Sobremesa Stories

Letting stories unfold around the table

Why I’m Scared To Say I’m “Creative”

By

If you had asked me to describe myself as a child, I probably would have chosen one word: smart. I was a part of my elementary school’s gifted program and did Honors/AP classes all the way up until I went to Davidson, a college known for its nerdiness and crazy-hard academics. For most of my life I’ve identified myself as hard-working, intelligent, and a perfectionist at just about everything. In other words…I’d probably say I was pretty nerdy.

But creative? Definitely not one of the words I’d use to describe myself.

[Read more…]

How To Make A Ribbon Garland (For Less Than $20!)

By

After heading to Mexico last week, Jordan and I flew to California for my younger brother’s wedding.  My brother and his fiancee met in middle school and got married on their seven-year anniversary.  How awesome is that? It’s one of my favorite things in the world to tell that story to my middle-schoolers and then remind them that they could be sitting next to their future spouse.  Gets ’em every time.

Anyway, when we arrived, my understandably overwhelmed mama asked me to take on decorating for the rehearsal dinner.  They were doing a more casual dinner at a local park and wanted a few things to dress up the park shelter and make it a bit cuter.  I spent an hour wandering through Hobby Lobby (one of my favorite pastimes and my husband’s least favorite pastimes) and threw anything burlap, gingham, and lace into the cart that I could.  And y’all, it all turned out so cute!

Ribbon Garland Instagram

[Read more…]

Creating Our Marriage Mission Statement

By

“Marriage has the power to set the course of your life as a whole. If your marriage is strong, even if all the circumstances in your life around you are filled with trouble and weakness, it won’t matter. You will be able to move out into the world in strength.”

Tim Keller – Meaning of Marriage

How to Create your Marriage Mission Statement - Sobremesa Stories

When Jordan and I got married, we knew we weren’t signing up for a lifetime of romance and forever happiness.  We were lucky to have couples of all ages loving us, asking us hard questions, and speaking truth to us..  As we spent time with these people, one thing consistently stood out: these couples whose love had stood the test of time, tragedy, and trials of all sorts firmly believed that their marriages had a much bigger purpose than their “happiness.”  These people trusted that their marriage was something God would use to shape them, to draw them to Him, and to paint a picture to the world of His love, joy, and commitment.

After the chaos of the wedding faded and the daily realities of marriage began to sink in, we wanted to revisit the things we had admired in those married couples who had counseled and inspired us.  We decided to spend some time processing our dreams, values, and goals for our marriage, hoping that through writing out these thoughts, we could come up with a mission statement that summarized a bigger picture and purpose for our marriage.

We sat down together and started to brainstorm, focusing mainly on these questions:

  • Ideally, how do we want to relate to each other? What action words, ideas, and concepts repeat as we describe what we want our marriage to look like?
  • Who are some couple whose marriages we admire? What do we admire about them? How do we feel when we walk into their home or spend time with them and why do they make us feel that way?
  • What things or ideals do we value in life in general? How do we want our marriage to express these values to each other and to other people?
  • When other people walk into our home and sit around our table, how do we want them to feel? When they get into their car to drive away, what do we want them to say or think as they leave?

[Read more…]

How to Make Tissue Paper Flowers

By

Before I taught Spanish, I taught two years of English as a Second Language and loved every minute of it.  I worked closely with a small group of students from all around the world and they made my world a million times brighter. They made me laugh every day, like when my wonderful Nigerian student Rasheed asked me what “nipple” means because he’d heard it in the hallway.  Try explaining that one without pictures or gestures!  My ESL students taught me how to make a delicious pozolé (a Mexican soup), how to be resilient in the midst of incredibly hard circumstances, and how to see the world around me with curious eyes.  One of those students, a sweet girl from rural Mexico named Lucía, also taught me a more practical skill: how to make Mexican tissue paper flowers the way her mamá in Mexico had taught her.

