Pictures of me (and Zac, I guess)

We booked a photographer!!

We'll be working with Rachel Ide of Rocket Tree Photography. She is adorable - so sweet! Talking to her was like talking to someone we've known forever.

So - plan to see pictures like this:

and this:

and this!

All photographs property of Rocket Tree Photography.

Engagement pictures will be this fall - is it too early to go shopping for something to wear?!

I have an addiction to planners.

I discovered my addiction to planners when I was in my freshman year of college. When I realized that I could stick multi-colored post-it notes on the pages of my new planner to create a whole new level of fabulous, I was hooked.

I've had multiple planners from Franklin Covey.  Originally, I loved having daily pages but over the past few years I've started to prefer a weekly view instead. I love extras - like birthday pages and stickers! This year I used the MyAgenda from MomAgenda, which I LOVED, but it isn't spiral bound and I miss that.

So.... here's what I'm planning to order this week:

Obviously a beautiful cover design is a MUST.  And the weekly pages look like this:

And there are stickers!!!!!

All images from Erin Cordren

So what do you think? Do you just LOVE this life planner? You get to put your name on the front to personalize it - would it be too much to put my "new" name on the front, even though about half a year will pass by before I have that new name?!?

I like peaches!

Last night, my oh-so-wonderful fiance decided he wanted to make a delicious dessert.  Check out what he came up with:

Yeah, he's grilling something.

Are those peaches?!? Yep!

YUM!

They were DELICIOUS, and I don't usually like desserts with fruit.  Zac made a "secret" syrup of maple syrup, brown sugar and bourbon and it was a winning combination.

I also realied I haven't shared very many pictures of the garden lately, so here you go:

The vine is totally out of control. It provides so much shade though.

I know what you're probably thinking: "When was the last time she trimmed that vine?" 7 days ago. I kid you not.

Have I ever shown it to you with the pretty lights on it? I love it! This is where we got engaged by the way...

Flowers look cute!

Our plentiful stock of tomatoes, ready to start turning green!

Happy Monday - I hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Things I'm Feeling

I'm not sure why, but I've been feeling a little strange lately. Lots going on and lots going through my head!

• We went wedding dress shopping today - so fun! I don't think we found "the one" (which I guess means I definitely didn't). The dressing room was so small, and I got really overheated. Fun, but a little overwhelming, I suppose!
• Speaking of which, this entire wedding planning stuff is overwhelming. Like I said before, I was busy before we got engaged. Trying to fit everything in has been crazy.
• I haven't had anything to post to all of my favorite crafty link parties lately because I haven't had time to make anything. Sigh. Trying to figure out how to fix that.
• Christmas is exactly 5 months from today. Is it too early to start making gifts? I think not.
• Did I tell you I'm going back to school in the fall? I'm going back to school in the fall. Getting my MSW (Masters in Social Work) part-time, which means I'll be going to school two nights a week. Which should leave me with even more free time, right?
• Zac is making dinner right now. He is so awesome. He makes dinner almost every night. Ever since he stopped working in a restaurant, he's rediscovered his love of cooking, and far be it for me to get in the way of that / have to make my own dinner. For the sake of my pride, I feel like I should point out that I could make dinner if I wanted to. And all baking falls to me because he's not very good about following recipes.
• Speaking of Zac, he has been the cutest groom-to-be ever. I glanced up from my computer earlier and he was sitting on the couch reading a bridal magazine. Too cute. He's been coming up with a lot of great ideas and been excited to talk about things like colors and cakes. 
• Work has been good - still so glad that summer camp is over. I've jumped right in to some other big projects, so I can't say I've had any sort of break. Good to be busy, but still busy being busy!
• I need to find some great tomato recipes... we have more than 30 tomatoes on the vine, some just baby green ones and some just starting to yellow. Yay! There is tomato and mozzarella goodness in my future...

There's a glimpse of what it's like inside my head these days.  Scary??

Is he not the cutest??

We're getting married!

I know you sort of already knew that, but we've been joking about how we're engaged, but we weren't actually getting married because we didn't have any getting married plans!

All of that has changed - WE HAVE A DATE! We're getting married on April 9, 2011 at the Vernon Bell House in Cincinnati.  Which looks like this:

And this:

We are so excited!! We have a band picked out and almost booked, so I'll share that with you as soon as it's final.  I am so relieved - I feel like now we get to do the fun stuff, like dress shopping and flower figuring-out and invitation designing. Yay!!

Are you sick of hearing about wedding stuff yet? I plan to craft something soon - just been a little busy! :-)

Wedding planning is... Whoa.

So this wedding planning stuff is hard work. And it takes a lot of time. And I wasn't just sitting around waiting to get engaged - I have a job, and volunteer work, and friends, and a time-consuming crafting hobby, and a house. I already had enough stuff to do!

Visiting locations went well today. We saw a lot of places and figured a few things out but nothing definite. We were able to rule out three places, and narrow in on two that we like a lot. Now we have to figure out dates and prices. So... stay tuned - hopefully we'll have news in the near future!

