Wedding Cake & Weekend Plans

We finally decided on our wedding cake!  We are having Sue, from Cakes and Crafts By Sue do our cake.  She is a super sweet lady who is very passionate about her cakes, has very reasonable prices, and of course yummy cakes!  If you're planning a wedding or any other event that you might need a cake for, check her out!

We aren't going to do the typical tiered wedding cake.  We will have several different size round cakes all spread out on different "pillars."  I'm excited to do something a little different with the cake.  I have an idea of how I want it to be decorated, but not exactly....luckily I have lots of time to figure that out!

I think that is the last BIG thing we had to check off our list.  Now it's getting down to all of the details.  I'm hoping to finish the guest list this weekend so I can order save the dates and get those mailed out before the busy Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons start.

Weekend Plans:  Maybe raking the yard, AGAIN.  We raked the back yard last Saturday and it now looks like this:

Everyone says to get a leaf blower, which we probably will eventually, but I really don't mind raking.  It's a good work out.  And with Kevin and I both raking, it doesn't really take that long because our yard is not huge.

Tonight we are going to an engagement party for some friends, so that should be fun.  Kevin and I haven't gone "out" together in a long time, so I'm excited!

This weekend I also want to organize the office so that we can actually start working in there.  I really hope to get that entire room done this weekend.

We also need to carve our pumpkins this weekend.  They do look cute sitting on our front porch, but we need to get them carved before Halloween...I'm craving some pumpkin seeds!

Hope you all have a great weekend!

The Bedroom is Finally Painted!

I finally did it.  I FINALLY painted the bedroom!  The color is not exactly what I had hoped for...it's lighter than I thought it would be, but I like it.  I think anything would have been better than the green that was in there.  I wanted a light color to brighten up the room because there is so much dark wood in that room (floors, trim, closet doors, headboard wall, dressers...).  I also wanted something neutral   The color is called "Brandied Pear" and it's Olympic paint from Lowe's.  I used the paint and primer in one, but I still had to prime the room first.  Because we were going from such a dark color to a light color, the guy at Lowe's said we'd probably either have to prime first or do two coats of the paint/primer.  We already had some primer at home, so instead of buying two gallons of paint, I just used that primer and bought one gallon of paint.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

(Please don't look at the mess on the floor.  The Admiral thought he needed to be in the pics.  And the sign above the bed is not staying--I don't like it there, at least not by itself, but for now, it's there.  I took the "after" pics at night, so they aren't good, sorry.)

As you can see, the bright green would not have matched our blue and brown comforter.

I wanted the wall color to be more like the tan on the bottom of the comforter, but it obviously is not that dark, but I still like it better than the green!

Kevin still thinks I painted the walls white and I guess I can't blame him, it is really light!  But it does have a yellow/tan-ish tint to it.  Overall I'm happy with the way it turned out...I'm just glad the green is gone and now I can really start decorating the bedroom!

We had a really productive weekend.  On Friday night we got pizza, rented movies, and just hung out at home, since it was a rainy night and we knew we were going to busy the next two days.  Saturday we got up and got rakes and paint from Lowe's and then went grocery shopping.  We got the back yard all raked Saturday afternoon.  Then I went to work priming and painting the bedroom--that was an all night project, but totally worth it.

Kevin and The Admiral when we were raking the back yard:

 He made a nice cozy bed on the floor to take a nap after his long day raking:

Sunday I woke up sore from raking and painting (can you tell I'm really out of shape?).  We got ready and headed to our parents for the day.  My mom and I went and visited my friend Kristen and her new baby boy--I swear I could just hold him and stare at him all day, he's too cute!  Then Kevin and I went to lunch with his family at his grandma's before headed back home.

We were all pretty tired from our busy weekend, so we just kind of hung out and watched football for the rest of the night.  The Admiral went and got in bed at 7:30 p.m. because he was tired from his long weekend too :)

Have I mentioned that I'm reading Fifty Shades of Grey?  Kevin got me the trilogy for an early Christmas present....I'll admit, I'm addicted.  I'm about half-way through the first one and I'm enjoying it so far.  Anyone else reading them or already read them?  What did you think?

October Birchbox & Cute Dog

Yayy for my October Birchbox!  This was my third box I've received and it might be my favorite one so far!

