Good night moon

Elliott is fast asleep next to me. I love him when he is awake, but there is something to be said about him as he sleeps. His innocence is endearing. I love when He isn't fully awake and i love the times when he is too tired. Both of which leave me with the pleasure of his quiet love.

bouts.

God is so good. He keeps reminding me how nothing is sure; nothing is stable, but Him. Usually, this uncertainty is a killer for me. I'm really good at putting trust and confidence in people so when they let me down, I am really let down. Silly, I know.

So today with confidence being built in the Lord, I started to just shoot the breeze. What is shooting the breeze to Allison? Well, tonight for a few moments it was having a delicious dinner with my parents, perusing my blogs, and crafting. Todays craft? a boutonniere. A low budget boutonniere. I repeat (just incase there is any conjecture). low budget. Don't judge me!!! I currently do not have boutonniere icrutraments on hand so I grabbed some scraps I have laying in my Crafting boxes. IE: felt, ribbon, feathers, and metal pins. One day, maybe after a trip to the store I will be able to show you something spectacular!

invite

So remember how I showed you the invitations to the bridal shower I made with photoshop?... Take that image and throw it away. When I went to print out the invitations, they came out super pixely and consequently unusable. Water coloring the invitations individually seemed to be the best option at that particular moment in time and now that they are all sent and on there way to the attendees, I can breath a little easier.

a spring time how do you do?

Spring is officially upon us! And as such, I would like to share this gorgeous valley with all of you.

Friday night I shot a wedding in Corona and it was absolutely lovely. The temperature was perfect, the view, breath taking, and the Bride, Beautiful.

If I could...

If I could give you a piece of advice, it would be that if you are ever having a party or wedding or any kind of event, and would like to have poms there, buy them. Unless you have a skilled team that can do the work for you/ with you, Do not make them!!!

I saw the picture of this wedding and I was HORRIFIED. Don't miss understand me, it looks gorgeous, but OH the agonizing labor behind it.

If I have mentioned this in a previous post, I apologize. I guess this is me begging you to save yourself time and energy.

Spring hasn't sprung!

Apparently, Spring hasn't sprung! which means I actually get to say hello after all. Happy to see the signs of its arrival all around. Though, my allergies HATE me...

hydroponics tastes good!

Jake Harmon created a Hydroponics system in the back of the Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa Sanctuary. For those of you who haven't seen it or have no idea what it is, it is a system that allows plants to grow using recycled water from the fish swimming below instead of soil. Once all the studying of the project is complete, they will be taking this system to other countries to teach the people to live off of it.

And today I, Allison Escalante reaped the benefits. My friend Jason and I heard Jake and a bunch of others were feasting in the back of the sanctuary on these extremely tasty fish tacos. Knowing such things, we headed on over. mmm...Tilapia .

image credit: tara harman

Spring has sprung...

and I didn't even know it. :(

I wanted to celebrate the first day of spring; give it its due gratitude, but somehow the day passed me by without so much as a howdy do. Nevertheless, I will say hello each morning as the sun greets me. Hello Spring, I will say.

Spring has this lovely air about it. For me it says new beginnings. I don't know if its just easter I smell, which it very well could be, because Easter is a time to remember Jesus' resurrection. But each day I wake up to a new day; a new life. His mercies are new EVERY morning.

I leave you now with this little nugget. Maybe it could be something to dwell on during your days of spring. " I will hear what God the Lord will speak, for He will speak PEACE to his people and to his saints; but let them not turn back to folly. Surely His salvation is near to those who fear Him, that GLORY may dwell in our land. Mercy and Truth have met together; Righteousness and Peace have kissed. Truth shall spring out of the earth, and righteousness shall look down from heaven. Yes, the Lord will give what is good ; and our land will yield its increase. Righteousness will go before Him, and shall make His footsteps our pathway." - Psalm 85: 8-13

- image credit: Lynda Naranjo

Don't forget to SPRING forward!

Staches galore.

Sacrificing her own hair in the name of the game,

Our " Stud of the Stache" just happened to

be Louis' sister, Lyla Castellano... Sometimes our movie nights spontaneously turn into worship. This was the case of last night. There is something lovely about gathering together with friends to praise God. As the night ends we walk away having encountered our Lord and Savior.

whats new that's old?

Today had a special afternoon in it. My friend magdalene and Joel (JJ) went out for lunch and coffee. Joel (JJ) was at one time one of mine and Maggie's Jr.highers, but has since climbed the charts to our very own friend. At one point he asked me, what's new in your life that is also old?.. or at least it went somewhat along those lines. And I sat back in my chair and just thought how incredibly random that question was yet how appropriate. It was at the very moment he asked that I had a really good honest answer.

For almost a month now I have been struggling with something old and it's new that i have been mulling this thorn in my flesh over. I had thought this had gone away for good but sometimes things or people or ideas, like to walk right back into your life with no warning or invitation.

this is something/ someone I have to give to the Lord over and over again and trust that God knows better and has a gigantic plan.

So for now, however vague or not vague this post may be, please pray and if you have an encouraging verse or whatever, feel free to send it my way. Let's stir up the Body with Love and good works!

Labor of Love

Growing up I always told my mom things last minute. I was the Kid who at 11 pm said, " Oh yeah! I forgot. I have to bring 2 dozen cookies to school tomorrow" and then she gets frustrated 'cause I didn't tell her sooner. This is the perfect recipe for those that are told late in the evening that their kid has to bring cookies in the next morning. But before you begin you should know, Mexican Wedding Cakes are a labor of Love. You will be up for about 2- 2 and a half hours later making these gems.

