Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween from our little hot dog!

Kim's Dress

Just two days after the final dress selections were made, Kim ordered her dress from the Macy's website. The website said that it was only available in one color ('gunmetal' which was thankfully the color we needed) and in only one size (we were hoping that the dress wouldn't be too big for her).

Kim ordered the dress and apparently the website wasn't joking when it said that there was only one color and one size available. After Kim placed the order the page showed the dress as out of stock. She had ordered the very last one.

A few days later the dress arrived and I recieved a picture message from Miss Kimmie wearing it. Thankfully there was nothing wrong with the dress and it fit perfectly. I was definitely relieved to hear the good news. Kim looks fantastic in the dress. I can't wait to see how the girls look standing next to each other.

Amy's Dress; Grey....Or Pink?

I found out the good news about Scott and Amy's baby during the search for bridesmaid dresses. Though Amy won't be pregnant at the wedding we thought that it would be a good idea to get her a maternity style dress so that she would be comfortable post baby. Since she won't know what size she'll be come wedding time we figured that a looser fitting dress would be a better idea. We settled on this dress found on figure8maternity.com:

Amy's dress arrived pretty quickly and last week when she came over for another movie night, she brought the dress with her. Though the dress was a nice fabric there was a little problem with it....it was pink! The grey color on the website was a little deceiving, because in person the dress was indeed a dusty rose color. Not exactly the shade of grey we were hoping for. Unfortunately, the dress wasn't going to work out, and we were going to have to find another one.

Since I had already exhausted all options during my previous internet search for grey dresses, I went straight to the David's Bridal website and looked around for an inexpensive dress option that came in 'pewter' and would be comfortable for Amy. This short charmeuse dress with ruched waist and pocket seemed to fit the bill. Amy acutally had us wear this dress in her wedding last fall. I love the dress and Sarah, who was four months pregnant at the time, said that it was very comfortable.

I think the dress is much cuter than the original maternity dress I found for Amy so I'm actually happy about the change. I do however feel bad that she has to return the dress and go through the hassle of ordering a different one. At least she'll be happy with this new dress. :)

Every Penny Counts

Last night Zac and I were checking our wedding funds/budget to make sure that we are still on track. Everything is looking good, and as long as we don't do any unnecessary spending we'll continue to stay on track. Though this is true, it's still nice to have some extra money, so we decided to pull the change out of our piggy banks and see how much we had.

We have two banks; one that I painted at Color Me Mine a few years back and the other was a gift from my time at Fresno READS. Change from a piggy bank may not sound like it will help much but since one of our piggy banks was filled to the brim and the other was halfway full I thought that we might have a good amount of money hidden away.

After going around the house and gathering change from jars, countertops, and the cars I sat down to count it all. I slowly started pouring the money out and organizing the coins into different bowls I had grabbed from the kitchen.

Once all the money was organized the counting process began. I was surprised by the amount of money we had sitting on our shelf in the office. So how much money did we have in coin?

$177.73!!

One hundred, seventy seven dollars, and seventy three cents! (Which doesn't include the 50cent piece that is stuck in one of the banks.) I was so pleased. I thought that maybe we had around a hundred dollars (there were a lot of quarters stashed in those banks) but I didn't think that it was closer to two hundred.

Rather than putting the coins back into the piggy banks, I placed the separated coins into their own large plastic bags. Keeping them separated will help us out in the future.We plan on rolling the coins and taking them to the bank rather than dropping them in a Coinstar machine so that we can make sure we get every penny we've saved.

Since we've managed to save this much money without even being aware of it, we've decided to keep tabs of our change from now on. Any change from cash purchases will go right into one of the pigs. We're curious to see how much we can save from now until Christmas. I'll keep you posted!

And Baby Makes Three!

Zac's cousin Scott and his wife Amy got married last year at Wolf Lakes on September 26th....

.....and now they're expecting a little baby come April!

Zac found out before I did. We had plans to get breakfast with Scott and Amy one Sunday and I was called into work. Scott and Amy shared their good news with Zac. He was going to keep it a secret so that the parents to be could tell me in person. That evening and the next day, Zac was acting a little suspicious so I finally guessed what was up. After Zac confirmed the good news we got to work on creating a little gift for the new parents. We got a pack of plain white onsies, needles and thread, felt buttons, iron on transfers, etc....and got our craft on.

