Tuesday, June 25, 2024

Renewal Ring Bling

June 2019 my husband Kip proposed "marriage AGAIN" to me at one of our favorite restaurants I was so surprised and of course said YES! Kip had already contacted our pastors and asked if they would re-marry us! We began to have weekly dates to discuss what the "renewal of vows" meant to us. We started a new marriage Bible study, discussed our future dreams as a couple, planned a ceremony together and more. These weekly dates were such a precious time to celebrate "US."

Six months prior to the proposal of renewal I lost my mother, Sally, suddenly to undiagnosed multiple myeloma. Sally was truly my best girlfriend and her death was a shock to my system, to all that I loved and knew to be true. She adored Kip (my husband of 21 years at this point in history) and he knew that she would be so pleased to know that he wanted to renew our marriage vows!

Part of our planning included a NEW wedding ring! What?! Yes, I know, I was gifted Sally's wedding ring set from my father Chris. I knew instantly I wanted to include her stone and essence in to my new wedding ring.

Kip and I were introduced to a jeweler (Andrew) located at family owned Art Jewelers in Woodstock, GA.  https://artjewelers.com/  Located at 136 Woodstock Square Ave. Suite 400. Woodstock, GA. 30189 Next door to Super Target on Hwy 92
We made an appointment with Andrew to share our story, vision and stones available for this project. Wow, what a cool guy Andrew is, so chill and a Christian husband and father of two. He was actually pregnant for his second one when we started the process and the ring was completed after the birth, which was very cool to see this gorgeous family grow as we did business with them. 

Back to OUR story:

Kip and I had a few ideas to start with for this wedding ring. 
1. We wanted to showcase my engagement diamond and my mother's. Without her engagement, there would be no "me" engagement right?!
2. We wanted a NEW large stone to represent the two becoming one flesh.
3. We wanted to tell a story of growth, legacy and future of our family.
4. AND We wanted to express our love and faith to God.

Easy Breezy right?! BWAHAHAHAHAHHAHAAAA!!! 

I do believe that Andrew might have privately spoken whispers of Kip and I as Crazy! Sorta like we used to refer to a nightmare design client, "Oh my goodness, they want it all, but still simple, clean and easy to understand." Sure no problem, I can make all of your dreams come true. Andrew is and was a professional. He listened, looked, listened, designed, listened, redesigned and well we paid him some more and he listened and then he NAILED it! We couldn't have imagined a more stunning and meaningful piece of jewelry. It truly is the most beautiful thing I have every worn in my life. 

This was our wants in the design:

1. We wanted to showcase my engagement diamond and my mother's. 
The lower left hand stone is my engagement diamond, the upper right hand stone is Sally's.

2. We wanted a NEW large stone to represent the two becoming one flesh.
The center baguette cut light blue topaz stone is to represent 2 becoming 1 flesh. Kip and I were both were born in December so we share this birthstone.

3. We wanted to tell a story of growth, legacy and future of our family.
The two green stones are shaped like leaves because they grew from our love. These represent our two daughters lives. The two tapered baguette cut diamonds next to each leaf represent our daughters future spouses (of which have been prayed for the entire lives of our daughters) These two stones come from my grandmother's ring.

4. AND We wanted to express our love and faith to God.
In Genesis 15:5 Then the Lord took Abram outside and said to him, “Look up into the sky and count the stars if you can. That’s how many descendants you will have!”
Our original wedding bands had tiny round cut diamonds in them 14 total. We designed them to go from raised to inlayed in the band to represent the stars in the sky. Our prayer for our marriage this that our love can produce a great fruit for HIS kingdom. Not just a fruit of children and family, but a fruit of faith, love, influence, caring and sharing of the Good News of Jesus Christ!





We'd like to thank Walt Alton for the introduction to Andrew (his grandson), thank you to Andrew at Art's Jewelers for his talent, patience and beautiful craftsmanship. We'd also like to thank Chris Mendola for giving us the stones to create this heritage piece. Chris was the catalyst for this blog entry so the story of this ring will not die but be shared and cherished.

