30 Days of Thankfulness-Part 2 (Too Late)

Look what I found! A post I never posted. I totally meant to do this, but you know...life go in the way. But I am still super thankful for SO many things!


So....here ya go!


I am thankful for....


November 2
the opportunity to be a grad student even if sometimes I don't love the homework.


November 3
awesome parents who invite me over for yummy dinner just for me!


November 4
hanging out with adorable twinlets who crawl in your lap and give big smiles and giggles.


November 5
movie nights with awesome friends.


November 6
my religion. I feel so lucky to have the faith that I do and always have something I can lean on.


November 7
cheese. It is so delicious.


See previous posts:
Part 1

My New Role

My sister is getting married! Well, that isn't new news. It happened while we were in Las Vegas in July. 


But it is still exciting!


I was doing this:

when her fiance called to ask for my blessing. 


Then we were doing this:

 (walking along the strip) when she called to tell us he asked her! I squealed!




They took beautiful, amazing engagement photos like this:

Doesn't everyone take engagement photos in front of the pyramids? In case you didn't know, her fiance is Egyptian (like really Egypitan, lives in Egypt) and she met him while visiting there back when she was in the Peace Corps. She spent most of the summer in Cairo and that is when they got engaged. And took these amazing photos!

Oh yeah, and they got engaged while taking a boat ride on the Nile. Totally ordinary.


She was in town in the fall for a friend's wedding and we got to spend some time doing wedding stuff like looking at reception halls and trying on dresses.


While we were doing this, she gave me this adorable black and white box:

So my new role in life is officially her Matron of Honor. And boy am I honored! I am so looking forward to helping plan  her wedding and being there for her for whatever she needs. She was the best Maid of Honor ever for me and I hope to return the favor. (It is OK I posted those photos because she isn't going to wear that dress. It was just one she tried on!).

P.S. The cookie was delicious.

P.S.S. If I am going to be completely honest, those photos were staged. She actually asked me while she was wearing the wedding dress bra and slip. But those aren't really appropriate to put on the internet!

Christmas Craftiness

Well hello there! Did you think I forgot about you?

As I rush around finishing up getting ready for Christmas Eve, I had some motivation to post about my recent Christmas craftiness!

The first idea I found on Pinterest a couple weeks ago and really wanted to try it. I have SO much wrapping paper and so many wrapping supplies, so I didn't do it for ALL the presents, but I did pretty much one for every person like this. 

**10/9/2012 Updated to add**
Just today I received a comment from the original poster of this photo! She has a Facebook page for her photography business and originally posted it in 2010. It made its way around Pinterest, but most pins didn't credit back to the original source. So here it is (her Facebook and her Pin Board!

The photo on pinterest:

This next idea was inspired by Gina at NamastebyDay. Before Thanksgiving she was tweeting about ribbon wreaths, so I decided to go out and get some ribbon at the awesome Thanksgiving and Black Friday sales! She sent me a couple pictures to get an idea of the type of ribbon to buy and I went crazy. I've continued going crazy buying ribbon until I actually made the wreath this week!

It is pretty easy, just time consuming. I used a wreath shape from The Dollar Tree (the wicker like one) so I needed to cut longer pieces of ribbon (a lot of the tutorials call for a wire wreath and shorter pieces of ribbon). I actually have no idea how many rolls I went through, but at least 5 I think. I got 1.5 to 2.5 inch ribbon in a variety of colors. I randomly started cutting and tying ribbon until it was full. When you think you have enough, shove the pieces together, and start tying more! One of the most time consuming parts of it was going back and cutting little "v's" into all the ribbons. But it really does make a difference! 

After starting the tied ribbon wreath, I got excited about another idea. Actually, I put the tied ribbon wreath on hold to finish this one. Then went back to it!

I wrapped a Styrofoam wreath in 4 different ribbons. The thing I didn't think of was that some of my ribbon was "see through" so I had to wrap the first layer with more solid ribbon. Then I went back and added a few smaller accent pieces throughout. I decided it needed something else, so I added some of my felt flowers to the side. I love how it turned out! I used sparkly white and red felt that I had leftover from some project and made a bunch of random flowers and then glued them on the wreath! I rolled the rosettes so the sparkly part would be on the "inside" of the rosette so you could see it better. The other issue I encountered was that I ended up covering up almost the whole red and green striped section because of where I put the flowers. Lack of planning. I just kind of went forward without long term planning when I was making it!

These were some of my inspirations for the wrapped ribbon wreath:
http://create.northridgepublishing.com/departments/holidays/boo-wreath/

http://cuttopieces.blogspot.com/2011/12/felt-flower-wreath.html

So those are my recent projects! I only have one front door so currently the wrapped ribbon wreath is on the front door and the tied ribbon wreath is in the living room. I just bought a curly cue H to possibly hang from the middle of one of the wreaths after I paint it red. We'll see if and when I get around to that!