Goodbye, 2014

Lately, I've been reflecting a lot on the negative in my life, and trying so fiercely to combat that by focusing on the good, on the things I'm most thankful for. Let me tell you; it's no easy task trying to keep a positive mind when all you feel is negative, but I can at least say I've been trying.

This last month of 2014 has been a whirlwind of emotions, from contentment, to shock, to excitement, to bliss, to sadness, to disappointment, to anger, to hopefulness. I can honestly say I've experienced each of these emotions in just a matter of two short weeks, and then some. I'm not sure what 2015 will bring, but I know things have to be looking up from here, from this harsh ending to 2014, and I'm ready to leave it all behind and go forth.

Despite everything that's happened this month, this Christmas just didn't feel like Christmas. Matt and I spent Christmas eve at my parent's house with my brother and his wife, and we had a blast playing Uno and snacking on our favorite finger foods. It was a lot of fun, but different from the usual norm of going to Mamaw's house. We woke up Christmas day and ate breakfast before heading over to Matt's mom and dad's house for his side of the family's Christmas. We played Cards Against Humanity and let me tell you, laughter is certainly the best medicine. I can't think of a better group of people to play that with!

I guess this year just didn't really feel like Christmas to me, probably because we haven't even celebrated with my side of the family yet. Matt and I are going to the wedding of our dear friend, Jo, on New Year's Eve. Then, we'll be having our Christmas on New Year's Day and then going to Mamaw's on Friday night to celebrate. Maybe I'll be in  more of the Christmas mood this weekend after having spent some time with family. I already took down all my Christmas decorations besides my tree, of course. Who the heck am I?? I never do that. I'm always sad to take it all down! But this year I'm just over it all. I want to move on from this Christmas and not think about it for a while. I sure hope 2015 brings more joy than 2014 did.

So, now that I'm done being a negative Nancy, I truly hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas and an even better upcoming New Year. :)

Christmas Cards 2015

Before the holiday season completely engulfs me and I end up with zero time for blogging, today I thought I'd share this year's Kley family Christmas cards!

Of course, these were crafted and created by the one and only Kenzie Phillips of Ivory House Creative. Who other than my lovely sis-in-law would I entrust with my freakin' Christmas cards?? ;) Seriously, GO check her out! She is an incredibly talented designer with so much to offer.

Photo courtesy of Ivory House Creative. :)

Now, not only did I get some fabulous custom Christmas cards, but I also got these amazing envelopes with liners to put the finishing touch on my cards. Yep, Kenzie does those, too! And, as another plus, my cards were double-sided this year to add to all the Christmas amazingness.

Front! Look at my girl.

And back!

Our photographs this year were taken by the fabulous Jessica Strong of Jessica Strong Photography at the Charleston Falls Reserve close to home. I LOVE how they turned out and was surprised she was able to even get a good shot with Bella acting like a wild child!

I love my little family, and am feeling more grateful than ever for them in my life (yep, including my dog baby).

<3

Thanksgiving 2014

Hey there, friends. :)

So I don't have any photos to show this year's Thanksgiving, but it was a nice time with family for sure. Matt had to work Thanksgiving so that was a huge bummer. :/ I hate waking up alone on holidays. Just doesn't seem right. It was nice having 5 straight days off of work, though!

I got up and headed over to Matt's parents house to drop off my broccoli casserole and deviled eggs for them to gobble up for their meal. Then, I shot over to Mamaw's for an hour or so just to visit since I hadn't seen her in a while! Finally, I got over to mom and dad's and enjoyed our Thanksgiving meal with the family. Turkey, sweet potatoes, stuffing, broccoli casserole, corn casserole, oh man...it was so delish.

My final stop for the day was back to Matt's mom and dad's house where I waited for Mattycakes to get off work (about 7:30). Ugh, nurse life. We had some more food (ugh) and of course dessert and just hung around in a food coma. Overall, it was a nice day. Wish the hub could have been there.

