words will change you {one}

Do you remember at the beginning of the year how shared what my two words for 2012 would be?!  

Encourage. Dream. 

Today marks the end of the first third of the year and honestly, I am shocked at the impact those words have already had on me.  

Encourage.
My goal has been to use my words, my actions, my avenues of social media and any other way that God provides, as a way to build up the lives I encounter.  This has included random facebook posts to friends, letting them know the gift they have been to me.  There have also been cards, small gifts, phone calls and emails.  I try to imagine the people God has placed in my life and the way that a few simple words or actions could impact their lives.

The amazing thing is this.  You know the verse in the Bible that says

"Give and it will be given you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over will be poured in your lap.  For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

- Luke 6:38

I know I shouldn't be amazed, but I am.  You can literally not out-give God.  Often we think this can only mean monetarily, but I believe it reflects every bit of our lives, our hearts and our very selves that we share with those around us.  

There have been so many moments these last four months where I have been genuinely low.  Tired, exhausted and worn out from the constant drain of life.  And then, just in that moment.  An few words of love on facebook.  A package at my doorstep with the ever-addictive Peeps and other tokens of love.  An email of words speaking life and love into my heart.  A thoughtful comment from a friend building me up in just the area I feel discouraged in.

And who would have thought that one word,
Encourage, could bless and change my life so much.
It inspires me to be even more aware and conscience in the coming months.  To be purposeful in the area of encouraging.

My challenge to you is this.  Will you choose to embrace encouragement?!
Will you reach out and speak words of life into those around you?
I promise it will impact you life in more ways than
you can hope.
---

Can you believe that the Much Love Me, Project begins tomorrow?  I was lying in bed last night, reading one of the submissions aloud to Husband, completely and utterly crying my eyes out.  I'm pretty sure there are flecks of green eye color where I buried my face in his shirt.  


I am humbled and amazed at the way these eight woman have opened their hearts in such honest, brave ways.  So please come back tomorrow morning.  I promise it will touch your soul.


Happy Monday, lovelies!
xo

He's Sorry They're Not Roses

I love when Saturday mornings mean sleeping in.  I love when husband takes a trip to the store for a whole lotta breakfast foods to graze on all day.  I also love when he comes home with a purple, potted orchid and he's apologizing for not having roses.  I love I don't even really care about roses.  I just love him.

Happy weekend, lovelies.
xo

Put'chyer Eyeballs On This!

Consider this a public service announcement on all the interweb beauties you need 

to be feasting your eyes on right this second.

You will thank me, I promise.

Happy weekend to you.

xo

here

here

here

here

here

here

here

Pockets of Inspiration

Let's just be honest.  I've been in a bit of a funk these past several weeks.  Whaaat?! you say?  Maybe you missed this, this and this.  Anywayza, we shall move right along because I am happy to report that due to many long talks with Husband, encouraging friends {psst! that's you!}and a whole lotta prayers I feel my spirits beginning to soar again.

But let's be honest.  Whether or not you are part of the blogging community, it's hard to maintain high levels of inspiration and positive juju on a daily basis.  Sometimes it's hard to see the beauty that's all around because our focus is fixated on the piles of laundry and overwhelming schedules.

One of my goals right now is finding joy in the tiniest of things that surround me.  Like little pockets of inspiration.  Propelling me on to the next great leap of adventure in life.  So in honor of that, here's the things that make me happy today.

 

chalkboard herb signs / the comfiest, oversized shirt / fresh fruit / new notebooks / 

completed chair projects / apple cinnamon muffins

--
What are your pockets of inspiration on this happyhappy Friday?!
xo

When All Things Includes Bedbugs

There's the verse that we all quote and know --

And we know that God causes all things work together for good to those who love God - Romans 8:28

but sometimes I just don't want to believe it, you know?!  

I'm mad that evil bedbugs jumped our suitcases while we were staying a hotel sometime the last year.

I'm mad that the cost to exterminate would be $1600.

I'm mad because we had to throw out mattress away.  

I'm mad that we've been sleeping on a balloon of air for the last eight weeks.  

I'm mad that trying to treat them ourselves means full-on gutting bedrooms.

I'm mad that we take forever to complete projects.

I'm mad. . . I'm mad. . . I'm  ---

And then I reach a point where all the madness runs out.  God begins to show me little glimpses of His goodness, running through like one little strand of hope through the rubble of stress and chaos.

Like the way He allowed just the perfect exterminator to access the situation and tell us ways we could possibly treat them ourselves and save the $1600 rather than just 'selling' the treatment.

Like the way He allowed us to {we think so far} get rid of the bugs by throwing out the mattress and ripping out the carpet.

Like the way He allowed us to find the most gorgeous hardwood floors under that nasty old carpet.

