Flower girls.

I shared pictures from the wedding, but I had a ton of flower girl pics still left to share. So, here ya go – a post full of mint tulle and blonde curls! ;)

The picture above is just the girls coloring while we waited for photos to begin. They were troopers the whole day; so proud of them!

Cate was much better at smiling for the camera than my little one. Cate looks angelic to me in the photo below!

With the beautiful bride…          

And this one was not staged. They just grabbed each other’s hand and went walking. {Love it.}

 

Oh, by the way, my sister & I made their tutu dresses using this tutorial, but we didn’t tie the tulle again for the waist. I just put the ribbon on them the day-of. The dresses turned out to be more see-through than I expected, mainly when the girls would twirl in them or sit down. I sewed some liner fabric {part of a ribbed tank top actually} and had her wear some white spandex shorts too. When they were in the ceremony, you couldn’t tell one bit, but once they got dancing you could definitely see the shorts/lining.

They made it down the aisle with no tears…and no shoes! {Their shoes gave them blisters.} I’ll take the trade of no shoes for two happy flower girls any day!

The rest of the pictures were taken after the ceremony.

 

Sisters. Cousins. Two sets of best friends.

This was towards the end of the night – what an ornery smile.

The girls loved sitting in the big picture window right behind the head table. By this point, I was really picking my battles, plus it was pretty cute to watch Eugene entertain them!

 

Once the DJ started playing some upbeat music, the little one got a whole new burst of energy. She was running around and dancing NONSTOP.

Both girls were dancing machines from the start of dinner until my sister and I pulled them off the dance floor to put on PJs.

I think it’s safe to say they had a blast. I love these little flower girls!

Baby boy’s nursery.

Back when I originally planned this room’s paint color, I didn’t know whether the little one was going to be a boy or a girl. I loved the idea of a navy blue with bright white accents, regardless of the gender of the baby. Well, that decision played to my advantage this time around as well. If you remember, this is what the bedroom looked like when we bought the house, and then what the little one’s nursery looked like after some work:

I loved how her room turned out. It fit her well – bright, colorful, and happy. Once we found out we were having baby boy, we decided to keep the nursery as a nursery and move the little one into her own new big girl room. We had two main reasons for this: the bathroom in the nursery is really convenient because we use cloth diapers, and because we wouldn’t have to repaint, rebuild the crib, or re-do much of anything for that room. I love the navy, orange color scheme for a boy, so I was excited to get to use it this time around. I added in some grey and green too.

Here is baby’s boy nursery in its current state…

My mom bought new rugs, so I scored her old one for this room. It’s so nice having a soft rug in there…especially since the old wood floors are super creaky without it! I removed the button crib skirt I made and opted for no crib skirt this time around. I bought the little trash can at Big Lots for like $6 because it was perfect colors. We’ll use that for wipes, and we’ll keep the bigger white trash cans for the used cloth diapers. I also swapped out the Katie Daisy prints that I based the little one’s whole nursery on, and I used clip boards and prints I found either online or made myself. 

I bought the kelly green pendant light from Ikea for – get this – just $14.99. I was nervous it’d be too green, tut I think it adds nice variety to the space.

I kept the same orange changing table that I originally found on the side of the rode & painted. I used new scrapbook paper and modge podge to update the shelves to from flowery to stripes.

I loved how the little one’s colorful mobile turned out, but this time around I used scrapbook paper to make pinwheels, glued them to some twine, and created a new mobile for our little guy. {Just Google how to make a pinwheel. It was super easy!}

 

 

I had some extra pinwheels, so I made a little garland with them. I still need a lamp and some new decor items on the shelf.

    

I still have some ideas of things I’d like to add to the room, but for now, I’m happy with the results so far. :)

We are getting quite excited to meet baby boy. I can’t wait to see what kind of personality he has, how he looks, and how he and his big sister will interact. We have some exciting times ahead of us, that’s for sure!

A bridal shower brunch.

