Here's To 2013

As we welcome in 2013 (with friends and remnants of last night's fun littered all over our house), it seems impossible not to log on to the sorely forgotten Cows, Corn & Country Girls and reminisce on a really great, nearly perfect 2012.

We were blessed. 

There are no other words that do 2012 justice.

We are blessed to have each other and our families who drive us to do better and love deeper. We are blessed to have friends that are there to celebrate our greatest accomplishments and build us back up when we need their support. We are lucky to have jobs that remind us that life requires work and dedication, but also provide us with the means to try new things, splurge every once and while and live comfortably. We are blessed to have a happy little home that afforded us the opportunity to explore a new community, find a dive of a bar that we love and enjoy Sunday morning coffee shops and quirky dinner dates. And we were blessed to have a year that allowed us to fall in love with each other and life even more than we thought possible.

{love him}

And I fully expect 2013 to be even better.

Hopefully it will bring a vacation of a lifetime so we can finally check that honeymoon off our to-do list and if we all cross our fingers (are you crossing them?!), maybe by early summer I will be looking out our window at cows on pasture and be spending my nights checking for heat and weeding the garden. (Doesn't that sound amazing!?) Oh and another potential game changer will be a legitimate craft room where I can maybe finish a quilt or two.

2013 will likely bring a lot of cattle shows and road trips to watch our little brothers and family accomplish big things and we will spend a lot of Saturdays celebrating the weddings of our friends. We will hopefully babysit our niece and nephew a little more, have more nights relaxing with our families and find reasons to laugh until we cry. And hopefully, in between the adventures, we finally find our purposes professionally and continue to grow in our careers.

There is no doubt that there will be challenges. I hope and pray that everyone I love and everyone that they love stays safe, happy and healthy, but I know that won't always be the case, so hopefully Mark and I can find trust in God and find peace in even the most heart-breaking moments. 

2012 ended with some unnecessary tragedies. My heart hurt for my friends, family and even complete strangers too many times in December. If nothing else it reminded me to love each and every person in my life to the fullest, to wear my seatbelt and stay focused on the road and cherish the life I have. Every moment is a gift.

Like every year, I hope to read a few more books, make a few new friends, reconnect with old friends, continue blogging and get high-school skinny again. Those resolutions are oldies but goodies and somehow make the list every year. Hopefully I can actually accomplish a few in 2013 (especially the high-school skinny & blogging...). But I also have a few big dreams for the year ahead. Big, scary ones. And I can't wait.

So here's to you, 2013. Let's make it a good one. I plan to love every minute.

XoXo,

Happily Ever After 367 Days Later

On Monday, we celebrated our first official anniversary. 

It was a big deal for two reasons:

1. It was our first anniversary as husband and wife.
2. It was our first "official" anniversary as a couple.

Can you believe we never had an official start date? (I will tell my someday daughters to get it in writing.) For the last eight years, I have just convinced him to like me a little more during the month we started dating. And/or my best friend would nicely remind us every county fair of our first "date" in the beef tent.

I found out that I clearly have been missing out. My husband is good at anniversaries. I am glad we officially have one on the calendar for rest of our lives. :)

{small town USA breakfast. Everyone there was regular, breakfast was cheap and the service was fabulous.}

{Augusto's & a bottle of wine I brought home from France for supper.}

{Just so you know, year-old sugar cookies aren't good, even if they are your wedding cow cookies.}

Monday was low-key, but perfect. It involved a breakfast date before work, Italian takeout for supper, a bottle of French wine that I saved for our wedding night that someone forgot to bring to the wedding, homemade apple crisp, wedding pictures, year-old cow cookies, Gossip Girl and a really terrible movie to watch on your anniversary. Thanks to"What To Expect When You're Expecting," we now have no plans to expect anything any time soon.

And by the way, I just realized I NEVER posted about my wedding. I will have to work on that, but until then, here are some of my favorite photos. By the way, my photos were done by Jeff Loves Jessica -- an amazing husband/wife photography duo.

I am pretty blessed. That's all.

