My new iPhone

Yep, I've joined the club.  

And yes, it is as wonderful as they say. :)

Any free apps you love that you'd like to share?  

A Beautiful Bouquet

I'm loving the leftovers of my bridesmaids bouquet from my friend Haley's wedding. These peonies smell so sweet and liven up our living room!

I can't wait to show you pictures from this weekend- Haley and her husband Ian had a beautiful wedding this past Saturday.  I've known Haley and Ian since kindergarten, and it was so special to see them get married!

Enjoying Spring

I am enjoying a lovely spring day today!  It feel so wonderful sitting on the porch basking in the sunshine, and reading my new Better Homes and Garden magazine that came in the mail today.

It has been a wonderful weekend so far- yesterday was my birthday and Jeremy and I took a trip to Spartanburg, SC to eat at Chipotle- my favorite!  We also grabbed a couple of blizzards at DQ to celebrate.  I got several sweet cards in the mail from friends, family, and loved ones.    I've been so blessed.  Days like today help you to appreciate the beauty of life

Portillo's by Mail

Jeremy's parents sent us a big surprise this week for Christmas- Portillo's by mail!  Portillo's is a hot dog place in Chicago and they ship around the country.  What a thoughful Christmas gift!  We aren't going to be able to make it up to visit Jeremy's family this year for Christmas, but he was able to have a little slice of home with this meal.

We had fun opening up the box and discovering all the fixings for Chicago hotdogs.  Everything was included- step by step instructions for preparing the dogs Portillo's style, and it even included a Portillo's crew member hat!

I'll have to get Jeremy's phone and get some pictures of him too- he just posted the ones of me on facebook and I copied them off of there.  :)

MIA

I'm sorry I've been missing in action this week!  It's been crazy busy for Jeremy and lately.  I will hopefully have some new things to share soon.  Until then, I'm gonna sign off until Friday or Saturday while we focus on things going on in our lives right now.  But I'll be working up some good posts for next week :) 

Check out our New Look

We're doing some revamping and housecleaning here at Faith. Home. Love.!  We hope you like the new look, please excuse our dust as we update things a bit. :) New and exciting things are ahead for the Jenkins, and we can't wait to share it all with you! 

Thank you so much to our readers, we hope you are blessed and encouraged in a small way by what we do here on the blog.  Be sure to become a follower if you're a regular reader so we'll know you're out there!  Check out the Welcome Page for more info on how to become a follower.

Bloom and Devotion

One of the buds on my orchid bloomed yesterday!  I had forgotten what color it even was.  It is so pretty, I can’t wait for the others to bloom too!

I also wanted to share yesterday’s devotion in “Jesus Calling” by Sarah Young.  My Bible Study leader gave me this wonderful little book for my birthday last month and I have so enjoyed reading it.  It is written as though God Himself is writing you a letter, sweet reminders of His love and expectations.  Yesterday I felt like He was speaking directly to me.  Here’s is the devotion from April 13th,

“When I give you no special guidance, stay where you are.  Concentrate on doing your everyday tasks in awareness of My Presence with you.  The Joy of My Presence will shine on you, as you do everything for Me.  Thus you invite Me into every aspect of your life.  Through collaborating with Me in all thing, you allow My Life to merge with yours.  This is the secret not only of joyful living, but also of victorious living.  I designed you to depend on Me moment by moment, recognizing that apart from Me you can do nothing. 

Be thankful for quiet days, when nothing special seems to be happening.  Instead of being bored by the lack of action, use times of routine to seek My Face.  Although this is an invisible transaction, it speaks volumes in spiritual realms.  Moreover, you are richly blessed when you walk trustingly with Me through the routines of your day. 

Colossians 3:23; John 15:5; Psalm 105:4”

Psalm 16:11 “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”

Orchid Love

Last spring as a graduation present, my future in-laws gave me an orchid.  Orchids are my all time favorite flower- they are so simple yet beautiful.  When my grandmother and I went to Hawaii the summer after I graduated from high school, we saw lots of gorgeous orchids.  Here are some of the pictures I took during that trip…

Well, I’ve been waiting patiently for my orchid to bloom again and it finally has some buds!  I’ve been carefully nurtering it for the past couple of weeks, hoping that the buds will open soon.  Here are the buds that I’m hoping will open up in the next few days!

I’ll let you know when they finally do!

J.Crew Sample Sale

I mentioned yesterday in my post about the CASA Shoe Sale that I went to the J. Crew Sample Sale after work on Saturday. 

Again, Lynchburg is home to another famous brand- J.Crew.  The headquarters and factories are located here and there are two Clearance stores located in Lynchburg.  Each month, there is a warehouse sample sale and the prices for the clothes are outrageously low compared to normal J.Crew prices!  I go into the outlet store in Gaffney, SC and laugh at the “outlet” prices now that I am use to the sample sale prices! 

