Button Pillowcase Tutorial & a Little Bit of Fall

Hello friends! Guess what? It’s fall. My favorite time of year! However, if you live in southern California you sure wouldn’t know it. It is currently 99 degrees here.

Not ok.

But, you know what? I am forever an optimist and will pretend that it’s appropriate to wear sweaters and boots and scarves all day long. Do you know what helps my California-fall-fantasy? You guessed it – decorating. (Ok, maybe you didn’t guess that, but I’ll still give you credit for it). It’s no secret; I miss Colorado in the fall. Actually, I miss it incredibly from September (the start of fall in my book) right up until December 26^th. Then, I’m happy as a clam to be here. But it’s hard to ignore that there are no leaves changing, no crisp morning air and no sign of snow in sight (especially not when it’s 99 DEGREES outside). So, for the past 3 years, I have made every effort imaginable to make fall as real as possible in our little house – that I can control, the weather…not so much. So, here’s a little tour around our house right now.

Did you like those last pictures? I hope so, because I have been working my little tail off to create those pillowcases. Since I now have a sewing machine, there is a whole new world of creative decorating possibilities opening up. They were actually pretty easy. I used a template for the pillow covers similar to this one. Basically, I just measured the fabric about an inch wider than the existing couch pillows and sewed them together with a finishing stitch. Then I added the embellishments on top of it.  Not a big seamstress? That’s even easier – just purchase a pillow, or pillow case that goes with what ever theme you are using, then dress it up yourself. Anyway, we have 6 throw pillows on our couch, I made 3 pillowcases using the red gingham, and then the other 3 I made pillow cases with a muslin-like fabric that I found in the “utility fabric” section at Joann’s. From those 3, I made one with an H made out of buttons, one with 2 orange ruffles on the side and the last with fabric rosettes made with all 3 fabrics. Wanna know how to do it? Ok, you asked…

For the fabric rosette pillow, all I did was make a bunch of rosettes out of the 3 different fabrics – muslin, red gingham and orange. I made all different sizes. Actually, this was the last pillowcase that I made and I just used up the rest of the fabric that I had. Then I arranged them on the pillowcase (without the pillow in it) and I hot-glued them on. Done.

The ruffle pillowcase was the only one that I had to embellish while sewing the pillowcase together.  First, I made 2 strips of orange fabric that were twice as long as the length of the pillow. I hemmed the edges – you certainly don’t have to do this, especially if you don’t have a sewing machine, it will just look a little more “rustic” if you don’t. Then, I ran 2 gathering stiches down the center of the strip. Again, you can hand-stitch this if you don’t have a sewing machine – gathering stitches don’t have to be perfect, just make sure not to tie off either end. Then you take the threads from both stitches and pull on the fabric until it gathers. Do this until your fabric is the size of the length of the pillowcase. Pin it in place, and do the second strip. Pin that one in place, then run a regular stitch down the center of each ruffle. Once you put the two sides of the pillowcase together (right sides together) sew the entire thing together, and when you turn it right side out, there will be your perfectly finished ruffles. (I skipped over a bunch of sewing steps for this, but just follow the instructions for the pillowcase tutorial). Again, if you don’t have a sewing machine and just want to dress-up a purchased pillowcase, then fold the ends over just a little and hand-stitch the ends at the seams of the pillowcase that you bought. Again, they are pillows; no one looks that closely at them. ;)

Ok, so the button pillow is totally my favorite one. There is a bunch of button art circulating around pinterest right now that is adorable and I’m sure there is more button-ing in my future… Anyway, to make your very own button flare, go to Joann’s (or your nearest fabric/craft store) and in the button section, they are bags of like-colored buttons in all different sizes. I bout one bag of red buttons, but I wanted a little bit of orange in there too, so I bought some 3-packs of larger orange buttons. Anyway, I pulled up word on my computer and found a font that I liked, and then I made it really big and printed it out. It wasn’t quite as big as I wanted it to be, so I freehanded it onto another piece of paper. If your printer will print is as big as you want, then skip that step. Anyway, I put a piece of felt over the top of the paper and could easily trace the outline onto the felt with a marker. Then I started hot-gluing the buttons into place. There is no rhyme or reason to this, just start. I tried to do the outlines first, then fill it in, but some are going to overlap and I like that a little better because it gives it some depth (not emotional depth, just physical depth – I’m not that crazy about my arts and crafts…). Anyway, once everything is glued down, cut out the felt around the buttons as close as you can, then simply hot-glue your letter onto the pillowcase. Seriously, I never want to take this one off of the couch. Ever.

