Not having to go to work has left me with plenty of time to dedicate to busywork. I have to admit, I am a glutton for it! Some people find the idea of being at home sheer torture, others, myself included, absolutely relish it! My home has never been cleaner, home and craft projects are completed, Todd comes returns from work to a home cooked meal, and my scrapbook pages are coming to fruition. Suffice to say I am in heaven!!!!!!!!!!!! Another benefit I love is spending one day a week helping out in Maddie's kindergarten class. Every time I walk in she cheerfully yells, "Mommy!" The overjoyed look on her face when I enter the room makes my heart melt. Plus her teacher rocks; we adore her. Even the girls (aka the dogs) are getting more exercise. Honestly, I think we all are a little happier now that Mom is at home.
Here are some of the projects that have been completed these past few weeks:
The last of the living room curtains:
Before-Vertical Blinds (Ewww)
In our laundry room I have vintage maple buckets to hold rags, laundry lint (for compost) and garbage. (The buckets are one of our wedding decoration relics.) Some time ago I painted them pink, but always meant to decoupage labels on them; dress them up a bit. Now I finally have the time to do it! I labeled the buckets in French because, lets face it, "rags" sounds a lot prettier in French!
When Todd asked why and this was my answer he just rolled his eyes and chuckled to himself. Thank the good Lord above I was blessed with an understanding (and tolerant!) husband!
Before Decoupage After Adding Pretties
I have started on our wedding scrapbook (YAY! Finally! It's only been over a year!) It will probably be at least two volumes. Some may say it's excessive. But I put so much love, sweat, and research into our wedding the album would not be complete if I didn't include the research and inspiration. Plus I have hidden the receipts in the book so we can look at how the cost of weddings has gone up over the years. As I go through the photos, magazine pictures (my inspiration) and other memorabilia I am reminded of how much FUN I had at our wedding. Honestly I would change nothing about my wedding day. It was sooooo very, very worth it. The best part about that is Todd feels the same exact way I do. I love that our wedding day brought us both joy! I hope to make several more layouts this week. Here is what has been completed so far (sorry, they are not scanned, don't have a 12x12 scanner and have not figured out the stitch option in Photoshop yet.) Note there is no journaling yet, I will start on that later.
The Cover:
The book is by K&Company. It had our wedding colors on the cover and looked rustic. As we all know, I am not a traditional-white-wedding-album kinda girl (I did wear fuscia porn-star stilettos under my wedding dress.)
The Venue:
Sugar Bowl in the Truckee-Tahoe area. Sigh...loved it!!!!!!!!!!! Surrounded by mountains, pine trees and wild flowers. We had the entire place to ourselves and our wedding guests from the Thursday before our wedding to the Sunday after. Four days to spend with close family and friends, as well plan and prep for our wedding . This was key in being able to do a lot of our own wedding projects (including flowers).
The Invites: The Sugar Bowl postcard we had made. We found some great vintage replica prints, had the artist change the title from Squaw Valley to Sugar Bowl and printed save-the-date postcards from it. I found quite a few invites that I liked, but did not love. Nothing screamed mountain top wedding without looking cheap and tacky, or being crazy expensive. I was just about to settle for an invite we liked when I stumbled upon Oliostyle (
oliostyle.com). I discovered Olio on a blog from The Knot and instantly fell in love. Finally! Invites I loved that weren't a bloody fortune! And the best part was, they could be customized to our colors. Heaven!!!!
Our map (also designed by Oliostyle. They design, you print - much cheaper!!!) and some of our favorite RSVPs.
The Flowers:
The flowers were a big deal for me. I wanted a lot of them. Todd could have cared less as long as it didn't break the bank. The bouquets and boutonnieres were done by a florist in the Truckee-Tahoe area. But everything else was done by my mom, myself, and a few helpers (including Todd who dedicate a few hours to clipping the 700 plus stems on all the flowers when they arrived). Doing them ourselves gave us so much more bang for our buck. Here are the flowers after they were shipped. We clipped all of the stems and let them "drink" for 24 hours.
I ordered them wholesale over the Internet from 2G Roses (
freshroses.com) and the Flower Exchange (
theflowerexchange.com). 2G was amazing. They are here in Cali and answered every question I had (there were a lot.) Flower Exchange was good, but I had liked working with 2G better. I wanted the flowers to look as if we had gone into the mountain side and picked fresh flowers. Yes, I know, stargazer lilies do not grow in Tahoe. But I wanted to arrangements to look loose and natural. The buckets were an EBay steal (55 maple buckets for $150, including shipping.) Going with the nature/country theme I used Mason jars and small tin watering cans with ribbons tied on them for additional floral containers.
