A very Merry and Urple Christmas!

First things first - must update this blog!

Thanksgiving
It's hard to believe that Thanksgiving was a month ago already! It was a little different for us this year, but still a good time. First, we couldn't decide whose house to go to and when. Both of our families normally do a dinner on the day, but this year my mom decided not to invite all of the extended family in case they wanted to do their own thing. My two older brothers and their families were also doing separate things, as was my younger brother, so it was just going to be my mom and dad cooking dinner for themselves (and us).

On the other side, Dan's family always gets together on the day and the day after, and it would be a full house there. We first threw out the idea of having dinner at our new apartment and inviting everyone over. That way my mom and dad would have somewhere to go instead of cooking dinner just for the four of us (even though that would've been nice and small), and we wouldn't have to worry about being in two places at once. Of course, there is the fact that Dan's family has two days of dinners while my family only has one day, which could make things a lot easier, but that's a whole different story!

Anyway, we were all prepared to do the dinner at our place and have everyone over, but that idea fell through at the last minute because of extra family on Dan's side. We didn't think that our apartment could hold everyone. We ended up with Dan's parents hosting everything at their house and invited my parents there instead. It was somewhat weird at first, even though our parents had met before, but things went well and dinner was good.

I don't know if we'll do it the same next year or not. If we tried to invite more of my family along with the same family members that are normally at Dan's holidays, then there's no way we're going to fit everyone in one place. It seems easier just to have two separate parties/days.

Tree-trimming party
Ever since we moved we've wanted to have a housewarming party, but the time never seemed right. We were either busy unpacking, or Dan was in South Africa, or something else was going on. The weekend after Thanksgiving, though, seemed like the perfect time to have one. And since we got a new tree and didn't have any decorations for it, we deemed our party a tree-trimming house-warming party! Of course, a week before the party we wanted to get ribbon and beads for the tree, and ended up buying some bulb ornaments anyway, but those are just details!

Somehow we fit about 30 people into our place and had quite a successful party! We had an assortment of food trays, dips, snacks, and desserts, and received a ton of cute ornaments and other great housewarming gifts! Sure, the red and gold glitter bulbs were great on our tree with ribbon and beads, but the ornaments from our friends and family just made the tree so much more personal. That's exactly what I wanted.



Christmas
Christmas has come and gone so quickly! I really wasn't ready for it, and now it's over!

One thing we did get to do was invite the families to a Christmas show at our church called Imagine. I think we all really enjoyed it (especially the free hot chocolate, coffee, and sodas...but free coffee and sodas are nothing new at our church, hehe. I made sure to stuff my hot chocolate with as many marshmallows as I could!) Both families enjoyed our church in general, so we're hoping that some of them will check it out more in the future. We also got a decent picture before we left. I took out most of the red eyes (especially my demon eyes), printed out the pictures for both families, and framed them as gifts! Wa-la! Click to enlarge.


L to R: my brother, my dad, Dan's grandma, Dan's grandpa, my mom, Dan's two brothers, Dan's dad, Dan's mom, Dan, me.

Christmas was a little easier to handle than Thanksgiving, since my parents normally do the Eve thing, but his also do the Eve thing along with Christmas day. We also needed to fit in a trip to visit my older brothers and their families for a mini Christmas. In the end, we went to visit my parents and younger brother around 2:00 on the Eve, went with them to visit the older brothers at 5:30, and Dan's parents agreed to come to our place for their festivities around 8:30 so we wouldn't have to drive to a third place. Christmas day was spent sleeping in and spending the rest of it at Dan's parents' house. Whew! My parents were invited to visit Dan's parents on Christmas day, but they just wanted to relax at home. Now I know where I get it from!

As for the gifts, I didn't ask for much this year because I wasn't sure what I wanted! Everything I see is something that could go on our registry, or it's something I'd rather pick out myself, so it was hard. I ended up with some great things, though. Dan ended up with pretty much everything he asked for. Of course he wanted a Nintendo Wii (bah-humbug), but they were nowhere to be found a long time ago. He did get a widescreen monitor like mine for his laptop, so we are widescreen twins!

Computer-wise for me, Dan got me a Wacom tablet! I've wanted one for a while so I could draw or write on my layouts, and he even got a widescreen one! I was going to try to write out a blog with it, but I'm not that good with it yet.

AND...speaking of widescreen twins, we also have some other "twins" in the house! When Dan's parents came over on Christmas Eve, Dan told me to sit down so I could open my gifts first. I was NOT happy because I wanted to save our gifts until Christmas morning. After refusing several times, I finally plopped down on the couch. Then, he placed in front of me a wrapped cage with the front open and two little kitties inside. How could I be mad after that? He adopted two little sisters about 5 months old!

