I see the light!

The past two, rather three months have been a little hectic (all my own fault of course). I'll now admit, working full-time and decorating three weddings in two weeks was just a little much :) I have table decor for 12 tables to do for a 50th anniversary party this weekend and two photos sessions next weekend and then I think I'll have a couple of weeks off! I think I may take a few days off from work without having a reason to be off - ME days, I think I've earned a few of them.

My plans for the next month are to get a new dvd burner for the ole computer and start burning the heck out of disks with pictures so I can get them off my computer. It was brought to my attention a few weeks back that I'm OUT of hard disk space on my computer (and I have an 80gig hard drive!) I've been saving the raw pic file along with the edited pic files and I take a LOT of pictures and well my computer is completely full and bogged down with pictures. So I'm going to do some much needed maintenance to clean up the computer so I can edit all of the pictures from this summer.......I'm literally talking about several 1000 pictures - I told you I take a lot of pictures.

And while I'm not sitting on my butt in front of the computer, I've decided to 'make-over' the middle/big section of the barn. My decorating inventory has grown too large for the little garage in front of the house. I've considered renting storage space uptown or purchasing a pre-built storage shed but then realized that I'd spend just as much if not more on those two options and end up with much, much less space.

So I'm going to fix/replace all missing and or broken boards, build some shelves for storing vases/fabric/tablecloths/flowers/etc..., level the ground and pour a concrete floor, run some electricity (someone else will have to do this part - Dad), build a door, and possibly build a loft. The middle section is the tallest, as is with most barns, and there will be a lot of wasted space if we don't have a loft area - well, unless we hang things from the rafters - don't really see that as a option. I'll be sure to take before and after pictures when this project gets started. I love to remodel/redesign and build things and can't wait, of course once it gets started and feels like it will never end I doubt I'll be as excited about the undertaking.

Johnathon starts practice Monday for school junior high baseball. Which means that another series of baseball games (and pictures) will begin in a few weeks - about the time school starts.

My above to do list needs to be done before my next busy time which starts with a wedding on Sept 19th to decorate along with all floral, my 20th reunion (which I'm decorating of course) on Sept 26th which is also the Wine & Art Festival so I'll have to help at Mom's shop some, a wedding on Oct 3rd to photograph and help with some decor, and a wedding to decorate on Oct 10th along with all floral. Of course the quarter ends in September so in October I'll have to have the quarterly financials done once again also.

I have a feeling it's going to be 2010 very, very quickly!

Longaberger 1-Day Sale: TV Time Basket

This Wednesday ONLY, July 29th you can purchase the TV Time Basket for only $32 ($20 off the regular price of $52) You can easily purchase these baskets on my Longaberger Website or call/email me and I'll be happy to order it for you.

Some suggested uses for the TV Time Basket:

In the Office: store computer disks / organize and store office supplies / keep sales receipts in one, easily accessible location / holds envelopes, address book, note cards, stamps & pens

In the Kitchen: keep near the sink to hold rings, scrub pads, sponges, etc / holds small cookbooks / store microwave popcorn packets, tea bags, coffee and hot chocolate packets / hold napkins, small paper plates and silverware / organize recipes

In the Family Room: holds art supplies / keep the remotes handy by the couch along with TV listings / perfect for storing playing cards, dice and score pads

On the Go: use it in the car to hold cell phone, tissues, pens, paper, change and receipts / perfect for holding passports, tickets, maps, etc while traveling / holds portable CD player, iPod, Nintendo DS, headphones, etc

Don't forget the plastic protector and fabric liner to complete the look of your basket!

Sneak Peak @ Yellow & Black Wedding

Here is a sneak peak at the yellow and black wedding I decorated (with a LOT of help) this past weekend. Check out my decorating blog to see more......hopefully the photographer took pics once the wedding party arrived - I didn't!

Blueberry

Look what the UPS lady brought me the other day, and it's not even my birthday......isn't it sooo cute. My cousin Heather sent me some homemade blueberry jelly! I don't know what it tastes like yet but I love the short little Mason canning jar (I've never seen these around here before - too cute)! Oh, Heather's a great cook so I'm sure the jelly is going to taste delicious tomorrow morning on my toast, or maybe tonight on some ice cream :)
Thanks Heather!

Big THANKS!

Let me start by saying that the two wedding/receptions this past weekend KICKED by BUTT! I didn't attempt to get out of my bed until after 9am yesterday morning (I'm usually awake before 6 and out of bed by 7 at the latest even on weekends) and then moved in sloooooow motion all day yesterday.

Lindsey & Ben's "orange/beach" reception came together as I'd mentally pictured it, so I was happy. My only regret is that I ran out of time to get one of their wedding pictures professionally printed (aka NOT Walmart). Kris, the mother of the bride, was extremely happy and passed along how impressed everyone was with the decorations. The tables were covered in orange satin with sea shells scattered all over the tables and two alternating centerpieces - 1 floral and the other a candle set in sand.

