winter wonderland + hey there

Hi there, friends!

I'm dropping in for a moment or two to tell you that I will be hosting a giveaway later this week - so keep your eyes out! It's going to be great! :)

Annnd...look at how pretty my little street looks right now! It's been snowing off and on for the past few days, and is supposed to keep up until Christmas! So very excited! I love white Christmases. 

I'm off to bed now - I promise I'll work on stopping in more! Really :)

xoxo, Ruthanne

the week in review.

Whew. What a week I had. It was kind of cray cray, y'all. Hehe. Ready for an update?

Wednesday

I met my friend at starbucks and caved to a venti pumpkin spice latte. I know. Bad me. My hair cooperated wonderfully. I saw the boy. He blew me a kiss as I drove out of the church parking lot. Melted my heart, per usual.

 I also made 80 crab ravioli from scratch. 

Thursday

It rained all day. All day. I had worship practice.We sang Christmas songs - my favorite. But I was glad to go home and get to bed...only after talking to him for half an hour. hehe.

Friday

was spent shopping for Christmas decor for the church with these two boys and my worship pastor and his wife. They're insane. (like my headband? new hobby - going to give one or two away in a couple weeks - stay tuned!!)

Saturday

was spent at the church decorating with aforementioned decorations. It turned out real spiffy though, so I can't complain about being there all day. And I had a blast with my wonderful "brothers"...hanging lights and ornaments and almost dying and all that jazz. The rain let up for a while...until it got dark.

Sunday

I had worship at 7:30 am. It was pouring, guys. Pouring. I woke up to ten flood warnings on my phone. I was glad we were at 6,000 feet above sea level where our house is because it was bad. Haven't gotten this much rain in a long time. I also wore my lovely new pink coat and polka dot scarf. It was great. On top of all that, I, along with a bunch of my friends, went up to Mavis' after church for brunch and to help her decorate her house for Christmas, since her recent surgery has left her unable to maneuver heavy boxes. 

But not before Rachel and I stopped for starbucks and snapped this super adorable photo.

When I got home from all of the earlier events, the previous owner of my car was there to finish the paperwork. After he was done, I went to fill it up the first time, and I also put my amazing car kit my best friend sent me for my birthday in it. Equipped with princess band-aids and goldfish, I will never be too stuck. 

I then spent the evening decorating our house for Christmas.  Part of our mantel display, and a favorite ornament. 

Monday

I enjoyed a couple hours spent with my sweet friend Rachel. I snapped this picture of her...she probably will text me in a minute to scold me. Deal with it. And then I spent an hour face timing Rebekah. It was supposed to be a quick 15 minute call..but..uh. We don't do quick.

Took the "scenic route" above downtown to the post office to see this pretty view. Don't tell anyone I snapped a pic while driving! Oops.

And today...well. Today is fresh, with no mistakes in it, and I plan to make the most of it. 

(please tell me you caught my Anne of Green Gables quote.)

xoxo, Ruthanne

a wonderful christmas.

  The past 36 hours have been filled with many happy things. 

We had about 500 people at our first Christmas Eve service at church. That's more than we have on one Sunday with both of our Sunday morning and night services combined. It was a blessing. About 300 came to the second service. 

I sang Mary, Did You Know? and didn't screw it up. I felt God's peace and total comfort while singing it. People told me I touched their hearts with my voice and I knew none of that was my doing. 

We had an awesome Christmas Eve at home too. Momma made manicotti for dinner, along with caesar salad and delicious bread.

The night was concluded like every Christmas eve is. All of the kids sleeping in the same room, but only after watching a Christmas movie. Pure bliss. 

The younger kids woke up at 6. Jake and I pretended like we were asleep till 6:52, when they both dragged us out of bed and to the stairs, where we waited for the next twenty minutes for dad to get out of bed and shuffle to the couch. Papa and Mimi were up too. Jess and Laura were sooo impatient!! Man. The tradition of waiting on the stairs is great but also sort of obnoxious. I'm getting too old for this....

Anyway. The kids finally make their way up the stair and rush into the living room. Addy get's a wooden Melissa and Doug kitchen. Laura gets an American Girl bath/spa set. And Jesse gets a super awesome spy set - complete with briefcase and costume. 

I'm busy enjoying the kiddos, watching them marvel at their new toys. Momma gets up and hands me my present. 

It's a cardboard wine gift box. I'm like "cool, mom." But I already know what it is :) I open it up and pull it out and there it is. My very own brand spanking new iPhone 4s.

