Our Saturdays.

So here's what the two of us have been up to lately. I started subbing this week for PESG and am loving being back in the classroom! It's still a bit tough to not really see progress in my students over time and its tricky not being able to teach stuff how I like to, but I know how important it is to follow the teachers lesson plans and I just keep praying for God to show me the job he ha for me in his time.

John went to New York Thursday to check out a supplier and plant in Buffalo. He came back yesterday. It was so weird to have him gone for a day and night. Works been rough on him lately but I'm so thankful he has a job and he's so smart, I know he'll pull through.

Since everyone asks about our little stinker, she's doing well, curled up on my lap currently. With all the attention and reactions she gets, we can't wait to see how people react when we decide to have kids!

So, today Johns been working on his TV lights. I've been working on my books for the craft show, and Penny got a bath that she was really happy about.

Fall Bottles

Update on the job front: both companies I'm trying to sub for, PESG and PCMI, have pretty long process including background checks and several fingerprinting (I guess one fingerprinting for one can't be shared with the other??) Anyway, I'm continuing to plug away.

So also on the recent fall happenings, as I've had lots of time, I made this cute little project one day. We have accumulated so many wine bottles since our wedding. I've gotten some REALLY cute ones I want to use for something else, but a lot of other bottles that I wouldn't want to keep and have no idea why I've kept. Well, I saw a cute post on Pinterest for painting them with glitter on the inside for Christmas. Adorable, but I wanted some sort of fall decor since we have none. I had six bottles; what could I spell with six?

 This is what I came up with! The coloring is a little off, this was taken with my old camera, but they're super cute! The first is actually a bright red and the "N" is a wine-purple; very pretty. We love them! And I threw some twigs in from the yard since I'm too cheap to buy fake flowers :)
I used:
paintbrushes
different color acrylic paint
modge podge or other clear sealer
bottles
water and sponge
Chalkboard marker, paint marker, or paint for letters

1. I soaked the bottled in the water and scrubbed off the labels when they were ready. Totally unnecessary! Oh well, ya live and ya learn! It was a disaster and time consuming. I'm painting right over them next time.
2. I painted each bottle a different color. Let them dry.
3.The only clear seal I had on hand? Modge Podge, which I don't usually think of a sealer but I didn't want dried paint rubbing off onto my mantle! I covered the bottoms (heavily) and the sides of each bottle with a sealer.
4.  Using my nifty chalkboard marker that has come in handy SO many times long after our wedding, I doodled a letter on each bottle. You could use paint or a paint marker as well.

Lastly, the cork candles are a birthday present from my aunt a few years back. I had 4 and it just didn't work to leave the other 2 bottles empty. I thought about getting some fake foliage or something from Michaels, but I'm too cheap and went hunting in my yard for twigs instead.

xo
Alex

UPDATE: So here's the inspiration that I used for the bottles:

Here is the tutorial for how to do them from Cleverly Inspired.


The more I've been looking at candle and bottle holders (I. Have. So. Many. Candles.) the more I see some that look similar to mind. Here's another one from quite the patriotic home that looks pretty nifty.

Movie Screenings

Something I've recently discovered, and John and others have enjoyed with me, are movie screenings. They're when a company wants to get buzz about their movie out prior to the release date, so they hold screenings in certain cities and theaters. Well, it's totally free (sometimes you get free concessions, too) and you get to see the movie before everyone else (but who cares about that, I said free, right??)

My first one was in the spring through Crowdtap.com, a social media survey/brand sites. However, the sites that most big-name movie screenings go through is Gofobo.com. I have fallen in love with this site and have already seen a good handful of movies, just after 2 weeks! I've seen Trouble with the Curve and Won't Back Down and will soon see Hotel Transylvania, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, End of Watch, and Chasing Mavericks (from Nickelodeon.) So check out Gofobo or let me know if you want to see Hotel T (I have 2 passes left) on Sept. 22 at 11am in Royal Oak.

Update: Again, you can't go wrong with a free date night :) Many of the Movies shown are in 3D and we've been suprised with a few Imax ones as well. My most favorite find so far? Seeing The Hobbit a week before it came out. Seriously, take a few minutes to poke around the site!

