Blog Swap!

If you didn't get to read my previous post about the gifts I received from Meghan from our blog swap, you can read about it here. Since Meghan received her package from me, I wanted to share the gifts I sent her.

The requirements for the swap included:

1. something homemade

2. something from a thrift store/garage sale/etc.

3. something Christmasy

For my homemade gift, I made a cupcake stand/jewelry-trinket holder.
I got the plate from Marshall's, but they also sell them at TJMaxx and I got the candle stick from Dollar Tree. Super easy and cheap gift idea. Would be great to bake a cupcake and put it on the stand as a fun gift!

The bird cage was my "something from a thrift store" item.

I also found this ornament dish at a thrift store and used it as the "something Christmasy" portion of the gift.
The silver, wire M ornament was also purchased at a thrift store and the other ceramic M was from Hobby Lobby. These were also part of the "something Christmasy" category!

I had a blast shopping for these gifts and I really enjoyed my first gift exchange/blog swap. I plan to participate in many more! Thanks again, Meghan, you were a great partner!

Wedding Recap!

Well after an exhausting weekend filled with family, friends, fun, and gorgeous weddings, I'm excited to report back with some pictures! Ashley and Trevor's (my brother) wedding was perfect! Ashley looked beautiful, Trevor was beaming from ear to ear, and there was a great turnout. I had so much fun visiting with friends and family from out of town and dancing the night away at the reception. The dance floor was full pretty much the whole time.......what more can you ask for?

This is the only pic I've seen from the wedding day so far. The newlyweds!

Here are a few pics of the rehearsal dinner:

Trevor and AshleyTrevor giving a sweet toast. This was when he was thanking my parents for raising him the way they did.Me, Trevor, and my mom

My mom and I did the decorations for the rehearsal dinner with the help of some wonderful friends. We could not have done it without them. They did all the setting up while we were at the rehearsal and they did all the flower arrangements. We seriously cannot thank them enough. They kept us somewhat sane throughout the crazy, hectic day!

Here are the mini floral arrangements. I found these little vases at a garage sale a while back. They were old spice jars that someone was selling for $5 for 35. I absolutely love them and they worked perfectly for the rehearsal. Our friend Jess had the idea to spray paint twigs with gold glitter and put them in the jars...last minute, we decided they needed some flowers too! I think they turned out darling.Jess also came up with the idea to add orange slices to the mason jars filled with candles. Great idea!!!!We put our talented friend, Laura in charge of the flowers and she did a GREAT job! She came up with the idea to use cranberries in the jars and I LOVE how it turned out!I found this idea on Pinterest and thought it would be perfect for a fall touch to the rehearsal decor. We used popcorn, red beans, and split peas....so easy and cute!

I also got this idea on Pinterest and I immediately fell in love with it. I used real pumpkins and spray painted them off white and then wrote on them with a black paint pen. I'm so glad Pinterest came along because I don't know what I'd do without every one's wonderfully genius ideas!

The day after my brother's wedding, I attended Lance and Brandi's wedding. It was also a gorgeous and super fun wedding! Brandi looked beautiful and it was so sweet the way Lance looked at her. They wrote their own vows and made all of us cry! It was so much fun getting to reunite with all my best friends from high school. Even though we see each other quite often, it was still great to see the out-of-towners and all celebrate the new couple. We danced the night away and hung out with the couple for a while after the wedding. Can't wait for the next engaged couple to get married so we can do it all over again (that's you, Alli and Ryan! WOO!)

They had a nice little choreographed dance going on.Look at Lance's big grin.A very special group of friends. So thankful for each and every one of them. Don't know what I'd do without you all!I gave my camera to some girl to take a group pic and right after she took the first picture an old school N'SYNC song started playing and all at the same time everyone started dancing. This pic is the result. I LOVE IT!

What I'm Loving Wednesday!

Happy Wednesday friends! I'm linking up with Jamie for What I'm Loving Wednesday!

#1. I'm loving that in three days my brother will be a married man and I will gain an awesome sister! I can't believe the wedding is already here. It seems like it was just yesterday that they got engaged. I'm so excited to see how beautiful Ashley will be as a bride.....and of course I can't wait to see my brother's face when she walks down the aisle (my favorite part of weddings.) I get pretty emotional at weddings. I could go to some one's wedding that I barely even know and I'd probably cry. I'm hoping that I can contain my emotions and not be a big ball baby as I'm standing up there with them. I'm super excited for all of our family and friends to be together in one place. It's going to be tons of fun. I have the next 5 days off of work so the fun begins tomorrow! EEEEKKK SO HAPPY!

My brother and soon to be sister-in-law!

#2. The day after my brother's wedding, I will be attending the wedding of these two lovelies! Can't wait to see Brandi & Lance and celebrate the two of them. It will be a fun reunion to have all of our high school friends together at once!

Brandi & Lance

#3. I loved having the privilege of taking some maternity pictures for my friend from work. They are expecting a baby girl at the end of Jan/beginning of Feb. I'm also excited about a few other upcoming photography sessions I've scheduled. I love any chance I can get to practice taking pictures!

