Busy Little Spoon

Well, hello there! It's been two months today since I've had time enough to even think about our blog. We've had a lot of things happen in 2011 already and I'm going to catch you up on life a Mr. & Mrs. Spoon.

February - I hosted a baby shower for my little sister to celebrate the upcoming birth of her first child and my new nephew. The very same weekend we got a new sister-in-law and step-niece, which was a complete surprise. My brother and his wife were married in Missouri in a private ceremony on Feb 18, 2011. Big Spoon and I were incredibly busy with our jobs. I picked up some freelance work and began a web design class.

March - I painted a mural in my soon-to-be nephew's nursery and on March 31, 2011, we welcomed baby Jayden into the world. I also sold a bunch of left over wedding stuff that month and made back around $200.

April - We purged the house of unwanted/unused items and took a car load full of stuff to Goodwill. My parents came down and helped me strip the kitchen of 16-year-old wallpaper. We painted, hung new curtains and began "refreshing" our home. I picked up another freelance job.

May - Big Spoon left for a five day conference in Canada and his parents came to visit over Memorial Day weekend. I got my portfolio together and went on a job interview (no small task, I assure you).

And here we are in June. Already?! I can't believe it. Big Spoon and I have been married for 8 months, I turn 29 tomorrow and best of all .... I HAVE A NEW JOB!

So, all in all, two months of being busy and not blogging has paid off. I hope to get back in the blogging groove soon, so if you're interested in newlywed life and hopefully a few home decor DIYs, we'll be here!

A Short & Sweet Update

Hi y'all! I'm still here ... as life tends to get, we've both been extremely busy and I haven't made much time for blog content. I have several posts drafted and I'm working on wrapping those up. They include our reception and thoughts on our wedding day as well as a couple of DIY wedding tutorials I never got around to before the big day.

We've been married 5 months now, believe it or not. I'm still in the process of re-editing photos and getting some enlarged to hang around the house. I have a Canvas On Demand Groupon and a Picaboo photo book Groupon I'm anxious to use on our wedding photos. Oh, and that whole starting a small business thing while simultaneously living life, working full time and doing minor home renovations.

My goal is to have all the "wedding" related stuff sold, put away, ordered and organized by our 1st anniversary. It seems like a long time for such a small goal, but believe me, it is sneaking up on me!

Home Sweet Home

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!

Big Spoon and I have been MIA lately because I got sent on a last minute business trip a few days before our honeymoon, which we took the week of Thanksgiving. I had planned to finish up and schedule some blog posts for when we were away, but that didn't happen, obviously, thanks to the business trip!

I'm so behind on life now that it isn't even funny. We have so much to share with you! Only three more posts until we finish the budget recaps. Then we'll share our wedding day recaps as well as vendor reviews and a honeymoon recap. But as I said, I'm quite behind and the holidays are coming up. It may be late in December before you see many posts. I'll leave you with one of my favorite pictures from our wedding weekend. This was taken with my little sister's camera by our celebrant's wife.

{This photo is owned by Natosha Benning. All rights reserved. Not for personal use}

Don't Go Away

source

Alright, screw the blogging hiatus. I can't stand not blogging when I have so much to say. I've really grown to enjoy telling our story here and hopefully transitioning this blog into our newlywed life and on into the future. It doesn't always have to be a wedding blog and that's what I love the most about our blog. No post-wedding name changes!

So here is an overview of what's going on with us now and over the past three weeks ...

We don't have professional photos yet, but as soon as we do, we're starting on budget breakdowns, vendor reviews and more importantly, just talking about the different parts of our wedding day with photos to illustrate. I'm going to post the ceremony we wrote together as well as our individual vows if Big Spoon will give me permission to do so.

I am working on transitioning into a lot of new things - not just marriage. I have been working on my stationery and graphic design business Little Spoon Designs. I don't mention it too often, but I am a professional stationery designer for a big corporation. It's nice, lots of perks, but I really enjoy client interaction and helping people, thus Little Spoon Designs was born. I will have a design blog connected with my business, an Etsy storefront and a website up in the Spring. Stay tuned for that.

Additionally, I have a few other business and personal opportunities on the horizon. I'd like to talk about them, but until things are concrete, I really can't. Let's just say that I feel very upbeat about my potential in the creative arena - better than I've felt since graduating college 6 years ago. And of course, I'm nesting! Decorating is one of my favorite past-times. Super stoked about some household renovations - both small and large.

