Some days I feel like I have it all together. Like the world is a beautiful flower in bloom, mine to pluck and enjoy.

Today is not one of those days. 

I feel like I am completely going out of my mind crazy. Chasing after Ava, who has actually found her calling as The Digging-est Dog:

This used to be my favorite book as a child, it not my not-so-favorite reality. Every time we let her in the back yard, I have to keep my eye on her. She’s already dug up most of the garden…which we have repeatedly filled in. Harley read online that if you sprinkle cayenne pepper where the dog has dug, they will keep away as it is a natural dog deterrent. Easy enough? Well not with a nice breeze. Let me tell you, I am not attractive up to my elbows in orange powder. She seriously better keep out of those gardens. I can’t keep doing this. (Insert sigh…) But she’s so darn cute, it’s hard to stay mad.
 

In the midst of all of this, I was cleaning up some trash from the living room and as I threw stuff in the garbage can, I also managed to throw away the dog nail trimmers. Completely frustrated, I reached in to fish them out and also found the scissors in there! All I can say is wow….I am just not with it today.

Hopefully tomorrow will be more productive than today. 

Well, I suppose we haven’t been as great at keeping up with this blogging thing as we once imagined. Oh well, life happens.

Quite a lot has happened in our first 5 months of marriage. It’s crazy for me to think that all of this will be remembered as a blink of an eye 5 years, ten years, 20 years, 50 years from now…and even 5 years from now seems like an eternity.

Harley’s business is going well. Most of you know that. Those who are curious, you can check him out a www.yellowcouchtech.com ! It’s been a whirlwind for both of us, but he’s picking up a lot of business! Plus, even at the most frustrating of times, I can see that he’s happy.

Select few know that a few weeks ago, I lost my job unexpectedly…and quite unjustly. But instead of Harley and I moping around and panicking about what we should do, he told me not to look for a job quite yet. He asked me, “what makes you happy?” and I answered: “making beautiful things for people and keeping up with housework.” and so he said, “do that.”

I know. Seems crazy. But I have had renewed vigor and creativity. I had been a flurry of crocheted mittens, hats, scarves, sweaters, pillows, fingerless gloves, vintage neckties, painted cork boards, and many many more little crafts. And so my little shop was born, of course, dubbed: harleylovesashley. Harley is more on the recrafted vintage ties and reconstructed shirt aspect of things. I’ve been working away making both fabric and paper tags for the items, and soon enough, you will have access to these items via www.etsy.com. A website devoted to handmade and vintage items!

We both just feel so blessed and humbled by all God has taught us and provided us with in the last month. Before all of these changes happened, we were wanting to move out, and we really felt like this what what we were supposed to do, but after I lost my job, we started thinking it wasn’t such a great idea. However, to our surprise and utter delight (!!!) God works in amazing ways and nothing can stand in His way! We are moving into an amazing little duplex at the beginning of April and we just can’t wait to embark upon this new part of the journey. So, it wasn’t that we weren’t following God, it was just that I was learning to rely on my own ability to make money than I was relying on God’s ability to provide. Harley and I realize this now. I feel so honored that God would love us so much to provide a  home, means of transportation, and an income for us that brings us both so much fulfillment. 

Before the move though, we have another journey in front of us. The last weekend in March, we are going to visit my parents for the first time in their new hometown of Collingwood, ON, and we couldn’t be more excited! (Let’s just hope this winter weather decides to ease up for us…it would make the trip so much more enjoyable…)

I guess that’s all I have for now!

-ashley

I have come to realize that periods in life are rather like sweaters.

There is the build up, the crocheting; you work very hard towards a certain part. It takes patience, effort, understanding. It can sometimes be very tedious and it can be very easy to just give up when there is no big picture in mind (dating)

FINALLY! Your sweater is complete! You wear it for a while, admiring the beauty and newness (engagement)

Then, it’s time to move on to the next phase…so you take the end bit of yarn…and you start pulling…not in anger or frustration…but in anticipation. (planning a wedding)

You pull and pull and run and run and all of this yarn is piling up around you. But as you pull, you roll that yarn back into a ball, preparing for your next adventure. (the transition from a wedding to a marriage).

Harley and I are reaching the end of our sweater! Only 24 days left until we are married! We have this ball of yarn that is being carefully wrapped to become the next sweater…which is our life together. This sweater, however, will never become unravelled, but we will add things to it. Things that will be added and then maybe taken away. Like a new apartment, new car, new job, having a pet, taking a vacation.

Some of the add-ons will be bigger than others…more permanent…or prominent.

