Goodbye 2012, Hello 2013!

I hope you all enjoyed your holiday season! Mine was great! However, just like the rest of 2012, it was so hectic and went by so fast! Drew and I visited our families in our hometown over the holidays and it was so nice to see them. We also got over 16 inches of snow while we were there! It was so fun and so pretty! I really miss that about winter when I’m in New Orleans!

Check out my Instagram to see more photos of our holiday vacation, including the snow, the scarves I crocheted, and our quick getaway trip to Saint Louis while we were home as well.

I know it is after Christmas now and I should have posted this sooner, but I wanted to share with you our first ever Rowland family Christmas card!

It was extra special this year being our first Christmas as a married couple! Drew’s birthday is also on Christmas, so it is always a special holiday around here.

I’m naturally a really self-reflective person, always re-evaluating my goals and how I’m meeting them, but I love how the holiday season gets everyone in a reflective mood — focusing on family and what is important, thinking over the past year and then making goals they want to meet in the upcoming one.

2012 was a really crazy year for me/us. A whole lot of wedding planning, Drew graduating from college, Drew starting work in a salary position, expanding our business, getting married, going on our honeymoon (to Boston, New Hampshire and Maine — I still need to blog about that!), working on making our apartment our home, and me getting closer and closer to graduating as well. It was a great year, but a really busy/crazy/hectic one, and I’m happy it is now over. School has gotten more and more intense as I’m getting closer to graduating and this past semester really seemed to take over my life. I was at school from early in the morning to really late at night (some of my classes didn’t get out until 9:30 at night!) and didn’t have time for a whole lot else (including blogging — that’s why I’ve been so MIA). I’ve really been stretched thin lately, and I don’t see it getting too much better (actually probably much worse) until this upcoming semester is over and I graduate.

However, even though 2013 will probably be a hectic year as well, I’ve got a lot to look forward to! I graduate this year! I could not be more excited for that day to come! I’m so over the whole college lifestyle and everything that comes with it. I’m also excited to see what job opportunities lie ahead and what I end up doing once I get out of school. So many exciting things to pursue!

I also have a lot of big changes in my life for 2013. As of the new year, Drew and I are now on Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover. This is such an important change for me this year. As a single woman, I had a older, used car paid for by my parents when I turned 16 and a scholarship that covered pretty much all my college expenses. I knew people lived in debt, but never really knew what that felt like. When I got married, I inherited from my husband a car that has monthly payments, a lot of money in student loans, and a small amount of credit card debt. Debt sucks, y’all. A couple months of that stress and I decided that is all I could take. Dave Ramsey’s book really is life-changing. It makes you think about money, spending and debt in a whole new way. We have re-evaluated our budget and are doing all we can to diminish our debts as quickly as possible. Our goal for 2013 is to pay off all credit card debt and Drew’s car by the end of the year. Hopefully in the two years following that we can get all of Drew’s student loans paid off. Those payments are not something I want to live with for any longer than humanly possible. Even if that means sacrificing a lot of other things along the way (like eating out, spending money on things for our house we don’t need, extra television stations, extras on phone plans and bigger things like waiting to buy a house or start a family). So hopefully we can get that over with and get on with our lives! Really, I know we are just starting this, but if you have any debt or need tips on managing your money, saving for retirement, saving for college for your kids, or just want to live in financial peace, read Dave’s books. I really think everyone needs to read them. Your life will be changed. I’m warning you.

If that wasn’t a big enough goal to start out 2013 with, I also have big lifestyle changes in the health department. Over this past summer I found out that I have hypothyroidism. That basically means that my thyroid doesn’t produce enough thyroid hormone and in turn causes a whole slew of other problems — exhaustion/tiredness, lack of concentration, impaired memory, depression, headaches, acne, digestive problems, problems being able to stand cold temperatures, problems with metabolism, weakness, muscle aches, etc. I’ve been experiencing different levels of these problems for the past several years and didn’t know what was wrong with me. Being in college and therefore working late nights, being stressed out and not getting enough sleep also tended to exaggerate these problems. I was so thankful to finally figure out what was causing the symptoms though. Hypothyroidism can be treated — but that means I have to take thyroid hormone supplements every day and likely will have to for the rest of my life. After I started taking the thyroid supplements and got my levels in the right place, I was feeling much better, but still not perfect. So I didn’t stop there.