All that said, Last night I decided to make Mexican Wedding Cakes for the Stache Bash tonight. Mexican wedding cakes are those kind of cookies that have the simplest ingredients in them which can be found in your everyday kitchen: Flour, confectioner sugar, ground cinnamon, vanilla, almonds and butter. The recipe calls for blanched almonds. Definitely DO NOT skip this step!!! The skin of the almonds slides off perfectly. The only thing that is awful is that this recipe is a labor of love. After the dicing of the almonds, which takes a good amount of time, you have to pick the skin out of the pile and that too is time consuming... enjoy your time in the kitchen!

color color color

Beautiful paper. Beautiful colors. so much to be inspired by, the art supply warehouse. simply lovely.

Stache Bash

Why am I so obsessed with parties? I love consuming my time with crafts and plans and colors. I love taking an idea and making it come to life.

Every so often my friends that I went to School of Worship with and I have a movie night. It's a beautiful time where we can reconnect and share what the Lord has been doing in our lives. This time the guest list has been broadened, and the movie night has been turned into a " Stache Bash", by me. After all it is March.

I just wanted to share with you my creations, because they made me smile. Hopefully they will make the ends of your lips rise with happiness as well.

posted, is the " Stache Bash" invite and the winners medal. The winner will also receive a prize. Mums the word.

stories. sweet stories

Freaky things seem to happen to me every once in a great while but when they happen they are definitely memorable. One time my sister n law and I were driving to her house Late one night and as we were getting ready to turn we saw this lady and her shopping cart floating in mid air across the street. Yep. thats what I said.

Another time (when we were younger) my brother Robert and I were shooting the breeze on my bed talking about this and that, and my stuffed animal Cat laying in the middle of my bedroom floor all by itself, actually moved its head. It happened so slowly and was so frightening that we looked at each other at the exact same time and ran out of my room as fast as we possibly could.

I found this picture off of a blog and it reminded me of the cat. The cat didn't really look like this but it reminded me of it which is freaky.

image credit: and other silly things.

design of the day

I've been trying my hand at new things lately. I'm in this rut you see. There's this lousy routine that I wake up to EVERY SINGLE MORNING that invites me to linger in itself. And because there isn't much for me to do right now, I graciously accept its invitation. Today however, I conquered Photoshop!.. or at least I tried.

In High School I took a photography class in which I had to learn Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop, but it has been a REALLY REALLY long time. Here is my design of the day. It's a bridal shower invitation! Although it's missing a few words (which I will add tomorrow), I absolutely Adore it!!! Hope you enjoy!

you know what wears holes in pockets? water heaters!

You know that feeling you sometimes get when you stay in a hotel room or really just any room that you're not used to being in? It's that "where am I?" feeling. This morning I awoke to that very thought. Interestingly enough, I was in my own room. After laying there a second or two I remembered last night's room cleaning. To some this may seem silly, but to others (who have seen my room recently (especially since my birthday party), they would know it has been messier than usual... Stay with me ...

Next, I needed to take a shower, a simple enough task. So I grab my towel, get in the shower, turn on the water, put some shampoo in my hair and I notice something. The water is just not getting hot. So I get out of the shower, run over to my other bathroom and decided to take a bath (because this bathroom only has a bath). After running the water for a little while I realize this water isn't getting hot either. Getting out of the bath, I accept that the water in the house is going to stay freezing cold, and now have to do something about the remarkable amount of shampoo still in my hair. The sink!!! yes, the sink. I will stick my head under the bathroom sink. I proceed by turning on the faucet and grey water comes leaping out... Naturally, I call my dad. Soon after my dad coming home for lunch, I make my way over to my friend Lauren's house to take a shower... Now, by this time I would have given up on the shower but I was meeting a friend in a couple of hours so I trudged onward.

After getting out of the Shower at Lauren's house, I got a text canceling the plans I previously had. And Now I'm slightly annoyed. Not 'cause of this one broken plan, but 'cause this has been happening to me lately.

Side note: at Saturday Night church at Calvary Costa Mesa, we break up into prayer groups after worship. Ordinarily, this would seem nice but I'm not the most outgoing person. Making an effort for me is REALLY making an effort. But, I'm trying to get better so I'll play Mike's little game. Can I just say that EVERY SINGLE saturday night I get rejected. Nobody ever wants to pray with me... Ever!!!!! And this past saturday night was no different. I walk over to a lady and ask if I can pray with her. She proceeds to say," oh well I think everyone is breaking up into groups." so I say, " yeah! do you want to be a group?" she looks at me and says, "I already prayed. but that man over there might want to pray with you." Are you kidding me? rejection numero uno. But wait... Still having no prayer group, I walk over to " that man over there" and ask, " Can I pray with you?" He reluctantly looks at me and says, " I don't need prayer." So I walk away. Do I Smell? I am going on record to say, I'm tired of being rejected... in any capacity!!!!

Back to my day: Now that I have no plans, Lauren invites me to come along with her to the Hyatt in Huntington beach to hang out with her while all of her cheerleaders take there pictures for the year book. It was nice to be outside. My day ended by driving to cherry on top to get frozen yogurt for one. Yes, I know. I am pathetic. What did you do today?..

Despite all this, I leave you with this quote from my mom. " I'm just gonna tell you, Allison. You're not gonna find any one like dad. I'm just tell'n you. You're not gonna." :) ... " Okay. I won't hold my breath.... wise words. ha!

• Have a cute enact dote or mishap? I would love to hear about your day.