cabin trip with my parents!

This was SO fun. Over the long Veteran's Day weekend Josh and I met my parents in Lake of the Ozarks State Park in Missouri for some hiking and general spending time together kind of stuff. We rented a cabin , cooked our meals outside, played Nerts and Scattegories and hiked around. 

We hiked around Lake of the Ozarks State Park on Saturday. We went on one of the “wildest” trails, meaning it was not groomed, and it was very loud and crunchy due to the massive amounts of dead leaves on the trail. We took food, a pocket rocket, and a pan with us to make quesadillas on the trail for lunch! Later we meandered around the shore of the lake before heading back to our cabin to rest and make dinner. I love the combination of physical exertion, time in nature and relaxation on trips like this. 

 We started Sunday with a cozy breakfast in our cabin and a prayer service. My parents made scrambled eggs in a plastic bag in a pot of boiling water. I was so impressed; the eggs looked a little weird, but tasted super delicious! We prayed and sang, which is always wonderful to do on a Sunday morning.

A random guy at the visitors center had recommended that we should try hiking at Ha Ha Tonka State Park, so after our prayer service we drove there in about 20 minutes. It was another beautiful and warm day; we enjoyed hiking to an old castle, a natural bridge, and a beautiful blue spring. We stopped for lunch on the trail again. We heated up left over Moroccan stew and ate it in a tortilla. Yum! In the late afternoon we played more Nerts and went on a sunset walk before my parents had to leave. My dad had to work Monday, so they needed to get home on Sunday night. It was sad to see them go, but Josh and I had a nice, quiet evening of journaling and singing in the cabin. On Monday morning we ate breakfast, packed up and headed back to Wichita. 

 If you're interested in cabin trips in the Missouri area, I do recommend the outpost cabins at Lake of the Ozarks State Park! Thanks Mom and Dad for making this trip so special!!

project life in 2013: july

week 49

july 1-7

(Click on the photos to see them larger)

What happened this week? We were in Santorini, Greece with my family and our friends the Keillors. We swam, ate delicious food, relaxed, and did a cool catamaran day trip. Read about our trip here.

Anything special in the spread? I made a photo grid to include extra photos my Mom took during our trip. I stuck it in a 5x7 photo pocket (LINK) and then added some business cards and cool paper I found in Santorini to the back side. 

Favorite photo: Well, they’re all wonderful. I like the one of Josh standing triumphantly on the rock and the picture of my dad diving into the water. Fun times.

Overall thoughts? I love the colors in this spread! The kraft core kit worked so nicely with the bright blue in all the Santorini pics.

week 50

july 8- 14

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What happened this week? We arrived back in the USA! Michael and Kelly Baker-Trapp picked us up at the airport in Chicago and drove us back to Greenville. We hung out with friends and my family. We overlapped with Jordan and Niqui a little bit before they left for North Carolina. Sadly, I didn’t snap many pictures because I was more focused on just soaking up time with friends. We also tried slack-lining for the first time. So fun and quite a challenge!

Anything special in the spread? Not really. I cut around a picture of a bowl of basil to change things up. 

Favorite photo: I love the photo of Kelly playing around with our hammock and pretending to fly. I find that often my favorite photos from these spreads are not necessarily the most beautiful photo, but the one that brings back good memories. 

Overall thoughts? Love this project! I love playing around with the different colors and combinations with the CORE kits. 

week 51

july 15-21

What happened this week? My birthday happened! (I turned 23.) I had a tie-dye party, of course. A summer is not complete without tie-dying. My Aunt and cousins were in Greenville for the week, which was great. We kayaked and swam at the lake. We also celebrated Michael’s birthday. Mine and Josh’s first year anniversary was on the 21st, but because of Michael’s birthday (same day) we celebrated on Monday by going out to ice cream. 

Anything special in the spread? I included two of my birthday cards: one from Kelly and one from Josh.

Favorite photo: My favorite photo here is the one of Mary and Josh playing ukulele and guitar together. She played me a special birthday song! 

Overall thoughts? Fun week! It was hard to choose which photos to included because I had a lot this week!

week 52

july 22- 27 

(Click on the photos to see them larger)

What happened this week? Another week in Greenville. 

Anything special in the spread? A scored card from Up the River, Down the River (our go-to card game this summer). 

Favorite photo: I absolutely love the photo of the sun shining through a leafy tree in our front yard. I had just gotten back from a run and Josh was swinging under the tree; it was such a pretty scene that I grabbed my camera and snapped some pictures.

Overall thoughts? Guess what???! This week (the 52nd week of my marriage with Josh) means that I actually documented our first year of marriage! I did it. I loved the process and the end result so much that I want to keep doing it for the next year of our life together. August and September are all finished, so I hope to share those spreads soon. I’m still plugging away at getting caught up on October and starting on November. 

