.amiee's chevron baby shower.

My friend Amiee is having a baby boy named Greyson in a couple of weeks.

We utilized my neighborhood clubhouse and threw her a chevron-themed baby shower.

The menu consisted of:

+ pretzel chips and hummus

+ quiches

+ cake

+ punch

We incorporated as much chevron as we could. It was on the cake and napkins. I used some pieces of chevron fabric I had as table runners.

I found this letter G at Hobby Lobby and spray painted the back of it with light gray and mod podged chevron-print paper onto the front. Amiee took this home with her after the shower to use as decoration in baby Greyson's nursery.

I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut his banner out of card stock. The letters were cut out of the same orange and white chevron paper I used on the front of the tabletop G. She can also hang this in Greyson's nursery if she so desires.

My friend Chrissy brought her chalkboard tray, and we drew out this message.

Amiee's daughter Ella helped open all the gifts.

I'm so excited to meet this sweet baby boy!

.camping & canoeing on the elk.

I don't know if I've ever revealed this or not...but I have the coolest small group ever.

This past weekend, we went on a camping/canoeing trip together.

This marked my second time to camp, my first time (and most likely, my last) time to canoe.

We stayed at The Eagle's Nest in Noel, MO. Our camp site was beautiful, but with a road close by, railroad tracks, and a nearby cow field...sleep was pretty much futile. BUT there was a bathroom, like right there, so I was cool with the loss of sleep.

We walked down to the Elk River from our campsite and practiced skipping rocks.

For dinner, we heated up some burgers, hot dogs and ribs over the fire. For dessert, we had s'mores. It was pretty warm during the day, in the 80's, but the night we camped got pretty chilly. That's another reason I didn't sleep well, but again, I was ok with it because there's something so fun about sleeping in a tent and feeling the cool evening air all night long.

By the way, I don't particularly care for s'mores because of the marshmallow part. But I still ate one because duh I was camping and that's just what you do.

Something neat about our campsite was the plot number we pitched our tent on. Number 61. For reasons that go all the way back to high school, 61 is my favorite number. How cool is that?!

The next morning, we got up around 6:30 (to the sound of a train) and had a breakfast of eggs and bacon. We walked down to the river to mess around, then we took our tents down.

Then the canoeing adventure began.

Let me just say, I am dang proud of myself. I'm proud of all of us, but considering it was my first time and I have a very unhealthy fear of water, I'm super proud that I didn't wuss out.

Eight miles down the Elk River in 2.5 hours (and that includes stopping halfway to eat soggy sandwiches).

I almost cried, almost had a panic attack. The two non-swimmers wore life jackets...

But I found my comfort in sitting on the floor of the canoe as opposed to the seat. I didn't feel like I was going to fly overboard as much with the walls surrounding me. After my panic subsided, I got into the groove of paddling and actually did quite well.

The Elk River was beautiful!

And minus the drunk people that so rudely squirted us with water guns and that one time we almost tipped...I ended up having fun.

Oh, yeah, we ALMOST tipped. In choppy, deep water that carried us straight towards a fallen tree. We had to completely duck to avoid getting decapitated by the fallen limbs. Upon rising back up, we realized we were about to tip, I prayed "Lord!!" out loud, followed by a choice word as my oar got ripped out of my hands and my life flashed before my eyes. 

A nice boy scout in a kayak saved my oar and brought it back to me.

Thankfully, this near-death experience happened towards the end of our adventure. Once we got back to shore and all the canoes from our group returned, we learned that one of our friends' whole family tipped in the rapids that almost tipped us. They lost everything out of their canoe, but the husband was able to swim and retrieve it all. Well, all except for my friend's flip flop, but that floated downstream to us eventually.

Needless to say, after all the drama and excitement, we were exhausted and just ready to get home and shower.

One thing's for sure, you don't go on a trip like this and not grow closer to the people you share in the experience with.  I absolutely love this group of people and I'm go glad I could be a part of these memories.

.will & savannah's wedding.

It's been a while since I've gotten to go to a wedding, so I've been anxiously waiting for May 4th to arrive.

My "brother from another mother" tied the knot with his beautiful bride, Savannah.

This match made in Heaven couldn't have pulled off a more beautiful wedding, in my opinion. It was very Pinterest-inspired without going overboard. The colors were coral & aqua.

And since the wedding took place in a tiny country town about 4 hours from home...ROAD TRIP!

{Side note: Yeah, ok, I'm kinda obsessed with road trips. Love 'em.}

The decor was perf. Gorg. Amazeballs. (AKA awesome)

Got to spend good quality time with some family and friends I hadn't seen in a while. And my handsome brother was the best man!

The wedding was originally supposed to be outdoors with the reception inside, but the rainy weather pushed it all inside. The setting was just so beautiful, I can't get over it. And I can't wait to see the professional wedding pictures they took outside because I'm sure the overcast sky made for some striking colors and gorgeous photos.

So very happy for Will & Savannah!

.warrior dash/girls' trip.

