Cork Boards & Memories

Memories

I have had a very important person in my life for a very long time. 17 years, to be exact. She has seen me through all stages of my life, elementary school, middle school, high school, college, and now adulthood. 

My best friend, Haley, is the kind of friend that everyone should have. In elementary school, she was already a wonderful, caring, nurturing sister to her two younger siblings. In middle school, she and I shared countless weekends watching movies, including our favorite, Newsies. (If you haven't seen it, do it. A young Christian Bale is the lead newsie, and can sing and dance with the best of them). In high school, she was just as boy crazy as I was, and we spent hours in my over memorabilia filled bedroom looking at yearbooks and talking about boys. In college, we visited each other and drank way too many beers.

Now, as adults, we live states apart. We have stood up in each other's weddings, still know each other's families and siblings' personalities almost as well as our own (think, "of course your sister said that, Hilary's always been like that"), and Haley still holds the title as the person who I've logged the most hours on the phone with.

So, when her husband, Colt, invited me out to their home in Pennsylvania, I jumped at the chance.

Things went pretty much as you would expect. 

I watched Haley be a wonderful, caring, nurturing mom to her two boys.

1. Haley and Colin cuddling 2. playing Operation 3. Connor eating breakfast 4. Colin with model train

We drank way too many beers while looking at yearbooks and talking about people from high school.

And, of course, we watched Newsies.

But this time, instead of watching the VHS in Haley's mom's basement while drinking Faygo Red Pop, we were in New York City, watching it on Broadway!

And it was AMAZING.

What I didn't mention before was that Colt invited me out to their home as part of Haley's Christmas present. The other part was that we were going to NYC to see the musical together.

Haley cried when she opened her gift.

I have never been to New York City and Haley and Colt only live about an hour and forty-five minutes from the city.

Haley and I took off on Saturday morning. We made the drive through the mountains and Jersey.

We had some time to kill before the show, so we decided to see "a few" sights.

1. Haley & I in Times Square 2. NY Times 3. H & I at Rockefeller Center 4. Radio City Music Hall 5. NBC studios 6. Tree at Rock Center 7. Inside of St. Patrick's Cathedral 8. NY Ruben & NY cheesecake for lunch 

After the show, we took in a couple more sights and had a delicious dinner.

1. H in the subway 2. H & I 3. Ellis Island & Statue of Liberty at a LONG distance 4. Ground Zero 5. Central Park 6. Empire State Building 7. Times Square at night 8. creative beggar 9. dinner

Haley and I decided to call that day my "speed date with New York City". We had such a wonderful time.

The whole trip to see them was just perfect. I love that even though Haley and I haven't spent more than 24 hours at a time together in years, we can always pick up right where we left off. We are already planning her trip out to see us in Chicago.

So, now that I have shared a virtual "cork board", I want to share a literal cork board that I made for my wonderful mother-in-law, Pat. She had admired a similar cork board my mom had made for their bar. I decided to make one for her for Christmas.

I started with the back of an old picture frame I wasn't using. It made a good base, plus it already had nice hooks for her hang it vertically or horizontally. I used hot glue to glue the corks onto the board. I made a two vertical, two horizontal pattern.

I kept the pattern going until I had covered the entire board.

I really liked the way it turned out. I hope she did too!

Until next time, keep crafting!

SB