Meeting Silas Finn!

I hope to post photos from our trip soon! My sweetie is still going through them all- he took a couple thousand! :) I also want to post soon on our new flooring & new kitchen sink- I just need to take the time to take pics of them. For now, I wanted to post on these two little projects I did for two sweet friends & their baby boys! I had to wait to post on them, because I wanted the recipients
to see them first.

Here is a pic of me & Silas Finn. This is my best friend, Jennifer & her husband Andrew's, little boy! He is now four months old! Mom & I got to meet him for the first time last week. It was so great to visit with him & Jen!! He is such a happy little baby,
and is so fun to be around! :)

We lost Jennifer's grandmother, Ruby Jo ("Mama Jo"), this past weekend. Mama Jo was a precious lady, and I looked forward to it every time she said the offering prayer at our church. She had such a kind heart, and was such a classy, Godly woman who will be missed by so many! She did get to meet little Silas though, which is so comforting. I hate that Jennifer had to prolong her stay because of the circumstances, but I am glad that I got to spend more time with her & her little man!

For Silas, a.k.a. baby boy #1, I knew his nursery colors were brown & green, so I just went with that. I had purchased these little wooden frames a while back, and had been waiting to use them. I painted the first one a simple green (it's still not the shade I wanted, but it works), and then got some wooden letters to spell out his name. It was easiest just to spray paint these, so that's what I did. I painted the frame with about 3 or 4 coats of the green, then spray painted only 2 coats of brown on the letters.

I actually just Mod Podged the letters onto the frame. I did one coat of Mod Podge on the frame, then attached the letters
& two painted stars.

After that, I did two coats of Mod Podge on top to protect.

Here is the finished frame...

Same thing with baby boy #2, Bryson. His nursery colors are yellow & gray (how cute is that??), so I used these colors. I already had spray paint on-hand in yellow (go me!), which was used in the chalkboard tray, and I just picked up the gray later on. I used the same wooden letters & spelled out the name, then attached with Mod Podge & after that dried, I did two coats on top...

I didn't get an actual After picture of either of these- I guess I was just too excited to wrap them up & deliver them! (Jen had to send me the "After" shot of Silas'.) :)

These were so fun to create & I hope the boys, and their sweet mommas, can put them to use!

We're Back (Unfortunately)!

We had an absolutely amazing 4th Anniversary trip to our favorite place on Earth- Walt Disney World! We already miss it so much!! We returned home to new flooring in our kitchen, laundry room & two bathrooms, and a new sink in our kitchen, but it still didn't make it much easier to be home (pics to come soon on the Before & Afters of our flooring & sink updates). I know I shouldn't say this, because we're so very blessed, but it's always a little bit of a let-down when you leave such an awesome place & come back to reality. Any vacation is a break from reality, but staying on-property (we were at the Polynesian) at WDW is insanely surreal and anything but the "real world"- which is exactly why we love it so much!

This was definitely our best trip yet! We were there for a total of NINE DAYS! We were able to fit (almost) every single thing in that we wanted to do & see, and we had plenty of time to shop & relax too. We hit Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party one night, and loved it!! This was our second time to go to that, and we loved it even more than the first I think. We even rented a car one day & hit one of the awesome outlet malls in Orlando. Some of the stores were a little too upscale for us, but we enjoyed it nonetheless.

This is just my quick "filler post," just to let you all know that we're back from vacay. I will make a lengthy post on our trip soon, complete with details & our favorite photos. I don't want to go into too much detail on the blog, but I do want to do a little recap of our trip. I don't ever want to forget the little things
that made it so special!

Be back soon to post on the trip & our home updates that took place (so very conveniently) while we were away!! :)

Four Years of Wedded Bliss

I cannot believe that my sweetie & I are about to celebrate FOUR years of marriage! These past few years have been the happiest, and the hardest, of my life. I say that mainly because I lost my dad a little over 2 years into our marriage. Zach going through that with me (beautifully, I might add)- although it being the most difficult thing I've ever endured- strengthened our marriage, I can honestly say. I also use the term "hardest," because marriage is hard work. Marriage is hard work, because it's worth it.

Marriage is also a big adjustment, and a constant one at that. You "adjust" your life to accomodate the other. You are living for another now. You share your everything with them. Just living under the same roof together is an adjustment. I can remember people asking us "How married life was treating us?" even a couple of years in, and I would always answer, "It's different,
but a good different."

I am so very blessed to have Zach. I tell myself, and him (sometimes, when I'm in a good mood), that I don't deserve him. I thank God for him, and remind Him that I'm not deserving. Zach is the smartest person I know. He has such a kind heart, and he is such a good daddy to Daisy & Cosmo. They're our practice run for the future, you know. :)

He is so very handsome, and even more so now that he never has to wear his glasses anymore. I am so proud of him for the business that he has built, all by himself, since he was in high school. He is incredibly intelligent & talented in his field of web/graphic design & marketing, and I hear that all the time from others. (See, it's not just me, everyone else brags on him too!) I am thankful to him for helping to support our little family these past four years. Cosmo & Daisy are thankful too.

And, for my dad, I can't leave out that he's a die-hard Alabama fan. Roll Tide, Dad! :)

Ok, I'll stop with the sappiness...

I do want to share some quick photos of our anniversaries over the years, along with links to my previous anniversary posts. I thought this would be a neat way to look back at how we've changed (me, with mostly my hair color & styles, and Zach with looking better & better each year).

