Our Christmas Card 2014

I thought I would share a bit about our Christmas cards this last year. We make cards every year (see 2011, 2012 and 2013 here) but this is the first year since we were married we had some professional pictures taken.  All the photos were taken by Kate at Birch and Pine.  It was fun to have Wesley in these photos and have our new life in Kentucky documented.  The photo above is the one we chose for the front of our card, all I asked to include was something about Kentucky. This fence above is an old horse fence which are literally all over the city... Lexington is the 'Horse Capital of the World'. Below is a clip of what we put on the back of the card and I also included some more of our favorite photos from the shoot below too.

-----

Our Christmas Cards 2013 (and 2012)

I really love how our christmas cards turned out this year.  The way my calligraphy matched up perfectly with the light leak of the camera.  This photo was taken back when we were in Montana, at the end of our summer vacation on my favorite hike to Woodbine Falls. The hike is so easy and quick and has the most beautiful views.  I decided to match our cards with a simple calligraphy envelope.  Envelope calligraphy and design is extremely more difficult then you would think but I will write about my very small experience with it soon. If you are interested, this is what our Christmas cards looked like last year, it is pretty amazing to see where I have come in a year and will write about my first year in calligraphy and design in an upcoming post. This card is what started it all.Thanks for looking! If you are looking for something for yourself or an event, check my listing here in my Etsy shop or send me an email!

Around Here

It is worth noting that it is freezing around here, like they said on the news you would legitimately freeze and get frost bite within minutes if you spent much time outside.  The air temperature hasn't been anything crazy around here... just in the -20s (like -25 this morning).  I say it isn't crazy because it has happened before and we frequently have weeks in the -10 to -15 range.  What is crazy is what they call this 'polar vortex' which has brought this arctic air down with wind chill temperatures in the -50 to -70 range... yeah, crazy.  Some people I know don't believe in 'wind chill', but I can tell you first hand that wind with anything this cold cuts through any sort of barrier you try to wear and feels like it cuts you.  The wind chill is what closed churches and schools today and canceled almost all forms of transportation (airplanes, buses and cars).Picture above from when it was a bit warmer outside here in Fargo.  We frequently take Wesley on walks alongside the frozen river and Scott and Wesley love to race each other on the path.

New Year 2014

S and I went out to dinner to celebrate on New Years Eve. Even though our meal wasn't the best, we still had such a great time. We bundled up, since the whole day was -17, and pretended we were all dressed up even though were in long underwear and turtlenecks.  I tried a bunch of different braid and hair up dos and just couldn't get it to work! Anyone have any secrets?! It was a fun excuse to wear some red lipstick and have a martini. 

We came home and decided to camp out in our living room with Wes and watch a movie. Stripes on stripes.  The next morning, we had probably the best January 1st day ever and laid in that flannel and down comforter bed all day long taking naps, watching bowl games and S played lots of video games. It was glorious. I then found a recipe for 'Mormon Scones' and we decided it is our new favorite unhealthy fried food, probably surpassing our homemade doughnut tradition.  In high school, we frequently ended up at a friend's house and his mom was usually always cooking these scones. I have still remembered (8 years later) how good they were and was happy to find such a good recipe. Hope you had the best first day of the year too! Happy New Year!

Top photo from my instagram

Christmas In Montana 2013

Scott and I both found out we had the week of Christmas off at the last minute.  We decided that if the weather was nice enough we would drive back to Montana to spend it with his family.  The weather was pretty scary over the weekend before, but our drive proved to be dry and quick the whole way (8 hours) there.  The picture above is to document our Christmas together and my first time using a Christmas cracker (they give you crowns in them!)

There was lots of snuggling with Wesley and a white white backdrop. Scott and I accidentally both dressed in flannel for the drive which I didn't realize till I took that picture #flannelcity

(on the left) During our stay, we all went to check out the Army Navy store in Billings because they carry Filson gear that is sometimes on sale.  That store is full of stuff, like lots and lots of stuff. There were all kinds of things hanging from the ceiling (up above me were bullets, a grenade and razor blade wire) and stuff stacked to the ceilings through the whole store. (on the right) I am basically the puppy whisperer. Penne, the wire haired pointing griffon, is within months of the same age as Wesley and they have so much fun together.

Our everyday view.Pretty much the funniest puppy. We were waiting at the drive through at McDonalds and he was perched on our smallest center console.

One of the most beautiful sunsets on the drive home.  That drive was a long one and took what felt like forever but we were lucky to have dry roads.  We also started listening to a book on tape for the first time and are bummed we didn't think to do it sooner!

DIY: Use Pictures as Ornaments

We had some friends over the past weekend and decided to break out our new fujifilm instax camera I just bought.  We had the polaroids just laying around and our friend had a brilliant idea to clothespin them to the tree as ornaments (since we don't have many ornaments).  I love the idea of using pictures as ornaments! You could even use them at a party or a way to collect memories over the years... so fun! Photo from my instagram. Merry Christmas! 

Wesley Prays

We recently taught Wesley to pray before all his meals. Its pretty cute... I set his food down and he sits and looks at me as I pray. I thank the Lord for his "puppy food" and usually either pray for whatever is coming up in the day or for a great night sleep if it is in the evening. He has been a fairly easy dog to train simple tasks to, and this has probably been my favorite. Even though when he first learned to shake I was pretty ecstatic. 

Oh ya, that picture below. Some of his dominant traits have kicked up a notch with Scott out of town. If he catches his reflection in the TV screen or the mirror he gets a little upset and lets out his big beagle howl. Its pretty cute and funny... until its a little annoying. -- sorry neighbors!