Tuesday, June 9, 2020

HOMEMADE Sushi First TIME!

Holy Cow guys, It has been a minute since I last posted on this blog. A minute is a teen term for "a while" the truth is, it's been over 5 years!! Gesh, Where in the world have I been??? That's a long story never mind, moving on... enjoy this post...

Oh yes, you Ninja Queen, I made sushi at home, AND it was delish!

We have a family of four, so I cooked 5 cups of Jasmine rice in my Instapot a couple of hours prior to the meal and let it cool with a paper towel over the bowl. All of the advice I received stated to NOT put the rice in the fridge after cooking. (I assume it gets to sticky).
I prepped the "ingredients" to stuff our rolls with ahead of time. Cucumber, carrots, imitation crab, cream cheese, avocado, canned white albacore tuna and canned smoked salmon.
I bought these rolling mats at Cost Plus World Market for $3.99, they came with the spoon, and two sets of chopsticks! I bought two sets so we could make two rolls at a time. Online they are sold as a set of two, but in the store they are sold as individual sets. Great $ deal!! Here's a link to the product. I also bought seaweed paper at the Cost Plus World Market, all of the videos I watched prior to trying this at home said to place the seaweed shiny side down! I'm glad I watched some videos before I got started. It was helpful to learn from others advice and errors.

Spooning rice onto the seaweed paper on one end. Then I formed a log type shape by dipping my fingers in to a bowl of water to help the rice not stick and make a mess. You can see the bowls of water next to the bamboo mats. We worked on a clean dish towel to make the bamboo mat easier to keep clean and allow it to roll up.

Both of my teenage daughters like rice on the exterior of their sushi, I prefer the smooth seaweed on the outside. Following your preference...layer the rice on the bamboo mat in the order you want it. Add your ingredients in the same long ways direction, this allows the "yumminess of flavors" to be in every roll slice.

This dinner was a fun, healthy and interactive way to prepare and enjoy dinner. Before our clean up, each family member made one more "roll" of sushi for tomorrow's lunch! Yummo!

My husband likes hot sauce on his sushi so he added sriracha hot sauce and then sesame seeds. 
What a beautiful job he did on his sushi!

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Friday, October 30, 2015

Halloween Games for Teen Party

Gosh, it's been a while since we've hung out and shared Eyedeas. Eye've been soooooo busy with Cindi with an eye! and the family.

Eye planned these FUN TEEN GAMES for a Halloween Party we are attending tomorrow night. Eye wanted to share them all with you. Attached is a FREE downloadable pdf for your party.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!





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Thursday, December 18, 2014

DIY- Co-worker gifts

Christmas is a time for giving and receiving and part of working in a corporate environment is gifting your co-workers during this season of celebration. The problem is how to cater to all different interests, genders while staying PC and within a reasonable budget.

Last year Mr. CWAE gave succulent plants in porcelain dishes. They were attractive and everyone had a plant on their desk. One even survived the entire year!

This year I once again was given this seemingly impossible tasks, but HEY what else do I have to do all day, right?! I love a good challenge, so I dove right in. Guess where? Pinterest of course! There were tons of ideas but none seemed to stick out. I did love the IBC root beer turned into Reindeers. They were cute and delicious, but of course they were sold out at the supermarket (some other house mom got there before me). Good for her, over achiever!

I schlepped my rear end to Michaels for some fresh inspiration. Goal- get it done, keep it useful, low cost and creative (no biggie huh?)

After a bit of time I found these glass mason jars ($1.99 ea) and some replacement lids that came with plastic straws and rubber ringed holes on them. (2 for $3.99) I do believe I have an Eyedea!

I'll fill the glass with oreos and candy canes, stick a label on the jar for personalization and make the jar into a drinking glass! PERFECTION. Of course I used two coupons and made six of these. Final price per gift= $4.58 each! I would say that's a WINNER WINNER Chicken Dinner. Wouldn't you?




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Monday, December 15, 2014

Top 14 of 2014

Photography is still a passion and love of mine. 2014 brought some amazing images along with some new relationships with clients. Here's the top 14 of 2014.


















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