H54F - Harvest 2012 Style

It's Friday, so why not celebrate?

I am linking up with Lauren @ From My Grey Desk for this week's H54F, but I decided to add a little twist and celebrate all the little things that I am learning to appreciate as a new farm wife.

Numero Uno? Mark Purfeerst. (and every other farmer!)

This farming job is hard work and he is such a trooper, even though I am pretty sure he is completely, and overwhelmingly, exhausted.

Let me paint the picture. This week we are setting up a cow to flush (so we can collect embryos from her), so even though he may not roll in to bed until 2 in the morning after trucking grain all night, he still is up and out the door by 6:00 (in the morning, mind you) so he can make it back to the farm to give shots (just shots of hormones to convince her body to cycle -- pretty much like how it works in humans). After shots and feeding, he drives back to our house, showers, gets ready for work where he puts in 8 hours, runs home, changes clothes and heads back out to the farm.

And his schedule has been dauntingly similar for the last four weeks. But I couldn't be more impressed with how he is handling it. Now, I won't hold back the reality. Has he been a little crabby every once & awhile? Yes. Have I been a occasionally annoyed (even though I am trying desperately not to be. Cut me slack please, I am still learning.) that I have been momentarily put in charge of every single chore in our life like bills, laundry, groceries, food, cleaning, ect.? Yes. Do I miss having someone at home with me to go check on random noises and fix the light bulb that has been out in our garage for two weeks (I can't reach it!). Yes. 

{isn't he cute? BTW, don't mind his ugly shirt. It goes with his ugly hat & ugly pants.}

Nonetheless, all those things are to be expected and little things when we look at the big picture. The important thing is that we have 3,000+ acres of crop to get out and they need every able helping hand to do it. So Mark is doing whatever he can. Plus, a small percentage of that crop is ours and it's so exciting to see our year of planning and work pay off. 

I am proud of him. And, I can't forget to mention Jim, Jimmy, Ramone, Rosie and the rest of the guys at the farm and the thousands of other men & women out there doing the same thing. It takes long hours, but it's a rewarding job in the end.

Number Two | Going off the above, I am doubly thankful that harvest is almost over.

It's typically unheard of that we would have all the crop out of the field by the end of October, let alone October 10th, but rumor at the elevator is that we might be done as early as the middle of next week. 2012 has been such a crazy year.

{A load from from this week. Each semi holds 900-1000 bu.}

Now, by no means is the work over when the last kernel of corn is put in the bin. There is still grain to haul, fields to be dug and plenty of bookwork catch up on. However, we will be back to "normal" hours, where six hours of sleep and supper at the dinner table are possible.

Three? Huband/Wife Time.

Last Saturday, I got really lucky. I won free Twins tickets AND we weren't super busy at the farm, so my husband got to come with me. It was so fun to just hang out and enjoy one of the last beautiful fall days. Plus, we thought Mark would have to head back to the farm after the game, but they shut down early, so we got the rest of the night to just enjoy. We stopped at a pumpkin patch and picked out two BIG, beautiful pumpkins (plus a few white ones for inside decor), enjoyed a treat at the new frozen yogurt shop in town and then plopped our butts on the couch and relaxed. It was heavenly.

4. A New Barn Coat (I need to add a little fashion in here!)

Yesterday, Mother Nature decided to let loose the chilly weather. 80 and sunny on Wednesday -- cloudy, windy and 40 on Thursday. It was enough to make any girl crabby, but I like to make the best out of all situations and decided it was the PERFECT time to pull out my new cute barn coat.

Let me preface this by saying, I know barn coats don't normally get to be NEW or CUTE. But, I scored this one at Gap last year for $6.97 (and that was before my super crazy discount) for this sole purpose. Just because you're doing cattle chores, doesn't mean you can't be cute. And at less 10 bucks, who cares if it gets dirty?!

{Looking back, I should have bought 3 of them. Definitely. Maybe even 4?}

 A little fake fur helps class up any night at the barn, don't you agree?

