A Woman's Touch

Slowly but surely I'm making my mark on my future home. Justin has a great taste on his own, but it's been so much fun to dream about how we can make our home welcoming and comfortable and start to add my own touches.

A while back we moved the couch from my apartment over to Justin's for more seating, but it was super cramped with both of our sofas - that didn't really fit - in the living room. A couple weeks ago, on a secret trip to Costco, Justin found the perfect solution.  The new "love seat" is really two separate chairs that sit together to make a love seat. It is perfect for the space constraints of the living room and goes so well with the sofa with one of the sofas we already have.

Now comes the fun part - throw pillows! I found the most beautiful fabrics at Hawthorne Threads and the just arrived this week. I can't wait to get sewing!

It's about to get crafty.

Fifty seven days to go. Let's get this party started.

My first wedding project (other than stamping and mailing 200 invitations - yipes!):

Flip-Flop basket for the dance floor.

Happily Ever After.

My future sister-in-law (64 days!), Natalie, gave me this print for my birthday. I'm in love with it and can't wait to find a way to work it into our wedding day! After the wedding I think I'll try to hang it in our kitchen because real life happens in kitchens and it's the real life that is our happy ending beginning!

Sweet Summer Corn

I love corn. Creamed, on the cob, off the cob, roasted and dipped in butter. Get in my belly. We've gotten corn from the CSA the last few weeks and it is some of the best sweet corn I've ever had. 

So, imagine my delight when I found Make this tonight! Corn Pudding from Kitchn in my Google Reader recently. Then, last night, dinner with friends was the perfect excuse to try out Martha's Cheddar-Corn Spoon Bread. I couldn't find white cheddar at Shop N Save so I went with some regular old extra sharp yellow cheddar and it was still delicious. Give it a try!

Three. Oh.

My younger brother has been sending me thirtieth birthday cards for the last four years - ever since my 26th birthday. He figured he might as well round up. Well, that was until he turned 26 last year and I returned the favor. Then he reconsidered - perhaps being in your late twenties really is a thing - he finally decided.

Today I really turn thirty. It's a big day. I feel like somehow, magically, today I should be a grown up. I remember my mom's thirtieth birthday - she taught me to ride my big kid, two wheel bike in the school parking lot. I can't believe that I'm as old now as my mom was then. I can only hope that I am as kind and generous as she was, too.

My twenties turned out to be pretty great. Here's looking forward to the beginning of a fabulous new decade!

The End of an Era

Today is my last day as a twenty-something. Crazy. It's been a wild ride. I'm a blessed girl.

in no particular order....

20. I spent an entire year calling France home, drinking more espresso than you can imagine and consuming unbelievable amounts of wine and cheese.

19. My best friend, Laura, and I almost got kicked off a train in the middle of the night in Slovakia. True story.

18. I traveled to Egypt and saw a glimpse of the Nile, but managed to miss the pyramids.

17. I became an Aunt.

16. My mom married a pretty cool guy and I inherited four awesome step-siblings.

15. With the help of some friends, I overcame my hatred of onions, olives, and shrimp and discovered that I actually really love all three. (No one can convince me that pickles are delicious.)

14. I started attending and working at The Journey church in St. Louis.

13. I stopped biting my nails.

12. First time a boy held my hand.

11. Saw my first opera at the Vienna Opera House in Vienna, Austria.

10. Ventured into the ocean for the first time since 9th grade. (There are living things in there people!)

9. Visited Les Ailes de Refuge and walked the dirt streets of Yako, Burkina Faso with my cousin Nichole.

8. Joined Weight Watchers online and lost 45 lbs.

7. Said good-bye to my childhood dog, Tabi.

6. Purchased and paid off my first new car (Honda Civic 2004) which I still drive and love.

5. First date.

4. First kiss.

3. Took my first solo vacations to San Sebastian, Spain and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico and loved every second of them.

2. Adopted Eisenhower (Ike). Life will never be the same.

1. Got engaged to the love of my life.

These are by no means all of the wonderful moments that made up my twenties, nor do they give credit to some of the harder times that shaped me into the almost-thirty-something woman that I am, but they are some of my favorite snapshots of life over the last ten years.

Sabbath

All things not God, all things made by God need rest...and maybe especially us. Because, unlike goats and beetles and flies and lizards, we try to outwit and outrun our limits. We think we're the exception, the one for whom busyness will translate into fruitfulness. We think because we've figured ways to build impossibly tall buildings and dig immensely deep, broad holes, to spy on babies in the womb, to tease our strands of DNA, to send whole computer files from New York to Nairobi in a split second - we think because our industry and ingenuity seem boundless, we can also figure out a way around our God imposed need for stillness. We can't. The need is not conjured away by medication, technology, discipline, cleverness, sheet willfulness. It always come back to take its due.

Mark Buchanan, The Rest of God

J. R. Vassar visited our church last weekend and preached to us about sabbath rest. As I sat in my chair, already overwhelmed with life and exhausted, his sermon hit me square in the face. Thinking about carving out a true sabbath makes me want to cry, both out of the uneasiness I feel at the necessity of saying no to protect our sabbath (and my lack of confidence in myself to follow through) and out of great desire for a time to rest. Many thanks to J. R. who reminded me firmly that God did not suggest that we rest, he commanded it.

Watch J. R. Vassar's sermon here.