We've been throwing around names for them, and one is definite so far. They came with red and purple collars, and we were thinking of going with something Christmas-y...so we thought Merrybell/Meribelle for the red and Noel/Nelly for the purple. Then, I was calling the purple one Purple Urpel, and the Urpel kind of stuck. For the red, we thought we could do the same like Red Ed and call her Edna. I'm not sure if I can say Edna yet without thinking of an old lady, so her name might be some variation of Merrybell. Either way, here are some pictures of my "twins," since they follow each other around and do the same things. Although, the red one has a slightly smaller head than the purple one and has been squeezing herself under our couch to hide since yesterday.




Dan with our little red girl


Dan with our little purple girl



Aren't they precious?!

If you've made it this far without skimming I'm thoroughly impressed since this post was the most boring ever! I was tagged by Stephanie with Christmas questions, but I think those would get lost at the bottom of this post. I'll make sure to do them soon! ;)

I'm going to try to get at least ONE layout done tonight! It's been a while, I may have forgotten how to scrap!

OH, and P.S. - Five more months until the wedding!

The word of the day is...

Overdue. O-V-E-R-D-U-E. Overdue.

Dan got back on Halloween safe and sound, with all luggage and limbs intact. Others were not so fortunate...not so much in the limbs department, but more the luggage department.

[Que that dreamy, flashback music along with a foggy overlay]

It was a Tuesday...but not any ordinary Tuesday...for Dan would be returning from his trip to South Africa. A reunion that would...okay, enough of that. I talked to Dan while he was in Wash. DC for a 4+ hour layover, and really wasn't thinking about work that day at all. He wasn't going to be hungry when he got home, since he was eating lunch in the airport rather than just a snack on the plane, so my big plan of having dinner ready for him was foiled! (Pun intended)

I left work around 1:30 so I could go home and prep the dinner anyway instead of taking time away later. Stephanie had given me the fabulous idea (and recipes) of cooking a pork tenderloin along with asparagus in the oven, and I was already planning on making a sweet potato casserole. Mmmm, the dinner would be grand. I already put the sweet potato casserole together the night before, along with carrot cake cupcakes and chocolate-covered strawberries. All I had to do was put spices on the meat and asparagus, wrap in foil, stick in the fridge, prep myself a little (wink, wink) and be on my way to the airport for his 3:00 arrival. A friend of ours from work wanted to come to the airport also, so he picked me up and we zoomed off.

Long story made shorter for blogging purposes...Dan arrived back home to a (mostly) spotless apartment, minus some boxes stacked up in strategic corners, showed me his souvenirs and took a shower. After that, I threw dinner in the oven, acted like I had slaved over it all day long, and in an hour we had one of the best dinners (if I may say so myself). However, the genius that I am forgot to chill the wine during the day so we couldn't have it with dinner, but we chilled it and had it with our chocolate covered strawberries later.

All was great and it was so good to have him back home. We've already decided that there won't be any more separations like that again. Pathetic I know.

[End flashback sequence]
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[Wedding and misc. chatter]
Dan and I glued liners and stuffed envelopes with STDs last night. We took our "crabs" and will mail them to other people, that's our wedding gift to our friends and family. I hope they like it. ;) Now all we have to do is address those puppies and get them out the door! We're also planning a little something else that's still a secret to most people, and I printed out the stuff for that last night too. It's been so nice to work with paper again, making things with my hands rather than a mouse. I made personalized address labels too that I'm in love with. They're nothing fancy, but I still love them. After everything is in the mail/delivered I'll post pictures for you to see. Wouldn't want to spoil any designs or surprises!

Tonight Dan and I get to meet with our photographer and pick up our engagement picture DVD!! I loved the ones on the website that I can't WAIT to see the rest. I don't remember if I've posted it here or not, but if you go to our photographer's website he has a select number of our engagement pictures posted for others to see his work. If you click on "Engagement" toward the bottom of the links, we're the second couple down the page! LOVE them!

I can't think of anything else right now, so I'll leave you with pictures of Dan's first night back and a layout from last weekend.


Mmmm, chocolate covered strawberries

Carrot cake cupcakes with cream cheese icing

Pork tenderloin, roasted asparagus and sweet potato casserole

Note to self: put pot holders on the registry

My darling around 9:00 that night, hehe.


See credits here. The photo was taken at O'Charley's the day of our engagement session. Don't you just love being able to whip out your camera at dinner and make everyone in the place look at you when they see a flash? ;)

Seven months from today...

