Table numbers

Yesterday I went on an adventure to Ikea. I saw about a million things that I wanted, but nothing that I needed, so just when I thought I was going to have to leave without any luck, I saw these little beauts for 99 cents...

99 cent Ikea frames!

 I think if I would have just seen them in their wrappers, I would have walked right right them. They don't look like anything special. However, they're designed to show off pictures on both sides, and that is what caught my eye.

I wanted to put numbers in frames, and I was thinking something like this would look awesome with our theme...

Source

The only thing that's always bothered me is that if you're sitting behind the number, you only get the view of the frame stand. Yuck. Not to mention, it's hard enough to find your table at a wedding, so if the number is down low and only on one side, it's especially challenging. (And if you've met my friends, you would know that they're already challenged enough!) And besides making life easier on my guests, that many frames (especially if they're cute) can really add up. Opposite of the goal.

I'd rather have a nice honeymoon than cute frames for my table numbers.

Annnnnny-who, I found these little Ikea frames, but they only come in that off-white color, which I wasn't really feeling. With the hopes that I could spray paint them more of a metallic color, I bought like, 50 of them. (Not really, I think it was only 16!)

Then it was onto Lowes where I found a perfect bronze shade of paint. And then the fun began...

Before

 Contrary to how it appears, I was not working in a wood factory! I was in my garage. And the frame is sitting on top of another future wedding project. (Stay tuned for that!)

During the process- I was spraying inside of a large box, trying to keep the paint contained!

After paint

Not exactly what my number will look like, just a quick and easy idea with scrapbook paper!

I'm pretty pleased with how it came out! It's rich and sparkly and easy and CHEAP!!! Woo-hoo!

XOXO,

Christmas, New Years, and Gadgets, Oh My!

It's almost January 3rd, so this is coming a little late, but I think it's worth the recap!

Christmas was awesome! Brian and I woke up early and took Kevin downstairs to have our own little family celebration. My main gift hadn't arrived yet, but Brian had plenty of other fun gifts for me in the mean time! And I hid Brian's gift and then sent him on a scavenger hunt to find it, so that was fun! And before too long, it was time to split up to go to our respective parents' homes for gift exchanges. We were apart for the rest of the day until the evening when Brian left his grandparents' house to come to my mom and dad's at the end of the night. Good times were had by all! And today, my big gift finally arrived...

Garmin 405!!!

My very own gigantic Garmin watch! SO exciting! So now I can set measurable goals and actually know if I'm reaching them without having to run 10 billion laps around the track at work. Whew! Awesome! I love Brian. Oh, and I got him a Bowflex (that we still need to put together!), so we should be looking A-M-A-Z-I-N-G by wedding time!

Side note- It's January 2nd. The wedding is June 11. My dumb ass was thinking that I still had 6 months to freak out plan, order, sign contracts, etc, when my mom informed me that no, I only have 5 (read: FIVE) months for said planning. Oh crap!

 New Year's Eve was a blast! Brian and I invited some of our best buddies over and I couldn't have asked for a more fun way to start 2011. Our friend and groomsman Mike said that the first hour you spend in the New Year is how you'll spend the rest of the year... like, if you're alone, you'll be alone for the year, if you're happy, you'll be happy, if you're resentful, well, you get it. Well I spent the first hour happy, surrounded by wonderful people, my house was lit up and filled with love, I was tired but excited. That sound like a good year to me! Needless to say, I am definitely looking forward to everything that 2011 holds for me!

Brian and I in front of our tree on NYE

Me, Maid of Honor Alexis, and Bridesmaid Rachael

The whole group!

My new Garmin wasn't the only new gadget I have in my possession... I added a new blog gadget to the right--->>>... now this may not be exciting to you, but it's my blog and it's exciting to me! :p  I'm going to be keeping track- along with the help of my Garmin- of all of my runs/walks/hikes. (Part of a New Year's resolution, perhaps??) 

We went on a 3 mile hike in Runyon Canyon  with Rachael and her boyfriend Kevin, our Kevin, and Rachael's Boxer Bailey. Kev and Bailey were quick best friends and the hike was a lot of fun! Everyone was out there with their families and dogs. And we even saw Oscar from The Office getting his workout on! Good for him!

I'm just guessing at the 3 miles based on what other websites have listed the trail at, because that beautiful hunk of a watch was not in my possession yet. But I'm going to count it because I did it and I deserve to! It was a great start to the new year- great company and a great work out!

