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



Headbands Now on Etsy

Yesterday I posted a tutorial for pleated headbands and said I would be putting some of the ones I have made up on Etsy soon.  That is exactly what I did today so stop by and check them out if you would like!

Here are a few of the ones I posted:

Thanks so much! 

Ashley

Pleated Headband Tutorial

Today I want to show you how to make a pleated headband like the one shown above!  This will be my first tutorial so please let me know if you have questions!  So many of the bloggers out there do such a good job at detailed tutorials and I hope I can live up to them! 

First you want to cut out a piece of fabric measuring 16 X 4.5 inches.  This is a great project to use up any of the scrap fabric you have laying around! 

Next, cut out a piece of fusible interfacing.  I used Pellon Wonder Under. (this step isn't a must, but it makes the headband more stable)  The pellon should be about 1/2 in smaller on each side than the fabric.  Now you want to iron the interfacing onto the back side of your fabric.

Once the interfacing is ironed on securely, peel of the paper backing.  Now you want to fold over the short edges of your fabric and iron those flat to make sewing them down easier.

Now, sew a straight line across the edge that you folded over.

Then fold your piece of fabric in half lengthwise where the two front sides are touching and sew a straight line down the side.

Once you have done this, your piece of fabric should look like this:

Now, you want to turn it inside out so the front side of the fabric is facing out.  Use either your fingers or a safety pin to do this.

Once you have turned it all the way inside out, iron it flat and the fusible interfacing will fuse together and give you a nice sturdy piece of fabric.

Now, you are ready for the pleats!  Starting at one end about 2 inches in, lift up the fabric and fold it towards the end you are closest too.  Depending on how many pleats you want you can adjust the measurements accordingly.  I just kind of eyeball it to make the pleats even.  Continue folding these pleats until you reach the end of your fabric.

Once you have all of them folded, iron over the whole thing so it will hold in place better while you are sewing it together.



Now you are ready to sew.  I like to use the zigzag stitch on mine to give it a little something extra, but feel free to use any stitch you may want!  Simply sew right down the middle of the pleated fabric making sure to sew where the pleat flaps are facing you so they don't get caught up in the needle.



It will look like this:

You are almost done!  Now you just need to sew or hot glue on some buttons on one of the ends, and hot glue a thin elastic headband to the back.  (Note: don't stretch out the headband to glue and I usually glue mine over to the side so it can be worn on your head off to the side.)

And now you are ready to wear your fabulous handmade headband!



If you aren't into the whole crafting thing, I will be adding some of these to my Etsy shop soon!

Happy Sewing!

Ashley 

Eat More Chicken

Today on Pinterest I was so excited to see one of my friends had pinned a copycat recipe for those scrumptous little bites of heaven. . . Chick-fil-a nuggets!!  Of course I had to pin it and can you guess what I just bought at the store yesterday?  Lots of chicken on sale so of course I HAD to try this not so secret secret recipe out! 

We try not to eat too much fried food but y'all, we are from the South so you just have to every now and then and boy do we like it!  Frying is always a little time consuming but this recipe was definitely worth it.  It wouldn't have taken so long but I wanted to make chicken sandwiches instead of all nuggets and the larger pieces of chicken took a little bit of time to cook all the way through.

The recipe can be found at http://www.mynameissnickerdoodle.com/2011/03/fabulous-food-friday-79.html.  I made a few nuggets and three chicken breasts for the sandwiches using the same recipe and they turned out great!  Keep in mind it is not going to taste just like Chick-fil-a, but it is a great substitute and the hubs was pretty impressed!

 Frying the chicken

 The nuggets

 Breasts and nuggets

To go along with our chicken sandwiches, I bought a bag of frozen sweet potato fries and spruced them up a bit by adding a sprinkling of cinnamon and sugar about 5 minutes before they were done.

It is safe to say I will be making this recipe again and I hope you try it and enjoy it too!  It was a big hit at our house!  Let me know how yours turns out and don't forget to Eat More Chicken!

Ashley

The Help

Wow. . . The Help was such a great movie!  No, I haven't read the book but I definitely plan to since I enjoyed the movie so much.  The truth is, I'm not a huge reader but I am working on that.  I loved to read when I was younger but I think that required reading in school ruined me.  Over the past year I have started a list of books I would like to read and am slowly checking them off.  I think I'm going to have to bump The Help a little further up the list!

I found the movie very inspiring and empowering.  I loved the concept of someone using their talents to give someone else a voice who couldn't have a voice on their own.  That is something that the Lord has given me a passion for.  In our society it is so easy to focus on ourselves, but we have resources and means that could help give a voice to so many others in our country and throughout the world. 

Daniel and I went on a mission trip to Haiti last summer and two of the biggest things we took away from it was the need to show others that they are valuable and loved by God and to teach them skills that will far outlast handouts.  Many of the people we met did not have a voice; they were trapped in the crossfire of a corrupt government without the hope of education or resources which often results in little self worth.  My prayer is that the Lord would use the things He has blessed Daniel and I with to bring glory to himself and that we would be faithful servants and useable no matter the cost. 

Here are a few of those books I have been reading:

I would love some book suggestions to add to my list!  Leave me a comment below!  Thanks so much for reading! 

Ashley