fourth of july

To all of my American and US readers, Happy 4th! I hope you are spending time relaxing and celebrating with good food and great weather!

To those of you not celebrating in the states today, have a fantastic Thursday! I'll be back tomorrow with a new feature :)

xoxohannah

happy mother's day

[photos by xoxohannah]

I have a special relationship with Mother's Day. And by special I mean... well, it's complicated. You see, I don't have a mom. Not in the traditional, best friend, stood by my side my whole life kind of way. Of course I have a "birth mom". Everybody has one of those, obviously, but your birth mom and you "mom" doesn't have to be the same person. I know mine isn't...

Mother's Day is a day to celebrate mom's. Father's Day is a day to celebrate dad's. So what do you do when your mom and dad are the same person? Single mom, right? That's the norm at least. Like most of my life, I don't fit the norm. I don't plan on ever being the norm really. My single parent is my dad. Has always and will forever be my best friend. We can talk on the phone for hours and we are so similar it's scary sometimes. He's always been there for me, no matter what (even when that meant buying tampons because I was too embarrassed). He taught me to be independent, resourceful, kind, loving, creative, and most of all a good human being. He set an impossibly high standard for what I should expect in a husband and I know that I have found a man who meets those standards and more. My dad is my hero, my everything. He is my mom. He had to be.

So while I am incredibly appreciative of all the mothers out there that make this world a kinder, more loving place to be. Mothers who raise the millions of wonderful people in this world. I can't help but focus on my dad today. I know that someday I will be a mother and it will change everything. But I will always send my dad a silly card to remind him that I am grateful for all that he did and sacrificed for us to make sure we never felt like we were missing out.

I would also like say Happy Mother's Day and thank you to James' mom. Without her I wouldn't have the amazing man, partner-in-crime and best friend a woman could ask for. My life wouldn't be the same without him and I owe that to her.

I hope that everyone had a great weekend and got to spend time with those people who fill your heart with love.

Happy Mother's Day!

xoxohannah

something about easter

I intend to write on this blog without getting overtly political or religious because it's just not who I am. Being that Easter is truly a religious holiday, let's just stick with the mindset that I'm referring to the fun activities, decorations and craft projects that come with the holiday. K? Awesome :)

Easter always feels like a kids holiday. I guess in a way it really is. The last couple years I've been on my own (technically) with James always on the road so decorating, making lots of colored eggs and definitely an Easter egg hunt weren't ever really that appealing. I mean, really. What's the point if you hide all the eggs for yourself? That's just silly. Especially when you can barely get yourself out of the house!

This year James is not only home but actually has Sunday off. Look-y there! Now I still don't think we will do an Easter egg hunt but I do plan to bake an Easter cake. I am SOOOOO far behind on my 52 cakes, it's embarrassing. I will be catching up. Guess I'll have to start sending out baked goods to friends to compensate, like Roxanne from by, Bun ;) [don't mind my humble brag about the super sweet blog crush post she wrote about me today!) and Eliza from Case Study who is back in Virginia! Anywho. Hopefully this weekend will mean a completely unpacked (don't mistake that for organized) apartment and a fun Easter craft!

Whatever Easter brings and means for you, I hope you have an amazing time! Here's to LOTS of cake this weekend :)

xoxohannah

it's a new year

[images via: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 ]
I can't believe it's a brand new year and honestly, it doesn't feel like anything has changed at all. Just 365 days ago I was back in Vegas for Christmas, sick as a dog (at least one thing didn't change), hoping that 2012 would bring good things and opportunities.

Oh boy... did it ever.

This year brought another move, as it does every year. It brought a new job, for both of us! Despite the bumps in the road I couldn't have imagined we'd be where we are looking forward to the year ahead like this. I am so incredibly thankful for all of the blessings I have had this year and every year.

It has been nice to get away from blogging for a bit. Sometimes real life gets overwhelming and you just need a break. I'm glad that over the next couple months I will be able to get back into the swing of things here on the blog along with some new projects to get excited about!

I hope everyone has had a great holiday season and has a renewed sense of excitement for the coming year :)

xoxohannah

merry christmas cards

Last year James & I made our first Christmas cards as a couple & well, ever. So we decided that it would be fun to do it again!
Earlier this month on a Saturday evening we headed up to the state park to take some photos to pick from & although they were pretty in color I couldn't get away from switching them to black & white. So simple, so easy & really... that's what we're all about.
I absolutely loved designing these cards. So much so that I'm considering adding custom card designs to my services.
So lock that tidbit in your back pocket for next year (if you are interested!).
In all seriousness though, everyone knows that BLOOPERS are the best part :)   Happy Holidays guys! xoxohannah

a mini feast

This year James and I celebrated Thanksgiving with our second annual mini feast. Instead of turkey, we make two cornish game hens along with the traditional fixings and of course, mini apple pies. Needless to say, I was stuffed. For days.

