DIY: Aisle Runner Decorating For Dummies

An aisle runner makes a beautiful statement for almost any wedding. These days being able to personalize an aisle runner gives it that extra pop to wow your guests and even gives a modern touch of whimsy to your special day. Walking down the aisle are your last steps of being unmarried and your very first steps as newlyweds! 

Step 1: Determine if an aisle runner fits your wedding style

If you picture an beautiful aisle runner as part of your wedding ceremony... congratulations! That is the first step in creating an aisle runner for you wedding. However, not everyone wants the formal/more traditional feel that an aisle runner gives to a wedding ceremony, nor does an aisle runner work in every situation.
I would not recommend an aisle runner for the following situations:
-Sand
-Windy outdoor site
-Grass
-Rocky terrain
-Non-straight aisle (anything zig-zaggy)
-Stairs
For example, I just made an aisle runner for a beach wedding and despite my plans for it to be held down with large seashells, the runner was not used due to the wind.

Step 2: Buy an aisle runner. 

Recommendations: Buy a material that is see-through in order to "trace" the letters. If you purchase a solid aisle runner you will have to project the letters onto the aisle runner (and the rest of this post will be useless to you because I have never done that before and will thus not explain how to do it). There are many lovely see through runners out there and for decent prices...
"two hearts" http://www.wrapwithus.com/Products/Two-Hearts-Wedding-Aisle-Runner__3_1911-FXB.aspx
"love" http://www.wrapwithus.com/Products/LOVE-Print-Wedding-Aisle-Runner__3_1002-FXB.aspx
"french lace" http://www.wrapwithus.com/Products/French-Lace-Wedding-Aisle-Runner__35706-DR.aspx

Those are examples of ones that are slightly see-through so you can see what I mean.

Step 3: Trim aisle runner down to desired size (if needed)

Recommendations: The runner I got for my wedding was 100ft and I decided to cut in it half to 50ft without ever measuring my venue. As you can see from the below picture of my wedding 50ft is plenty long for your average ceremony venue. The lettering is exactly in the middle at 25ft.

-Trimming the aisle runner is easy if you can cut or lightly draw a straight line. Laying it out however is what seemed to pose a problem. My apartment is only about 25ft at its longest, and less than 3 feet wide in my hallway. Just make sure your floor is clean and your dog doesn't walk on top of it! 

-Then, rolling it back up is the hard part. I highly recommend keeping the half with the pull string and cardboard roll on the better half that you'll use for the wedding. The other half you can always keep and use to make for a friend! 

Note: know the dimensions of your runner first! they come in all different lengths, but 100ft seems to be the most common.

Note: This step might be the right time to make a mark on the desired spot your image will be painted on at. This can be done by lightly marking where the image will go (a penciled tick mark about 1/2 inch long is usually good enough). Or keep the runner unrolled at the desired spot and lay it out on the table you will be doing your painting at.

Step 4: Create lettering and/or image 

Basically this is one of the easiest and most fun parts. Get on your computer, open a word document and make it say exactly what you want. You probably already have an idea of what you want and its easy to find clip art or even images off of Google. Traditionally this includes your names and wedding date and/or a monogram. 

Recommendations: Make sure any wording is printed in black or as dark as possible (coloring will come later!) so that it is easy to trace out. If you are using an image, a black and white one is best with a relatively simple design. 

For example, for my friend's beach wedding using a star fish graphic like this...

was a heck of a lot easier than trying to trace and then paint something like this...

get the idea?

Step 5: Sizing & Printing your images

Basically, you want your wording/image to be large enough that people can read it, but small enough to fit on your aisle runner. Again, know the dimensions of your runner! What I do is print it out, then measure it, then adjust/resize as needed. You will want your paper orientation to be "landscape" as to save as much paper as possible. Usually words will run off one page and onto another in which case its relatively easy to cut and tape the pages together. 

Recommendations: Bigger is better as long as it will fit on the runner and is easy to piece together once printed. I highly recommend that papers are taped exactly as you want them so that they don't move around when you are tracing it in the next step.

Step 6: Roll out runner to desired image spot

A)If this was not done at step 3 now is the time to do it! With the "two hearts" runner I bought there doesn't seem to be a difference with the "right side" or "wrong side" of the runner. I'm pretty sure both sides are the same.

B)You may have to unroll your whole runner yet again if you did not before in order to find the desired spot. If you have a 50ft runner and you want the image in the middle, then find the middle at 25ft. Its not rocket science but it might be a pain in the a**.