...is our wedding day. I can't believe it.

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ETA: I forgot all about this post! It's Wednesday now, I did it last Friday, but blogger had a problem and wouldn't publish it. Better late than never!
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Other things I can't believe:

On Thursday my mom and I went to the wedding district in Cincinnati. We only went to one place and I probably tried on about 10 dresses while I was there. Once I got to the 7th or 8th one and tried it on, none of the others compared. I had found my princess dress! I'm so in love with it that I can't stop looking that the picture mom took of me. Of course I wasn't thinking, so we didn't get a picture of the back, but maybe I can eventually. The place we went wouldn't let us take pictures of all the dresses I tried on, only the one I chose, but I'll have that one on the photosite if you want to check it out. If you don't remember the password to the folder, let me know and I'll give it to you! So EXCITED!

I also asked Sheri to be my matron of honor and she accepted! Then, I asked Mandy to be a bridesmaid and she accepted too! I coudn't be happier that they're sharing this with me. I don't even have the words to say... :)

Things seem to be moving along and I know the time will fly by before I know it. The STDs (save the dates) are done for the most part and should be out next week. Now our next step is to get a cake!

So how do you like the new look? I think I'm going to keep this short, get ready for bed and read a little. My darling comes home on Tuesday, can't wait! Goodnight!

Birthday schtuff and other rambling...

[Product placement]

Remember that trip to the mall that Sheri and I took on Sunday? And those B&BW products we added to our collections. Well Sheri told me about a this scent that she absolutely loves and if you know me, you know that I don't stand a chance against peer pressure. I didn't want to buy the whole kit 'n kaboodle in case I didn't like the scent, so I just bought a little gift set with mini sizes of moisture wash, hand lotion, and roll-on perfume. Let me tell you I can't get enough of this stuff! I'm going to go back and buy the regular sizes and you should too! Apparently they don't make the roll-on perfume in anything but the gift sets because I don't see it on the website, but it's to die for! It has permanent residence in my purse along with the lotion. I hope no one walks by my cube at work as I'm sniffing my wrists and hands, wouldn't want them to think I belong in the looney bin or anything!

[Birthday festivities ]

Besides the previously mentioned birthday activities, I also went to have dinner and dessert with my parents. I went armed with my camera hoping to get some cute shots, and I certainly came through. Let the pictures begin...

Since I'm a last minute daugher and I always say that I don't want to do anything for my birthday, you can imagine the problems my poor mother endures. I just wanted to go out to a nice dinner together. So when she calls asking what kind of cake I want and mentions a few different options...including the ever famous ice cream cake or a big chocolate chip cookie cake, I decided to go for the cookie cake this year. However, the mall she and my dad went to didn't have one of the cookie places, and the next best store didn't have a birthday one. Instead, I got double holidays - my birthday and Halloween, lol. Worked for me, and no melting in my car to get it home.


That is my mom caught in the act after she swiped black icing off the cookie...
with the cake knife I might add...gorgeous.


Crazy younger brother who's a model at heart. :)


Rob has taught the cat how to play hide-and-seek, and I had to take a picture of it. To play the game, Rob peeks out from around a corner, looks at the cat and then hides again (like his pose above). He repeats this process a few times until the cat dashes around the corner to find him. I had to laugh my behind off at this, considering I didn't think you could teach a cat to do squat! You can be sure this photo will show up in a layout!


The birthday girl...


There she is again...


The happy siblings.
Of course Rob couldn't put down his mega combo bag of sour patch kids and swedish fish.


Got Rob to put down the superstar glasses and jumbo bag of candy to pose with his favorite sister. He used to be shorter than me, where did I go wrong?

I didn't get any pictures of my dad, so that's the goal for next time. And yes, Rob has leftover eyeliner on in the last picture from a show the night before. Overall, the day was good fun and I even got some jammies from my mom, I believe they were this set here.

[Other rambles]

I think I might be bringing my friend Mandy over to the blogger side of the world. She has a xanga, but I think she can do much better (she does too, hehe). We'll see how that goes. I've wanted to switch to the new beta, but my current template won't work because it's so specialized. I'd have to start from scratch on the template. Anyone else on the beta yet?

I know a couple people already, but anyone else watching the Bachelor? OH, how funny they all want to be princesses, especially Miss Timeline girl whose timeline for marriage is working out perfectly! I thought they'd bring Erica back for more than just voting. At least that's what the preview seemed like... like they've done in other seasons bringing the one psycho girl back. Oh well, I like the girls he gave roses to first for hometown dates, so I'm excited to see next week's show. Of course they had to show the dad who brings out the gun upon meeting him for the first time!

