I hated coffee. Despised it. It was bitter and nasty and made out of grounds which is where dirt comes from which made sense because coffee was basically watered-down mud. Unfortunately, the older I got, the more my friends began to enjoy the stuff, and the more often "talking" meant "Starbucks" not "sleep over." As you can imagine, I was devastated.

After several of these coffee chats, however, I started wanting something to sip, so I asked my wonderful boyfriend Dave to order me something that I might like (read: no coffee). So, he ordered us one of these to share:



A white chocolate mocha. The first time around, I didn't really like it...but I didn't hate it either. So, the next time we ended up getting coffee, Dave ordered it again. It was slowly growing on me.

Before too long, I really liked them! The chocolate was my favorite...I still often said that there was too much coffee and not enough chocolate...but what can a girl do? Then, we all went to college and Starbucks was a once-a-year treat because we had no extra money.

When I got to Cedarville, I started drinking the mochas at our coffee shop, Vecinos.



They were really yummy! I liked the way some baristas made it better than others...especially the one guy who made it taste mostly like chocolate, with the espresso (since that's actually what it is, not coffee) seemingly thrown in as an afterthought.

Now, I'm at home again without Vecinos (which, actually recently changed names to something that I can't recall right now so I'll just continue to call it Vecinos) and without cash to hit up Starbucks. Luckily for me, McDonnalds has decided to cut in on this who specialty-coffee trend, and came out with a small line of specialty coffees, and at college student prices no less!



Yum. Of course, I still have no cash. So, I still only treat myself to a "real" (read: someone else made it) mocha every once in a while. Now I make my own. I'm still trying to find the perfect recipe...my best one involves melting chocolate chips, but it always leaves solid chocolate in the bottom of my mug that is very hard to clean up. Oh well...I'll keep looking! Any suggestions from the peanut gallery? Do you have an amazing mocha recipe that is hiding from me? I would love it if you did! I mean I would love it if you shared it. If you kept it hiding it doesn't do me much good...but I bet you're happy! But yes, I should go to bed before this makes even less sense :-)

I really enjoy sewing. I don’t like to make quilts (they are strongly favored by my mother), instead I prefer to try my hand at stylish clothes and purses. There is nothing quite as fulfilling as a wonderful little focal piece that people look at and say “No way, you actually made that?!?”

(I’d like to point out that this is very, very different that someone looking at your handiwork and saying, “Oh, you made that, didn’t you?” This is something to be avoided at all costs, but unfortunately I have my fair share of these pieces. Oh well, live and learn!)

Unfortunately, good fabric is very, very hard to find. All the shops around here seem to cater mostly toward quilting, offering beautiful boutiques, colorful cottons, and tasteful threads. Unfortunately, these fabrics do not transfer well to wearables, at all. Really, to get good clothing fabric I should go to a $$$$ specialty shop in Chicago or somewhere. But some of these fabrics translate beautifully into purses.

Here, let me show you some of my treasures:

Ooo...the Treasure Chest! I'm so excited! What could be inside? Maybe some...

...gorgeous pink brocade! (The folded edge is the "wrong" side of the fabric, not wrong at all in this case! Brocade is beautiful on the front and the back!)

Also, there's some fun pink and black polka dot fabric...tons of it! Enough here for at least one more purse, maybe two if they're small!

Oh and I love this one! All the colors are hand-dyed pieces done by my mom, and then patched together into this heart that was then appliqued onto this black background. I really need to get around to making this purse...it will look awesome!

I love this piece...I used it for the lining on a clutch...and really want to use it in something else again!

This is gorgeous...and was the outside to the abovementioned clutch purse.

These are some other goodies in my treasure chest...I actually used the chopsticks as handles in one purse...A totally fun idea but unfortunately I completely botched the purse. So maybe I'll try again.

And these are my latest/next projects...the pink one is for me and the black one for Emily. Unfortunately, I can't find my binding fabric to finish it off! Oh well...I'll figure it out eventually!

So, what are your hobbies? Do you collect anything pretty, or are you utility driven? I love how fabric can be both, but tell me about yours!

Today, I went shopping! I love shopping...especially when I have money to spend AND actually find something. Today was both. Yay me! (Oh Disney channel...what have you done to my life?) Anyway, today I hit up my favorite store, Plato's Closet and dug through all the shirts and dresses looking for cute summer deals...and I found one!

It's darling! Well, ok so it looks better on me than on the hanger...but still. It's adorable. Except it had one big problem...
(This is a dramatization. Do not try this at home.)

It had a black spot on the bodice! Seeing as how once I put this dress on I fell in love with it, I decided to take a chance on it. I asked the girl at the sales counter if I could have a discount on it as it was damaged, and she said yes and that when the dress came in a day or so ago it had no spot.

This means 1, it's a fresh spot and 2, most likely makeup. Now, I know nothing about stain removal. At all. Usually I have a little funeral for whatever I'm wearing when I eat Italian food. But, I do know about makeup removal! And I knew that the best way to get eye makeup off (which is very stubborn stuff!!) is to use special eye makeup remover.

So, when I got home, I got out the little pads we have to use for this very purpose. And guess what...
...it worked like a charm :-)

Yesterday, Dave and I received our first wedding present from his parents. Now, I know it's crazy early to be getting "showered," but this is a special case. You see, Dave's parents are missionaries to Zimbabwe, a country in southern Africa. His dad's a surgeon. And an obstetrician. And an optometrist. And an electrician. And basically anything else he needs to be. His mom is a school teacher, a hostess, a graphic designer, and basically an all-around awesome, strong woman.

