{9/52}: Wedding Invitations

Ooohh wedding invitations....

I've had them printed since last August. Yes, I have a problem ; )

I made/designed them myself, with inspiration from various sources. I very much enjoyed the satisfaction of having done it, making them completely custom for us is just fun!

April rolled around and started steam rolling through the days, which had me saying crap! I need to start addressing the invitations soon!!

I had this brilliant idea to print the names and addresses onto the envelopes along with the little love birds from the invitation off to the side. Unfortunately, that idea was only good in theory. This was the result of said printing....11 ruined envelopes later, I couldn't figure out if it was Word, the printer, user error, or an unfortunate combination of all three!

So, I gave in to the "proper" way of doing things (proper schmoper, this girl is digital...) and hand wrote addresses. I had a custom stamp made for the wedding favors and whatever else I felt like putting it on, but the first go around it was too big for the paper tags that I had already bought. So, the gal who made it gladly made me another smaller one at no extra cost to me (she does awesome work--http://www.jessicalynnoriginal.com/). I now had an extra stamp and decided it was the perfect size to dress up the envelopes a little. I used clear embossing power and a heat gun (craft blow dryer lol) so the ink was raised up and stood out. I love how it turned out, even if it did take a little bit longer....and even if nobody else really cared *lol* ; )

Stamp...

Sprinkle embossing power...

Shake off the excess...

Heat 'em up and voila! Cuteness : )

{8/52}: The Mariners::Happy Birthday, Thomas!

My mom and I took Thomas to a Mariners game for his birthday--one of my favorite things to do in Seattle! Cody does not share my love for baseball even the slightest bit, so he chose to stay at work instead of going to the game with us : P

Even though they lost, it was still a great evening. We had killer seats in right field, right next to the foul pole. I was hoping for that home run catch, but no such luck.

I love everything about Safeco field, and while we froze our butt off in the 40° air, the garlic fries, cheeseburger, and hot chocolate run made it bearable : )

{7/52}: I'll get there!

My soon-to-be sister-in-law (okay, we've dropped the soon-to-be for a while, its just easier! lol) Keana kindly reminded me that I was on more like an every other week blog posting schedule...

Guilty as charged!

I do have several things I want to post about wedding projects we've been working on, but as I sat here debating about what I should post, I was like you know what? That means I haven't been sitting at my computer, and I've decided that's a beautiful thing sometimes. I'm attached to my phone at the hip as it is! I've been busy with things I don't necessarily want to be busy with, but working full time means I'm makin' that $$$! ...too bad most of it is going to savings for wedding/I want spending money in Portland : )  I've done another couple photo shoots, enjoyed the sunshine whose presence we were graciously blessed with over Easter weekend, and even gotten a little down and dirty refinishing some counter tops with Cody this past weekend. These arms need some working out before they are cut out for any more sanding!!! But, they are looking amazing, and I'm actually kinda sad that I'm going to be at work while Cody finishes it up. We are so impressed with this product that we are probably going to be doing our kitchen this week--it will at least be half saying adios to the 70's flare! : P

Before

After (minus the final clear coat)

Pretty neat so far, huh? : ) Next will be sanding down and painting their cabinets!

I am starting to get a little stressed about wedding stuff, but not in a bad way. It's more like the holy crap I need to start addressing envelopes and mailing out invitations kind of stressed. More than one person has brought up eloping in Vegas, and let me tell ya, some days I wish we would have run with it when Cody suggested it a year ago! ; )

It's going to be beautiful, and the first day of the rest of my life with an absolutely amazing man. Period. : )

{6/52}: Stop it.

One thing I find extremely annoying is people getting into heated debates on Facebook over political/religious issues. Yet, yesterday I found myself engaging in one. It was by no means heated, but it was something that struck a nerve and I couldn't help but say something.

Why I don't get into "discussions" about these kinds of things: everyone is entitled to their own opinions, and everyone deserves respect of those opinions. You typically don't associate yourself with people who have beliefs on the opposite spectrum of your own, therefore you don't have to constantly defend your position. This is why I don't engage in these kinds of conversations willingly--it leads to slippery slopes and things like "Well if you think everyone should be able to choose who they love and be happy, to have the same legal rights as everyone else, then does that mean you think its right for women to get abortions and people to kill other people because that would make them feel better?" Apples and oranges, people. No, it does not mean that. Nobody wins these conversations, not that winning them is important or even the point of having them. 

Slippery. Slope.

My traditional religion tells me certain things are wrong, your life should be lived a certain way. My personal faith does not always agree with what my religion says. And my education tends to blur the line even further. I usually have more emotional reasons to back up what I think when it comes to religious, and even political matters rather than cold hard facts. I don't know the Bible inside and out. I can't pull verses out of my head that "prove" something is right or wrong. But I do know the personal, spiritual relationship that I have within myself. The thing that drives me to the decisions I make, the friends I keep company with, and allows me to love my family with unconditional love, and treat others with the respect that they deserve. Period. 

I love when I come across things that say exactly what I wanted to say. I certainly do no take credit for this as my own, but I certainly agree. Stop it.

Stepping down from my soap box now...

xoxo

{5/52} Spring is almost here!

