5 Things I'm loving right now!

#1 Wooden Letterpress Type

I have a list of crafts in my mind right now that all involve wooden type. If I can just find it at a price that doesn't make me cringe. I can't wait till I finally get some and get to post about all of the awesome crafts.

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#2 Chevron Stripes

I pretty much love all things Chevron at this point. sadly I own only a shirt that is this awesome stripe. I have big plans for the living room, guess I better tell hubs about them. These fabrics are awesome! Bright Bold Colors and it's from one of my fav fabric shops.

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#3 Monogrammed Initial Necklace

I have been wanting one of these for a few years. Valentines Day is right around the corner, you never know.

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#4 LinkyHere.com
Since I am still new to blogging, these has been an awesome resource and has helped me get connected with lots of other great blogs.

#5 Instagram

I have 2 different camera apps on my phone aside from the standard. Instagram is by far my fav and the preferred App of Fat Mum Slims Photo A Day Challenges.

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There you have them 5 Things I am Lovin' Right Now.

Linking up with Chesterrific

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January Instagram Review

I made it!! I finished the January Photo A Day Challenge with Instagram. Can't wait to start February:) I'm thinking this will be a fun way to capture the entire year, hopefull new challenge lists will keep on coming.

Welcome February...

Linking up with:

 

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Monday Mash Up & Challenge Update

Busy last week....busy this week.

I am loving it and yet I am tired. I try and get those recommended 8 hours of sleep each night, heck I shoot for 9. 8 to 5 is just the beginning of it. I still have orders to sew, packages to get ready to ship, groceries to shop for and all I really want to do is get a mani/pedi adn then go home, take a hot bath and read celebrity gossip magazines. What is wrong with me?

This week is the last week of the January Photo A Day Challenge with Instagram. Fat Mum Slim along with jessicaNdesigns have been a blast to link up with and I have to admit, the list for February looks to be just as much fun.

With out further ado....the week in review

 #22 My Shoes #23 Something Old

#24 Guilty Pleasure:) #25 Something I Made

#26 Color #27 Lunch

#28 Light #29 Inside My Fridge

Weight Challenge Update:
Not only do I feel so much better about some of my food habits just 1 week into the challenge, but have realized how serious my stress eating is. I have found some new discipline, which I know I could loose if I don't keep trying. Smaller, healthier, more frequent meals, using the right foods, tons of water and the gym 4 days this week and..... I lost 2.6 lbs!!

Just 2 more days of the January Challenge, and then I am headed into February!



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Friday Night Letters

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Dear Stranger @ the Post Office,
Thank you for helping me carry 40 empty mail crates inside from my car. Thank you for taking care to still open the door for me. You really made my day. Thank you for letting me give you a stamp:)

Dear Bikrim Yoga,
Why do you have to be so expensive? I really enjoy your classes, and its fun to go with Hubs, but $150 a month is a little steap for me:(

Dear Dad,
Thank you for the daily phone calls. I love that I get to talk to you on my way to and from work each day. You always have great advice and an open ear.

Dear Hubs,
Thank you for the text last week that said you "love being married to me." It made my week!

Dear Future Sis-in-Law,
I'm sorry I forgot your birthday and didn't text you till a day late. This means I also forgot to mail you a thoughtful gift.

Dear Mom,
I can't tell you how excited I am about your visit this week! Those tickets for WICKED are sitting on my desk waiting for you to get here.

Dear Matt,
The sermon you you preached last week, torn me up. Thank you, I needed it.

Dear S&D,
I miss you guys. I'm glad you are feeling better. I can't wait to see you this summer.




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Foodie Friday

Nothing exciting...but I did make it. Last night was all about the soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. Now I decided this a little late and hubs gave me a questioning glance and asked if I really wanted to mess with grilled cheese? This is where my shear genius steps in. We have been together for 8.5 years and every once in a while we still surprise each other.

I told Hubs, "mess with grilled cheese?" I'll have this ready in 3 minutes! He just laughs and shakes his head a little {this is where my handy toaster steps in}. I have a regular ol' toaster, nothing fancy. I clean the crumb tryand place it on its side, one side gets regular bread and the other bread with a slice of yummy Havarti with dill cheese on top. Normal setting, and in under a minute. I'm putting the plain piece on the cheese piece and Voila! Grilled cheese and I didn't even have to use butter! It was delicious, I have no idea where I learned this trick, but it works like a charm. Soup was boring but still my fav, Chicken noodle from Campbells. I think he was really suprised that I knew how to do such magically things with the toaster.

