I have a confession...

My fellow blog friends, I have a confession...

Remember these beautiful and tasty cupcakes that Mr. Right and I made Sunday night?

You know the ones... with the homemade chocolate-banana icing... that happen to taste better served cold from the refrigerator? Ahh yes, now you remember.

Well last night I may have hit a new low. Mr. Right was working late up at the church, and after taking care of about a dozen chores, working on my nephew's quilt and doing three loads of laundry, I decided to end the night with a bubble bath and a magazine. Possibly one of the most delightful ways to end an evening.

To make it even better, I had one last chocolate-banana cupcake left in the fridge, and I decided to eat it as I ran my bath.

But then true tragedy struck. As I was walking back to my kitchen to grab a glass of water, eating my beloved cupcake and waiting for my water to fill the tub, I dropped my cupcake. Icing-side-down.

And what did I do? I picked it up, and before I could even see if it had collected any dust or unmentionables from my kitchen floor (which, in my defense, was mopped less than a week ago), I stuck it in my mouth. Kitchen floor germs and all.

After I ate it I felt a little guilty. But you know what? I'd do it all over again. The cupcake was worth it.

Women's Dinner

My sweet church hosted a women's dinner for 600+ women this week.  Here's the recap of this wonderful, chocolate and big-jewelry-filled evening:

1. The men of our church served the women. They dressed up, donned black aprons and acted as waiters, graciously serving their women so that we could feel doted on. Mr. Right volunteered, and I may be a bit biased, but I think he looked mighty handsome carrying that pitcher of ice tea.

2. Our church invited my ESL ladies to attend. For free. And so many of our members came by to welcome them and tell them how happy they were that they chose to join us. 

3. Some of our ESL students come from cultures where a man would NEVER serve a woman. So this dinner blew their mind. It was a great testimony, and they felt so very special. It's nights like this, where they feel loved on, that softens their hearts to hear and accept the gospel.

4. Our church took up a collection to pay for textbooks for our English students for next semester. We almost cried when we found out - they had kept it as a surprise from us. Textbooks are very expensive and most of our students have very little money - so this is a huge deal.

Thanks to First Euless for investing in women. And thanks to the women who chose last night to invest in our English students. 

"And I pray that you... may have power... to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge - that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God."  - Ephesians 3:18-19

Weekend hodge-podge

Sometimes in the heat of a Texas August I wonder why I choose to live in such a boiling hot state. As my bare legs sear themselves with the blaze of my SUV's leather seats and I finally give up and settle on a ponytail for weeks on end to keep my long hair off my sticky neck, I fantasize about moving to the mountains with their cool nights and everlasting breezes.

But then we have a weekend like this past one, and I'm reminded of why I continue to stay. Because there's nothing more beautiful than an 80 degree March day.

I spent the entire weekend outside basking in the glorious weather. Friday I joined with a local nonprofit that I serve as a board member for, and 1,300 of us fixed up about 30 houses in our community. I did what I do best... paint. Actually, I also scraped and learned to caulk, and then primed - which is like painting. I got dirty and sunburned, ate TWO hotdogs and thoroughly enjoyed myself.

Later that night I got gussied up and went on a double date with dear friends and fellow newlyweds Randy and Lori. Oh, and Mr. Right and I made a slight detour to the bicycle shop to get me a basket for my beloved cruiser. 

I took my bike-and-basket on a test drive Saturday, and as soon as my tushy hits that extra-wide seat I transformed into an 8-year-old version of my self, enjoying the sweet freedom that a bike can bring as the wind blows through my hair. If only Harley the Wonder Schnoodle could fit in that basket.

Saturday we spent the whole day working inside/outside our house, with the windows open and the smells of spring washing out the staleness of winter. We planted our very first vegetable and herb container garden on the back porch - we spent $140 so that we can save money on tomatoes and jalapenos and poblanos at the grocery store. But it will all be worth it if our rosemary takes off, as that's the secret ingredient to our sweet potato fries. For the past year we've been stealing (with his permission) from our neighbor's rosemary plant, and I love it when the smell of a fresh piece fills our kitchen. We also tried cilantro and sweet basil and maybe another thing or two that I can't remember at the moment - I'm too busy thinking about that rosemary.

And now I will start praying and laying hands on these vegetables, hoping that they can survive my black thumb and live to see a fruitful harvest. Please.

We also did some major spring cleaning - cleaning out the garage, putting things in the attic, cleaning out hall closets and washing windows. I got dirty and sunburned, drank decaf ice tea and thoroughly enjoyed myself.

That night we joined Mr. Right's family for a birthday party at Joe T's and then sat outside on a patio in the trendy part of Fort Worth and enjoyed ice cream and the warm night air. 

