A Princess for The Princess

You have now entered my proposal story.....

July 18th, 2009 was a normal day. It was a Saturday and J worked and I did my Saturday work around the house. Our son was with my mom for the evening.

After finishing my house work, I got dressed and sat and waited for J to get off of work because taking a walk down at the lakefront was our Saturday night thing to do. When he got home, he was figity but I didn't think anything of it because we hadn't even discussed getting engaged or anything so, that was the farthest thing from my mind.

We get in the car and he is eerily quiet. He usually has a million and one things to tell me when he gets home from work. I realize now that he was playing the whole situation out in his head a hundred times before we got there. I finally asked him if he was ok because he wasn't to talkative. He responded by telling me he was fine just a little tired. Me being me, I told him that we didn't have to go for the walk, we could just go home and go to bed but he was adament about going which confused me.

We get to the spot were we take our walks and there's this part that you can walk out on that over looks the lake so he takes me by the hand and guides me that way. So he's holding me in his arms, we just stand there quietly and the he starts to talk....

"Baby you know your the best thing that's ever happened to me. I think I love you more than I love myself. You complete me. You showed me how to have a family of my own, how to be responsible, how to share and not be so selfish, how to commit, how to love. Feeling the love that I have for you, I now know that I didn't know what love was til I met you. You have given me so much but the greatest gift you've ever given me is our son. The two of you are my world (he's moving to face me at this time). That is why (getting down on one knee, tears beginning to fall as I finally realize what's happening) I want you to be my wife. Will you marry me?"

It was the most beautiful thing! So perfect! And of course I said yes cuz well here we are but I just wanted to share.

And now for My Princess:

Beautiful Feet: My New Loves

Oh my! What's a girl to do? Like most women, I'm a sucker for shoes. I love a beautiful shoe. Yesterday while shopping at Boston Store, a division of Carson Pirie Scott, I saw a pair of shoes I have to have. I already have two pairs of shoes which I'm now considering selling because I have fallen head over heels, butt crazy, in love with these Ninas.




I currently have these Stuarts which I believe my mom said she would buy.




and these C. Davids




However, because neither of those shoes is what I originally wanted they don't really speak to me. But the Ninas speak to me. Oh do they speak to me.

Totes of the Town: Part 3: MOHs Done!

So in Totes of the Town: Part 2, I was trying to decide if I wanted to do the personalization with or without the flowers. Well I decided to use the flowers because well, they were just so darn cute and without the flowers it looked so plain.

The process was fairly easy and quicker than I thought. I had already created the design in Microsoft Word and now all I had to do was open the file reverse the whole design so that it looked backwards on the screen, print it on the iron-on transfer paper, cut them out and then iron them on the totes.

The next thing I did was add *bling* because it's me of course and to me it's not complete without a little bit of bling. So carefully I positioned a tiny rhinestone on the curls of each letter and even tinier ones in the center of the flowers on the names, carefully lay a piece of fabric over it as not to disturb the placement of the stones (the fabric is to protect the iton-on transfer as it well melt from direct contact with the iron), and then pressed the fabric for about 10-15 seconds, removed the strip of fabric and there was the bling!

And here they are in all their glory:






Next step: The Bride's Tote. ;-)

Totes of the Town: Part 2: The Personalization

So now that you've seen my fabulous totes, now I'll work on the personalization step.

I know that I want to add "Maid of Honor" to the totes and their names but what I don't know is if that's all I want. Just having the names with no accents on them seems a little borning to me.

This is where I started:





And then I decided I want to add some sort of design and this is where I ended up:





I can't decide if I want to personalize these with or without the flowers. I really do like the flowers. I think they give it that extra little something.

Hmmmm...to flower or not to flower? That is the questions.

What do you think?

Totes of the Town: Part 1: The Bags

When I thought of gifts to give my Maids of Honor, I definitely thought about personalized totes bags. Who wouldn't love one of those?

I first ordered totes from www.cheaptotes.com. Big mistake on my part. I think the ones I ordered were something like $1.80 each. You know that saying, "you get what you pay for", well it most definitely applies to this situation. They were thin and flimsy and just horrid. To top that all off, they don't accept returns or exchanges. Good thing I didn't pay much for them or I'd be a little pissed to say the least.

