There is no pillow as soft as a clear conscience

But... a clear conscience is not as cute as these pillows!

I had dinner with one of my very best friends, K this evening.
As I was waiting for her to finish Equestrian practice, I decided to have a little Retail Therapy.
I made it all the way throughout Target without bags. Score.

K and Chic Chick our 1st day of college. Oh the memories to come!

I still had more time to kill so I decided to swing through Pier 1 to check out their Summer collection. I made it through the whole store until the last corner and saw these beauts!

Perfect pillows for a new home.

I use the 5 finger approach to justifying a purchase.
Here are the top 5 reasons that I love them:
5. They match my blog background, kind of.
4. They will match the yellow of the kitchen and help unify our home.
3. They are floral, without looking like I live with 4 Grammas in a cottage.
2. I love the color combination of yellow, coral, green and turquoise.
1. They were 25% off.
*Bonus: I love nesting.

Nesting love and all of mine!

PS. Check out the paper tomorrow for a revised version of our engagement announcement!

Reconsideration

I'm reconsidering some (wedding) things.

Gardener Guy is not one of these.

Would appreciate your prayers for direction.

Love and Marriage love and all of mine!

Dad's Army

I went browsing through Mama's list of blogs and read through Old Centennial Farmhouse.

I identified with her story of working on her Dad's "army".

So much more gratifying working on my own house now!
Gardener Guy and I are so excited to see all of the work that has been going on the past 2 weeks!

It will be a big Wedding/Nesting/Birthday/Easter blowout this weekend so look forward to pictures!

Clean up love and all of mine!

It's funny because it's true. People like funny.

I know, but the whole funny-because-it's-true bit only works if the truth is a *small* thing like "everyone knows Jennifer likes to shop, ha ha ha". I think you're better off going with something from the heart. Honestly. -Wedding Crashers

I have alluded to the fact that HayBee will be giving a toast at the reception and although this terrifies me, I am anxious to see what she has up her sleeve. Remember Hay: "the whole funny-because-it's-true bit only works if the truth is a small thing."

I am also anxious to hear what Gardener Guy's brother has to say. From the first time that I met him over 5 years ago, he gave me a hard time and continues to today. Captain Buttons can dish it, and he is a pretty good sport at taking it too. However, I am worried about how much he will dish out that night!

I have a folder in my "Photography" file on my laptop entitled "Toasts". In this folder I have compiled many pictures of married couples graciously listening to the toasts. I adore these pictures as it captures a testimony of the couples' love for each other, and their loved ones.

Enjoy!*
Uh oh, bring on the tears!


Look how much fun was to be had at my cousin's, Sonita Maria's wedding last fall! I believe her MOH started the toast, "If you enjoy this toast, you would have really liked the toast I had written and left in the hotel room!"

*I do not claim photography credits for any of these photographs. I apologize for lack of credit!

Toasting love and all of mine!

Family: Two Fold

The best part in life is when your family become your friends.

This past year I have realized that my family is that, my family, and my friends.
My best friends.

My parents, siblings, my aunts and uncles, my cousins, my grandparents, My Guy, his parents, his siblings, his aunts and uncles, his cousins, his grandparents.

I do not have the eloquence to be as thoughtful and thankful to express their friendship but it means the world to me.

I am thankful for the patience my mom has had as I have grown and matured and am blessed more than I know to have such a strong, Godly woman in my life.
I am beyond words proud of the women my baby sisters, HayBee and Baby Lisa are becoming. They are just lovely.
Z teaches me the finer points in life, like not taking myself too seriously.
And my Daddy is my rock as he and Mama have always been there with armfuls of love and support. And a "Program" if needed.

My Guy? He's my very best Bee Eff (See: BF, Best Friend).
We teach and learn, laugh and cry, joke and nag, sing and listen, & talk and pray.
He's the very best Bee Eff a girl could ask for.

Z, HayBee, Chic Chick, Baby Lisa, Mama, Daddy

B's Family: Mama and Daddy D, E & J and Baby S, K&M, B&L, JoJo

Heavenly Words:

JOSHUA 24:15  But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose
for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your
forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose
land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the
LORD."

Painting by Numbers

I spent approximately 4 hours on Thursday evening and another hour this evening trying to make a map to include with the invitations.

