Reusable Gift Wrap Giveaway!

My friend Jen at A Daily Dose of Davis has been integrating Eco-Friendly Friday into her weekly posts.  She has come up with some great ideas!  Since wedding season is right around the corner, her post this week was on gift wrap. 

I admit, I'm a sucker for a beautifully wrapped present.  I love when someone takes the time and effort into making something look beautiful for me and I thoroughly enjoy wrapping presents that I am giving. However, it is SO wasteful.  Some of the options that Jen has suggested are really beautiful!  Hop on over to her blog to see what you think... and enter her giveaway!

Wishful Wednesday & Top Two Tuesday... Late!

It's Wednesday again... and this time I'm going to cheat. I will do this week's Wishful Wednesday topic first.... then last week's Top Two Tuesday. Just because houses get me all excited like that. I have had posts from last week in my drafts and just haven't gotten around to posting them!


First up... I "wish" I could come home to this bedroom every night...

I love the light airy look of this room but it is classically fussy... just like I like it! Ha!  A lot of nic nak type of things and I LOVE the chandelier! Yowza! Check out the detail of the ceiling also... very unique.

I also love this room and it may be a better mixture of Brandon and I rather than so girly and much simpler...

The warm colors in this room make it very inviting and I love the bed and the tray ceiling. The only thing I would add to this bedroom is a fireplace!

Now, a master suite would not be complete without one of these...

Ahhh... bath time!

Oh, and of course... one of these!

This makes my closet (ha!) type A organized heart go pitter patter... *sigh*

Now, on to Taylor's Top Two Tuesday... I'm only 8 days late... geeze.





The topic last week was DREAM HOUSES!

I have to pick two?! That is a difficult task people! My mom has been a Realtor for as long as I can remember... so when most of the people my age remember watching Animaniacs and Saved By the Bell I remember following my mom in and out of countless houses.  Even now, I would much rather attend Seattle Street of Dreams or even our own Thurston County Street of Dreams than go to Nordy's Half Yearly Sale any day.  I mean, really!  My mom showed Brandon and I over 30 homes in the area when it was time to buy our starter home.  We lucked out and found a really nice house... but a girl can dream right!? Oh yes... this girl can dream!  Someday I will have a mini version of my dream home, because really... I don't need over 2,500 square feet!
I typically go for French Country styled homes or at least more Traditional homes.  Every once in a while a Craftsman will tug at my heart strings or even a traditional PNW home with cedar shingles.  Here are some examples of things I love!

Here is a classic Pacific Northwest exterior.  I would love this house nestled on acreage or even on a fairway of a nice golf course with a view of the Olympics behind it... :) We need to have the golf course for Brandon!


This is a more classic French Country style that I love...


Isn't this one gorgeous at night? How fun would it be to entertain around that pool!?


I would love to have a kitchen that looks something like this....


Well, that was fun!  If you made it to the end of this post... thanks! I had fun looking for houses and bedrooms. But, I must say if I ever get the blessing of owning a home like any of these I would definitely need this service to help me out! :)

Beautiful May Days

May has proven to be gorgeous so far. Its days like we've had recently that make up for all of the rain and cloudy days in the PNW. Good thing the weather has been great because I feel like I'm slowly sinking in quicksand.

School has me completely overwhelmed. I've been enrolled (again!) for the last ten months and I only have six months left until I will have completed my BA in Organizational Leadership *cue the confused looks*. Some day I will elaborate more on what my degree is centered around. In a nutshell, it is the human side of businesses. The infrastructures of HR and how important they are in the big picture. I'm learning how to be a successful and effective leader wich will help me in literally every aspect of my life.

The problem with school is that I am on an accellerated timeline meaning I am finishing courses that would typically be completed within a semester in 8 weeks. Yowza.

Work doesn't stress me out, thankfully. Its just a time sucker. I will admit that bartending is definitely a means to an end and not something I enjoy much, but it is what it is. I love my days with baby E though. She's kind of a monster some times but it is just her curiosity and zest for ACTION! Ha! That child is wild! She's just over a year and not quite walking... we have a great time.

Then there is that thing we all know as "life.." both of our moms birthdays are in May, Mother's Day, my SIL's birthday and every other random thing that pops up. I feel like I can't keep up!

Then, last week we almost lost my Grandma. My Gram means SO much to me. I have lost four Grandparents and two parents... the thought of losing her made me almost have a breakdown. She was airlifted to Harborview which is the number one Trauma Center in ID, MT, WA and AK... I am so thankfulthat they got her there in time and she's now recovering. If I didn't believe in the power of prayer before last week... I certainly do now.