Things that I'm not as excited about include Christmas shopping (ugh) and going through all of the wedding stuff. It is currently sitting in a guest bedroom just the way it came home from the wedding. I have lots of stuff to sell, so I will be posting links to that as well (think linens, decor, and some attire), so if you know folks planning spring weddings, send them to our blog! Not only do I have things to sell, I can customize things for their weddings such as save the dates, invitations, programs, card boxes, etc.

Thanks for your readership! Please don't go away! There is so much more to come.

45 Days

I am on the last stretch of a roller coaster ride. It's the moment of the big drop - you're scared to death because you're at the top and about to plummet really, really fast and what's more, you know that after that drop, the ride will be over. Luckily, I'm looking forward to getting off this ride and getting on the newlywed train. I'm just fearful of the drop. It's all happening so fast!

We have less than 7 weeks until the wedding. 

There's been a lot of life stress lately outside the magical world of wedding planning. Or maybe that's just what happens when you're this close to your wedding day? Everything is magnified. I'm making longer-term plans for my education, career and creative health. Work stress is almost inevitable and my allergy shots are trying to kill me. This past weekend, my Dad was admitted to the ER and I've spent part of Saturday, Monday and a short time yesterday at the hospital with my parents. (My dad had emergency gall bladder surgery on Monday and he's doing better. Thanks to everyone for your kind words and messages.)

Big Spoon makes everything better. He's as wonderful and supportive and undemanding as they come. It's comforting to know that even in our most stressful times, we can lean on each other. My dear friends are a tremendous help to me as well ... especially those who have who have helped me plow through so many wedding projects and my little sister/MOH who is doing a killer job planning my bridal shower for this Saturday while simultaneously working two jobs, being sick and being pregnant.

I'll probably be too busy to post again until Sunday between being behind and my bridal shower on Saturday, but I have some interesting vendor spotlights drafted for the coming week (fingers crossed). I'm really excited to be in the home stretch!

75 Days

{via temp13rec Flickr stream}

Two and a half months, right? 75 days? That's it?!?!

I know that I've said it before, but I am so ready to be Big Spoon's wife. The closer the wedding gets, it seems that there are more and more things to do. I'm trying so hard to remain cognizant of our relationship during this time and remind myself daily that the wedding is simply a celebration of our marriage, not the other way around. The pressure to make it "perfect" is almost unbearable and I fight with it a lot. Big Spoon helps keep me grounded. I've managed to stop checking my bridal porn blogs and only read the Nashville brides/newlywed posts when they make them. It's helping.

Ultimately, it's up to me to check myself, delegate and keep a balance between real life and wrapping up the wedding. Here's what's going on at the moment:

• Big Spoon and I started pre-martial counseling two weeks ago. Tonight will be our third session.

• Dance class on Thursday night - we're learning the foxtrot for our first dance as husband and wife. Sadly, I injured my back on Tuesday. No dance this week :(

• My work is throwing us a shower on Friday, July 30. Super excited about that!

• We're trying to make playing tennis together a weekly thing. Hoping to get some of that in Sunday! Stupid back!

• I'll be off on my last "single" girl trip next week for my little brother's induction-to-med-school ceremony in Kansas City, MO.

• We'll be mailing out the invitations on Saturday, August 14.

• Big Spoon's birthday (yay!) is in August and our "hometown" shower is 8/28.

Whew! That's a lot of stuff. Still working on various DIY projects. I'm very thankful to have such wonderful friends to help me do some of this stuff! That's it for this update. Happy Tuesday, y'all!

84 Days

Time for updates! I'm working on wedding projects this weekend and blowing through some deadlines I gave myself. Friday night, I finished sorting, addressing and stamping our invitations. I was disappointed that my home printer wouldn't print the envelopes, so I designed some address label wraps. The type is bigger than I would normally design, but I don't want problems at the post office. The pictures are just a bit blurry because it's hard standing in a chair trying to make nice pictures. Just saying. So, without further ado, our invitation suite:

{the suite}

{envelope detail}

{invite detail, which obviously looks better without the blur}

I also finished putting together a program holder. I picked up an old wooded Pepsi crate at Goodwill about a year ago. I spray painted it ivory and purchased a wood embellishment and some scrapbooking rub-ons. This is the result, which will soon be filled with programs! (those gray dots are rhinestones).