I don’t know, this is probably the worst illustration ever…but yarn makes sense to me.

The past couple months have flown by in a whirlwind. The wedding is so close, yet sometimes, it doesn’t even feel like it’s real. I know that a lot of people reacted like I was a crazy person when I told them that our engagement would only be 4 months long…however, I’m already getting anxious for the wedding to be here. Dresses have been taken care of, clothing for the guys is being finalized, invitations have been sent (don’t panic that you haven’t received one…they were sent out today, haha), most everything has been done. There are just a couple things to go and I hear that once you hit that 50 day mark, time starts to escape you. I’m running towards October 2 with full speed.

God has been doing so much for Harley and I aside from wedding planning. We were asked to lead the youth worship team for our church and to also help lead the 9th and 10thgrade group. We are so excited to have this opportunity to serve Christ together as we begin our journey as a new married couple! As I have been telling some people, not everything we thought would fall into place has gone according to plan, but instead, God has (there are no words to describe how in-awe I am for His greatness) blessed Harley and I with ways to grow stronger together as a couple and to use and share our gifts to glorify Him! There was a point in time when I believed that the way to start a marriage was two solid jobs, a nice apartment/small house, a dog, ect…but God had to tip me upside down and shake me out a bit for me to remember that I am not here to conform to the ways of this world…and in trusting God’s power and love, Harley and I have been blessed with some amazing and exciting opportunities that we would otherwise be “too busy” for. Harley and I have both pried our hearts wide open, and allowed God to remove the hinges on the door so that there is no longer a barrier between us and Him.

So yea, 52 days left to go before I exchange vows with the one I was made for…here we go…

1. Getting MARRIED to the love of my life and, more importantly, the best friend I’ve ever had!!!
2. Getting to work in the nursery at church!!! Those kids are awesome!
3. Getting the ball rolling with wedding plans!
4. Registering at a couple of cool places
5. Crafting and baking my little heart out
6. Weekend getaways from the wedding madness
7. If Harl and I ever decide to seal letters with a wax seal with our “H” monogram on it, and if we use dark red wax, it will look like a letter from Hogwarts…awesome :-)
8. Having a sexy rock-star husband :-P (that sort of resembles HP)
9. Going hiking, kayaking, and camping with friends
10. Dancing to techno with Harley in the car to stay awake on road trips (I mean, we do that now, but I can look forward to STILL doing it in the future, right?)
11. Seeing people that I love and meeting more of my family members-to-be
12. Seeing my brother soon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
13. Sewing some stuff
14. Drawing some stuff in the sweet journal Harley bought for me in PA
15. Jumping on the trampoline when I get off of work today…

WOO HOOOOO!

Some random pictures from Pittsburgh.

So, I know this is a week late, but work is basically all I do know. I wonder if this is what God intended for us, to work to the point where we have no time to do other things. I also know that I am doing the right thing for right now. I know God led me to this, and he has more plans for me. But that’s another topic.

Last weekend Ashley and I traveled over to Pittsburgh for a day. We had two plans. One was to go to the Saturday morning market in the city, and then go to register stuff for wedding gifts at Ikea. I also really wanted to show Ashley the amazing apartments that I would love to live in at some point since I’ve already convinced her that we should move there. 

So we woke up and headed out and drove up that direction. Taking US-30 all the way over. 30 is mostly back roads and country side. It can get really pretty out there, but it’s hard not to notice the border between Ohio, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania. It goes from farm land, to beautiful rivers and then untouched, majestic mountains.

We only stopped once for a bathroom break in Pennsylvania at a small local convenience store. Ashley decided to heat up her Ramen noodles with the hot water from their coffee machine, and I got an apple from her purse. We love travelling together and know how to travel cheap.

We drove a little farther and we were on a highway. We were coming upon the Lincoln Tunnel pretty quickly. This is my favorite part of travelling to Pittsburgh. It’s like traveling through a magic doorway. At first you’re driving through beautiful mountains and forestry and you see yellow lighting coming from a tunnel. You travel through this eerie-colored tunnel and all of a sudden you see city-scape. Sky-scrapers, and football fields and roads are everywhere, and you’re looking at it from atop a mountain.

We make our way into the city and find where the market is. We get out of our car and immediately find people thriving all across this main road. We hear vendors yelling out their deals of the weekend and explaining how fresh their flowers are, “Flowers so fresh, they don’t even know they’ve been picked!” Exclaims one man to us as we pass.

