Happy Halloween!

Hi Friends!

I gotta make this quick because my aunt is in town (I'll write about the visit later this week) and we have lots of stuff going on today!

I am not a big Halloween fan, but kids love it and it's a reason to make a Monday special. :)

Here's a few projects we've done over the last couple weeks. I haven't had any time to blog in detail about any of these projects, but they're pretty self-explanatory. Let me know if you have questions!

Halloween Cupcakes- I spent $6.99 at Kroger to buy these supplies (we had a few on hand too). This was great! 

  

Sorry I don't have pictures of these next 3 projects. I'm having trouble uploading pictures. 

Candy Corn Art- Elmer's glue, construction paper and Candy Corn. Such an easy craft!

Felt Pumpkins- This was a set given to the kids by their grandparents.

Sucker Ghosts- Suckers, tissues, ribbon (or string), markers. This is cute!

Today we're going to music class and the Georgia Aquarium (the kids will be in costume the whole day!). Then we're coming home for a nap before a pizza party and Trick-or-Treating!

We are going to be so tired.

Happy Halloween!

A Wedding Weekend, Part 4

This is the last installment of the wedding I was in last weekend. If you missed the last 3, you can check them out here, here, and here.

I've talked about the venue, rehearsal and ceremony... so now it's time to talk about the PARTY! I'm sorry that I don't have more pictures (or better pictures) but once Steve Stanton releases the professional pictures I'm sure there will be plenty of awesome ones!

They had these trees on half of the tables and pretty flower arrangements on other. The balls of flowers hanging from the trees were beautiful!

Centerpiece 

Before the ceremony, I got to watch the cake lady decorate the cake right there in the middle of the reception hall. I had no idea that's how they did it! I always thought it came totally decorated, but she was making the pretty designs on the cake, on that very table. 

Cutting the cake

They didn't make a mess at all!

Since the bride and I have been friends since 4th grade, our families know each other very well.  It was nice to be able to spend some extra time with my parents at the wedding!

Me and my parents with the bride and groom

The night was filled with so much dancing and laughter. Everyone had so much fun. I wish we could go back and do it all over again. That's the bummer about weddings... Once you have one, you'll probably hopefully never have another! 

I'm at the age now that weddings are going to be a more frequent occurrence- and I can't wait! 

Me and my hot date :)

For now, I'll stop rambling about weddings on here. But I'm CONSTANTLY pinning things! I'd love it if you'd follow me here and/or on Pinterest!  

A Wedding Weekend, Part 3

This is the third installment from the wedding I was in last weekend. If you missed the last 2 posts, you can check them out here or here. 

All of these pictures were taken on the wedding day. As I said before, the wedding was at the Della Terra Mountain Chateau in Estes Park, Colorado. We got to spend the day there getting ready and basically taking over the place. 

Here are a couple pictures of the honeymoon suite. You can check out more pictures of the rooms here. And don't worry, it was cleaned and "decorated" before the married couple made it back to the room. 

Everything about the chateau was beautiful. I loved rooms. They were so beautiful and elegant. 

The bride wanted a picture of all of the girls wearing boots. Here they are all lined up! I can't wait to see how the pictures turned out! 

The Della Terra had a hair/make up room which made it a lot easier for so many girls to get ready. Here's a bunch of the girls crammed in there, getting ready. The girl in yellow, did all of the bridesmaids hair AND sang in the wedding. Her voice was beautiful (and our hair looked great!). 

This is when the amazingness (is that a word?) starts. The bride and groom are very outdoorsy people. The groom is an avid hunter and the bride loves animals. Her dream was that deer would show up for the wedding... AND THEY DID! It was amazing. As more and more people arrived, the deer came closer and closer. During the ceremony, there was a small buck just a few feet from us.

It. Was. Awesome.

Do you see the deer in the middle of the picture?

Here's a close-up taken by a friend

It could not have been more perfect. The ceremony was so emotional. I don't think there was a dry eye in the house. My dad said it was the first time he has ever been teary at a wedding.

I couldn't have imagined a more perfect ceremony.

Steve Stanton Photography

They are so in love and so happy.
It was wonderful!

Sunday will be the last installment of the wedding recap. I have a few pictures from the reception!!


Happy weekend. 

A Wedding Weekend, Part 2

Hello!!!

As most of you know, I was in a wedding over the weekend... I cannot stop thinking about it! I just keep reliving the whole thing! I'm so sad it's over, but SO happy for the sweet couple (who happen to be in Hawaii right now... not that I'm jealous or anything).

Ok, so I think I'm going to recap the weekend in 4 posts- this being the second. We'll see how it turns out. If you want to read the first post and see the first professional photo of the wedding, you can check it out here.

Today I'm going to talk about the venue and show some pictures from the rehearsal.

Friday morning, we packed up the car and headed up to the mountains. We had SO much stuff. I was so impressed with everyone for keeping everything straight! To my knowledge, nothing got lost or misplaced the entire weekend!