Like the way He allowed me to marry Husband who has rad construction skillz.

Like the way He allowed my mom to come help with the floor refinishing and how we've gotten closer because of it.

Like the way that He quietly whispers to my soul 

I've got this, Nicole.  Trust Me.

Soo while I'm no saint and will probably use up at least two more boxes of kleenex before the projects get done {God bless Husband with patience} I am doing my best to embrace the journey.  I mean, heck.  How many of you get to camp out in your living room on an air mattress for a couple weeks?   Somebody hollah, sleeeeep over par-taay!!

And PS. Aren't our blanket curtains awesome?  Somebody pin that, yo.

Be blessed today, girls, as HE is somehow working everything for good.

xo

Fresh Parsley Pesto

I have always hated green goopey things.

I have always promised myself I will never ever feed any child of mine mashed peas.

Until the day I met fresh pesto.

Helloo you gorgeous lean green mean you!

I stumbled upon this original recipe for pesto while preparing to make this redics-delish for Chicken Pesto Stuffed Shells.  Yes.  You literally died and went to heaven.  Since then I have discovered other amazing ways to use consume this pesto.  Such as on quesadillas.  Or what about on grilled cheese sandwiches?!  Or on sourdough toast?  I even submit that a Parsley Pesto Cake would send your tongue into sensory overload. . . hmm.  Now that's a thought.

Soo without further ado, I present to you Fresh Parsley Pesto

• 1 cup fresh parsley {packed}
• 1/2 clove fresh garlic
• 2 tablespoons roasted pine nuts
• 1/4 cup fresh grated parmesan cheese
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• lemon juice, salt & pepper to taste

Place all ingredients in blender and blend well

Yields one cup

Store in fridge if you don't consume it in one meal

My fingers are currently sticky from spray paint because the sun is shining today and that means my $2 thrifted chairs are finally getting their long awaited remake.  I may also let my shoulders see some sun while catching up on emails, as today's goal is to do as much as possible outside.  Because it literally should be a crime to spend sunny-days-off doing dishes.

Happy wednesday friends!
xo

Maps Are Handy Things

. . . like when you need a superly awesome new way of wrapping wedding gifts.
I mean, hello.  Did you get a wedding gift wrapped in maps of the midwest?!  No. Neither did I.  Maybe that's my problem in life. . .

So people.  I now expect to see your sweet little bums dashing to the nearest thrift store and stocking up on this puppies.  Because once this hits Pinterest, prices will sky rocket and you will forever regret the day you turned down those $.10 finds.  I will now prepare to eat my humble pie for such dastardly prideful statements. *coouughh

--
In other random wedding news.
My sisters are gorgeous.  My mama looks too young to be one.  My belly craves more of that sexy cake. Annnd my boy is cute when he tries mastering the art of bubble blowing.

Happy Tuesday, gorgeous girls!

xo

I Love You More Than 343 Days Ago

Yesterday was the first wedding Husband and I attended since our own.  Golly-Miss-Molly how the time has flown.  As I listened to the beautiful bride and groom make their promises to each other, I sniffed my own tears back with my arms wrapped tightly around my boy.

So in honor of this beautiful and sacred thing called marriage, I thought I would share our vows that we wrote for each other.  Funny how quickly I can forget the things I earnestly promised to do almost one year ago.

Nicole, my love, you are the answer to so many of my prayers.  It felt like so many lonely, long years I had waited and prayed for you , thinking that my prayers were falling on deaf ears.  and then when God gave me you, it felt like a great, undeserved, beautiful gift from my dad who loves me.  In the bible, it says " no eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him".  During those lonely nights and days before I knew your name, he was preparing me for you and you for me.  I delight in you so much, Baby.  God has made you perfectly for me.  I love your sweet smile, your tender heart, your passion for God and your compassion for others.

...and now today i get to marry you and with this ring I make a promise before God and man that you will always be my first love and my first priority, my best friend,my delight, my joy and my girl.  I acknowledge the sweet reality that we are now one flesh and one body- that we belong to each other.  your Body and your heart belong to me and my body and heart belong to you.  I understand before God that I have the awesome and beautiful privileged of  caring, nurturing, and cherishing the blessing that God's given me, which is you.  I promise that my eyes and my heart will only be for you.  I promise til death do us part, and if i could extend the contract beyond that, I would.

I know that after today, harder days will come.  Life will be a a mixture of storms and sunshine, blessings and challenges.  I know that feelings will wax and wane and that we'll fail each other at times.  But i also know that with this ring I make a covenant before God to walk with you through it all, to rejoice with you during the good times and to cry and comfort you during the hard times.  As God never leaves nor forsakes u, I promise to never leave nor forsake you until God calls us home.  So today I commit my Love, my body, my heart, my future, and my life to you.

