Show Us Your Life- Wedding Ceremony and Wedding Party

Kelly over at Kelly's Korner is hosting "Show Us Your Life- Weddings" today and since I loved everything about our wedding including the photos I thought I would share again.

This is my husband. We started dating while we were in college although we were close friends throughout high school. We tied the knot on July 14, 2007 and just celebrated our 2-year anniversary. It's been amazing. He is truly my best friend. I knew as soon as we started dating that I would marry him. And there have hasn't been any doubt about that since then.

I knew immediately who I wanted my bridesmaids to be. Here is a picture of our wedding party. Our colors were pink and green. The guys wore green vests and ties to match the girls. Daniel wore ivory to match me, of course.

These are my girls. I love the all so much and wish I got to see them more. They all live far away so we don't see each other very often. We were all college friends. My maid of honor was Alison. She was my college roommate for two years and also one of my sorority sisters. She's the one picutre in the front on the left. They are great friends and were wonderful bridesmaids.

This is one of my favorite photos. This is my flower girl. She was the daughter of one of Daniel's cousins. She is so sweet.


Here's the groomsmen. Daniel's brother was his best man and is picture on the far right.


Here's another photo of the guys looking very manly. What is it with guys that they can't stand too close to each other? Oh well.

This is another of my favorites. It makes me laugh everytime I look at it.



This is the ring bearer. He's my cousin's son. I was so happy that I got to include him in the ceremony.


This is Daniel and his brother, the best man.


Here's my dad walking me down the aisle. I had to keep telling him it was okay. He was pretty much teary eyed the whole time. He would probably kill me for say that but he'll never know. I'm totally a daddy's girl.

I walked down the aisle to "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" by Bach. The girls walked down the aisle to "Canon in D." We had a pianist play all the music. She was amazing. She's the same pianist who plays in the praise band at church with Daniel's dad.

I had to throw this picture in so I could tell the story. Our wedding went off with out any kind of hiccup. Well to the audience there were no problems. I'm glad I wasn't facing the camera while we lit the unity candle. As I was picking up the taper candle I dripped hot wax all over my hand. You can imagine the face I made. I almost said a word that shouldn't be said in church. When I saw the wedding photos I was so glad that the photographers had to stay at the back of the sanctuary, then I watched the DVD. The camera man was positioned perfectly to catch all the excitement of my little incident. I didn't see the camera anywhere near us and now wish that I had. If I had seen him maybe I wouldn't have made such an unpleasant face. Daniel laughed when he saw it. I don't blame him. It was funny.

We used bubbles for our send off. It was fun.

The ceremony lasted about 30 minutes. We had two ministers. One was from our church and the other was my college chaplain. I loved that she could be there to help with the ceremony.

Well I guess that's about it for the ceremony. Next Friday will be all about the reception.

Productivity

It's a great feeling. I love feeling like I've accomplished something during my day. Today has been very productive for me. I worked on several small craft projects for my craft room and cleaned the house. I even got the laundry done. If you know me, you know that's a big accomplishment for me.

This morning I reorganized the utensils in our kitchen. A task that has been needed for some time. After that I made these cute pencil holders to hang on my peg board.

This project is so easy. (Those are my favorite kind of projects.) I made spaghetti for dinner last night and saved the cans I used. I cleaned out the cans and peeled off the labels. These are the supplies needed.
I used a paper trimmer to cut the paper so the edges would be straight. I used scrapbook paper that I already had and spray adhesive. I simply sprayed the outside of the can and after measuring and cutting the paper, wrapped the paper around the can. That's it. Easy, right? Tonight, I will get my husband to drill a small hole in the back side so I can hang them with a hook on my peg board. Perfect storage for pens and pencils. Here's a close up of each of them.







I love this paper. I'm definitely using it for other projects.

I also made these paper clips today. I'm planning on using some craft wire to hang things on and saw this project on one of the blogs I follow. Check it out. It's a great blog.


I plan on making more but I had other things I had to get done so I decided to take a break.