One packed up car

Packing up the cars

The wedding was at a place called the Della Terra Mountain Chateau in Estes Park, Colorado. It was so beautiful. There are a few rooms and cabins there for people to stay, but Brian and I (among others) stayed about a mile down the hill at another hotel. (Side note- we had a hot tub on our balcony!)

It was an outdoor wedding and indoor reception. We were really taking a gamble with Colorado weather, but it was fine. It was a bit chilly, but the ceremony was pretty quick- so it really didn't matter at all. PLUS, we were all so excited that we didn't care about a few goosebumps. During the ceremony, I looked up and saw my dad wearing a ski hat, while I was wearing a tiny tube top dress!

Anyhow, here are some pictures of the rehearsal. There were 8 bridesmaids, 1 junior bridesmaid and 9 groomsmen.

The Whole Crew

Lovely Ladies
(I'm in the white sweater)

The Boys

The Groom

I didn't see this picture until I got home (since my camera died). The mother of the bride was taking pictures with my camera since I had to be in the rehearsal. The ring bearer was the groom's nephew and his shoe kept coming untied. I absolutely love this picture.

The Groom and Ring Bearer

You know how often times you go to a wedding and you only know the bride or the groom? You rarely know both really well? Well, these two are high school sweethearts and have been together for 9 years. So everyone attending the wedding has had plenty of time to get to know both of them really well. It definitely gave it a very tight knit feel- even with 18 people in the wedding party. I seriously loved every minute of the entire weekend. 

Hope you're having a good week! Friday, I'll be talking about the ceremony.

If you don't already, I'd love it if you'd follow me! 

A Wedding Weekend, Part 1

Hello! Sorry for my absence the last week! As I said last week, I was in a (BEAUTIFUL) wedding over the weekend in Estes Park, Colorado. I could use a million words to describe it, but in short, it was perfect.

Seriously, there were SO many wonderful parts to the entire weekend that I don't know where to start.

I'll spread it out over a few different posts starting sometime later this week because right now I'm trying to catch up on rest and work and my life in Atlanta.

The only bummer about the weekend was that I got sick.
On the airplane.
On my way to a day I've been looking forward to for 9 YEARS.

It was so lame. I pushed the sickness aside for 4 days, but now I am exhausted.

I'm not going to post too many of my own pictures from the weekend because my camera died (boo for bad planning on my part). Frankly, it's also hard to take a bunch of pictures when you're in the wedding. But I do have a few I'll be sharing.

The photographer they hired is AMAZING. His name is Steve Stanton and you can should check him out here.

He already gave us a little peek at one of the pictures!

Steve Stanton Photography

It was the most perfect day. I have so many thoughts I want to share about it. To be honest, I'm still tearing up just thinking about it. There was not a dry eye in the entire place.

I can't wait to tell you more!

So, to my few and trusty followers, I'm sorry I don't have a more exact schedule right now. I just need to SLEEP. But I haven't left Blog World and I missed you while I was gone!  

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

Wedding on the Brain

Okay, it's not my wedding. Brian would have had a heart attack reading that if he didn't know where I was.

One of my very close childhood friends is getting married this weekend! They have been together for 9 years, but she'd prefer me to say they were high school sweethearts. :)  Sam and I have been friends since 4th grade, we were high school locker partners, college roommates- and now I'm in her wedding!

I. love. her. (He's pretty great too...)

Me and Sam 6 years ago!

The picture above was taken at a CSU football game- 6 years ago- watching her future husband play. (I can't believe how long my hair was!)

Anyhow, I tried my dress on again yesterday- and it fits! Sam, if you're reading this- it always fit (skip to next paragraph). Everyone else, I tried it on about a month ago and it was a huge reality check. Keeping a Colorado figure in Georgia is hard people! (Look at me- blaming the South instead of my intense baking addiction...)

Today we are getting our nails done, helping her pack for the honeymoon, and (hopefully) spending some relaxing time together before the big day. I am very excited to see everything she has done for the wedding! Since I live in Georgia now, I haven't been able to see much of the planning process... but I know her style and everything is going to be BEAUTIFUL.

I'll report back after the big day.

For now, check out some of my favorite wedding pins (located on my Celebrations Board)!

Tree Centerpiece from Martha Stewart

Green Tablescape from Cocoon Home

Beautiful Style Me Pretty

This would be so fun during a cocktail hour or something!
Style Me Pretty

A picture like this would be awesome with my huge family!
I couldn't find a good link. Found on Pinterest here.

OBSESSED with the fingerprint band! Etsy

Cherry Blossoms from Weddzilla

I LOVE LANTERNS. I doubt we've ever be able to do this in Colorado.
Apartment 34

Sam and Steve will be doing this Saturday night!!
Jeff and Lisa Photography

If you like any of the pictures here, check out my Pinterest and/or follow me! 

Hope you have a fantastic weekend!

Our New Bedroom Layout

Good morning blog friends!

