Hitched!

My little brother got married this last weekend. We are thrilled for him and his adorable wife. We couldn't be happier that Avery married way above his paygrade! (smiles) The wedding took place at a chapel across the street from our historic home we grew up in. Then, the reception was held at our family home. I was way too busy to take pictures of everything and am totally regretting it. We had about 160+ people to feed though, so the pictures had to wait. My brother Ryan created an amazing meal, with the help of my other brother Eric & BIL Zac. The food was to die for & about 1.5hrs into the reception I was able to snag a bite or two. We had steak and chicken with fabulous sauces I can't even pronounce. A pasta salad like you've never known. A tomato and mozzarella salad. A spinach salad. They sound basic, but my brother puts amazing fresh herbs & spices (and if my mom is nearby about 2lbs of butter) into these dishes and they are as good as any 5 star dining! We had cake balls that we made into topiary trees that were coconut and chocolate. YUM! We had sorbets served in real coconuts, pineapples & lemons. We had a chocolate fountain, it's a tradition you know & it's a whole lot prettier than hooking ourselves up to chocolate I.V's! A party basically comes down to food when you come to our house. And my parents didn't disappoint! My job was refilling the dessert table, and boy did I refill. Probably around 30 times, I can't judge though, that is my favorite spot as well! So unfortunately, I didn't get pictures of the table decor & flower arrangements that we spent 2 days on, or the food that was ridiculously awesome and mesmorizing to look at, or the beautiful yard that my parents spent all summer working on. You'll just have to picture in your mind the prettiest, dreamiest, tastiest wedding you've ever seen and then times that by 10 and you'll come close! (It's a sad dog that can't wag its own tail, right?) I am happy that I actually pawned my camera/4th child off and jumped in some pictures with my siblings. Here's a little sneak peek of our day. I'm just itching to be a wedding planner. It's so much fun dreaming of things and then sending someone else the bill!

Isn't that the cutest 6 month pregnant girl you've ever seen? And the pregnant one is Mandy (in purple), mine doesn't look much smaller though, hence the disclaimer!


Either Avery knows what fabulous sisters he has or he's incredibly excited to marry his highschool sweet heart. I'm pretty sure he's just so stinkin excited to have us as sisters though! (wink, wink)

I loved that they have a sense of humor and played Johnny Cash "I'll walk the line" when they got married. And at the reception they played "Take a chance on me" but it starts out "If you change your mind!" Humor as corny as it gets always wins me over. Have fun in Hawaii you two. Don't worry about me. I'm just sitting here in a pile of laundry, with children who were rarely bathed while I was gone, combing out ratsnests in hair, and trying to figure out where the stink is coming from in my car. Jealous anyone? By the looks of my house, children, fridge, car & husband, I am certain I've been missed!

I got my Flair!

I've been searching for a rug for 2 years for this room & I finally picked one out. I love zebra print, but to be honest, it can often look cheap & tacky. Let's have a flair refresher course: Zebra accessories=GOOD, zebra shirts or skirts=lame! Basically, it has to be a bold punch of subtle or you look like a floozy. So when I found this rug online in very neutral gray & cream I squealed like a 13 year old meeting Zac Efron! I mean, I calmly ordered it before they sold out and I had to cry myself to sleep. And then I waited, and waited & checked the tracking record daily, then hourly, and then I took a 90 second shower so I wouldn't miss the delivery man coming and rescheduling the delivery. I put off blow drying my hair, which is always a mistake. I didn't look my best when Zebra showed up! But then she arrived. The exhilaration of ordering a big purchase online is about all the adrenaline rush this mother of three can handle!

So what do you think? Do you love it? Do you want to be my new BFF so you can come visit it? It's fab right? My little one thinks so! Even he has good taste!

Next purchase: a coffee table. I'm hoping it won't take 2 years to find- but good things come to those who wait! The best part of this is that I found this rug at West Elm but it wasn't available until October, then I found it on Overstock, then I checked Ebay and saved $250 from West Elm's price. Then I went to Nordstrom and blew the savings on some clothes for me! I couldn't let Zebra out flair me in my own room!

FINALLY!

