The Naughty Word

There is one very naughty word I have said or thought many, many times in my life.

It has gotten me into a lot of trouble.

It has cost me a lot of money.

It has even lost me friends, things, opportunities, and more.

The word?

Later.

I have this really, really bad habit of putting things off.

"I'll do it later."

Why? Because I'll have more time, energy, ideas, ability, etc later.

So this blog that has been neglected? It's because I'm always to write an entry "later," "when I have more time, ideas, followers" {ha on that last one!}

See, there are several problems with the word later.

I'm terribly forgetful.
I lose focus.
I realize that later is just as busy as now.
Those ideas I thought would come later, didn't.
Sometimes later is too late.

So now, to my readers and to myself, I make a pledge.

No more later.

No more putting off the dishes, or ignoring e-mails, or neglecting my blog.

I can do it now. {Or I can at least write a reminder to myself if I really really can't do it now. i.e. I am driving :)}

Friday Letters: Graduation Edition

Today, my husband graduated from the Undergraduate Pilot Training program (UPT) at Laughlin AFB. 

{In the top picture, Jordan is receiving his "wings" from one of the commanders,

in the bottom picture, I am pinning his wings onto his uniform.}

Let me tell you a couple of things about this graduation/pilot training:

1. It has taken over a year.

2. He has worked 12-hour days, 5 days a week.

3. He has studied his little tush off.

4. He studied for and answered over 600 test questions. {and may I just add, that he earned the top academic score in his entire class of 28 with a 99.5% accuracy, missing only 5 questions. Oh and P.S. he also earned another award distinguishing him for Outstanding Citizenship}

5. He logged over 200 flight hours.

6. He sometimes came home feeling like he wouldn't make it through the program.

7. It was so so stressful.

8. We met some really amazing people.

9. It's a big deal.

10. I am so grateful to him for all the hard work he put in. 

The Air Force began this pilot training program in Laughlin AFB 50 years ago this year. In those 50 years, they have only pinned wings onto 12,000 pilots. 

12,000.

How lucky are we to be a part of that small number. We are so grateful to our families, the instructors, the Air Force, and most especially our Heavenly Father. We feel so blessed for the opportunities we've been given and hope that we can in some small way repay this debt.

And without further ado, Friday letters:

Dear Jordan, You are amazing. You are my hero. I am so grateful for all the hard work you've put in this past year. You really deserve this. Dear in-laws, I'm so grateful you guys came in for the ceremony and graduation. Your support has made a huge difference in our lives and has really helped Jordan out this past year. Dear Dad, Thanks for coming out! We were so happy and grateful to receive your support. Dear class of 12-10, CONGRATS!! You did it! You made it through one of the most difficult, trying years of your lives. And you have something amazing to show for it. Dear wives/finances/girlfriends of 12-10 class, Thank you for the unity and support you all provided. I was so grateful for that support system as a spouse. Dear Me, Whew! You made it to! Del Rio wasn't as bad as you thought and you have made some pretty unforgettable friends. Dear Del Rio, Thanks for not being as bad as everyone else made you out to be. You do have some fun things to do here. 

Today was definitely a Friday to be remembered.

DIY: Party Shirt

I realize that not all of you will benefit from this DIY project, but for anyone wishing to continue the Air Force tradition of "party shirts" (aka tuxedo shirts worn underneath the mess dress jacket), this is especially for you. 

DIY: Air Force Party Shirt

What You Will Need:

~1.5 to 2 yards of fabric {I personally think that two different, but coordinating look the best as the picture above shows}

Sewing machine

Thread {I suggest white, that way if you make a mistake sewing, it won't be very obvious}

Scissors

Seam Ripper {This one is important!! You will be doing a lot of seam ripping}

Patience {It doesn't take a ton of time, nor is it extremely difficult, but it does take some patience, especially when you have to redo the sleeves three times because your husband convinced you they were on the wrong way, even though they weren't}

1. First things first, take the shirt out of the plastic and take a look at it. Note the sleeves and the back, as that is what you will be replacing. Turn it inside out.