Well I'm off. Enjoy Tuesday and your hump day!

Aaaaand...CUT!

The tears, that is. I've had enough in the last two days to fill up some kind of...*fill in the blank with name of a small object*. Today was much better than I thought it would be with Dan gone, and he didn't fail to surprise me yet again!

On the top of my agenda this morning was church, and then Sheri came down from Dayton to visit and have lunch. She got to see the new apartment and we got to chow down at our most favorite restaurant O'Charley's. Lunch was followed by a trip to Target (no surprise there), and a browse around the mall "y'all." For the time we had, we just stopped into a couple stores, but ended up with some new Bath & Body products to add to our collections and some cute crafty decor that was on sale at a holiday store.

When I got back to my apartment and Sheri left, I decided to check my email before I left again to visit the 'rents. I won't lie here, I figured that if Dan scheduled a Sweetest Day email that he'd be sure to send a birthday email. I had no idea, however, that he'd have another surprise. This time, I was told to look in the "C" section of our DVD collection (and I don't say collection lightly...and yes they're alphabetized) and find my Cinderella DVD set. I looked and found a card! Yippee! Along with another adorable message, one more surprise was hiding for me in the trunk of his car! After I went flying down the stairs to open his trunk, I was greeted with a HUGE box. Back upstairs...unwrapping...unwrapping...more unwrapping...and I find these!


The card didn't photograph too well, but pictured is a large shelf from Target that I reeeeeeally wanted and a small one to match the two we already have holding surround sound speakers. Also, that adorable little lamp there will reside on one of these shelves in the living room. Mmmmm...what a great man I have. Two surprises in one weekend while he's thousands of miles away! :) Thanks cutie pie!

While I was opening these gifts he happened to call. How nice to hear his voice! I should get to talk to him again tomorrow during lunch on Skype! Wahoo! Now if I can just manage to hear his voice AND see him on camera (hopefully) without bringing on the waterfalls. I'm such a sap.

For now it's time for bed to get up early for work, but I'll be posting some birthday pictures tomorrow. Goodnight!

A few of my favorite things...

I don't promise a short entry so be warned. Have you known anything different from me and my once-a-month entries? I have a ton of recent pictures and perhaps a layout.

My favorite things in no particular order...

>> Dan - definitely at the top of my 'no-particular-order' list. Mmmmm, what a yummy and totally sweet man. I can't get enough of him. More on him later...


>> I'm sure this wasn't a safe thing to do while I was driving, but do you see that little gas light on in the lower corner? And the needle teetering toward E? Well I do, and I'm happy to say that I haven't filled my tank in probably two weeks. If I didn't have anywhere to go this weekend, I could easily make it to work and back a few more times before filling up. That excites me. I think Dan put it best, it takes longer for us to scrape the windows on a cold/snowy morning than it does to drive to work!


>> A few things here...one is the shelf that I made this past week. I can't take credit for the whole thing because I don't have a woodshop in my living room or anything, but Dan and I painted it, clear-coated it, and he put the hooks on it for me. If you're not in the know, Rye is my future last name...this is not a bread shelf with hooks on it. :)

>> The second item of interest is the centerpiece we put together. If you can see our olive accent wall in the background, the potpourri matches it and the table. Mmmm, decorating heaven. Also underneath that is our new table runner. Dare I say that it matches the potpourri too? Don't mind the mess on the table...


>> Next is a lamp that we bought shortly after move-in. I have to give Dan mad props on finding this while we were walking through Target. Click on it to make it larger...I have a Halloween bear on the top shelf, along with a tin of pinecones (remember those $1 tins at Target, I want more!), and a candle, pinecone, and Hallmark angel on the other shelves. This lamp makes me smile, and we've received several compliments!


>> Following my recent love for pinecones, I also stuck some in a tin in the bathroom. These are the pinecones that smell like cinnamon, so everytime you sit down near them or go to wash your hands it's a slice of cinnamon heaven. Pictured is also a piece of our new bathroom decor. We got this soap dispenser, along with a q-tip holder and toothbrush holder all in brushed silver...again, from Target.


>> This is another recent purchase because I needed a bigger purse. Can you guess where it's from? I love it when I find purses in black and brown because I don't have to switch purses every other day or worry that it looks bad with an outfit. That's just too much maintenance! In all of its black and brown glory, this satchel has room to spare and I carry my camera with me everywhere! (Hence pictures like my gas gauges).


>> I thought it fitting to take a picture of our pretty apartment door. Do you feel welcome when you look at it?...if not then I need to make some changes.

