I should not be on here right now. But, I have to post the comment Daniel just made.

"Blogs are the cliff notes to life".

So true!! I was mentioning that I don't have any time to pay attention to anything going on in the outside world and how there were just so many creative/ unique/ quirky items out there. I couldn't comprehend how people find some of these things (though I'm glad they do). They literally do sum up the luxuries of life :)

Update:
My grandma was able to have the surgery :) It sounds like she has come out fighting and doesn't plan to stop. She was able to open her eye today, fed herself, and even called my mom at work when she stepped into the office for a few hours! This is such great news especially since it has only been a day since the stroke. (it gives me that "you go girl!" feeling haha)

Grandpa was moved into his temporary "home away from home" in the Hospice care center. He apparently made it very clear to the nurses and doctors there that they shouldn't get used to his face because he is getting better and heading home. Goodness he makes me chuckle. I hope he can come back and stay at home again very soon.


Daniel and I are heading out next week Thursday for Holland. It definitely could not have come at a better time.

Want to see what my typical week looks like?

M: Sketching workshop 6:30-9:30pm
T/TH: Studio 12-6pm
F: 2D media & design process 10-1pm
F: Architectural History 1 1:30-4:30pm

Studio requires 33 hours of work per week, outside of class. (45 hours a week total per week if you include in class studio time)
2D media & design process requires 10 hours of work per week outside of class. (13 hours total per week if you include class time)
Architectural history 1 requires 10 hours of work per week outside of class. (13 hours total per week if you include class time)

GRAND TOTAL: 72 hours per week (minimum) required for classes. If we get really creative; that means 10 hour days, 7 days a week. Yep. Good thing once I graduate my pay scale jumps to 6 digits :)


Hopefully everyone can understand why I haven't answered many calls this week or have returned a call at very odd hours of the day. I can be found in the studio, the library, or off in some random corner of the city sketching my butt off.

I love you all & hope your weeks are going well. Please keep my family in your prayers & thank you for all of the prayers already sent. They have obviously been received.

Well this week has been pretty crappy so far. I started classes. I have only had one so far but it looks like I can say goodbye to any form of social life for the next 3 months. We have 13 hours of in class studio time each week and they require 33 hours of outside of studio time per week. That brings the total to 46 hours per week of studio time for one class. I still have two more... I am excited, it just seems a bit daunting. I'm guessing everything else going on right now doesn't help that feeling either.

Please keep my grandpa and grandma VanLente in your prayers. They could really use all of them right now. I don't want to go too in depth but a quick recap is; My grandpa has leukemia. He is in remission but it has brought about other bad effects. He fell the other day and it was initially ruled that he was ok, scrapped up pretty badly, but ok. Come to find out now, he cracked quite a few of his ribs and is currently in (or was in. I'm still not positive on all of the details) heart failure. During the time my grandpa was in the hospital my grandma fell. She broke her hip and was scheduled for surgery. She is in congestive heart failure and was on blood thinners. They took her off of them in order for her to be able to go into surgery. This caused a clot to emerge and travel to her brain, causing her to have a stoke. From the updates she is pretty aware of everything going on but they don't know the full effect of the damage it caused. It has created a catch 22 of sorts... It has been a gut wrenching time this past week.

My concentration is off. I can only hope next week Thursday can get here quick so I can be at home with everyone.

I love you grandpa & grandma.

Back to school, back to school...

It is my first day of grad school! I have signed up for 3 classes for a total of 9 credit hours( full time grad status). Today I have my first studio period from 12-6:20pm. It sounds like it will cover most things I have already learned but I'm sure I will benefit from the added practice and proffesor help. I have the same class Thursday and the two classes on Friday. The first is from 9-11:20am and the second is from 1-4pm. It feels so odd to be back in classes. I packed my bag this morning with all of my drafting supplies, many of which I haven't used since freshman year of undergrad!

My week should be busy, I hope all of yours is as well :)

I've gone private :)

I have been debating whether to go private with my blog for a while now. I have finally decided to do it. 

Today D and I are off to the farmers market to get veggies for chicken noodle soup. We have been making soups a fair amount now and I am still amazed at how far they go for how little you can spend. This past week we made a butternut squash and apple soup and we have had it for dinner (and most lunches) for 3.5 days! (and no, I didn't get sick of it). 

After that we are going to take the light rail over to the mission area to explore a bit. We haven't been over there yet but have been discovering some neat places that are located there and we want to check them out.

After that D and I both have to do work for school. 

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Prayers

I haven't made as much progress on my overhaul as I had hoped but I'm still working on it. With everything surrounding Grad school this past week has been a bit all over the place. 

My grandpa was admitted to the hospital last night. He has had leukemia for quite a while now and is currently in remission. Unfortunately it has brought with it some devastating side effects. My grandpa was always healthy as a horse, as they like to say. When he got hit with all of this it pretty much turned his life upside down. It has been really hard to watch. My parents have taken on the job of caring for him and my grandmother and it definitely hasn't been an easy ride. I admire them both so much for everything they have been doing for them. With 5 kids in the family (my mom's brothers and sisters) you would think others would be able and willing to help but unfortunately that has not been the case for most of them. Thus, almost everything has been left on my parents shoulders. Mom and dad; I think you guys are amazing and everything you do is appreciated. Even on the days it may feel like it isn't.  Over the past few years I have become very close to my grandparents. As I have grown up I have realized just how important they are to me. I can only hope my grandpa can come home from the hospital soon. Please keep him in your prayers.

I have to go today and find my books for classes and get my id picture taken. Then I have to finish a sewing project. I hope you all have a great weekend.

