Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone! Hope you have a great night of trick-or-treating or partying or what ever you do with your halloween!

Me, well I suppose I'm going to get all gussied up and go out with J. (who doesnt have a costume grrr!) so it's gonna look funny! But maybe we'll go out with a couple of friends or hang out somewhere who knows! It's all up in the air right now!

I'm gonna be a pirate yarg! How about you?

PS: I might be starting a cleaning challenge with Katie over at Hyper Homemaker doing her Fall Cleaning List tomorrow. She encourages us to post pictures of our houses all clean but I'm not so sure I could do that This place is ugly even clean! It would be quite an embarassment to show. Maybe I'll just post about what I complete each day...



Anyone wanna join us?

1 Skirt = 2 Outfits

I found a skirt at Old Navy today that I absolutely love, but am going to wait to see if it goes on sale before I buy it and boy if it does I will definately buy it. I have so many intentions of buying it that I am already putting outfits together for it. The thing I like about it so much is that it is so versatile it could be dressed up or dressed down and it still looks just as awesome. Plus its made out of sweater material so it's warm!

So here is what I came up with:
Dressy:

This entire outfit including the skirt is $76.09

Casual:

This outfit including the skirt is just $80.60

Jewelry For the Maids

I have been back and fourth on jewelry for my 4 bridesmaids. I originally thought way back when I first started planning (before we even picked out dresses) that I would want them to wear pearl necklaces. But then once we picked out their dress I knew pearls were not the way to go as the dress has a rhinstone brooche on the side.

So I've been searching hi & low for a cheap alternative and something they could definately wear again. Then yesterday I came across a tutorial on a toggle clasp necklace on Vintage Glam Blog & if you are a member of the knot you know about Vintageglam and her GORGEOUS wedding so I was like I think I could do this! So today I'm going to pick up the materials and see how it goes and it is really so simple that I believe I could make these for myself and friends as Christmas and birthday gifts. Plus, I've always wanted to try my hand at jewelry making and this is just simple enough for a first project.

So tell me what you think, will this necklace go with their dresses? Or is it too simple or should they just not wear any jewelry at all (except earrings of course)?

Here is their dresses:




& here is the necklace:


Image Courtesy of VintageGlamBlog

Now all that's left is earrings

My Sassy Girl

OK here is something interesting for you. My roommate and fiance both have a huge crush on Elisha Cuthbert ever since they saw her in Girl Next Door I thought Girl Next Door was OK but not something I would watch numerous times as they have. So in their quest for their Elisha Cuthbert fix they found My Sassy Girl.

At first we were all like what in the hell because it's pretty random and weird, but as we (well I) continued to watch it got better and better. It is definitely a very sweet movie and shows that if it really is meant to be that person will find their way back to you. It is a quirky love story and a bit of a chick flick (which is probably why the guys didn't enjoy it much as I.)

So in my movie rating scale of 1-10: I give My Sassy Girl an 8 and that is just because of it's slow beginning.

Here is the trailer (it is out on DVD now) check it out for yourself!



PS: Don't tell the boys but I have a bit of a girl crush on Elisha! But that will just be our little secret! shh..

I have a confession

I wear children's shoes, yup you read that right folks. My feet are so small they don't even fit into the smallest women's size 5 (unless they are made really really small or are boots or flip flops).

So you ask how do you find shoes that don't look too baby-ish. Well I tell ya it is hard! But sometimes I luck out at places like Payless and find things that are almost identical to the adult versions. But it is really hard I really love these loafers at Old Navy but guess what smallest size they come in is a 6 (which is typical) so most of the time I just do without.

Most of the time when I go shopping for shoes it is almost if not if as bad as when i go shopping for pants (that's a whole nother story for a whole nother day!) I just buy the basics that go with everything.

1. One pair of nice athletic shoes (this is the area I don't have a problem with)
2. One pair of black dress shoes
3. One pair of brow dress shoes
4. One pair of black flats
5. One pair of black boots
6. One pair of brown boots
7. One pair of red flats

This is literaly about the extent of my shoe collection. It really is sad because I see so many shoes that I love and that I wish I could make my feet fit into but no such luck. The one thing I do love about having such small feet is it is cheaper for the most part to buy kids shoes (especially athletic shoes).

This whole shoe thing really became a problem when I started hunting for wedding shoes. It really is an atrocity. The shoes that I thought would fit (Marisa from Davids Bridal * I pink puffy heart those shoes*) in fact do not.....by a long shot. So I have one of two choices.

1. I can try and make them fit with some sort of insole
or
2. Wear no shoes at all because guess what they don't make wedding shoes in kids sizes.

