Thursday, June 27, 2013

Crafty Crafty Crafty

I adore crafting. More than anyone probably should. The only issue is that I never seem to get a free minute to finish the craft at hand. It take a long time for me to finish things now with a baby who hates napping (:


Here's some of the recent things I've been doing though! Some wedding stuff and some kid stuff. I can't wait to finish some other stuff and hopefully I'll have some other things to show you soon.

"Mr. & Mrs."
Which the boys drilled holes into so I can thread some rope through. They'll hang from our bridal table at the reception. 

This is our ring box that the boys will carry down the aisle.
Saw it on pinterest. Found it on Etsy.
Made it for $10 bucks. Not including the stain I already had.
On the inside our rings will rest on handkerchiefs of our grandpa's who have both passed away.
Just a way that they'll be with us on this special day.


Before pictures of Will's new dresser for the boys room.
Sanded it and staining. 

The finished dresser. I like it a lot! 


This was an old project. It was my step son's dresser for his race car bedroom.
I made the checkered flag top and got race car tires for the handles. 

It says "Best friends are we, my brother and me"
I'm waiting to go print pictures and I'll put one in the middle of it of the boys!
They'll be sharing the room when my step son is here so I thought this was cute to hang in there.



Our next project is painting the boys room into John Deere colors instead of the blue race car color we originally had in there. On top of that Dave has agreed to make the boys beds. Here's what it'll look like!!! I'm very excited for this to happen if you couldn't tell (: 
Tractor bunk beds!!! YAY!! (:

Monday, June 24, 2013

Summer Fun

I used to blog daily when I was in middle school. Sometimes twice a day while in high school. Come college it was maybe two or three times a week. After college two or three times every two weeks. Now being a mom, I hardly have time to get on my laptop and now that it's summer it's even worse! I'm lucky to get on my laptop during the day when Will naps and it's usually to pay a bill then check out what I'm getting on etsy next.

However, I don't miss getting on my laptop to blog. I love sharing my ideas and thoughts with everyone but having a family, means lots of family time. I love summer because we've been so busy and doing so many fun things! Here's a peek at what we've been up to so far this summer! I'm looking forward to more memories without technology throughout the summer! So sorry for the hiatus from the blogging but enjoy the weather and get outside people! 
Heinz History Center
Pittsburgh's Heinz History Center
Will looking at everything
Mommy & Will
Daddy & Will
Pool time! 
Went back to the Cranialfacial center & no helmet for Will!
Time has been going too fast. I can't believe Will is already 7 months old. Party planning is in full obsession mode for his first birthday. I'm making a lot of things for it and in the process of doing all of it. I can't wait to see how it all turns out and I'm sure that our families will love all that I have planned for him. It'll be such a special time for my little man and I cannot wait to show you guys what I got going here. That's for another post on another (rainy) day. Enjoy your summer days friends and be sure to check out and follow us on instagram (missynicole2010) to see everything we're up to on a day to day basis. 


Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Saying Yes to the Dress

I've said it before and I'll say it again. I never thought I'd get married. So when I was thinking of a wedding dress I had no clue what I wanted or what I thought I would have wanted. I knew that I needed something to fit my top half pretty good. Meaning, I have huge boobs. I did NOT want to keep pulling my dress up all night long. So I did splurge and bought a wedding magazine. I did get some great ideas from that actually and was able to pull some pages out to show when I went dress shopping.

I knew I wanted to dress shop early. I didn't know if I'd be picky but I am a thrifty gal and needed to get a good deal. Dave and I decided on a budget for the dress of $300 MAX. To me that seems outrageous that I'd even spend that much! However when I started looking at prices, holy smokes batman! The one dress that I LOVED beyond words was twice our budget. Heart breaking. So I got this email from David's Bridal saying that they were having up to $100 off clearance gowns and $50 off bridesmaids dresses. I didn't think it would hurt to look.

I called my mom and we made the time to go in the afternoon on Tuesday the 11th. Here's a few things..

1. I didn't expect to find the dress yesterday
2. I didn't expect to find the dress yesterday and take it home with me that day
3. I didn't expect to find the dress yesterday and take it home with me that day and not need any alterations (yet)
4. I didn't expect my parents to buy my wedding dress

That last one I was shocked. I literally and honestly was not expecting my mom to be texting my dad about dresses and then have him call me and say they would buy my wedding dress. I held back tears when my dad said that on the phone. That was the only time I was close to crying. I thought I would cry when I found the dress but I didn't. But I think my mom knew it was the perfect dress. She saw how happy I was wearing that dress.

