We've Moved!

I now blog at

www.adultcontentment.wordpress.com

Find me there!

Rihanna

I got the best Christmas present EVER this year. Seriously, it was one of the best presents I've ever gotten.

MAMA IS GOING TO SEE RIHANNA. 

Brett got me two tickets to see Rihanna in St Paul in March. My bestie Amanda and her boyfriend Andy are going to join us and Andy is going to keep Brett company while Amanda and I go twerk to Rihanna and A$AP Rocky. Jeesh. I'm so jazzed.

Of course, I immediately started losing my nut about what to wear. I went to the only place I know in times of outfit crisis: Polyvore. 

I'm kind of OCD when it comes to Polyvore stuff. I only include items in my sets that I could actually afford, in my size. I'll occasionally include $500 heels in an outfit for a chuckle, but rarely. 

So find below, three outfit options. I'll take suggestions and ideas. I looked for clothes that were comfortable, stylish, and of course, provided the greatest range of motion.

My favorite is this one. I'm for reals considering buying that t-shirt. Also, I'm dying for those sneakers even though they are so not "me" and I have no idea when I would wear them.

This is the most glam option. Those gold sequin slippers are my life.

This is the more casual, but also realistically, the closest thing to what I might wear. I'm really digging these sort of rugged, hiking boots everyone is wearing now. 

Count down to March!

52 Drawings, Week 4

Here's my week four drawing for the Paper Mama 52 Weeks of Drawings challenge.

It's a four legged friend:

It's basically my version of this drawing right here.

Have you guys caught on to the trend yet? I can't actually draw. I can copy. So I guess that's something. It isn't really drawing, but it's something.

Except, I'm not really getting better or learning anything new because I'm just doing what I can already do. I guess I do go through several versions before I settle on the one I'm going to post on the blog though. Is that something too?

Am I Crazy?

I want to start this post by saying that I blame everything that follows on three people. It's their fault COMPLETELY.

Those three people are as follows:

Rachel. Rachel. Sarah.

Let's start with Rachel #1. My original healthy friend. The girl who is always eating the salad at the bar. Who prefers kale to chocolate. Who makes brownies with dates in them. I've pretty much always envied the way she respects her body, even if I've usually found it bananas.

On to Rachel #2. Here's where it gets really hairy. Rachel is like a role model to me. She's healthy as a way of life. She routinely gives up sugar. She rides her bike to work. She swims. She hikes. She runs. She just totally gets it. I try to be more like her everyday.

And finally Sarah. I have the biggest beef with Sarah. When I met her, I immediately recognized a kindred (though thinner) spirit. We gagged in unison at the idea of a vegan restaurant. We helped consume two very large pizzas and several pint glasses of beer with our guys with as much zeal and as many helpings. We both bitched about the size of our thighs while recognizing how very little we actually do about it. AND THEN SHE BETRAYED ME. Sarah is getting married this year and finally decided- to hell with it. She's taking control of her diet and her lifestyle. She went on this wackadoo two week vegan diet. She tried a detox. She's doing so awesome. She's awesome.

Worst of all? She's making me seriously consider giving it a try myself. 

HOW DARE SHE!

Honestly though, if you could wade though that heavy sarcasm what I'm trying to say is that my amazing friends are inspiring me to TAKE A LOOK AT ALL THIS. I've been thinking about a Paleo style diet for a while now. I've got a pal named Holly who is an acupuncturist/whole body wellness maven and she makes these life-changing statements the same way I say "another Pale Ale, please." She said the number one game changer she's seen in herself and her patients is to go gluten free, or to try the Paleo thing.
I've been intrigued since she said that to me, months ago.

Today someone posted an article online about the Paleo trend, but it also mentioned a program called Whole30 that I've never heard of before. It sounds . . . up my alley. I like short term challenges (hello 52 Photos... 52 Drawings) I'm interested in this whole thing anyway.

BUT I'M HONESTLY TERRIFIED. Namely, I'm afraid of failure. But I'm also afraid of how much I love donuts and beer and big, meaty cheeseburgers and I don't want to give those up forever and ever.

But I'm also afraid that in a few years my doctor's going to say, "Ok, but really, you are too heavy." Or that Brett and I will try to have a baby and we won't be able to. I'm a trend right now. I'm apart of the obesity epidemic in America simply by virtue of being overweight. That's brutal. It's a weird feeling. I hate it.

