This year's Christmas card!

Stationery card

View the entire collection of cards.

Awesome Resource...

If you teach Kindergarten you should check out this raffle for an awesome resource-KindergartenWorks.

My Favorite Things

1. A weekend away. My hubby and I got to go to a marriage conference this weekend. It was fun to get away. We learned a lot, ate a lot, and got to stay in this beautiful hotel. Better yet, we didn't pay for it!

2. Having time to read. I just finished some great books by Janette Oke, and now I need some suggestions. Any ideas?

3. Focaccia Bread. It is my new favorite thing to bake. I use my bread maker for the dough, but bake it in the oven. It is so easy, and just like the real thing from Israel!

I'm linking up with Abby!

The end of a season...

Tonight was our Cheerleading Awards ceremony, officially ending our season which started in July. (Please tell me what other sport has an 8 month season.) It was short and sweet without being too sappy. It was such an amazing year, and full of great memories. I have learned so much through coaching my first cheer squad. I'm pretty sure they taught me more than I taught them. It was such a blessing to coach the girls that I cheered with all those years ago. God has been faithful through many ups and downs, and I can't wait to see what He has in store for next season. I will so miss my Seniors, but I know life holds great things for them. As I looked out over my team tonight I realized that this year was so much more than coaching cheerleading, this year I made so many new friends. Next year is going to be awesome!!!

I love these girls!

My New Car!!!

It has been quite a process to get a new car. I never realized how much work it is to pick out the right car at the right price. And taking out the money to pay for it in cash gave me a lot of anxiety. But it has all paid off and now we have a new Honda Element (I know some of you probably think they look like a box). I.Love.It!

(This is not our actual car because I don't want to go in the rain to take a picture, but it looks exactly like this.)

Wednesday is for Four

Thanks Jordyn for tagging me in a survey! Since I have been completely forgetting to take pictures of my clothes this is a good alternative.

01. Four Places I Go
*YACS (school/work)

*Grocery Store

*Momentum Christian Church

*My favorite place...Home

02. Four Favorite Smells
*I have to agree with Jordyn and say coffee

*My new spa scented shower cleaner

*Springtime

*Brownies

03. Four Favorite Movies/Shows
*Lost. watching it again for the second time.

*Time Traveler's Wife-Great Book too!

*House-I think he is so funny

*Never Been Kissed-My favorite chick flick

04. Four Recommendations
*Vote Yes for SPLOST-Of course I would rather tax everyone than just the people that own houses

*Read the book before you see the movie (only exception is My Sister's Keeper)

*Always go Mac...PCs always die

*Always eat dessert

Everyone I know has been tagged...

Wednesday...but not WIWW

Well I was lazy this week and didn't take any picture of my outfits. I don't like the pics my computer takes, and have no full length mirror. Maybe Scott will oblige me next week. Instead I will show you what I received in the mail today. I just love getting packages, even if I bought it! So here is my little herb garden...

It is a Chia Herb Garden, and it was super easy! They said I don't have to put it in sunlight, but it looks much better on the windowsill then on top of the fridge where they recommend. I planted Basil, Cilantro and Chives. I can't wait to see if they grow!

MFT

Last week I did not participate in MFT simply because my current favorite thing was still coffee (and i was too tired to think of anything else). But today has been a wonderful day off, so now I have two new favorite things...

My new seat cushion and pillow

It matches my new pillow for my awesome red chair.

Linking up with Graduate Extrordinaire! 

what.i.wore.wednesday.

So I've been pretty good this week! Except my computer does the picture taking, so the pictures as less than fabulous. Also, my head is cropped out of one because of bad hair. Sadly the only day I forgot to take my picture was on Valentines Day :(. But I did have a picture taken of me while I was being sang too. Let me explain...it is a fundraiser that our school does where someone can buy you a Valentine and a song. Mine was from my parents (Scott got one too, very funny & awkward). Some of students got sang too, which was sooo funny. One little guy said when they were done, "Mrs. Hamilton, that made me hot all over." Which in kindergarten language means embarrassed. Ok, so here are the pictures...

Thursday

Sweater: American Eagle

Skirt: Hand-me-down

Shoes: Rack Room

Necklace: Christmas Gift

Friday

Pink Shirt: Rugged Warehouse

Jacket: Christmas gift

Grey Pants: Ross

Boots: Rack Room

Saturday

Went hiking to the top of Stone Mountain with my bro & his gf

Sunday

Sweater: Wet Seal

Jeans: Aeropostale

Brown Flats: Kohls

I also have to include a pic of the awesome pillow I made for my new chair.

