EASIER than the ones at FamilyFun, but those probably look better, too...so do it the way that suits you.  :)  I think l someday, when I have actual family coming over to MY house for dinner, I'll make even SMALLER ones and use them as place card holders.  Wouldn't that be cute???  You could also fill them with candy instead of flowers, or small slips of paper to write what you're thankful for...very versatile for families of all shapes and sizes!

I also found this great digital camo duct tape at WalMart, and decided to make Paul a new wallet since it's more his thing than bright red is. :)  He loves everything military, so he got pretty stoked when I gave it to him.  Also, since I've made a few of them now, he got one that was put together a little better.  Have I mentioned before how awesome this duct tape goodness is?  Because it is.  I will never, ever buy a wallet again!  I'm thinking about using the rest of this duct tape for another wallet for one of my many military family members...but who?  (P.S. One roll of fancy duct tape makes like 3 or 4 wallets.  Even with the designer styles,it's still less than $1 a piece! If you want to make these as a gift, they are REALLY easy to make (check out a tutorial here), and then you could stuff them with gift cards or money or pictures of family or whatever you want.  :)  One note of warning: you'll have to experiment with sizes and such.  None of the tutorials online gave me the sizes I wanted.  So my first one was HUGE.  Use your current wallet or some money and cards to make sure everything fits *just so*.  :)  If you like the three-fold style instead, MAKE IT!  I did this for my niece's birthday so it would fit in her little purse, and it turned out quite nice, too.  You'll thank yourself for it!

Beautiful things.

Getting up at 6 am has its perks...like seeing the beautiful sunrise every day!  (This was yesterday's.)

Gorgeous tea set sent to me by Clair.  I'm in LOVE.  The teapot has a tea infuser, too.  It's like magic.

A brief explanation...

 I've been REALLY bad about writing in my journal lately.  It's not that I don't love or value the insights gained as I write, and it's not like I don't have the time.  There's just something about it that I dread.  Maybe because I try to catch up on EVERYTHING and have a hard time just skipping to little relevant tidbits.  Maybe because I feel the PRESSURE of trying to write something grand that future generations will use to learn all about me and who I was, painting an image of their ancestors, and sometimes I don't think I like what I write, so I censor my own writing.  Or maybe because that gets old and then I write down EVERYTHING in a moment of passionate feelings, and all the anger/hurt/confusion or total joy/elation/excitement comes pouring out, and I'm afraid people will think I'm bipolar or something.

That's why I've been trying to update my blog every day.  It's not quite as personal as a journal, and I still write in there when I'm feeling inspired to do so...but as for the everyday stuff, the general thoughts, and the insights into our lives during these first few years of marriage without children, a blog is much more convenient.  And I can post pictures.  :)

Keeping busy...

This is what I did yesterday...more pics to come of another Thanksgiving flower arrangement and a CAMO duct tape wallet!  Wahoo!  I heart being crafty.  :)

My first EVER floral cornucopia.  I'm in love! :)

What do you think--does it need a bright orange ribbon around the basket?  I think I need to go raid my ribbon box and see what I can do to make it even prettier...

My first ever crocheting project...thank you to a special YouTube video for making this moment possible!  SOMEday, this will resemble a scarf.  :)

For posterity: my thoughts on TRAVEL

Other than Canada (which IS very pretty, but it's not exactly a whole new world), I've never been anywhere outside of the States.  I WANT TO TRAVEL!  Paul and I are stoked about saving up for real vacations across the oceans.  It's expensive, but not THAT expensive that we should go our whole lives without ever seeing the world!  Really.

I took French in high school and college (other than 2 semesters of ASL), and because of that I have a LOT of Eiffel Tower stuff.  Don't get me wrong, I'd LOVE to spend some time in Paris and even moreso some of the southern countryside of France.  But there are several other places we'd love to go first:

Japan.  Pretty much anywhere.  I don't want to do anything too touristy, really, (at least not more than a day or two) but I just want to stay in a small village and explore the coasts and get to know the "real" Japan.  And I want to visit my dad's old mission sites.

Italy.  There are SO many places in Italy we want to visit, I'll bet we could spend a whole month there and still never see them all!  Rome, Venice, Florence, Naples, Genova...seriously. 

