Weddings, Snakes, and Cupcakes, Oh my!

My how quickly time is flying by!  I feel like I just wrote a new blog post but it has been two weeks. . . oops!  This has been another busy month and fall is officially here, CRAZY!! 

My beautiful cousin was married almost two weeks ago in San Antonio, TX.  Daniel has been traveling a lot with work, but I got to go with my parents and spend several days at home visiting with lots of family!  The wedding was gorgeous and had so many great touches made by the bride and her family!  She is very talented and even made her own wedding dress and bridesmaid dresses! 

Mr. and Mrs. Baur 

Emily and I 

Mom, Dad, and I

The cousins at Magnolia Cafe in Austin

Like I said earlier, I got to spend a few more days at home after the wedding!  Mom and Dad helped me with some of my crafts for the shows I have coming up which was a big help, I got to see my cousin dominate in tennis, hang out with my grandparents and my other family, and narrowly escaped getting bitten by a snake dun dun dun. . .  Well it wasn't that close, just going for a little dramatic effect there :)!  In case you don't know much about East Texas, it is composed of many small towns and I am from one of them.  I grew up out in the country and absolutely love it!  I haven't lived in a small town in the past six years but nothing feels more like home than being out away from it all. 

At my parents' house there is a pond that is extremely low due to the drought in Texas so it had gotten pretty grown up.  My dad was wanting to clean it up on his day off and me being the sweet daughter I am (just-kidding) agreed to help.  Mom was on the tractor, dad weed-eating, and I was using the clippers to clean up around the trees at the lake.  I was clipping away when I noticed a hollowed out section near the bottom of the tree and thought to myself "that sure would be a good place for a snake to hide".  I moved on to the next tree and not 2 minutes later, my dad spots a snake right where I had been standing. . . EEK!!  This was no little puny snake either, it was long, fat, black, and evil looking!  In case you can't tell, I really really really dislike snakes but the Lord was watching over us for sure!  Dad thinks it was a water moccasin.  He proceeds to kill it with a hoe, thank goodness!  A little while later dad got me to hold it so they could take a picture and I was still scared like he was going to come back to life or something.

Disclaimer:  Please ignore the boots/socks combo; it's not one of my prouder looks! :)

Me trying to be brave, but I'm not gonna lie, I was screaming like a little girl up until this picture was taken!

Upon returning to Nashville, I had a cupcake order for some Michigan cupcakes for a lady's birthday!  See them below:

Sorry for another long update!  Be looking for a tutorial very soon!

Have a blessed day,
Ashley



3 Seams

Last week really got away from me and I did not get a chance to post at all, but I wanted to tell you about a great nonprofit that I learned about last week.  Over the past year, the Lord has really given my husband and I a heart for missions.  Now we don't know exactly what that looks like yet, but we were recently connected with some other couples in our church who share similar passions.  One of the sweet girls that I met has a friend who started this nonprofit, 3 Seams.  She had a trunk show last week that I went to and got to learn a lot about her heart and how she got started.

This idea has really sparked my interest because it has to do with sewing, one of my passions.  3 Seams currently has 4 seamstresses who sew dresses in Haiti.  They are paid for every item they make.  The dresses are sold here and for each dress you buy, a child in Haiti gets a dress.  I like to compare it to the Toms shoes idea.  I really love the idea of using your passions to help provide a lasting skill that people can always have and building relationships with them along the way.  Through the Lord and investing in others things can really change for the better!  

I hope you will take a minute and check out the 3 Seams site!  

  http://www.3seams.com/ 

Thanks!

Ashley

A Weekend in Charleston

It has been a while since I posted because we have been on the go.  Last weekend the hubs and I flew to Charleston, SC to spend a few days with my parents and my Nannie.  They were planning their vacation a couple of months ago and we happened upon some unbelievable Southwest deals so it worked out great for us to meet them!  Charleston was such a beautiful and charming place!  Here is a recap of our time there:

I got to spend the first afternoon with my sweet friend, Nikki!  Originally a Georgia girl, she has lived in Charleston for the past couple of years so she showed me all the great places!  I so enjoyed our time together!  We first met in Austin when she interned at our church one summer while I was a student!  Nikki also recently started her own jewelry line!  You can check it out at  http://www.etsy.com/shop/AngelinaNikalina.

So, we all traveled to the coast the same weekend that Hurricane Irene did, but thankfully Charleston did not get hit and the weather never got too bad.  This was on Friday while she was passing by.  The weather was rainy, windy, and gloomy but only for one day.  These are some pics of the ocean off of Sullivan's Island.  Mom and I decided we wanted to be storm chasers so we were "reporting live on Hurricane Irene".  We had the legit raincoats and everything!

The next day we took a horse drawn carriage tour around the city.  The homes were absolutely beautiful!  That afternoon we went to the Boone Plantation.  A few movies have been filmed there including North and South and The Notebook.

We visited the Citadel, a military school in Charleston.

The pics above are from the Ft. Sumter tour.  The middle pic is one of my favorites.  You can see four or five of the church steeples from the bay area.  Charleston is nicknamed the Holy City because of the beautiful churches and no other building is allowed to be built taller than the steeples. 

Daniel and I spent the afternoon at the beach on the Isle of Palms getting some sun!  This little guy was crawling right under my head!

One of the many beautiful churches.

Daniel and I in front of a several hundred year old live oak tree.

Mom and Dad at Kaminsky's, a dessert bar in downtown Charleston!  It was amazing we went and got desserts two nights in a row there!

We had such a wonderful weekend with my family and Charleston is such a great city!  Mom and Dad dropped us off and the airport and Nannie flew home to spend the week here with us in Nashville.  I had the best time with my Nannie and soaked up every second spent with her!  They went on to Myrtle Beach and swung by to pick Nannie up this past Friday. 

Other than precious family time, I have been working on some more orders and trying to prepare for some upcoming craft shows this fall!  Here is a peek of a custom order I just finished for a lady on Etsy:

Thanks for letting me play catch up!  I plan to start posting more regularly so stay tuned. . .

Ashley