Considering my laptop "only has so many times that I can use Microsoft Word -Cousin Rusty", not to mention it is an old version of Office, and I do not have any type of Publisher or Paint program, my map is pathetic. I am too embarrassed to post it.

I am almost too embarrassed to send it out. People can WebQuest right?

I gave up on it and started blogging.
And then, I stumbled upon this map from Southern Weddings.

Now we're in business.

I love the contrasting green of the earth and the blue of the inlet of water. Basically, this map would make my map cry like a little girl.

I am going to try to convince My Guy to whip something up like this using his design skills and maybe Auntie J could paint a rose over our home location, similar to the lovely magnolia on the map. Did I tell you that Mama is trying to learn to paint roses to keep her mind sharp?

Keep drinking that Crazy Juice and you will be just fine sweetheart.

Stationary love and all of mine!

A Wise 8 Year Old

A wise 8 year old in my 2nd grade class told me something today. You should know that I have two favorites in my class, (I didn't birth them so it is ok to have favorites). Plus, everybody knows that I am Mama and Daddy's favorite.

One reminds me of a young Me in 2nd grade, so of course I love a Teacher's Pet. The other student reminds me of those munchkins down the road that I miss so much while I'm at college! This boy would be Bee Effs with my cousins because they share creativity, imagination, the fix-it spirit and a sense of humor! Plus, they share an ornery hair, but boys will be boys and they're good for comic relief. Ok I love all my students but these two are who I am blogging about.

Back to teaching today:
Our class discussion started with farms: do you live on a farm, what do farmers do, what animals live on farms? This boy, "Sam" replied, "My Grandma and Grandpa have cows on a farm but they don't live there, my uncle takes care of them, the cows." I said, "Me too!"
To which he calmly replied, "My grandpa has a brain disease and he is entering the 6th stage. He won't know who I am or what my name is but he will still love me."

To which I replied to myself, "Me too."

My Gramma S has a "brain disease" and soon she won't know who I am or my name, but she will still love me." This is a cruel disease, Alzheimer's, as it progresses quickly, but some days seems that you have had the same conversation, uh 473 times. Right Mama? On the other hand, you only need to know one good joke.

My parents are amazing role models that take care of my 4 grandparents and have tricked me into watching so that I will know how to take care of them. One day, I too will have my children help care for and respect their grandparents.

After getting a phone call from Mama this week that Gramma did a load of laundry of one sock, I had to stop and think, "If I have this disease, what if one day I will I not know My Guy or what his name is? I don't know. But, I will love him. And he will love me." And then I will wash his other sock.

Backyard Chic connection:
In lieu of favors, the Bride and Groom are making a donation in the name of their guests to the Heart of America Alzheimer's Association & the Heartland American Cancer Society. Along with the Alzheimer's Association, we also wanted to contribute to the American Cancer Society as both My Guy and I have GranDaddies that have suffered from cancer and GranDaddy J lost his battle last Fall.

Please say a prayer for my Mama as her 6 o'clock phone call has not yet come tonight.

True love's love and all of mine!

What a Coinky Dink.

My Guy and I need (ok, "want") some patio furniture for our new home.

I found these on Target. I couldn't decided between white, yellow or red. Guy said white looked the most classic. So we added the set to our Target Wish List.

I'd like to spruce them up with some of these.


Our mudroom/summer kitchen/Jasmine's bedroom will be decked out with red gingham curtains and terra cotta pots growing green herbs and topped with a red ribbon. I think this bistro set on the back patio will be a great way to tie together indoors and out!

Waiting for that coinky dink connection?

Today, I was reading Snippet & Ink a favorite wedding blog of mine for inspiration, Kathryn posted this inspiration board:
Red Bistro Chairs.

Inspiration from Snippet and Ink.

How lovely.

Nesting love and all of mine!

Spring Break: Kansas Style

Spring Break: Kansas Style includes bi-polar weather, pulling honeysuckle roots, snuggling with doll babies and paint fumes. And, last but not least, crossing things off of my To Do list!

Here is a picture book of my Spring Break:

Chapter 1: Home and Yard Renovation at Northview

Mama "Marie" in Daddy's coat, so don't judge her. "Helloo!!
She's sneaking up to the Love Shack to survey the damage.

