since you've been gone

OKAY. Okay. Since I'VE been gone. 

I was looking through my iPhone pictures last night and found a few things that I never mentioned on here. Mainly because I haven't been ON here much, but hey, I've been a busy bee this summer!

So, here's five things that have happened this summer that I haven't touched on much on here.

Remember the Etsy shop I mentioned? I made my first sale! This is just the rough shot (aka, not even on the nice fancy cardstock), I'm still editing the final product, but YAY! I am obsessed with how they turned out. Now I just need to re-stock the shop so I can send more brides pretty goodies like these.

My best friend got married!! This is really what kept me the busiest. I designed and printed and put together a ton of stuff for her, and you GUYS, it all turned out so good. I can't wait to share everything. And then list them in my shop! She was the HAPPIEST bride I've ever seen and the night was just amazing. 

I broke up with running. I felt like I was 8- years old the other day after a run so I'm just not going to go back to it. Instead I'm going to cry while paying the bill for a month of Barre. Anyways, you can benefit from this! I'm selling my only-used-twice Garmin Forerunner 10 - currently on sale for $129.99 - for $70. You know you want it. (hey hey hey) <- name that song...

I mentioned it casually on here, but A was supposed to go to Iraq for work (CAN WE PLEASE JUST DRILL IN FLORIDA ALREADY?) on August 17. Then on August 24. Then on September 5. And then on September 12. Today! Customs was taking forever with the rig equipment, apparently. Anyways, with everything going on in Syria, his company decided that, in case of an evacuation, it would be easier to evacuate one person instead of two. A was the younger, less-experienced guy, so he is getting to stay home. Which, if you look at the map, is a REALLY GOOD THING! He was supposed to go to Irbil, on the right, and the really bad stuff in Syria is centered around Al Hasakah, on the left. HI, THAT IS SCARY.

I instagramed this, but I have to share it here! We bought this about a month ago and this past weekend I FINALLY finished it. The inside was yellow and we just thought it clashed too much, so I painted it the now current gray color. And I pretty much just stare at it everyday. And of course, to no one's surprise, my china has bows on it. I say MINE because honestly, what guy gets excited about registering for and receiving china? 

So there you have it, a bit of what I have been up to!

PS! THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF TODAY!

It's my favorite little man's SECOND birthday! I can't believe it has already been TWO years since he was born. Reid man, Aunt Kiki and Uncle Ahday love you SO much! And we can't wait until your birthday party on Saturday. It's not your fault you were born during football season, sorry if everyone is antsy to leave to see the aggies stupid johnny beat bama. 

best day ever + style help

Yesterday was an AMAZING mail day. 

As you know from this post, my best friend got engaged recently. I am still over the moon excited about it...and yesterday it got even MORE exciting. 

A opened it first and pretended to me me - aka he screamed 'oh my gah!' in a girlish voice. 

Here's what I saw when I finally got to open it:

There may or may not have been some jumping up and down, crying and squealing going on...leaning more towards the may.

I'm a MOH! I was a maid of honor for my sister's wedding, but she had a Matron that was her age (seven years older) and she did all of the duties. I am SO excited to get back into wedding planning. I've missed it way too much.

Her younger sister is her Maid of Honor, so we will likely share the duties of planning the bachelorette party. Right now the plan is to do it in Dallas - it's the halfway point for the high school and the college girls. Any of you know of any other good ideas? We are thinking maybe the Gaylord Texan - perfect for laying out with some cocktails! 

I am so incredibly blessed to have such an amazing, caring and loving best friend. I cannot wait to stand by her side on her specialist of days. 

_________________________________________________________________

And totally unrelated to above - I need help!

We have a Mardi Gras ball on Saturday night and I need suggestions on how to style my dress. Let me know what you think!

I know, I know - the hat is SUCH a good look

All images via

I would either like to do big earrings and no necklace or big necklace and no earrings...and that's about the limit of my style knowledge. Calling all personal stylists wanna-be's!

put a ring on it

Sidenote - I'm pretty sure that I would have my posts done a lot earlier in the day if it wasn't for picking a title. I had this post written two hours before I decided what to name it. Why is that the hardest part?

I planned on writing this on Tuesday, but we slept until noon and then watched football all day long. This is my not-so-subtle way of including, again, that FSU won and Florida lost. This giddyness won't leave me until around November of next year.

Remember this post? Now I can shout it from the rooftops - my best friend is getting MARRIED!! I guess I could have shouted it from the rooftops on Monday since she doesn't know this blog exists, but you never know. Google is such a stalker.

I was so excited that her future Hubs, Richard, asked me to take pictures of it all. 

His original plan was to take a walk through Herman Park, but it decided to be a super disgusting rainy day, so at eight that morning we went to plan B which was the Butterfly Exhibit at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. 

I'm no professional, but I think I got some pretty good shots that they will cherish forever. I would give anything to have some pictures from when A proposed! 

Thank God for iPhones! I was hiding out and knew exactly when to jump out and start shooting thanks to tracking Richard on Find my Friends. 

Here she stumbles upon a card with her name on it. In the card are tons of post-it's with everything he loves about her, the last one being Will you Marry Me?

