Archives for September 2013

Fun Wedding Ideas from Wedding Bonanza 2013

Now that #weddingbonanza2013 is past I thought it would be fun to share a few photos and a few of the fun wedding ideas I gathered from the experience. I had two consecutive weekends in September that I was honored as a bridesmaid for two of my closest friends. The first wedding, for my friend Charli, took place in NM, a three hour drive from home.

Charli's Wedding

FunWedding Idea #1: Charli (the bride) booked a local salon for the entire morning of her wedding day. She and each of her bridesmaids spent the morning getting our hair and makeup done. They had lunch delivered, sandwiches, chips and drinks from a nearby deli.

Fun Wedding Idea #2:  The mother in law of the bride sent champagne, spiced cider and chocolates to the salon for us to enjoy while we were getting ready!

Fun Wedding Idea #3: Caitlin, a fellow bridesmaid, gifted each of us with a shirt to wear while getting wedding ready. Each shirt was a white button up that she prettied up with our first initial in rhinestones on the front shoulder and the word ‘Bridesmaid’ in rhinestones across the back. Charli had a special Bride shirt with zebra print cuffs.

Fun Wedding Idea

Fun Wedding Idea #4: The bride chose pretty pink dresses for the bridesmaids from Macy’s Juniors Section. They were even on sale and dresses that we will actually be able to wear again!!!

Fun Wedding Idea #5: Our bridesmaid gifts from Charli were CUTE personalized makeup bags (that she got on Groupdealz!), pretty rose wine stoppers and turquoise necklaces to wear during the wedding.

Mortensens

Nate, Kassi and Klara – Charli & Garrett’s Wedding

 

The second wedding for my friend, Kayce, took place on South Padre Island, TX.

Fun Wedding Idea #6: Instead of a rehearsal dinner they planned a rehearsal dolphin watch cruise. Maybe you can’t host a dolphin watching cruise, but the fun could be in doing something unexpected after your wedding rehearsal instead of just a plain old dinner!

dolphins in south padre

Fun Wedding Idea #7: I was lucky to be able to take my sister, Kayli, with me to both weddings. Klara is only two months old so Kayli went as my “wedding nanny” and took care of Klara while I was doing my bridesmaid duties. If you have young children, and the wedding is kid friendly, it might be a good idea to take someone along to watch the kiddos so that you can be fully engaged in being there for your friend, the bride. My husband was at both weddings as well, but he couldn’t come until later for the first wedding and was the best man in the second, so it was nice to have Kayli there the whole time.

weddingnanny

Fun Wedding Idea #8: Kayce gifted her bridesmaids with a pretty silk robe for getting wedding ready and a black bead necklace to wear during the wedding. Again, gifts that you can use again are always a good idea!!!

wedding'

Fun Wedding Idea #9: Make sure you plan a ride to the wedding venue for the bride and her bridesmaids… We were ready to head to the ceremony when we realized we didn’t have a ride!!! I had to call my father in law who had rented a van while we were on the island to come and get us! But it did make for a funny story later…

Overall, both weddings were completely different in style and location but they were the same in the love shared for the couples and their families! Each wedding was beautiful and fun in its own way. I am very honored to have been a part of both of them.

Your turn: Did you have anything unexpected happen during your wedding?? {Like realizing you didn’t have a ride to the ceremony… haha}

Who doesn’t love CHEESE!?!

I personally think life would be drab and unexciting without cheese. I got lucky and married a husband that feels the same way… so needless to say cheese is a necessity on our grocery list. When I received the Sargento Natural Cheese Vox Box from Influenster I was stoked!

Sargento Cheese Review 3

Inside the Vox Box were two coupons to try Sargento Cheese Sticks and an insulated Sargento Cheese travel koozi.

After having my baby girl a few months ago my doctor explained that nursing mothers need to take in extra calories, BUT to strive for good calories, aka NOT just junk. Cheese is a great snack food for those extra calories since it is a good source of protein and calcium. Would you look at that? Sargento Cheese Sticks even proclaim that message on their package, “A Natural Source of Protein & Calcium”. Snack time for the win!!!