Me, Rachael, Dog Kevin, and Bailey

Brian, Me, Rach, and Human Kevin :)

Unfortunately, the weather in LA is not up to it's usual awesomeness (yeah, I make words up). It's been dumping rain. It's even snowing just north of the valley, which is really weird. Needless to say, I did not get in a workout today. I'll be back tomorrow though- that's a promise!

Good night!

Sorry Dad: Quick and easy bathroom re-do

I am preempting this post with a note about my dad.

I love him. He's always worked hard to provide for me and my younger brother. Not only is he a hard worker, but he's a perfectionist, so it's like he's working twice as hard to make sure everything is just right. Especially when it comes to projects around the house. He takes such pride in everything he owns and everything he does. He's caring, he has patience. He bends over backwards for our family. I've learned a lot from him throughout the years.

He was especially helpful when I bought my own house almost 3 years ago. He helped me paint everything from my 14 foot walls to my (now) pristine white baseboards. He's taken numerous trips to Lowe's and Home Depot with and/or for me to find knobs, light fixtures, paint colors, tools, ideas, and more. He has spent tireless hours working, lifting, painting, demo-ing, hauling, attaching, hanging things in, to, and from my house. Of course, I've thanked him and taken him out for dinner a couple of times, but nothing could truly repay him for the time he's spent at my house helping me make it a home. And the extra time I've gotten to spend with him is priceless.

And with that, I want to apologize to him. Partially because I'm about to re-paint a couple of the walls he helped me with and I feel guilty for not telling him about it first. And partially because I am nowhere near as patient as he is, so while I am paying very close attention to detail and taping and cutting in and doing all of the techniques he has taught me throughout the years, I'm not laying down all of the paper he does to catch paint drips and I didn't get paint samples to put on the wall first. I just bought the paint and started. And with that, whenever I do a project without my dad's consent, knowledge, or advice, I am adding it to a segment called 'Sorry Dad'!

On that note, I have a pesky little guest bathroom that's pretty much the smallest, darkest room in the entire house. When I first began decorating almost 3 years ago, I was really into bright colors and a Hawaiian theme. That's cool for a large room, but not such a great idea for the world's tiniest bathroom. My inspiration was these cool little vintage postcards I got in Maui a couple of years back...

Framed vintage Hawaiian postcards

My original idea was to pick up the pink in the hibiscus flowers in the top postcard. I picked out a bright pink to create an accent wall in my mini-room. I forgot to take a before picture, but here's one of the wall after I primed it...

You can see the pink through the white, so you get the idea of the color. People would walk into the bathroom for the first time, and I could hear them gasp even through the closed door. I figured it was time for a change!

Green!

I picked out a soothing sage green color. It's the one on the middle of that card in the pic above. I would have LOVED a more of an olive green, like the one on the right side of the card, but again, the darkest room in the house needed to be lighted up a bit. The end product was pretty sweet. (I think so, anyway!)...

Finished!

To give some perspective on just how tiny this bathroom is, I was standing in the doorway and that toilet is centered on the wall... yup. THAT small.

And this might shed some light on both the personalities of myself and my lovely fiance... a couple of days before I painted this special little wall, I told him what I was thinking about doing. I actually started the conversation by saying, "If you came home from work one day and I painted a wall in the house, would you be mad?" And he said, "No, that's the kind of thing I would expect from you. You get a wild hair up your butt and then you just do whatever it is that you want to do."

At first I was a teensy-weensy bit offended, but then Brian assured me that that was a good thing. He says I'm not boring and he likes that I'll keep him guessing. Hooray for being spontaneous!

The other man in my life... Kevin!

I was just catching up on some blog reading when Kevin decided to come over to the couch and cuddle. ("Awwwwww" moment!)

I love him! And can I just say that I also love the lazy mornings during winter and summer break when I don't have to work!!?!!  Flash back to late July when we got the little bugger and I was trying to enjoy my morning blog reading...

Oh my, that is cute. He likes reading the blogs just as much as I do, I guess! And some things never change...

This was shortly after Kevin decided he was finished cuddling this morning... I'm pretty sure he still thinks he's a baby...

Bridesmaids' dresses and a theory about Bridezillas...

I know I won't be able to say it enough, but my four bridesmaids are the most beautiful women I know! Inside and out. (Corny, I know, but it's true!) They are also four very distinctly different sizes. My original plan was to pick a color and a fabric, and let the girls pick out their own style dress. I almost had Momzilla (just kidding mom!) convinced until one of the dress shop ladies told us that it would be too distracting because everyone should be looking at me, not at all the girls' different dresses.

This reminded me of when a not-so-favorite coworker of mine tried to encourage me not to have my friend Brigitte's adorable daughter be my flower girl because she'll be cuter than me. LOL. No one will be cuter than me on my wedding day!

