Love Me, Love Me

Happy Love Day!!
Tim & I exchanged gifts this afternoon..which were the best!!
Tim gave me the sweetest handmade card AND got me a fancy new Ipod, since mine was bitin' the dust!
And I gave him a jacket from H&M. It looks so great on him.
I'm pretty sure it was made especially for him by someone at the H&M headquarters ;)

Then we got dressed up an went out to a fancy dinner in the early evening.



We went to our favorite restaurant, Bartlett's.
It's kind of out in the middle of nowhere in Beverly Shores, Indiana.
My friend Ashton used to work there and she introduced me to this amazing little gem!
It has such a great atmosphere and (of course) amazing food!
Oh, and my all-time favorite bottle of raspberry deliciousness ;)

I hope you all had a beautiful day full of love.
Whether you were celebrating the love of a husband/wife, boyfriend/girlfriend, or simply
celebrating the love of your closest friends and family, know that every bit of love you have experienced today is so valuable.

Xo,
Christen

spring, why aren't you a-springin'?!

first off, i can't wait for spring. it snowed today. icky!
but i think i've probably said that too much already.
so this is the last time, i swear.

tim and i are taking a huge leap in our journey of being "grown ups"....
we're using our crock pot for the very first time.
i know, i know. not a huge deal, right?
well, let me paint you a picture of our so-called crock pot journey.

it all started one week ago.
tim was wanting to be really ambitious and surprise me with a beautifully tender,
slow-cooked chicken for dinner.
i came home from work before he got home, and smelled the deliciousness.
i was super excited for dinner...i sat down and did some crafts, took a shower, blogged for a bit...then checked the chicken.
and what did i see when i opened the lid?! a COMPLETELY BLACK chicken breast.
yuck.
we were so discouraged. we just ate soup for dinner instead.

so, tonight we changed all that.
we realized that we only needed to cook the chicken for 4-5 hours (not 8!)
we perfected the art and had a beautiful slow-cooked BBQ chicken tonight.
yums!!!

okay. that's all for my way-too-long story of dinner ;)

my outfit was inspired by the lovely coury from fancytreehouse.

she wore mustard-yellow and red together.
i wouldn't have paired those colors on my own,
but with her inspiration, i came up with this fun little number!
i got so many comments on how i looked like spring.















mustard-yellow sweater - thrifted
dress - thrifted
belt - anthropologie
tights - target
boots - aldo
ring - claire's (i always feel silly when i shop there...haha)
red clutch - thrifted

the other day i came home to the sweetest surprise from timothy...
vintage books from our wedding, spelling out a sweet note.


he is the greatest. ♥


xoxo.
ps. thanks for all your knowledge on x's and o's. tim actually won the debate...although i haven't told him yet ;)

valentine's day loveliness!

as our first valentine's day as mr. & mrs. approaches,
i'm looking for special little things to do!

tim & i are all about making holidays special.
so we've both getting pretty excited about valentine's day.

1. things to bake
you can't really go wrong with cookies & cupcakes, right?







2. things to create with paper






(i'm not exactly sure what these are, but they're cute!)


by rifle paper co.



images via we heart it.


3. if nothing else, we'll build a fort in the living room!
because that's a childhood tradition that NEVER gets old.









first image via design sponge.
last 3 images via we heart it.

we'll have a lovely day, no matter what we do.
i just have to make sure it's as choc-full of sweets & fun things as possible!

i'm also open to any valentine's day tradtions you all may have ;)

xo,
christen

what it's all about.

i'm getting married in exactly 3 weeks.
i'm 21 years old.
a lot of people say, "you're way too young to get married!"
but i know God's timing is perfect. and i know this is my time to commit my life to timothy.

i was browsing around blogs today when i found the sweet couple on Jose Villa's Blog.
they are mary and leo, and they've been married for 60 years.

the true, genuine love displayed between them is incredible.
it's what i hope & dream is in our future.














wow, right?
so incredible!

it's 21 days. exactly 3 weeks!
people are flying over from new zealand soon.
the first one arrives NEXT sunday!

ps. i created a new playlist. it's some songs we're playing at the wedding.

fashion-minded.

my friend wendy showed me a website called Lookbook.
it's people from all over the world who submit their outfits/fashion statements.
it's pretty amazing to see people from all over the world.

speaking of outfits.
i've been slacking with mine.

yesterday. i wanted to wear feathers & lots of necklaces.







today, i wore my new thrift store dress.
i bought it yesterday.
it kind of reminds me of popcorn, but in a good way.



oh, and we've been finishing up our invites!!
we are printing a custom stamp on each of them.
tim cut the design from a lino block.
a little over 100 envelopes later, and we are DONE.



i can't wait to send them.
we've ordered custom postage stamps, so we have to wait for those to come in.

other things...

i've been looking at flowers lately.
i've decided on peonies, garden roses, billy buttons, and some other pretty ones for my bouquet.


via design sponge.


oh, peonies. i love you.


(this one is ideal!)

92 days til the big day.
have i mentioned i love wedding planning?
well, i love it.

by the way, i've been trying to work on my stuffed animal line more.
i'm going to make an etsy shop called Two Happy Hearts (go figure, right?).
hopefully once we setting down after the wedding, i'll be able to work on them more.
but i'm trying to sew as much as possible right now!

i'm working on a boy & girl cat couple.
they are cute.
they'll be holding hands soon enough!

Just Some Everyday Things

my wonderful fiance and i have been searching around thrift stores & antique shops for curious little things for our wedding.

we've found some cute things so far:





and we made the cutest little shortbread button cookies last night!


via: forty-sixth at grace.

the recipe was all in grams, so we had to do some not-so-accurate conversions.



my twin sister & fiance helped out.





they turned out so cute! we made blue, green, neutral, and multi-colored ones.



and yes, a daily outfit photo.
my official "cookie making" get-up.



i'll be updating this a lot more.
i'm officially done with xanga.
it's bittersweet, but time to move on.

goodbye xanga. hello blogspot.

(109 days.)