On Black Friday, I did a little shopping with Matt and my two sisses-in-law, then went to the Hara Arena Gift/Craft Show where I got a cute little ornament and a welcome lantern for my front porch. Love! The rest of the weekend, we just hung around and spent time with family.

Cute craft show find!

Hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving! Let Christmas time begin! :)

Wrist Warmers for Mama

Morning friends!

This past week has been interesting. We've been hit with snow over here in the midwest, and so I woke up to a winter wonderland in my backyard on Monday morning. Needless to say, I was NOT ready for this, and ended up being about 15 minutes late to work. Ah well. It has been pretty! And pretty cold. I have to be honest... it's got me giddy for the holiday season but I know three more months of this is NOT going to be fun. :(

My backyard via Instagram.

Anywho, just wanted to share the wrist warmers I finished up last week for my mama. She always has cold hands and arms around the house and any warmers she has bought for herself have been too scratchy, so I made her a soft pair. I'm fairly certain that I used Bernat Satin yarn in Linen but of course, I never remember to keep track.

Please excuse my PJs :)

The pattern I used is from Jocelyn at Cute Crochet Chat and it's simple and easy to follow. Just might have to make myself a pair!

Other than crocheting and working and sleeping (ha), I did get the house all decorated for Christmas! The only thing we have left to do is put up our Christmas tree, and I couldn't do that without Matt, who has been working all week. SO, tonight we're having our annual "Christmas party" where we blast Christmas music, decorate the tree, and settle in to watch a Christmas movie. Just a little something we do together every year! I can't wait to share some photos.

I hope you all are staying warm out there!

Boot Cuffs

Today I'm bringing you a pair of boot cuffs I've been working on recently. These were super quick and easy to make and didn't take much yarn to do. If you're just starting out with crochet, this is a great beginning project to work on.

I stumbled upon this pattern via Tangled Happy. Come to find out, it's actually on Ravelry and created by Kitty Adventures. PLUS, it's free so that's always awesome. If you love to crochet or knit and haven't yet been on Ravelry, I highly recommend it. There are TONS of free patterns for just about anything you're thinking of working on. Have I said that before? I think I have.

I'm almost certain that for this pattern, I used Lion Brand Wool Ease® Yarn in Wheat, but I could be wrong. I'm so terrible at remembering what kind of yarn I used for projects. Note to self: work on that.

I love these cuffs because they aren't too big and bulky inside your boots, plus the lace-looking top is absolutely adorable. You can fold them over the tops of your boots (like I did above) or wear them straight. I'm loving these.

I've been a crocheting machine recently so here in a few days I'll have another update/project for you all. Stay tuned!

New Toys

Happy November, friends!

It's hard to believe that in just 48 days (or whatever) Christmas will be here, which is obviously the best holiday ever. In preparation for the upcoming holiday season, and because I just had another birthday, Mattycakes and I made a recent purchase that has got me GIDDY.

It's a Nikon D3200 Camera and it is my new baby!

Let me tell you, I've thought for a long time about buying a camera, but honestly, forking over the chunk of change for a nice one always turned me off. But, it took a bit of research for a couple of weeks and waiting for the right time to nail one down. I'm happy to say I've found this nice bundle deal from Best Buy that included the camera body, two lenses (an 18-55mm and a 55-200mm), camera bag, and a bunch of little accessories. Perfect for a beginner like myself.

Yep, that's me in my crochet Hooded Cowl.

Get ready, family. I'm coming at ya (with my camera) especially around the holidays!! Yep, sure am. In fact, that's pretty much why I bought it. I don't intend to go pro or anything. Just wanted something to capture memories and help out my blog!

Next to-do on my list is to make a camera strap cover like this one (after learning my sewing machine, of course :/). Or, there are a few good ones I could order from Amazon. Can you tell I'm excited?

P.S. - Bella loves the new camera, too.

Hooded Cowl

October has, for the most part, been a fun month. I'm happy to report that my crocheting itch is back and in full swing, which is one of the reasons why. It just feels better doing it when the weather cools down, ya know what I'm sayin'? Here is my latest project I finished last night. Took me about two weeks to complete (not focusing tons of effort every night).