Um, just kidding. Again. Brigitte's daughter Brooklyn is the CUTEST little girl I have ever seen (since I was her age, naturally.) But seriously, let's side track for a minute and discuss the phenomena of Bridezillas...

 (Photo Credit: Wedding Bee)

While I used to think these girls were just plain nuts, I'm actually starting to empathize with them. No, no, I'm not becoming one (yet), but I'm starting to feel the stress. And it's funny because although I'll admit that the stress partially comes from within, it's definitely magnified by others. There are a lot of instances when you need help from people. Like, you can't get things done unless you have the help of others. It's stressful having to wait on others when you want need to get things done. On the flip side, it's also stressful when you have people giving you unsolicited advice and tips. It's awkward when you don't like their ideas. And there are sometimes when you just want a break from wedding planning and certain coworkers can't take a hint. Always standing over your shoulders asking what you're looking at now and if you've done this or that yet. Ugghh. I'm thinking nurture wins the battle in this case. I think Bridezillas aren't born, they're bred. Just a thought though. I digress.

Back to dresses! (The fun stuff!) So, my girls range greatly in size (btw, Brigitte's pregnant with adorable baby #2 and will have just given birth 3 weeks prior to W-day), and my mom wants me to find one dress that will look fabulous on all of them. I fall somewhere in between all of these sizes, and I know how hard it is for me to find clothes to fit me, so this task seemed a bit daunting. But I'm always up for a challenge. So I thanked my mother and began my search.

A couple of bridal boutiques later, we ended up at David's Bridal. I was avoiding this place because I had heard some, um, constructive criticism about them. But low and behold, we found a great dress there!

(Photo Credit: David's Bridal)

It has a perfect cut to look good on all shapes and sizes- even post-pregnant tummies! The color in the picture is called Latte, and it's the perfect neutral shade. It's brown without being fugly. I'm going to add a band to it, instead of that belt. I'm still debating whether or not to go with black or champagne on that... the boys will be in black, so maybe that... oy.

But anyway, one more thing to check off the to-do list, and that always feels good! Almost as good as eating the chocolate that I'm craving right now! ;-)

Wedding Updates

Wedding Updates
Okay, time to catch up on the major checklist of wedding related items... not that anyone reading this would care, but it will kind of help keep me sane. (I hope!) So here we go...

-Venue (Walnut Grove)
-Date (June 2011)
-Coordintaor
-DJ
-Photographer
-Officiant
-Wedding party

So far, it's all seemed to flow together. This is how it all went down...

VENUE:
I already discussed this, but once we found this particular venue and fell in love with it, they only had one Saturday up for grabs. So we grabbed it! That took care of the place and date!

COORDINATOR:
Michele is the site coordinator at Walnut Grove, but all she does is coordinate the site... unlessssss you want to hire her as a day-of coordinator. Everything I've read emphasizes how much more relaxing it is for the bride and the groom to have that extra help on their wedding day. And with all the planning and craziness I have going on now, I would really like to enjoy need to be able to enjoy our special day. I know that sounded like a bridezilla moment, but I think I might be entitled to those from time to time! ;-)

DJ:
Michele was helpful right from the start, and she gave us a list of preferred vendors. Lisa from I'm a Girl DJ caught my eye because of her business's name. (I'm a sucker for girl power, I guess!) Brian and I met with her at a Starbucks after work one evening, and we were sold! She was just like Michele, so friendly and welcoming. I've felt like I've known these ladies for years, Brian was super comfortable with both of them, and they just seemed like a perfect fit to have at our wedding!

PHOTOGRAPHER:
This has been a little trickier. We had some engagement pictures taken back in October. I had asked a friend of a friend (who is super-into weddings) if she knew of any good photographers who worked with people on a budget. She me the name of the sweetest little girl named Mia. We met and posed with her and she was another fantastic person to work with! The only problem was that she has never actually done a full on wedding before. And that scares me a little bit. I was saying from the beginning that the photographer was the one thing I was going to splurge on. We're still waiting on the engagement pictures too, but it was about a month ago, so I think we should be getting them any day now. I think. Anyway, so we continued our search. I kept going back to Kimberlee Miller, a wonderful local photographer that both Michele AND Lisa recommended. Her pictures on her website are absolutely beautiful. I was a bit worried about cost though. But we met with her and one of her associates. It turns out Kimberlee is already booked for our day, but her associate Danna (who is also amazingly talented) is free. And they offer a special rate for Walnut Grove. Done and done.