After the endocrinologist didn’t say much different, I headed to my dad’s nutritionist to see what was the cause of the hypothyroidism and how to better combat it. I never believe that medication is the only right and final answer to anything! I want to get to the source of these problems and treat that. So I met with this nutritionist and although we are still working through my hair analysis to figure out what nutrient deficiencies I have and what vitamin supplements I need to take, I’m as of 2013 on a much stricter diet to maintain optimal health. I found out that I have sensitivities to wheat and milk (I had suspected this before), so although I’m not necessary “allergic” and I’m not going to break out in hives when I eat/drink them, I can’t digest them as well as I should be able to and they are therefore not helping me or adding any needed nutrients to my diet. I also have sensitivities to soy as well, so I’m staying away from that. Soy has a lot of hormones, and my levels of estrogen are already really high, so soy isn’t good for me because of that. In addition, my diet suggests I cut out corn products, they are so genetically modified these days that there isn’t much good left in them and white rice as well (starchy, carbohydrate-rich foods aren’t really so great for anyone). So this year (and for likely the rest of my life), I will be doing my best to not eat wheat, white rice, corn, soy or milk. Yikes! I also need to up my meat intake and my vegetable intake. I can still have other less-genetically modified and more nutrient rich carbs like red and white potatoes, beans, peas, lentils, quinoa, oats, sprouted grains, wild rice and limited amounts of brown rice. I also need to limit my sugar intake (as does everyone) to practically zero, so I’m trying to use only honey, agave nectar, and very limited amounts of turbinado sugar as a sweetener and limiting my fruit intake (again most fruits today have been so genetically modified that they contain so much sugar and not as many nutrients anymore — but I can still have it all, just a limit on my daily intake). I also am limiting my salt intake and only using Celtic sea salt (pure salt, no additives). The diet only lets you drink water as well (along with herbal teas), but I already only drink water, so that really isn’t a change. There are some other rules as well about what to eat with what (eat meat and veggies together and then eat starches like potatoes, peas, beans, lentils with vegetables, but don’t eat meat with potatoes/beans/lentils, etc. One is acidic, one is alkaline, so eating them together limits nutrient absorption) and the doctor also told me a lot of really great health information, but I’ll leave it at that. I would recommend everyone see a good nutritionist and start eating right for themselves!

I’ve been at it for the last week or so, and really so far, it isn’t that hard. You just have to change your mindset from eating for comfort to eating for health. There are also a lot of really great recipes out there that are gluten/rice/corn/soy free. I really didn’t eat that much corn or soy before anyway, and not enough white rice to make it that hard to cut out (plus it is easy enough to sub for brown rice or wild rice). Wheat is the big one (pasta, bread, baked goods, etc.) but there are lots of gluten-free options and lots of other flours to bake with (almond flour, coconut flour, quinoa flour, oat flour, etc.), so it really isn’t that difficult either. I haven’t missed milk yet, but I can always sub that with almond milk or small amounts of raw milk if it becomes a problem. I’m excited to start feeling better and being healthier!

So here’s to a healthier year this 2013 in many ways!

Do you have any goals for the new year?

 

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Estate Sale Finds

I love houses. I love houses like most men love sports. I’m obsessed with them. The architecture, the styling, the character, the colors, the decor, the layout, I love it all. I am obsessed with home blogs, books and magazines. People renovating their homes, people decorating their homes, how people live in their homes, make the most of their spaces and how people bring their own style and sentiment to their homes.

We live in houses, we share moments and memories in houses. They are safe havens, spaces to relax, spaces to craft, cook, work, sleep, play and live. The spaces inside them bring people together. Growing up in them, they help build us and shape us into who we are. We attach memories and times of our lives to them. There is such a complex network of things that houses allow.

Anyway, lately I’ve discovered something that is like dessert to my love of houses & my love of decorating my own — estate sales. For the past few weeks, Drew and I have been spending our Saturday mornings going to tagged estate sales. I love adding things that have history and character into our home, and I also love vintage things and pretty, old, well-made things. Since estate sales are generally for homes of older people that have passed away or are downsizing to a living facility or something, estate sales really offer unique and vintage finds and more often than not, they have real wooden furniture and things that are older and much more well made than some newer things today.

I do like going to them to look and see if I can score any good home finds, but I also love going to them to see the homes as well. It is so interesting to me to see how people live in their houses, how they decorate and furnish them, and to imagine what lovely memories took place inside those walls. I think it is neat to see how much a person’s home tells about their character and what they were like. You can imply a lot about a person by the things that they own. I love walking through and trying to figure out what the person was like that lived there and what these items meant to their lives.

Although, I always get kind-of sad walking through a house and seeing the remnants of a person’s life. It  always makes me wonder what happened to the person and why their family doesn’t want to keep more of their belongings. If I do buy something, I feel like I’m providing a good home for something that used to be meaningful to someone else. I love feeling like I rescued some well-loved possession of theirs that is now going to live in my home and add to my life story.  I love beautiful things that have a history.

At one sale, I got most of the items in this post. I immediately fell in love with this vintage crewelwork embroidery and the beautiful frame that it is in. I wonder if the lady that lived in the house stitched it herself? I added the glass to it, to keep moths from continuing to destroy it. You can see they they had started to eat away at some of the stitching. It was $5.