But because they live in Africa for most of the year (coming home for 1 month a year to keep up Dad's surgical license, and 1 year every 4 for furlough), they will sadly miss all of our wedding showers coming up in the next year. And they have this traditional gift that they've given to all their boys as wedding presents (Dave has 3 older brothers).

Its a hand painted tea set from a pottery shop in Zimbabwe! Isn't it adorable?? The other brothers have zebra print sets, or giraffe print sets, or something else perhaps that I can't remember...but ours is so cute! I love the elephants marching around each piece! And that deep blue is gorgeous. Here, let me give you a closer look at a few of the pieces.


A huge tea pot, big enough to make tea for everyone!

A cookie plate.

Sugar bowl, milk pitcher (yes, I take my tea with milk and sugar. It's very British, or Zimbabwean, or something. Whatever it is, I'm hooked.).

Tea cups. Well, actually they're cocoa mugs I think, but they're way awesomer than tea cups because tea cups don't hold enough tea! Yes, awesomer is a word. Oh, and there are 6 of these, not just 2. But since they all look the same, I figured you'd get the idea.

The best tea in the world! Yummy. And while this "goes with" the tea set, I'm not waiting 'till I'm married to brew up this wonderfulness! Haha we'll just get more later anyway.

This little goody is just for me. It's a hand painted bowl for holding earings or rings. So cute!

Don't you just hate the feeling of rough skin? I do. It's gross, and scratchy, and desert-like. No, I don't like desert skin. But I use this amazing thing on my skin that is much more dessert and much less desert. And I make it myself! It's super easy, and smells good.

All it is, is sugar and oil.

Simple, huh? I use brown sugar and olive oil, but you can use white sugar and vegetable oil, or any combination of the above. I have heard that baby oil clogs pores, so I don't use that. But I have no idea if that's true or not.

Basically, you get a jar and put some brown sugar in it (not too full! you can always add more later, but you can't take it away!). Then you pour some oil on top and mix mix mix! You want it to be sort of a paste, not quite solid and not too runny. If it's too runny, add more sugar. Too dry? Add more oil.

Then you scrub it on in the shower (its an amazing exfoliate!) and be sure to rinse it off, or you'll be all sticky! I use it before I shave, so that I have sweet smooth legs (pun intended)!

Go ahead, give it a try! Your skin likes a sweet treat as much as you do!

For the first two years of our relationship, Dave and I were long-distance sweethearts. He left for college, and came back one month later declaring that he couldn’t get me off his mind, and would I be interested in dating him? Naturally, after crushing on him for two years, I wanted nothing more! But it was still a hard decision. After all, he was going to school five hours away! I was crazy about him, but I was afraid that the distance would be too much for such an attractive young man suddenly surrounded by hundreds of attractive, eligible young ladies.

But, obviously, he stuck with me! We went through two years of separation, during which time he would come home about once a month and take up residence on my parent’s couch, since his parents don’t live in the States most of the time. At first, the longest time we were apart was seven weeks over our first Christmas, when he spent three weeks in Zimbabwe visiting his parents. Then, last summer he was gone for 11 weeks. I thought I was gonna die. He was on a traveling team for school, and they toured the East Coast. Last summer I rarely went to sleep before 2:00 am, because I would wait up for him to call me so we could talk…which could never happen before his host family went to bed.

That summer, I held on to the fact that at the end of the summer, we’d be going to the same school and I could see Dave every day. It was such a blissful feeling to move in that first day. I was sad to leave my parents for the first extended time in my life, but I was so excited to be near my Mister that it didn’t matter. I just knew that we’d be together every day, and then we’d get married, and we’d never have to do long distance again. Halleluiah!

So guess what? Today I got up at 6:45. In the morning. I didn’t realize morning existed before nine. But I got up at 6:45 to say good bye to Dave for yet another summer of long distance. Like all the other times, I’m terribly sad he’s gone, but I’m glad for him because it’s for a good reason. I mean, he has a full time job! Which is amazing in itself in this economy. And this is a great job, he’s gonna love it!

But I miss him.

Did you know that the average wedding in the US costs $27,000? That’s actually more than one year at the very expensive Christian university I attend. And I can’t afford to go there. This whole wedding planning thing will be oh so fun.

So, how do I go about tackling this business? I started by registering for all the best wedding websites out there. They have planning pages, and galleries of gowns, and bunches of bouquets, and all the dresses they have listed are designer. Which means they cost on average this: $$$, and more often this: $$$$. What exactly those dollar signs mean, I don’t know. All I know is that they scare me a little bit. Because I’m pretty sure my entire budget consists of this: $. Oh this will be fun.

So when I realized that these wedding websites are catering either to the wealthy socialite princesses who have billionaire Daddies willing to cater to their every whim, or the normal middle-class ladies who have no apparent problem with taking on loans rivaling that of our national debt, I decided that this may not be the best place for me to get all my ideas.

So I started looking at what their ideas were, and stumbled across this article titled “The $10K Wedding Budget Challenge.” Here, the discussed how they challenged wedding planners in different places across the country to plan beautiful weddings on only ten thousand dollars. While I found some of the things listed here somewhat useful, I found two main problems with this idea. One, the cost of hiring a wedding planner to plan the entire shebang costs upwards of $40,000 (four times as much as the actual budget for these weddings…). Second, $10K is still not small enough to reflect my budget. Now, I am confident that I can plan my wedding on my budget, and that it will still be gorgeous, but I don’t quite know where to begin! It seems to me that any vendor prefers to cater to heiresses. I can’t imagine why no one would be interested in someone like me, hoping for big savings, not looking to shell out millions.

Man, I should go into the wedding planning business. I’d be rich!