What a quandary....

But I have lately decided that I want more cute shoes. Most of the time when I hunt for shoes it's more about whether they will actually fit not whether they are cute or stylish (if I find cute, stylish shoes that fit I definitely feel I have hit the jackpot)So, on my hunt for cute stylish shoes that fit I have found a few websites that offer kids shoes that don't look too "kiddish"

www.zappos.com Great stuff but a little expensive but it might be OK if you could catch a good sale. Plus they have free returns and free shipping

www.journeys.com/kids Some cute stuff and great prices just gotta be selective.

So does anyone else have my problem? What should I do about wedding shoes I mean after all it is going to be December when we get married!?

PS: My boudoir pictures are done I'm just waiting for her to email me the password so I can look at them YAY!

Meal Planning part Deux

In my pursuit to plan perfect meals for 2-4 people (myself included) every week I work hard on my meal plan every Sunday morning, while trying to at least make one new recipe per week to "broaden my horizons".

Usually I write it down on some little random piece of notebook paper that I find somewhere or a piece of printer paper that I messed up the print on just to "conserve" (like my green effort there?) Most of the time I write both my meal plan and my grocery list down on one piece of paper (once again going with the conserving method) but by the end of my shopping trip the list is all bent torn and marked all over and not something pretty that I want to display on my refridgerator!

So, thanks to Kimberly Michelle I have found the ultimate meal planning/grocery shopping sheet! How awesome is this handy dandy little piece of paper?


Courtesy of Russell & Hazel

Not only does it have a slot for every day of the week, but a slot for every meal of every day! Very nice! Also, my favorite part is the "detachable" grocery list that is seperated into categories. Oh my organizational mind is going bananas over this little beauty!

A German Feast (the easy & quick way)

Now as I've said before I am a novice cook but I'm learning. Meaning I do not make everything from scratch if hardly at all. I use what I like to call "shortcuts" that being things like frozen veggies and some pre-made things like pasta sauce.

Anyways J. loves German food and now I will admit to me this isn't authentically German but he likes it and says its good so I guess I should be happy he likes it.

Ingrediants:
1-2 Polska keilbasa sausages
1-2 cans of saurkraut
2 teaspoons of oil
1-2 bags of stir-fry veggies
2 small cans of mushrooms
4 baby potatos

Directions:
1. Slice potatoes into thin rounds (wash them first silly!)and begin to fry them
2. Slice keilbasa into 1 inch thick pieces
3. Once the potatos are done put them somewhere to keep them warm and toss in the veggies and fry them up
4. After the veggies are done throw in the mushrooms and heat them up until warm
5. Take a sauce pan and put the saurkraut in and heat it up because the sausage doesnt take long to cook.
6. Toss the sausage pieces into the frying pan and fry until golden brown.

Serving:
I like to eat it all seperately but the boys love to take it and mix it all together so I'll put how they do it (since it's probably the correct way anyway)

1. Put down a nice "bed" of saurkraut down on your plate
2. Add veggies (stirfry, mushrooms and potatos)
3. Add a generous amount of sausage (I always have to get my plate first so I have some sausage for myself because they take it all!)
4. Add seasonings to your taste
5. Enjoy!

I hope you try this it's pretty good, easy and quick; which I like since I dont like to spend a lot of time cooking.

Because everything is coming up roses

While I was home a couple of weeks ago I attempted to make my trial bouquet to see if I could do it. I wanted to make sure it was fairly simple and quick since I was pretty sure I wanted to do the flowers myself for the wedding.

Well I'm here to tell ya ladies. If I can make something that looks this pretty outta walmart flowers then a monkey could do it!

I followed the directions from this site.

What you will need is
25-30 long stemmed roses in the color of your choice (you can use more depending on the size of bouquet you are going for)
Some gardening gloves
Floral Wire
Floral Tape (I used both to give it extra hold)
3-4 yards of pretty ribbon of your choice
And maybe a pretty pin or brooch?


I just grabbed a couple of dozen roses from walmart and stripped them of all their leaves and thorns cut the stems and grabbed a rose and started putting them together. All in all it was easy and I think that even if you are already married this is something nice to know because you can create regular floral arrangements for your home in this manner also. It's easy to find ideas and tutorials on floral arranging on the web. Just Google it.

So here is what I came up with....
















Not bad for a first time armature huh?

