Purple Wedding Shower

My friends Alison and Elise said it best yesterday, "southern women throw the best showers."  It's true!  They're so fun!  This weekend I was part of throwing a shower for my dear friend Kelli with some of my dear friends and it was a fun & pretty party!

The details

Purple wedding shower?  Purple is one of Kel's wedding colors, so I found invites with purple.  From there we found some purple napkins and rolled them (and they looked like rose buds, accidental bonus!) and I made a banner with their names on purple paper.  There were also some purple tulips on the food table.

Guests & Presents

Prayer

Hostesses
*Missing Mary R! :(

I can't wait for Skelli and Keth's November wedding!
**Skelli and Keth.  That came out of my mouth one day when trying to talk about them, and occasionally it comes back into play.  Fortunately I didn't put that on their banner I made for the shower, or their guest book...I don't think.

car saga part 1

Almost a year ago, my car stopped working coming off of 316, and I had to be towed back to home.  Definitely a situation I could have done without, but I lived and learned.  Last Saturday I was coming into home and my car sorta did the same thing.  Fortunately, I was pulling into home so I called the tow truck and had my car taken away on Monday morning.  I distinctly remember saying to someone, "this should be wrapped by Wednesday or Thursday!" and hoping it wouldn't wipe out too much of my savings.

Ha. Ha. Ha.

I get a call Monday at around lunchtime and the friendly folks tell me my car needs a new transmission to the tune of $3,100.  I'm not going to joke here folks, I started bawling.  I had NO idea what to do.  Then I quickly wised up and started calling people who are way smarter than me.  One person started calling around trying to find me a better deal.  Another quickly offered abundant support, saying "Well, I don't know what to do or what to tell you, but but I sure can support you emotionally!"  I was given really, really good advice over a couple days.

This week was topsy-turvy.  Take out a car loan and fix the transmission?  Sell it for what I can (with an out transmission) and work on getting a new car?  And back & forth, and back & forth, and back at forth.  I sent this email to my friend Julie because this was my case for about 2 days:

So this car thing can be best summarized with this:

I get mostly set on one decision with the car, yay!

Then I get more (good) advice, which makes me (wisely) question my decision.

Back to neutral ground.

I go the other way on the decision with the car, yay!

Then I get more (good) advice, which again makes me (wisely) question my decision.

Back to the middle.

Finally, I committed to a decision:  Sell the thing for what I can and buy a new car.  Done and done.  Brooke had picked me up from work and I was telling her why this was the good plan, blah blah blah when my phone rang.  It was someone who I had called for a quote at the beginning of the week and hadn't heard back from.  He tells me a price less than HALF for what I'd been hearing. Saywhat?  Don't you know I JUST made the decision?!  What??  We talk, and I hang up the phone.  I'm pretty sure Brookie who could hear all of the conversation was smirking.

Right back to the drawing board, but with a better option on the table.  Call my peoples (who I can't thank the Lord enough for) and get their input, which lines up with what I was thinking when I heard about this:  fix the car, get it running, drive it for a couple months, then sell it and move forward with a new car.  Yes, I could (obvi) keep my fixed and (well) running car, but I think it's time to change wheels (and I can sell it for more the fewer miles it has on it).

My car's at the doctor now, and I'm borrowing a friends car for the weekend.  That's all I know.  I don't know when it's going to be fixed, but I do know a ball is (finally) rolling instead of just sitting idle on the court.  I do know this:

• I am so, so, so, so, so, SO THANKFUL for the people in my life.  I have never felt alone, and I have been more than well advised and taken care of.
• I have learned some new things.
• I trust the Lord even more than I did last week.

Thank You, Lord.

Here's to part 2 (and probably part 3, good gracious...car buying...I'm hoping to wrap that up FAST because I can over-think something to death). 

time flies

...if you're having fun or not.  I try to keep Monday's as a "work-night" and work on all the other things that I want to accomplish/get ahead on/et cetera for the week.

Tonight I had lofty ambitions to:

• Get done with school work
• Finish some birthday cards
• Start some drafts for a couple publications for church
• Update an online calendar
• Grocery shop

What I've done:

• Gone to AT&T and Peach Mac to have my phone looked at, to be told that some g-mail accounts are just experiencing trouble right now (yay my phone's not broken!)
• Finished some birthday cards (*all belated)
• Grocery shopped

All the home-work things?  Bah ha ha.