Here's a comparison of the couches before and after:

Yes, that's Jeremy's head behind the couch in the first picture - because he's a creep and wanted to be the pic.

Otherwise, most of my fall decorations are the same from last year, you can check out that post here. I did make something new for our dining room table, but you have to wait for my next post for that little treasure. Also, I just wanted to thank everyone who’s been reading my blog. I’m still not really sure where I want to go with this – just arts and crafts, our lives, to include tutorials or not – mostly I don’t know if I want to really try to blog “professionally” or just keep this for friends and family. So, I’ve decided to just keep putting whatever comes into my crafty little brain on here and see where it takes me. And at the end of the day, it turns out that whether I have one follower or a million followers, I’m glad that I put it out there and I’m happy for each and every one of you who do read it.  So, thanks friends!!

Cowboy Party and White Party Birthday Extravaganza

So, if you didn’t already know, August is a pretty big month for the Hansen family.  Both of our birthdays are in August, as well as my sister’s and mother-in-law’s birthdays and my parent’s anniversary. Not to mention, both Mike (my brother-in-law) and Melanie’s (Jeremy’s sister) birthdays are the first week in September. All of this craziness occurs in just one month. Usually, we combine my, Suzi and Jeremy’s birthdays together because they are within 2 weeks. However, this year was Jeremy’s 30^th birthday – it’s a big one, so he got his very own party. If you also didn’t already know, Suzi and I like to throw theme parties. Her birthday happens to be the day after mine and we have celebrated together for as long as I can remember. We used to hate it (i.e. – Suzi and Elizabeth as middle-schoolers), but now we LOVE it because we get to do it together and act like we are in middle school again because it’s our birthdays and we can do what we want, right? Anyway, this year, Suzi and I decided to do a Rollin’-in-the-hay party. I’ve got to admit, Suzi did most of the legwork on this one. She did some research online and purchased all of the decorations and I loved them all – especially the cowhide balloons, which inspired the cake I made. We had a FANTASTIC time listening to country music, drinking some cactus coolers and hanging out with our good friends. I couldn’t have asked for a better 29^th (yikes!!) birthday, or for a better friend to share my birthday with…

So, since it was Jeremy’s 30^th birthday, I knew I wanted to something extraordinary for him because well, he’s an amazing husband, a great friend/son/brother/son-in-law/brother-in-law/therapist…and dang-it he deserves it! So while we were in Montana over Christmas, his mom and I began conspiring about a surprise visit for Jeremy’s birthday. This became a little tricky because we were leaving for the cruise the week after his birthday, but in the end, it worked out perfectly. There are positives from working for the same company, for instance, when you want to surprise your husband with an extra week off of work, it’s quite easy to call the business office to get him coverage, call the owner to get him up-to-date, call his secretary and bribe her to keep things under-wrap at the office yada yada yada…I totally thought that he knew what was going on, probably because I’m a terrible liar and when he straight-faced asked me (ON MY BIRTHDAY) when his parents were coming in I almost had a stroke right there at the dinner table. Anyway, apparently he had no clue because when he came home from work and his dad yelled from the backyard “Hey, what’s a guy got to do to get a cold beer around here”, he almost fell down the stairs. He also was completely shocked to hear that I got him and extra week off of work, meaning that he not only had one week, but TWO weeks off of work (the cruise, remember?).  The surprises continued when the next day we went out to dinner (and I have no idea how he didn’t notice that we were all wearing white), then headed to O’Sullivan’s in Carlsbad for a few drinks and all of our friends were there to surprise him for a P-Diddy-Inspired White Party.

Ok, so I am in no way an expert on throwing parties, but I (or we, if you include Suzi) have a great time doing it. So I thought that I would include a few tips on throwing a theme-party:

·      Plan Ahead. 

      Not gonna lie, I’m terrible at this. I’m good at coming up with ideas for these parties, but Suzi totally got my butt in gear this year to get things done. Come up with your idea early, because it’s a lot harder to find everything that you need the day before a party.  Also, if your theme requires that people dress up, they are going to need some time to prepare, or in Jeremy’s case, to make a trip to goodwill.

