oh how lovely

these were waiting for me when i got home! yes, he really is that wonderful. a perfect start to our evening together.

i love thursday nights because it is comedy night on nbc and american idol results - which i am definitely nervous about! now, if you are not watching american idol this season, you need to be. it is the best season ever and i love so many of the contestants. the show has changed a lot, so if you are a hater, you should give it another shot.

it has been so much fun to talk about american idol each week with my students and i have even incorporated american idol results into my math problems {whoaaa geeky}. today i went a step further and discussed the probability of my predictions of who is going home each week. oh, you want to know my american idol predictions? okay, here they go:

Who Is Going Home?

3/31 Naima and Thea

4/7 Jacob

4/14 Hailey

4/21 James

4/28 Stephano

5/5 Pia

5/12 Paul

5/19 Casey

5/26 Scotty...Lauren Wins!!

it will be interesting to see what happens and how close i am!

we are also trying this recipe out tonight. yum. i should tell you that as i type this, i just finished off the loaf of bread that we got MONDAY NIGHT from the bread elves. and it was awesome. i mean best bread ever. good thing tyler persuaded me to re-join the ole gold's gym this week. wish my body wasn't so sore that when i laugh i want to cry.

have a wonderful evening!

putting the "he" back in "hero"

oh geeze, never a dull moment. okay, so why am i up at 1:00 am posting? because my adrenaline is pumping and i can't fall back asleep. tyler and i were just woken up to the sound of what we thought was someone trying to break in {naturally}; we heard these extremely loud noises like two huge gorillas wrestling upstairs. so, we looked out the window and saw a fluffy tail and some paws dangling from a trellis that is 10 feet from the ground. we at first thought it was mr. fox who has been prancing through the backyard lately. nope, just a pup named rusty.

after pulling ourselves together and going outside, rusty had already freed himself from the trellis, but his dear pal cowboy had managed to get stuck. poor rusty was so worried! after calling the police and befriending rusty, i was able to find a number on him and call his parents.

here is cowboy stuck on the trellis. poor picture quality because i didn't want the flash to scare him. thankfully this story ends happy and the owner was able to get cowboy down with a ladder.

oh, what a night!

the rest of the weekend and a craft

exciting news! i ordered a stamp of my photography business logo and it arrived this weekend! i am currently working on creating little cd sleeves out of paper to package my customer's disks. i am in desperate need of a singer, though! i sewed this one by hand, which was not efficient nor did it produce the look i am going for. i am loving the stamp so much, though. all i want to do is stamp everything! it would make a great tramp stamp. too far? okay, moving on.
besides seeing the civil wars in concert {which we can't stop talking about!}, we also ventured to angels antiques to do some perusing during the afternoon thunderstorms. we discovered that we both had this interest of antiques and historical pieces when we were dating and it has been so much fun to begin decorating our home with things that we have found together. we even created a long list of antiques that we want to purchase one day. one of those is an old underwood typewriter that still works. we are what i like to call "pre-shopping" for the future, so one day when we have our own place to display things and are not living in transition and have a little more mulah saved up, we will be ready to buy!

we did add this 1920's kodak camera to our collection over spring break. i found it in one of franklin, tennessee's antique shops. the perfect souvenir to remember our wonderful time in tennessee!

at church this sunday the mwangaza children choir from africa renewal ministries in uganda came and performed a concert. they were amazing and so precious! cornerstone church has partnered with a church in buluba, uganda over the past few years to build a water well, a church, and to help sponsor children to go to school. it was so moving to see the children in person and to hear them sing!

in craft news, i made some little hair pins out of buttons and bobbie pins.
all you need is a hot glue gun, some buttons, and some bobbie pins!
just slide on the button all the way to the end and add a blob of hot glue to hold the button in place. i know, so technical!
ta-da! the finish product. cost about $1.50 and took about 5 minutes. my kind of craft!

sweet bread elves

found this in our mailbox tonight :) warm, homemade, oats and honey wheat bread. oh, it's going to be a good week! thanks, friends!

friday night in waverly

for friday night date night, we packed up a picnic and headed to waverly, alabama to see the civil wars in concert! we have recently fallen in love with this group and we were so excited to see them live. it was such an intimate concert in a really fun venue - standard deluxe, inc. - a screen printing place.

we got there early to plant down our chairs and dine on our picnic - homemade bbq chicken pizza, one of our faves. i explored the area and checkout out the screen printing shop.

