Cardi Party - Meet 3 of 35

The last time I consistently posted more than a year ago. Blog fail. Life gets busy, you get behind, you know there are 346,143,690 other things you SHOULD be doing besides writing a blog, but where's the fun in that?  So with all of my spare time, I am going to TRY to post once a week.

Also, as of late, my blog traffic has exploded due to a few Pinterest posts that link to Journaling the Bible (yay, Jesus!), Our First Christmas as Mr & Mrs., Laundry Room Reno, and Front Door Makeover, so with these new people rolling in, I should write new content, right?

Or maybe I just to need to write again for my own sanity. I miss writing.

So what better way to kick it off, than joining Meghan's Cardi Party? Ahhhh accountability clothed in... well, cute clothes! A fabulous excuse to get back in the habit.



I am a very clothes-minded person. I. LOVE. CLOTHES. And shoes. And purses. And pretty things in general, but really clothes. I used to work at Gap and Banana Republic and this just fueled my addiction. I was really good at "wearing and selling" and I pretty much handed my paycheck back to them every single month.

My name is Vanessa. I am addicted to clothes. I have a "Dressing Room" (not a closet) and I have 35 cardigans. This makes me sound like a hoarder BUT I seriously wear all of my clothes. Not at the same time.

I am going to attribute the cardi collection to being cold blooded. I freeze to death all of the time. I have a space heater in my office. And my bathroom. And next to my bed. With an electric blanket.

Do you know just how much my fireman husband HATES my space heaters? It's a wonder he married me.

Without further adieu, meet my top three cardi's, left to right (close-up picture above):




Orchid Gap Cardigan with sequin embellishment - I loved this cardigan so much, I bought two of them  from Gap's Spring 2005 line. No joke. This cardigan just sparkles and because of that, just looking at it makes me happy. The only downfall is that it's difficult to wear on curly hair days because my hair gets caught in the sequins.

Multicolor CaBi Kimono - This has an odd mix of colors (I am slowly coming around to mustardy yellow) but it feels amazing. It is warm AND feels like a nightgown. It's flowy, fun and not fitted, so I am all about it on those days I feel... bigger. And cold. ;)

JCrew Poppy Cardigan - One simple phrase can sum up my love for this one: loud print, loud colors. I love bold prints and colors and this cardigan is killing it in those categories all in the name of warmth.

Do you have anything you have just-so-happened to accumulate large numbers of in your closet? Do you love a beautiful cardi, too? Join the kmac cardi party! You don't have to blog, you can post pics on IG in your favorite cardigans and use #kmaccardiparty.

This will be super fun! Do it! :)

Meal Planning: The Grab and Go Method (lunch)

I am not a great cook. I can cook a few things, but not a lot. I have some family recipes, Pinterest recipes, but baking is more my thing. Hands down. 

I have pinned a million pins (okay, ten) about meal planning. I have printed off cute templates to help me. I bought a dry erase board for my fridge. But the bottom line is that it's really hard to meal plan when your life has a scattered scedule. 

Here's a recipe for a Meal Planning Disaster:

• Lack of cooking knowledge combine with
• Lack of time and throw in
• Actually eat dinner with husband 12 nights per month
• Measure out LOTS of meal planning for one along with
• Meal planning for lunch every single day  {you can only eat so much Chickfila, y'all}

So today we went to Costco and we bought a lot of food. I am bound-and-determined to make sure for the next TWO weeks, I don't have to buy lunch at the hospital OR be tempted to grab Krystal on my way up Signal. BTW, GREAAAAAT place for a Krystal. AH!

My Mom always told me that "participation takes preparation" -- same thing with meal planning. Make time to do it, and you are saving money (and calories) by not eating out. So this meal plan is more for lunches, not dinner. I would eat these things for dinner, but some people need a meat and two sides. When it's just me, a salad is a-ok.

As soon as we got home form Costco, I made:

7 chef salads with cheese (buy the 3 lb bag of salad for $3.00, y'all!!), turkey and bacon bits with dressing on the side (in condiment cups), 3 turkey and cheese croissants (no mayo), 2 chicken salad sandwiches. 