I got off work early last night and laid down to take an afternoon nap... after about 3 minutes I heard a bang bang bang on my door. It was the maintenance man coming to fix our Air Conditioner/Heater. I was mad for a second (because I wanted to rest!), but he was super helpful and replaced our whole system. 

It is SO awkward to just lay around while a stranger is being totally productive in your home, so I got up and looked around for stuff to do. I folded laundry, unloaded the dishwasher... and rearranged our bedroom!

Brian was so impressed when he got home. He thought I had asked the maintenance man to help me move furniture! But no, I did it (inch-by-inch) all by myself.

I found this website on Pinterest and used it to see the layout before I actually moved furniture. The problem was that I had to use their furniture to layout the room, but I had the measurements of our furniture, so I found stuff that was close to the same size. This part probably took about 10 minutes, which I felt was 10 minutes worth spent. I'm sure you could find a better website to use, this one just happened to literally land in my lap at the right moment. 

I cleaned as I moved the furniture, so the whole thing took about 45 minutes total. But here is the final product!

Don't mind Brian testing out the new layout

We can see out of our window now

I love our wooded view!

Please ignore the laundry baskets. 

I love it. 

Honestly, it was a bit confusing this morning because our alarm clocks are in different places now, but other than that I think we both like it better. I'll let you know in a few weeks if it has anything to do with Feng Shui or not. :)

We did notice a few major bonuses to this setup.

First, the lighting has always been dark in our bedroom. For some reason this new layout makes it brighter.

Second, I think it feels a lot more welcoming. I no longer have to walk around the foot of the bed to crawl in, so I can roll in and out of bed very easily now. And even though Brian now has to walk around the bed, I think there is a much more welcoming look to the room because when you walk in you don't immediately see the wooded foot of the bed.

Last, I had wanted to completely redecorate, but now I only want to get rid of the wall shelves (and maybe add some pretty Ikea shelving).

It's amazing how moving one piece of furniture can completely change the feel of a room!

I'm happy.

Linking Up:

58 Home Garage Sale

Saturday morning I discovered something awesome. Like most mornings, I woke up, opened my computer and started looking around the Internet. I checked my e-mail, blogs, Facebook, Pinterest, and (since it was the weekend) Craigslist. 

Craigslist is awesome. I could go on and on about all I've found on Craigslist (including 2 wonderful roommates), but this particular day I found something really great.

A 58 Home Garage Sale. 

58 homes. 

Scratch the rest of our Saturday plans. We had to go!

Honestly, it was kind of overwhelming. It was spread across an entire neighborhood and there were people everywhere. Some houses only had a few things, but some had a lot of stuff. One house even had an Estate Sale going on so we got to walk through the house. And they had a candy stand, a TCBY stand and a doughnut/coffee/hot dog stand. 

I took $20 cash with me and only spent $5. I would have spent a lot more money/bought a lot more stuff if everything had been in one place... Brian and I went to a sale like that one time and spent $90 (we got some major pieces of furniture too), but this time it was so spread out that I didn't want to buy something in case I saw something better later. 

Here's what I got:

$2 Large Black Vase

$1 Small Frame

$1 Long Gold Frame

$1 Pretty Yellow Pitcher

$5 for the whole loot!

I'm still not sure what I'm going to do with it all, but I'll let you know!

Heading to Colorado for a wedding this week so I won't be around as much as usual. 

Happy Monday!

P.S. If you like what I have to say, I'd love it if you'd follow me! 

Know anything about Feng Shui?

Hello Blog Friends,

Last night (seconds before falling asleep), I decided that I need to Feng Shui our room. A few years ago, I was having trouble sleeping and asked a friend to help me lay out my room with better Chi, and it worked! Well, at least I slept better. I have no idea if Feng Shui really works or not... but I figure, what's the harm in trying it? Brian has a LOT of trouble falling asleep at night and if we can fix it for free/cheap, I'm going to try.

I only know a few things about Feng Shui, and they've all come to me from random sources. I've googled it a little and found a few tidbits here and there but it gets so confusing!

Here are the things I know about Feng Shui:

1. You shouldn't have your bed right under a large window (which we do).
2. You shouldn't keep anything under your bed (I'm pretty good at this except I put my computer under there at night).
3. You shouldn't have your computer/work space in your room (See at #3).
4. It should be a calming room (I don't think ours is).
5. You shouldn't sleep right in front of the door (Brian does).
6. Keeping your toilet seats down is supposed to help you financially.

#6 sounds so silly, but it's such a small thing to do so we do it. I had a pretty serious financial crisis that worked itself out within a couple weeks of putting the toilet seat down. After that, I say, whether it works or not, it is staying down!

Here are some picture of our bedroom in it's current layout.

Taken from the main door

3 doorways: Right-main door, Center-bathroom, Left-closet

I don't like this wall. 

Brian's side of the room

Dresser/Main door to hallway

I know I need to do some major redecorating to this room as well... I think I'll take on a little Feng Shui and redecorating at the same time.


If anyone has any ideas, I would love to hear them!