·      Go to goodwill. 

      This place is awesome for costume ideas!

·      Google is your best friend. 

      Suzi found all of the decorations at one place, which is awesome. But, it doesn’t always happen that way. I googled “cowboy party” to find inspirations for food and extra decorations. Unfortunately, most of what I found was for a little boy’s party, but still, I got ideas.

·      Tell your friends they are not allowed to come in unless they are dressed up. 

      It’s really true that you have more fun while dressed like an idiot, I don’t know why, but I know it’s true.

·      It goes beyond just decorations. 

      It’s a lot about the decorations, but it’s the food, the music, the costumes. It just adds to it. Of course, the best part is the people there, but we are talking logistics here, right?

·     

    Make your own cake. 

      Cupcakes also go over really well and are crazy-easy to decorate. Again, google will provide you with tons of easy cake or cupcake decorating ideas.

·      This sounds expensive, but it’s not really. 

      We certainly cannot afford to supply dinner and drinks for everyone. So, we make it a BYOB event -even though we really don’t have to even say it, our friends are awesome and there’s always a TON of “adult beverages” left over- but we still make sure to have some staples and what we want on-hand. We also did a “signature drink” for the cowboy party (Cactuc Coolers, get it?) that got everyone started. I also usually specify in the evite to eat dinner before hand because while there will be appetizers, we all need a full stomach before getting too crazy. Appetizers are easy, and again, usually our friends bring a ton of stuff over because, you guessed it, they rock. Anyway, Suzi made buffalo chicken dip, I did pigs-in-a-blanket, we did the usual chips and dip, but it all was relatable to the theme. My favorite go-to for a party is Subway foot longs cut into individual slices – co cheap, so easy, and soooo good.

·      It’s not essential, but it’s definitely fun to have an activity that relates. 

      This year we played horseshoes in the backyard. We didn’t buy a set (though it might have been easier that way haha), Suzi got some actual horseshoes from a friend at work and Jeremy got stakes from home depot and make a backstop.  We did the Golf Pros and Tennis Hoes party last year and played table tennis. Again, not essential, but still fun.

Anyway, that’s pretty much how we prepare. Hope that helps you plan your next shindig!

Love, Birdie

Tania's Wedding & Bridesmaid Jewelry

Ok, I know that I just got back from a cruise and you all want me to post about that, right? Well, I want to post about that too, but we need to get caught up first. So, let’s re-wind back to June/July so we can talk about these bad boys for a minute:

Jeremy and I flew out to Durango the first week in July for Tania’s wedding. We also celebrated our anniversary while there. I haven’t been back to Durango in 6 YEARS! It was such a weird feeling to be back in the town that I went to college in. So many memories pretty much every place that I looked. I couldn’t help but spend the entire time reminiscing about all of my Durango friends. I also probably could have spent another week there just to eat at all of my favorite restaurants! Don’t worry, though we made it to Serious Texas not once, but twice! We also drove up to Silverton our last day there and I realized how much I did not appreciate how beautiful that little town was when I lived in Durango. One stop on my must-see list was the college and man, it’s a totally different place! They have completely remodeled the entire college union building – it’s beautiful! Why didn’t they have that when I went there?? Anyway, here is a little montage of our Durango trip (and apparently I was too busy reminiscing to take any pics, these are all from Silverton):

Now, not to mention the actual reason that we went to Durango, Tania’s wedding. For those of you who don’t know, Tania and I met while working together as lab aides/phlebotomists at the hospital.  

Tania has been one of my dearest friends for quite a few years now – you know, 

the kind of friend that you don’t have to talk to for months, 

then you’ll pick up right where you left off with just one phone call. 

The kind of friend that sends you encouraging cards in the mail that have writing not only on both pages inside, but on the back as well. 

She’s the kind of friend that when I met her, she brought me out of a kinda rough time in my life. 

Basically she’s the kind of friend everyone should have. 

So, needless to say, I was ecstatic when she called to tell me that she was getting married and I was even happier when she asked me to be a bridesmaid. So, check out how gorgeous her wedding was:

Anyway, now that you know how beautiful my friend is and what amazing taste she has, you can tell how honored I was when she asked me to make the jewelry for her and for the bridesmaids. I’m not gonna lie, I’m pretty new to this jewelry-making stuff, but I learned a lot from this whole experience. Tania asked for bracelets and earrings in yellow for the bridesmaids, and a set in ivory for her. 

