Wedding Fever!

Y'all!! The Royal Wedding will begin in almost 6 hours from now...wooohooo! Who's with me on this one? I will be getting up after sleeping for probably only 3 hours tonight to watch all the live coverage with a BIG cup of coffee.I don't know about y'all, but I am really excited about watching this wedding!

Thinking about it has made me think of my own wedding, the good, the bad, the ugly, and what I wish my wedding would be like if I could do it all over again-my way. Daniel and I have always said on our 10th anniversary we're going to renew our vows and have the wedding we always wanted. Well, that's in 5 more years so maybe a few of these things will still be in style or to my liking by then?

What's most important to the girl? The Dress! 

Monique Lhuillier 

I love this dress! I'm a sucker for a very natural, lacy, romantic dress that just drapes the body.

 Vera Wang

Vera never dissapoints.I would wear this dress in a fancy city ballroom wedding. It is so chic that it needs a venue to suit it.

 

 Romona Keveza

I know, y'all think I went bonkers over here-or blind-but I L.O.V.E. a black wedding dress. Throw the whole theory out the window about it having to be white...nobody wears a true white dress anymore anyways. They're all cream, blush, beige, ivory-an array of colors to suit our skin color. So why aren't more women wearing the all flattering black that us women love? I don't quite know, but I do have to say that I am just dying over the second black dress and this one above...I just wish I could see the whole dress because that sculptural detailed tulle shoulder is genius! I would definitely rock a black wedding dress, how about you?

Vera Wang

The flower appliques on this dress are beautiful and romantic and whatever is happening at the end of this mermaid silhouette is stunning. Go Vera, go Vera! 

Even though I love all these dresses, I highly doubt Kate Middleton aka our future Queen of England is going to be wearing anything close to these dresses. I imagine her dress tomorrow being tightly fitted to her tiny little body then flowing out in dramatic fashion into a very full skirt and long train-but nowhere near as long as Princess Diana's! However, being the future queen and all, and getting married in Westminster Abbey, I do think if her dress is strapless or a little revealing up top that she will wear some sort of shrug to the ceremony that can later be removed. I'm so excited to see what she will wear!!

Here are a few more pictures of some lovely wedding things:

Wedding by Color

So, this sweet gal above is Nancy Ray. A childhood friend of mine that I grew up with who is now a very successful wedding photographer. Listen people, I am VERY picky about photography and what looks good artistically vs. something that is just cute or run of the mill kitschy {art school did this to me}. So when I say this girl is good, I mean it! Her photography is the most beautiful I have ever seen. Her blog is a must read of mine just because the photographs are so beautiful they inspire me creatively! If you click here then you will see what I think is the most beautiful wedding I have ever seen on her blog. 

 

Every detail is SO us {Daniel and I that is}. The romantic southern backdrop, a rustic barn that's dressed up with french signs, fleur de lis, delicious food, and heartfelt personal touches....it is everything Daniel and I want when we renew our vows someday. And when that day comes, then the adorable Nancy will be photographing it. Take a few minutes to look at the wedding I just described, it will take your breath away!

 

Well, it's past midnight, I had better get a little sleep so I can watch the wedding of the century! Haha, I know, I am being sooo dramatic, but I just love weddings and I'm happy to be watching this one in particular! 

 

{Fun Time: So, if you have a guess as to what Kate will wear then leave it in the comments below. Tomorrow I'll do a royal wedding wrap-up post and I would love to see who guessed right on the dress! Enjoy!}

 

 

 

Make your own designer eggs!

So, some of you may know I have a slight {heh} bird obsession. I love bird figurines, prints, nests and eggs. I wanted to decorate with some eggs and the only place I found them was at Pottery Barn. No offense, PB, I love you dearly but you do not always agree with my budget. And I just could not justify buying 8 eggs with brown speckles for $16. I mean, really, two bucks per egg? C'mon people, we can do better than that! So I did :) I made 16 eggs for under $5...ssaaawweeeettt!!!

I didn't do a step-by-step tutorial because I don't have two extra arms to take the pictures of me in the act of doing these things, so I'll just kind of explain along the way. First, gather all supplies: eggs, paintbrushes, pins, paint, newspaper, big empty bowl {for egg insides}, a small bowl with water and a syringe or one of those baby snot sucker things {classy, I know}. 

Ready to go. Now, I punched a hole in one end of the eggs with my pin. It had to be slowly chipped away, but doing it that way I found kept the shell from cracking and stayed smooth. I made it large enough so that the syringe fit just inside the egg then started drawing out the yolk and whites and put them in the large bowl. If it starts getting difficult or to wash it out a the end I squirted some water in the egg, plugged the hole and shook it a little then drew the rest of it out.

Then sit the eggs with the open end pointing down {I just put them back in the egg crates} so any extra can drain out. 