I also bought HUGE bags of Skinny Pop, Snap Pea Crisps, and other snacks at Costco and put small servings in sandwich bags. Buying those teeny bags to throw in lunches may save you time, but it doesn't save you money usually ($ vs. oz).

Then I made a list of everything I had made by category, and stuck it on the fridge so we would know what we had, and could mark it off when things were gone:

And the most crucial part of the "Grab and Go" method: ORGANIZE YOUR GRAB AREA.

I LOVE my panty with my fabulous Elfa system from The Container Store. I love those wheeled baskets so much I could hug them. I combined two half full baskets, moved some bigger snack items down to the big drawer on the bottom, and made TWO snack drawers with all of my snacks in them and labeled it, of course:


    

Now when Sam or I walk in the kitchen needing something to snack on, OR food to pack for lunch, we know what's already divided up and prepared and we can grab it and go. In case you are interested, here is the complete list of snacks (including snacks that are pre-packaged):

G&G Snacks: Pantry
Skinny Pop Popcorn
Dark Chocolate Covered Pretzels
Annie's Organic Fruit Snacks
Cashew Mix
Chex Mix
Cranberry Almond mix
Snap Pea Crisps

G&G Snacks: Fridge
Applesauce in squeezy pouches (organic)
Chia Seed squeezy pouches (taste like grape jello!)
Mango and Kale squeezy pouches (so good)
Fresh cut pineapple in rubbermaid boxes

Blue Crab Dip  (crackers in sandwich bag in pantry)
Hummus (carrots in bags OR crackers)

The "main entrees" include salads, turkey or chicken croissants (I only made four today and froze the rest of the pallet) or sandwiches, chicken salad, crab spread, pimento cheese, and when all of those run out, Lean Cuisines. ;)

Hope this helps those of you that struggle with meal planning like me! 

Journaling the Bible

This is adapted from "Reading the Bible in a Twitter World", an amazing seminar I had the opportunity to attend as part of the National Youth Worker's Conference. These "notes" are for my HS Girls Bible Study Sisters, as a recap to help remind them of the ways to journal God's word in their quiet time. At the bottom of this post there are verses listed that you may want to start with journaling.

There are four ways (okay, WAY more than that -- but these are a good start) to journaling the Bible. It is my hope that as you start journaling that you:

• Learn more about God and His love
• Continue to make a habit to spend time in God's word and reflect on it
• Remember to bring your journal to Wednesday night Bible study :)  (and on Resurrection this weekend!!)
• Remember to start each session with a prayer -- it doesn't have to be long, you can even just say something short like "God, help me to understand Your word, crave Your word, and live your Word"

Without further adieu, below are four ways to journal your Bible :)

Start with a cute journal -- CHECK! And fun markers, pens, colored pencils, whatever. CHECK!

1. Journalistically - 

This is a two pager :) On the left page, write the verse exactly how it appears in your Bible, including where it is from. Then go back and place quotations, brackets, squigglies, whatever to draw attention to certain parts of a verse. 

On the RIGHT page, break down the verse. Write your thoughts about the words that your drew brackets around, deconstruct it, write the who,what,when,where,why,how?

Reflect through your writing. 

Or as I said tonight, write down your pretzel logic ideas :)

{click images to make them bigger} 

2. Doodle - my FAVE!

We all have them pinned on pinterest, beautiful works of art that incorporate God's word. These are great for short passages! Think infographics, colors, fun fonts, outlines, anything! Here are some examples, be creative!

3. Detail

Basically you compare and contrast. On the left page, write the original verse, on the right page draw a line down the middle and compare two people. Example below is from Matthew 18 -- if you have a study Bible that cross-references passage in the Bible, this is especially helpful as you will know where to get more information. Another idea is to compare it to today, to yourself, etc. 

4. Rewrite Personalize :) 

This one gets deep (or at least for me, you may be totally different). Basically you take a passage and make it real to YOU. You can invert a passage or write an inspired psalm. I don't want to say rewrite because I have the utmost reverence for God's word, so we will call it "personalize" as we are making it even more personal to us. 

To invert - write the original verse, then break it down -- if it asks questions, you write a statement. If it has a statement, you write a question. For example: Psalm 15:1-2 

Lord, who may dwell in your house?
Who may live on your holy mountain?
The one whose walk is blameless,
who does what is righteous... 