I'd be lying if I said I didn't do a little happy dance. 

Or two.....

Anyway. It was the best Christmas present ever. 

Here are some instagrams of the day :)

crab eggs benedict for breakfast :)

my weird brother.

coal bubble gum. :)

osso bucco for dinner :)  

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas everyone! 

Merry Christmas!!!

xoxox, Ruthanne

merry merry!

Merry merry Christmas eve! Oh, dear me! How did we get here so fast!? Everything has flown by like crazy. The end of the year is upon us, and I am absolutely stunned at the speed this year passed! 

I'm sending my love out to all of my lovely readers - hugs, cookies, and a Christmas carol or two, and wishing you a very, very merry Christmas!!! 

All my love, 

Ruthanne

just dandy.

Between now and 3:30pm tomorrow I must:

Give my room, bathroom, closet, and laundry room all a deep clean.

Sew two pairs of PJ pants for the littlest brother for Christmas.

Perfect the song I'm doing for Christmas Eve services - read: somehow make my range go higher and lower. re-read: do the impossible.

Get the stupid security device off of my mama's Christmas present cause no where in town has the tool to do it. Small town issues, I tell ya.

Practice Angels We Have Heard On High for Christmas Eve services. The chords over "gloria" are freakin' obnoxious, and there are far too many of them.

Take a bio and math test - read: my least favorite things to do. 

Endure my dad's company Christmas party this evening....ugh.

Figure out what the heck I'm wearing for Christmas eve services - I have to play the piano for both services, and the spotlights are really hot - plus we're going to have a good 300 people per service. Which means it'll be even warmer in that room...sooooo. I need to solve that dilemma. Dear me. 

However, this is my current inspiration for completing those tasks: 

Hope it gave you a laugh and some inspiration too!!!

gingerbread

I made a gingerbread house today - and let me tell you. It's the tiniest gingerbread house ever. Seriously. It measures no more than 2.5 inches high. Um. YEAH. That's right. Wanna see? Okay :)

Isn't it just adorable? Technically, I had five to do...my mom bought a kit for a "mini village" from Michaels. But three of the others were just plain weird looking and I thought it'd be more fun to do a mini scene. And then the other one out of the five was just like the one I showed you, and I made it another little scene for Addy so she wouldn't feel left out, with all of her siblings having gingerbread houses and all....

Anyway :) Thought it was too cute not to share! OH! And! I highly recommend visiting me tomorrow :) I have a surpriiiiiiiiise for all you lovely readers :) 

xoxo!

Ruthanne

all things christmas!

Hey all!

This upcoming week is going to be so awesome! I have a few fantastic guest posts lined up for you, my first giveaway - it's going to be awesome - and then by the time we're done, it's Christmas Eve! Ah! So very excited!

Here's a couple songs to get you in the mood for some festivities :)

John Mayer, of course.

Dave Barnes - a classic favorite.

Colbie, it wouldn't be the same without you :)

Thank you Jack for making this the best rendition ever.

 

Jason Mraz, I love you.

Merry 8 days till Christmas! :)

Monday, Monday...

Happy Monday! :) can you believe that Christmas is just a mere 12 days away?? I absolutely cannot!!!!

I'm sitting at my kitchen table right now doing school {technically I'm writing this post but whatever....ha}, and my Christmas tree started to shake...I thought it might be an earthquake but no, lo and behold its my lovely cat feeling the urge to climb a tree, since we won't let her outside due to the cold....

Nice, cat. Nice.

I'm gonna go back to school, but I have some absolutely fantastic things planned for y'all over the next two weeks, you'll love it! :) I can't wait to share it all with you! :)

Happy Monday!!

my best friend is so hard to shop for. seriously.

Warning: this post contains proof that I actually act like a real 16 year old sometimes. *wink*

Okay. So this is my best friend.

This is our "OMG WE ARE GOING TO SEE PHIL WICKHAM IN AN HOUR!!!!!!!!" face.

We love to photobooth it up in the car going random places...yeah....

She's the only one I make lame faces in photos with. Really. True story.

Oh yeah. and she's also like 5'11". In case you forgot, I'm 5'2". Opposites OBVIOUSLY attract.

Oh, last year. We were so immature then. ;) bahahaha.

The only cool part about this photo is that we're sitting on a tractor. We have an obsession with the song "Big Green Tractor" by Jason Aldean - because she had an obsession with a boy...who liked that song....and yeah. I'll just leave it at that...we like John Deere tractors. SO much in fact, that we will randomly say in a valley girl voice on frequent occasions, "Tractors! Green ones, yahhh." It's a teenage girl thing, I guess...