In this shot I am literally a foot away from them and she still had NO idea that I was there. I wish I would have had A take some shots of her reaction when she saw me.

 Let's keep in mind that it was DISGUSTING outside when looking at how we look in these. The first thing Lyns said was "of course you had to do it on the day I look like shit!"

I am SO excited to Lyns and Richard. My best friend could not have found a better man for her, they love they have for each other is a special one. Now everyone say some prayers that Richard gets a job in Houston after grad school and A gets one there soon. Lafayette and F'ville, AR are WAY too far from each other!!

I already warned Lyns that she might have to tell me to shut up a lot throughout this process. I might be a little TOO excited to go through a wedding planning process again. SO MUCH FUN!

wedding wednesday

and in today's edition of posts where I talk too much...we have my first bridal shower!

The friends mentioned in the previous post (Lyns, Haylie and Steph) and one more, Lauren, and their moms threw me this shower in Houston.

It was SUCH a nice shower! Haylie's mom is super crafty so everything turned out perfect. They had all the shower guests bring a recipe and with their gift they put all of them in a recipe binder. I love it and refer to it weekly!

I'm not one for shower games, but the one they did was really fun. Every guest brought an additional small gift in different wrapping than the regular one. I had to open each one and guess who brought it. For example, a guest brought olive oil and it was my sister-in-law because she loves to cook Italian food. (Ok, I got this one wrong, but it paints the picture.) For every guess I got right, I got fun goodies that they knew I loved, like Goldfish, nail polish and candy.

We got tons of fun presents - my family and friends are seriously the best! Here's some pictures from the day.

the dessert table set up - so yummy!

hostesses and my mom

bridesmaids minus two

mother-in-law!

 

 

Click here to see other wedding posts!

wedding wednesday

Time for the surprise engagement dinner post!

I have the sweetest childhood and forever best friend, Lyndsay. She lives in Northwest Arkie so we don't get to see each other a lot, but when we do, we make the most of it.

Luckily we got to celebrate the engagement because we were both home in Houston for Christmas. (She also helped me pick a wedding venue that week!)

Every holiday that I'm back home for, I always have either a lunch or dinner with my best friends from high school. Lyns, Haylie, Steph and I had already had our lunch that week so it surprised me that they also planned a dinner later on that week. I didn't think anything of it when they said the boys were welcome to come, though.

The night of the dinner Haylie, Lyns, A and I all rode together to Campioni's (check it out if ever in NW Houston, deeeelish!) and met Steph and JR there. We walked in and bypassed the hostess stand, and like a dummy I didn't think anything of it. Out of the corner of my eye I see my sister and everyone yelled surprise. I was SHOCKED! It is SO hard to surprise me, and they pulled it off. I mean, just check out this face, says it all.

at least I dressed cute!

 

the mastermind behind it all

 

Lyndsay had my mom give her phone numbers for all of our family friends so that they could be there with us. It truly was the most thoughtful thing ever and SUCH a fun night.

 

knew me before I was born!

brian, on the left, taught me how to ride a bike when I was five

sweet friends

newly engaged couple!

 

 

Click here to see other wedding posts!



 

saw it. pinned it. did it.

I REALLY wanted this edition of saw it pinned it did it to be un-wedding related, but I failed majorly this week. I made three recipes from pinterest, but forgot to take step my step photos of them. Next week I'll start fresh...but for now, here's something else I made for the wedding. (catching on? i made almost everything myself. get help for yours, it was rough!)

So, here's some of my inspiration pins.

via

via

I knew that chalkboard would fit in with the feel I was going for, so I set off to find some cute ones. FAIL. They don't really sell cute chalkboards anywhere. I almost gave up on this one until I saw these platters at Marshall's. (And here's where I tell you that I got a new phone since then so the only photos I have are screen shots off instagram. Baaadddd blogger.)

 

Each platter was around $5.00. Then I spray painted each with a clear coat because I read somewhere once that you can't paint on ceramic and have it stick without that. Don't skip this step!!

 

Then I followed this tutorial on how to make your own chalkboard paint. Yes, you can buy it, but this way is MUCH cheaper! I ventured over to Lowe's. On a Friday night...yep, life of the party over here! (I did go get wine right after, though. All crafting needs some wine. Just a fact.)

 

Anyways, I got the little trial container of valspar, I think it was three dollars. It's right at a cup. I got a navy color because my wedding colors were navy and yellow. 

via

Then came the painting. I had to do three coats because I'm a perfectionist. Two would have been fine, though. Let it dry completely and then you have to chalk the whole thing and wipe it off with a damp rag. Once dry, it's ready!

Here's what mine looked like once completed. (Sidenote - if you make your own paint and want to change out what you write on there, you have to use REAL chalk. I used a chalk pen so I can never change what they say. For some reason the chalk pen doesn't erase well on homemade chalk paint. I guess I could just paint over it, though!)

next to the card holder

the bar menu

we didn't want assigned seating, but did want our family members to get the best tables

our sign in books were children's books of our college teams

the sign in/gifts table

 

Now go link up with Katie and Stephanie to see what others are pinning and making! That is my favorite part of this, seeing how others use their crafty skills.