Speaking of food, Sunday night we went over to our dear friends' house and brought these:

 Our world-famous chocolate cupcakes with homemade chocolate-banana frosting, Mr. Right's super secret recipe invention. As good as these cupcakes look in the picture, let me assure you that they taste 10 times better. To save us from temptation he brought the leftovers to work today to give away, but rest assured I managed to snag a few for my freezer to save for a future rainy day.

I wish all my weekends could be like this one.

Our "new" buffet

My sweet in-laws gave us this dresser over a year ago - someone had given it to them, and we told them we'd love to refinish it and use it as a buffet for our dining room. The drawers are nice and wide and would be perfect to hold dishes and place mats and all of our fancy serving ware. 

And then this beautiful dresser sat in our garage for over a year. First I was sick, then we put our rent house on the market, then I hit my busy season with work, and next thing we knew, it was the dead of winter and much too cold to tackle a garage project.

But last weekend after lazily watching a Saturday morning movie with Mr. Right as we recovered from our California trip, I got a wild hair to work on the dresser.

It's really a fabulous piece of furniture - look at those curves! This 300 pound solid wood beauty had lived in a little girl's bedroom for many years and been well-loved. It was time for her to get a makeover. 

First, I sanded off the rough edges and scratches with our electric sander. Because of the primer we chose, we didn't have to completely remove the finish, just make it smooth. 

We decided to use spray paint on this project, and I'm so glad we did - it was a total dream! Take it from a girl who has used a paint brush on all of my previous furniture projects - this was SO MUCH FASTER.

First, we used KILZ primer in white to prime it for painting. My only complaint is that it went on a little rougher than I would have liked.

While the primer was drying I ran to the grocery store then stopped by the local hardware store to pick up white high gloss spray paint. By the time I got home an hour later, the primer was dry and we were ready for round two - painting.

I used 2-3 coats of spray paint, which went on really smoothly. We had a few drips, but nothing we couldn't fix. The whole thing took about 30 minutes, as opposed to several hours of painting with a brush. I will forever be a spray paint kind of girl.

We debated about what type of hardware we would buy (and since we had 12 drawers, we knew that was going to be pretty expensive), but my interior designer sister suggested we just spray paint the original hardware black since it's still an interesting shape.  

And five minutes and one can of spray paint later, we had black hardware that looked brand-new.

Then came the hardest part - we had to let it dry overnight. I was so tempted to go ahead and move it into the house because I couldn't wait to see how it would look in our dining room - but I was good and my patience was rewarded... everything dried perfectly.

The next day Mr. Right and I carried it into the dining room and I installed all of the hardware and then added padded white drawer liners to protect our dishes from sitting directly on the wood. Now our beloved buffet houses our china, chargers, place mats and other accessories, and I love it because everything has its own compartment. It's a disorganized organized girl's dream!

And of course, we left a little note to remember our project.

Organized Disorganized

I'm the most organized disorganized person you'll ever meet. Organized because I calendarize everything, schedule my life weeks and months in advance, and usually have about 30 projects at home and work dancing around my mind on any given day.

I'm disorganized because I'm a bit A.D.D. and can't seem to finish anything. My desk at work and my closet at home are a mess. And please, oh please, don't ever take a peek in my bathroom cabinets. You might not survive.

And so I battle daily against my disorganized tendencies, misplacing everything but my head and keeping my racing mind at bay. This week my solution is this:

It's a miniature notebook that tucks away inside my purse. My goal is to use it to keep my daily bible verse, my personal to-do list and my shopping list reminders in one spot. Because when it hit me this morning that "We need to buy toilet paper" while checking work emails, I needed to capture that thought on paper so it wouldn't go on bouncing around in my head the rest of the day.

Will it work? I'll let you know in about two weeks... this adorable little notebook may be caked in muffin crumbs and spattered in coffee drops by then. Or it may be my new favorite toy. I've already tried using "notes" on my iPhone, carrying a paper calendar with space for a grocery list, and emailing myself reminders. But this is way cuter.

Speaking of cute...

One night this week I organized my sewing room. Probably my favorite spot in the house, because it's where I get to create things, let my creative juices flow and snack on Valentine's M&M's while I sew until my heart's content and catch up on my favorite shows on Hulu.

But lately, with several sewing deadlines back-to-back, my creativity has left little time for picking up. Add to it the fact that Mr. Right graciously gave me a set of shelves he wasn't using in his study anymore, and we kind of just threw them against the wall and never bothered to put anything on them, while the piles on the floor kept growing and growing and growing.

I finally got inspired to take an hour and reclaim control over my happy place. I am so glad I did. I'll have to do a photo tour of the rest of the room soon - we recently took the guest bed out of this room and put it in Mr. Right's study so that I'd have more room to work on the floor (if you haven't noticed, quilts are big and take up a lot of space while you're laying them out). And, I proudly displayed some of my yo-yo patches since it'll be another two years before I make enough yo-yo's to finish that monster of a quilt. My scraps could use some attention, but at least they're tucked away in a dresser until I figure out how I want to sort them. I've learned in quilting you can't throw any fabric away, no matter how small the scrap. Someday it may come in handy.

