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Tuesday, April 5, 2016
Friday, December 11, 2015
| five things...
Golly.
Its been a while. I'd apologize, but I've always felt that real life is more important than social media. When I'm busy (or happy) I completely forget to write, take pictures, update, etc. There has to be a better way to keep up with it. But honestly, I'm not much of a social media girl, it's usually the first thing to go.
That being said. Hi! I hope you're well. Things are well in my world. Up to my eyeballs with a new business start-up. We're in a very frustrating phase where things are getting done, but the progress is slow, and it start-stop-start-stop. Ahhhhh! January, we'll be ready for you. Meanwhile, I'll be hanging more twinkle lights.
Five things off the top of my head:
1. Truffle Popcorn
Y'all. It's the fanciest. A dear friend of ours, who visited for thanksgiving, was talking about his signature truffle popcorn (apparently it contains truffle butter, truffle oil AND truffle salt!). I'd forgotten how much I loved this snack. It took me three weeks to locate some truffle salt in my little cowtown, but I finally did yesterday and MY GRACIOUS!!!
Photo & recipe from With Style & Grace blog. I just used melted european butter & truffle salt, but her recipe sounds better!
2. Legging are not pants
Hey! Just a reminder. I did, however, love her reference to "working out my words" pants. She's a funny lady.
3. Poshmark
In case you felt convicted from the above video and need to purchase some new PANTS. I love love love Poshmark! Brooke and I use this all the time to clean out our closets. It's also a great way to polish up on your shopping math (anything you sell, then recycle into posh money, then purchase new things with is FREE! I've gotten 2 pairs of FREE kate spade shoes, designer jeans & more!)
My profile is here: https://poshmark.com/closet/abbepowers
4. Hallmark Christmas Movies
They're sweet and cheesy and Christmasy and they have catchy titles such as "A Bride for Christmas" or "Holiday Mix-Up". Since my grandparents now live approximately 10 minutes away we like to stop by to visit and take advantage of their full cable package. Mimi loves all of the granddaughter time and Boppa usually heads out to do manly things. Bless his heart. I've been told I'm the "hallmark girl", which is not true, okay, maybe a little. My current favorite is Love At The Thanksgiving Day Parade. The main character is eerily similar to myself. It's her love of vintage clothing. http://www.hallmarkchannel.com/love-at-the-thanksgiving-day-parade/about
5. Goodbeing Box
I absolutely abhor shopping for cosmetics. And being the natural products industry for practically my entire life has made me a little cautious about what beauty products I use (except for my hairspray, I'm dedicated to hair excellence, that's not going anywhere). This makes shopping at Sephora my biggest nightmare. So I signed myself up for a Goodbeing box, filled out an extensive questionnaire and when my box came I was completely delighted with every single thing in my box. My second box arrived the other day and, again, I couldn't have been happier! https://goodebox.com
That's all I've got. I'm off to wrap up some Christmas shopping and pull things together for our Ugly Sweater party tomorrow!
Have a great weekend!
Its been a while. I'd apologize, but I've always felt that real life is more important than social media. When I'm busy (or happy) I completely forget to write, take pictures, update, etc. There has to be a better way to keep up with it. But honestly, I'm not much of a social media girl, it's usually the first thing to go.
That being said. Hi! I hope you're well. Things are well in my world. Up to my eyeballs with a new business start-up. We're in a very frustrating phase where things are getting done, but the progress is slow, and it start-stop-start-stop. Ahhhhh! January, we'll be ready for you. Meanwhile, I'll be hanging more twinkle lights.
Five things off the top of my head:
1. Truffle Popcorn
Y'all. It's the fanciest. A dear friend of ours, who visited for thanksgiving, was talking about his signature truffle popcorn (apparently it contains truffle butter, truffle oil AND truffle salt!). I'd forgotten how much I loved this snack. It took me three weeks to locate some truffle salt in my little cowtown, but I finally did yesterday and MY GRACIOUS!!!
Photo & recipe from With Style & Grace blog. I just used melted european butter & truffle salt, but her recipe sounds better!
2. Legging are not pants
Hey! Just a reminder. I did, however, love her reference to "working out my words" pants. She's a funny lady.
