gift shopping

My maid of honor's birthday is coming up, and I always like to buy her adorable gifts from Etsy. She is a super creative and artsy person, and she loves when I buy her handmade gifts. She loves supporting the local people! She is also wanting to go to small, local restaurant over a huge chain every time we have dinner together. She is such a sweetie.

Picture from the Etsy shop of Elisabeth Ashlie

Anywho, I purchased her gift from the Etsy shop of Elisabeth Ashlie. Their earrings are super duper cute. The pair I bought for her are pictured above (found here) (and don't worry! She doesn't read my blog!).

A good friend of mine and I are hosting a Christmas party for our high school friends in December. We are playing the White Elephant gift giving game, so I bought another pair of earrings for that event. I always love to bring gifts I know the girls will love, so people will fight over it! (if you have no idea what gift game I am talking about, google White Elephant). My personal rule is to bring a gift I would want for myself because if no one else wants it or gets excited about it, I could end up with it and be so happy!! :) The earrings I chose for the party are these.

Please go check out their shop! It's so so adorable and great service!
The owner of the shop also has an awesome blog here.

wedding thoughts

This morning I had enough time to grab some coffee from the Starbucks in town before heading to work. I love when I get ready early and have time to do that! It always makes my day that much better. I am not a huge coffee drinker, and I do not drink soda, so when I do have coffee, it is a great pick me up (as they say).

It is now less than a year to our wedding. That is super crazy to me! Most of the vendors are booked now, so I am not super stressed right now. I have started the process of creating our wedding website though. Ricky and I are very creative together, so I did not want a website from theknot.com like everyone else has. I am not saying they are not great; we just want to design something ourselves! Ricky creates websites for companies around town, and so I am making him create an awesome one for our wedding with all the details. The guests won't see the website until March of next year because that is when the Save the Dates will go out. The website link will be on those, so we have a while to customize the way we (meaning me HAHA!) want.

Every once in a while, I wish we would have had gotten married within six months (or less) of getting engaged because I feel like this engagement is sooooo long. I love having the time to plan everything I want for it, and being able to save for it too, but sometimes I wish we would have just eloped and have started our lives already! I cannot wait to start our lives together, and right now, I feel like we are in limbo. Waiting for the big day until we actually move in together and love on one another forever & ever. I cannot change anything now (tons of money has already been spent), but sometimes that thought comes into my crazy mind. 

Side note: there is this blog post swirling around on Facebook about how marriage isn't for you. Click here if you want to see the original post. I skimmed through it fairly quickly, and it made sense to me that marriage is for the other person in the relationship. I love to take care of Ricky and make sure he is happy. I love to spoil him, and I love to make him smile & laugh. He is who I am constantly thinking about. I cannot wait to be his wife and take his last name. I cannot wait to live with him and be newlyweds with him. I am very blessed to have found him! BUT another one of my friends posted another blog post that was responding to the original Marriage Isn't For You post. Here is the response. I loved the response as well! God is a huge part of our marriage, and Ricky's love for God is one of the main things I love about him. Ricky is the reason why I am so comfortable with my relationship with God now. I will forever be thankful to him for that!

P.S. - Happy Hump Day! :)

the wedding binder

 

Well, the job I had lined up for after graduation didn't end up working out, so I now have a lot of time to myself to plan, plan, and plan.

Here is the wedding binder I made for the planning process! Right now, it mostly contains just various ideas. 

I have most of the venders that we want for the big day lined up, but we have not signed any contacts just yet. The parentals don't want to start this process until September, so we can stay organized with all the money that will be flying around. I understand why they want to do it this way, but I just hope it doesn't bite us in the butt when September gets here. I don't want to lose of the vendors I have already fallen in love with!

We already have the ceremony location and reception location booked! That was the first thing we did because the chapel where we are getting married is VERY popular.

So as of right now, we know who we want for:

• caterer
• florist
• wedding planner
• videographer
• hair salon
• photobooth
• trolley (SO EXCITED!)
• tuxedos/bridesmaids dresses

We are still on the hunt for:

• photographer (everyone is sooo expensive!!)
• band
• makeup
• honeymoon ideas

If you have any ideas, let me know! I would love to hear from everyone else's experiences.

Latest Baking Creations

Just wanted to post a couple pictures of the baking creations I have made in the past couple of months. Baking is something I thoroughly enjoy doing, and I just love being able to make these creations for others and having them actually enjoy my recipes!

Can't wait the next wedding cake happening in September! :) Of course, I will post pictures!

