{iPhone Rewind} :: November

It was feeling more and more real when Lindsay and I did a mock set-up of our craft show! It was fun to see our finished products; it made us feel legitimate :)

I absolutely LOVE my Silhouette Cameo. I used it for almost all of my craft show products, and even tried the print and cut feature for our price tags. It is by far the best crafting tool I have ever bought. I'm a HUGE fan!

This dog. With it getting darker earlier, she is convinced it's time to eat WAY before it actually is time for dinner. She will stare me down until I feed her. 

My mom asked me to help with some of her Christmas gifts, so I took it as an opportunity to jump back into sewing! 

I am REALLY enjoying the Revelation study with BSF. I had an early morning, so I decided to grab a cup of coffee and read my notes. It has been good for me to slow down and intentionally focus on the Lord on His throne. Good stuff.

Apparently, I spent a lot of time at Starbucks this month :)  It was Mike's first full day of vacation, so we headed to Starbucks for an afternoon date. We enjoyed lattes and our books.  #lovehim

The colder weather meant utilizing our fireplace! We are so excited to have one in the new house, and we plan to thoroughly enjoy it through the winter months.

November and Thanksgiving means all things pumpkin! I made a pumpkin roll as a precursor to Thanksgiving, and it was SO yummy. One of my favorite Thanksgiving desserts, for sure!

I finished the project for my mom pretty quickly, which I was excited about. Sewing is like riding a bike...it all came back to me once I got into a groove, and now all I want to do is sew. Now to find my next project...

So these flowers started blooming in our backyard. Aren't they SO interesting? Does anyone know what it is?

Our church handed out these advent guides from Buckner, and I was excited to start reading through it. I am thankful for this season to slow down and focus on celebrating Christ's coming.

Cold and rainy Sunday afternoons mean homemade lattes. I enjoyed this sweet smiley face pumpkin spice from my love :)

Tis the Season

For Mike's birthday, I gave him Christmas lights. That might seem a little strange, but this was such a HUGE gift from me to him. Since we have known each other, we have always disagreed on Christmas lights. I prefer clean, pretty white lights; Mike prefers the tacky festive colored ones. {Mike says he prefers the fun colored ones and that I prefer the boring white ones...}

So when I was trying to think of creative gift ideas, I knew the sacrifice I needed to make the perfect gift would be to give my husband colored Christmas lights :)

I did ALL of my research to find the best ones, and I got everything we needed to get our house decorated for Christmas. Part of the gift was hanging the lights together! 

Even Sasha and Michael got in on the light-hanging fun :)

When I pulled light clips out of the box for Mike, it sounded like Sasha's treat box. So she didn't leave my side, hoping that somewhere in the box, a yummy treat would emerge...

We also did the rest of our Christmas decorating this weekend. Christmas tree, stockings, etc. I LOVE that we have a real fireplace to hang our stockings this year!

I tossed our old door wreath in the move because it was in pretty bad shape, so I was on the hunt for another. But then I decided to do something a little different. I decided to make an ornament door hangar {you know, since I have been in such a crafty mode lately}, and I really like how it turned out! Some parts look black in the photos, but it's actually a dark green.

Materials: wood ornament from Hobby Lobby, acrylic paint, Christmas greenery, bells, ribbon, wood "M" initial

Tools: foam brush, hot glue gun, staple gun

Total Project Cost: $15 {with 40% of coupons and 50% off sales!}

We're ready for Christmas over at the McCulloughs! :)

High Five for Friday!

{one} Mike started his vacation today! He is able to take most of next week off, so I'm looking forward to spending that extra time with him. When I asked him what he wanted to do, all he said was "sleep." Ha! With Thanksgiving and his birthday, it should be a great week! 

{two} After our first craft show, we decided we wanted to do another one! So we will be at the Hebron High School Silver Wings Gift Galleria on Saturday, December 5th, 9am to 5pm. It will be held at the high school in Carrollton, so it's a little closer than the last one. The event has over 100 vendors, so come check it out!

{three} So I think the cold weather is finally coming. It got up to 70 today {and I enjoyed every last ounce of it}, but it's supposed to drop below freezing this weekend. The extended warm weather has been a sweet gift to me, but I know it's time to prepare for the cold. I mean, it IS the end of November...

{four} It's crazy that the holidays are here! Christmas started at the beginning of the month in a lot of places {a personal pet peeve}, but I am happily enjoying all things fall and Thanksgiving for the next week. If you haven't caved, there's only 1 more week; you can make it! :)

{five} Tonight we're headed over to Ben & Lindsay's to grill the dove from the guys' hunting trip. We're looking forward to hanging out with family and enjoying the spoils of the hunt. I can't eat the jalapeño poppers, but there will still be plenty of gamey bird to enjoy. 

