Cute Overload

A moment for two of the cutest little faces under the sun, please :

Introducing Ella and Grace, flower girls extraordinaire. Their mama, my cousin Amy, has been scouring the internet and local bridal stores for dresses for them like a fiend. She has free reign as I don't want to stipulate how much to spend or what people should dress their kiddos in - Look Cute is the only rule!

I mean, seriously. To-die-for. There's talk of adding a ribbon sash in some tone of blue and a small pin-on cluster of felt flowers to match the 'Maid bouquets if a more simple flower girl dress is chosen, which would be super fun.

I know I always wanted to be a flower girl when I was little - a dream that went unrealized - so I am stoked to have these lil' ladies pave the aisle-way for me on The Day.

...Now here's hoping they don't show me up.... :)

Invitation Station

FINALLY started work on my invitation suite. It was admittedly stressing me out to know that invitations needed to head out the door in the next month or so and not a shred of work had been done.

I made a Save The Date that went out ages ago, so I already had an idea, but formatting and writing the text is always the time consuming portion of any paper design project. Not wanting to fork over $5 - $infinity per invite for professional guys, I scoured the internet back in July for free invitation templates.

Enter Hloom.com, which offers templates for everything from resumes to fax cover sheets. This is the one I landed on :

Don't mind the red/orange/Latin combo... With some tweakage it's become a turquoise/grey/English combo that will be printed and sent to the masses. And it's not tough - I don't have any sort of expertise or even access to programs like Photoshop, so all the color changes were done on the photo/doc editing stuff that comes with computers (really showing my deep seated interest in all things tech right now, aren't I...).

Took a couple hours but I've managed to create the invite and an RSVP card, and now all that's left is a sheet of particulars (venue location, attire, etc.). Figuring out sizing and placement on paper has been the worst part - I want to get the biggest bang for my buck on the fancy paper we purchased so wrangling two invites per page and four RSVP cards per page has really been the biggest time suck. I'll hopefully get two 'particulars' sheets per page too, then they'll be folded in half for envelope stuffing.

I'm sure you care.

Not done, but feels great to have a major start, especially in the midst of all this house stuff. Woot!

Home - Work

Throwin' up some moments happening now that we're officially homeowners... I'm pretty sure this blog is going to carry on post-wedding now that there's so much happening! Perhaps "In Knots : Attempting a Handmade Life"...??

New sink with baby cutting board. Love it!

Scrubbing other people's kitchen grease. Super fun.

A glimpse into our inaugural Home Depot cart

Nate, his dad and uncle tackling putting a new lock on the front door.

Two options for kitchen paint - Havana Cream wins!

Test swatches in the kitchen.

They loved their nails - What WAS this?!?

Fringe, Fringe, Fringe.

Is it just me, or is fringe one of those funny words that the more you look at it, the stranger it gets?

It's probably me - This project has taken a ton more time than I ever expected and I'm startin' to get a little rummy. And while it certainly doesn't take a degree in rocket science... or even underwater basket weaving... it's still moderately exhausting, just because of the drudgery of it all.

But : See here - Progress!

Finished E! The letter I was dreading most due to all the angles.

And the O in various stages of progress... This is the letter I apparently SHOULD have feared most. It's taking forever thanks to contending with the curves. The fringe strips are squared off and linear, so making them flow with a round letter O has been no dream task.

Nearly done! And looking pretty dang good, if I do say so m'self. Even Nate was impressed that they were panning out.

And if there's anything I enjoy, it's winning over a craft skeptic.

Home Owners!

A terrible teeny-tiny photo stolen via iPhone screen shot from our Realtor's Facebook page (that's us holding the "Sold by Jen Bowman" sign). There will be better ones to come, promise. Just had to prove it's for real!

A Stress-Filled Stay-Cation

Now don't you go thinking that because I've been M.I.A since before Christmas that I've been lounging about eating bon bons.

...Although admittedly there was a holiday uptick in the chocolate consumption.

No, no. I had time off from work, and put it to good use. Fringing! Cleaning! Oh, and HOUSE BUYING! Yes, it's true - Nate and I are officially home owners! Let me give you the short version of how it all went down :

1) We will sign papers on the 23rd, hoorah!
2) Oh wait, no we won't. Just hang tight and wait for our call.
3) Hmm, perhaps you should drive for 30 minutes to sign your name once to give power-of-attorney to Ashley since Nate will be leaving town...
4) Keep waiting!
5) Nate flies out to Texas for the Husky's Alamo Bowl debut.
5) Hmm... Maybe you should wait some more.
6) Oh, we told you you would sign by the 27th? Just kidding.
7) Oh, we told you you would sign by the 28th? Just kidding. Again.
8) Oh, we told you you would sign by the 29th? Oops.
9) WAIT!!! The bank closes in 15 minutes! Get there and get the cashier's check and drive back to the 30 minutes away location by 7pm where the Escrow office will stay open late for you! GO GO GO!!!
10) WAIT!!! It's 3 minutes before the bank closes and we told you the wrong amount to put on the cashiers check!!
11) Escrow office. Signing for two. My full name plus Nate's full name plus a full sentence of "Nate... by Ashley... his power of attorney, in fact." On EVERY line.
12) Homeowners.

Yes. That was the short version. More on wedding and house stuff in the next few days!

Signatures on about 75% of this stack. Serious hand cramp-age.

Holiday P.S.A.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

And please, spare the world and do NOT do the following :

Image courtesy of takadanama.com

Image courtesy of marketplace.secondlife.com

Image courtesy of hairstyletwist.com

And last but not least, do NOT do this :

Image courtesy of squidoo.com

For the love.

But okay, I am a little bit of a sucker for this vintage book cover I stumbled across :

 Image courtesy of ladybluestocking.com

But then again, she's not wearing a slutted-up evening-wear santa suit with antlers on her tiara. Something for everyone, I guess.
Happy Holidays Everyone!

Note: Not sure why my 'scheduled' posts aren't posting... Sorry for the delay in Christmas wishes, but happy holidays just the same!