Although James works retail and had to leave shortly after dinner to go to work Black Friday, I am very thankful that we were able to spend the day together. This year has been all kinds of crazy, fantastic, and special, bang-your-head-against-the-wall moments sprinkled with ups and downs that are never short of laughs and entertainment. BUT I wouldn't trade it for anything.

I hope everyone was able to have a special holiday last week. Being able to spend time relaxing with as many (or not many) loved ones is what I love most about this season. Everyone has a different situation and although our family is too far away to see during the holidays, we know that our hearts are with them and their hearts are with us.

xoxohannah

a peep of my christmas

Today I'm foregoing Teal Tuesday (gasp! haha) so that I can share with you a little peep of my Christmas. We flew back to Vegas this year to see my Dad, brother and James' family, along with our old friends.

James' mom goes all out with her decorations around the house and here is a peek of my favorite and the most beautiful ones :)



















I hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday with family and friends! If you have any awesome decorations I would love to see :) So link them up in the comments!

xoxohannah

our first christmas card

Being that it is our first year on our own I talked James into taking "Christmas Card" photos. I figured that it was only fair to show you guys the best of the best... We did take over 500 photos after all. It would be a waste not to show off our awesome photo taking skills! lol




I will forever, always be pushing up my glasses. 100% nerd status over here. I love it, truth be told :)



See... nerd status. Running strong at 100% and climbing. I make an awesome monkey face though, right?





We did a dance, had a tickle fight. The beer was inevitable. Really it's the best choice we made all day.



Don't ask what that face is below. I couldn't tell you if I tried.




This is the picture we ended up choosing. I think it was by far the best one because as soon as we saw it we both shouted out, "That's the one!!!".


                    Beer,

                          Thank you for making our first Christmas card perfect, possible, and
                    totally natural! I really can't thank you enough.

                   Love, 
                   Hannah 

We spent a great afternoon taking pictures and laughing our butts off. A memory I will definitely keep in our scrapbooks of 2011.





After we got that figured out we added a signature in Photoshop, got our prints made and I went to work on our card. All in all, it was a success. I am so proud of our first card and I hope that we have many more to come!

Have you guys sent out Christmas cards yet? 

If you made your own and did a post about it or have pictures I would love, love, love to see :)

I love to stalk other peoples Christmas cards for ideas and inspiration!

xoxohannah

a feast for two

Staring at these pictures makes me hungry all over again.

I'm going to go heat up a mini apple pie... be right back.



Did you miss me? Probably not right... Well maybe that's because this is your first visit.

If you are visiting through A Very Merry Indie Christmas, Welcome! I'm Hannah and that handsome man above is my boyfriend, James. We are making a life on our own in Virginia after a relocation move for James' job. 3,000 miles is a long way from home but we are making due and are having a bit of fun along the way. What else can you do? I say dance and sing around the living room to Taylor Swift before I drown our days in holiday music but he won't go for it. Oh well. More fun for me, right?

Anywho! Please enjoy, get comfy and stay awhile! This weekend will be full of fun, holiday DIY decorations for our first (handmade) Christmas. I'm glad to have you and I can't wait to get to know each of you through this link up :)

So, as you can see I was busy setting everything up (for pictures) and James was just ready to eat it all. I decided to set everything up very "fancy-like" for pictures because it was out "first" Thanksgiving on our own and I wanted it to be very pretty.

Truth be told, it was mostly for you guys. Or it could be my unconscious need to be the perfect homemaker at 22 years old.

Perfectionism? 

Yes, over here please. 

Oh hello, I think we've met once or twice before.

Whatever the reason, I don't care. It came out fantastic! A HUGE, GINORMOUS thank you goes out to my dad for the stuffing recipe and game hen tips. Talking to him for 5 hours while I cooked everything was definitely my favorite part of the day. God bless James loving his video games :)



Cupcake size and mini cupcake size apple pies are definitely a hit around here and they may make an appearance at Christmas if James' mom lets me cook while I'm on vacation. *wink wink Terry* haha

The additional dough cups made for perfect mini ice cream bowls so I didn't have to dirty extra dishes (if I didn't want to) obviously though I did since I wanted a bowl. I seriously need to invest in more ramekins. I use those bad boys for EVERYTHING.




I thought I would be able to pick my favorite dish from the evening and I really just can't. I'd say mashed potatoes and pie are tied at the top because I'm debating about getting some of both right now.

I'm a food enthusiast. Obviously. Unless it's pumpkin pie... Sorry guys, just not my cup of tea!

I hope that everyone had a wonderful day with family, friends and food. No matter where you live or what you were or weren't celebrating!

Do you have a favorite Thanksgiving day dish? 

xoxohannah