Craftyness Board

Quick post, and then I'm off to clean. Thursday is my cleaning day and I need to get it done before I leave for a movie tonight with Kriste. Here is a board I made a few days ago with a bunch of stuff on it!
 Ta-da! It looks fabulous!! I've seen a few at a variety of stores and thought they were cool, but didn't want to pay. Then I started seeing a few homemade ones on Pinterest and since all I needed was a frame, I decided to do one myself!

 This menu has a magnetic backing from an old dry erase board I had. I just cut a piece out and pasted behind the menu paper. Then, I made Popsicle sticks with some of our favorite meals (or Johns, at least, and I eat veggie sides and a salad.) I put little magnets on the back I cut out from a square and they stick perfectly!



I put the calendar and cleaning list page behind plexiglass to make it a dry erase board. I've got my weekly chores I can cross off and it's nice for John to be able to do a quick peek at what's going on this week. I have a separate planner for all the details, but he usually just likes to know the time and where.

 My notes and grocery list. It's ridiculous for me to remember everything we've run out of and we both need random things at random times, so now I have one compiled list that's placed where I'll never forget it.

I love these meal sticks!!! Super cute and SOOO easy to plan a week's worth of dinners! I can just look in the fridge to see what I have and then make my list according to what else I'll need.
                                   And this is just a page from our wedding album I 
                                    pulled out recently. It's coming along, I promise!!






Also, pray for Penny, today is her surgery. In fact, she's probably done. John and I were both anxiously waiting for her to get spayed and declawed. We love our little gymnast, but she cost us $200 worth of blinds and drapes. She completely tore the bedroom and living room ones down.

What we're up to.

John and I have been quite busy around the house. Sorry for not updating recently! It's been hectic trying to get everything fixed and all the "construction" stuff done! I've been working on making books for craft shows and working on our wedding album which is looking awesome and going to be huge!

John, on the other hand, has really been hard at work. He's nearly finished with the bathroom save the shower. We have the tile, we just need a certain shower head and a few other little things. Here's some pictures of his hard work so far:

 Our sink went batty! It leaked completely and was creating all sorts of mold underneath. I guess the past owners didn't clean it. Well, John replaced it and killed the mold and it now looks wonderful!

 Now it looks like this (excuse the mess, I just went and snapped a picture.) It has this insanely neat handle and faucet.

 I'm sure everyone forgot what the bathroom looked like, but that's ok, because it was yucky. We couldn't change the silly layout of it, but that's ok, we're making it look awesome despite that! Here's a toilet John put in. I took this some time ago, there is trim now.

And the sink and tub! It's really a lovely sink, a bit small, but nothing bigger would fit. It's also tall! The tub was there when we moved, but John added trim around it and we're planning on building a shelf to hang above it.

 And here's the shower. I don't really have much to say about it, it was HORRIBLY moldy, we had to rip out everything around it. There was a massive leak that was never fixed and it had to have been there for at least a few years. Yucky. Fortunately, we killed all the mold and ripped it out.

 John also installed a new gas dryer. Our electric one stopped working suddenly and when I went to investigate, it was STUFFED with lint in the tubes (and Victoria must have left the past owner some secrets, because they were in there, too! SUPER YUCKY!) And the dryer tube thing was burning because it wasn't meant for a dryer. Praise the Lord that our dryer stopped working for no reason, because there WAS a reason, a few of them. When John cleaned it out and got everything set, he plugged it back in and the whole dryer lit up in blue sparks. Super, super weird. Needless to say, we got rid of it immediately and used a gas dryer we had received as a wedding present. Praise the Lord for providing for THAT one.

 Our new door :) John didn't put the whole thing in, but he sure had to keep track of the person who did! He helped clean it up and what not and it looks absolutely lovely!

 Our new dishwasher :) The last one didn't wash at all and was rusting on the inside, so we got some rusty dishes. We got this new one and it's amazing, super quiet, and on works so well.

 This has to be John's proudest accomplishment so far. He mounted our TV on the wall and threaded all of the cords through the drywall. You can see our lamp on the left. It's sitting on a table with our Wii, computer plugged into the tv, and some other stuff. We are definitely liking it!

