I Made a Box for Your Card; You're Welcome.

I was in the check out line of the local grocery store a while ago and an orange clearance sticker caught my eye. They were stuck on these fake book box things - I'm sure you're familiar. I grabbed two of different sizes ($3.50 & $5) with immediate intentions of using one of them as a card box.  I "fixed" the smaller box and will stack it on the larger one to add depth to the table's elements.

The lining on the inside was a wine red color - not one of my wedding colors - so that had to be "fixed." I'd also already picked up a little glittery banner that said "Cards" that I wanted to use. I remembered I'd bought this book of freakingamazing paper from the craft store so I snagged that, cut the paper to size (only for the lid since that would be most visible. Then I washi-taped the edges which doubled as a clean edge and also held on the fishing line from the banner. The lid would flip open too far so I added a length of blue ribbon and boom. done. 

See:

Toot Toot: Wonderland Edition

I cannot remember how old I was, but my Nana once gave me a copy of Alice Through the Looking Glass. It has always been one of my favorite tales - an escape into another's wild adventure. As an adult I remember small details from the story: A girl, Alice, who has presumably fallen down a (tardy!) rabbit's hole and proceeds to drink some magic potions, join a Mad Hatter for a tea party, and meet the Queen of Hearts. Oh, and something about a sly kitty cat and chubby caterpillar that smokes. These are things around which my mind has formed my own story and will now be the centerpiece of...

My bridal shower :) 

A few lovely bridesmaids are working their imagination around the clock to come up with the dopest Mad Hatter Tea Party inspired ideas that they possibly can. My Type-A brain has set up a shared Pinterest board and an Etsy board for us to share ideas and to use as inspiration for projects, one of which I'm about to share! (This is just the one project so far that my MOH has let me do [thank you!] because I'm 94% done with wedding stuff and am antsy to help with this shindig!) 

Wedding Craft: Gold Polka Dotted Vases

Shortly after getting myself engaged I came across these 9" tall cylinder vases at Crate&Barrel. Sooo I bought ten and they sat in the box in our room until this week. 

I considered wrapping them in some leftover lace with floating candles but I wasn't totally sold on the idea; I'm glad I waited until I found the inspiration for my final product via StyleMePretty.

This process was pretty straightforward, as usual. I used the same gold paint I used on the ring box and "&" and a pack of variable sized round sponge ...brushes? sticks? thingies? that I found at Michael's.  I also grabbed an "artist's palette" (that red bowl there) & a paper towel for when I spilled a bit of the obligatory glass of wine (spoiler alert - I didn't spill any!). And the other obligatory-tool-whilst-crafting: Arrested Development. 

Before:

The After, with romantic-lighting:

I started at the bottom of each vase using my largest round sponge and then polka-dotted about 1/3rd of the way up. Then I used the next two smaller sizes in the same manner, overlapping the sizes slightly. A sweet fade, if you will. Go ahead and click that link, you'll be delighted by it. Also, let me know if you were surprised by the result...

Initially I wasn't digging the texture the sponge left but it kind of reminds me of a lacy zinnia flower and I was ready to be done so I left it as you see it. AND it only took seven episodes of AD to get 10 of them done! 

I grabbed and lit just the two 3x3" candles to see how the light reflected off another vase and I just adore the look! It's just what I imagined - a little bit of vintage, whimsy, and mod!

Hanky Bed for My Preciouses

A couple of weeks ago I finished a wedding project, the box for my precious, but I didn't exactly finishfinish it as I still needed to make two little pillows with a pretty ribbon to tie the rings in. 

I have some scrap lace from some table runners I snagged from another bride (she knows about it, I assure you.) and thought it would be really pretty to do two little ring pillows using that lace. Well, I didn't have any polyfil and after pricing a bag of it at Wal-mart the other day - the price wasn't an issue, it was a quantity thing. You can only buy this stuff in quantities like: Fill the Penthouse or Cover Everest with Fluff. 