So, I am thankful for so many things in my life and I love my life. However, I'm going through a rough patch! I will make it through though! The beautiful day spent out on the lake in our boat today helped... :)

Happy Friday!

Wishful Wednesday

This week's topic is:
'I wish' .... I could go back and spend one day working at a job from my youth, and it would be ______!

BABYSITTING!

Oh wait... I kind of still do that. Except, I call myself a nanny these days. Because, well... I just like it better. :) Honestly, I have always loved kids. Especially infants to about 4 yrs old. They're so fun for me to watch learn and grow. I can't wait to have my own someday. *yikes*

More specifically, I used to watch our neighbor kids. It started out with the little boy named Evan. He was such a cute little toehead. I must have only been about 13 at the time and our houses shared a private driveway. He'd toddle over to our porch and ring the doorbell randomly and yell "DING DONG!" It was the cutest thing. He also called me "CHESHI" which was cute too. When my family moved into that house Evan was about 2 or 3 and his mom was preggers with his baby sister. I remember when Emily was born too. My BFF Liz who also lived in our neighborhood would come over and braid Em's hair after I gave her a bath. I watched those kids grow up until they moved away... :( Now they are in 6th grade (I think) and middle school. Crazy! I certainly feel old! I last saw them at our wedding and they're gorgeous kids and I can't believe they're so BIG! :)

Recently I have been able to watch another two little girls. I love it! In fact, I fear the day that I have to get a "real job." I am currently watching my nephew's cousin. She's such a firecracker! Her 1st birthday party was just this weekend and I got her one of those Playschool shopping carts and filled it with fruits and vegetables. I also got her some wooden cars and a pull along wooden alligator from our local toy store... so fun!

Anyway, that's my job I wish I could go back to solely! If only I didn't have my own house to tend to, school and another job!!! :)

Hope on over to Kelsey's to read other fun Wishful Wednesday posts!

Wedding & Road Trip 2010 Part 1

Long time, no post. The story of my life, it seems! This will be a bit of a picture overload, FYI! It just makes it more interesting that way! :)

We pulled out of our driveway at 10:45pm on a Tuesday night headed for the sunny state, CA. We picked up a friend in Portland and continued on our journey throughout the night. Brandon and I have become a great road trip team... he does most of the driving but I stay awake in order to entertain (annoy) him so he won't fall asleep! We made the 18 hour trip very quickly, so it seemed! We arrived in SoCal at rush hour on Wednesday and we were lucky enough to miss out on the traffic! Whooo hoo!

Thursday was the Bachelorette Party day. I still had some running around to do getting some last minute things for the party. We ended up having a blast! We started out at this swanky little bar in Pasadena that provided an awesome atmosphere for us gals! We played some fun and mildly inappropriate games that kept us all entertained! She was a pretty freakin' hot Bachelorette! She had on some killer leopard heels too! :)

TinyPic" border="0">
We took a limo into Hollywood from Pasadena and went to a club called My House. It was pretty awesome too. However, speeennndddyyy! They make you buy bottles at these clubs in order to reserve a table for a bunch of people. So, the ten of us split a $300.00 bottle of 3 Olives Berry Vodka! Sheeeesh! But, the plus to buying a bottle is your own private seating, all the mixers you want and servers to help you out! Our feet got a bit tired after dancing and we needed a place to sit anyway! :) After we all had our fill of dancing the limo took us back to Uriah & Kristine's condo in Pasadena. We found the boys like this... They played Xbox 360 the entire time we were gone! Typical!


Friday was the rehearsal and then the rehearsal dinner at Old Spaghetti Factory in Fullerton. Nothing too exciting happened this day, just the typical prep for the next day like getting our nails and toes done! :) We also ate out at the Yard House which I miss from when we lived in AZ! Love their food... and the atmosphere is great too!

This is our Saturday "Wedding Day" in pictures...


MOH and Bridesmaid taking FULL advantage of the Embassy Suite's AWESOME complimentary breakfast!


The bride and her mom waiting for their pampering...


Bridesmaids following the esthetician's directions: Wash, rinse, scrub, rinse then moisturize!


Hair, hair... HAIR!


A teary exchange as the bride's mom gives her a ring to wear that her late father once gave to her mom... All three of us cried, actually!


Most importantly... Helping her into her FABULOUS dress. She was stunning.


