DIY: Birdcage earring holder

This project was super easy and I'm actually thinking about re-painting it a different color. I found this birdcage at T.J.Maxx for $7.99. The color was coppery, and not really what I was looking for. I actually wasn't even sure what I was going to do with it.

So I spray painted it with primer first.....

And then with white spray paint......it sat on my dresser for months until I thought that my earrings might hang nicely from it.

Voila!

It's nice because I had my earrings in a drawer that I hardly ever opened and now I can see my earrings all the time! I'm thinking I might change it to a brighter color to match our bedroom.

Front yard landscaping

We bought our house over a year ago. These two pics show what the front yard looked like...blah....dead grass, tiny shrubs, random rose bushes. 

We really didn't know what we were going to do with the landscaping. Last year we went to Nick's Garden Center and showed a guy some pictures of the front....the ones at the top. He gave us some examples of plants to use. 

Dwarf Colorado Blue Spruce

Magic Carpet Spirea

English Lavender

Pomegranate Yarrow

I estimated that it was going to cost us about 400 bucks to landscape just the front, based on what the guy had recommended. We kept putting it off, not wanting to spend the money......then one day at Home Depot in the dead heat of August everything was on sale! The blue spruce that cost $169 at the garden center was on sale for $39.99, the magic carpets that were normally $45, were $19! I couldn't believe it! I was giddy......but I was also nervous about planting brand new plants in the heat of summer. We planted everything and watered it regularly....and what do you know it all came back!!! I am amazed at how much everything has grown.

Greg and his dad put in a sprinkler system to both the front and back yards. They set it up so that we would could set up a drip system really easily. Greg set that up a few weeks ago. You can see how the shrubs came back!

We put those step stones last year as well.

These pics were taken in April of this year. We got a coupon in the mail from Holland Bulb Farms and we got $25 worth of jumbo yellow tulips. They actually came up! They were really pretty, but only lasted about two weeks.

Every week or so I go to the local garden shop and look at perennials to plant. Hopefully by mid summer the plants will be even more impressive!

Getting back into photography

I took on this new project at work, (I am a registered nurse), where I am going to have to get back into photography. I have been having a hard time finding the time and motivation to get back into it. I tend to do better when I travel because it gives me the motivation and a fresh look.  I started looking at some of my old pictures that I had taken for inspiration....I had forgotten about a lot of these.

Venice, nighttime 2006

eiffel tower, Paris France 2006 

La Sagrada Familia Barcelona Spain 2007

Outside of Alhambra 2007

Denver Zoo 2007

Denver Zoo 2007

Gus 2012

Gus 2008

Erin 2009

Madeliene 2009

Madeliene Hawaii 2009

And this one is one of my very first great photos taken in Mexico. It actually received photo of the day on the Smithsonian for February 21st 2007.

Cielito Lindo 2003

I have a lot of work and relearning to do in order to be ready to start this new project, but looking at my old photos has sparked some motivation. Since traveling is not cheap, I'm going to have to start to see a fresh perspective in every day life in Denver. Getting nice lighting and interesting perspectives will probably mean I have to get out of bed early in the morning or stay out late in the evening. 

Back to Bloggin'

I have decided to come back to the blogging world. I know I took a long break. The layout is going to change a bit....it won't be so much about wedding stuff anymore....more life stuff....house, gardening, random projects, cooking, etc... life. So....stay tuned.

 

here is a picture of our home....

we've lived in it a little over a year

DIY: Flowers

Ok, Ok......I KNOW! It's been forever! But I've been waiting on pictures from my photographer and I needed a little break from wedding stuff. It's been a nice break, but for now I'm back to recaps.

So I took on the brave and stupid idea of doing DIY flowers, bouquets, centerpieces, etc. The good news is it worked! and it was cheap! and I had help!

Originally my inspiration included this:

Ranunculus and anemones and maybe roses?