>> Probably my favorite wall is our bedroom accent wall...mudpie brown. :)

>> New side tables and lamps...we didn't have any night stands before!

>> My craft stuff that we stashed in one of the office closets...


>> And finally, gifts that I got this morning! I dropped Dan off at the airport yesterday and he's now landed in Mamelodi, South Africa! He and others from church are over there running network stuff and setting up about 90 computers that were donated. Our church built an AIDS hospice over there, among doing other things, and the computers will help the hospice, jobs, and education centers down there. I can't explain it half as well as he can, but you can check out the website for the project!

Anyway, while Dan is gone until the 31st he'll be missing Sweetest Day (today) and my birthday (tomorrow). Sneaky one that he is scheduled an email to be sent this morning...along with a sweet message...saying that since he couldn't be here there's something in his night stand for me. Well, what do you know? There was a card in the top drawer. Cue the tears now. The message in the card was adorable and said that he hid something under the bed. What? So I'm looking...nothing in the middle of the frame...looking...nothing in the first drawer or second drawer...look through to the other side and jackpot! As you can see, I got a cupcake holder that will be cute to hold treats, and a trick-or-treat bowl with candy! I can assure you that the candy will be gone by the time he gets back!

Also some of my favorite things, but not pictured, are the egg sandwich I made for lunch, my pez candy that's been devoured, and the ingredients I have to make cookies for my birthday. Making cookies for my own birthday? I know, but at work people bring in things for their own birthdays. Is that like tooting your own horn? :)

Oh, and before I forget, Dan and I had our engagement pictures done this past Wednesday! We chose our photographer last week and I'm really happy with our decision. I'll wait to see the pictures, but I don't think I have anything to worry about. We had so much fun on our shoot. We went to Miami Whitewater Forest and had some pictures by the lake and some in the woods. Our guy had us laughing the entire time! We even took some pictures on the swings and I'm hoping they turn out! I can't wait, we'll get the pictures on a CD or DVD and can print them however we want! EEEeeeekk!

Today I'm burning a Cranberry Chutney tart, jamming to music on the tv, will be cleaning a little and doing some laundry, and making my cookies. Ahhh...and I'm in love with all of the sunlight and breeze that pours into the windows! It's a great day so far! Now only if my honey was here...

I leave you with these layouts. The first was done last month with Holly's Fall Velvet kit exclusively for DST members, and the second is more recent. Check credits here, I'll have them uploaded later today!

Fall...already?

My, this year is just flying by at lightning speed! How is it fall already? Before you know it, it'll be Thanksgiving and Christmas...and we just can't have that yet! Between the wedding next year, moving, and not knowing what to buy for people, I'm just not ready for Christmas! It might have to be a very crafty gift-giving holiday for me. I know I thought that to myself last year, but I didn't have the time or ideas to make things. This year I actually have a stash of things from the Target dollar bins (remember the little metal tins and coasters to alter?) and some frames I could throw together.

REMINISCING

Wow, it just dawned on me...this time last year was when I discovered digital scrapbooking! I can't remember how I stumbled upon this addicting little hobby, though. It was probably a strange reason like trying to make a new banner for my blog and wanting scrapbook elements for it. Actually, I slightly remember seeing some websites in a paper scrapping magazine for fonts and stuff that people had downloaded from the internet, and I think my search for fonts took an unchartered turn...and viola! I do recall that Scrapbook Bytes was one of the first sites I found, and back then they had the gold mine of free stuff!

I think I downloaded everything I could get my grubby little hands on, and then I realized that I needed a way to organize it all. Like some newbies, I organized it totally wrong! I thought to myself, "Hey, I'll organize it like I do my paper products...by solid papers, patterned papers, different elements, it'll be genius!" HA! After I spent the good part of a month organizing all of my stash, THEN I realized that I was making a huge mistake! With everything lumped together I couldn't find a thing, and had no idea if anything went together! So, the backtracking began. All of those things that I just divided up had to be put back together again...humpty dumpty anyone? In the process, though, I got to delete a lot of things that I didn't like or wondered, "how the heck did that make it into the market?"

Along with SBB, I also found a ton of other sites and my first digi-home, The Digichick! Ahhh, memories. Of course, Dan was always encouraging with my paper-to-digi switch. I wasn't taking up his office or living room floor with my supplies, and he would make sure to roll his eyes each time I organized and re-organized my files (which I did at least three times a week...heck, who am I kidding, I'm still organizing constantly!). I also heard questions like, "Shouldn't you be working on your Master's paper?" The men have such respect... :)

SCRAPPING

While I'm on the topic, I really haven't scrapped much in the last month. I completed a layout with the DST exclusive kit that Holly made for gold members (which I love...mmm, rich colors that's ALL I can say!), and I have a few other on the hard drive that have been started that I just don't like. I'm in a scrapping funk and I need to get out of it soon. All of my ideas for layouts are the same anymore and I want something different. I look at magazines and get so much inspiration, but I can't translate the darn ideas into a page. I've tried to do some lifts, but the layouts I love in the magazines have doodles and lines that I can't do without a Wacom tablet or something *hint, hint.* Woe is me...

