1 month!

I feel incredibly productive lately (hopefully I didn't just jinx myself!). 

Finished a few wedding projects this week, including the post cards for all the guests' hotel rooms (the front is pictured above). 

Wedding is in just 30 days.

School is out in 36 days. 

Then starts a summer packed with projects, writing curriculum, going to trainings, and lots of adventures.

So much to share lately, but no time to post! More coming soon!

national pet day.

Learned earlier today that it's National Pet Day from Katherine over at Of Corgis & Cocktails (one of my favorite blogs) and decided I'd share our latest tribute to our beloved pets - photo stamps!
Our cat, Patty, is a tough one to get photos of. She's always on the move. Fox is totally opposite, the biggest ham ever.

We ordered ours from Stamps.com and I love how they turned out. There's many websites that do photo stamps these days though, just Google it and wait for a great deal.

We ordered these specifically for our wedding invitations (that finally went out last week...whew!).

Our amazing invitations were designed by our awesome friend and artist Stephen Brewer. 

Thank you so very much Stephen! :)

Fox says "HEY YA'LL!" 

...and guess what!? It's Friday tomorrow!

I'm headed to a conference in Morehead City, NC. After this it's just a few weekends until the wedding so I really have to buckle down and get everything made. 

Enjoy your upcoming weekend!

spring break.

It's the last day of spring break! As soon as I click "publish" on this post I'll be spending the rest of today the day planning and doing school paperwork. Spent the one not rainy day I was on the Florida Gulf Coast on the beach and got a ridiculous sunburn during my run. Paid a visit to the beach and got to watch a Blue Angels practice. They're currently grounded due to all this sequester, no money stuff.

My amazing friends and bridesmaids threw me a shower and bachelorette party last weekend in Jacksonville. It was so fun and I wish we could do it all over again! My little sister (bottom left) bought everyone ridiculous pins and the silly glasses I'm wearing. It's crazy that she's graduating from high school so soon and heading to college!

Also took my little brother shoe shopping while I was at home. Four stores, 3 hours at the mall, and he walked away with two pairs of skater boy shoes...and we also got cookies and Chic-fil-a.

My parents also have 5 free range chickens. The one below is Claire (of course they all have names). Their eggs are so fresh and delicious. Hoping to be able to have a chicken or two one day! My mom submitted this picture I took of Claire to Tilly's Nest and she was Chicken of the Day! 

My dad loves his chickens! 

 A lunch date with my mom and aunt at my favorite local mexican joint. 

Stopped to visit my cousin-to-be and her adorable son on my drive back to rural eastern NC. Such a smily happy boy!

And to cap off spring break I finished addressing and sent all the wedding invitations! T-minus 49 days, it's coming so quick! Still have so much to make and finish up. Heading to Morehead City, NC next weekend for a new teacher's conference. Hoping for beautiful weather so I can soak up some vitamin D!

march madness & mini-home tour.

March has been a whirlwind month, it flew by!

My birthday earlier this month and running my first half marathon in over 5 years, a conference for a few days in Greensboro, an event for the shop in Greenville, and tomorrow I'm hitting the road for Jacksonville for a shower/bachelorette weekend thrown by my amazing friends. April has a lot to live up to!

A few home improvements also happend this month. Including finally purchasing a futon for our spare room, organizing, and painting a few things...including the window valance turned shelf below.

Found this guy painted white in a trash pile. A perfect spare room robot display place!

Fox, the dog who has to be involved in everything! Don't you love our hardwood on ugly fake wood paneling? Underneath the wood are key lime green walls. Gotta love little, quirky rental houses. 

Another easy project - mini-clothes pins, yarn, and an old window insert. 

Corgi pillow from The Paper Mama.

I just realized how much corgi art we have...sorry I'm not sorry! :)

Got this for my man for Valentine's Day this year. It was made by Nichole at SHOPHOOPLA. Love it! The painting was given to us by my future mother-in-law for Christmas. 

The king of the house. A giant pillow, a toy box, and a bone. What more does a dog need in life!?

