Hard Candy Christmas

This is one the Girls' favorites.

Hard Candy Christmas.

And come on, it's Dolly -- you can really belt this one out and no one can say otherwise. Not even a grumpy Gardener Guy -- bah hum bug.



Christmas Caroling love y'all, and all of mine!

Bermuda, Bahama, Come on Pretty Mama

It's been a busy week. Busy, and stressful: right Mama?

Just think, we will be cruising in March and I can't wait!

Of course, I wouldn't turn down a tropical getaway anytime sooner though!

HayBee talks of tropical vows although no time soon... so I play Wedding while she is far, far away. Unlucky for me, our tastes are ... well ... polar opposites. Oh well. If I were planning tropical nuptials (or re-nuptials) it would look something like this: bright, fun and oh-so laid back.


Love and Surf. Via Snippet and Ink.


Thank you J.Crew.

This would be a pretty simple gown for HayBee but it's so classic and elegant & she could dress that gown up with some gorg accessories from Etsy.
Maids in green, moms in blue, and red hot toes.
Put those boys in green ties and throw on some yellow leis for the night. Love it.

How adorable are these Save the Dates? They're luggage tags for cryin' out loud!

... ooh baby why don't we go down to Cocomo?

The To Do List

Life to do list.
(Don't be confused, this is not a "bucket list", but rather a survive before you can thrive list. )

-Find a job. Check

-Find a home. Check

-Finish Student Teaching, successfully. Check.

-5 year anniversary with Gardener Guy. Check.

-Dinner with sorority friends. Check.

- Pedicure with HayBee. Check.

-Graduate. Almost check.

I feel like I have been looking forward to May 7th all year, honestly. That was to be the last day of Student Teaching, my 5 year anniversary with Gardener Guy and prepping to graduate. I haven't had time to reflect on this semester, year or college experience to really let it sink in that I will be moving on to adulthood. Real adulthood, with bills and a paycheck (!!).

Tomorrow, I get to go home to work in the garden and get it ready for the wedding with Gardener Guy's direction. When planning for the wedding, I always thought to myself, "Self, the wedding soiree will sink in when it is close enough that you can plant in the garden." Yippee it is here!

***
This just in. (As is just popped into my mind!) In my midst of getting out Save the Dates, Wedding Invites, Graduation Announcements and passing the word about Showers, I have not had the time or creativity to create Graduation Party invites. If you would like to come out for the festivities, you are MORE THAN WELCOME!
***

Who: You and your family!

What: Graduation Celebration

When: May 15th. My graduation is at 11am, GG's is at 2:30. We will have light lunch in between and BBQ after his.

Where: Manhappy: Bramlage Coliseum and GG's house

To bring: A lawn chair for each rear that would like a place to sit! Your presence is gift enough!

RSVP: If you can plan in advance, that's great. If not and you show up, we'll be around back of the house! :)

Graduation love and all of mine!

Foo Foo La La Diddley Dee

Mama and I picked up the printed invitations this morning! Yay! We waited to have them printed in April to hit a "special", and with using our own cardstock paper, the cost came out to be very reasonable. Too bad our stamps were not too reasonable considering that we had to buy regular stamps and post card stamps. We had to go to the Post Office to get the stamps because the UPS store does not carry the "foo foo la la diddley dee" stamps. Auntie J does this surprise you?

I had made tentative plans to have Gardener Guy's Mama and sister over to help cut, sort, stack, stick and bundle the invitation suites. They made it over and helped so much! Thank you to them!
Grandma S, HayBee, Baby Lisa (with an ear infection), Chic Chick and GG's sis JoJo.
GG's Mama came and helped color trees.

Even Gardener Guy eventually made it over to help stick labels and stamps. When we worked outside, he was the boss. Since we were working inside, I was the boss.

Our To-Do list remains:
-assemble approximately 75 more invitations
-run envelopes through the printer for mailing addresses
-stamp envelopes
-send through the mail!


Oh yeah. The map madness. Gardener Guy sketched up a map, but it was far too technical. I decided to try my hand at designing. I'm not crazy about it but I think that it will serve its purpose. After all, Grandma S said that it is hard to find our drive way. Oh boy, I hope someone will drive her here.

PS. Tomorrow is my 22nd birthday, I am an Easter baby this year! GG's family came over tonight to help celebrate with my family. Stratty helped me blow out candles on my red velvet cake!
Don't laugh at HayBee's Sunken Cake. She's says its the best way a cake can bake.

More Easter and Birthday pictures to come tomorrow!

Invitation 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!

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!