How to Make Tissue Paper Flowers Graphic

These tissue paper flowers are a traditional decoration at Mexican celebrations of all sorts, and Lucía and I  made bunches of them that day while other students finished their standardized testing.  Since then, I have made about a thousand of these for our house, for baby showers or other parties, or to celebrate Cinco de Mayo with all my students.  These are beautiful in a vase, strung on a string like a garland, or tied together to make big puffy decorations for parties or bridal/baby showers!

How to Make Tissue Paper Flowers Example Books

The process below is what I’ve refined after teaching a couple hundred unruly middle schoolers how to make these.  I will say it is an art form, not a science, so feel free to play around with these until you find a style that works for you!  All you need is tissue paper, scissors, and some sort of wire/pipe cleaner to tie the middle and you’ll be good to go.

[Read more…]

Ikea Rast Hack: A Nightstand Makeover

By

Ikea Rast Hack Nightstands

When a brand new Ikea opened up in Kansas City a few months ago, it became THE cool place to visit.  I grew up about 15 minutes from an Ikea, so I didn’t quite get the craze until my husband and I visited for my first time as an adult.  Let’s just say we walked out with a lot less money in our pockets and with a trunk full of affordable and super cute furniture/decor items! Our biggest purchase was this Ikea Ektorp sectional which we LOVE.  It’s super comfy, fits perfectly in our space, and it’s slipcovered for easy cleaning (although let’s be real, I’ve yet to actually wash all the covers since we got a few months ago.  Maybe that can just wait for when we have kids?).  We were pretty sold on Ikea after our successful couch purchase.

Living Room with Ikea Ektorp Sofa, Rustic wood coffee table, World Market

Next up on my Ikea list was the famous Ikea Rast dresser.  The master bedroom in our new house was a bit bigger, and we needed bigger nightstands to fill the space around our bed. These little dressers are only $35 a pop, so I figured they would be a great, inexpensive way to try my hand at my very first Ikea Hack!

This is the Ikea Rast dresser in all of its untreated pine glory (and exactly how it looked when we got it).  Noooooot my style.

Screen Shot 2015-04-22 at 12.32.11 PM

After hubby assembled both of the dressers (I won’t even try to explain that process here.  Ikea furniture assembly is a mystery to me), I got to working! As much as I loved the many Ikea Rast Hacks I’d seen that involved adding additional pieces of lattice wood or a larger piece of wood on top, my carpentry skills are seriously limited. I also don’t have much experience with wood staining, and didn’t think pine would be a good wood to start with.  I wanted a way to upgrade these dressers that involved nothing more than a paintbrush and some other supplies I had on hand.  We might add more someday, but a paint upgrade is always a good first step!

[Read more…]

Sobremesa Stories

By

La Sobremesa: The time spent at the table after a meal; laughing, talking, and sharing stories with the people around the table.

Sharing Stories around the table, Outdoor Dinner Party, Sparkling Lights, Lanterns, Globe Lights

Ever since I was a little girl watching the grownups sip their wine and share old stories around the dinner table, I have felt a certain magic in the moments after a meal:  crumbs of dessert scattered across plates, candles burning low, and conversation turning to laughter and memories.  I loved hearing my dad reminisce about his travels through Europe (complete with many spot-on accents), my mom’s loud and contagious laugh, and the back and forth of neighbors and friends discussing everything from the latest Angels baseball season to the brokenness and hurt in their homes.

Sharing stories at a Wedding Table, Rustic pink and white flower in jars, burlap runners, candles , globe lights in barn.

In Spain, there is a specific word to describe this time around the table after a meal: la sobremesa.  Spaniards are accustomed to spending a long period of time in the middle of the day sharing lunch with friends, family, and colleagues, taking time to savor a meal and conversation before the work day continues. There is no direct English translation for this Spanish word that so beautifully encompasses a culture of lingering, a culture of spending time around the table with the ones who remind us we are known and loved and worth listening to.

Any time I have traveled, this cultural tradition has challenged my on-time, driven nature.  It reminds me to choose people and stories over to-do lists, even when my introverted self wants nothing more than to cozy up on the couch with some Moose Tracks ice cream and an old episode of Gilmore Girls.  When I moved to Kansas City, Missouri to get married and “settle down,” I knew I wanted to carry the tradition of sobremesa with me.

[Read more…]