Living with Russell...

(I can't get over the adorableness embodied by the fact that he colored in the little heart exclamation. *swoon :}*)

We are just abot settled in our little apartment, all we need is a table and chairs (and I'm convinced, a rug.) then we can decorate the walls and call it good.

It has been such a blessing living with, waking up to, talking to, cleaning with, snuggling, reading scriptures and just loving on my best friend in the entire world.

Married!!

October 15, 2011 at about 12:30, I married my best friend in the entire world.

I have no words, how can one articulate a full and happy heart?

(Check out more of Stephanie Linn's photography talent, especially if you are in the Spokane area!)

Cupcakes and Connie

We are having green cupcakes!! Ahh! Can I just tell you how happy that makes me? Well, it does make me hap-hap-happy!

After much taste testing and color coordinating, we decided on a green key-lime flavored cupcake with an overly-generous whoopee of cream cheese frosting on top (key-lime cheesecake anyone?)

My amazing mother-in-law-to-be has been baking these all days, test running them, and being generally phenomenal. I'm so lucky to have such an amazing woman to get to know and spend time with....

The fact that Russell totally got his laugh from her doesn't hurt either. :)

I love this family! I'm so excited to be a permanent part of it.

3 days to go...

I am getting married in 3 days!!

3 DAYS!!!

So on day three of this wedding countdown, I realized that I hadn't even started any of the skirts for my sisters. (Well, except my one biological sister :/ but I know she'd be here if she could)

Soooo...on to making 5 skirts. TODAY!

(yes, like a goober, I sewed over that pin)

Mama Gordon and I found some AMAZING green jersey at Joann's, it feels soooo good, it actually makes me want to sew with it. Its so soft and drapey. Makes me miss sewing all the time!

Here are the finished outfits for the sisters, I (obviously) didn't make the shirts, but they were only $6 at Walmart (bravo Walmart, bra-vo)

I'm working on making some more of the yellow flowers to embellish/accessorize the outfits, I don't want to glue/sew them onto the shirt in case the girls don't want them on there later so I'm just going to put a back on them and put them on some brooch pins, or bobby pins, or hair ties, whatever one it is they want. :)

Here is the finished outfit (minus embellishments) I had to try it on! (Big mistake seeing as the jersey is so, so, swingydrapeycomfydelicious, now I want one for myself) Since everything is really casual, the girls can accessorize everything to their own taste, the skirts can even be worn at the waist or the hips.

None of the pictures have the true color on it, which is a bummer but guess you'll just have to see us Saturday at 7 to check it out in real life!

(We'll give you cupcakes :))



One hand, and not all the fingers

Today is October 11, 2011....

this means I am getting married in...

4 days!!!

That's not even utilizing all the fingers on one hand!!

AHhhh!!



Home, sweet home.

This is the apartment complex Russ and I get to come home to.

These are the stairs we will walk up to get to our home!

This is the little living room we will sit and cuddle and chat and play board games and have friends over in!

Here is the door people will open only to realize it's the wall of a chimney from one of the units downstairs, and the door to the bedroom and the kitchen.

This is the cute little kitchen and pantry that I will be making my love breakfast in!

If its not obvious enough, I am one happy girl. One happy girl that gets to live with her best friend in one super adorable apartment! We get to sign our lease on Thursday.

(If only for 2 months!)

THE TOWER!

We decided that we want a cupcake cake at our wedding.

We then decided we don't really have the money to purchase a pre-made cupcake stand.

(and like I'm going to say no to a stress filled challenge, psh)

cue: Foam board, rotary cutters, quilting rulers, massive amounts of hot glue, yards and yards of grey ribbon, and a 20"x20" piece of particle board.

End result, a decidedly unimpressive stack of boxes covered in ribbon. It'll look better with our cupcakes on though (I hope!) We are putting white cupcakes with white wrappers, green frosting (piled high of course!) with little fondant circles stamped with "G"s.

Shoot, I gotta make those G's.

Flowers, meet frames. Frames, meet flowers.

With fear of jinxing myself...

