May I just say . . .

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I cannot wait to live somewhere that is not also a rehearsal space for various musical groups.  
Particularly those that are incredibly loud and repetitive.

Sorry, I had to vent somewhere.  This seemed like the safest place.

xoxo Alyssa

ps-  On a more positive note— How gorgeous is Hilary Duff?  Remember Lizzie McGuire?  

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Props for being one of the few Disney tots to keep it classy, Hilary.

Adventures in Diaper Bags

ISN'T SHE THE CUTEST?!

I have never made a diaper bag before, but when my friend Sarah asked me to make one for this beautiful baby, I couldn't say no!

Here's the end result :)

It came out pretty well.  I've been debating on whether or not I want to continue making them and put them in the shop when I reopen it in the Spring.  I'm not sure if it would go along with all of the other product I'm considering, but I'm SO tempted because it took a surprisingly short time to make :)  Opinions?

Thanks for reading!  I would love to hear from you :)

xoxo Alyssa

Ho Hum

It's been one of those kinds of days.  Nothing went terribly wrong, but nothing went terribly right either.  I'm settling in for a long evening of drawing, watching Seinfeld, and drinking tea :)  What is your remedy for days like this?

xoxo Alyssa

I. Can't. Stop

Have you ever become addicted to making a particular project?  This one is bordering on unhealthy . . . 

Thanks for reading!

xoxo Alyssa

Holy progress, Batman!

I've been making lots of new things lately and I wanted to share some with you :)

The camera strap cover I made from this DIY.  I made one for my soon-to-be-sister-in-law, too, but forgot to photograph it before I mailed it to her.  DOH!

Pencil bags that I made for my sisters from a pattern in the Home Ec class that I posted about previously :)  They came out wonderfully and I can't wait for them to have them!

This is probably my favorite thing I've made in a long time.  A quilt from vintage bed sheets :)  It' s not quite big enough to cover our entire bed, but it is quite large and will serve well as  picnic blanket or breezy-day snuggly :)

Thanks for reading!  Keep smiling!

xoxo Alyssa

Bye-Bye-Bye

Alas, it is time for the ever-so-common end of summer post.  I do not lament it's passing the way some do, as I sweat like a man and cannot wait for this miserable Missouri heat to be gone and done with for a while.  However, I would like to share just a few things:

Crib quilt for one of the many new babies at our church.

The blanket I made for my cousin (wedding mentioned in a  previous post)

Quilted pillow made for ANOTHER baby.

The pattern for the embroideries came from Wild Olive.  I highly recommend her stuff, it's pretty adorable.

Kitten embroidery that I made from a vintage pattern for Jess' birthday :)

And  . . . finally . . .  

Hands down, my favorite part of summer. *sigh*

Thanks for reading and keep smiling!

xoxo Alyssa

OCD-ness

I was recently introduced to Things Organized Neatly  on tumblr and wanted to share it with my fellow obsessive compulsives.  It makes my little heart flutter.

Thanks for reading.  I'm off to go alphabetize something.

xoxo  Alyssa

Here is a post that I meant to post last Saturday, but apparently I hit the wrong button.

I've had a lovely end-of-the-week.  

I spent all of Thursday cleaning the kitchen and doing laundry, as well as making some major progress on my ever growing to-do list :)  I even found out that I will be taking on another position at the church which will allow me to make a little extra money AND play with adorable little kids two mornings a week :)  This is very exciting news.

Friday was spent making even more progress on my to-do list, attending a meeting at the church for the new exciting job, AND car browsing :)  

Today will hopefully bring MUCH progress in the area of painting our ew-oh-my-gosh-so-gross looking bathroom.  I really think a new paint job will do wonders for that bathroom.  Still on the never ending quest for shelving to go above the toilet!  Hopefully that works out—and SOON.


EDIT*  I finished the bathroom, as you can see in my previous post, and Joshua and I FOUND A CAR.  Pictures to come soon.

Here is my gift to you, from one of my new favorite bloggers.  Sorry if the profanity offends you, but it really resonated with me during one of my holy-crap-I-have-too-much-stuff-to-do-I-can't-do-anything-right moments :)

Bathroom Complete!

I finally finished painting/cleaning up/decorating our bathroom!

I am absolutely pleased with it.  It is such an improvement.  The shelf above the toilet was just what we needed to fix our storage issue and the fresh coat of paint was just what the doctor ordered.  I actually like taking showers now!

Thanks for reading!

xoxo  Alyssa

Newest Weekend Excursion—Kansas City!

The plan for Joshua and I is to move to Kansas city in the spring, once both of us are finished with our bachelors degrees in Cape (mine in Art/Graphic Design and his in Creative Writing/Poetry).  Our BEST FRIENDS already live there and have a house that is big enough for the whole gang, so every once in a while we try to go visit.  All of us always enjoy our hang out time tremendously and walk away from it refreshed and renewed.  It's almost like no one realizes how much they miss each other until they realize how much stress is relieved after we hang out :P

The goofball on the left is Tyler, the lovely lady in the middle is his wife Jess, and the handsome devil on the right is Tyler's brother, Caleb.

