'Tis the Season

I love our card this year. Seriously, it looks so. good. 

Happy Holidays. 

Love, Us

Three Years Ago....

This happened.

Yep. Those are real flames, that's my real husband, and indeed it does say, "Will U Marry Me?"

December 17th will always have a special place in my heart. 

And although we couldn't do a whole lot of celebrating regarding the day we first met and a year later got engaged on, we still toasted our luck with some late-night sparkling cider, admired my wedding ring {never gets old!}, and reminisced about our past four years of friendship and two and a half years of marriage.

We decided we really don't have it all that bad.

For those of you who swear the first couple years of marriage are the hardest, well....sucks for you.

They were pretty grand for us. 

DIY Leg Warmers

Okay, this idea has been all over Pinterest, but it really only just clicked with me. 

You can take an old sweater, cut off the sleeves, and turn them into leg warmers! 

And guess what? THEY ACTUALLY KEEP YOUR LEGS WARM.

Who knew??! 

Just cut the sleeves to the length you want, take them in to fit, and then hem!

Now, my legs are deliciously warm ALL the time. 

Amazing! 

Still Adjusting

I love Christmas. Like, looooove Christmas. 

In past years, I've dragged Chris with me to all sorts of Christmas-y things: the Festival of Trees, the Tree Jubilee, Temple Square to see the lights, ANY park to see the lights, sleigh rides, walking down Main Street in Cedar with cups of hot chocolate....

I'll take almost anything, people. 

But this year, with Chris working every night and me working most of them, I've realized we won't get the chance to do the Christmas things I love so much. 

And it will be a big adjustment for me. 

I miss a lot of things from our life in Cedar. 

I miss our giant Thanksgiving parties.

I miss seeing people I know around town.

I miss the cute cafe's that are open late.

I miss being able to get a freakin' scone. {SERIOUSLY. What kind of city doesn't have a good scone place??}

I miss the random late-night hangouts with friends.

 I miss friends, period.

I miss going through the drive-thru on Taco Tuesday with ten people shoved into the car. 

I miss the un-plowed roads in the winter, the cops who have nothing better to do than bust up our bonfires, and I even miss ducking my head to avoid my professors in the grocery store {because what can we possibly have to say to one another, anyway?}. 

But I suppose this move has given us a few things, too. 

I like being close to family. A 45-minute drive is immensely better than a 4-hour one. 

I like not having a bunch of single, loud, pretending-they're-not-smoking guys living above us.

I like learning to explore by myself. 

I like developing closer relationships with the few people we do know here. 

I like not having I'm-falling-off-the-edge-of-the-world gutters on every street.

And just as of a couple weeks ago, I like having my first-ever calling that does NOT involve playing the piano {i've literally only had piano-involved callings for the last TWELVE. YEARS.}.

So I guess I'm not really complaining, but I'm not really celebrating, either. This move has been full of lots of ups and downs, and I suppose I'm just going to have to learn to live with it. 

Because hey, c'est la vie.

{those four semesters of french weren't entirely wasted.}

I Eat When I'm Bored

Have you ever wasted an entire hour just staring into the fridge?

I certainly hope so, because then you might find this post helpful. I am currently OUT of ideas to write about. Work has picked up with the holiday season, so I don't have a whole lot of time to craft or sew. And the most exciting place we've been lately was Scheel's. 

They do have crazy amounts of stuffed animals and this awesome, 3-pillar, overhead fish-tank. 

That picture doesn't even do it justice.

But anyway, back to my point......boredom and food. I know my blog has been a little boring as of late, so as compensation I'm offering you this:

Pumpkin Cranberry Walnut Bread. It's as delicious as it looks. So when you start wondering how I got so boring, instead of staring into the fridge you can make this. 

Ingredients:

• 2 C. flour
• 3/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 C. sugar
• 1/2 C. canola oil
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 15-oz can pumpkin puree
• 1 C. dried cranberries
• 1/2 C. walnuts, chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x5x3 loaf pan {or a couple of smaller ones}. 

In a small bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt.

In a large bowl, beat together the sugar, oil, eggs, and vanilla. Add the pumpkin puree and mix well. Add dry ingredients, stir until combined. Gently add in cranberries and walnuts. 

Pour batter into the prepared loaf pan{s}. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Let the bread cool in the pan for 5 minutes before placing on a wire rack.

This bread is just so perfect for this time of year! It will make your house smell yummy, feel warm from the oven, and it's totally comfort food. 

And maybe if you don't smear a big slab of butter on each piece like I do, it could be considered healthy.

DIY Maxi Skirt Madness

Am I a maxi-skirt-making fiend?

Yes. Yes I am. This is the THIRD maxi skirt I've made, and I love them all!

And per usual, I got so impatient excited that I didn't think to take any pictures of how I made it. But I'll describe it as best I can.

Supplies: 

2 1/3 yards knit fabric

matching thread

First, measure where you want the skirt to sit on your waist. I like mine to sit higher, so I measured my natural waist {just above my belly button}. Then, trace out two giant triangles on your fabric. They should look kinda like this {but nicer} {and straighter}.

