Merry Christmas to all!

Alex and I have had a fantastic Christmas so far.

We did indeed share a paella last night at Red Room. It was deeelicious. When we came home we baked cupcakes, watched "It's a Wonderful Life," and opened presents. Later we Skyped with his family in Miami. It was great to see them.

Today we prepared a Christmas brunch. Kat and Lenny came over and we feasted. Alex made the cutest Rudolph waffles. We also went to see Avatar in the theater. Fantastic movie! We all really enjoyed it.

Now we're relaxing at home because tomorrow we're headed to the mountains! My family is driving up from Miami and we'll be staying in a log cabin until after the new year. CanNOT wait.

I hope everyone has had a great holiday so far. Don't stop being thankful for the all the blessings the Lord has given...especially this one.

Merry Christmas Eve!

It's Christmas! I am so excited for today and tomorrow and our trip to the mountains the day after.

Alex is at work today (boo...) so I am spending the day cleaning up the apartment and pampering myself. :-)

After work we're headed to a lovely Christmas dinner at the Red Room Tapas Lounge. I think we may share a paella. Mmm...we'll see. Then we plan on driving around to look at pretty Christmas lights and then home to open presents!! (Yes, we open presents on Christmas Eve)

I hope everyone has a lovely Christmas with loved ones.

Here are some pretty things to look at, courtesy of weheartit.

crafting

I have been having so much fun crafting lately. I really enjoy making stuff. I don't think I'm terribly good at any one craft, but I enjoy them all and it's fun to see what you can make with your own two hands.

For example, I had no idea that I could sew! A couple weeks ago I made a plush owl with the guidance of some ladies from the Connecting Point team. It was so much fun and my owl turned out halfway decent. I tend to rush with my stitching, so I need to work on that. Mine is the green one:

Making an owl was so fun that I decided to try making a cyclops bunny with Alex. Didn't turn out as great as I would have hoped, but I'm still learning. Practice makes perfect.

When Alex's mom was in town we made a wreath.

She did most of the work, but I did make these cute flowers that we attached to the side:

And last night Kat and I made these adorable yarn wreaths. We're pretty much obsessed now. We want to make more! There are so many great ideas for yarn wreaths out there.

So if you're looking for something to do over winter break (there are only so many Law & Order: SVU episodes you can watch!), why not try your hand at some crafting?

If you need inspiration check out these blogs by some really crafty ladies:

A Beautiful Mess

Bleubird Vintage

Fawn

Creature Comforts

The Constant Gatherer

In a Walnut Shell

Happy crafting!

Denver2011.org

Our new site has officially launched!

I am so proud of Alex for designing such a cool website. He's worked so hard.

Check out Denver2011.org to see exactly what's going on with our team, why we chose Denver, and how you can help us.

So go check out our site, let us know what you think, and continue to pray for us. Only 24 more days until our Vision Trip to the city in January.

Whimsy

My lovely friend, Tammie, is one talented lady. She has a good eye for all things cute and has recently started her own business, Whimsy, selling handmade goodies. I've been a customer of hers twice already.

These lovely paintings hang on the wall in my home:

And I adore this headband:

She recently hosted a giveaway and I won! Yay! I love winning giveaways, especially when the prizes are so cute. So if you're in the need for some quality handmade goodies for yourself or a special someone in your life then check out her shop here. She also blogs over here. Show Whimsy some love and become her next customer. You won't be disappointed.

Making Memories

I have to say, that I am so thankful for my husband. I am thankful that he is constantly striving to be better. He is not content with mediocrity.

He read this blog post by Mark Driscoll and has really taken it to heart.

(family men, I suggest reading it, even if you're not a daddy yet)

Alex really wants to make this Christmas season special and he's been doing a great job. It's even inspired me to do a few special things as well, though I won't reveal yet.

A couple nights ago we got our Christmas tree (50% off at Target!) and got to decorating it. Alex made this cute vintage-inspired video so we could remember that night forever. :-) Here it is, enjoy!

Christmas Decorating from Kristel Acevedo on Vimeo.

an update for you

We worked hard all weekend and have finally fully unpacked everything! Hoorah!

We love our new apartment. It's so peaceful and lovely. I promise to take pictures soon. We're getting our Christmas tree tonight and getting all the decorations out. Can't wait.

Here's a sneak peak to hold you over until I get around to taking more photos:

I'm also in the middle of finals over here. Took one today. My next one is on Wednesday and the last one on Thursday (or Friday...it's online...haven't decided when I'll take it yet). I am so thankful that the semester is almost over. It's been great. I have really loved all my classes and everything I've learned, but it's also been tiring! This has definitely been my busiest semester so far. I'm ready for a break so I can unwind and do some real blogging.

In the mean time, meet the Barley's new puppy. She is the cutest! (Props to Alex for making the video)

And don't forget to pray for our trip to Denver next month. We need 100 of you to step up to the plate! Contact me if you have any questions or comments.

Project 100

I have spoken to several people personally about this project, but I also wanted to do a blog post about it.

You all should know by now that Alex and I are part of a church planting team on our way to Denver, CO. We will be taking a trip out there in January as a team to scope out the city (Alex and I have never been there!) and learn more about Denver.

I am beyond excited about this trip and am thankful for the opportunity. So here comes our first goal for this trip: We need prayer! Specifically we would like to have at least 100 people praying for this trip. We need God's grace and guidance as we travel out there. Here are three specific areas you can be praying for:

• Location: Denver is a pretty big city. We would like to find a specific location to focus our efforts on and plant our lives in. We need God's guidance to lead us.
• Link: We would like to connect with other gospel-centered churches in the Denver area for the purpose of doing ministry together.
• Love: We want to grow in love for this city. This is especially true for Alex and me. While we are excited to go to Denver and can't wait to move there, we don't really have a deep love for the city, we've never even been there. We all want to love Denver and the people of Denver and the culture of Denver.

I still plan on speaking with many of you personally about this goal and how you can pray for us. As I've mentioned in previous posts, school is crazy right now, but I am excited to speak with all of you about our January trip and obtain your commitment to praying for us. And if you get impatient, go ahead and give me a call or shoot me an email. ;-)

In the mean time, sign up for our newsletter here and follow us on Twitter here.

We're here!

Moving this past weekend was a great success!

We are so thankful for all our wonderful friends who helped us out.

I am in LOVE with our new place. It's still a little messy, hah...but we're making it our goal to have everything all set up and put away by this weekend.

Pictures soon.

In other news...winter temperatures have arrived here in NC! I have been consistently cold for days now. Right now I'm sitting inside our apartment wearing my winter coat. Yeah, it's that cold. I think we need one of these. I like this cute orange one.

Hope everyone is doing great out there in the blogosphere. (that's for you, Megan)

Keep warm!

We're moving!

This Saturday Alex and I are moving to a new apartment! Yayy!

It's in North Raleigh, not too far off from where we currently live. We're really excited about our new place and can't wait to get settled in. We'll be sure to post pictures when we have everything set up (it could be a while, it's crazy with the end of the semester looming over my head!).

If you would like to help us move come on out to our current apartment at 9am. We hope to be done with everything by 2pm. There could be some free pizza in it for you.

If you would like to know our new address to send us cute Christmas cards or house warming gifts [;-)] just e-mail me and I'll let you know where we're staying now.

Flaherty Farms was a great first home. We're thankful for Flaherty Farms, but we're ready to say goodbye to it.

And helloooo to The Columns.

(images from: weheartit)