A New Challenge.

Dress-Gap, Sweater-Old Navy, Shoes-H&M, Necklace-JCrew Outlet

I was going through my closet this weekend and I was so overwhelmed by the sheer volume of it.

Not gonna lie guys.

I have a lot of clothes.

I feel like I used to be good at getting alot of outfits out of a smallish amount of clothes because I could remix things well.

But lately, I think I have gotten so wrapped up in the "newness" of clothes and even maybe a little the brand name of it.

So. I was going to do another 30 for 30 but I like the idea of using all of my clothes.
So I am going to do a shopping ban.
For the month of June.
But starting Monday June 4.
To help myself out a little I am going to try to take a picture of my outfit everyday.
The good.
The bad.
And the repeat.

If anyone wants to join along, I would love it!
You can link up in the comments at any time!!

I think this is gonna be good.
I know Travis and our check book are gonna love it!

Here's to remixing!!

{I just linked up over here}

Because he is just so cute........

{i couldn't figure out how to flip it. so it's sideways. my bad}

Just a dance we made up over the weekend.

Hope this makes your hump day a little brighter!

Memorial Day Weekend

I wish I could say that I did something awesome on Memorial Day but I can't.

I actually made a vow that I was not going to leave the house Monday.

I haven't had a day where I get to stay in my sweats all day and just clean or do whatever I want.

So I did that on Memorial Day.

But we did do something fun on Saturday!!

 One out of three days isn't bad right?

As you can see, we went to the a Mariners game.

Not gonna lie though, the main reason I go is for the garlic fries.

They. Are. Delicious!

And they make me smell like a vampire hunter or something.

What did everyone else do over the weekend??



Things I'm Loving Lately...

....this little lady above. She is my best friend from back home and I miss her soooo much lately!!


....this makes me sooo happy. {even if you click on nothing else. click on that one}


....all things mint {covered this in this post}

....this girl. Her blog is literally the bomb-diggity!

....the upcoming long weekend. Oh how I love long weekends.

....this recipe. {her blog is pretty stinkin' amazing too!}

....Vampire Diaries. Yup. I'm not ashamed. But I am addicted.

....tulips. They are everywhere here right now and I could not be any happier about it!

....this song. Who knew Scarlett could sing?


....nba finals. I watched one game and now I am hooked. More to the players than the games. But Mr  is happy either way. :)

....menu planning. This is my first week ever doing it. So far, so good.

....these pants. What girl doesn't need deep purple pants??


....you guys!!! You guys are the best! And you make blogging fun! So thanks!
    {And I promise to try to be a better blogger next week!!}

Mint and Septic Tanks

 Top-Thrifted, Jeans-Target, Shoes-H&M, Belt-Joe Fresh

I am so in love with all things mint.

I know I am not alone in this cause it is everywhere.

Oh and I'm standing on our septic tank in our backyard in these pics.

Yup.
Country living at its finest.

Our neighbors were in their front yard and Travis wasn't gonna be home for a while so I trucked the tripod out and set it up in our not-yet-done-still-mud-everywhere backyard. And the only place with no mud. Septic Tank.

{On a random side note:: I have a pair of these exact jeans in a size 6 that I want to get rid of. If you are interested in them, email me at kirk{dot}ruffles{at}gmail{dot}com}



Thanks with a side of instagram

Thank you guys soo much for all your kind words and emails!
I can't even tell you how much it means to me

It was hard for me to get to a place that was so open and you guys made me so happy I did.

I read all your emails and comments to Travis this weekend and he was so overwhelmed with your kind words as well.

So thank you again!

And now for our life lately!

1.My new rosemary plant

2.The doiley banner I made for our headboard

3. A knotty outfit {ha!}

4.My new addiction....pomegranate seeds!

5.A super lazy chill outfit

6.The dresser I got garage sale-ing that I am innn loooovveee with!

7. Some flowers from the farmers market.

Have a Happy Monday!

Its a long one.

{via}

I'm a planner.

To a fault sometimes.

So of course, I had my life planned from the minute Travis asked me to be his wife.

We both wanted a big family.

I'm talking 5 or 6 kids.

So naturally we wanted to start pretty quick after we said I do.

We have some friends who got pregnant on their honeymoon, and while that wasn't necessarily what I wanted, in the back of my mind, it was what I thought would happen.

You see, Travis comes from a family of 9.

And his brother, he has 3 kids and they could've kept going if they wanted to, if you know what I mean.

So me and Travis having tons of kids, right away, that wasn't even a question in my mind.

Of course we would.

Well.

It didn't happen the way I planned.

1 year of trying turned into 2 years of trying, which turned into 4 and now, here we sit on 5.

I look back now and see Gods hand working in it.

