A Royal Affair

Will and Kate are married! What a fairy tale! Wow! That dress, the music!

I hosted a viewing party for my favorite guys! Tea, Trader Joes' croissants, live wedding coverage, etc! I used the free downloads here to liven up the occasion at 4 am! I wanted to get going at 3 am with the pre-game coverage, but that just didn't work out!

The guys received their invites a few days before the big event! I just left them in the kitchen for them.

 

It was a quick and easy party to throw with forced reliable guests. I made the decor last night and set out my plates so that this morning all I'd have to do is put things where they belonged. Worked great!

 Even better than my royal party, my parent's arrive tonight!! I am so excited to see them!

And I'll leave you with a sneak peek from a project I'm working on. I can't wait to show you the finished product!

Anyway, this book... is my boyfriend...

I have had a horribly heavy heart for nearly 24 hours. That being the case, you're getting a light-hearted post...about as light-hearted as they come. Just promise me that you won't take those you love for granted and that you'll do something today that makes you feel alive and invigorated! Do it for those who can't.. death has lost its sting, but we'll still miss those who are gone. My heart is aching today.

Off my soap box...

I love fantastical movies for little kids, like Ella Enchanted. If you, too, love that movie then you'll know where the title of my post comes from!

Anyway, I got a new picture frame for my bedside table and I thought nothing of it until I was watching Ella Enchanted a few weeks ago.

Aren't these eerily similar?

 My love for kiddie movies must be deeper in my subconscious than I think!!

The Garden -- Before!

Since I was out at the garden last weekend, I wanted to be sure to post on my "before" garden.

I'll be sure to update as I go along... after tilling and de-rocking, after my cool planting is done and so on. But we need a good basis for where we're going to go this summer and fall so here it is... my official "before," aka my starting point.

 Here is most of the community garden. I'm SO EXCITED. Warning... summer visitors... please plan on visiting my garden plot and oohing and aahhing. Consider yourself forewarned.

Here is an over-achiever who already has her border planted and her cool weather plants planted and covered. Hopefully mine will look like that in a few weeks time!!

Any gardening tips I should know about? I'm planting 7 rows of 10 in my 10x10 garden, I'll be adding inoculant in with my pea plants and I won't be planting squash in my garden (not a good track record in that area). I feel like there is so much more about gardening that I need to know. I guess I'll be figuring it out by trial and error. Although, I am lucky that J's best friend with a green thumb has the plot next to ours and that I have a friend at work who has a huge, wonderful, richly producing garden that can help, too.

A fun shower on the cheap!

So, I love throwing parties and showers. If you know me well, you know I like to find any opportunity to do just that. Well J's cousin, Lindsey, is getting married in July and my MIL and I decided to throw her a bridal shower!

It was a small gathering of family and friends, but it was a wonderful time. Since we were having the shower at a relatives home, I decided to do it pretty inexpensively (i.e. nearly free).

I found a printable invite I fell in love with on etsy and started from there. I built the shower on mis-matched patterns, bright colors (yellow, teal, gray, pink) and paper. Yes, paper!

I wanted the shower to be festive and exciting, but, well, inexpensive. So, I grabbed some leftover paper from previous showers and events and went to work.

Things I made for the shower... banner(s), garland, pom-poms, pinwheels, table runners, favors, seed packet placecards, L<3 A glitter letters.... and maybe other things I'm forgetting.

For the banners, I used the free templates from Ruffled Blog. Some letters have multiple color options and some only have one option. They worked out perfectly for this shower in going with the bright color theme!

I made the circular garland with colored paper, my circle hole punch and my sewing machine. Super easy, quick and I think it adds some charm to the mantle (see above).


I also made pom-poms and pinwheels out of tissue paper and colored paper. We scattered them about!

I also made the favors and seed packet place cards. Favors were white pails filled with candy and tied with ribbon and your own little monogram pennant. The seed packets were just standard flower seed packets, covered in a variety of fun paper print-outs. Find all the designs here.

I also made the table runner shown above and below.

 All in all, it was a lot of fun and on the cheap. I always build some money into the budget to buy myself something that I can re-use in the future. For this shower, it was the platters and bowls below!

And just because, here is the beautiful cake!

Do you have a party I can plan next? I can't wait to talk about my next party!

A Weekend to Celebrate!

You all know I love sharing my weekends with you... here's what I did.

Friday, I drove to Indianapolis and painted with my sister at Wine and Canvas.

Then we went out to dinner and stayed up late chatting and reading.

Saturday, after breakfast at Paradise Bakery, we went to Nick's baseball game!

After the game, I headed to AG and UL's where I co-hosted a bridal shower...

...and an impromptu belated birthday celebration, complete with a Happy Birthday to Me cupcake from The Flying Cupcake.

After the parties winded down, I left and headed north to the Selmer's house where I surprised Aubs with my visit! While there, we watched Tangled (part of her Easter present from us), colored Easter eggs, gave baths, fed my little chunky chicken nugget (my new nickname for Aiden) and decorated Aubs' room with leftover decorations from the shower above.

I had too too much fun with all of them, but around bedtime, I headed home to WI!

Sunday, I slept late, we opened our Easter goodies, we had the Easter "treat" hunt with the dogs, we made Easter lunch and we went to the less-crowded 4:30 service at Blackhawk.

 

After church, we went to visit my garden plot before seeing the most amazing sunshine in the world.

It was a great weekend, but I am tired! I even managed to finish two books I was reading and swing by IKEA. Whew!

He is risen!

He is risen, indeed!

This beautiful sunshine greeted us on our drive home from the garden today. It was breathtaking. I had just talked to J about something that was missing for me this Easter and God delivered once again. I wish this picture could have captured its brilliance and radiance... simply breathtaking.

We are raised, to live a new life, to walk in His light, to lift up a world in need. The grave can't hold us now, we have the pow'r of Jesus the risen King! Death gives way to life, darkness into light, we've been given the victory, victory.  -- Blackhawk WAC

Happy Easter!

Treasure Filled Easter Eggs

I saw this tutorial and thought it would be the prefect little thing to go along with J and Twin's small Easter gift. She said it was easy, right? How hard could it be?

Hahahhahah! No, this is not easy or I wasn't doing it right. I had things go wrong at every turn. So, if you want instructions, very detailed instructions... go here. I'll show you my pictures though.
 

 
Maybe this is the what not to do post. :) J and I had fun trying, though!

Good Earth Fri-Day

I hope you do two things today...

1. Enjoy nature for Earth Day. Somehow enjoy this gorgeous planet, and be kind to it while you're at it! Hopefully there isn't snow (or rain, sleet, etc) where you are! (Go to Starbucks with your reusable mug and get a free coffee or tea!)

2. Remember Jesus this Good Friday. For we are saved because we have been forgiven.

J's Wiggin' Out!

Why is J wearing this crazy wig???? (Sorry it's crooked... I'm tired this morning!)

Oh, wait, it's just Oliver pre-spa day!

 
Here is B and P from our trip to Sterling last weekend... I couldn't leave them out two days in a row!

Oliver's Spa Day

Oliver had a full on spa day yesterday. He hated every single minute of it. For health reasons, he needs an extensive teeth cleaning done. Since he was already going to be under anesthetic, we figured we might as well get everything done that needs done (blood work, grooming, brushing, shaving, juicing, nails trimmed, ears cleaned). So he got a full day of doggie happy pills and unwanted pampering.

He's a new dog (except for the two legs where he had a heart monitor and an IV)!

Before...

After...