Our Nations Capital!

This past weekend I went with my parents and our best family friends up to Washington D.C. to visit my brother and to do some sightseeing! We had such a fun weekend that included a lot of walking and a lot of laughter. I couldn't tell you the last time I laughed that much. We visited Arlington Cemetery which was one of my favorite things we did. We walked around the monument, the WWII memorial, Lincoln Memorial, the White House, the Vietnam Memorial, the Smithsonians, the Holocaust Museum, Georgetown, experienced the Metro, and we got a tour of the Capital building through Congressman Duncan, who we later got to meet with in his office. We ate a lot of great food and had the best tour guide in the city (my brother)! Here are a few of my favorite pictures of the things we did. My two favorite history pieces that we saw were Ruby's red slippers on the yellow brick road (I had my very own pair when I was little), and the Hope Diamond, which is 45 carats of the world's largest, and most perfect diamond (it's flawless they say). Anyway, happy Monday everyone!!!

Dainty Necklace.

I haven't really made any jewelry for myself in a while, except for something to wear in a wedding. Funny how that happens, huh? Life has been busy with summer, and I have been so busy making things for other people that I just don't think about it much. I found this little bead that is in the shape of an imperfect cross, and I loved it. It is small, yet people seem to notice it a lot. It's simple, but it adds a lot to an outfit. I've gotten to where I don't take it off very often. It is on a thin gold chain, which you could get in silver if you choose. The price for this necklace is 15 dollars in the gold, and 10 dollars on a silver chain. Please email me at hrichards14@gmail.com if you have any questions or are interested in this item. I'm headed to D.C. this weekend to see my brother so I will be posting some pictures from that next week! Have a great weekend!

Megan & Scott's Wedding Weekend.

I have been without internet at my house for a few days now so I haven't been able to post, obviously. Just wanted to share a few pics from Megan & Scott's wedding weekend. Megan was a good sport at her bachelorette party, and she was so funny because it was definitely out of her element. Her wedding was at butterfly gap in Maryville, and had to be moved indoors because of the rain. It made for a sweet and intimate ceremony; Scott is so sweet and loves her so much! Enjoy a few pics from their weekend!!

Lead Me.

As I stumble around in this place of unknown, in this place of uncertainty, this is where I want to fix my eyes. As I wrestle with the battle of feeling unworthy and insignificant in this place that I call searching for a job, I have been brought to a place of being unbelievably humble. As a student in college when I thought about my future, it did not include this. It did not include worrying about the possibility of not having a job right out of school. Same with life though, right? We don't expect for hard things to happen, but we accept them, and we learn to be thankful for them and count it all as joy. Some days this is easy...some days it is not. I feel so ready to start this new chapter in my life. I feel excited to have something to get up for in the morning, but for some reason The Lord is telling me to wait. Wait on Him, wait on His plan that is so much bigger than I am. So I will. I will wait with paitence and fix my eyes on the picture above. Lead me to the cross.

College!

One of my projects that was on my to-do list before I got a job was to create a scrapbook of my college years. I didn't want it to take me a century to scrap each page and cut picures, scan them, and get doubles printed. I also didn't want it to fall apart five years from now. So, I decided to go on shutterflys' website and create a bound book with my pictures printed on them. You can write captions under the pictures so it's really great! I just came in the mail about a week ago and I was so excited...I have looked at it so many times and it brings back great memories of how much I loved college! I wanted to post it on here for the next time you want to create something like this. Alot of my friends have also used these at their weddings as their guestbooks with pictures in it for people to sign. And, we have also made them for everyone who has gotten married with sweet notes and advice from friends with pictures of us in it. So keep that in mind if you need anything similar to this!

Meet me in the mall.....

If you remember a few weeks ago that I made 3 different earring holders for a lady who requested them to maybe put in her store, this is a photo of one of them that I made her. I knew this was one of her favorite ones, but I didn't know how MUCH she really liked it. Today I was walking through the mall and I walked past Merle Norman Cosmetics and there was my earring holder hanging in the window!!!! I got so excited I could hardly stand it, but I tried to keep my cool and not linger too long in front of the window. I definitely walked slow, though, to get a good look at it. Next time you're near there go by and check it out (I probably will again)! If you are interested in this item or would like additional information, please email me at hrichards14@gmail.com

Happy Friday everyone!!!

Welcome to the.....

My parent's friends recently purchased a condo in Florida and invited my parents down to spend a week with them. My mom really wanted to bring a house-warming gift down to them to thank them for asking them to come stay with them. She asked me to make a letter frame for them to put up in their new beach condo! I think they really liked it, because they sent me a picture of them with the frame hanging on the wall, haha. Love it! The price for this item is 35 dollars. (5 dollars per letter, and 10 dollars for the frame). Please email me if you are interested in this item or would like additional information at hrichards14@gmail.com Happy Monday everyone!!

Nick & Rachel's Wedding

Nick and Rachel's wedding was really fun, and our family had such a great time seeing people we don't get to see very often. I love talking about weddings with Stephanie because they do things so different where she is from, and it is fun to compare...and I guess she can talk about it more with me than Chad because he has no clue, haha. I was asked to read scripture for the ceremony, which I had never done before, and I was so honored that they asked me to do it! We all had such a great time and I can't wait to see you guys soon!

Mackenzie's Birthday Dinner

I meant to post this a while back, but time got away from me. A couple weeks ago we went downtown to market square to celebrate Mackenzie's birthday! We ate at cafe four and it was delicious! I had never eaten there before, but it was really good and the food is different than what you normally get around Knoxville. We had fun playing around taking pictures, so I thought I would share a few from the night. Enjoy looking at all of my sweet, sweet friends!

Texas Weekend Pictures.

We had a great trip out to Texas! I love going out to our family ranch, because I do things I wouldn't normally do, and I see things I normally don't see out there. We went on a hay ride to see the buffalo stampede towards us...the ranch has about 15 of them with the new babies. We always take a picture in front of the Fort Chadbourne office sign...we have one of me and my brother when we were little, and this was my first trip without him, so I took one of me by myself, haha. It's a neat place with a lot of history, and it is always so fun to see what all they have done to preserve it.

The service for my grandmother was so special. It was really neat to hear what some of the Texas family had to say about her from that part of her life and to hear stories that some of us had never heard. We all told stories about her and told what she meant to us, and it was a really sweet time for our family. It was much harder and more emotional that any of us expected it to be, but we are so glad to do that for her and establish closure with all of it. Enjoy the pictures, and here is the website to the Fort Chadbourne Ranch. http://www.fortchadbourne.org/