Zac was so cute as he penciled out the design for a onesie that read "Cute As A Button".

This funny little iron on was one of my favorites.

In the end we made four little onsies for the future Baby Bennett.

We met up with the parents to be the next night for a belated anniversary dinner. It was great to catch up since the four of us hadn't all been together since Zac's birthday party just three weeks before. We presented them with an "anniversary" gift with a note that said "We know the first year is traditionally paper but we thought that you'd like this better." Inside were our little onesie creations.

With the gift opened it was finally time to talk baby! Amy filled me in on all the details, from when she took the test to her due date (April 23rd). Her doctor visits had been going great and she looked forward to her upcoming ultrasound. She also told me all about the beginning of her morning sickness (which seemed to only come at night).  

Later that week Amy and I got together for a movie night. As a surprise to Amy I decided to make the evening a "Mommy Movie Marathon and Mocktail Night". We usually have a theme for movie night anyways and I thought this one was pretty fitting. (Juno, Baby Mama, and Knocked Up were on our list of movies.) I looked up mocktail recipes online before heading to the store and grabbing a bunch of juice. (I settled on a concoction of pink lemonade concentrate, white cranberry peach juice, and ginger ale....it was delicious!)

To go along with the theme of the night, I put together a little gift for Amy. I figured that soon enough Amy would be showered with gifts for the baby so the bag was all about Amy. Inside the bag were saltines and Tums to settle her stomach, vanilla scented bath soap, stretch mark cream, an issue of FitPregnancy, and a belly band for her growing bump.

Congratulations Scott and Amy!

We're excited for your growing family. Can't wait to meet little Baby Bennett in April.

Stirring Things Up

It seems that I'm only adding to my project to do list these days. The newest one was inspired by this picture that I found on Pinterest via Hostess with the Mostess:

Aren't these owl drink stir sticks adorable? I couldn't resist tracking them down and found this video tutorial at  Hostess with the Mostess by Jesi Haack at Jesi Haack Weddings.

Seemed easy enough right?! That's what I thought. So I gathered my supplies and got to work on recreating these little owl stir sticks to add to drink glasses at the wedding. (I think I might also add them to toothpicks and use them to decorate the cupcakes at the dessert bar.)

I purchased a pack of 100 bamboo skewers at Wal-Mart for $0.99.

The paper punch was by Martha Stewart and I got it on sale for $9.99 at Michael's Craft Store.

The punch made some beautiful little owls on the paper I selected. I needed two for each stir stick.

The skewers were too long, but cut in half they were the perfect length to fit in drinking glasses.

A little dab of hot glue on one owl + the skewer + the second owl.....

...and voila! Adorable little owl stir sticks!

I chose four styles of paper with different prints and colors.  

They all seemed to go together quite nicely, and had a vintage feel without being so matchy matchy.

I'm really pleased with the way that these little guys turned out. Thank you again, Pinterest for inspiring yet another wonderful project!

Busy

Happy Monday!

I have been a busy lady lately. Sorry to neglect my blogging duties. I'm working on a few projects.....here is a sneak peek ....

.....I'll be back with details later.

:)

I Love You, Too!

I checked the mail this morning and was pleasantly surprised by an adorable card from Kim!

Thank you Miss Kimmie! I love you, too!

Wedding Shoes

Back in September I found these shoes on ninashoes.com.

I thought that they were a fantastic shoe to wear on my wedding day. The website said that the shoes were on back order until 11/11/11 so I decided that I would continue to look for yellow shoes to see if I could find anything better. After a month of looking, I came back to these shoes.

I fell in love with these 4" yellow heels so I went to the website to place an order. Unfortunately, after logging on and searching for what I hoped to be my wedding shoes, I saw that they didn't carry my size. Bummer right?!

I searched the web for another website that sold these shoes, and quickly found them at shoes.com. I was happy to discover that not only did shoes.com have the style I was looking for but they had also had my size. Better yet the shoes were available immediately which meant that I wouldn't have to wait until November 11th for them to be shipped.

The shoes were $89.00 (not far off from their $89.95 price tag at ninashoes.com). I googled a coupon code for shoes.com and found one good for 20% off (the code was SECRET20 if anyone is interested) which took $17.80 off the price. Shoes.com doesn't charge shipping so the total $71.20! Not a bad deal :)

My shoes should be here in about a week! I'm excited to see them and try them on.

