Pink Holidaze

Today was a nice day. We woke up late, went out to lunch with my parents, went to the evening service. And Zach and I got to hang out a bit, which is especially nice knowing we will be apart for yet another week starting on Tuesday. This is stinky, not being together. He's going to Switzerland for two days. Only slightly jealous. Even if he will be working the whole time he's there. And then I'm off to Texas on Thursday. I really enjoyed the sermon tonight...our pastor talked about busyness, and how it can become a disciple killer. SO true! I let busyness and little things rule my life so much at times. I know we're told not to be anxious about anything, yet I find myself struggling to keep that in mind every day. He was talking about how this can be part of busyness...when we're worried we do things to help ease our worries...we work more, we help more, we look to other activities. I surely don't want this to be my life. I want to work hard and ...

Amber and Andrew (my brother and sister-in-law) commissioned Ashley to do this piece for our wedding gift and now Ashley has her etsy site set up! Yay!! This is a fuzzy pic, but it is definitely my favorite thing on the walls in our house. She even managed to incorporate our wedding date in those little speech bubbles. :) Her stuff is amazing and so unique and completely paperific. You've got to visit her shop!!

These pictures are too cute not to post. Annnd...they have to do with snow. Here's my niece, Rosie, after sledding a few weeks ago. When she saw her cheeks she exclaimed, "my cheeks are melting!!" haha.

My parents and I have just spent TWO full hours creating a blog title. Two painstaking hours. Slightly pitiful. Slightly fun. "Pink Holidaze" is the best we could come up with. I don't think any of us are going to have a career in this area. haha.   Either way...when I was little, my parents asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I promptly replied, " Pink !" And, I love holidays. So, there we go.

The snow is so beautiful!  Kind of like Christmas all over again.  I couldn't help but think "everything looks so rommmantic" as it was falling last night.  Our dogs love it, too.  We took them for a walk and they were pouncing about, fluffing snow everywhere.   On that note, though, I will be quite ready for some sweet southern air in just four short days...

I've been considering a tattoo now for quite a while...nothing major at all.  Just a small one.  But, I've struggled to figure out what I might want and I think I have finally found it!  I found this photo on A Cup of Joe and it just happens to be by Betsy Dunlap , who penned that amazing folded valentine I posted a few days ago.  So fun.

Some amazing valentines from Rifle Paper Co...  Anna does such fun illustrations and hand lettering for invitations and greeting cards. 

A friend had this posted on her facebook page and it's too cute!  Over Christmas I saw a few people had used it to make designs on their packages.  So fun!   On another note, I need a new blog name.  I'm not too fond of mine right now.  So, to the three of you who read my blog...any ideas?  ;)

More paper.  Excited.  I think wedding planning was totally more like shopping for art or, at least that's how it felt.  So, when I was super struggling to figure out what we were going to do for our programs and menus...scouring for something gorgeous that fit in our budget and our time frame...I struck gold.  In the form of Erin at Lucky Luxe.   Somehow I happened to stumble upon her blog and saw that she was starting to offer print at home packages.  Again, Erin does a lot of awesome letterpress otherwise!  It was a perfect solution and her designs are absolutely stunning.  She worked with our very crunched time line (and my late responses...eeks) and came up with something really, really wonderful.  Not only did I love the way it looked, but it felt really special and personal...like it really expressed us.  So much so that Zach has some of those flowers tattooed on him!  One of my favorites on her site are the screen-printed hankie invites!  These are bad pics, but here they ...

Here's another recent post from 100 layer cake...a fun  tour  of  Cheree Berry 's St. Louis Studio. Yay! She's by far my favorite stationer and super, super sweet. Her designs are modern yet whimsical and the color combinations are always amazing.  Cheree did our invitations and it was probably one of my favorite parts of wedding planning (you can see her wedding  here !). We used one of her already existing designs and although I'd die for letterpress, it was quite expensive.  So, we went with a flat printed design and couldn't have been happier.  The quality was amazing and the wee little foil-stamped bee made me oh, so happy.  I would have looooved for her to do everything paperish for the wedding had it fit in budget-wise, but we were really happy with the other items designed by a few different artists.  Here was our invitation! Love paper, love weddings. :)   I just saw a  different rendition  of this which I think is...

I can't help but post this for my mom.  This is the exact photo from my parents' fondue cookbook.  haha.  Why, hellllooo 70's.

Boden , I'm in love with so many of your jackets!  They make me want to travel to Europe, or at least somewhere... :)  I think my favorite is the second but the yellow one comes in verrrry close.          

Megan left this morning and we had such a great visit!  We don't have much entertainment to offer in Carbondale, especially at this time of year, so we made cheese and wine fondue for dinner!  This was the fondue pot's first appearance and it was a little complicated getting it started, but should be simpler the second time around.  So, here are a few pics from fondue night (and proof that we are actually using our fine china!).  haha.  

