moving frenzy

these past few weeks have been so busy, so I'm sorry I'm just now giving you an update. 

so what have we been up to? well this past weekend we moved....across the street. my parents recently moved back to the philadelphia area, and we thought it was a good idea to all go in on a place together. our current place was too small for the 4 of us, and so we rented a white house across the street. my parents are awesome, so this is a win win for all of us. 

but moving is tiring....need proof? below is my husband passed out on our dogs bed. mid-morning nap between the moving frenzy. i have started to collect pictures of his hilarious sleeping habits, so stay tuned there are more to come. 

good bye old house. we will miss you. things are getting more livable and organized in the new place so i will upload pics soon.

on another note, my sister-in-law and i have started a new business. its called shyli jewels. it's a collection of hand-made crafts, such as, candles, art canvases, cards, banners, etc. they are going to be sold via etsy, Facebook, and local craft shows. ill give you a sneak peak of a few things we have been working on. 

we have about 8 of these canvases in multiple colors, and i will be uploading them to Facebook soon, so stay tuned.

some cards i made for mothers day. 

one of our recent purchases for the new house. oh how growing up changes your spending priorities. one day I'm shopping at forever 21, and now I'm at home depot buying a rug. 

xoxo,

j

up to pikes peak we go!

pikes peak. you are one huge mother. it takes about an hour to drive to the summit. you start at about 6,000 feet and when you reach the top you are at around 14,000. we all felt dizzy and weird when we got to the top. and cold. you can see in the pictures that we start out wearing our warm 65 degree weather clothes, and by the time we reach the top we put on all the clothes we could find in the car (it was 32 degrees at the top..whoops). 

 halfway to the summit.

 we are coming for you!! 

breaking tree line 

 the views were breathtaking. it just goes for miles and miles. 

  the rocky mountains behind us. 

 the drive down was scarier than the drive up. 

 this is the view from my parents condo. so gorgeous.

this lake is a short walk from their patio. 

colorado you my friend are very pretty! 

xoxo,

j

garden of the gods

these pictures are late, but better late than never. over spring break stefano and i went to visit my parents out in colorado springs. quite a beautiful city. mountains surround the city, and its filled with tons of trails, mountain biking, and cute little shops and eateries. 

one of the many sites that we visited was 'garden of the gods'. walking amongst these towers of rock you feel so small and insignificant. everywhere you look you can see little outlines of people climbing up these rock faces. i'm so glad that we got to experience this place! 

xoxo,

j

spring has sprung

i believe spring has officially began in the northeast. after two straight weeks of 70 degree temperatures, people are retiring their puffy coats for shorts and slip-ons. the windows are open, the sun warms any cool shadow, and the mosquitos haven't arrived yet.  its so neat to see the trees come to life with each new day. they are budding with flowers and the grass is slowing turning from brown to green. after living in the south for the past 8 years i have forgotten how magical spring is. walkers, joggers, and dogs fill the streets for their daily dose of vitamin D.  summer will be here before we know it, so i am enjoying the crisp cool evenings while there is still time. 

stefano and i will be traveling to colorado at the end of the week to visit my parents. we are looking forward to lots of hikes and family time. stay tuned for more pictures.

xoxo, j

the ryan's brought the party!

last week we had the pleasure of spending a few days with the ryans! 

phil is one of stefano's best friends. they met in nursing school in college, and i met him and his wife julianne through stefano and church. let me start off by saying that stefano and phil are like long lost brothers. when they are together it is pure entertainment, and you are guaranteed lots of laughs. we thoroughly enjoy watching them feed off of each other with their wild imagination, goofy accents, and their quirky sense of humor. 

 homemade pizza night!!! yeaaa baby!

chocolate tofu pie. delicious! 

 asian pear. yum. yum. good. 

 kale with olive oil and balsamic vinaigrette. my new fav. 

 i am hungry just looking at this pizza. 

 i love this group!

 one afternoon we went downtown to an old fashion candy shop....

