Adios Amigos!

I'm outta here!  In a few short hours (12 to be exact) Ryan and I will be hopping on a plane for Belize!  Don't worry dear readers, I'll be thinking of you from my beach chair under the palm trees.  I promise to have a cocktail for each and every one of you!  I'll take lots of pictures (my camera is back!) to share with you when I return.  Have a very merry Christmas, a fabulous New Year and enjoy every day in between.  Love ya!

Muah!
xoxo
Sara

Happy Holidays - Visiting the Family

Since Ryan and I won't be around next weekend for Christmas, we spent this past weekend at "The Farm" (aka my dad's house) over by Centralia, Missouri.  All three little brothers joined us there for a holiday feast and gift giving extravaganza!  It snowed pretty hard on the drive over, and by the time we got there, we had about an inch of snow.  Friday night was spent playing board games, looking at wedding albums, catching up with everyone, and getting our drink on...of course. 

Timmy surprised us all with a new addition to the family...a little Boston Terrier named Pippin.  He's about 5 months old and must have been abused.  Timmy found him on the street, with a broken tail and a detached retina, cold and scared to death.  He's just about the sweetest and happiest little dog in the world right now and loved beyond belief.  He fit right into the pack. 

Satuday we ventured over to Fulton, Missouri to have lunch (and more drinks) with Uncle Ron and Aunt Jane, along with my cousin Alesha and her daugher Eva who were in town visiting from Iowa.  It was so great to finally meet Eva and get a chance to catch up with the family. 

I think Eva could be my child. 

Saturday night was our classic holiday dinner, complete with ham, rotisserie chicken, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole and crescent rolls.  It was mighty delicious, if I do say so myself.  Dinner was followed by our gift exchange.  We gave the parents a bunch of printed and framed photos from the wedding.  And everyone else got a stocking full of goodies. 

Timmy got a shotgun.  Yep, we're that kind of family.

Kyle got Nicorete.

Dad & Kelly got pictures, movies and a new coffee maker.

Chris and Linsdey got stuff for their new house.

Mally got a monkey that she destroyed within 42 seconds.

By the time we left on Sunday, we were all exhausted and completely worn out.  This is the sign of a great weekend.

Custom Wedding Dress Sketch

What a great reaction to the wedding dress sketch on our staircase I posted about yesterday!  I'm very excited to be able to share this with you all.  Here are a few more details...

A while back, I blogged about these amazing custom wedding dress sketches by Megan Hamilton (her etsy shop can be found HERE).   Megan Hamilton, a fashion design graduate of Moore College of Art and Design in Philadelphia, PA, took her degree to work in New York City and spent many years designing for companies like Macy's and David's Bridal using her illustration skills to sketch new wedding gown designs. With a photo of your dress (add a fabric swatch for extra oomph), Megan will create a design-style sketch and send it in a sleek black folder.  Designs could be just the wedding gown, gown and tux/suit combo, or gown with the bridesmaid dresses. Or, if you're a two-dress bride, this would be the perfect way to capture the look of both dresses! I think this is such a creative and fantastic way to preserve the memories of your special day in a one-of-a-kind custom-made piece of art.

When I saw Megan's work, I immediately had to have one.  I loved my dress so much, I wanted an amazing keepsake to have to always remind me of it.  This was the perfect idea.  I sent Megan some links to our wedding pictures, along with a couple Monique Lhuillier ads for the Celestine dress that were in bridal magazines.  I chose to have my gown sketched with Ryan's custom-made suit, complete with his green Thomas Pink tie and fly boutonniere.  Megan even added a splash of green on his tie to match our colors.  I had the sketch framed at Michael's (with a 60% coupon) for about $90.  I promise to take some better pictures once my camera gets back from the camera doctor, but here are a couple.

MIA - Chicago

So sorry everyone.  Last week I was in Chicago for work and now I'm sick, so blogging has been a little difficult.  But I promise I'll be back soon with a few posts before we leave next week for Belize!  Stay tuned...

Chicago was f-ing COLD.  This is a picture from the window outside the conference room at my seminar last week.  Not sure if you can tell from the picture that it was snowing at a 90 degree angle.  Weird.  Thursday had a windchill of negative 27.  Needless to say, I cabbed it 3 whole blocks to my seminar.  I spent 2 full days getting a "mini MBA" at the University of Chicago and learning accounting/finance for lawyers.  Damn, that crap is tough to understand.  It completely eliminated any desire I might have been harboring about getting an MBA.  No thanks!  I'm just not cut out for the world of finance...he keep talking about Warren Buffett and I kept thinking about Jimmy Buffett.  I couldn't get "Volcano" out of my head all day and I was dying for a margarita by the time I left!  I'm not sure I learned anything. 

This is my delicious ice cold pomegranate martini that I had at the hotel lounge overlooking Michigan Avenue.  Dinner of blueberry salad and really amazing curry mussels.  Plus, the hotel was located directly in between Neimans, Saks and Burberry...so basically, it was the best hotel ever. 