#5 -- Lots of Learning
I've said it before and I will say it again. I am not an expert at farming. Give me cows and I could go on forever, but corn & soybeans? I am a little lost.

However, after a bit of a rude harvest awakening, I love every nugget of information that I am learning. 

By the way, I know what you are thinking. Rude awakening? You have been with Mark for 8 years. And you are right. But two of those years I was in high school, five of them I was gone in Fargo, and last year I was freaking out about a wedding. I was more concerned about invitations and flowers than if Mark was gone at the farm. I didn't quite know everything that went into it.

Back to the point, it's been great to actually understand what's going on and feel like I can help. I have been learning how to run the scale, what moisture we need to be at, why you can't harvest soybeans when it gets too cold, how the books work, what a bill of lading is, my husbands signal for when to stop the truck when loading roundbales, where certain corn gets delivered, how basis/puts/ect. work and so on. Next year, mark my words, I am even learning how to run the digger! :)

Am I an expert? No. Do I know more than I did four weeks ago. 1,000 times more. And that is a good feeling.

And because this is getting to be an extremely long H54F, I am ending it at that. :)

Have a great weekend, friends! And if you are in the same shoes as me, I would love to hear from you! What are you thankful for this week?

XoXo,

The Blogs I Never Wrote

I am sure it would be 100% appropriate to start this post with an introduction.

It could go something like, "Hi. My name is Jamie and I used to blog."

Or "Hey, I am that person who writes that blog that you stop by to read just to continously be disappointed that there is nothing new."

Or better yet, "Hi. I'm Jamie. I want to blog. I think in blogs. My mind has lists of things to blog about. I take pictures of random things to post on my blog. And then I never blog."

Yep, any of them would work.

HOWEVER, I am not posting any of that. 

I am just here to say that I solemnly swear that I am really going to give this 110% this time. Please hold me accountable.

Because here is the thing, I really honestly want to blog.

I wasn't kidding, my mind actually functions in 400-word blog posts. I drive home (on my ridiculously long drive) and write a post in my head summarizing my day. I see something at the mall and I draft up a mini-post ranting about the ridiculousness. I photograph everything I experience because I know how a picture is truly worth a thousand words.

It's how I function. I don't know if it's my education, my profession or just a weird quirk. Regardless, the result is that I have a whole library of blogs in my head that I didn't get to writing this summer.

Prime example, how did I manage not to write about the MN State Fair? I purposely took pictures of all the different food that I ate so I could share it with you. Case in point, the best food on a stick you will ever eat is below. I don't even want to know how many calories is in it. This was probably one of eight or ten servings I bought at the Great MN Get Together. And I wondered where my money went....

deep fried mashed potatoes.

Or, I don't know, maybe I should posted about the time my husband and I got to pose with a really big check and purple banner that we just won? That was a fun day. MJP Purfeerst Lut 104 (our Angus bull we have been showing this summer) had another great day in Minnesota and won Supreme Champion Bull at the Minnesota State Fair. Plus, added bonus, next year when we walk into the MN State Fair Cattle Barn we will be hanging from a HUGE banner with the rest of the Supreme Champions. Pretty darn cool.

we even had to drive to Wisconsin (no beer off sale in MN on Sunday) to get some celebratory beer!

I definitely should have wrote about our trip to Milwaukee, our week at the lake, or the Twins game we unsuccessfully scalped tickets at. And I wanted to rant for two weeks straight about how much I hated inserting my butt into my car seat just to sit in traffic for an hour and a half each way. But let's be real, there are a lot of things I could rant about, however they are probably better left unposted.

random date night at Target Field. Note to self: Don't let Mark be in charge of tickets.

Oh and don't even get me started on the P. Farms Corn Reports I missed. In short: It rained A LOT, it didn't rain for almost too long, then we got blessed and it rained again finally, but unfortunately the rest of corn country wasn't so lucky, so prices shot through the roof. This resulted in me checking corn prices every two hours so I could call my husband and convince him to sell some corn. In fact, I almost had Mark convinced that I should quit my day job and become a grain marketer. Then we remembered I have no idea how to do that. He went to school for that, not me. Fast forward a month, and now I never see my husband because we are trying to get that crop out of the field. I am officially a harvest widow.

