Secret Santa!

Hi friends! Thank you for your thoughts on the Skype! Hubby and I are going for it and will report back on how it worked for us!

I wanted to share an early Christmas present that I got from one of my BF's! I have a group of 3 BF's and we all get together once a month for dinner to catch up and fix some yummy food. And when Christmas time comes around we draw names, pick a theme, and then get together for Sunday Brunch and exchange our gifts. It's a lot of fun and we always do it early in the month so it really get's us in the spirit!

This year I offered the idea of doing a monogram theme! Since I got married and my other BF just got married as well, I thought it would be fun to get something with our new monogram on it!

Here's what I got! My girlfriend got it from Girly Twirly! I just love their website! And I love this mug, I've been drinking my coffee out of it ever since and I'm sipping on a little coffee with cinnoman vanilla creamer right now...yum!!!

And here's what I gave! This isn't the exact one that I gave my girlfriend but it's pretty similar!

(image from The Pink Monogram)

So much fun!!!

(UPDATE!) The fabulous Nina is doing a giveaway! Check it out!! I just love her blog!!

Getting into the Holiday Spirit!

I'm really getting into the holiday spirit now! With the wedding done and Thanksgiving right around the corner I'm starting to think about what I'm going to do for Christmas. So I thought I'd share something really great with you!

A couple of years ago I commented on how cute my sister-in-laws wrapping paper was and she told me about how she bought all of her Christmas wrapping paper from St. Jude Children's Research Hospital website ......not only do they donate 100% of the profits, after all the expenses are paid, to the research hospital but the wrapping paper you purchase is actually art work done by the children at St. Jude's!

I just thought that was the neatest thing and what a wonderful way to spend your money.....you're going to buy wrapping paper anyway, how great to be able to help this cause at the same time!

They also have these really cute ornaments as well! They'd make a great co-worker gift!

(All images from the St. Jude's website)

And how cute are these little cheese spreaders.......so if you're having trouble thinking of what to get someone you should definitely check the site out, they've got some great stuff and it'll make you feel good too! : )

Hello and thanks!!!

I'm feeling much better after reading all of your sweet comments! I'm just on a roller coaster ride right now! I'm talking to all of the vendors everyday getting it all squared away! And one minutes I'm feeling good and then the next minute I'm feeling stressed....oh well it'll all be over in less than 17 days!!!!

My bridal shower went GREAT!! I've got pics that I'm going to post asap! I got some great stuff! All of my everyday china! Some great entertaining pieces! My flatware! My Kate Spade flutes for the wedding! And my sweet mama outdid herself....again!!! She made me a recipe book with my new name on it and put all of our family recipes in there!!! Then she made my garter with tartan ribbon of course!!! Then she bought me some Barefoot Contessa dvd's and finally she got me a gift certificate to Victoria Secret to go and get my wedding night outfit and she threw in some cute bridal panties!!! Seriously she has spoiled me to death!!!

Then on Sunday we went to The Pottery in Williamsburg and got my portrait framed! Which was a load off my mind!

And finally I decided on my bridesmaids final gift........................................I'm getting them one of these...............Personalized LUGGAGE TAGS!!! And I found them on Etsy! I decided on luggage tags because all of my bridesmaids are traveling in the next month or so!

Image credit

Bridal Luncheon and Gifts

The day before the wedding my mom and I are taking my bridesmaids, future mother in law, mistress of ceremonies, and fiance's aunt to Feathernesters for the bridal luncheon.

We really wanted to take them somewhere that was a little different but fun and cute at the same time. I love this place and it seemed perfect for what we wanted to do. I've decided that I'm going to give my Bridesmaids their gifts at the luncheon rather than at the rehearsal dinner, I think they'll be plenty going on then without dealing with gifts. Plus that's kind of why you do a bridal luncheon....as a thank you to the girls for being a part of your big day! I think they'll really enjoy Feathernesters none of them have been there before.

And speaking of gifts I posted about the bags I'm getting the girls and now let me tell you what I'm putting in them.....

Cute frames that I posted about here and I'm putting the little poems in them

Soap and Glory hand cream that smells sooooo good!

Burt's Bees lip gloss

An ivory pashmina

And for jewelry I got a black satin and pearl necklace from Forever21 for $6.80 that's no longer available so I can't show you an exact picture of it bit it's a knock off of this one.....It's not that long though....
I really wanted to get them something fun and different to wear and if they never wear it again then that's perfectly fine because it was under $7!

And then I'm paying for them to get a pedicure and I'm going to get them something monogrammed.....I just haven't figured out what yet........

So what did you get or are you getting your bridesmaids for their gift???

It's getting crazy ya'll

It's officially getting crazy around here. Sorry for the lack of posts this week, but with the wedding right around the corner and starting a new job on the 16th, my posting may be at a minimum. Did I tell ya'll I got a job? Oh, I got a job!! With the same company and basically doing the same thing I'm doing now, so it will hopefully be a smooth transition. Because goodness knows I need that with all of the wedding last minute running around I've got to do!