I'm a little behind, but I wanted to post about the girls' trip to Kansas City I went on a few weekends ago.

Some of my friends ran the Warrior Dash, and two of us went as spectators.

The road trip up there was rainy and stormy. Instead of paying for a hotel room, we got to stay at one of my friends' Dad's house. We're talking four air mattresses strewn about his living and dining rooms. My first slumber party as an adult!

Probably the most memorable event from the evening was the antagonizing of Becky -- the least "girly" of the whole group -- when we "bullied" her into straightening her hair.

Earlier in the evening, we had dinner at Granite City Grill, a KC favorite.

I also experienced my first time to Dave & Buster's. Becky and I had a basketball rematch (following our Chuckie Cheese match, which I won). 

We played two games because I won the first one (Boom!) so Becky had to redeem herself by winning the second one.

After a restful night's sleep (for everyone but me on my half-inflated mattress on the hardwood floor), we got up and around, headed to Panera for breakfast, then on to the Warrior Dash. These four were the brave runners:

And Ashley and I were the supporters.

It was a pretty chilly day, super muddy, but oh so fun. I'm even considering joining in the actual race next year. That's big for a gal such as myself.

There were so many people there, lots in costume. So fun!

It took our girls just a little over an hour to complete the course. Once we saw them coming down the hill towards us, I felt so proud of them! They stuck together the whole time and exited the course covered in mud and shivering cold.

I'm still so proud of my friends! So many great memories were made on this trip.

.more completed projects.

My love for sewing is in full swing right now. On my days off during the week, I've been completing projects left and right. My creative process has been working like this:

1. Scour through my "Create This" Pinterest board and open a couple of different tutorials I have yet to attempt.

2. Purchase supplies needed for chosen tutorials.

3. Create.

Sometimes I even get a little crazy and create something for myself sans-pattern!

You might remember {this dress} I created for myself over Spring Break.

Well, I got the itch to create another maxi dress for myself, so I went to Hancock Fabric and bought 3 yards of gray jersey knit. (Turns out 2 yards would have been plenty and a lot less expensive. But I had a gift card...but still...I'll never do that again.)

Using a t-shirt as my guide for the top of the dress, I created this:

There are a few things I need to tweak but I will probably actually be able to wear this out in public. On days that I don't mind having to suck in my gut, that is. I didn't mean for it to be so fitted at the abdomen...

One more little project I completed was this shirt:

I bought this white tee at Goodwill with this specific project in mind. I sewed on a few thrifted doilies and now I have a feminine shirt to wear possibly tucked into skirts this spring.

I have two more Pinterest tutorials pulled up right now that I'd like to tackle today. One would use up most of the extra gray jersey knit fabric I bought too much of, and the other requires me to go thrifting...which I am always more than happy to have an excuse to do.

If these go well, expect another blog post in the near future!

Follow me on Instagram to see my completed projects as I get them done: martylou83.

.pinterest-inspired projects.

Today I utilized my day off quite wisely, if I do say so myself. I completed two crafty projects from Pinterest that I've been wanting to tackle for a while now.

First was this tee refashion from Cotton and Curls.

I took one of Hubs' old t-shirts that he never wears and cut it down to be more form fitting. This was also my first time to remove a neckline and reattach it.

Project two of the day was to make a new door hanger for our front door. Now that Easter is over, I wanted to replace the Burlap Cross.

This initial door hanger from Broken Treasures was my inspiration:

I got the biggest unfinished wooden B I could find at Hobby Lobby, used some stain we already had in the garage, hot glued some fake flowers on, and attached a mustard chevron ribbon to hang it from. I love how it turned out!

Now it's time to clean up my crafting mess and take care of some of the (less fun) household chores!

.easter 2013.

That's not just a picture of a beautiful tree. It's a picture of my church.

Yes, we still meet in the local movie theater. I know some day we'll have a building of our own, but until then I never want to forget this season of our church.

This was our first Easter to spend in this church home of ours, and it was extra special. Hubs and I helped on the greeting team for the first time. We had a record attendance at around 220 people, many being first-time visitors. The worship session was amazing; I had chills the whole time. The sermon was dead on. It was about how we can have a true, unfailing Hope and confidence because Jesus died on that cross and rose back to life three days later.

After church, three baptisms were performed outside; two of those three kids belonged to a friend of mine and it was so special to get to witness their baptisms.

We had Easter lunch with my family over at my brother and sister-in-law's house.

My sister-in-law is so good at entertaining. She provided a delicious and pretty spread of food. We had grilled steak and pork chops, pasta salad, deviled eggs, rolls, fruit salad, strawberry pie and lemon cake.

After we ate, we went outside and watched my sweet nephew hunt a few eggs until he got distracted by all the other fun activities to do such as have leaves thrown on him, get squirted by a water gun, slide, chase Mr. B (his dog) around, and ride his 4-wheeler.

The weather was gorgeous today! We couldn't have asked for better.

Here's my nephew telling me "Bye, Bye" as he goes for a slide with his Daddy by his side.

I hope you all had an Easter Sunday full of blessings!