New Stove!

Today is a monumental day. This year for my birthday I asked my family to pitch in to a "stove fund" because I knew it would be much easier to convince my husband to buy a stove if the price tag was a little lower. It worked like a charm and now I have...

A new stove! Can you tell I am happy?? It is like walking into a whole new kitchen. Check out the before and after.

Such an upgrade!

 T.J. working on installing the cord. 

We could roast an extra large turkey in here... but of course we never will!

It looks great with the fridge too.

Check out previous kitchen evolution posts here and here. It has come a long way in just over two years!

A really big thanks to my family that helped make this happen, I will bring you cookies baked in my new oven soon!

East Hall

Whenever my brother visits from Washington we make a trip up to our old campus - Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, MI. One of the spots we liked to hang out when we both attended together was on the steps of East Hall, an original campus building (built in 1904). The building was mostly defunct by the time we attended school. It was nonetheless awesome and had great views of the city of Kalamazoo and even fireworks during baseball season. It was also creepy and cool inside. The building was an art student hangout, held archives, and had several creepy old bathrooms. The moped army made a few sweeps through there every night too. Needless to say, I have great memories of the place. My dad sent out this picture to the family a few months ago and it was perfect timing as WMU is tearing down a big chunk of East Hall and the surrounding historic buildings this month. Read more about it here. Here is my grandma in front of East Hall back in the 1940's. 

My grandma earned her BA and MA from WMU back in the 40's and 50's. 

And East Hall a week or so ago when we visited: 

The good news is it sounds like they are saving at least some of it for an alumni center and if I know alumni centers, I know they mean big buck$, so I'm sure that part will be nicely restored. I'm still sad to see the crumbling old hangout as I knew it go. 

Wedding Shadow Box

3 years later, I finally got around to making the shadow box for my wedding. I wanted to make one of these from day 1 because I knew I wanted to frame the pattern for my dress somehow. I have written about the wedding on the blog before (here, here, and here) but long story short, my mom and I made my dress and I made my reception dress (pics below) so I have the pattern and various scraps of lace and fabric that I wanted to preserve. I also saved a few other odds and ends to include like my "something old" and "something blue" - a vintage bow hair pin from my sister, and two charms from a bridal charm bracelet from my sister. I included the wedding invitation and a pink bow from my shoes too.

I adore the shadowbox I found, definitely the cutest one I've ever seen. I found it at Michaels for just $20 (after coupon). To attach my fabric, lace, etc. I use the pins that were already in the shadow box plus a couple corsage pins I already had. The only thing I ended up taping in was the wedding invitation because I didn't want to put a hole in it. I also ended up taking the physical pattern out of the pattern envelope so it would be less bulky.

Click the photo below to see it larger.

I included fabric from both my dresses (below). 

I love being able to look at this stuff that reminds me of that day + the year of planning leading up to it. We spend so much time and energy on wedding planning and then so much of it gets stored away in boxes and never sees the light of day again. I am glad to have my wedding memories out on display now!