10 things I have learned during my year off from school.

With all this excitement about getting back to school going on, I have been thinking a lot about what I have learned in my year-long break from college. Here's what I've come up with:

1) I've learned that I don't want to live with my parents for the rest of my life. Or ever again, for that matter.

[Pause for laughter here.]

This one speaks for itself.

I love you, mom and dad.

2) I've learned that I don't want waitressing or bartending to be my main source of income. It was fun and I liked the quick cash, but I don't miss having to work evenings and weekends. Also, I don't care how many stains or holes it has in it, I can't bear to part with my green Caribou Grill t-shirt.

3) I've learned that it's true: farmers are the best people in the world to sit around and talk to all day...well, unless it's raining when they don't need it, blizzarding in April, or hailing in August.

VIA

4) I've learned that my relationship with God has gotten stronger because I had time made the time to attend weekly bible study. I also have gone to church on Sunday more in the past year than I ever did the years I was away at college, even when I was home on the weekends. Although it's difficult, I have gotten more comfortable with the fact that He has a plan for me and I need not worry about a thing.

5) I've learned that I hate money. I hate having too much of it, I hate having not enough of it. And I really, really hate that the world revolves around it. More on this subject later...

6) I'VE LEARNED THAT THINGS HAVE A WAY OF WORKING THEMSELVES OUT.

7) I've learned that I would rather have experiences rather than material things. In example - Gopher hockey games, Hairball concerts, and Beth Moore events. (Okay...AND I've also learned that I love my maurices credit card.)

TWO PEAS IN A POD.

8) I've learned that family is the most important thing in the world. I will never, ever regret taking time off of work to go and watch my brother's hockey team at districts, regionals, and state. I will never regret going to the lake with Granny and Grandpa, or spending Sunday afternoons playing whist with Grandpa Mel and Grandma HA. I will never regret rushing up to my sister's volleyball games smelling like a french fry in my waitressing clothes. I will miss get-togethers with my ever-growing extended family more than you can possibly imagine, especially putting on makeup (heycup) with Miss Adina and snuggling all the little babies.

9) I've learned that it is really hard to go back to school once you've taken a year off. Home is so comfortable, especially for someone like me who LOVES small-town, farm-life living. But, I now understand and appreciate the importance of an education, and I am really excited for college - definitely more excited than the first time around.

10) I've learned (and this is possibly the most important thing) that no matter where I go or what I do in life, Kittson County isn't going anywhere. It'll be right there waiting for me when I come back, whenever that is.

Love,

Kalli

back-to-school shopping.

Hello, everyone!

I have been busy prepping myself to go back to college pretty much the entire month of August. For example, I raided (RAIDED) the dollar section at Target for school supplies - sticky notes, mechanical pencils, highlighters all colors of the rainbow, etc., etc. Seriously, the dollar section at Target is such a sneaky little bugger! I also picked up some plastic cups and storage bins while I was there. You know, things I didn't REALLY need, but whatever. My grandma asked me the other day if there was anything I still needed for my apartment and I said "a hand mixer" and my grandpa told me to use a spoon.

Thank you, Grandpa, for pointing out to me the difference between a necessity and a nice-to-have :)

HALEY ON ONE OF OUR MORE RECENT SHOPPING TRIPS TO TARGET.
GUESS WE SHOULD'VE GOTTEN TWO CARTS.
P.S. ISN'T HER OUTFIT ADORBS?

Oh, and then I stumbled across this gem at Walmart and felt a NEED to have it:

I told my mother it would keep me cheerful while I was studying. Haha.

It's also been fun brainstorming dorm décor ideas! Here's some inspiration:

PENNY'S APARTMENT! I THINK I NEED TO BECOME A MORE AVID WATCHER OF THIS SHOW. VIA.

VIA

VIA

THIS WILL BE HAPPENING. VIA.

 And here is the fabric I got to make pillows (!!!!):

fabric. fabric. fabric. fabric. fabric. fabric.

One thing I really love about having two rooms is that I get to experiment with different décor ideas. I've always considered myself to be a shabby-chic kinda girl, but with this new opportunity to decorate, I'm going with a more bright, modern, colorful twist on things. It's a lot of fun! I'll make sure and post about it when I have everything set up just perfectly.

Love,

Kalli

revamp & repurpose | old frame into chicken wire photo display

Hey everyone! Today, I present to you an easy, 20-minute project (one I wish I would've done a whole lot sooner). I call it "the chicken wire photo display".

 

Supplies I used:

An old, boring frame

Sandpaper

A chain

Chicken wire

A staple gun

Photos and other memorabilia

Wire cutter

Tape measurer

Mini clothes pins

Sandpaper? A Chain? Weird ingredients for a photo display, right?

The first thing I did was take the back, photos, and glass out of the frame. Then the fun part began! I used the sandpaper to kind of rough up the wood of the frame, then I (kind of) gently hit it with a chain to put some dings and dents into it. It sort of gave it an old, worn out look. Beav said, "Whoa, you really took a big chunk out there!"