The shorter line on top is the length of your waist measurement PLUS seam allowance. Widening the skirt at the bottom will create some nice draping once its all sewn together. I think I even made mine flare out more than the picture. Make sure the skirt is long enough for the shoes you want to wear with it {i always wear mine with heels, so my skirt length is pretty long}.

Next, sew your two pieces together. 

This is intense, I know. 

Now onto the waistband of your maxi skirt. I wanted to ruche mine, so I cut out two rectangles that were the length of the top of my skirt {my waist measurement plus seam allowance}, and about 7 inches wide. If you don't want to ruche yours, make them 3 or 4 inches wide, whatever your preference is.

Then, sew the two rectangles together to form a loop. Hem the top using a stretch stitch or elastic thread. 

Iron in the bottom hem and pin to your skirt. Sew using a stretch stitch or elastic thread, hemming and attaching the waistband simultaneously. 

Lastly, if you wanted a ruched waistband, sew down the side seams of the waistband using elastic thread in your bobbin. This should give you a nice gathered look.

Woo-hoo! You're done! 

DIY maxis are my favorite. They're comfortable, easy, and comfortable. 

{it counts twice.}

Fall Pictures

I love this time of year. 

My ring that Chris bought me in Hawaii. It says "Kuuipo." 

It's Hawaiian for sweetheart. 

{aw. love.}

Easy End Table Personalization

The whole time that we've been married, we've never had real end tables until now. We were newlyweds, in college, and we used spools instead. 

Yep. Those big, round, wooden spools that electricians use to wind wire cable. 

We did stain them, though, so they blended in a little more {not many people noticed them, actually}. When we moved, we decided they were too much of a pain to take with, so we dumped them on one of our friends and took off without them.

We finally got around to getting real end tables last month. They're just simple, white, wooden tables from Ikea, but for EIGHT. DOLLARS. EACH. you can't go wrong. 

Here's the genius idea we came up with to make them a little more....us.

Step one: Buy banister knobs for super cheap.

Step two: Paint banister knobs your favorite color of the day.

Step three: Since banister knobs come with screws, simply drill holes in the bottom of your end table legs and screw knobs in.

And that's the end. I like the bright blue--it adds a little bit of color, and makes simple white end tables a little bit more jazzy. 

Easy. 

Part 2 {Hawaii continued}

And now we're on to part 2 of our Hawaii trip.

Wednesday morning my brother dragged himself out of bed and went with my parents to the wedding rehearsal. 

There he is, pushing fake grandma in her fake wheelchair.

Chris & I, however, had the morning to ourselves. So where did we go? 

The open-air, four-story mall of course.

And since we were in a high-class mall with stores like Cartier, Kate Spade, and Juicy....

....we had to go to PretzelMaker.

Then we met up with my brother and headed to the International Marketplace while my parents enjoyed a night to themselves for their anniversary. 

Thursday we woke up BEFORE the crack of dawn to get on a bus that would take us to Pearl Harbor.

This turned out to be a terrible idea. What would have, in our car, taken us maybe 20 minutes, took us 2 and and a half hours on the bus. TWO and A HALF hours. With commentary from the bus driver.

Once we got to Pearl Harbor, we taught the pigeons tricks, walked through the museums, and took a ferry out to the memorial.

It's a beautiful memorial. It makes me sad to think of how many people died and are still trapped on the ship even now, decades later. 

There's a spot on the Arizona that still leaks oil, even today. 

After the harbor, we headed back to get ready for the main event--the WEDDING.

{i love weddings!}

The leis were in honor of the groom's {and my mother's} parents, who have passed away. 

It was lovely. The beach, the sunset, and the gorgeous, eloquent ceremony. My mom totally cried.

Then we headed inside the GIANT {ridiculously expensive} hotel they were staying in {seriously, they had a dolphin pool in the backyard}for dinner and dancing. 

Kim, the bride, is a nationally-renowned dancer, so she performed a dance just for her husband. 

{awwwww.}

The next day was BEACH DAY! We started out with a submarine ride.

Which was pretty cool for everyone. Except Chris. Who apparently gets mad motion-submarine sick.

But he did recover.

There's totally a turtle in that last picture. 

Then we squeezed every last hour we could out of the sun and enjoyed the beach to its fullest. 

It's so great to be a sibling.

Then we had a crazy-good dinner at this suuuper high-end restaurant. Like the kind of restaurant where you get teeny  tiny portions because the food is so good.

Saturday we packed up our hotel rooms and went out for a last breakfast with my uncle and his {now} wife. They're cool like that.

This is what Chris had:

Yep. That's a burger. 

{granted, it did have an egg, hashbrowns, and bacon on it...but still.}

Then we caught a bit of a parade, went shopping again, and found the best shave ice stand ever.

Then we spent the last of the afternoon on Waikiki beach, watching crazy people jump off the boardwalk into water clear {and shallow} enough to see the rocks at the bottom.

Oh, and Santa was there. No biggie.

Moral of story? Hawaii is awesome. 

One day I'll make it back.