Thursday, June 30, 2011

Jenny Craig Weigh-In Week V!

Well, as ya'll may be able to tell, Wednesdays are my standing Jenny Craig weigh-in days.  I went yesterday and after having what I call a "fat week" (just a week when I'm not feelin' the weight loss), I lost another solid 2 lbs!  This puts me down 12 lbs overall in a mere 5 weeks!  Yippee!


For those of you that like visuals, 12 lbs is:




+


{source}

+


+


=


ME


or,






Anyways, I have something to admit.  I haven't updated in the last week or so because......I SLICED MY FINGER OPEN. I'll spare everyone a photo of my frankenfinger.  All I was trying to do was make my hubby a yummy marinade.  Who knew scoring a lemon could be so deadly?  A trip to Emergency Care and two, TWO stitches later, I am proud to say that my left pointer finger is looking......gross.  I get the stitches out in a week or so, which means I only have two weeks for my poor finger to heal before the big day!  I might need someone to teach me how to strategically place my hands for the wedding :(.

Alex and I are going to GA for the 4th weekend.  We're taking Opie and Addy (it's her first time) for some fun in the sun and water!  Have a SAFE and happy holiday weekend.  And be careful using those knives!

Monday, June 27, 2011

Our Home: Part I

Alex and I purchased our first home this past February.  It was a complete rehab property that was brought back to its former 1910 glory, with modern amenities.  Crazy me decided that two weeks after moving in, we would have a housewarming party........WRONG!  I must be nuts, but I pulled the house together in those two short weeks (while studying, wedding planning, etc.) just in time for the party!  Not to toot my own horn, but many of my friends and family were impressed by my prowess for interior design.  Some even insisted that I create a blog so that I could showcase my home to the masses...HA.  Well here it is ladies and gentlemen, our home, in all its glory.




The front porch is my homage to the south.  See the ferns and the lazy rockers?  The house has three livable floors and an unfinished basement (or the place I call the dungeon when threatening Addy after she does something BAD).  We have three bedrooms, one and a half baths, and a fully finished attic.....sans air conditioning :(  Anywho, here is our main floor!



Right when you walk in the door, our dining room is on the left.  I glazed and reupholstered some dining chairs that I found at a local thrift store and paired it with a table that Alex finished all by himself!



In one of the corners of the dining room is the sweet little antique chair and rustic bike!



Here's our mantel with some of our  my favorite things.  The frame on the right holds a canvas calendar with our wedding date singled out with an embroidered heart (it used to be a bag but Opie got ahold of it)....



Our living room!  It is filled with light!



I filled the bookcases with various trinkets and some of our books.  Alex's favorite part....the TV!



Our teeny tiny kitchen complete with granite countertops and no counter space!  See that curtain?  I made it.  Aren't I crafty?

Hope you like our home!  The upstairs is yet to come!

Friday, June 24, 2011

Jenny Craig Weight In Week IV!

Hello there all.  I tried to write a post about our fabulous home yesterday but blogspot decided it didn't want to co-operate.  Anywho, yesterday I had my fourth weigh in at Jenny!  I lost another 1.8 lbs. bringing my total to around TEN lbs!  Jenny also does measurements every month to see the progress you have made in your overall physique.  After all of the hard working out, dieting, walking, etc.  I have lost 8 inches off my body.  That's almost a foot yo!

I still have the 20 lbs goal for the wedding so i'm kicking it into high gear!  As of yesterday we only have 1 MONTH to go!  With so much going on and all of my DIYing, don't be surprised if you don't hear from me as often = SAD FACE :(

What better way to celebrate your one-month-until-your-wedding anniversary than by going to your second dress fitting!  Last time I went to go see the gown it was NOT pretty.  Nancy and the seamstress basically had to brace themselves with the wall to get the dress zipped up.

Exhibit 1: BACK FAT



                                                                       {source}

 Okay, okay, maybe it wasn't that bad, but for realz.......IT WAS BAD!!!

WELL, after the weight loss.....there is ZERO back fat (and even if there is, you better not say anything to me about it at the wedding)! 

EXHIBIT 2: ARMPIT FAT



Girl, I feel your Paaaiiiinnnn.  Unfortunately, the armpit fat still exists.  It's better than before, but it could use some work.

EXHIBIT 3: THE SKINNY ARM POSE



Yes, it is a way to minimize the armpit fat.  No, it is not how I want to be walking around on my wedding day.


Other then that, the dress fits like a glove.  In fact, I lost so many inches off by body that the dress "dropped" and so it has to be hemmed again!

Anyone have any tips to get rid of that pesky armpit fat?

Thursday, June 16, 2011

A Twist on Traditional Invitations

As promised, it is time to post my invitation process.  When Alex and I picked our wedding invitations, we knew we wanted something different from the standard ivory paper and black type.  We ended up choosing an invitation sweet that matched our style and our budget.  Because we had so many pieces to our invitation, I thought that some type of belly band was in order.  Naturally, I didn't want a traditional belly band so thats when the baker's twine made its way into our invitation sweet......BUT being the perfectionist I am, I wanted to add some kind of personal touch for the recipient....and then I came up with the idea of TAGS!

The first KEY part of this project is a Cricut machine.  Without this handy machine, this project would have never happened (who wants to hand cut 150 tags?).  I knew what I wanted my final suite to look like, so I made a template.




It took some trial and error to decide how big I wanted the tag to be, but I figured it out eventually.  It is important that this step be done using scratch paper, as the paper that you will be using for your final project is generally more expensive.

Because I used a standard sized piece of scrap booking paper, and my machine can only take 6 inch wide paper, I had to trim it down (don't worry, I fed to excess into the machine and made tags from it as well!).





The next thing I did was lay the paper on the Cricut's self-adhesive mat, punch in the shape and size that I wanted for the tag, and let it rip!



