The Great Christmas Exchange!

It's the last week to sign up for  The Great Christmas Exchange hosted by Samantha (Elah Tree) and Elizabeth (Oak & Oats)! I didn't want you to miss out. This may sound familiar to you. If it does, it may be because you've seen the button on my sidebar to the left, or maybe you remember it from when Samantha mentioned it in her awesome post about DIY christmas ornaments.  Well if you haven't checked it out yet, you need to get on the ball you scrooge! :)
The 18th of November is the last day you can sign up!

The Details!

WHAT is it: 

 The Great Christmas Exchange is an opportunity to meet new bloggers, readers, and friends; get to know them and give a gift!

WHO can participate: 

Everyone! This is not a closed exchanged! Anyone can participate. Bloggers, readers, your mom, your sister, you name it, you're in! This exchange is also open internationally. Participants will be matched within their own country. *When making assignments we will put bloggers and non-bloggers together.

WHEN: 

11/18: Make sure to sign up by November 18th! The exchange will close on that day.

11/25: The girls will email your assignment/partner to you on November 25th. If you have not received your assignment by 11/26 email Samantha or Elizabeth. Get to Shopping!
12/16: You have three weeks to shop and get you package in the mail. Make sure to ship by December 16th.
1/7: Enjoy your Christmas Break! Elizabeth and Samantha will have a link up ready on January 7th. 

Bloggers link up your exchange!

HOW (much) :

Let's keep the gifts around $20.
If you are feeling overly generous than go for it, but please don't expect anyone to go over $20. 

Sign up by clicking this link and have lots of fun!

who's planning on signing up? I already have! 

Keeping track...

If you know anything about me at all, you probably know that I can't function without order. When it comes to planning, and dates, and specifics- I am your girl. I will always have no less than three notebooks in my purse dedicated to keeping specific things in order. Those notebooks will always be:

|| Day Planner- for keeping track of my appointments, birthdays, and work schedule. 

|| Budget Planner- for keeping track of bills, savings, and spending. 

|| Lined notebook- dedicated to my many many lists. (ie: grocery lists, shopping lists, christmas lists, monday-friday to do lists, etc etc) 

Don't even get me started on the notebooks I keep at home. 

Today, I wanted to show off my Day Planner for 2014. I order this specific day planner from Frankie Magazine every year around September when it's available for pre-order. They sell out so fast and Frankie is an australian company so you're hard pressed to find the magazines, much less these babies in a store. I always enjoy their simple and beautiful layouts. Every year it's different. Here are a few details of 2014.

Included, but not pictured are also little "to do" lists that are pre-cut for easy tearing, a page for listing birthdays, a couple of sweet postcards, fun floral stickers and more. Always a treat, Frankie. Always a treat.

Now to find a budgeting notebook for 2014. I'm taking recommendations if anyone has any?

Frankie Magazine also has wall calendars and a variety of recipe books, design books, and coffee table books avalable. I own several of their recipe books. I'm working on the entire collection. You can find all of their goodies on their shop page, and I highly recommend that you do.

This post is not a sponsored post. All opinions and photos are my own. 

joined together, forever.

Here are some sweet photos from our wedding. I'm basically re-posting these photos from our wedding photographer's blog because I haven't received our CD with all of our photos on it, and I'm much too impatient to wait for it to come. I've already waited THIS long to share them. I find that very impressive.

Our wedding was perfect. It was at my grandparents house in the country, where I grew up. It was a romantic evening wedding. Just a tad of chill in the air. The sun sat as we said our vows and afterwards we went into the pasture and celebrated with all of our loved ones with campfire, dancing, and libations to warm us. We wanted our entire wedding to have a very community feel. We set the tables up in a large circle(ish) shape so we could all enjoy one another and the dance floor was in the center. For dinner, I asked everyone to bring a dish of any sort. We had such a fantastic turnout. It couldn't have gone better. I'm so thankful The Hibben's were there to capture it all. 

I didn't snag all of the photos from the photographers blog, but I snagged many of them. So if you'd like to go see a few more you can head here. 

#20 Learn to make apple butter

1. Buy a house

2. Have a second baby
3. Get married
4. Open a storefront
5. learn to sew.
6. Learn to dance.
7. Grow a garden.
8. Eat out of the garden.
9. Get a gym membership... and use it!
10. Keep my house plants alive. (I killed a cactus last summer!)
11. Have a real Christmas tree in the house.
12. Have a proper studio for my creations.
13. Get to my 1000th blog follower. (this seems like such a far stretch at this point)
14. Fly in a hot air balloon.
15. Get my kicks on Rout66 :) I want to take a roadtrip through the country.
16. Ride the train to Dallas
17. Limit eating out to twice a week.
18. Make a list of books to read. (minimum of 30 books)
19. Read the list of books.
20. Learn to make apple butter.
21. Start communicating with out of state/country friends through handwritten letters and packages.
22. Get rooted in our church. Be part of a community.
23. See a ballet.
24. Take Fern to New Zealand to see my old friends.
25. Be featured on somebody else's blog.
26. Have a booth at a local craft show.
27. Increase my product list to 5 varieties. ie: mobiles, dreamcatchers.... etc.
28. Sell my first item on etsy.
29. Own an english bulldog.
30. Host Thanksgiving dinner.

I get to tick one off! I get to tick one off! Above is my 30 before 30 list, and slowly but surely I'm ticking them off the list. 

A couple of my very favorite ladies didnt get to attend my (very last minute) bachelorette party. Which consisted of bottles of wine, dance music in Marek's living room, and falling asleep to "Bridesmaids". Party Animals.  Since they weren't able to make it, they thought it would be nice to hop on my 30 before 30 list and have a little girl time doing one of the things on my list. Well wouldn't you know it, Brooke makes rosemary apple butter every year. She's a regular Ree Drumond in the kitchen. 

It was such a wonderful evening. I just love spending time with those girls, and it was so special that they took the time and thought to mark something off of my list. 

I got a babysitter for Fern, we met at Brookes house and got to work. Our blood (mostly Jordan's), sweat and tears (of laughter) went into that apple butter, and what a rewarding labor it was! I'm forever grateful for those ladies.

In the end, it wasn't even that I got to mark something off of my list, or learn a new recipe, or even that I know how to can things without all the expensive gadgets... It was about my sweet friends making memories with me before I was a married woman. Taking time and energy to do something special for and with me. Gosh I'm blessed. 

November favorites

It's time for my monthly favorites list from etsy! The whole idea of this monthly post is that you can see my inspirations and wishlists, similar to pinterest, except they're all from etsy. I love to support small businesses and when you find treasures like these, you just want to share them. Here they are for November:

1. Gold wood bowl by The Vintage Vogue  || 2. Live Simply Print by Gus and Lula
3. Scallop necklace by Asme || 4. Salted Maple headboard by Dzierlenga Furniture
5. Kids wooden toy by Friendly Toys || 6. Crocheted Coasters by Table Top Jewels