I also immediately fell in love with this adorable little tulip-shaped, white, floral plant pot. I need to figure out where in my house I want to put it so I can check the lighting conditions and find a plant for it.

We don’t have any napkin rings, so when I saw these beautiful wooden ones, I had to get them. Aren’t they so pretty next to our white dinner plates and our brightly colored napkins?

These pink, purple and green floral cloth napkins were a dollar or something, so I bought them (a set of six). I thought they would be cute with our white plates for a springtime brunch.

I love this cute little lace pillow I found there as well!

These vintage sheets were a dollar or two, so I picked them up as well. I thought the pattern was cute and I could use them as fabric to make something. Pretty cheap for the amount of fabric.

Between two different sales we went to that day, I amassed this collection of vintage Reader’s Digest books. I’ve always loved them and I’m so happy to have some in my home. Aren’t the covers just gorgeous? I love those patterns and colors! The spines look so pretty on a shelf as well. I think they were maybe 50 cents or a dollar a piece. The dates on them range from the 1950s through the 1980s.

One of the sales we went to was the estate of an old watchmaker. His house was so interesting. The office where the man used to work was just full of neat tools and watch parts and lots of really cool things. He had also fought in WWII and there were piles and piles of love letters that he and (his wife I’m guessing) wrote back and forth to each other. How sweet! There was also a Nazi flag, some huge bullets from some kind of crazy tank/gun or something, and lots of other war history memorabilia. Much of it belonged in a museum. It was so neat. We ended up buying a couple of the Reader’s Digest books there and also this beaker and Erlenmeyer flask. Drew bought them to use in his homebrewing, but how cool and unexpected would it be to use the Erlenmeyer flask as a vase to hold flowers? It totally brings back memories of high school Chemistry class.

I think we spent maybe $30 total on all the items that we bought in this post. Pretty good for all those lovelies, huh?

We didn’t end up buying anything at a few of the other sales we’ve been to lately, but the houses have been just as neat. The last one we went to was the home of a former interior designer and her house was so awesome and eclectic and had so much character! I fell in love with it and wanted to buy it so bad! (except for the fact that it was already sold and had sold for almost $400,000!) But it was a really neat one to go and see and I ended up with some old magazines and wallpaper samples that were free. Another one we went to had an awesome ornate mirror that I fell in love with, but someone else got to it before I did. It was sad. It would have looked awesome in the little welcome/entryway area I’m trying to create in our foyer. Another house was right off St. Charles and had the most awesome rooms with 13 foot ceilings and amazing high-end wallpaper. It was gorgeous.

I can’t wait to visit some more next weekend and to figure out where I’m going to hang my crewelwork embroidery! How about you, score any great vintage finds lately?

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***Rhoda from Southern Hospitality does Thrifty Treasures posts with great vintage/thrift finds from different people. I’m linking up there, you should check them out, here! There are always such neat treasures!

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2 years of Icing on the Cake Blog

Hello all!

The last several weeks have been crazy around here! If you were watching the news lately, you saw that Hurricane Isaac made its path straight for New Orleans the last week of August/first week of September. Even though it hit New Orleans, only minor flooding and damage occurred (mostly just power outages and a few trees down). For most, it wasn’t bad at all. School was cancelled for me and work for Drew, so we decided to make a trip up to see our families in Southern Illinois. We thought that sounded better than sitting in our apartment that was bound to lose power during the storm! (August in New Orleans = HOT with no AC!) It was a good thing we did leave because our apartment didn’t have power for 4 or 5 days. We had lots of food in our fridge, freezer, and deep freeze to throw away when we got home. 🙁

Anyway, we had a nice week-long hurrication that allowed us some much needed relaxation and family time. Once we got back from that, things have been going along here at super speed! My schoolwork has jumped in double time to make up for time lost from the storm and so I have been busy non-stop! Lots of abstract painting, ceramics, digital media, impressionist art history, and 19th century literature by American women writers for me! I’ll be so happy to finish up this last year of school!

Anyway, other than catching you up with the happenings of my life, this post is really to celebrate 2 years of Icing on the Cake Blog! September 4th was my 2 year blogging anniversary (so you can see this post is a week or so late!). You can check out what I had to say last year about my 1 year blogging anniversary, here.

In the last two years, it has been so nice to be able to document the happenings of my life. It is a great resource for me to look back on things that I’ve done, house projects completed, to look up recipes and just re-live those memories. I love blogging for that very reason.

Over the last two years, I’ve posted 245 blog posts, with 750 tags (that is a lot of topics!), and had 458 comments. I’ve also had over 25,000 visitors to my blog.

My first year of blogging, I averaged about 3 1/2 blog posts per week, but this year I’ve only averaged 1 1/2 posts per week. I do feel that my blog content has gotten much better in the last year though. I started posting on all sorts of topics and in the last year feel like I have better narrowed down my blog focus — mostly to things related to the home — decorating, crafting, and cooking.