Adam, I’ve spent so many years praying for someone I could spend the rest of my life with in a reckless pursuit of Christ.  When I stepped off that plane in Beijing almost four years ago, I had no idea I was about to meet the answer to those prayers.  As we became friends in places around the world, I found my heart captivated by a blonde haired, blue-eyed man who spent his summers in China playing with orphans.  I fell in love with your passionate heart for God and your genuine love for people 

So for these and a thousand other reasons, I, Nicole, take you Adam, to be my forever and always husband.

I promise to keep Christ as my sole satisfaction and fulfillment in life.  I promise to live a life that seeks to honor Him in all I do, so I can love you with an overflow of the unconditional love Christ has shown me.

I promise to honor your commitment to wait for me as your wife, by giving you, and you only, every part of me.  I give you my heart, my emotions, my dreams, my future, my love, my respect and my goodnight kisses.

I promise to submit to you, believing that God has sovereignly placed you as the leader in our home.  I promise to believe in you when no one else does.  I promise to make our home a place of rest for your heart, mind and body.  More than anything, I promise that as the storms of life come, I will stand faithfully beside you as your wife for as long as we both live.

Adam, you are the best gift God has ever given me.  You are the one I want to laugh and cry with.  The one I want to suffer and rejoice with.  You are the one I want to do ministry with around the world.  You are the one I want to start a family with and the one I want to stand beside when the children are placed in our arms who were always meant to be part of our forever family. 

You are my best friend, my prayer partner, my confidant, my lover, and today you will become my husband.  I love you and want to spend and learn and love the rest of my life with you.

 

It's amazing that after barely one year of marriage, the significant of our marriage vows means so much more to me.  We have worked through some conflict.  We have weathered some small storms.  We have experienced sorrow and joy.  Somehow the promise to stay true to each other through the good times and bad suddenly carries more weight.  More value.  

And as the bride and groom ran out yesterday with their huge newly wedded smiles, I whispered to Adam, Can you imagine the value of your vows after 30, 40 or 50 years?!  Then we agreed to stay married for 110 years.

I hope you pull out your vows and when you cuddle up to your man tonight, maybe just whisper them in his ear.  Then kiss 'im like you mean it!  Your marriage just might depend on it.

Happy Monday, lovelies!

xo

To Not Be A Quitter

It's 11:50 at night and my heart has been heavy all day.  And because I have chosen to make this blog a place for honest transparency, I thought I would lay it all out here.  Who knows. . . maybe some of you have felt the same way and this could be an encouragement to you.
Here goes nothing.

I don't know if it's a first born thing.  Or maybe my extremely competitive nature.  Or just the over achieving personality I have been blessed with.  But I've spent most of my life, pendulum swinging from an over-achiever to a quitter.

Take for example the book I wrote in high school.  I literally had such a passion for writing and my days were full of scribbles on lined paper, tiny note books and eventually on our huge family desktop.  I began a project of writing a personal story of sorts.  Really a compilation of funny stories from growing up in a big family.  Through a random course of events, my entire story was wiped from our computer hard drive with no back-up anywhere.  I was devastated. Literally crushed and broken.  I almost felt like someone had died  All those hours of work.  Gone.  Zip zero nada.
I've never worked on a story since then.

Second case in point.  When I was 17 I started a home based business selling a nutritional product that changed our family's life.  I actually had a fair amount of initial success, but as I began to hit road bumps along the way, I allowed my fears to overtake me.  I eventually quit all together.

Fast forward to last year.  I begin blogging immediately after we got home from our honeymoon.  My sights were set high.  I had my goals.  My purpose.  When my computer fell several weeks ago, I was forced to take a two week break from regular blogging.  Suddenly I felt like things began to fall apart.  My purpose and focus became muddled.  Suddenly the dream seemed silly and success seem unattainable.  I seriously contemplated deleted everything the whole blog and just forgetting it ever existed.

It all seemed rather pointless.  I don't have the ever elusive 'brand'.  My posts are all over the map.  My brain felt dried up.  Numbers dropped.  Followers unfollowed.  I began to ask myself, what the heck am I doing?!  Has this hobby turned into an obsession?  Is there really a point to what I'm doing.  Maybe quitting would be easier than risking failure.

After my serious funk today, lots of Husband drawing me out and some chest heaving sobs, I realized my problem.  And though there's no easy answer, I think I'm beginning to understand my own self a little more.

I am a dreamer.  And helplessly impulsive.  I get an idea in my mind and bolt off to make it happen.  I dream of making it big.  Dream of being that creative person I want to be in my mind.  Choosing to push past status quo.  And as I look at those who have been successful in a particular area I'm pursuing, I immediately want to be one of them.  I envision myself accomplishing the same thing.  And in record time no less.