It just keeps coming. I'm telling you, I don't think I've done this much in one day and it's only noon. I made this pillow for my chair. It's a little big for the chair but I'm planning on using it as a cushion.

I really like how it turned out. I had the fabric left over from a quilt I made and it goes perfectly in my room. It was a little darker than I was wanting so I turned the fabric inside out. Here's a photo of the original fabric and how it looks wrong side out on the pillow.


I'd never even considered looking at fabric on the wrong side to see how they looked. I saw a project in a magazine once that did just this and thought it was brilliant. What a great way to make something look completely different. Amazing.

Check out some more great DIY projects over on A Soft Place to Land. It's DIY Day!!

The peg board is up!!!

My wonderful husband put my peg board up for me tonight. I really excited about it. My room is getting closer and closer to being what I see in my head.

I'm having a problem deciding on what fabric to use for the curtains and pillows. I have a valance that I bought from Walmart but now I'm thinking I want to use some fabric I bought to make a curtain for the window.

This is the fabric I'm thinking of using. The wall color is a pale yellow and the furniture is white and light green. This fabric is a pale blue with green, yellow, and red. It's kind of hard to tell in this picture.


This is the valance I'm currently using. It's yellow with green and red. I would love to hear your opinion.


I spent most of yesterday evening rearranging furniture in my room. I ended up changing every piece of furniture. I finally found a set up I'm happy with. I have to work around a full size pull-out sofa. This room doubles as my craft room and a guest room. I moved some of my wall decorations around. I got these candle holders at a flea market for $9 and the sign came from Hobby Lobby.


And here is my new peg board. I haven't put much up on it yet. I'm spray painting the hooks white. Please excuse the disorder. Not everything is in its spot yet but I was so excited about getting the peg board up, I wanted to share before it was totally finished.

New Projects and Pancakes!!!

I finally get to start my projects for my craft room tomorrow. I received my free paint from Glidden today. I picked the 'truly olive' green. I'm using it to repaint the dresser that holds all my fabric. I'm also painting my new peg board. I'm really excited about the peg board. I know it will give me so much extra storage space for my scrapbooking supplies.

I did some flea marketing yesterday and found a cute chair for my craft room. Its white but needs to be repainted. I'm just going to repaint it white and add a cute cushion. I will post plenty of pictures when they are all finished. Tomorrow will be super busy.

Daniel and a few of his scouts are selling tickets at church tomorrow for an upcoming fundraiser so we will have to be there for all three services. We usually go to the first service. Daniel's dad plays bass in the praise team during this service. Afterward we try to make it to an adult Sunday school class. We haven't been able to go for the past month or so. I'm excited about going and catching up with our classmates tomorrow.

If you live in Northwest Arkansas and would like to help out the boy scouts and eat all the pancakes you can, you should join us on August 8th at the Springdale Applebee's for a pancake breakfast. Tickets are $5 and can be purchased at the door the day of the event or from any of the scouts. Let me know if you're interested.

Can't wait to post pictures of all the fun makeovers I'm starting tomorrow. Until then, have a great night.

Show Us Your Life- Wedding Dress

I posted some photos of my wedding dress a last week or so but I LOVED our wedding photos so I'm using this opportunity to share more.

My dress came with cap sleeves but I didn't like them so I had them removed. It was much nicer without them. There was quite a bit of beading on the top part of the dress. When I started looking for my wedding dress, I wanted one with no train and little beading. I wanted something very simple. Or so I thought. When I actually started trying dresses on I noticed I was moving more toward something with a little more detail. I had decided on a completely different dress before I picked this one. I went dress shopping outside of my hometown with my bridesmaids and found a beautiful dress. I wanted to show it to my mom before I committed to it. When I went into the dress shop with my mom I found this dress and fell in love with it. I made my decision quickly. I tried on both for my mom and Daniel's mom and they loved both as well. My MIL Vivian asked me which I like better and I said without a seconds thought that I wanted this dress.