OFFICIANT:
This was another tough one for me. Even though the ceremony is like, the shortest part of the whole she-bang, it's also the most important! It's the reason we're all there in the first place, right? So I thought it was really important for us to find an officiant that really got us and who we are. There were 2 officiants that had been recommended to me by friends and other vendors, and they sounded perfect! They meet with the couple several times prior to the wedding. They get to know you, they make your ceremony personal. But they were both booked. Darn! The first snag we hit this whole time! So then we went to the next person Michele recommended. He was this sweet little older man, very nice. But very generic. I didn't feel like he was going to make our ceremony personal one bit. Plus he kept calling us Tristan and Ryan. Oh, and he charged $500. Yeah. Not happening. This part was starting to stress me out a bit. Then I remembered that my aunt had mentioned that my cousin (more specifically my cousin's wife) had officiated for her friends' wedding... cha-ching! So I researched some pretty vows and readings, decided that I am creative enough to put together a kick-ass ceremony, and then I asked my cousin if she wanted to officiate! And she was so excited I asked her! So that's one more thing to check off, and another awesome woman to help make our wedding dreams come true!

WEDDING PARTY
This part has been fun! The ironic thing about me and Brian is that he has more female friends than guy friends, and I have more guy friends than girl friends! But there were three people that I always knew for sure I would want standing up in my wedding. Of course, my brother Jeff. (There's one boy for Brian!) I always knew I would want my best friend Alexis to be my Maid of Honor. We've been friends since we played little league softball together in eighth grade. Then we played in high school and even college together! We've been friends for the last 14 years! The dynamic of our friendship has changed throughout the years, but she has always been there for me and I love her. My other "must have" is my friend Brigitte that I met my first year studying Kinesiology at CSUN. We were Bio lab partners. Although, I haven't known her as long as I've known Alexis, she quickly became one of my best friends. In fact, I owe a lot of who I am today- the girl Brian fell in love with- to Brigitte. She really got me out of my shell and we had all kinds of adventures together, from sending secret admirer gifts to our favorite professor to surfing and kayaking! Oh, such good times! Next on my list of girls, but certainly not least, I wanted Brian's sister Melissa to be in our wedding party. I've always wanted a sister and I'm so excited it's going to be her! She lives in Idaho, but I had the pleasure of meeting her at her wedding back in August, and she is just the coolest! She's so funny and easy to talk to. I wish she lived closer so we could hang out more.

Brian's boys already included Jeff, but he also knew he wanted to ask his friend Sean to be his best friend. They've been friends since high school, and Sean is Brian's best friend! Brian also asked our friend Kevin. Brian's known Kevin since high school, Jeff and Kevin played football together, and I've actually known Kevin for the last 4 or 5 years now. I though he was the perfect choice! For a while, we were just sticking with our 3 friends on each side, but lately, we've been spending a lot of time with Kevin and his girlfriend of four years Rachael. I had met her before, but didn't know her very well. Well it turns out that she is the sweetest girl, and someone that you can tell is just a good quality person. We've been spending so much time with them lately, and I've been getting to know her so well, that I knew I wanted her to be a part of our big day too! There's a fourth guy that Brian and I both knew we wanted as well. We actually were both thinking of him. But Brian hasn't actually asked him yet, so on the extremely off chance anyone will find this blog, I'm not going to post his name just yet. But he is also friends with Jeff and Kevin, so I think the whole party will be perfect!

I'm so excited!!!

Wedding in a Walnut Grove

When Brian first asked me to marry him, I was so excited about planning! I couldn't wait to get started. But it turns out that as soon as people find out you're engaged, they start asking bombard you with questions... What's your color? Did you pick out a dress yet? Where's your wedding? What flowers are you using? Did you pick a date yet?

It was never ending! And then it started to overwhelm me because I started trying to plan everything all at once. Turns out that is next to impossible. So I decided, first things first! We have to find a venue, and then maybe the rest will fall into place.

We started out just touring some local hotels. But I didn't really like how like, EVERYONE could see your wedding. So then we began to look at more specialized locations. I knew I wanted to be outside during the summer. I thought I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted. Until I started researching it. Weddings by the beach are really pretty and super easy to decorate, but my hair would end up looking absolutely hideous with the ocean mist. I started thinking that a barn wedding would be totally awesome and still somewhat unique. But there aren't that many barns in the LA area. Next, we were on to garden-like settings.

We toured 3 places in all, and it was actually the 2nd one that we all really liked. (And by "we," I mean, me, Brian, my parents, and Brian's parents! That's a serious crowd to please!) The ceremony takes place in a walnut grove and the reception is right next to the ceremony site. It has a fireplace and a huge dance floor, and just enough rustic charm to make it absolutely fantastic in my book. The coordinator there is Michele and she's really cool too. We're even hiring her as our day-of coordinator. 