I immediately went on a hunt for quality bags for a good price when I came across www.gotapparel.com and these cuties:

These are the totes I got for my MOHs. It's number 7002 at #3.55 each!!



This is the one I got for myself. I'm sorry I couln't resist. I have to have one. It's number M915 at $2.83



This picture gives you an idea of how big they are. I think I measured 19 inches wide and 13 inches tall (actual bag not including the handles).



They are excellent quality. Study and thick. I heart them. Now for personalization. I can't wait to show you the finished product!!

FYI: Again you can get these from www.gotapparel.com

Long Hair Don't Care

In the words of Lil Wayne!

This post will be short, sweet and to the point. I now have a wedding day hairstyle!!! And here she is:



Which i think will look beautiful with my headpiece (a pic of my tiara, earrings, & necklace):



Yay!!!

This Time We're Gonna Go Back....

Wwwwaaaayyyy back! (And a little into the now with some of our engagement photos!)

J and I met on myspace.com. I always say their slogan is "a place for friends" but for us is was "the place to meet the love of your life".



Back then I was so not into the whole meeting people online craze. I had been hearing so many horror stories here in my city. One girl met up with a guy she talked to online and the guy and his couisn rapped her and stole her car. That was enough to scare the daylights out of little old me.



When he first messaged me I totally ignored him but he was very persistent and so finally I responded. I remember typing "do you ever give up?" Lol. And I remember his response being "nope". From there we talked constantly online and then about a week later we exchanged telephone numbers and then met in person and ever since then we've been pretty much inseperable.



When we first started dating I was a wreck, just out of a tumultuous relationship to say the least. I was testy, somewhat cold and had trust issues because of my past relationships. I had been through so much heartbreak. I had a my heart in a block of ice. I was angry and it took him a while to get me to let my guard down even just a little bit. The moment I realized that I was falling in love, I did everything short of cheating that I could to push him away but he stayed and he fought the battle against the past relationship demons that had a hold of me. He loved me totally and unconditionally and soon that block of ice was just a puddle of water, he healed my heart and 3 months later we found out we were pregnant. I wasn't sure how he would feel but he was totally on board and that next May our son was born. He came early at 32 weeks scaring the holy crap out of the two of us but still he was so perfect and so tiny, only weighing 4 pounds 11 ounces. And so began our family.



The past two years and nine months (the current age of our son) have had their downs (we lost two babies to miscarriage and I almost lost my life during surgery) but have been mostly up with lots of travel and accomplishments. I look back at the story of us and I see how much I've grown and how blessed I am.



I'm so grateful for the life that I lead today. I couldn't have hand picked a better man, father, bestfriend, lover, provider, confidant and husband to be. I can not wait for June 19th, 2010!

And thats the shortened story of us. M & J.

And for added fun here's our little man....AJ!!

And Then There Were Numbers

When I first gave thought to table numbers,I really didn't give them much thought at all. I thought I would probably just get tent style table numbers and call it a day.

That was until I actually bought them and put one together and immediately hated how boring they looked. This is were my mind went into hyper-drive. Not a fan of waisting money, I thought "what can I do to elaborate on these"?

First thing was first. NO TENT STYLE TABLE NUMBERS. It looked so cheap. So, I cut the table numbers in half and cut the bottoms, where you fold them into tents, off. Whew! They looked better already.

After that, I started playing around with a design in Microsoft Word. Adding "table number" at the top, our names to one side, our wedding date to the other side and a cute little quote at the bottom. It looked so much better and so cute!! Still not enough tho. So, I added a strip of ribbon across the top. Still not enough!! So, I added a damask background from damask paper I had leftover from our DIY invites. It was almost there!! Just one more thing...bling! I love, love, love bling so I added crystals an put them on the cute lil "love" holders that I ordered from www.exclusivelyweddings.com and wa la!! They were finally done!! I heart my table numbers!!

A Special Place for the Cards

Card boxes. When I first got engaged one of the first things I knew that I wanted was a rocking card box. I had no idea about the card box trends of today until I decided to cruise eBay for one. I saw all these beautiful card boxes that appeared to be gift boxes all dolled up. I was like, "I have to have this"! When I decided to become a damask bride, I started looking for them on eBay as there are a lot of sellers on there who make them.

