It's the most wonderful time of the year...

Well it is December and that can only mean one thing....Lots and Lots of Christmas decorations!  As always our house is done up from top to bottom in all things Christmas.  We have made a few new purchases and I think our decorations are finally starting to come together in a much more cohesive way.  You may also notice a few new pieces of furniture that I haven't blogged about yet.  I have been planning on doing a House post 1 year later but haven't had the time to get the pictures done and now that all the decorations are up- it isn't quite what our house looks like all the time so I promise after the holidays I will work hard on getting that post done.  So without further ado, our house in all its Christmas Glory:

Some Call it Flowers Others Call it a Weapon

I decided instead of having our flower girl throw petals we would have her carry a floral pomander instead.  I thought it would compliment the tutus well and would just be less mess to deal with.  Here were some of the photos I used for inspiration:

I showed these to my sister/mother of our 3 year old flower girl and her first reaction was that Emily would probably end up throwing it at someone, more than likely her baby sister.  Unfortunately I was already set on the idea so I guess we will just have to hope for the best and buy Payton some protective armor.

This week I decided it was time to get cracking on making the ball.  I just bought some ribbon, a foam ball and some fake flowers.  The hardest part was getting the ribbon all the way through the ball but with some force, creativity and a wooden spoon it was finally all the way through.  Then I just hot glued the flowers to the ball.  Here is the ball about half way done:

And here it is completely finished:

The whole project probably took me less than an hour and was very easy.  It turned out to be a little larger than I thought it would be but hopefully it won't be too big next to Emily and hopefully she doesn't decide to use it as a weapon.

Stitches of Love

One of the gifts we received at the shower was an unbelievable expression of love.  Friend's of Nicks parents created and designed a gorgeous wedding quilt for us.  Words can't really do the quilt justice so I will just let the pictures do the work:

I'm not sure the pictures do all the beautiful detail of the quilt justice either but hopefully you can get some idea of how lovely the quilt is.  Thank you Jim and Mary Jo for such a beautiful heirloom

Another Shower

Last weekend I had my second shower.  Nick's cousin, Lindsay and Aunt Sheryl threw the shower for me at Nick's dad's church.  It was a lovely afternoon with Nick's family, many of the members of the church and friends of Nick's parents.  Here are some pictures of the afternoon:

Nick ended up joining us for most of the afternoon at the shower as well entertaining Baby Payton

Thanks Lindsay and Sheryl for a lovely afternoon.

Tulle and Tutus

Long before I was ever engaged I was perusing a photographer's website and saw pictures from a fabulous wedding.  The whole wedding was beautiful, but there was one thing that caught my eye and I have been in love with ever since.

Flower girl Tutus!  Seriously how darling are those girls? 

So when we got engaged the flower girl attire was a simple decision- she would be sporting a Tutu.

This weekend while my mom and sister were in town for the wedding I took advantage of having them around and pushed through the "wedding wall" and we started making these:

That is Emily's American Girl doll and her very own tutu. In our family we have a tradition of our special dolls sporting matching outfits like Emily and Baby Doll at Christmas:

We also decided that Payton should get a tutu as well so we spent part of the weekend making 3 tutus.  I don't have any pics of Payton and her tutu but this weekend was her 1 month birthday so I thought you might like a picture of her adorableness!

Showers of Love

In the last month I have had two amazing showings of love by friends and family.  The bachlorette party/DePauw reunion weekend that I mentioned in the "Wedding Wall" post and promised pictures and my first wedding shower in St. Louis. The bachlorette party was thrown by my amazing bridesmaids, Sara, Jenni and Katie and the shower was thrown by my dear friend Darcie and my sister.  Both were such an fabulous chance to spend time with lots of people I cherish.  It really is amazing how loved a girl feels when all of her favorite people are in one place.  Here are a couple of pictures from both events:

Lucy Girls at Bachlorette Party

Showing off Tany's new bling

Nick and I back at DPU

Late night run to Taco Bell and Walmart- just like old times

My very first shower gift (it arrived on my doorstep from a friend who couldn't
make it to the shower)

Opening presents at the shower

Thanks for such amazing memories everyone!

Pretty Things: Politically Inspired

As I am sure you all know Nick works in politics and so politics, the good, the bad and the ugly are a part of our lives. (yes, there is some good- but that is a discussion for another day)  I thought it would be fun to share some politically themed wedding inspiration I have found along the way.  None of this will be making an appearance at our wedding, but we do have a good friend who just might have a politically themed wedding if he can convince the future Mrs. of that idea so we will save all this for them :)

Click on the picture to enlarge and  read the cute invitation wording

And now check out this awesome rehearsal dinner invitation. I had to do a double take before I realized it wasn't a real political mailer:

Front

 

Back

And here is a close up of both the endorsements:

 

How creative is that?

Pretty Things; Dr. Seuss

Had I been on the ball I would have posted this in March for Dr. Seuss's birthday (yes I know when his birthday is- don't judge!) but alas I was not on the ball so you get it randomly this week.  Dr. Seuss has always been a family favorite and for as long as I can remember he has been one of my favorite author and still to this day his book Sneetches tops my list of favorite books.  I thought it only appropriate that I dedicate a pretty things post to Dr. Seuss inspired weddings:

And this last one looks much less Dr. Seuss esque but I thought it was a beautiful way to include his words into a wedding.