Blog Archive

"Life is not measured by how many breaths we take, but by how many moments that take our breath away."

Blog Archive

About Me

My photo
I'm an Okie native, but currently an Arkansan. Newlywed. Hairstylist. Lover of all things creative. Pinterest and blog addict. Wanna-be photographer and wedding planner. Jesus follower. I love meeting new people and I'd love for you to stay a while, read a lot, and follow along. I love discovering new blogs so leave me a comment and I'm thrilled you're here!

Followers

Powered by Blogger.


Thursday, March 28, 2013

Saw It, Pinned It, Did It- #17

Linking up with Katie & Stephanie for another addition of SPD!
 
My friend, Mary contacted me about making some onesies for her little boy for Easter. Of course, you know where I went first for inspiration.....my trusty, ole pal, Pinterest. I found exactly what I was looking for.
 
Here is my Pinspiration:
Pinned Image
 
And here is my version:
 
 
She mentioned she'd like one of them to be an Easter egg in grass so here is what I came up with.
 
 
 
I love Easter...everything about it.  It is a favorite holiday of mine for sure. Hope you guys have a great Easter weekend. Praying for beautiful weather during our trip to visit Aaron in Arkansas!

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Saw It, Pinned It, Did It- #16

 
It's Thursday and you know what that means. SAW IT, PINNED IT, DID IT with Katie & Stephanie!
 
I am obsessed with succulents and they will be a part of our wedding flowers. One of the reasons I picked mint green as our wedding color is because I love the minty green color in succulents and dusty miller leafs. I wanted both of those flowers/plants incorporated into our wedding. The minute I saw this project on Pinterest, I knew I had to do it.
 
This is my Pinspiration:
source: lizmarieblog.com (if you haven't read her blog before, go check it out. She is seriously talented and does some amazing DIY's)
 
And here is my version:
 
 
I bought the fake succulents from Hobby Lobby while they were half off. They look very real in person. They have a bunch of different types of succulents so I used three different ones for each pot. I painted the flower pots white and then hot glued twine to the bottom. Then, I filled the pots with rocks from Hobby Lobby and added the succulents. VOILA and you're done. How easy is that? I LOVE the way they turned out and I can't wait to display them in our house after the wedding.
 
Oh, and guess what today is?
100 days until the big day!!!!! AHHHHH!!!
Happy Thursday friends!

Sunday, March 17, 2013

Bridezilla Moment #1......


If you know me, then you know that I am pretty laid back most of the time, but when I get stressed out it is a full -fledged attack and I worry and stress way too much and sometimes a small temper might flare. Yes, it runs in the family :) Therefore, you can imagine my surprise at how smoothly this wedding planning stuff has gone so far. I HAD not cried over anything YET, mainly because it has been so much fun for me and I've thoroughly enjoyed every aspect of it. For the most part, I'd say I've been pretty good about staying calm during the whole thing........that is until Saturday's dress fitting disaster happened.

I had my first dress fitting on Saturday during my lunch break. My mom was meeting me at the seamstress' shop with my dress. I wrote down the address of the shop for her because neither one of us had been there before. I called my mom from work to see if she was there yet. She told me she found the shop and was there waiting. When we walked into the shop my mom said, "Hi. We have a 4:00 appointment for a fitting. Are you T?" Her name was obviously not T, but we'll leave it at that for this story. The lady in the shop answered "Yes, come on in. You can go in there and put on your dress." Let me just say that the lady was oriental and spoke English, but she was hard to understand and we didn't know how well she could understand us. I get the dress on, it fits great. She is convinced it looks so good that it doesn't need to be altered at all. So we start pinning up the length because clearly it was too long. Then, we decided it needed to be taken in at the bust a little so she puts two pins in the center of the bust area. My mom asks her about a bustle in the back so the dress won't drag at the reception while I'm dancing. She tells us that she doesn't do bustles and that my dress didn't need one because the train was so pretty we should let it show. I was like, ughhh no that's not gonna cut it. I do not want people stepping all over my dress while I'm trying to dance. So she agrees and tells us she can make a little hook and hook it on one of the buttons in the back. We were a little weirded out by that because we remembered when I first tried the dress on, the ladies in the shop told us their seamstress could do a French or a European bustle. We continued on and started talking about steaming the dress and veil before the wedding day. She said the dress didn't need to be steamed and that it looked fine. That's when my mom and I really started to worry. We already discussed steaming with the bridal salon ladies and decided it was a must. The underneath layers of the dress were so wrinkled because it had been sitting in a bag for almost 4 months. Clearly, it needed to be steamed. I was also having an issue with the hip area being a little too big and having too much excess material that created a little bulge in the front when I walked and it was really annoying me. I pointed it out to her and she said it was fine and that she couldn't take it in anymore. Even though, we both were feeling so uneasy about the whole appointment, we left the dress with her and she told us it would be ready in about 2 weeks. My mom and I walked outside the shop and looked at each other in awe and decided we were going to call the bridal salon and let them know how our appointment went and that we weren't very impressed. We both got in our separate cars, my mom took my shoes with her, and I went back to work.

