thank you to all who are continuing to stick with me through the process of selling our house.  i know posts have been really sporadic.  i've had the best of intentions, but just haven't had the time to dedicate to blogging.  we are in the process of packing everything up right now, as we are moving all of our things to a storage unit on Saturday.  that's right...we are currently homeless.  kind of.  not really.  we would be without the generosity of my in-laws.

we currently have two houses that we're still trying to decide between agonizing over.  each is equally amazing for completely different reasons.  one has more rooms and is a bit more secluded with a natural pond on three acres, but there is no master bath.  that's really its only downfall - well, that and the fact that it's about 15 minutes from work versus 5 minutes from the other house.  the other has an amazing master suite, four wooded acres with four-wheeling tracks and a one-acre pond with a little island, but it only has two bedrooms and the neighbors don't keep up their property.  if we eventually turned the den into a third bedroom, we would only have one living area and no office/crafting space.

i guess i will have another week-and-a-half to agonize over it, as i am leaving for Young Life camp on Saturday (so pumped by the way).  please continue to show me grace for not posting.  with all of the packing and moving, leaving for a week for camp, coming back for four days and then leaving for another week for a Young Life RMR Backcountry trip, then living in a house with dial-up internet until we find a house, posts may be even more sporadic than they have been.

in the meantime, here are some lost outfit pictures that just show my good intentions but my failed follow-through.  i've been thinking of all of my blog friends as i've been out of touch since about march, but i will return as soon as possible and we can catch up.

chambray shirt: JC Penney cardigan: LOFT pants: LOFT shoes: Macy's - Bandolino belt: thrifted hair accessory: me

shirt: LOFT, thrifted jeans: LOFT, thrifted shoes: Aldo necklace: F21 belt: thrifted sunglasses: ? goofy dog: pound

beaded tank: F21 cardigan: Banana Republic, thrifted pants: Limited, thrifted shoes: thrifted necklace: Apricot Lane, local boutique

shirt: New York & Company                             skirt: F21                           shoes: Target                             necklace: Kohl's

tunic: Fashion Bug, thrifted pants: LOFT shoes: thrifted scarf: Target

tank: Target shirt: thrifted shorts: H&M shoes: Target necklace: Apricot Lane, local boutique

that's right, snow day.  in fact, this is a momentous occasion that deserves capital letters *gasp* and an exclamation point.

SNOW DAY!


this morning, Eric's alarm clock woke us up with the most beautiful words i could have expected to hear:  level one snow emergency.  a text from my boss confirmed that the day was mine.  naturally, my heart was happy enough to fall back into a coma for another two hours before waking up to the best kind of breakfast there is:  a husband-made one.  i love that man.

now, because we couldn't go anywhere for the day, there will be no 30 for 30 post.  instead, let me introduce you to a little project that i've been working on.  it was so wonderful to have the day to finally complete it.

remember my post about the silhouettes i made of our two puppies?  if not, it's okay.  i realize this little blog has seen quite a few new followers since then...which, by the way, is awesome.  just click on that link right back there and you can catch up.  in it, i talked about plans that i had for the project as a whole.  since then (really just today), that plan has evolved into something so much better than i had hoped for.  check it out:

the final piece of the silhouette puzzle, made from a wedding day photo (which i love b/c i look super skinny!)

how it fits into the grand scheme of the room.

last week, John and Sherry over at Young House Love hosted a giveaway from Nella Designs that left me absolutely pining.  as one of only 3,630 entries, i totally thought the odds were working in my favor.  so you can imagine my surprise and disappointment when i wasn't the winner.

can i have one for every room, please?

okay, i swear i'm back.  this week has been all kinds of ridiculous with my blasé attitude toward just about everything.  i don't know what my funk has been, but i think i've been pulled out of it by a simple walk with my hubs and our pups.

every winter, i go through this phase where i forget how much i need the outdoors.  it's easy to desire the warmth and comfort of the indoors, curling up under a blanket to watch sweet november.  so when eric called me on his way home tonight to ask me to get ready to take the dogs for a walk with him, i was resistant.  really?  do we have to?  can't we just let them run around in the backyard?  eric persisted.  so i bundled up and we headed out, each of us with our respective dogs in tow, cookies stocked in our pockets for positive reinforcement, and me with my camera.

