4th of july mantel display.

okay, I have to admit something to you. I love, and I mean love interior design things. 

one of mine and my mama's favorite things to do when the seasons change is our fireplace mantel. oh my. talk about fun stuff. 

we just, like literally half an hour ago, finished our new one! fourth of july inspired! don't you just love it?

I kid you not, almost everything up there, we've had for years. let me break it down.

the shutters were purchased at a thrift store for $2. we used a can of red spray paint we had to paint them.

the "fourth of july greetings" sign was $15 from michaels. (mom's a sucker for those things.)

both candlesticks we have had since I was little - mom never used them. a can of spray paint we had lying around, and voila! cuteness.

the black chalkboard blocks have a cool story. when my mama was little, she and her great grandpa Gilmore set out to create an over sized set of dominoes, which they never finished. when my grandpa Art died, and we were sorting through his things, we found them. mom painted them with chalkboard paint, and now we can write whatever we desire. 

the frame was $1 at a garage sale.

the wreath is something we've had forever.

the blue star used to be pale yellow. a quick coat of paint fixed it up quite nicely :)

honestly, this is one of my favorite mantle setups we've ever had. so cute! what do you think?

best friend photoshoot

Soooo....while I was in texas visiting miss Rebekah, we had a super duper fun photoshoot! :) Her momma is a fantastic photographer, so one day after church, we has some serious fun with the camera! Here are some of our favorites :)

this is just so us. sass and all.

 

we're just precious, we know ;)

attitude.

don't those cupcakes look yummy? yeah, I know.

this is my favorite. really tells the story of us....love love love!

and this one...well. I know it's not edited or anything, but I adore it. just so us.

so there you have it! some pictures from our photoshoot :) if you wanna see more of my texas momma's work, head on over here!


happy thursday!

the great gatsby official movie trailer.

Guess what was posted yesterday? The Great Gatsby movie trailer. (cue obnoxious squeals)

Pleas, hit play, sit back, and get excited. 

now, can we please talk about:

the music. oh my. it's so...dramatic and perfect. 

leo. is so perfect. 'nuff said.

carey and tobey are so perfect for their roles too. 

the costumes are to die for. love.

and the half-second glimpse we get of the famous billboard, which displays the eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg, is brilliant.

now excuse me while I go watch it for a sixth time, now.

it's only tuesday and my world is falling apart already.

Did you read the title? that's basically how I feel.

Let me explain to you just a few of the things that have gone wrong this week:

Saturday morning/afternoon was my cousin/niece's 1st birthday party. I can't go too deep, but I was pretty much blown off by a cousin I used to be super close to, for no reason. The situation behind it was a lose-lose deal. And I lost big time.

Saturday evening I babysat overnight for a family that didn't value my time and seriously underpaid me - not even by a little bit, but by a lot, even when I gave them a lower rate than I usually do. I hate that. Waste of my Saturday night.

Sunday I was tired, and had a sunday school teachers meeting. then a going away party for my friend Peter. That was hard. 

Yesterday...oh...yesterday.

I dropped my  favorite OPI nail polish on our concrete floors in my bathroom, and it shattered. leaving me with a huge mess, and intoxicated by the fumes.

I found out one of my family members is pregnant. She's not married. I can't say I'm thrilled, because I looked up to her so much in prior years. I'm sorely disappointed in humanity right now, and longing more than ever for Jesus to come back.

I hung out with Peter and his girlfriend Cora, who is a very good friend of mine, for the last time in a long time, seeing as he moved today.

And today. 

Woke up late. Bad mood. And then Peter came by again this morning for one final goodbye. I cried. I hate crying. 

And my giveaway is having some issues with the widget, so I had to take it down. I am sorry to the one person who entered - but it will be back up, and re-started when I find time to mess with it. I do apologize.

I know I sound like I'm complaining to you guys right now, but I don't want to sound that way. I was reminded recently that my blog isn't a place to portray a "perfect" life. My life isn't perfect. I have bad days, weeks, months, and that's okay to share here.

I hope your week is going better than mine! Hugs, friends!

happiness // today

my day started off kind of lame.

woke up with a sore throat.

late.

and just kind of did nothing all day.

but it got much better.

I ended up spending the afternoon with my best friend.

playing guitar on the docks of beautiful donner lake.

wearing a big sun hat.

and lovely cat eye sunglasses.

singing free fallin' by tom petty/john mayer.

receiving applause from the people on the dock over.

then we saw the high school play...godspell.

and I almost met mister's mother. [cue awkward giggles]

it was uncomfortable, and resulted in me feeling like a dork.

and now, now I am off to do my nails and listen to more great music.

today was good. 

the week was.

monday was excitement and midnight snacks.

tuesday was creating pinterest-worthy nails while growing more excited.

wednesday was airport mirror pictures, seeing my best friend for the first time in 17 months, and orange leaf.

thursday was car rides, watching a lovely lady dance, and pretty clouds.

friday was kissing and loving on bek's nephew.

saturday was full of pretty scenery. 

sunday was church, and a photoshoot after, followed by nancy drew and treats.

monday was sonic happy hour and movie night.

tuesday was going home. shedding a few tears while I did so.