When I got to work, I sat down at my station and pulled out my phone to show my co-workers a picture of my dress and veil. My friend asked me how it went and I was literally on the verge of tears because I was really unhappy about it. She could tell something was wrong and that I was pouting.  By this time it was 4:30......mind you, my appointment with T was at 4. My phone started ringing and when I looked at the screen it said Seamstress T calling. I thought, hmm that's weird, I just left her shop.....maybe we forgot to talk about something and she has a question about it. The lady on the other end said "Hi Quincee. This is T, you had a 4 appointment with me and it's 4:30. I was just wondering where you were?" Immediately it clicked in my head and I started to panic. I explained to T that I just left her shop and already did my fitting. She said, "No my last appointment was with Miranda and she left me with her shoes. Unless you go by a different name and left your dress and shoes here with me, then it wasn't you." I definitely didn't leave my shoes at the place so I knew she wasn't talking about me. That's when I started to sweat, cry, panic, and totally FREAK out. All the girls in the salon were looking at me like I was nuts and they kind of figured out what was going on. They all said, "Run, go get your dress."

If this story is totally confusing and I've completely lost you, let me sum it up. I took my wedding dress to the wrong seamstress. The lady I was supposed to take it to worked for the bridal shop I bought it from and she specializes in wedding dresses only. The lady I accidentally mistook her for owns a tailoring shop and probably doesn't do many wedding dresses. Don't get me wrong, she was a nice lady and has been in business for years, but we definitely caught her off guard and we didn't feel like she was very knowledgeable in that department. I'm sure she would have done a great job.

I rush back to the shop and luckily they were still open. The sign on their front door said they closed at 3 so I just knew by the time I got back there, they would be closed and she would start cutting on the dress on Sunday, while they were closed. That made me really panic. Luckily, I made it back in time. I explained it to her and she was completely confused and scared to death because I stormed in there in a huge tizzy, but she graciously gave my dress back to me, pins in it and all. Thankfully, T is amazing and said she would wait for me and still do my fitting. I was her last appointment and she almost didn't call me because her phone battery was about to die. Hallelujah that she decided to call and check on me because if not, we never would have realized it and the other lady would have altered my dress. WHEW...it was a close one! I'm sure T thought I was a crazy bridezilla nut because I freaked out so bad on the phone with her and at the time, she had no idea what was going on and couldn't understand a word I was saying because I was crying and so worked up.

T is my hero! We did the fitting and she knew exactly what she was talking about. She said we definitely had to steam the dress and veil. She showed me both a French and European bustle. She showed me what it would look like to add cap sleeves to the dress and said she could do it. The first thing she said when she looked at the bust area was, "Why did she put the pins in the front if this area is too big? They should be on the sides since it has to be taken in under the armpits." And she also told me she could take it in in the hip area and get rid of the bulging. Oh, you have no idea how happy both my mom and I were after meeting with the real T. She made us feel so much better about everything and we immediately felt a sense of relief.

Moral of the story is....make sure you have the right address and make sure you really verify you're at the right place and talking to the right person. Poor lady at the other place must have been so confused the whole time. Especially since we kept referring to her as T and saying that the bridal place told us she could do all those things.

After leaving T shop, my mom and I were able to laugh pretty good about the whole situation. I'm glad I got my bridezilla moment out of the way. We both hope that that's the worst thing that happens to us throughout the whole wedding planning process. Oh, what a day!

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Saw It, Pinned It, Did It- #15

 
Back again for another version of Saw It, Pinned It, Did It with Katie and Stephanie! I loved looking at your pictures and reading your blog recaps of your fun blogger weekend. It looks like you girls had a blast.
 