Quite excited for Megan's arrival this evening.  Megan is one of the most impressive people I know.  She single-handedly keeps in contact with almost EVERY single person she's met, AND she sends them all birthday cards.  Megan even sent us cards for every single holiday while we were living in Morocco!  I can't tell you how much that meant when we were starved for some small token of America.  Oh, yeah...and she came to visit us.  :)  She's one of those friends who you can pick up with where you left off, and I'm so grateful for that.  Here are some of my favorite moments with Megs (and some favorite life moments). A quick trip to New York our senior year... Eating dinner on the square in Marrakech... One of Megan's goals while visiting was to ride a camel!  We had to bargain a little for a cheaper ride. At the wedding... Yay!

...on 100 layer cake . I've fallen head over heels for these sweet valentines on etsy. They'll actually write out your own message for you! Seriously, how cute is that?!

As in the place, St. Louis. :) Zach and I drove to STL yesterday to drop him off at the airport for yet another trip. Boo. I'm quite ready for him to be home. He'll be back on Friday for a little over a week before he has to head out again. Anyways, despite the fact I had to say good-bye to him all over again, I had a really wonderful day in the Lou. I love those days where you feel like you can go where you want, whenever you want. I stopped by the mall and happened to find a few things, all of which were priced 50-75% off...Wahoo! Anthropologie was almost empty, meaning I could finally look through the sale racks slowly and deliberately! Here is one of the purchases...a skirt which is a wee bit crazy and bubbly. I'm liking these pictures, because I'm not quite sure how to wear it yet. After shopping, I stopped by Companion , which was amazing. My first experience there was just alright, but I'd heard too many great things, so I had to try again. I had...

We've been singing the song "Soon" at church a lot recently, which blatantly speaks of heaven and seeing Christ one day.  I've often found I can't connect with songs like this, or yet, I choose not to connect with them simply because I find them uncomfortable.  As if the discussion of heaven takes things over the edge.  It's too much!  "Lord, you've pushed my faith just tooo far."  I'm thinking it might be time to consider a different perspective.  I don't want to obsess about heaven so much that I can't enjoy life on earth, but this song reminds me that at we must look forward at times to recongize what God has promised us.  My favorite verse, "Though I have not seen Him, my heart knows Him well," makes my eyes well up.  My heart, it does know Him well and that's beyond precious to me. 

SO excited for Aleza and Justin's wedding in Austin this October and absolutely cannot wait to visit them in just a few short weeks!  What great fun!! I know their wedding will be such a blast and a wonderful expression of their loving relationship.  Aleza just reserved their wedding venue this weekend (see below)!  The thought of seeing the venue in person and going dress shopping (woop!) down there is almost more than  I can bear.  So many things to be done... :)  Also, beyond excited to see Austin and all it has to offer!  I believe my first visit to Texas shall be a good one...

(Photo copyright of CLC Photography) So, I ran into our florist ( Bloomin' Buckets ) right after Christmas while we were in the STL and it totally made my day (well, that and the fact that Zach and I were enjoying a day in St. Louis together :).  She is one of those people from the wedding who we simply "clicked" with all around.  From the time my mom and I entered the door at our first appointment, it was clear we were in good hands.  Her little studio consisted of a wonderful white couch and inviting, bright ribbons hanging everywhere. Here were some of the inspirations we gave her for the wedding.  They started like this...      (Image 1: J. Crew, Image 2: Artfool, Image 3: via StyleMePretty , Images 4, 5 by Livia Cetti of The Green Vase via Martha Stewart Weddings ) Barb  was so easy to work with and to be honest, I don't really remember worrying about how the flowers would turn out because she had such a similar aesthetic.  Eve...

...because I can't get enough of them.  I just think they're wonderful.  Poor Zach...he hears about them all the time.            I'm in love with these dresses from Fancy New York.   So sweet and fun.

This stor e never ceases to amaze me.  I'd like this new "outfit."  :)  

So, after a conversation about food blogs earlier today, I was reminded of my favorite food writer of all, Amanda Hesser . Amanda was a former editor of the food section in The New York Times . She wrote a really great book a few years ago that includes both her food writing AND yummy recipes. It's worth a read!

The past few days I've spent some time looking up possible places of employment (and perhaps training) for the future and I'm so...excited!  And somewhat revived.  It's been a long year learning to trust the Lord and hoping that I heard Him right when I felt He was leading me back home.  Although I'm not in PA school, nor am I anywhere close to being finished, I feel encouraged knowing that this education portion of the journey is more than halfway done.  Now trusting the Lord that He can and will get me through 27 straight months of school... :)  

Kate Spade turns out beautiful product after beautiful product.  I love the concentration on small details that makes their company so distinct and wonderful.  The products are trendy and classic all at the same time.  And, they're always, always made well.  I recently received a new wallet - thank you sample sale! -and finally let go of my trusty old baby from high school (it is now in a good friend's hands).  Clearly, this wallet endured nine years of hard abuse and it's still going.  Same with a bag...there was a messenger bag that took me from Mexico to college to North Africa and everywhere else.  I'd say that's a quality product.  At this moment, I can't help but drool over everything on their site.  Here are a few favorites I would love to put together.   p.s.  I got so excited to be in a  Kate Spade store when I was in St. Louis recently that I bought a pair of bright green what I thought to be tights...apparentely...they are knee socks.  This lady cann...