Things I'm Thankful For

My in-laws' church gave us a pantry shower last week.  When my family was here, they brought yummy produce and Wisconsin cheese.  This AMAZING pasta salad is partially from a box (Suddenly Salad, the Caesar version), plus chopped cucumber, diced Swiss cheese, shredded Asagio cheese, shredded chicken that I slow-cooked the other day, and some dried basil.  I could have eaten the whole bowl, but Hubby loves it too!  I'm so thankful for the kindness and generosity of our family and friends, for the providence of the Lord, and for really good food.  :)

One day VERY soon I'm going to figure out a homemade dressing instead of the mix from the box, and I'll post the actual recipe.  :)

I'm also thankful for beauty, and for a calm, restful place to call our own.

My lovely friend Emily drew the pictures on either side of our wedding portrait in the frame.  So thankful for her, her wonderful friendship and her talent!

The white pillow on the bed was our ring pillow, made from my maternal grandmother's wedding dress.  I'm thankful for family legacies.

The plant on the windowsill and the chair are from my paternal grandparents.  I'm thankful for the kindness and generosity of our loved ones.  Also, for living things!

The vinyl letters were a present from another lovely friend, Valerie.  I'm thankful for the promise of eternity--Hubby and my relationship will be different, but it will last forever.

I'm thankful for love: the love of our family, the love we have for one another, and the love God has for us.

Linking up to black tag diaries

more pretty backgrounds!

I compare changing my blog's background, fonts and color to changing my hairstyle or the way I dress.  It's still me, it's just a different, new way of expressing myself.  I've been experimenting with doing my hair up--I used to have an aversion to bobby pins, and now I'm liking what I can do with them.  So, this pretty, girly, pink design is just another version of me.  :)

Also, here are a few shots of the hairstyles I've been experimenting with.  Joanna Goddard's blog provided the inspiration, and I took it from there.  :)

I made a low ponytail and then loosened it a bit.  I twisted the hair, and tucked it above the ponytail holder, rolling as I went to get it all stuffed in.  Bobby pins throughout to hold it all in place!

pretty bloggy backgrounds!

My friend Nikki uses Shabby Blogs backgrounds on her blog, and I've been admiring them for some time.  Finally decided to check out the site for myself and see what it was all about!  I'm SO excited about the new look of my blog.  It will probably be changing regularly now, because Shabby Blogs has so many pretty backgrounds that I can hardly wait to use.  And it's easy as pie to apply them!

Just wanted to share my excitement.  :)