The thing I fail to realize is that those who are insta-celebrities in many fields (bloggers, writers, small business owners, etc) are actually a very small percentage of the rest of the population.  Most people are successful after years of hard work, rarely hitting fame after just months in the arena.  Somehow I expect myself to do the same and when it doesn't happen, I resort to quitting.

I also realized that I am a pathetic comparer -- is that even a word?!  I look at those people who have been successful and I think, what do I have to do achieve the same.  Take for example blogging.  My very first blog crush was the adorable Sydney from The Daybook.  She suddenly starts posting her adorable outfits each day and her blog hits overnight fame.  When I feel like I can't achieve the same thing, I resort to this silly thinking.

What if I became a fashion blogger?  That's seems to be all the rage.  Could I pull it off?  Would that be my ticket to successs?!  I need funnier posts.  Or maybe more heartfelt.  Shorter.  Longer? 
On and on go the games in my mind.

Seriously no duh, Nicole.  Why do you feel this need to be a pathetic copy of someone else's success?! Why can't you embrace who you are.  Embrace the passions and gifts I gave you.  Allow me to use that to change the world around you.  This is God talking, in case you were wondering.

It's like this quote I stumbled upon on Pinterest:

source

Can I really believe that?!
Can I live that?

Because if I really did, it wouldn't matter if it took me one or seven or ten years to achieve success.  I would embrace the journey.  Embrace ME.  Embrace the very unique expression of life that God wants to pour through me.

So I guess I still don't have the answers.  I don't know how to take a decrease in followers in a way that's not personal.  I don't know how to gauge my success by the number of site hits each day.  I don't know how to accept that I may not be in the top percentile in every area.

I only know that I ache to be the best that I can be.  I ache to stop these pathetic games of comparison.  I ache to dream dreams bigger than myself and then to trust God with the outcome.  I ache to move past status quo, knowing that there is a whole exciting world waiting to be lived.  In a unique way that only I can.

source

In light of all this.  There may be some changes to this blog in the coming days.  Or maybe not.  I'm literally tired of trying to be what I think other people want me to be.  

I want to just be ME.

The end.

Literally thank you, though, to all of you who have shown so much love and support these last 11 months.  You have no idea how special you are to me.  Thank you for listening to my midnight ramblings.  You should get a gold star or something.  Thank you for bearing with me as I just do life.  I've really been amazing how much God has been changing me this year.  Showing me who I really am.  And who He wants to grow me into.

source

So here's to not quitting this blog.  Here's to many more months and years of friendship, honesty and dreams.

It's really such a beautiful life.

xo

source

PS.  Are you laughing over my plethora of inspirational quotes?!  I am.

Sometimes you just have to tell your soul truth though, ya know?!

Buttons and Burlap: DIY Bridal Shower Invitations

Do you know that there is nothing that a good party planning sesh can't cure?!  Literal true story.
Something about working the creative brain that just clears the cobwebs and makes the insides happy.
You should try it sometime.

In preparation for a bridal shower for my cousin's fiance, I put these invites together in about 20 minutes.  It's amazing what a little bit of spray paint, thrifted buttons and a few inches of burlap can do.

Take a check. . .

You will need 

• burlap 
• paper tags {bought these at Hobby Lobby, though I'm sure you could homemake them if you aren't lazy like me}
• paper clips
• spray paint
• buttons
• hot glue gun
• envelopes

I didn't want silver clips on the invites and I was too cheap to purchased colored ones.  A couple quick sprays of white paint did the trick.  Though I admit it won't hold up to much scratching.
Hello silver peeking through.  Aren't you just a doll?!


Adhere one button to the long edge of the paper clip with a small dab of hot glue.  Slip one button clip to the edge of the card when you finish the steps below.

Cut pieces of burlap large enough to overlap the edges of the paper tag.  Adhere together with a small bit of hot glue.  Fray the edges by removing the side strings of burlap.  Recycle these as ties in the side hole.
Go you sexy green thang, you!

And voila!  In the amount of time it took me to upload these photos and type out the instructions, you will have a sweet mess of bridal shower invites.  

Lastly, here's three random advices in the invitation department that I will offer you for free. 

1. If you must spray paint in your house, do so near an open window with your mouth closed.

2. Spray paint doesn't stick to paper clips well.

3. Straighten burlap before cutting, unless of course you like a crooked grain.

Husband is currently off watching the US Olympic Wrestling tryouts, while I haven't left my bed for the day.  I plan to make myself some yums for the tums.  Maybe read a book or five.  And overall allow my brain and bum to rest after one long tiring week.

Happy weekend lovelies!