Did you know we were socialites?

We are.

We went to a fundraiser tonight. It was a silent and live auction. It was for CARA the Community Animal Rescue & Adoption which is one of Mississippi's largest No-Kill shelters which I'm a huge supporter of!This particular fundraiser is called Animal House Party. Jackson's finest architects, designers, and contractors donate their time to design and build original dog houses for the live auction. All proceeds go to CARA.

It was a real auction, with a real auctioneer! As I tried to snap a picture of him, I almost accidentally bid... and Bryan almost accidentally had a heart attack!

These are all of the original, one-of-a-kind puppy palaces!

This is Lindsey and Ray. Lindsey is one of the designers I work with. She and Ray won the bid on this dog house "wave". I really liked this one. Such a cute picture... them with their very first house!

Seriously?

I mean they were just factory hub caps...

Do I live in the ghetto?

Several other cars up and down the street are capless too! At least it wasn't a busted window. That would NOT have been funny, but this is kinda funny... and really random.

The red coats are coming

My red coat, that is.

I love red coat days! I even swept the porch and side walk today so I could wear my coat outside! I love the cold!

I also worked on the sofa for a while... until my cute husband fell asleep on it! He woke up for a second when I snapped a picture of him. He said "I don't want to be asleep on the internettttttzzzzzzz." and back to sleep he went. I told him I wouldn't post it. I want to, don't get me wrong, but I won't.

Pizza Day!

In New Guinea, the missionaries made pizza once a month for their own morale and as a way to fellowship with some of the people in the village. One of the village men picked up on how exciting pizza day was to all of the missionaries. We were all so excited to hear, the third Tuesday of every month, "PEEEETZZZA DA-EEEE!!! EETS PEEEETZZZA DA-EEEE!!!"

Wasn't that a fun story?

That was all I had to say for today...

Good night.

Just kidding!

We had out first dinner party in our new apartment at our new table with our old friends! Success!!! The story from above does tie in... We had a pizza party! I made dough and sauce and we put out all the toppings we could think of (like mozzarella, cheddar, and goat cheeses, pineapples, ham, pepperoni, onions, tomatoes, artichoke hearts, olives, maybe some others). Then everyone grabbed a dough ball and went to town! Everyone is really creative and everything from the pizza shape to the toppings truly reflected each of us.I love my friends! And I really love my husband! He's the best. I think it's fantastic that we can have friends over and eat dinner and fellowship together!

Mason, Hunter and Elise even brought krispy kreme doughnuts for us too! Which we ate while we laughed really hard at old and new jokes.In the end, Hunter tried to go to sleep at the table because he works at a coffee house called Sneaky Beans and has to get up early to make coffee and be friendly, so we had to let him go to bed.

My most thoughtful husband even did the dishes! What a fantastic night~

The Porch

The porch is one of the staples in the South. Ours is coming together quite nicely!


Yesterday while I was thrifting I found a basket(?) It was sitting on the sidewalk like a basket but I flipped it over and thought it would look great as a lampshade! I went to Lowes on the way home and got some spray paint. Today I wired it and again, my sweet handy Bryan hung it up for me! I think it works out really well as a porch light!

Here is an update on the Nielson's! Article.

Market Madness

It was such a beautiful day today! Bryan and I went to the Jackson Farmer's Market and to the local Belhaven Market.

We got so many goodies! I'm stoked about all of the good stuff we found!

Pasture raised natural eggs, squash and peppers, blackberry jam, black bean hummus, gluten-free apple/ granola bites, sweet potato pie and sweet potato muffin tops, pepper jelly, salsa, honey, a loaf of spinach and cheese-stuffed bread, and a loaf of crawfish-stuffed bread!

(All I can say is that the apple bites and half of the salsa are already gone!)

When we got home, Bryan was so awesome and hung up a chandelier for me over the dining room table! It looks great! I appreciate him so much! He's always more than willing to do anything around the house for me. I love him very much and really love the life we are making together!

Obviously, I put the paper towel in the center of the table expecting the dust to fall straight down onto it for an easy clean-up. Obviously, I was wrong.

I promise not to be ordinary

I just returned home from an awesome "JAM TIME"!

The Journey had a pumpkin carving extravaganza! Tons of people came and we had Crush and black & orange cookies and listened to music and carved the heck out of some pumpkins!

It was a lot of fun. I really enjoy getting to do things like that with my friends! I absolutely cherish making memories. Moments created with people I love and new people I've just met are some of my favorites!