I'm not looking at any more dresses. I am beyond blessed to have found my wedding dress so early and I am so blessed to have my parents in my life and so supportive of Dave and our family we have. If you want to see a picture of the dress text me! I can't put it on instagram or give any details because Dave is on instagram and he reads my blog. I can say though that its perfect. It's me and I can definitely see me wearing this while I marry Dave. (:

But I have no problem sharing via texts so feel free to ask! More wedding stuff to come! I did so many crafts lately and I can't wait to share.

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Wedding Planning

I'm getting married in 452 days. That's a lot of days to plan, dream up and think of the perfect details for our wedding day. That's also 452 days of worry, anxiety and stress over money, details and life in general. Again, I probably wouldn't have as much done for the biggest event in our life, besides the birth of our son, if I wasn't a SAHM. I love being able to stay home but financially I'm worried since we don't have the two incomes. However our venue isn't on the higher end and we will be doing our ceremony and reception in the same place. This means one prices not two! I'm doing my own wedding planning and here's how I'm doing it on a one income budget!


Venue

Our venue is Five Pines Barn in Irwin, PA. We are having our ceremony in their gazebo on site. The reception will be in the barn. We also have the venue Friday until Sunday, not just one day. This made our decision really easy! Every where we looked was one day only, set up and tear down and on top of that cost a fortune! A lot of the other places we checked out made you use their vendors which hiked the prices up like crazy as well. Using this barn saved us a lot of money. The cost is $4,000 for the entire weekend as well as tables and chairs.

The Barn
The gazebo where we'll have the ceremony
Inside the barn
Someone's wedding tables all set up inside the barn 

Photography 

This is one of the few things we are splurging on. Well, my MIL is splurging on. She has a wonderful contact that she used to work with who is a photographer. MIL said she'd pick up the photography price. We are very thankful on that. Plus the photographer doesn't print the pictures but instead gives you all the rights to the pictures and we can print them wherever we'd like! I honestly think this is the way to go because printing from a photographer get expensive. Plus on top of that, we can make a wedding book ourselves from a cheaper place and grab some coupons in the process. I'm not sure about your families but ours LOVE pictures. If we gave them a picture for every holiday or birthday that you give gifts on they'd be so happy and wouldn't care if they received anything else but maybe a frame to put it in. With that in mind, they're going to want a lot of pictures from the wedding for themselves. If we tried to print enough for everyone in our HUGE families, it would add up so fast and would just be insane. Getting the rights to pictures means everyone can print their own, pick the ones they want and in the end save money because they'd get more for their OWN money! Our photographer is Kristina Serafini and she charges $1,200 for 8 hours but is giving us 9 hours because she knows my MIL.

Bartender

Originally, we wanted to go with a flair bartender for our wedding. I didn't care one way or the other. I thought our wedding would be too laid back and simple for something so lavish but Hubby wanted it and I let him. However, the bartender would have cost nearly as much as the venue which is just ridiculous. So now we're stuck! Who do we get to tend bar for us?! Well luckily the venue has their own bartenders and on top of that, are only $100! Awesome way to save money. Sometimes you don't need to spend a fortune on something when in the end you'd save nearly $2,000!

Cake

My aunt has been baking cakes and decorating them for YEARS. She's amazing too. She has made all of my step son's birthday cakes, from a jeep to a dinosaur and I cannot believe she said she'd do our wedding cake as a gift for our wedding day! I'm so glad because I think paying that much for cake is just insane. It's just cake and Hubby doesn't even like cake! Haha, so my aunt will be doing our cake and that saves us a ton of money too. So if you're looking to save some dough on your wedding day and know someone who makes cakes, see if they'll do it for a cheaper price or even free! It will save you a ton in the long run especially if you aren't picky or a big cake person.

My baby shower cake
Will's baptism cake
My step son's 4th birthday dinosaur cake
My step son's 3rd birthday Jeep cake


Well the babe seems to be stirring and I gotta go feed the little piggy! That's all I got going for now.. hopefully I can write about our decorations soon. That's what I really wanted to get to today but my little peanut does not want to nap. Happy anniversary to Jenna and & hubby over at The Three Little Birdies! Go check her blog, she is the sweetest person on earth and her daughter is gorgeous. Hope you all have a wonderful week! It's gorgeous in Pittsburgh and hope it is where you are too!