Oh Hey, Christmas Tree

So, Christmas was a while ago... but obviously if you follow my blog you will see that I'm very behind lately.  I have had trouble keeping up with everything that has happened—all blessings, but busy ones :)

Anyway, here are some pictures from our very first Christmas tree!

 And, of course, a picture of my wonderful hubs and me with our tree:

Merry ...er... Christmas

DIY Sharpie Mug

We had a girl's night last weekend, and we had some Pinterest fun!  Sharpie mug decorating :)  If you've never seen this before, it's rather simple: Get a dollar store ceramic mug and some sharpies (thicker sharpies work best).  After you've decorated it to your taste, throw it into the oven (just kidding, place it gently) for 30+ minutes at 350*.  Hand wash only, and you may want to test it out before you drink anything out of it—the thinner markers tend to wash off, and that's no fun!


Unfortunately, when you're an illustrator by trade, people expect more from you, so I typically don't enjoy group crafts very much—so much pressure it feels like work.  This, however, I did have some fun with just because it was playful.

I'm a Tangled fan (Disney Princess) so it made sense to do a Rapunzel crown on my mug::

But again, I had to go further (Artist Problems) so I added little Pascal to the side!  I love the way his tail curls up to make the handle.

Sorry for the poor quality—these were taken with my iPod and I haven't had a chance to get better photos yet.

God Is Good

I am not even sure where to begin, there are so many things coming together at the moment; So many blessings revealing themselves.

We finally found a church.  Right before Christmas too, it's been so great.  Not only has it been comforting to know where we are going every Sunday morning, and to know that we will hear a solid Biblical message, but God has made it clear that this is the church that He wants us to be at.  When we first went, I was still skeptical.  The pain of waiting to find a church had taken it's toll and I was cynical.  However, every single thing that we have placed before God or that I have longed for in private has revealed to us the very next Sunday.  Even today, I was wondering again how we would get involved more and we were invited to lunch with a group of people from our Sunday school and the young married group—we had a great time!  I love, love, LOVE our church and I cannot wait to get to know more people there and to get involved.

My college roommates also came over to visit this weekend!  We had a blast catching up and recalling memories from our adventures.  But the thing that hit me the most was how easy it was for us to stop and pray together after talking about fears / frustrations / difficulties that we had.  I miss that! 

It challenged me to try and bring this fellowship to the teachers that I work with.  So many we have discussed some trouble that a student is having or a parent situation that has grown difficult.  We always say something like "well, we'll have to pray about that", but why not stop right there and pray together?

Crafting

 Between sick days and large freelance projects, I haven't had a lot of extra time to do crocheting this winter (my usual cold weather hobby)
Thankfully I was able to get a little bit in the past week or so and created these with some yarn I got for Christmas (please pardon the photo quality, I used my iPod to take the photos as I went...):

 First was the baby beany

 Which quickly turned into the baby boy newsboy hat

 And of course, the girl version of the baby newsboy—complete with a flower

 And finally, a polar bear hat

No, I am not pregnant.  I've just always enjoyed making baby things.  Let's face it—they're small and fast to make, and stinking adorable even if you made a mistake!

And now that so many friends are having babies, it makes sense to pass them around!

Today I Drew A Spoon

You may not know this, but my SuperMan is also a SuperCoach.  And because he is so dedicated to coaching and to being the best he can be, he often attends track and cross country conferences to meet with other coaches and to grow and improve.

They're great!  He learns a lot!  He loves them!
They are 3.Days.Long.

And I go along with him.  I don't attend the conference or anything like that—it's really not my cup of tea and why spend the money when I will likely be sitting there thinking of how much I am not a runner (a dedicated / competitive one anyway) and wishing I had an actual cup of tea.

So instead, I brought some yarn and my laptop so that I could do some design work.  And should I happen to hit the shops around town, so be it :)

Only, there was a little blizzard that hit all of Michigan.  Seriously, big storm—they even named it!  [And Nemo was his name-o]  So I'm kind of kept from visiting or shopping today... oh, and the design job?  Well that didn't happen either—the client is currently MIA and doesn't want to share any design information with me at this time.  And last, but not least, the yarn I brought? In natural lighting, the two scans look the same, but in lamp lighting they are COMPLETELY different, so my project is kind of on hold.

So... I drew a spoon.

 
Skype date anyone?