Hope you are having a wonderful start to your New Year. I know I have had quite the start, and I couldn't be any happier with how it is all going. 

I may jump around a little bit...

This was my first Christmas home in about 4 years. It was great being able to with my family, and enjoy the traditions I have missed.  My brother and Alex were able to come back that day and open gifts with us and then we had a wonderful meal that I helped mom prepare. We did have few mishaps in the kitchen. One was when I was mixing the glaze for the ham, I some how got some of the glaze splattered on me and burnt the top on my hand. Then we got grease on the bottom of the oven and when I went to put the ham back in the oven, we had a little fire going. Thank goodness for baking soda! All and all it was a goof day. 

Sadly, that night we ended up taking my dad to the emergency room. He wasn't feeling well most of the day and seemed uncomfortable. But he didn't want to inconvenience anyone. Especially with it being Christmas he wanted to be with his family. It was rough on my mom, who didn't get home the next day until 3am and I was up till midnight hoping they were both coming home. I was lucky enough to have Scott (who you all will hear more about soon) come down and sit with me for awhile until I went to bed. Dad ended up spending a couple of nights in the hospital, after having a cat scan, x-rays and blood work, turns out he just had an infection in his lungs. He is still having to take it easy in the cold weather. I know we are all counting down the days until spring will be here. 

Are you wondering who Scott is yet?? Well he is a good friend of mines, Jen, brother. We were out one night together and she had taken my phone. Wasn't really sure what she was doing, until I realized she has sent a friend request to her bother on Facebook. I was mad, but she was also showing me pictures of him Got over  being mad and was like, okay she is trying to hook us up. The next morning I received a message saying, Do I know you? Well, we didn't know each other and I told him, well your sister sent the request, I didn't know Jen had a brother. (Thanks to Jen helping me figure out what to say.)Well we were non stop talking on facebook. Then there was a night I was with Alex and I looked at her and said enough with this facebook messaging. We both have phones, I am giving him my number. I got a text instantly. We still hadn't meet officially yet, but we talked all the time. He did end up taking a Saturday off work to come out to my place and watch a bull riding event. It was fun, and we slowly started seeing each other a little more. After seeing each other a few more times and lot of texting. Feelings for each other started to grow stronger, we both felt the same towards each other. We were able to spend New Years eve together, it was a great time. We hung with some great friends of mine, played poker ate lots of food and laughed. Our first kiss was out New Years kiss... Then later on that day we were both talking and I was feeling it was time to take the next step. We made it official, boy friend and girl friend. :) I have never been so happy, and I know he hasn't either. Its the little things that he does, the text before I head home from work, be careful driving the weather is getting bad. Or do you want me to bring you some lunch? 

Always tell me I'm beautiful and amazing, which he is handsome and amazing too. I am his baby girl!

Only down fall with us, is that he works nights and then I work days. So it makes it hard to see each other during the week. But we make it work. his birthday was this month and we were able to spend time together. But I also got to meet his mom that day too, dinner at her house. She is very nice, can't wait to get to know her more. Scott likes shrimp, so his mom had prepared pasta with shrimp and some Red Lobster rolls. It was mighty good, along with ice cream cake, Scott's favorite. Then this past Monday I meet his dad. I was nervous in the beginning to meet him. Doesn't matter if you are the boy or girl in a relationship. Dads can be intimidating, but his dad was very nice. We ended up celebrating Scott's and Jens birthday that night. We had pizza and ice cream cake. Then Scott came back to the house for awhile. I'm sure I will meet more of his family soon, I hear his aunt wants to meet me know. He is a wonderful man, always makes me smile, I couldn't have asked for a better start to my year. 

My birthday is in two weeks, I will be 29. Kind of dreading it, as one more year and I will be 30. Oh well, life will go on and I can't wait to spend the day with Scott. 

This is where my life is at the moment, can't wait to see what else this year has to bring. 

