Chalkboard Signs: Ashlee & Grant's Wedding!

Three years ago my principal texted me a few weeks before school started and said a new teacher was hired for the math position in our middle school. This isn't a conversation that typically occurs after new staff are hired, but my principal wanted me to meet this new teacher because we both lived in the same town.

Although I'm originally from the town in which I teach, I moved to a neighboring town after college (where my husband is from).  I commute the roughly 35-40 minutes to work every day even though I live about 2 seconds away from the high school in this town.  My principal knew I was interested in carpooling with other 'imported' teachers, so she sent me the number of this new teacher.

I'm kind of weird when meeting new people sometimes.  I get excited, but then anxiety begins to creep in and I start to imagine all of the possibilities of who they are and how much we won't get along. (This is dumb because there are few people I don't get along with.)  I left her number there in my text messages and told myself I'd call her sometime before school.

Luckily Ashlee hunted me down on Facebook and sent me a message because most likely I would've left her number in my phone and waited until school started to meet. (I can be a bit of a terrible person.)

We met for lunch one day before school began, and I'm so glad we did because I love her! This will be my third year working with Ashlee and carpooling with her and our friend Katie who teaches in the elementary school.  I dislike the days when I drive alone because our conversations are greatly missed.  We get a chance to share recipes, vent about whatever happened during the day, talk about the funny moments we had with our kids, and talk about our personal lives.

This post wasn't meant to share my "origin story" with Ashlee, but to share a piece of her wedding.  Shortly after we began the school year that first year together, Ashlee got engaged.  Earlier this summer she finally married the love of her life in a beautiful rustic barn wedding.  Seriously, it was one of the most beautiful weddings I've ever attended.

Prior to the wedding, Ashlee asked if I would create some chalkboard signs for her.  I was a bit skeptical of my skills and worried that they wouldn't be at all what she wanted, but I told her I'd give it a shot.  Thanks to Pinterest, they didn't turn out so bad! :)  I don't take credit for the design of any of the signs below.  Seriously, I found the designs from ideas on Pinterest.

Derek "joked" that he wanted to skip the ceremony and go straight to the reception to eat!

Ring bearer sign: side 1

Ring bearer sign: side 2

There were a few more that I didn't have a chance to capture, but I think all of them turned out pretty good!

Isn't it beautiful?!

This table was filled with delicious goodness for the reception.

An ice cream float bar!

Such a wonderful, godly couple!

Derek has a thing about angrily eating cupcakes.

The carpooling gals! (Please excuse the fact that I look as large as a house... This is one of about 3 pictures I have at 9 months pregnant.)

I wish Ashlee and Grant nothing but the best! I know that they'll have a long, happy, and beautiful marriage! :)

Taking a Personal Day

One of the things I've learned about myself over the past few years is that I generally don't get stressed out easily.  When thinking about the times that I should have been stressed, like during finals and wedding planning, I can remember feeling a little bit of pressure but nothing extreme.  I typically have a "why worry because it's all going to work out", carefree attitude toward what could be stressful situations.  And, even though I guess I could be considered a procrastinator, I honestly feel like I do my best work when there's a time crunch and I know I have to have something done in the immediate future.

Even though I don't typically get stressed out, I have been feeling SUPER stressed out the last several days.  Part of it is from various things happening at school that's completely out of my control, and I guess part of it is from personal things going on in my family.  This stress has caused my sleep to become restless, dreams become really strange, and my body to get physically ill.  I know I can't do anything to fix these problems except wait, but for some reason my body is responding to these things differently than normal.

Anyway, because I felt like an anxiety attack was well on its way, I decided to take a personal day off from work.  I had wanted to save my personal days, mostly because I feel selfish for taking a day off of work for myself, but decided that we're given them for a reason.  I told myself that I would only do what I wanted to do and forget about everything that I had been worrying about.

It was a gorgeous 70 degrees, blue skies, and sunny throughout most of the day.  After watching the news with a nice cup of coffee, I decided I needed to fill up the bird feeder in the yard.  We surprisingly get several types of birds at the house even though we're so close to the road, but they've been rather scarce lately.  Our small wooden bird feeder hangs from the side of a tree that can't be more than 5 feet from the main road in town.  I'd been wanting to do something with it for a while so I decided that today was the day.  I dug out some old turquoise paint and had at it.  This small project led to several other small projects, and I successfully crafted and cleaned my stress away.

We bought this watering can from Target last year mistakenly thinking it would actually work as a watering can.  It leaked most of the water out before we even got to the plants, and the pretty baby blue checked pattern faded within about two months.  So, I changed it.

I painted it yellow and this year I plan on planting flowers in it for a decorative accessory on our front porch.

Rearranged sitting area.  Please excuse the pretty gross cement.  I cleaned it today, but we rent our house so we unfortunately can't paint/stain the porch

Both kitties enjoyed the open windows and the breeze today.

Hopefully we'll have some good onions in a few months.

I know it's not super clear (it's our neighbor's tree), but the blooms are beautiful.  This was as good as I could get from our house.

A very relaxing evening after a very relaxing day on a clean front porch with "Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon's Journey into the Afterlife".

Sewing Project: Apron

Katie and I joke that we were born in the wrong decade--a few decades too late.  We love just about everything when it comes to a 1950s/60s housewife lifestyle and could pretty easily slip into that type of role.  Cooking, cleaning, and sewing are all part of what we enjoy doing.  Don't get me wrong, I love my job!  It's an incredibly rewarding feeling when I know that a student finally "gets it" after explaining something three times in three different ways.  But, I also don't know if I'd even give up my job if an opportunity arose and we could live on one income.  I guess this is where the name for this blog came from--a "wannabe housewife".

Anyway, I learned to sew when I was in high school.  My home-ec teacher (who I love dearly & was partial inspiration for me wanting to become a teacher) taught us how to sew pillows, pants, and purses.  I haven't sewn much since then and actually didn't even own a sewing machine until last year when we decided to make curtains for both my and my sister's weddings, but I really enjoy it!  Making something useful out of a single, flat piece of fabric is amazing!  So for my birthday, I decided I was going to buy some fabric.  I slowly scanned all of the bolts of fabric at the store until I finally decided on two: a pinkish-coral floral design and a marigold yellow.  I immediately decided to turn this fabric into an apron.

Here's a recap in pictures of my process.

This large rectangle will become the skirt of the apron.

A smaller piece will become the bib of the apron.

I sewed two pieces together to form a thicker apron--to create a liner.

The smaller rectangle was cut to create a curved top.  I later have to make the dip in the center a little more accentuated.

I sewed the edges over to get rid of the unfinished edges (on two pieces: the outer piece and the liner).

The finished top with both top pieces sewn together.

I cut two strips the length of 2 yards and sewed them to create a finished look.

One strip gets sewn to the skirt to make the bottom of the apron.

The other strip is cut in half and sewn to each side of the top.

Finished product!

I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out!  I didn't use a pattern, I but tried it on a few times to create any adjustments needed.  My sewing machine cooperated throughout the entire project until I got to the pocket.  It seems so simple, but my bobbin just would not cooperate.  After about 45 minutes, I finally got the pocket sewn on, but it was definitely a fight.  I plan on trying another, but I want to make ruffles on the bottom of the next one.  I'll post pictures if/when it happens.

Happy Monday!