Basically what I did was make rosettes from fabric. You can find a million tutorials out there on how to do this, but it’s pretty much just twisting and hot-gluing fabric. Then for the bracelets, I hot-glued the rosettes onto a ribbon. The hardware for all of the jewelry came from Michaels. The bracelet hooks, just clamped onto the ends of the ribbon. However, I didn’t clamp it down quite tight enough and the ends started to come out when we put them on, so I spent the morning of the wedding re-clamping. In hindsight, I should have added some glue inside of the clamp, but you live and learn, right? 

This is the only pic I have of anyone actually WEARING the jewelry

 and I took it after work just to send to Tania to get her approval, 

that's why it's super blurry...

Anyway, since this was for a wedding and she had such a beautiful theme (yellow with black and white damask), I figured that it needed some pretty packaging, so I bought some plain white jewelry boxes from Joann’s, then stamped a chandelier on it and tied it with the same yellow-colored ribbon.

I loved doing this and if you happen to be getting married, or would just like a set, let me know, I’d love to make one for you! Anyway, I’m working on some really fun fall-themed décor tutorials and may have a guest-blogger coming your way. Stay-tuned and as always, thanks so much for your comments, I get giddy every time I see a new one!

Love, Birdie

Love Stitched and Loxly Hollow

Good Morning friends! I should be at work right now, but I'm on the first official day of our vacation and what am I doing? Playing on the internet of course! Actually, we are about to go to the beach, but I thought that I would let you all know that one of my favorite blogs Love Stitched is having a giveaway right now for prints to Loxly Hollow. Which, if you haven't stumbled across this etsy shop - especially if you have babies - you need to right now.

Such adorable prints and I want some! You know, for the future. Anyway, check out the shop at love stitched as well, this is where a lot of the inspiration for Tania's wedding jewelry came from - more on that later, here's a little sneak peek.

She has a lot of similar stuff and is actually a professional at making this stuff, so if you want to buy some, check it out there. Anyway, since I'm on vacation and all, I'm going to go play at the beach, but I should have lots of time for another post this week.

Distressing the Dresser...

Ok, so after the novel that I wrote for my last post, I thought that I would give you guys a nice and easy DIY project for this one. I am currently head-over-heels in love with the shabby-chic style and I want every room in my house to have a touch of it. Once I saw how easy it was to distress some old frames and turn them into jewelry holders, I figured that a dresser would be no problem at all. However, I am new to this game of do-it-yourself decorating…well, let’s just say that it wasn’t hard, but I definitely learned a few things. Anyway, here is the before picture of said dresser:

I bought this dresser when we lived in Denver off of craigslist – it smelled like smoke and was the original medium-stained wood. So, I painted it with kills, then white paint. This was truly my first DIY furniture project 3 years ago. Anyway, I wanted to fill in all of the cracks and make sure that there was an even coat of paint. That sounds easy enough, right? Not really, I might have put like 10 coats of paint on there so that whenever you set something on it for more than 5 minutes it would get a little stuck…even 3 years later. I also did not have the heart to paint over this little gem on the back of the dresser, if anyone knows anything about this, please let me know, I’ve always been a little curious.

Ok, so what I have learned from the picture frames is that the details are the most important part when shabby-ing it up. And this dresser has some pretty awesome detailing.

So, I started with the same sandpaper sponges that I use for the frames and they worked pretty good for the details, but then I moved onto the sheets of a rougher grain sandpaper for the top of the dresser and for the front of the drawers.

I then proceeded to get a little carried away and thought that the front of the dresser drawers needed some wood showing through. However, once I finished the top drawer, I didn’t like how it looked. That’s ok, I covered it with a little extra white craft paint that I had lying around. It didn’t cover it completely and to be quite honest, I still need to get some truly white paint that matches the dresser to fix it, but in the meantime, it’s not that bad.

I previously had some modern-looking silver drawer pulls on the drawers, but what really helped to transform this dresser was some glass (or really plastic) knobs. I got these at target for $6 I think. Then I wanted to add a little bit of color, so I decided to change out some of the pulls with fabric bows.

To do this, I cut one-inch wide strips of fabric, then tied a knot in the center. I then fished the ends of the fabric through the hole for the knob screw from the back to the front so that the knot was still in the back of the drawer and the ends were hanging through the front.