C)Find a good work station that you will be decorating your runner on. I highly recommend a table that isn't used often as the work might take more than 1 day. If you have a card table or any folding table. It needs to be something you don't mind getting messy (paint could spill!). It is also best to use a flat table and one that is at least as wide as the runner.

Note: also make sure your workstation is WELL LIT, this will come in handy for the next step...

Step 7: Tracing your images 

Again, this is a pretty easy step depending on the difficulty of the words/images you selected. Words tend to be easier than images like the above starfish... there were too many blobs/circles to trace, but something like that didn't have to be exact like lettering.
Anywho... have all words and images taped together. Slide the papers underneath the runner. Center it nicely and if you feel it is needed use some heavy objects to hold down the runner over the papers.
DO NOT tape down the papers to the aisle runner. Pulling it off could easily tear the runner! You may tape the papers down to your table if you don't want it sliding around, but it might be a bit hard to remove it with out hassling around the runner.
Note: at this point you should easily understand why I recommended a flat surface, dark lettering and good lighting
Then... trace away using a pencil, mechanical is the best in my opinion. It allows a fine consistent line. Make sure its not too light that you wont see it when painting later, or too dark that it will be noticeable later! However, this might depend on how light or dark the color you are painting it with is.

Step 7: Setting up before you paint:

Now, this step is very very very very very important. This determines how easy it will be to finish your runner and how well it will come out. Pay close attention!
FIRST...
put wax paper down underneath your runner exactly where you will be painting.
1) this will protect your work surface
2) you will be able to remove the aisle runner from the surface.
 If you are using the see-through runner remember it is not a "solid" fabric... so the paint will bleed through to the other side. If you use newspaper or printer paper the paint will dry sticking to the paper then when you remove it, it will tear your runner! If you use the wax paper you will be able to let it dry and then remove the wax paper easily without any sticking or tearing.

SECOND
The paint... I use a regular acrylic paint. They come in many colors and you can get it at any craft store. one bottle is plenty for a regular image. If you are going for "over the top" with some crazy ass design then you might want to pick up a few bottles just in case.
As for color, this is your choosing. I have always done my runners in a single color because I think its simpler and adds more "pop" (you don't want the runner to be too "busy"). Mixing colors will get tricky along with any crazy shading or what-have-you. Keep colors in theme with the wedding, take a swatch of a bridesmaid dress or flowers with you when choosing paint color if you need to! I've been known to buy 5 tubes of paint and thinking about it for weeks before deciding which one to use on a runner!

THIRD
The Paintbrush... thin is the way to go! This will allow you to precisely paint within the lines. You may also wish to use a wider brush after edges are done, just to fill in the middle of a letter or image. Its up to you.

Step 8: Painting the runner

-Paint away!
I think its easiest to start with the edge of a single letter and work your way towards the center of the letter. While edges are very important... you may think that you really need a steady hand, but no one will notice if you go out of the lines very slightly. Furthermore it is also easier to start in the center of your whole image and work your way out so that your hand isn't sitting on wet paint.
-Be very careful throughout this whole process not to get paint on your hand as it can easily get on a different part of the the runner and it will NOT come off! This may seem scary but what-ever and where-ever you get paint is most likely permanent! Try not to drop your paintbrush! I use a huge piece of wax paper for being able to easily set down the brush and keep it very close by the area you are working on. Don't keep large object next to your work area that you could easily bump into. If you really need to don't be afraid to let part of it dry before continuing on if it will ensure top quality work!
So keep in mind that the paint will dry relatively quickly. You most likely will not need to do two layers of paint. One is usually fine and looks completely solid.
Remember if you are using two or more colors that overlap to paint the lighter one first.This will make images pop! Otherwise, just work from the inside out.

Whew!
Again here are examples of runner's I've made:

Obviously, I chose to go with very "simple" designs. I've yet to attempt anything crazy. I have no desire to attempt painting a whole runner (like painting a 3inch border on either side like below that inspired the starfish runner)

If you want more examples of some BEAUTIFUL runners that I go gaga over check out all of these and feel free to do you own google search (like duh!)
https://www.google.com/search?q=diy+aisle+runner+how+to&hl=en&rlz=1C1GGGE_enUS381US382&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=ynpSUObTOJTi9gTZ1YDgDA&ved=0CB0QsAQ&biw=1366&bih=643#hl=en&rlz=1C1GGGE_enUS381US382&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=diy+aisle+runner&oq=diy+aisle+runner&gs_l=img.3...431554.431554.0.431854.1.1.0.0.0.0.0.0..0.0...0.0...1c.1.dYLRk1Ge080&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.r_qf.&fp=a6dc5ef46d6482c4&biw=1366&bih=643

The End :-)
email me or comment below with any thoughts or questions
amgrossman36@gmail.com

Beach Wedding Aisle Runner

Here are some pictures showing the process of making the aisle runner. Next post will be a how-to for making an aisle runner! 

