Yo.

This weekend Tay and I went and saw "The Impossible."

Anyone heard of it?

If you're looking for an intense, emotional, heart-wrenching,

wonderful movie, you should seriously see this one.

It's fabulous.

(I may or may not have bawled like a baby)

For those of you who don't know anything about it,

you can watch the trailer here.

My weekend was fairly uneventful. Just some much needed time with my hubby.

We haven't seen each other much between my working 9-6, and him working 4-9,

I see him in the morning when he's half awake and at night, when we're both exhausted.

It's rough, but it makes the time we have together even more precious.

Also this: anyone tired of snow yet?

Holy moly it's snowed so much the past week!

It doesn't look like it's slowing down anytime soon, either.

Bring on the spring!

Oh, wait, it's only January...

Oh, also, just got a "Vine" account.
Find me here on both Instagram & Vine.
Get more of a glimpse inside our world.

{A&T}

Bangin'

So I've decided to cut my hurr.

That's right, guys.

I'm finally cutting bangs.

Finally.

Taking the plunge.

Diving right in.

Biting the bullet.

Just DOING it.

Nike.

Any words of advice?

I've been looking through a lot of stuff online on how to "take care of" bangs, since it's been a while since I've had them. Any pointers?

{A&T}

That One Time I Made A Baby Blanket

Happy Sunday, everyone!

So last week Taylor, his dad, and his brother all went skiing

so Mama Hawkins and I decided to have a craft day!

While we were trying to decide what to do

(scrapbooking, card making, pottery...the options are endless!)

Jody mentioned that she had leftover fabric for the blankets she

makes for a local child shelter, so I was delighted to make a blanket for my future munchkin.

It was really simple, so I have decided to show you all

how to make it!

(1) Here are the supplies needed: 45x60 sized of a top fabric, back fabric and whatever thickness of batting you'd prefer (I went with the thinner choice), scissors, measuring tape, ruler of some type (I used a clear 6x12 ruler as you can see here) to measure out your squares to make triangles with, an iron, sewing machine with thread, and pins.

(2) First thing you want to do is cut out 4x4 inch squares of the fabric you are using for your triangles. You will need about 75. If you do end up needing more, simply cut and make more triangles and add them to the end of the chain (see below).

(3) Next, fold your square into a triangle, lining up all the sides correctly.

(4) Fold the triangle you just made one more time, lining up the corners as best as possible so that you have a miniature triangle.

(5) Next, take your iron and iron the entire triangle on medium heat, with no steam.

(6) It will look like this when you're finished and should stay folded down easily.

(7) This should be about half the size of the pile of triangles.

(8) Once you have all your triangles done, you will take one triangle, with the side that can open up facing to the right (folded side facing to the left) and slip another triangle in that part, with the open side also facing to the right. Sew those two triangles together keeping the foot of the sewing machine in line with the edge of the triangles, as shown. Leave a good portion of the triangle not sewn so that you can slip another triangle in and continue sewing a long line of triangles to make the border of the blanket.

(9)& (10) Continue sewing all the triangles together as described above until you have a long chain, all sewn together. If you think you will need to add more triangles, do not sew the last triangle all the way so you can add more to it later.

(11) & (12) Set your triangles aside, and measure out 60" of the two fabrics you will be using as the back and front of your blanket.

(13) Next, line up the string of triangles with the fabric you will be using as the front of your blanket and pin them (lots of pins!) along the border of the fabric.

(14) When you get to the corners of your fabric, you will be "rounding" the triangles around them so that the triangles will be evenly spread around the entire blanket. After you've finished pinning all the triangles around the front piece of fabric, simply sew the triangles on, sewing on the same line as you did the triangles (line the edge of the fabric with the edge of the foot of the sewing machine).

(15) After you've sewn the triangles onto the front piece of fabric, place the triangles inside, and lay the front fabric and the back fabric right sides together, placing the batting on top.

(16) & (17) After you have aligned everything up properly so all sides meet up, this is what you should have in front of you. Pin (a lot!) all the way around the entire blanket.

(18) Sew all the way around the blanket, making sure to not start anywhere near a corner and sewing on top of the previous stitched you've already made. Try not to sew outside the stitch already made, but if you do go off the original stitch, make sure it's INSIDE, that way it won't be seen on the finished product. Leave a large pocket for you to pull the blanket back through right side out.

(19) Snip/trim the excess fabric after you're finished sewing to prevent bunching of corners.

(20) VOILA! Your blanket is done! All you need to do is hand stitch up the hole you left to pull your blanket through and you've got a beautiful new baby blanket! I am going to be tying my blanket still, but you don't have to. If you do want to tie it and aren't sure how, leave me a comment

and I'll post a DIY how-to for that also!