The thing I sort of like about the Paleo gig is that it's not a diet and it isn't about losing weight. It's about overall health and lifestyle changes.

The point of this post is- AM I CRAZY? Should I do this? Thoughts?

PS- Brett is going to kill me when he reads this post!

52 Photos, Week 4

This week's story: This wasn't at 5:30. It was at 8:30. At 5:30 I was getting ready to start the board retreat for the United Way board of which I am the secretary. I love the United Way. I love board service. I do not love late nights.

I have two main goals for myself as a board member this year: say "yes" to what I can do well and say "no" to what I cannot do well.

Good luck to me.

Workspace

Sometime after the wedding but before Christmas (November?) Brett and I purchased some new workspace furniture. I can't call it office furniture, because it's simply a little nook in our kitchen. Also "office" sounds a little official considering we sit here to blog and Facebook. 

The shelf, the table, and the drawers came from Ikea and the good news is that if you don't live near an Ikea (we don't) then you can get these shipped pretty inexpensively. 

I wanted something really clean, really simple, and smaller than the tiled table that we were using before. I've been really pleased so far! I'd be lying if I didn't say that the drawers collect most of our junk, but it's contained and that's what matters. 

In December, Brett and I decided to change up our budget strategy. Here's a piece of marriage advice that even a total noob can tell you: FIGURE YOUR MONEY SITUATION OUT FOLKS. Seriously. Don't even mess around with that.

For about a year, Brett had been doing most of the legwork with our budget. He's a numbers guy, so the fit felt natural at first. He paid the bills, checked our online accounts, and created our monthly budget. In December, it was family meeting time. We sat down and he confessed that he didn't really feel comfortable making all those choices without more of my input.  He often felt like because he "allocated" our budget categories that he was also "giving permission" for us to spend money or not. And that- was just not gravy with him.

In addition to sitting down together each month to craft our budget and set our savings goals, we decided to get a white board to keep track of our more fluid budget balances, like groceries, entertainment, mad money (I'll talk about this in a second), etc. So if we want to go to a movie and there's $5 in our entertainment budget- it's not a matter of Brett or I being the keeper of the keys and saying "yes" or "no." It's just not available to us because our budget won't allow it.

Another thing that Brett and I do that works great for us is a budget category called "Mad Money." It's simple an equal amount of money that each of us get to spend on whatever we want. Mine usually goes towards drinks with my friends and Brett's is typical spent on vinyl records. The point is that we have the same amount of money and we can spend it, guilt free, regardless of the other person. We trust each other implicitly, but it's really nice to have a chunk of change to spend each month with a little less discretion.

Lastly, this month we started using mint.com and we LOVE it. Each of us can access it from everywhere and that makes it convenient, transparent, and fair.

You can also see our "I love you because..." board. This was one of my first Pinterest projects. We try not to go more than a few days without jotting something on it. Usually a pun of some kind.

I also keep several cookbooks handy. If you look closely, you'll see I have about 6 slow cooker cookbooks! I do our meal planning here because I use magazines, cookbooks, and Pinterest to help me plan. We have a mug for pens and a small dish for paperclips, business cards, junk. Of course, most days there are stacks of mail and coffee mugs and sunglasses, but those were cleared for the purposes of this demonstration.

Probably my favorite new addition to the space is our new calendar from our friends Kyle and Rachel. It's cute, just like them.

This is one of my favorite places in our apartment. It's small, but it really gets the job done!

(PS: I'm trying out some fancy blog photo edit stuff. Thoughts? Sorry for the onslaught of colors.. I'll pick a scheme soon, I just wanted to play around.)

Saint Louis

This weekend Brett and I went to St Louis to see our bestie Mary, who we met and fell in love with during our brief time together at Missouri State. She was a bridesmaid in the wedding and has known Brett and I as long as there as been a "Brett and I." 

Our visit coincided with The Loop Ice Carnival Pub Crawl and that event is virtually responsible for everything that follows. We had so. much. fun.

We started at Pi Pizzeria for lunch. I had a Schlafly Kolsh that could be my new favorite beer. 