(I can't figure out how to turn the picture around)

Monday

(We have an entire jean week at school, hooray!)

Coat: Ross 

(Kayla & Jordyn-remember when we all bought these!)

Pink shirt: Forever 21

Jeans: Christmas gift

Cute Shoes: Rack Room

Earrings: Mexico

Tuesday

(bad hair not shown)

Purple Shirt: Christmas gift

Tank: Birthday gift

Jeans: Christmas gift

Necklace: Some stand in Mexico

Wednesday

(I decided to go casual)

Shirt: School Theme shirt designed by Scott-

Our theme is Amplivate: Encouraging others to be bold for Christ.

Jeans: Target

Tennies: Ross (Best shoes ever for only $30!)

Linking up at The Pleated Poppy

How I love Saturdays...

Saturdays in college were always fun, but now that I have a full time job it is different. In college I always wanted to find something to do on Saturday; now I just want to sit in my new red chair. I have my typical Saturday to-do list, but it mostly involves staying in the house.
1. Make Biscotti
2. Clean bathroom (or convince Scott to)
3. Exercise...maybe...
4. Make Valentines cookies for class
5. Sew new pillows for my chair
5. Read a book and drink coffee

Yep, I love Saturdays. Why do you love Saturdays?

WWIW: So the journey begins...

So this weekend I decided I could not find any reason that I should not do What I Wore Wednesday. The only real reason is that I do have a full length mirror (hence the half pics you will see). I just decided to do this on Monday, so I only have Monday and my two outfits from Tuesday. Hopefully I will become more diligent! Thanks to Jordyn for encouraging me to start this up!

Monday:

Cardigan: Christmas gift

Pink Shirt: Rugged Warehouse

Necklace: Aeropostale

Grey Pants: Ross

Tuesday:

Whoops...forgot!

Wednesday:

Green Shirt: Charlotte Russe

Purple Shirt: Christmas gift

Grey Capris: Hand-me-down

Grey Boots: Rack Room Shoes

Scarf: Made by Me!

Tuesday Night 

(We had to attend a teacher dessert get-together-thing)

Cardigan: Target

Dress: Goodwill

Necklace: Christmas gift

Leggings: Target

Boots: same as above

Watch: Big Lots

If nothing else these postings make me realize I get my clothes at random places. Happy Wednesday! Linking up at The Pleated Poppy!

The Snickering Woman

I was reading Genesis this morning about Sarah and Abraham. In Genesis 18 it says that Sarah laughed in her heart when God said she would conceive at 90. I read this commentary written by one of the sight members and just wanted to share it:

Why do we as women always think we know better? Here Sarah laughs, in her heart; what kind of laugh is that? A "yeah-right, you don't know what you're talking about" kind of laugh. She's heard God's promise, she even tried to help Abraham with God's promise by giving him her maid-servant. The real question is, how long ago did she stop beleiving her husband? Does she dispise this promise she helped try to come to pass 13 years ago, and is imbittered or hopeful that Abraham is wrong, so much so that she laughs when a stranger confirms this news?

A better question, do I laugh at my husbands long-shot dreams, goals? Do I know if God gave him a passion for that asperation, even if it's a glimps of a promise He wants to fulfil in my husband's life? Lord, help me to support my husband throughout his life. Even if his dreams seem far-fetched or impossible. If it'll bring you glory, help me encourage and beleive in him.


My dear husband is a dreamer, and I have both feet firmly in reality. This was a good reminder that his dreams are from God, and I am here to encourage him. Even though I am focused on making lunches for tomorrow, and he is focused on the 'what ifs' for the years to come, we balance each other out. I just thank God for him. :)

Boomerang

Boomerang is where I just bought my new couch and chair! And its a cool name. Yesterday we went to Little Five Points with college married friends, and went to some cool vintage-ish shops. Of course we found the perfect furniture for our living room. Seriously. And we could afford it. So there was no way I could leave without it, especially because our friends threatened to not be our friends if we did not. We went and retrieved it today. Love.it. I now have my reading chair. Sigh. A place to do my favorite things: read, eat biscotti, and drink coffee. I know Scott likes the couch because he has not moved all day. But we really enjoyed our time with friend eating at the Flying Biscuit (amazing food), and visiting 4 coffee shops, I think?

Anyways here are the pictures, of course. (Note the napping husband. We rearranged the furniture 4 times)

The couch (and rocking chair we already had)

The chair (and new arrangement)

Craft table and bookshelf (old things, new locations)

This week everyday has felt like Friday...

