Spring Cleaning & Other Lofty Goals

This and other awesome cartoons available on Hyperbole & A Half
© Allie Broch

Hello again, blog world! As much as I hate to admit it, I can't do everything. I certainly try, but only succeed in having a ton of unfinished projects and a desire to sit on the sofa like a vegetable at the end of the workday. Blogging has certainly been on the bottom of my "to-do" list over the past year. In an effort to hold myself accountable for some of these unfinished and important "to-dos", I'm going to blog about it. Double whammy! Super exciting, I know.

I'm issuing a challenge (to myself) to get Big Spoon and myself organized, purged and cleaned for Spring. Or as I like to say "clean all the things!" Now, let's be honest ... I don't clean all the things. I work a 40+ hour job and Big Spoon works tons more than I do, so we have a once-a-month cleaning service. I keep things tidy the rest of the time and do all the laundry and cooking.

That service makes it a lot easier for me to actually enjoy doing the rest of the things - laundry, cooking, organizing, decorating, social life, etc. We may not be able to afford it forever, but for now, I love it.

Moving on ...

{via Deal Seeking Mom}

I (attempt) to organize a monthly ladies' brunch and our February brunch will be held at the Spoon residence. Yay! Which also means I moved the cleaning service up a few days and must get my butt in gear to as far as this "challenge" goes. Here's my tentative outline for the week:

Week 1: February 6 - 12

• Paint the downstairs half-bathroom - priority 
• Pack up the dishes in the breakfront and move breakfront away from dining room wall - priority
• Clean out and organize the under stairs closet  - would be nice to complete
• Clean out and organize the coat closet  - would be nice to complete
• Prep the dining room to be painted - would be nice to complete

Week 2: February 13 - 19

• Paint the dining room (before & after to come!) - priority
• Work on the DIY dining room art (project recap to come!)  - would be nice to complete
• Achievable tasks left over from Week 1 - would be nice to complet
• Set up for ladies' brunch! - priority

We'll see if I can pack all of that in to the next two weeks.

Anniversary Photo Book

Better late than never ... we celebrated our first anniversary on 10.10.11 and had an anniversary shoot in November. I finally got around to making a photo book - I love Shutterfly!

Click here to view this photo book larger

Start your own Shutterfly Photo Book today.

Anniversary & Rock the Dress Shoot with Amber Rena Photography

Way back in the summer of 2011, my younger sister had some adorable family portraits made by Amber Rena Photography. I have to tell you, I really wish I had know about her when we were planning our wedding. Not only is Amber insanely talented, she's great to work with!

Take a look at this gorgeousness!

Please do not reproduce without permission. © Amber Rena Photography

Please do not reproduce without permission. © Amber Rena Photography

Please do not reproduce without permission. © Amber Rena Photography

Please do not reproduce without permission. © Amber Rena Photography

Big Spoon got really sick of listening to me whine for months about how much I hated our wedding photographer after how he made me feel and the shots that he "forgot" to take because the shot list was "in his head." We discussed that perhaps having a "Rock the Dress" shoot or some bridal portraits made would put the ghosts to rest. Ultimately, it did ... but I got over it loooong before the shoot with Amber Rena Photography, which was scheduled for November 12. Regardless, it was still a blast.

I decided to make the most of the photo shoot and trip to my grandparents' farm in Lafayette, TN by having some anniversary/couples shots done as well. 

We had a blast! Here are five sneak peek shots from our photo shoot with Amber Rena Photography. I highly recommend Amber if you are looking for a fun, talented and affordable photographer for your wedding, engagement photos, Senior portraits or family photos. 

Visit her website Amber Rena Photography or like her on Facebook for more information!

Please do not reproduce without permission. © Amber Rena Photography 

Please do not reproduce without permission. © Amber Rena Photography

Please do not reproduce without permission. © Amber Rena Photography

Please do not reproduce without permission. © Amber Rena Photography

Please do not reproduce without permission. © Amber Rena Photography

Happy 1st Anniversary

{One Love}

This week, we celebrated our very first anniversary. It didn't even cross my mind to blog about it. I think it goes without saying that Big Spoon and I have gotten a bit too busy to keep up a blog with any sort of consistency.

Our first year of marriage has been interesting - ups, downs, patience, frustration, and lots of love. I think we learn more and more about one another every day. There are things going on in our lives that I just can't disclose on the blog, but suffice it to say that Big Spoon Little Spoon isn't going away. We're gonna need this blog for a long time.

But it will change.

Just as quickly as it came upon me, the lust for wedding porn, wedding conversations, wedding anything went away. *Poof* Gone. We're married. It's great. We have pictures hanging in the house. We're moving on ....

I'm doing a Rock the Dress photo shoot in a few weeks. I wasn't completely satisfied with our wedding photos and we thought it would be a fun way to reconcile that and get a few anniversary shots as well. I'll post photos and introduce you to our photographer. She's quite talented and I'm very excited to work with her.

We had a great anniversary ... the Saturday before our actual special day, we had a couple's massage, dinner at Watermark, and dessert at Jeni's in East Nashville. On Monday, I made a special dinner. We ate our cake top (it was good!) and opened a bottle of wine from our honeymoon.

I'm very excited for what the next year holds for us.

Our Wedding: There's No Such Thing As Perfect

From my perspective, almost every bride's wedding story has a hiccup or two, a few wedding-related regrets or things she might change if there were a magic time machine. I am no exception. If you aren't that bride - nothing you would change about your big day - consider yourself very lucky.

