Heading Back!

Like I said, I knew that as soon as we got here that we'd be leaving again. We're getting up bright and early in the am to fly back to EA! Please chat for us as we take the long journey back to the other side of the world! Look forward to updating you when we get back!

Much Love!
Haley

Give 1 Save 1

I hope that you are having a wonderful day. Thus far, after some time in the Word, my day is off to a great start. We will be in the states for 10 more days and there are about 35 people I still really want to see. Keeping my fingers crossed for time to crawl by for the sake of quality time with people I love. I am excited to get back to our home on the other side of the world though. As I cherish both places, I am once again reminded of how blessed I am to live the life I do. 

SO my sweet friend Brooke {who had the baby shower that Jamie and I blogged about in our little blog swap a few weeks ago} is about 35 weeks preggo with Finn BUT is also awaiting the arrival of a referral for their little boy in Ethiopia any day now! 

{Brooke stopped through to see me a couple of weeks ago, and we had a great time catching up. How cute & stylish is she? I have a feeling I'm going to be a sweats & t-shirt girl when I'm in my 3rd trimester someday!}  

This week this really cool website- Give 1 Save 1- is featuring her & Brandon to raise money for their adoption. The whole idea is to give $1 to save the life of 1 orphan. ONE DOLLAR... not everyone is called to adopt and not everyone has the means to give extravagantly BUT EVERYONE can give a dollar! It may not seem like much, but if thousands of people give just $1, then thats thousands of dollars. {thank you captain obvious}

SO PLEASE dear readers, hop over to Give 1 Save 1 right now and help to bring their little boy home and pass the word on to your friends!  

Then add Give 1 Save 1 to your reader or whatever else you use to follow blogs and check back every week to read the stories of different families who are following the call to care for orphans! 

Much love to you all! Have a WONDERFUL day!

{more pics of my time home to come soon!}

Joyfully Giving & Saving,

Visiting East TN

Here are some highlights from our time in East TN

Like I mentioned before, sweet Jamie drove over to bring Lucy to us. It was definitely a blessing to get to spend a little time together. 

We went to see my Great Aunt Lorraine & Great Uncle JD

I love my Aunt Lorraine. She is an amazing, fire-cracker of a godly woman. She reminds me so much of my granny, and she makes the best home-cooking ever. 

Every time we come over, she fixes a FEAST of my favorites. 

Homemade Mac & Cheese

Mashed Potatoes

And for the love of my tastebuds.... Cubed steak. I'm positive that there is NOTHING I want to put in my mouth more than these 3 things made at her house. 

SO delicious. 

We drove over to Asheville to see my cousin Will, his wife Kelly, & their 2 boys Jack & Ayton who are getting SO big. 

I hadn't seen Ayton since he was a baby. He is the SWEETEST little guy. 

SO loved getting to spend a couple of hours with them. 

T.L. & Haley are some of our closest friends on staff and just happen to work in my home town. We love spending time with them when we go home, and were so glad to get to spend an afternoon with them. 

And their SWEET little girl Elianna.... who I hadn't seen since she was 2 months old. 

We went to lunch with my Aunt Denis & Uncle Jerry at the world famous Ridgewood BBQ, and had a great time catching up on the year. 

I was so thankful to get to see the Alexanders. Ryan was one of my best buds in HS and has always been like a little brother to me. 

And His mama has loved me so well over the years. I love her. 

I was so glad to finally meet his sweet gf Steph as well! 

And finally, I loved being able to spend time with my sweet Daddy :) Isn't he the cutest!? 

I got to spend time with lots of other wonderful family and friends, but didn't get pictures with everyone. Next time around for sure. 

I also loved getting to eat at some of my favorite restaurants:

Aunt Lorraine's Kitchen of course, Motos, Cootie Browns, and Poor Richards. Staples you can find only in JC. 

What are your FAVORITE restaurants to chow down at when you visit home? Maybe we can go grab a bite together sometime :) 

Joyfully Visited,

Fabric Wall Panels

So our little ity bitty "dining room" {if you can call it that.. more like area} in our apartment in EA was lacking in color. 

The table came as it was already in the apartment, we put a spare rug from another room under the table, and changed the chair cushions. Only problem was that the walls are a khaki color, the table is a lighter stain, and the rug and cushions are an oatmeal/off white-ish color. Nothing bad- just a little.... bland. 

