Week in Review

Last week was another busy week. This time it was so busy, we never even ate dinner at home which is not like us during  the week.

I hosted my third Book Fair at my school. PTO helps out greatly and they do an awesome job. It was a fun week and I love seeing kiddos excited over new books. However after packing it up on Friday, I was exhausted! 

But I didn't have much time to rest Friday and I was okay with that because of a special event at church that I got to be a part of: Girls Night Out. I had been looking forward to it ever since I helped last year. At this event, the leading ladies of Elevation host a night of fun for girls from three organizations in Charlotte (One7, Right Moves for Youth and Safe Journey). Along with my friend Emily, I was able to mentor 3 young girls. Several activities were planned including time in a photo booth.

My favorite part of the night was hearing our Pastor's wife, Holly, share a message with us about how often we look to "things" to fill a void in our life. We were all born with that void feeling because it is meant to filled only in Christ. We must learn to depend on him as our source for joy and help. It was such a clear message and I'm so thankful these sweet girls were able to hear about Jesus and an opportunity to surrender their lives. Afterwards, we ended the night with a big dance party (my second favorite part) and then sent the girls back on their way in a large party bus. How cool is that?! What a great night! I'll be thinking and praying for "my" girls for a long time. When I worked at a camp during my college years I mentored teenagers a lot and I didn't realize until Friday how much I miss investing in teenage girls. I want to start doing that again more often.

Saturday was a nice day of rest. We slept in but then had a crazy idea to spruce up our backyard. We worked all afternoon and even had to make two trips to Lowes. I wish I had taken more before pictures but this is all I have:

It was bad y'all! So bad that I hated even going out there. Even though we are just renting, we still love to host people often so we knew we might as well tackle it. We didn't want to spend much money so we had to get creative. This is what we ended with: 

We bought some cheap mulch, trimmed all the bushes back, cut the grass, added pea gravel rocks and flowers. I spray painted the flower boxes red and I love the way it turned out!

After the hard working day, we grilled some burgers and enjoyed the night outside.

Today (Sunday) has been a day of rest too and I'm very thankful. Five more days until I'm off work for a week with Spring Break. I CANT WAIT! Excuse my enthusianm. I love my job but it sure is time for a little taste of summer and R&R.

Can I get an amen from any other teacher friends? ;)

That's a wrap folks!

-Sara 

House Tour: the Loft

Weeks have passed and I have realized that I yet to even give you any updates or a glimpse of our new town house. We love our new place so much more than the last. The best news is that it is still in the same neighborhood but yet it is much larger. The layout feels more like an actual house and less like living in a box. We are still in the house hunt process and just waiting for the right one but in the meantime...

Welcome to our current place! This is where I would show you a picture but considering it is such a gloomy day and leaves are everywhere...I'll just give you an official I.O.U.

Today I want to show you our loft area. Random room to show first, right? Well, this past weekend while Todd was away, I worked extra hard to finally complete this room. I created a cozy reading nook, decorated our desk area and hung some artwork. 

This chair was hard to photograph. It is a vintage red leather whiskey barrel poker chair that belonged to Todd's grandfather. Since his passing, it has been in storage so I was most excited about Todd seeing this chair now in our house. I love the rustic decor of it and plus it holds so many memories for Todd. Win-Win.

btw: he was so SO happy to see the chair again :)

I randomly found the floor lamp at Goodwill for $14.99 and after pricing floor lamps around town that averaged $70, I was super giddy to find this one. I may change the lampshade but for now it works. The window may just be my favorite piece of the entire room.

I already had this window that I snagged off the side of the road years ago. The fabric was also something I bought over two years ago that I fell in love with but was never sure how to incorporate into our home...until now. I used small nails to tack it to the back so it can easily be removed if needed. The red details in the fabric pair well with the red leather on the chair.

This area looks over into our living room. I really love sitting down below and looking up to see the detail of the whisky barrel. Everything flows so well now. 