Here is some beautiful stuff the Holly McCaigster has magically created lately! Loving the colors and elements people! You must go to Plain Digital Wrapper and grab these!

Paper packs




Kits




Actually, I remembered that I did a couple layouts at the end of August that didn't make it into my last post. You can check the credits here.

DADDY'S ROOM - me in my dad's radio/computer room!


ONE YEAR LATER


WEDDING

Last week Dan and I met with two photographers and we're stumped on who to choose! Both guys seem like they would do a good job and we're pretty comfortable with both of them. I think we need to add more photographers to our shopping list so we really know our options, but we're running out of time! Here, if anyone actually reads this, I'll let you decide! If you want to check out their websites for albums, send me a comment!

Guy #1
20+ years experience (if I remember correctly)
Only photographs weddings
Does the entire day by himself (pro or con, not sure)
Offers a coffee table book in his packages
Will give us a DVD of all our photographs
Will throw in an engagement session
Takes photographs in JPG format

Guy #2 (cheaper, but no coffee table book)
About 5 years experience in area weddings
(Hobby in photography for much longer)
Does weddings, senior portraits, etc.
Does the entire day with his wife assisting (using extra flash)
Entire day means that he will even go to salon, etc. beforehand for shots
Will give us a DVD of all our photographs
Will throw in an engagement session
Takes photographs in RAW format, and converts them to JPG

Oh, and you remember that save-the-date that I posted on here after I redid it a second time? Yeah, well I redid it a third time. I have a sickness really. I see so many cards that I love, that I just can't have just one. These things need to be in the mail already! :)

Ooooh, and if you look at the date today...in exactly 8 months I will be Mrs. Victoria Rye, hehe.

CELEBRATING

Two weekends ago, my friend Sheri had her bachelorette party. She had a slumber party at her house on Friday night, for which I should win the Miss Drowsy pageant award...and on Saturday we woke up much too early (like 8:00am) and went to Cedar Point. That weekend couldn't have been more fun!...well, it could have, but we'll leave the part out where I felt like giving the landscape my lunch and went back to the hotel early. The theme song for the weekend - "Sexy Back" by Mr. Timberlake.

Last weekend was Sheri's wedding and it was beau-ti-ful! After seeing the way her reception was setup I think I want to lift some of the ideas for mine. Dan and I have been thinking about a videographer to go with our photographer, but didn't really want to spend the money. After seeing the "love story" slideshow with later-added footage from Sheri's ceremony, we might be bound and determined to have some video cameras. We may have to fork over our first born child, but darned if we won't have a video of our wedding for years to come!

MOVING

Yep, the moving weekend is upon us. Two months ago we couldn't wait to start packing and get into our new apartment. Now, the time slipped out from under us and we don't have squat done! Okay, so I lie...Dan packed up his collection of DVDs that take up like 13 boxes alone, so it looks like we have a lot packed. I don't let that fool me. Dan has been real trooper, though, and stayed up later than me the past couple nights to get extra things done. If I stayed up that late you'd see my claws in the morning.

We DID, however, paint a few select walls of the new place! We were allowed to go in on Sunday and paint after we bought our colors last week. I'll give you three guesses as to what those colors are......... got them yet?

Actually, we didn't pick these colors on purpose, but they are purple, olive, and brown. No surprise, right? I really wanted a purple accent wall in our spare room/office, but not a bright purple...more of an earthy purple if there is such a thing. We were going to go with a brown accent wall in the dining room to match our couch in the connected living room, but decided that with a wood table there would be too much brown, so that color ended up as an accent wall in our bedroom. The olive was originally the idea for our bedroom, until we decided that it would be too much with a green duvet set and curtains. If we get a new duvet set and curtains from our registry it will go well with the green wall, but for now - no go - the olive ended up as an accent wall in the dining room. Is that confusing enough?

I really love all of the colors, and since the three rooms only have one wall done as an accent we're not overwhelmed with color. Personally, and I think Dan would say this also, I love our bedroom with the brown wall the most. The apartment walls were a light beige to start with, so the brown coordinates perfectly. It's very serene. The olive turned out great, now we need to find a cute table runner to match. The purple turned out darker than we thought, more of a dark grayish purple, but I like it and think some decorations and light will bring out the purple more. Pictures will be taken soon, of course!

