73 Questions at 26
- What are you most excited about these days? Weekends, sunshiny mornings, and getting out my DSLR.
- Favorite holiday? Christmas without a doubt!
- Favorite season? Fall. Wearing layers and cheering on my tigers makes for the best time of the year.
- Recent hobby? Reading, bible journaling, a workout schedule and the blog are all keeping me busy these days.
- If you could switch lives with someone for a day, who would it be? Chloe, my dog. Napping all day and then having your head scratched literally sounds like the dream.
- If you could have coffee with someone from the past, who would it be? C.S Lewis.
- What’s the best thing that happened this year? I particularly LOVE having all of my family together, so I’d say that but I also love hosting people in our home.
- What’s the best way to decompress? Going for a walk with Chloe or taking a nap on the couch with the sun shining in the front windows.
- What’s the weirdest word in the English language? Perfect…as in to make something better. WHY IS THIS SPELLED THE SAME AS PERFECT. Or am I wrong? I can’t even explain it to the internet so that’s how you know you’re losing.
- If you had one superpower, what would it be? Teleporting – so I could travel around the world anytime I want or just get to the back door faster when Chloe wants to be let outside.
- Who do you miss most? My family in St. Louis.
- Who was the last person to text you? Kevin
- Who are three people, alive or dead, that you would have dinner with? Haha, my group would be so random: Wayne Gretzky, Miranda Lambert and Ann Voskamp…wouldn’t you like to be a fly on the wall for that one?!
- Last book you read? I’m currently reading Scarlett by Alexandra Ripley, it’s a sequel to Gone with the Wind and I’m enjoying it so far.
- Book you plan on reading? Everything by Elisabeth Elliot
- Book you read because everyone else in the world was reading it? The Magnolia Story by Chip and Joanna Gaines
- A book from your childhood that positively shaped you? The Harry Potter series
- Favorite tv show that’s currently on tv? I’m currently watching the Great British Bake Off and (slowly) Jane the Virgin
- Favorite ice cream? Plain vanilla
- What makes you smile the most? Serving my friends, plants, photography.
- First pet? Brownie the teddy bear hamster.
- Worst subject in school? English, I always got the worst grades in that class. Is it ironic that I have a blog and love reading?
- Favorite game? Pandemic
- Coolest thing in the world? The ability to talk to and meet friends all over the world online.
- Cutest thing in the world? Puppies, especially mine.
- Favorite thing in the world? My camera or my new Mac *heart eyes*
- One talent you wish you had? Singing, i’m terrible.
- One thing you still have from your childhood? A wooden radio flyer wagon…and by have, I mean that it’s at my parent’s house.
- What’s your patronus? A lab puppy – loves people and is a complete busy body
- Last song you listened to on your phone? Redeeming Love by The Crossing Music
- Favorite song lyrics? I’m not really into music lyrics, so I’m going to say our first dance song, Everything by Michael Buble or Clean by Natalie Grant
- What song would you probably be caught dancing alone to? Kinks Shirt by Matt Nathanson
- If you could work the runway, what song would it be? I could never make this work, but probably something by Taylor Swift
- Best gift you’ve ever been given? There are a lot of things that rank high on the list starting with our wedding and anytime I’ve been given the gift of travel.
- Fashion icon? I literally know zero people who are famous for fashion…sooo…
- What did you wear to your prom? A white dress and apparently the tallest heels I could find.
- Who was your date to your prom? My hubby.
- Favorite movie of all time? Forrest Gump
- Favorite movie of the last five years? Inside Out
- Movie that made you cry? The only movie I’ve ever cried at was My Dog Skip (which I’m sure would be followed by A Dog’s Purpose, but I’m steering clear of that one).
- Movie that made you laugh the hardest? Caddyshack
- If you could make a documentary, what would it be about? Nature photography maybe?
- Favorite TV show? Quantum Leap is always a classic. Can’t think of any show I’ve watched more episodes of, that’s for sure.
- If you could make a cameo in any TV show what would it be? Fixer Upper
- Best plot twist of all time? I realized that this isn’t a plot, but Snape’s character in Harry Potter surprised me the most.
- Twitter or Instagram? INSTAGRAM. Hands down.