This picture is the "inspiration", I asked my friend to just find a picture of something she liked and I'd do whatever she wanted. The main ideas we stole here were: starfish graphic on the top, cursive writing and beautiful blue color.

So after much search this is the starfish graphic I found. It was really hard to find one that looked "right". Some were too simple, too difficult, too cartoonish, too real looking. I needed something I could easily paint and get the look we wanted!

Then, I found a great font with hubby's help. I had to adjust the size because their names are longer than mine and I needed it to fit on the runner! Then I played around with the size of the starfish.

Then I transferred the words onto the aisle runner and started painting.  Note that the TV remote is to hold the runner down

and slowly but surely it came along...

Then the words were in place and it looked wonderful!

I was very nervous to do the starfish I was afraid it wouldn't come out very good. it was very difficult to transfer on there!

 Low and behold, it came out much better than I imagined. I was able to take some artistic liberty with the starfish. I didn't really have to worry about staying in the lines so much because the edges of each "dot" on the starfish did not have to be perfect like the letters.

Tada! The crease at the top is from how its laying.

Now, unfortunately I do not have a picture of the aisle runner at the wedding. It did not end up being used. While it is extremely disappointing to put all that hard work into something for nothing, I didn't let it bother me. I was excited to see my best friend from college get married and that is what was most important. Now, what happened was that hubby was at the ceremony site while I was getting ready with all the girls. He gave the wedding planner the aisle runner and she attempted to role it out. The ceremony was taking place on the beach, but on a cement walkway, not the sand. I had guessed it would be windy (it was the beach after all!) and bought large seashells to hold the runner down. I'm not sure if the wedding planner attempted to use the seashells or not, but the runner was blowing away so she scrunched it up and put it away. In the end I think if she rolled it out while the people were already in their seats it could have been fine, the people seemed to block the wind during the ceremony. However, the planner did use my seashells to line the aisle and it was cute. Plus I heard people commenting on the seashells lol. 

Broken Hearts

Ever have something bad or weird happen and you wonder if its an omen or just coincidence?

Last month Hubby and I have been dealing with the death of his maternal grandmother. Even though she was in the hospital her death came as quite the shock. However this story is not just a story of her life or death, I will tell the story of the broken hearts.

1) Hubby's grandmother went to the hospital for a surgery to that would increase the circulation in her leg. She was 87 years old. Despite getting many doctors opinions and having tests done to make sure she was o.k. for the surgery, after the surgery was done they somehow found that she had congestive heart failure. Her heart had been working at only 10% of capacity for probably at least 6 months. She was not strong enough for any rehabilitation after the surgery. Just a few days after they found out about her heart she passed away (Wednesday, August 8th). Her heart just gave out. Hubby had visited her in the hospital just a few days before and was able to bring Scout into the hospital to visit her (she absolutely adored Scout, called him her grandson) .

2) Hubby and I packed up Saturday August 11th for the funeral which was held Sunday the 12th. Saturday night when we arrived there I was in the den of his grandmother's house reading when hubby asked me what I had inside a ring box visible in my luggage. I brought with us a necklace that I was intending to wear the next day at her funeral.
Now, some back story... Hubby's grandfather used to always find heart shaped objects to give to his wife. Hubby, unintentionally has done the same thing for me. He always buys me heart shaped charms since our first (dating) anniversary. I wear them all together on a necklace everyday.
 As a kid hubby always admired a heart shaped necklace of his grandmother's because it had gold flakes inside of it and he thought his grandma was rich! His grandmother gave him the necklace before our wedding day and he gave it to me as his wedding present to me.
This was the necklace that I brought to wear to his grandmother's funeral, because it had such a special meaning. Hubby sees the box and sees the necklace inside and takes the necklace. He was so happy to see that I brought it that he ran into the kitchen to show his mother. His mother open the box and the necklace slides right out and falls down to the tile floor. The tip of it cracks open and the oil and gold inside leak out. I heard this happen from the other room and sat frozen in the den not knowing how to react.
My poor husband was absolutely heart broken and my mother in law felt awful. The next day I wore some other jewelry to the funeral instead of the heart necklace. We went to the jeweler that had fixed up my ring and they said their was no way to fix it, they could only put the gold flakes into some new pendant.

