Embroidery hoops.

Pinterest has struck again! So I was contemplating what to do about our bed... In our new apartment there just seems to be so much wall and so little decor! So after thinking a little bit, I decided to try and do it myself! Whew, something simple- no worries! I found this on Pinterest for a baby's room (and I'd still LOVE to do it for a future child!)

Source: aedriel.blogspot.com via Summer on Pinterest

So I went to Joann's to load up on embroidery hoops and fabric! No tutorial for me, I was on my own! It's not hard at all! I promise!

Instead of picking out fabric and standing in line for them to cut it... I just picked out some pre-cut fabric! It was $1.99 each and I still have some left!

I'm telling you... here's the easy part. You just take the inside hoop out put the fabric down and put the inside hoop back in!

I just cut with scissors really close after and it worked great!

So here's the final product! I really like it, it's exactly what I was going for :) So the total for the hoops and fabric was about $20. I did some research though and you can actually get the hoops at HobbyLobby for cheaper! When I went they we're running quite low, but I would definitely go there if you're going to do it :)

And once again I could go on and on about how much I LOVE me some Pinterest!! (this not having a job at the moment thing leaves lots of room for crafts! fun! don't tell Matthew! ;) haha)

First.

This is such a first for me. Living in a new place that I've never "known." Granted, I have definitely gotten to know my usual route, 65 to 459 to 280, rather well in my college days. But this whole new city, backroads, and where traffic is and when is so so so brand new! (This is all with the exception of my short month in Atlanta- all I did there was sleep and work, no adventuring and learning the place!) Thus far Hunstville/Madison and Auburn has been my home, its what I knew. It's where I knew how to get where to where the quickest and easiest. So, back to Birmingham. I am oh so excited to learn this great big new city! I've managed to only get lost once and I figured my way out of it like a pro :) Every day I expand my domain!

Well the learning (exploring!) of the city Tuesday led me to Homewood. Might I just say, I love Homewood! I could see me living my life there in a cute little house with Matthew and a few kiddos. It's little downtown strip seems like a little "everybody knows your name" town, but all within this huge city of Birmingham. Well that's a few years down the road! So... what I wanted to share is this super duper amazinggggg antique shop me and mom found there! Couldn't tell you the exact name but all I have to say is, LOVE. I could see myself making a monthly trip there to just browse. We each wished we could bring home about 30 pieces each but settled for 2. I found exactly what I was looking for... we needed something to put our printer on, but I also wanted it to have a shelf below for books/paper. FOUND it, love it!

The other piece I got is a cute little small ironed chair. I'm going to put it at our vanity in the bathroom. )I don't have a picture because it needed a slight little fix, which my wonderful father is taking care of at home! hey, it was only $10- I can handle a little fixin')

Today I actually had to "work." I don't know if you can call keeping the sweetest three little girls work, but it was 9 to 5 none the less. I just love these girls and cherish every little second with them :) I told Matthew we are going to have to get parenting lessons from their parents because the kids are so well behaved!

We had our first house guests at the apartment! Blake and Katherine were in Mississippi for an interview and decided to stay with us on the way home :) We were happy to have them, but sad to make them sleep on an air mattress! Sorry guys!

I promise picture's will be put up as soon as we put everything on the walls. I have a pinterest idea for some decor in our bedroom! AND big news, I'm making an Auburn wreath... can't wait to share pictures and details!!

My graduate.

Done! All members of our small Watford family are officially alumni of the wonderful Auburn University :)

I'm so proud of my Matthew!