2. Once you have it inside out, look at the part of the sleeves that connects to the back/shoulder of the shirt. Your goal is to get those sleeves off. Now this is my recommendation: I would suggest starting with the lower stitches {i.e. the straight stitch one, not the serged edge/zig zag edge}. One side of the stitches look pretty and simple. The other side looks a little messier. Seam rip from the messier side, working towards the right, as in, as you continue to seam rip, you will be going clockwise. After undoing a few stitches, you should be able to pull the thread and have it all come out. {I tried to take a picture of this and it did not turn out well.} Then doing the same thing with the top/serged stitches--rip out some of the stitches on top and in the underpart, and after a little bit of that, you should be able to rip it right out.

*Note: If that makes no sense, don't worry about it. It took me several shirts to even learn how to do it. It's not necessary, it just makes seam ripping much faster. If you cannot figure out my confusing instructions, just seam rip it out as best you can. It may just take a little while.

3. Once you have seam ripped both sleeves, you should be able to take them out and your shirt will now look like Larry the Cable Guy's shirt. Sleeveless. From here, you are going to work on the cuff part of the shirt.

4. This part is easier than it looks. Just be careful not to seam rip the cuff fabric. All you're going to do is detach the cuff from the sleeve.

5. And then you're going to seam rip out the little cut out thing that is part of the sleeve. Also, make sure you seam rip at least one of the sleeves open so you can use it as a pattern to cut out the sleeves from your "party" fabric.

6. When you're done with all that seam ripping, you'll have three pieces for each sleeve--two of which you'll need to keep--the cuff and that little piece of fabric that went into the cut {sorry, I have no idea how to even describe that}.

7. Next, it's time to...seam rip some more!! Exciting stuff huh? It's time to seam rip the back off of the shirt. Now, if you understood anything from step 2, I'm going to try to explain the easier/faster way to seam rip the back. Remember how there is a messier looking side and a cleaner looking side on the straight stitch? Start at the bottom of the shirt and seam rip a couple of stitches from the "messier" looking side and just pull the thread and it should just pull off. If that's super confusing, just seam rip the back part of the shirt off {both along the sides and across the top}.

{sorry this picture is kind of weird}

8. Use the back part and the sleeve that you have seam ripped off as your pattern to cut out the fabric. When I cut out the sleeves, I folded the fabric over and just cut one out and had two sleeves. {Sorry, I didn't take any pictures here.}

*Note: Make sure you prewash your fabric. It'll make it softer and easier to deal with.


9. Now comes the pinning!! Wahoo!! Okay, it's not really that exciting, but it's important, so here we go. First, you're going to want to pin and sew the sleeves together. To do that, fold each sleeve in half the hotdog way, pin them about a 1/4"down (on both sides), and sew a straight stitch all the way down. You will probably want to reinforce the stitch by sewing and additional straight stitch halfway between the edge and your first stitch.

10. Next, you're going to put on that random white part of the slit in the sleeve. Pin it on, and sew it up!

11. Now you're going to sew the cuff on. Keep in mind that the stiff part goes on the inside (aka closer to the skin). Pin the cuff on, paying close attention to both the front and the back to make sure that you pin the cuff onto the fabric on both sides. As you are pinning, note that you will probably have to fold over part of the fabric to make it fit within the cuff. It's okay. That fold was in the original sleeve in case you didn't remember. Sew it on and there you go! {p.s. unless you are a perfectionist, if you make a mistake and don't get the cuff on both sides, just go back over it. You really can't tell if you're using white thread.}

12. You're going to put the sleeves down for a minute and work on the back part of the shirt. First, hem the bottom so that the bottom edge looks nice. Then pin and sew the fabric onto the top first. You'll want to do a straight stitch across the top. Pay attention to the outside {that's where I stitched it from} as that is the part that will be seen, and make sure it's really close to the edge. {In my pictures, you can see that the outside stitch is closer to the edge than the inside stitch. Don't worry if they aren't the same, just as long as you've sewn it on both sides, you're good.}

13. Next you will want to sew on the sides. All you do is pin them on and do a straight stitch all the way down. I would suggest using the holes from when you seam ripped it out. As you can see, my stitches are a little bit below the bottom row of holes--the person I made this for wanted his shirt a little more fitted {which I ended up making it even more fitted than this}, but you get the idea....right?