I feel like blogging might take somewhat of a backseat in the next year, since this school year is going to be a pretty tough one. I want blogging to stay as something that I enjoy and lately it has become somewhat stressful in my already busy life. Another thing demanding my attention. Don’t think that I’m going to disappear though, I just might not be posting as frequently! I still have tons of house projects, wedding photos, recipes, and all kinds of stuff that I’ve completed this summer that are just waiting to be featured! I simply haven’t had the time to do so lately!

A big thank all of you lovely readers that stop by to see what is going on over here! Here’s to another great year! 🙂

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Bad Days

Lately, I’ve had a lot of stress and pressure in my life. Mainly because I feel spread way too thin.

Trying to co-run a business, make time for design work or stuff for clients that Drew needs me to do, trying to finish up all my assignments, papers and projects to end this year of school, study for final exams, trying to wrap up all the ten million little things that still have to be done for our wedding and honeymoon in three weeks, planning to have family and company over for Drew’s graduation next week and not to mention all the bazillion household things like laundry, cleaning, dinner and loading the dishwasher that have to be done on a daily/weekly basis. I’m juggling too many balls in the air, and then that happens, one or all of them are bound to drop at some point.

The last few weeks have been a struggle to keep those balls all up in the air, and lately it feels as if one after another after another keep dropping.

Wedding planning has been really, really stressful lately. That is something I’ve been trying desperately to avoid. I want this planning time to be enjoyable. I want to soak it all in and remember these days as good ones preparing everything for our lives together. It is a day that I’ve been planning for my whole life, and more intensely for the past year and a half that we’ve been engaged. I’ve spent that time making lists to make sure that things got done ahead of time and spaced out so that there wouldn’t be any one time of planning that would get more intensely stressful. I’ve worked extremely hard planning out all the details, talking to vendors, designing the paper and stationary all myself, etc. etc. etc. I have put so much time, energy and hard work into this event and I want it to come across beautifully in the end.

Lately, I’ve had this overwhelming sense of worry about the wedding plans. What if things don’t come together like I’ve envisioned? What if all these ideas that look great in my head look horrible or unfinished together in the end? A million “What ifs.” I’m afraid other people will look at the stuff that I put together and not like it.

Which is a totally silly thing to think. Who cares if someone else doesn’t like it, right? It isn’t their wedding. All that matters is that I like it and at the end of the day we are husband and wife. The food, flowers, decorations, weather, all that doesn’t mean a thing. But it is still so hard to get those thoughts out of my head.

It has been especially hard these last few weeks because I’ve gotten a lot of negative comments about wedding stuff. Vendors, family, friends saying things like “So and so didn’t like the RSVPs,” “Those are too small, why would you pick those?,” “those are too big,” “you really want that color?,” “No one else likes that,” “When are you going to do this,” “Why don’t you do it this way,” “That is going to look horrible together,” “That is going to look like a 5th grader put it together,” etc, etc, etc… I don’t know why so many people feel it necessary to express their negative feelings to a bride three weeks before her wedding day, but it isn’t very nice and it puts a lot of unnecessary pressure on me. It makes me feel self-conscious about myself and my choices and when I let it get to me, it makes me a really sad and unhappy person.

I’ve been really sad the past few weeks. Upset about wedding stuff, pressured to get things done right this second when I don’t have any seconds right now to give to them, stressed about finals and school projects not going the way they should.

I’ve been trying to hold it together the past several weeks, but I’ve fallen apart more than once. Yesterday in particular was a really bad day. Yesterday was my last final. I’ve been done with classes for over a week and have been studying for finals and finishing projects. Surprisingly with everything else on my plate, I feel like I did really well at all my finals and got everything in on time and did my best. I thought I would be relieved once I turned in my printmaking final yesterday. However, I got the news yesterday that my French class that I’ve been working hard to try to take this summer at UNO isn’t going to transfer to Tulane for stupid reasons. I spent the last month, applying to UNO, paying money for application to them, talking to a million people, getting everything taken care of so I could register for classes, messing with residency information and immunization records to try to get this all worked out so that I could pay a bunch of money just to take one French class there. I need another French class to graduate and I need to take it during the summer so that it is all I have to worry about at one time because I really struggled with my previous French classes. I’m getting married and we are going on our honeymooon, so I had to take the class online because I won’t be in New Orleans to go to class everyday during that time. My academic advisor said before I even started the process that it should all be fine. But the French department refuses to offer credit for any online class, and they didn’t feel the need to inform me of that until after I put in all the work to try to make things work at UNO.

So now I have to try to fit that into my schedule next year along with all the other crazy hard classes I have to take to finish up a double major in both English and Studio Art. Talk about balls dropping, next year is going to be nearly impossible.