Here's the back of the dress. I knew I wanted a pick-up skirt on the dress years before I actually bought the dress.


Here's a pictures of Daniel's family.


And here's my family.

I've decided that I'm going to use my wedding dress to create a christening gown for our children when we decide to have them. I'm really excited about the idea of this. It's a little sad to think about cutting up my wedding gown but it will be put to a good use. I can't see any reason not to do something like this with the dress. I hate the idea of it just sitting in a box stored away somewhere.

Hope you enjoyed the tour of my wedding dress. Have a great weekend.

Craft room progress. It's getting there!

Today's been a pretty slow day so I thought I would post pictures of the progress of craft room makeover. I've added a few accessories. I'm planning on repainting this dresser. I order a quart of paint from Glidden when they were offering the free paint. It's going to be green as soon as the paint comes in. I found this at a local flea market for $60. It's great for holding all my fabric.

I found this at Hobby Lobby for 50% off. I love Hobby Lobby.


I got this lamp from Walmart for $3.00. It didn't come with the shade so I picked one up from Lowes and used ribbon to cover it. I really like the way it turned out.

I'm really excited about this room. There's still a few items I need to make it complete but we're getting there.

Favorite Recipe Blog Hop

I found this recipe on the weight watchers website a while back and I make it at least a couple time a month. My husband and I love Chinese food but I'm pretty picky about the Chinese restaurants I eat at. That comes from being a health inspector for two years and knowing about all the restaurants around us. Anyway, I found this recipe for General's Chicken and fell in love with it. Plus it's a weight watchers so it's pretty healthy.

Here's the recipe:

boneless, skinless chicken breasts- cut into small pieces
3/4 cup chicken broth
1 1/2 tbsp cornstarch
2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp low-sodium soy sauce
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
2 tsp peanut oil
1/2 tsp ground ginger
2 med garlic cloves, minced
2 cups white rice
1/2 tsp pepper flakes

Heat oil. Add pepper flakes and garlic. Add chicken and cook through.
While chicken is cooking, mix together broth, cornstarch, sugar, soy sauce, vinegar and ginger. Set aside until chicken is cooked.
Once chicken is cooked, add sauce and let simmer. The sauce will thicken up. Be sure to stir occasionally.
Cook rice according to package directions. I start this before I prep the chicken and sauce. The rice usually takes about 20 minutes and the chicken only takes about 10 minutes to cook.

This is what I'm making tonight and I can't wait. It's one of my husband's favorites and I know he can not wait for it.

Enjoy!

Gym fees not in the budget? Try this...

While gym fees may only be $20 or $30 a month, it is definitely not in my budget right now. Plus I hate that ones you sign a contract it basically takes an act of God to get out of the contract. Not really something I want to deal with.

So what did I do instead?

I got a membership to the local youth center. It only cost me $12 for a membership that is good until the end of the year. They have all the same equipment I would use at any of the big gyms for a fraction of the price. My sister-in-law had a membership for this particular center and told me about it. We decided that we needed to start working out together because we are both the type of people that does better when we go with someone. Its been great. We've only gone a couple of times but I've really enjoyed it.

So if you are looking for a gym and can't afford the membership fees, look into the local youth centers.

Addicted to fabric shopping. Help!!

I realized today that I have a big problem and that I need help. I'm addicted to shopping for fabric. I already have a dresser full of fabrics and what did I do this morning?

I went to the local dollar saver and bought four yards of fabric. Do I have a project that I needed the fabric for.

NO.

I love fabric and I love shopping for it. Today I bought four different prints. Two of them I do plan on using on a quilt for a friend. The other two I bought because I really loved the colors.

I'm about ready to paint the living room, entryway and kitchen and the colors in these fabrics are exactly the inspiration for the paint I've decided on for these rooms.

Here's some pictures of the two I bought to use in the living room.





I love these colors together. I'm planning on painting the walls a yellow color and love yellow with reds and greens. I think I'm going to make some throw pillows for the couch with these two fabrics. The inspiration for these colors came from a painting I have in the living room. I got this at Kirkland's when we first moved into the house. I needed something to hang on the wall above our desk and I loved this when I found it. Of course it was on sale when I purchased it. It seems I don't really purchase anything unless its on sale.