Cue impatience. I'm for reals ready to cross another thing off my to-craft list!

I only needed a handful of stuffing so I figured I would just find a sacrificial pillow around the house and steal some from it. It would be an unceremonious event and everyone would be better for it. ...right?

S+J Engagement Photo Shoot

It's only just occurred to me that I haven't shared our favorite engagement photos (yes, I realize there are still a lot here, but I assure you it is INDEED narrowed down). We visited Charles Towne Landing in Late January as we were trying to mimic the landscape of our wedding/reception venue, which is private so we couldn't just go traipse around snapping pics. CTL was the perfect background!

Loren & Bryan of Loren Routhier Photography are a great and easygoing duo and we're really happy that we stumbled upon them to work with during this exciting milestone in our lives! Loren emailed the other day to let us know that our engagement shoot is going to be featured on Bisou Bride sometime in August; neat!

Anyways, I guess I was waiting to share until after we sent out our StD's but now that they're out well... 

THE REVEAL!! 

:::insert twinkling magical noise:::

A Golden & & a Box for My Precious

Actually, it's a golden box to hold two My Preciouses. I realize this goes against there's only one "My Precious" but this is me not caring.

Early in the wedding pinning planning process I cam across a DIY that seemed pretty quick and easy. Turns out it was! Although, I managed to spread the project out over about 4 months. Talented, I know.

I bought an unfinished little box and "Sahara Gold" metallic acrylic paint from Hobby Lobby, ordered some vinyl decals from CraftCuts.com, and grabbed a quart of paint I've been saving for (seriously) nearly 8 years. That last part I don't recommend; I'm pretty sure that's a no-no. But it was super duper high quality paint from PPG called Newport Berry Blue or Newberry blue. I'm too lazy to go look. I've been saving it for a very special project. 

I was also working on finishing an  "&" sign I purchased off Etsy. I was pretty sure I wanted it gold so I bought some green spray paint while I was at Hobby Lobby. Which was a good thing because I decided I didn't want it all gold. I know me so well...

A series of mildly-acceptable-quality photojournalistic moments captured during the process:

Finding Wedding Aesthetic Focus: Five Months to Go!

I only have five more months to practice signing my new name :D

 

I knew it would happen eventually but to look through my Pinterest boards I think someone might be a wee bit confused with what's really going to go down. Well, maybe just me. A while ago. 

But not now. Ohhh no! I've whittled down the aesthetic feel to four words: lace, nature, vintage, glitter. I think "modern vintage" might sum up what the final product will be ...but maybe not. I've been using the phrase "glammed up picnic" (or variations thereof.) Basically, I've been glittering votive holders, twining glass bottles, procuring lace runners and lanterns, and daydreaming about baby's breath e.ver.ry.where. For decor I've found three sites that I refresh on the reg - Tradesy.com, Weddingbee.com, and 100LayerCake.com. FULL of helpful brides with wedding shit they're ready to sell for (usually) cheap! Of course there's the always handy Etsy from which I've been gathering cute - and decently priced - handkerchiefs. 

As far as attire goes:

I've gotten the boys' outfits - they're basically matching but I'm hoping to find something extra for each of them to set them apart. They all have the same long sleeve button up - it's a very small blue and green plaid print. J+J, our ushers, will wear the same gray striped bowtie and the same gray/chambray trousers I found at Gap and Russ is wearing striped blue bowtie with blue pants I found at Volcom. I want to keep them casual and comfortable but not lose focus that this is still a wedding, "fancy picnic" style or not!

So, I'm getting married.

Stephen asked that I be his forever and I said "omg omg omg omg omg omg YES!" There was some jumping around, smiling like smiling is my favorite, and all around "AAAAAAAH's!" throughout the evening. He got the boys in on it - just after I finished taking their pictures on the porch of them in their costumes, they insisted I go back in because "Daddy needed my help with something." 