After dwelling on all that stuff yesterday along with all the other stresses in my life, I was starting to get really depressed. Saddened by the way things are going and how lately it seems like one thing after another keeps going wrong. When you start thinking about all those things, then you find a million other things in your life that you are unsatisfied with and it is a horrible downward cycle.

Last night, while wallowing in my sorrows, I saw this quote that a Facebook friend had shared on her wall. It was exactly what I needed to hear in that moment.

How perfectly true is that. It is so easy to have one bad day (or even a string of them) and then all of a sudden find it hard to remember all the million great things you have in your life. All your blessings, all your talents, all that you are capable of, forgotten in the midst of a few stressful circumstances.

But my words of encouragement didn’t stop there. Every night before I go to bed, I read the bible verse of the day on my Bible app on my phone and focus on that and how it relates to my life and then often go on and read the rest of the chapter it comes from. The past few days, every single scripture has been spot on to things that have been happening in my life lately. God always has the right words to say in every moment. Yesterday’s scripture was from Philippians 4 (one of my favorite chapters of the Bible).

Multiple parts of this scripture were exactly the positive words I needed to hear.

Philippians 4:4, “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!”

I was so not rejoicing to God for all the wonderful things he has given me in life by focusing on all the bad things.

Philippians 4:6, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” 

By spending all day worrying about what I was going to do about my wedding plans, what I was going to do about my French class, how I would handle all those classes next year, talking myself through all the bad things happening, I wasn’t spending enough time praying about those situations and giving them over to God. I was worrying myself to death and for what? Over a French class? It might be a hard class, but it is such a minor detail in the scheme of life.

Philippians 4:8, “Finally brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable — if anything is excellent or praiseworthy — think about such things.”

Such an excellent reminder any day, but specifically yesterday, where were my positive and lovely thoughts instead of those negative ones?

Philippians 4:13, “I can do everything through him who gives me strength.”

French class next year, finishing up two majors, hours and hours of art studios each semester. Bring it on. It might not be the most fun year of my life, but I can do it.

One of the things I really like about my Bible, is the study notes that it has for every verse. Those often bring more understanding about the scriptures and give it a better relevance to everyday situations. I found this one particularly pertinent:

“It’s easy to get discouraged about unpleasant circumstances or to take unimportant events too seriously. If you haven’t been joyful lately, you may not be looking at life from the right perspective.”

Umm hello, I think that was written specifically for me to get through yesterday. Really wise words.

So I’m trying, trying to take all that to heart and forget about the unimportant stuff. I should be excited and happy and joyful! My 21st birthday is in 2 days! The love of my life graduates from college in a week! My bridal shower is in two weeks and our wedding is in three weeks! I have a wonderful person to share my life with, we have a cute little house, we have food to eat, we have a nice event planned to share the start of our married lives with the rest of those people closest to us. We have a lot of great things going on! We have a lot of people that care about us and want to be a part of that day.

We have a lot to rejoice in the Lord for!

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Tornado

Early this morning, Drew and I were awoken by a call from Drew’s mom telling us that a tornado had run through our hometown of Harrisburg, Illinois. We both immediately started calling everyone we knew, checking to make sure that they were safe, alive, and well. My mom and sisters were asleep and didn’t even know what had happened, and luckily were all okay and the damage was no where near them. My grandpa was fine as well. My grandma lives a block away from the tornado’s path, and luckily was also okay and her home wasn’t damaged. Everyone in Drew’s family was okay, but two of his brothers lived right in the path of the destruction and both of their houses were badly damaged.

This aerial view of part of town shows where the tornado went through. The red boxes are over both of Drew’s brothers houses. They were just out of the tornado’s main path. We are all so lucky that they are alive and well.

As the day progressed, we learned more about the disaster. The tornado was an EF4, which is the second strongest tornado on the Fujita scale. Winds were supposedly up to 170 miles an hour. The tornado went through right before 5 am, only minutes from when the tornado sirens went off. Many people were still asleep in their homes and weren’t aware of what was going on. The structural damage from all the pictures I’ve seen and accounts from people is horrific. It tore through homes, businesses, shopping centers, and even through part of the hospital. Over 30o homes were damaged.

There have been hundreds of injuries and 6 confirmed deaths. I knew one girl that died today. She was only a year older than me and we went to high school together. One of my best friends was really close friends with her. I was on several church trips with her as well. She was incredibly sweet, a nurse, a strong Christian, and a little kids Sunday school teacher. The tornado ripped right through her apartment. I can’t believe such a sweet soul was taken today, but I know she is in a much better place.

Hearing of her death, hearing of friends and family who lost their homes, and seeing the destruction of my tiny hometown all over national news has been pretty unreal and emotional. It is hard to be so far away during times like these. I so wish I could be there right now to help out. I’m proud of my town for grouping together in times of need and being selfless, giving, and full of kindness and willing to help everyone else out. Times like these really put the important things in life into perspective.