Supplies and Tools: American Crafts thickers, washi tape, paper source labels, pretty paper from Dick Blick, random paper from my stash, Design A and B photo pocket pages (this variety pack), Seafoam core kit, Kraft core kit, Cobalt cardstock, black sharpie, black steadtler fineliner pen, slicker writer pens.

Project Life is a simple scrapbooking system by Becky Higgins.  I am using this system to document our first year of marriage with photos, words and other fun paper stuff.  You can see my other project life pages here.  

around here.

Around here it feels like fall. We've gone apple picking, we've made & eaten a lot of applesauce and we've been admiring all the beautiful trees. We've gotten sick, we've consumed copious amounts of tea, and we've gotten better! I've been painting, practicing yoga, riding my bicycle to school a few times a week and even running again (a very little bit). Josh has been editing the rough draft of chapter 1 of his thesis this week!! He's also been working on getting a new door for our room, but has already been thwarted twice. We have a door in our room that leads to an outdoor balcony and stair case to the back stoop. This door is rotting and needs to be replaced, but finding a door that fits for the right price is proving to be a challenge. In other news, we're thankful for lots of time with family lately; Celeste came to Wichita a couple weeks ago to celebrate Grandma Kay's 90th birthday! And this weekend we're heading to Lake of the Ozarks State Park to hang out with my parents. We're staying in a cabin and we'll be hiking and cooking our meals outside. It should be great! We also have five new family members; Lauren and Daniel now have pet ducks (Indian Runner ducks to be exact.) Josh and I just get to have fun and watch them splash in water while Lauren and Daniel actually do the work to care for them. Actually, I've helped out a little bit with building an outdoor house for the duckies. Josh is really wanting to get a kitten, but Daniel and I still aren't so sure. We're excited that we get Monday off work! Anyone else this lucky?

Have a beautiful weekend!

our diy duvet cover.

Whew. I am SO glad this project is finished. I was a little ambitious in starting this duvet cover. I saw this  and decided to recreate it. I went out promptly the next day to buy a bit of fabric to accompany some of what was already in my stash. I’m not in to measuring or taking time to make a real plan. I just like to start sewing and see where that gets me. Hastily, I did some measuring to ensure that our duvet cover would actually fit the duvet we already have. Josh was excited for a fun duvet cover, so he helped me cut out strips of fabric. I must admit that sometimes sewing feels tedious to me. Cutting strip after strip bogs me down. 

On the flip side, I love to see progress. I love looking at the finished product and thinking “I made that.” This duvet cover had it’s ups and downs. I started making it in early August and then picked it up again in September after our move to Wichita. As it started to get a bit chillier, Josh and I were eager to use our duvet and to have a nice cover on it. I stayed up later than desirable one night to finally finish it and, I’ll admit, I was rather grumpy. But it’s done and we love it!

I can’t really give a tutorial for this project because, like I said, I don’t have concrete measurements for all the strips of fabric. I do encourage you to just try making something new if you get inspired! And try not to get grumpy like me along the way. You can do it!

camping in kanopolis.

Back in early October, Josh and I headed out of Wichita for a camping trip with our friends Kenzi and Cora. We decided to explore Kanopolis State Park, which is close to the super cute Swedish town Lynsberg, Kansas. We had an awesome, blustery time in Kanopolis! Josh and I haven’t been camping or hiking since this summer in Norway, so I was eager to pop up our tent, make some camping stove meals, and hang out in front of the campfire for a few days.  During our weekend getaway we did get to eat tasty meals, toast marshmallows and chat in front of the campfire. We also spent a lot of time reading and writing in our tents because it was so darn windy outside. We even ate breakfast in our car! Kenzi entertained us with "who-dun-it" puzzles while we ate pancakes. On Saturday we went hiking on Horse Thief Canyon trail. I love wandering in nature. While tucked away in my sleeping bag I read my Great Grandma Z's journal from a cross-country family camping trip she took with her husband and four kids in 1956. It's called "Ways to the Wilderness." I think my Great Uncle helped get her journal published and it was passed around amoung our family. I find myself bringing this book/journal on all my camping trips. I just love reading about her experience in the wilderness, while I am also sitting outside (or in my tent) on a camping trip. Do you guys have any books like that- you know, ones that you only read on certain occasions or certain times of year?

Anyways, I was delighted to find out that Kansas has some good opportunities for camping and hiking. We only had drive about 1.5 hours outside of Wichita to reach Kanopolis. If you're interested in camping/hiking, but live in a not-so-awesome-for-hiking type state, look around for State parks or wilderness areas. You might be surprised!

Interested in hiking or camping in Kanopolis State Park? Here’s some info: 

Kanopolis State Park is located in Marquette, Kansas and has lots of camping sites for tents or RVs, as well as trails for hiking and horseback riding. We set up camp right on the shore of the lake, which made for a super windy weekend and stunning sunsets. The Park charges a small fee for cars and for each night you camp. Not far from our campsite was a basic bathroom and a water pump. Fun fact: Kanpolis was the first State Park in Kansas. Find out more here. 

Enjoy the Autumn air this weekend!