Great Finds

After going over the project list last week, I took a little shopping trip to see what I could find to knock some items off of the list. I found a bunch of things that I thought were great, though most of the items were for decorations and didn't help me with my project list at all!

Goodwill:

I found this frame that fits an 8X10 print and this white rustic looking easel. (Each for $3)

The plan is to spray paint the frame white and use it to display an engagement picture or cute wedding related print.

The easel has this little metal starfish on the front, but Zac and I are sure that we can pop this little detail off. If all else fails, I'll just cover the starfish with a flower or something.

Salvation Army:

At the Salvation Army, I found this amazing frame for only $1.39!

The mirror measures 10X22 and has a beautiful frame. I'm thinking that it would look great as a tray on the dessert table with a bunch of mini cupcakes and candles.

Ross For Less:

This little birdcage was calling my name. At only $10.99 I snatched it up quickly!

I love the little birds at the top. Aren't they adorable? I think the birdcage will look nice sitting on the guestbook table with a bouquet of flowers inside.

Joann's Fabrics:

I couldn't help myself with this white feather wreath. It was 50% off so for $20 I got a wreath that can not only be used at the wedding but also for decorating the house during Christmas and other events.

I did pick up a few items for craft project. This wire hair clip and these crystals will be used to create my feather hairpiece. Let's hope it goes well. :)

These little white initials will probably find themselves at the guestbook table or by the box of programs.

HomeGoods:

At $1.99 a piece these drinking glasses are going to be make great votive candle holders for the head table. I picked up three of each size. I've got my eye on a Pinterest photo that has inspired me to change them up a little. I'll be sure to share when the project is completed. 

After finding the large easel at Goodwill I picked up these smaller easels at HomeGoods for $3 a piece. Im going to keep the theme going and spray paint them white. They will used to display frames on the dessert table.

At the end of my shopping trip I was really happy with my finds. The items are all things that will look great at the wedding and we'll be able to use them in the house after the big day. I love going into Goodwill and the Salvation Army, and don't even get me started on my love of HomeGoods! You can always find some amazing things!

Shoes Have Arrived

The shoes I ordered for Samantha's wedding have arrived!

I ordered the shoes from David's Bridal and within a week they were on my doorstep. Michelle and I will both be wearing these adorable white heels with a bow detail and the bride, Samantha, will be wearing the same shoes in Malibu.

Bridey Night October Edition

Saturday night was the third edition of Bridey Night. (Read all about the beginning of Bridey here and the second Bridey get together here.)

Holly was unable to make it to this event. She has a pretty busy October schedule so she'll be joining us again in November for some more wedding planning and bridal talk.

This time around, the event was hosted by Samantha, and we had two new editions to Club Bride. One of my high school best friends, Courtney recently got engaged and I'm super excited to have her join us for our monthly get togethers! She and her fiance, Doug, will be tying the knot at Appellation California next September. Since Courtney and Samantha are both getting married at the same location I'm sure they'll have tons to talk about when it comes to seating arrangements and decoration ideas. The second addition to the group is Megan. Megan is engaged to Tony (a hilarious and sweet guy that Samantha and I work with). Bridey night was the first time that I've ever met Megan and I'm really glad that she decided to join us. I would have been really nervous to meet up with a bunch of girls I've never met before and hang out for an evening, but Megan is so sweet and fun that I'm sure she can fit right in with any group. I had a great time getting to know her and talking wedding with all the girls that night.

Though we did make sure to get a tradition Bridey Bling picture of all out our rings, we didn't take many photos since we were all too busy filling each other in on our wedding plans and concerns. (There was a little discussion about 'plus ones' that got us all thinking.) I'm definitely looking forward to the November edition of Bridey night! These ladies are such a great group of girls to hang out and plan with!

*Left to right: Courtney, Me, Samantha, and Megan*

*Top to bottom: Megan, Samantha, Me, and Courtney*



200 Days!

Today marks 200 days until the wedding! When Zac proposed and we set the date, we realized that we had 476 days to organize, plan, and enjoy being engaged. The last 276 days have gone by VERY fast! It's exciting to know that in just 200 days we'll be walking down the aisle.

Another exciting countdown....the bachelorette trip. :)

This weekend marked the 6 month countdown until the girls and I head to San Diego for some fun in the sun!