We were long distance for so much of our dating relationship so I do believe that we needed those first couple years. To adapt. To really grow into our love.

And we would't have been able to build our dream house so early on in our lives.

That was such a blessing.

Of course there are other things too.

Vacations we went on.

Friends we made.

Growing in our faith.

Expereiences.

I am so thankful for all of them

But back to the trying.

After about 2 years, we decided to see a doctor.

We started fertility treatments.

They didn't really know why it wasn't working {which I think is worse than knowing}.

The hormones made me crazy.

I was bloated and emotional and every month, not being pregnant felt like it was going to kill me.

I would beg God for a baby.

He gave me this desire after all right?

I would beg Him to take the desire away if it wasn't His will.

I just needed to not hurt for a baby anymore.

In the process of it all, I found out friends were going through the same thing.
We bonded and cried together and I felt a little less alone.

See that is one of the worst things about infertility.

Feeling all alone.

I can't even explain it.

I just felt so alone. Like I wasn't a whole woman. I couldn't do something that was soo easy for so many women out there.

So having those friends, it was a lifesaver!

Then, one by one, they got pregnant.

And again, I thought it would kill me everytime.

But it didn't

God brought me through it.
Stonger.

I know God has a plan for us.

And ultimately His plan trumps mine.

I don't know why I needed to write all of this.

I feel like I am always trying to convince everyone around me that I am ok.

I'm ok when that person gets pregnant.

I'm ok when they have their baby.

I'm ok not having one.

And writing this, in a way, shows that I am not.

And it's true.
I'm not.

I know I'm not alone. Lots of people deal with this.

Lots.

And I know I'm not special. My situation is not worse than anyone else.

But I needed to write this.

All of it was building up.

And now its out.

As of right now, there is no happy ending.

Not that right now its a sad ending.

Just an incomplete one.

But I still have faith that Gods plan is gonna be so much better than mine.

MIA

Shirt-Old Navy, Skirt-Thrifted, Shoes-Target, Belt-came with a skirt, Necklace-Jcrew

I think I've done a post by this name before...

Sorry I've been m.i.a lately.

I am kinda in a funk.

Does anyone else get into those?

{if you don't, just say you do to make me feel better}

Lately I've been trying to figure out what I want this blog to be.

Part of me wants it to be a positive place where I just focus on all thats good and easy.

And then another part of me wants to be completely real.

The good and the bad.

For those of you that blog...got any input?



Last Minute

So I had a post all planned.

I even wore clothes today.

But then I couldn't find my sd card thing and I didn't have time to edit them so.

Its Instagram Thursday!

1.Getting caught in a hail storm in Portland

2. A display at West Elm that we want to recreate in our bedroom {maybe an update on that one later}|

3.An accidental photo at Stumptown in Portland

4.Mint and Polka dots

5. My new mint plant

5.Sparrow pants and a steering wheel

6. My obsession with this necklace is continuing.

I got a new app on my phone called pixlr or something and I love it! You can tell I used it on the last 3 pics!

Have a happy Thursday friends!!

{Follow me on Instagram @kirkelberk}

Sparrows

Shirt-Gap, Pants-Anthro, Shoes-H&M

It is so hard to get back into the swing of things after a vaca.

I think I get to used to just doing whatever I want, whenever I want.

And then, reality is like you need to get ready for work and be there by a certain time and I'm like...what?

So either I need to not go on vacations anymore, or I need to be on one all the time.

I'm gonna go with the latter.

Now how do I convince the Mr...

Poorrtttllannndddd!

We seriously had the best time in Portland.

When we were driving home on Sunday I kept thinking, how can we move there?

It is my new favorite place to go ever.

The whole trip started with Travis waking me up at 3:00 Friday morning to tell me that he was to excited and couldn't sleep so we should leave now.

I tried to reason with him but finally we got out of bed at 4 and were out the door by 4:30.

It ended up being kinda awesome cause I just slept half the way down and we had all day Friday to run around.

The whole trip can literally be summed up by with one word.

Stumble.

We literally stumbled upon all of the places we loved the most.

Everywhere you turn is some kind of beauty there. 

Beautiful Architecture. Beautiful Nature.

And it seemed like every street we turned down was another one we want to get out and explore!

Our favorite place was an antique mall called Monticello.

If you like antiques at all you have have have to go there.

We spent like 2 hours wandering around in here.

It. Was. Awesome.

I felt like we should have had a bumper sticker that said "Be prepared for sudden stopping." cause we would be driving and one of us would see something and yell Stop!

Like this little place. 

It was just a random neighborhood we went through on our way to something else but the little strip down the middle was too pretty and cool and we just wanted to run down it!

So thats my love poem for Portland.

No tax was amazing too.

I want to move there.