In this box I received:
Kiehl's Aromatic Blends: Orange Flower & Lychee - Liquid Body Cleanser  (I haven't tried this yet, but it's a large sample which is great)
Joanna Vargas Daily Serum  (I like this, but I don't love it...I like an actual moisturizer better than a serum)
Naked Princess Naked Shine Luscious Lip Gloss  (LOVE this lip gloss)
LUNA Fiber Chocolate Raspberry  (I haven't tried this yet either)
essie fall picks Nail Polish Collection  (I received the "power clutch" color and I love it)


I also wanted to share some pics of my cute dog.  Ok, I'm a little biased, but you have to admit he is kind of adorable :)

Kevin and I usually get home from work right about the same time each day, but Kevin worked late the other day, and Admiral just did not like that.  Every time he heard a noise, he hoped it was Kevin coming home from work. 

So then he finally realized it wasn't him, and sat down on the couch and stared at me, like "hey, where is he?"

So then I told him that he wasn't going to be home for a little while and he laid down and pouted.

I'm pretty sure he might be part human :) 

Oh and the TIGERS ARE GOING TO THE WORLD SERIES!!!!! Yayyyyy!!!

Fun Weekend

What a crazy weekend!  But I mean that in a good way.  On Friday, Kevin's brother (Chris) and his wife (Lisa-who is one of my bridesmaids) and their two dogs came to stay with us for the weekend because Chris was in a wedding (they are from Cincinnati).  Kevin's mom and her three dogs also came to stay with us for the weekend too.  Now if you're doing the math, that means SIX dogs and FIVE people in our house for the weekend :)

I worked a half-day on Friday and then went to visit my friend who had just had a baby (he's too cute!) and then went to my parents for a little bit before heading home.  The dogs all loved playing in the backyard and them coming in the house to take a nap.  That routine was great....until we woke up on Saturday morning to lots of rain. All day.  No playing outside in the cold rain for the dogs.

I worked for four hours on Saturday then went to get some groceries.  Kevin and I just hung out Saturday while everyone was at the wedding.  We watched the Tigers WIN Saturday night.  Sunday we just hung out, watched the Lions and everyone left at half-time.  The rest of Sunday was spent watching football, baking cookies (used this recipe and they turned out yummy), doing laundry, and relaxing.

While it was a fun weekend, we were all tired Sunday night (Admiral went and got in bed at 7:00 p.m. because he was so tired).  I'm looking forward to a "fall" weekend this weekend, with hopefully no rain!  I want to rake leaves, get pumpkins, carve them, and make pumpkin seeds!  And of course I still want to paint the bedroom...I need to at least go get the paint by this weekend.

I hope everyone had a good weekend, even if you had all the rain like we did!

Bridesmaid Dresses & Cake

This week myself, my mom, my fiance's mom, my sister (maid of honor), and my friend Lindsey (bridesmaid) went to pick out bridesmaid dresses!  It was fun watching the girls try on all of the different dresses.  I decided on the color "lapis" which is a dark purple.  Short (knee-length) dresses for the girls, all in the satin-type material, but I let them pick out which ever style they like best and/or feel most comfortable in.

Here are the dresses that Lindsey and Ashley (my sister) picked:

I was a little worried about having the dresses be dark purple, because the wedding is in June and I didn't know if that would be a "summer" color.  However, I fell in love with that color the first time I saw it, and I think if I use shades of light purple and white for the flowers and decorations, it will make it all seem lighter and more "summery."  At least I'm hoping that's how it will turn out...

We also went to a cake tasting/presentation this week, which was fun and informative.  We have a few more places that we want to check out before making a decision, but cake tasting sure is fun, so I don't mind it :)  Once we decide on somewhere to do our cake, I think that is the last big decision we have to make.  Then it's more of the smaller details and figuring out decorations.

Wish me luck!

