Minnesota. Gull Lake. Nisswa. Happiness.

There is nothing like a good family vacation. 

This time I got to have a double family vacation...both my parents and my in-laws.

We stay at the family lake house on GULL LAKE and it is perfect.

 

 The weather is always nice for 

sailing......

 tubing...

 jetskiing...

water skiing, boating, tanning, games, food, walking, biking, ladder ball, carpet ball, and shopping. 

I had such a great time and got in some much needed relaxation.

I already can't wait till next year :)

Free Letter Art.

Personalized gifts are my favorite. 

Nowadays, it is much easier not only to find ideas but to find resources.

I found this website through Pinterest that has 100s of FREE letters. 

Using only that website, I created this anniversary gift for my new parents.

I think they would be great on coasters for a family or newlyweds, a poster in an office, on wood chips for a matching game...the possibilities are endless!

I'm all about sharing resources...so enjoy! And show me what you make :)

It is August.

I cannot believe it already August! I love August!

- High School starts

- Vacation occurs

 - Mom's Birthday

- Dad's Birthday

- Baylor football is gearing up

- It is closer to fall weather

- The Olympics are on

Its going to be a fun one! Stay tuned!

I love my little life :)

Live Well Waco Commercial.

I am so grateful for the creativity I am allowed at work. Sometimes it takes the form of creating posters, or wellness programs, or tshirts, or in the case a commercial. Through a grant we received, we have the opportunity to by ads on TV, billboards, and radio that will send healthy messages to the community. After inspiration at a conference, I worked up an idea to highlight some of the outdoor opportunities that Waco has to offer. I worked with our graphics department and we put together this commercial.

We have decided to build a whole campaign around this commercial and "I'm Healthy and I Know It" .

I think it came out great and turned out just the way I thought it would.

Nursery Art.

Just a quick look at nursery art I created for a friend. 

It is a Jungle themed nursery so this seemed like a good idea. I used giraffe print scrapbook paper from Hobby Lobby and 14inch MDF letters. I painted all the letters first. Then I cut out all the giraffe spots and glued them on. The little animals are just extras.

Painting Tile.

Our fireplace has been bugging me since day one. I love having it, but it is a boring and the colors just dont match with the rest of the house. The surround is the same as the entire floor! Just has I made up my mind to reface the surround with plywood, Pinterest came along to save the day. 

I found a picture of painted tile! Why had I not thought of that? I have painted almost everything else!

So I took the plunge. I started by taping and priming. I used Exterior white paint that we had left over from our porch and used a foam roller brush.

 BEFORE

AFTER

 It looks great and since this is a VERY low traffic area, I'm thinking it will hold up fine. This is the same paint I used for the kitchen cabinets as well, and those still look great.

You can see the trim we added around the insert for a more polished look. Also, some of the old grout color was showing so we used liquid nails to put it up.

For a $15 project, I think it made a big difference. It feels so much brighter and bigger and it matches much better. We have plans to do the floors soon anyways so I'm sure it would have needed a change anyways.

My life in Numbers.

IN JUNE....

2 seasons of The West Wing completed

3 years of Marriage

8 tv interviews for job related activities

9 dresses Meg tried on to find "The One"

13 Scrabble tiles to finish.

25 BOUNCE summer campers to recruit

41 days till vacation

875 mustache cups to make.

$4,000 left on ALL my school loans.

15,000 + miles on my 'new" car

June is going by soooo fast! Considering I don't have summers off, I guess thats a good thing.

Happy Fathers Day.

Happy Father's Day to all the Dads out there!
Especially to the only 2 men I know that read my blog regularly - My Dad and Father-in-Law!

I hope you both had a great day! Even though we are not in the house anymore, we love you more everyday!

Year 3.

Tonight we celebrated our third anniversary!

  

 As tradition holds, we posed with out yearly photo :)

We celebrated with a VERY nice dinner at OneThirtyFive Prime. 

We had great time talking about our favorite time together this year, where we think we will be in 3 more years, and of course our lovely family.

We got all dressed up and headed out, but not before a couple of pics for the blog.

T

I am so blessed with this beautiful marriage! 

Can't wait for more!

Baylor Baseball Overload.

It is not secret that we are Baylor fans but as my sister said, "I think you are taking this Baylor fan thing too far".
If traveling with the basketball team to Kansas and New Mexico wasn't enough, we spent about 15 hours in 5 days at the Baylor Ballpark! We watched 5 games in four days!!

They have had a great season and Waco hosted the NCAA regional. The tickets were $25 each and they got us into ALL the games (so i guess it could be worse, we could have watched the non-Baylor games). The best of four teams would move on to SuperRegionals here in Waco this coming weekend (which we won't be here for). It was double elimination and we had a scare when they lost their first game. We had only lost 3 home games all season! That is why we watched so many...they kept winning!

 15 hours, 4 snow cones, 2 lemon chills, and 5 games later, I can say I am a true Baylor fan

- and an accommodating wife ;) -

Count Your Blessings.

I feel into this book called The Happiness Project about a lady (writer) who researches happiness and then tries to apply some of the learned principles to her life. It is kind of amusing and quirky. I didn't mean to, but it seems since then, I have taken to studying happiness as well. It is not that I am unhappy, in fact it it seems that I feel happier than I am...anyways, the study of happiness is now a part of my job as we develop a mental and spiritual health website. I ran across this video that shows research that shows that counting your blessings literally imroves happiness...

Another Silhouette Project.

Lots of projects going on around here with my new Silhouette toy.

I bought this lazy susan from IKEA a few months ago with the intent to redo it but I never got around to it until now.

 I used the toy to cut out a 12 inch doily on white vinyl and simply stuck it on! 

Simple, cheap, and much better.