Needless to say I am very ready for the weekend. Especially because I cannot wait to go eat with all the married friends!!! I'm not sure why this week has seen so long, but it may have to do with my increasing sinus pressure headache :(. There has been some funny happenings in the world of kindergarten. One being that on Tuesday I bent over to put my lunchbox on the ground, and one of my students slapped me on the "behind" as we say in kindergarten. Didn't think I would ever have to deal with that in kindergarten... Also, I'm currently trying to discourage the "nose-picking & eating" phase that some of them seem to be going through. I thought all of you teachers would share this little conversation that occurred in the other kindergarten classroom today:
"Do you kiss God?"
"You can't kiss God!"
"Do you kiss your mom?"
"Yes."
"Then you kiss GOD! His Spirit is inside your mom! He tells her what to do."
"Nobody can tell my mom what to do."
 Gotta love them!

My Favorite Things

Wow...what a Monday. I love coaching cheerleading, and i love my hyper cheerleaders, but they do exhaust me. Sometimes more than kindergarteners. After reading  Abby's blog is was inspired to focus on something good after this long Monday.

So my current favorite thing is...coffee!!

I just acquired a frother, and have learned how to make cappuccinos. Love. it. Add a good book, and some biscotti, and I am one happy girl. Add my husband sitting with me, and my day is made. Even though it is Monday night, I think I will go indulge myself now. 

Friday!!

Hooray it's Friday! The first time I've actually had time to sit down on my couch, and desire to write a blog. It was a fun week in kindergarten with lots of fun, tears, and peeing on a shirt! Oh how I love 5 year olds! As I watch the older elementary students (and high school students) I realized I love teaching kindergarten because they love you no matter what and (almost) always do what you say. I love that the "quiet game" is enough to keep them completely still and quiet in the hallway. I love that they are enthralled by powder that turns to 'snow' when it is mixed with water. I love that getting to hold a stuffed penguin is the best reward. And I love that they will come to me and say, with no shame, Mrs. Hamilton I pee-peed on my shirt. Although I loved my week of sewing and baking, I am glad to be back.

Ruffle Scarf!

Today I successfully created my first ruffle scarf! I'm not sure I used the right material, but it was on sale at Joann's. Here it is:

I chose green and purple because I looked in my closet and saw a lot of green and purple. I made a purple layer, and a green layer, and sewed them together. They are all twisted around in the picture because it's a bit too short to wrap around my neck. It is nice, after 5 days of sweatpants, to do my hair and makeup since we have having guys/girls night with the small group!

Finished Placemats!

So here are my final placemats...yay! I did learn, however, that it is quite difficult to use the macbook to take pictures of things on the floor. Scott laughed at me trying to stand on a chair to get a better shot. :)

Here are a set of four placemats

 And here is my favorite placemat! I love these buttons!

Next project-ruffled scarves

Current train of thought-should I open an Etsy shop? I really like making this stuff but what will I do will all of it? Advice?

Snow Day 4

The more I'm at home the more I craft. The more I craft the more I blog. Because my husband is currently speaking computer language, I have to explain my crafts to those of you who understand :). Yesterday and today I started making yo-yos. I made some for the back of my sewing chair. Then I found out no school today, so I decided to go for a bigger project-dishtowel placemats. I know everyone has something they receive in excess at their wedding-mine was dishtowels. So I used my brown ugly placemats as a backing and sewed my dishtowels on. Then I added pockets for utensils. Next step is decorating with yo-yos, but I need to find some cute buttons first (Walmart failed me). Here are some pics...

The yoyo chair

The before placemats

The almost done placemats and yoyos yet to be made...

I will be posting the final results soon! (Since we are out again tomorrow)

Snow Days

Of course I had to put up some pictures of our multiple snow days...especially since I don't think there is anything else I can possibly do in my house

Scott and I attempted to sled, but we really just pushed ourselves for the sake of "newly married pictures during our first big snow". Thanks to my mom for being willing to go out and take pictures of our attempt to play in the snow. :)

 Then we decided to take a stroll around the block (near my parents house) to see what my neighbors were doing...and you thought sledding behind a four-wheeler was redneck...

Nothing like sledding behind a slow-moving tractor.

This was sitting in the next-door-neighbor's yard. 

And who wouldn't use a halloween decoration to make a snowman's head?

Hope everyone had a fun snow/ice day!

Final Product...

I have completed my Christmas break project on my new sewing machine! A table skirt and chair cushion for my sewing table. Here are some pictures of the process...

Step 1: Layout fabric

 Step 2: Sew chair cushion

Step 3: Sew table skirt

Now what to do next...