Scott and I, December 2013

Girls just wanna have FUN, December 2013

Caught! Alex trying to photo bomb us. December 2013

Brittney, Jen, Alex and I, December 2013

Our favorite picture together, New Years 2014

I have been in quite the mood lately to crochet,  EAR WARMERS mostly, but I have made a couple of hats. Today I am going to share with a pattern, I kind of came up with it. What I mean I have this pattern and it works, but it never seems to come out like it should. So sitting with Alex and talking I was doing every ear warmer a little different. After about 5 ear warmers, I finally had the pattern to where it was simple and understandable. Now, this will be my first ever pattern I am doing. So if for some reason it seems confusing, let me know and I will be happy to help.

ch - chain

beg - begin

sl st - slip stitch

sc - singal crochet

dc - double crochet

1. beg with a loop and ch enough to fit around your head.

2. sc in the second stitch from your hook. Then you will want to sc in the next 9 stitches. 

3. Now dc, till you are at ten stitches at the other end.

4. Once you reach where you have ten stitches on the end, you will sc to the end. ch one and turn.

5. sl st in the next ten stitches.

6. dc till you reach your ten stitches.

7.  sl st in the next ten stitches. ch one and turn.

8. Repeat steps 2 - 7 till your ear warmer is at the width you like. 

SIMPLE! 

I added flowers, hearts and made some leaves for one. 

I love www.raverly.com for patterns. Especially when you can find them for free.

You can find me on there under hkaluf, come and follow along and I will make sure to follow you back.

Hope you all have a wonderful week! 

Well I have been absent for quite some time now. I have had the year I never thought I would.... It is 2013 and this has been the whirl wind of a year for me. There have been many UPS and many DOWNS. Tons of tears, good and bad, along with amazing times! I have lost and gained friends, but I have learned who the true friends are and they will always be by my side. I have even become closer with friends that I lost throughout the last 10 years of my life.

Today I am sharing what has been going on with me in the last year. But first, I have two people who love reading my blog and this morning while I was getting ready for work, I received a text that said...."FYI heatherly loves has become boring again! Update that shit! blog blog blog" This was from my brothers wonderful girlfriend, Alex. Her and my BFF Kayla love reading my blog. These two have been the ones who always ask what I am going to share next. To be honest lately I have not been in the mood, bloggers block. All you bloggers out there know that it can be time consuming and sometimes a post takes a lot longer than you think it should. You have photos you want to share, but you have to edit them. You type and type and reread everything and find yourself two hours into a post and your only 1/4 of the way done. There goes your day! Why? Cause you just spent the day working on that post to make sure it was perfect. Now this I know I do a lot, we will ramble... which I am doing now. So back to what this post it about.... Me, My Life.

I am going to do my best and not bore you all... 

The beginning of this year things changed... Life was not where I thought it would be. Things with my boyfriend (at that time) were changing and I wasn't sure if it was me or him or maybe both of us. Well long story short, we broke up. It was hard, TREMENDOUSLY HARD. After being with someone who you have known since you were 16 and he was 14 and dating for the last 10... you would think I am going to marry this guy. No, that didn't happen. Everything happens for a reason, that's what they say anyways. Well, things do happen for a reason, I have learned this over and over again, just this year. I will not forget the good times we had to together, none of us forget the good times. But, I can say right now in my life I have never felt better about myself and loved myself and god, ever. I was living out in Utah at the time and if it wasn't for the love and support of my family, I would still be there. They helped me move back, they have helped me be happy again and show me how it feels to be loved and love your family again. 

I was back at the end of February, job less... I was on the hunt for a job quick. Within three weeks I had found one, started on March 18th. I have been there for almost 8 months now. WOW time has flown already. You know when you have been around a hobby your whole life, and it wasn't by choice it was because you were born into it. You don't always want to have a job that is surrounded by it. I love the R/C hobby! I even fly helicopters and someday I will fly an airplane, maybe even full size. But the whole thing, just was a little a hard for me. If you know me, you know how involved I am and was in the R/C world. So this was not where I wanted to be, okay I will apply, but if I find something better, I will then move on. Well, I LOVE MY JOB. Everyone is wonderful, I have never walked into a job knowing things that were sort of needed to know. I did have to learn the system, and how things went, that was easy. There is always training no matter what the job is, I am still learning new things here and there. I had my 6 month evaluation and I have never had such a good one. My supervisor is wonderful, she went over the whole thing with me and it always good to know what you are doing well at and where you need to improve. I have been handed evalves in the past and they don't go over it with me, they hand it to me and say here sign it when your done and give it back to me. Alrighty then....Right now at work we are getting new carpet and my department is getting rearranged so we are in a temporary area and it kind of is stressful. But the stress and noise and smells will all be worth it in the end. :)