Art Prize & Rascal Flatts

I'm a little late on my weekend recap, but better late than never, right?  And this past weekend was a fun one, so it's worth reading.  Or at least looking at the fun pics :)

After work on Friday my cousin and her kids came over and we went downtown and walked around Art Prize.  We got to see quite a bit, but you really have to take an entire day or a couple of days to see most of it--there is just so much to see!  We ended our night with dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings-yumm!  Here are some of the things we saw at Art Prize:

Carved out of one piece of wood

The Davidsons...made out of Harley Davidson parts

Metal Fish



Carved out of wood

 Made from tires

 glass mosiac

My cousins by the big motorcycle

I worked Saturday morning, so then when I got home, Kevin and I took the dog for a long walk and then I got ready for the Rascal Flatts concert!!  My mom and I went to the concert and we had a great time!  The concert lasted about four hours, and there were three great opening acts.

 Little Big Town

 Rascal Flatts!  Awesome stage!

My mom and I



 We are silly

Sunday was spent doing laundry, cleaning, and relaxing...which means I didn't get any painting done.  We have another eventful weekend this weekend, so watch for an update about it next week.  And hopefully some painting in the near future!

Photo Wall

I finally put something up on the walls in our house!  I had a mirror, some frames, and a couple of shelves that I wanted to hang together to create a little photo wall.  Since all of the frames and shelves were black, I decided to hang them in the living room, since they matched everything in there.

I first laid everything out on the floor to figure out how I wanted it.  Then I tried using this technique to make hanging them easy.  However, for me it didn't work very well.  I taped my sheets of wax paper together on the floor and just marked where the nails should go.  Then when I went to hang it on the wall, they wouldn't stay together and I got frustrated and just threw the wax paper away and decided to do it the old fashioned way (yes, I'm stubborn).  After reading the post about how to hang it with wax paper, I would do it differently next time.  I wouldn't tape the wax paper together on the floor, and I would outline the entire frame/shelf and where the nails go.  Then I could hang each sheet of wax paper up separately and I think it would work better.

So after some pencil marks on the wall, many incorrect nail holes (nothing ended up level when I did it), and getting my fiance to help, we finally got everything hung up!  The bottom shelf is higher than I really wanted it, but I also didn't want it too low so people hit it every time they sat on the couch.  So it's staying how it is.

I'm really happy with how it turned out.  I just need to find some pictures to put in the rest of the frames.  I have one of our engagement pics in a frame and a cute fall printable I found here.  I just printed mine on plain white copy paper.  It might have looked a little better printed on photo paper or something, but I'm happy with it (sorry the photo quality is so bad).  Right now our living room colors are black, tan, and green.  I have some green frames I want to incorporate somehow, but I'm not sure how to do that yet.

I want to paint the living room someday, but it's not a priority right now, so I decided it was time to start decorating!  I think that's why I have nothing up on any other walls, because I want to paint them first.  I'm hoping to paint the bedroom and the trim in the breezeway this weekend, so I'll post pics if I get them done!

Chicago

This weekend my fiance, his mom, and myself drove to Chicago to meet up with is cousin, brother, and sister-in-law.  We did nothing wedding or house related, but it was still fun so I thought I'd share :)

We drove down after work on Friday, so we pretty much just hung out Friday night when we got there.

Saturday we got up and took the train into downtown Chicago.  Then we ate Giordanos Chicago Style Pizza.  It's delicious, you should definitely try it if you are in Chicago.  Then we went to the Lincoln Park Zoo.  It was really fun and the best part is, it's free!

Giant Bunny

Great view of Chicago from the zoo

Camel

Tiger

Chris (Kevin's brother) and Kevin playing in the mist

Bear

 Giraffe

Then we walked around downtown, went to H&M and I didn't even buy anything. I can't believe it.  I had been looking forward to going there for weeks and I didn't even buy anything.  The store was just really crowded, so it was hard to look around.  I saw a shirt online that I wanted but couldn't find it in the store, so I left empty handed.

Before dinner, I had my first ever wheat grass shot...it actually wasn't bad!

Me, Drew, and Lisa enjoying our shots :)

And our orange chasers!

We went to dinner at The Cheesecake Factory, which was delicious. And of course we got cheesecake to bring home for later :) I got the Oreo Cheesecake and it was AMAZING!

On Sunday the boys went golfing and us girls went shopping. Got some good deals on clothes at Target and picked up some cute fall decorations for the house at Michaels (hey, I guess I did do something house related over the weekend).

We drove home Sunday afternoon and then watched the Lions game that we had recorded (disappointing), put away all of our stuff from the weekend, read, and passed out in bed. I was so tired from the weekend, but it was so fun!