i breathed in the cold, crisp air, felt the slight sting of it on my face.  i walked side-by-side with my husband, the love of my life, with the snow crunching under my boots, the dogs tangling themselves up in each other's leashes, and embraced it all.  whereas the hustle and bustle of the rest of this week has left me thinking, "this is my life," this walk allowed me an opportunity to get away from it all, slow down, and put things in perspective.  "this is my life."  how incredibly blessed i am.

that's right.  i was spoiled for Christmas.  on top of numerous other things, the hubs, my in-laws and my bonus check all pitched in to get me what i've been patiently awaiting for a long, long time.

the hubs, doing what he does best (call of duty).

i can't believe how good our 5-month-old puppy is with our friends' baby, emmett.  at one point, titan snuggled up to the little guy and laid his head in his lap.

eric was making him laugh.  precious.

it's painfully obvious how much these two love each other.

if there is anything my husband hates, it's shopping.  the second we walk into a store, by the look on his face, you would think someone just told him his puppy died.  so when he suggested we go christmas shopping together earlier this week, initially my jaw dropped.  then i got excited.  and then i became skeptical.

i have to admit, he rocked today.  the dead puppy face made minimal appearances, even after six hours of shopping.  we managed to finish up both of my brothers, one of his sisters, his mom, his grandma, and all three of the kids we picked off of the angel tree at church.  i also found a dress for my work christmas party next weekend and snuck in a purchase for eric while he wasn't looking.  all-in-all, a pretty successful shopping day.

i don't know if he would have made it without the stop we made at the food court to eat at panda express.  the man loves panda.

i realize my love for this woman may be bordering on unhealthy.

the only way to describe today is glorious.  i think God knows we hoosiers need this one final beautiful day before we begin to slip into the miserable dark, slushy, 60 degrees-in-the-"comfort"-of-your-own-home winter a lovely winter wonderland.  it's days like today that make me love the midwest.

so i went home for lunch and sat at the picnic table outside to eat.  i soaked in every bit of the sun's rays i possibly could and spent some QT with the pooches.  if the sun is still up when i get home, i may have to get one last nap in the hammock in before the cold rain heads in tomorrow.



i love you campbell's chunky tomato with pasta soup...even with all of your dang sodium.

let's face it, i don't know if i can be wordless.

last night was a comfy-sock-wearing, one-tree-hill-watching, irish-coffee-drinking, crafting type of night:

sometimes when i really step back and think about it, our relationship with our dogs might not be normal.

since the day we brought lily home, eric has referred to me as mommy, and i to him as daddy.  if i say to her, "where's daddy?" she will run straight to him, but "where's eric?" would just lead to a blank stare.  and if i ask titan anything, he just cocks his head to the side and looks confused.  you'll get there, buddy.  it just takes time.

when people talk about their children, i find myself relating to them with stories about our dogs.  seriously, lauren, people don't want to hear that their children are like dogs.

eric and i lovingly refer to lily as our little "turd muffin" and titan as our "poopsicle".  i have no idea how or why this started, but it's the picture of mature parenting.  i can only imagine the names we'll come up with for our kids someday.

and my ultimate low as a puppy-mama:  two weekends ago, eric and i stayed in to watch a movie.  at one point, i looked over and saw titan and lily sleeping on their huge dog bed (seriously, this thing takes up about a quarter of our living room).  they looked quite content and i decided to join them for some snuggle time.  i ended up falling asleep, and when i woke up, eric and the dogs were gone, it was 7 am, and i had slept all night on a dog bed.  oy vey...

but seriously, who wouldn't want to snuggle up to these monsters?

i. hate. budgets.  for the past four months, eric and i have been on a pretty dang strict budget to allow us to pay a lot of moolah toward the student loans that built up while i was getting the degree that i'm not using (i swear i'm not bitter.  maybe a little).  the best thing that has resulted from this budget is my love for thrifting.  i know i'm a day late and a dollar short with this frugal friday post, but i have to share.  i have been wanting for some time to do a big wall piece of plates in our dining room, as we have a very large wall that i've been struggling with since we found the house (inspiration).  i understand that it is supposed to take some time to round up a good collection, but when you've got a salvation army as great as the one by my office downtown, sometimes it only takes two trips to find ten that coordinate pretty dang well.  i know i still have a way to go before filling the wall, but here's what i've got going on so far:

oooo...and see my little owl friend i found that matches the colors perfectly? i'm thinking of incorporating him somehow, hopefully along with some other little kitschy finds.

p.s. that's about $6 folks.  that's a small price to pay for pride in a job well done.