Once the fabric was in the front of the drawer I tied it in a bow. This is nice too because if I ever wanted to change out the colors in the room, it would be very easy (and cheap) to change out the bows with a different colored fabric .

So, all finished-up, here it is. It still needs a little work on that dang top drawer, but that will have to wait until my procrastinating-butt can get to home depot…

A Love Story...

Last week Jeremy and I celebrated our 3rd Anniversary together! It feels like yesterday that we got married, and at the same time it feels like we've been together for a lifetime. It's hard to put into words how much I love my husband. But, in honor of 3 WHOLE YEARS TOGETHER, I thought that I would tell you all the story of how we came to be here at our House of Hansen...

In the summer of 2004 I was Elizabeth Arand. I was a very happy, content young lady who was turning 22. I had just graduated college and had moved from Durango to Denver, CO to start graduate school at Regis University. I thought that I was an adult, who knew a lot about everything, who had her entire life planned out, who would be the smartest girl in her class, who would meet the man of her dreams and he would be completely impressed about her fancy-pants job as a Physical Therapist. I was dead-set on not dating anyone in my class, because that would just be too weird to date someone who did the same thing I did. Hmmm, what's that saying about telling God your plans? Oh yea, do that if you want to make Him laugh. I'm pretty sure that 18 to 24 year-olds are the equivalent to God's comedy central.

Anyway, I spent the summer golfing with my dad and playing around Denver with Suzi before she had to go back to school. The weekend before school started, my PT school mentor told me about a BBQ get-together to meet some of the people in my class. He gave me directions to a house on 63rd Place in Arvada. It's funny to look back on that night - I got lost getting there and ended up parking 2 blocks away and wandering aimlessly through the streets until I figured out where the house was - little did I know, I would end up practically living there and would drive to that house probably a million times throughout my time in Denver. I bet I could have done it with my eyes closed if wanted to. Anyway, I got to the party slightly nervous and shy. I still to this day can vividly remember walking through the living room to the dining room and sitting at the table were a bunch of people playing cards, Aaron (my mentor) introduced me to 2 of them who lived at the house - Ryan Gum and Jill Zagozda, I immediately thought that they were second-year students because they seemed to know everyone and were relaxed and having fun, not nervous like me. Again, little did I know, these people were to become my family. And little did they know what was in store for them (aka, Jill you should start your own blog and tell your story…) Anyway, I stood there looking around at everyone, wondering where they were from and how I was going to fit in with everyone and hoping that I wouldn't be the youngest person there. I remember looking over and seeing a guy coming up into the living room from the lower level (or Jon's room) and thinking - oh, thank God I'm not the youngest one here!

This pic wasn't taken that night, but it's almost exactly where I was standing

Unbeknownst to me, that was the moment that I set eyes on my soul mate.

I didn't really talk to Jeremy much that night, just the general, who are you, where are you from, what was your major...blah blah blah. The first few weeks of school were a blast, everyone was trying to get to know everyone else while still squeezing in time to study (except for me, I was just being a social butterfly). October 1^st, 2004 was a Friday and every year in Denver the Great American Beer Festival comes to the convention center. This is F.A.N.T.A.S.T.I.C, especially when you are young and like to drink beer. A bunch of us from school decided to go, but we would meet up at someone’s apartment first. I got there and was chatting it up with this girl Jill, who I was shocked to see the first day in classes because I thought that she was in the class ahead of me, but it turns out she had just moved there from Omaha and had moved into 63^rd place with 4 guys that she hadn’t met before – Jeremy, Ryan, Jon and Luc. We started to head over to the Convention center and I realized that I had forgotten my ticket at home (a 45 minute drive away), I was bummed, but I figured that I would go back and get it and just be a little late. Well, Jill felt sorry for me and told me that she would go with me and keep me company. On our drive, she told me about all of her roommates, but what I remember is her telling me what a nice guy Jeremy was, how he had just gotten out of a very serious relationship, how goofy and funny he was and how much everyone liked living with him (There also might have been some mention of how great Ryan was too). We made it to the beer festival shortly after everyone else and Jill and I ended up hanging out most of the night. Throughout the evening, I found myself wanting to talk to Jeremy and spend some more time with him. By the end of the night we were sitting next to each other and without any hesitation, we had our first kiss.