South of Northview (See: Love Shack) before My Guy showed the landscaping who's boss.


Daddy and I rocked these outfits for 4 days strong. On Friday, the weather was warm enough to take our sweatshirts off!

Shiver me timbers this gives me goosebumps.
Word to the wise: NEVER plant honeysuckle.
We worked well together. He was the coach, I was MVP.

Daddy felled limbs, Mama and I dragged them to The Pile.
These punks? They sat around and took a long break.
Baby Lisa was a pretty good Water Girl though.

I work hard for the money. So hard honey, honey.


Daddy and My Guy felled a lot of trees as this was the small pile.
Hope Rent-a-Son is up to the challenge!
Let's move on from Northview, shall we?


Chapter 2: Wedding Decor

Spray painted shepherd's hooks for the Unity Candle in the ceremony.
Spray painted old chalkboards from Mama's classroom

Upcoming project:
Spray paint this gate white and use clothes pins to clip pictures of B & L.
See the legs at the bottom? We will shove those in the ground so that the gate stands up tall.
Don't forget about the pomanders!


Chapter 3: Playing Dress Up
Baby Lisa, Spiderman, Hay Bee, and Baby B
We bribed Spiderman to try on his suit for a bite sized Snickers. It worked.
One day when Aunt L isn't looking, Hay Bee and I are going to take him back to college with us.
No pic of Baby B as she was, uh.. petrified.. of the tutu. Rats.

Bear on the other hand "loved this". Would you agree that she has King in her blood?

"I love this. Mommy love this."
Her Daddy J taking a pic for Mommy S while PaPa and Big J are looking on.

Speaking of Big J, he was not a fan of the suit. We were prepared with chocolate again and after some sweet talking from his Mamaw, he was dressed up.

Epilogue: Only because I am assuming you have stopped reading by this point.
Sick of the picture book?
If not, enjoy these out-takes that didn't make the picture book chapters.


I think we were about to bust a move.
That would be me and Hay Bee, not My Guy. Remember, he doesn't dance.
Yep, there she goes.
Then, she went all Khloe Kardashian on me. I was walking back from the shed, she literally jumped on piggy-back and then brought me to the ground. Apparently she didn't do enough manual labor if she had enough energy to jump on me.
And tickled me. The WORST torture ever.
Harley is licking my wounds.
Didn't even phase My Guy because this is a regular occurrence with Hay Bee around.

She tackled me right into a big pile of mud, dirt, leaves, roots, branches and probably cigarette butts from the old tenant. Barf.

On a similar note: I am terrified of the toast she will be giving at the reception.
Little does she know that we will have a kill-switch for the mic.


Here is a shout out to Harley, Z's bird dog.
Harley will be My Guy's Golden Retriever, Jasmine, Personal Trainer to get her back in shape.
This dog had been cooped up all winter (that's what you are supposed to do with bird dogs) and when we let her out to run, she held no resentment for the long winter's negligence.
Got to love dogs.
Plus, when you say "Kennel Up" she runs to the gate to pen herself up.
I guess Z has trained her.

What did you do with the Spring weather?

Spring Break love and all of mine!

Patience is a Virtue

Many a-times Mama has told me that patience is a virtue.

Long story short, on Wednesday Mama, Auntie J, Johnny Mike and Haley Beth and I went to the UPS store to run color copies of our invitations. Auntie J spent many, many hours painting and I had spent hours getting the wording, font, formatting and materials prepared.

We took all of these (Auntie J's paintings, the wording on a transparency, and our cardstock) over to the UPS store. We wanted them to lay the transparency and painting on the copier, load the cardstock and pump out 150 invitations.

Nope. The lady wanted to work it over on Publisher and email me the proof on Saturday to confirm and then print.. in April. Saturday has came and went, and no email proof.

Auntie J: did we see this coming?

Patience is a virtue.

Here's to hoping that I will a proof of a lovely invitation sitting in my inbox on Monday!

Paperwork Schmaperwork

Tomorrow, My Guy and I will go the courthouse to apply for our marriage license.

I hate paperwork. I never have the documents I need. I never even know what documents I'm supposed to have are, let alone where those documents are located!