Yeah. It's a great project for if you have a lot of built-up anger.

Next, I measured my frame and cut the chicken wire to the appropriate size. I then simply flipped over the frame and stapled the chicken wire to the back of it. I clipped my photos up with my mini clothes pins, and wah-la: a fancy, new, shabby-chic photo display (all made with recycled materials!)

LOVE.

Notes about this project...
- The mini clothes pins were kind of a pain to work with. I broke a few on accident just by "opening" them up.
- I wish I had close-ups of the dents and dings that the chain put into the wood. You get the idea by looking at where the missing wood is, right? Haha.

Love,

Kalli

sew | maxi skirt

A few months ago, my good friend, Chelsie, was wearing and adorable grey and black leopard-print maxi skirt. Obviously, I had to inquire as to where she got it. She told me Wet Seal, and that they have a lot more options - zebra, black, white and grey, chevron...

GREY AND WHITE?! CHEVRON?!

I love grey and white. I love chevron.

VIA. You go, Charlie Brown.

So the next weekend, I happened to be at the mall in Grand Forks, and I decided I'd go to Wet Seal there to check out their selection of maxi skirts. There they were, just beyond the doors of the store. Chels was right - there WERE a lot of options. A couple racks of em. Another girl was on one end of the racks, so I started browsing on the opposite end. I found the grey and white striped one and started hunting for a large, towards the back of the rack. Ya know, cause I figured they'd all be organized by size.

Which they weren't.

And, they were packed tightly in there, so I was taking them off the rack to check the sizes on the tags. Pretty soon, I could feel this presence unusually close to me, and all the sudden, the girl from the other end of the rack starts digging for the same skirt as me.

Okay, that's fine.

I asked her, "What size are you looking for? I have a medium and a small here."

"Oh, I need a large."

Of course you do.

So, I stood back and let her finish hunting. Guess what? Beeyotch walked away with the last large size.

Ugh. I replaced the skirts on the rack and left the store feeling kind of defeated.

Oh well, who needs Wet Seal anyways? Their return policy sucks.

And, on top of that...sure they had grey and white striped maxis. Sure they had chevron maxis. But did they have grey and white chevron maxis?! NO MA'AM THEY DIDN'T.

But, could I make one of my own? Oh yes, I could! And I did! (Really, this was a win-win for me. Because my new rule is to not buy something unless I am ABSOLUTELY IN LOVE with it.)

Here's what I used:

 

Again, thanks to the help of Granny, I was able to make this skirt by following this tutorial.

I bought my fabric here.

Thread

Sewing machine

Pinking shears

Scissors

Lots more of Granny's patience - for example, when I accidentally sewed 3 layers of fabric together. Whoopsie.

A seam ripper to fix the above incident (ha)

Brown gladiator sandals (not really shown) / Maurices
Denim shirt / Target
Silver hoop earrings / Maurices
(I forgot to put my belt on for the picture. Oops.)

And I want to make, oh, 4 or more of them, perhaps with this fabric, this fabric, this fabric, or this fabric.

I love maxi skirts. They're perfect for when you want to go just one more day without shaving.

And, they're comfortable for when you go to church a bit hungover.

:)

Love,

Kalli

P.S. Just a few thoughts on this project...
- The skirt is actually going to have to be taken in a bit. I'm not sure if it has something to do with the adding 3 inches to the waist or Granny and I measuring wrong. We'll have to test it out on the next one!

sew | romper

So, you know how sometimes you see an outfit on Pinterest that you reeeeeeeeally want, and you can't find out where it's from? (Think Tumblr here, people!) Or, if you're me, you sometimes derive fashion inspiration from child outfits - like this one:

Anyways, I decided that I could handle making this romper myself. Both of my grandmas are sewing extraordinaires, so it runs in my blood -- right? I turned to my granny (on mom's side) for help on this one.

I love checkered print. Always have. So, I marched myself to the nearest JoAnn Fabrics (okay, not really marched - DROVE, an hour) and picked up the first romper pattern I could find, along with an adorable picnic table cloth print. I'm a large for most of my clothes, and I guessed that at the biggest I would be a 14, so I got the amount of fabric that called for that - 1 and 1/8th yards.

I proudly texted my granny (that's right, texted - she's very hip-and-with-it) and said that I had bought fabric and thread and a pattern so I could sew myself a romper. However, I wanted to change the pattern a little so that I wouldn't have to sew a zipper into it -  that seemed too tough for a beginner project. We agreed that I would come to her house on a Saturday and see what she could do about it.

First, she suggested that we combine another pattern (one she used to make my MOM a romper in high school!) to avoid having to put in a zipper. That way it could be strapless (like I wanted) and it wouldn't have a zipper, either!