I pray for strength for all the hurting families and those that have lots of work ahead of them to re-build their homes and businesses. I also give praise for all those that are alive and well and am so happy that the damage wasn’t even worse.

I ask for your thoughts and prayers for my hometown and all that it has lost today.

Photo from Harrisburg’s Daily Register

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Comparison is the thief of Joy

Consider this a letter to myself of sorts. I’m writing it on here in case there is anyone else out there that struggles with this problem (and I would say we all do to an extent) and to remind myself to remember this: comparison is the thief of joy.

I follow and read a lot of blogs. I am constantly pinning pretty things that people have made and decorated or whatever on Pinterest. I am an art student and I’m constantly surrounded by people in the art building with amazing art skills. This list could go on and on. Anyway, I think these things are great and can provide lots of great ideas and inspiration. Pinterest and blogs are great places for decor ideas, finding great recipes, tips and tricks for DIY stuff, etc… I find myself constantly inspired by things that I see and read.

However, they can also work in the wrong direction if you aren’t careful. Reading blogs of people that have beautiful houses with time and money to decorate them nicely, have lots of amazing friends that they can invite over for dinner parties, my favorite fabric designers and their amazing new fabric collections, and all the other million great things that people out there are doing. It can make you start to get a little bit jealous of things or talents that other people have.

I would love to have a pretty farmhouse out in the country with the time and money to renovate and decorate it. I would love to have land to garden, grow vegetables, have chickens and other animals, to be able to compost and live off the land. I would love to have time to do all kinds of great DIY projects, to paint beautiful paintings and sew lots of beautiful things. I would love to design amazing fabric collections and make patterns and use my love of interior design to create beautiful quilt market booths to show off my latest designs. I wish I had a big group of close friends that I could invite over for movies, or game nights, to be able to cook for and have dinner parties. Again, these things could go on and on and on.

I find myself sometimes falling past the point of inspiration and end up in the realm of comparison. Which is a really dangerous place to be. Comparing myself too closely to other people makes it super easy to overlook all the great talents and blessings that I have in my life. It robs me of joy. Instead of being happy with my life, my talents, the things I have, the place I’m at in life, I end up finding myself unhappy and ready to be in a different place. Which isn’t a good thing.

When I really step back and forget about all the other people out there that might cook better than me, paint better than me, decorate, blog, sew, craft or whatever else better than me and just focus on myself, I can actually see that I have a lot of great qualities. I might not be the most amazing chef, but I can budget for food, shop for what I need within that budget, and still cook delicious and healthy meals for me and Drew that sustain and nourish our bodies. I might not have an unlimited budget or the time to constantly be shopping for home decor items for my house, but our little home and the things in it make me smile when I come home. I might not be the most amazing artist, seamstress, or designer at this point in my life, but if I stop to think about the people that do those things that I look up to, they are generally quite a bit older than me and have a whole lot more experience! I may not have a ton of friends to invite over for dinner parties at my house in New Orleans, but I have close friends spread out all over the world and one really best friend that I have the amazing opportunity to come home to and have dinner parties with every night, whom I also get to marry in just 4 short months.

My life really is blessed. I have a lot of creativity and talents that I’m very thankful for. I have an amazing family and friends in many different places. I’ve had many great opportunities so far and I’ve got more time to do other things in life, but for now I’m here in this incredibly unique city going to a great university, which is an opportunity that not everyone gets to have. I might not have my own pretty house in the country, but at this point in my life, that would be too much for me to handle. I love our charming little apartment and it fits our lives right now perfectly. In all honestly, I love where my life is now. Living here, learning new things in school everyday, planning our wedding, figuring our lives out together, etc. I’m very blessed and when I forget about all those other comparisons, I find joy.

image from here. 

 

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100 Questions that Sincerely Intrigue Me

For my Drawing class, we each had to make a list of 100 questions that sincerely intrigue us. This is easier said than done. It was pretty hard actually. It took me several hours. I mean, we constantly are thinking of things that intrigue us or that we question, but when it comes time to actually write them all down at once, it is hard to remember them. I asked several people and got a few responses and those helped trigger more and here is the list of the first 100 questions that I could come up with:

