Words From the Wise

My last wreath wasn't a huge hit with the fiance. I liked it (he didn't like it is an understatement), but he was right it wasn't very Christmasy. And when your favorite time of year there is no reason not to have a Christmas themed wreath.  I knew what I wanted to do, the problem was I just couldn't find the right supplies...which is frustrating. So of course I went straight to Pinterest. I knew I could get a few ideas from there. And that's when I saw this wreath made with fabric instead of yarn. I felt like it smacked me right in the face. Why in the world had I not thought of this sooner? Fabric and ribbon would be way faster to cover the wreath form...and I'm always looking for easy new ideas. So I quickly made a run to our Hobby Lobby store to pick up some new material. And now that I had decided to use ribbon it opened up another world of possibilities. It shouldn't be a surprise that I walked out with enough supplies to make 2 different Christma

Not to brag, but I just came back from my Hawaiian vacation. It was a much needed vacation but I was not excited to come back to the yucky weather. I lost all sense of time when I was in Hawaii. Thanksgiving Day did not feel like Thanksgiving. It did not feel like NOVEMBER! One thing was for sure, I was behind on my wreaths! Can you believe it??? Christmas is my favorite time and I didn't have any wreaths?! Blasphemy. I've spent a lot of time on Pinterest and researching the perfect wreaths to make. I completed one wreath last night- I still need to make a Christmas one. But the wreath I made last night took a little longer than I expected. And at first I wasn't thrilled with it but I do have to say it's growing on me. Here she is! My winter pom pom wreath. I really do love all of the colors, but I just wasn't too sure about all of the pom pom! That's a lot of shagginess on that wreath. I must say I think it looks better in person. The cream yarn

It's that time of year! Christmas is right around the corner!!! I know, I know, Thanksgiving comes first. But you obviously do not know my family. We are those people that decorate the day after Halloween. We are also those people who have their Christmas decorations down before the new year. Needless to say, I've been busy with gearing up for the holidays...and I've lost track of time. I have no made a DIY project for Christmas yet, AHHHH! So for this post, I'm going back to the archives. Yes, I have an archive folder to help me along during my dry spells. This is a special wreath I made for my sister who is going to IU's Optometry School. This one was a challenge. How do you make a wreath cute using school colors AND creepy eyeballs? Well. I did it. And I would say it was a success!

I've never been a fan of Halloween. Ever. When I was a child, I was terrified of a paper witch my parents would hang up in our house at Halloween. I also HATED going down the Halloween aisle with all of the masks. It wasn't until just a few years ago I finally walked down that aisle. Embarrassing? Only slightly. Want to know what's even more embarrassing? The Haunted Mansion at Disney World scared the bageezous out of me. I'm a totally scaredy cat. Any time of the year. But especially this time of the year. What makes it even worse- Halloween is my fiance's favorite holiday. So to get in the spirit of celebrating things that terrify me, I decided it was time to make another wreath. I am proud to say that Brandon helped me on this one too! How cute is this wreath? Ok, I can't take all of the credit for this. I need to give a shout out to Pinterest for helping me come up with this wreath. (Here's the link for my inspiration.) Wondering what I used f

Have you ever taken a personality assessment? I did in high school but I haven't in sometime. Plus I know present day Ashlyn is a little different than high school Ashlyn.  I recently decided to take one to see what my 5 strengths were. There was zero surprise when my first strength was revealed- empathy. And I knew that with being empathetic that also accounted for my emotions. I've always been told I have a big heart. I've been told I can be a little dramatic at times. I've been told I find the good in people and that I love. And I love a lot. When I was younger, I remember crying in movies. I cried when Mighty Joe Young was in the trailer and stuck his fingers out of the hole to wave at the little boy. I cried during Bambi...ok well who didn't cry during Bambi?! But I've found over the years I've gotten worse at watching movies. I would say I cry in 90% of the movies I watch. Yes, I cry a lot. I cry during the sad parts, and I cry from laughing so muc

So I was never one of those little girls that always dreamed of my wedding like this: a massive princess wedding dress, a horse and carriage bringing me to this massive church, there's lots of glitter, and everything is pink and perfect. Just perfect. Honestly, I don't know what I thought my wedding would be like when I was younger. I thought it would be fun, I'd look pretty, marry the man I love very much, and eat a lot of cake. And really that sounds like my idea now. As you know, I've been a DIYer most of my life. So I knew this wedding would be no exception. I knew I wouldn't spend crazy amounts at the florist for flowers. I knew there would be NO wedding planner, that's my job! But I still expected some magic in planning... ...and then comes the part where you try and decide where you want to get married and the date. I honestly thought this would be so much easier than it was. At first I was completely against outdoor weddings. They can beautiful...b