Once I let the machine do its magic I was left with about 8 tags surrounded by extra paper that could not be used.  I peeled away the excess paper and used my handy spatula tool to peel the tags off.


I followed the same process for the colored part of the tag.  After a LONG afternoon of DIY Network and cutting I was left with a few cute little stacks to tag pieces.


I made both blue and green tags because I didn't want too much uniformity among the invitations.  Also, if you look at the blue tag, notice that the hole is a heart!  I did this with a cute heart shaped hole punch I found at Michaels.

Next, adhere the label part of the tag to the tag itself.


And stick.....



Et voila!  Cute tags to send along with your invitations.


See the green one?!?

After all the tags were done, I whipped out my guest list and individually HAND STAMPED all the guest's names in a typewriter font on them in a light pink chalk ink.  I then wrapped the entire suite in the twine and attached the tags.  I must say, they turned out really cute and I am SUPER happy with them!

As always, I had a trusty companion at my side the whole time!



As always, subscribe to my blog!

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Jenny Craig Week III Weight-In!

Week three......was hard......there were cravings (a random dinner roll, taco bell (ew)) BUT I DID NOT CHEAT (I did however have a tiny sliver of red velvet cake at Alex's birthday dinner).  Unfortunately morale is slightly down this week because I only lost (drumroll) .8 lbs.  This is super frustrating because I worked out harder and ate less than every other week that I have been in the program.

I talked to my consultant today and she is concerned that I am under-eating and working out too much (food is fuel people!).  This week, instead of working out so much, I am working at logging EVERYTHING I eat.  This means all "free" foods as well (all non-starchy veggies that I can eat to my heart's content).  While I did not hit my goal of being down 10 lbs. overall, I am still happy with an 8 lbs. total weight loss in THREE weeks!  Hopefully next week's weigh-in will be better, I'm just taking it one day at a time!

In other news, ALL the wedding invitations have gone out and nearly everyone has received them.  That means that my next post will be about that grueling yet "rewarding" process of putting them together!




Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Jenny Weigh-In Week II!

It's that time of the week again!  I had my second weigh-in consultation this morning with my ever-so-lovely consultant Tiffany.  I am pleased to say that I lost....2.6 lbs!

While I was hoping for a bit more, I am just peachy with a 7 lbs weight loss overall in just two weeks!  Addy is happy as well.  She sleeps for most of the day and then amps up for her 1.5 hour walk every night.  What a champ!

She is not going to stay happy for much longer however.  As a gift to myself for the small accomplishment I went out and got.....




{source}



AN URBAN ACTIVE MEMBERSHIP!!!!  While this means that Addy won't be going on her coveted walks as much, it does mean that I will get some variation in my workout.  This means that my body won't become accustom to just one exercise which will allow for complete workout optimization (I may or may not have stolen that line from Nathan, my personal trainer consultant) :).

While I am a little sad I wasn't able to eke out that last .4 lbs. to make my loss this week an even-steven 3 lbs. I am moving on.  I would like to lose a solid three pounds this week which will put me well on my way to reaching my goal of dropping 20 lbs. before the wedding!

Speaking of, the invites went out this week so keep your eyes peeled for our AMAZING invitation suite.  Once I am pretty sure that most of our guests have received the invite, I'll be sure to post pics of the process!


Friday, June 3, 2011

Fun Votives

 No wedding table is complete without a few votives.  Not only do they give off romantic lighting, but they also really pull a tablescape together.  I knew that I wanted votives and while the wedding venue does offer them, I wanted something a bit different.  A while back, perusing my fav shop etsy, I came across frenchfelt's sweet lace napkin rings.  I took her idea and rolled with it, creating my own take on the classic votive.  Here's the tutorial!

Supplies:

votives (any size will do)
scissors
lace
hot glue gun




I got most of my lace from a vintage store in town.  The rest of it I got in the Joann's sale bin for $2.50 a roll!  Votives are a pretty standard craft store item.  I got mine from Hobby Lobby using one of their 40% off coupons  online (if you have a smart phone, just pull up the coupon, show it to the cashier, and they'll be happy to accept!) SCORE!  The first thing that you are going to want to do is measure the circumference of the tea light.  Because I HATE measuring, I took the lazy route and just wrapped the lace around the light leaving a bit over overlap where the two ends come together.

Glue one end of the lace onto the tea light:


And wrap the lace around:


Secure the the lace with a bit of glue and trim the overlap.  If you want to be extra fancypancy you could fold over the end of the lace to make a nice hemmed edge.  I'm lazy so that was a no go for me!  Do that a million and one times (and a few DIY Disasters later)....and you'll have plenty of romantic votives!


This project was super easy and fun.  Feel free to send me your take on my tutorial!  




Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Jenny Week 1 Weigh-In!

Drum roll please........

After our wedding tasting, traveling, and eating and drinking at a wedding..........

I lost 5 lbs.!



I am super pumped to continue on this weight loss journey.  The food is really great, lots of veggies, and Addy, Alex and I are all benefitting from the long walks.


Speaking of, Addy took her first trip to Red Bird Hollow.  It's this old horse trail where you cant take your dogs and or horses and walk them off-leash.  She LOVED it and she took her first swim :) What a champ.  I took my camera to get some pics of her and the boys but the battery was dead :(  Next time.

Also, we are in the process of forming our LLC for The Mulberry Cottage and submitting the paperwork.  It'll take about 25 business days once the paperwork is done so hopefully, it will be ready to go before the wedding.  While I can't really make anything for the shop yet, I have been really crafty lately cough *wedding invitations* cough but cannot show ya'll the final product until they have gone out in the mail.

I'll post pics of the invites when they go out (fingers crossed) at the end of the week!