What about you? Got any organization tips that will change my life?

California dreamin

Northern California... what a glorious trip.

Here's the background... Mr. Right's seminary sends students during spring break to preach all over the country. We were lucky blessed enough to get a fabulous placement - the mountains of Northern California. Mr. Right preached four sermons (Sunday morning, Sunday night, Tuesday and Wednesday night) at a little Baptist church in Colfax, California - halfway between Sacramento and Lake Tahoe, up in the mountains but below the snow line.

I could move there. Not only was it beautiful, but the people were as nice as any Texans. It was so refreshing!

Most of the students who go on these preaching assignments tend to work VERY long days. Mr. Right offered, but our church took a different approach - they planned a few meals with members, took him to a concert with the youth and let him sit in on a men's bible study, but other than that, when he wasn't preaching, they encouraged us to enjoy a mini vacation just the two of us. It was rest for our weary souls - Mr. Right is still recovering from his trip to India, and a full load of grad school, plus a busy workload. On top of that, he now works during all church services, so he hasn't sat through a worship service in three months. Add to that another stressful season at my job, and you'll know why being able to relax and explore new places together--and worship together--was such a sweet blessing to us both.

(Note - pray for your pastors... and your pastors' wives... they can always use your encouragement.)

But back to our trip:

1. I got to take part in a quilting bee at the cutest little quilt shop while Mr. Right helped with a men's bible study. I wish my local store offered something like that - the ladies there were so fun and encouraging. I brought my yo-yo's.

2. We ate lunch in an old house that used to be a 30-year-old sanitorium, and we saw Colfax's largest personal rock collection.

3. It rained the entire time we were gone, so I instead of doing my hair, I went for the "I'm in California so I'm going to be a hippie" look. It made getting ready so much faster - maybe I'll adopt the hippie look in Texas some day.

4. The rain didn't keep us from exploring the little town and discovering the American River with its gorgeous old suspension bridge nestled between two mountains. We also found neat antique stores, resell shops, and I even bought a new dress at "Mountain Mama." (Don't be fooled by the name, it was super trendy).

5. Mr. Right brought it when he preached. I was one proud wife! Each night after he preached they had a good old-fashioned Baptist social, complete with pecan pie and peanut butter fudge. Those people can cook.

6. Thursday morning we rented a car and drove the three hours to San Francisco. Our host home showed us a fabulous detour that took us through Napa and Sonoma. It reminded me of my two trips to the hills of Tuscany, and gave me a hankering to go back with Mr. Right.

7. If you get carsick, I wouldn't recommend driving through Mieur Woods to see the redwoods. We never get motion sick, and we were both dying by the time we finished - windiest road I've ever been on, and I've been on some doozies driving through Europe. But, the redwood trees were magical - trapped between the fog and the redwood trees they looked like something out of the movie Avatar.

8. A few years back I decided, on a wim, that I was going to run a half marathon in San Francisco. It sounded like a great adventure... until a very wise friend looked at me like I was crazy and said "Have you ever seen the hills in San Francisco?" I assumed they meant small hills... like they have in Fort Worth. Because, really, how big could these hills be?

I was very wrong. Those aren't hills... they're mountains.

9. San Francisco has the best food of anywhere I've ever visited. I ate crab cakes at Fisherman's Warf. Lobster Lasagna at Annabelle's (thanks Stephanie for the recommendation). A fried egg sandwich on homemade bread at Plow. And a latte from one of Anthony Bourdain's favorite spots - Blue Bottle Coffee.

Now you know why I started crossfit when I got home.

10. Mr. Right is the perfect travel partner for me. We just have so much fun together, and he doesn't even judge me when I bring a bag that weighs 49.5 pounds, so heavy my handle broke. We laughed our way through much of the trip, and we relished having time away from homework and the responsibilities that come with being a grown up. What a treat.

On our way home, Mr. Right snapped this picture of the gorgeous sunset over Texas. In an effort for full disclosure, this was edited with Instagram, so while the original colors were vibrant, these are a bit played up. Still, it's a good reminder of what a creative God we serve.

Soon we have another trip planned to the other side of the U.S. - Florida. I can't wait.

Truth

I need constant reminders of truth, so I created this picture to go next to my desk at work. And since I work in advertising, it needed to be pretty. Chevrons are pretty.