Well, after seeing Allthingsthrifty's wall art (back in January!) I was determined to do this project. I was planning on doing a different design, but in the end, just stuck with her cool damask pattern. I actually started this project way back in February but when I went to buy the wood, the old guy at the local hardware store somehow convinced me that I should use plywood instead of mdf. Hmmm, thanks sir, but that was just a waste of a LOT of time! DO NOT USE PLYWOOD!! Anyway, I put the project away for the last (ahem) few months and decided I was ready to handle it. I had the jigsaw in hand, started to cut, and then quickly realized that hubby is much better at precision cutting than myself. "You want to cut for 5 hours? Ok, I guess I'll let you:)" I did make him some delicious homemade peanut butter cups for all his effort.

Isn't she perty? I've only had this blank wall for the last two years, yeah, that's all, haha. Problem with this wall is the thermostat is smack dab in the middle of it and there's no good way to decorate around the thermostat, so we built a 2 inch frame around the boards and drilled some holes in the bottom and top so hopefully we can still have a functioning thermostat. I'll let you know if it works this winter:) The best part about this art to me is that instead of stapling the felt onto the boards, I used industrial strength velcro and that way I can change the color of the felt anytime I want (This brown was my safe color choice, I think I'm already ready for something wild)! Am I super smart or what?! Anway, so glad this huge project's over, I can check this off my before-baby comes list!

Get the Big Picture?

Everytime I see really large photos blown up I can't help but do a double take. They make such a bold impact! I've wanted to do something like this for awhile but haven't been able to figure out what pictures to blow up. I finally took the plunge and edited these two photos in photoshop. I'm trying to bring some orange accents into this room because it connects to my orange kitchen. Photoshop textures helped me to make the photos kind of orangy (it's totally a word, look it up). I found frames at Ikea that hold 20x30 pictures that were only $20 each and then had Costco enlarge the photos for only $8.99. Each picture was only a total of 30 bucks! How cheap is that? I think I will change the picture depending on the season. What do of the color? Should I just do black and white or do you like the color? (Stay tuned for the rug reveal in this room. Hint: think safari but cooler)


Please ignore the ugly child lock on the armoire. Here is a closer look at the pictures I used. Remember: I was going for an orangy look.



So do you have any boring walls? Blow up a picture and make a HUGE impact. Change a snapshot to black & white and instantly make it look sophisticated. It's really inexpensive and completely original. It will make you smile everytime you walk by.......

Photo Challenge: Food

If you know my family, you know how much we LOVE food. It's all about the food! We don't have a ton of pictures of us growing up but it seemed like the camera came out when we were all sitting down and eating. Usually a dessert of some sort. My mom should be a pastry chef with her amazing desserts. I grew up eating four course meals with linen napkins every night. Minus a drink. We had really nice utensils, plates and even goblets. We never used the goblets though. There's no crying over spilled milk if you don't OFFER the milk! Hence, my misfortune in never learning to drink properly. I am the queen of spilling drinks. I have just enough coordination however to ensure I ONLY spill my drink on others and NEVER myself. After enough times of my mom having someone's drink dumped on her lap, plate of food & even hair (thanks Tony for the good laugh), my mom kind of banned drinking at the table. To this day our husbands think its wierd that we don't drink with meals but as my mom would say. "Why waste the calories?" I didn't realize how amazing our dinners were growing up until I attempted my first of many mediocre meals myself. After slaving in the kitchen for 2 hours with a baby crying in the background, I served a lasagna to my family. No homemade bread sticks, like my mom would have served, no fresh vegetable from the garden, no canteloupe & watermelon, and definitely no homemade peach pie with homemade vanilla icecream. Just lasagna. Served with a big fat side of nothing! And you better believe I wanted some appreciation for that lasagna! Yes, my family is quite talented when it comes to food. Most of the family's talent is in making the food. My talent is in DEVOURING it, and really appreciating the fact that I didn't have to cook it! When I think back of my family growing up, I often think of our dinners that we ate together every night. Always with a homemade dessert. I always came home from school with my mom laying on the couch reading a cook book and asking "What goes with Blackberry Cobbler? hmmmm....... Chicken Divan!" Because she ALWAYS made dessert first. This summer while doing photo shoots for some family and clients I've realized that food really can make a photo shoot go from boring, sweaty & hot, to fabulous and fun. This is my challenge for you- have a photoshoot with your own family using food to capture their true smiles. Here are a few samples for you. Because I don't cook or bake I used watermelon. You've got one week to do this photo shoot. Have fun & Bon Apetit!