For my first coupon I chose the Colby-Jack cheese sticks. In about a week the entire package was cleaned out! My husband and I both thought they tasted great. Have you ever noticed that some cheese sticks taste bland or funky… Not like REAL cheese. You can just tell that they are crazy over processed? Well Sargento Cheese Sticks are NOT like that. They taste just as yummy as the “real thing”!

Sargento Cheese Review

For years one of my favorite snack pairings has been cheese and a few ginger snap cookies. It’s something I learned from my Granny when I would visit her house after school as a kiddo and we would share a snack together. I was delighted to find that Sargento Cheese Sticks were an easy and convenient way to continue enjoying my favorite snack!

Sargento Cheese Review 2

First of all, I save time not having to slice cheese, which is awesome! The cheese koozi is fun for taking cheese on the go and all I need is a little sandwich baggy of ginger snaps and I have a yummy snack for the road!

I can’t wait to use my other coupon to try a different flavor of Sargento Cheese Sticks! What flavor would you like to try? What is your favorite cheese stick pairing???

Disclosure: I received the Sargento Cheese Stick coupons as part of a Vox Box via Influenster. As always opinions shared here are 100% my own!voxbox-blogimage-popup2

Fancy This Fridays #146 and Features

Hey there friends!!! Happy Friday!!! In case you missed it I shared a sweet baby gift idea this week. How has your last full week of September, first official week of Fall been???

Before we get into the link up for Fancy This 146 here are the features from Fancy This 145!

First up, this Barnyard Birthday Party from Nichole of Pinkie for Pink is absolutely adorable!!! The entrance decor, the banners, the sweets!!! Everything is too cute!!!

barnyard birthday party

Next up Maisy of Becoming Alice shares the complete and easy to follow tutorial for making this Love Word Bracelet! Think of the possibilities… Names, sports teams, catch phrases… So fun!!

Love bracelet

And last but not least Sunglasses and Starbucks shared her recipe for a Pumpkin Spice Latte!!! Perfect for the first week of fall, yes??

Pumpkin Spice Latte

Here’s a Featured on Truly Lovely button for you three mentioned above! Hope you’ll grab one and share it over at our own blogs! 😉
Don’t forget each of these features gets pinned to our !! Check it out for past features and some fun ideas!!

Truly Lovely
Truly Lovely

 

Now onto this week’s party!!!

Fancy This Fridays Rules:

1. Please link directly to the project post on your blog.
Not the blog itself.
2. Please link only your OWN posts.
We prefer to see what YOU have been up to… not someone random.
3. Please grab a button and display it somewhere on your blog. On your sidebar, on your posts, on your linky party page. We aren’t picky!
4. We would LOVE if you would comment on at least one other link.
Just pop over and say “Hello, coming by from Truly Lovely”, or something more clever… You know…
Truly Lovely
Truly Lovely

 

Thanks for linking with us lovelies!!!
Hope you have a safe and fun weekend!!!

 

A Sweet Gift for a New Mommy and Baby

Hey there!! Long time no talk!!! Thank goodness for Fancy This Fridays or you wouldn’t have heard anything from me in weeks!! We’re finally past #weddingbonanza2013 and I’m starting to feel caught back up with everything!!!

So today I’m back on the bloggy-blog to share one of the sweetest gift ideas… Klara recently received her very first Christmas ornament from my friend, Jerri.

baby first christmas ornament

Jerri is also a blogger, she blogs at Simply Sweet Home, and she is the owner/creator behind the Etsy shop . When she offered to create an ornament for miss Klara I was absolutely delighted! I mean who wouldn’t want a keepsake ornament to commemorate their child’s first Christmas?!?! AWESOME Gift Idea Alert!!!

I was able to choose whether I wanted just her first name or also her middle name, the color of the ribbon and the cute little charm! Don’t you think the rocking horse is so fitting?!?! The other charms include a Christmas tree, baby bottle, baby feet, pacifier, high chair, or a ducky.

charms

The ornament itself is made of two hand stamped aluminum disks that will not rust and thus hang beautifully on your holiday tree for many years!! I really, really believe this would make a beautiful gift for your new mommy friend, a baby shower gift, Christmas gift for your own new little one… As a new mommy myself I was touched by the simplicity but lasting quality of our ornament.