#4. I'm loving this hunky hunter and the fact that I FINALLY agreed to go hunting with him the day before Thanksgiving! Not really sure what I'm getting myself into. Might end in me crying because he shot Bambi, but let's hope I can stay warm and entertained the whole time. I'm also excited about spending Thanksgiving with Aaron and his family. Since my family will all be in town for the wedding this weekend, we will celebrate Thanksgiving with them on Sunday. This will be the first time Aaron and I get to spend Thanksgiving together. Isn't it crazy that we've been dating for 5 years, but the only time we've ever spent a holiday together was Easter one year? Since we lived away from our families in college, we agreed that it'd be best to go our separate ways and hang out with our own families on the holidays and when we get married we will worry about splitting the time between our families. I'm really excited about helping his mom prepare the meal...maybe I can learn a few things from her :)

Aaron in deep concentration

#5. I'm loving this precious pup! I was playing with the settings on my camera the other day and used my dog, Samson, as my subject. He pretty much hated every minute of it, but he sure is cute.

Hope you all have a fabulous Wednesday! Pictures from the wedding festivities will be coming soon!

You've Got Mail!

I participated in my first blog swap and boy was it FUN! Technically, the swap isn't over yet, because my partner hasn't received her gift yet. For those of you that don't know what a blog swap is, let me explain. I was paired with another blogger and we had to send each other a package. The package had to include the following things:

1. something homemade

2. something that involved Christmas

3. something from a thrift store/garage sale/etc.

We also had a limit on how much we could spend. I was paired with Meghan @ Shine On. She is one cool gal and I enjoyed finding her blog and getting to know her. You should all go check out her blog! Meghan did an awesome job on all the gifts. I have been looking forward to getting this package for about a week now. There's something so exciting about receiving a package in the mail. I love giving gifts and I'm not opposed to receiving them either. I can't wait for Meghan to get my package. Once I mail it and get confirmation that she's received it, then I'll post about what I got for her. I had so much fun shopping and crafting for her stuff. I will definitely be participating in the next swap and you should to. For information about the next swap you can check out the blog here. Now lets get to the fun part!

This was the "something homemade." How cute is that? She even customized it in my favorite color, yellow! Those of you that know me, know that I have a collection of things with my initial on it. Since it's rare and hard to find, people (mainly my mom) always buy me stuff with Q's on it. I absolutely love it and can't wait to put it up!
This was the "something Christmas." Can't wait to fill it with hot chocolate and take it to work with me on cold winter mornings :)

This was the "something from a thrift store." It was a set of darling, Christmas dish towels. Can't wait to use them while I do Christmas baking!

All my gifts! Didn't Meghan do a great job? The package made my day! I think I could get used to getting packages in the mail more often!

Weekend Recap!

This past weekend Aaron and I took a road trip to Tahlequah, OK to celebrate the marriage of my cousin Blondell and her husband Kyron. We left Friday night after I got off work and stayed until Sunday night. On the car ride there, we decided to play a little game. I still have all my old CD's from way back when. When I say old, I mean back to the middle school days of N'SYNC and Spice Girls. The game went like this.....we pulled out a CD without looking and we put it in the CD player and we had to listen to 2 songs off each CD. It may sound like a stupid game to you, but it was quite comical to hear the wonderful music selections I used to listen to. There was a lot of crazy dancing, belting out songs, and laughter from the two of us. It made the drive a lot quicker and more fun.

We got to stay with these two in their brand new house! When Aaron was in college he used to be roommates with these two. The last time we saw them was last December at Aaron's college graduation. Since then, they have gotten married and built a brand new home on some gorgeous land. It was so fun to see them and catch up. Their new house is gorgeous and we're very thankful they let us come stay for the weekend.

With my cousin Blondell. We dressed alike and didn't even plan it!

Some of the familyBlondell and Kyron with their mommasBlondell and her momBlondell and her dad Blondell opening up her wedding gift from me and Aaron. I took pictures at their wedding and I made a photo canvas for them as a gift using the DIY canvas tutorial from Pinterest. View the tutorial here. It was super easy!For the sides I just Modge Podged scrapbook paper and then used black paint and a paper towel to blot on the black vignette around the corners and sides.I also made this canvas using an idea I got from Pinterest. It's hard to read and the picture came out bad, but it's all white, not yellow and it reads, "how sweet it is to be loved by you, Blondell & Kyron, October 2, 2011." To make this you just write on a plain white canvas with Elmer's Glue or white puff paint and then you spray paint over it in white.

On our way home from Tahlequah we stopped by Aaron's parents house to spend the afternoon with his family. It had been WAY TOO LONG since I had been there to visit. We ate lunch, played catch outside in the beautiful fall weather, and took a drive out to the lake to see all the trees changing colors.

Aaron playing catch with his brothers.Aaron's youngest brother, Brian Aaron's oldest brother Stephen and their new dog Pee-Wee. She is like a little stuffed animal and has the cutest personality ever. I usually don't like little dogs like her, but I fell in love with her!!


The weekend was so wonderful and I thoroughly enjoyed all the time spent with great friends and family! However, our ride home was not as fun as our ride there because Aaron got a stomach virus right before we left and we had to pull over numerous times! I felt so bad for the poor guy...I've never seen him that sick before, but thankfully it didn't last longer than a day and he is better now!