3. Poshmark
In case you felt convicted from the above video and need to purchase some new PANTS. I love love love Poshmark! Brooke and I use this all the time to clean out our closets. It's also a great way to polish up on your shopping math (anything you sell, then recycle into posh money, then purchase new things with is FREE! I've gotten 2 pairs of FREE kate spade shoes, designer jeans & more!)
My profile is here: https://poshmark.com/closet/abbepowers
4. Hallmark Christmas Movies
They're sweet and cheesy and Christmasy and they have catchy titles such as "A Bride for Christmas" or "Holiday Mix-Up". Since my grandparents now live approximately 10 minutes away we like to stop by to visit and take advantage of their full cable package. Mimi loves all of the granddaughter time and Boppa usually heads out to do manly things. Bless his heart. I've been told I'm the "hallmark girl", which is not true, okay, maybe a little. My current favorite is Love At The Thanksgiving Day Parade. The main character is eerily similar to myself. It's her love of vintage clothing. http://www.hallmarkchannel.com/love-at-the-thanksgiving-day-parade/about
5. Goodbeing Box
I absolutely abhor shopping for cosmetics. And being the natural products industry for practically my entire life has made me a little cautious about what beauty products I use (except for my hairspray, I'm dedicated to hair excellence, that's not going anywhere). This makes shopping at Sephora my biggest nightmare. So I signed myself up for a Goodbeing box, filled out an extensive questionnaire and when my box came I was completely delighted with every single thing in my box. My second box arrived the other day and, again, I couldn't have been happier! https://goodebox.com
That's all I've got. I'm off to wrap up some Christmas shopping and pull things together for our Ugly Sweater party tomorrow!
Have a great weekend!
Thursday, October 29, 2015
photographed | snake road
The last few days have brought wind and rain and rumors of snow. So the last of the golden leaves are shaken off their wet limbs. Autumn is simply spectacular here. The sugar maples turn to a flaming red and their leaf-load is as voluminous as a country singer's hair. They release a sweet smell as they fall, and it brings back early childhood memories of adventures in the woods and raking huge piles to jump in and somewhere in my mind there's a photograph floating around of a particularly vibrant tree that was in my grandparents front yard.
Wednesday, September 23, 2015
quotable | quinoa
I was innocently going over my menu for a bridal shower and Miss Grace happened to overhear my plans of a quinoa salad. This was her response.
My biggest critic in life is an 8-year old. We have so many things in common, including our sass.
I kept the quinoa salad in the menu, it was tasty, but wasn't nearly as popular as the other items on the buffet. But then, Miss Grace could have probably told me that.
Thursday, September 17, 2015
thoughts | home...
Oh, that word.
Home.
When our house sold last summer and our new house as just shy of breaking ground. We scrambled. Trying to find a place for 11 people and their things. Nothing was out of question. Hotels, the cabin, another state, an RV, tents, a yurt. We looked at dozens of options for the time that faced us as we built our new home. In the end, it was a vacation rental that we ended up living in long term. 10 months to be exact. About 5 minutes from the office and the grocery store, within the range of the pizza delivery man and most importantly, able to house the whole lot of us. Of course I complained, but you couldn't beat it for convenience!
With our move now behind us and the one year mark a few week past, I've been reflecting. It seems like the longest year of my life and yet the shortest. It was a good, yet hard year. Not good in the traditional sense, maybe more good for me. For a while my entire world was flipped upside down. And I struggled every day with this out of place, lost feeling. And then I struggled because I was frustrated at myself for feeling that. "Abbe, there are real people in the real world dealing with things that hundreds of times harder than this. It's all fancy problems." Darn those fancy problems, they'll just wear you down if you let them.
But God works in all of our lives in ways that are specific to us. Because He is a personal God. He is God with us. When He calls us to something, He also walks with us through it. For me, it was a stripping away. Of dreams, of the familiar, of some of the stability that my family fights so fiercely to maintain, of our things. The first few months were miserable. Then the holidays came and were especially hard since we're used to having huge celebrations. It was the first time, in a few years that we weren't able to host a ton of friends for Thanksgiving. We were on top of each other (the turtles were suffocating, as I was sharing a room with Miss Grace and her collection of 97,000 turtles) and stress was high. I wasn't sure we were going to make it. And with most trials, you're in the thick of it, you start to accept it as the new normal, and you realize that you're at the end. It's over. You wouldn't want to go through it again, but you're grateful you did.