- Who should everyone be following right now? Ali Brown (@alibrownie) her journals are swoon-worthy and I’m always a fan of Elise Cripe(@elisejoy).
- Favorite food? Steak and potatoes.
- Favorite dessert? Cheesecake – of basically any variety.
- Favorite band? Bethel Music.
- Favorite solo artist? Taylor Swift and I don’t care what anyone has to say about it. Also Harry Styles new album has been at the top of my list lately.
- If you could sing a duet with anyone, who would it be? Tim McGraw
- What would be the title of your autobiography? Love Bailey Jean. Expect to see more of that around these parts soon!
- Favorite sound? the ocean
- Least favorite sound? chewing.
- Favorite animal? We’ve already established dogs being my favorite, but after that, cheetahs.
- First celebrity crush? Tom Welling because Smallville = love.
- Current celebrity crush? Meh. *shruggs*
- What is your kryptonite? Instagram.
- Guilty pleasure? Chickfila and libraries/bookstores.
- Most proud moment? Graduating from Mizzou and buying a home
- Biggest weakness?
- Skill still unmastered? Diffusing my hair…it never looks the same twice.
- What is the definition of misery? Not being able to sleep when you’re tired and camping, although I’ve never done it.
- Biggest learning experience? Seasons of waiting…they are hands down the most trying.
- What is your idea of a perfect date? Dinner at a location I don’t have to choose (ask Kevin, I’m indecisive as can be) and something creative like painting or pottery or a photo walk.
- An experience when you felt the most nervous? Anytime I have to be the center of attention. I was particularly nervous to walk down the aisle at our wedding because I knew everyone was going to be staring at me and I thought I kept picturing myself falling on my face. Thank God my Dad would have never let that happen.
- At what age were you the happiest? I’d say every year is full of ups and downs, but 25 was particularly awesome.
- What’s one vice you wish you could give up? naps. I’ll never give them up though.
- If you could teach a college course, what would it be called? iPhone Photography and selfies 101
- If you could star in any movie remake, what would it be? Harry Potter.
- If you were an Olympic athlete, what would your event be? Ice hockey, no question.
- If you could offer your 13-year-old self one piece of advice, what would it be? Don’t take life so seriously. I’m still trying to teach myself this one.
The Garden + My Journal
In all of the posts that I’ve shared about our house, I have never shared the best part: we live next to our best friends. In all honesty, it’s just as epic as it sounds and I’m dreading the day that we don’t live 15 steps from front door to front door.
Earlier this year when we were talking about all things outdoor landscaping and gardening, their empty raised beds came up. I jokingly mentioned using them if they weren’t, and next thing I knew, we were huddled over their kitchen table with a ruler and a plan.
We went to a garden store within a couple days and got lots of veggies and flowers – tomatoes, bell peppers, jalapeños, zucchini, basil, mint, and lots of marigolds. We did a lot of research on companion plants ahead of time and we read that Marigolds are really helpful to have around vegetables to prevent bugs and other pests.
We got lucky that the beds were already filled with some pretty amazing soil and each spent time tilling one of the beds. We didn’t get to plant right away because we had a torrential down-pouring for a week straight. All of the plants we purchased, aside from the zucchini and half the marigolds, were “starters” or baby plants, so we keep those under an awning to prevent them from getting washed away in the rain. In the meantime, I did a little black-hole style pinterest browsing about garden journals and of course had to make one of my own.
When it was finally time to plant, we quickly learned that we either 1) needed more marigolds or 2) needed to invest some time in shooing the animals away. Within the first week or so, we lost a couple tomato plants and felt very weary about the zucchini seeds, which landed us back at the store. We decided then to expand our garden to another area of their backyard and even plant some trees, with the help of services from the Georgia Tree Company homepage online. This allowed us some extra room, which was a good call in retrospect.
I’ve only ever grown vegetables in pots, and even then, they didn’t ever turn out very good. During my last attempt, the landlord at my old duplex sprayed something inside of the pots around the plants. I wasn’t sure what it was and when I asked, he had already thrown the the packaging away, so I was afraid to eat or offer the veggies to anyone. During that summer, the plants never got very tall or wide and stopped producing veggies early in the season.
