Back to School Mantel

We have an electric fireplace in our living room, and I told Ryan earlier this summer that I wanted to start decorating it seasonally. It's just a fun challenge I wanted to pursue to change up our decorating in the room where we spend most of our time.

After some um...{ahem} time on Pinterest...I came up with mantel #1...the Back to School mantel.

Interesting, since, after all, we have no one in this house attending school.

Praise. The. Lord.

But check out the elements I used and let me know what you think!

First...the big picture:

I love Ryan's big clock above the fireplace - and we just added that shelf in our renovating, so we could always have the candles without using up the mantel real estate. I like that addition more and more every time I look at it!.

I tried to "shop around the house" when I could...and tried to spend minimal money on the rest. I had the easel already, and the notebook paper is actually a white board I found on the dollar shelf at Target. The apple came from Hobby Lobby and may have been the most expensive thing I got for this mantel. {Isn't that just like an apple!! Always so costly.} Bought two packs of pencils for a dollar per pack and put them in Ryan's pencil holder from our office. Dug the frame out of my picture frame stash and printed the pictures on our printer. I did purchase the letters at Hobby Lobby - and decided to leave them plain to keep with the burlap-y theme I have scattered around the house. The bell was Ryan's - and the flowers were a gift from Ryan.

Like I said, no one in this house is in school right now, but I loved this quote I found {on Pinterest} because we do seem to live in a constant state of learning. I love to learn - I just love NOT having a quiz to follow it up!

Seemed appropriate to add the apple. Why is fake fruit so expensive??? I thought about adding chalk or crayons to the mix, but decided to stick with pencils to honor my love of writing. :)

I had to do a throwback to our childhood on here. I had to. Fourth grade for him, fifth grade for me. Do the Shaffers know how to rock 1988 or WHAT?

I intended to make a nice stack of books covered in brown paper...but the letters were so big, they sort of took over. It's okay though...I like the way it turned out.

I collected bells when I was growing up - so it's funny to me that the bell we used is Ryan's. HA! But I love this one and it fits in with the feel of the thing. And to finish the thing off - the flowers are in our high school colors. Good old green and gold!

We like it...our first little mantel in our new living room!

Fandana, Flexibility, and Fluid Weather Conditions {Literally}

* I met a new friend {Brooke} through blogging - and she asked if I'd share my story of love redemption over on her blog,  and today is the day she'll post that. I know many of you who read here are waiting for love and that wait has been a hard one. I thought I'd let you know the post I wrote is part of a series on singleness - and the series began yesterday. If you'd like to find some encouragement for that part of life, I'd love for you to go check out the whole series! And if you want to read a condensed version of my redemption story, go check out my post there today! *

Meanwhile, here on Bekah's Bits...

This past weekend was the Fandana Festival in Huntington, Indiana, and it was my second year to work this festival. Last year, I worked it on Saturday and while it was sunny, it was also breezy {read: so windy we had to anchor down everything in our tent} and cool. The folks who worked Friday froze to death and hid from nasty wind and rain storms by taking shelter in the van. This year the folks who worked on Saturday enjoyed a literally perfect summer day, but I worked on Friday, which went...well...a bit less than perfectly! {I'm beginning to think there's something about Fridays!}

I actually had Friday off work as a vacation day - because it was our 8 month anniversary and we were staying home to monitor the carpet installation process. I was supposed to report for duty at the festival about 5:00 p.m. to take the stage at 6:00 for the first concert emceeing.

So all day long, I was sitting out in our pirogi, wild-haired and blissful, working on our scrapbook and enjoying the warm, sunny weather. I just happened to check my work email about 2:30 in the afternoon and discovered there had been a schedule change for the festival, and I needed to be on a stage at 4:30.

That meant I needed to leave home in 45 minutes. I don't think Ryan ever saw me move so fast in all my life! I was so thankful I'd caught the email in time! We both hurried to shower and get ready in time and were on the road only 2 minutes late. We arrived to a sunny, warm afternoon in Huntington and checked in at the festival. We hurried over to the outdoor main stage, where I was supposed to introduce indie artist Jetty Rae. I went backstage to meet her:

And about five minutes before she was scheduled to take the stage, this happened:

And as a precaution, the stage crew began throwing tarps over everything. This would be when I took shelter under a tent and texted for Ryan to join me backstage. {So thankful they ended up giving him a backstage pass!}

A few minutes later, the festival officials sent everyone to safety inside buildings on campus. {Our umbrella was in the car - how great is that! And my camera bag was back at the WBCL table in another building. So I put my camera under my shirt and booked it to a nearby building.}

And we waited! A sweet girl I didn't know offered to take our picture, so this is our official 8 month anniversary photo: waiting out the storm on the Huntington University campus!