I am officially ready for some warmer weather!! We are getting anxious for the rain to let up--even though that's never a guarantee around here--and get out and do some camping, hiking, etc.

I was quite happy to see that the cherry tree in the back yard is starting to bloom--a sign of hope! lol

Working nights is kinda kicking my butt...I've got the whole sleeping during the day thing down, but my body is just not liking the switching back and forth. Plus on the weeks on I get absolutely nothing done around the house or for the wedding, so I spend the week off catching up and then it goes by way too fast : P Thankfully I will not be doing it regularly after the beginning of April and will feel like I have time to post (and take) more photos of us out and about as well as about the projects we are working on.

I am excited to work on an and share some more from the photo shoots Ive done over the past couple weeks but haven't finished editing them as of yet--so the beauty of the cherry tree and those two little nephews that always make me smile is what I share today--Van having a blast with the balloons at his mom's baby shower, and Joey a couple of weeks ago being a ham for the camera before happily taking out the garbage : )

{4/52}: Joy

My 2 cents of the day...

As I was backing up the pictures on my iPhone (I would cry if I ever lost any photos I've taken...), I came across this little gem that I had saved a while ago. When I saved it I said "Wow, that's so true!" ..and moved on with life.

Today, however, it kinda floored me.

I know what joy is, but I decided to look up the definition...not that there aren't several depending on where you look. So, according to Merriam-Webster:

Joy - the emotion evoked by well-being, success, or good fortune or by the

prospect of possessing what one desires.

I am my own worst critic, and beyond guilty of letting comparison steal my joy, whether that be with the photos I take, the friends and acquaintances I have, or the place that I'm at with school. This does not mean that I am  not a happy person or that I am unhappy with life. I have so much to be thankful for, so much to be completely overjoyed about, and that I am.

I don't feel the need to go into detail, but a lesson I need to learn: to stop being so damn critical of myself.

I think we can all benefit from remembering this little quote. Striving to be your best doesn't always mean being the best, as cliche as that may sound. Love the ones you've got, enjoy the little things in life, be thankful  every day for what you've been given, and for the chance to do it all again tomorrow.

{3/52}: House work...the kinda fun kind

(shhh...its been a little more than a week! : P)

Since we moved last June, Cody and I have done a lot of little (some a little big) projects around here to spruce things up or simply make a space functional again. I'll admit that at times I didn't think some of the things would get completely done before we moved again in August, but I think we have just about everything done that was planned on at this point, i.e., the things we could afford to do *lol*

I think that I posted a few pictures from "before" when we started working on our bedroom, but here's a refresher...

A mess is what it was : P  We ripped out the carpet, washed the walls, took down the old blinds, as well as both of the sinks in the bathroom--the shower was already ripped apart when Cody had started working on it for his parents a few years ago after he remodeled the guest bathroom. One shower was good enough for now, that gets expensive quick in an old house.

I know I know....right now you are wishing you had awesome 70's black and gold tile in your bathroom ; )

We decided on a NYC theme for our room. I'm in love with that city and had tons of pictures to decorate with from my trips out there. After we picked out colors I went to town putting together a collage like this one I came across on Pinterest....long before we moved too!

Next came the pictures and floors.....and the floors didn't get done for what felt like FOREVER. Not on purpose, just two busy college students, and I certainly couldn't do it by myself : P

This was the template I made to know where I wanted each of the frames. I bought a big roll of butcher paper on Amazon (it's come in handy for wedding planning too!) and traced the outside of all of my frames and just used painters tape to hold them up so it would be easy to move them around.

These pictures are put on canvas with photo mount spray that I got at Michael's--gotta take advantage of those 40% coupons! The canvas I got a JoAnn Fabrics, they have a 2 pack of 12x12 with a "bonus" gallery 12x12 (thicker sides) canvas...the added bonus was that it was on sale for $8! I painted the sides with black craft paint to go with the room. The frames below I scored at Goodwill--3 packs of plain wood IKEA frames for $.50 each, and there were 6 of them so I couldn't resist snagging them all : P

 I had the collage done for a while, but I wanted to wait until we had the floors done before I took pictures of the final results--I think we got the floors down just before Thanksgiving. I *love* how it turned out, and it still needs work but we can live without trim and closet doors for now : P

YAY! NO MORE SUBFLOOR! ; )

Oh but we aren't done....

The living room--Cody calls it the family room and what I call the front room the living room....it gets confusing : ) --was the other project we got done, and I'm pretty much in love with how it turned out.

Cody's sister and her boyfriend did most of the carpet ripping in this room while they were staying here, we just cleaned up what was left and got rid of this weird jaunt in the floor that curved the tile around to meet the  width of the sliding door....hard to visualize, you kind sort of see it in the sunlight on the floor in the bottom picture.

First, I swear it is a coincidence that the color I chose for the accent wall and the main color for our wedding are pretty much the same....I just like what I like okay? : )

BAM! Color, floors down and lights! 

It didn't take us too long to get this room done...we were itching to have a place to stretch out and watch some TV.

Despite the time and effort it takes, I really enjoyed working on these projects with Cody. It's nice to know I'm marrying someone that can fix and take on pretty much any home improvement project and take the time to do it correctly AND nicely! 

Hope you've enjoyed seeing what we've done--we are certainly proud of the results : )