I did the interesting and frustrating dance of post-wedding blues, got over it and moved on to my married life. But, there was one thing about our wedding day that kept bothering me and I thought that I should write about it. After many long, deep discussions with Big Spoon and some encouragement from blogger friends, I drafted the post with every intention of spilling all the dirty details about why Nashville brides shouldn't hire my photographer.

I was poised to post it this very weekend, to break the long silence our blog has experienced.

And then I read this post by Avalon on Budget Savvy Bride.

A freaking hurricane curtailed every plan she had made for her wedding day, except one - she got married to the man she loves despite everything else falling apart. There is no doubt in my mind that she (and he) were seriously disappointed by how the wedding turned out, but there is also no doubt in my mind that she is a pragmatic woman who knows the difference between a wedding and a marriage.

I encourage you to go read this post. I don't recall anything as drastic as this during the Nashville floods, although I'm sure it happened to many a May bride, whether it was a reschedule, missing guest, missing vendors or maybe a cancellation. I don't know, but I read this post about this real couple and it broke my heart.

Avalon's post made me feel thankful and ashamed at the same time. Looking at the big picture, my wedding day was perfect. Not a hitch and exceptionally good weather. Someone else's experience won't ever change the way our photographer made me feel on our wedding day, but it sure did put me in a different frame of mind.

It's true that I didn't feel the way I expected to feel on our wedding day, but I feel like I've processed that fully at this point. I've grieved for my single self and take a great deal of joy in my life as a married woman. Other people caused me a great deal of stress on our wedding day and I allowed my expectations to get stomped on a little bit. That will never change, but my attitude can.

It really is all about the marriage. Big Spoon and I are coming up on our one year anniversary in about 40 days. It's been a great year, albeit with a great deal of changes for us on the horizon, but it's been a wonderful start to what I hope is a lifetime of happiness for us.

Thank you, Avalon, for sharing your story with the world and congratulations on your marriage. I feel a lot less inclined to self-indulgent bitching now after being reminded that much worse things happen to people who don't deserve them.

*If there are any Nashville brides who would like to discuss any of our wedding vendors, please feel free to drop us a line.

The All Natural Face Review

I have a secret.

I stopped using department and drug store foundation this year. I still buy the occasional tube of mascara, but almost every make-up product I use on my face now comes from The All Natural Face.

Here's why: I have very sensitive, acne prone skin and terrible allergies. I used to loathe having to wear makeup at all to cover my acne scars because most makeups made everything so much worse; especially the black heads. Ewh.

I was first intrigued by The All Natural Face because their products are Vegan - free from harmful toxins and additives that your skin doesn't need. I started by ordering eyeshadow samples. A girl can never have too many options, right? They are phenomenal and the pigments are really vibrant. Their samples are low cost with low shipping and oh-so-generous!

After trying the eyeshadow, I decided to try the mineral makeup and a few other goodies. There are currently 59 shades of foundation, so you can easily find a perfect match. I used a different color every day for a week (the samples are that great!) and finally decided on Almond Goddess, which I have been wearing for several months now and LOVE IT. Not only is it non-toxic, it's highly affordable.

{image © The All Natural Face}

I also use the eyelid primer, salmon concealer (which is fantastic), stick concealer in my foundation shade, Angel Wings mineral veil along with my smattering of eyeshadow and blush samples. As soon as I've picked a few favorites, I fully intend to switch over to The All Natural Face blush and eyeshadow. Also, they run a great many promotions and email you with promo codes frequently. I love that!

The All Natural Face has some of the most reasonable prices for the quality of the product that I've seen. I highly recommend The All Natural Face as an inexpensive and natural alternative to drugstore and department store beauty products.

Nine Months Later ...

No, not "that" kind of nine months. We're a long ways away from baby land. As of Sunday, we will be celebrating nine months of marriage!

I think it's time to come clean about something: I've kinda just let our blog go.

I gave up.

I gave up because I was sick and tired of weddings. And I was sick and tired of weddings because after 18 months of planning, it just that some things didn't turn out the way I had planned.

Now, I've talked to several Nashville newlyweds since my wedding. Almost every single one of them had a horror story to share, which was shocking because I had seen very few of them talk about it in the blogosphere. Don't get me wrong, I'm not calling anyone out by any means. Sometimes, it's better to just let it go. Maybe that's what these ladies are thinking. I think that too. Then I see some new photographer's gallery or a new wedding pop up with amazing this and nifty that and I start seeing red. Then I remind myself to let it go.

That's what I've been trying to do. Just let it go. But by doing so, I've lost any and all interest in keeping up with a blog. I have a wonderful new job, a loving, thoughtful husband and fantastic friends. I simply don't need this blog the way I once did and I've made no effort to convert it into a newlywed thing. I'm too busy for that. And do you all really care about my home renovations? And if every time I visit my own blog, I think about the things I've left unsaid, how healthy is that for me?

Probably not.

More than that, a part of me thinks that by keeping my mouth shut about some things, I'm doing a disservice to future brides and I won't put this blog (the wedding parts) to rest until I DO say something. (haha, get it.)

So here's the question? Do any of you want to read about the bad parts of my wedding day? Are you at all interested in what I have to say about the vendors I've quietly taken off my vendor list over there to the left? Because here's the thing, I sincerely doubt that I will have much more involvement in the Nashville wedding industry. Truly. I don't foresee myself launching that Etsy store anytime in the near future.

Do tell me your opinion and we'll keep this party going.