I'll be honest - I was suspicious. They way they were smirking was indicative of more than "I'm about to get a bunch of candy, y'all!" It was more of a "I'm about to load up on candy like I'm on Oprah's Favorite Things episode!!" smirk.

But another nugget of truth - I really had no freaking idea. 

This was no trick, it was allllll treat :)

We picked a venue before we picked a date - of which we now have both. I've found an amazing duo of wedding coordinators, Fabulous Fete, to help me out. Photographer is booked. And the really important parts - the food and bar - are underway. This is soooo stinking exciting!

In the midst of all this I'm taking a few more classes - I aced Accounting 100 & Humanities 112 last semester. I'm working on (well, supposed to be at this very moment) Sociology 100 and my first Project Management Class, BUS 375. 

Even more important than that, though, is that my best friend in the world, Sarah, got engaged mid-November! She's opted for a short engagement so life is about to get a lil bit more fun for all of those closest to me! I'm getting a hot pair of red heels out of the deal, too, sooyouuuknooowwww, I'm absolutely delighted!

The biggest project I've worked on so far is finding a way to officially ask my girls to be my wingbitches. I scoured the internet (*pinterest) for ideas and came up with a box full of goodies relevant to The Big Day (TBD from here on out. ain't nobody got time to keep typin that shit out.)

Here's what I came up with, from their POV:

she's all like "GASP! I have maaaaaaail!"

The commitment of being noncommittal.

Hey.

Its been a while, but I mention that without apology because let's be honest, neither of us holds it against me.

full disclosure, I had to change that sentence because I couldn't figure out how to spell unapollogetically. 

Had a little photo shoot action last weekend. It was of a new (to me) variety that I had the opportunity in which to participate; thanks to the BFF for that :)

However, it was bad timing for the shoot becaaAAause: 

I started back to school this week. Your mom goes to college. I'm taking an accounting class, of which SHOULD span over 11 weeks, in five weeks. Things aren't off to a great start. I can't quite comprehend the slightly-more-than-basic accounting equation. I get it - money in, money out. But, no, it's not that easy. So, I guess I do naught "get it." After this class I'll take another Humanities class, same squeezed in style. Classes end just before Christmas so I'll be all stressed busy this fall.

This weekend Q will get some serious parenting time in with all three boys since I'm flying to Jackson, MS for my brother's wedding. My mom and her boyfriend will be there, plus a ton of other people I don't know or haven't seen since I was 11ish. 

Shout out to mom, btw, for confirming / unconfirming the jazz-age lawn party theme. I read that as "let's dress up with pearls and feathers and shit!" 

Mom, being her awesome self, read that as "I should make sure I do / do not need to dress up." She saved our seats as 'family' instead of 'the entertainment.' Again, thanks mom for stealing my excitement but for a really wonderful reason. 

School for the little ones is going well, I guess. I only really know about Josh since we see his homework agenda every day. He's got an issue with keeping his pie hole shut, but I've hopefully threatened that out of him (for at least another few weeks; fingers crossed). 

Autumn is really setting in around here which is great because a certain permanent roommate ;) has been jonesing to not induce sweating by simply thinking of how hot it is outside. Beautiful stuff going on here, y'all. I'm excited to start layering; I got a little taste yesterday: 

Oh, weight loss is going well, too. I knew after I broke 165 that it'd jump right back up - that's normal - but I wasn't going to let that knowing steal my getting-skinny joy. This morning I was exactly 165 and have been losing .2lbs/day for a few days now. I hurt my groin the other week, took the week off to heal and am back at it this week - although with less vigor. I'm using my excessive brain function as an excuse.   Since I stopped doing the 30 Day Shred in the middle of level 2 I just started over Tuesday.  Almost vomited / passed out no less than three times. So, I think I'm doing it right this time! 

We've got some serious stuff going on around here. Most of it revolves around me, naturally. :::insert lolz::: I've had to remind myself many times that if I'm going to be this busy, I'd better commit to not doing it all with 100% effort. That might sound terrible, but really I guess I'm just aware of my limits.