For example,
All men and women’s shirts: $8
All pants: $15
All non-wedding dress dresses: $15
All bathing suits: $2 (for each piece)
Jackets: $25

Just like at the shoe sale, people start lining up for these sales about 2 hours before the doors open and when you finally get in, you’re handed a huge trash bag and a price list.  You just make your way through the tables of boxes and stuff anything you think you possibly might want into your bag.  You then take everything to the middle and sides and start going through choosing what you want or don’t want.  There is no trying on, and there are no mirrors, so it is good to have a friend along who can help determine if something would work or not.

I found a couple of pictures of the sale and the building online to show you what it is like.  I didn’t have my phone or my camera with me so I wasn’t able to take any pictures myself. 
Here’s the warehouse and the madness inside during a sale:

I’ve gotten several of my favorite shirts and skirts at the sales throughout the years, and I think I found a couple more new favorite shirts this weekend.  Here are some picture of my new clothes- perfect for summer nights in Savannah (only 2 more months!)

I hate when people take pictures of themselves and then post them on facebook.  But I was being lazy, and didn’t feel like changing shirts to take a picture of this one, so here is a photo of me in one of my new shirts, and excuse the fact that I did the “take a picture of yourself and post it on the internet” thing.  It won’t happen often, I promise :) 
A lace tank top <3
My new favorite shirt in my favorite color

This one looks so cute right?  Looks can be deceiving.  I put it on and I thought I looked like Cruella Deville.  It has this fringe stuff on the sleeves that is just too much.  That’s the risk you take buying at these sales and not being able to try things on.  I decided to cut off 2 layers of fringe and it looks so much better now. 
And I got a graphics tee for Jeremy.  Not his usual style, but I fell in love with the shirt and Jeremy really likes sailboats, so we’ll see if he likes it or not.  :)

CASA Shoe Sale

Each year here in Lynchburg, there is a HUGE shoe sale, and my friend Chrissey and I went yesterday morning.  This is one of those sales that people wait for all year long. The shoes range from $5-$25 and are from some very high end designers. 

It never ceases to amaze me what Lynchburg has to offer.  At one time, Lynchburg was home to one of the largest shoe manufacturing company in the country, Craddock Terry Shoes.  Here is what this article says about it, “In the early 1900s, Craddock Terry Shoe Company was one of Lynchburg’s largest employers, one of the United States’ most faithful suppliers during World War II and the fifth largest shoe manufacturer and distributor in the world. That’s a pretty hefty tout for a city with only around 18,000 residents at the time, according to U.S. Census records.”  Craddock Terry shoe factory has now been turned into a fancy hotel and resturant in downtown Lynchburg, but the shoe industry is still strong around the ‘Burg. 

Today, Lynchburg still is home to several shoe companies.  The headquarters of Consolidated Shoe Company are located just down the road from my house.  They are the manufacturers of Apepazza, Ipanema, Madeline, Nicole, Palladium, and Poetic License.  Another shoe distributer here in the area is Old Dominion Footwear.  They are responsible for distributing brands such as Duck Head Footwear, AquaDuck Waterproof Footwear, Lalla and Lalla Lew. 

Each year these companies donate shoes to the Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) for their annual shoe sale, and so all the proceeds go directly to CASA.  CASA of Central Virginia recruits, trains, supports and monitors volunteers to advocate for abused and neglected children in Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court. It’s a worthy cause and I’m sure that they make thousands of dollars every year at this sale for their programs. 

For the sale, the doors open at 8 and people start lining up outside the door around 6 or 6:30.  My friend Chrissey and I decided to get there around 7, and we were pleasantly surprised to find that we were only about 30 yards from the front of the line.  It was a cold and rainy morning, and there was a J.Crew Sample sale going on across town (more on that later), so luckily we were able to get so close to the front.  By about 8, the line was back about 2 blocks! 

Here is a picture of the line (the people go so far back, you really can’t see the end of the line in this picture)  All the pictures were taken on my phone, so they are a little blurry.

Here I am waiting in the sprinkling rain for the door to open :)  And below is Chrissey.

 

As soon as the door opens, it quickly becomes a madhouse with people grabbing shoes and running around with piles of shoe boxes in their hands.  We came prepared with big bags to hold our boxes this year- I learned my lesson last time.  Stacks of shoe boxes and I don’t work well together!

Once you grab all the shoes you think you might want off your shoe size table, you take all your loot to the sides of the building and start trying on.  This is the scene that you see all the way around the building as people try on and decide which shoes they like and want to buy.

I ended up buying two pairs of high heel shoes for $10 each this year.  I was looking for some sandals to wear at the wedding, but there wasn’t alot of flat shoes to choose from.  Here are the pairs I bought:

These are Naked Feet shoes, which are a high quality handmade shoe from soft leather.  They sale here for $125, and I only paid $10!