Say hello to my husbands new home.

Lucky for you, my life as a new farm wife is something I definitely still have time to blog about. In fact, it's penciled in for this week.

And potentially the most important blog I missed is the exciting news about the new camera in my life that should make this blog 7,000 times better.

Yes, I fell victim to the beautiful things at National Camera Exchange. I am not ashamed.

However, that post is for Thursday.

And that's where I sign off.  See you tomorrow, same place, same time, for some inspiration. Lately, I have been lacking it.

Glad to be friends again!

Cattle Show Marathon

Where the heck have I been? 

Good question, friends, good question.

Tonight, is not the night to go into details. I just did a Jillian Micheals' tape and my worn out legs are making my think funny. However, it's not fair to keep everything a secret forever.

So, follow closely...

Basically, since my last post (over a month ago), I went to Grand Island, NE, to watch my little bro get a maroon jacket, hopped in the car and celebrated a wedding, hopped back in the car and went to Milwaukee to drink bad Miller Light and be spoiled by my favorite company, sent my husband road tripping to Kentucky, somehow managed to do enough laundry in the two short days he was gone to pack for my trip to Louisville for the NJAS, got distracted from any type of work once our bull won grand champion, drove 13 long hours home to get back in the car to go to a county fair (we are die-hards), got overly obsessed with decorating for a baby shower the next week, then had a "normal" week that involved breaking calves, judging practices and clipping cattle, which brings us to the best week of the summer, AKA the Dakota County Fair and lake week where I watched my baby brother show at his last county fair, drank too much of that darn beer garden beer and got necessary sun on my shoulders from a day of REAL vacation in the water.

Hello, longest run on sentence in the world.

And now I am here, catching up on life in general and savoring a #singlegirl night as April at A.Liz Adventures calls it. Mine included the Kardashians, working out and Reeses Pieces cereal.

And tomorrow? Tomorrow, I will be crossing my fingers & toes and waiting for a call from my husband about the Iowa State Fair Angus Bull Show.

Short & sweet: We have been all about #bannerchasing lately.

By the way, just in case you aren't on Twitter (follow me: @jamielmay) #bannerchasing is my new favorite hashtag. It's total Twitter lingo for the show jocks, sorry if you aren't on that bandwagon and sorry if I am inappropriately using hash tags in normal writing. Like I said, Jillian is making me loopy.

And if isn't over yet. 

Last week, was week 1 of 4 of our month-long fair stunt. This week is Iowa State Fair and Steele County Fair, next week is MN 4-H Show and the following is MN Open Class. 

Life is good? Yes.

By the way, before I leave you, one small request. Go check out the video my little brother put together about why he shows cattle and vote for it to help him win a $500 scholarship. Click here to watch the video and vote. 

The video with the most votes win, so we need your help -- plus, I think you will really like it. It helps explain our crazy life and why we turn on the cooler for our cattle before the air conditioner in our house in the summer. :)

Until next time (which will hopefully be sooner than later),

Why This Blogger Has Been MIA

Blogger MIA Alert!

I know I have been missing for nearly a week. So sorry friends, but life all of sudden got really busy.

And I am still running short on time, so here's your super quick review brought to you by our friend, Instagram.

I think the hectic schedule started when Mark convinced me to buy an old, crappy coffee table to refinish for him. And then it continued with a meeting up with friends, farmer's markets, graduation parties, family get-togethers, lots of cattle clipping, an overwhelming amount of stripping & sanding on a table that actually looks like it might have a future, volleyball games, judging practice, more cattle, running, lots of working and not enough sleep.

And now I am here. It's Friday afternoon, I am at my favorite (and best) mall in America enjoying a smoothie from Caribou, a tomato & cumumber salad from Noodles and finally catching up over lunch hour. Thank goodness for 60 minutes of rest. :)

Enjoy your weekend friends! I am off to a cattle show with my Marko & brothers, like I most likely will be every weekend until September! :)

XOXO,

Jamie

A Birthday Giveaway!

