oh, life is rough.

at least for my animals, it is. i mean, all day they work, work, work and then... wait. no they don't.

yet this is what i come home to everyday...

one lazy cat on one couch.

and one lazy dog on another couch. and asking for a belly rub.

{she also likes to keep the remote close so she doesn't miss any of her stories}

these lazy animals don't even bother getting up to see me when i come in the door. it's pathetic, really. and pretty darn cute, too.

i mean, just look at this face. i guess it's exhausting being this cute.

quilting for beginners?

if you remember, quite a while a go i posted a to-do list of crafts i wanted to work on. one of those crafts, was a quilt like this:

and, ladies and gentlemen, i have begun working on my quilt! it's a pretty simple design, which is good since i've never made a quilt before and this helpful tutorial is making it even easier!

i started by cutting my fabrics {which austin helped me pick out} in to 3, 6 and 9 inch strips.

the inspiration quilt used black, green and ivory colored fabrics, but i decided to go with browns. it'll match our house better, i think.

after making all of the strips of the fabrics, i sewed them together end to end to get 90" wide strips, so the quilt will be about queen size. once the strips were to their mate, i sewed them all together in a layout i liked to get this beautiful piece of work.

you can see the seam running right down the middle of the quilt top. in order to make this a little less awkward, i put two "fake seams" {as i've been calling them} halfway between the center seam and each edge of the quilt top. and although i don't have a picture of that, you can just imagine four evenly spaced vertical sections, instead of just the big two vertical sections on this picture. does that make sense? meh. i don't know.

this is one of the fabrics that austin picked out. it was his favorite for some reason so i made sure there was a big 9" stripe of it.

and for some reason, austin {and the lady cutting the fabric for us at hobby lobby} thought this fabric was ridiculous and ugly. so it only gets one tiny little 3" section.

i don't know why everyone hates it so much! i mean, i think it looks a little like cauliflower or lettuce or something, but i still think it's pretty. oh well, less is more i suppose.

so that's my quilt top. i got some batting on sale at jo-ann's so now all i have to do is find the backing fabric that i want {on sale or clearance somewhere, this quilting stuff is expensive!} so i can sandwich the layers and get to quilting! i guess whenever that happens i'll be sure to share some pictures with you!

harvest time.

this weekend we were able to get a few veggies from the garden!

here's how the garden is looking these days.

its kind of out of control, right? oh well.

but look, we've got tomatoes {which austin is anxiously awaiting them to turn}

cucumbers, big and small.

and corn and beans!

but check out the green beans and the first cucumber we harvested this weekend!

they were very delicious. our carrots and beets are beginning to poke their shoulders up out of the ground and the broccoli plants are getting pretty big. our strawberries all taste terrible {i'm told it's the wrong kind of dirt for berries} and our onions seem to be getting close to popping up, too. and we've still got potatoes growing on the porch, hopefully they will be more successful than the potatoes that were in the garden and all fell down...

and just because i haven't shared yet, i recycled some vegetable crates {that taylor gets food for his pigs in} and turned them into a little flower planter/display. it's not beautiful, but i  guess it's not bad, either... but the point is that the little wildflowers are starting to come up so hopefully soon they'll add some nice color to the front porch!

and that's our garden update!

father's day.

i hope everyone had a great weekend and got to spend some time with the ones you love, especially your dads! although i wasn't able to be with my dad or my timmy yesterday, austin and i did go up to steve and gloria's to spend time with them.

steve got to open a few gifts. first, he go a new shop vac.

juliet, being the spoiled brat that she is, naturally decided that if there are gifts they must be for her. so she helped open quite a few things.

so helpful, that one.

austin gave steve this framed picture of all the boys on their most recent fishing trip.

and here's taylor's handmade card.

from what i gather, it's steve farming with the cows and the guinea hens grazing. or perhaps the devil watching over an anteater and some ducks. it could go either way.

and lastly, pictures of steve and his boys {perhaps next years father's day present? just kidding. maybe.}

and with the pups, of course.

so that's that!

introducing...

katie & boomer!

{picture stolen from katie's profile on facebook}

this past weekend, we all gathered in nashville to celebrate katie & boomer finally gettin' hitched! unfortunately for you all, i have very few pictures to share from the entire weekend {waaamp waaamp}.

we started with rehearsal and dinner on friday night. aaand the only two pictures from dinner at margarita house:

obviously you can tell i was sitting across from rj, lindsy and brandi. so they are the only ones who got photographed... and while it looks like there are a lot of glasses on the table, i swear most of them are waters. we were super dehydrated from the rehearsal outside in the sun... ok and some of them are margaritas. but it's called the margarita house, for crying out loud. we haaaad to.

katie with all of us bridesmaids after dinner.

{picture stolen from katie's facebook}

and on saturday morning {after a quick trip to target with lindsy and danielle during which i'm embarrassed to say we ate food out of the containers while walking through the store} all of the bridesmaids went to get our hair done. please excuse the fact that some of us {me} may or may not look like zombies. i know i look terrible because we had our hair done first and then went to do makeup... no makeup is not really a good look for me.

{pictures by brooke tometich stolen from facebook}

sarah and me dressed and ready to go!

{picture stolen from katie's facebook}

and then. katie and boomer got married. and then there was a reception. and wouldn't it be awesome if i had pictures to share of either of those events? yeah. well, i don't. i plan to steal more as some show up on facebook, but until then you will sit in anticipation. but just know that katie looked absolutely amazing. the ceremony {though a little on the warm side} was gorgeous. and the reception was so. much. fun.

so congratulations and best wishes to katie and boomer. i wish you all the happiness in the world and welcome to the married life!