There are a couple of things that will be different. I will have all white roses and a much wider white satin ribbon for the wrap (I used what I had on hand) and I am in the works of trying to find a pretty brooch to put on it to give it some "bling"

My mother still insists on me having a florist do it for me but I'm not willing to pay $500-$600 to have someone do something that I can do myself. She said she's worried about the time constraints but you know what it took me less than 30 minutes to do that, and the part that took the longest was stripping all 24 roses. Plus, I'll have all 4 of my bridesmaids and my mom there to help me! We should have all the floral arrangements done in less than 3 hours! We'll do it while pigging out on junk food and watching sappy wedding movies!

After the wedding I plan to give you guys a full budget break down of our wedding costs. So then you can see how much it would save you by doing it DIY.

All for under $25

Me & my friend Christena went "bargin hunting" today. I had never been truly shopping at a thrift store or a goodwill or salvation army before until today. Now I dont know how I ever did not go shopping at any of these places.

I learned that if you dig well enough you can find some really cool stuff for a great price. I didn't go looking for anything in particular but got some really cute stuff for under $30. So I'll show you what I got.

I wish I had a picture of the chair Christena got for like $12 it was so cool and would definately make a great office chair! Pink leather and chrome = awesome!

First for the random house "junk"

I typically do not like stuff but I found this brass star and thought it would be cool to decorate for some holidays such as fourth of july and christmas. I may spray paint it a different color or just leave it the way it is. But a candle on it maybe?



Next I really needed something to put my ring in when I take a shower or wash the dishes because J. was tired of me leaving it on the counter and has threatend many times that he would take it and hide it from me to teach me a lesson and I only paid 3 cents for it who could argue with that?!



I found these really cute candle holders for a $1 each plus I like white so they go with practically any decor.



and finally this small apothacary jar I thought it could hold jewlery or cotton balls maybe? or something else like candy. It will probably be moved around our house a zillion times. It was only a dollar and I can think of about 10 uses for it so I'd say it was worth it!



Now onto the clothing/accessories

I dont have a picture of them but I found a great pair of black dress pants which to me are so comfortable I'd wear them anywhere even if it wasnt a dressy occassion but everyone knows what regular black dress pants look like! Plus they were $4 normally probably about $30 and they fit! Which is a big thing for me!

I also hardly ever find shoes that fit! But these were so cute I knew that if I put them on they wouldnt fit but to my suprise they did & plus gold is so "in" this season and the little flower gives it a little something special.



I really have a thing for dark purple this fall too (I hope it carries on into a few other seasons and next year also) and found this purple clutch that was just too cute and was only $3.50 what a steal!



This is for my mom who has been complaining for the last two winters that I really needed a new scarf so I found this one and its cute and a double layer of knit so its great just a little febreeze maybe a hand washing in the sink with some woolite and we're good to go & only for 1 smackeroo!



So were we keeping a tab here? Lets see total comes up to...
Star plate: $3.00
Ring holder: $0.03
Candle holders: $1.00 each x 2=$2.00
Apathacary jar: $1.00
Black pants: $4.00
Shoes: $9.00
Purple clutch: $3.50
Ivory scarf: $1.00

Grand Total: $23.53

I plan to sometime in the near future (maybe tomorrow) make some outfits for you guys out of this stuff to show how a few small peices can go a long way!

So what is your favorite piece of clothing or home item that you have that you are really proud of that you got from a place like Goodwill, Salvation Army, or a thrift/flea market? Tell me about it I'd love to hear!

I think I found it!

In my post below I asked for everyone's opinions on 3 necklace's for the wedding and I was pretty sure I'd go with one of them, but being true to myself I kept digging around looking for something just perfect.

Well I really liked this one



but then I found this one...



They are both fairly similar and the 2nd one may solve my problem of worrying that it might get stuck down in my dress or be too long. The only thing is that the 2nd one is alot more expensive than the first one. The first necklace was a set and costs $28 for the set. The second necklace is just the necklace and is $54.

Does any one want to help convince me that it is ok to spend that much money on a necklace that I will only wear one time?

If I did go with this necklace I would go with simpile diamond (cubic zirconia) earrings that I already own. Opinions? Anyone?

Oh PS: J. got approved to leave the 19th so we'll be in the clear YAY!

I need help/opinions

OK I haven't asked for very many people's opinions when it has come to our wedding except my mom, matron of honor, and of course J (even though he doesn't give 2 shakes of a stick about what happens as long as I'm happy), but now I am truly stumped I don't know what to do. I'm having a hard time picking out jewlery to wear with my dress.

Here is a link to my dress.

Now I want you to imagine it in all white and without the stupid looking bow on the front all of that is gone.

At first I thought I wouldn't wear a necklace and that I wanted to wear chandelier earrings but the more I look at myself with them on the more ridiculous I think I look so I think I'll most likely go with a slightly dangly earring or studs but really I am truly stumped on the necklace.