I ordered my flowers from www.fiftyflowers.com. I placed my order for roses, ranunculus and anemones. I got a call about two weeks before the wedding that they would be unable to fulfill my order for anemones. :( I was really sad....my whole wedding was black and white and those flowers really tied it all together. (Kind of like the rug in The Big Lebowski). So after I pouted for a few days and tried to find black and white anemones I surrendered and decided fine....I just do ranunculus and roses. Well.....they couldn't get me anymore ranunculus! AGHH!! "Oh well. What other white flowers you got then?" They decided tulips are basically just like anemones and sent those. That was fine, except that in all my research I didn't realize that tulips keep growing....this will be important later.

I didn't really get to take pictures of this next part, but I'll tell you about it. My flowers arrived two days before the wedding. I followed the directions from the FiftyFlowers website about prepping the flowers. Cutting the stems in water, adding flower food and putting them in buckets. I kept the roses in the very dark air conditioned room at my mom's house, I kept the tulips and ranunculus in the patio at my mom's. (They needed to open up a bit more).

I have some FABULOUS friends and family! I had about 7-8 girls show up to help me get my flowers done. That was the best thing! They worked their butts off! They stripped flowers, cut stems, made all my centerpieces!

Mo made the cutest centerpieces!

(Ranunculus Doctor)

The ranunculus had VERY weak stems. Hannah spent her time adding wire and floral tape to the stems to make them strong enough to use for bouquets, etc.

My sister and I were pretty freaked out to start the bouquets.....we started small and kept adding.

Don't I look terrified?!

I think we ended up with 15 centerpieces and 4 bridesmaids bouquet, my bouquet and a toss bouquet. We wrapped the bouquets in matching black satin ribbon. I also ordered rose petals from FiftyFlowers.

Here are some pictures where you can see the flowers.

All the following pictures are by my photographer Allison Ruth.

See that rouge tulip? It kept growing!

Here is where I show you how I made the centerpieces.

LET ME EAT CAKE!

So the cake was a big pain in the A$$.

I heard rave reviews from everyone about ABC Cake Shop and Unique Cakes by Karyn.

It was a battles of prices so I went with ABC Cake Shop.

Now remember this in Albuquerque and Greg and I live in Denver. So we had to plan from Denver and around our trips in town.

Cake inspiration

Originally we went for our tasting in December 2009 and were able to taste a bunch of flavors, fillings and icings. We got a couple of price quotes and were told we could make our final decisions as late as two weeks ahead of time.

Everything was going fine as I was fretting over what flavors we wanted, what style of cake we wanted etc. One trip in town we went to put our final information down and I was told, "Oh no we definitely don't recommend whipped cream filling, for those decorations there is a $$$$ upcharge, blah, blah, BLAH!!!

The main problem was that ABC Cake Shop was reorganizing their wedding department and we were in the middle of getting conflicting information. Apparently the at the original tasting the guy just told us whatever we wanted to hear and didn't really know what he was talking about. Ok that's fine. I'll deal.

BUT, after realizing that our guest list count was much lower than we anticipated I tried to call ABC Cake Shop and email ABC Cake Shop numerous times over 2 weeks to update our order. I repeatedly asked them to confirm these changes with me as it was very difficult for me to be able to come in and confirm. Jen and Andrea did not email me back until a wek after Greg's mom went in to speak with them. So that was like 3-4 weeks after my original phone call. Not acceptable.

In the end, the cake turned out great, it was gorgeous and was what I wanted, but working with ABC Cake Shop over the phone from Denver was not easy. I understand they are reorganizing, but seriously send a flippin' email.

Anyways, I'm done with my rant, but here are the fabulous pictures of our cake!

The topper was custom-made by NakedPeggies.

We had two flavors. They were almond cake with bavarian cream filling and chocolate cake with chocolate cream filling. Our frosting was buttercream and the rose petals were fondant. It was all hand-sprayed with pearl shine-y stuff.

I had the almond cake which was awesome! I heard the chocolate cake was awesome too, but I didn't get to try it.

So all in all the cake was great, it was just pain in A$$.