On a side note, next year at this time I will be waist deep wading through taxes and I will probably be in tears. But why go there?


Because I am all about lists (thank you Daddy) I have prepared a rough list of what you need to get married in Kansas:
-Two forms of identification: Driver's license, Social Security card, passport will all work

-We will both be present, but only one person is required. Which led me to tell My Guy: If we are both in the joint agreement to get married, we will both be present to apply for the license, end of discussion.

-3 day waiting period and the license is valid for 6 months

-$75 cash: license fee and surcharge

-Neither myself nor My Guy have previously been married so we didn't even read through that clause. We also ignored the clauses about cousin marriages, same sex marriages, common law marriages, and under-age marriages.

That should be it!

Knowing my luck, the County Clerk will be on vacation, or the office will be closed on Fridays, or not taking applications for young, naive, in-love couples.

Wish me luck and send up a prayer for us to be patient tomorrow and our upcoming marriage while you are at it!

Love and Marriage love and all of mine!

My Lovely Assistant Baby Lisa

My Lovely Assistant Baby Lisa is actually my sister D. Her Baby Lisa fame is from Dog the Bounty Hunter; we used to just call her Baby, but Baby Lisa is so much more fun to say!

Back to Backyard Chic Blog.

Baby Lisa and I attempted to make a DIY (Not DUI as Baby Lisa kept referring to it as) tutorial of making wedding pomanders for Flower Girls to carry.

Materials for one pomander: 3 bunches of silk white roses, one foam ball*, 6 push pins, ribbon and wire cutters.
1. Start by cutting a piece of ribbon 12-18 inches.
2. Overlap the ends of the ribbon and push the push-pins through the ribbon into the foam. We didn't, but I would suggest hot-gluing the ribbon first, and then sticking pins in the foam ball.
3. Secure with enough pins so that the handle is attached.
4. Using the wire cutters, cut the blooms off of the stem, leaving about 2 inches of stem.

5. Stick the stem into the foam ball near the ribbon and work around the top circumference working your way to the uh,, equator, and down to the uh, South Pole of the foam ball.
6. Stagger the flowers so that the petals just kiss the next bloom and you cannot see the green foam beneath.

7. Cover the whole ball with blooms!

This was a fun DIY project too! We figured out that the foam balls we bought were too big, so Baby Lisa and I ran errands today and bought a pair of smaller foam balls to re-do the pomanders so that the doll babies will be able to actually carry the pomanders down the aisle!

Thank you Baby Lisa for taking the photos!

Pomander love and all of mine!

The Countdown Continues.

3 months.

14 weekends.

92 days.

I don't even want to open up my The Knot page to see how far behind we are on it's suggested to-do list.

It was 41* at 6 o'clock tonight. It will warm up before June, right?

Countdown love and all of mine!


PS. The renovations commence this weekend for the wedding garden and our new home!

A Thank You in Blog Form

Dear Mama, Daddy, and The GP's,

Thank you for your models of marriage, friendship, and love. My Guy and I are so BLESSED to have such wonderful examples to follow.

Thank you for teaching us that love, true love, is worth protecting.

Thank you for teaching us that love, true love, is worth having, and anything worth having is something to work for.

Thank you for teaching us that love, true love, is built off of friendship, trust, laughter, honesty, communication, and passion.

Thank you for teaching us that love, true love, came from God who loved us first before we knew how to love Him, or each other.

Thank you for teaching us how to love.

All our love,
B & L


Seriously, we are so blessed to have two sets of parents that have amazing marriages and families and four sets of grandparents that have proven that love conquers all.

We will be recognizing these marriages by displaying their wedding photos at the reception. I am working on collecting, scanning, printing and framing pictures of Mama and Daddy's wedding, Mama and Daddy -in-law's wedding, both sets of My Guy's GP's wedding photos and both sets of my GP's wedding photos.

Inspiration picture:Vintage Chic meets Backyard Chic.

Love and Marriage love and all of mine!

When Love Gives You Lemons

A detail that My Guy and I agreed upon quite handily was that as soon as the ceremony was over, we wanted the reception starting immediately. The Mr. and I will retreat to my parents' house to sign our Wedding Certificate while our guests will mingle and meander from the ceremony area over the the reception area.