Vienna.  Mostly because of the Billy Joel song.  But I'm sure it's really awesome.  ;)  This would be part of our western Europe tour, because we want to see France and Germany along with Austria and Switzerland.  While we're there, we'll totally hit up Ireland and England.  Because we can.  Paul wants to see WWII sites and I want to eat the food. 

Australia.  I don't know that Paul and I have really talked about Australia, and it's not at the top of either of our lists, but I'm pretty sure if we got to go there we'd be pretty stoked.  We wouldn't have to learn a new language, and we'd be quoting "Finding Nemo" all the way!

South Korea.  Here we would be TOTALLY touristy and go visit all the Korean drama sets we've seen (they tend to open them as museums/tourist attractions after they use them).  We'd also gorge ourselves on yummy Korean food and visit some friends we've made over the years that live there.

I guess I'd really like to go to China and Thailand, too.  I heart Thai food and, well, China's China.  'Nuff said.

Personally, I'd love to visit the Phillippines since that's where Paul's family lives.  He's never been there!  And he doesn't really want to go, mostly because he says it's too dangerous and he couldn't stand to see puppies being eaten.  But if we get the chance to actually go someday, I'm sure he'll go.  I don't know what we'd do there, but I'm sure we'd figure something out.  :)

Also, a cruise.  I've never been on one, and I want to go, just once, just to say I did it. 

Guess we'd better get to work if we're going to go all these places, especially if we want to have kids, too!  These things add up!  I just can't wait 'til teleportation devices are invented. 

For posterity: my thoughts on APOLOGIES

If you owe someone an apology, give it.  Not apologizing and making genuine efforts to make it up, especially if this is a pattern in your life, makes a relationship grow sour.  Apologies aren't followed by excuses or accusations.  Being right isn't as important as making it right.  Especially if it's someone you love.  I don't know why it's so hard to say, "I'm sorry," or even explain what you MEANT to say/do/think/whatever...some people let pride get in the way, I guess.  But as difficult as it is to forgive someone, it's ten times as difficult when they show no remorse for hurting you.  A genuine apology when you've wronged someone (even if you didn't mean to) is what kind, thoughtful, flawed-but-good human beings in healthy relationships do. 

For posterity: my thoughts on STUFF

I don't know a better word for some of my material possessions than just plain ol' "stuff."  Junk.  Things.  Treasures?  Effects.  Goods.  Property.  Nope, none of them quite work as well as just "stuff."

It turns out I have a lot of stuff.  And I always want more.  I go through these kicks where I want to purge myself of all sorts of STUFF, but then when I go to do it I'm like, "No, I need that just in case..." or "Maybe I don't need this now, but someday I'll wish I had it..." or "But this has such sentimental value, how could I part with this?"  And I end up MAYBE getting rid of some clothes that don't fit me, but only if they don't fit me by A LOT because I also think, "But when I lose 15-20 pounds, which is going to happen very soon, I'll need this!"  And then some old junk.  OR, sometimes, I DO end up throwing it away and then later I really DO need it and wish I'd kept it!  Vicious.

I am not a hoarder or anything!  I think our house is fairly clean and void of clutter and junk.  And I'm pretty reasonable about not worrying about getting more stuff just for stuff's sake, at least for an American.  :)  But sometimes I wish I could break free of all my stuff.  I envy those people who live out of suitcases or backpack across the world, who live in a studio apartment and, instead of acquiring STUFF to do inside (not that I don't love my jam-packed craft closet or our shelves of books and movies and games), spend their lives out in the world doing...well, STUFF. 

I'm still a work in progress.  :)

Teehee. :)

So, tonight in all the hullabaloo of emergency grocery shopping, a baby shower, and Psych night, I COMPLETELY forgot about this bread that I had rising. 

I forgot about it for 6 hours. 

I cooked it anyway. 

It was still edible...but it looked like this:

Most of that is air.  The whole loaf sank as soon as I cut into it. 

On the plus side, it's so huge it still filled us up faster.  For the first time, we have leftovers from our midnight snack for Paul to take to work tomorrow.  :)