IMG_6271

Plus it makes a darling photo prop!! 😉

You can get your own from Jerri’s shop at that link. She also creates hand stamped necklaces and key chains as well as other lovely handmade jewelry.

Your turn: My family has always had the tradition of a new Christmas ornament every year for each of the kids. I plan to carry on that tradition with Klara. Do you have any ornament or other special Christmas traditions?

Fancy This Fridays #145 and Features

Happy Friday friends!!! Well, wedding weekend number one was a success and wedding weekend number two is well underway! Here’s a little snapshot of Charli (last weekend’s bride) and bridesmaids at the salon. Her mother in law sent over champagne, cider and chocolates for is to enjoy while getting ready! So sweet, right!?!

Charli's Wedding

Right now I am sitting on the beach in South Padre Island, TX waiting for wedding number two tomorrow! 😉 While I wait here are the features from last week’s Fancy This Fridays party!

This week’s features focus on FALL since Sunday is the official start of the season! Happy Fall Ya’ll!!!

First up, Lauren of Teach Me How to Cookie shared her recipe for Pumpkin Toffee Poke Cake! This sounds AMAZING!!!! Can’t wait to try it, I love all things pumpkin!!!

Pumpkin Toffee Cake

Next, how about a Fall Wreath!?! This one from Sarah at A little of this and a little of that looks really cute and easy enough to recreate!

fall wreath

And finally, here is a round up of FREE Halloween Ding Bats from Angela of A Typical English Home! Think of all the fun things you could whip out with these!!!

HalloweenDingbats

Here’s a Featured on Truly Lovely button for you three mentioned above! Hope you’ll grab one and share it over at our own blogs! 😉
Don’t forget each of these features gets pinned to our !! Check it out for past features and some fun ideas!!

Truly Lovely
Truly Lovely

 

Now onto this week’s party!!!

Fancy This Fridays Rules:

1. Please link directly to the project post on your blog.
Not the blog itself.
2. Please link only your OWN posts.
We prefer to see what YOU have been up to… not someone random.
3. Please grab a button and display it somewhere on your blog. On your sidebar, on your posts, on your linky party page. We aren’t picky!
4. We would LOVE if you would comment on at least one other link.
Just pop over and say “Hello, coming by from Truly Lovely”, or something more clever… You know…
Truly Lovely
Truly Lovely

 

Thanks for linking with us lovelies!!!
Hope you have a safe and fun weekend!!!

Fancy This Fridays #144 and Features

HAPPY FRIDAY!!! The first of two consecutive wedding weekends is under way! This weekend I am a bridesmaid for my good friend, Charli. SO excited to see her marry her mister!! And this will be Klara’s first wedding to attend, fun, fun right!?!

In case you missed it, I shared Klara’s 2 month post this week and I shared a few tips for streamlining your email this last week! Excited to see what you all have been up to, but first the features from Fancy This 143.

First up, here’s a great post on keeping toys organized by doing toy rotations from A Sweet Fragrance. Everyone wants a cleaner, more organized toy room, kids room, etc, right!?!

toyrotation

Next, Cheryl of Moms and Munchkins shared her Glamoween Halloween party! There are tons of fun Halloween treat ideas and decorations in the post! Halloween is only a month and a half away… 😉

glamoween-full-m

And finally, Mums Make Lists shares 30 Healthy Snacks for Moms! I don’t know a single mom that wouldn’t want more energy via snacking!! Am I right?!

HealthySnacksMoms

Here’s a Featured on Truly Lovely button for you three mentioned above! Hope you’ll grab one and share it over at our own blogs! 😉
Don’t forget each of these features gets pinned to our !! Check it out for past features and some fun ideas!!

Truly Lovely
Truly Lovely

 

Now onto this week’s party!!!

Fancy This Fridays Rules:

1. Please link directly to the project post on your blog.
Not the blog itself.
2. Please link only your OWN posts.
We prefer to see what YOU have been up to… not someone random.
3. Please grab a button and display it somewhere on your blog. On your sidebar, on your posts, on your linky party page. We aren’t picky!
4. We would LOVE if you would comment on at least one other link.
Just pop over and say “Hello, coming by from Truly Lovely”, or something more clever… You know…
Truly Lovely
Truly Lovely

 

Thanks for linking with us lovelies!!!
Hope you have a safe and fun weekend!!!