So in the meantime, here are some pictures from my shower! With all of the festivities and present opening nobody took any pictures until after the fact....so there aren't any funny expressions on my face, just really cheesy poses! : )

Me surrounded by all of my (I mean our) gifts!

My Matron of Honor and her mom got me the cute t-shirt and Bride bag and inside was a wedding day emergency kit filled with all of the essentials! A big lifesaver, I'm sure!!!

Cheesy pose with my oven mits!

My Matron and Maid, Me, and my Mistress of Ceremonies or Wedding Coordinator (kind of)

My ribbon bouquet that I'll add to at my second shower and then use at the rehearsal

My sweet mom is the craftiest woman I know and she cross stitched Fiance and I this beautiful picture and then had it matted and framed!! It was my favorite present (next to the Kitchen Aid that she got us!!) She spoils me : )

Another pic of my matron and maid and me!

Hope everyone's having a great week!

Showers and Invitations and Bachelorettes, Oh my!

Hi everyone! I'm sorry I left you hanging yesterday with no update on the weekends festivities! I was still recuperating! Old Downtown Southern had herself a little too good of a time Saturday night! : ) And was paying for it for the last two days!

I'm waiting for my girlfriends to send me picks from the shower and bachelorette so in the meantime I'll show you a few of the wonderful gifts I got!

I had such a great time, my maid and matron outdid themselves!!! The theme of the party was pink and green so we had green punch with strawberrys and pink and green ribbon tied to them. And they had sent everyone pink and green recipe cards for them to write their favorite recipe on and gave them to me in a cute clear recipe box!! I thought it was such a cute idea!

And then the bachelorette was a ton of fun too! Like I said I had myself a really good time and no there were no strippers or strip clubs to be had, sweet southern bell's don't partake in such things ; )

On Sunday, even though I was hurting from the previous nights festivities, my sweet mom and I got all of the invitations stuffed and stamped and out in the mail on Monday morning!!! With the exception of the international invites and a small handful of other invites that I'm still waiting for Fiance to get me the stinkin addresses on.....the rest of them are gone!!!!! What a load off my mind!!! I promise you I will post pictures just as soon as I get them!!!

Hostess Gifts

I was able to get two of my three hostess gifts this weekend! My first shower is this coming Saturday so I wanted to go ahead and get the gifts.

For my matron of honor I got her this Kate Spade brag book!

She recently bought a gorgeous red Kate Spade purse so I thought this would be great for her to carry with it, it's supposed to be used for photos but I thought she could even put a pad in there and use it as a little agenda book too!

For my cousin I got her this cute Cheese tray/cutting board from South Moon Under

She has a condo in Virginia Beach that she goes to every summer so I thought this would be great for entertaining there!

For my moh I'm getting her something Vera, she's a Vera Bradley addict!

And that's one more thing done!

Haven't heard anything on the job front....it's a little frustrating and disheartening but hopefully I'll hear something this week!

Flower Girl Gifts, Part II

So to go in the cute basket for my two little flower girls I got them this book.

It's so cute and I figured it would be something they could look through and kinda sorta comprehend what they'll be doing the next day, they are only 2 years old after all. Added bonus the little bunny Emily is going to be in her Aunt's wedding so I thought it was even more appropriate! : )

Bridesmaids Gifts, Part I

So I know that I posted about the tartan totes (and I'm still probably going to get one for my mom) but when I went to the mall with my mom this weekend I found the perfect totes for my girls!!!

These are called enVbags and they are awesome! The main purpose of these are for shopping, instead of using plastic bags or paper bags, use some of these! But they are also great for the beach, gym, or anything else your little heart desires!! And at a whopping $10.95, how can you go wrong!? I think my favorite thing about them, other than the price and the fact that they are super cute, is that they come in these tiny little zippered bags all folded up that are perfect for throwing in a suitcase and bringing fun souveniers back from a vacation or honeymoon! I had to get one for myself as well (in the striped pattern) I know my girls are going to love them!

Flower Girl Gifts, Part I

I love my little nieces and I'm so glad that they are going to be in my wedding! I love my nephews too, but there's four of them and I didn't want to choose just two of them and I definitely didn't want to have all four of them in the wedding!! So I decided to just go with the little girls, since there's only two of them! : )I really wanted to get them some cute flower girl gifts and I knew that I wanted to get some kind of basket to put all of the gifts in. I thought about doing a pretty white wicker basket but then I went to World Market and found these.
I got them the one with the pink flowers, I thought it would be something colorful and different and they could use it to store their toys in. I also found there flower girl dresses at Marshalls!!! I got them right around Easter and they were only $24.95!!! I was so excited about what a deal I had gotten and they look so precious in them!!!

Look what I found!

I was taking a break from looking for a job and went to the LLBean website and there they were! I've been trying to find a cute bag to put my bridesmaids gifts in! I don't know if my SIL would appreciate this though since she lives in Scotland and is probably sick of plaid! But I will definitely be making this tote somebody's gift! Maybe my mom will get one since she's in love with all things Scottish ever since Fiance and I started dating : )

Might be nice for the groomsmen too, but I don't know if Fiance wants to go the "tote" route as part of his gifts : )