Next comes the fun part!! Pick your paint!

I had pictures of beautiful robin's egg blue eggs and some brown speckled ones like quail eggs {and like the overpriced ones at Pottery Barn....just sayin}. I just experimented here and this is the part where you need to either 1. not care if you get paint all over your hands and nails or 2. wear gloves. 

For the blue eggs I started by painting two with a paintbrush and it was streaky, so I went with the technique of rolling and dunking the eggs in the paint. That was smoother, thicker and prettier but it was SO messy, you had to hold it forever so most of the excess would run off back into the paint cup and then they took forever to dry! I can be a little impatient which is why I tried dunking the eggs, but as much as I get impatient sometimes, my perfectionism will always override it. So, I just did two coats for those first two streaky eggs and I think if I did them all that way then it would be less time than the dunking method. Just a handy tip I found out.

See the two streaky ones and then the pretty glossy ones? Beauty can be deceiving people.

Now for the speckled eggs. Easy, I just loaded the brush with the brown paint and then flicked my finger across it so it would splatter. Make sure you choose a stiffer brush so that there's a lot of tension for good paint-flinging....yes, that is an official term.

Here's all my pretty little eggs drying {before the second coat for the streaky ones, mind you}. A little speckling landed on my blue ones but I've learned to not sweat the small stuff. Besides, bird eggs are never perfect anyways, I think it adds character.

The best part yet....I added them to my spring time displays in all my apothecary jars, hurricanes and cloches around the house!! Yippee!!!

 The top of my bookshelf kind of evolved into a little birdie vignette by accident. The vase did hold a daisy but I replaced it with peacock feathers. The green bird was a gift from the ever generous, second mom, Carol. Then I added the egg in the cloche when I finished this project and realized what I had done...and was super stoked about it!

My little apothecary jars already had the moss, twigs and birds {99 cent candles at Michael's} and then I added my little eggs to complete the look on our entertainment center.

 I know the picture below is kind of blurry but I just included it so you could see the placement of everything from every angle. This is important because we don't view our home just from one spot, we see it from every angle as we move and live in it and that is something to remember when we decorate.

I know, we are very uncool with our old TV set. But I'll tell you what's cooler than a flat screen....debt free!

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed the little tour around my home to see my spring decorations on the cheap! This is something fun you can do with your kids outside one afternoon, making memories and house decorations at the same time! 

**The day after I made these I saw an official egg-decorating dude on TV and he used a wooden skewer to punch straight through the egg from top through the bottom and slid it up and down to push the yolk out but the holes were really obvious and I saw some cracking on the video. I haven't tried this technique yet, but if I do I'll let you know what I think.**

Did any of you decorate for spring with eggs or birds?

Message in the Mirror Mondays

Fact: I was on spring break all last week and only posted on Monday.
Fact: I stayed super busy with everything last week and some of that everything were some great projects that I completed, photographed and will be posting this week! 
Fact: THE ROYAL WEDDING IS IN 4 DAYS!!!! I'm so excited about it you would think I'm British. Yes, I will be awake at 4am watching the wedding of the century!

Moving on...I hope everyone had a great Easter yesterday. After church my parents and my two brothers came to our house from Raleigh and we had a honey-glazed ham, rolls, rosemary and lemon potatoes, apple cheddar salad, green bean casserole and cherry pie. It was a joint effort from mom and I. Sounds lovely right? Well, then life kicks in {this next part is for your reading pleasure} and makes it all interesting.

Our A/C wouldn't cut on yesterday. It was 90 degrees. The whole family came and filled up the house. The oven ran for 4 hours straight. Daniel had to go to church and borrow a fan from our youth room. And that's all folks!

Really, I'm not upset about it, the whole thing is comical and I really enjoy having all the windows open. Too bad we don't have screens on our windows so we could have them open all the time without the bugs. It was a great day.


So, the message a put on my mirror today is a quote that for years has given me a lot of hope and encouragement when things are really hard. The awesome Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said this in a speech and I love hearing it from his voice because he says it almost as a command. He has such certainty and strength in his voice that you really believe it.

I have found in hindsight that this statement is true. Check back soon to find out what this busy bee has been up to the past week!

Um, is anyone else so-excited-you-can-barely-stand-it about the Royal Wedding? Who's getting up early for it???

Message in the Mirror Mondays

Amen!

 

my husband loves me, this i know...

Today a friend was having an event at their little store and Daniel was able to go but I was not. However, always being so thoughtful and doting this is what he brought home to me:

A cloche! Oh my goodness, how does this man know me SO well? I have wanted one of these things forever but it's always just a decorative item that I don't need to buy. I haven't found something to put inside yet, but don't worry, I will, and then I'll share with you. 

Yes, my husband loves me a lot! And I'm crazy about that man.