3)We returned back home very very late Wednesday night. On Friday we get a phone call saying my hubby's aunt (his mother's only sibling) was in the hospital. She had chest pains and was taken to the ER. Her heart actually stopped and they had to revive her. She had surgery for a pacemaker the next day. She's only 56 and there is nothing physically wrong with her heart, it seemed to be electrical in nature and I believe most likely caused by the stress of the last week. Luckily she is now doing ok and is back to normal.

So, this is how 3 hearts broke in 1 week. While loosing a necklace is nothing like loosing a grandmother and almost loosing an aunt, the coincidence is just weird. 

Beach Wedding Card Box

One project down a few more to go! First I need to get some bridal shower projects out of the way this weekend then I'm moving on to the aisle runner!

These are some of the seashells I bought. I got whole packs at the Christmas Tree Shops for real cheap, then some small ones at Michael's.

The top shows the small shells (actually starfish) that I bought at Michaels, then the varying sizes of stick on pearls that i also bought at Michaels. 

These are the papers I bought at a local small craft store. I got these because I thought they looked like sand and water. 

Then is the bottom box all covered with the hole cut already

This is the top box not yet covered. I use rubber cement to apply the papers. It works wonders. The top box as a wide hole in the bottom for the envelopes to fall through to the bottom. 

Both boxes covered and glued together! I did not to a great job covering the boxes (in my opinion) but I was able to arrange the whole thing in a way wear it isn't noticeable. 

another shot of the covered box

I then glued on a ribbon and glued a starfish to the top. The inspiration for this part was this picture:

This is a better shop of the top.

Then I started applying the starfish, shells and what-have-you. It was a pain the *** to glue the tiny ones. I used Krazy glue for most of them. A seashell just doesn't have a lot of surface area to glue on and the starfish are not flat enough. Luckily the pearls are self adhesive. 

Anyway, I did small to large making my way down the box. At first I was just going to go down the corner but as I got further I realized I had enough supplies to do more and I thought this looked even better. The large shells and starfish would not stick with Krazy Glue because they are too heavy. I was able to use good old Elmer's Glue and it worked great and luckily is not noticeable because I did small amounts applied with my fingers. Krazy Glue and Rubber Cement both dry invisibly.

The finished product!

good side view

good top view

better side view

In the end, this probably took me only 5 hours or less. I'm really glad I used the pearls I think it adds a fancy touch and brings the whole product up a notch so its more suitable for a fancy evening wedding. 

Take That DB!

David's Bridal quoted me 110 for alteration for the bridesmaid dress for my friend's wedding.

I just dropped my dress off at Anna's Alterations, some local place down the street from my chiropractor's office. I chose it out of convenience. The grand total for my alteration there will be $40

boo-ya!

Though it makes me wonder if I should have gone elsewhere for my wedding dress last year. Having alterations done at DB almost cost as much as the dress itself.

You know "It's A Dog's Life" when...

You have a Chihuahua napping on your shoulder
A Yorkie napping in your lap
Two dogs playing together by your side
A Basset Hound barking in your other ear
A Havanese cowering under you
Three other dogs mingling around

all at the same time

meanwhile...
your own dog & the Golden you are petsitting are home alone during a thunder storm...

you get home, walk the dogs since it stopped raining and happen to run into a client from work that lives in your complex and your dogs all get tangled together

This was the last three hours of my life

This is Scout (L) with the 13 year old Golden we are petsitting for a week (Ginger)

Headache Update

Despite using the BCP and the Low Dose Anti Depressants to lessen the frequency of my headaches, I've still been getting tons of headaches. I'm an definitely under a lot of stress between work, trying to start a business and regular life problems.

In April I finally decided to go back to seeing a chiropractor (which I did a year or two ago before we moved). And once again it worked wonders! I really have to recommend seeing a chiropractor anyone who gets tension headaches or even back pain, neck pain or suffers from some type of injury related pain.