To kick things off, here are links to posts from our first date anniverary & our one month anniversary.

YEAR ONE

For our First Anniversary, we took a long weekend trip to Atlanta. We stayed at the Ritz-Carlton (amazing!), and had a fancy dinner. We toured the Coco-Cola Museum & the Georgia Aquarium. Here we are at dinner that night at the Atlanta Grill...

1st Anniversary

YEAR TWO

For our Second Anniversary, we decided not to take a trip, because we wanted to be home for a friend's wedding. I did take a few days off from work though. We got a lot done around the house during my time off, cooked some yummy dinners, and then we enjoyed that weekend at our friend Brittany's wedding. Here we are at Britt & Joey's wedding...

2nd Anniversary

YEAR THREE

We celebrated our Third Anniversary in style- just as we are this year! We went to Walt Disney World, our favorite place on Earth (as I've mentioned a gazillion times before)! This was our best trip yet- we had been a few times before. We got to do almost all of the things we wanted. I wanted to include a few of my favorite pics of us from the trip... 

3rd Anniversary

YEAR FOUR 
(Pics coming soon!)

Stay tuned for pics from our Fourth Anniversary trip! We know it will be even better than the last- we are staying for a full EIGHT days this time!!! We are beyond excited, and are planning on not leaving a single thing out. We want to do everything on our list this trip! We are so blessed & thankful to God that we have the opportunity to take another trip. We know that one day, we'll be too busy with little ones, or something else may hinder us from traveling. We are living it up right now with our vacations

while we can!!

Fall Deco Mesh Wreath- So Easy!

Hope you all had a great long weekend! I wasn't as productive as I hoped to be, but I enjoyed myself, and that's what matters. We had a great time watching the Alabama football game with Zach's dad on Saturday, then we had some restful days after church on Sunday & again on Monday. We spent a lot of time moving things around and out of certain rooms, in preparation for our new flooring!! We will hopefully have ceramic tile in our kitchen, laundry room, and two bathrooms within a few weeks!! It's been a lot of decision-making & preparation, but it's almost time for the last (and most important) step- installing. They will start soon!
I'll share pics when it's done!

I got a lot done in the project department over the weekend. A couple of them that I wrapped up are gifts, so I'll have to wait & post pics on those once they are given to the recipient. :)  My sweetie worked his tail off over the weekend, trying to wrap everything up before our anniversary vacay. That's one downfall of owning your own business. I am wrapping things up at work too & trying to clean off my desk, but I do have the comfort of knowing things are taken care of while I'm gone. We're so thankful to have the opportunity to take a break & relax every once in a while! We ended the long weekend with a great family dinner with my family on Monday night.

So, I'm really into wreaths recently. I think it's just the change in seasons coming up that has me wanting to create things with new colors. I just posted my framed Fall wreath a couple weeks ago, and here I am creating another wreath for Fall. I'm going to run out of spaces to put these, I'm sure.

Anyway, I bought some Fall deco mesh at Hob Lob (if you don't already know, I'm in love with this stuff), so I was thinking up ways to use it. I had gathered some inspiration from this pin on Pinterest, and I also knew that I could just copy my same routine for the deco mesh bows I made at Christmas last year to make more pretty bows. Deco mesh is pretty much a foolproof crafting accessory- take it from me, a fool in crafting. :) You basically just gather the mesh & tie it up with a twist tie or some wire, and it turns into a pretty bow. Or, you can use a wire wreath form & it just shapes the wreath for you. This is what I wanted to try!

I scored this wire wreath form at a yard sale a few weekends ago...

I took off the silver branches. (I may find somewhere to put them for Christmas, but if not, the purchase was still worth it for the wire form.) This process was rather messy...

After the quick clean-up, I was left with this...

I looked to Pinterest for the best way to create a deco mesh wreath, and found this awesome pin, originating from this site. (I confess, I first attempted to just wrap & weave the deco mesh throughout the wreath form, but that did not work at all. So, I then decided to look up instructions.) :)

There is a secret ingredient to the mix that I was missing!
Pipe cleaners!!

My local Dollar General had these for $1 a bag, so I grabbed up two. I figured the orange ones would work ok, since the Fall deco mesh has orange thread throughout. Ha- not the case! I ended up spray painting both the wreath form & the pipe cleaners with brown spray paint, so they would not show through.
This worked like magic!

According to the site I used, you basically tie the pipe cleaners at intervals around the wreath form. Then, you start at one end, tie the deco mesh to the pipe cleaner, then bunch the deco mesh & continue tying it to the form with the pipe cleaners. EASY!!

Since my wreath form had two wire levels, I started a second layer on the second wire, making it fuller.

I then took to my first plan & wrapped some deco mesh around the wreath, filling in any gaps. This made it even more full.

I then hung it on the laundry room door to make sure it was even, and fill out any parts that looked sparse. It needed something added- just something! It was way too boring for my taste.

Then comes the idea of some glittery leaves that I actually already had. These leaves were in an arrangement of my dad's, and I used them last Fall on my dining room table. I grabbed up a few, and began hot gluing them to the bottom on one side of the wreath.

Yep- that was exactly what it needed!

Here is the finished product, now bringing a little Fall beauty
to our front door...

A little closer look...



LOVE!