New Name, New Post, New Outlook

Well, I can't believe the last time I wrote a blog piece was before we got married. So I thought this post could be a fresh start. I want to tell you about what has happened over the last year, but I also want to tell you why I changed the name and what my plans for the future of this blog are.

So lets start with me. I married my best friend on April 12, 2014. It was spectacular. There were a few glitches but all in all the day was just as I imagined it to be. I will do a bigger post on that soon as our anniversary is quickly approaching and last years.....well I will get to that too! But for teaser's sake...here is one of my favorite wedding pics we have....ok 2 one of us and one of our wedding party!

Photo by Shawna Welch Photography

Our Wedding Party-Photo by Shawna Welch Photography

So now onto why I fell of the planet for over a year. We wanted to become pregnant right away....we went on our honeymoon, and got home... a month went by and nope....I panicked inside. I just KNEW I was going to have issues. Now I am fully aware that there are a lot of woman who really do struggle with this, but I wasn't crazy, I had good reason to believe this would be the case for me. So instead of stressing for a year or more, I knew we had a few weddings coming up, my brother and sister in laws being one in October which I was in, I figured we would wait out the summer and try again after their wedding.....this was in June.

On July 12th or the 19th, I can't recall now.... #mommybrainproblems....I was coming home from a family wedding with my brother and his fiancé, his car air freshener had to be put away because it was making me sick ( I get car sick so I attributed it to that plus I wasn't hungover because I couldn't drink the night before)...Hello red flags....my husband was on a guys trip in South Dakota.....so guess who took 4 pregnancy tests.....you guessed it. More on that later.

Finally going home...we are all exhausted...especially Daddy!

I found out I was in fact pregnant with our first, but then one complication after the next led to a very hard pregnancy, very scary 6 week early delivery, and 1 very LONG week in the hospital for both mommy and baby. I am SO grateful that we both survived and that he is now almost 9 months old....where does time go? This photo was taken for 6 month pictures by Sarah Siler in Muscatine, IA.

So now that you have a little idea as to where I have been, let me tell you where I "plan" to go with this. I say plan loosely because I know and you know that life happens and things change. However, I miss writing and these days I need a healthy ME outlet. So I invited you to come along with me to reinvent meals, discover life's adventures with me as I teach myself to Sew (that alone is reason enough to stick around), learn to use a digital camera on my family (just a hobby), and navigate my way through this crazy thing called life using as much of nature as I can (oils, homeopathic, natural remedies, made from scratch food). I have learned a LOT in a year and I know I am going to continue to learn EVERY.SINGLE.DAY...Tomorrow is Halloween and I have a special treat for you! And just one more because I can :D

Family time is my happy place.

Bridesmaid boxes- tutorial

Well since my bridesmaids all know who they are and have all received their boxes....I thought now would be a good time to do a tutorial on them! :)

It was a longer process than I had thought it would be, but the end results were so much better than I had envisioned!

Thanks to the help of my future MIL, I was able to finish it in 2 days! :)

So first off I went to Joann Fabric and bought 7 fun little boxes, and let me tell you I was in that store for an hour trying to find all the fun things I wanted to add :).

I picked out the paint bought some brushes and a few other things and I finally had enough to get started on the boxes.

I had already ordered the trinkets to put in the boxes and they had all arrived. ( I may or may not have ordered an extra of each for myself.)

I found this idea of doing boxes on Pinterest. I absolutely fell in love with the idea.  I am all about unique ideas and this hit home for me!

So the boxes took 3days to finish.

Here are the materials needed:

1 box per bridesmaid/jr bridesmaid
Ribbon of choice
2 paint colors ( I used two of my colors for the wedding)
paint brushes
hot glue
little mini bottles with corks
initial of each bridesmaid/jr. bridesmaid
Cricket with Vinyl
glitter
card stock (2 different colors- same colors as paint for me)
Glue stick
calligraphy pens
Trinkets to add in to box
tissue paper

Night one was spent painting the boxes in preparation for the next night!

Night two was a longer process than I had anticipated.

We made the letters with the cricket and the vinyl stuck perfectly to the wooden boxes.

On the outside of the box I had "Would you be my" and then on the inside of the lid I had "bridesmaid, jr. bridesmaid, or Maid of Honor".

We made bows for the lids and hot glued them on

Used Christmas ornament thread and glued it to the back so the letter could hang.

Added glitter to the mini cork bottles and used the same thread as the letters to hang them from the bows.

Once the boxes were finished, I added tissue paper to the bottom and added the trinkets:

Each girl got:
      *gray nail polish
      *a glittered heart shape compact mirror
      *a "knot" ring
      *and a mini bottle of wine

In each box I added a full list of each girls information (phone number, address and email)

I also included a poem detailing each item as well as a letter to each one handwritten:

The knot ring is my fave and I hope to have a special photo taken day of the wedding!

This was such a fun thing to do for the bridesmaids and I can't wait for them to see what's in store for the day of the wedding!! :)

I am so thankful to have such wonderful women in my life who support me and my future hubs!

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and I can't wait to bring you more after the wedding is over :)