Operation: Be Crafty

Less than a year ago I posted some goals of things I wanted to do while Allan was at his Annual Training (AT) for about a month. I didn't really do a good follow-up on how that all went down, and for that I apologize. My 31-day challenge and leaving/starting a new job kind of took over my life. Add to that the fact that I wasn't sleeping or eating well with my new husband gone, I struggled.

Well, that annual training season is upon us once again. My husband's brigade is going MUCH earlier this year - he leaves on Monday. He will be gone for 26 days and then once again still have drill the weekend that he returns. le sigh.

Now that I know what to expect on how I will feel/act/do etc while my husband is gone. I know that I have a hard time eating and sleeping and I'm trying to prepare myself for that this time. Also, while I had a lot of craft projects I wanted to complete last year I found that I had no motivation to get the supplies and then start said projects. I am not completely sure why the motivation to shop for crafty supplies left me, but it did.

This year, I've tried to mitigate some of the problems I had last year by preparing myself better for the next 4 weeks. I have more than a dozen projects that I want to finish while Allan is gone. Add to that the fact that my little sister BreeAnn is due to have a baby sometime in the next two weeks, and I'm pretty sure I'll be a busy person. :D Hopefully the time flies until Allan comes back and it won't be too bad without him.

So...without further ado, here's the plan for Operation: Be Crafty for while Allan is gone. :)

1. finish making Lindy’s curtains (I've done one of the panels, but I need to do the other one. I've purchased the supplies)

2. scrapbook wedding book (I picked all the photos I want to use, I just need to get the photos printed and then start scrapbooking away!)

3. finish small pillows for couch (need to get the main fabric still. I have accent fabric.)

4. fabric wallpaper the cabinet doors (see this inspiration post for what I mean. http://www.figmilkshakes.blogspot.com/2013/01/wallfabricking-wallpaper-wall-with.html I still need to measure all the doors, and get fabric)

5. Master Bed bed skirt! (http://ankastreasures.wordpress.com/2010/08/16/dust-ruffle-tutorial/) (fabric has been washed and dried, just need to cut and sew!)

6. Canvas Crayon Art ( I am using the following two posts for my inspiration: http://jennaleighbrown.blogspot.com/2011/09/diy-wall-art-melted-crayons-on-canvas.html and this one: http://artisticjunkie.com/blog/item/129-crayon-art)

7. Living Room Curtains (MAYBE. I haven't decided if I'm actually going to get to this or not. If I do I'll need to get fabric)

8. Master Bedroom Curtains/valance(MAYBE. I haven't decided if I'm actually going to get to this or not. If I do I'll need to get fabric -- maybe same stuff to match the bedskirt for a valance?)

9. Table runners for lv room table and wall table by kitchen (bought fabric, washed and dried, just cut and sew!) 

10. photo canvas established thingy (see this (http://treasuryofmemories.typepad.com/my_weblog/2010/04/established-canvas-kit-is-back-in-stock.html) post for what I'm talking about. I've bought my canvases, created my text for the established canvas, and gotten pictures printed.)

11. Lindy dresses (3) (I'm going to make her some more of this dress: http://craftycupboard.net/twirly-t-shirt-dress-tutorial/ I've already bought the t-shirts and have most of the fabric on hand. One of my fabrics needs to be lined, so I need to get white fabric for that.)

12. Add flutter sleeves to Lindy’s Zebra shirt-dress. (I'm talking about THIS shirt-dress, and I want her to be able to wear it in the summer, but an undershirt will be too hot, but I think I can add flutter sleeves to it and it will be great. (I need to buy black fabric for this.)

13. Turn Lindy's Tinkerbell PJ’s into dress. (Lindy has these adorable flannel Tinkerbell Pj's that are a long-sleeved button up shirt and pants. (that are way too small) I am going to try my hand at turning them into a nightgown with short sleeves. We'll see how well it goes. :P )

So there you go. My crafty plan. Ambitious? Yes. However I'm okay with being ambitious. I've put together a rough plan of when I'm going to start/work on each project. That plan is subject to change depending on when Breezy's baby comes. :D Here we go!!!

HUZZAH!!

We got a really exciting letter in the mail last week....it was our clearance letter from the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. :)

We can now get sealed in the temple! I am so excited and so happy. :) We're going to do it on June 19th in the Logan Utah Temple. I'm really excited for that day. :D I've put together a little countdown timer (as evidenced on the right ----> ).

Here we go! :D

OH what a beautiful day!!!!!

Even though I know we didn't have that rough of a winter, to say that I'm happy that spring is here is an understatment. I am so happy to have nice weather to look forward to, sandals to wear, and outdoor activities to enjoy. :D

I mean honestly, look at this weather forecast for this week from KSL:

Doesn't it just SCREAM spring? :D I'm one happy girl over here, yes siree!

In fact, I got to enjoy my lunch outside today. :D

Everything you ever wanted to know about my wedding.....PART TWO

Okay Peeps. I'm back!