It's a fun crochet hooded cowl! And although Matt thinks it's dorky, I'm loving it. He just doesn't understand. :P

I got the pattern from the lovely Sarah at Repeat Crafter Me. I'm telling you, the amounts of patterns I've pinned from this girl are endless. She's so talented and I'm always excited to see what she comes up with next! You can find the pattern here! It's super easy to follow.

For this cowl, I used Lion Brand Wool-Ease Thick & Quick Yarn in Wheat.

So, one thing I've noticed is that I must have crocheted a little bit tighter than Sarah. My hood ended up longer (taller?) and I had to add a few rows in order for it to fully cover my head....and I have a small head, let me tell ya. It's cool, though. I usually find myself trying to crochet in a more relaxed manner but it never happens! Womp.

And, probably for that reason, I was a little forced to flip the bottom up a bit to wrap nicely around my neck. Nonetheless, I think it turned out nice!

If you can half double crochet, you can make this awesomely warm hooded cowl. :)

Enjoy!

Disbelief

I've gone back and forth trying to decide how to write this post...how to get the words out...how to formulate them so that they make perfect sense in an elegant sort of way. It's kind of impossible.

On Friday, October 24th, 2014, someone I knew from high school passed away unexpectedly in a car accident out in Arizona. His name was Dave Elam, and he was 21 years old. He left behind a wife and two-year-old son.

I really hate to be like the endless amounts of people who are attaching themselves to social media, digging up old photos and trying to convince the world that they knew him well and were his closest friends. This is a common thing when tragedies occur, especially when we're all part of such a small community as Bethel, where the high school is made up of roughly 400 students (or less) and everyone knows everyone. The thing is, though, a lot of people really were close with him. He's an Elam, for crying out loud. The youngest son of Bethel's band and choir director. The silly little brother of Danny III and Mitchell, who all three together, were the wild, UK-loving Elam boys.

The last time I saw Dave was in the beginning of September. He was home for a wedding and was driving with his dad. I thought he was Danny because hell, they all look SO much alike. Plus, I really hadn't seen him since going to his senior year musical with my friend Leah. He had grown up a lot. It got me thinking, though. You really just never, ever know when it'll be the last time you see or speak to someone. Life is funny that way.

Going to Bethel, it was hard not to at least know of or speak to the majority of people at school at least once or twice. Though I was never personally close with Dave, it was overwhelming and shocking to hear of his accident. My older brother, Tony, is one of Mitch's best friends. Dave had been to our house on many occasions. The running joke was that one time, he clogged our upstairs toilet and the boys never let him down since "poopin' on the flo." Poor Davey.

Anyway, I hate to make any of this about anyone other than Dave. His family is a beloved part of the Bethel community, and it truly seems unreal that something like this had to happen to them. I'm praying that they find peace from all of this. I pray that they know how much they are loved by all, though that probably won't ease any of the pain. I pray that everyone holds on close to their loved ones, because you never, ever know when it will be the last time you get the opportunity.

Two Years

Recapping from yesterday because it was too perfect to spend online blogging! :P

Yesterday was mine and Matt's two-year wedding anniversary, and it couldn't have been a better day. I took the day off of work because Matt was off work as well, and we just spent the day together doing pretty normal things.... but it was great because we were together (awww). We shopped around a bit, getting ceiling lights for the entry-way (happy anniversary to me!) and a few other things. We stopped at The Cakery (where we got our wedding cake) to pick up some cupcakes, too!

For dinner, Matt took me to La Piazza in Troy. We shared some Moscato and ate a yummy Italian meal by candlelight. It was seriously the most perfect night. We haven't had a night like that in so long. It was fabulous.

Now, let's go down memory lane for a bit, remembering our perfect, beautiful, incredible wedding day. I wish we could go back so badly!

Our wedding song was "I Won't Give Up" by Jason Mraz. Can you tell we're obsessed?

