my first craft fair.

i got to be a part of my first craft fair this past weekend. 

it was HOT. i think the high was 100. 

i shot some photos on my iPhone, then almost got heat exhaustion ;) 

the temp, plus being pregnant was not a great combo. 

but, i had a good time, enjoyed some snow cones and met some new friends. 

here's some photos from my small booth :)

we have HUGE news.

ok, i don't quite know how to say this to the world...

but

please read the whole post as I will try to answer any/all questions that will be sure to pop up in your head.

it's true!! 

are we super excited? YES. 

are we surprised? YES. 

was this planned? NO. 

we could not be more excited, honored and humbled to bring a new life into this world and our family. 

with that said, the past couple weeks since we've known have been a little bittersweet. 

{please don't get me wrong here}

excitement is all over our house, but in a way we have felt like we've mourned some loss.

we were hoping to be matched with a birth mom super soon and have a new baby in the next couple months via adoption. 

now, the plans are changing. 

a BIG yes, we are still adopting. 

our time frame will change now and look different than what we had imagined. 

what's the plan? 

we will have a baby 

{due in Febuary}

we will start the adoption process again when our babes is about 10 months. 

everything we've saved/earned/been granted toward the adoption process, will still go to our adopted baby, but again it just changes our timeline. 

so, that's where we are at. i know God has a plan and he's so trustworthy and His plan is way better than one I could write.

 so, we're trusting and moving forward. 

p.s. the photo above is from when i was 7 months pregnant with lon's. don't worry. i'm not that big yet.

ANNIVERSARY

It's me, Landon, guest blogging again on my wife's killer blog. I've hacked in to leave a surprise post. Today is our 5 year anniversary. Phew! 5 years already!

Now, don't get your pants in a bind. I wrote this before today and had it scheduled to post. You had better believe we are not cooking, cleaning, working, or updating this blog on our anniversary . . . "Hi. We're not home right now. Leave a message." Nope. Our awesome friend Torie and Rachel's mom were gracious enough to tag team watch our daughter. We actually drove the whole mile to the Plaza to chill at a hotel for a night. A little sunbathing, swimming, shopping, se-, and um, watching HGTV (we don't have cable . . . don't judge).

I am very thankful to have Rachey as my bride . . . here are 10 Reasons why my wife is kick-ass (in no particular order):

1. She is drop dead gorgeous
2. She loves, fears, pursues, and hopes in God
3. She makes the best asparagus a man could hope for
4. She is a fantastically patient, gentle, love-pouring-out mother
5. She has the most beautiful smile I have ever seen
   
6. She is quick to forgive and even quicker to repent
7. She is always striving to better herself
8. She never, ever has bad breath, b.o., boogers, eye boogers, or food stuck in her teeth (how she pulls this off I shall never know)
9. She thinks there's always time for an impromptu Target run
10. She is a deep well of support and encouragement for me as the leader of our family, our household, and our business.

Here are a few fun facts from each of the past 5 years:

Year 1:  Paid $520-ish for our first year of rent, and $100 on utilities and $200 on food per month. It seems we've decided to use these numbers as a baseline and just multiply them by the number of years we've been married (I just opened the electric bill . . . crud . . . gotta love 100+ weather in a 90+ yr old house).

Year 2: Quit my J-O-B to start our own business. Sa-weet!

Year 3: Moved twice, became city dwellers, got pregnant

Year 4: Bought our first home, traveled to London, England and welcomed London Porter into our family. Go figure.

Year 5: Brewed our first beer and planted our first garden (then drank said beer while harvesting said garden).

All-in-all, we have had an awesome past 5 years together and I am looking forward to the next 100 years with this woman. I am blessed to call her my wife and my friend. Love you, Rachey, love you.

Here's to a trip back to that magical day 5 years ago . . .

DIY: a homemade place mat with utensil holder

laura and i met in college. we were a part of the same greek Bible study. now, we both live in the same city and go to church together. to say i love laura's creativity is quite the understatement. 

you can often find her blogging here.  

happy crafting. and here's laura!

hello everyone! thanks to rachel for allowing me to share this project with you all. i came up with a homemade placemat with a pocket to hold a rolled napkin and/or a set of silverware. it's fairly simple and something i thought would be fun for summer. 

i originally thought of this project to be used for outdoor dining, to keep your napkin and silverware safely tucked away from the occasional wind gust, but then decided it could be used indoors to keep things neat and tidy on the table! any which way you decide to use these placemats is fine, 

so let's get to the how-to!

materials needed:

-1/2 yard of fabric. i used two different fabrics to have the contrasting pocket, but go wild and choose whatever your heart desires!
-matching thread
-timtex or any type of interfacing*
-scissors
-sewing machine (though this project could be done with liquid stitches if you don't want to get near a sewing machine)

* timtex is a type of interfacing, which is a soft, but flexible material that holds a crisp shape. interfacing is used to make purses more sturdy and to help hats hold their shape. i used it here on the placemat, to make it a thicker final product and something that would have a bit of structure to it. 

1.) i used fabric from my scrap pile and started out by cutting the placemat fabric to the size that i wanted with a 1" overhang on each side. my finished placemat is 14" x 17" so i cut my fabric to 16" x 19". i used this measurement based upon a placemat i had as a reference point.

2.) after cutting out your placemat fabric, it's a good idea to iron it. then it's time to cut out the fabric for the pocket. i measured my silverware and made my pocket to fit what i use most often for dining. my finished size of the pocket was 4" x 6" so i cut a piece that was 5" x 6.5". i only used a 1/2" hem on the pocket on the three sides. for the top, i did the tiniest hem i could by still finishing the edge. i did that part before sewing the pocket onto the placemat.

3.)  once you have your fabric pieces cut out, it's time to cut the interface to the desired size of the finished placemat. mine is 14" x 17". then i took my fabric right side down on the table and placed my interfacing on top of it in the center. i then proceeded to pin the two long sides of the placemat, pulling it somewhat taught so the placemat would be smooth once i turned it over.

4.) once you get two opposite sides completed, you'll be ready to finish the remaining two sides. be sure to pull the fabric tight when pinning and i folded in my corners for a nice, finished looking edge.

5.) next you're ready to put on the pocket. i ironed the edges of my pocket before sewing it so it would lay flat while i sewed. and this allowed me to make sure my pocket was the right size for my silverware. (see the third photo above for reference). i got too excited to finish the project at this point, that i forgot to take photos of this next step, but all you have to do is place your folded pocket onto the front of your placemat and put in exactly where you want it. once you figure out where to place the pocket, go ahead and pin the three sides, but not the top! that's where the silverware will slide in, so don't sew it shut!

6.) next you can see i sort of rolled my placemat up a bit, so it would fit under the foot of my sewing machine. i started on one side of my pocket and worked in a "U" shape so i didn't have to stop sewing. just sew three sides of the pocket onto the placemat and you're just about finished!

7.) the last thing to do is to trim all the hanging threads and then tuck your utensils into the placemat!

i hope you enjoyed the project. if you have any questions, please feel free to email me at lauraplinebarger@yahoo.com. and again, thanks rachel, for letting me share this little project!

family time.

i wanted to post some more pics from our recent shoot with my sister. 

she did a great job and it's hard for me to choose favorites. 

enjoy!

our fourth.

what did we do on the fourth of july??

made homemade raspberry lemonade from here.

hung out with friends for the afternoon. 

got mad at all the people shooting off ridiculously loud fireworks.

(we are those parents now apparently) 

how did you spend your holiday?