They are three of our best friends and were Matron of Honor and joint Best Men at our wedding (which is where all of these pictures are from, courtesy of my wonderful soon-to-be-sister-in-law, Trinity)

We had a really wonderful time catching up with all of them, considering we hadn't seen any of them since the wedding.  We even went thrifting!  The car wreck in my previous post had more casualties than just my Taurus.  I was beginning what was supposed to be an 8 hour long drive, and had filled my favorite vintage carafe with coffee for the trip.  I found it at Teen Challenge several months ago and had never had an opportunity to use it.  It had been so neglected that I don't even have a picture of it.  Sorry, friend.  But I did find this one that is very similar in the funretro shop on Etsy.

Mine was almost exactly like this, but with slightly different flowers on it.  And I had killed it.

The good news is, when Joshua and I went thrifting with Tyler and Jess, I found it's cousin!

Isn't it beautiful?  I'm going to be extra careful not to wreck my car with this one in tow.  Especially before I get to use it at least once. Geeze.

It was a lovely weekend and I already can't wait to see all three of them, again.  

Thanks for reading!

xoxo Alyssa

ps- Check out the awesome wedding gift that Jess gave us when we visited!  Isn't it gorgeous?! And soooo soft :)

 

What a weekend.

UPDATE:

Two weekends ago I was all set to go to my cousin Anna's wedding.  Shortly after leaving home  I realized that I had not delivered the Sunday School curriculum to the church for my fill-in-teacher.  On my way to the church I glanced down to hang up my phone after finishing a call, and the van in front of me braked to turn left into a driveway.  

 

Needless to say, I did not drive to the wedding.  Fortunately, a good friend of my husband's had the brilliant idea to take a train to Chicago f, and that ended up working out just fine.  I was able to watch my cousin marry her long time boyfriend, Marty.

Aren't they the cutest?!  She's gorgeous :)

It was a lovely wedding.  I was so pleased to be there to witness such a happy day in my cousin's life.  Love you, Anna!

We got to see a lot of family that we don't see very often, too.  It was great to see my aunt, uncle, and cousins that live in Pennsylvania and hadn't gotten to visit in over 5 years!  That particular uncle also happens to be my dad's twin brother.

My dad is the good lookin' one on the left :)

They definitely bring out the best in each other . . . ;)

We are still in the process of dealing with the insurance company about the car, but it's looking like it's probably totaled and we will have to begin a search for a new one.  No one was hurt, thank goodness, but there is still a lot of paperwork and red tape to deal with.  Fortunately, I found out today that the insurance company valued my totaled car at FOUR TIMES what the Kelly Blue Book value was, therefore, we will be receiving a much larger check from them than expected—making our car search much more pleasant :)

 We're going to go browsing tomorrow in anticipation of the check coming in next week.  I can't wait!

Thanks for reading :)  Hope you're weekend was slightly less eventful than that one (in a good way ;)

xoxo Alyssa

I was a girl scout once.

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One of my fondest memories of the girl scouts (and one of the most deeply ingrained brain-washings) was the motto of "Leaving a place cleaner than you found it".

This idea may be one of the reasons that I am such an OCD neat freak (thanks a lot Juliette Gordon Low) or it may be from my mother teaching me to pick up after myself.  Either way, it's an idea that came to my mind earlier this evening while Joshua and I were cleaning the kitchen.

As much as I love being married, and living with my best friend, our apartment can be frustrating.  We have done our best to make it a home, but despite our best efforts it is still small. 

 I mean really small.  

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I remembered this idea earlier when I, nearly accidentally, cleaned up our sink to a wonderful shine.
This may not look like much to some, and I don't have a before picture, but—
holy wow is it an improvement.

I have decided to make it my personal mission to fix up this apartment as much as I can for the next nine months.  My next mission is to replace the pans beneath the burners on our stove. 

 They have most definitely seen better days.

 After that I think it will be some shelves in the nook above the toilet in our bathroom.  That room has next to no storage and is definitely near the top of my "Make this space usable/liveable list".
Alas, Rosie will have to find dwelling place elsewhere, but I think I would be willing to sacrifice her daily toiletry encouragement to have some form of storage space in our bathroom.  We have a free standing sink which = no counter space and no cabinet space.  As a girl of many hair products, this has presented me with some issues.

I will be sure to keep you updated on the improvements as they occur :)  I can't wait to get started fixing up this apartment, in a building that I love so much, for my husband and I, as well as whoever the next tenant is :)

He's quite the handy-man, so I'm sure he'll be a great help ;)
Thanks for reading!

xoxo Alyssa