Letters

Well, among all the saddness of leaving Hermiston. Good news! A letter from my sister at boot camp. I am so proud of her. She is doing so great there, and got to have lunch with her supervisors. But, I am sure she will be even happier to graduate (at the end of next month) It's hard enough being engaged and planning a wedding, let alone when you are in boot camp. I am so excited for you to come home, Brit;-)

Moving

These are not my boxes. Haha. Mine will be in far more of a disarray. Hopefully not. March 13th will be our last day here in Hermiston. And as much as you might here me talk about missing Portland and how small it might be here. I will miss it. Maybe I will take some tumbleweed with me to remember it by. Hahaha! Mostly I will miss all you wonderful people. Darcie, Megan, and all my wonderful friends at LFC, and at Highland Manor. I don't think I will have that again wherever we go (the fact that 6 friends I already knew live in the same apartments as we do!)

What an amazing time it has been here. I wish I could stay forever, or bring all you with me;-) But, God has his own way of doing things sometimes... Even if in the midst of them I don't like it, I know it'll all work for his good. But, good thing for blogs, twitter, facebook, texting, facetime!!! And if we're lucky, we won't be far. Still in the PNW anyway.

Valentines and Spring

My man is the best. He brought these to work yesterday! They're so springy and fresh, I love them. Roses are nice and romantic, but I really love these cheery tulips. Thanks, Babe!

Mint Oreo Pops

Okay. So first you'll want to buy:

1 package oreos

1 package cream cheese

2 packages of Andes mint pieces (or chocolate chips)

1 package of lollipop sticks

sprinkles to garnish

Makes 20-24 pops

First crush the oreos. Using a food processor or a kitchen aid is great, but a bag and rolling pin is what I had to make do with.
Crush til they look about like this.
Then add the cream cheese with your hands until it is fully blended. If the "dough" is still too sticky to roll into balls, add some powdered sugar.
Then form into balls and add the stick in about half way. Refrigerate for about 20 minutes, then set out on the counter for another 10 minutes. Melt the Andes mints in a double boiler over the stove and cover the pops. Add sprinkles and vuah lah!!!

Blogs

Just found this great blog called Bakerella. All about desserts. I found it because my mother-in-law gave me this great book on making cake pops! I have not tried yet, but tomorrow is the day. I am going to start with some simple oreo ones;-) I am excited.

Plus I found this website with all kinds of cool colored meting candies, cake glitter, straws, etc. It's called Wilton.

Another great blog I found all about designing, crafts, food, clothes, etc. Jones Design Company Enjoy.

Redecorated

This picture was taken from the kitchen (looking over the bar) I pretty much just switched everything and made it backward, but somehow it seems more spacious. And there is of course, the great "Starry Night" and the chest made by my dad;-)

Gimp

Having fun in Gimp. I am still not sure if I like it...but I like this whole old school look;)

Music Love

"The Raven"

The bird was actually going to be blue until I decided that it would be ingenious to make him black, since the book pages are from an Edgar Allen Poe book;-) This will be for sale at Branch & Wonders bookstore on Saturday!

Me

Hey there. Thanks for stopping by. Here's that great pic again, taken by ASH Photography. I am Maria Tebeck. I am married to the most wonderful man, Shane. And we live in a small town in northeast Oregon, however we are both from the beautiful city of Portland. We came here to study under a great mentor/pastor. We both work for him at our church, Living Faith. I am the administrator, and my husband is the Youth Pastor and runs Underground Church. We love it alot. You can check out my facebook here. Also, you can check out my facebook page for the jewelry business I own called Bittersweet Bling by clicking the tab "Bittersweet Bling" on the navigation bar, or by clicking here.

Here I am with my best bud, Megan. This is last summer when we had to get all decked out for our church's VBS program.

I am not sure why I like this picture... probably the incredibly blue eyes, which I don't actually possess.

There is probably a ton about me that you can figure out from my posts/pictures. I love to make jewelry, do crafty things, paint, write, blog, shop, go on vacation, visit my family, give gifts, etc.
Here is a picture from my sister-in-law, Adrey and Brice's wedding. Here I am with my other sister-in-law, Allecia.

I have the greatest family on the planet.
Here is my family on our vacation to Mexico in September 2009. That was so awesome. I love the heat, and the water, and seafood, and infinity pools, and the fact that Troy was filmed behind us, etc...
I love this picture alot. It's right before we left on our anniversary to Joseph, Oregon. Such a great time!

What do Shane and I like together, you ask? Hummm... trying out new restaurants, serving at our church, watching House MD, The Office, King of Queens, and the Twilight Zone, talking walks, playing board games, hanging out with friends, etc...
Shane's family at Brice & Adrey's wedding. It was so beautiful. I like how all the men are pretty much the same height, and so are the women. Except me. Hahaha.