The look I am going for is vintage. I have a cathedral length viel and my hair will be in an updo so my ears will be showing. I'll have my grandmother's brooch in my hair and my flowers will be white roses. One of my worries with a couple of these necklaces is that if it dangles it may be too long and get stuffed down into my dress. I'm not real sure I'd probably just have to try it on to see how long it is.

Anyway I'd love your opinions on which one you think would look best with my dress. All of these are sets so the earrings do come with the necklace but I'm considering the earrings below also. The sets are all the same price so that is not a deciding factor. So please help! I really really need it!


Click To Enlarge

Number 1:



Number 2:



Number 3:



Earrings:

Confidence = Beauty

OK, let me first explain to you that all my life even though I am skinny as a rail and all that I've been made fun of for it, just the same as any overweight girl would have been. They had obnoxious nicknames for me (even my family). Anyways I'm not trying to make any one pitty me here so I'm gonna get to my point here. I have never been confident in my looks or felt very pretty.

During high school I was so vain I would never walk out of the house in the morning without putting makeup on and being fixed just so. I tried wearing the latest trends in clothes and still just felt ridiculous. I'm still slightly guilty of this to this day. Only I've gotten lazy. I'll leave the house without makeup and just have my hair thrown up in a pony tail and in a pair of running shorts and a tshirt. I tell you what though this doesn't make me feel any better about myself.

I've always ever since I can remember wanted someone to tell me what I should wear to accentuate the parts of my body that I like and have someone tell me how I should do my makeup to look nice, and show me how to do something with my hair besides wear it down and flat just hanging there or even worse in a bun or pony tail.

Well, like I have mentioned before in a previous post I had a consultation with a Mary Kay lady & man I tell you what I recommend having one done to any of you. She color matched foundation to my skin (no more ring around the jaw=mask) and showed me how to hide my dark cirlces and accentuate my blue eyes (my favorite feature). I loved what she did for me so much that I wanted her to do my makeup for my wedding and we did the trial and she did an awesome job. She even did my makeup for my boudior shoot and I felt just glamourous.

She also showed me how to properly take care of my skin. I have always had a bad habit of not washing my face before going to bed or even in the morning. That's gross I know, I told ya I was lazy. Now, since getting these new products and actually seeing what they can do for my skin and how much better I look even without makeup on I have been washing my face morning and night. She said it could take up to 2 weeks for everything to work its self out so after two weeks I should see a dramatic difference. I plan to take an after shot at about 3 weeks from now (i've been using it for a week now) to show everyone the difference.

Even J. notices a difference in my skin. He'll come in after work and say "are you wearing makeup?" and I'll tell him no and he'll say "well you look like you are your skin is looking really nice" which helps.

Poor J. though he always makes a concious effort to tell me that I look nice and my brain just cannot seem to wrap it self around the concept that I can actually look nice. I wish that I could but I can't; maybe one day.....

Maybe one day I can finally fully (I'm getting there slowly) accept myself and my body and skin for what I have.

So anyways. what do you do to make yourself feel more confident or what is your number one confidence booster? When did you finally accept the skin you are in? I'd love to know and even try some of your tips out!

Life, Death & The Whole Crazy Thing

Well I am officially back from my "vacation" in Kentucky.

I had a wonderful time at my shower and getting to see everyone in my family. I also had a lot of fun getting made up with two of my bridesmaids after my shower and learning how to apply makeup the correct way. I had 2 bridal makeup consultations with my fab Mary Kay lady Hilary this past week and it was just so much fun. She also did my makeup for my boudoir pictures and it was so fun I felt like a 50's movie star! I can't wait to see the pictures in about 3 weeks YAY!

Sadly after returning back to Alabama me & J. seemed to receive one thing of bad news after another. Saturday we found out that his dad's father passed away Friday night. It came as quite a shock because no one was expecting it, it just happened. Even worse, is since the funeral is during the week J. will not be able to attend the funeral which really tears him apart, but his family understands the circumstances. With him being deployed in less than a year we cannot have him washed back to another class because of time constraints he just wouldn't be done in time to deploy with his unit.

Then yesterday night I received a phone call from my roommate and bridesmaid Amy telling me that a husband & wife couple that were friends of ours were in a car accident and the wife passed away from her injuries on impact. It was just utterly shocking I just did not know what to say. I couldn't even speak. The husband is barely scathed so he'll be fine, but I'm sure his heart is in a million pieces after his wife's death.

So please pray for the families of these two wonderful people, also pray that they are no longer hurting or suffering and for God to ease the hurt and grief of their family members.

Until tomorrow....

I promise to have something happier