  1. Why can’t more people realize that happiness is all up to themselves and often simply in the way they see things?
  2. Why haven’t we yet come up with a word that truly rhymes with orange?
  3. Why do people drink soda, even when they know it is absolutely horrible in terms of health? (along with many other things, for that matter)
  4. Why is it so hard to not compare yourself to others?
  5. Why do men have nipples?
  6. What really makes hair turn gray?
  7. Why do hair and fingernails keep growing long after the rest of the body stops growing?
  8. What would it be like if a new color was discovered that no one had ever seen before?
  9. Does everyone see color the same way?
  10. What if people saw things in different colors than each other?
  11. How do people come up with the chemicals added to processed foods?
  12. How can people invent such mind boggling things?
  13. Why is it that some countries thrive seemingly so easily and some are so poor and their people are starving?
  14. Who came up with the idea to try polishing a rough diamond? (or any other precious stone?)
  15. How did we end up with so much stuff in the world from just people, animals, and nature?
  16. Who is it that creates societal expectations?
  17. Why do my thumb nails have little white arches on the bottoms?
  18. Why do I sometimes get little white spots in my nails?
  19. How do people end up with such unique skin prints (fingerprints, etc…)?
  20. What does my life have in store?
  21. What if fish didn’t have to live in water?
  22. What if humans could breathe underwater?
  23. Why do lightning bugs light up?
  24. Why can’t we see in all directions simultaneously?
  25. Why can’t we walk on our hands as easily as our feet?
  26. Why can some people roll their tongues and others can’t?
  27. What makes some hair curly and some straight?
  28. What if we all have infinite memories?
  29. What would it be like if we remembered everything we ever saw or heard?
  30. Why do people all have such different opinions?
  31. What if humans had a totally different body shape?
  32. How did people come up with Calculus and mathematical formulas and theories?
  33. Does the sky ever look the same twice?
  34. How many licks does it really take to get to the bottom of a tootsie pop?
  35. Why can we see light?
  36. Can all things be measured?
  37. Why do smells trigger memories?
  38. How many people die of preventable causes every day?
  39. Why do children have perfect skin?
  40. If rocks and trees could talk, what would they have to say?
  41. What do animals think about?
  42. Do animals talk to each other like humans do?
  43. How far does the universe go on?
  44. How far is infinite?
  45. What does it mean to be finite?
  46.  Are we alone in the universe?
  47. When someone is cremated, do they take anything out/off before they do it?
  48.  What happens to titanium knee replacements after cremation?
  49. How are we expected to formulate our own motivations without lying to ourselves?
  50. What constitutes proof?
  51. How can we teach things that we don’t know to be true ourselves?
  52. What makes a theory more than just someone’s theory/opinion/formulation?
  53. What makes things popular?
  54. Why are people willing to sacrifice morality to make something cheaper?
  55. In Heaven, are people different ages and different sizes?
  56. Why is happiness an ideal?
  57. Why is it easier to see how much something means when you don’t have it anymore?
  58. What motivates people?
  59. Why do people have bad motivations sometimes?
  60. Why do people kill? hurt? destroy?
  61. Why is it that people feel simultaneously a need to associate with others like themselves and a need to keep our own motivations a secret?
  62. Why do people get jealous?
  63. Why do people feel? Have emotions?
  64. What would the world be like if bad things didn’t happen?
  65. Is world peace really what people want? Or do they just want it for themselves?
  66. What would a peaceful world be?
  67. What is power?
  68. Why do people want to control other people?
  69. Why can’t some people just be happy being in control of just themselves?
  70. Why do people think they are superior?
  71. What makes fire get hot?
  72. Why do things stay preserved when frozen?
  73. What things are left in the world undiscovered? How many of the world’s secrets do we really know?
  74. What parts of the historical timeline are we missing?
  75. Why is the world city oriented today?
  76. Why don’t more people appreciate the country? (as in rural settings)
  77. What really is common sense?
  78. Who decides what sense is common?
  79. What makes human heart cells start to beat in an embryo?
  80. How do cells and tissue really become a living being?
  81. How can people consciously have abortions and not think that they are killing their child?
  82. Why are so many people okay with abortion?
  83. What keeps so many people from opening their eyes to the truth?
  84. What is truth?
  85. If your soul goes to Heaven when you die, where was it before you came to Earth?
  86. How did we end up with a world with so many religions?
  87. Why do men’s and women’s brains think so differently?
  88. Does everything have an opposite? A good end and a bad end?
  89. What would it be like if there was a third gender? or a fourth?
  90. Does environment have a greater impact than genes?
  91. How did people figure out how to extract and use things to make different foods?
  92. How did people discover that plants contained foods and spices?
  93. Why do people develop such different personalities?
  94. Can people really become the person they really want to be? Or are they shaped into a person regardless of their own decisions?
  95. Why do humans feel okay with eating some animals as food and not eating others?
  96. Will time travel exist one day?
  97. What is impossible?
  98. What makes some people smarter than others?
  99. Is there really a such thing as equality?
  100. If every job made the same salary, what jobs would people choose? What would be the most popular profession?
It definitely made me think, that is for sure. It is so crazy the things that people wonder about, the things we don’t know, the things that are so mind boggling. I’m curious to see what other people in my class came up with. I guess I’ll find out tomorrow! I’m also curious to see what we end up doing with this.
I think it would be interesting to keep a notebook and record all the questions like this that you come up with on a regular basis. All the things in life you question. So interesting…

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1 year of Icing on the Cake Blog

Yesterday marked the 1 year anniversary of my first blog post here on Icing on the Cake Blog. It was this post, if you are curious to read it.