Blah Blah....
Now I didn' craft this week because I had so many orders to finish and get in the mail. YAY for orders! I have a fun craft coming up that I ordered the pieces for and can't wait for them to come it...hint..think letterpress.

I'm working on what to do for Hubs for Valentines. I have a gift idea and am working on the handmade part to it, because every gift should have something handmade.

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thankful thursday

#1 Blog Followers:

3 weeks ago I had 2 followers. I'm not sure that either of them still even uses their accounts. I know they hadn't read a post from me in over a year, I know this because I hadn't posted in over a year! Tattle on myself. It's not a huge number but wow! 23 of you. You make my day, you read, you comment and you inspire me to write the next post. I am very thankful for you today.{update:there are now 24 of you}

#2 The Austin Stone:

Our amazing church, beautiful worship and a sermon that always hits the spot. So thankful God has put us in a place we feel at home.

#3 My Besties {Denise, Shea, Rachel, Tisa}:

The 4 of you are always there to listen, give advise and think up a good plan with me no matter the occasion. I'm thankful to have each of you in my life, you have all been there at different times and I'm so glad that.

Denise and I at my wedding in Cozumel

Tisa and I craft showing

Rachel and I hanging in San Fran

Shea and I @ The Rock

Linking up with:

 

 

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1LW #4 and a Sermon

Being positive is harder than I thought it would be. Yesterday morning I was frustrated when I left the house and kept telling myself, "God this is Yours." Easier said than done, does praying like this work? Sometimes I don't really know what the right words are, sometimes I just pray to myself that God is in control of ______.


Sunday, as Hubs and I sat through church listening, I kept thinking, "he's gonna wanna talk about this later." {I didn't mean it in a good way} We frequently talk about the sermon after church and discuss what we learned or how if was related to us {it's always related to us somehow}. This week Hubs didn't make the first move so I thought I would. I mentioned the sermon that evening and hubs gave me the run down of how he thought it applied to him, and then he hesitated and asked me what I thought.

I had been prepping for this moment all day and blurted out my answers...and then started crying. Nice, right? he listened but didn't really have any insights for me. I think that as a married couple we frequently know each others struggles even if our spouse thinks they have it under wraps. I was busted, he already knew the things I was struggling with. So this week I am trying to take to heart the concept of the sermon on Sunday.

Give the Idols of my life to God.

Sounds so simple, one little sentence. It's HUGE and not as easy as I had hoped. I'm going to keep praying about it and trying to stay {Positive}. Lots of prayers, moments of frustration with my self and moments of humility.

I've included the video of this weeks sermon and I can't think of 1 person I know that wouldn't need to hear this. So here it is, the 1st in the series.

Counterfeit Love: Idols Defined from The Austin Stone on Vimeo.

These are the Idols of my life that I trying to give over to God daily...


Body Image



Desire for a baby...now...right now!

What are the idols in your life, what are you spending more time thinking about than praying about? Can you give them to God?

I would love to be a prayer warrior for you and always appreciate prayers myself.

Linking up with It's a Long Story for 1LW

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Journal Swap

A while ago I posted that I was going to be part of an upcoming journal swap that was going on over at aleks handmade. Alek wrote an awesome post about how to make a special journal, you can check it out here. She gathered everyone's info and matched us up secretively. We received a name and a little info about our person. Here are the questions that we each answered and sent in:

Name:

Blog:

Mailing address:

Favorite Things (IE, bears, the color green, and sports):

What is your journal styling?

Are you an everyday journaler?

My secret partner gave great answers and i thought about all of them while I gathered supplies. I also headed over to Pinterest to do a little stalking and check out her boards to get a sense of her style.

I haven't scrapbooked in years, yet there are all the supplies hanging out in my sewing room closet. They have dwindled over the years but there are still the basics. I had a fun shaped chip board album cover that I purchased years ago at a Scrapbooking Convention my mom and I attended. It was perfect! I found my favorite paper pack and pulled out all of the green and yellow pages {those are my partners favs} and picked up some cute add-ons at Hobby Lobby.

I traced, I cut and I glued. Then time to punch holes, add sticker and Tada!!! I had so much fun and am glad to have been a part of the swap. Here are a few pics of the journal I mailed off to Sarah from Life on Walnut Street.

Last week I received my journal in the mail...and I LOVE IT!!

Chrissy over at Boerman Ramblings did an awesome job! She even included a sweet handwritten note. She totally stalked my blog and Pinterest and figured out I LOVE me some sock monkeys and she included my 1LW. I can't wait to start using my new journal and can't wait to see what everyone else got in the mail.

