Mahalo

For our 3 year anniversary, The Mister and I took a trip to Kauai, Hawaii. It was beautiful and fun and relaxing. We took it after a hard few months of manual labor on something we will share about soon. It was beautiful and such a blessing.

We have friends who make a trip to the island pretty frequently, so I had a solid list of things to see, do, and eat to look through. We took a catamaran tour of the Na'pali Coast, hiked to a beautiful beach, flew a kite, ate delicious food, visited a farmers market, and ultimately embraced down time.

 

 

If you are planning a trip to the Garden Isle, here are a few things we want to be sure you do not miss!

• Tour the Na'Pali Coast. We took a Catamaran tour at sunset. It was gorgeous and the best way to take in the sights of the coast.
• Take a Zodiac raft scuba diving trip anywhere. Zodiac's are what Navy Seals use for special ops. They are fast and awesome. Getting to glide along the water next to dolphins and among sea turtles, hopping between a couple places to scuba and see the beautiful array of fish and volcanic caves was definitely memorable.
• Hike something! There are so many hiking spots. Be sure to bring good shoes, as it can get muddy.
• Visit a farmers market- they pop up just about every day of the week in various areas. You have to take the opportunity to taste the local fruits.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our favorite places that we ate during our time were:

• Postcards in Hanalei
• Delicious seafood and such fresh ingredients!
• Kalaheo Coffee Co. and Café
• Great stop for lunch!
• Bubba's Burgers
• A Hawaiian chain restaurant with a fun atmosphere and yummy burgers
• Wishing Well Shaved Ice in Hanalei
• Cold, refreshing, inspired treats served out of an RV!

We can't wait to go back.

 

Conscious Thankfulness

This season of my life makes me feel like I am on this ride I remember from the county fair. The one where the walls spin and spin and the force sucks you to the wall while the floor drops. There are moments that my mind is full of excitement and enjoyment, but then there is a point that I just want it to end and move on to the next ride.

Working nights is just not my thing. My body will only let me sleep in 4 hour increments now. Simple tasks of life take a lot more planning (like going to the grocery store, doctors appointments, and spending time with friends). I've had to be way more intentional with planning my time wisely.

The Mister and I have really been embracing the time we do have together. It is so difficult when days go by and we have only exchanged a couple short phone calls and a handful of text messages. At first, I would spend the moments thinking of how I hated that we didn't have more of them. But I have been consciously putting myself in a better place.

Instead of praying that the Lord just open the doors so that I can have a schedule that allows me to see my husband, I am trying to remember His goodness in this season by providing me with a job that I do enjoy, a husband who has an ocean of patience in this season with his sleep deprived wife, and some amazing women who go to His throne with me just asking that His timing and will be done in my life.

These pictures are from a picturesque day that represent me and The Mister so well.  He fishes. I read. And we just enjoy being together. Praise you, God, for this man, this season, and these difficult growing pains that I know are for my good.

Fancy-ing up a Recipe Box

Ahhh... life. I haven't posted in a while because I am now working night shift.  Like true night shift- 7 pm to 7 am. My life has been a bit upside down and I think I've finally got it all sorted out and embraced (for now, at least). I've managed to squeeze some life out of my backwards schedule (which usually meant little sleep for a day or two) and completed a few projects. I want to share a quick and easy little update I did to a Good Will recipe box as a gift for my sweet best friend. You may recognize her (and her man) from this post of their engagement pictures I took last summer.

I have the amazing joy of being her MOH for her wedding that is less than 2 weeks away (yay!). So I hosted (alongside a couple bridesmaids) a couples shower for her and her groom-to-be. Here is the invite I ordered from this Etsy shop. It is gelDesign and they are phenomenal. Totally customizable designs and great customer service.

 

 

As you can see, it was stock the pantry shower. Included with the invite was a recipe card. Soooo... they needed a place to wrangle up all of these cards. And I had just the thing!

This is a cute little wooden recipe box. It was a great color, solid, and has beautiful dove tail corners. I originally got it for us, but never took the time to write out recipes on cards small enough for it. Thus, it was time for me to get busy making it perfect for my beautiful best friend.

The couple likes things rustic, earthy, and not-too-fussy- totally my jam. So I asked the hubs to give me a quick rundown on how to use his wood burning tool. I got a lot of safety info (which if you know my guy, you know he takes safety seriously) and then did a couple test runs. to get familiar with the right pressure and the right length of time to leave the tip in one spot to get the look I wanted. Then, I got to sketching. Here is what I came up with.

 

 

I was so nervous. Burning this box was scary for me. Wood etching isn't like painting. I could sand off something I didn't like it I painted it. After something is burned in, there is no going back. So, after a couple deep breaths and few dozen strokes of the etcher, I had this.

 

Love it!

 

After custom making a few organizers for the inside of the box and gluing some felt to the bottom- it was finished!

 

 

I think they liked it. What do you think?

 

 

More will be shared soon about the shower (and their wedding)!!



Marry and Eat Cake

Sorry I didn't get a post up yesterday (I promise I will make it up later in the week). The Mister and I had 2 days off together in a row with no previous obligation (which doesn't happen as often as we would like) so we decided to head back to our hometown and visit family.