Each stop of the pub crawl had an ice sculpture. This one was fairly intact, but the rest looked pretty sad because it was something like 60 degrees that day. Awesome for pub crawling. Less awesome for ice sculpturing. 

Second stop- The Eclipse Restaurant at the Moonrise Hotel. Rooftop bar. Half pipe. Skateboarding 10 year olds. 

 St Louis and The Mosers.

Third stop- The Pin Up Bowl. Brett ran into an old college friend here and Mary made a hole-in-one! I would say we were maintaining here.

 While we traveled, Mary stopped to lick one of the ice sculptures. You can see the state of it (and us).

 Last stop- Three Kings.  We had some tasty New Belgium Lips of Faith beer of some kind and had a really hard time finding it on Untapped.

I started texting everyone I knew would reply. Someone received this photo and I'm sure that someone was very glad.

We left Three Kings around 6 pm. It was time for laying around and taking a bunch of selfies while we waiting for our Chinese to be delivered.

Here is a real exchange I had with the delivery guy:

Delivery Guy: "You work at haircut?"
Me: (How does this guy know I just got a haircut?) "What?"
Delivery Guy: "You work at haircut? Your hair look good!"

The next morning we needed so much brunch. Mary took us to Square One Brewery in this adorable neighborhood called Lafayette Square. I attacked some Eggs Benedict and a mimosa. I definitely want to hit this place back up for lunch and brews on another STL go-round.

After brunch we went to Euclid Records (and by "we" I mean "Mary and Brett" and I followed along because I was in the car.) Brett picked up a Pixies record and I checked Facebook on my phone. I didn't find their sweet selection of poster prints until Brett was checking out, but at least I'll know where to beeline when we go back. 

Here's a sweet photo.

We had an awesome weekend. We don't really make it to St Louis as often as we should considering how close it is. 2013 is the year of fixing that!

We did miss this guy though!

On Writing

I'm going to say something and I'm not sure if it's a surprising fact about me or not.

I studied Creative Writing in college with a focus in poetry.

Like I said, I don't really know if it surprises anyone or not to learn that about me. I mean, I do get the occasional look of surprise when people hear what I studied but mostly because I'm sure they are thinking, "WHY would anyone study that?!"

Or rather, why would anyone who wasn't going to be a professor study that. And I guess I'm not sure either. I never really wanted to be a professor. But I always wanted to write. I loved writing. I still do.

I do write a blog, so maybe it doesn't surprise people to hear that writing is a passion of mine. But I also feel particularly well suited for my current career trajectory, so maybe it is surprising. Does it matter? Not really.

Source

One time at dinner, my friend John found out that I wrote a blog and (besides not really knowing what a blog was, which was frankly hysterical and adorable) asked why I would write a blog. And I answered, almost frantically, "because writing is a very important part of me and I need to have some sort of creative outlet to express myself or I'll lose it." (Sounding very much like I was losing it, I suspect.)

This post feels almost like a eulogy. In that I'm near tears. In that I'm describing a part of myself that feels very much in my distant past. In that I'm mourning the loss of poetry in my life.

Studying writing in college is such a rewarding experience. I recommend it to everyone. It's humbling. It's a rich experience. You will leave more wealthy than you could have ever known. When I look back at that time of my life, I'm filled with hope. With creative life. And, now, with sadness because I haven't written a proper poem in almost 3 years.

I took an independent study with the head of the creative writing department, Marcus Cafagna. (The man has his own wikipedia article, for pete's sake.) The purpose was to develop my portfolio, to refine my writing, perhaps prepare something for submission to a graduate program. In my case, we talked a lot about publishing.

I confided in Marcus that I wasn't totally sure about a becoming a professor and he reassured me that was completely understandable, acceptable. As I recall, he shared his own doubts about writing in the academic world. What he wanted me to understand was that my career should in no way determine my pursuit of writing. He confessed that he had seen handfuls of students, all talented, all with strong collections, who simply never submitted for publication. He was baffled. I nodded in agreement, trying my damnedest to make sure he could see that I too, couldn't believe that a person simply wouldn't submit.

My semester with Marcus came and went. Do you want to know how many poems I have submitted for publication? None. To this day, I have manilla envelopes (big ones for mailing, smaller ones for return responses), with a short stack of poems inside, with guidelines for submission to 5 or 6 publications paper clipped on top. Untouched. I'm afraid of them. They are my biggest failure. My deepest regret. My saddest token.