This pic was taken that night at Beerfest just a few hours before our first kiss

Needless to say, when we all woke up the next morning with headaches, kissing each other in a bar didn’t seem quite as glamorous – from either perspective. I thought he was such a nice guy, he was so courteous and fun and I honestly figured that was a little mistake and we would just be good friends. However, over the next year, I kept finding myself in the same situation: out in Denver…a couple of drinks…and a kiss from Jeremy. Then I started to look for him - in class, at lunch, at get-togethers. I liked talking to him. I liked his goofy, carefree attitude. I liked how comfortable I felt around him and I started to get feelings for him. However, every time we kissed, it was followed with “I think we should just be friends” from Jeremy. I didn’t like it, so I moved on and quit paying attention to him. Then he didn’t like it…

At the end of May that year, I thought that I would have a fancy, Frank-Sinatra-themed wine and cheese party. That was an interesting night to say the least, but by the end Jeremy had consumed a few too many rum and cokes, so I went out onto the deck to give him some bread and water. He asked me to kiss him and I said no. This is a big deal for me, I was not letting myself become just a friend with benefits – it was also fairly easy to say no because he had just thrown-up… Nonetheless, he called me the next day to apologize and to tell me that he had begun to have feelings for me as well. My response was that he was a few months too late – man, I’m tough, didn’t you know! He didn’t waver. He says now that he knew that he wouldn’t stop pursuing me until I fell in love with him, but at the time I had just turned him down and he still invited me to come out that night with him and his roommates, so I decided to go (I didn’t want to hurt the guys feelings too much, right?). Anyway, Suzi was in town, so she came with me. We went to some stuffy night club and there was a guy dancing all over the place and my funny Jeremy was right there, practically in a dance-off with this guy and Suzi leaned over and said (in reference to Jeremy) “I like that guy. You should date him.” Well, if you know what high regard I hold my sister’s opinion; you will know how much that threw me for a loop. In the cab on the way home, Jeremy reached over and grabbed my hand and we sat there like 8^th grade sweethearts secretly holding hands. I went home with Suzi and told everyone that I would see them the next day at their Memorial Day BBQ. Well, the BBQ got rained-out and everyone decided to go to a movie. I said I was going to go home, but invited Jeremy to come with me to watch a movie. We sat at my parent’s house nervously watching the movie and when he went to leave I gave him a hug and he kissed me and * I’m not lying, this is not a cheesy movie * I knew 100% at that moment that I was going to marry him.

I’m not going to lie, we had our ups and downs that first year and a half (and plenty more after that…). We lived in Salt Lake City for an internship for 8 weeks, then when we got back to Denver, we moved in together to the cutest apartment EVER. A few weeks after starting our last internships I started to get antsy and dropping some very-not-so-subtle hints about getting engaged. As in, when are you ever going to propose to me? To which he responded, “You need to quit pushing me or I am never going to do it”. Well, I thought that I had really screwed that up and it would be at least another 6 months until he would do it. Two weeks later was Valentine’s Day and when I left for my internship on Friday I had a note saying to pack my bags because he was taking me away for the weekend. I might have definitely called my mom and asked if Jeremy had asked her anything important lately and my worst-liar-ever-can’t-keep-a-secret-to-save-her-life mother said, “I haven’t talked to Jeremy in weeks”. Liar. Anyway, the entire drive up to Winter Park, I kept reminding myself that he wasn’t going to propose and that I couldn’t count on it because I didn’t want to be disappointed if he didn’t propose and ruin this really nice Valentines Day surprise that he was doing. So, when after dinner the little Jazz restaurant that we were eating at began playing Stevie Wonder (our song – I Believe) and a desert that we hadn’t ordered came with a big shiny engagement ring on it, and Jeremy dropped to one knee, I was more than surprised. So surprised that I don’t think I said a word, I just nodded yes through teary eyes.

This was taken about 60 seconds after Jeremy proposed, I was just a *little* excited...

On July 5^th, 2008, Jeremy and I were married in the same town we were engaged. It was hands-down the best day of my life and more than I ever could have expected. He’s more than I ever could have expected. It’s still amazing to look back on how we became to be husband and wife, and I wouldn’t change any of it. I can’t believe how lucky I am to have Jeremy to grow old with.

If you made it through all of that, thanks mom, and I promise to have some fun – not so sappy – decorating/arts and crafts to post in the near future.