This pair is a Madeline Stuart shoe and I think retails for around $50. 

Overall, a fun and exciting shopping day!  Later that evening I went with a couple of girls from work to the J Crew Sample sale after I got off.  I’ll share with you about that sale tomorrow!

CFAW

My mom and brother are in Lynchburg this weekend for College for a Weekend (CFAW) at Liberty University.  My brother Jared is planning to attend Liberty, which is where I graduated from, and this is his first time at CFAW, although he has been to LU many times since I’ve been here in Lynchburg.  I hope he is enjoying himself- I haven’t even seen him yet and he has been here since Thursday! 

My mom is staying with me at my apartment, and it is good having her around for a few days.  She is going to all the parent meetings at Liberty and I’m working this weekend. I’ve not really had time to post this week, hopefully I can catch up this weekend and go ahead and get a few posts written for this coming week. 

So glad Jared is coming to Liberty, it is the best school ever!  Jeremy and I are excited about the possibility of staying in Lynchburg and being here when Jared comes here for college.  But, we’ll just have to see if that works out or not!

23

I turned 23 years old this past Wednesday.  I remember when 23 seemed like you were old.  Now I wonder if you ever actually FEEL old.  I like to joke around with Jeremy because I’m 3 months older than him :)

This birthday was pretty uneventful, but relaxed, so good.  I celebrated my birthday with my family while I was home last weekend and Jeremy took me to Gaffney, SC to eat at Olive Garden on Monday.  I love Italian! 

Remember this apron?

I talked about it in this post. 

My grandparents surprised me with it for my birthday- I was so excited!

My mom, dad, and brother got me this book

I can’t wait to read it!  I love this author and it is set at the Biltmore House which is only 1 hour from my house! 

 

I also got a free coupon in my email for any entree at Moe’s on my birthday- so a free lunch was nice!

Jeremy surprised me after church with a goody bag of bracelets and a necklace from Forever 21.  I love Forever 21 jewelry, it is so pretty but so affordable! 

All in all, it was a great birthday and I am thankful for another year of life.  This next one will be even better!

Bridal Shower

It has been several days since I posted- it feels like its been forever!  Jeremy and I drove down to NC for the weekend for a bridal shower! 

My mom, aunts, and grandmother graciously hosted the shower and spent so much time preparing for everything- I appreciate all you ladies did to make the shower special! 

The ladies who made it happen- minus my mom who was taking the picture.  My matron of honor, Heather, helped them set up.  Thank y’all so much!!

The shower was so beautiful and the perfect beachy colors to go with the wedding theme. 

The cake was from Granny’s Bakery in Spindale, NC.  They were petit fours- it reminded me of Samantha Parkington in the American Girl books series/dolls.  Does anyone else remember her?  She was from the Victorian Era and was my favorite when I was little.  She always had a petit four with her afternoon tea.  :) 

There was so much wonderful food!

Mama used our engagement pictures and some sea shells to decorate the tables with.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I wasn’t allowed to see the fellowship hall before all the decorations were put together- this is me seeing it all for the first time as I came inside. 

Three of my bridesmaids were able to make it to the shower- we missed Sarah and Alex.

Thank you girls for coming and being part of this with me!

And one with the flower girl too- my little cousin Kyndra.

We received so many wonderful gifts from everyone!  Here are a few pictures

Shower Guests :)  So thankful for the influence all of these ladies have had on my life.  I love you all!

We were sooo blessed to receive so many generous gifts!

Jeremy and my dad came at the end of the shower to help load up all the gifts.  Jeremy and I enjoyed looking through the gifts together and the recipes ladies brought as well. 

My dad, grandmother, and Carolyn. 

It was such a great day and I had so much fun!  Thanks again to everyone who had any part in making it happen!

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If you heard about our blog from the shower- welcome!  I hope that this will be a tool to help you keep up to date with Jeremy and I as we prepare for marriage, and as we soon become newlyweds.  Feel free to look around and see what I’ve written in the past. To navigate your way around, click on the words to the right of the screen.  You can look at posts by month (just click the month any posts I wrote during that month will come up. Click on any you’d like to read).  Another way to

I would love for you to follow our blog if you have a Google (gmail) account, a twitter account, or a yahoo account.  Just click on the “Follow” button at the top right and follow the directions, logging in using whatever account you have.  This just lets us know you’re out there and reading. :)

If you don’t already have an Google account or if you would just like to receive emails containing any new posts, enter your email address into the “Email Subscription” box to the right below the followers.  You will need to confirm your email account, but afterwards you will recieve anything new I write directly in your inbox. 

Look for a welcome page soon to help you navigate around the blog. 

I hope you are encouraged by what you read and that you enjoy reading about us!