Linking up with Aleks Handmade:

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It'sTime, for a Missional Community

Hubs and I moved to Austin in June of 2010 from our hometown of Midland, located in West Texas. We came to Austin for hubs new job and I was in the middle of finishing my Bachelors in Nursing from Texas Tech University. Of course leaving our parents was the hardest part of the move for me, aside from that it was leaving our church.

We had found a church to call home after getting married and really enjoyed attending services there. We never joined what they called a COM group, or community group, it just never seemed like the right time.

When we moved to Austin there was so much happening that find a church was something we talked about but didn't really move to do. Hubs started the new job, I was staying home and running Elle Dee Designs while finishing my degree and working when I would travel the 5.5 hours "home" at my old job.  In December I finished my degree and by Spring we were both talking a grad class. We had heard about The Austin Stone from a friend who use to live in Austin, but hubs was nervous about the whole meeting at the high school concept.  We shopped around a little, went to a church service, decided it wasn't for us and went back to looking at websites and listening to the sermons from our old church.

In Spring, Hubs decided that he wanted to check out The Stone and we ventured over for our first visit and fell in love with an amazing group of people who are in love with the Lord. We've never looked back. This is where we feel God wants us to be and we are excited about it. We attended regular Sunday services for almost a year before we decided that we wanted to be involved on a smaller more intimate level. We looked at all the Missional Community groups online and narrowed it down to groups in South Austin near us, couple with and without children in our age group and so on. We ended up joining the first group we attended and love all of the people in it.

Part of the concept behind Missional Communities is that they believe that you are on mission, which means you should be serving...somewhere, anywhere. Our group recently discussed and decided to serve the South Austin Pregnancy Resource Center.

We met up on Saturday for 3 hours and did anything they asked up. Men tackled a rather large yard, ladies sorted baby clothes for their "boutique", we cleaned from top to bottom, helped with mail outs, and dropped things at goodwill and the post office for them. We had a great time fellowship and serving. We plan to serve here once a month as a group.

I can't tell you how happy I am that God has provided this Church and these people to be in Austin with us. Pin It

Monday Mash Up

Day #1 of the Weight Challenge and as previously discussed I'm going to share my weight...here...with you...a lot of strangers...and some friends. More on that later!


Mondays are always rough at work, but fun on the blog because I get the chance to recap the week previous. Even better since I am participating with Fat Mum Slim and jessicaNdesigns January Photo A Day Challenge with Instagram, I get to show it to you in pics!

#15 Happiness - My fabric Stash 

#16 Morning- Enough Said

#17 Water- I LOVE Topo Chico mineral water

#18 Something I bought- adorable letterpress cards while on vacation

#19 Sweet- Getting in Shape #20 Someone I love- My Nephew Atticus

#21 Reflection- me..in the mirror

It was a fun week in pictures, definetly challenging I really had to think about some of them and improvise on others. Hubs would not cooperate with me for #20, so I used a fun picture I already had of my nephew wearing the hat we sent him for his brithday, adorable, right?

My prayer journal post was featured on another blog...making me super happy and even more excited about the concept of blogging.

I'm trying to win tickets to the SNAP! Conference and of course would love your vote... click {here} and vote for me:) I'm the first one and the only Lani.

Last but definetly not least...The Weight Challenge... here it is...I weighted in this morning and the starting weight is 142.2 lbs.  Hubs has talked me out of trying to win or setting a specific goal, but more on focusing on the importance of eating well and continuing to exercise daily. I read a great post a while back about a book that was helpful for one women in her struggle to loose weight. I think I'll pick that up too. Hubs also pointed out the importance of prayer and making sure that I really give this over to God and not make it the idol of my life.

I know that Idol is a strange word to use here and one that might have had you thinking hard about it. Today's sermon started an amazing series that I needed to hear today, and will share once it's online.

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A few of my favorite things...

Fridays are the day that I have reserved for sharing a recipe and pics of my cooking for the week. I do this mainly to keep me accountable to cook dinner at least 1 night a week which was on the goals list for this year. So far so good, except that this weeks meal was not healthy, was not fancy and I forgot to take pics. We had whole wheat pasta shells, with ground turkey and creamy vodka sauce {I of course sprinkled a little sharp cheddar on mine}.