 John put this up awhile ago: our master bedroom ceiling fan. His NEXT job is going to be the blinds on the left. Our cat Penny pulled all of the blinds down, so we put some curtains and yes, a sheet over the window. The blinds should be in in a few days.







So that's some of John's amazing work! I've heard so many things about how Engineers can't even use a wrench and he's proving it all wrong. Our house is coming along so wonderfully and it's nice to think it's all ours and we can, for the most part, make it how we like it and create a home! As for me, I'd rather not post my work just yet. I'm pretty excited for everyone to see it when it's finished!

We're Jammin'

An awesome picture message I got today from John. This was hanging above his copier.

Peach, Poof... and Penny!

So we got a kitten. Honestly, would it really be that long before we did? John and I both LOVE animals and I needed something to keep me a bit busy this summer... so we got a ball of fur that climbs our drapes and plays with bugs :) Meet Penny.

This is our little Penners. She's about 3 months old and is a ball of fun! She is constantly climbing on stuff, falling into things, and following me around the house all day. She literally runs around the house with me while I'm collecting laundry and curls up on my pillow at night to sleep (which is becoming a bit of a problem as I'm waking up with itchy eyes and a runny nose. Hmm.) We picked her up on our way home from our honeymoon. John's old neighbor is a vet tech at a vet near his house. Someone dropped off a litter of kittens in May and they were looking for good homes. She was the only girl and is just precious. She liked to snuggle at first but now she hates to be held, she's always squiggling. Reminds me of my sister, Emilie, as a baby. We are so happy to have our new little addition to the family!

 This is John's clever meme when I sent him a picture of peeking Penny.

 Those ginormous ears get me every time! I hope she never, ever grows out of them (but I know she will.)

1 Month and Going Strong!

Oh goodness, so I nearly forgot I had this! But no time like the present to start blogging again, right? It's officially been 1 month since we got married!! It's been such a full, busy, and chaotic month that it's flown by faster than a melting ice cream (which is happening too often here, as it is!) How I'm celebrating our 1 month of marriage? Writing my thank you notes.

As it happens, we waited to order them until we got our wedding pictures from our photographer so we could have pictures on them. Then, we took a two week honeymoon. Now that we're finally home and (somewhat) settled in, I'm cranking them out. John is celebrating by playing Portals2 on his new giant TV. We finally replaced the mini one that was barely visible from the couch with an awesome deal :)

It's so nice to have people over! This weekend, Natalie was a pretty frequent guest at the house. She kept Penny occupied while we cleaned the house up, a project that had been looming over us for quite some time! We then had Allison, Joe, and Emilie stop by with some of her friends for a bacon party. Long story, but John loved bacon and I had the opportunity to host a Wright bacon party, complete with TONS of decorations and bacon, to review the brand.

Not all of our friends could make it out to see our new house, but we had a lot of fun having friends over. It brought some life to the house in addition to our 2lb gymnast (who now has taken to climbing on the drapes...)

The Wedding Day

Wow, our wedding day absolutely BLEW by!! The whole week before it went by so quickly!! How crazy is it to think that we are FINALLY married! I'm going to try and recap as much as I can so I don't forget! The day went so smoothly, or so it felt like, and turned out better than I could have ever imagined.

The rehearsal the night before went well. We all arrived at the church on time and went to dinner at Branns Steakhouse, John's favorite restaurant, afterwards.
We started the wedding day around 9. I slept in as late as I could and waking up was no different than a usual morning for me. My sisters and I hopped into Emilie's car, stopped at Dunkin Donuts, and went over to Urban Roots, a local hair salon where we each had our hair done. My stylist, Kristin, was phenomenal and my hair looked better than I could have ever imagined and it stayed throughout the phone entire day and into the next! After this, we stopped at home to gather our things and I readied the few bags I still had to move. Emilie, Natalie, and I then drove over to the Lesprit Salon Academy to get our makeup done. My artist, Severin I think it's spelled, was great and had my makeup done in no time. I got airbrush makeup because it's supposed to last longer.. and it sure did. Here, we met up with Allison and Emily who had been dropped off earlier to get their hair and makeup done as well. We had to be home by 1:00 in order to leave and make it to the church, but the makeup artists weren't very fast. We were running out of the building at 1:30 and flying home to leave. John had arrived at my house already and was changing into his tux and waiting for his groomsmen. They blocked him up into our guest bedroom while we quickly got into the Excursion where my mom and dad had packed all of our stuff. Then, my mom, dad, Emilie, Natalie, Emily, Allison, and I all drove together to the church. It was one of the most memorable moments of my day :) I loved having my family and best friends with me together.