Yesterday I switched to a different chiropractor in my town because Hubby heard that the one I was seeing used some bad business practices. While I really liked all the people in that office and definitely found a lot of relief from that chiropractor I think my new one will be even better... The new guy is (I hope) also going to help me deal with problems in my hips/waist/lower back. I noted to him that I have an odd swing to my pelvis when standing straight and he said that could be contributing to my neck and other health problems.

The unfortunate part of switching was that I felt awful "breaking up" with the one I've been seeing for a month and a half. I told him what I heard about his office and I hoped it wasn't true. He seemed really upset and wanted to know who said these things about him even though I couldn't tell him (I honestly don't know who the person was, hubby met the person at work).

So, I'm excited for my first adjustment at the new one this Thursday. I have had a headache almost everyday since last Friday which is the last time I saw the old one! I'm also going to talk to my doctor at my next appointment about losing the anti depressants since seeing the chiropractor works better than drugs. Although I wont be losing the BCP anytime soon thank you very much I quite enjoy being on them :-) 

Finished Mirror!

Finally, after about 10-20 hours of work, my mosaic mirror using broken china is DONE!
Here it is folks:

Waiting for sealant gloss to dry

Finished product with reflection of our light in it

Horizontal view of Finished product

Vertical view of finished product

Finished product on my bookshelf

Boy am I glad this project is done. It was quite time consuming. I wanted to just be done with it so badly but I felt like I had to get more important things done first (errands, bills, stress about work etc). In the end it is extremely rewarding and I find crafting helps relieve a lot of stress. I think for the next few months I'm going to just focus on my business and DIY/craft projects for my friend's wedding.

My Very Own...

China Cabinet!

Its from Ikea for only $365 (and our parents split it as a gift for us)

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/10176268/

I'd been wanting this cabinet for quite a while now (for about a year actually). Since our wedding one year ago we lost kitchen space due to the new china set. We had a bit of space near our kitchen table and I complained to hubby that I never get anything that I want because I always feel guilty spending money on myself. I think someday in the future when we have money we'll redo our living room to match as we really like the Ikea Hemnes set in black-brown. This will probably be years down the road, but its nice to dream. 

I really wanted something with glass doors to properly display our goods. After it was completely put together hubby just stuffed all our china in it (picture above). The next morning while he was still sleeping I reorganized it to look like this...

Now it actually displays our china like you see in the magazines! The key to doing this yourself is using the plates against the back of he cabinet and centering your best pieces so they are visible through the glass. I know I could make the display look even better but it's not the biggest china cabinet in the world so it still has to do primary duty as storage. I love love love it though and the piece itself is just gorgeous. You'd be surprised that its by Ikea (it's even solid wood!). They also make one with all shelves, no drawers but we wanted the drawer space for napkins and table cloths and random stuff.

Grout Master

In my next life I am sure to be a tile instillation expert considering that grout and I have officially become friends.

OK! You caught me... I'm really not that great at working with grout, but I do have to say my mosaic project is almost done and is turning out pretty well.

I starting by smashing up about four or five medium size plates. As I wrote in a previous post that we had ordered more china to be able to serve 12 instead of 8 but some plates arrived broken. I decided to do a mosaic mirror that will be put in our future formal dining room and conveniently match our china.

While breaking up the already chipped and broken plates I discovered a few things:

-Its not easy to smash them in to small and even pieces.
-Vacuum up the area you are working when you are done as the shards can fly anywhere!
-I needed to go buy a tile cutter in order to get them into certain shapes and sizes.
-The broken pieces consisting of the curved part of the plate was pretty much useless because they will not lie flat on a surface
-Those pieces were more likely to have our beautiful china pattern on them
-I should have painted the mirror first
-I should have taken out the mirror before that

After much deliberation, I decided to just start in one corner and put the "puzzle" together, rather than being picky about shapes and design. It wasn't terribly hard. I quickly decided that I'd just glue the pieces down right away instead of waiting till I had it all figured out.  *note using adhesive is necessary, there is no way you'll be able to grout the pieces with out them staying in one spot!

Even so, here is the mirror after I adhered the pieces onto to it...

Then hubby suggested I take the mirror out so that it stops getting dirty. Although I wasn't too worried because the grout and paint are water soluble and wipe right off.

Then I added the grout, wiped it off the tile surfaces and smoothed the grout in between each tile to make it look uniform and not lumpy. I also added grout around the edges because I didn't want any jagged pieces. So the edges are yet to be smoothed out. The edged where the wood was showing I painted white, although it still needs another layer.
*Note here that just wiping the grout off the tile surface and smoothing down in between the tiles is not enough. I had to literally chip away (I used my fingernails and Popsicle sticks) the grout from the tile surfaces in many parts or else it would still be covering some of the tile surface.