The inverse would be: (in my own opinion)
Lord, I want to dwell in your house.
I want to live on your holy mountain.
Is my walk always blameless?
Is my life always righteous? 

To "Personalize" -  On the left page, write it as it is written. On the right page, replace words with something important to you. Tonight we talked about Psalm 23 -- the Lord is my shepherd... The seminar I attended had people saying, "The Lord is like my Grandpa" "The Lord is like a camera" and then tying all of these aspects they loved most about those things into God's love. As a I mentioned tonight, this one guy said "camera" and talked about how God showed him the perfect angles to capture, and flooded his lenses with light, and it was amazing. Here is my example of my "children": 

REMEMBER - there is no wrong way to do this. There are no "stupid" things you write down, no "has to be flawless" drawings. These thoughts and doodles are for you and God. This is to help you study God's word and get into the habit of doing it more routinely (and me, too!). 

Homework time! :) 

• I have asked that you all bring your journals to Resurrection this weekend - GO, pack it now. Rubberband it to your Bible.
• BRING YOUR JOURNALS EVERY WEDNESDAY (and your Bibles, not your Bible apps)
• Please, journal your favorite verse (or one that is important to you) this week and be ready to share either this weekend or next Wednesday, BUT if it is super duper personal and you don't feel comfortable sharing, you don't have to. I won't force you to share ever, but I might ask you to make a doodle you can show us ;)  This journal is between you and God. And if you want to show us all pieces and share, awesome. If you don't, that's okay too. 
• Pray :)

Verses to help kickstart journaling:

• ANY Psalm  -- this is especially helpful for #1, #4
• For doodle - check out the fruits of the spirit - Galatians 5:27-28
• For Detail (#3) - check out Romans 6. It describes Christ's followers. Compare "who I am/was" vs 
• "who I am supposed to be" 

I am praying for you all as we start this together! I hope you are as excited as I am! If you have questions, text me or email me at vmcguin@icloud.com    <3 - v.

Back to Basics - Christmas with mason jars and pallets

Anyone that knows me KNOWS that I love some bling. The more bling the better, especially when it comes to Christmas decorations.

But, simple and natural is beautiful, too. There is an upcoming Christmas Celebration and the decor we are planning is going to be full of magnolia branches, mason jars, and pallets. And it's going to be jsut beautiful, but without the bling.

Besides, glitter IS the herpes of craft supplies, right?

Check out these lovely invites for said Christmas party -- I LOVE the candy cane striped baker's twine. And the mason jar. And recycled card it's mounted on. Okay, I love the whole thing. 

And here's the best part of pre-party prep so far -- we upcycled pallets for yard decorations! My friend got five pallets (one that she stained that looks gorgeous) and we used a projector to paint them. Well, a few of them we traced then painted:

And we had two little helpers along the way... here's one:

...And then I was forced encouraged to step out of my perfectionist comfort zone and just straight up paint this one without tracing:

It's my FAVORITE!

My friend's hubby is going to put lights in all of them AND THEY ARE GOING TO BE EVEN MORE AWESOME. I am soooo excited about this project.

So excited in fact, that I am going to make one for our front porch. Sam's Dad is going to get me a pallet from his warehouse. I want to put it where you would see it at the top of the steps and then put garland on the top. I was thinking about drilling holes where the dots are and putting those big "bulb" light through it... but I don't know... let's not get too crazy.

Sew Chatt is *open!*

Well, I officially did it. I opened a boutique.

Granted, it's online, but it's a start and fun to get my feet wet.

Right now, I am facebook only, but depending on volume, may actually build a website for it in the near future.

Go "like" my page, buy some cute items, or send me pictures of items YOU want to see, and I will see if I can find them cheaper than the "big stores".

www.facebook.com/sewchatt

And eventually I will have a fun logo... ;)

Project Organized: Project Life

We interrupt this five month blog posting sabbatical to bring you the latest on what is going on at The Guin's: ORGANIZING! Everything.

As you know, I love Project Life. Especially the album sitting on our coffee table in the living room. I LOVE that when we have visitors, they always sit down and start flipping through it. Our memories, our life, recorded.