Happy Friday!!

Holly Daze Bazaar

A few weeks ago, Lindsay and I decided to rent a booth at a craft show. We looked at a few different options, but settled on the Holly Daze Bazaar in Fort Worth. We spent the following weeks furiously building our inventory and preparing for the show!

We left early Saturday morning to head out and set up. We were SO nervous and excited! We didn't know what to expect, but we were ready to find out :)

It ended up being a blast! The members of Arlington Heights United Methodist Church were incredibly helpful and so sweet. The atmosphere was fun and friendly, and it really was the perfect introductory show for us. 

Presley Kate Boutique was ready and open for business!

So proud of our booth :)

My mom came into town for the craft show, and it was so fun to have her there! It was great to have an extra set of hands and someone who could run errands and some recon on the other booths ;)

Overall, it was a great day. We sold a good amount of items and feel like we could definitely do this again. We felt completely prepared, and not at all like we missed anything important. If we do another craft show {maybe December 5th??}, we would like to do one in a school, because we think our customer base will be higher. But if not, we still had fun, and everything we were not able to sell was placed in our Etsy shop, so be sure to check that out!

When the Tears Come

It could be in the check out line at the grocery store.

Or watching a silly TV show.

Or when you open the mailbox and find the baby shower invitation.

Today it was at church. I forgot that they were doing baby dedications, and when I saw the notice in the worship guide, the tears just came. We hadn't even made it to the actual dedication part of the service, and I was already struggling to keep the tears at bay.

It's not always this hard. Most of the time I can take a deep breath and keep my composure. I can focus on the excitement of others or distract myself enough to be ok. But there are other times when I just can't stop the tears. No matter how hard I try, I can't seem to close the floodgates. Because in that moment, all of the grief weighs on my heart, and it's so heavy that I can't help but cry.

As I sat and cried silently in my seat, I was reminded that there would be no baby dedication for our little ones. No scripture prayed over them. No parental charge to raise them to know Jesus. No cute photos or precious memories of the day. And my heart ached. 

I hate infertility. I hate death. I hate that we are still waiting. I hate that the tears catch me off guard sometimes.

But I'm thankful for the One who sees my tears {and collects them}. And I look forward to the day when there will be no more tears.

"You keep track of all my sorrows; You have collected all my tears in your bottle." ~ Psalm 56:8

"He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away." ~ Revelation 21:4

Until then, I just have to be ok with the fact that the tears are going to come...

Oklahoma Retreat

Mike was asked to speak at a college retreat this past weekend, and I was able to tag along! Our sweet friends lead a college ministry in Norman, and they had their annual fall retreat.

The retreat was at the Falls Creek Baptist Conference Center in Davis, Oklahoma. It was a gorgeous cabin, and the perfect place for a weekend retreat. The weather wasn't awesome though; it was rainy and cloudy most of the time, so we didn't get to spend much time outdoors, but it was still a fun chance to get away. And I always enjoy hearing Mike speak {even though I am a far cry from a college student...nothing like a weekend with college kids to make you feel old!}  :)

The theme of the weekend was "being rooted," taken from Colossians 2:6-7. Mike spoke about what it looks like to be rooted in the Story of God's work throughout history and eternity, rooted in Christ, and rooted in the local church. I felt like it was a good reminder for me personally, and I kept praying that the Lord would speak to the students in a way that would forever change them for the gospel and the kingdom. 

The entire weekend, Mike and I kept talking about how we felt when we were in college: all the possibilities of life, the way the Lord grew us in our faith, and how we seemed so ready to take on the world. It was such an exciting time, and we both felt like the Lord used our time in college to develop a deeper faith and a passion for Him. It was interesting to reminisce on that time, and to now have the perspective of 8+ years out of college. Walking a little more through the trials and triumphs of life makes Jesus that much sweeter.

We also kept talking about how OLD we felt. The college students looked like such babies! And it was most definitely the leggings-as-pants mecca. #leggingsarenotpantsladies

During our free time, we were able to play a few games and even hang out with students. But we were definitely the old people that took a nap and went to bed while the college kids stayed up to party.

We were so thankful to be a part of the college retreat. It was exciting to see the ministry that our dear friends have with these students, and how the Lord is working through them to impact these students for the gospel. We pray that these students fall deeper in love with Jesus and desire to pursue Him with their whole lives.

#iheartFR #wcl