congrats and YAY

so my beautiful friend april just signed on her own new house {she's such a grown up now} and i wanted to send her her first piece of mail...so here it is. i think it turned out cute! one of her room's color schemes is grey and yellow {eeekkk i love!} so i wanted to incorporate that here

for this next project i have to give a huge shoutout to my husband...he is definitely the one who made this happen. Starting with the idea->finishing the project {he even let me take a nap while he was cutting and drilling, etc.} he conquered this beast. all i did was choose where i wanted the pots to go + got uberly excited at what herbs/flowers i was going to grow + almost teared up when he dropped one of my ceramic pots and broke it {and yes i HAD to have ceramic}. but its done and i can't explain how thrilled i am. i cannot wait to have fresh herbs and gorgeous flowers {im most excited about peonies...can you believe it? my own peonies!} o i just hope i have a green thumb!

finished project to come soon...

new creations

just some things i've been working on...

enjoy some goat cheese today...whether on a sandwich or in a pasta dish, it's delicious!

Love Day

Ok I have two confessions:

1. My phone crashed--> you may be wondering what this means and I'll tell you

The Christmas tutorial pics are gone :(

Yes, it's true...I had pictures for tutorials for all those fun creations I made over Christmas break and because I didn't back up my phone I have sadly lost them! However, fear not...I would love to answer your questions (if any) via comments on the creations AND I've been creating more things!

2. I don't have wifi at my house--> why is this relevant to the blog?

Easy, it's EXTREMELY hard to blog without wifi

What should take me 30 minutes takes me an hour to write and it's hard to find time to sit down and do such when the time it takes is doubled...but NO excuse. I have vowed to try to go to coffee shops and such to complete these blogs for my fans (HA fans...well I should say loyal followers!)

Now that I've found every excuse possible (but they are fairly legit wouldn't you say) here is something a little more fun...

Just figured I'd share with you all some of the sappy lovey-dovey things I created for this year's Valentine's day...it is our FIRST married one so I figured what better time than this one to get cheesy :)

Here are the Valentine's day cards I made to send to our families

and here is the super sappy present I gave Chaz...for each hour of the day I told him something I loved about him in the little envelopes I made...(I modeled this idea off an AHHH MAZE ing present he gave me when I went to mexico for 2 months...a WHOLE journal of things he loved about me [one/day] + bible studies each day)

and all these things were made from my gorgeous silhouette machine my valentine gave me at Christmas...one of the best presents EVER!

Hope you all had a sweet Valentine's day

"So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love."

1st Corinthians 13:13

Radical

So i PROMISE I'll get to my holiday crafting tutorials but just wanted to share some quick news...

so tomorrow my bible study ladies and I are about to dive into this book...

I am both excited and a little scared... we will have discussions each week regarding our thoughts, opinions, questions, concerns, doubts, etc according to the reading list i created! eekkkk :) Here is the reading list...

I know SUPER BORING looking but as much as I love crafty pretty things...I am even MORE of a procrastinator unfortunately! In a perfect world I would have had this outlined two weeks ago not two days ago...I would have made it pretty and decorative with lots of visual appeal...then I would have sent it of with my husband to be laminated...BUT that didn't happen!

OR I would have lOVED to cover them with fabric and make a little pocket for the index card reading list OR even cover small journals for each of the ladies to keep in her purse to jot down questions/thoughts like this one...

But that didn't happen either...so for now I'll just stick to desiring God's word than desiring pretty things...

I wonder which means more in the grand scheme of things?!?

Please pray for us as we journey through this and follow along if you'd like! I'd love to hear how God is moving through others as well! Leave feedback :)

Crafting Galore this Holiday Season

So I am a little late but....MERRY CHRISTMAS! Hope your holidays have been filled with love and rejoicing over the birth of our Savior!

We had a wonderful first married Christmas with lots of traveling, lots of family, and lots of love! We truly feel blessed! We also enjoyed some vaca time and finished/started many projects....here is a glimpse at those projects with tutorials on the way! :)

We made this chalkboard for my sister for Christmas...

