Bridal Shower

Better late than never...I guess. Instead of writing a lot of words I will just post some pictures of the shower.

The invite: gocco'd



the spread:



the dessert: delicious!







and the flowers: gorgeous





Thank you Lauren and Wayan for the photos!

Banded Together

My wedding band is finished and I wanted to share it with you all. I absolutely can't wait to wear it everyday.



This is the ring before . It was a ring my parents gave to me as a purity ring when I was a teenager. It wasn't really my style anymore but I wanted to turn in into something I would have forever.



(look at the beautiful packaging it came in, a little wooden box with a glass lid!)

I found Bario Neal a few months ago and decided to have them make my wedding band. They used the four diamonds from my original ring and recycled the gold for me.



They did an absolutely fabulous job and I am so deeply in love with it. It is perfect for me and I am so happy that it is something no one else will have and that the diamonds are so personal to me. Bario Neal uses all recycled metals and ethically mined gems and they donate some of their profit to charity (and are super reasonably priced to begin with).



They even have my ring on their website under custom work right here.

Cordially Invited

I know I haven't blogged in almost 2 months but lets just pretend that never happened. I promise to get back into the routine. New year, new camera, new events.

From the beginning we knew that we wanted to do all of our save the dates and invites ourselves. This turned out to be a lot of stress but totally worth it. The save the dates weren't that difficult but the invitations turned out to be quite the project.

I gocco'd the reply cards first and they were simple and painless and turned out perfect.



Then came the invitations themselves. Now the problem that I ran into was completely my own fault. I made the image just a tad larger than is recommended and realized that the size limit is there for a reason. I had to jimmy-rig my gocco with cardboard siding to allow for a larger surface area to print onto. It was quite the nightmare for a couple hours but it all worked out and we were able to print exactly the number we needed.



I did take the design from another source but I did hand draw it myself. The fonts were free from dafont. All gocco'd in a row!



I would have loved to have all of the addresses hand calligraphed but in the end it is way out of our budget and most people toss em in the trash anyway. So I just went with labels from Paper Source and they made me just as happy.


(more on the Obama's invitation later)

simple

I am always on the lookout for cute gifts, things to have on hand when you need that little something. Awhile back I was shopping and happened upon Keel's Simple Diary at American Rag's Maison-Midi.



They came in all the right colors, have a wonderful leathery feel, and the best pages. Aside from this blog I do not keep a journal. I have tried at many points in my life but came to realize it's just not for me. But then this pops up and it's like it was made for me. Little detailed questions, boxes to check off, and a quirky sense of nonsense that makes me want to fill up all the pages.



I quickly snapped up the yellow one for myself and the brown one for a very special friend in mind. I knew she would be just the one to appreciate something like this. I definitely need to go stock up on a few other colors for the time when I need just the right gift.

(images via Nordtrom)

japanese goods

One of my favorite things to do when I am bored (who am I kidding, I cancel errands) is to go to one of three Japanese markets in my area and shop around. I mostly hit the non-food areas of the store for little gems. My favorite finds are always the different paper goods and pens and clips. An office supply lovers dream!

I absolutely love making lists. I make them for everything and anything; groceries, projects, things to blog about, to-do's. I also love little notebooks, I have about a thousand. If you can't think of anything to get me, buy me a cute little notepad, and when I saw this one it was like two wonderful things colliding to bring me joy!



I've already used it to make two lists! Also, I saw these on the lovely blog of Miss Jordan Ferney awhile back and just about died at how cute they were.



I couldn't really justify buying them at the time seeing as 1. I didn't need them and 2. paying for shipping (for paperclips I might add) but once I saw them in person, the next thing I know I am being handed my change and I am walking out the door with them in my purse.



Even though my first reason for not buying them hasn't changed, I will find some papers that need clipping together. And if I don't, they make for cute storytelling.