Hanging on the walls were 3 black and white prints from Ikea in unfinished frames.... 

You can see what it looked like in the background of this picture

...again, very cute but not helping the lack of life in the dining area. 

SO I figured that getting some color on the walls was #1 priority. If you left it up to me, I probably would do an accent wall of color.... but over Adam's dead body. So, I decided some fabric panels would be a good easy fix. 

Kinda like these....

source

Canvases (and even foam board) are really hard to find in our city, so I was looking for an alternative. My friend Ash came home one day and told me she saw something that would work, so I went to check it out. 

What I found was even better than a canvas. They have wooden calligraphy boards that you use for.... calligraphy {i'm not sure how- i assume you just put the paper on there and do whatever you do}. 

They are hollow boards, making them really light weight but still thick enough to give some depth to the panels. 

So I picked some fabric that I found on a recent trip to the fabric market- this brown {almost, but not quite} retro looking floral print and a nice buttery yellow solid that I thought went well with the brown {although it isn't ideal with the wall color, but what are you going to do}. 

I ironed the fabric, lined it up on the board, and went to town with the staple gun. I made a make shift picture hanger with thumb tacks and string. 

I did the same for the yellow boards, but decided that they were too plain on their own and needed a little something extra. 

So I cut out a section of the floral pattern from the brown fabric and added it to the yellow with good ole static electricity {that way I can change it whenever I want}. 

One yellow board...

and the other. 

I hung 2 on one wall, and one on the other. 

And ta-da... not so bland anymore huh!?

Now if only I could convince my sweet husband to let me paint that bland rug..... he's reading this as I type ;) If you happen to have any good painted rug inspiration, please do share! I'd also love to make some kind of interchangeable chair cushion cover/embellishments of some sort. Any ideas would be appreciated :) 

Joyfully Brightened,

I'm linking up over at:
{C.R.A.F.T.} {Craft-O-Maniac} {Me Making Do} {Sew Can Do} {Debbie Doo's} {Today's Creative Blog} {Homework} {A Diamond in the Stuff} {Not Just a Housewife} {Skip to My Lou} {A Little Tipsy} {Blue Cricket Design} {Creations By Kara} {Organize & Decorate Everything} {Sew Much Ado} {Sweet Peas & Bumblebees} {Somewhat Simple} {A Creative Princess} {Thrifty 101} {Tatertots and Jello} {The Shabby Nest} {WhipperBerry} {A Little Knick Knack} {LollyJane} {I Heart Naptime} {Nifty Thrifty Things} {Under The Table and Dreaming}

Reunited and it feels so good....

Perhaps the thing we were looking most forward to upon coming home was being reunited with our sweet dog Lucy. Yes, we're THOSE people who love our dog that much.... but we also haven't seen her in almost a year. 

My sweet bestest Jamie has been her stand-in mom for the last year, and volunteered to meet us in east TN at my dads to return her to us. She's a peach.  

Oh the anticipation.....

They're here!

Our joyful reunion (From Lucy's perspective... in her best "Up" voice)

"Wait, I knows thems! Is that my master?!?"

"IT IS! MASTER!!"

"Hurry! Gets me off this stupid leash! I gots to see my master!"

"OH I's so excited I can't contains myself...."

{quite literally.... check out the bottom left of the picture... most definitely a stream of pee}

"I's so happy.... I thoughts they forgotted me forever!"

"Oh that's the spot"

"I'm too cute for thems to forgetted me"

Then thems took me to this place called the lake... I'm not real sure how all that water got there, but I got a bit scared cause its kinda likes the biggest bath tub I'ves ever seen.... did not likes that... and then that big floating thing we sat on made lots of loud noises and I was real scared....

 but then I decided I kinda likes it......

cause we went fast and I sure do likes the wind in my face. 

Then we went exploring... apparently my mom grew up on this so-called "lake" big bath tub thing, so she got all nostalgic when we found this place.....

The one on the left used to be their lake house, and then some best friend of hers had one across from hers back in this cove. She sure did love thems places. 

Then they got real crazy.... 

I was pretty nervous when they got on this round floaty thing....

cause my mama was totally dominating dad and I was scared that she was gonna throw him in the water... and I'm real scared of the water. 

Then I got real bored and I was ready to get off of this big loud thing.

Can we go home now!?!?

Thanks for being my mom this year Jamie. Yous the bestest!

Joyfully Reunited,