Because of that failed attempt, I think I was even more excited when we started to see new growth and flowers, because I knew vegetables would eventually follow. From the beginning, we agreed that I was going to water on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings and then she was going to check on them and water as needed on the other days.
Probably my favorite part of the whole experience was when she was telling her sister how much joy she was finding in garden, only to learn that she loved playing in the garden when she was a little girl. I don’t remember gardening growing up, but I’m the same way, I can’t deny how much I love being out there (as long as I have bug spray on) so much that even pulling weeds doesn’t phase me. I’d much prefer that to getting ready for work every other morning.
I’ve shared by heart on producing fruit here once before, but I couldn’t help but include something similar in my journal. The whole process from tiny little seeds to food that I get to use to nourish my body is such a good reminder of our growth as Christians and the importance of being pruned and watered regularly to continue to bear fruit. 
It’s been about four months since we started our garden and yesterday was our biggest harvest yet. Based on the number of green tomatoes and almost ripe peppers, I have a feeling it won’t be our biggest by the time the season is over. I can already tell that growing veggies is something I really want to continue to do. There is so much to learn and perfect that I don’t think this will stop being challenging and exciting. I got to have a lot of fun conversations with co-workers (some who convinced us to try pollinating our zucchinis by hand) and giving veggies away just tends to make people happy.
I’m off to start planning next years garden – what are your favorite things to grow?
Documenting My Story with Project Life
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Project Life has been a main staple in my creative process for the past four and a half years. Many things have changed in the way that I’ve completed it between then and now, but one thing remains the same – this project helps me get photos out of my camera and into physical albums. This is the primary way that I document our lives – all of the travelers notebooks and journals are gravy. Documenting my life in this way has followed me through some of the most exciting times of my life – graduating college, getting engaged, our wedding, the honeymoon, adopting our dog, buying a home and lots of daily life in between. We love cracking those albums open to take a peek at our memories and how much has changed in just a couple years.
I was originally introduced to Project Life by my Aunt who encouraged me to try out some of her supplies for an album of a trip to California. As soon as I started, I was hooked. For Christmas, I asked for all of the supplies – an album, pocket pages, and even Elise’s Seafoam Edition of the cards – so that I could get started on January 1st of 2013.
The way that Becky Higgins intended it and the way that many of her creative team members use the system, is on a weekly basis. While there are a lot of options when it comes to the sizes of pocket pages, the main pages are 12 x 12 and have spaces for 8 – 4×6 inch photos or journaling cards and 8 – 2×3 inch photos or journaling cards. Many people use a card a day in the middle row and then a coordinating 4×6 photo but I was just finding that it wasn’t working for me. There were three major things that were holding me back: 1) my life isn’t that exciting, 2) printing photos is expensive, and 3) space is limited.
The other two points aside, space and clutter are issues for me as I tend to be more of a minimalist than most scrapbookers. The idea of having multiple albums for a year terrifies me, so I had to find a way that worked for me that still documented my life in a way that was meaningful yet, more realistic for me. As you will notice in the pages below, instead of doing it on a weekly basis, I just do one spread for each month and then if we go on vacation or there are extra photos, I’ll simply add another page. This has allowed me to fit about two years in each album which is a significant win in my option.
Since I use a month format, I have a lot more photos to choose from than I would if I were just working with a week at a time. I try to include photos that go well together, but also ones that tell full stories. I use a piece of scrap paper to plan my layouts so that I’m only printing the photos that I need. From there I grab a bunch of supplies in similar color families and then use each pocket opening as if it were it’s very own scrapbook layout. As a more visual person, I tend to hide a lot of my writing. I generally use a card to write “highlights” for the month and then include specifics, such as names of friends, places, and events, on the back of the photos.
At the beginning of this year (my 5th doing Project Life), I started considering alternate ways to document our lives – possibly something online. Obviously, I decided to keep going but my thought process changed a couple months ago when I plugged in my external hard drive to back up my iPhone photos, only to discover a blank folder where all of my files once were. All of a sudden, well over 50,000 photos were gone. I couldn’t help but feel SO thankful that I had a few Project Life albums full of our memories.