I've come to terms that I will always be behind on my Project Life book. Always. I was feeling pretty good about catching up and then...dun dun dunnnn...wedding planning came in. What?! Wedding planning getting in the way of life? No...never. I am happy to say that a date has been set for the wedding, as well as locations. Next week my mom and I are traveling to the first store to look at dresses. I think that will have to be a blog all in itself. Wedding Adventures with Ashlyn and Her Mom. Stay tuned for more on that. This could be comical. Now let's get to it, shall we? The 4th of July! - I had some cute PL cards for this so I wanted to dedicate a page just for the 4th. I didn't have enough pictures from just the holiday so I had to include my weekend as well. Will you be my bridesmaid?! Over the holiday weekend I also asked 4 of the 5 girls to be my bridesmaids. A page just for these beauties :) I really wanted to make this my wedding colors but quickly re

No excuses. Life is always crazy. I just have to remind myself that that's a good thing sometimes. Let's get to it shall we? Here are a few more pages from my Project Life book. Week of June 16th- This week Brandon and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary a little early with reliving our very first date, Dave Matthews concert. week of June 23rd - this week I was gearing up to see my new freshmen come for summer registration! And this was my last summer reg at UIndy. The cards on this page are from the We R Memory Keepers journal cards I features a few weeks ago.  weekend of June 23rd and June 26 - these 2 weekends were incredibly busy for me. They were my last 2 weekends in Indy! One of my dear friends was getting ready to move to Austin so we had a get together for her. The next weekend I said goodbye to Indy with going to some of my favorite places. week of June 30th - Ok I cheated on this one. My life was so busy getting ready for the move

Here's the last of the archives of my journal of last year's travel adventures! I did it! I made it! I survived! Southern Indiana and I have shared some quality time together..but I’m ready to break up. The last 2 weeks I’ve had a car that doesn’t have Sirius. Ugh. But I’m dumb and realized I could totally hook up my iPod about 3/4 the way through. And thus I give you #onlyonashlynsipod (I felt a hashtag was necessary for this). So… I heard Amy Grant (so one of my guilty pleasures from my childhood. Hey, we all have them.) followed by Without Me- Eminem #onlyonashlynsipod Blink 182 followed by the stud of a crooner Michael Buble #onlyonashlynsipod Another One Bites the Dust by Queen then Lovebug by the JoBros #onlyonashlynsipod Gosh. I have such great taste in music. Here we go..for the last time this season! THE GOOD! - Prior to these last 2 weeks I haven’t been on the road as much. My fantasy team had taken a beating during that time. I didn’t have lunch visit

It's been a while since I made a wreath...a long while. I'm pretty sure the last one I made was my Easter one. I always mean to take pictures of all of my supplies and I always forget. So I'll just give you the ONLY picture I took...and it's dark. I'm really winning on this one. Things you need: Glue gun (with glue stick obviously) Styrofoam wreath colored felt fabric buttons 1 thing of yarn plastic pumpkins (I found mine at Michaels) grapevine magic thing (I have no idea what it's called but I got mine at JoAnn's) Cost/How to save: Glue gun - if you already own, bam! There's some savings. If you don't own, venture to your nearest craft store and pick up a Low Temperature glue gun. I spent $2.70. Not too shabby. Glue sticks- $3.99 at Michael's and used a 40% off coupon. Styrofoam wreath- I think this is the easiest kind of wreath to work with. I used a 14" wreath that coast $4.99 at Hobby Lobby. And used a 40% off c

Here's another page of my journal of last year's travel adventures! The end is near, I can see it. (Actually the end is already here because I’m writing this 2 weeks late. Go Ashlyn.) This week of travel is one I dreaded the most- 4 night hotel stay in Evansville. NOOOOOOOOO. That means I have to figure out how to spend my evenings in lovely Evansville..please be nice to me Eville (see what I did there..because I think Evansville is evil.) Random story from the road time! Remember when we were younger and the boys totally thought there were couches in the girls bathroom? And we totally told them there were? Well…I hit the holy grail this week. I walked into the faculty bathroom and TA-DAAAAAAA! There in front of me sat a large couch. I had only ever imagined of such a thing. Did my dreams finally come true?! If you honestly think my dreams would be finding a couch in a bathroom, you’re dumb and wrong. My dreams are way better..like going on a shopping spree, snow of Chri

