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.

Heroic Measures

Last weekend Mitch was doing some yardwork outside while I was cleaning and working inside. He came to the front door and knocked on it (it was locked). Before I could get to it, he knocked again. I got to the door and opened it and he said in a very concerned voice "I just accidentally cut a tree branch down that had a bird nest in it." I panicked. I didn't want to kill any little birds, especially because the mom has been living on one of our outside garage rafters for the past several months. We bonded. Okay, back to the birds.

I went outside and looked and this is what was on the ground. One bird had fallen out of the nest in the process of it falling from the tree. Can you see them both? They're so tiny!

Literally, the birds were each the size of a quarter.

I panicked and didn't know what to do. I had always grown up hearing that if you touch or go anywhere near a baby bird or its nest, the mom will abandon them and they will die anyway. So I quickly Googled the question "what to do if a baby bird nest falls from a tree". I ended up finding a phone number for our local Wildlife Rehabilitation Center and lo and behold they were open on a Sunday and a man answered the phone. I quickly explained our situation and I learned something new. Birds WILL NOT abandon their young if you touch them or go near the nest because they don't even have a sense of smell! The only birds that can smell are vultures and they do not typically nest around humans. The Wildlife man said to put the fallen baby bird back in the nest with the other one and put the nest back in the tree as close to where it originally was as possible. Our solution:

Yes, this is my handy husbands idea. Zip-tie the chopped branch back to the tree. We are crafty like that. I am proud to report that our solution seems to have worked because it has been a full week later and the birds are still alive and moving! Yay for the life-saving suggestion from the Wildlife Rehab man!

4 Years!!

Has it really been that long? Today is 4 years since Mitch and I started dating. In light of this, I kind of wanted to share a little about what I shared last night in our small group bible study. We were talking about prayer and all of us shared a prayer or two, big or small, that had actually been answered.

All through Junior High and High School, I was convinced that I was going to marry a specifiic guy. I had known this guy since I was very little and my parents were close to his parents when I was little. My prayers were always selfish and shallow about finding the man of my dreams. I always prayed asking God to change the heart of this boy because I knew that I was going to marry him and that he was the one for me. I got bummed out so many times because so often this guy showed interest and then turned right around and was super distant. Long story, short....it was super frustrating interacting with this person, but still...my prayers continued.

During High School, my dad's boss made it so difficult on him, it, in a way, forced him to quit and switch careers. Hence, my dad changed to a career in real estate, which led him to help me get once of my first jobs working at a real estate Association in my hometown.

College time came around and I took a leap of faith and followed God's leading to a school where I knew no one. I didn't know who God would chose for my roommate....nothing. Therefore, my attitude towards my future mate changed. I looked at this as a fresh start and kind of left everything behind. I told God "Obviously what I had been praying for is not working or is not in the plan, so I'm done. I'm not going to look for anyone and whatever happens, happens." This was during my Freshman year of college.


At the end of my Freshman year, I was sick of my current food services position and looked into local real estate Associations for employment since I already knew the industry a bit. I got hired on a my current job and really loved it. At the job, I met some pretty great co-workers my age that I got along with real well.


My Sophomore year of college, my company was having its annual Christmas cocktail party. I was all set to go with one of my good friends from college, but I knew there was a slight chance he may not have been able to go. In the end, he had a family event that he had to attend (he let me know the day of :/ ) but I was fine to just go by myself. My co-worker found out about this and offered to ask his best friend if he wanted to go with me. Not being one to ever choose to do something like that with someone I've never met before, I respectfully declined the offer. He told me to call him if I changed my mind. For the heck of it, after work, I called a couple of friends, male and female, and everyone had seriously legit reasons as to why they couldn't go. So, I decided I was just going to go by myself. Then I called my roommate and she convinced me to just go ahead and tell my co-worker to invite his friend. I hesitated because I just did not consider myself that outgoing to do that sort of thing.

On my commute home I battled with what to do and in the end, just ended up calling my co-worker and asking him to ask his friend for me. What a fantastic decision because if you haven't already guessed, that friend was Mitch :)

I truly believe that having Mitch is my life is the doing of God alone and only through Him would this have even been possible. If my dad hadn't basically been fired, he never would have become a REALTOR, which means he never would have got me connected with the Merced County Association of REALTORS which means I never would have even thought to apply at my current Association of REALTORS which means I never would have met my co-workers which means I never would have met Mitch. Mitch and I literally had no connections that could have ever caused us to meet of our own accord. God alone is responsible for this.

These last four years have been the absolute best of my life. Mitch is such a caring and compassionate man and he is my best friend. He completely balances me and is strong in all the areas that I am weak. I love him with all my heart and could not be happier that I married him!

Sorry if that was way sappy for some of you ;)

House Update

As I type, Mitch is putting in our hardwood floors!! Yay!!! Couple pictures. More to come.

In other news....I ran into our bed earlier....hard. It hurt. A purple bruise is starting to form.

*Disclaimer: Please ignore the freakishly white raw chicken leg looking apendage that this bruise is on.

Save the TaTa's

Last Saturday night, Mitch and I went to the Motocross event at Angels Stadium in Anaheim. It was a breast cancer awareness event also. So among the Save the TaTa's shirts and the waves of pink, there was a young guy sitting in front of us with the funniest homemade shirt I've ever seen. I asked to take a photo to commemorate the funniness. Behold the awesomeness:

Best breast cancer awareness shirt EVER! hahahahaha....."I stare because I care".....priceless.

I'm Comin' Back

So, I don't feel like I really talk all that much about my relationship with God on here and quite frankly the reasoning behind that is because I've been a pretty terrible friend/daughter to him this past year. I really allowed myself to get lost in the busyness of life. Also, with all the wedding planning, we were gone almost everyother weekend and that really didn't help. We went to church while we were in Merced, but I just honestly don't get as much out of the sermons at this church as I do in our home just down here. The pastor in our Merced church is much harder to understand and his sermons and so much harder for me to connect to and apply to my current daily life. However, when we attend services at our church down here, the sermons are like living water. I feed off of them and I feel them help me connect with God on such a deeper level.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not blaming this lack of connectiveness on anyone but myself. I really just allowed myself to set my life on cruise control and just live day to day and focus on the daily tasks at hand. Lately however, we have been attending our church every week and also, I witness Mitch turning into such an amazing man of God. He is always the first to tell me no when I would rather sleep in on a Sunday morning. Also, he always reminds me to pray before we have dinner and he is the ones that prays. I am just so amazed at the spiritual change that I have seen in him. Also, one of my friends on Facebook has done a complete 180 in the past year and also has turned into an amazing man of God. This is such an encouragement to see how he once was and who he is now. He stands up for what he believes in. He stands up for God. What an encouragement that is. I find so often that I shy away from controversial things in front of people that I don't know that well, but this friend is not afraid to lay it out on the line and stand for Christ. He is not concerned with what anyone thinks or says to him. He just stands for truth alone. I am continually being encouraged by not only the person this man has become, but also by Mitch and our pastors sermons. I'm finding my way back with the help of Christ and those that He has laid in my path :)