Happy New Year

{New York City a few years ago}

My New Year's resolution is to be happy :)

Bravo

image from Time Warner Cable

I'm so excited we officially have Bravo here in North Carolina, the simple things make me happy :)

Paper Source Thank Yous

When I received my Paper Source order for my Christmas card supplies they included a couple of their letterpress thank you cards :)

Benjamin Button

image from moviefone.com

On Saturday we went to see the Curious Case of Benjamin Button. It was really touching, within the first five minutes of the movie it made me cry. It's definitely one of those movies that stays with you. Someday I would love to visit New Orleans :)

Boston a Year Ago

A year ago Eric and I left Boston after living there for a little over ten years. I can't believe we have been in North Carolina a year already. There are definitely things I miss about Boston - our friends, walking around a city, the snow, and being within driving distance to New York. North Carolina doesn't completely feel like home yet but there are many things I like about it - the warm weather, sweet tea, magnolia trees, and being close to the Outer Banks :)

{the truck that moved all of our things}

Merry Christmas!

{our table}

{placecards}

{snowflake coaster}

Just taking a break before we have dinner to say Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! I'm so happy there is snow here in Colorado and that Eric is here for Christmas :)

Christmas Cards

{pretty glitter that made it possible}

In the past week or so I made a hundred Christmas cards. My mom has a newspaper and she asked me to make the cards for her customers. I also created some cards for Brooklyn Bride's card swap. I am so happy they were finished and sent this week :)

{finished Christmas cards}

Simple Gift Tags

I printed these gift tags via Vintage Glam, punched a hole in them, and used some extra ribbon from our wedding :)

A Martha Stewart Wedding

I am so excited to watch Liesl, Martha Stewart's assistant's, wedding tonight or most likely tomorrow. It's on the Style Network tonight at 9:00pm and I am recording it just in case I miss it. All of the details from this wedding are so simple and pretty.

images from Martha Stewart

A Few More Christmas Decorations

{my ice skates by our fireplace}

{sparkly snowflakes hanging from our chandelier}

{a place for our Christmas cards}

Sparkly Trees

Ever since I saw Roses Petite Maison on Snippet and Ink I have been a little obsessed with glitter and with acquiring glass glitter. A while ago my mother in law gave me a painting kit with canvases, tree stencils, and paint. Instead of using paint on the canvases I was inspired to use glitter.

I lightly traced the stencils onto the canvases with pencil. Then I went over the pencil carefully with Elmer's glue and used a thin paint brush to make sure the glue covered the pencil lines. After that I sprinkled Martha Stewart's clear coarse glitter all over the glue. I decided to use them to decorate our fireplace mantle for Christmas :)

{our fireplace mantle}

{sparkly tree and inspiration for my Christmas cards}

{the stencils I used}

Peace

{taken from car while driving to Winter Park, CO a few years ago}

"peace. it does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble or hard work. it means to be in the midst of those things and still be calm in your heart."
-unknown

Let It Snow

Since there is not a lot of snow here in North Carolina I decided to make my own :) Being from Colorado and living in New England for a long time I miss the snow especially in December :(

{hanging snowflakes I made from white paper and filament string left over from our wedding}

{table centerpiece I made by placing paper snowflakes in mason jars and some aqua blue candle holders from our wedding too}

Photo CDs From Our Wedding

{our CDs}

{a surprise photo book from our photographer, Mary Basnight}

"Photography is a way of feeling, of touching, of loving. What you have caught on film is captured forever...it remembers little things long after you have forgotten everything."

-Aaron Siskind

Yesterday we received the CDs with all of the photographs from our wedding! Now what to do with 779 photographs? :)

Snowflakes and Seashells

{top of our tree}

{our decorated tree}

{our first ornament as a married couple from Eric's parents}

Here is our tree that we decorated with snowflakes, seashells, and some ornaments we both had using the extra aqua blue ribbon from our wedding. I created temporary ornaments from our white table decorations too :)

Christmas Tree Shopping

{farm where we got our tree}

{barn with the tall trees}

Over the weekend we got our Christmas tree! Last year we didn't have a tree because we moved just a few days after Christmas so I was excited to get a tree this year. It's the first year our kittens, Jack and Sasha, have seen a Christmas tree and they were not so excited. Jack has made peace with the tree and has already broken an ornament. Sasha still won't come downstairs by herself but hopefully she will soon!

Our decorated tree and Christmas decorations next :)

I ♥ Snowflakes

"Under the microscope, I found that snowflakes were miracles of beauty; and it seemed a shame that this beauty should not be seen and appreciated by others. Every crystal was a masterpiece of design and no one design was ever repeated. When a snowflake melted, that design was forever lost. Just that much beauty was gone, without leaving any record behind."