But I am behind, and I don't love that. I have completed through June, which is great, but it's October. So my goal by the end of the month of October is to catch up. On Saturday night, I took a step in the right direction -- I organized ALL of my Project Life supplies.

This is what I started with. A few boxes, random bags of cards, edge rounders, and no organization. It was driving me crazy. I had no clue what I had.

So I dumped the cards out of my Blush kit and started organizing them by types, i.e. calendar, grey based, pink based, cover cards, etc.

Then, I dropped them into labeled zip bags. This is AWESOME because they stay in their stacks, and I can fan them out and see them on both sides. (See also: OCD)

After they were all in their little baggies, I put them in my new Initials, Inc. divider bag - the Get a Grip (small). It's a game changer. I can just pull them out when I need them! {Side note: Kristy that sold me the bag is the same friend that got me hooked on Project Life}

In the awesome side pockets, I stuck my edge rounders, washi tape, date stamp, and 4x6 cards.

Lastly, I put ALL of my PL pages in an extra album I had. I added dividers, so it's easy to look at and see what I have or am running low on. I also discovered I probably won't need to buy ANY design A pages for two years. HAHA. Oops.

Do you think there is a Type A personality and Layout A relation? I do!

And this, my friends, is what I ended up with:

A bag, a binder, and totally organized and useable.

And pretty.

Time to catch up on Project Life, I have no excuses now! :)

And maybe my blog, too.

Project Organized: Upcycled Antique Cabinet

 I have a thing for antiques. Anything vintage really. It's classic. The latest version of my bedroom at my parent's house is all antiques, mostly from my family members. Beautiful collectibles and being surrounded by items that were treasured by those I loved is my idea of a perfect room.

I didn't bring a lot of those items to our home when I moved in because we have limited room. BUT, I was recently gifted with a gorgeous antique curio cabinet and I made room for it after a little suggestion from my mom that made a big difference:

Upcycle it. Line it with fabric and use it for storage. I pinned a bunch of pins on your pinterest with pictures you can look at.

Shut the front door. Sheer genius, that woman.

Here's the before:  {Notice the wall color changes in these pics - more on that later!}

Zoe thought she had a new perch to hang out on...

I bought fabric with typewriters and typewriter keys (eeek!!!!) printed on it from Etsy, lined the inside of the cabinet with adhesive, cut the pieces to cover the glass, and stuck the fabric on the adhesive. And voila:

Upcycled Craft Cabinet that hides all of my goodies!

And displays typewriters for that photo. How fun!

Later on, I moved it to another wall and now the tv sits on it ;)

The best part: It holds a TON of stuff and it hides it!

I Married a Hero

So we had date night tonight and I really just wanted to stay home, but glad we went. We ate at Ichiban and saw Fast 6 and then Sam got a fire call as we were eating the theater. A good one. A house fire. So we came home and he left immediately. Sometimes he is home within ten minutes, but not this time, it really is a house fire so it may be hours before he comes back. But as long as he comes back, I don't care how long it takes.

On April 28, 2012, I married a hero. But not just any hero, a firefighter. 2325.

He risks his life at the drop of a pin, at the sound of tones, day or night, he leaves to help those in danger. He saves the lives of strangers, and sometimes friends, neighbors, that need help.

He chooses to take this risk and that is just one of the many reasons I fell in love with him -- he is unselfish, humble, and compassionate. He likes to help others, just like I do, but on a totally different level. He is always prepared to give the ultimate gift and I pray every-single-day that he never has to.

He runs to his truck when the calls go out, but first kisses me goodbye and promises me he will always come back.

But there is always that chance... I ignore it. Sometimes I get this uneasy feeling when he is gone and I know "it's a good one." Sometimes I hurt from worry, and I'm not okay until he is back home and I am in his arms, his skin filthy from smoke and his clothes smelling like a bonfire. I can't sleep, I lie in bed with Zoe. It's uneasy and terrifying, and all I can do is pray.

Because I believe, whole-heartedly, that God will bring him home to me, just like Sam promises me before he runs to his truck, to run into burning buildings. For strangers. With his brothers who have got his back.