Source

Poetry is like a lost loved one. It sneaks up on me in moments I least expect. I pick up a collection and skim the pages and remember how much I love this thing (I still refuse to get rid of a single book of poetry I own.) I get a thought, in the car, and I jot it down on an envelope or email it to myself. I clean out a bedside table and find an old notebook I've left thoughts in.

I hate that this has become an essay when it should have been a short thought. I've got to start writing again. No one has taken it away from me but myself. I spent the most time in college studying under Dr. Jane Hoogestraat. In addition to being one of the kindest people I've ever met, she was a talented and accomplished poet and encouraged me a great deal. She said something very smart, that I ignored, and is something lots of writers say, and I ignored which is this:

"You must set time aside to write." 

She suggested picking a day, a time and sitting down to write, always. Honor that time. Give yourself to it, even if it doesn't feel natural or organic. Read the New York Times profile of the 2013 Inaugural Poet, Richard Blanco. It is his technical, mechanical mind that has helped him master his craft, not waiting for the "muse."

This is maybe to say I will make a new blog challenge about writing. This is to say I will pick a time to write. This is to say I will write new pieces. This is to say I will re-write new pieces. This is to say I will submit. I will not let poetry be a dead part of me anymore.

It is never to late to be what you might have been. 

I want to leave you with a poem that brings me to my knees with every reading. The poem that I always seek when writing. The poem to which I can point and say, this started it all.

Simile, N. Scott Momaday  

What did we say to each other
that now we are as the deer
who walk in single file
with heads high
with ears forward
with eyes watchful
with hooves always placed on firm ground
in whose limbs there is latent flight

52 Drawings, Week 3

Here is my Week 3 Drawing for the Paper Mama 52 Weeks of Drawings Challenge.

It's a Venus Fly Trap. I can't draw actual plants so this cartoon was my best option.

Also, I looked at this picture for inspiration when I doodled.

52 Photos, Week 3

This week's story: Last night while putting up my Christmas decorations (yes, I finally did it) I did something weird to my lower back. Pulled a muscle or something. I felt awful and crawled up into bed at about 9pm.

It's a bad sign when back breaking pain is the preferable feeling. At about 1:30 I woke up with a wave a nausea and so began the night from hell. I was in the bathroom about every 45 minutes with no sleep in between. No food? No problem. Still puked.

At 8 am Brett took me to the doctor (where I threw up twice) and I got a shot for nausea and vomiting. This has pretty much put me to sleep (or kept puke from interrupting my much needed sleep, I'm not sure which).

Needless to say, the Love Dare, Day Two was put on hiatus (not to mention working, eating, etc.) but true to my promise, here is potentially one of the worst photos ever taken of me for my 52 photos challenge. Enjoy!

(Editor's note: Brett didn't give me two black eyes. I chose this Instagram filter because it made me look extra dead. Good work huh?!)

Bloomington

So, one of the huge advantages of my new position at work being part time is that my schedule is pretty flexible. And since it's my first year of marriage and all (you guys know I got recently married, right?) I basically want to spend EVERY LIVING MINUTE with Brett. So when he told me a couple months ago he had a short work trip to Bloomington, Indiana planned, I was all, "I'M COMING WITH." (Enter SVU "dun dun" here.)

Bloomington is only about 7 hours from Kirksville so we left Friday morning and got back on Sunday evening. Brett's event was Saturday and I basically vegged in the hotel room doing crossword puzzles on the iPad and watching extremely edited raunch-coms on USA. What is interesting is everything other than those moments. What did we do in everything other than those moments? EAT.

We have friends who love Bloomington. Our pal Jason got his PhD at Indiana University (do I get credit for having a friend with a PhD? I want credit.) and he and his wife Erin had lists of suggestions for us. On some of Brett's longer trips, he loses the energy to seek out a local establishment every night (and who could blame him) so we wanted to take advantage of the easy commute to tasty places (our hotel was SO close to downtown), good company (hello- ME!), and trust-worthy recommendations.

Friday night took us to The Upland Brewing Company. As expected, it offered totally delicious pub fare (I had fish and chips and Brett tackled their Reuben) and their brews were very tasty.

