Another One Bites the Dust...

Did you hear that InStyle Weddings is closing too? It seems as though the magazine world just isn't what it used to be.

If I Had a Million Dollars...

(If I had a million dollars)... well, I'd buy you a green dress (but not a real green dress, that's cruel). For some reason, I've had this Barenaked Ladies song in my head for weeks. I'm thinking it's from all of the window shopping I've been doing lately. (I like to call it "abandoning my cart" because I stuff my cart on the internets just to see how much the bill would be.) Every time I see something I like, this song starts streaming through.

Just a few of the items that have caught my eye on Etsy lately:

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I could go on forever, but I don't have a million dollars.

Speaking of Photo Books...

Shutterfly is offering 40% off your entire order right now with the code SAVE40. Don't forget-- you can get an additional 15% off if you log in through Ebates! Now would be a great time to make a book for your parents, grandparents... or even a guest book for your wedding!

Hurry-- offer ends Monday!

Vendor Spotlight: Adrienne Beth Photography

Do you live in the Cincinnati area or Northern Kentucky? Are you looking for a photographer? Look no further than Adrienne Beth Photography.

Adrienne is a fellow blogger who's fascinated with weddings and football. Check out the pics she took of this little kiddo at a recent game.

Do you recognize the girl in this pic? She's none other than Jessica from Tying the Knot! Give Adrienne a shout to find out her rates-- she's up for couple's sessions, engagement pics, kiddos, you name it! Mention you heard about her on my blog, and you'll get 10% off!

Christmas Shopping- Check!

Usually, I have all of our Christmas shopping done long before November. The key to being done so early is buying throughout the year. The problem with that-- sometimes you forget what you've bought! I've always been really good about keeping four large baskets on the shelf in the spare bedroom closet to house all of the purchases I've made for others. I have to admit that Christmas shopping has thrown me a bit off this year. I had begun my usual process of picking items up as I found them, but then we decided to give our family members albums from our wedding instead. We understand that not everyone wants to see a bunch of pics of us, but we've received so many picture requests from our immediate family that we thought photo books were the best bet.

I started compiling pics on Shutterfly and Kodak Gallery last month-- believe me when I say the process takes quite some time! Putting together an album takes quite a bit of thought. I decided the best layout for us was in a timeline fashion that depicted the wedding week as it took place. After creating a book for my grandparents who weren't able to make it to Colorado, the book for my dad and step-mother was a lot easier to picture. I'm still in the process of putting together the other books, but they're so time consuming that I have to take little breaks here and there. I had the most fun including some pre-wedding festivity pics that ranged from the riding the alpine slide, hiking, rafting, and horseback riding to mani/pedis, J's baseball game and our rehearsal/rodeo night. It was nice to look through all of the pics with fresh eyes and see how much fun everyone had. (I have to post a few just because!)
*Our flower girl/niece had just commented on our matching boots, hence my skirt being pulled up.
We made our first two books through Kodak Gallery because, at the time, the price was a bit better than Shutterfly. Now, the situation is reversed. But, the best part of the deal-- Ebates is offering 15% cash back on Shutterfly purchases and 10% cash back at Kodak Gallery. I seriously do not buy anything online unless I check Ebates first. I'm honestly bummed that I didn't find out about the site until after I purchased my wedding dress on Ebay! That extra moolah would have come in handy.

Holiday Cards- Check!

I grew up sending holiday cards and have kept up the tradition ever since leaving home after high school. J and I noticed that over the past few years the number of photo cards we were receiving was growing exponentially. After writing the umpteenth note in our cards last year, J swore that we'd only send picture cards from now on. I have only really been a fan of the photo cards that had very professional-looking pictures, so I wasn't really excited to send out photo cards unless we had a really good picture of us. We had hoped to get a great picture of us and our dogs in the snow, but the weather didn't come upon us this winter as quickly as we'd expected... so, we went with a wedding pic, much to J's chagrin.

We saw that Tiny Prints (the sister company of Wedding Paper Divas) was having a sale on their holiday photo cards, so we pulled the trigger. (Use code TPSHIPSALE to save up to $30 and receive free shipping on your order!)

These were the finalists:

This one was my favorite.I told J he could pick his favorite, so we ended up with this one. Very traditional, but I like the calligraphy-like font. Just because I can, I'm posting our actual pic for your viewing pleasure.

Have you ordered your holiday cards yet? Where do you plan to order them?

Gotta Love Non-Pro Pics

You may remember that I was a bit bummed that our photographer didn't capture quite a few of the details of our wedding. Well, we just received two CDs of non-pro pics, and I was ecstatic that we at least got a few glimpses of the details that were missing.

Kids' Place Setting (after a bit of interference from said kids):

Aisle Decor:
Entry table (pic was taken pre-ceremony--we put bouquets on here once the reception started; you can barely see the bags we had for the centerpiece take-homes):

It looks awfully plain in the pic, but with the flowers, it was pretty. We still didn't get any of the drink table, but I'm slowly getting over it. It's fun to be looking through new pics nearly 4 months after the wedding. FOUR months! Time really flies.