We waited over 1/2 hour, while the skies absolutely POURED.

Finally the rain turned to enough of a drip that we could exit our shelter. By that time, the artist I was supposed to introduce had gone past the time she was even supposed to have the stage, so Ryan and I made our way back to the main building where the station table was set up to wait for the next concert to begin. Next up: Citizen Way!

They arrived about the same time we got back to the table - and their table was right next to ours. Ryan helped one of their band members, Josh Calhoun, set up his table and Annie {our intern} and I prepared to head onstage for their concert. This one was inside, so no danger of being stormed out for this round! {Though the sun came out right about this time.}

And why do I always look like I'm singing?

Citizen Way - ALWAYS a great concert.

After they sang, we waited about another hour and then headed back out to the outdoor stage so I could emcee one more band. Right about the time we got there, umbrellas popped up and more rain fell. No storm this time, though, so the show went on.

I climbed onstage for one more round with the lookalike singing:

And with that...our festival experience came to a close for another year. We headed out about 9:00 for some dinner and then went home to enjoy our newly installed carpet!!!

Our Time Capsule!!

A few weeks ago, I came to y'all with a request for ideas of things to include in a time capsule. We planned to hide it under the stairway in the house before the new carpet was laid...to be discovered however many years down the road, either by us {when we're old and forgot things like time capsules hidden in the days of our newlywed bliss} or by new owners to Shafferland.

I had grand visions of a romantic date for two, collecting everything for the capsule...and hours spent compiling it in great detail, but as tends to happen around here, the busyness got the best of us, and the night before the carpet came, I was whirling around town, taking pictures and scribbling notes to the future capsule finders. Nevertheless, I'm so glad I pushed through and got it done, and today I want to share with you what went inside!

I wrote all my notes for the capsule in a little journal, and I began with an explanation of who we are and why we were making a time capsule in the first place.

Then I explained how much I love to journal and how someone suggested including one of my journals in the capsule, but how I couldn't bear to part with any of them. So instead, I wrote the notes in a blank journal I had and included that as the nod to my journaling love.

We both wanted to include a rock we'd signed, as an example of the rock altar we began at our wedding...our way of creating a tangible symbol of the times God speaks and moves mightily in our lives. It was also a great way to leave our testimony of our relationship with and love for the Lord. We always try to choose a rock from a location significant to the event, so Ryan picked this one out of our landscaping and we signed it:

{Pivotal, I think, that this rock is dated on our 8th month wedding anniversary!}

The thing that started the idea of a time capsule in the first place were the random treasures we found when the step pulled away from the wall and we found puzzle pieces and a 1949 newspaper clipping and kids' playing cards from a game and more. It only seemed right to return those things to the hiding place, so I tucked them inside a Ziplock bag and they went back in the capsule!

Of course we had to include a wedding picture!! I pulled this one from the leftovers of the prints we made for our wedding reception. It also happens to be the same one we have on a giant canvas in our living room, so I thought it was a good choice:

Someone said we couldn't forget to include a picture of our baby girl! She wasn't really in much of a photogenic mood this past week as she has mostly been angry with us for uprooting her palace, repeatedly moving her food dish, and we can't forget...all the pesky noise of hammers, saws, and drills. So this was about as good as I could capture of the little bit of sweetness that is our Braeya. {But this is one of her favorite activities: neighborhood watch cat #1.}

And since the home where we live used to be my grandparents' home, it seemed appropriate to include a picture of them. This one's my favorite.

Being the coffee junkies we are...we couldn't NOT acknowledge that. And since no one knows how we'll be making coffee in 50 years, I thought I'd throw in  a K-Cup in one of Ryan's favorite flavors.

 Here were some other things I photographed to include, though I won't put the pictures here {some are things I don't put online and some are self-explanatory.}

* The outside of our home
* Sign outside the gas station where we usually purchase gas - to show the current price
* Ryan's car
* My car
* The church we attend
* Our running path
* Our leisurely-walk-at-night path
* Meijer, where we visit frequently for groceries, ectc.
* Kohl's/Hobby Lobby - where we spend a lot of time as well
* Lowe's
* Starbucks
* Casa Brava, our favorite restaurant
* The park we love to visit
* The outside of my workplace
* The outside of Ryan's workplace

Then we finished it up with a copy of the newspaper from August 2

And...a printout of the blog posts that tell the story of our proposal:

There were a few more things I would have included if I'd had more time to work on it...but in the end, I had to remind myself the capsule was a snapshot of our lives, not a full autobiography.

About 20 minutes before the carpet guys arrived, we planted our capsule:

And then we left a note so the finder would check for it:

And that's a wrap! Thanks so much, everyone, for all your great suggestions!