So back to the pumpkins... I brought a bunch of pictures because I usually just do the simple funny face or once (actually we made the same cat twice but let's just call it once) lex and I made a cat. But this time I was going to give it my all. I had high hopes for my big ole pumpkin and Frankensten was his name-o.

I carved my heart out for about an hour. Everyone was a little mystified by the outcome. When I showed them the picture of what it was they could pick it out, but at least I had fun right!? Then, the hi light of the night... a small child walked over to look at our group's completed gourds. She whispers to me, "IS IT A MONKEY?"
My heart fell a little but I laughed pretty hard (as did everyone else within ear shot).
And when a child gazes upon you with a sparkle in her eye, what can you say but, "YES! IT IS A MONKEY! I'm so glad you could tell!" She was thrilled that she had figured it out. And off she went to bring back her friends and family. Only when Mason showed her dad the photo of the intended muse did he really grasp what my pumpkin was supposed to portray.

Hunter spent about an hour and a half carving his:

Elise spent a about the same amount of time carving her hubby... well his hair, anyway.

And Mason spent about 20 minutes creating a JAM TIME.

Awe Yea.

My week without a camera...

I left my camera at our dinner club on Tuesday and haven't felt awesome enough to post anything without pictures for the rest of the week.


So Dinner Club was awesome! I made steak and veggie kebabs and mashed potatoes and sauteed mushrooms. I also made apple dumplings for dessert! Yum!



Saturday I went to Cass and Martin's wedding. Congratulations guys! It was beautiful! But still no camera.

Last night I also decided to teach myself how to make clothes. I've really been wanting to learn for a long time but I thought I needed to take a class or get a pattern making book or something like that. I was watching the Project Runway finale and got inspired to just go all in. I figured I could work with a couple yards of super cheap fabric and see if I could figure it out. If I couldn't then I wouldn't be out more than $8 and a few hours of frustration. My first attempt at a skirt only took a few hours and is totally wearable! I might even try to wear it this week! It's not the most well-crafted thing I've ever seen, but I'm stoked. It wasn't hard and I did it all by myself without a pattern or a form or anything!!

This picture's not the best but it's a quasi bubble skirt!It's fuller when it's on, but when it's lying flat it looks totally wrinkly!My mom had us over for lunch today which was fantastic! We had chicken and dumplings and home made custard with fruit! After such a great lunch, I was super tired. I almost didn't go to church tonight because I wanted to take a nap and Bryan was at school working on a drawing. I did get up and go, though, and I was beyond blessed by it! One of my favorite people in the whole wide world was there. I didn't expect it AT ALL because three days ago he was in Japan!!! How amazing! I haven't seen him in over three years. He left for Japan the summer Bryan and I got married and has been doing mission work in an adoption agency there ever since. I love that guy and was so excited to see him! Welcome home Mason!

did I mention I (along with Bryan, Hunter, Kyle and Ben) was in a Christian Pop-Punk band called Attaboi with Mason? No? it's probably better that I didn't tell you about it. If you're lucky, one day I'll elaborate.

Ooooo Mufassa!!

Our super creepy neighbors put a super creepy full sized John McCain cut out in their crazy creepy window... It not only made my heart skip a beat as I walked up the path but it also frightened our guests on Friday evening.

The guests we invited over for story time:


Gah, Parker, cool book! hehehe


It is also quickly becoming a weekly ritual for a few architecture class members that live in our neighborhood (and me) to cook dinner. Dinner Club, if you will! Oh, I Will!
Brad cooked last week! Marinated, grilled chicken, asparagus, salad, and blue cheese/ Parmesan bread: Delicious! This week is my turn! I'll post pics of this lata!

As for now I'll leave you with a really important muffin recipe. It's really important because it's really important that you make them immediately and eat them all without sharing.

This red leaf reminds me of fall and so do these muffins! Hooray for muffins!

Pumpkin Spice Muffins:

3.5 Cups flour

2tsp baking soda

1.5 tsp salt

3 cups sugar

2 tsp cinnamon

2tsp nutmeg

1tsp all spice

2 Cups pumpkin (like the kind that comes in a can for making pumpkin pie)

4 eggs beaten

1 cup veg. oil

2/3 cup water

combine dry ingredients and make a deep well. add pumpkin, eggs, oil and water. mix to moisten. pour into greased muffin tins (or greased bread pans for pumpkin bread) and bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes (watch the time on this... it seems to be different for everyone just check it with a toothpick) (or cook for 50-60 min for bread)