I'm officially 24. Wahhooo!

I have been talking about doing a little giveaway for a few weeks because I finally hit the big 5-0 on followers. And I couldn't think of a better day to do it then today as a birthday celebration.

By the way, if you haven't checked out my almost-too-practical birthday wish list, you can find it here. 

 So what's on the docket for a giveaway? This adorable key fob!

If you didn't know this about me, I am a bit of a crafter ("bit" might be an understatement) and I also have this unhealthy obsession with beautiful fabric. When I found these key fobs on Pinterest before Christmas, I knew they would make the perfect gift for everyone on my gift list. So, I got my bestie on board, we made some adjustments so we had our own pattern and then we whipped up a bunch. Plus, now, every time, either one of us step into a fabric store, we have a perfectly good excuse to buy a few more gorgeous fat quarters. Perfect, right?

The beauty above is up for grabs today in the birthday giveaway! I love throwing it in my work bag so I can easily find my keys when I need them or it's a cute way to just carry your keys solo without a purse! And if anyone is interested in one even if you don't win, just let me know. I have quite a few in my arsenal and I would happily sell a few to happy customers! They are perfect for a little birthday gift (especially a new driver!) or a "just because" gift for a friend.

So, how do you enter!?

 It's super easy. Just become a follower of Cows, Corn & Country Girls via Google Friend Connect or the email subscribe and leave me a comment saying you are. If you already are a follower (thank you, thank you, thank you!), just leave a comment!

You also can receive two extra entries if you blog about this giveaway or if you tweet about it (mention @jamielmay!). Then come back here and leave a separate comment for each entry!

The giveaway will be open until Thursday evening and I will announce a winner on Friday! Make sure you don't comment as "anonymous" and if you don't have an email connected to your profile, make sure to check back Friday AM. Thanks for being such great friends and readers!

**Reminder, you need to leave a comment to be entered!**

Now, I am off to celebrate 24 years of life! :)

XoXo,

High Five For Friday | #Blessed

Hey All,

It's that day of the week again. Yes!

I'm linking up with Lauren @ From My Grey Desk for High Five For Friday because the little things are worth celebrating.

The MN Twins |  Let's be clear on this: currently, the Twins stink big time. Worst in the league kind of stink, but that means super cheap tickets on StubHub and since I am paying for that gorgeous stadium with my tax dollars, I might as well take advantage of it! Right?

Great friends + Legends Club + Twins Baseball = A Perfect Monday Night.

Social Media | It's no secret that I am a social media nerd. It weirdly excites me. As does advertising campaigns, online analytical numbers, and PR success stories (and fails). I know, call me what you like, but there is a reason I picked this profession. Anyways, I have found some great SM (yes, I am even that nerdy that I abbreviate it) stats and ideas that week that completely motivated me. So much so that I have a whole blog post in the works.

Did you know that the average Facebook user spends seven hours and 45 minutes on the social network each month? And you can quadruple that number for me. (I am getting paid for it people, don't judge!)

Life Changes | Two of my long-time BFF's have had some big life changes in the last few months – job, engagement, baby – that deserved celebration. Pizza, spumante, the lake and catching up? Nothing is better.

{I am a sucker for anything mini -- this bottle of champagne was too cute!}

Husband | I am not being sappy when I write this (I actually hate all things sappy), just realistic – this week Marko has been pretty great. He spent two nights in the tractor while I got to have all the fun (side note - digging is fun, just not Twins game & girls night type of fun), and the first night his butt wasn't glued to the seat, he helped me clean the house. He deserves some type of award, but by the time he reads this, the size of his head will be enough. :)

Chief | A lot of things battled for this 5th spot, but I am pretty sure that Eric Church at the Target Center is going to take the prize. I am admittedly writing this on Thursday because there is no way after a night at EC that I would want to get up & post, but am confident that this concert will be the highlight of my week.

{via}

I can't say it enough, I am blessed with so many good things!

Happy Friday!

High Five For Friday!

It's Friday, Friday, Friday!