Thisis possibly my favorite picture of her ever.....but it's only funny because Sam is sitting in the background, and looks like he's checking a chick out, when in reality, that's how sam looks all the time. He likes to dramatically look off into the distance. And then Becca looks like she's disaproving of the situation. It's just fantastic, really.

Black friday shopping last year...showing off our new lipgloss from bath and body works...we have an obsession with that too. I seriously almost have every single flavor they have ever made. Ignore the fact that we both look like chipmunks on crack, please.

But we're done with photos for now. Kay?

She's the coolest person in the WORLD. And the only one I make lame teenager faces in photos with. Seriously. You can't make me do it unless she's doing it with me.....hahaha. But I suuuuuuuuck at shopping for her....really. I mean, she loves tshirts from C28.com, but I can't get her anymore of those because she has like a freaking million and we REALLY need to work on expanding her wardrobe. That gift would not help with that endeavor, and she agrees...

So here's the deal. I realllllly need your help with ideas. Cause I'm out of ideas. She likes the colors green blue, purple, but not really pink. I'm thinking of getting her some scarves, maybe, or a really cool new wallet, cause her's is in need of retirement. I'm also thinking of getting her a new guitar strap, or making her a reallly cool one. What do you think? any other ideas? Just throw em out there, I could use all the help I can get!

And hopefully today is not the day she decides to read my blog. Hopefully......

honestly: december, please slow down!

honestly

I feel that it is terribly
M A D D E N I N G
that DECEMBER only has THREE weekends
before christmas. 

HOW on EARTH am I GOING to GET

everything done?!

December, if you're reading this
PLEASE, I BEG OF YOU
give me more time!
i'm really not ready for this yet.
HONESTLY.


Does anyone else feel this way, too? I have so much shopping left to do, practices to attend, oh dear me! I am so in trouble! HELP!

handmade snowglobes

I have been seeing these adorable globes all over for months now, so I had to make my own! :)

Aren't they just darling? I think so! My mom loves them and they literally took about 5 minutes each to make. Here are a couple different tutorials you can follow - but don't feel like you have to! They're so easy it's hard to mess it up!

Martha Stewart Rendition

Julie Ann's Rendition

Ashley's Rendition

Enjoy - these are so fun to make!

dear santa

Dear Santa,

I've fallen in love with this $100 handbag. Could you be so kind as to deliver it to me Christmas Morning? 

Thank you, I send my love.

Sincerely,

Ruthanne 

christmas dress & christmas music

So it's getting to be that time of year again..time to start looking for a Christmas eve dress.

I am playing/singing a song this year for both of our Christmas Eve services {I did one last year, too} and as of now I will also be the team doing all of the music for the evening...sooooo...I need to find a dress...that's red...or something....red is great but it could be black or something else too....and I need to find a pattern to make one...or just find fabric and try to whip one up. Who knows. But I want to find one/make one something resembling these ones on ModCloth :)



Polite and Day Dress

This is my favorite dress right now...Love it so much.

Seam and Sugar Dress

This is a good, simple, dress that would be really cute with maybe a red cardigan? I love it.

Lipstick With Me, Girl Dress

This one is just too stinkin' cute...wouldn't really work though, because with how cold it is, you always need a sweater and that shoulder bow would get it the way :( sad.

Daisy Days of Summer

Black tights, red heels, black cardigan...cute red headband....would be cute, right?

Frock Brand Dress
This is my second most favorite one...So very bold and perfect.

Here's the main problem, though, with finding/buying/making dresses. Around here, no one ever really dresses up, unless it's prom, a wedding, graduation or a funeral. And even then all of those are fairly casual. As you saw in my Sunday best post, that's basically the norm, usually, for Sunday mornings...so Christmas Eve services are kind of hard to figure out what to wear to, cause you want to look nice if you're going to be on stage, but not *too* nice. So...you see my problem, right?

See, look at this dress! I love it, and I would so be down for wearing it except it's a smidgen too much...sad, isn't it? :(

Winter Waltz Dress in Ivory

Which one do you like best? And if not any of these, do you have any other suggestions? It's generally around 20 degrees farenheit on winter evenings here, give or take....well...mostly take..ha! So it makes it even more fun to shop for winter appropriate dresses...joy.

Also...I've been listening to Christmas music since Halloween...and I need some new music, I haven't bought any albums this year, yet...any recommendations?