I think this is their wheat ale:

I ate breakfast at the hotel in the morning, but Brett was able to get away for lunch and at Erin's suggestion, we tried Mother Bear's Pizza- a delicious pizza place with a very busty bear for a logo.

I took this picture of some graffiti in our booth.

No photos of the pizza, which was devoured too quickly to snap a pic. We shared pesto bread sticks, I had the Illinois Central (I'm a sucker for barbecue sauce on a pizza) and Brett had the Tuscaloosa Touch Down (two words: pulled pork.)

Saturday night, I scouted out a place to try and settled on Bub's Burgers and Ice Cream, mostly because those are two of my favorite things in one name of a restaurant. Turns out, Adam Richman visited their Indianapolis location and completed their food challenge- The Big Ugly. This is a one pound hamburger. Brett strongly considered that, but wanted to save room for a milkshake. I really liked this place. I had a regular cheeseburger, but Brett got adventurous and tried their Elk Burger. (I tasted it. It tasted basically the same.)

I also took the most pictures here because lots of other people were taking pictures which made it less awkward.

Not our best, but blog worthy:

They brought us samples of their soup of the day and I made Brett take it like a shot.

Brett going to town on Elkie:

And our super tasty milkshakes- Cinnamon Crumb and Praline Pecan.

We had brunch on Sunday (yep- still eating!) at The Runicble Spoon, a place that serves Erin's favorite mimosa. I'm inclined to agree since it was a full glass for $5! Our waitress had a hard time splitting our check and we sat next to some fairly self righteous IU students, but my Eggs Benedict was kick ass and Brett had a stack of blueberry pancakes that were very, very worth it.

On the drive home, we stopped for lunch/dinner in St Louis at about 3. A weird time, but by this time we had been destroying our bodies with food on a pretty regular basis so what did it matter. We did (you won't believe this) 5 Guys Burgers and Fries.

It was really yummy and I loved it because I am the type of person who develops an emotional attachment to her food. It made me wanna say DAYUM. (You knew that was coming, right? You knew.)

As you can tell, there were NO weight resolutions on the queue this year. I just... GUYS WE ATE SO MUCH FOOD.

We had a really great time together though and I'm feeling super grateful to have the opportunity to spend extra time with Brett when he travels. It sorta sucks when he leaves and it felt great to pack up into the car with him instead of saying goodbye.

As with any time I travel out of town, I gathered quite a few thoughts and insights on the process (more than just "Another pale ale, please" I swear) and I'll share those soon for sure. For now, I think I'll read back through this post and enjoy the visual feast from our weekend!

52 Drawings, Week 2

So, here's my drawing for week 2 of my 52 Weeks of Drawing Challenge from The Paper Mama.

It's a self portrait:

It doesn't really look like me. I mean, I have a nose. 

On the plus side, Brett saw this stuck to our bulletin board and said- "Who drew this picture of you?" So that bodes well.

Also, by the time this posts I'll be in Bloomington, Indiana with the hubs. Yay for mini vacations!

52 Weeks of Drawing

Who's up for another challenge in 2013? THIS GIRL IS!

(By the way, shout out to my home girl Sarah who is taking on what I consider to be the ultimate challenge- a raw foods diet and a spending fast! She's doing super awesome too!)

I'm kinda sorta loving my 52 Photos project. Has it only been 2 weeks? Sure. Isn't that hardly enough time to tell if you are committed to something? Probably. Who cares?! Let's do some more.

Another blog I really love is The Paper Mama. And when I was lurking (a Rachel term) recently, I came across this:



So let me say this-I'm not a particularly gifted artist. In fact, I'm pretty mediocre  I have decent penmanship. So I'm not doing this challenge because drawing is an actual skill I have. I just really adore hand drawn illustrations. The likelihood that I'll fall in love with your blog increases 10 fold if you include hand drawn illustrations (your own or someone else's.)

So I'm doing this challenge because I like to draw and I want to get better. I want to be an illustration whizz kid. And I'm really excited about it. Also, it will give me something else to look forward to other than taking a photo of myself once a week!

I'll be using Chelsey's hastag #PM52weeks when I post, as well as my own #52drawings (ya know, like #52photos).

