The place we store the special dishes.

A while back I begged my grandmother for a hutch that was sitting in her basement with lots of stuff inside of it. After a little convincing she agreed that the hutch would be much better suited in my house. With lots of help and a little chalk paint we made some modifications to the piece of furniture that's been around for quite some time.

[p.s. this paint is pretty amazing - no sanding, priming, or anything else required]

And then...

And then...

And finally:

Our china is Kate Spade [Larabee Dot collection] and I purchased all the plate stands at Michaels. They were a bit expensive $3.99 per stand. I know that if I was patient enough I could have ordered them online for much cheaper... but I couldn't wait any longer and made an impulse buy. Oh well.

:)

A Baby Girl.

My cousin, Lindsey, is having a baby girl. 

She's due in just six weeks! So, it was definitely time to celebrate with a shower!

When I was shopping for a gift I fell in love with all the frills, sparkles and tutus. Especially, the tutus. Because I really wanted one for myself, but am fully aware that it's probably not the norm for a person my age to walk around in a tutu, I KNEW my little baby second cousin (is that relationship correct?) needed one.

In addition to an outfit, that I secretly wanted for myself, I made & packed up some onesie cupcakes:

 and along with my mom gifted a diaper tricycle.

So adorable!

Instagram canvas.

Check out our new "about us" page.

It's tabbed up at the top, do you see it? Between our "daily adventures" and "our wedding"?

SO, I did a DIY project that I saw on this blog.

Necessary materials:

9, 4x4 instagram pics

12x12 canvas

paintbrush

matte mod podge

15 minutes of your time

preferably a space without pet access (you'll see why...)

The steps:

I got instagram photos printed. I got my pics printed from postalpix.

Mathematically, they were supposed to fit "perfectly" on that 12x12 canvas. They didn't.

You have to force them to fit. No big deal.

Arrange the photos how you'd like them.

Definitely cover up your table so mod podge doesn't get all over the place.

Start gluing.

To my surprise you really can't use too much (for real).

Make sure the lines are straight, horizontally & vertically.

Try not to let your pet touch the mod podge.

(she's not supposed to be on the table, but legit, she has a mind of her own)

Admire all your photos.

Slather it with mod podge.

I'd recommend NOT making vertical strokes, by the way.

My hand got carried away.

Put it somewhere SAFE to dry.

Mine is on top of the fridge.

I'll let you know where we decide to display it.

Enjoy your Sunday!

Recapping 2011!

It's that time of year again -- and honestly, I feel like I just wrote a recap of 2010? But apparently, 2011 is over, too!

So here we go...

January

The first of January meant that it was a big year for us because it was the year of our wedding! I bought my wedding shoes and reserved the boys tuxes. In non-wedding related news, we moved into Sean's parents house to save money for a house the wedding, it snowed an awful lot, and we celebrated my dad's birthday!

February

In February, I received something in the mail that was so special, Sean's band had their first show at the Palladium, we started our dance classes, went to our cake tasting & our food tasting, and spent a weekend in New York City.    

March

In March, I had my first hair trial, finally made some decisions and booked our honeymoon, had my amazing bridal shower & was featured on Jacin's Lovely Little Details blog, our invitations arrived in the mail, and we celebrated Sean's birthday. 

 April

In April, I realized I didn't love our wedding invitations, made our table numbers & love banner, traveled to Maine for Easter, took a countless amount of pictures with our table numbers in Maine for our seating cards, went away to New Hampshire for scrapbook weekend, and celebrated my cousin, Lizzie's, birthday.    

May

In May, I revealed what I did during my scrapbook weekend in April, continued having wedding nightmares, "ran" my first 5K and assembled my wedding invitations, mailed out those invitations, received some RSVPs, created my 101 in 1001 list and accomplished the first thing: hiking a mountain.  

June

In June, I found my something old, was obsessed with these socks, attended the Bruins parade, had so many to-do lists, got my something blue, tried not to get tan lines, did so many DIY projects, celebrated our anniversary, started my Montessori training and filed for our marriage license!  

 

July

In July, all the work and planning and time fell exactly into place and our wedding day arrived, I spent weeks recapping the wedding on this here blog, we bought our first large purchase together - a new car, celebrated my mom's birthday, my garden produced many zucchinis, spent a weekend in Maine, spent time with friends, and I finally started thinking about things other than the wedding.

 August

In August, we traveled to Ireland for our honeymoon, threw a ladies luncheon for my cousin Lindsey, celebrated our one month anniversary, I went back to work, Hurricane Irene took away our electricity for 3 days, and I spent the entire month recapping the wedding & the honeymoon. 

 September

In September, I recapped our summer, turned 25, saw my cousin Lindsey get married, got an acoustic guitar, was very excited about new Fall t.v. & clothes, saw Sean's friend get married, and spent lots of time with the dachshunds. 

October

In October, I was a bad blogger, went to the Cape for a girls weekend, carved pumpkins & finished my wedding album, got the new iPhone, got really excited for the new Twilight movie, started grad school, mother nature gave us our first Halloween blizzard (we had a snow day!) and gave out candy with the dachshunds.    

 November

In November, I was a realllly bad blogger, my husband surprised me with something terrific on a day that wasn't so terrific, I realized I don't take enough pictures, saw the new Twilight movie (twice!), Sean grew out his beard and was in the newspaper, celebrated Thanksgiving as a wife and had a marathon shopping event on Black Friday. 

 December

In December, we took pictures for our first Christmas card ever, had weekends filled with Taco Bell and gossip magazines, saw my friend get married, participated in my first ever blog link-up, hosted our annual cookie exchange, saw the Patriots play on Christmas Eve, spent lots of time with friends and family, and put a deposit down for a new apartment!  

I guess we had a busy year! How about you?