So far I've probably put in 5-10 hours on this. Tomorrow, since I have the day off I might be able to take the time to finish it. More to come! 

Who Says Dogs Can't Smile?

This is my baby boy. He's the literally hands down the best dog in the world. Whenever anyone else has ever said that about their dog, its not true. In fact, even though I work with literally hundreds of dogs in a yearly basis, Scout is the only dog that I have never considered a dog. He is truly my son, my baby, a loved family member. Before I met my husband, he was the first boy to completely steal my heart, the first boy I ever fell madly in love with. He (and hubby) is the absolutely center of my universe, my life would not be complete with out him. I love him to the end of the world and back and I would give my life for him if I had to.

Imagine how I will be when we have children. lol!

Scouti and I are going to watch the runners in Boston marathon with my parents tomorrow (or later today I mean.. I got to get to bed!) since I have off from work. Then hubby is meeting up with us to watch the parade in my hometown, historical Lexington. Happy Patriots Day!

Lush Love

Last month I went into Lush for the first time with my aunt. Lush is a store that sells handmade all-fresh all-natural soaps and lotions. 

They tried their hand soaps or whatever it is on me. I asked about some facial cleansers and they gave me free samples. Since then I didn't really use them. In terms of my face I like products where I see immediate results because I'm not very patient. 

I've just been so annoyed lately with my "lack of clear skin". I want to feel/look like I'm 23 and not feel/look like I am 15 (as I mentioned in my birthday post). I work hard at my job and want to be taken seriously and with possibly starting my own business this year I think that's even more important. 

Yesterday I went back to Lush and decided to just completely "go natural"! I got a body soap, shampoo, conditioner, and 3 facial cleanser products (which will basically be a 3 step facial cleansing system for me). I even took away all my old products (Pantene pro-v and SoftSoap) So everything I use now will be completely natural. 

Not sure how good it will work yet, but I can tell you...

I smell really nice!

Little Blue Dress

unaltered...

I picked it up last night! Luckily, I still love it. Although admittedly a teensy bit less than when I tried it on with the wedding party. I need to get it altered obviously, but I thought the gathering in the midsection looks a little off when I tried it on last night. Get this... Davids Bridal alterations quoted me $110. Which is pretty much the same as what it cost ($140 with a discount.. I think it was either $20 off or 20% can't remember lol). My mother in law gave me a the number of the tailor she uses so I'll get a quote for them and maybe a few other places too depending on what kind of quotes I'm getting. I would go to Davids Bridal because they did a good job on my wedding dress last year but A wedding dress is different. You know you are going to pay as much as  the dress for the alterations and its worth it. I wouldn't trust just any tailor on the street to do a wedding dress as I've heard horror stories. But, a bridesmaid dress is different I feel like any Tailor can do a nice little hem and take it in a bit. I just hope that when its done I look as smoking hot sexy as this...

Which I know I posted on before but now that I compare the two pictures.. I want to look like that girl!!! And I totally know that I'm already thin enough to pull it off, I just need the dress to confirm it!

Anywho... I'm super excited for the wedding and to get started on the DIY card box and aisle runner for my friend! 

First a bride, then a bridesmaid

I also want to announce that a little over a month ago my best friend from college asked me to be a bridesmaid in her wedding! While I do have quite a few friends that are engaged and/planning a wedding,she is the first to ask me to be in the Wedding party. I was so completely shocked and honored. I knew that she was my best friend from college but never knew if she felt the same way. I'm the only person from college she asked (that I know of - but it does sound like she planned on asking me).

Anyway we tried on bridesmaid dresses yesterday at Davids Bridal. We decided on the same material and color but different styles.
This is mine:

Whew and I going to look sexy or what? :-)

The color is actually darker in person. I'll post a pic when I try it on when it comes in. I do have to get it hemmed because I'm too short and possibly taken in a bit and/or cups sewn in. The girls were a bit floppy in there. 

We are going with silver shoes. Luckily I have a pair already that will mostly likely work. I sent the girls a picture to confirm its what we want. 

Here they are:

Plus, I offered to do an aisle runner, gift box or guest book as a gift for my friend. She wants an aisle runner and the gift box. The wedding is on the beach in Rhode Island so she's going with a beachy theme. Thus the blue dress too. So I'll post updates of those DIY projects too!