 
Today I have another wedding craft.....a super easy, super cheap DIY Dollar Tree chalkboard.
 
Here is my Pinspiration:
Pinned Image
source: carolinebucky.wix.com
 
And here is my version:
 
 
It's hard to tell in the picture, but the outer edge color is actually a very light mint green. I'm not sure yet where I'm going to use these, but I think I'm either going to leave them like they are and hang them on the backs of our chairs at the reception, or I'll erase it and use it as a sign at the guest book tables.
 
 This is what the tray started out looking like. You can find them at Dollar Tree for $1 (obviously).
First, I spray painted them with white primer, then I spray painted them with Krylon Catalina Mist.
And lastly, I painted the inner circle with chalkboard paint. EASY as 1-2-3!
 
These could be used for so many different things....and a great gift idea too!
 
Can't wait to see what you've linked up.

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

What I'm Loving Wednesday!

 
I'm linking up with Jamie today for What I'm Loving Wednesday.
 
#1. I'm loving all the fun festivities that went down last weekend. My best friend and I had a blast at the Miranda Lambert concert. You know it's bad when you cry at Miranda's concert, but we both did. It was hilarious. Full blog post on that one later.
 
Aaron and I also had a blast at the Chris Young concert. Although, he didn't play our first dance song which made us both sad, he did play my other favorite song "She's Got This Thing About Her".......it was so good live! Aaron's trip was very short which made it hard, but we had fun. We also got to do some filming with my good friend Brendan for our wedding slideshow. I cried, Aaron laughed, and it was pretty much a big mess. Neither one of us are good in front of cameras. We'll see how it turns out.
 Aaron and Samson were so excited to see each other. They're so cute.
 
#2. I love my new purchase from Michael's craft store. I have been wanting these jars for a while now. I saw them at Target a while back, but they were all sold out of the size I wanted and I didn't want to spend that much on them. Well, I found them at Michael's this past weekend and they were 50% off so I couldn't resist.
 The chalkboard jars ended up being $1.99 each. SCORE
I also got an egg crate and fruit basket for the fridge. The fruit basket was $4.49 and the egg crate was $2.99. So if you're looking for some fun kitchen things like these, Michael's is the place to look. I've seen them for a lot more at other places.
 
#3. I love my bachelorette party invitations. My best friend and MOH designed them all herself on Microsoft Word. I was so impressed with how they turned out and I couldn't believe she did them on Word. The back of the invitation is my favorite part, but I won't share all those details until after the party is over when I do a full recap of the weekend.
 
#4. I got my first personal gift from my sweet cousin, Stephanie. She isn't able to attend the bachelorette party so she gave it to me early. I absolutely love what she got me! Obviously, it is very secret and I can't share it on the blog (Victoria's Secret to be exact).
 
#5. I ordered and received some Queen of Suds homemade laundry detergent. I haven't used it yet, but I will be posting a full review of it on my blog once I do. I can tell you this much. It smells fantastic and the packaging is super cute. For those of you that don't know, this is the detergent my client is making in order to raise money for her husband's medical bills (he is fighting colon cancer). I was so happy to see him last week when he came to get his haircut. He is finally out of the hospital....he had been in since January. Melanie now has a website where you can buy detergent and learn more about her story. You can visit the website here: http://www.zinkranch.net/QueenOfSudsHome.html
 
#6. I love that Easter is right around the corner and that I will be celebrating the holiday in Arkansas with Aaron and my brother and sister-in-law. They will be making the trip with me to see our future home and fish, shop, attend a rodeo, and hang out. It is going to be such a fun weekend...I can't wait!
 
Happy Wednesday, Yall!!

Thursday, March 7, 2013

What I'm Loving Thursday!

 
I'm loving.....
 
#1. This little workout buddy. The minute he hears Jillian Micheal's come on the TV, he makes his way to the living room and lays next to the mat and watches me workout. Sometimes he even puts his head on my stomach to help me do abs. I think he loves working out with me :)
 
#2. I love that I got to spend last weekend in Ft. Worth with my friends from college. We had a blast together. We went out Saturday night, shopped, got pedicures, and just relaxed around the house. It was exactly what the doctor ordered.
I failed miserably at taking pictures of our weekend, but I did manage to get one. Allison and Jeremy got us a super funny engagement gift. It's hard to tell in the picture, but it's a deer laying upside down in an orange vest and camo hat.....he is a wine bottle holder. She thought it was a very fitting gift for us and had to have it when she saw it. Thanks Allie and Jeremy, we can't wait to use it!
 
