September 1.

It's September! You know what that means... fall is near. I know the first day of fall isn't until September 22... But there is something about writing that ever so lovely "9" on the date line that feels very autumn-like. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside....

AND... word is that Pumpkin Spice Lattes are back at Starbucks! I may have to make a trip there today... (I think it may be sacrilegious to get it any way but hot, but I really should get it iced because despite the fact that September is here, the weather still thinks it's summer time.) Side note: for someone who openly says that she doesn't like chain coffee shops, especially Starbucks, I sure do frequent it a lot. (Starbucks hypocrite, right here.)

Anyway... yay for it being September. Yay for Pumpkin Spice Lattes. And yay that fall is THAT much closer!

New Bathroom.

A week ago my mom told me that she wanted to redecorate the upstairs bathroom/my bathroom/the bathroom formerly known as "Joel and I's bathroom" (I'm sure he's loving his new, non-"covered in curly hair" bathroom that he has all to himself.) Mom said she was thinking about doing something in blue and brown. My creative juices instantly started flowing and I couldn't be stopped after that... I stopped by Home Depot with a friend the next day and picked up a swatch of blue that I thought was nice... Mom approved so I volunteered to paint it. Then I happened to stop by Target and look at brown shower curtains and towels. I came back with Mom and she approved of my suggestions so we bought some. I gradually shared more ideas, she approved, and before you knew it I had totally taken over decorating the whole bathroom. With her approval, of course...

I'm learning something about myself that I never realized while I was in college. I love projects. I don't think I had a lot of time, energy, or money in college so I just did what I had to do and spent the rest of my time with my roommates or in some local coffee shop. But I'm not in college anymore and I've got all this time of my hands, and I love getting things done. At home and at work. (I recently decorated our green room and my office (side note: I still need to show you pictures of my office) just because I love projects.)

Anyway, I love projects and I loved working on the bathroom. Unfortunately I have no "before" pictures but here are some "after" pictures of our newly decorated bathroom.

(You know I decorated a room when tree photography is involved.

These were taken by my brother Joel and I.)

(I liked the simplicity of these flowers. And no, that's not dirt,

it's actually coffee (decaf, no worries, I didn't waste the good stuff.))

(Lamp, candle, and frame: all totally unnecessary,

yet I love them... a lot.)

(Mood lighting...)

Lessons from Solitude.

I survived my 24 hours of solitude! And it was actually really great... I relaxed a lot, read a lot, spent a lot of time with the Lord, and just was overall recharged. I've written 3 different posts to tell you about my time... but none seem to appropriately say what I want to say. Here's my 4th attempt to try to concisely communicate what I took away from my 24 hours.

-I (and everybody else) live a hurried life and it is affecting me more than I realize. A book called "The Life You've Always Wanted" by John Ortberg said this, "The great danger is not that we will renounce our faith. It is that we will become so distracted and rushed and preoccupied that we will settle for a mediocre version of it." That's my life right now in a nutshell.

-I also realized how much society and technology affects my life after being away from it for 24 hours. It's kind of ridiculous how often I have to check my phone, Twitter, Facebook, e-mail, etc. to make sure I'm still connected to the world... Needless to say, it was good to get away from all of that. Another quote from Ortberg, "Solitude is the one place where we can gain freedom from the forces of society that will otherwise relentlessly mold us." I'm still deciding how I need to change my life and my addiction to society and technology now that I'm back.

-The third main thing that I realized about my life that wasn't given to me by a book or scripture was this: I am so concerned about my future and how everything in my life will turn out that I'm totally neglecting taking care of myself and my relationships (with the Lord and with the people around me) here in the present. Things have to change.

So there you have it. The things you learn while away for a day. I didn't have a camera to take pictures of the beautiful amenities where I spent me my retreat, so instead I took a Photo Booth pic of myself, currently on the patio at Starbucks, willingly choosing to be by myself after a day of solitude. Craziness, eh?

People.

Yep, this blog post is going to be about people. No one in particular, just people in general. I love being around people. I used to think everyone loved, even needed people as much as I do... but apparently it's not true. Some are what we like to call introverts... I am not one of those people. Recently I took a Meyers Briggs personality test and my results classified me as an ESFJ. I don't know if that means anything to you, but in the description of my personality it said this: "Friendly, outgoing, neighborly - in a word, ESFJs are gregarious, so much so that they become restless when isolated from people" ... among other things, but you must know this about me to give the following paragraph significance.

My boss recently encouraged me to basically fall off the face of the earth for a little while and have some time of solitude to see what God's doing in my life. (That's the beauty of working at a church...) She knows that I'm a "people person" and that I rely heavily on my relationships so she encouraged me to cut myself off completely, for at least a day. (I know, a day, that's not long, but for a person like me, it is.) So that's what I'm doing. In about 30 minutes I'm heading off to a friend's home for a retreat and I'm not bringing my laptop, and I'm only bringing my phone in case I get a call about a job (P.S. I'm looking for a job, I don't know if I've mentioned that.) Just me, my Bible, a few books, and my iPod. It should be great... But gosh, pray for me, that I'll be able to survive my 24 hours alone.

(P.S. Here's a link to the free, short, online Meyers Briggs test that I took, if you're curious to learn a little bit more about your own personality.)

Delay Brew.

A few weeks ago I wrote about how I really enjoyed waking up to coffee when I was on vacation. So I made it a goal to obtain a new coffee maker (either by buying it for myself or asking for one for my birthday) and to buy some nice coffee. Well, it's done. My parents gave me a beautiful new, stainless steel looking Mr. Coffee coffee maker and a couple of pounds of Starbucks coffee, and I'm good to go.

My favorite feature is the Delay Brew button. I know... these have been around forever, but man, I love it. I love getting it all ready the night before so it's all brewing right when I want it the next morning. I love how after hitting the snooze button five too many times (yes, I'm that person who sets her alarm 30 minutes early just so she can hit the snooze button a few times before crawling out of bed) and hurriedly getting myself ready for the day... I walk down the stairs to the wonderful smell of coffee and my lovely recycled plastic (yep, I'm green sometimes...) Kaldi's thermos sitting there waiting for me... Thanks to the Delay Brew button, I'm out the door in a few minutes (gotta take the time to add a couple of Sweet n' Lows and some creamer; Fact: I'm not man enough to drink my coffee black) with a perfect cup of coffee.

Basically, I'm just saying I love the Delay Brew button. That's all.

And another...

Yesterday I got a call from my cousin Anthony asking me to make him a birthday cake. It kind of made me sad that he had to ask, but then he told me that it was for his youth group and that the church would pay for it. I didn't feel as bad after that... The only direction that I got was that he wanted "white wedding cake like aunt Charlotte makes." So I got work...

Anthony loves disc golf... and rightfully so, he kicks butt at it. So here is my attempt to honor Anthony's 27th birthday with a disc golf cake (that thing to the left is supposed to be a disc golf hole). Happy birthday, Anthony! You're awesome...

I'm no Cake Boss...

It's been a while since I've had a bakery order. I just haven't been baking much this summer because things have been so busy. And I think people haven't been asking for baked goods for the same reason... at least that's what I'm telling myself. :) But tonight I got a call from a guy that I work with asking me if I could make a cake for his son... for tomorrow. Luckily I didn't have any plans tonight besides painting my bathroom (which can wait) so I said yes. His son wanted a cake like "one of the ones that Cake Boss makes."

He also really likes Godzilla, and is turning 13, and likes chocolate cake. With all those factors in mind, I got to work... I'm no Cake Boss, but here is the finished product. I'm pretty excited about it!