So I had told you this past weekend was going to be a whirlwind... it definitely was! Thursday morning we got up early to complete all the packing and load up and head to Birmingham. Mike, my wonderful father-in-law, came to our rescue and brought a trailer down to help us move our furniture! While all this was going on... Matthew had gone to get his cap and gown that morning but they gave him the wrong persons gown: a Jonathan Watkins. Oh brotherrrrr, so I had to go back up to the AU bookstore to get the right one. It's not a big deal, just a pain. So we eventually got it all done and headed toward Birmingham! We had a long day of unpacking and setting up and a I LOVE our new apartment! So we got to spend the night that night! Friday dad brought our table and chairs from Huntsville and we went to dinner (with Liz and mom) to Firebirds to celebrate Matthew's graduation :) It was delish as always! After we headed to Auburn ready for a day of graduation festivities on Saturday!

Woohoo! And now we are all settled into our apartment and Matthew is currently in the real world working away! Pictures of our apartment coming soon :)

Packing.

It's happening... and it has taken over our home.

I think it's actually wayyy worse than this picture shows. Because the piles are everywhere... and I mean everywhere. But looking forward to finishing up and packing up early Thursday morning :) It will all be worth it! I can't wait to set it all up and share picture with you all.

So a quick update on this past week. It was my last week keeping the kiddos. They were super sweet on the last day and surprised me with a cookie cake :) Little did they know that it is my recent favorite! It was the perfect ending to a great summer. Elizabeth is being the best little sister ever and keeping them for me next Monday and Tuesday before they start school. Matthew starts work on Monday so it would have been so tragic for me to have to stay! Thanks sis :)

On Friday we loaded up one load of moving junk and headed towards Birmingham. Matthew had been planning to get together with the guys to camp so I found it a perfect opportunity to go home and do some chilling, shopping, and Tatum-loving!! It was nice and fun, of course I would have liked Matthew being there with me though!

It had been quite a while since I had spent some quality time with my TatumTot so it was definitely time. She is growing up so fast and can now crawl (she's a pro!) and almost stand up perfectly on her own! She say's a few words, but doesn't really go for the "on-demand" thing anymore but it's still adorable!

So thats about it... have a crazy few days ahead that I will catch you up on later!

Recipes and life.

I've been trying to do my wifely duties lately and COOK. It comes a lot easier to me to bake rather than cook, so tons of desserts are flying out of my kitchen :) I have come across a few other recipes that are tasty too, and I wanted to share!

The first one is Lemon-butter Chicken. (from Cuisine at Home)

All you need is:

4 boneless chicken breasts

salt/pepper

1 tbsp. lemon juice

1 tbsp. minced lemon zest

1 tbsp. minced fresh parsley

3 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted

So here's the easy part... All you do is season the chicken with salt/pepper and grill it as you normally would. While the chicken is grilling, whisk together the remaining ingredients. Then add salt/pepper to butter mixture. Once the chicken is cooked brush the butter on. It's so simple and is so delish! Oh also... for leftovers I shredded the chicken up and put it, with the rice and broccoli leftovers in a pita- it was SO yummy :)

So my dessert recipe of course I got from Pinterest :)

Source: recipegirl.com via Summer on Pinterest

It's a chocolate chip cookie dough brownie. Did you just die at the sound of it?! I thought it was pretty yummy but it's everyone else's reviews that has me blogging about it. The Thaxton's and the Watford's LOVED it. Like... I gave them a small piece and then was joked on for giving extremely too small of portions! You can find this yummy yummy recipe here! It's highly recommend :)

Now... on to the FUN news :) In just 9 short days we will be apartment leasers in Birmingham, Alabama! We had an awesome week of witnessing God's perfect timing this past week. Everything comes together on His terms. Last Monday Matthew got in contact with a family friend from his B'ham church about an entry level accounting job open with his company. They set up an interview for Wednesday afternoon. Matthew was off to B'ham on Wednesday ready to dominate in the interview. He returned later with "a good feeling" of how things went. Thursday night he received an email from the manager from the company... HE GOT THE JOB! By Friday night he had officially accepted the job and we were off to B'ham in search of an apartment! Saturday we searched high and low and finally found one with what we wanted at a price we could afford. God is so good. He has blessed us so much this past week, and even so much since we've been married.