In other news, we had a tornado hit our little town this afternoon, and PRAISE GOD we are safe and don't even have damage to anything! Praise the Lord! We prayed hard, cleaned out the closet and almost jumped in it, but didn't have to. The power has been off for several hours all over town but just came back on here. However, just 2 miles down the road is where the tornado touched down and we drove to see the damage and we were so thankful that the Lord protected us from what could have happened to us. Tonight we are lifting up all those affected by it and counting our blessings. 

Did any of you get affected by today's storms? I hope you all are well!

 

HUNTER came to my house today!

Oh, yes! This beautiful box was waiting for me when I got home today. You wanna see what's inside?? I sure did!

Hot pink Hunter wellies! Oh yeah! Can you tell I was totally celebrating here? Pictures were necessary to share and to say a BIG THANK YOU again from the lovely Melanie over at Pretties and Posies for having such a sweet giveaway!

 Lovely.

Lovelier.

Loveliest.

Of course, I'm quite partial to that last picture. Phoenix is my best accessory with anything! Now if any of you read when I won the boots I said that I wanted my Morton salt girl yellow wellies, but bad news....they were and still are sold out! So, I went with a super cute pink to bring some color to rainy days. 

I don't know about you all but I am ready for the weekend! What are your plans this weekend? 

Message in the Mirror Mondays

So, when I was around 15 years old or so I started writing all over the mirrors in my parent's house and my bedroom windows with dry erase markers. I wrote bible verses to encourage me, challenge me and inspire me. Then I also would write quotes I liked, lyrics of songs that spoke to me or just any word I felt like the Lord was laying on my heart at the time. 

This habit has yet to cease in my life. I think it is because I have a love of typography and being an artist I will draw, carve, paint, scribble or sculpt just about anything I can get my hands on {and dry erase markers are so great for when you change your mind!}. With all that said, sometimes I want to share with you what is on my heart and/or mind that week and I started thinking, "what if I just take pictures of my mirrors and post them each week?" Sawweeeeeeett! 

I didn't want to rain on anybody's parade by doing Wordless Wednesday so I thought of Messages in the Mirror Mondays! Double sweet. So, today it is born, I hope that when I find something encouraging to me and post it on here that somehow the Lord will use that to encourage you out there too. I love when a community of believers work to build each other up, even in the little things!

"We went dancing in the minefields...."

 

You're probably saying, "Alright ladies, Heather is off her rocker now! Dancing in the minefields??" Let me explain. There is a wonderful singer/songwriter by the name of Andrew Peterson that the Mister and I had the opportunity to meet at a friend's house where he did a house concert a few weeks ago. We're big fans of his and one of his many beautiful songs is called "Dancing in the Minefields". It was great being at a house concert because it was a concert/storytime of sorts. He said that when he wrote this song he and his wife had just celebrated their 15th wedding anniversary just a few days prior but that night they had a really huge fight. He couldn't sleep so he wrote her this song as an apology. 

The first time Daniel and I heard this song we both looked straight at each other and said "That is US!!" I'm still not quite sure if he wasn't spying on us when he wrote the song because it feels like we wrote it, but anyways, it speaks so much encouragement and love to me and the fact that God is bringing us through the minefields and the storms. More importantly, He is using our marriage to draw us closer to Him and then each other. I'm including his beautiful music video for this song so you can hear all his great talent and how God is using this man to reach people for His kingdom. 

{Sorry this post was so long, the other Monday posts won't be as long!}

 

April Goals....for real this time.

Kind of feels like ground hog day around here doesn't it? This is the real post of April goals, unlike my poor attempt at an April Fools joke on Friday!

I'm excited about April because I see lots of opportunities for me to do things that I want to do rather than obligations of what I have to do, ya know what I mean? Not that obligations are always bad but sometimes it's nice to be able to choose what will fill up your calendar rather than having someone or something fill it up for you. 

Today is warmer than yesterday and tomorrow is supposed to be very warm! I think a nice long run around the neighborhood is in order. Is it warm wherever you're living?

With all that said, here are my goals that I am very much looking forward to this month!

{April Goals}

 Read Crazy Love by Francis Chan. {Daniel saw him speak last month in Orlando and was blown away by this man's heart for the Lord and how there was nothing that would keep him from pursuing the Lord!}

Create a logo for our youth group with the new name they voted on: to be announced!

Design t-shirts for the youth group as well!

 Add some homemade decoration around the house for springtime that looks like this.

Go to Josh and Kelly's wedding on the 30th.

Watch the Royal Wedding of these two on the 29th...so exciting!

Have a girls night out.

Help host Spa Night at Charis this Friday.

 Get busy with plans for making white slipcovers for my sofas over spring break?? {I want to say "FINALLY!" but I am so nervous about this one-pray for me, seriously!

As always, lots to do and little time to get it done! Is there anything you want to get done this month?