Our one year wedding anniversary was a couple of weeks ago (and I told you guys about what we got each other here). Sadly, we didn't get to do the traditional eat-the-top-of-our-wedding-cake thing because we didn't have it at our apartment. But going back home to see family gave us access to my mom's freezer where said wedding cake was kept. So we dug in and had another celebratory moment of one year of marriage.

To make sure the cake stayed fresh and to avoid freezer burn, my mom and the AMAZING woman who made the cake and served as our day-of wedding coordinator (the Maid of Honor's mom that we love) wrapped it with A LOT of plastic wrap and then aluminum foil, Then it was set in a box and the box was closed up with aluminum foil, too.



I've been asked by friends if the cake still tasted good... and it did!! I liked it more than on our actual wedding day where I couldn't eat as much as I would have liked due to the excitement. I highly recommend couples keep this tradition.

Happy anniversary to us and all of those other couples out there.

Remembering A Vacation

The last big vacation that The Mister and I went on together was our honeymoon. And you know that was a year ago by the fact that we just had our one year anniversary. And this year has been beautiful, and wonderful, and encouraging, but also challenging, and stressful. Chris was unemployed twice last year due to lay offs (wasn't the economy great?), I was in school full time, and it was nursing school at that so SUPER stressful and busy. I just graduated. Chris has been working at his newest job for 6 months now. We have moved. We dealt with the loss of Chris's best friend. It has been a crazy first year.

So, we are dreaming of a vacation. But,we can't plan one just yet because we lack the funds, and I am not sure what my work schedule looks like just yet so Chris doesn't know when to ask for time off.

We went to Pagosa Springs, Colorado on our honeymoon and stayed at a place where Chris's grandparents had a timeshare which they lovingly gave us to use as a wedding gift. It was a one bedroom condo right by a lake (we could see it from our windows). I'm thinking back on our honeymoon because I want to remember that feeling- being a newlywed, saying The Mister is my husband for the first time to strangers, planning a trip out of the state for a week. It was awesome. But I am also remembering a few mistakes we made. Here are the lessons we learned:

1. But plane tickets as early as possible. Seriously, even early in the day. We had a busy morning so we had planned to buy the tickets at night, right before we went to sleep. Then, the eastern coast switched over to the next day, so prices changed right when we were about to checkout... costing us another $300.
2. Get the weather update for where you are going. We did this, but only for the last few days. Try to track the weather for the last month so you can pack the right stuff. I am always the one with this issue, so we had to stop at a store and but me 2 more long sleeve t-shirts and tall socks. I love the cold/cool, but I am a bit of a wimp if I am under dressed in it.
3. Bring as many snacks as you can. We brought enough granola bars and whatnot for the plane ride, but it would have been nice to have some for the condo we were staying at, to keep in our rental car as we scaled the mountains and went on hikes.

We had fun. And are looking forward to our next vacation. Maybe a beach on one of the coasts??

Paper

Traditional anniversary gifts are given based on the materials they are made of. Our wedding was not super traditional, but The Mister and I are embracing tradition with gifts. The main reason we have decided to do this is because it can pose a challenge and can make gift giving interesting.

We're debating just HOW open we want to be with our lives. If this eventually turns in to a way to turn a profit, making it reportable to the IRS, we will share things like our full names. Until then, You've got Missus Tiffany and Mister Chris (or Christopher).

UPDATE: I came to the realization that, were you to go to The Mister's Etsy shop, you would see our last name. So, this image is blocked out just because now. And I updated my profile to connect with Google +, so you see my name in full. Cheers!

But we agreed together on what our first gift to each other would be - new Bibles. My everyday reader has gone through quite a lot. Chris's cover has been glued on 3 times. Then my water bottle spilled over inside my bag that had both of our bibles in it. So in comes our gift to one another!

We both wanted the ESV (English Standard Version) translation and a hardcover. The Mister requested a study bible, and I wanted to get a journaling one. After searching around, we found a GREAT deal on ChristianBook.com. The Misters came out to $46.99, originally $74.99. Mine came out to $29.99, originally $59.99. We got our names imprinted for $5.99.

Great gifts, and at a great deal. What are some one year wedding anniversary gifts you guys have exchanged or seen exchanged??

Why We Did A "First Look"

To keep sane during planning and preparation of the wedding day, I spent a lot of time in prayer and made it clear in my head what was most important for me for our wedding day: That I marry Chris. Period. This helped me ward of silly issues and it kept things in focus. If something popped up I could just go back to what really mattered- that at the end of that day, I am his wife.

Being around Chris helps keep me level headed. So, I knew on the wedding day with the chaos and stress that others may unintentionally heap on me (and it definitely happened) that seeing Chris before the wedding would calm me and bring back in to focus the purpose of the day. And it definitely was the best choice we made for the whole day (other than choosing Chris as the groom, of course).

With a first look, we had a moment alone before the crazy, busy day. Because we did this instead of waiting to see each other at the altar, we were able to wipe away each others tears of joy, giggle together, hug and whisper I love you's. Talk, pray over each other, and calm each other before everything went in to full swing.

And it didn't take away from the ceremony one bit. We both still teared up at the altar.

Photo: Hard - 2 - Hold Photography