My First Etsy Purchase!

If you guys don't know about etsy, you need to check it out. I'm encouraging all my friends to buy gifts for people at etsy. It has a ton of handcrafted items and vintage finds. I love it! I think I'm going to use this cute vase to house some of my scrapbook embellishments. So now that I have an etsy account, I will have to get busy making things so I can be a seller. I bought this from The Peach. You should check out the other cute stuff they have!

This was my second purchase. I bought this for my friend Amy's birthday. You have to check out this ladies jewelry. I love it! Have a great day everyone!

Simple Living

I am so thankful that we live where we do. Sam and I share a tiny little apartment. I like it because it overlooks the river, has hardwood floors, a lot of kitchen cupboards, and a lot of character. It definitely is cozy a.k.a. small! So Sam and I over the past 11 months (yikes it's almost been a year!) have been constantly rearranging to figure out the best way for this little space to work out for us. We have come a long way. We started with an ugly green dirty carpet that covered these beautiful floors, we got rid of some of the furnishings that came with the place (gaudy "italian" gold wall art! scary paintings of children- oh how I wish we had pictures!) I had to gradually do it, because I felt guilty giving all the stuff back, after all, our landlord was giving us free furniture to use. I think we finally got it when we decided to keep the bed out of the bedroom! And just recently we decided we don't need the coffee table. It just looks so much more open without it. It folds up, so as much as we loved the oriental table, we just store it under the bed and can whip it out whenever we need it. So we packed up a lot of extra stuff that we just didn't need and I can breathe so much easier now. I love it! It's really hard to take pictures of such a tiny space, so you just may have to see it to believe it. So I'm sure now after we have just figured it out we will probably move! It may be just a slight one, to the place downstairs, or it could be a big one. If it's just to downstairs it would be cool because it's bigger and has tall ceilings, that will happen if the current renter moves as he plans on doing in the fall. I will miss some things, but I will not miss the wallpaper! I kinda enjoy the challenge of making the most of each space we occupy and trying to figure out how our stuff (or the stuff given to us) will work best in a space. But I am so ready to be in a place where I can paint the walls, have a garden in the back, sit on my own porch, and hopefully stare off into the distance at mountains. Someday. Someday. It's good to have hope! As Sam always says, ""You'll appreciate it more."

We ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

God gives us such cool pictures in the Bible, and it is so easy to relate to. The hope that I have for a better job and owning a house is nothing compared to the hope of heaven. But it's so cool because God blesses us and we wait patiently and we receive things hoped for. It makes us happy. Heaven is going to be so much happier! I love it that with heaven all we have to do is believe, we don't have to work for it at all, the work is all totally done out of love. All we have to do is believe.

And then in Romans it goes on:

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will.

I love that section. It's so comforting, we are so stupid and words fail us sometimes, but we don't need to worry because the Spirit is there. It's so cool. Read Romans, it's such a great section of the Bible. I was quoting Romans 8:23-27, and it just goes on and gets better and better.

Flowers Make Me Smile!

I love the Farmers Market. We live so close, yet this is the first time I've had the chance to go. I bought a big old bouquet for 2.50! I didn't love them all mixed together, and I didn't have a vase that large, so I decided to make a country/summer display. It makes me happy!

I love these! I feel like they make it look like a designer room! Pictures don't do them justice. What is it about flowers? They just make people feel better. Go buy yourself flowers today, or better yet, cut them from your garden, if you're lucky enough to have one.


Our apartment is clean! Really clean, dishes are done, I have clean sheets, and the laundry is all done. What more can a girl ask for? It feels so good. I am able to relax so much easier!

More Steals!

Bracelet: $1.00


Shirt: I bought one in knacki also $3.00 at JC Penney


Necklace: $1.00 I also got one in black


Bracelets: $1.00 each, noticing a trend? I got 10 for ten bucks at the hemp stand in the mall, I had to weed through a lot of cheesy sterling silver dolphins on a chain, but I found some cool stuff


Yes, don't worry, this is supposed to be a little cheesy, the Jeans I bought for $11 at JC Penney

Good Finds, Steals, and Deals of a Lifetime

Steal: $2.00 at Payless



Steal/Find: Buttons from Salvation Army in Red Wing, 3 for a penny, I asked how much for the whole jar only two bucks, two bucks (get the viva and jerry reference?) Oh and the cool pottery bowl they are in I found at Evla on Grand Avenue. Part of my shopping splurge one day!


Deal: Square veggie serving tray from Pottery Barn I paid $5 at Hope Gospel Mission


Deal: Also splurge, Threade Bear was going out of business, sad, so they had all this amazing stuff 60% off. True Confession, I don't even knit, but this headband and these wrist warmers is what I would make with it if I could.