The next 2 months are going to be pretty busy! Wedding in less than 60 days, state test a week after, and plenty to finish before then!

Loving it all though :)

Enjoy your weekend! (and Spring Break for those of you who have it!)

an afternoon project.

Saying goodbye to Daylight Savings time this past weekend made me feel like I had so much more time on Sunday to get things done! So I spent some time painting a few windows with chalkboard paint for the wedding (t-minus 73 days!). Planning to use the smaller one for an event I'm doing for the shop at the end of the month too. Definitely planning to incorporate them into our home decor after the big day!

This was a super easy project, costing less that $20 total. I took the two large windows out of a dumpster when I was living in Florida and the small one is from our local Habitat ReStore and was just $3.

Definitely clean the windows off really well, then get painting! It would probably be easiest to use some painters tape around the edges but I just used a brush to do the edges then a small cabinet roller brush. It took 2 coats to be totally covered.

The final products! I painted both sides of windows, just in case I decide to use them as a sign. Thinking of hinging the tops of the two larger windows together...so many ideas!
I painted a few jars just for fun. A quick project for a beautiful afternoon!

Spent my birthday Saturday running a 1/2 Marathon on our local trail and just relaxing around the house with Fox and my man. It was so lovely just to have some time to relax! A perfect birthday! :)

Happy Tuesday!

spreading the awesome.

My kiddos are in Kid President's Dance-a-thon video! 

New Kid President videos have been coming out on Thursday evenings, so we've been watching them in class on Fridays as a little treat. However, I didn't pre-screen this one before showing it to them so the room erupted in laughter and "OMGS!" when they saw their classmates. It was precious! When the girls in the video found out they didn't even believe me until they saw it. We made the video a few weeks ago during a little outside time, telling KP 5th grade is working to spread the awesome in eastern NC! You can see their silly dance at 1:23. 

Here's the original video. 

I just love Kid President's message. When I get frustrated or am feeling overworked at school I just watch one of the videos or I'll watch one with one of my classes...they do us all a whole lot of good.

Happy Wednesday!

off-season OBX vacation

Last weekend my man, puppy dog, and I took a break from reality and spend the weekend in a cozy beach apartment in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, specifically in Southern Shores. We did all the touristy OBX things, but since it's the off season for another few weeks it was a ghost town. Before the trip I didn't do much research, but knew I wanted to go to Fort Raleigh the area where the Lost Colony is thought to have been...little did I know that there's no actual fort left and not really much to look at. I think I was spoiled by all the Spanish/American forts in my hometown of Pensacola, FL! I expect every fort to be a Fort Barrancas or Fort Pickens. 

We also visited the Bodie Island Lighthouse, couldn't climb it though because of the wind. That was completely fine with me. Not a fan of those creepy spiral staircases! We went to an amazing oyster bar after this. The She Crab soup was the best I've ever eaten, hands down. 

So cold and windy!

We took Fox out to the beach one afternoon. He's never seen waves or sand like this before. He was in heaven! He wanted to go in the water so bad, but I think the coldness got the better of him. The deserted beach was beautiful and all the beach houses in Southern Shores are so secluded and private. Definitely want to rent a house out here in the late summer when we're back for the OBX Half- Marathon. 

Ridiculously excited! His leash kept getting all tangled up around the two of us. 

The waves were beautiful! It was so windy and rainy though. 

Some shells from the beach. I wanted to find some shark teeth, but no luck.

Retreating back to the warm, cozy apartment. A few hours after this it started to SNOW at the beach! I went for a run the next morning and there was still snow and ice on the ground. The wind was also really strong, definitely the coldest run of my life.

This trip was our first time using Airbnb and it was so easy and awesome! Definitely planning to use it again in the future. Our hosts were awesome and it was so nice to be able to bring Fox...plus we had our own little fenced in yard for him to play in. Perfect doggy vacation apartment. 

Headed back home to the country on Sunday through the rain and snow. It was a perfect, relaxing adventure weekend. This weekend plans include a whole lot of sewing, school stuff, and a fun going away party this evening for a wonderful friend heading back up north. 

Enjoy your weekend!