I’m not sure how long it was later (it felt like hours), but we finally were able to get the files to show up. I virtually thumbed through my photos feeling reassured that, indeed, the best ones were printed. It was a good reminder, that photos are a priority to me and that I cherish documenting my stories and my life. I care about it so much that even now when I’m at my parent’s or grandparent’s homes, I’ll look through family photo albums that include everything from travel to family history and everything in between. I can’t imagine not having my own stories to share with… well, basically anyone who’s interested.
Needless to say, I’m not giving up on Project Life anytime soon and I might even share it here more frequently.
How do you document your story?
Coffee Date
If we were on a coffee date, we would grab our drinks and head to a park. It’s cooled down considerably in the last week or two, so it’s only natural to want to spend as much time outside as possible. We have some spectacular parks so we’d go to the one we haven’t been to in a while. I’d definitely be drinking something iced, or maybe even frozen if I’m feeling a little wild.
If we were on a coffee date, I’d bring you a shopping bag full of tomatoes. Our little garden is flourishing and I couldn’t be more excited not only to pick them but to share them with others as well. I never imagined I’d have to hold onto the hem and fill my shirt with veggies to be able to carry them all back to the house.
If we were on a coffee date, I’d ask how you keep track of your calendar and tasks. I’ve been asking people about their favorite planners and checking some out online. I’ve been doing bullet journal style planning and while I don’t hate it, the process does require a decent amount of time and I want to make sure there isn’t anything that I’m missing out on. I know that there are a lot of gorgeous ones out there, so I might even show you some IG photos of planners I’m crushing on (particularly Get To Work Book and the Illustrated Faith Planner).
If we were on a coffee date, my hair cut would inevitably come up. I had a terrible experience with a new-to-me stylist prior to my appointment but was quickly able to get in with my regular lady. I was mostly looking for a fresh set of ideas to wrangle this curly hair, but regardless, I’m happy with how it turned out. I got about 2 inches cut off and her go-to styling of my hair always ends up looking like this, but shorter.
If we were on a coffee date, I’d ask what things you do in your life to create space. I read an article Rachel wrote about creating space and haven’t stopped thinking about how I can create space and quiet in my own life. I’d admit that I’m a busy body and am constantly reading self-help books with all of the answers, “all you have to do is _____”. They can be super helpful in making progress because I really do want to be the best version of myself, but they can also really wear me down. I’d ask your advice in the area of balance and tell you I’m already considering that as my word of the year for 2018.
If we were on a coffee date, our reading list would obviously come up after our topic. I’ve already passed up my GoodReads goal of 15 books and I’m not stopping anytime soon, although I do imagine I’ll be slowing down a bit due to some reading I’ll have to start doing for work. I’m trying to vary the genre of books that I’m reading a little more to get away from self-help. Sometimes I get overwhelmed with all of the amazing books in the world, knowing that I’ll never come close to reading even 1% of what the world has to offer.
What would you tell me if we were on a coffee date?
Today I’m linking up with Erin for her monthly coffee date linkup. Join Us!
Little Letters
Dear Friday, why do you wait so long to come back around? I’d really prefer to see you more often. Dear Kevin, thank you for a yummy lunch date and a million laughs this week. You spoil me. Dear letterboard hashtag on Instagram, thanks for the sweet and witty inspiration. We need more of that around here. HA! Dear $5 Sushi Fridays, you keep us fed all weekend. Dear plants, whether you produce veggies, flowers, or just fresh air, you’re my favorite. Dear 26th birthday, can we wait another year before we start counting again? I’m not ready to be closer to 30 than 20. Dear internet, thank you providing me with some great reads this week – especially this one about creating space. Dear weekend naps, I’m comin’ for ya! Dear IRL and virtual friends, I’m so thankful that you stopped by.
About
Hi, I'm Jacqueline - believer, learner, and all around hobby enthusiast. I'm married to my highschool sweetheart, Kevin, and we live in the midwest with our sweet pup.
On this blog I share all kinds of things about my life - from my faith journey to the garden in my neighbors backyard. I've been blogging for almost eight years and use this space as a way to document my daily life.
Thanks for stopping by my little corner of the internet.