We made these for a family friend....

using this inspiration ->

I received THIS for Christmas!!

and used it to make THESE for a baby shower I am hosting!

and I got to do a lot of snuggling with this...

and yes he CHOSE to sleep like this :) All in all a very MERRY Christmas season!

Food Tip: Sweet potatoes are in season right now...buy them in bulk and spend a night making sweet potato fries (baked of course!) then throw them in a bag and throw them in a freezer to enjoy for weeks on!

Remington

So I figured in mentioning all the new things going on at the Keating residence I need to mention one of our newest additions...

He was a stray that a friend was giving away...once I saw his picture I couldn't resist! He's a golden retriever lab mix...so yes he will be big! But he's cute, cuddly, and so sweet...did I mention he's cute?

Here he is with our black lab, Jezebel...awww just a little while ago Jezebel was this tiny...

They are both cute and fun and we love them!

disclaimer: I apologize for the bad iphone pics...one day we'll get a grown up camera!

Fun Food Tip: An egg yolk has almost one day's worth of cholesterol! If you enjoy eggs have one yolk and the rest whites or just egg whites...your heart will thank you!

It's that time of the year

YAY!!! I LOVE this time of the year! My favorite holiday is in it (Thanksgiving!) and I love decorating, colder weather (as long as I'm inside), and apple cider. One of my favorite things to do during this season is to sit inside a quiet coffee shop with dim lighting drinking a skinny hot peppermint mocha (or hot chai) while the weather is cold outside. hmmmm I feel like some of best thinking has come from just that scenario :) ahhhh but back to reality (which includes sitting in my warm house and a finished yogurt next to me...almost as good of a situation!) I will now show you all the pictures I have been promising for a while

DRUM ROLE PLEASE

Chaz's classroom!!!

With all the anticipation I have built up for these pics please be prepared for some disappointment as the things we did aren't really THAT creative AND I only have 3 pics...but nonetheless ENJOY

These are boards in chaz's room that we decorated with moss to give a Louisiana theme (he teaches biology). The brown one was covered with a burlap fabric as it is a stick pin board. We painted the green trim on the white board because it was just a plain wood before.

Here's where the real work came in...Chaz and I chose the fabric for those chairs and recovered them....we also sanded down the wood to give a more vintage/guy feel. We recycled that table from an old bookshelf he had...we added the legs and painted it green (to match the white board). Chaz also painted the checkerboard and made the pieces (out of wood). That little cubby is now filled with games and puzzles and cards for the kids to enjoy when they finish their work (wait?! I thought he was supposed to be teaching :) ALSO yes ladies and gentleman what you see here is my very first attempt at a pillow (and a rather pathetic attempt if you ask me) BUT it does have little buttons on the side for the closure. I wish I would have showed you in the picture because it did give it a nice little touch!

So see unfortunately that's all I have but it definitely helped spruce the place up a bit!

And next on our blog for today are some pictures of our latest endeavor...our first Christmas tree! I guess you can say we got a little tree happy because we ended up taking home a 10 ft tree. Now while we do have a 12 foot vaulted ceiling the incline in the height is in the middle of our living room...needless to say we had to trim this sucker down!

Here is a picture of our tree prior to cutting it down...notice the size between me and the tree! I have to admit I had my speculations as to whether it would even FIT, but my husband assured me it would...

hmmm

Now after 2 HOURS of trying to stand the tree on the base we ended up with this giant...anchored on the wall by fishing line! :)

CAN YOU SAY GIANT?!? My husband just laughed a lot this night...so did I...what great memories!

So like I told you GINORMOUS...but at least we will learn for next year...or will we :) Got the lights on and some poinsettias...just need ornaments, a skirt, and WRAPPED gifts. How EXCITING!

FUN FOOD TIP: Have mushy bananas? Make banana bread...my recommendation...do 1/2 whole wheat, 1/2 all-purpose flour. You can hardly taste the difference and at least you are getting some fiber! Go ahead, try it!