Mosaics!

I'm excited to announce I have a new craft project!

Russ and I are hosting our first Passover Seder this year. Its a huge undertaking as it is a very important holiday and there are so many traditional foods to make. We will have at least 9 people, including ourselves. Nevertheless, for our wedding we had a registry for china which our friends purchased. We only bought service for 8. My dear husband impulsively decided to buy more so that our Seder could match. Anyways, a few arrived broken and we got even more sent for free! And yet again a few arrived broken. Luckily we have service for 12 now and a few extras of some sizes.

I decided instead of throwing all the broken plates out that I would make a mosaic with the pieces. I searched for all of Michael's to find the perfect piece to do it on. I finally came home with a square wood mirror. If it all works our the way I want it to we will have a beautiful mirror that will match our china and therefore be hung in a future dining room and perfectly match! What a bright idea huh?

Happy Birthday to me!

I'm getting old... I'm 23 today.

Its weird, being 23 and married. I feel 17 and physically look like I'm 17 so its hard for people to believe both. I wonder when I'll look "old". I think people think that A) hubby is either way older than me or B) I'm his daughter

We got asked on a train once (while holding hands and kissing no less)... if we were brother and sister!
I just really hope when we have kids people wont think I'm the babysitter! ugh

Anyways, how am I spending my birthday?
This morning I had to go back to the eye Dr. I had a scratched cornea a month ago and it starting hurting again. This time its either an infection or a reaction to contact lens solution. But I should be fine.
After hubby gets off the phone we will probably go shopping so that I can spend the $100 Kohls gift card my parents gave me as a B-day present :-) :-) Then I have to work 5-8 because someone quit and I need to cover part of her hours. Then... I will have a nice romantic homemade dinner with my hubby and go to bed early because I have to work at 7am tomorrow.

Tomorrow we are celebrating with very good friends of ours. And there's really no other friends I'd rather be with :-) 

Pancakes!

To celebrate National Pancake Day the hubs and I went to IHOP where they are offering a free three stack per guest today until 10pm! I also had a milkshake and we donated $5 to some charity.

Yum for pancakes and chocolate shakes!

With the winnings...

My May"11 wedding board recently had a post about what you would do if you won the lottery. Since I don't post there I thought I'd think off all the things and write it here

1)Buy a Yorkie and another Sheltie
2)Buy a house
3)Pay off my student loan debt
4) Pay for both my sister's educations
5) donate enough $ to my College Hillel so they could survive
6) donate enough $ to our temple so that our cantor can keep his job
7) donate $ to tons of animal shelters and Jewish organizations
8) quit my job
9) spend all my time volunteering
10) have 2 of my own kids then adopt a third
11) give our parents a huge chunk in return for everything they've done for us
12) buy a new car (my car is like 9 years old already)
13) travel the world with my hubby
14) send our kids to private Jewish schools
15) maybe pay for my cousins educations and give my bum uncle a house and car
16) get my masters in canine sciences

:-) 

Headaches be gone?

At first I didn't think using the anti-depressant was working. My doctor prescribed 10mg (a person with depression would be taking about 200mg) So when I say low dose anti depressants, I mean low dose lol! But for the two weeks I took the 10mg I was getting a lot of headaches.

I then had an appointment with a neurologist that I last saw 2 years ago. She said to take two 10mg (thus 20mg) until they ran out and to pick up a new prescription of 25 mg. I'm still on the 20mg but so far so good. I've haven't had a headache in a few days! What my neurologist also told me (and said the same thing 2 years ago) is that my neck muscles are extremely extremely tight (and this appointment was at 1030 am!). Obviously I already knew this but seem to fail at doing something about it. blah.

So far the meds are helping and I will make an appointment with a chiropractor, since its been a year since I've seen one. I'm hoping that will help

Furthermore...

Bad News: I was having eye pain and blurriness and after going to the eye Dr, found out I have a scratch on my left cornea. No contacts for a few weeks and using regular eye lubricating drops to help it heal.

Good News: I'm kinda sorta getting a promotion at work! They're making me Senior staff (instead of Jr Staff) as one of the senior staff is pregnant. I kind of had a feeling about it, as they were clearly training me to take on more responsibility. I hope I can work hard enough to show them I can do it, I often make stupid mistakes. It makes me wonder if they think I can do it. 

A Clean House!

I know I haven't posted lately. I always feel like I should be writing about big important stuff then get intimidated. Oh well. This is my life. I'm an old married hag that gets excited about the littlest things....