My wedding day was seriously SO CHILL. My best friend Becky came and we went up to Logan the night before the wedding and stayed in a hotel in downtown. We watched chick flicks and ate Easter candy and just giggled over the fact that I was getting married the next day. My wedding day we had HOURS before having to even start getting ready. We enjoyed a lazy morning of silly morning game shows and got ourselves caught up on all the jazz of The Voice. :) It was a fun morning.

So...we had our wedding ceremony at a chapel in Smithfield. Allan's former YSA bishop (from when we first started dating) performed the ceremony. We had the opportunity to say a few words to each other and it was very tender. I cried. I honestly don't remember much, just that when everyone cheered at the end of the ceremony my nephew cried. :D

RECEPTION DECOR:

We spent a day way back in November during a planning session going to all sorts of places to look at them for our reception. The best and my ultimate favorite was by far, Cafe Sabor. It used to be an old train depot and they had this amazing space that was just PERFECT. They handled everything for us. They got tablecloths in our colors, put up ALL of our decor for us, and made everything just very easy.

For our decor we went with tissue paper balls that my sister, mom and I made (I heard there was some crazy last minute making of these the night before the wedding...but I wasn't there, so whatever. :D ) I also made a cute banner for the head table, and all the center pieces were glass votives that we spray painted to look like mercury glass and put battery operated tea lights in.

EVERYTHING WE PRINTED:

My AMAZING little brother Caleb designed all of our invites and all coordinating cards. I LOVED how they turned out. He designed the swirlies, the "C" for my name (because I didn't like the original one that came with the font) and just was AWESOME. I used a GREAT printer down in Spanish Fork. I was able to get everything printed on linen paper which added to the feel I wanted for the invites and was perfect. Caleb also designed a little postcard that we sent to everyone that we wanted to tell, but wasn't invited to the ceremony/reception. This we printed at a place in Orem. It wasn't amazing, but it worked. We ALSO printed a thank you card (just on gray card stock from my personal computer) for everyone's dinner plate. All in all I'm VERY happy with how the paper goods turned out. 

PHOTOGRAPHER:

If you hadn't noticed, I had an amazing photographer: Brandi Lyn with Brandi Lyn Photography. Brandi Lyn was AMAZING to work with. She nailed our style down pat during our formals session. (we had engagement photography done by Allan's cousin) She was fabulous at our wedding and even when I freaked out when I wasn't getting her emails, she was super calm and all worked out in the end. I still am friends with her on Facebook/follow her on instagram and she's AWESOME. She captured all the right moments at our wedding/reception and I love the keepsake photos that I'll have for forever and ever.

RECEPTION PARTY:

After dinner we went out on the patio and had our fathers say some words. We also cut our cake --w which was really a Cheesecake Factory Cheesecake. Oh man, that was the best decision ever. I made our cake topper and found our cake cutting tools at Hobby Lobby.

After all of those shenanigans we had our first dance, which per the tradition in our family (as it seems to be) my Dad interrupted it...but then Allan and I finished it out and then we had the Father/Daughter Mother/Son dance. Then the party got started and we had dancing for an hour or so. We had SO MUCH and our good friends Benji and Melissa dj'd our dance for us. They played all of our favorites and on a couple of the songs EVERYONE got up and danced. It was AWESOME.

GOODBYE!

After we decided we were done dancing and it was time to get on to other activities *wink wink*. We left the restaurant amid confetti poppers that scared the beejebers out of us. We got in our car (after popping a bazillion balloons) and as soon as we turned it on we were attacked by star glitter things. Those things got EVERYWHERE...including down my dress and in my hair. We still find a few every once in a while. :)

Honestly, everything was amazing. I think I covered everything...we had a simple honeymoon up in Bear Lake at Allan's timeshare with Worldmark. It was perfect.

So there you. My wedding. :-) We just received our sealing clearance last night, and so now the planning begins for our sealing day in June. :D :D :D (granted it won't be quite as big of an affair, but still fun and still important to us.) until our next adventure my friends.....ciao!

Everything you ever wanted to know about my wedding.....PART ONE

Well. I've talked about wanting to do this post for OVER a year. And I'm finally getting to it y'all.

I'm sorry. Married life is busy. ;)

ANYWAYS. I wanted to tell you all about my wedding, because it was absolutely perfect and it was everything I wanted it to be at this point in my life. When I was younger I was SO SURE that I wanted the standard Mormon reception where you invite all 500 bazillion people you know, make a bunch of nut and mint cups, serve BYU mint brownies, and then sneak out of the reception early because you're sick of standing in some long line.

Well. When it came time to plan my wedding I KNEW that I didn't want to do that. Any of it. I know there were a lot of people who would have loved coming to a reception like that in support of me and Allan and it would've been fun. BUT at the same time I wanted something sophisticated and intimate. I wanted the people that have ALWAYS been close to me and that will continue to be close to me for the rest of my life.