A memory from today....

Guess where we're going tomorrow??

Here.......

And here......

And here.........

And here.........

And here!

Tomorrow my mom is coming down and we're searching for a wedding and reception location! I am getting really excited! Fingers crossed that we find somewhere wonderful tomorrow and instead of just being engaged, we can be actually getting married!

Moving back in?

I swear we moved back into our house today. After four weeks of summer camp, being out of town, getting engaged - our life was a crazy mess (of good stuff, but good stuff is still messy).  And the house looked, well, just like that.

So today we literally spent all day getting things in order. Sure, there was massive cleaning, but mostly it was putting stuff away and getting to little projects that have been pushed back, like hanging curtains!

I FINALLY found curtains that we could afford (read about my dilemma here).  I found them at Target, and truly, they're perfect. Cheap quality, but perfect. And really, if you come over and touch my curtains and thus realize they are cheap, you are also probably touching other things you aren't supposed to be touching!

Here's a picture of how they look in the room.......

They are totally perfect. Exactly what I wanted.  The sheer lets light in but you can't really see in from the outside.  The pattern is just enough spice.  The brown looks great with everything else. Phew. It looks nice!

This room photographs terribly for some reason. It's a lot nicer in person! It's not really for the full reveal - we're planning to build a desk for the corner so we can have a mini-office downstairs. More on that if when we get around to building it.

So you can see the pattern on the sheers - which matches the chairs really well (accidentally, of course).

A view from the outside. It shows a little more circles then I would like, but I love it enough on the inside.

Does the house look different? Zac rearranged the house numbers today and I really like it. You can see the original look here.

He also did this:

Hung above the TV (the wood will eventually be painted by the way).  At a slant. It's still there. It looks ridiculous.

Sorry ladies, he's taken.

More pictures from the more fun part of my weekend to come as soon as Holly emails them to me... get on it, Holly!

CSN Review

A very nice lady from CSN Stores contacted me last week about doing a review for a CSN product. Me? Um - ok! In case you aren't familiar with their site, CSN Stores has over 200 online stores where you can find everything from dinnerware to dog beds to sofas and suitcases! Seriously - it's crazy. Like, borderline holy-cow-this-place-has-everything-and-it's-overwhelming(ly awesome).


Oh, and did I mention that I get to CHOOSE what I want to review? Yeah, life on Emming Street is pretty good these days!


So... what should I choose? I've been drooling over these candle lights, or maybe I need a new mailbox?

 Seriously - you could get lost on this site for days. Any suggestions over what new CSN item should make its home at my home??

Featured again!

Oh my goodness - today is the best day ever!  Just Another Day in Paradise (which is one of my favorite blogs) had my Johnson Family Quilt as one of their favorite projects this week. Larissa's blog is awesome; you'll definitely want to check it out.  Thanks for the feature!

Thanks for the feature!

My Johnson Family Quilt was one of the top 5 projects at the blog Singing with Birds this week!

Thanks for thinking it's wonderful!

Quilt blocks from my friends

Here are the blocks that the other lovely ladies from the Cincinnati Modern Quilt Guild made in our swap!

Do you have a favorite? They are all 12.5" x 12.5" blocks. What should I do with them??

It's been awhile...

Since I posted a picture of my cat being cute. I'm sure you missed it. But seriously - this is adorable.

The little white thing by her head is a paperball. A wad of paper that she likes to play with. Seriously.

Wonky Quilt Guild Blocks

Tonight is the monthly meeting of the Cincinnati Modern Quilt Guild.  At the last meeting, I signed up to participate in a "block swap."  We each made blocks using certain guidelines, and then tonight we'll swap, and we'll go home with blocks that other people have made.  Sounds fun, right??

This month's block is called a wonky log cabin block. It was pretty easy to make. The only guideline was to use blue and green fabrics, with the option of using one other accent color for the center.  I used all of my scraps, since the wonkier the better, right?

All of the blocks I made

A close-up so you can see how "wonky" it is!

I'll show you the blocks I get from everyone else, too! This is fun!

Chris and Ali's Wedding Shower

Mandy and I threw a "Stock the Bar" shower for Chris and Ali on Saturday. Thanks to Mandy for hosting it in her home!

This was our gift to Chris and Ali. Aren't picnic baskets fun??

The margarita station - because margaritas are just so yummy.

The table spread... we had an assortment of dips, since it was an evening shower.

Our cute cupcakes, with crazy lighting

The beautiful bride

I guess only Matt and Hester got the memo that all the guys were supposed to dress the same?

The sweet bride and groom opening gifts

We are the 4th couple of Zac's friends to get engaged around the 4th of July - so here are all the engaged ladies at the shower!

I can't decide if I wish these guys saw each other more often, or if this is all their better halves can handle!

It ended up being a really casual and relaxed shower, which was fun considering we don't see each other as much as we'd like.  Lee Waddle even made a surprise appearance from Holland (that guy is awesome).  We're starting to get excited for October 2, Chris and Ali!!!