The Shafferland Shuffle

* Last Sunday we woke up at the lake...oh sweet happiness. I showed you already a glimpse of the church for two we enjoyed...and then we spent our last few hours of lake love with Ryan's family - eating lunch together, going on one last boat ride, and then we had to say goodbye to our lake for another year. {Sob.} Came home and re-entered the real world.

* Monday, I confess that your Bits girl reached her renovation saturation point in the ugliest of meltdowns. Though our kitchen is done {and has been for a while}, we've been living in a torn up house since we started that room back on Memorial Day weekend. With a dining room looking as the picture below indicates {and you can multiply that by every room in the house}, construction at work and construction on my route TO work, I had just h.a.d.i.t. Wasn't pretty. Thankful Ryan is patient.

* Tuesday night we {brace yourself} did more work on the house. I'm running out of things to tell you about when it comes to this home improvement adventure! So instead I'll tell you that I had a HORRID headache all day {thank you meltdown the day before} and it got worse at work, when I was sitting under the new {one degree short of the sun itself} lights and the accompanying cleaner fumes. So here's how I look sans done-hair and any makeup:

* Wednesday evening we began unloading the furniture from the main parts of the house into the den {the current name of that room until we think of something better. Den might be too 70's.} - which was quite a project. I think we've permanently traumatized Braeya with all our moving and ripping up and hammering and sawing and...you get the idea. However, she did feel thankful for the jungle gym we constructed just for her.

 

* Thursday was our Friday, since we both took Friday off work. We worked SO HARD that night - trying to get the time capsule ready, the touch-up painting work done, the light in the hallway replaced {Ryan said it was the most nightmarish light replacement he's ever done}, and baseboard cleaning. I was thoroughly exhausted at the end of the day. Especially when I looked in our Hoarders room.

* Friday was a bullet point list of accomplishments: vacation day from work, eight month anniversary, completion of the wedding scrapbook, installation of the carpet, continuation of the landscaping work, beginning of the return to normal inside the house, AND we attended/worked the first night of the Fandana Music and Arts Festival. I hope you're sitting down. I'm tired just reading all that.

 * Saturday was THE most lovely day. We were able to sleep in and work on putting our house back together, which was so good for both our hearts. I got to meet up with my friend Kari, too, for a while, which was wonderful! And that night, we got to enjoy a date, since I worked the night before, on our anniversary. And until I have a chance to show you the joy that is our home post-renovation, check out this sign we found in Hobby Lobby {on sale} - which actually made me cry right there in the aisle.

For the record, I do believe in prayer, not wishes...but I love the reminder that Ryan is the realization of many prayers and a dream come true!

The Saturday Six

One.

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I confess {again} that I'm way too excited about the remodeling done over at KariAnne's gatehouse. Her kitchen renovation gave me goosebumps - more because of her ridiculously small budget {that she stayed within!!!} than because of the actual decorating. Though I loved that too. Ryan and I had a small budget for our kitchen renovation too - proof that great big things can happen through little tiny budgets. :)

Two.

Speaking of kitchens...ours struggles a tiny bit in the storage department, because it isn't the biggest room in all the world. One thing we didn't have a good place for...Ryan's grilling tools. They were all so long, they didn't fit in our drawers! So this was his solution, and I think it's a great one. He bought Command strips and hung them on the side of the refrigerator that faces the wall. No one sees!

Three.

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In news that made me cry this past week...many of you probably read about the bus accident that happened last weekend in Indianapolis. The bus was carrying teens home from camp and they were almost home when the bus crashed, killing 4 people. Three of those were the youth pastor, his wife, and their due-next-month daughter.  I read this note this week, written by the youth pastor's dad...and while I cried, it was the biggest Jesus-in-the-flesh thing I have seen in a while. God's presence blows me away.

Four.

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Never before have I seen a behind-the-scenes look at a book's cover photo shoot, so I loved this blog post by novelist Tamera Alexander. And in unrelated news, how fun would it be to be the cover model? Just for the experience??

Five.

Now that our house renovations are done {for the hard work part} we can get busy assembling it and reorganizing the decor. How glad am I that Emily Clark's blog has taught me the magic of spray painting existing pieces to give them new life? We spray painted our massive gold mirror {which I got 90% off at Hobby Lobby many years ago} and two 90% off Hobby Lobby finds from a few weeks ago - black! Bring on the new dining room, baby!

Six.

We are not the kind of couple who subscribes to whole foods and clean eating and all that jazz. If that's for you - that's great, but it's not for us. We like treats too much! But we have started drinking organic milk - mostly because it has a longer expiration date. We were throwing away a lot of milk because unless it was a week when we both craved a lot of cereal, we couldn't get through 1/2 gallon before it went bad. So as much as we'd like to say we're all super healthy....we're pretty much just saving money. The healthy way.