Thanks for stopping by!

If you have any questions, concerns, comments,

please feel free to let me know, I'd love to hear from you!

{A&T}

Today is okay.

Sometimes it's 100% okay to take a personal day.

Today was one of those days.

Yes, I know, my socks do not match. It's fine.

Everyone take some time the rest of this week for yourself.

Paint your nails.

Take a bubble bath.

Take a nap.

Splurge for some new shoes.

Get yourself some ice cream.

Whatever it may be, don't forget that you need

a break every once in a while from your crazy, hectic lives.

I sure did today.

I won't go into details, I'm just glad I'm sitting on my couch watching The Carrie Diaries.

{A&T}

Edamame

 So I've been craving candy all night tonight.

No I'm not pregnant.

Unfortunately I ate the last of my Christmas candy yesterday.

(Fail)

So as I'm scouring my refrigerator & freezer for something to eat,

I come across my long lost package of Edamame and remembered

I had a recipe for some yummy baked version!

All it is is shelled edamame, olive oil, parmesan cheese, salt and pepper. 

Looks delicious, no?

You can find the recipe here if you're an edamame fan,

or just want to give it a go!

Also, I'm thoroughly enjoying The Bachelor tonight.

I love Desiree. She seems so sweet and genuine.

She has my vote so far!

Thoughts?

{A&T}

Ain't Nobody Got Time For That.

Oh yeah, I forgot to post this.

You better get an extra pair of undies because you're going to wet yourself.

PS: I realize I'm apparently behind the times but I can't get enough of this video!

Oh and also, we've started watching Downton Abbey.

I've heard it fabulous.

I'll give you a full report next time.

{A&T}

Snow Day

So my next post was going to be our weekend trip to the cabin,

but since the Storm of the Century decided to blow in this weekend

the cabin will have to wait.

Looks like it's a onesie wearing, hot chocolate drinking, movie watching Friday night for us.

It's officially been snowing for 2 days straight.

No stopping.

It took me an hour and ten minutes to get home

(which normally takes me twenty)

This winter is going to be a doosey.

On a totally different note,

our friends Sarah & Dallin had their long-awaited baby Cooper on Sunday!

I went to see him on Wednesday and got to hold the little munchkin.

Click here to see their beautiful baby boy, and hear their incredible story.

He is adorable.

Congratulations, you two!

{A&T}

New.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!
It's been quite some time!
Here's what's been happening in our life the past few months.

 

1. The holidays this year were especially special. Although I didn't get to go home to Michigan, I tried to make this Christmas different. I did a twelve days of Christmas for a couple in our ward who is having a baby TODAY!! I did twelve onesies for her, one for each month of the year, and one for each of the twelve days of Christmas. I can't wait to see her precious baby boy! Taylor and I were able to go to the Nutcracker Ballet, presented by Ballet West which was absolutely beautiful. We also saw The Forgotten Carols, saw the lights at Temple Square and tried to spend more time with each other than last year. It was great!

2. 2012 also brought a new friendship! And a lovely one at that. Our friends Parker and Felica tied the knot!
The wedding was absolutely beautiful! It has been awesome to see the love they share, which has in turn made us love and cherish each other even more! They've introduced us to the joy of piano bars, sushi, black jack, (I've even convinced her she looks great in red lipstick!) and can't wait to see what other adventures we have in store. Congrats you two!

3. Oh, the glorious Christmas PJ's. This is the first Christmas we have started our Christmas Pajama tradition. I know so many people do this tradition, but as a kid we didn't do it in my family (must be a Utah thing?), so Tay and I decided to start it with our own little family! Although we didn't get Charlie any...next year! It has been so great spending more time with Taylor than we have been lately, and even more than we did last year. Sure, I worked like 10 overtime hours a week, and he always works nights, but the time we had together we really made it worth while. It was just great.

4. New Years was an unexciting one for us this year. This was taken around 9:00 New Years Eve, right before Tay and I ditched the downtown SLC freezing cold weather, unopened stores, and drunken people to go home and pull out our mattress in the living room, put on our footies, put on The Prestige and celebrate New Years the Hawkins way. At 11:50 we paused the movie, opened our bottle of sparkling grape juice, watched the ball drop, toasted to the new year, finished the movie and went to bed. It wasn't a crazy new year but it was just what we needed after a hectic Holiday season.

All in all, 2012 was a really great year! We celebrated our 1 year anniversary, had Charlie join our family, started designing at work, my sister moved to Logan for college, we went to Michigan and spent some quality time with my family, went to Disneyland for the first time, had my calling in Nursery, Tay started working at Utah Woolen Mills which he loves, and so many more things I haven't even mentioned!
I can't wait to see what 2013 has to bring-but whatever it is, we'll be ready!

{A&T}