first week of march

charlie turns one!!! such a cute boy!

i enjoyed my hair this week apparently: here is my tinkerbell bun on top of my head (and a pic of my new phone)

i hardly ever do one big french braid because i don't like that i can't get it very tight. but i decided to try it and i loved it! it was so easy on my hair (as opposed to the tight ponytails i usually wear) and i liked how it looked. i will definitely be utilizing this hairstyle more often now!

4 years. in german.

march 3rd was al and my 4 year anniversary! crazy talk that we've been together that long. we wanted to try dinner at something and somewhere different, so we chose the gasthaus in stillwater for german food. we had the whole back part of the restaurant to ourselves!

i had walleye, spaetzel, and steamed veggies. the spaetzel was amazing! the rest was ok.

al had a bavarian meat platter with pork haute, pork chop, knackworst, spaeztel and lots of sauerkraut. he said it was delicious!
here are some of the mugs on the walls; i think they're so cool!

and a toast with our german beer to 4 years!!

february randoms

here are some of my 365 picture project shots from february:

i am really getting into my crafts; here is one of the headbands i crocheted myself

this is my good friend megan's chihuahua/poodle mix, daisy. she's so cute and so full of energy.

had dinner with megan; she made lemon basted chicken, mashed taters, corn and croissants; yummy!!

i made dessert :) snicker salad!! yummo!!

the explorer turned 100,000 miles and it was 50 degrees in february in minnesota! (SO longing for some warmer weather...)

al and i had our crossfit/paleo double date with luke and malia (i really need to get better at taking pix of the people i'm with...) it was tough and fun! and the food was amazing!! all i got a picture of was the fruit salad i brought.

shane and jodi

our good friends shane and jodi got engaged in february! (finally! :]) and since i like to take pictures and had one of gina's nice cameras, we went out to the little park near their house and took some pics of them and their glowing-ness from being engaged. :)

cute lil bridge but the sunlight was so harsh and no shade or overcast....

i love the hearts on the sides of jodi's ring!

my attempt at sunflare

this one's my fav

sew far, sew good

i got a lil bee in my bonnet today after looking at thrifty/crafty/sewing blogs and took a trip to the woodbury goodwill. that goodwill seems to be made for me. every trip i've taken there, just about every dress i've liked has been in my size or a size i can deal with! that's just crazy talk! i ended up getting 3 dresses, a shirt & 2 books for $20!!

the below dress is originally from old navy and was way too wide for me but i loved the design. and for me to love a piece of gray clothing is kinda absurd :) so it was a must have. plus it was a blue tag day and this was a blug tag item so i got it for $1.49!

i decided to attempt my very first alteration/taking in. a bit scary but this was/is such a simple silhouette/design that i thought it would be a perfect guinea pig for me.

here is the before picture.

and it was a success!! at least so far; we'll see if it holds up in an actual wear. :)

here is the after (with a belt) picture. so much better!!

i ended up taking about 2 inches off each side in the bottom part of the dress and a 1/2 inch at the top. i also had to shorten the straps a bit too.

this is the shirt i got. it's crocheted!! which is awesome because i was just admiring elsie's crocheted top on her blog today! i would usually put a black shirt underneath but when i was trying this on i had the blue tank underneath and kinda love the 2 colors together. me wearing colors other then black? so absurd :)

valentime's day

happy valentine's day!! i take this holiday as one to celebrate love and to wear red and pink! :) here's all my valentime's treats:

al and i shared this heart shaped pizza from papa murphy's with shane and jodi (who got engaged on sunday!!!) on saturday night.

here is mom's valentine's day table display :)
my heart garland i have been working on for a good week. it's not quite finished but i thought i'd hang it up today any way.

i cut the hearts out of felt, hand stitched them and stuffed them.

i also crocheted the "string" they are hanging on and then stitched them to the string.

there are still a few that need to be sewed on but for now they're pinned on. :)

i hung them over my closet.

here are my valentine's i made with the idea and print out from a blog that i forgot to save so i cannot source at this time. i will try to find it again and source it, but i love them! they're so cute!! and had i gotten my act together earlier i woulda made a bunch more and sent them out ahead of time!!

the whole lot of them!

the hearts are cut out of felt and sewed onto the card; the sewing line then looks like the string that's holding on the heart eye patch :)

arrrr!!!

super bowl fiesta

it has now become tradition that matt and gina host a super bowl party. this year was a tad different because the freaking packers made it to the super bowl and all but 3 of us at the party were from wisconsin/packer fans. not so great for this vikings fan, but it was still a successful party. i once again helped gina prepare the food and set up. here is the tabel-scape on gina's new table with her new light fixture. here is matt and gina's pup, mya sporting her aaron rodgers jersey...
mmm salsa and corn salsa! (thanks to some softball friends for suggesting cucumber slices instead of chips. that's what i ate my salsa with and it was amazing!)

gina and i had seen pictures of these cute apple sandwiches so we decided to make them as well. they didn't turn out as cute as the pics we saw but they sure were delicious! it's cored apple slices with peanut butter and chocolate chips inside.

here is gina's attempt at having a green and gold theme :) the pretzels are dipped in dyed white chocolate, although it really looked like cheese ;)

i closer view of the table

matt and gina have been working on remodelling their entire top floor for a while and worked hard to get it complete and furnished before the party. here are some pics of their new living room with ikea furniture and gina's awesome styling.

looks straight outta a magazine

i just love that big owl :)