One of the most profound things I learned is, my comfort is overrated. That, even in a good life, there will always be an element of uncertainty and it's okay. Man, that's hard for me, I hate it so much. I love my security, I love to be comfortable, I like to know whats coming next and to be prepared for it. I've always been a "look before I leap" kinda girl. Worse than that actually, if I don't see a sign, I'm 100% the one to call the park board and double check to make sure I'm not missing something. My family kept saying to each other "when we move into our house" or "when this is over" and had to catch ourselves from thinking that everything was going to be perfect once we had a permanent home again. It's a lie you tell yourself. It's a part of coping, I think. The thing about hard seasons is that, they prepare you for harder seasons. You realize that you're stronger than you think, that God is really all you need. And while I'm probably coming across as a little dramatic, what I'm trying to say is that, I'm just barely scraping the surface of what it means to trust God through times that feel out of our control.
I'm not really sure where all of that came from. I've been trying to write this post for a few weeks and I can't get the words perfect but I think I may put it up anyway. But I've been pondering "home" and it's come to mean so much to me. I get a little choked up every time. I can't help it. My brother got married in our backyard on Saturday, adding the first layer of precious memories.
It's good to be home.
Home.
When our house sold last summer and our new house as just shy of breaking ground. We scrambled. Trying to find a place for 11 people and their things. Nothing was out of question. Hotels, the cabin, another state, an RV, tents, a yurt. We looked at dozens of options for the time that faced us as we built our new home. In the end, it was a vacation rental that we ended up living in long term. 10 months to be exact. About 5 minutes from the office and the grocery store, within the range of the pizza delivery man and most importantly, able to house the whole lot of us. Of course I complained, but you couldn't beat it for convenience!
With our move now behind us and the one year mark a few week past, I've been reflecting. It seems like the longest year of my life and yet the shortest. It was a good, yet hard year. Not good in the traditional sense, maybe more good for me. For a while my entire world was flipped upside down. And I struggled every day with this out of place, lost feeling. And then I struggled because I was frustrated at myself for feeling that. "Abbe, there are real people in the real world dealing with things that hundreds of times harder than this. It's all fancy problems." Darn those fancy problems, they'll just wear you down if you let them.
But God works in all of our lives in ways that are specific to us. Because He is a personal God. He is God with us. When He calls us to something, He also walks with us through it. For me, it was a stripping away. Of dreams, of the familiar, of some of the stability that my family fights so fiercely to maintain, of our things. The first few months were miserable. Then the holidays came and were especially hard since we're used to having huge celebrations. It was the first time, in a few years that we weren't able to host a ton of friends for Thanksgiving. We were on top of each other (the turtles were suffocating, as I was sharing a room with Miss Grace and her collection of 97,000 turtles) and stress was high. I wasn't sure we were going to make it. And with most trials, you're in the thick of it, you start to accept it as the new normal, and you realize that you're at the end. It's over. You wouldn't want to go through it again, but you're grateful you did.
One of the most profound things I learned is, my comfort is overrated. That, even in a good life, there will always be an element of uncertainty and it's okay. Man, that's hard for me, I hate it so much. I love my security, I love to be comfortable, I like to know whats coming next and to be prepared for it. I've always been a "look before I leap" kinda girl. Worse than that actually, if I don't see a sign, I'm 100% the one to call the park board and double check to make sure I'm not missing something. My family kept saying to each other "when we move into our house" or "when this is over" and had to catch ourselves from thinking that everything was going to be perfect once we had a permanent home again. It's a lie you tell yourself. It's a part of coping, I think. The thing about hard seasons is that, they prepare you for harder seasons. You realize that you're stronger than you think, that God is really all you need. And while I'm probably coming across as a little dramatic, what I'm trying to say is that, I'm just barely scraping the surface of what it means to trust God through times that feel out of our control.
I'm not really sure where all of that came from. I've been trying to write this post for a few weeks and I can't get the words perfect but I think I may put it up anyway. But I've been pondering "home" and it's come to mean so much to me. I get a little choked up every time. I can't help it. My brother got married in our backyard on Saturday, adding the first layer of precious memories.
It's good to be home.
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