The Cake:
The cakes on the left page were my inspiration, and the cake on the bottom right was ours. The photo above that was from the baker's website (
tahoe-house.com). The moment Todd and I saw it, we knew that was
the cake. In the world of cakes, Tahoe House has great prices. I just about had a heart attack when I discovered how much cakes can cost. All I could think of was Steve Martin in Father of the Bride, "$1,200 for some flour and water?!" We served our wee guests (the kids) clown cones from Baskin Robbins. They were a hit.
Wedding Favors:
We chose Cd's. Something people will actually use, is economical, and took some thought and effort on our part. The envelopes were made from printed cardstock (in our colors of course) using a template I found on the Internet. The pictures were taken by our close friend Noel above Donner Lake and then printed onto stickers from the Kodak website (they are part of the Martha Stewart collection). The little tags say "love rocks" (I thought it was fitting for a music CD). The love rocks stamp was an Internet purchase and the tags were made with a tag punch. I also included a song list in the CD envelope. I read through all of the song lyrics to make sure they were reflective of the relationship Todd and I have. I spent a lot of time researching songs. Plus, I did not want songs that are commonly used on wedding Cd's, and I wanted all generations to enjoy it. I was happy the CD got rave reviews.
Our ceremony site (at Sugar Bowl):
We loved getting married surrounded by pine trees. What a beautiful setting. It just made for a great backdrop. And it was quiet. We had the whole resort to ourselves. So there were no strange people gawking, no traffic sounds in the background. Todd and the wedding party walked down the aisle to "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" by Israel Kamakawiwo Ole, and I walked down the aisle to "What a Wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong. We were each escorted by both of our parents. Maddie was escorted by my close pal, Tim. Our recessional song was "Swing to the Mood" by Glenn Miller Orchestra.
The Dress:
These were the layouts for the dress shopping process. After looking through lots and lots of magazines I knew what styles I liked. Anyone who knows me well, knows I am SUPER-PICKY. Fortunately I only had to go to one store to find my dress J'aime in Pleasanton -jaimebridal.com . I can't stand all of the pomp and circumstance associated with dress shopping. Help me get the thing on and then leave me alone. Don't bug me, don't pressure me, and don't try to rob me blind (I refuse to spend the equivalent of a down payment on a car for a dress I will wear one day, even if it is my wedding day.) I had my mom, Gail (MIL) and Maddie with me. I narrowed it down to two and returned with two close and honest friends, Tim and Sarah. And I can honestly say, I made the right dress choice and have no regrets about my dress. 
I chose the Maggie Sottero "Brittania Lynette". I don't know how such a pretty dress can have such an ugly name, but whatever. I loooooove my dress. The total dress cost was just under $1,000. Still a lot of money for something I wore for one day, but a fraction of what many dresses cost. Tim and Sarah were right, the dress is me. It has a vintage look and is not too fussy. I did feel like a princess wearing it. I have to admit, a key selling feature was the corset. I am not a fan of white, it does not flatter the figure unless you are built like a supermodel (and Lord knows I am not, especially after gaining 60 pounds while pregnant with Maddie and having a C-section!) So when I tried on the corssetted top and knew I could eat a full meal while still looking thin, I was sold on the corset. Who wants to starve at their wedding? I had a full meal, two slices of cake, and lots of drinks, without a big bloated belly. All hail the corset!
That is the scrapbook thus far. Still have oodles of work to do. But it is nice to get a crack at it.
Maddie created a lovely centerpiece to grace our Thanksgiving table. She loves to build these little foam scenes and buildings. My only conundrum is what what do you do with them? There is only so much space in our home for all of her art projects. But then I got the idea to have her create seasonal projects that can be displayed for the holidays. We bring them out for the holiday, enjoy their beauty, and then pack them up after the holiday has passed. This also makes them more special since we do not look at them every day, like Christmas decorations. Plus she gets to see her own personal contribution to the family's holiday decorations. But this little Thanksgiving centerpiece is so cute and charming. She did a great job and had loads of fun creating it. I keep trying to fan that artistic flame she's got. It is definitely a genetic trait in my family. 
I forgot to add picutres of my Halloween banner in my last post. I was very happy with how it turned out, and even got it completed in time for Halloween! I had a challenging time finding trims and do-dads to decorate it with, but ended up having enough after all. This year I hung it over the mirror in our living room. I was precariously balancing on the couch trying to hang it when Todd was not home (yes, I know, not something you should do while pregnant!) Not sure if we will hang it there next year, or find a new home for it. But here it is, I hope you like! 
Mischa and Leyongo sharing his bed. He stayed with us a few days while his mom and dad were in the hospital delivering our niece, Tana. 
A rare, quiet moment for our girls. 
Um yeah... This habit is completely my fault. Our nightly routine, cuddling on the couch. 
Hands off the blanket and no one gets hurt!