The first stop is a small shop that sells items from all over the world. The owner apparently worked a very well paying job and wanted a vacation. Her boss said no, and she said “I quit”. She traveled around the world for a good period of time and brought back a ton of small trinkets and beautifully hand-made items to sell. She goes back to these countries for more items to sell. We found two beautiful leather-bound journals made with cotton paper for us both, and moved on.

Then we came across this street corner where two walls were completely open to the street. The vendors inside were all selling hand-made jewelry, stuffed animals and art. We came across this one guy named EJ who made really cool glass jewelry. He told us that he went to school also for Pre-Law. “Look what I’m doing now!” He exclaimed with a smile. He loved what he was doing no matter what the cost. He learned that we were getting married and told us that he was getting married the weekend after us. He gave us a discount on a necklace Ashley liked as an engagement gift. We told him that we were planning on moving out to Pittsburgh at some point and he gave us his card and told us to give him a call sometime if we’re in the area. This was someone that we truly liked and loved meeting.

The next stop was for food. We both hadn’t eaten anything since the one rest stop, so we checked out shop upon shop. There were tea shops with way too many selections; oriental food markets the size of normal grocery stores; side shops selling state football and hockey team clothing; shops that sold items with Pittsburgh slang on them. We finally found a huge fish market and at the very front of this fish market was a small Sushi stand. “Andy’s World Famous Sushi”. Right. We have had our fair share of sushi, we thought it would be like everything else we had, which was good enough for us. But, no. This was the best sushi that I have ever eaten. He buys all of his fish and other seafood from the vendors in the food market and hand makes everything to order right in front of you.

That was one thing I noticed about this area. Everybody helped each other out. They all bought food or supplies from each other. They loved talking to each other and were all full of smiles. It was an actual community.

After we got everything that we needed, we headed up to Ikea. We got there around noon and didn’t leave until they closed at 9. We had a lot of fun planning on what are room was going to look like and at furniture. By the time we were done, we were completely tired out and ready to be home and go to sleep. We figured everything out with the employees regarding the gift registry system and then headed over to Olive Garden for a bite to eat and then headed home.

Overall, it was a good trip. I so badly want to move there, but know that it will come in time and that we need to wait on some more schooling if we’re going to make it happen.

I learned more about community. I think God has been pressing it on my heart more and more lately. And I’m loving it. Community is one of those things we push to the side sometimes. Especially when we need it most. We weren’t made to live alone. We weren’t meant to travel our faith walk alone. We were meant to help each other out and learn from each other. It’s something a lot more beautiful than just hanging out with friends (which you still need). It’s something that actually connects us under Christ.

Here I am: sitting in the living room of Harley’s parents’ house, addressing about 200 Save-The-Date cards by hand. Luckily, Sadie offered to help because my hand feels like it is about to fall off. Wedding planning seems to be coming along smoothly enough. The hardest parts are turning out to be making up our minds on stuff, not the actual execution. I’ve taken to picking colors and paper and stuff and letting other people work out the details. I’ve looked at so many magazines, websites, and books that it’s all starting to look the same. I just get burnt out really easily on all of this stuff. I keep asking Harl if we can skip this part but he always says, “Like the melon says: cantelope.” Haha, that’s not what we really want anyway. Neither of us could imagine our wedding day without all of our families and friends. 

In the midst of it all, Harley is working every day except weekends, which is hard sometimes, but worth it. It’s nice when he is home though, because we can take deep breaths and enjoy being together. Plus, planning is just a lot more fun when he’s around! :-) 

AHHH! To add to the hand-ache of writing a million addresses, I just realized that Sadie and I both put the wrong thing for the tumblr address!!!! Instead of harleylovesashley.tumblr.com, we put tumblr.com/harleylovesashley…woops.

Think anyone will notice? Bleh…okay, I’m done procrastinating now. :-)

Right now, it’s technically Sunday. Father’s Day to be exact. I have to be at church in six hours, but I can’t seem to get to sleep. Life has been so busy lately: working, balancing family stuff, and planning a WEDDING! Don’t get me wrong, it’s all very exciting, but it can also be very stressful and energy-zapping. I look forward to the times when Harley and I get to escape and just have quiet time, just the two of us. Tonight was one of those evenings. Everyone was asking us a million questions about all of the wedding stuff. We had gotten a lot of work done and made a lot of decisions but were both getting worn out, so I suggested we take a walk. It was nice. The perfect summer night, the air was warm and it smelled like camp fire. We just explored all over town, talking about all of the possibilities before us. I’m so excited and all I see is lightness and hope.

June 4, 2010…while on vacation with my parents in Port Clinton, he popped the question!!! (and I said yes!)

and so we began the adventure of planning a wedding and starting a new life together…