#3. I did a lot of damage on my shopping excursion in Ft. Worth. Not all of the stuff pictured below was bought in Ft. Worth, but I've been shopping for shorts, bathing suits, and sun dresses for my upcoming trip to Vegas and honeymoon. Here are a few of my purchases:
 
I bought three new pairs of shorts.
 The black and white shorts are from TJMAXX.
 The white lace shorts are from MARSHALL'S.
The reddish/pink shorts are from ROSS.
 
 
I got five new bathing suits/pieces.
 I love the fun print and colors in this one. It is from CHARLOTTE RUSSE.
 I bought this top to go with my black bathing suit bottoms. This top is from JCPENNEY'S.
 


I have been looking everywhere for a black fringe top, but none of them had enough lift and coverage for me, but I found this one at JCPENNEY'S and I love it becasue it has padding and plenty of coverage.

 This one is from VICTORIA SECRET. P.S. These bathing suit bottoms do wonders for the rear end. They make it look much smaller and lifted.
I've been wanting a solid white bathing suit to wear on our honeymoon and I found this one at VICTORIA SECRET.
 
And then I bought a few new colorful dresses.
 
 This dress is from TJMAXX.
 This one is from ROSS.
 As well as this one. Couldn't resist the mint.
 This one is from TJMAXX.
And this one is from ROSS.
 
If you didn't notice, I am a bargainista and I hate spending high dollar on clothing. I never have and I probably never will. I mainly shop Ross, TJMaxx, Marshall's, and Forever 21. You should check them out because they have some really cute spring clothing out right now.
 
I also found my wedding shoes while on my shopping spree!!
 
# 4. I'm going to see MIRANDA LAMBERT tomorrow with my best friend Allison! She is awesome and got us tickets for Christmas. I have always wanted to see Miranda Lambert in concert. She is one of my all time favorite female vocalists. Can't wait!
This was from the last concert we went to together- Wade Bowen. And that was our new friend we made there.
 
#5. Aaron will be here Saturday when I get off work and we are going to see Chris Young in concert. We both LOVE Chris Young. Our first dance song as husband and wife will be to a Chris Young song and I really hope he plays it on Saturday night. I'm so excited to see Aaron!
 
 
Hope you all have a great weekend and Happy Thursday!!

Friday, March 1, 2013

Wedding Update!

Today marks 4 months, 17 weeks, and 120 days until our wedding....but who's counting anyway?

Here is an update on all things wedding:

- We got our invitations designed and printed and they turned out exactly like I had pictured. I LOVE them. I am currently working on addressing the envelopes. So far I have done 75...only 175 left to go. I am addressing them myself so I'm trying to only do 25 at a time so my hands don't cramp up.

- Last weekend Aaron tried on his suit and it looked great. Both Aaron and the groomsmen will be wearing khaki suits. Neither one of us wanted the traditional black tux.

- I am currently working on going through old pictures for the slideshow we will play during the reception. Aaron's baby pictures are the cutest things I've ever seen and mine are quite the opposite so it will be fun to watch. We have something else fun planned for our slideshow that we will work on next weekend when Aaron is in town!

- My final dress fitting is scheduled for the end of this month so I'm trying really hard to kick it into gear with working out and toning up. So far, I've been religiously sticking to working out 4-6 times a week. Now I just need to work on eating better and not getting off track on weekends.

- My Bachelorette party and bridal showers are in the works. I'm still working on getting a few guest lists together for those. I am so excited for those festivities and getting to hang out with all my favorite ladies.

- Aaron and I are working on picking out the Scripture to be read in the ceremony. We know for sure we will have two different Scripture readers. I have a verse in mind that I've always loved about marriage and love, but I want to make sure this is something both of us pick out together because I think it's extremely important. We've also got our marriage counseling scheduled and will start that in May.

- I booked the place we will be staying at on our wedding night. It is a cute little bed and breakfast in town.

As you can see, most of the big stuff is done. All we have left to do are all the little things. I feel relieved that we are up to speed on everything.

Here is what I will be working on during the next month:

- Finding my wedding shoes before my final fitting.

- Booking our flights for the honeymoon.

- Shopping for Aaron's wedding band.

- Deciding on wedding favors.

I know these four months are going to fly by because I will be busy with so many other things....CAN'T WAIT!