-Wilson "Snowflake" Bentley

images from snowflakebentley.com

Four Christmases

image from moviefone.com

Last night we went to see Four Christmases. Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn are so funny!!! :)

Drink Parasols From Our Wedding

I thought I'd share another project from our wedding. I followed these instructions from Martha Stewart to make drink parasols for our wedding. I created them with scrapbook paper, wooden skewers, and Elmer's glue. I also used a pencil and pint glass to trace the circle, and scissors with a decorative edge to cut them out.

It took a little time to make them all but I was so happy to see how they turned out. They were placed in our signature drink, the "Fuzzy Duck" at our wedding. We still have a few left, maybe we'll use them on our anniversary :)

Meet Bentley

I've slowly been trying to organize the photographs on my computer. As I do this I have a tendency to want to look through all of them. This is my sister's puppy, Bentley, last year when he came home to Colorado with her for Christmas :) He is the best!

I ♥ the J.Crew Jackie Cardigan

image from J.Crew

I probably wear my black Jackie cardigan from J.Crew that I got last year at least once a week. It's a little faded but I love it and how can you not love the name. If I could I would have it in every color :)

I think this would be a great bridesmaid gift too!

My Dress and the Petticoats

{first petticoat taken out}

{last petticoat taken out}

{final version of my dress}

I loved my dress and still do, I'm still trying to figure out a way to wear it again :) I joked about wearing it with a cardigan to our brunch the day after our wedding :)

During my fittings though I had a like/love relationship with my dress. I felt like it was a little poufy for me with all the petticoats underneath, so at my second fitting the top petticoat was taken out. After all the fittings it was shipped to me in North Carolina but the top needed to be altered a tiny bit and I found a great tailor that fixed it for me in just a few days.

When I got home from the tailor I tried it on and decided that I wanted to take out the last petticoat. With my mom on the phone with me I took the smallest scissors I had and carefully cut the last petticoat out. After that I tried it on one last time and that was the moment that I really felt comfortable and happy wearing my dress :)

Our Thank You Cards

I'm excited to say that all of our thank you notes have been mailed :) We included a small card printed with the website to view our professional photographs and also the Shutterfly Share Website we created for everyone to share the photographs they took at our wedding.

Happy Thanksgiving Weekend

{Thanksgiving cards I made for my family}

Last night Eric and I came home from spending Thanksgiving with his family in New Jersey. This is the first Thanksgiving we have spent together and it was so nice. On Friday my sister stopped by Eric's parent's house to visit too :)

007

{click on board to enlarge images}

dress image from Jenny Packham, James Bond image from Time Out London, venue image from the Knot

martini image from Domino, perfume image from Bond Lifestyle
orchids image from Martha Stewart, dress image from J.Crew, suitcase image from 007 Museum

Yesterday we went to see Quantum of Solace and it was so good! It made me think how cool would it be to have a James Bond inspired wedding? :)

Dress Shopping a Year Ago Today

image from J.Crew

This is the first dress I fell in love with but was unavailable when I seriously started shopping and also a little expensive :) I love the J.Crew wedding dresses because they are simple and so pretty!

Last year I found my dress on the first and only day I went shopping with my mom and sister in Colorado. It was only the seventh dress I tried on but I knew it was the one. The dress was a gift from my mom and more expensive than I thought my dress would cost but it was a sample on sale for less than half of the original price. I'm pretty sure I gasped when I saw the original price and label :)

{my first fitting}

Happy Birthday to My Mother in Law!

{birthday banner I made for my mother in law}

{card I made too}

I think it's nice that our moms' birthdays are only a few days apart :)

My Mom's Wedding Dress

Yesterday I was talking to my sister about my mom's wedding dress. My mom gave it to my sister and sent it to her a few days ago {it had been stored away in my mom's basement}. I love this dress :) The color is so pretty and I also love that my mom bought her dress only three months before her wedding in 1976 in Colorado. Last night my sister took some photographs for me and it fits my sister's dress form perfectly!

images from my sister

Happy Birthday to My Mom!

{birthday banner I made for my mom}

{bracelet I made for my mom too}

Wedding Photographs Preview

On Friday I was so excited to get an email that our wedding photographs are available to view online! We are receiving a CD with all of the images too :)

image from Mary Basnight Photography

Technical Difficulties

Over the weekend my computer started to die on me :( Hopefully it's easy to fix and that it's not because of my blogging :) I hope to be back soon!

image from Dell

Happy Birthday Babchi

{card I made for Eric's grandmother}