Pretty pictures to end the post;

I love the boat! and her hair! I am bringing a few photos from this wedding home with me in hopes of a hair trial.

I love the reflection. I hope we can get a few photos like this on the water.

Overhaul

You know the place in your house, the place where everything gets "set". You have good intentions that things will only be there for a few moments. Just until you can steal a few seconds to put it in its rightful place. But you never do find those few seconds. I feel like my blog has become that place. Unorganized, chaotic, messy. It's time for an overhaul. I plan to get to it just as soon as I'm finished with a project for a certain birthday coming up.

I love this.

 and this.

Stressville...

A few pretty pictures to start us off;

I love this image. The birdcage veil, the flower.. beautiful. This is what I want for my veil.

How adorable (and functional) is this! We will be doing cupcakes as well and this would be such a good idea to let everyone know which one they are choosing.

I want a shot like this, too bad my dress doesn't really have a train.

(I don't remember where I pulled these images from. If you want credit just let me know and I will add it!)

What a crazy couple of weeks it has been.  As many of you know, I applied to grad school a while back and was accepted into the Academy of Art and will be working toward my Masters of Architecture degree.  As happy as I am that I got in, I am now a sitting duck waiting to hear back about student aid. It isn't a huge deal, if I don't hear back in time for this spring semester I will just enroll for the summer semester and hopefully find a new job (or at least a part time or intern position) until then. It is the waiting that is killing me!

In the mean time I have been trying to finish up a couple of sewing projects and have started to make a dent (if only a small one). I finished up the p.j. pants for my dad and am now working on finishing up a purse for my mom. I am excited to see how the pattern turns out! The pants were hard; definitely harder than I thought! There is so much more stress that comes along with clothing. Worrying that they will actually fit and wont be too short or too small at the bottoms, or too big at the top. I just hope they fit ok.

Add to all of that the pressure of planning a wedding and you can see why I have been working out 6 days a week lately.... Having both sides of the family in other states is just as hard for D and I as it is for them. I hope they understand that. I have been putting in a lot of time doing research for different vendors and ideas, figuring out what ideas are too expensive and shouldn't even be pitched, which ideas will represent D and I coming together to form our new family the best and represent who we are the best, trying to figure out what guests would like the most and what things are worth the cost and which are not. I'm trying here, please remember that. Strong opinions + lots of miles between everyone doesn't always = the best situation.

Also with the wedding has come a lot of searching for a new church for D and I. I was raised Christian Reformed and D went to an Episcopalian, private high school and found his faith through that experience. In high school I was able to find a church where I truly felt that I belonged, Mars Hill. We knew we wanted our officiate to be someone we knew and felt close to. My parents switched churches while I was in college and I never got to know their new priest, the priest at mars hill was also someone I never got to know on a personal level so we didn't think either would be the right person. D had a priest at school who he really enjoyed and who guided him through his process of faith so we decided on him. One of his requirements to perform the ceremony was that we attend marital counseling (which I am sure many of you had to do). Usually we would have done it with him but being across the country made that nearly impossible. So here we are trying to find a church that we both feel comfortable in, in a city that actually has very few churches for the amount of people (I guess everything is pretty small in comparison with my home town, which has the most churches per capita). We went to an Episcopalian service first and found it wasn't want D was used to from school and something I wasn't completely comfortable with (even though the cathedral was beautiful!). Yesterday we ventured out to a Presbyterian church and were able to find something much closer to what we were looking for. It was a small service and you could tell everyone there knew each other. Upon entering the priest came and welcomed us and talked with us for a while. He knew everyone in the Church and was extremely warm and open. The service reminded me of the church I had grown up at, only smaller. We are planning on trying one more but I think we were both happy with what we found.

 We also now need to sit down and go over the "typical" wedding ceremony to see what we want to include, what we would like to change, and anything we would like to add to it. I am looking forward to it.

Help!

Ok, so I need help! I am looking for navy and white fabric in a multitude of prints/ patterns. Stripes, and polka dots are always great. I have been looking everywhere and have been able to find the navy and white polka dots but I can't seem to find any stripes or patterns. Anyone know of any good sources??

Thanks!

2009 :)

I hope all of you have had a great start to the new year! This is sure to be an exciting year for D and I with the wedding coming up, D's DAT exam and dental school applications, and Grad school starting up for me. 

Over the next week I need to crank out a few sewing projects I've been enlisted for and then continue on with the craziness of wedding planning! Oh and I should probably try and squeeze in work as well!

I didn't make any resolutions this year but I do want to make some changes in my life. I want to start working out more regularly, stop stressing out about everything, spend more time with the people who are close to me and and step out of my comfort zone more. 

I am starting back with my masters swim team next week and I also want to start doing a yoga class in the mornings. 

Here are a few images I have collected over the past few weeks. 

I love these glass bottles of juices/ drinks even more because of the coordinating tags.

 

The menu card on the table actually reminded me a lot of our save the dates and our plan for invitations. I also love the striped table cloth and using the custom wine bottle label as your table number.

We are using green button mums as accents in almost all of the flowers for our wedding. I love how they look all grouped together here. I would take away all of the little bows but keep the large bow. This would look great on the entry door to a church or reception.

This photo is from the most recent edition of Martha Stewart Weddings. It is the wedding of a girl who works at Purl Soho which is my favorite online fabric stop (as well as daily blog read). I can't wait to be back in N.Y. so I can check out the shop! She made fabric napkins for all of the guests in coordinating fabrics to the wedding. Each table features a different fabric in orange or green. This has been added to my to-do list :) I am planning on using a variety of navy and white prints to coordinate with the white linens and navy runners on the tables. The green and white flowers will provide a nice "pop" of color.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!