We got her in the car without getting the dress dirty! That was amazing, since our car had traveled all the way from WA and was DIIIRRRRTTTYYY!


She looks cool as a cucumber on our way to the park to take early pics of the bridal party...


We were a pretty serious bridal party. Pretty.damned.serious. :)


The bride's uncle made an emergency run to the store for us. On his list? Snacks and BOOZE! :) This was RIGHT before we walked out the door (and right before a bridesmaid tripped and fell on her face... lightening the mood for sure!) and we were both a touch nervous.

That's enough pictures for now, right? I was so dang busy being IN the wedding I don't have any pictures OF the wedding. Plus, we haven't seen the professional pictures yet either... They will be amazing, I'm sure! Betsy Blue Photography is a dream to work with... she does amazing things!

I will write another post soon... but until then, ta ta! :)

A Little of This... A Little of That...

First... I've been following Emily's blog since she was preggo with little Miss Cate. Cate is SO cute, by the way. She's doing a giveaway over there, so go check her and her cute blog out!!!

*******************************************************
The weather here in the PNW has been oh.so.typical this week. Tuesday was my late step dad's birthday, I thought of him all day. I still can't believe that he would have only been 62. That is just TOO early. Anyway, I especially thought of him when I was cruising down the freeway during a 5 o'clock HAIL STORM and there was a little convertible with its top down. Um, news flash!!! It's MARCH! And, it was NOT a nice day... at all! HAHA! I laughed so hard and I knew that my step dad would have too. :)

Yesterday I started my new set of classes. I have "Organizational Development: Change Management" Um, sounds ENTICING! I kid... And, this Prof is super strict and we have a lot of homework. Not to mention, I'm going to miss one, possibly two classes this term. It's kind of a big deal when you only meet 8 or 9 times. Oh well, I have a wedding to be in!!! :)

Speaking of that wedding... I am trying to make lists like a mad woman and prepare for the road trip, let alone the actual wedding. I'm going to pick up my dress from the bride-to-be's mom today. Have I shared about the dress yet? If not, here it is:


I am happy with the choice. I will admit that it is a bit spendy... we got the jersey version because in our opinion, the satin looks a bit cheap and the jersey is much more versitile but it is still a $250 dress. But, it can be worn SO many ways it is cool and I will definitely wear it again. Since I am the MOH, mine is ball gown length and the other girls' is tea length or shorter. If you haven't seen this dress before, check it out here! It seems that no one is ever happy with bridesmaid dresses and I think that this dress solves a lot of issues. All of us girls can wear it however we choose and we can all wear it again. The bride initially was having dresses made for all of us girls. But, that turned into a HUGE ordeal and we aborted that option about four weeks ago. Yes, six weeks from the wedding we chose different dress options... YIKES!

So, as I said, I'm the MOH for this wedding. I'm a little freaked out. I've been fine so far with all of the planning and jobs of the MOH. I threw them an engagement party in June of 2009... I threw her bridal shower this February... I've tried to help her in any way possible. I'm starting to get nervous though. The wedding is in 10 days and I can feel the grumbles in my tummy starting. Mostly because it's in another state and I have a ton of things to do to prepare myself and Hubbs for leaving our house, animals, jobs and school for a week but mostly I'm SUPER nervous about the speech I'm supposed to give. The bride and I have been friends for many years... but I'm not sure how to approach this. Should I be safe and just say the cliche things that everyone says? Should I try to be funny? Should I get sappy and cry? Please, someone give me some advice!!! I want to say nice things but I don't want to sound like a dumbass! I have never really paid much attention to speeches at weddings and my MOHs didn't give extra long or special speeches at our wedding. However, I did have a bridesmaid tell an embarrassing GAS story. *GASP!* I will NOT be doing that. Thank.you.very.much. Good thing I'm easy going... Errr...

So, that was my random post for the week. I need some feedback on this if anyone has any advice... I'm really nervous. Anyway, happy Thursday to everyone in Blogland! :)

I Love Being An Auntie...

This little man stole my heart the other day. Lots of babies do that... but Nickolai is special. I'll get to love him, spoil him... feed him lots of sugar and SEND HIM HOME! It's kind of like being a Grandma. Minus the old part. ;o)


Brandon and I are lucky to be able to call him our nephew!

We look forward to cheering on UW while wearing our Purple & Gold together for many years to come!


I love you, little man! I can't wait to spend time with you!!!


Doesn't Brandon look GOOD holding a baby? Yep, I thought so too.