I do NOT want a Hippopotamus for Christmas

Don't you just love that song?  I do!  I sing it proudly every year and I mean every word. 

There's lots of room for him in our two-car garage

I'd feed him there and wash him there and give him his massage.

I can see me now on Christmas morning,

creeping down the stairs

Oh what joy and what surprise

when I open up my eyes

to see a hippo hero standing there!

I want a hippopotamus for Christmas

Only a hippopotamus will do

No crocodiles or rhinoceroseses

I only like hippopotamuseses

And hippopotamuses like me too!

For years and years I've been convinced that hippopotamuses like me too.  I'm an animal person.  I like to give out treats and table food.  I'm likable, right?  This is how I've been picturing me with my hippo...

Don't we look happy?  And hippos are SO cute.  We've been raised to believe that hippo are very sweet large (yet graceful) animals.  You remember the dancing ballerina hippos from Fantasia. 

Remember this big lovable hippo from Madagascar?

And you've all seen kissy-kissy hippo pictures.  They're such romantics.

And baby hippos are just about the cutest thing EVER.

Don't you just want one so bad?  I did.  UNTIL I watched this hippo show on the Discovery Channel.  It started off like this...

Mama hippo and baby hippo are in love.  They're bonding over these first few months.  They play together.  They eat together.  Mama watches baby hippo sleep.  Mama teaches baby everything.  She's the best mama in the whole wide world.  Baby loves mama.  Mama loves baby.  Awww.

  Enter BAD bad horny angry male hippo.  Grrrrrr.

Male hippo wants to mate with mama hippo (so typical).  Baby hippo is in the way.  Mama hippo protects baby hippo.  Mama to the rescue.

And THEN...

Mama hippo runs away, male hippo attacks baby and baby hippo dies. 

WTF?!! 

What kind of eff-ed up show kills the baby?  Are you kidding me?  Screw this shit.  I do NOT want anything to do with these hideous beasts.  You can keep your damn hippo, Santa.  To hell with that.

Home Project in Progress - Staircase Frames

The stiarway leading upstairs to the bedrooms in our house has been completely empty and really bothering me.  It's not a super huge space, but we needed something to fill it and give it some personality.  And what a better way to do that than with a stairway photo gallery!  I'm not much of an "art" person - I'd much rather look at pictures of us and our friends and family (does that make me vain?  oh well, I think we already knew that).  Anyway, I started looking for inspiration pictures and ideas for a stairway photo gallery.  I didn't find many, but here are a few.

As much as I like the "Pottery Barn look" of doing all matching frames, I thought it would be more interesting (and less matchy-matchy) to do a variety of different shapes, sizes and colors of frames.  Plus, I'm not really into precision and measuring the exact space between frames and getting out the level and all that, so the non-matchy hodge-podge idea appealed to me.  So, I've been collecting frames over the last few months.  Any time I was in Target  or Hobby Lobby or Pottery Barn or Michael's I'd pick up a frame.  I finally had about 30 frames to work with. 

Step 1: Use plain paper, cut to the exact size and shape of your frame to use as a template.  I took all the frames I had and numbered them.  Then I made a paper replacement for the frame to hang on the wall and numbered it the same as the frame.   I used white paper because our walls are tan, so they showed up well.  If you have white walls, consider using a darker shade of paper.  Tip: When tracing the frame, flip it over and mark the spot where the nail would go.  This will save you a lot of time.

(Sorry again for the crappy quality of the pictures.  My camera is still out sick and these are from my cell phone.)

Step 2: Put the paper replacements on the wall, where you think you want them.  By using the paper and tape, I could place them where I wanted to get the right look without having to drag frames around or attempt to "visualize" (yeah right).  This way I could rearrange again and again and get everything exactly where I wanted them without having to make a million different nail holes if I changed my mind. 

(Mally helped)

Step 3: Since you've already marked where the nail will go, get your hammer out and go for it!  Hammer the nail directly into the paper, then remove the paper and replace with the frame.  Viola!

As you might notice, there are still 4 frames that have yet to be hung.  They're really high!  I don't know how in the world I'm going to be able to reach up there to hammer in the nail.  Ryan could barely reach high enough with a stick to place the paper frame.  Anyone have any ideas?  Anyone know someone 9 feet tall?

Also, I still need to replace all the stock photos in the frames with real photos of us.  I wanted to get them all hung up and ready before making decisions on what photo will go in which frame, so I can distribute them equally and balance the colors.  This is probably just me being completely anal.  What's new.  I'll update again with the final product once I get real photos in the frames and get the last 4 hung up. 

So, it's still a work in progress, but getting better.  I think it looks pretty good!  Do you like the non-matching frames?  Should I have gone with all the same color?  Leave a comment and let me know!