What I do want to announce is that there is a new resident in our household... a Eureka Airspeed Pet!

Sometime last week the hubs was vacuuming and it somehow shorted out or something. There were sparks/smoke and the outlet now has burn marks. However, the old vacuum (a 17+ year old Eureka that the in-laws gave us 3 years ago after they upgraded) barely worked. I could vacuum over a wad of dog fur 10 times just for it to pick it up. For some reason in never occurred to us that never having to empty the bag = its not picking anything up when it should be. Guess we thought we just had a clean house.

So imagine our shock after going over just the living room with our new vacuum the whole container (it's bag-less) was filled!!!!!!!! You could hear the vacuum crackling as it picked up our dirt. We've lived in this apartment for almost a year. It literally seemed like we hadn't vacuumed for a year considering how well the new one works. Plus, the carpet looks brand new. Before it didn't look any different after we vacuumed.

so. that just made my week. 

Tonight I'm Starting Anti-Depressants...

for my headaches!

Two years ago I tried a low-dose anti-depressant for my headaches and it gave me chest pains so I immediately stopped. This is a different medication (but also a very low dose) so maybe it wont have the heartburn/heart attack side affect the other one did. Its weird that they'll use drugs known to treat a certain condition to treat a completely different problem. I've been in birth control for a long while for my headaches... but I recently switched types in order to lessen my chance of stroke and it no longer helps my headaches!

Furthermore tomorrow I'm going to make an appointment with a chiropractor. Chiropractics has actually helped me before so I'm hoping it will continue to help. Although maybe I should wait so I can see if the new medication actually helps? My nurse practitioner also suggested acupuncture. But I'll definitely see how meds and spine drs work before I go with needles (not that I'm afraid of needles... just its further down on the list of last resorts)! 

Vote for us!

I finally got around to submitting my wedding on The Knot's Real Weddings.

http://www.theknot.com/contests/my-real-wedding/photo/166057/traditional-jewish-wedding?b=staf?b=staf

There's a Birthday in the Dog House!

My beloved Scout turned 6 years old yesterday (January 4th)! I can not believe he is six years old, as it seems like only yesterday he was the little 12 week old I picked up at the airport!

We celebrated on his birthday by giving him extra walks, treats and attention. Today he went to work with me (where he played with other dogs!) and I gave him lots of bones at work, spent extra time with him because work was slow today and gave him a bath (which he did not see as a good thing on his birthday).

I wanted him to be nice and clean because Saturday is his birthday party! Russ and I have officially gone crazy since we are throwing our dog a birthday party. I've sort of always wanted to but this was 100% percent Russ' idea. I'm even baking him a cake!

There is more good news... 2012 is turning out great, hubby might be getting a new job where he'll earn more and I'm taking serious steps to starting my own business. Wish us luck!

More on dog Nutrition

While the BARF diet might not be everyone's choice (and its not mine either), this article makes a few good points...

http://www.offthegridnews.com/2012/01/02/eating-all-natural-for-your-dog/

There is a link in that article that leads to this:
http://www.dogfoodproject.com/index.php?page=badingredients
which describes ingredients in dog food

2012 Goals

Instead of having resolutions for the New Year, I have goals. That way if I accomplish my goals I can congratulate myself. If I resolved to do something different in the New Year, I'd fail immediately. Anyway, considering 2011 was so horrible I really hope 2012 is waaaay better. I'm hoping to take serious steps to insure that it will be instead of leaving it up to fate.

1) What I've already started and plan to continue throughout 2012 is take steps towards starting my own doggie daycare. There is something inside of me telling me I have to do it now, because our financial situation is so bleak.  This is something I've always wanted and I feel pretty confident in myself that it will be successful financially and make me happy (which is more important).

2) Take more steps to become a dog trainer. I started this last year but with my job situation it became too difficult, now that things are stable... now is the time!

3) Get back into agility with Scout

4) Take Scout on therapy dog visits.

5) Teach Scout to read and take him to the Library. (Did this one confuse you? I'm not joking!)

6) Deal with my health problems

7) Volunteer at the local animal shelter (possibly train dogs for them for practice?)

8) Get more involved with our synagogue. Go to sisterhood events, go to XYZ events, go to services more often!

For good measure here is how Scout rung in the new year. I imagine I didn't look too different considering I slept the whole time and hubby only woke me up to kiss me at midnight.