I'm already a week behind, so I'll be posting two drawings this week, my first today and the second tomorrow. So without further delay, here's my first drawing for week one:

This is my "My Choice" drawing. I saw a Valentine with a hedgehog on it on Pinterest, and I decided I would try my hand at a hedgehog. It's sitting on an ottoman. (In case you couldn't tell.)

Passing It On

I love you guys.

Seriously. I knew when I posted my thoughts on being a better wife that I would get encouraging, uplifting feedback and I totally did. Thank you.

I thought it would be beneficial to share with everyone all what others shared with me. Because I got some awesome ideas. Also- most of my amazing friends write amazing blogs and so I'm gunna push some traffic their way.

Here's what you guys said-

Katie- "One piece of advice is to try to think of some way to bless your husband everyday. Ask him what things speak the loudest to him... is it initiating holding hand? Doing a load of laundry? Random I love you texts? Then try to focus your efforts on those things." 

Rachel L - "I went on a year long mission to love myself. I hated that I was my own worst enemy and giving myself a break meant giving (my husband) a break too." 

Rachel R- "I have a book for that." (I love her.)

Sarah- "I totally understand you when it comes to being more of a talker than a listener. I have to work at being aware and choosing to be quieter so I can support (my boyfriend) as well. I try to take a breath when he hasn't talked much to just be silent." 

Emily- "My favorite thing we do is read every night, not side by side, but we pick out a book and one of us reads it to the other." 

Jess- "Do the 'intimate married things' a lot. wink wink. Seriously. Don't ever stop. There will be lulls as life comes (babies, health, etc.) and someday we will be old and have bad hips or something could happen to one us and I just want to enjoy the hell out of my husband for as long as life allows." (EVERYTHING Jess said was awesome. Go read her comment. It rocked.)

What am I saying? It all rocked! I love you guys. Newly married or fine vintage- everyone said things that resonated to my core. Thanks for being my cheerleaders. My support. Seriously, thanks.

52 Photos, Week 2

This week's story: I have a zit on my chin and I am virtually exhausted after two 12 hour work days. Eagerly looking forward to Friday when Brett and I go to Indiana for the weekend. I need some unstructured time.

The Married Thing

For the purposes of full discretion, let me say this: when my husband reads this blog post, it will not be the first time he's heard these thoughts. I always feel weird when I see folks posts things online that clearly merit a personal discussion. So, again, this has been discussed- I'm just reaching out to my online homies.   

So I don't know about y'all, but I've been married for about 5 minutes and I already feel like I'm really dropping the ball. I'm not saying this from a point of crisis, but from a point of sincerity. I'm trying to respond instead of react.

Brett and I have been together over 5 years and even so, we are still very much in the honeymoon stage of our marriage. Getting married was awesome. I love being married. I love being Brett's wife. I really really love that Brett is my husband.

When I give myself a personal assessment though, I just don't feel like I'm earning a passing grade. I think so much about Brett's role in my life and how much I appreciate him as my support and my teammate and I forget about my end of the deal. Or I feel like I do.

Another important note- Brett thinks I'm an awesome wife. This is a self evaluation moment, not a marriage-in-crisis moment. I just want to be the best I can for him, ya know?

I'm throwing this out there for a couple reasons:

1) I'm an extrovert and this is what I do.
2) Brett and I are experiencing some situations outside of our marriage that have in many ways overwhelmed us and tested our problem solving and coping skills beyond what we expected to endure during the first few months of our marriage.
3) I want people to know that being married is awesome but not easy. I want to share my challenges so that others might experience peace in camaraderie. I also don't want anyone to be caught off guard if their honeymoon stage doesn't actually look or feel all the much like a honeymoon after all.

But most of all:

4) I'd love some advice.

Here's a short, incomplete list of ways I feel like I'm bombing it:

-Brett is happy when his outsides match his insides. I can neglect housework like its my job.
-Brett is touchy, feely, ooey, gooey, mushy, gushy. As I've noted before, I'm not much of a toucher.
-I'm so sassy. I have a snarky comment for everything. A suggestion. A remark. A critique. That's good for no one.
-I'm a better talker than a listener.

I could go on, but I won't because the point here is not to beat myself up. I want to be the best partner I can be to my awesome, caring, funny, intelligent husband.

I'd love any suggestions for books to read, blog posts to browse, lists to write, songs to sing, exercises to try- you get the picture. What have you done? What do you do? What have you tried?