When we got to the church a little after 2, our photographer Cathy was already there. Let me say, she was the absolute most amazing photographer and it was truly a blessing to have her!! Down in the parlor, we all changed and got ourselves as ready as possible. One of the setbacks of the day was my dress. We needed sticky body tape to keep some parts of it on and the tape we bought was not sticky enough to hold the dress. Oh well, what are you going to do about it 2 hours before the wedding :)? I just dealt with it the whole night and thankfully didn't have any wardrobe  malfunctions.

Something (robin's egg) blue!

The heirloom. Babi's grandmother wore this and down the line.

My Bouquet

These small, fake flower bundles were at the end of every other pew in the church.

After that, we took pictures with my family and bridal party around the church, inside and out. The groomsmen and John arrived with his family shortly after and they took pictures as well. Our wedding coordinators at the church, Mrs. Dunigan and Mrs. Edwards, kept us on our toes and continued to count down the time until the ceremony. At 15 minutes before, we all made a bathroom run which took an extra 8 minutes.

Our Wildflower bouquets! I didn't want "bowl sheared" roses.

The flipflops I made the girls- $1 Old Navy flipflops and some silk flowers. Voile!

Unfortunately, this is the best picture of my dress I could find!

Emily, Natalie, Myself, Emilie, and Allison

Our Programs

When we hustled up to the church and sat in a little room off the side where we peaked through the door cracks. This is when it got real for me. Up until that point, I hadn't really felt that it was my wedding, it just felt like someone else s. It finally sunk in and I was just so excited and jumpy and nervous and scared... like a landslide. After saying a prayer, my bridesmaids were ushered out and I waited for my dad (Oh my gosh, I'm getting sweaty palms and butterflies just thinking about this!) When he came, I finally got ushered out into the little hallway in the back of the church. I could see John, he was so handsome and just beaming. Walking down the aisle was tricky because, while I felt like I should look at everyone else as they were staring at me, I just wanted to look at John! He had tears in his eyes, and sweat bullets on his forehead when I got up there and the ceremony continued. Pastor Ramthun officiated and it was just so perfect I forgot to hand my bouquet off and no one fixed my dress to make it look nice while I stood up there, but I didn't care or notice any of the slip-ups.

We finally got to walk out, and do a quick 2 person receiving line. After signing all the official documents, we got into our beautiful white limo, driven by the sweetest man, and set out for Hines Park for pictures. One thing we were really looking forward to was taking pictures in Kellogg Park after the ceremony. However, every single route was blocked by construction. We would have had to take Ann Arbor Road into Plymouth and during Friday rush hour, that was not going to happen. So we took pictures in Hines Park and honestly? They turned out even better that the Plymouth ones. We had Cathy and Rachel take our wedding photos. Both were amazing and professional and did such an excellent job! Want to view the ones from Kathy? Just click here and view as a guest. Choose June 2012 as the wedding time.

Upon arriving to our reception site, my house, we were amazed at how beautifully my Aunt Catherine and her friend Colleen has decorated!! Everything looked truly amazing and Colleen was a lifesaver getting things ready during the wedding. I really trusted the two of them and had no fears! Party Max was our tent company,  we rented the tent, dance floor, tables, chairs, lights, and coolers from them. They dropped them off the Wednesday before the wedding and were totally professional and awesome! Carla is the daughter of our neighbors and did a great job getting everything set up. We decorated with tons of wild flowers, chalkboard, and mason jars! I just loved the idea of a rustic, simple, but very elegant wedding. Honestly? We didn't plan much, we just sort of found everything and thought "yeah, that would fit!" The decorating was pretty low stress! Much of the decorations were found from antique shops and thrift stores around my aunt's house. The center pieces were pretty easy to put together, too! With bulk flowers from our florist, wood cuts from a friend, birds from Michael's, and candles from Big Lots it was super easy. Everything really just came together, very little was planned by myself. I did enjoy putting up the mason jar strings of lights in the entrance way with Emily, though, a few days before :) Anyways, my points is it was so low stress, low cost, and actually fun. Everything just fit together so perfectly without much effort, though I know my aunt worked hard to find some of the decorating pieces and I cannot thank her and Colleen ENOUGH for the decorating and putting together the pew flowers for the church!

