Our 1st Anniversary

I know......"Gosh, Stephanie. That took you long enough!" Our 1st wedding anniversary was July 10th and life's been way busy since we got back and although I did look at the photos I took, I just never got around to putting a post together until now. So as you may know, Mitch and I returned to Kauai for our 1st wedding anniversary. We were so blessed to be able to go 2 years in a row and we LOVED every minute of it. It was so amazing and beautiful there, just like it was on our Honeymoon! Here are some pics of the week. Enjoy!

While we were there, we drove around alot of "off the beaten path" roads and found this beautiful little fishing hole with a beautiful home in the background.

 We also did a lot of 4-wheeling on the many hunting roads that we discovered Kauai has

 Mitch was bound and determined to park as close to our condo as possible....jeep, meet curb

 Beautiful sunset

This beach (Tunnels Beach) has a reef so large you can see it from space. We spent most of the day here going snorkling.

Looking at the coast from our Na Pali Coast Dinner cruise we took

This tunnel was in Pirates of the Caribbean 4. Johnny Depp goes through it to finally find the Fountain of Youth. Our Captain said in another movie they actually flew a helicopter through that hole. Not sure how though.....

On our dinner crusise, we saw a school of dolphins!

The boat we were on

On the flight home, the pilot came in from the North and flew over California for about 25 minutes. Pretty dang cool.

Hope you enjoyed all the photos. We absolutely LOVE Kauai and the peacefulness and beauty that exists there. We were feeling so blessed to be able to go two years in a row and decided to take a break before trying to go back. However, we recently found out that we will be attending a wedding on Kauai next summer! Going for year 3!

B-I-NGO!

My office does an annual Bingo event for charity and we have always been out of town every year during that weekend. This year we went and almost our entire small group went with us along with one of my friends Amber with her boyfriend Jonathan. It was really alot of fun, even though none of us won a darn thing!

The Great Hiding of the Boxspring

So sometimes these creative ideas just pop in my head and I decide to do them without giving much consideration to thoughtful planning or difficulty. I pretty much just wing it off of whatever I am picturing in my head. On Saturday I go the bright idea to sew a bedskirt for our bed. I absolutely LOVE our bedset that we bought from West Elm, but it didn't come with a bedskirt and it has always bothered me that when the bed is made you can still see the boxspring. So, I was determined to fix that!

This post is not going to be really step by step, because as I said before, I kind of just "winged" it. So I bought fabric that closely matches our shams (yay Walmart! JoAnns actually disappointed me this time). I bought a super cheap flat white sheet to act as the top lining. First I laid out the sheet and cut it exactly to the width and length of the bed.

***WARNING***

Do not even consider this project unless you are patient (ironic that I'm not). The total project time for this was literally about 16 hours. My husband can vouch for that because thats how long our house was torn apart. Also, because he had to cook dinner two nights in a row so that I could finish sewing.

Added a pleat

Soon after starting, I realized that my single one stitch sewing machine wasn't going to cut it, so I went out and bought a new one. As soon as I set it up, I realized that the blasted thing doesn't accomodate normal sized thread bobbins! Therefore, I had to set my bobbin up on my old machine (background) and thread the thread through the front new machine! How ridiculous! Needless to say, I took it back......

I measured up from the floor and cut slits in the material. This was the most frustrating part of the entire project. It didn't take me super long, but all the measuring to accomodate the bed frame was ridiculous. I later finished the cuts with a seam.

  Lastly,  I sewed finished edges on two panels. I then sewed these panels to the backside of the bedskirt at the foot corners. This provided a covering for the boxspring on the corners so that you can't see it.

 The finished product! I'm so happy with it! (Just don't look to closely at the seams...haha)

Tea Hat

I recently went to a ladies tea party at my church with the girls from our small group and as soon as I heard about it, I decided that I was going to wear a hat. Of course this idea spawned from my infatuation with the royal wedding and all of the amazing hats there. I wish our Western society hadn't lost the factor of sofistication that our English counterparts still possess, but that's a whole other tangent. Back on track. Hats. Okay, so I searched and searched and searched for a Kentucky Derby-like hat and decided that there is no place local that carries such hats, even in Pasadena! So I went online and I found that I could order them online but they ranged from $150-$700!!! Definately was not going to pay that.....so I found a couple pictures of sample hats I loved and decided I was going to make one myself.

These are the materials that I started with: a simple sun hat with a wide brim, black thread to match, 2 different types of tulle (one stiff and one decorative and flimsy), a piece of black satin, feathers to match the dress I was going to wear, and embellishment for the center of the fabric flower, glue gun and some pink material that I ended up not using.


First, I removed the little bow knot that was orginally around the side band where it met the brim and laid out the decorative flimsy tulle on top of the hat.


Next, I sewed little pin-tucks all round the base of the side band to secure the tool to the hat and have it take its form. Notice that I did not make sure the material was flat. I wanted to overlap it at places to add character.


Next I used the stiff tool and gathered it rather haphazardly to create a poof. Once gathered, I sewed the base just itself to keep it together then I sewed it to the base of the hat side band.


Next, I used that poof to determine how the hat would sit on my head. Based on that, I sewed the flimsy tool underneath the left side of the brim (the part that would be down) and then I evenly cut and left loose the remaining edge that would be positioned and tilted upward. I left about 1 1/2 to 2 inches loose. By created the pleated gathers earlier when securing the tulle to the bottom of the side band, it created a nice wave to the tulle when left to lay freely on the brim.

Okay, I skipped photographing a couple of steps because my hands were full. For the flower, I took the underside of a piece of silk (because I didn't want the sheen) and folded it over and then started gathering it in the center and worked my way around. Once I had it somewhat looking like a flower, I sewed the center to secure it to itself then I added the silver embellishment to the center. Then I started to add feathers.

Ta Da!!! The finished product in all its glory!

And here it is on....

A little blurry, but here's a side view.

Another view of the finished product.

At the Ladies Tea Party with Michelle and Meg from our small group.

Cows & Rain

I was going through my camera and I found these fantastic pictures from when Mitch and I went up to Merced a month or two ago. My mom, my sister and I were hanging out the entire day and we ended it by driving up to UC Merced. It is absolutely beautiful there because it is right in the heart of country land. Also, there are lots of cows!! When you combine cows, rain, beautiful lighting and a rainbow, you get some cool pics! (BTW.....I LOVE cows.) Enjoy!

I truly miss living in Merced when I look at pictures like this. I miss the slower lifestyle. I miss having less traffic. I miss how the towns are actually separated by miles and miles and not just feet. I miss how the country is only a short drive away. I miss being able to get away from crowds of people so easily. I miss going to the grocery store and running into a ton of people you know and having the cashiers know you by name. I miss the cows and I miss having my family closer. Merced is a good place. I'm a fan.