He tells me not to worry. He has had hundreds of hours of training. Classes. Continuing education. Certifications. He is knowledgable and passionate about it. But that still doesn't always make me feel better.

Sometimes I get defensive about his occupation and people don't get it. They think that firefighters just sit around. And sometimes they do when they aren't busy pre-planning buildings, flushing hydrants, saving animals, taking kids on tours of the firehall, regardless, they are always ready to help someone. To risk it all for anyone who needs help.

In the past, they have been overlooked, mistreated, and even called lazy at times. But guess what? When those people's houses catch on fire, or they have a car accident and the jaws of life have to be used to get them out, guess who does that? Firefighters. The ones you called lazy. The ones you need to help you. Right now.

[rant over]

And on a totally unrelated side note -- he looks hot in uniform. And bunker pants. WHOA.

So I thank God every day that He brought this hero into my life. I have been blessed with a selfless man that thankfully loves me for who I am (and that has to be hard sometimes, seriously), sees the best in me, and says he's happy to be with me forever and that he loves me more than anything. I love him more than I could ever explain to anyone because honestly, there are no words. I am beyond proud of him and blessed to be his wife, living this fire life. I wouldn't want it any other way.

Oh, HI!

I PROMISE I haven't forgotten about this blog since I haven't written in it in over a month. My bad. I've been a little busy. But I have all kinds of fun tutorials and neat crafty things I want to post but for now, here are some life updates:

• I got a new job. It's amazing and I love going to work every day. I work with wonderful people that save lives. Losing my previous job was a HUGE blessing in disguise. I am busy, but not traveling near as much, and HAPPY. And I love surgery. Even if they make me late/miss things because I can't "break scrub". I almost wish I would've gone to med school... and then I remember how hard biology was for me. :)

• Sam and I celebrated our one year anniversary. I should probably write a one year reflection post, but I'll just acknowledge it here in this quick update for now... I love him more and more every day. Seriously, words can't describe it. 

• I repainted our kitchen! Hubby wasn't thrilled but I think my com paining got to him (seriously it was way to dark. It was a man cave color) and now it's in-your-face-bright. Pics to come -- there is one on my Instagram if you just can't wait...

• I made my first paid window treatment for a friend and it was gorgeous... so if this marketing thing doesn't work, I'll just make custom window treatments. Okay, just kidding. But it's still fun to do on the side.

• My Panera billboards I have been laying out are actually on billboards! I saw one on the way to Cleveland, on the way home from Knoxville, and Sam saw one outside of Nashville. Pretty awesome.

• My Grandmother turned 86 in March but she doesn't act her age at all, she is so feisty! 

• Kali graduated fifth grade today and sang a solo at graduation! AND got the good Samaritan Award. I am so proud of her!

• Will got the "Most likely to say something nice" award and also the "Most Cheerful" award. I'm not surprised. He's precious and I am proud of him, too!

• We booked a vacation to Florida in July! WOOHOO!

• My friend gave me a BEAUTIFUL, registered, sweet, persian cat with a mashed in face for my Mom and she is SO happy. I love that kitten, too. And glad she wasn't for sale :) {Pics on Instagram}

• I'm obsessed with the song "22". No joke. My birthday weekend theme for the ATL celebration at the end of June. Get. Ready. 

• I'll be 27 next month. HOLY. COW. Where does time go? I feel like I am still 22 (hence obsession with aforementioned song).

• I am so behind in my Project Life album. There. I said it. I'm going to to work on it and will show you the cute layouts that are stored up in my head right now.   :)

• I've been working out like crazy and after I saw that wasn't cutting through the jiggle (literally) I started making healthier choices (most of the time). I am really seeing results now and it's great. 

• I've run 3.25 miles in the last week (not all at a once, in one-mile intervals, usually) and didn't stop. My ankle swelled for two days after the 1.25 mile run but I made it, at least!

Basically, I am super blessed, busy, and happy. The Lord has been so good to me and I cannot thank Him enough for all of the blessings I have received in this season of my life. Yes, there have been some snags, but there's way too much good going on to get hung up on the little snags. God is good, all the time and I am so thankful.

1 Thessalonians 5:18

Bring on the Sunshine!