Save 30% at Gap's Friends and Family Sale

Hello, friends! I'm sure most of you wouldn't mind saving a little bit of moolah at Gap, Old Navy or Banana Republic this weekend! Don't have a 30% off code? Shoot me an email (from my profile), and I'll send an email with the code to the first 15 people to email me. (There's a limit to the number I can invite, hence the low number.) Happy shopping!

Today is a New Day

With my cleaning frenzy this past weekend, my mind turned to making a change within myself. I started to question myself when I sorted through all of the baskets in our linen closet. When we first moved in, I found the best way to corral all of our "stuff" was to line the deep shelves with baskets. The closet definitely looks better than it would without baskets, but the products we had amassed were just overwhelming. We had two and a half baskets (and they're big baskets, people) of cleaning products. TWO AND A HALF!! We had one overflowing basket (seriously--there was a ton of crap stuffed behind the basket) of personal hygiene products.... three baskets of extra linens; three baskets of extra towels; a top shelf loaded to the gills with comforters/quilts/blankets. The scene was obscene. Why the heck had we purchased all of this stuff?? And then it hit me. J didn't purchase any of it. It was all me. Ugh.

Lately, I've been feeling overwhelmed. Not with anything in particular... more like every little thing just feels like it's dragging me down. I've been so bleh that I'm annoying myself. On the drive home, I literally drive myself crazy thinking. I can't sleep. My mind is just spinning. I've got the case of "too much".

J and I had a discussion when we first moved in together 4 years ago. He was helping me move out of the two bedroom place I had lived in alone. I had moved in just when J and I had started dating three years prior. While emptying a closet, he exclaimed, "How deep are these closets?? There's stuff in here that I've never seen before!" The closets were deep, and I was housing crap (yes, it was crap) for more than three years without him even knowing it existed. I had moved crap from 1200 miles away four years prior, and it had never seen the light of day since. I had a problem. Admittedly, most of the items were gifts that had been given to me that I just didn't feel comfortable tossing away. Someone spent their hard-earned money to get them for me! How could I just toss it?! Believe me when I say I would have donated it, but most of it wasn't worth donating. I explained to J that I hadn't grown up with much, so when someone gave me a gift, even if it wasn't "me", I felt like I had to keep it. He thought I was nuts. So, with his help, I started purging. I donated what I could from the closets and trashed the rest. Then, a year later, when we bought our place, he urged me to purge more. I did. But, what happens when you move from 1000 sq. ft to 1700 sq. ft.? I bought more stuff. Now, we come back to the linen closet.

J wasn't home on Saturday when I decided to tackle the linen closet. I had been having the bleh feeling all morning and felt like I had to do something. I'd been so unmotivated and was seriously getting tired of hanging out with myself. I pulled myself away from the computer and started pulling out baskets, one by one. Why did we have all of these cleaning supplies? We don't run a cleaning company, for goodness' sake! I decided we weren't going to buy any more cleaning supplies until the ones we had were used up. I made a list of what we had with quantities next to the product and posted it inside the closet door. When I pulled out the personal hygiene basket, I realized we had nearly three of everything. Again, I posted a list on the door. I noticed three bottles of shampoo that I wasn't a fan of. Too bad, we're gonna use it. No more experimental shopping and then tossing it in the closet. There were several bottles of almost finished cleaning products and personal stuff. I combined bottles when I could. By Monday, we had already used some of the lingering product up, and three baskets of product had become two. Next up, the medicine box. Man, was it scary dumping out all of the expired meds! Now, at least we know what we have and won't buy a third tub of Vaporub! By the time I was finished with those, I just didn't have the energy to tackle the towels and linens... but I promise you that donations and Ebay listings are in the near future.

I have to admit-- now that I've aired the skeletons in my "closet", I'm feeling a bit of that dragging feeling disappear. Today is a new day.

Spring, Er, Fall Cleaning

I went nuts this weekend. Something stirred inside of me that would not die down until I had purged my heart out... yet there is still more to do. I hate to say it, but I've let the house go a bit since the wedding. One entire room--okay-- two whole rooms are stacked full of wedding decor. I couldn't quite bring myself to tackle those hard-core, but I got a good start by breaking down empty boxes and then moved to other rooms. The kitchen bar still had stacks of papers hiding underneath the top counter, which is very unlike me. I'd finally had enough. What did I find? Receipts from wedding purchases, items that were to be sent as gifts to others, coupons that were expired, extra house keys and much more. Once the counter was free and clear of clutter, I tackled the "junk drawer". It's amazing how quickly things can pile up. I found a receipt from 2006 for a spicket we had installed outside. Why was this even kept? Who knows? I can say that it's absolutely freeing to see the clutter disappear. I have a good feeling that I'll be posting quite a bit to Ebay in the near future. Thanks for the Craigslist advice! I hope to list some unwanted furniture and TVs soon. Now... on to those two rooms!