The other wedding/reception this past weekend was the "yellow/lemon" reception set for 350 guests. Holy cow was it ever a LOT of work. When all was said and done though it was worth it - I think it's my favorite 'decorating' job thus far. I'd shown Ashlee & Bryan literally hundreds of pictures of black/white/yellow decorations that I downloaded from the internet, after a couple of meetings we settled on 3 alternating centerpieces and a few other elements to make their wedding special. I must say I think I nailed it dead on.

I owe a BIG THANKS to all who helped prep stuff the week before, setup on Friday, arrange flowers on Saturday, tear down late Saturday night and cleanup on Sunday - Mom, Dad, Johnathon (great helper with lots of energy!), Aunt Eileen (who hand washed every vase for me Sunday even thought I wanted to put them in the dishwasher), Brenda, Staci, Arielle, Bethany, Julie & Nina. Without a great support system there's absolutely no way I could do this! So thanks again!

Sorry there aren't any pictures yet, like I said I was spent yesterday. I did manage to accomplish a few things while moving in slow motion: rearranged the garage a little, segregated out what decorations I'll need for the wedding this weekend, put away a few items I won't be using again soon, and washed about 6 loads of tablecloths (only about 12 more loads to go - which I need this weekend!)

I have a full week but will try to get pictures posted soon.

PostVacation Chores

I know those of you who have been gone on vacation for over a week understand what it's like to return to EVERYTHING you must get done while you were gone. It always seems to me that I have 5 times more work that needs to be completed when I'm gone from work for a while, haven't quite figured out why that is yet. I realize I still owe you pictures from baseball season, Sesser 5K fun walk/run, vacation and Lindsey's wedding. The day we returned from Florida, Johnathon and Matthew entered into the end of season baseball tournament - like I could miss any of those games.

Then when baseball ended, Uncle JohnD and Aunt Kathy came for a visit from SanDiego. Of course we always eat well when we have company over and we had fried zucchini one nite which is probably one of my favorite foods. I think I can eat 2-3 zucchini by myself. Since they're fried we don't fix them often, so I made a pig of myself and quite frankly don't really care!! Oh did I mention I LOVE FRIED ZUCCHINI!

With not only the month ending while on vacation, but also the quarter and mid-year point as an accountant my full-time job workload has been crazy since I got back. I have to have the midyear analysis done and ready to present to the banks by next Tuesday which = 12 hour work days through the end of this month ends to get it all done. While in the mean time I have two weddings to decorate this weekend and one next weekend!
One wedding this weekend is black/white/yellow with lemons as the accent. here are a few of the 350 candy bags filled with lemon wedge candy that will be given to the guests.

I also had to do 225 orange candy bags for Lindsey's reception this weekend. I filled hers with orange & tangerine flavored 'salt water' taffy to go with the whole beach theme of her wedding in Destin, Florida - pretty smart don't you think.


Yesterday I received several shipments from FedEx and UPS. Actually they've been coming to my house like everyday for almost a week now. You should see my living/dining room - it's wedding central! Yesterday they brought me the following items:

50 yellow & white freesia
20 orange lilies
100 yellow static
120 yellow spider mums
60 white large calla lilies
20 mini white calla lilies
200 mini yellow calla lilies
400 yellow carnations (filler)
200 yellow roses
150 orange roses
50 hot pink roses
20 yellow garden roses
10 white garden roses
330 yellow snapdragons
4 field bunches of tree fern
3 field bunches of waxflower
The orange and hot pink are for Lindsey's reception, the yellow & white are for Ashlee & Bryan's black/white/yellow reception. Of course the all had to be unpacked, ends cut and bottom leaves removed before I put them in 5 gallon buckets of water to hydrate.

Last night in the midst of all the decorating prep, Aunt Eileen brought over Ben for a little photo session. Our first photo session was suppose to be 2 weeks after he was born, but he decided to go to stop breathing and visit the hospital instead - guess he was just camera shy. Well let me just say, taking pictures of high school seniors is a WHOLE lot easier than babies. That was a learning experience last night to say the least and now that he's not just a couple of weeks old he was too big to do most of the poses I wanted to do but not big enough to do the other one's I wanted to do. Plus I wanted to do some outside shots but once again it was raining here - that has got to stop. The sun is shining right now, maybe tonight I can squeeze in a few outdoor pictures?!

Well, that's pretty much what I've been up to since vacation. I'm getting ready to head out to get my hair cut uptown (going to be late if I don't wrap this up soon!) and then tomorrow the real decorating begins! I'm nervous in a good way and can't wait to share pictures of the receptions with you! Have a good weekend - mine will be without sleep, just not seeing where I'll have time for that! Good thing I LOVE coffee.