In the midst of this mingling and meandering, guests will be treated to a glass of lemonade to sip on and toast as the Wedding Party and My Guy and I enter the reception. Mama and I have been collecting Mason Jars to fill with lemonade and have been looking for a drink dispenser (as Mama's takes approximately 37 minutes to fill a small glass).

Here is an inspiration pic for the lemonade stand:
How Backyard Chic is this lemonade stand?
A wooden Lemonade Stand sign, a few chic straws and I think that we will be good to go!

I'm still trying to figure out the logistics of having 200 glasses of refreshing lemonade in a short amount of time. I have a few sorority sisters that volunteered to help. I might put these sisters to work pouring drinks!

Lemonade love and all of mine!

Help me Raquel! Help! Help me Raquel!

Raquel was my dance teacher for many years.
How great of a name is Raquel for a dance teacher?
I want her help again.
My Guy NEEDS her help but that is another story.

Why?

I know you've seen THIS.


And you may have even seen THIS:
(I know Mama doesn't miss Bonnie Hunt and so she has even seen it!)


Well, I have had THIS IDEA running through the back of my mind and found this.


Baby Sisters: What do you say? Help me put those years with Raquel to good use?


PS. Do you think that will make the bouquet toss less awkward or take it to a whole new level of awkward? I'm all about un-awkward!

PPS. Stay tuned for more dancing fun!

Plans for Plan B

April showers bring May flowers and May flowers bring June weddings!

This March rain is making me optimistic that Spring is here, trees will start budding, and Mama and I can start planting flowers! I know that Daddy is looking forward to the grass coming in, if those pesky birds don't eat the grass seed first!

However, with all of this optimism is still the fear that we will be rained out and resort to Plan B.

Plan A includes outdoor ceremony and reception.
Plan A 1/2 includes outdoor ceremony and reception with a few sprinkles of rain.
Plan B includes Mother Nature shutting down Plan A and moving the ceremony and reception next door.

My parents live next door to a new elementary school (great for our parking situation!) and there would be plenty of room for the the ceremony on the stage of the all-purpose room and the reception in the gymnasium. We would move all of our rented items: chairs, tables, linens, arbor, food, cake, drinks and flower arrangements into the school. It won't be the homey feeling of our backyard, but I'm confident that we will be able to dress up the space to be as Backyard Chic as possible!


It took me awhile to come to terms with these Plan B plans but now I am on-board for 5 reasons:

5. It would be a convenient, simple solution without guests having to figure out where the new location would be.

4. There is plenty of space for both the ceremony and the reception.

3. It's a cheap back-up and we wouldn't need to reserve another venue. Plus, my mom teaches there and I was student of the school many years ago! It also is a nod to my teaching career.

2. Daddy says people will understand about Plan B if the weather is not cooperating.

1. At the end of the day, indoors or out, I'll be a
MARRIED WOMAN!
Here's to seeing the BIG picture in planning this wedding!


Sunshine love and all of mine!

Bear and Baby B

I have posted a lot lately about my ring bearer fiasco but I haven't given much love to my little girls that will be flower girls. How could I have overlooked these precious babies?

Bear and Baby B are both darlings. They might just steal the show.
That's Baby B's Mommy (my Aunt L) in the back!

Bear has the blondest curls and the the best baby rolls to love on. Some have said that Bear resembles Baby Lace and personally I think that she is one adorable doll baby.

Baby B is the strongest little fighter that I know and soon she will be walking all the way down the aisle! She is also the best cuddle bug! One look at this Cuddle Bug "oohhing" at you and your heart will melt!

These doll babies will be wearing tutus and leotards (a nod to my dancing days!) and this has been a work in project for some time! My Soon 2B Sissy Amanda Jo taught me how to tie tutus and make flower headbands. So I have finished the tutus and am working on adding "lace" to the leotards and will be making flower headbands over Spring Break. This has been one of my favorite DIY projects for sure!

Inspiration Pictures:
Flower headbands

Lovely tutu

Flower Girl love and all of mine!

PS. With my mom's red-haired-skip-a-generation genes and My Guy's coloring, I am pretty sure that we'll have a few red-headed babies running around. If they will be as adorable as this Doll Baby in the tutu that will be just fine with me!