Who's life hasn't been crazy lately? Ever since the start of school, I feel like my life has been on fast forward. They joys of working for a university! I thought my extra long holiday weekend last weekend would allow for a lot of catch up time..I was wrong. Don't get me wrong, it was great spending time with family and friends but I was ready to go to town on my Project Life book. But I also needed a little R&R. Let's just get to it shall we? Enjoy! week of May 26th - This week consisted of a ton of friend time! The PL cards are from the Jade Core Kit- except for the tree stump. That one is from the 5th and Frolic Core Kit. The awesome light bulb is a post-it from the Target $1 bins.  week of June 2nd - Sometimes I look at my pictures and think 'man, my life is so exciting' and sometimes I look back and think 'wow. I need some pizzazz...' I'd say this was a week needing pizzazz. weekend of June 7&8 - Now my weekend, there

Here's another page of my journal of last year's travel adventures! So last week I had this started…but didn’t save it. And not I don’t remember anything I was going to say. Well, we’re 1/2 way through Ashlyn’s travel season! Week 3 was so easy to motivate myself because it was only 3 days of travel. And it was all close. Since it’s a shorter week, there wasn’t too much that happened… The Good- - Little Caesar Crazy Bread. Yum. Yep. That was totally my dinner one night of travel. So worth it. - With some down time, I had the chance for Christmas card shopping! Whoot! - My hotel greeted me with warm cookies. -CHICKEN-N-DUMPLINGS! - I had some girl come up to me during a lunch visit and say I have really great style. Totally confidence boost. The very next day I had a girl tell her friend I looked “so old”..no longer feeling so great. - I watched 2 boys have a pretend fight with pretend lasers. Sounds effects included. The Bad- -You know you’re craving food, other

Here's another page of my journal of last year's travel adventures!  This last week has flown by, thank goodness. These first few weeks of travel have been pretty lucky - I get to sleep in my bed most of the nights. I really can’t complain too much. I chatted with a counselor this last week who told me he’s on the road for a solid 9 weeks. His closest school is 3 hours away from his college. Yikes. That’s A LOT of travel. Suddenly life doesn’t seem so bad. This week I had the chance to deal with some interesting students and parents. I’m so use to the typical “Hi! Let me know if you have any questions about the university.” that when someone says something I don’t expect, it totally throws off my game. So imagine with me..it’s 7:40 and your fair is almost over. You’re thinking about how you can’t wait to get in the car and drive 2 hours back to sleep in your own bed. And you’re trying to figure out what fast food sounds the most appetizing (which is a task all in its own

Note to self- whenever I want to accomplish something, post about it on my blog. I have finally accomplished some scrapbooking AND some wedding planning. Look at me go! It just took a little bit of guilt from posting about it...and TA-DA! So where to begin? I've accomplished so much. Ok, well really not a lot...but compared to the last 2 months it's A LOT. Let's start with some scrapbooking shall we? But not right away. First we need to admire my lovely salsa I canned this weekend. Yes. I also canned salsa this week. No big deal. I received an e-mail from my dad asking if I was coming home. It was followed by CANNING IS FUN! I NEED YOUR HELP. He must have been desperate. And I knew I would get to keep some for myself so I figured why not? So let's take a minute to admire all of those tomatoes I juiced, the peppers, jalapenos and onions I cut (and shed tears for), and the minutes I spent over the warm stove stirring this deliciousness. Best part- it's all home

Last year around this time, I decided to write down some of my adventures to Southern Indiana while traveling for my old job. I figured it's time to share some of these adventures. Enjoy! Most people think staying in hotels and eating out for a week sounds like a pretty nice time..but chances are they haven’t done that..ever. I’ve decided it’s time to keep entries of my travels this year. Last year I was the new counselor. I had no idea what to expect. This year I at least have an idea, but there’s still room for surprises! Let me start off by saying southern Indiana is beautiful…and big…and has so many curvy roads. So many. Like to the point where I sometimes I have slow down because I’m starting to feel car sick. It’s so great. What makes it even more great is when you’re on your way to your VERY FIRST visit and the traffic is completely stopped. Dead stop. Man, I was on a roll too! So instead of 25 minutes early I was 25 minutes late. I thought things could only go up. Gu

Still haven't had much time to get my crafting on. I MISS IT! I think this weekend will be an attempt to get a few things done with scrapbooking. My Project Life- Ashlyn's Year is still stuck in the beginning of May. Oye. I think if I can get at least one week done this weekend, I'll feel better. And I say only one week because I received an e-mail from my father today saying "CANNING IS FUN! I NEED YOUR HELP THIS WEEKEND." Oh boy, can't wait. In other news, fall is around the corner and this girl needs to make a wreath! I've already started pinning some ideas on Pinterest. And walking to in Hobby Lobby and Michaels has given me some ideas. Anyone have any fun ideas? Come back next week for a new crafting post. There, I said it. That means I have to get one up now. But in the mean time, I'll leave you with a picture of this awesome origami owl I made...my skills are getting crazy guys. Actually I had to learn how to make origami cranes for a serv