as the sun set, people poured in and found a spot on the grass to listen to the amazing harmonies of joy williams and john paul white. there were over 1,000 people sitting in silence taking it all in. the only sound the crowd ever made {besides applause} came after the largest and closest shooting star anyone had ever seen raced across the black sky. it was like a firework and it was amazing.

civil wars, i love you and i can't wait to see you again. definitely one of the most fun friday nights i have ever had in alabama.

well geeze, when was the last time i did one of these?!

okay, so yay, product reviews are back! not that they ever really disappeared, i just forgot about doing them. in the summer time i have plenty of time to shop, read magazines, and find new products to try. during the school year, the only shopping i do is at the market and that is a chore in itself!

we recently crossed over to the organic side of life, thanks to earth fare coming to town. the only thing that was ever holding us back from shopping organic was the price difference; but after we made the switch we realized that we weren't spending that much more money each week eating organically compared to conventionally. we also realized we were buying less junk and wasting less food.

y'all know that we love good food, love to cook, and earth fare has introduced us to some of the yummiest food we have ever had! plus, we have felt a lot better, health wise. not convinced yet? then you need to watch food inc. and food matters, two wonderful documentaries. they are very eye opening and really challenged me to look at what i am putting into my body. if we really believe that our bodies are temples and that we need to be good stewards of the earth, then we needed to change.

we like to call this process "becoming granola". it is so funny to me because for the first 22 years of my life i was the pickiest eater ever and my diet consisted mostly of bland, yellow foods, and now i am trying to spread the word on how to be healthy. knowledge is power and it is our job as the consumer to know what we are eating.

okay, so back to the product. this is the BEST CHOCOLATE MILK YOU WILL EVER TASTE. i am not kidding. run to your nearest earth fare {i bet whole foods has it too} and get you some. it is so thick and creamy - think melted down milkshake good. it is a perfect after workout treat or dessert. it comes from homestead creamery in virginia and is packaged in glass jugs that you can return for a deposit. so fun!

as always, let me know your thoughts!

music city

so for part of spring break {yes, i said spring break!} we took a little trip to the music city. despite the dreary weather, it was perfect. let me tell ya, you need to go to nashville. and if you have already been, you need to go again. it is now on my "favorite cities" list. i also added a local nashville restaurant to my "i daydream about that dish" list. huge deal, i know. okay so where did we eat?? the meal that is now on the list was at prime 108, a swanky spot in the old union station, now hotel. it is definitely pricey, but thanks to groupon, we got a deal. i had the lobster ravioli and it was out-of-this-world good. i'm talking huge ravioli stuffed with lobster swimming in this amazing sauce with huge lobster claws on the side. wow.

for a snack one day, we stopped by mike's ice cream shop and i tried the red velvet cake ice cream. need is say more?? i read about this ice cream in a rachel ray magazine and it did not disappoint. it had chunks of cake and cream cheese icing and it was so yummy.

for breakfast one day we went to the pfunky griddle where you get to make your own pancakes at your table! it is such a cool place and the 5 grain mix made wonderful, hearty pancakes.

we also went to the most secretive bar i have ever been to, the patterson house. it resembled an old speak easy and it felt like we were in a movie or a dream it was that cool. if you can find it, you definitely need to go!

besides eating our way through nashville, we did lots of sight seeing and soaked up all that the music city had to offer.

we also got to spend time with our dear friend kirkley! she was so kind to give us a tour of gorgeous vanderbuilt and centennial park. we had such a wonderful visit!!

nashville, i love you. and i miss you.

last weekend and craft update

last weekend was girls weekend in auburn. tyler went to texas to visit some friends and i had a relaxing, fun weekend with my friends. the weather wasn't the greatest, but luckily we had a lot of activities to do inside. first thing on the list was to make a fruit salsa for a friend's shower. we spent a lot of time chopping apples, kiwi, raspberries, blueberries, and strawberries. all that chopping definitely was a work out, but the result was definitely worth it. such a beautiful dish!
we also did some crafts and made a flag banner and a little birdie banner! so cute, so cute.
after a few failed attempts at drawing the perfect little birdie, i luckily found this template from a fellow blogger:

along with the crafting, we watched a ton of movies, made yummy dinners and even did pilates! such a wonderful weekend. thank you friends for joining me!

oh yeah, i've been meaning to update you on this little project from a while back:

i finally finished her up at my friend chane's craft weekend. i decided to use the little girl as a recipe card holder in the kitchen. i am very pleased with the results! i even sewed the little rosette all by myself! i am hoping that this will motivate me to write down more of my recipes on the little cards.