What do you think? Do these fabrics work with the color of my couch?

Thanks for your input. Have a wonderful day.

Opinions Needed

It's been almost two years since we moved into our house and while I've pretty much decorated the rooms our guests see, I still haven't done much to the master bedroom or bath. We painted the bedroom a green color a while back. At the time I was okay with the color, but now I'm just not feeling it. It's a little too green. I like the color but its just not working for the master bedroom. I keep switching between colors I want to paint it and I think I've made a decision but I need some help.

Daniel bought me this duvet cover about a year ago and I really like it. It was a birthday gift ( I asked for this one in particular).

He got it from Target and I would love to keep it in the room. It has a yellow trim on it and so I've considered going with a golden yellow for the room. I'm planning on painting the living room some shade of yellow as well and since bedroom is just off the living room it would blend well, I think.

What do you think? Would golden yellow be a good color? And if so could I get away with red accents as well?

Anniversary!!!

Two years ago I married the most wonderful man. It's amazing how fast time flies. It definitely doesn't seem like its been two years since my husband and I shared wedding vows. It's been wonderful. I'm married to the sweetest man. I tell him all the time that he is too good for me. He disagrees. I let him win this "argument" though.

Anyway, I thought I would share some of my favorite wedding photos. We have had other photos taken since we were married but our wedding pictures are still my favorites. So here they are...

Wedding Gown Woes

I don't know if anyone else has problems with beetles but we do. We find them all the time and no matter what we do they just keep coming. Lately, its been worse. Well today my husband found two beetles in our master bathroom. This is where I usually find them too. After finding them, he went on a hunting spree for them. I told him to move my wedding gown bag and he might find where they are hiding them.

I hate to admit it but my wedding gown has been spending the last two years in the storage hanging bag under my rack in the closet. I was reading a post just a couple of days ago on a blog I follow that mentioned how she hadn't done anything with her wedding gown and it had been two years. I completely related with her. Our two year anniversary is just a couple of days away and the dress is still stashed away in the bag. I haven't even had it cleaned. It's awful I know.

I've decided I'm going to do what a lot of people seem to be doing these days and rather than have the dress preserved and stored away somewhere, I'm going to have it made into a christening gown for our family. We don't have children yet but do plan on starting a family in the next couple of years. Neither Daniel or I have a family christening gown (that we are aware of) so I thought it would be a great time to start this family tradition.

I hate the thought of my wedding gown just lying in a box, rotting away. Converting the dress into a christening gown to be passed down through the family feels like a great way to make use of it.

I pulled the dress out today to look at it. This is the first time it has been out of the bag since I placed it back in it after the wedding. It's a beautiful dress. I love it so much. I was amazed to feel how heavy it was. Here's a picture of me in the dress. This is a good shot of the back of the dress.
And here is a picture of the bead detail on the dress. It was ivory with champagne colored details. The beading continued down the bodice and onto the train of the dress.

Photo edits for Constructive Criticism

This friday I "heart" faces is hosting a constructive criticism McLinky to help out all those beginner photo editors out there. This is my first time to post to this but I think that this is a great idea. I'm a beginner and really have no idea what I'm doing when it come to photo editing. I'm definitely self-taught and would love any constructive criticism you would like to offer.

I took this photo of my cousins son earlier this year. It was something I just clicked really quick while he was sitting down. I used the auto setting on my camera. I use a Canon Rebel SXi. I'm still learning out to use the equipment as well. But I really love this camera. So here's the original.





This is the edit. I cleaned up some of the dirt on his face and made the background a little blurred to give a softer look using the Gaussian blur filter. I also used the unsharpen mask on the eyes.

I used PS CS4 to make the edits. I like this photo but I think it could be so much better. Any ideas you have to take it the next level would be appreciated. Thanks for visiting and for your comments.