Jars with the pew bouquets and candles we had lining the entrance-way/

The entrance to our backyard.

Our lovely entrance way and welcome table. We hung mason jars and strung them with Christmas lights. There is also that old ladder we wrapped lightly with twine and hung pictures on it with clothespins.

With Emily's help, I strung 24 mason jars on 2 strings of rope in the entrance-way. Then, we laced them with white Christmas lights. It's hard to see now, but in the dark, they were breathtaking!

Table assignments were written on two large picture frames we painted with chalkboard paint.

On the head table, we had several logs cut out into potters and filled them with plants. We also had the bouquets in mason jars.

Favors were s'more wrapped supplies with a tag that reads "Bring s'more love home with you!" I also made my own seed infused paper, cut it into a heart, and wrote "Plant Me!" on it.

Our cake was out of this world! We opted to go for a birch-themed cake to go with our elegant, rustic, simple theme. I used sugar flowers from my bridal shower cake and they topped it with a little nest and birds.

Our centerpieces were layered fabric, a cut of wood topped with a half gallon mason jar filled with fresh wildflowers, a candle, ivory bird, and of course the number on a mini chalkboard.

John wanted dinosaur cake toppers. I got some Polymere clay (which is really plastic) and made some myself. Similar, but certainly not as cute, dinosaurs were over $80 on etsy, so I think I did well!! They were a bit too big and heavy for the top, so they're cake "siders."

Our menu- Southern Comfort Food themed! It was all sooo delicious!

We had these pie platters hanging around the tent in various locations. This one was my favorite, so I saved it!

Our drink menu, complete with Bride and Groom's signature drinks!

I loved entering our reception... John picked me up and carried me RIGHT through the cluster of tables instead of using the aisles. I got my hair all snaggled on a grapevine-wrapped pole :) It was lots of fun. Uncle Herb gave his best man speech and I asked Emily and Allison to do a toast together and Emilie and Natalie to do a toast together, also. It got a bit lengthy but was worth every word! My dad's speech was also amazing and fantastic and he gave me the sweetest note and special little things. It was heartwarming. While our MC/DJ was not the greatest (I had a whole list of popular music that John and I love and he didn't play a darn thing from the list!) the food was so SO SO SO EXCELLENT! 5 stars to Angel Food Catering owned by the Maynards, some friends from the high school. We had fried chicken, pulled pork, mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, beans, cornbread, and the desserts consisted of brownies from Mrs. Hendrick and peach cobbler and pecan pie my grandma made, which were SO EXCELLENT!!! We also had a cake from Heritage Bakery. Now, we got a smaller cake because we had so many other desserts. We expected most people to eat the other desserts first. However, we actually ran out of cake, it was that good!! And the way it was decorated, like a birch tree... ahhhh!!! So cool! I hadn't seen the cake, just given them a rough idea of what we wanted, and also given them sugar flowers from a bridal shower cake from my aunt... awesomeness.

The rings.

My dad and I at the end of our dance.

John and I.

So the food was great and we just loved dancing all night with our friends and family!! We could not have asked for a more PERFECT wedding day! The weather was, yes, warm and humid, but that was the worst part of the day, really. And it wasn't even that bad.
While John and I loved our reception and ceremony more than anything we could have hoped, we were truly just so excited to get married! We waited for so long it seemed. The timing was just so perfect and we are so blessed to have found each other. God's also blessed us with beautifully supportive friends and family to share in our joy! What a whirlwind...

Now married life kind of feels like playing house. Yesterday, we had a whole day of getting all of our legal stuff done and it literally took us ALL DAY to do it! My name is changed and everything connected to it, I'm totally moved out of my house (well, I was before, but now my furniture is gone, too,) and we've got all of our joint stuff in place. We leave for our honeymoon on Friday and we cannot WAIT for a vacation!!! Just looking around at all the boxes and boxes I have to unpack before then, I know I'll need one.