It seemed like a great plan...until I cut the pattern for the top I had just purchased out of some scrap fabric Granny had, just to make sure it was big enough. And thank God we did! We thought it would be smart to cut out the biggest pattern, just to be safe. Okay, this was the size 18:

Would you say it's a little off?

(Disclaimer: I run about a size 10 typically.)

So, then my granny suggested we do this: make a tube top out of the old mom-pattern and shorten up the shorts a big, and it would be just what I was looking for.

Here's what I used:

Fabric

Thread

Buttons

Eyelet lace

Pinking shears

Scissors

A sewing machine

Granny's patience

Granny and I both snapped some pics from this little project:

AT THIS POINT, I FELT KINDA LIKE SLEEPING BEAUTY. NOT CINDERELLA. SLEEPING BEAUTY. YOU KNOW. WHEN THE FAIRIES MAKE HER THAT DRESS AND IT LOOKS AWFUL.

And, of course, I was THRILLED with the end result!

 

Cardigan / Target
Brown woven belt / Maurices
Aviators / Maurices
Bandana / Not sure. Probably from Rocky's in Hallock.
Pearl studs / Old Navy

Ahh! I love this because it can be kind of dressed up (like I made it above) or you can just throw it over your swimsuit after a day at the beach. Plus, it gives off a very Ellie May Clampett vibe, I think ;)

 

Love,

 

Kalli





living proof live | august 2013

This past weekend, I went to Sioux Falls for my first Living Proof Live experience. I had done a Beth Moore bible study before, and quite honestly, the woman kind of scared me! In a good way, though; she's extremely passionate, lively, and Southern. On our drive down there, I asked my mom if she thought we would get Beth Moore spit on our faces. :) She had me pretty much won over after this weekend.

Her message was wonderful - she spoke about midwifery (not necessarily what you're thinking of, haha), and how we as women need to help each other out, rather than the typical nature of women to be catty and hostile towards one another. She preached on text from Exodus 2 about the women in Moses' early years - the two midwives (Shiphrah and Puah, who were responsible for killing all of the male newborns, but didn't), his mother (Jochebed), his sister (Miriam), the Pharaoh's daughter (who pulled him out of the water), and her two "sidekicks". Without these seven women all helping each other out (whether directly or indirectly), Moses' story would have been completely different. He could have drowned in the Nile. He may not have ever been returned to his mother. He may not have ever left the Egyptians. He may have never even been RAISED by Egyptians.

I had the privilege of attending this event with a group of amazing women - a handful of them were from my bible study, and then we had a few wonderful add-ons! The group included my mother and my grandmother. On the second day, Beth had the whole room pray for different groups of women - ones who were actively raising children at home, ones who were currently suffering from infertility, ones who were going through the most difficult season of their lives. All of these women who these things applied to stood up - in front of God and everybody! - and then had 4500 other women praying over them. It was one of the most amazing things I have ever seen in my whole life. Anyways, one other "category" of women she had stand up were those serving in their churches. I was sitting in between Mom and Granny, and I held both of their hands while we prayed - mom's, soft and warm, with perfect unbitten nails; hands that had hugged me and spanked me, both out of love. And then Granny's - cool and smooth, like a river rock that's had water running over it for 1000 years, slightly knotted with age (really, the only thing that shows her age) so that her wedding band has been replaced with her own mother's. I feel so grateful to have them both in my life, and I enjoy reminiscing about all the things they have taught me, and looking forward to all the things they will teach me.

There was other times we prayed in the event, too. On the first night, they had us all pray our own prayer out loud. That was a little weird for me, and it took me awhile to speak out loud. Usually when I pray, even when I'm alone, I do it in my head. Another time, they had you pray with the group of women around you; Mom, me, Granny, Stacie, Char, and Judy all put our arms around each other, and I bawled and bawled and bawled. And bawled. I think the one I liked the most was when you paired up with another person and hugged them and repeated to them what Beth told you to - Granny was my partner :)

Oh and how could I forget - the praise music! It was beautiful, and so fun! I loved In Christ Alone / Solid Rock and Just As I Am. There was another one where the band started playing and then they stopped and all the whole room was singing together, but I can't remember what song that was! Dang it!

Here's my group :) it was such a good time! I can't wait for the next trip - perhaps April in the cities for my birthday?!

Love,

Kalli

headband [just a little something for you all to get your weekend started with a chuckle]

Good morning, Americans!

IT'S FRIDAY!

I'm off to Sioux Falls for the weekend with my bible study group, but I hadn't posted for awhile, so I thought I'd share this with you :)

Awhile ago, I sent my mom this text:

Oh, you wanted to see the pic closer up?

Here you are:

YES, I KNOW HOW PRETTY I AM.

Oh, and uh, just a little throwback here, for proof:

AUNT BARB AND ME. NO PANTS. FOREHEADBAND. CIRCA THE LATE 90S.

Hope you all have a fab weekend :)

Love,

Kalli