Today at work we had our long-range planning meeting, where dates start to be set for January-August 2013.  I'm thinking about that tonight, especially in light of how fast this evening has slipped away from me.  How do I expect my life to be different in January 2013?  Not employment status or anything, but what new things do I hope to be walking in?  How will my dear relationships that I have now have gone deeper?  What skills (aka photoshop) will I pick up?  Will I be hitting consistent mileage on runs?  There is a song in Tangled (if you haven't seen this movie yet, call me.  We'll fix that real fast.) that goes "waiting on my real life to begin."  The Lord speaks to me SO much through this movie, and this is a part that really hit home.  I'm not waiting, my "real life" has begun.  I'm living it now.

Intentionality is something that is really important to me, and I'm wondering how intentional I'm being right now?  Those things I listed above, and others; I don't want those to slip away.  And I want to push myself to dream more!  Hmm...

but now, I'm off to be intentional with finishing my list above.

Weekly Sampling

Spaghetti Squash
I discovered spaghetti squash this week.  OMG.  I was invited to a friend's for dinner where she served it.  What she did is that after roasting it she scooped it the squash and put in a skillet with a can of tomatoes, some seasonings, onion, and feta cheese.  The very next night I went to Publix and bought my own and replicated it.  I only wish I had added ground beef too; I don't think that I'll ever buy spaghetti noodles again.

Iphone
My iPhone no longer receives my email.  Help?  I'm working up to go see AT&T tomorrow.  Meh.  But one thing I learned about it this morning is that I can "name" my alarms.  I did.  And it makes me laugh.  Hoping that it'll make the 5:45 call to run easier!

*While I was sorting out my alarms I had one set for 2:45 a.m.  Why on earth was I setting an alarm for that time?

D-i-a-n-A
My current #1 pet-peeve:  being called DianE.  No, that's not my name.  It's DianA.  Granted this probably bothers me more than it should because my father frequently called me Diane, (it just ticked me off remembering how he did; definitely the cause of the issue!) but he signed the birth certificate (not that it had the correct add...never mind, I'm done with this rant) so he had no excuse!  My two favorite instances this week of being called the name which I shall not be called by:

• In an email that I signed with "Diana" and had my work signature of "Diana" underneath it got a response of "Thanks, Diane!"  WTHeck.  But that individual did respond a couple days later with "I think I called you Diane, sorry!"
• My former campus minister (who I interned in his ministry for 2 years) walked past me this week and goes' "Hi Diane."  Given that he sees 1,000's of people a year I let it go, but still.  Boo.

Lighbulb

In my bathroom this guy exploded with a cloud of smoke and I caught it when I noticed it was hanging on by a thread.  Now to get the base out of the fixture.  I'm thinking of calling an SOS to the more handy people in my life on this one, but I will google it first, in case it's anything like my Thursday morning.  

Thursday Morning

I woke up Thursday morning to run with a terrible headache so I stayed in bed another hour and a half. At 7:30 I told myself, "self, you'll feel better if you shower."  I turn on the water, let it get good and hot, assess my hair and see that it needs washed, and then hop in.  Well, I hopped into a freezing cold stream.  I fly out and go check the water heater, which is silent.  Uh-oh.  Hair gets crafted into a new up-do and I email my landlord.  He comes over after we all get off of work and comes in with tools.  The fix?  Flipping the breaker.  

Belt of shame

One afternoon I was running through the sanctuary at work and I saw boss lady wearing a tool belt filled with donation envelopes and pencils while refilling the pews and I stopped dead in my tracks and said, "what are you wearing?!?!?!"  I quickly began calling it the belt of shame.  Well, I had to wear it this week.  Another day in the office...

sesame wave.

It started out as a great idea (though, can't most people say that when describing their worst idea?).

I had a can of tahini,

that had separated.  There was a lot of oil on the top (I hadn't used it in a while).  The paste on the bottom was super hard to stir so I thought, "hey!  I'll get my hand mixer out and use it to mix the oil back into the paste."

ha.  ha.  ha.

The thought did run through my head, "hold onto the can tightly."  But I didn't.  The second I turned the mixer on the can started spinning and the oil started spraying.

As in, it made it a full 360.

My rooms said I made a sound like I lost a finger or something.  Then there was silence as I stood frozen in a sea of sesame oil.  I had to throw away my dress and shirt--they were soaked.  Pulled out the mop.  Washed the rugs.  Cleaned all the cabinet fronts.  Scrubbed the counters.  Now please, let's not glass half-full this and say, "you got to clean your kitchen!"  It's my kitchen.  It WAS clean.  I had even deep cleaned prior to roomie moving in, AND we had a brunch on Saturday--the mop was still outside air drying from the last time I used it!