(imagine me being Rebecca Black belting that out right now.)

I don't know about you, but my week flew by, which I love.

Once again, I am linking up with Lauren at From My Grey Desk for her High-Five For Friday! Hopefully, you're celebrating your week today, too!

High-Five Numero Uno goes to the sunlight that is now streaming into my office every morning! Yep, I upgraded and got a cubicle with a window! It has its downfalls – like the that printer brings people and unwanted noise constantly into my little space; but I will take the sunlight everyday of the week. I might even get a plant now!? How exciting. :)

My second High Five goes to finally getting our bank accounts figured out and finalized...it only took 6 months. So nice to have loans paid off and have goals nearly set for our future.

And this leads nicely into my third High Five -- Marko & I are celebrating 6 months of marriage bliss tomorrow! It's amazing how much things have changed in that time and I love the people we have become.  Don't get me wrong, I still want to punch him some days, but he's also my best friend. We're celebrating tomorrow with garage sales, some wine and a fabulous little girl's birthday party!

{my favorite picture from thousands of wedding photos!}

We also got a nice surprise this week and got our wedding book in the mail! Perfect timing, right? I have raved about our photographers before, but really, I can't say it enough. They. are. fabulous. And Jessica (half of the great duo) is the cutest darn thing – it was better than Christmas morning and her wrapping was perfect!

{watch for a post to come on this!}

And finally, High Five #5 goes to all the free goodies I got this week. I don't know about you, but I love freebies. Honestly, I could hate the darn thing, but if it's free -- I want it. It might be a problem

My grab of the week? All these magazines....

{I have lots of reading ahead!}

 And that's all folks. Have an excellent weekend! Soak up the sun & enjoy every second of it!

What Kind Of Person Are You?

My husband might think I am crazy, but I will readily admit that I read about 5-10 blogs a day.

Some of them make me laugh, some of them I wish I wouldn't waste my time reading, a lot of them make me wish I had a perfect house and owned a Silhouette Cameo so I could craft away my life and most of them feel like they were written by my friends.

And, every once in a while there is an inspirational blog though that makes me stop and think. A post that makes me want to become a better person.

Those are the posts that make my time spent mulling over blogs completely worth it.

Yesterday's post by Emily Jones on Jones Design Company was one of those.

I don't know how or when I first stumbled upon Emily's posts, but I ended up following because of her gorgeous design work. We have the same classic style and I would love to one day create something as simple and beautiful as she has. I don't read every email that comes in my inbox from her, but something about yesterday's caught my eye.

Her question was valid and I had a hard time finding a really good answer. Probably, because I found it challenging to limit my answer to just a few things. I want to be so many things, but when that happens I often have trouble succeeding at just one. And unfortunately, my list is full of too many nouns, and not enough adjectives.

I am going to spend the next few days mulling this over. What is mine & Mark's motto? What do we want to be remembered as? What do we want people to say about us over the dinner table? When we have kids, what values are we going to make the most important in our family? What two or three words describe us?

And then, when I find an answer I am printing it out and hanging it on my bulletin board. Life is too short to not start becoming the person you want to be now.

I am also a realist and I know that I will not and can not succeed at making every person love me. It's simply not possible. But I can convince those people to respect me for the life I lead, even thought they don't agree with me. And, more importantly, I can succeed at creating lasting relationships with the people who are important to me.

Hopefully, the answer to this question slips off the tip of your tongue!

Have a great weekend!

Someday House On Our Someday Farm

Just keep dreaming, just keep dreaming. 

My life is all about making plans. As we talked about before, sometimes it's even become a fault. I am always one step ahead, thinking about how I can make things bigger and better.  I guess you could label me a dreamer.

And lately, I have been putting myself to sleep thinking about what color I will paint the walls of my house and dreaming about the cabinets in a future kitchen.

You don't have to tell me that I am a few too many steps ahead of myself. I know.

