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)

A Different Egg Hunt & Easter Decor

Easter is quickly approaching this year! For some reason I was thinking it was in April, but it's actually in about two weeks! So I had to get my specialty holiday fun rear in gear and get this house "springified!

Today I was working on a basket liner (scroll down for the rest on that) and I came up with this great Eastery way to have fun and encourage my husband! Hide your Easter eggs like you always do -- but change it up a little bit. Instead of putting candy in every egg, I am going to put something that I love the most about Sam in each egg written on pretty scrapbook paper. Of course I will still get some candy, but I think he will like the sweet notes even better than the sweet treats!

To help get us in the Spring and Easter spirit (besides the beautiful sunshine!!!) I switched the pine cones out of the giant apothecary jars and replaced the with eggs (that match our painting! It really pops with those bright colors beside it!)

AND I made this super cute basket liner for the basket on our table! 

Sarah sent me a link to one on Etsy and asked if I could make them so I experimented with this tiny basket for our table. I am going to make a bigger version for my parents and then make my sweet nephews one, too! The boy's (how fun is THAT to say!) will have their names on them though instead of 'Hoppy Easter' :)

Super excited about Spring, and of course, Easter. I think we might color some real eggs, too! 

Our First Christmas Cards

Things are going to be a little busy during December so I decided it would probably be good to get a jump on Christmas cards. As a former designer, you know I couldn't just order one from shutterfly and give up all of my creative power. So I designed my own tonight.

We had photos made after we enjoyed Thanksgiving with my family (Thanks, Mom!) and so we used two photos from that "photo shoot" at the pond in their neighborhood, and one from our wedding day. I LOVE the pictures from our photo shoot, especially the one with Zoe. :) And I dropped them into a cute layout I made, printed them from snapfish, and voila -- For $0.48 each, our Christmas cards are ready (the ones I liked on shutterfly were $1.69 each)!

Well, as soon as they get to the house...

Merry Christmas from the Guin's -- It's our first Christmas as Mr. & Mrs.! 


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Hallway Wedding Gallery

We got a lot of great wedding gifts (thank you!) and one that I couldn't wait to use was a wall art framing kit from Bed, Bath and Beyond, and a personalized frame with out wedding date on it. We knew we wanted a "gallery" of photos form the wedding in the hallway, so as soon as we got the hi-res copies of the pictures we put them in the frames.

Because we actually laid out the gallery in the floor and hung it about a month ago. :)

> The gallery frame set was from my coworker and work momma, Tina

> The personalized frame in the middle was from George and Patti Cromie (my adopted grandparents) and has a shot from the church balcony after Dad and I reached the alter

> The top photo that spells GUIN was a gift to Sam from his sis, Sarah, way before I came along -- but it fit in perfectly with this! (thanks Sarah!)

> The faith, love and family iron words were from my house and are special to me.

> The architectural elements on each side of the Guin are from Hobby Lobby and cost $3 each -- we needed something to fill up the space with the words. It looked empty and now it doesn't!

> The pictures are some of our favorites:

Top row, L to R - Sam and I right after we walked up the aisle, Sam and I on the firetruck, church shot, Sam and I leaving in the Super Bird, Sam and I acting goofy during pictures

Left of family is me by the stained glass, and right of family is Sam by the stained glass "looking over" to me :)

And the bottom is our WHOLE family and one of my absolute favorite pictures. My parents, grandparents and Sam's parents, grandmothers, brother, and sister, brother-in-law and nephew.

What I really love about this wall is that you see it as soon as you walk in our front door.

First Married Meal

Sam and I have a crazy busy life! Last Monday was our first days back to work, but it was a weird week since he had in-service training every day, so it wasn't "normal". Although I am not sure what normal will be still... but I digress.

Tonight we were able to come home from work and actually cook (he did) and eat together at the table for our first married meal that we cooked from scratch, at home(16 days after our wedding day).



We had cheddar bacon chicken (Kraft, freezer section - think Shake 'n Bake), green beans, and mashed potatoes. :) It was so good! And it was so good to spend time with each other tonight -- it's our only night together until Friday because I am going to Knoxville tomorrow-Thursday, then Thursday he has volunteer fire department.

Check out our AMAZING "every day china" -- we didn't eat off of it, but I just think it's really pretty. :) It's by Legado and only the salad plates are monogrammed. Which happen to be the only plates I bought. The dinner plates are really pretty, though, but very big.




And Zoe hung out on the couch like a good kitty. Or cat. She's huge now. And being good is a rarity for her these days.