I immediately was taken back by the prices. Upwards of almost one hundred dollars! Whew! Does it really cost that much in time and supplies to create one of these beauties!?! Geesh! A DIYer true to heart, I set out to find out just that.

First stop Michael's for paper mache boxes. None big enough. Next stop JoAnn Fabrics and Crafts. There I found everything that I needed:

1. A set of three paper mache boxes - $9.99 with half off coupon $4.50
2. Damask Fabric - half a yard $2.50
3. White glitter satin - half a yard $1.00
4. Black glitter satin - half a yard $1.00
5. Apple red glitter ribbon - $5 for a spool
6. Rhinestone trim - one yard $2.99
7. Apple red satin ribbon - I already had this in my possession from other projects
8. Glue gun - I previously owned
9. Glue sticks - I already had
10. Crafter's knife - I already owned

First I wrapped each box and lid with the fabrics that I had purchased. The smallest box or top box was wrapped in the white satin, the second largest or middle box was wrapped in the damask and the largest or bottom box was wrapped in the black satin. Easy enough!

Next I flipped the middle box onto its side and on the inside I drew out a slot for the cards and then using my crafter's knife I cut the slot out. Note: Scissors will not work for this part.

Then I glued all the tops down to their bottoms.

Next I placed a drop of glue on each of the bottom corners of the middle box and placed it centered on top of the bottom box. I did the same with the top box and placed it centered on top of the middle box. It was starting to take shape!!

Then I took the rhinestone trim and glued it around the top box just under the lid line. Cut off the excess.

The next thing I did was add the apple glitter ribbon taking it all the way around the boxes and fastening it to the center of the top box with glue. I did this the other way as well however, this time I fastened the ends just inside the card slot with glue. With the remaining apple glitter ribbon, I made a bow and fastened it to the middle of the top box with glue. I used the excess rhinestone trim to embellish the bow.

Last but certainly not least, I used the apple red satin ribbon to trim the card slot.

And thus was the creation of my very special DIY card box....





As you can see this beauty cost me nowhere near $100 dollars to create. The next time you run across that thing that you just have to have, I encourage to to try to do it yourself before you spend that jaw dropping amount of money.

Saving the Date for 65 Cents Per Person

I wasn't even going to do a Save the Date and honestly didn't even know what the heck it was until I joined wedding bee. However, once I saw what they were all about I knew that I wanted them.

So I set out on a mission to make Save the Dates at an affordable price. At first I thought of putting together a fun little card but the more and more I thought about it, I really didn't want to hand make them since I was already hand making my invites.

It finally came to me one day while I was trying to figure out what photos to use for our greeting cards which I always make either at Walgreen's or on walgreens.com. I could also use their photo greeting card maker to make our Save the Dates!

So, I went into the store and searched thru all the borders that they had and was surprised to find that they actually had borders for weddings and Save the Dates. I was pleasantly surprised. So I picked a border, uploaded my pics, typed out our message and an hour later they were ready!



20 for $12.99!
Hope you can take advantage of this!!

Damask Makes A Stand

I was looking for a way to elevate two of my candy buffet dishes since four of them are basically the same height.

Then I thought that I would love, love, love to create some sort of damask stand to put two of them on. But how? So I took a trip to my favorite store. Where else but Michaels. That place is like like a DIY brides best friend. So anywho, I'm cruising the store when i come across this totally awesome damask wrapping paper! The wheels in my mind were turning hard what can I do with this. Then aha!!

And my damask stands where born...



What I used...

1 Doll of damask Wrapping Paper
2 Gift Boxes (sizes of your choosing)
Double Sided Tape
Grosgrain Ribbon (should match your wedding colors)
Crystals
Hot Glue Gun
Packaging Tape

You simply assemble the boxes.
Wrap them thoroughly in the packaging tape....this helps make them sturdy.
Wrap them in the wrapping paper using the double sided tape so that no tape is showing.
Make a band around the boxes using the grosgrain ribbon. Use your hot glue gun to secure the bands in place and ensure that they don't slip off.
Make two bows using the remainder of your ribbon. Add the bows in the place of your choosing with the hot glue gun.
Place a tiny tot of glue in the center of the bow and add your crystal.

And you're done! Simple right? And so cute! Feel free to use this and if you do please post pics and let me see yours. Tootles!!