Next Chapter

Tomorrow finally ends the month break I have had since graduation. I start my job tomorrow. I will be working in the office of an orthodontist in town, and I am very excited about it. I mean come on, I get to wear scrubs to work every day! I never thought I would be working in the medical field, but I am just lucky to have found something before graduation. Ricky got a job in town wayyy before graduation because he's an overachiever, but I am so glad and thankful we were both able to find jobs. Now we can seriously start saving for the wedding. EEK!

I bought my first pair of scrubs the other day, and they are so so so comfortable. Gosh, I am so glad I get to wear these things for work. All I have to worry about is my hair! Easy peasy! :)

Ricky went by the grocery store today after church and is making us a special dinner. I love it when he cooks! I am not a huge cooker; I am a baker. That is it! He used to cook all the time for us when I lived in the apartment, but ever since I moved into the house, he stopped. I must change this! And plus I miss coming home to warm meal! A girl can dream, right?

Hope everyone has a great start to their week tomorrow! Wish me luck for my first day, and hopefully I won't make a fool of myself.

Tattoo Dreams

 

My dearest friend Erin is coming into town for my graduation. She has been one of my best friends since 6th grade, and she is also going to be the matron of honor for my wedding. She lives in New York with her hubby and two beautiful children. Because of all the miles that separate us, I miss her very much and love the time we get to get together. It's like we have never been apart. 

Anywho, she has an old tattoo she wants to get covered up by a new one while she is down here. My maid of honor, Kaitlyn, has a boyfriend who owns a tattoo shop, and we are going to take a trip there! And I feel like this might be perfect timing for me to finally get the only tattoo I would ever get for myself. I admire tattoos and love the stories and meanings behind them, but I will never have the guts to get more than one tattoo. I don't even know if I have enough guts to get one!! 

I have always wanted to get my mother's name (Anne) in all lowercase on my wrist. I found an example of how I want it to look from Pinterest, of course. I love the font for the "love" wrist tattoo [above], but I think I may want my mother's name to be a little smaller. I want to be able to carry her around with me wherever I go, and I want to be reminded why I am living my life to fullest. 

Kaitlyn and Erin are, of course, both down for the idea! It's something I have wanted for a very long time, but we will see if I ever go through with it. 

I will definitely keep y'all updated! Graduation is almost here! Are you annoyed yet with my excitement??? 

May Obsession

Now that I have a three bedroom house, I am constantly wishing I had more furniture. I am always dreaming about what I could do with these spaces, but I do not have the time or money to be making these dreams come true. Once graduation passes, and my big girl job officially starts, maybe I can start planning and organizing the way I want to! 

I will always be obsessed with IKEA. My favorite thing to do on the weekends is drive to the store in Atlanta and wander around. Everything is just decorated perfectly! I want to hire some of their designers to come to my house! 

The four pieces I really want right now:

1. This adorable cabinet is perfect for my kitchen. I have this empty corner in my kitchen that is calling for this piece. It is perfect because all my kitchen stuff is red, and this cabinet is red. It even has an adorable yellow striped lining on the inside. It is technically called a linen cabinet, but I want it for more a decoration in the kitchen. I also want to use it to put some of my cake baking things in it.
2. My next project is finding pictures for a big multi frame wall in the living room. I want these plain black frames with thick white matting. Depending on how many pictures I decide on, I want to get these and either have four or six of them lined up to cover up the naked wall in the living room. 
3. I spend a lot of time in the office, and especially after last weekend when I was crafting like crazy, I really need a large organizer drawer set to have somewhere to put everything away. I have two desks in the office (also from IKEA), but I don't like how everything I own is put on display because I can't really put anything away and have it hidden.
4. We finally have a fully functional guest room, and I still think it needs something. I would love to have this small drawer chest for the front of the room. I really think the room needs something else, and I would like a place to put away extra sheets and blankets. I also want to paint it yellow and change the knobs! I love painting furniture, and it can really bring out this piece even more. And plus, it will make the guest room have more pizazz! 

Well, let me know what you are currently obsessing over! I am always in the mood of making a new list and collage.

Tomorrow is my last day at my college student work job. The bosses are also taking all the graduating seniors out to lunch to celebrate. I'm excited, but I know it's going to be sad to leave that place for the last time. And graduation is almost here!!!!!  :)

Mother's Day Crafts

Mother's Day is this coming up Sunday, the day after Ricky and I graduate. For all of you who don't know, my mother passed away from ovarian cancer when I was 16 years old. This past April marked six years since she left us, and it is always something I struggle with, especially since Ricky and I got engaged. Wedding planning has been fun with my stepmother, Julia, but I can't help but miss my mom during the whole process.