Confessions

Good morning! Welcome to Beautiful Thing!

As you may or may not know, I was previously the owner of the Happy Wife Life blog. It was my first blogging venture and taught me SO much about this little blogging world. However, after about six or so months of {trying} to blog, I realized how much I had fallen out of love with the whole idea of what I had done. Yes, I love crafting. Yes, I loved creating something people could use. But, it just didn't feel right to me. So, that's why I've decided to make a new start with Beautiful Thing, still continuing to document life's little journeys but maybe just in a different way. I'm feeling much better about this one!

So that's that.

On a somewhat-related note, I want to own a blog. I don't want it to own me. Part of why I love this life is because I get to actually live it. So, I might not be able to post every day or even every week, but I'm going to try to have a balancing life with Beautiful Thing unlike before.

Okay, done ranting. Thanks for listening. :D

Anywayyyyys.....

This past Wednesday, Matt and I went to our third Jason Mraz concert together! (Can you tell we're slightly approaching obsessed status?) We traveled far to the unknown Columbus, Ohio Palace Theatre and it was absolutely incredible. It was like stepping back in time! And that's what I love about Jason; you can tell he truly prefers to play for a smaller, more intimate crowd. It was one of the best shows I've ever been to. He spoke a lot to us and it just felt very much like a coffee-shop kind of performance. He played with Raining Jane, a band of four kick-ass chicks that he made his most recent album with. If you haven't heard of them, I highly suggest checking them out, as well as the new album, Yes. Oh look! Here is the full album below from YouTube (and it's not mine).

Here are a few photos of the theatre and the band during the show. My phone sucks.

The amazing ceiling at the Palace Theatre.

Husband and me!

Fan girl moment when Jason walked through our aisle!

He was so phenomenal. I'll go back to listening to his entire album now. Enjoy!

Hello!

We've got a new thing goin' on here. I guess not "we;" really, just me. A new blog. A fresh start. Coming to you live from the previous Happy Wife Life blog.

Yes, I'm still married. Yes, I still love my previous blog. I've just felt incredibly inspired to create something new, something without limits. Something more than what I was doing before.

More details to follow...I promise!

Summer Update: We Bought a House!

Holy moly, I realized I haven't posted since April. O_O

Okay, so I know I've been neglecting the blog recently, but keeping up with it had honestly started to get a little overwhelming. I think I needed to take a step back and remember why I started it in the first place...to record the ups and downs and crazy, wonderful memories in life.

This summer (well, actually, around May and June), Matt and I started looking for houses!! And we ended up closing on our new home in Tipp City in mid-July. :) :) So basically that's my excuse for not keeping up with the blog! We've been doing home reno for the past month now and I can finally say WE ARE MOVING this weekend!! It has been such a fun journey. I wish I could just buy, flip, and sell homes for a living. Hmm....

In a nutshell, our renovation consisted of ripping up carpet, painting every wall, ceiling, and baseboard in the house, cleaning (so much cleaning--the previous owners had smoked in the home), tearing down a wall separating the kitchen and living room, putting a fence around the yard, and finally putting down some wood flooring and carpet. Not a ton of stuff to do, but just enough to really enjoy the transformation.

I keep telling myself to take photos so that's what I plan on doing within the next few days.

I'm super grateful Matt and I have the means to buy this home and make it exactly what we want. For the past few months or so before we started work on the house, I had been a little stressed out and my mind had been elsewhere...up and down emotions that I'm not sure I'm ready to share with the blogging world. But! This house has allowed me to find some happiness and has pulled my mind away from the stress. It has been a really fun journey and I'm overjoyed to be sharing it with Matt.

So that's my update! It'll probably be a while before I update again because I'll be beautifying my house and organizing and unpacking and most likely losing my mind! But it'll be fantastic.

Remember people....love the journey you're on right now in this moment. You'll never get it back.

 

Easter Recap and More!

I'm sorry to say that it has, once again, been a ridiculous amount of time since I last blogged.

