Austin's Photo Explosion #1

Isaac here,

Starting now I am going to be updating the blog with photos of our beloved Austin. Here are photos from one of his very first walks as a little puppy. More Austin Photo Explosions to come!!! :)

Oh My Word...

Time is flying.

I have a whole lot of emotions at this particular minute...

So I thought I would let you know that I want to...

cry

laugh

scream

smile

dance

sleep

hug

talk

reflect

give thanks

celebrate

and so much more..

ALL at the same time!!

I cannot believe we are leaving Bellingham in a matter of days, and I have so much left I want to do. Isaac was talking about his bucket list (of things to do before he leaves Bellingham, not before he dies) tonight (when we were crossing one of his items off: going to Jalepenos with Megan and Tony for big mamma's and some huge plate of nachos) and I almost burst into tears... Not having such amazing friends (and nachos??) so close next year is going to be so tough. How many people can really say they get to eat dinner with their best friends or sit and watch a movie or play a good game of banana-grams with them anytime they want to because they have been blessed to live 15 seconds from their bedroom (if not in their bedroom) for the past four years?? Isaac and I have been two of those people for the past four years, and we can't really imagine our lives without these blessings. I don't even want to think about that fully yet. I won't make it through the next two weeks of school if I start thinking of my life without these amazing people so close.

What do you do when time is flying so fast and all you want to do is push the pause button, sit down, and take in every moment you have with the people you have so close?? I need to figure out a way to be in forty places at once so I can fully take in these next few weeks... and since that's not possible, I need to figure out how to truly take advantage of the gifts in my life.

Love,

BonnieJean

Yes Please: Fluffy, White Bed

(Not sure where I collected the first two images from!!)


(From here)

I would really love to crawl into a big white bed (like these) with this one special guy right about now!! Thank goodness I found this bedding online to help me get one step closer to this dream :]

Sweet dreams everyone!!

Love, BonnieJean

And they're off!!

Our invitations are FINALLY outta here!! It is a great feeling, and I am very excited about it!!

Wanna hear about them?? Well, here it goes...

So last summer, trying to be a good soon-to-be-bride (who would be attending school again in the fall) I attempted to get as much done as I could before summer ended! And so, impulsively (wait, me?? Impulsive? NO WAY?!?) I purchased wedding invitations at Joanne's with a coupon. Now, we got quite the deal: all 150 invites for less than $60, with EVERYTHING included! We just had to print them ourselves... boy was I impressed with myself and this purchase....


Now here comes March when we were needing to work on these invites... so I pull them out... (I HAD looked at them since the previous summer, I just hadn't really thought about them much) and I cant stand them. I know, who really cares, right?? Wrong. I had been really good this whole time with saving money left and right (except for our save the dates (from here) see below, which I was allowed because the already purchased invites were so cheap... oops...)


Therefore, after whining a bit too much to friends and family, my mom gave the green light to "exploring my options" :] What a nice nice mother! So, I took off... and found... nothing! For a really long time. I just hate all of the bows and plainness and boarders and yuck.

Until.... I found this! This amazing woman made these wedding invites for a client, and the color was probably what initially caught my eye. I LOVE yellow! And I learned how to sew a few months ago from this lovely lady, so I felt like I could tackle these! And the best part was, I could use a lot of the materials (i.e., cream cardstock, envelopes) I already had from the kit from Joanne's! AND it just so happened that I had purchased this fabric:

about a month prior to make "a purse or something" out of because it just happened to have grey and yellow in it, and so I went to work immediately calling all Joanne's in Washington trying to round up more of it... I will not go into detail on how hard it was to figure out how to locate fabric when all you really can do is either describe what you have or read off literally 20+ receipts until the right one comes up. Well, I ended up finding a few more yards in Kent. So my dear father drove out one afternoon and purchased it on clearance for me for a whopping $20.

So then I got to work cutting out the flowers... and with a few almost blisters later, I had a huge stack of cut-out flowers and leaves!