I've settled on a mantra- "It's never to late to be what you might have been." And thus my endeavor to be Brett's best wife- what I might have been.

A picture. Cause otherwise this post would be boring. 

Wedding Craft Tour, Part Two

Back for Part Two of my wedding craft extravaganza. Are you sick of it yet? I'm not! (But let me confess.. oh my GAWD was a sick of it by the time the big day rolled around!)

I went back and forth on my bouquet forever. I always wanted to DIY them, but I couldn't decide on a tutorial. At first, I thought I'd do the book page flowers we used in the centerpieces, but those were so labor intensive! I couldn't imagine making 50 of them for the 4 bouquets I had to make. And what about boutonnieres? Corsages? I was knee deep in wedding craft hell when I finally saw this tutorial and felt a wave of relief pass over me: 

Fewer, giant flowers meant a big impact with much less work. Here's what mine looked like. Because of the stage of the planning process I was in, I opted for bouquets for myself and bridesmaids and no one else. I don't think they were missed: 

Side note: I managed to WAY over order the dark pink, light pink, and green crepe paper I used for this project. I've got like 8 rolls of it left and no idea what to use it for. So if you've got a project that could call for it, let me know. I will give them to you! Throwing a spring party? Want to make your mom a giant, hot pink bouquet that will last forever for Mother's Day? Someone help me out here. 

Often, I found that an idea I thought was original had been used in many, many weddings before mine. And that was great because it helped me clarify details that were too hazy in my mind at first thought. We cleaned out the basement of the building Brett and I lived in when we were first engaged and there were all these old doors that appeared to come from a school. We snagged them to use before I even knew what I would do with them. They became the altar and helped create a "wall" in the barn as well. 

Here they are in the barn, with some other DIY decor: 

Fun fact- I didn't have to purchase a single piece of vintage "shwag." It all came from my parents house- mason jars, vintage boxes, old pop bottles. Major score. 

After we had our collection of doors, I found this image that inspired how I wanted to set up the ceremony: 

Our programs were another example of a not-so-original original idea. I had seen the idea of printing on brown bags for a Valentine's Day project I did: 

It was easy to apply this same principle to our wedding programs.

Of course, lots of brides applied this principle as well! Our programs were basically the baby of these three ideas: 

My step-ma committed to making her delicious pie cocktails pretty early on and I won't lie, the thought of them got me through on some of the tougher days! She picked up these fancy dispensers at Sam's Club and I jimmied up some drink labels. 

I got the idea here: 

Our wedding night was unseasonably cold. Way colder than we expected. Luckily, we planned to have a bonfire all along and it provided some much needed warmth for our lovely guests. We also did up some s'mores for their frozen enjoyment! 

I loved these jars of s'mores goodies and made my own version above: 

Favors were another element of the wedding that I had a really hard time deciding. Should I buy them? Make them? Include them at all? My step-ma's mom gave me a bunch of medium sized mason jars to use for whatever so we opted to create drinking glasses with chalkboard name tags. We painted the lids with black chalkboard paint, drilled a hole in the top, and tied them around the mouth of the jars with twine. Simple! 

I got the idea here: 

I looked at endless photos of barns. I loved the whimsy of putting up white curtains at the door.

I saw the idea here first: 

I wanted to include really personal touches to our wedding as well. I framed love letters and hung them on an extra door inside the barn. 

Which is an idea I saw here: 

We didn't really want a flower girl or ring bearer because neither Brett nor I are particularly close to any small children and we didn't want to include some random kids in our ceremony! My little brother and sister Ty and MaKenna were a pinch too old for those roles but I wanted to include them by carrying our "Here Comes the Bride" sign! 

There were lots of sources of inspiration for this. I liked this sign a lot: 

I did borrow one idea for our ceremony that I fell in love with. I'm so glad we included it because it made me feel incredibly close to our wedding guests and solidified their role in our married life. It was a ring warming ceremony: 

Here is the original link where I found the idea.

My entire wedding was a birth of so many creative ideas, so much help from my friends and loved ones. My dad and stepmom were incredibly supportive during this whole process and my stepmom Shawn did more for me than I could ever thank her for! 

I love my photos so much and it's great to look through them and remember the story behind each and every project. Thanks for following along!