We are finally making some progress on the wedding front! And no, the date is not one of them. But I do have plans to have that by the end of summer (which is quickly approaching). We have started asking our wedding party if they'd like to join us for our special day. There were so many things to think about- who do we want? What will they wear? And most importantly, how will I ask them? (the bridesmaids of course) With the popularity of Pinterest on the rise, I once again felt the pressure on how I would ask the ladies to be my bridemaids. I seriously spent forever on this. I even created a secret board on Pinterest with my ideas. I'm here to say I finally figured out the way I wanted to ask my ladies. I knew the key for me was it had to be cute, match my colors, and be personal. Once I had compiled a list of things I wanted in the box, it was time to write a little note. I decided to be super cheesy and write a poem for their boxes. All I have to say is thank goodness

Oh my life. Where have you gone?! Finally made it to my new home! The good news is I'm officially moved out of Indianapolis. The bad news is I still have some things to unpack. My creative life has been put on hold for a very, very long time....and is still on hold. My entire scrapbook and crafty goodies are stock piled at my parents house- there's not enough room at my new place! I saw Becky Higgins posting all of her new Project Life products and I was getting so giddy..until I realized how many of her products I already have and haven't had time to use. Sad day. Quick view of the start of my decorating! But I have been lucky enough to start decorating my new office! My last office had zero sense of theme. It was what I liked to call "creative clutter". There were mixed matched items everywhere. The only theme was "colorful". So this time around I thought I wanted to have some sense of theme. Keyword, thought. I journeyed to the local Ta

Wondering where I've been? Don't worry I'm still here. But all of my crafting/scrapbooking is packed up. Why you ask? Because in 1 week I will be moving! Hurrrrrraaaayyy! Boooooo! (the many emotions I'm feeling) A snapshot of my living room floor. I recently accepted a job that will bring me closer to my hometown. I'm very excited for this new adventure. Needless to say, I'm still faaaar behind on my projects. My PL book has not been touched (except to pack it) since the last time I posted about it. I've been so busy packing and doing some last minute shopping. Yes, I said shopping...at Michael's and Sephora. Clearly very important places. I was so pumped Michael's now carries PL but when I looked at the list of stores none of them were close to my new home :( And there's no Sephora close by either! Every girl needs a good crafting store and make up store close by! Of course, wedding planning has been put on hold for just a minute too...e

Time for another confession. I've had these pages done since the beginning of May, but I've been holding them hostage. I didn't want to overwhelm everyone with all of my posts! I needed to spread it out, make you wait. And I had no idea if I was going to continue on this whole I'm actually getting these done on time path. Would you be surprised if I told you that path was short lived? I have not worked on any of the pages after these. My shoe box of pictures and trinkets is filling up fast...so I better get working! week of  April 21 - if you remember in my last PL post I made a page for West Virginia. Well that trip was a week long but hit at an award time. My trip to Nashville is actually later in the week. I was struggling on what to do with it so I decided to just do a page for each trip. This page isn't too exciting... weekend of April 27th - I had a lot that happened the week of the 21st so I made a page just for the weekend! The stickers! Oh, th

Do you smell that? It smells like flowers and love. Haha, that was so lame. But wedding season is in the air! Although I still have plenty of time before my big day (and no I haven't decided a date yet), I'm feeling a lot of pressure to make it extraordinary. So many people are aware of my creative gene that I think it's safe to say I have a lot to live up to. Pinterest is a godsend. Yet it is my worst enemy. I would be lying if I said I didn't have a dream wedding Pinterest board before I was engaged...But I wasn't one of those girls who had HUNDREDS of pins. Plus Brandon and I had been together for 4 years, so I figured that was enough justification. My original ideal wedding was set in the fall. It was going to have pumpkins for the main decor and burnt orange and deep purple would be the colors. Then I got engaged and started browsing on Pinterest...and that all changed. I totally wiped my board clean. I loved the idea of getting married in the spring and usi

Time for Part Deux of my crazy traveling trip! I had full intentions of getting a lot of my scrapbooking completed this week but my actual life had other plans. Around 8:00 last night I decided to crack down and knock my Tennessee trip on its tooshie. I was really feeling it at first. I finished the first page...I was no longer in the mood to scrapbook. Grrrr. I just hate when that happens. You're all pumped and feel like you're going to accomplish A TON. So you drag out all of your scrapbook stuff. You work on your first page and that feeling you once had of motivation has suddenly left. AND it took you longer to drag out all of your supplies than it did to make that first page. And that's what happened. But I wasn't going to let that stop me! Here are the pages that I powered through last night and can check off my to-do list. BOOYAH! The guitar and "Nashville" came from a map I got on my trip. I was super pleased with how that turned out.