I have to say that things are starting to come together with all this wedding crafting :)

We had spray painted the frames but left them out on the lawn where they got a little bubbled and cracked (which you can't see in this picture) so I decided to embrace the decidedly antiqued look at put some ivory flowers on there.

I am going to print out some matte sepia toned pictures and put them in the frames sans-glass to wrap it all up.

Yay!!

....

only 20 more to finish!

and pictures to print...

and bunting to make...

and headbands to order...

and guitars to mail...

and showers to take....

ok, ok, I'm done procrastinating with the blog for today!



Barrage of Wedding crafts!

Generally speaking, I haven't been very stressed out about getting married. (In 11 days!!!) I have been keeping myself fairly busy with crafts for the reception!  

With the help of Russell and Kyle, I painted 32 white frames, which then got left out overnight and covered in dew the next day. Due (haha) to the condensation, some of the frames had spots on them that had began to bubble and warp a little bit. Instead of starting over or having a melt down i decided to just make (a bajillionty) paper flowers to cover the spots on the frames. They have been so much fun to make, and it really has felt good to be crafting stuff again. I've had quite the dry spell.

I LOVE this first picture of the clothes pins I painted. The second picture gives a better jist of the colors we are using, but it just looks so weathered and bleached :}. Our colors are white, grey, (light apple) green and yellow.

We are going to print out a bunch of the pictures we didn't use on our announcements from our engagement session with my dear friend Stephanie and hang them up with the clothes pins. (I can't get over this craft, I find myself recreating it almost yearly).

There are a lot more crafts under way, tonight I am building a cupcake tower and destroying a thrifted copy of Sherlock Holmes (don't hate me book gods), more pictures on that later!

I got my ring!

Despite the fact that my finger looks chubby in this picture, I just had to show off my ring really quick!

I had been ever so (im)patiently waiting to see what Russell had  picked out, and to get it on my finger!

On Saturday, between sessions of conference, he asked if I wanted to run out to Minihaha 

(input 15 minutes of him asking if I was sure I wanted to go out, even though I didn't really feel like climbing all that much at the moment.)

So we get to the cliffs and we hike around the back to set the anchor and repel down because Russ didn't have enough trad to protect the climb like he would want to. I repel down first and untangle the rope, then  Russ comes down and  gets things sorted out for him to climb.

When we were setting the anchor, one of my shoes had fallen out of the gear bag and we didn't notice until Russell had already packed everything up, so i just threw it in the empty rope bag that I was carrying. When we got to the bottom, I went to put my shoe in the gear bag so I could lay out the tarp for the rope to be on, I unzipped the top pocket and saw a little black velvet ring box.

Like a ditz, I thought to myself...'is he wearing his ring again?!' (It had come in a week or so ago and he keeps sneaking it onto his finger...not that I can even pretend to be upset with him about that) so I opened it and it took me a  moment to realize that there was my ring, perfect and sparkly, sitting in the gear bag.

I, like a guilty 4 year old, snapped the box shut and zipped the bag closed but before I could stop myself (I had, in the split second of incrimination, decided I would pretend I hadn't seen it) I said "oh! Sorry!"

Completely confused, he asked "sorry about what?" I tried to play it off and say that it was nothing but I was grinning like a giddy fool and I told him I saw the ring. He groaned and admitted that he had had it in his pocket all day but didn't want it to fall out on the repel so he had stuck it in the bag only for a moment.

He had me tie in to the rope and 'act like I was going to climb' and had me climb about 15 feet, then he belayed himself up and proposed to me (again! haha) on the side of the cliff.

I love that man, I love my ring, I love my life.

(Not to brag or anything, but didn't he do SO good?? Its so classy!)

Can't-ing

My Great Grandmother canned.

My Grandmother canned.

My Mother and Father can.

My future mother in law cans.

Pretty much every member of my family, extended and immediate, has the ability to can like crazy. Taking garden produce and turning it into at hand, store able food items seems like a no brainer to them.

Me on the other hand.

...

I apparently don't can.

Put can in water before its boiling then boil for ten minutes.

POP!

....*Why is this can floating?

...

Why are there pears in the water?

...

Did the bottom of that really blow out?

oh well.

12 Jars of pears canned.

3 exploded.

At least its a passing grade?