I just got back from texas yesterday - and I have some posts to put up for ya'll about my trip, but until then, this will have to suffice :) sorry I didn't post the whole week! I was planning on getting some guest posters while I was away, but never got to it, and honestly just wanted to not have to worry about any of it for a few days. Hope you all have had a lovely week! 

xoxo, ruthanne

dear momma.

dear momma.

I don't tell you nearly enough; but I love you.

I am so thankful to have you be my mom, of all the girls who coulda gotten you. I am lucky.

You are encouraging when I need it, you put me in my place when I need it, you say nothing when I need it. You do what I need.

That baffles me constatly.

You do what I need..and not only just what I need, but what all five of us need. How do you do that?

I don't know, and I won't know until I myself am a momma and get to share the struggles. But I want you to know it doesn't go unnoticed, and you certainly don't get overlooked. You are so special to all of us, and I am praying those four munchikins made sure to tell you they love you today, more than normal!

I love you momma - thank you for all that you do!!

proverbs 31:25 freebies!

printable

facebook cover photo

iphone/ipod wallpaper

it's monday, y'all! I wanted to get another one of these proverbs 31 things made today for you guys - and I love how this one turned out. Can you tell how much I love those two/three colors right now? GAH. 

anyway. there is a regular printable one up top, a facebook cover one next, and then an iphone/ipod background. 

just click on the image, right click "save image", and you're good to go! enjoy!

the week was.

monday was blue skies.

tuesday was monday.

wednesday was cuddly.

thursday was yummy.

friday was making cookies.

saturday was recording.

and sunday was this.

what was your week?

official "ruthanne" facebook music page!

Guess who got a music page up on facebook!?!?! THIS GIRL!

Whoop whoop! 

I am cordially inviting you, my lovely readers, to "like" my page, if you feel so inclined, and maybe even share it with your friends? I'm getting a couple new tracks I've been working on with friends up tonight - for now there's just one under the section "band page"...or just click that link, right there :)

all the hugs in the world for you all! ♥ hope you've had a lovely weekend!

edit:

here is mine and two of my very close friend's version of "Hallelujah" by Leonard Cohen - we hope you enjoy immensely - and if you like the music in it, head on over to the boys' page and like it too for some fantastically brilliant stuff :)

a story of true friendship: rebekah and ruthanne.

this is probably the longest post I've ever written. fair warning.

Happy wednesday, friends! :) So, I don't think I've mentioned this yet...but in exactly 7 days (eep!) I will be in Texas visiting my best friend! Exciting much? Ah! 

We have probably the coolest friendship story ever, so today I wanted to kind of share that with you, because it is so sweet, and something that her and I both know was a one-in-a-million kind of thing. Ready?

· · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 

Lets go back to December 25th, 2008, for a few minutes, shall we?

That was the day I first had any contact with my best friend.

And you know what? it was on a message boards forum site for Nancy Drew computer games.

Around "the boards" as all of us dedicated members so fondly referred to it as, I was "Caroline". Partly because of an internet safety thing, and partly because I wanted to see what going by my first name was like. 

These message boards were dedicated solely to fans of the Nancy Drew computer games made by the company HerInteractive. 

There were separate sub-forums for basically everything. There was a review and help board for each game released, and then the "fun" parts of it. Forums for writing alternate endings to the games, creating post signatures for people to use, where you opened up a thread and it was called your "signature "shop". There were forums for games, and reviews, and petitions for new games, etc. 

Anyway. Christmas day, 2008. Right. 

I was an avid writer of the Alternate Endings I mentioned above. I loved getting to re write the endings of the games however I wanted. I was browsing the boards after the Christmas madness was over, and clicked on one Alternate Ending by a certain "NanDrew78". I read, and was intrigued, and totally smitten. There began the friendship.

This girl's "name" was MnM...or Maudie.

The rules of the boards were very strict. No private messaging, no last names allowed, no email exchanges, no threads just for talking about your personal stuff,  and absolutely no links to any url that wasn't part of HerInteractive's site. We found loopholes in it all, of course. We'd figure out how to get the personal stuff in and still abide by the rules, but never had any contact outside of the boards.

About a year after this, almost exactly, the company joined Twitter. Naturally, all of us "true" ND fans did too, to keep up with everything. This was probably one of the best things ever. A new thread went up saying that the company had, and giving a disclaimer about how they're not responsible for anything that happens because of that and yada yada yada. None of us cared what they said...we were on it. Being as smart as we all were, we joined, made our accounts private, put our board username in our profile, and then follow the other people who did the same and also followed the company. Brilliance, I know.