I have been blessed with three different mothers in my life: my stepmother, my future mother in law, and my teacher from high school. Whenever I mention my teacher from high school, I always get the weirdest looks. When all my mothers went with me to go wedding dress shopping, I got the looks there too. Mrs. Frost was the mother I needed when my mom was taken away from me. She was there for me every day after it happened, and she was my guardian angel through the whole healing process. We are still close today when I am about to graduate from college. I am close with all three of the mothers in my life in different ways. They all get me, and they are all there for me when I need them.

I always send Mrs. Frost flowers for Mother's Day; she has two older boys, and she claims me as her only daughter. I know she loves receiving flowers, so it has been a tradition since my first mother's day without my real mother. Ricky and I have not decided what we are going to get his mother, but we always think of something cute!

But for my stepmother, I decided to be crafty! I wanted to make her a personalized wreath for the front door of their house. I sifted through millions of wreath ideas on Pinterest and finally decided what I want to do. I love the wood vine wreaths the best because I love rustic chic decorations! So of course, I adore burlap and bows too!

I made a quick trip to Hobby Lobby and bought the following:

• vine wreath - $4.99
• regular burlap ribbon - $4.99
• patterned burlap ribbon - $9.99
• wood letter - $1.50

Of course, I used my couponing skills and did not spend that much at all!

First, I painted the letter because I knew it was going to take time to dry:

I then followed two different tutorials. They were both spectacular and easy to follow. For the burlap flowers, I followed the tutorial from this adorable blog Under My Umbrella. Then for the bow at the top of the wreath, I followed the tutorial from On Sutton Place. Thanks girls for the help!

For the flowers, I made three of them with the regular burlap ribbon and only two in the patterned burlap ribbon. Then I hot glued everything to the wreath. I did several layers of this because I wanted to make sure nothing would fall off from the wreath being on the door.

I cannot wait to give this to my stepmother on Sunday! We are having Ricky and I's graduation party on Saturday night, and then mother's day is the next day. I have not decided if I will just give it to her before the party, so she can hang it and show everyone! We will see!

I hope everyone hugs onto the mothers they have in their lives this Sunday! They definitely need to fell appreciated.

By the way...

I got engaged on my birthday, February 12th. Sorry for the delay, but me being a woman and newly engaged, I immediately jumped on the wedding planning bus and have made myself super busy.

Please disregard my old lady hands. It's still considered winter, and I did not address my dry skin before taking this picture of the ring. 

WOAH Updates

Hi there! Well let me just start out by apologizing for my huge lack of posts. There have been a lot of huge chances going on around here, and let me tell you all about them!

First off, I moved into a rental house. The apartment was having some problems that were not being addressed, so my dad and I decided it was time for me to get out of there. We quickly found this adorable house that is now my comfortable home. I am very lucky to have found such a lovely home so quickly, but it took my team of friends and family to find it!

This was taken the day I was showing my friends the place. As you can tell through the windows, it was completely empty. I remember how excited I was to finally have a house to myself. Even though the boyfriend does not live with me, we have found it much more comfortable to spend time here. We can finally invite more friends over and watch whatever we want at whatever volume we want! It's funny how the things I was used to doing at the apartment are now not even a worry. Every once in a while I catch myself turning the volume down and making sure I am not walking too loud. Psh! Now I can do whatever I want! It's so nice! I don't think I could ever go back to an apartment. I love this freedom way too much!

We also experienced a minor incident at the house after a couple weeks of living there, and my dad suggested I adopt a dog. I was surprised he wanted me to do that since he is always trying to get me to save, save, save. But I am now very thankful he suggested it and pushed me to do so... so now let me introduce you to our newest edition... Mr. Bojangles or aka "Bo"

My dog during my high school days was my absolute best friend, so when I lost him to leukemia, I never thought I would be able to love another dog just as much. My baby Bo is the best thing that has ever happened to me. I am so glad we decided to go to the humane society where he was because I am so blessed to have him in my life. He is the sweetest thing! He is a corgi mix, but they are not sure what he is mixed with. They believe it is definitely a mix with a bigger type of dog because his legs are a little bit longer than a regular corgi.

He sleeps all the time but also loves to play with his daddy! He is constantly giving us kisses and snuggling right up against us. The best thing is that he is completely house broken, trained on the leash, rarely barks, gets along with other dogs, and loves kids. He is so perfect! I love having him here with me, especially during lonely nights when the boyfriend has to work late or has late classes.

Well, there you have it! I cannot wait to make this house my own, and maybe eventually I will show you a preview on here. I want to make sure it is adorable first! :)

My 22nd birthday is tomorrow (Woo! I'm old!), so we will see what Ricky has up his sleeve for activities! We have a test in the morning (Boo!), but then we have the rest of the day to go on some big adventure. I will let you know what happens! :)