I think that's it for tonight...I actually wrote this post earlier to paste in here and I've been packing all evening. Sigh, I'm ready for bed! Time to shove some more stuff in boxes before I can cuddle up in bed.

My poor neglected blog...

Wow, it's been a month since my last post! My poor blog is always forgotten about when I have free time. Let's get to the review!

What month is it again? Oh, right...flippin' September! How can it be September already? Where did the summer months go? Granted, it does feel like June was forever ago, it still doesn't feel like three months have gone.

I started teaching at a nearby online university that's offering on-campus classes. Can you figure out which online university that is? The one that's known around the world? The classes are one night a week for five weeks, and four hours long. If you asked me three months ago when I was going through training for this position if I could fill up four hours of classtime, I would've laughed at you and said you were crazy. But you know what, it's not enough time! It's a speech class, so they have speeches every week. Last night I had about two hours allotted for speeches and critiquing them. Eleven students performing speeches that are 8-10 minutes each, okay maybe it would take three hours. HA! The 10:00 hour rolled around way to quickly and all we got done were speeches. So...next Thursday is the last night of the class. I already have another class lined up for November, so hopefully that'll give me some extra Christmas money.

What else...I guess I got a bunch of layouts done at the beginning of August, but I only uploaded a couple of them into the galleries. I'm not sure if I remember the credits now!

TULIPS - from Niagara

Kit - Holly McCaig's Office Chic

JULY REVIEW - digichick challenge

Kit - Holly McCaig's Goodbye to Summer, Label sticker - also Holly's, Binder clips - Holly's Office Chic - recolored, Note paper - Gina Miller's Note This, Stamped alpha - Michelle Coleman, Painted alpha - Rhonna Farrer, Inked edges - Atomic Cupcake

CAMERA HAM - that's me, too cute!

Kit - Holly McCaig's Rawk Candy, fuzzy string recolored
Alpha - Dani Mogstad's This Love CD
Brush strokes and distressing - Michelle Coleman and Nancie R-J

NIAGARA FROM OUR SUITE - 'nough said

Everything from Dani's This Love CD

TRUE LOVE - awwww!

Everything from Dani's This Love CD
Paint strokes - Michelle Coleman

THE GARDENS OF NIAGARA FALLS

Idea from Amy Martin's layout of Dani's little Lexi, Background paper - Nancie Rowe-Janitz's Quiet Love, Stamp flowers and labels - Holly McCaig, Ribbons, leather trim, tag - Michelle Coleman's Gypsy Rose


Whew! I was on a roll the week I created those! Hopefully I can get some scrapping in tonight and/or tomorrow night.

As for the coming weeks, my days will be pretty packed so I hope to take some time out for myself to scrap or work on a dream book that Dan and I are putting together. I think it was Dan that had the idea to put together a book where we could write down and paste pictures of all the things we want in a future home, for our kids, for ourselves, etc. This week I put together the dividers and cover in photoshop, now I need to print them out and alter a spiral book I have laying around.

My days will also be pretty packed literally, since we're moving in a month! On September 30th we will be leaving the crowded, impatient streets of our little Cincinnati area and moving to the country-esk streets of northern Kentucky. I'll have to make sure to take pictures of everything before and after, both apartments.

Speaking of pictures, I started carrying my point-and-shoot camera with me in case a situation calls for photos, but no such luck. Dan and I have a couple weddings to go to this month, and I do have my friend Sheri's bachelorette party, so I feel some photo shoots coming on soon. Sheri did have her bridal shower early in August - I forgot that I have to upload those pictures! YES!

Speaking of weddings, not much else has been planned with ours. We put the deposit down on our reception site, but that's about it. Of course, the digital scrapper that I am had to go and redo the save-the-date card! I like it so much better now, but I still can't figure out how I want to print all 100+ of them. Any ideas? We're putting a piece of colored background paper with these white cards, so I don't know if I want them to be on photo paper, but the photo would look so much nicer if they were. Check it out! If you're seeing purpleish text on your monitor, just imagine brown. I don't have the right file on my computer after I played around with the color.



Anyway, I think that about concludes our program for this evening. I'm off to scrap or alter something! I haven't been fully meeting my CT requirements, so I need to redeem myself!

Until next time...whenever that may be.

I wear my sunglasses at night...

do-do, do-do, do-do, do-do...

Boy, have there been some changes around here! This calls for subtitles.