Here's our current situation: Mark & I are renting a nice little town home in quaint, small-town Minnesota. We have some beautiful wood floors in our living room, a washer and dryer right outside our bedroom door and a huge walk-in closet. Target is in our backyard (which is really not a good thing for our bank account), there is a nice little running path that goes through the park outside our front door and there is a coffee shop down the road that makes a great Sunday morning treat. We are 15 minutes away from my parents and 15 minutes away from Mark's. Mark can get up at 7:45 and make it to work at 8 and he gets to come home for lunch (where I think he usually takes a nap!) and I am only 45-50 minutes away from work.

Sounds great right?

But the truth is, as much as we like it, we are ready for step 2 in life. I want to be able to PAINT my walls. I want to have grass to mow. I want to have a deck to put a real grill on. I want to have cows across the road. I want to be able to plant asparagus and tomatoes and squash and pick fresh flowers, not buy them from the grocery store. Gosh, I sound needy don't I!?

Most important though, I want my husband to be able to head outside and work with cattle and know that he can walk back over for supper whenever he wants. It's a pain to send him to the farm and expect him back in 5 hours and it's even more of a pain to watch him fidget in our house on the nights he doesn't go to the farm. He's not good at living in a town home.

However, the end hopefully is near.

Crossing our fingers, in a few months we will be living in good old rural America. Mark's parents are finally treating themselves to the new house they deserve and we get to move in to the house that Mark grew up in. We are really excited for the change and hoping it comes soon. These farm kids are ready to have cattle chores, watch our corn grow and have a yard to take care of.

I know there are a lot of perks of town living that will be hard for me to give up and I am dreading the hour and 15 minute drive to work, but really, I can't wait to be able to clean, craft and work on cattle in one night. Right now, it's currently an either or situation. 

However, after Step 2 I have a Step 3 in mind and it includes a new house for us someday soon. 

{via}

 I would be perfectly content if my someday house looked like this one.

You see, Mark's parents house is old. Like a 100+ years old. It has one bathroom...and bats & mice. Don't get me wrong, it's a great place with lots of family history, but one day I want to build my dream home. In fact, when I agreed to live on the farm, it was the one clause that I gave my husband. A new house in 3-5 years.

So, like any 23-year old, I have a Pinterest board completely dedicated to that "Someday House." 

{you can find all of the links on my Pinterest board.}

Ideally, I would piece together all of these beautiful rooms.

{via}

And I sure wouldn't mind if our master bedroom could look like this overlooking a pasture of Angus and Hereford cows.

Do you have a "Someday House" Pinterest board? Share the link with me! I would love your ideas! 

And by the way, can you tell how much I love that light turquoise wall color? You can bet that I am not waiting for a new house to paint my walls that color. Even if I am only living in the farm house for 3-5 years, it's getting a fresh paint of coat on day one!

Until then though, I will continue to hang fun colors on my beige walls and enjoy my view of Target. :)

Happy Dreaming!

Go Make The World Beautiful

Thank goodness it's Friday. Right?

Friday is always my hardest day to get through. I am usually just begging for the weekend to be here, especially when my weekends are jam packed with fun like this one ahead.

And sometimes I need a little motivation. Bet a million dollars you might, too. 

So here's to sharing a little love every Friday with all of you courtesy of my favorite Pinterest board.

Source: gatherlove.tumblr.com via Jamie on Pinterest

Go make the world beautiful!

November 5th | The Recap

Has it really already been three months?

Next Sunday will be our 3 month wedding anniversary and that's probably a good as reason as ever to share my favorite pictures from November 5th.  

Photos are by the very talented Jeff Loves Jessica, the cutest husband and wife team you ever could meet. Check out their website here. If you are looking for a creative Minnesota photag, we highly recommend them!

my lovely bridesmaids. love each and everyone of them.

cow cookies. no surprise everyone liked the Herefords best.

:)

love this shot. we had such talented photags.

our friends are so much fun.

thank you God for the perfect day.

my favorite part of the reception. it was a hit.

signs we made for our parents.

Don't worry, over the next few weeks I will share some more details on my favorite things, but let's just call this the "big picture" wrap up for now. Enjoy!

Peace & Love,

J. Purfeerst