First Anniversary: Part 1

Today is Dylan and I's First Wedding Anniversary!  I can't believe it has been a WHOLE year already!!! Seriously, it feels like we JUST got married a few weeks ago, not 365 days ago.  So here's how today went...

We got up early this morning to spend some time together since we work different shifts and we won't see each other until Dylan get's home from work around 11:30pm (that is if I'm not already sleeping on the couch with Bella!).  We exchanged cards first (always with something extra special wrote in each one) and then Dylan said he had something else for me.  He went into the bedroom and came out with some folded paper.  I opened it up and the first thing I saw on the page was MIRANDA LAMBERT! He bought us tickets to go see Miranda Lambert in July!!  I'm so excited!  I love her music and I can't wait to see her live (she always performs so well at awards shows I'm sure she will blow me away in concert!).  ANNNNND Miranda and her husband Blake Shelton are ALSO celebrating their First Wedding Anniversary today!  Happy Anniversary to them!  I just think it's so cool that two of my favorite country artists share the same wedding date (yes, I am corny like that) as we do!

Then we cut our cake and had some for breakfast.  Oh my it was delicious!  It tasted just like the cupcakes did the day of the wedding!!  I'm so glad we had my former co-worker Marie Elena at Cupcakes by M.E. make our wedding cupcakes & cake.  She sure knows what she's doing if the cake tastes so DELICIOUS after spending the year in a freezer!   Yummmmmmmmy!  If you live in Central PA and need some cupcakes for an event be sure to give her a call, you won't regret it and you will be craving those cupcakes when they are all gone!

Photo Courtesy of CMorrow Photography

Sadly, after our breakfast I had to head to work :-(  But that's not the end....

When I got back to my desk after a morning meeting I had an email that there was a package for me down at the front desk.  As soon as I read the email I KNEW what Dylan had done.  Yep, he sent me flowers at work!  We have been together for over 10 years now and he still knows how to melt my heart <3.

BUT this still isn't the end!!  Since our anniversary is today and we both have full-time jobs on different shifts, we are going out Saturday to do some more anniversary celebrating...but I have no idea what we are doing!  He's keeping that a secret too!  There IS a good thing about a weekday anniversary....you get two days of celebration!!  Yippeeee!

Happy First Anniversary to my amazingly wonderful husband Dylan!  I love you to the end and here's to many, many more!

What To Do, What To Do

I found these beautiful matching fabrics on clearance at Wal-Mart (gotta love that clearance area!!) a few weeks ago and I am just stumped as to what to do with them.

My dilemma is that each piece is only 1 yard each.  So do I do a small project with each piece or do I stretch the pieces by doing a bigger project and using some coordinating fabrics?  Hmmmmmm, decisions decisions.  Suggestions are definitely welcome :-)

Wedding Card Display

My first wedding anniversary is in a week and I am FINALLY starting to go through all of our stuff!  I saved every card we received from the two Bridal Showers and the Wedding and luckily they were easily found when I started rummaging around in all our boxes and bins for them.  I saw this very cute way to keep and display your favorite cards using loose binder rings, but there were no real directions for how it was done (not that it looks that hard to do).  So I decided to figure it out for myself with our wedding cards, and honestly it's really super easy.  Like I could have had my 9-year-old niece or my 9-year-old sister-in-law do this for me :-).  And yes you did read that right...Dylan has a 9-year-old sister! Anywho here's how I did it.


First off, we had sooooo many cards from the bridal showers and the wedding that I decided to seperate them.  I'm working with the Bridal Shower cards in the pictures (the pile was MUCH smaller!).

Here is what you will need:
Your stack of cards
2 loose binder rings
Hole Puncher

I sorted the cards by size, putting the largest card on the bottom and the shortest card on top.

I wanted the cards to pile up and flip easily on the rings so I took the smallest card and centered it on the largest card, then chose where to put the holes for the rings.

I punched out the holes in the largest and smallest card and then continued the process with each card along the way.  I repeated with each card one by one but you could just eyeball it with each card.  I wanted the cards to all line up centered so that's why I took my time with it.

After I had all the holes punched in the cards I put them in order on the 2 loose binder rings, closed em up, and TA DA! A nice pretty way to display those wonderful cards.  I love how easily you can flip through the cards, and you can even open them and read each one!

We had sooooo many cards I ended up with three stacks!  One for the Bridal Shower cards and two for the wedding cards.

Lily's Quilts Small Blog Meet

Lynne over at Lily's Quilts hosts a Small Blog Meet each month for bloggers with less than 50 followers.  I thought this would be a great opportunity for my new blogging adventure not only by getting my blog out there but also by finding more blogs to follow myself.  I really liked finding and reading other blogs, and that's what inspired me to start my own.  So do what I'm doing and head on over to the Small Blog Meet over at Lily's Quilts!

Faux Chenille Baby Blankets

I found this AMAZING tutorial on how to make a Faux Chenille Baby Blanket on Pinterest (what a wonderfully addicting site!).  Now when I found this project I had not sewn anything since my Home Economics class in high school, and I didn't even own a sewing machine!!  Well thanks to the great site I found the tutorial on and my MIL (she had the sewing machine), I decided to dive in head first and attempt to make this blanket for some friends who were expecting their baby girl in December 2011 (she decided to come early!).  Since then I have finished 3 of these blankets.

You can follow the pin I have on Pinterest HERE or you can find the complete tutorial over here at Dana-Made-It.  I followed Dana's directions but she also referenced the tutorial over at Aesthetic Nest.  Both tutorials are great to follow!

One of the best things about these blankets is that you are sewing straight lines the whole time.  Seriously that's it!  I think it was a great beginner project for me and these blankets are such a huge hit for baby showers and newborn/toddler gifts. I must warn you though, this is not a one day project (unless you are into sewing for like 10 hours straight!) but more like a week or so, depending on how long you like to sew for.  I also love how the back fabric frays even more each time you wash it and it continues to stay soft and cuddly.  

Here are the three blankets I have created so far...


Blanket #1--Made for little Miss Emma Maclay :-)  I found the fabric at Joann's.


Front of Blanket

Back of Blanket



 

Finished!



Little Miss Emma napping on her blanket!



Blanket #2:  Made for the little stud Ryder Gibble! I found this top fabric on sale at fabrics.com.

I just love this fabric!!




Isn't he adorable?!



Blanket #3:  Made for Bryce Packer (hence the Green Bay fabric).  Since we are in Pennsylvania, I had to order this Green Bay fabric online.

Finished Product

I just love the way the back of these blankets look!

**Just want to say a special THANK YOU to Mary Gray (mommy to Emma) and Katie Gibble (mommy to Ryder) for letting me use their precious little ones as models**