NEW BEDROOM DECOR
I really believe that if you make small changes in your life every so often that you will be much happier. Maybe that's why my mom always changed the living room around every month when I was a kid, hehe. Anyway, Dan and I were doing some apartment/house browsing in the last month, mainly because I'd like to have a place of our own, more space, and a dining room (rather than an office occupying said space). After looking at a couple of places we decided that our budget is not going to handle the amenities we really want. Since we're dividing our current rent with a roommate, it makes things much more affordable. SO...back to the subject...I decided that if we're not going to get a new place that I'd like to make some changes around here. I thought it would be nice to get a new comforter/sheet set and curtains in the bedroom, etc., and I also wanted to do something with our living room mantel to make it more "homey."

We ended up going to a few different home stores last Saturday and finding an awesome set at this place. By the end of Saturday, we not only got new sheets, a down comforter and duvet cover, curtains, and rugs to put in the bedroom and living room, but we also got a cute candle plate set to put on the mantel *whew!*. Oh, and I got a new sleeping pillow that is foam = squishy pillow bliss = I really don't want to get out of bed! Along with the candle arrangement, I also printed out some Niagara photos and put those up there. Picture time!

BEFORE - Bachelor pad central


AFTER (the pictures were always there, just not visible above)


Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain...I mean, the short curtains. We have longer windows in this place. They will fit "normal" windows. ;)


I can't say that my decorating itch was the least bit cheap, but I can say that I am in love with our place now. I've added some of my own touches to it, so it really feels more like "our" place. I walk into the bedroom and it feels so warm and cozy, awwww!

WEDDING SPEAK
After buying the bedroom stuff last weekend and cleaning through most of the night Saturday, Sheri came over to visit on Sunday and we went to a bridal show here in Cincinnati. I normally only get to see Sheri once a year on her birthday (ha), so it was great that she drove down from C-bus and got to hang out. She's getting married in September, so we'll get to see each other at least three times this year, lol. The bridal show was fun and we went back to this one cake vendor like five times hoping they wouldn't remember us.

Afterwards, we went to this place so I could try on some wedding dresses for the first time! Ooooooh, I tried on about 10 dresses and I'm definitely in love with two or three of them. I still have more places to try, but if I love two already I can tell this will be a hard decision. Vicki = Miss Indecisive. If you want to see pictures of the dresses I tried on, minus one or two rejects, shoot me a comment with your email (if I don't already know it) and I'll give you the password to the photosite album *wink, wink*. I tried to show Dan pictures of the rejected dresses at least, but he refuses to look at anything related to a dress! Good boy he is, but who am I going to share this with? No one lives near me! :)

Also, as of today, I think we have a reception hall! We've been looking at this one place about a half-hour away and they have been the best deal so far. A couple we know is also having their reception there, so we've been talking with them about it, and I think it's really too good to pass up. Pretty much everything is included in the price - and having our wedding on a Sunday will get us some mad discounts! We visited the place this morning and decided to take the last room that's available for our date! Is that a blessing or what?

Aaaaaaaand...tonight our parents met each other for the first time! They all came here first, including my younger brother, and we went to have a big "family" dinner at this place. It went really well, so we're happy about that.

NEW APARTMENT, SAY WHA...?
Now that I've written a nice paragraph on how we redecorated and I love our place, we're MOVING! Indeed, last week our roommate came to us and said that he's going to move out in November to live with some band members. Well heck, we just decided against getting a new apartment! Needless to say, we had to start the search again because paying the full rent here was not happening. We decided to look at two different apartment communities the other day after work, and after the first one we were hooked! Not only is this place right down the road from work, but it's very new, is a two bedroom/one bath with garden tub (have to mention that!), and with their move-in specials right now it put the rent right within our budget.

After checking it out that day, we went back the next day on our lunch break and measured the living room to make sure our big stuff would fit, and the day after that we turned in our applications and deposit! We're soooooo excited to move into a new place with so much potential! The best part is that the complex can't hold apartments any longer than 60 days (actually 30, but I guess we're special), so we asked our roommate if he could move into his new place earlier, and wa-la! We get to move in October 1st instead! Yippee for having two months to pack our stuff (read: throw away stuff we haven't touched in ages). After this week, getting the apartment we want and the reception hall we want, I'd think someone's looking out for us upstairs! ;)

Anyway, it's definitely time for bed. I don't have any layouts to share, but maybe tomorrow I'll have some time to scrap. I'm stocked up on products I NEED to use, especially from the ScrapArtist sale this weekend! Oh, and now that Holly's fully self-employed, she'll be on fire with the rockin' kits! Yea!

Goodnight!