13. Phew! Now that you've got the sleeves done, it's time to put them back on! This part is pretty easy. Just pin the sleeve on {make sure you pin the correct sleeve on the correct side!! I had to redo two shirts because I messed that up}. The open part of the sleeve {aka that little slit that you sewed that white bit onto} should face away from you. When you pin it on, make sure the seam is at the bottom {aka not on the shoulder}. And when you sew it on, I would suggest starting at the armpit and working your way around, that way it will look a little nicer {with the backstitching and everything}.

{{What you'll see in the picture: I matched the edges of the top of the sleeve together, making sure the seam was at the bottom. Then I put the top of the sleeve at the top of the shoulder of shirt. Then I pinned it on there first and based all the other pins off that.}}

Annndddddd then you're done!! Take a step back and admire you're newly made Party Shirt! Check out the other party shirts I've done here.

Friday Letters

Oh hello June. Where did May go?? Heck, where did April go??!

Anywho, remember that Send Something Good thing I did?? Well, through that, I met the lovely Traci from Rose and Lou and started following her blog.

Well I noticed her blog update today, and totally wanted to give it a try, so here's the first of Friday Letters (a link up by this neat blog that I just learned about called Adventures Of Newlyweds).

A random picture that really has nothing to do with Friday. 
I just want all you readers out there to know that these very vegetables came from our garden.
Yup, a real live organic garden right in my own backyard.



Dear 4-year-old boy I babysit, If you could kindly not lock me out of the bathroom and then proceed to chop your hair off, that would be great. Especially right before your mother comes home. Also, when you come out and ask me, who is going to clean all that hair on the floor up, who did you think I was going to say?? Dear iMac, I am so happy that you are finally here!! Dear husband, please get home soon so we can open our new computer and I can start updating my blog on a computer that is a million times faster and better than mine!! :) Dear husband, I miss you and would like you to come home anyway...even if we didn't have a new computer. Dear Party Shirt, I don't mind cutting out the fabric, the pinning, or even the sewing, but if you could just seam rip yourself, that would be great. Thanks! Dear Miss Lily (the 9-month old girl I babysit), You are just too adorable. Please don't ever stop smiling or I will be very sad. Dear Friday, I am so happy you are here. Thanks for coming so quickly this week. Dear me, I am so glad you are not working at *insert current animal kenneling place job here* much longer because you need some free time to do all the other work you are supposed to be doing {i.e. school, making random dudes party shirts, blogging, etc}. Also, please stop being a lame blogger and be a cool one. KThanks!

Hope you all have a fabulous Friday and weekend!!!

Send Something Good: Big Reveal Link Up!

A couple months ago, I signed up for a blogging gift exchange called Send Something Good. It started through Gentri Lee's blog.

The idea is to get to know other bloggers all around the world and to send something good to a secret blogger you have and receive something good in return.

I had so much fun with this project and it was so fun to get to know my secret blogger, who I now adore. She has a super cute blog aka Rose and Lou {{missroseandlou.blogspot.com}} AND an adorable etsy shop {p.s. She has a sale going on this weekend! Hop on over to her blog to check it out!}

She loved all sorts of things, so I just picked a few from all the things she loved. Can you guess what they are?

1. Stationary + Vintage = Super cute vintage map stationary {at least I thought it was cute} :)

2. This one is kind of tricky. The box looks similar to the previous one, but instead of stationary, it has tea in it! Same with the little white package wrapped with a bow. 

 3. A bundle of vintage-inspired fabric tied neatly with a bow.

4. Fabric state map in a frame {she and I are both from New York, how awesome is that?} The package was tied with a teal {one of her fav colors}, sparkly {which she also likes} scarf/belt.
{{p.s. check out the state map DIY here}}

5. A journal. This one I feel the need to explain a bit. She is going to be married soon, and my intention for this journal was to be a cute way for her and her soon-to-be husband to write love notes to one another. Or just as a journal to document her engagement/wedding/marriage. Whatever she chooses :)



I was so caught up and excited about giving Traci {my secret blogger's name} her gift, that I didn't really think too much about my gift! So when it came, I totally wasn't expecting it and it was an awesome surprise.