Thus, our less than 100 guest list was born. Allan wanted something similar and invited even fewer people than I did, but we were both happy with our decision. I know some people felt like they should be there...but alas, it wasn't meant to be according to us. :D

ANYWAYS. Shortly after I started this I realized that there is A LOT to cover. So, PART ONE will be all about what we wore, colors, flowers, and accessories. PART TWO will be all about our photographer, the wedding itself (what we did and why) and everything to do with the reception (restaurant, cake, etc)

ENJOY!!

COLOR SCHEME:
We went with teal, gray (of varying shades) and cream. Here's a link to my wedding inspiration board so you can see what I was sort of going for when it came to my dress and theme.

DRESS:

After shopping with my mom (and perusing Pinterest and knowing kind of what I wanted) and not finding anything, we took the plunge and ordered a dress from China, my mom whacked off the bodice (because it wasn't what I wanted) and then we shipped a mock bodice and then the real thing back and forth 3 (4?) times from VA to UT and back. The finished product still need a few alterations that we were able to find a freind of a friend to do for $50 dollars (I think?). It was a satin pleated top with fake buttons down the back in ivory, with an ivory organza vertical ruffled skirt with a little bit of a train. My mom is AMAZING and the end result was GORGEOUS.

See for yourself:

BRIDAL ACCESSORIES:

I found my shoes at Head over Heels in the Logan Mall, I made my own hair piece (and decorated bobby pins) from a headband thing I found at Kohl's (I cut and slashed and added bling to it. :) ) my bracelet and earrings were made by my mom. :) I did my own hair, which I practiced several times (and it turned out amazing for EVERYTHING) and my own makeup. (I used a lot of e.l.f. products) The AMAZING Jesse Keefe did my nails based off a picture I found on Pinterest.

FLOWERS:

I had a very clear vision of what I wanted for my bouquet and could (mostly) care less about the other flowers. I knew that I wouldn't have much choice given out color scheme, but wanted it all to be classy.  We went to this small little place in Salt Lake that Allan knew about for the mother/father/groom's flowers and I made mine and Lindy's bouquets. Ambitious? Maybe -- but I started it WAY early, had it done in PLENTY of time and it was EXACTLY what I wanted. :D We went with small lilies as the main flower and some other flower that I can't remember for the filler on the corsages. :) Lindy's bouquet is a minitaure version of mine and filled with teal and cream fabric and fake flowers as well as different types of metal broach flower things I found at Hobby Lobby/Michael's. I used toilet paper tubes to make the base and after a lot of hot glue had our flowers done. :)

GROOM:

We got Allan's suit at a clearance sale at Dillards. We had it tailored by Stitched Specialties in Midvale. (they were AMAZING) We rented his vest/tie/shoes from a place in Logan (the only one that had a teal that I liked) and then we got him (and his bestman) "matching" cufflinks. (we got the ones that were monograms of everyone's last name.)

LINDY:

My mom made her dress, I made the flower that went on her dress/in her hair. My mom also made her a necklace. :)

THE REST OF THE GANG:
Everyone else was given paint chip cards with the wedding colors and they were responsible for finding something to wear. I really didn't care what people wore so much and I wasn't going to make people buy something they were never going to wear again. For the most part everyone nailed it on the head. There were a couple of outfits that I would've changed, but it really doesn't matter what people wore. :D

Stay tuned for a blog about the rest of my wedding everything. :D until next time....ciao!

One-Year Anniversary

Well. We did it.

We made it past the one-year mark. :) I love Allan so much and know that I am SO lucky to get to be married to him. 

Marriage is a funny thing - I feel like in the Mormon culture so much is associated with being intimate with a person when being married, but there is really SO MUCH MORE than just that.

The past year has had a steep learning curve of being a wife AND a mother. Who would've thought I'd be potty-training a toddler after being married for 3 weeks? Not this girl. (but totally rocket it like a boss y'all.) I have loved the journey that I have been on so far, and I look forward to learning so much more as time rolls on.

Allan and I decided a few months before our anniversary that we would trade off on years of being in-charge. (so this year he did Valentine's and I did our Anniversary and it will switch every year) Being the one in-charge this year, and loving to be reminiscent of things, we went to Cafe Sabor for dinner. Cafe Sabor is where we had our wedding dinner/reception and I just love the place. :) (I am working on the vendors blog post! It will go up VERY SOON!) Then we went to the Logan Temple to do some sealings. (we decided we wanted that to be part of our celebrations every year.)

We also decided that we didn't want to do gifts every year. (we'll tackle the "big ones" [5, 10, 15, etc] when they come up) Instead we decided that every year we'll write a letter to each other in a journal. This will be an amazing keepsake we can have for our children and I'm excited about it. Allan claims to have a hard time with words, but he always says the exact right thing. I loved reading this year's letter. :) Here's to a bazillion more years together and the eternities to follow. :D

us outside the Logan Temple before doing sealings, after eating dinner.