Quilting Q&A's

I get a lot of questions from friends and on Facebook about my quilting, so I thought I'd share a little bit of inside information from my foray into quilting.
How'd you learn?
Quilting was a total impulse decision. It was the Summer of 2008, I had a short break from summer school, all of my friends were busy and I had some unexpected free time. I was grocery shopping at Target and while roaming the aisles looking at all the pretty things (which is why I try to avoid grocery shopping there) I saw the sewing machines and thought "I should learn to quilt!" I bought a little $150 Singer, took it home and tried to read the directions and figure out how to work it on my own. After several hours of mounting frustration, I finally called a girlfriend who came over and showed me how to sew and work my machine in about 30 minutes.

My current project

From there, I started asking lot's of questions. I asked folks at the fabric store (sometimes these people can put off on air of superiority toward newbie quilters - keep looking, there are nice quilters out there who are willing to help us amateurs out). I found a coworker and a long-lost relative who are both expert quilters gifted with extra patience for novices like me.

Wedding quilt being pieced together

I read blogs - lot's of blogs. I searched YouTube - (YouTube has GREAT tutorials). And somehow over the past four years, I figured it out. I still have a lot to learn and would love to take a class to polish my skills - but I'm hooked and in love.

Why do I make quilts? Because of pictures like this... (my niece)

I made this quilt for my sister from upholstery scraps - one of my firsts.

How long does it take to make a quilt?
Since I work full time and tend to juggle a busy schedule, I mostly quilt on the weekends or when Mr. Right is studying.  Typically a quilt takes me 2-3 months, probably 30-50 hours of work during that time. I've decided to track my time on my sister's baby quilt to see exactly how long it actually takes. To pass the time, I listen to audio books or set my laptop on a shelf next to my machine and watch TV shows on Hulu. It's a wonderful, calming escape for me. The other night I cut squares and rocked out to worship music.

Working on this quilt for Mr. Right.

As for my yo-yo quilt... it'll take me forever: It will require approximately 1,000 yo-yo's... I've finished about 250. I make them while watching TV or while getting my hair done at the salon (since it takes me three hours to become so naturally blonde). That quilt will probably be one of my new favorite things when it's finished, because it's such a labor of love.

Yo-Yo's (made in my wedding colors - gray and yellow)

How much does a quilt cost?
My quilts typically cost around $100 for the materials, which is why this would make a terrible side business. To make any money, I'd have to charge back the materials ($100) plus my time (30 hours @ $10 an hour would add another $300... minimum). And since my quilts look nice from a distance but up close have MANY imperfections, I don't think anybody would want to buy one of my quilts for $400. But if you do... CALL ME! (wink wink)

My sewing area & my first venture into applique.

Where do you get your ideas?
Blogs. Pinterest. I rarely use patterns, I prefer to make them up as I go. I think it's like Mr. Right, who likes to deconstruct restaurant dishes in his head and then create something similar without a recipe. I've followed patterns, but that seems too restricting to me. I'm more of a free spirit quilter and I enjoy sketching out new ideas and reinventing things I've seen online to better suit my needs.

Wedding Quilt

My first ever "strip" quilt

How can I get started?
Just dive right in! If you live near me, give me a call and I'd be happy to come over and show you how to use your machine. The easiest way to start is with a "strip" quilt - just sew long strips together so you don't have to worry about lining things up perfectly. They're really fast to do and a lot of fun.

Yo-Yo's

Do I need a special sewing machine?

Nope. I thought I needed a fancy long-armed machine to do the actual quilting (different from "piecing") but it turns out there's a big secret that all quilters know, but I'm slow so it took me two years to figure out: (said in a whisper) to fit your quilt into that tiny space next between the needle and machine... roll your quilt - don't try to bunch it. With that one tip, you can quilt on anything... whether it's a $150 Singer or my new fancy Ferrari of a Janome. 

Happy quilting!

It's the equivalent of buying your wife a vacuum

Mr. Right knows me. Like, really knows me.

He bought me the perfect souvenir from India - gorgeous, high-end fabric so that I can include a little bit of India in some of my quilts!

I am in love. It's super soft and different from fabrics you buy at the local JoAnn's. It feels luxurious and exotic, and when I use this fabric, I can assure you that I'll be KEEPING this quilt for myself. (I never keep quilts - ever. I think they're made to be given away. But this one will be an exception.)

One of the other pastors traveling with my beloved husband was a little worried I might be offended by his gift. He told Mr. Right it was like buying me a vacuum for my birthday. Because he's giving it to me something that I will then have to make something out of. So, in essence, he's giving me a gift that will make me work.

Which is probably true... for most women. But not for me. No, for me, this was the sweetest thing he could have possibly gotten me. Fabric is expensive and I try to be frugal with my purchases, only buying what I need and always using coupons. So luxurious textiles from India... those I can't wait to get my hands on! Plus quilting is my escape and something that brings me great joy.

Oh, and he got me this rose-colored wrap to wear with my little black dress. That was a good move too. I debuted it at a friend's bachelorette party over the weekend.