In two weeks, the company I work for is throwing my first bridal shower! I'm so excited that they agreed to have it early so that Big Spoon can be there. My friend Beth has gone above and beyond to make it special and my friend Stacey created the e-note to match the theme:

Later this week, I'll post the first installment of our wedding music playlist. We've decided on the ceremony music selections and I'm working on the pre-ceremony music today. Have a happy week!

5 Months and Counting!

photo via {Wisdom Portal}

I'm so excited that I don't even know what to talk about! Today marks five months to go until our wedding day. I was on auto-pilot there for a bit, but I'm working my way through details and DIY projects, planning music with Big Spoon and flowers with my lovely florist friend ... and watching my fellow Nashville blogger brides get married despite some major environmental setbacks (ie. the Nashville flood of 2010). A big congratulations to Racheal of Enough for Ever After and Tami of Little Miss Southern on their marriages. I can't wait to see pictures!

Since our last update, I (or we) have ...

• made it through the flood with no damage and most of our friends have minimal damage. That's a lot to be thankful for.

• bridesmaids' dress shopped and decided to wait for David's Bridal to release the new line in late June before deciding on anything.

• picked out tuxedos and changed the details twice! They are quite classic-looking.

• finished a few DIY projects and our friends' invitation and rsvp card. Hoping to get that printed this month for their October wedding.

• printed all of our invitations, trimmed the mats, punched out the monograms and 300 little black circles; figured out that the "front & back" printing feature on my printer doesn't line up very well and I will be manually feeding the printer for our rsvp postcard. Joy.

• cut out 9 ladies' handkerchiefs and my fantastic mom has hemmed each of them. She is currently adding the lace and I will be doing the "embroidery."

• began adding initials to the men's handkerchiefs. This project also afforded me the opportunity to organize a sewing box.

• realized that my aunt is probably not going to be able to alter my wedding dress as she isn't in that great of health. Any alterations recommendations would be appreciated!

So many things still left to do! I don't know how anyone plans a wedding in less than a year these days. I'm still enjoying the process, but I'll be very happy to see October get here. Thank for reading our blog, especially those new followers!

Random Thursday Ramblings

Seems like everyone else is doing random updates today and since I missed posting yesterday (oops, forgot about my draft), I'll just subject you to a super-long update post. Hurrah!

Update 1:

I STILL haven't lost any weight. However, I am seeing a difference in "inches", so maybe something is working. I put my wedding dress on this past Saturday for the first time since August and it fit much better than it did the day I purchased it.

Last month, Big Spoon bought a big new gigantic TV for our living room. The older flat panel moved upstairs to our bonus room, as did the Wii, my old DVD player, VHS, yoga ball and mat, and free weights. I had not anticipated this transition for at least another year, maybe two. So I began thinking, "hey, how nice would it be to have my own elliptical machine upstairs so I can watch TV or play music while I work out and not have to spray it down because I don't want to get someone's icky germs or wait for the machine?"

I haven't purchased yet, but I'm giving it some serious consideration. I keep thinking of how awesome it would be to get up earlier to work out, make breakfast and get to work on time. I would definitely get more exercise time in during the week. The gym is a total time-suck.

Update 2: 

I have all these DIY projects laid out to do and no time to do them! At least, during the week I don't have time. I'm trying to remember to take pictures and share the process with you all. I should have something to show VERY soon.

Update 3: 

We are heading out to Hartsville, TN this weekend to check out Tully's Bistro and hopefully book our rehearsal dinner venue. Because our venue is in Gallatin and my family will be traveling from north TN, it would be a hassle to drive to Nashville for rehearsal dinner. We've located two nice restaurants near the venue: Monell's and Tully's Bistro.

More updates to come on rehearsal dinner plans.


Update 4:

I feel the time has come to get my little freelance business off the ground, especially now that the company I work has given me permission to do so. Yeah, I know that sounds weird, but as a full-time stationery designer, I'm supposed to have their permission to do anything else similar. Whatever. Some very nice person at work saw my LinkedIn profile and decided they would help me out by reporting me to management.  Wasn't that sweet? I will be doing less blogging and more designing and wedding tasks over the next few months.

Thanks to Krista @Becoming Mrs. Dial, I feel more confident that I can figure this whole webpage building thing out.

Have a happy weekend!