Family Reunion- Minute to Win it!

We had a really fun time playing this at our family reunion. All thanks to Mandy. There's just something about late nights, food games, and a camera that bring out the crazy in us! Here's a really fun game to play with your family or friends. Small crowd or big- this is really fun!

Penny Race: Get some pantyhose, preferably new. (or dirty and watch people squirm faster!) Place a penny in the foot of each leg & have someone hold them to start. See photo below. You can't have your hands touch anything while you retrieve your pennies. Much harder than you think and requires much concentration. (or a funny expression works too!)

Oreo Race- This is my favorite! Place an oreo on your forehead and without using your hands, get the oreo into your mouth. I challenge you to do it gracefully. It looks more like an excorsism when I do it. Of course, I looked like that in every challenge!
Skittle challenge- Two bowls per person needed. Place ten skittles in one bowl and with a straw move each skittle to the other bowl. Then do a happy dance. Preferably IF you win. Rich won this round & Renee's hopes and dreams of becoming a professional skittle sucker were dashed. Then she took Mandy and me on. Not much of a challenge as you can see.

Apple Stacking: Stack 5 apples and have them hold in place for 3 seconds. Much harder than it looks!

We had so much fun playing these games. The best part is looking at the pictures afterward and seeing the hilarious facial expressions that come as people are trying to concentrate! So keep your camera handy!

New Projects

Sorry we've been kinda MIA around here, with summer activities and our recent family reunion, there's been little time to blog. I'm sure you're feeling the same way. And I've been giving myself some extra excuses for severe craft laziness because of this:





Well, this little guy and his little brother that's on his way due in December! Suddenly after 5 months, my laziness has turned into EXTREME nesting! I have a whole new room to decorate for my new "big boy" and my craft room is now going to be compacted into the craft/guest room. It'll be a tight squeeze! I've been throwing away stuff left and right and it feels AMAZING!! So hopefully I'll be posting some of my projects that I'm determined to get finished before this little boy arrives!

Road Trip Woes

We survived! After a grueling 25 hours of driving over 2 days we are all home. I didn't ditch anyone at a truck stop. I didn't jump out of a moving vehicle. I didn't even slit my throat. I should win a prize or something after taking a 2 week "vacation" with 3 little children. Spending time with family and friends was wonderful. We had a great time playing with cousins, tubing down the virgin River, boating, camping, and walking through Zion National Park. But the 4 days of driving to get there and back was grueling! I totally need a vacation from this vacation! I'm pretty sure my 21 month old son created a new form of torture. We slept with him in our room for 14 days straight and little did we sleep. He was WIDE awake and I discovered the literal meaning of "bouncing off the walls". The kid didn't stop- he was crazy. Completely nuts. I apologize to the people trying to sleep next to us at the hotel. I was waiting for the phone call at 3 am to kick us out. Not even Jack Bauer could have broken this kid. Our drive was eventful to say the least. Starting out with a waterfall of puke. For a child who doesn't eat, he had plenty to share with the entire car. So just imagine driving through the 115 degree desert with a lingering smell of vomit, only to get stuck on a closed highway because of a flashflood. No gas so we had to turn the car off which also means no ac. We could see the gas station and the restrooms, but couldn't do nothin' about it. But watch. And squirm. And sweat. And smell interesting smells. Do you get the picture? I just want to make sure you get an accurate idea of this road trip so if there is award for surviving road trips, I will win. To top it off, on day 2 of coming home my other daughter started getting sick. Because one sicky isn't enough in our family. We like to do it in bulk! I can't imagine where my child got sick from? It couldn't be from licking this at Zion National Park could it?

The few things that saved me from laying my body across a train track waiting for the light, were the coconut icecream bars at a Route 66 truck stop in New Mexico. Finding 43 different State liscense plates. Seeing funny businesses like "It'll Do Motel" located next to the "Nuttin Fancy Cafe" just up the road from "Jesus is Lord Travel & Souvenier Shop". We lost our stomachs, we lost our sense of smell, we lost ALOT of sleep, but we did NOT lose our sense of humor this trip. Will we ever do this again? I don't know, ask me after I take this Rufie.