Yesterday after work my friend Kathy cut and highlighted my hair. It's super convenient because its about two minutes from my house and she's wonderful :)

She also waxed my eyebrows for the first time ever. I have always plucked them but this was super fast, and only burned for about 30 seconds. But I love how they look - they are already going in this shape, but now they look better! :)




I feel like I look like the old Vanessa. The last time after I died my hair it just never really lightened up again. But now it did :)

Yay for a summer look -- bring on the sunshine!

Spring has Sprung

Spring is my FAVORITE! We have so enjoyed our new outdoor room and sit outside regularly. I found the cutest, brightest accessories to accent our furniture:

We also found some shade plants that will survive under the pergola (and I made that pot!)

And I found these sweet shade plants at WalMart -- perfect for our covered front porch. And they are pink. YAY!

And here is a wide-angled view of the finished project in our backyard! I am so thankful we have this new outdoor living space and I LOVE it!

Project Life: Check-in

Well, I've been sucked in. I bought the kit, started and got hooked. I have really gotten hooked on making DIGITAL core kit cards of my own (um hello cutesy fonts and fun colors and original ideas!) and I've gotten hooked on looking through it. The 4-ish pages I have finished I just flip back and forth through because I LOVE looking through them and remembering.

And that's what this is all about. Remembering those moments.

Like....

New Year's Eve - fun times with friends and confetti cannons messes 

Jack's first car (and ride in that car), Trip to ATL, losing my job (ha)

Close-up on my detail of NYE party :) I looove using cutesy font on PL (and only PL)

Valentine's Day & Baby Miller's early arrival!

Denim and Diamonds - FAVE non-profit event of the year.

I danced so much my shoes broke.

Yay for writing things down you want to remember -- like Miller's EARLY arrival!

These planner pages are AMAZING. My SIL Sarah (who I got hooked on PL - WOO!) found these babies online and they are AWESOME. You pick out your layout and print them and write in what goes where. This is much easier than the notebook I had been scribbling in.

And since I am OCD and like to have a design plan, this is GREAT!

 These Fiskars edge rounders are a MUST! I got the Large and medium sizes and they are perfect!

 And if you are doing it for a year, you NEED month dividers. :) You could probably make your own but I bought the ones that matched my book, of course. :)

In my next Project Life check-in: money-saving tips and layout tricks! And more pictures, of course!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter from the Guin's! 

After we exchanged Easter baskets and Sam went on his special egg hunt (each egg had a note inside of a reason why I loved him) we went to church and spent the day with family.

As I have been adjusting to the Methodist faith (I was raised Southern Baptist) there is one thing that this particular Methodist church does that I LOVE - the flowering of the cross. Every Easter the children in the congregation bring flowers from home and when they are called down for children's church, they bring their flowers and put them in this cross that is lying on the floor. When they are finished, they stand it up and present it to the congregation -- it is BEAUTIFUL. Today when Mark was talking about it, the sun literally started streaming sooo bright through the top of the church that it illuminated the cross. It was a God moment. I hope people notice. The presence of the Lord was definitely in that place today.

Here's a picture of the cross from the balcony -- I got a close up one but it's blurry:

Hope you had a blessed Easter, too!

Mark 16:1-8 "When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus' body. Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb and they asked each other, "Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?" But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed. "Don't be alarmed," he said. "You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter, 'He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.' " Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid." (NIV)

Sew Cute: Easter Baskets

My SIL Sarah found these cuuute basket liners on Etsy and asked me if I thought I could replicate them. I could at least try - so I made one for myself on a small basket first that is on our kitchen table.

Then I tackled the boys baskets and made matching shirts out of the scraps. I finished them two days before Easter (hey, at least they were finished in time!!). That new job took up a lot of my sewing time I used to have. ;)

Aren't they cuuuute? Sarah picked out the pattern (which, I love and not gonna lie, reminds me of Tory Burch), ribbon design, and thread color. I think it looks great together! And to her point, they aren't "Eastery" so she can use them out in their rooms year-round -- oh yeah, and it matches their room decor. Brilliant, sis!

Maybe the next basket liner I get to make in the future for her will have some pink in it and we can put some lace on it and girl-it-up! :) But if it's another boy basket, I will still make it cute. :)