Streamlining Your E-mail

Hey there friends! Remember my what I’m reading post where I talked about wanting to read ‘One Bite at a Time: 52 Projects for Simplifying Your Life‘? Well, I really enjoyed the book and am completely finished with two of the projects. So far I have a get out of debt plan (project #2), I’m using the Debt Snowball from Dave Ramsey and I’ve streamlined my mail (project #8) by signing up for all the do not mail lists I could find. The kind that take your name off the ‘You’ve qualified for a Visa card’ lists. You can see a list of all 52 projects, and download the book if you’d like, I highly recommend it, here.

onebiteatatimeAnyway, the project I’m working on now is #27, stream line your email. At first I thought, oh that’s an easy one I can whip out in like an hour… Um yeah. I sat on the couch last night with my laptop for several hours deleting, unsubscribing, and cleaning out my inbox. And that was just the first email account. Wait… You don’t have more than one email account?? Oh, not me… I have several.

There was my yahoo account from back in high school. You know the days where your email address included both your basketball jersey number and the year you were going to graduate. The year that was so so far into the future back then… :)

Then there was my college email address, the one they set you up with the first day you log onto your college account and feel SO grown up with an .edu on the end now… 😉

After that I set up a gmail account for Truly Lovely. An account that has plagued me because I set it up quickly and didn’t choose a good email address, one that would be easy for others to remember…. But everyone knows you need an actual blog email to look legit, so once I bought the Truly Lovely domain, I made one with a @trulylovelyblog.com to look more professional.

Then… oh yes, there’s more…. I have a work email address for my day job. How many is that now… Five. That’s right. Five DIFFERENT email addresses. I’m going out on a limb here, but that’s probably not a streamlined way to do things.

So I started with my college email, because I don’t use that for anything anymore. I unsubscribed from all the newsletters and what not that meant something to me back then but not anymore. I deleted email after email, forwarded and changed the address on anything that was still relevant and now have zero emails left in that account. I’ve decided to leave it open for a few days to make sure nothing new comes through, then I can close it.

A few weeks ago, actually, I created a new yahoo account. Instead of random numbers and what not I just used my name. Easier to give out to say the church group asking to send you the weekly newsletter. And way less embarrassing than having to repeat it to them several times because who uses underscores that many times in one email address anyway…. haha. I went through and cleaned out that inbox and old folders as well. When stream lining your email watch the old account for at least two weeks. By then anything relevant will have come through so you can be sure to switch all the accounts over to the new address and close the ones that don’t matter. I can officially say that as of today I am one yahoo account down!!! Yeah… I finally parted with my high school jersey number email address. 😉 It was tough.

You’ll notice I created a new yahoo account though so still a total of five email addresses. At least the one I have now is free of junk newsletters and easier to remember. BUT I did forward or otherwise purge so that now I only need to check THREE email accounts. One google, one yahoo, one work. Hopefully you’re not in this situation and didn’t go crazy creating email addresses throughout your lifetime… haha. But if so, here’s a few tips for you if you’d like to streamline as well…

  • UNSUBSCRIBE – Sure, we’ve all done it, subscribed to something to enter a giveaway, or get a discount, then failed to look at that newsletter ever again. That’s what the unsubscribe button is for peeps.
  • PURGE – If you don’t use a specific account anymore purge everything out of, then watch it for awhile to make sure you’ve rerouted anything important being sent to it.
  • DELETE – It will feel amazing, I promise!

If you made it down to this point, kudos to you!!! And brownie points or something. 😉

Anyone have any other tips for streamlining your email??

2 Months!!

Dear Klara Beth,

I can’t believe you are already 2 MONTHS old!! Since your 1 month birthday and checkup you’ve gained 2.7 lbs and grown 1.5 inches!! Me and your daddy affectionately call you our chunky monkey and little pumpkin.