Walnut Grove at night

Like I said, it was the 2nd place out of 3 that we looked at. We were trying to be realistic and make sure it was definitely the right place for us. By the time I called Michele to tell her we were VERY interested, there weren't any more Saturdays left for the summer of 2011. OH NO!!! But there was one Saturday that a couple hadn't put a deposit down on yet. She was waiting to hear back from them. I got an email from her a few days later saying that that particular date opened up! So we killed 2 birds with one stone- we got a venue and a date. 

I was pretty sure that things would started falling into place... not so much! There has still been a TON of decisions to make, people to interview, research to do, questions to ask, and money to be paid! 

Game on!

Whoa, I didn't realize it had been such a long time since I posted last! And boy,oh boy, has a lot happened since! I mean, it's mostly been wedding planning, but it seems like A LOT to me! Let's see, we've secured a date, a venue, a caterer, and a DJ, and made some headway on some decorations. Oh, and I picked out and made a deposit on my dress! It's going to be awesome! But I still need to figure out some other details like, my girls' dresses, flowers, AN OFFICIANT (way more difficult than I thought it would be!), a cake, invitations... and probably a bunch of other things that I'm forgetting! 

I'll update in more details with some pictures soon, but I wanted to post something since I had some time today. 

My Head Hurts!

So about 3 weeks ago, I woke up with the craziest dizzy feeling I've ever had. The room was spinning, I couldn't walk without falling over, and I felt SUPER nauseous. It went away after a couple of minutes, but it wiped me out for the rest of the day. Since then, I've been getting dizzy spells and headaches, and it's really been annoying me. I went to the doctor and he asks, "Are you experiencing anything stressful lately?" L.O.L. Um, yes, it just so happens that I am. I explained to him all the planning I've been doing, and he suggested I make the wedding smaller or start delegating more. Oh, and take a stress class that he recommended. So I'm working on relaxing a bit more. 

At first I was kind of skeptical that it was stress related, but yesterday I was shopping with my mom for some centerpiece accents (lanterns!) and my head started hurting in a major way. And then today I was organizing a notebook for all of my paper work and receipts, and I started to feel a tad bit dizzy. So maybe there's something to this... eh, it's a work in progress.

More to come soon! It's getting exciting! :)

I'm engaged!!!

So I haven't been writing much on here in the last 2 weeks... work started back up so I've been pretty busy with that...

I actually have been working out though. I ordered this program called Turbo Fire which is made by the same people as the Turbo Kickboxing classes I used to teach a couple of years ago. I've been doing it about 3-4 times a week, but I'd like to kick it up to 6...  I'm trying to get into a new routine, what with work and all. And now, I might be even busier because...

I HAVE A WEDDING TO PLAN!!!!

Yup, that's right, tonight Brian proposed to me! So I no longer have a boyfriend... I have a FIANCE! :) 

The night started off with us taking Kevin to a movie at the park. We packed a picnic dinner for the 3 of us and arrived about and hour and a half before the movie started... just in time to pick out a good spot, get settled in, and eat dinner. At sunset- right before the movie started- Brian looked at me and told me how much he loves me and said he wanted to spend the rest of his life with me. Then he pulled out the ring and asked me to marry him! It was perfect! And of course, I said YES!!!

♥

Solutions

I think if I'm going to keep make this blog interesting, I'm going to have to start lugging a camera around with me...

Yesterday, Brian and I went on a hike with our friend Ashlee (she's actually the reason we met) and it was really cool. It was more like rock climbing than a hike and there was awesome views of the valley. It felt good to be outside working hard. I can't wait until Kevin's bigger so we can take him out on excursions like that!

I had to leave him at home this morning as well when I (finally) went for a little walk/jog. It's kind of discouraging to go for a mini jog and feel like I'm sucking air when not even 6 months ago I finished a marathon. I just keep reminding myself that I can get back there. I just need to be consistent. 

I was trying to think of what I can do once work starts again. I won't have to be there until 7:45. I will have conference period around 11:30, but I wanted to be able to come home and check on Kevin and maybe take him for little walks. There's always after work, but with August-September, running outside at 3:00 doesn't seem like the smartest idea. So it's looking like the best solution is to wake up early and workout in the morning! Then I'll also be able to spend some good quality time with Kevin before I leave. Perfect!

So these next couple of weeks before we really get started at work, I'm going to try my best to get a routine going. I'm actually looking forward to it!