Here I am being crazy. I like funky photo edits sometimes. Green eyes, cross process, whatever.

I am so weird sometimes. I like a very wide variety of food, clothing styles, music, movies, artsy stuff, etc.

Here I am on Christmas 2010, with my new little nephew Nathaniel!

Taylor the winner!

And the winner of the earrings from the other day is TAYLOR...that's the beauty of being the only one who commented;-) Stay tuned for more jewelry to give away. I have an 80's earring set next.

Aaron's Cake

If you tilt your head to the right a bit, you can sort of see that it's a mac apple. I think this might've been the first time I did a cake that wasn't a circle or square...so it was a little hard, but ahhh...it tasted good;-) As you can see, when I took this pic I totally misspelled birthday (what a dork!!!!) So I had to scrape off the "y" and fix it. Hahah.

Jazzed up subway art bags!

Cool, cheap Christmas bags. Even if you're not all free-handy like I do it, grab some stencils, a pen, and a plain, boring paper bag to jazz up! -Mine probably would've looked better if I had stenciled it-

And the winner of the earrings is....Adrey!!! Woohoo. If it works for you, I'll just bring them next week during Christmas.

I think for a while I might do the jewelry give away more often, because I have TONS!!! (just ask Megan or Shane) And some of the things I have can only be taken apart and reworked so many times over before I am bored of them. Hahaha. So, keep your eyes peeled and on my blog to check it out;-)

Background

I know this is increadbly plain...but I kind of like it. That way you can jazz it up with pics, etc. I'll try it for a bit..........

Gumdrop Wreath

I love Christmas! This is super easy to make. You just need one small Styrofoam ring (used to make wreaths) Two large packages of gumdrops, or spice drops, a box of toothpicks, and a few inches of wide satin ribbon. And next, go to town!

More Christmas Cards

Christmas

Twelve Days of Christmas Blog Challange. Day 8: My least favorite thing about Christmas.

1. People and their violent acts and just plain maddness during Black Friday. (camping out at Macy's for three days and eating McD's for Thanksgiving dinner...come on people, seriously)

2. Ghetto Christmas music. Such as traditional songs that have been re-done, but with no cool modern twist or anything...just plain, boring, maranantha, Mannheim steamroller, etc... ((it's all about the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, people...haha))

3. Getting Christmas cards that have nothing in them besides the text that was printed, and the sender's name. It's alright I guess, but if you're going to send a Christmas card, why not use your own words and write me something, ha!

4. Being way too concered with the amount of $$$ spent on a gift, rather than the thought.

5. Having to drive the gorge in all weather conditions to visit family.

6. Cleanup afterward.

7. "A Chipmunk Christmas" album, actually I pretty much dislike most Christmas songs where animals or kids are singing....lame. Hahaha. (Mostly because at my last job there were only two Christmas CDs to listen to)

...that's all I can think of for now...

Today

What a great day, three hours or so left to my own....what shall I do. Movies, jewelry, here I come. I totally spaced my pioneer woman meal yesterday- since my in laws came and took me out for my birthday. It was a great day.

So was my party last week, I wound up with the complete twilight zone, a bunch of king of queens, candy, and gift cards...I have the best friend ever!

Anyway, I'll chat more later...gotta get some peppermint ice cream...hehe.


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Location:Home

First Anniversary

Our trip to NE Oregon. This was fun. I have not been here before. It was so much fun. We started by heading to Pendleton, which I really haven't been to much of besides when I had jury duty awhile back. So we stopped at an outrageously priced bead store called Blue Hawk beads, then we checked out a few bookstores. After that we pretty much drove straight through to the small town of Joseph (just north of Lake Wallowa) It was really cute. We had some lunch at a steakhouse called Outlaw Restaurant. We also checked out all the little gift shops-which were pretty cool-got an amazing candle! (woodwick candles) After that we went to check in at our lodge, Flying Arrow resort (just a few miles outside Joseph, on the opposite end of the lake) It was great there. It sits right on the creek. We totally want to come back in the summer when there is alot more to do: horseback riding, fishing, hiking, and the tramway! Then we hung out in our cabin and watched Border Wars (National Geographic show) It was pretty cool. Next morning we went to the United Methodist Church-blame Shane. It pretty much reminded me of my grandparent's Baptist church. We tried skipping through Joseph for lunch and eating in Enterprise...bad idea. The next three towns are completely deserted on a Sunday. Guess they all do the after-church potluck thing. So we had pizza at a very thrown-together looking place. Ha. Then we just took the slow way home, enjoying the scenery, and another awesome bead store in Walla Walla. I just can never bring myself to pay more than $15 or $20 at the most per strand. I guess it depends what it is, but seriously $219 per strand for quartz!!! Back to Hermiston. The end.