This weekend we threw Eugene’s brother’s fiancé, Kelsey, a bridal shower brunch. This shower was definitely a team effort. I had great help from Eugene’s family with the food, Eugene’s mom graciously allowed us to use her house, and his sisters helped me decorate. Whenever I get to help plan a shower, I usually try to have it in the morning as a brunch. First, breakfast is my favorite meal – the food’s amazing, and there’s something special about enjoying the first meal of the day with friends and family, starting completely fresh. Second, it’s really nice to still have most of your day free after a shower. Many showers are in the early afternoon – twoish – and that usually means you can’t really do much before the shower, and afterwards it’s too late to have any other plans. As an Event Planner, I think it’s nice to your guests (and you usually get a better turn out) if your event is at a convenient time. I know not everyone’s a morning person, but most women I talk to love and appreciate early showers. Just my own little opinion on that! ;)

Here are some of the details from the bridal shower brunch…

I used some chalkboard paint to make the wine glass favors for everyone. I had some extras which went home with the bride for her party stock. We filled the glasses with Mock Mimosas, which I made using orange juice and ginger ale. Turned out pretty yummy!

Eugene’s grandma stepped up to the plate to make us a donut cake for the shower, and she hit a homerun! How deliciously amazing does that look? I imagine heaven may look {and taste} a little like that!

I got a little creative with weddingchick.com “sweet love” wedding template and used it for a menu, invites, and food labels. You can find the info on how to make tissue paper flowers on my blog here. {Super easy!}

We had a coffee bar, egg casserole {this recipe except with a few modifications, mainly doubling the eggs}, banana bread, and the fixings for fresh yogurt parfaits.

The rest of the decor was pretty simple with Circut cut hearts made using paint chips, a monogram, tissue paper balls.

We played a game with movie quotes from famous romance movies. Most of our guests failed miserably at this game, so we thought it might be better to have a word bank of sorts to make it a little easier. It was still a fun game and gave us lots of laughs as everyone tried to figure out the answers.

 

I love this picture of the little one and my mom. She really wanted to just spend the whole morning showing Grandma the baby birds that are in the nest outside her Nana’s house.

The bride-to-be opened some lovely gifts, while answering questions her about her fiancé as she thought he would answer, i.e. what did Dillan say his pet peeve is? We hoped the questions would be a fun distraction during the opening of the gifts {which can get uncomfortable for the bride with all that attention!}

 

The other activity we had involved a Jenga game. The instructions for the active were as follows: “Grab a block from the tower, sign it, and write a special message to the soon-to-be newlyweds. Return the block to the bowl. Your happy thoughts, advice, and date night ideas will help them BUILD their lives together as husband & wife!” We had Kelsey draw a couple blocks and gave prizes to the winners. We also offered the opportunity to share the message with the group. We had some very wise advice ranging from working to be selfless in marriage, each spouse giving 100% {not each giving 50% to make 100%}, writing down the little things you love most about your spouse regularly so you don’t take those for granted and remember to be thankful for it all, and more. Now when the couple has a game night, they can be reminded of advice/date ideas/people who love and support them.

It was kind of a lot going on for the little one, but all things considered, she did pretty well through the shower.

Eugene’s sisters, mom, and Kelsey & me. I love these women…even if I am way taller than everyone else! Kelsey and I are certainly blessed to get to marry into this amazing family! :)

 

I hope Kelsey enjoyed her shower and felt super loved and encouraged. We’re excited for her to begin her new journey as a wifey!

Encouraging Wednesdays.

It’s Thursday, I know. But yesterday was Wednesday, and it reminded me of a post I’ve been wanting to write for quite some time. Do you remember when I posted my kitchen update photos? Well there’s a print that wasn’t highlighted, but one that I absolutely love in my kitchen.

I forget how I came across frenchpressmornings.com, maybe Instagram, but every Wednesday the blogger posts a free printable verse. She calls it “Encouraging Wednesdays,” and I absolutely love it. The print hanging in my kitchen is hard to see from the photo above, but it can be found here, and she has a ton of beautiful prints to pick from. 4x6 prints are free, but she has larger sizes to download in her Etsy shop.

A few weeks ago, I posted this messy photo on my Instagram of one of my favorite verses lately,

and she made this beautiful art with the scripture…

I printed the free 4x6 & framed this one for my mom who keeps bees & harvests honey for a hobby. {Perfect.}

And when I saw this week’s that is perfect for my favorite holiday – Thanksgiving – I knew I had to share. How beautiful is this!

Oh, also, it may sound like it, but I wasn't paid to write this. I don’t know the blogger, but I just think her free prints are awesome & worthy of sharing with ya’ll. I hope you’ll head over to French Press Morning’s website and print some lovely prints to keep the truth on your heart {and around your house.} ;)

Completely random note to end with, but when I was pulling the kitchen photos from this summer, I saw this one.

Oh my, how cute are those little thighs!