Letters For Scott

Scott left on a big trip, or vacation as I would call it- he definitely wouldn't call it that. He is traveling almost every other day for interviews but we get a break to be together the week of Thanksgiving (thank goodness! I miss him!).  Last minute before he left I decided to put together this project for him.

I was inspired by it here, but didn't have the time to put that much effort into it. I wrote him a letter, added a quote at the bottom and printed off a bunch of pictures that most of the time coincided with the topic of the letters. I also wrote on the back of the pictures. I figured enough cute pictures of Wesley sleeping and of us would hold him over for a while and so far he said he really liked them. I found the letters much easier to write then I thought they would be, and since I didn't include a bunch of other stuff then pictures it all came together really quickly. The topics for my letters were: open when... you are happy, you are done with your first day, you are feeling sad, you are bored, you are hungry, you miss me, you are almost done with traveling, you need my love. I miss you baby!

Halloween 2013

I know I am a bit behind in posting but I wanted to post this really because of the recipe and food we ate Halloween. I am a huge fan of homemade costumes, this year Scott dressed up as Sherlock Holmes (he usually is a ninja) and it was pretty funny because one kid who came to our door told him he looked like a disco ball... ya. He was sad that the kids didn't understand his costume but the adults loved it!- once he told them what he was. I thought it was clever. I made a cat mask the afternoon of and we got Wesley a Frankenstein costume for cheap. Next year though I am going to make him a lion's mane and I think that will be his costume every year from now on- he just gets so sad in costumes, or really anything.

I bought my first halloween decoration- a spider that you put a pumpkin in. I thought it was cute, I have never seen it before. However, we have critters around here and everyday we would see a little more bites in our pumpkin. The day before Halloween they broke into the core of the pumpkin and threw the seeds everywhere. I was bummed because I wanted to roast those seeds the day after Halloween, Scott was happy because he thought it looked creepy enough that no more decorations were needed.

Halloween isn't really my favorite holiday but I do love cooking a good meal the evening of, it always seems like the best time to make some good chili. We made homemade chili and put them in homemade pretzel bowls. I have to say it was one of my most favorite recipes. It turned out great.

We made the chili with this recipe from Food Network, except we substituted homemade pinto beans for the pinto beans part and accidentally substituted my mom's homemade salsa for the tomatoes part (which what I am convinced made it so delicious).  I think this recipe is worth it to try and make without the substitutions, it really had the best flavors. We topped it with green onions, cheese and greek yogurt.

We then served the chili in these pretzel bowls from A Beautiful Mess. These are really so easy and I would absolutely make them again, they would be great with any soup. Since there were only a few of us I only made four bowls but they were a hit.

AME Antlers

So... our pup loves to chew but truthfully has never chewed anything of Scott or I's things because we have always bought toys for him to tear through. We had no problem buying him a stuffed animal that would last all of 1 minute but then I heard somewhere that pups like antlers... and well I put two and two together and realized that my father-in-law pretty much has a basement filled with antlers so I asked for some spares and gave them a run on Wesley.

Let. Me. Tell. You... he loves them! I posted about my antler shop earlier (AMEAntlers), but thought  I would re-post about it since I did some design work for it and slashed all the prices to $8/ 6-inch piece of Montana sourced antler. On our summer vacation, I brought a bunch of Wesley's toys and antlers and among all the dogs we got to hang out with they all wanted to steal them! Don't worry I put together little care packages to send them but thought I would let you all know that they are for sale now here in my antler etsy shop AMEAntlers.

Yep... we spoiled him with a huge antler all to him self and it is almost gone!

Utah Photo Journal: Summer 2013

We drove threw Utah on the way down home and on the way back up to Montana (which is when we spent most of our time here). We stayed with my sisters who have a roommate dog: Izze! The second tome around we visited with friends and family and my cousin got married (which I designed the invitations for)! It really was such a great time and celebration. Wesley loved getting to spend time with Izze and it was so nice of Scott to get to spend a couple hours with my family as their scheduled overlapped.

California Photo Journal: Summer 2013

Wesley got to meet the ocean! We spent two weeks in California; one week in northern California and a week in Southern California. I consider myself so blessed to get to spend so much time in such a beautiful state. I had never spent a lot of time in Northern California and it was so beautiful and so much different then what I was used to in Southern California. I helped with a friend's wedding wedding for a week and Bobo and Wesley came along. We had so much fun crafting, hand lettering and setting up the wedding. We also got to see elephant seals up there since they are always lounging all over a certain beach near Hearst's Castle. Our whole family came up for the wedding and then we all drove down the coast to spend a week with friends in San Diego.

On our way, my Mom and I stopped to visit my uncle, cousin and grandma. As I type this I can't believe how lucky I am to have gotten to visit so much family and friends in such beautiful places. We got to hang out all night with my cousin and meet up with my grandma for lunch the next day. Katelyn and I continued on to San Diego so she could also have a vacation for a couple days. Down in San Diego, we were with great family and friends where Wesley got to walk the beach and waves a couple times (which he loved but was a little unsure of it) and run through the back yard with Napoleon and Chauncey. We basically all relaxed, stared at the beach, did some shopping, lots of jacuzzi-ing and making lots of delicious food. His new friends up north were: Norman, Suzy, Fred and Molly- oh and he met Lucky the bull which he really didn't like. His friends down south were: Chauncey and Napoleon.