We are excitingly looking forward to moving in officially on August 7th, the day after Matthew's graduation from Auburn University. I told you... God's perfect timing. As Matthew anticipates getting settled in with his new job, I look forward to setting up our first "on our own" home. As well as searching for a job in B'ham (not really excited about that part!)

At the Watford's house the fun has already begun... I'm already sorting through my stuff getting rid of the unnecessary items! We are so excited to be walking in God's plans and following where He leads.

Pinterest Menu board.

So I finally found a DIY project on Pinterest that I thought I just might be able to handle! I decided to make the dry erase menu board for our kitchen. Here's my inspiration:

Source: makeandtakes.com via Summer on Pinterest

So here's how mine went down:

I bought the frame from a thrift store, just making sure it had good glass, for about 3 dollars! I sanded it down to prep it for painting!

Next I took scrapbook paper and glued it to the cardboard back on the picture frame and trimmed it from there! It's nice you don't have to worry about the edges since they will be hidden behind the frame!

Next here comes the paint. I planned to spray paint it, but our weather has sucked. So I ended up just painting it black with some left over paint I had. Easy-peasy.

Next I used Robyn's awesome Cricut to cut out the letters. I had originally planned to put them on the glass (So I bought vinyl) But I decided it would be easier to put on the paper under the glass so when I erase I won't have to worry about the stickers! Sorry no pictures of the Cricut process. It was slightly difficult! (Obviously the easier option would be to just print the words on to your scrapbook paper, but I wanted to play with Robyn's toy!)

SO here's the finished project! I love it.. turned out just how I had hoped:

And in our kitchen:

And just for fun... We celebrated Cow Appreciation Day last week :) Love me some Chickfila

Disney Cruisin'

Welcome to the Disney Dream.

our beautiful ship!

So this past Christmas Matthew's grandparents surprised us with a Disney Cruise for the whole family. They had us all open up the booklet about it and we all flipped out. It was a complete miracle that we worked it out that everyone could fit it into their schedule at the same time. So we booked July 1st through 5th. So after long awaiting our wedding and Hawaii we were pretty good at being patient. But I must say, it was completely worth the wait :)

On Thursday the Watford's came through Auburn and picked us up... next 5 hours to Jacksonville. We had a great night of hanging out with Meaghan and Brandon (thanks for being such good hosts!) The next morning we were up early and ready to head to Cape Canaveral where we would ship off around 4 o'clock! Luckily we got all checked in and got to board around 12:30 :)

Goofy greeted us!

Right away we went straight for the food, YUM :) We got settled in our rooms, explored the ship, had a lovely dinner at The Enchanted Garden, and enjoyed the AWESOME show The Golden Mickey's! It was a GREAT first day!

With the girls before dinner!

Saturday we enjoyed a little shopping in the Bahamas and then fun stuff on the boat! We first waited in line for the AquaDuck a water roller coaster (the first ever on a cruise ship!) It was way to short but super fun (we took video on the coaster, please excuse our silly screams and exclamations! haha) Enjoyed some fun Goofy putt-putt and had another great dinner... this time at the Royal Palace! The show for the night was Villains Tonight! The shows were always a favorite for the day!

docked in the Bahamas, ready to shop!

we got to meet Lilo right before riding the AquaDuck!

SO FUN !!

after dinner with the family!

So come to find out I loved most of my pictures from the first half of the trip. Anyways the next day was spent at Disney's private island, Castaway Cay! We had fun relaxing on the beach, floating in the ocean, and enjoying yummy food! A rain shower sent us back to the ship early and we enjoyed some chill time (and lots of chicken fingers!! I couldn't get enough! haha!) Went to dinner at Animator's Palette and celebrated Pirate Night with fireworks, a show, and a dance party!

The last day was 4th of July and we spent it at sea and we enjoyed lounging on the boat all day! It was great, great, great! The whole trip was wonderful and I am incredibly blessed to be able to spend such great quality time with my NEW family :) Thanks Nan and Daddy Butch!