This room also serves as our office area. This photograph above the desk was taken by our dear friend Eric Hiestand and it is of Todd's favorite camping spot. Todd's mom surprised him with this blown up matted photo a few years ago for Christmas. Don't you just love thoughtful gifts like that?

I found the small white pitcher and stationary box at Goodwill. The box is holding all our pens which we seem to have too many of. The loft also is home to Todd's drums so I tossed his sticks into this glass vase so that Maggie won't grab them off the floor. Noticed she photobombed my picture of the record player area. Oh, but I love her so much!

Well folks, that's just about it for the loft. It will always be a work in progress and I'm sure we will move before it is ever completely finished but for now it works!

Hope you friends can come by sometime and visit! 

We would love to see you and show you around our favorite parts of Charlotte.

-Sara

Cheap & Easy Art

I'm really into subway art these days. Lucky for all of us, it is easy to find free printables all over the web. Here is a picture of our photo collage wall that I snapped a few weeks ago (I really should have straightened the pics before taking this...oops, just keepin' it real). All of these frames are just random frames we had collected throughout college so we decided to just leave them mismatched. We still aren't totally satisfied with the placements and pictures we chose so some change may be happening but for now this is where my printed subway art is living.

This is the subway art I printed for the Fall....

For this Christmas season, I took a slightly different route. I still found some great word art but I wanted it to have great meaning. I chose this art because it has one of my favorite Bible verses on the birth of Jesus. Considering we don't have a Christmas tree either, this fills the void. I enjoy walking by it everyday and being reminded of the greatest gift of Christmas, our savior.

Source

Click source up above to grab it for yourself. I find most of mine off of Pinterest by searching subway art. I always save it to my computer then have it printed in an 8 x 10 at a photo center for $2.50. I've seen other Santa themed subway art that display wonderful colors and holiday cheer so check it out.

Have fun! 

-Sara

Old School is Cool

All this week I have been studying for a cataloging test. Yup, cataloging. As in the old fashion way of writing typing on an index card all the information about a book.

Did you know?

...that works such as the Bible, Mother Goose & the Three Bears are called Uniform Title meaning an agreed standard title for the work....
...the author or title on the actual card catalog is described as main entry, not just title/author...
...the info on the back of the title page is called verso...

I could also get into how I have now memorized all the Dewey classification numbers but I'll save you the boredom. Despite how this post sounds, I do love my graduate studies. Except the art of cataloging. We don't get along and all the lingo is weird but I know its something I need to learn therefore I will. However, please take note I have no intentions of ever being a cataloger and these days most cataloging is done via computer anyways.

Technology makes things so much easier and efficient. Even though the process of old fashion cataloging makes me want to pull my hair out, I do have a secret love for it. My dad talks about when he used to go to the library he would have to look in the catalog through the cards to find his book. I can't imagine doing that. Yet still there is something about seeing an old card catalog that warms my heart. Our campus library has started getting rid of these cards and using them as scratch paper. One day I found myself looking at them for at least twenty minutes. Anyways, enough about that, finally my point. Maybe somewhere in your heart you find old card catalogs interesting as well. I have a love for all things antique. That is why today, in the spirit of catalogs I wanted to share something that I found years ago that is a semi-DIY idea.

Thanks to blyberg.net  you can generate your very own card catalog. Confused? Here is the idea: you can write a love note, catalog your old favorite book, special day or gift tag. Here is what I'm thinking: for the call number I want to do something that incorporates our wedding date such as 528.2011 which actually mimics a Dewey call number. For the title (main entry-trying to embed those words in my head for my test, remember) I think I will do something such as The Story of Todd and Sara. Then for description I'll either write a little summary about how we met or maybe I'll write about the wedding day. Possibilities are endless so go give it a try and have some fun with it! Wish I had one made up for you to see but as soon as I do (and framed) I will post about it.

PS: my favorite part is the scribble areas...how cute! Let me know if you try any, I'd love to see them!

Sara