There for a while, I was on this HUGE kick! And then all of a sudden, there was wayyyy too much going on in life to catch up! Now feels like a good time to get back into it, at least a little bit... so I thought I would share how Matt and I spent our Easter Sunday, and what we've been up to since!

You know that promotion I was telling you about? Well I'm so happy to announce that I GOT IT! It was actually such a big surprise! I didn't think I would get it at all, but I'm grateful I did. I can now say that hard work truly pays off!

Easter Sunday couldn't have been more beautiful here, which is surprising...you never know what kind of weather you'll get in April in Ohio. I started the day off making the nephews some tiny Easter baskets, and finishing up preparing some food for the day.

I used my Babycakes cupcake maker and copied a cute decorating idea I found on Pinterest! Couldn't have been easier to do. We spent the earlier part of the day with my family, then headed over to Matt's parent's house to watch the boys hunt for eggs.

Last week, we met up with some of Matt's school friends for a fun night out! This was the night before their Nursing Pinning Ceremony and it was nice meeting some of the classmates Matt talks about so much!

All the graduating nurses :)

Friday night was Matt's pinning, and it was so sweet! He played guitar and sang with a girl from his class for a special musical piece. They performed "The River" by Garth Brooks...I was so proud!

Saturday, mama Cindy and I threw a small graduation party for Matt with the family. Again, we had some gorgeous weather! That night was his official graduation. FINALLY the day came! He did it!

Matt is without a doubt going to be such an amazing nurse. He has such a caring tendency for others. I know he truly loves what he does and it shows through his personality. I'm so proud of his accomplishments.

That's all for now, folks. You'll be seeing me around more often! I have lots more updates coming up!

 

Busy Spring

I'm back!

As you may or may not have noticed, I have disappeared from the blogging work for about a week, and with good reason. My life has been absolutely INSANE within the last week. Between work and a million other things, I decided I needed to prioritize...not to mention, I was exhausted and in bed around 9pm every night! Needless to say I'm glad last week is over and I'm ready for life to get back to normal.

Last Saturday, we threw my dad a surprise 50th Birthday party and it was so great!! He was so surprised but still suspicious seeing as how mom made him wear a nice shirt to my brother's house. He thought we were just getting the family together for pizza...wrong! We had lots of old friends and family there to eat, drink, and catch up. I wish I would have taken more pictures, but between food and mingling, we were just having too good of a time.

Dad's old high school and college friend, Ralph, came out to the party, which was an even bigger surprise since they haven't seen each other in years! Overall, I think dad was super grateful and happy, since the whole day he thought we were neglecting him on his birthday! HA! It was a great day.

A few days before that, my sis-in-law Kenzie let Matt and I know of a house down their street that's for sale, and since I actually happened to know the realtor, we were able to take a peek right before dad's party! Well, turns out, we ended up making an offer on the house on Sunday! AN OFFER!! That was a first for us, so now we're officially feeling like real adults, ha! But, come to find out yesterday, we didn't end up getting it. Another offer came through offering full-price, which is a little crazy. The house was super cute but needed a little cosmetic work and a brand new kitchen. I was a little disappointed, but trying to remember that it wasn't meant to be, and that there's another house out there somewhere for us!

Other than just my personal life being crazy, I also had one crazy work week last week. I'm applying for a promotion at work that I'm not sure if I'll get, but I took a stab at it anyway. I had a questionnaire, interview, and presentation to complete, so my mind was completely a mess trying to finish all of that on top of my regular work. Thus, the blog had to be put aside...especially since I was coming home absolutely exhausted. I finished my presentation on Friday, and that night Matt and I met up with his family (the Kleypack) for margaritas for mama Cindy's birthday celebration! MUCH needed margaritas after that week, I must say.

Phew, I think that's all for now. Today is a little annoying being 30 degrees (and snowing), especially since it was 70 degrees here all last weekend. Boo. But, I have some goodies coming up, including an update about my jewelry armoire redo, and some others! Stay tuned!