birthday girl.

Oh yeah, Happy Birthday to my sweet sister. I enjoyed spending your birthday with you. Let's do it again next year! :)

birthday crafts.

I was a busy girl last Friday, scrambling to finish a few crafts for my sister's birthday. I am glad I remembered to take pictures so I could share them with you!

I stalked my sister's Etsy favorites list and saw something that I was sure I could make from memory and I did. I'm pretty proud of myself so check it out!

She had bookmarked a picnic set - a little rolled up thing with bamboo utensils in it. I couldn't find bamboo utensils and I didn't have time to order them online so I went to the local organic grocery store and found some that are made of plant materials and are compostable! I made her a little roll up storage thing for her utensils so she can go on picnics galore!

please ignore the crack in the wall. or maybe I should not have pointed it out. Old house - what can I say?

 My sister even cleverly thought that you could roll cloth napkins up inside too so you can carry those with you. I made the ties plenty long for wrapping around multiple times so that would totally work.

She thinks I should go into business...I don't have time for all that!

I loved these beads because they reminded me a little of peacocks...and I am sort of obsessed with peacocks. (Edited to add: I also made the hooks from scratch and I am rather proud of myself! Wrapped the wire around a Sharpie!)

I made her these earrings to match the below scarf. And I am so self-sacrificing that I will put this terrible picture of myself on the internet so you can see the scarf I made. I totally found the instructions on Pintrest but the original instructions are from a website called Put Up Your Dukes and can be found here.

It was really easy - it is just two t-shirts, cut up and sewn together. I think I only had to sew in 4 places, though I got to use some newly acquired hand stiching skills learned from my awesome mother.

And finally...I found these cute owl beads at the HobLob and I couldn't resist making a pair for the birthday girl. I think they are so cute that I might have to make another pair for a gal at work that is crazy about owls!

Hope you had a wonderful birthday Sis! You deserve it! :)

12,000

I got this cool little took for Christmas from my mom, after some inspiration from my sister. It is called a FitBit and you can find them at fitbit.com. It is basically a glorified pedometer but it measures calories burned, activity level throughout the day, steps taken and floors climbed. You can also wear it at night and it measures your sleep efficiency, which I do most nights for pure amusement. All that to say that after Chad and I walked before lunch while waiting on his parents to get out of church and after our hike around at his work this afternoon, I hit my first 12,000 step day! Fun!

big deal.

Planning a big deal event for work. Our volunteer celebration and annual meeting. Started working on it in December and it will take place in April. I'm running out of room for post-it notes.

But hey - at least they are pink.

new year!

I only blogged 4 times in December. I should be embarrassed but I'm really not. I am still trying really hard to be present with the people I love when I have the time to do it - disconnected from the laptop, email on my phone, and the addictive Pintrest and Facebook. It is a lesson that takes time...it takes time to learn how to give time.

But - I will try to be better about short and quick updates more often around here. And more pictures. Because who doesn't love more pictures?!

Chad and I are hiking Mt. LeConte in August with Uncle J and my mom. It is one of those straight up hill for miles but once you get there they serve you dinner and let you spend the night sort of places. Takes forever to get a reservation but somehow we lucked out with some extra tickets sold by a friend of J's. I am pretty excited about it but starting now to get in shape to be able to do it! It was back to the gym last week and new year's resolutions abound. Cold months make me want to hibernate and cook good foods - bad combo. My new hiking poles came in the mail last week - thanks to an REI member rebate and a really good sale. Chad got a new pair of hiking boots at 50% off yesterday so we are on our way to breaking in the goods and hiking straight up a mountain!

Our church is taking its first short term mission trip to India this year. I'm praying hard about being involved....

Wooby.

Hard to get anything done with this is hanging out with/on you and purring like a racecar.