Klara2months

Of course, we know you are the most beautiful little girl on the planet!! :) You are such a sweet, happy baby. Every morning you wake up smiling and talking. I send happy pictures to your daddy every now and then so he can see his happy morning girl after he’s already gone to work. You definitely get that morning person thing from him… not me! 😉

Klarasmile

Speaking of your daddy he bought you a fun new toy a few weeks ago… A two in one bouncy seat and swing! You love that thing!! I can put you in it while I do dishes or fold laundry and you’ll just smile and look at the bears dangling above you.

klaraswing

At this point you’re not a big fan of tummy time, you’d rather be up and looking around! You can already hold your little head up and like to be held where you can see everything. When you’re fussy, which isn’t often at all, you’re such a good little girl, you like to be held and walked around the house. You also LOVE looking at ceiling fans… For whatever reason, even if they’re not moving. You just smile and coo at them!

Klarafan

It makes my entire day to have you smile and talk to me. Just last night your daddy was holding you and asking you to give him one of those special smiles that I always tell him about… 😉 You just smiled and cooed. You already love him so much. I hope you always do!! You talk to your friends too… The fan, the bears on your swing and the ones hanging on your play mat.

Your daddy and I just love you so much and are so blessed that we get to be your parents. You have an entire family of grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins that just adore you. We hope you grow up knowing how loved and wanted you are and have always been!!! Happy 2 months little lady!!!

Love, Mommy.

Check out where we link up on our Party With Us Page!

Fancy This Fridays #143 and Features

Hey, hey Friday!!! So glad to see you! This week got away from me peeps. For real. Weddings bonanza is in full swing (I’m a bridesmaid for a wedding next Saturday AND the Saturday after that for another wedding). This week I did get a chance to share some 20 wishes progress and the 20 wishes link up is up!!! But other than that, it’s been overwhelming trying to get things done!!!

So real quick, here are the features from last week’s Fancy This Fridays party… Then I have to run to little miss Klara’s two month doctor appointment!! Busy, busy around here!!!

First up, how darling is this First Birthday Dress shared by Diana of Diana Meredith Designs! Her little Audrey is just a doll, right?!

birthdaydress

Next up Happiest Mom on the Blog shared her Custom Ceiling Fan blades! Perfect for your little one’s bedroom!!!

custom cieling fan blades

And finally it’s been a long week, and the next two are going to be crazy busy, so this weekend it would be nice to sit down with a YUMMY S’Mores Martini like this one from Jodie at Juggling Food Family and Chaos.

Smores-martini-300x300

Here’s a Featured on Truly Lovely button for you three mentioned above! Hope you’ll grab one and share it over at our own blogs! 😉
Don’t forget each of these features gets pinned to our !! Check it out for past features and some fun ideas!!

Truly Lovely
Truly Lovely

 

Now onto this week’s party!!!

Fancy This Fridays Rules:

1. Please link directly to the project post on your blog.
Not the blog itself.
2. Please link only your OWN posts.
We prefer to see what YOU have been up to… not someone random.
3. Please grab a button and display it somewhere on your blog. On your sidebar, on your posts, on your linky party page. We aren’t picky!
4. We would LOVE if you would comment on at least one other link.
Just pop over and say “Hello, coming by from Truly Lovely”, or something more clever… You know…
Truly Lovely
Truly Lovely

 

Thanks for linking with us lovelies!!!
Hope you have a safe and fun weekend!!!

 

20 Wishes Progress Link Up – Through August

With only four months left in 2013 we hope you’ve got a good handle on those 20 wishes!! But if not, that’s still plenty of time to get as many marked off the list as possible!!! Excited to see the progress you’ve made up through the month of August!!!

Here’s a button in case you haven’t grabbed one yet, or in case you’re new! If that’s the case, welcome!!! SO glad to have you!!! :)

Truly Lovely

Truly Lovely

 

You can see my August progress here and our mom’s progress here.

We aren’t requiring you to follow anybody, visit anybody, or anything else really. The point is for you to have a place to share and work towards accomplishing those things you really want to do. Although, it would be SUPER awesome if you were to link up your list, then visit the others that have shared and offer a little encouragement. 😉 Just sayin…

OH! And if you’d like to invite your friends to join in, please do so! The more the merrier!!!