Deal: Glass fruit from Antique store in Ripon $6 total

So summer is here, and that means that it is Garage sale time. Sad, yet true, I have only visited one so far this summer. I thought I'd share some of my favorite bargains. (Note: these are things I've had for awhile and I'm going to put pics of my most recent bargains- the forty cent shirt you are all dying to see soon!)

Thrifting

Let's define a few terms to start off. Steal: this is the most misused one. You can only call it a steal if it is the most fabulous bargain of a lifetime. you need to do a double take on the price. it's often easily confused with Find a find is a good deal a really good sale, but nothing to write home about. I love steals, they're the best.

I had a good find the other day at Hope Gospel Mission. Now that I think of it, my whole home is filled with thrift store goodness. I love rummaging. I love finding a diamond in the ruff. I love unique things that I can't pick up conveniently at any old store. I like things with style and distinction. Old things are cool. Quality is usually better with the goody oldies! It's true, they just don't make things like they used to.


(Note: I wrote this in the winter when I hibernated inside with my computer)
So, I lived in a van down by the river all summer. I had one little crate of clothes with me all summer. And of the maybe 15 clothes items I had, I wore a quarter of them. I mainly wore just one outfit everyday. Sam's board shorts, a bikini top, and a little tank over it. That's it. I could go on and on about life in the van, but I'll spare my friends and save that for another day, but back to the point. I really didn't feel like I was missing out. I brought a couple skirts for days I wanted to feel girly. And I had warm stuff for cold icky days, but I didn't need other things. All of last year I was away from any major mall. I didn't miss it. And all I could think of was all of the clothes I had back home and really didn't need. I was explaining this to my mom and saying how I was going to get rid of everything when I get back home and she talked me out of it (thanks mom) So my question/problem I'm throwing out there is: Why, now that I'm back by all the stores do I want to buy stuff? Is it boredom, I have nothing better to do? Is it accesability? Is it the culture I'm surrounded by right now? Or is it because I had been away from it for so long and need to catch up for last year? What is it? I have been wanting to buy lots lately. I don't like it! After a lot of traveling I know I don't need much. Or do I just have a problem with sale items? I went on this huge after Christmas shopping spree with Ames on Grand Ave. in St. Paul. We had an awesome day. Actually I bought stuff all weekend. I did another big splurge when Macy's was having a great sale. And I had a little sock haul today at Target. I also went crazy one day at the scrap store I work at and bought a ton of stamps (1/2 off of course) Also Crafts Direct, my fave went out of business and I went crazy and spent $100 on crafting junk. I'm hoping the answer is a combination of those things. Or do most people spend like I do? So my weaknesses are clothes, stuff for my home, and artsy stuff. The artsy stuff I hope to use and turn around and make some money eventually. The clothes thing is the one that iritates me the most, I don't need it! I want to stop. Help please!
(Update, I no longer feel so guilty, because I do realize that I'm awfully cheap, I do still wonder why I go in spending spurts though. I just felt guilty before because I didn't feel like I could justify buying anything since I had no money, now, now I'm feeling much better! And I now get rid of clothes before I allow the new ones to go into my closet. This is helpful since we don't have much space in our tiny apartment. I also don't feel guilty because you know it's bad when your husband is making fun of the tank tops you have. Yes, he said they were from the late 90's! Ouch, so I got rid of them and found some new things, I'll share some pics soon!)

Weddings, Reunions, and Cakes, Oh my!

Ok, ok! So I said I was going to blog more often, and then July happened! Last weekend was absolutely crazy but it's all over with now. I have many, many things to update you all on! First off, the cake pics. The bigger one is a fondant covered cake I did for Matt and Heidi's wedding. I apologize, the lighting was so dark and terrible, so the photos are not great. I'm really hoping the ones from my SLR will turn out better. So we're off to our Bible study. My apologies, I'll fix the sideways pic when I get back, and look forward to more fun posts soon!
Alright, the photo is now straight, much better! So I need to update you all.


So here are a few pics from the reunion we had. It's been five years since I graduated! Crazy, so since our class was really small we got together for dinner. These pics are of the last stragglers to leave the restaurant, and we totally forgot to get a good picture of everyone! It was fun catching up with everyone.
I am so glad that weekend is over! It was stressful. I had to work, on top of making two wedding cakes and attending the weddings, a friend also had a bridal shower that weekend, and we had this class reunion. So yes, I did say I was going to post more often, but you can forgive me, right?
So what do you think of the polka dotted dress? I got it very quickly at WetSeal. It was $11. Polka dots are not usually my thing, but it has cute big buttons and I thought it was fun, and hey, you cant' beat 11 bucks. This is a perfect segue into my next post! It's going to be all about the shopping and my addiction to sales!