Wedding Keepsakes

After so many hours, days, and months of planning for THE perfect wedding, you're bound to left in a state of what-the-heck-do-I-do-with-my-life-now... I know I was! Deep down, I didn't want my wedding to be over. "What about all that hard work that went into it?" "What do I do with my leftover wedding keepsakes?" I knew I needed to act fast for one keepsake in particular, my bridal bouquet. I was (and still am) obsessed with my bridal bouquet (a huge thanks to LZ Floral Design), and certainly did not want to just throw out something so beautiful. Why can't fresh flowers just last forever?!



After my wedding, I knew I wanted to hold onto my flowers so I decided to dry them out so I could put them on some type of display. I spent some time looking at tons of ideas like this, and even this on Pinterest. I quickly decided that I wanted to use a shadow box to display my gorgeous bridal bouquet along with some other wedding keepsakes. After a trip to Michael's, I left with a shadow box and some iridescent paper for the background. Once I got home, I got straight to work - grabbed my cake topper, garter, wedding invitation, and dried bridal bouquet and started piecing the masterpiece together.

Once satisfied with the look, I hot glued the pieces to the iridescent paper and slipped it into the shadow box. Once in place, I carefully - you don't want to loose any of those petals - put my bouquet into place. My bouquet was thick enough and pressed right up against the glass to where it didn't need any extra securing.

I ended up hanging it on the wall above my jewelery display - which totally completed the look I was going for! 

This project only took me 10 minutes max to figure out how I wanted my display to look and to assemble. It's super easy, and a really great way to display some of your favorite wedding items.

What did you do with your wedding keepsakes?

It's a Gender Reveal Fiesta

 

We would like to give a huge thanks to our parents for helping put this amazing gender reveal fiesta together and all our family & friends that made it out - thank you so much for making this day so very special. We cannot wait to meet this sweet little BOY of ours!

A special thank you to Tony and Maria Chicas for capturing these special moments!

Friday Favorites

It's finally Friday. Even though it was a four-day work week, it feels like the longest week ever! We have our gender reveal party on Saturday, so we are super anxious for tomorrow to be here already. This past Thursday we had our 20- week anatomy scan and were totally surprised when the technician did the scan in 4D Real Life - blew our minds. We got to see baby's face, which is an unexplainable feeling. This baby is definitely a mini of my hub, boy or girl!

We had the technician determine the gender and place it in an envelope for us, which will be kept in our guest room until it's needed for the gender reveal - out of sight, out of mind... right?!

Some of my favorites this week include this cardigan from Target, it's so soft and there's a variety of colors to choose from. Not to mention, it's perfect for fall! I'm currently obsessed with Batiste Wild Dry Shampoo, not only does it smell great but it actually works, too. I have fine hair, so when I wake up the next morning, my hair is typically on the greasy side. Because of this, I tend to wash my hair every day (which isn't really recommended). So, after reading about Batiste on Casey's Blog, I thought I'd give it a try and I was instantly hooked (thanks, Casey)! And lastly, this Yahoo! article of embarrassing runway falls - enjoy.

Be sure to check back early next week for our big reveal and pictures of the party.

I hope everyone has a great Friday and weekend!

Hump Day, Bump Day

Happy September, everyone! I am so beyond ready for the fall, because, let's be honest... that means cooler weather. For us Texans, the heat + humidity gets old very fast.

I have lost count of the number of times I've told the hubs: "I'm so ready for fall to be here already!" Luckily, it's right around the corner - so that means I get to pull out my seasonal candles and decor. I think by this time last year, I already had my wreath on the front door... but I'm going to try and contain myself until Houston is at least out of the 90s.

I don't know what it is exactly about this time of year, but I get into my super-crafty-mode. So, with baby coming in January, I can only imagine how crazy-crafty I'll get this year!

Some things I'm already super excited about and totally looking forward to are sweaters and boots galore, candles/decor, hot cocoa (sadly, without Bailey's for me this year), long walks, making this one pot chili mac and cheese, and last but not least Cowboys football!

What are you most looking forward to this fall season?

Wishing you all a happy hump day!

Jewelry Organizing

If you're anything like me, then you probably have a ton of jewelry! And if you don't have anything to really organize your jewelry with, it can become more a hassle than an accessory. That's exactly what happened to me. I stopped wearing a lot of my jewelry because I'd have to unravel each piece just to get the one I wanted to wear. So, after a trip to Ross, I purchased some pretty awesome jewelry organizers - and I wasn't even at Ross for jewelry organizers in the first place (score)!

I have a bunch of necklaces (well, my necklace stash doesn't even compare to my friend, E), so I really needed something to keep them hung separately so they didn't continue to get mangled together.

I ended up going home with one black bracelet rack (it's a velvet material, which makes me feel fancy), a necklace/earring/etc. rack to hang on the wall, a vertical standing necklace/earring/etc. organizer, and a really pretty mirrored jewelry box (probably my favorite piece - makes me feel extra fancy).

I wanted a place where I can display all of my jewelry without it being in the way. I first thought about using a shelf in our bathroom linen closet, but it was full of other crap (crap that also needs to be organized - never ending I tell you!). Then I remembered that our closet has a shelf that runs along the midway of the wall - PERFECT! I cleared the entire left side (by moving all that junk to the very top shelf) and gave the shelf a good dust and wipe down. After playing with how I wanted everything to look, I must say, I'm very pleased with the end result.

This was a fun (if you like organizing as much as I do - which is A LOT) and easy project. Hey, you even get an excuse to go shopping!

Anniversary Pictures

Our one year anniversary was a few months ago (say what?!), and we decided to have anniversary pictures taken by one of our dear friends, Tony Chicas of Tony Chicas Photography.  We plan to have our pictures taken professionally every five years (that's the plan at least). It's a fun way to see how much we've grown as a married couple.

Here's a peak at some of our favorite shots:

We could not be happier with the outcome of our anniversary pictures, and we hope you enjoyed them as well. Tony and Maria did a fabulous job!

For more information, or to view his portfolio, please feel free to check out Tony Chicas Photography via their Facebook page by clicking here.

Let Freedom Ring

It seems like the year just started... and now it's already the Fourth of July! I can't complain, though, as I thoroughly enjoy getting together with family and friends, eating good ol' all-American-food, and hanging out by the water - oh and not to mention, some time away from work.

Friday, or more importantly, the Fourth of July, we started our morning with some festive red, white and blue pancakes. Followed by a short trip to the neighborhood pool. Once we left the pool, the weather started to get nasty, so instead of making the trip to The Woodlands' annual fireworks show, we set up some lawn chairs and watched our neighbors shoot them off - which was a perfect end to our Fourth!



Saturday afternoon we met up with my side of the family for some fun in the sun! It was a full boat (dad, step-mom, husband, step-sister, brother-in-law, nephew, step-brother, and future sister-in-law), which also means lots of fun. We only ended up staying out for a few hours, but that was plenty considering it was super-hot.

After the boat, we spent the rest of the afternoon/evening with the hub's side of the family. There we snacked, looked at baby/kid pictures (loved this), and BBQ'd some chicken and steak shish kabobs.

My sweetie as a toothless kiddo!

In other news, our sweet girl, B, is an independence baby! So, we picked up a very special birthday bone for her and T to indulge in. It's a bitter-sweet feeling knowing our baby girl is 5 years old... still seems like yesterday I came home to a sweet, sleepy little puppy.

This is B's infamous I have a toy and I want you to throw it now stare down

I hope everyone had a fantastic Fourth of July!