My secret blogger was Ashlie Blake over at Painting Bliss. She is a mixed media artist and creates some very beautiful pieces! Seriously, I'm so impressed with her sense of creativity. Plus I love her adorable handwriting. These were my gifts from her.
{please excuse the terrible pictures!}

A bamboo spoon and fork, perfect for salad serving
Some vintage buttons, which I adore
A cute blush hat with an adorable flower
{and did I mention it's handmade?}
A fun firefly necklace to see in the dark
And a stationary set that really a work of art {complete with a stamp and an E for Elyse}
And finally, and probably best was the beautiful handmade mixed media art made just for us.

If I were any good at poem writing, that might have rhymed....haha.


Anyway, this was such a fantastic opportunity and I'm so grateful I got to be a part of it. Now go check out the other awesome blogs!

This End Leads to a New Beginning

This morning, as I sit in my quiet house, I have been pondering this past year and how tonight is going to completely change the next three.

Tonight is Drop Night. Or in Air Force pilot training terms, this is one of the big nights. Most guys might think it bigger than graduation even. 

Tonight is the night that everyone in Jordan's class will find out what plane they will be flying for the next 10 years {or so} of their lives, and where they will be living the next three years.

It's kind of a big deal.

{I am so grateful to Jordan for all his hard work this past year.}

Let me tell you a little bit about pilot training:

Twelve hour days. Every day.

Sometimes show time is 5 am {which means he gets home at 5 pm}

Sometimes it's 9 am {which means he gets home at 9 pm}

When he's not flying

He's studying

Even when he's home.

We have one day a week together

{Saturday, half of Sunday}

An incredible amount of stress

The constant feeling of failure

and pressure

Sometimes I don't see my husband literally all day

From 5 am till 9 pm 

because of our different schedules

There's more, but I think you get the idea. It's stressful; it's hard; and...

IT'S ALMOST OVER!!!!!

Lovely Linky: Seven Questions

 //Sometimes my husband and I are goofs. 

//Sometimes I'm just the goof :)

1. Are you a thrift shopper?
Working on it. Unfortunately, the closest thrift store is 150 miles away. 

Also, I tend to spend wayy more money on stuff I don't need. 

Why? 

I don't know, I just NEED it!

2. You just had a very bad dream, what do you do?
I have been known to wake up crying, 

wake up startled, 

wake up within a dream and then wake up again. 

But that's not even the weirdest. 

Sometimes, 

I will dream something that is so real to me 

that I will literally get out of bed because I feel I need to. 

Case in point: A few years ago I started working as a server in a restaurant. 

One night, I was convinced that I had "tables" I had to wait on, 

so I got out of bed and started helping them. 

Who? 

Yeah, no one. 

But I was so convinced that they were upset with me that I started "helping" them. 

Which again, was no one. 

And that happens frequently. It's weird. 

{Sorry I didn't really answer the question, huh? 

I guess after that I just convince myself it's okay to go back to bed. 

Or just cuddle with my husband, haha}

3. What is your favorite flavor of ice cream?
Gentri said it best. Mint chocolate chip. 

But I'll take regular chocolate if there's none available 

{and no, vanilla mixed with chocolate sauce is not the same as chocolate ice cream,

 in case you were wondering}

4. What do you do with your money? (spend it, save it, invest it, bury it, etc)
I'm a kind of spender. 

Okay, I am a total spender, 

which I why I rarely go to the mall or shopping because 

I will see things that I absolutely must have. 

Fortunately, my husband is a saver :)

5. What was the last quote or statement you heard that really hit you?

This article actually. 

It talks about giving up things in order to become happier.

6. What do you do when you're driving alone? (ex: dance, sing, listen to talk radio, etc)
Learn Spanish! 

Haha, I live next to Mexico. I figure I should at least attempt. 

And it has come in handy a couple of times.

7. Did you watch the premier of Bachelorette? If so, who was your favorite bachelor?
Nope! Sorry, but "Reality" shows aren't really my thing. 

Except America's Next Top Model, 

and that's only because of the amazing photography.