It was only about a 20 minute delay (and then I got back in the game later when I bent down against a random corner to pick up something and my second dress of the night came up oil stained; cue another scrub down), and I can still perfectly picture the oil flying out of the can.  Haha!

When we (finally) got to eating dinner, Tiff asked me, "so what's been your worst kitchen disaster?"  "That," was my answer.

Post-script:
What was I needing tahini for?  To go into greek yogurt for some sauce for one of the best dinners ever--chick pea patties.  OMG.  If you like chickpeas you should make them...now.
How I make them:
-I sautee about a half an onion with a load of garlic, cumin, oregano, salt & pepper in a bit of olive oil.  Let cool a bit.
-In a food processor add around 2 tbsp. of flour, a can of chickpeas, an egg, flat leaf parsley, and the onion.  Pulse.
-In a skillet (I use the same one I used for the onion) get a wee-bit of olive oil heating up.
-Form the chickpea mixture into patties, and put in the warmed-up skillet.  One can makes about 4 patties.  I cook them on medium/low for a while, flip a couple times till there is a bit of a crust, and top with the yogurt/tahini mixture and cucumbers.  And inhale.

ON the walls

After a couple of years, there are actual photos and paintings on the walls at home!  And I LOVES it!

Dining Room
A family painting I refer to as "pink lady" is back up in the dining room.  She formerly dwelled where my china cabinet is, but when that came in she had to move.  After living by the floor on the desk (with other pictures and paintings) it's over the buffet and I love it.  Framed on the buffet (all in yard-sale frames) are 2 maps (one a postcard from Scotland, another from a calendar) and a photo I took of foxglove (also from Scotland).

 The mantle!

 One of my FAVORITES!  (please excuse the glare.  All of these pics were taken from my phone.  #lazy).  I am a big fan of the off centered mirror, an idea I got from Pinterest.  The mirror and big vase are all yard sale finds, and the little figures are from Africa travels (both mine and others).  In the little frames are 2 pictures from a friend's home, and the vertical picture is from Scotland.  The large picture is from Israel (thanks Mary!)

Kitchen Decorations

 I picked up this 4 pack of frames on super sale, and didn't do anything with them for a (good-long) while. I have a frame color for each space (my room, white & silver; dining room, gold; living room, brown) so I just needed to find a space for these and the kitchen was what was left.  The frames came with the mats (score!), and I picked up craft paper on sale from Michael's (.25/sheet instead of .59!), and went through my recipe box, finding a recipe from my mom, her mom, and her grandmother.  I framed two of my mom's recipes.  If I find one from my paternal grandmother I'll get that up in one of the frames to have all sorts of family on the wall.  There are 2 on each side of the sink (they face each other, if that makes sense).

Oil Painting (next to book shelf)

I scored that beautiful (that you-can't-really-see-from-this-angle/distance) oil painting by the bookshelf at a yardsale for $6.  $6!  When she sold it to me at that price I almost took off running with it to the car.  It's genuine and beautiful and I love it. You can also see the mantle some w/o the glare, and a little shelf an uncle made years ago that I kept in my grips.

Miscellaneous

I purchased this frame on sale (duh, have you met me?) and got the picture printed (for cheap).  I took the photo on Edisto and it's one of my favorites that I've ever taken.  I purchased 2 of these frames; the other has a picture from the mountains and is across from the oil painting.

I'm loving decorating.  Yard sales are so fun, and I love how most of the pieces I've used have a history to them.

breaking out of the blog fog

While trying to find some inspiration to break out of my most recent blog fog, I clicked on a list last night called "50 things to blog about when you don't know what to blog about," or something like that.  Most were completely unhelpful (it was primarily geared for authors who publish, not ladies who write about their weekends and decorating exploits), but one caught my eye "how you deal with stress."  I can blog about that!  Especially since I feel like July was somehow a slow-cooker of stress that I didn't really acknowledge till all was said and done and I finally relaxed a bit.  My favorite dealing strategies...

1.  Ice-dream.
"Why eat your emotions?"  Because it's less than 150 calories and a small is $1.66.  Could be worse...

2.  Clean & organize
After my grandmother died last year, I went home from work and thoroughly organized, deep cleaned & decorated the pantry, and magic-erasered almost every wall in the house.
My roommate moved out this summer, I built a gallery wall and redid my closet.
...to each her own.

3.  Run
If I can get my brain to shut off, runs while stressing are the best ever.

4.  Abandon and Abide
This came out yesterday from A Holy Experience, and it's so good:

Abandon the worries… and Abide in the Word.

Abandon the fears… and Abide in the Father.

Abandon the hurts… and Abide in His heart.

Abandon the cares… because Christ will never abandon you.