Over the first year I got into contact with so many of my friends. Like, real contact. We were all constantly checking HeR's followers to see if anyone new had joined, and frequently, they had. We would end up sending a bajillion direct messages to each other, because of the character limit, then we'd move on to email...and then skype..and then text. I can honestly say I met some of my favorite people ever during those two years. 

When "Maudie" joined twitter, I was so excited. I found our her real name was Rebekah, or Beka for short, and I told her my name was technically Ruthanne. I found out she lived in Texas, and she found out I lived in California. We were bummed to say the least.

We ended up sharing our hearts with each other over DM's for a few months, and became so close. One thing led to another, and we began sending emails and skyping, and eventually started sending each other birthday and Christmas presents. 

During the Summer of 2010, Beka started talking and telling me about a trip they might be taking to the east coast. October came around and it was official. The day they left for DC she tweeted about their drive. She would tell us what town she was in now, or what state. I, being the detective I was, (ha), looked up on Google maps what the trip looked like. And nothing she said matched up. 

On top of that, my mother was acting weird. So weird. And Beka wasn't really posting pictures of the trip - something I thought strange. The girl is a photographer's daughter. She. Likes. Pictures.

My parents told all of us kids that they would be going out to dinner with a client/friend of my dad's that night, and we may or may not go too, so to get ready. That was really weird for them. It's always either "we're going" or "we're not going". But, I got ready anyway. 

I was sitting on the couch with Addy, who was almost 2 months old at the time, and noticed that my mom kept glancing at the driveway, as if looking for someone. I began to look too, all while still watching tv. I saw car lights gleam against the wall...and tried to contain myself. I had had to get on my mom's computer earlier that day, and saw an email for Beka's mom, Vicki, to my mom. I was trying not to be too excited about what I thought may be happening, just in case it didn't...but that didn't work too well. I went back to my sisters' room to get Addy something, and came back out to the kitchen. I was waiting with the baby when my mom went and opened the door, and called my name. 

I turned around and there stood my best friend.

can you tell we'd been crying? about ten minutes after our first real hug took place. 

I squealed. And probably almost dropped the baby. As quickly as I could possible hand Addy off to someone I did, and hugged that girl and cried. We both did. It was like everything in the world was finally right. I hugged her parents, too, and just looked at her in disbelief. 

on our way to dinner - sooo full of joy!

We ended up having dinner with her family that night, and then spending the next day together at Tahoe.

so happy.

having her with us was just like having another sister! ♥

we're both notorious posers. all day. every day.

I have never met another girl I love this much.

Ever.

We are so close, and truly sisters. I know she's got my back, even though she's all the way in Texas. Rarely does a day go by when we don't talk - there is always an "I love you!" to be said, and if either of us need prayer, the other one's got it.

This is my best friend, and I thank God all the time for blessing me with her friendship. 

the monday's on tuesday.

This morning has been rough.

I didn't fall asleep till 2:20ish. I don't know why, but my brain wouldn't shut off.

I woke up late - later than usual, that is. 8:20, to be exact. No good.

I pulled my hair out of the bun it was in to find it was a huge, poofy, yucky mess. I had no time to straighten it, so I wet it and back up in a bun it went.

Getting dressed was frustrating too...my favorite pair of capris ripped on the outer leg seam....

And I was forced to wear a t-shirt because all of my cardis were dirty..

....if you don't know yet, I hate plain t-shirts. I feel so...meh. 

Then it just kept getting worse.

I didn't want to eat cereal for breakfast, so I made eggs.

Big mistake. Eggs make me sick in the morning for some reason.

Some other stuff happened too. I've been being avoided for five days by someone I needed to talk to. And their excuse was "oops."

So then I was mad. and hurt. And wanted to scream, literally.

I took off on a bike ride to get some of the aggression out. Straight down to the very bottom of our subdivision. It was a long bike ride back up. But I needed it.

I came home and sat on the couch for a minute, catching my breath, reading some blogs I've stumbled upon recently.

I kept on finding posts relating to the same thing: forgiveness and getting over the little things, and remembering it's not all about you. 

The whole root of my morning being bad was because I was upset about being avoided and not having my phone calls, texts, and facebook messages returned, when I needed to.

As I sat on the couch, reading, I was reminded it's not always about me. yeah, I need to get my worship team together to practice, but sometimes, people have other, bigger things going on. And sometimes it's your best friend, and you feel you have the right to be upset because they never ignore you, when that's really just not true. 

I have a feeling the rest of the day will continue on like a second monday...somewhat annoying and unpleasant, but I'll get over it. Today is still a blessing, even if I feel cursed.