Sewing Adventures

I inherited some furniture from my very gracious parents in order to properly furnish my apartment 2 years ago. 2 years ago when I moved, the furniture was 15 years old. Now it was in style at some point I'm sure, but navy blue, forest green and burgundy plaid overstuffed couches are just not my style. Don't exactly fit with my decor. Therefore, 2 years ago I bought some really cool brown slipcovers in an effort to modernize them. However, despite my many efforts and constant tucking and tugging, these slipcovers... well, they slip alright. Covering is another issue entirely. One that these particular covers struggle with.

So now it's up to me to improvise! My roommate and I went fabric shopping with my mom, and found some really funky fabrics that we can use to cover the couch cushions and ottoman. I got ambitious the other day and made the ottoman cover.


The couches will stay "covered" (as best they can) with the brown slipcovers. However, the seat cushions will have slipcovers made of a coordinating striped fabric.



This picture has better picture quality for a more realistic color sampling. Both fabrics have the same shades of red, green, orange and brown. There are various shades of tan, blue and turquoise as well. I'll be excited to see it all put together!

My Sweet Boyfriend is in Ireland...

...but all of his gifts made it here just fine!

Chris and Scott are there serving the Lord at the local assemblies. They are attending the conferences and regular meetings, and Scott has the privilege of speaking some of the messages.

It was hard to drop him off at the airport. Mostly because we've spent time together every day since we started dating! I was prepared for 2 weeks of no talking and minimal contact at best. He promised to "call me every night" and "send me a postcard every day". I was more realistic (he would say pessimistic) and hoped for the best, but expected the worst.

Well, he surpassed those expectations -- as usual! Here are the ways that he did so:

Yellow roses are my favorite! So is baby's breath. And pink's my favorite color -- hence the vase, pink lilies and pink roses. I've never gotten flowers for no reason before! They were quite unexpected and very beautiful. I was definitely surprised when I picked them up at my complex's office! (And the leasing managers were jealous :) )
If you think of it next time you see me, ask me what I found out when curiosity got to me,
and I looked up the meanings of all the flowers included in the arrangement!

These postcards started coming two days after he left, and they haven't stopped yet!
(I adjusted them so you couldn't read about our deepest darkest secrets!)

It has been a long (part of) two weeks, but he'll get home this Thursday evening. Can't wait to go pick him up! Mostly because on a separate note, we made a bet that I couldn't last 2 weeks on only one tank of gas*. I have a little under a half a tank to last me 3 more days, including the trek to KC's airport! We'll see who wins.

*For all of you that don't know, I totaled my car. RIP '99 Acura 3.2 TL.


No worries though! It wasn't my fault, so the City of Topeka (who caused the accident by pulling out in front of me) will be reimbursing me for the damage, a new carseat (Ezra was in the car), and hopefully to fix my computer which needs repairing after it hit the dashboard during the accident. Therefore one perk to my boyfriend being in Ireland is that I can use his car while he's gone. I've come to find that may be the only perk, however.

A Few Months Ago...

So my friend Dani and I just moved into a new apartment! So exciting. It's slightly overwhelming to move. However, I've had much experience the last few years. I'm a seasoned expert -- if you want to label my moving skills that is.
However, one thing that is frustrating is re-buying groceries. Being a younger, unmarried person, I don't really stock up on very many things. But all the things that you have to purchase just to be able to cook! Spices, butter, flour, eggs, sugar, oil, wax paper, foil... and then you have to buy food to cook! It's overwhelming.
It reminded me of a much simpler time. Back in the day, when I lived at the Weatherford house. You see, once upon a time, there was an abundance of most everything at the Weatherford's. Though most days consisted of complaining that there was no food, Kristin and I made quite a discovery. Both of us attempting to avoid actual work (school, that is) decided to clean out the pantry. What we came up with was this:


While this probably doesn't top a lot of you mom's pantries, this is just a sampling. We found also an abundance of canned vegetables, various raw pastas, 3 bottles of maple syrup, 3 bottles of vanilla flavoring, about the equivalent of 8lbs. of Crisco in various forms and flavors. The list goes on! I found these three items the most impressive, however. **Keep in mind, only 4 girls live in the house that this pantry belongs to!**

9 jars of peanut butter


8 cans of tuna

Approximately a zillion instant oatmeal packets

Where did all this food go!? I have now 1 jar of peanut butter, no tuna, and maybe 8 packets of oatmeal. This new apartment may be cool, but the cupboards are slightly bare!

Sarah Leftwich (Oldberg) got MARRIED!

So fun! The wedding was so creative. It was great to get together with old friends, and spend an afternoon with the best date!

Us girls at the shower before the wedding.
Jess, Candace, Kylie, Me, Whitney, Kelsey and Paige down in front.

All dressed up!


Me and the bride. She looked beautiful!

We certainly didn't plan the color scheme, but it looks really cool!
Me, Candace, Sarah and Kylie.

"Bestest Estes Park"

Blame the cheesy title on Chris! It's what he labeled his facebook photo album, and it's pretty catchy. A fitting name for our mini Memorial Day vaca to Colorado. Quite the road trip! But it was a fantastic vacation. I've never been to Estes Park, CO. But we stayed in a really nice 5-bedroom house. It was me and Chris, his family and one of Brittany's friends, his Grandma Doris, and his Aunt Rachel and Uncle Dave and their kids, Ethan (5), Simon (3), and Clare (3 weeks). We did a lot of hiking, watching movies, playing games, and fellowshipping. There are some great pictures to show you just how much fun we had!

I'm not so much a fan of serious, cutesie pictures...


This one I was willing to pose for. We had just hiked up a gol' darn mountain!


The whole clan. Plus me.


Chris: If you aren't careful, you're going to fall in the creek.
Me: Surely not. I can make it across easily!
-30 seconds later-
This picture is of me, my right side soaking wet with creek water.
Turns out Chris was right, I couldn't make it across.


Beautiful landscape.


That's my boyfriend's work. You know, the awesome photographer!?

News!

So, I haven't been on to blog lately. I would say that it's because nothing blogworthy has happened (that's what I tried to use an excuse...). However, it's because TOO MUCH stuff has been going on. I have to catch up now. To fill everybody that hasn't seen me lately -- I have a BOYFRIEND now! It's so great. And now I suppose I should tell you all how we met...

Well, if you asked me, I'd say, "At Chapel". Apparently, according to Chris (my boyfriend), there's more to the story. If you want those details I would say ask him. I have no idea what he's referring to. As far as I know, I started going to Topeka Gospel Chapel last September. Me and a few of my girlfriends invited two boys named Chris and Thomas to come to our Life Group after we had attended church there for a few weeks. They started coming, and then we started hanging out more around Christmastime. At the beginning of March I started to be interested in Chris. My friend Dani and I spent more and more time with them, and by April we were dating! He's so much fun, and way more than I could ask for. I am so blessed to have him in my life! And I'm very excited to see what our lives as we grow in the Lord will look like from here...

Chris's and my first picture together