Next, to quickly skim over a few details:

1. We searched for wording, and eventually combined like 5 different sample invites into the "perfect for us" wording that we used

2. I searched with lovely helpers all around for yellow paper to back the cardstock with... and this was not easy. You would be surprised how many yucky yellows (I know, hard concept to grasp!) there are out there! We needed one that would look good with the fabric, but we didn't need it to match. So, my mom convinces me to go to Paper Zone (for the 3rd time) with her and vwala, there it was, outside of it's package to be sold individually: the perfect paper! It was only about $20. So, we purchased a TON and plan on using it for numerous other papery things for the wedding :)

3. We also bought dark grey cardstock at Paper Zone to print on for two card inserts: the wedding details and the reply postcard! Also, for very cheap.

4. We decided (for numerous reasons) not to back the invites with fabric, and just to leave the flowers as the fabric part.

So, after figuring out everything I needed and getting it all in one place I did what every smart DIY bride would do: I threw an invitation making party (with the persuasion and insistence of a few great friends)!! And boy was this a great idea!! I have some fabulous friends who were willing to help in any way they could and my goodness did they bust out those invites!! It was so amazing and I am still so thankful for all their help!!

So then came the "this shouldn't have taken so long but it did" hard part... rounding up the addresses (again), assembling the sets, and purchasing stamps. But, now they're done!! Yay, yay, yay!!

Well, here are some final products:

Yes Please: Emersonmade

I woud love LOVE L.O.V.E. to have flowers to wear like this:

(All of these images from Emersonmade)

I wish I could make flowers like this... maybe I will try... but in the meantime, if I could only choose one to wish for!! :]

I needed this :] Thank you, Emily!

I am officially at the point in my (21 quarter + 20 hour/week internship + job + wedding planning + trying to have a life outside of these things (i.e. God, friends, family, etc.)) Spring that I am needing some reality checks. Emily's post, from here, came at the perfect time.

I am unfortunately feeling like Martha, and I want to be Mary. (Luke 10:38-42)


Isaac and I are going home to Tacoma in the morning, and I am looking forward to it. As much as I do not want to be away from Bellingham in one of my very last weekends up here, I am looking forward to a break from reality, with family and {hopefully} friend time! We have decided to go to the $2 theater for a date night, and I am so excited! We cant even remember the last movie we saw in theaters! We dont even know what we are going to see... but we're going! Maybe get a little Gotta Have It Birthday Cake Remix (if you haven't, please do!) from Coldstone! :] Yum Yum Yum!!

Still working on that invites post, hopefully it will be up soon!!

Happy Mothers Day Weekend!!

Preview, maybe??

I can't stop looking at this picture and LOVING it :] How creative is this gal?? We are going to have to show Rhys these!!

OK, so I have been working on my summative project ALL day (besides a quick walk with my mom :] ) and have been taking blog breaks (yes, I take blog breaks). And have decided to post a few pictures that are currently inspring me wedding wise. I have gone back and forth about if we should preview any of our ideas ahead of time, so I am not going to give much explanation with them, but here are a FEW of the MANY pictures we have saved up over the past year :) I have links to cite most of them... but some of them are pre-blog, which means pre-caring where they are from... so I am sorry in advance for that!

(This one is from AshleyAnn's baby girl's nursery...haha, I don't think I will explain :])

(I'm fairly certain this comes from here)

Anyways, that is all for now.... I am working on getting the Invitation Post up :) I think I will wait until after everyone has received their invites so they can be surprised before we post! Which means, they are going out this week!! YAY!!

Now, back to homework! :[ blah.

Yes, Please: Canvas Stencil Locations Art

Isn't this the coolest?? The couple that created this guest blogged here. They just stencil up the name of any place they visit! How cool is that?? Their adventures double as art, and they can be constantly reminded of the experiences and memories they have had together, and all the places they have yet to go!!

I just love it. One more thing to our list of Yes Please's