Some Thoughts from Your Bits Girl

* First on my mind today....yesterday was my "niece" Carol's thirteenth birthday. God gave her exactly six months with us here on this earth before He took her to Heaven. Still miss that sweet thing so much...and truly can't believe that day was thirteen whole years ago. I remember it so vividly. The first childbirth I ever witnessed with my own eyes. Miraculous. What a gift to watch her take that first breath! {Wrote about her here...and there are some pics too, if you'd like to see.}

* Secondly...a happy EIGHT MONTHS of marriage to my sweet {and this week, terribly long-suffering} husband, Ryan! This was the week the renovation chaos GOT ME square between the eyes and the poor guy dealt with many tears that probably confused him to no end. I'm grateful for his patience and his encouragement to keep a positive outlook.

* And in honor of our special day, we're spending it at home together! Okay so we didn't take a day off just for the anniversary. I'll try to keep this low key, but um WE ARE GETTING OUR NEW CARPET TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yes, I think I did well in staying calm there. We are crazy giddy excited to have our carpet installed. Ryan may or may not be also crazy giddy excited to have a day to work on his landscaping that has long been tabled in favor of indoor renovations. I may or may not be excited to have a day to work on my scrapbook that has long been tabled in favor of indoor renovations.

* For the record, this post is not at all going in the direction I planned. I had something all serious planned, but I've derailed this train SO greatly that I don't think I can recover. So I'll just plod ahead.

* I probably shouldn't admit this out loud, but I'm going to. You know how I told you Ryan and I are watching America's Got Talent? Know what's stuck in my head? B Double O T Y. All. The. Live. Long. Day.

* I have so many thoughts swirling in my head that I'm anxious to share with you...hoping next week {when our house doesn't look like an upcoming episode of Hoarders} I can sit down and crank out some thoughts for your perusal.

* You think I'm kidding about that Hoarders thing? This is the room where we crammed three and a half rooms of furniture. Seriously, please don't call a network and request an intervention.

So if you need us today, we'll be enjoying our anniversary and our new carpet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hello, Celina Parade!

How many WBCL employees, spouses, interns, kids, and bikes can fit in the station van?

Three employees, one husband, one intern, two children, two bikes, and a partridge in a pear tree.

At least that's how many we squeezed in last Saturday when we traveled to Celina, Ohio for their parade! Ryan and I left the lake mid-afternoon and drove to Fort Wayne to catch up with the rest of the crew and then off to Celina we went!

Ryan and I sat in the farthest back seat, behind the two kiddos and the intern. The kids were so funny! One wanted to know why I had so many colors on my eyes {eyeshadow...her mom must not load up as much as I do} and both of them tried their best to get Ryan and I to kiss over and over and over so they could yell EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW.

 Though the weather at the lake was questionable at best, Celina was AMAZING. Look at those skies!!!  We were #31 in the parade, right behind the world's biggest fish! Ryan caught it.

 Because we are nothing more than overgrown children, in our pre-parade spare time, Ryan and I pedaled around on the little bikes.

 Funny story: We found a couple of portapotties {do NOT get me started on portapotties} and were going to take turns using them - so we could keep an eye on the bikes too. On my bike watching duty, I heard a voice say, "BEKAH!!!! Welcome to Celina!" I looked up and this guy was standing there and I said, "Um....do you really know who we are or are you just saying hi because my name is on my shirt?" LOL!!!

Not my classiest intro ever but I've learned that when you wear the name shirt, people will just start talking to you by name, and you wonder how you're supposed to know them...and then you realize you DON'T know them. They're just messin' with you!

Turns out this guy is a listener and knew who we were and he was even so sweet as to congratulate me on my recent marriage. I appreciated that warm welcome to Celina!

The parade started about 6:30, and Ryan rode in the van with Marion (our IT guy), Marion's kids, and Stephen, our intern. Jim and I rode the bikes...and we sure hoped Marion had a good foot on the brakes!! And we hoped the fish wouldn't have any accidents. HA!

 Jim, if you don't know, is on our morning team, and in recent weeks, I've been spending time with them fro 9-10, right before Mid-Morning. He likes to pick on me just a bit. {Just a wee bit.} He's fun though, and we enjoyed being bike buddies during the parade.

 Hellooooooo, Celina!!!!

 This was a HUGE parade. It went on and on forever and I think the entire state of Ohio was in attendance. They were so friendly. Really enjoyed spending time there!

And that was our parade!! We headed back to Fort Wayne {via McDonald's for some Monopoly fun} - and then Ryan and I went back to the lake!

My last parade for this year...and it was fun!