 ...and this is what we got. double dip mints. oh. my. gosh. i still catch myself dreaming about that creamy sweet treat. 

 we headed over to reading terminal market for a cheese steak and ice cream. we found these guys along the way. they were huge! 

 this place is dangerous for anyone who is hungry and indecisive. unfortunately we devoured the ice cream and didn't think to take any pictures. but if you are ever at reading terminal market, be sure to go to bassetts ice cream. you will not be disappointed. 

i just love him. 

our time was filled with lots of cooking, lots of tea and coffee, hiking, and late nights talking about our lives and the future. we were so sad to see them go, but can't wait for our next visit together!

xoxo

happy birthday dani!

i had the pleasure of celebrating my sisters birthday with her this year. i have missed the past couple of years since we have lived in different states, so this year was extra special. 

hilary and i had fun making beautiful cupcakes in fancy colors! i love food coloring. 

who doesn't love candy?! 

we all went out to dinner and had lots of laughs! hope you have a fabulous year dani, i love you! 

xoxo

8 years already?

some of you may already know about our "story". others may not, so i will give those of you a quick history. 

i moved to pennsylvania at the end of my freshman year in high school. i left behind lots of friends, so i was not happy to be there. towards the end of freshman year my mom encouraged my sister and i to join a small group through the local church. thankfully, church has been a common ground throughout all my moves as a child, so i thought, why not? 

...i can hear stefano mocking me in my head as i am about to write about the first time that i saw him..."he walked in to bible study late, so he made quite an appearance. he was wearing a red soccer jersey, and his smile immediately caught my eye. i remember leaning over to a friend and commenting on him, and giggling like high school girls do". 

over the course of the next year our friendship grew stronger and stronger. we began serving together through our church and going on retreats, as well as seeing each other on a weekly basis at small group and church. 

on a cold weekend in february we served together in upstate new york. our high school group cooked and served all of the meals to another group that was staying at the camp, and it was during that weekend that we realized we had deeper feelings for each other than we initially thought. i firmly believe that you really get to know someone when you see them serve others. stefano claims that i was attracted to his amazing ability at flipping hundreds of pancakes with such skill, but who knows. ;) 

we began officially dating two weeks later. 

a couple months into our relationship stefano moved with his dad to baltimore, but stefano continued to visit his mom and i a few weekends a month. at the time i thought it was the end of the world... but God of course had bigger plans. just as we were getting used to him being in baltimore i found out that my family was moving to texas. 1,500 miles away. yee-haw. we stuck out the year-and-a-half of dating long distance and we decided to stay in texas for college. 

throughout college we continued to serve on mission trips together, made long lasting friendships, and matured in our relationship. 

despite where we moved or the challenges we faced we continued to collect our memories: old love letters, pictures, etc in an old trunk. every few months we open it up, read the countless letters, laugh at the old pictures, and reminisce of how far we have come as a couple. pouring over the letters is like a diary of our relationship. it has given us a perspective on how God has taken such care and love in the little details of our lives over the years. 

so on our 8 year anniversary, we ate donuts, drank coffee, and recounted the history of our relationship. it is such fun! 

groundhog.

so i guess the groundhog was right about 6 more weeks of winter. it has snowed twice in the last week. but thankfully it is just enough snow to make it quiet and beautiful and not cause chaos. 

i love when it snows just enough to cover the trees. driving the back roads looks like a magical winter wonderland. i love the crunch of the snow under your feet when you walk. 

we are waiting for a big snow storm so we can break out our new sleds. 

pumpkin pancakes with bananas. 

hope everyone has a great weekend.

quarter of a century

we celebrated stefano's 25th birthday with a bang. italian food. family. and yummy wine. 

we were full for days. 

fellini's you are too good to us. 

 a cheese lovers dream.

happy birthday stefano! i'm looking forward to many more shared together!

thrifty saturday

today my sister and i hit the town red with thrifting. i got a craft table, dresser, recliner, and painted our new headboard/footboard. more pics to come. 

but i ended my busy day with some candle making, ingrid michaelson on pandora, and falling asleep to a good book. 

good night.

snowy weekend

it was a snowy weekend here in bryn mawr. 

it was just enough to make everything look pretty but not cause too much trouble. 

my dad and stefano took shilah to play in the snow and captured these great shots.

 yes she is wearing show boots. and yes she loves them. atta' girl.

 my handsome husband shoveling the driveway

it is a foggy snowy monday morning. 

we bought sleds yesterday so we will have to test them out soon. does this make us official residents of the north? 

hope everyone has a good week,