I am going to back track a little bit. When I moved back I was car-less, not only was I job hunting (at that time) I was looking to find some wheels. I test drove a few cars, but I ended up getting a Subaru. This was actually a car owned by my Grandpa, who lives here too. Sadly, with out getting to far into detail. Shortly after getting the car, the engine blew. At this point, I felt like nothing was going right. It was such a struggle for me at this time to wrap my head around things. I was down, I was for sure depressed. But having the support of the friends and family. I kept my head up and just went on, still was able to have fun during the time of it getting fixed. Thanks to my dad and brother, they helped make this all happen. After about a month I had my car back. Talk about feeling stranded.... I felt it! 

So my grandpa, he is actually in a nursing home for Alzheimers. If you have ever know someone that has Alzheimers, it can be very hard to talk to them. When I moved back, I was scared to go see him, I wasn't sure what to expect. The last time I saw my grandpa I was in my teens and he was in New York at that time and I am sure we were on a trip to the Cape. So when we got there and him not knowing who I was or what my name was, was hard. Whats funny, is he calls me "puddin tails", I will take that. I have no idea where he gets this name from, but he smiles at me like he did when I was little. I know he knows who I am when he sees pictures of me, when I was younger. Deep down, I think he knows my my face just can't remember my name. He is such a wonderful man! He worked for GE and is super intelligent. I still have a hard time going and seeing him, its just different, can't have that fishing conversation with him or talk about his favorite baseball team. Its more like not like we used to. Miss those days. Whats nice is that we are able to go pick him up and take him anywhere we would like, its fun going to lunch and or dinner with him. He always smiles and laughs when were out and about. When he drinks a coke, which he doesn't get that often, he slurps it down so fast. I'm sure I would too, if I didn't get to have one everyday. 

I did take a big step, about a month or so ago now. I went ahead and applied for college. When filling out the application, I was feeling relived. Like I was doing something that has been on my to do list way too long. When I clicked the submit button, it was like a huge sigh of relief. Well I applied to get a degree in photography. Talk about waiting to know if your getting in or not..... I was so happy the night I came home and opened that envelope and it said I had been accepted and will be starting in the spring of 2014! This was a huge step for me, a step in the direction that I have been wanting to go. Things were looking up after this! So soon I will be learning the trick and trades of the camera. Boy oh boy, I really can't wait. I have never been one that has enjoyed school. I was the child in school who did what they needed to do, just so they could pass. GO ME!  Not really. I am going to do my darnest to stay focused with school and get a degree! 

As of today, I am living my life to the fullest. I am hanging with friends, staying out late, and crafting more and more each day. Lately I have been working on headbands (circlet headband) and crocheting ear warmers. I am getting ready for a craft fair. I have been busy busy! 

I actually went out for Halloween and had a wonderful time. There was four of us and we went as Minions. :) We were a hit, people asking to take their pictures with us. We all know how it is to have paparazzi around! What a blast, I have never had that much fun.

I think I have shared most of the last 9 months of my life with y'all. I am going to share some pictures with you now. Hope you all have an amazing weekend, and I am going to try really hard to start getting back into blogging. I could share more with y'all, but I am going to stop here. I started this post about 3 hours ago! Shucks, its off to bed I go.
:)

Happy Girls are the Prettiest. - Audrey Hepburn

1. You will want to slice and dice your peppers. I would slice the stems off, then slice down the center and finally slice into small pieces. (picture above)



2. Add your peppers to the jar, pack it as tight as you can.

3. Add the White Vinegar, till its full. Let them sit for about 24 hours in the White Vinegar.
4. Dump the White Vinegar out, now you will add the Olive Oil.
5. Add the Oregano and a Clove of Garlic to each jar.
6. Let them sit for a little while, maybe about a day in the Oil, Oregano, and Garlic.

That's it! Enjoy your pickled peppers.
(There is no need to refrigerate them.)

Have a Wonderful Wednesday!!