The thing I'm even more proud of than cooking this week... I did all of the grocery shopping alone and got kuddos! Since hubs does, ohhh 99% of the cooking at home he usually wants in on the shopping too. This week was a little crazy with coming home from vacation and heading straight back to work {you can only survive on cereal for so long}. So I headed to Central Market, picked up all of the usual goods and didn't forget anything that I can think of. Hubs has told me several times, thank you and how much he appreciated me taking care of it. Maybe this Proverbs 31 wife thing might be okay (see previous post).

With that being said I decided that I would do something a little more fun, My favorite 5. I have done this type of post in the past with 5 things I'm loving right now and I had fun, so here is a current version. Enjoy!

#1 The Lucky Elephant - The Mega Wrap... Rainbow Sundance GOOD LUCK ELEPHANT Leather Wrap Bracelet. Need I saw more? It's so fun and totally on my wish list.

#2 Barnowl Primatives - Wash Your Hands and Say Your Prayers Typography Word Art Sign Horizontal. I saw a similar sign years ago and loved it. I looked everyone for one and could never find it. I think I need this in my office at work:)

#3 Tisa's Creations - Shut the Front Door Card. Now you can purchase the cards individually if you have someone specific in mind to send it to, or like me you can buy a pack with 1 of each color and send them to everyone!

 

 #4 Cut the Cake Designs - Address Card File Rolodex Green Bird on a Branch. I love this open concept, I have the most boring Rolodex and my address book is cute, but this is awesome!! On the wish list for sure!

#5 Designs by Taylor2U - Custom Map Necklace: HAVE IT!! I have a beautiful custom crystal map necklace with Italy on it {its on the list of must visit places} I also gave my mom one last year with Scotland {she loves tracing her genealogy}. It is a great gift for a bride or anyone special.

So there it is, My Fav 5 for this week. What is on your love list right now? Did you check out any of the shops on my Fav 5?

SPOILER ALERT!!!

Monday starts the Weight Challenge at my job and I am totally in! Everyone participating throws $20 in the pot. Challenge last 1 month and who ever looses the most percentage WINS the entire pot, which is currently $160! A few of our docs even added to the pot but are going to sit on the sidelines {so nice of them}. So here we go....starting weight will be posted on Monday...I can't believe I'm going to tell ya'll how much I weight! This might just help me knock out that goal of loosing 10 lbs!

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Meeting Aimee of byAimee.com

Today I want to introduce you to my sweet friend Aimee of byAimee.com. As I was preparing to write this post I had to ask Aimee, "Do you remember who introduced us or how we met?" She had a better idea than I did. No matter how it was I'm so glad to have this amazing women in my life! Only thing that could make it better is if one day we get to meet in real life {I see this in our future}.

Aimee runs an amazing company called byAimee.com that specializes in designing websites for small businesses & non-profits. They do amazing work and I love all of it! Aimee has helped me with several projects over the past year, everything from a adorable landing page for my business facebook page, to buttons for both my business and personal blogs.

 

 

When I asked Aimee what her favorite part of her business was she told me, "helping small businesses find their presence on-line with a beautiful brand/image to set their business a part." Who doesn't want to work with someone whose favorite part of their job is making YOUR business better!

Aimee and her family recently made a cross country move from the seasonal North East to sunny Southern California for her husband's job. Craig is a career Marine and has been faithfully serving our country for 13 years. She told me that the favorite thing about their move besides the beautiful weather is the family they have found at their new church North Coast Church.

So when Aimee isn't running byAimee.com, she keeps busy being a military wife, Mommy to Jack and Abby, and a blogger.

Starting this week byAimee.com is getting a makeover and I would love for you to head over and check it out. I know that with their new look Aimee and her team will continue to deliver quality designs that you will love and your customer will remember you by.

A few of Aimee’s personal design favorites are:

Smittin By A Promise - website

Ahmelie – splash page

LinkyHere.com

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thankful thursday

When I tried and write down all of the things I'm thankful for this week, the list was pretty long. So today I highlight a few of them rather than a Plain Jane list.

Time with hubs: Our recent vacation was the first time since before we got married 2 years ago that we have really taken time out to just spend with each other. It was amazing and I am very thankful for it.

 

I read a wonderful, encouraging book...in one day. Yes, it was that captivating that I just couldn't put it down. It taught me that I may never be the perfect wife, but if a love and fear my God, I am being obedient and the other things tend to fall into place.

The past few weeks have been a wonderful blessing to me. I joined an online group of Christian women. Some are friends I've know for some time while other are new. These women are amazing and I love that we share everything from prayer requests, book suggestions, ideas and so on. I can not tell you the encouragement that I have taken away from our daily interactions.

What are you thankful for this week? Join us as we link up with:

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