It seems crazy that a year has already gone by, but then again, it feels like I’ve been blogging forever! I love it! It is such a great digital journal/scrapbook to document life, photos, recipes, projects, and thoughts and feelings on things at certain times in life. Plus it is great that it is so easy to share those things with other people as well.

I started this blog for several reasons. Because I wanted to stay better connected with my family that is so far away from me in New Orleans, because I love to write and document life happenings, and mostly because I wanted to use it as a way to focus on my life outside of my schoolwork. Before I started this blog, I felt that my whole life was consumed by school and I never had time for anything else. I wanted this blog to be a way for me to give a little more to my life and interests and not feel like I was being taken over only by homework.

It has most definitely fulfilled its purpose and become a love of mine all on its own. It has made me think more deeply about little things happening in my life, it has forced me to take more pictures of random things and moments, and it has helped me to focus more on my interests–cooking, decorating, sewing, crafting, design, etc… It has shown me as I’ve changed throughout the past year–from cooking and crafting in Drew’s tiny studio apartment, to cooking/crafting/sewing/decorating in our new and much bigger apartment now. I’ve gotten engaged and started my way through the process of planning my wedding, gotten another year of challenging classes under my belt, and Drew and I have opened our own business since I started this blog. I’ve had good memories and stressful ones, and overall I have changed so much during the last year. It is so great to have this thing that allows me to easily look back over all those moments and memories. I’m looking forward to what the next year holds and all the great things that I’ll be able to look back on next year.

I’ve changed my website address this year from lovecakedesigns to icingonthecakeblog and I’ve also changed and updated its look numerous times. (I really like it a lot now though!) It has come a long way:


In the past year, I’ve had 181 blog posts (average of 3 1/2 posts per week), 243 comments and 434 tags. I’ve also had 6, 813 visits from 80 different countries/territories. A big thank you to all of you that visit and read my blog! 🙂

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End of Summer

Even though the summer weather won’t end here for another month or longer, school starts tomorrow, ushering the end of the summer. It seems like the summer just started. We just moved into our house and I just planted those flowers in my windowbox.

But time must have passed, because those tiny little flowers that I planted at the beginning of the summer, the first week we were in our apartment, now reach out and up and over the box. They’ve gotten so big!

I’m excited for school tomorrow, but I’m dreading the stressful workload that I know will be in my near future. The summer has been a nice time to forget about all that. But I’m hoping that I’m more prepared to handle it better this year. I feel so much better about starting this school year than I have been for the last two. This summer and this apartment have been good for me. I’m really, really happy in our little apartment here. I feel so much more settled in and at home–something I never felt in my little dorm rooms, even if they were all cute and cozy. I knew that they were only temporary, where as this apartment is ours for a while. Although we’ve only been here a couple months, it already feels like home and it has been nice to be able to put pride into its appearance and make it a home together.

I’m in a really happy place in life. I’m very proud of that. If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you might know that last year was a rough year for me. Figuring things out, working though tough classes, career paths, lots of school related stress and a general feeling of instability. I’m happy that this summer has been a much needed break from that and our apartment has provided me with the stability that I’d been looking for. I think that stability will be a good foundation for a much less stressful school year this year. I feel so much more ready and prepared for it at least.

This is Drew’s last year of college. It seems so strange that we started dating halfway through high school and now we are almost done with college! How time flies! It is my junior year and my last year as an unmarried woman! This time next year, I will be starting my last year of college and I will be married! How crazy!

I just thank God for all the wonderful opportunities that he has opened in my life and how they continue to flourish. I’m so thankful for the peace and happiness that I feel at this point in my life and pray that I can maintain that feeling throughout even the most stressful times of this school year. Hopefully I can continue to remember to enjoy life in the moment and not wish it away because of the stress that comes along with it. Here’s to an abundantly blessed beginning to a wonderful school year. 🙂

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Rainy Sunday Afternoon

Don’t you just love rainy days? At least those ones where you don’t have to go anywhere and can stay dry inside the house and listen to the rain falling down? Today is one of those days. Sunday afternoon, cloudy sky, pattering rain, laundry going, house cleaned, tummy full of homemade food. Peaceful, restful and refreshing.

I’ve still been thinking constantly about my Mamaw lately. Today’s lunch was what I remember her cooking most. Her mashed potatoes and gravy made fresh with the meat drippings. Along with home fried chicken and her sweet tea. Again I’m reminded of how thankful I am that I spent so much time with her as a kid and helped her cook. I haven’t had mashed potatoes and gravy like hers in many years and I still remember how to make them just like she did.

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