What A Weekend!

Andrew and I have had a very exciting weekend---we bought a car, picked a wedding venue, picked the date for our big day and picked our photographer!

We had been planning to start the wedding process this weekend for a while, and I had made appointments at my top two venues and at a photographer that I really liked. But before we could make it to the first venue I made an offer on a car! We had been looking for a new car for a few weeks but had made no serious offers but earlier this week I found a car that had everything I wanted and was a good deal-- but the decision maker for me was when I showed it to Andrew and he loved it as well. Up until this point we had not found anything we both liked and could afford--because we both agreed that a new Mercedes would be awesome but let's be realistic! We bought a Nissan Maxima that's black with black leather. It has a navigational system, a back-up camera and to say the least it has more features than I will ever be able to figure out but Andrew has spent tons of time in the garage playing with it.

I was so excited that my offer was accepted on Friday but I was even more excited that our families would get to see it while we started our wedding planning! Our fist venue to look at was The OAKES in Centerville. My sister-in-law Amanda found this location a few weeks back for us and I just had to see it! Everything about it was wonderful! The next stop was The American Village in Montevallo. While I have driven by the American Village I had never been inside before but it was just as beautiful as I imagined! After leaving the American Village I told Andrew I did not know how we were going to decide between the two venues. But before I could dwell on the daunting task of picking between two great locations we meet with a photography company we had found- LoveStruck! It's two wonderful ladies who take beautiful pictures and have great personalities. After looking at more of their great work I asked what we needed to do to book them!! I am not sure who was more excited me or them because this was the first actual wedding decisions I had made since saying "yes"!

After visiting the locations and meeting with the photographers we had dinner with both of our families--yes I mean everyone! It was wonderful to see everyone while we were in town and talk about the decisions we had to make concerning the wedding. After all of that Andrew and I headed back home to Annie and Bo. We were worn out but I all I could talk about was the pros/cons for each location. Andrew said we have all weekend don't worry--but me being me I woke up first thing Saturday and started asking Andrew more questions about which location he thought would work best and before 10 a.m. we had made a decision. But before I share the decisions we made I wanted to share some pictures from both locations!

These are the pictures from The Oakes

These are the pictures from the American Village

Sooooo. The decision we made is that we will get married at The OAKES on June 1, 2013!

Projects around the House

Andrew and I moved into our house in December 2010 and for the first couple of months I was totally into decorating. However, once I got the house to a point where it did not look bare and I felt ok with having guest I stopped decorating. Now that I have found Pinterest I am once again excited and have a desire to decorate. Don't get me wrong my house is not going to be featured in a magazine but we have had a BLAST creating new things for our house.

The first thing we did once I had a few projects "pinned" was make a trip to the local thrift store. And this in itself was an adventure because we learned a new term that neither of us were familiar with... the "no price buggy". We found 3 gently used picture frames that I thought would be perfect for a few pinned projects I wanted to create but one did not have a price. We decided we would take all 3 to the register and make them an offer...it's all going to charity right? We made them an offer of $5 for the one frame without a price, the other two frames together were going to cost us $2.79. So we thought $5 was a great offer. But that's not how the thrift store works, items without a price go into the "no price buggy" NO questions asked. So of course I made Andrew make a second trip to the thrift store a few days later to see if my beloved frame had been given a price. He found the frame priced $2.98, however when he tried to checkout the cashier felt that the frame was mispriced. By this time Andrew is grumpy and wanting to leave the thrift store and never return but because he knew how much I really wanted that frame he caused a minor scene. He told the lady he had attempted to buy this frame twice and had even offered more but was told no, he said he was determined to get this frame. By now everyone in line is starring at him wondering why he visits the thrift store so much! So needless to say going to the thrift store was an adventure one that I am not sure if I can convenience Andrew to participate in again.

But with one of the frames we purchased during the first trip to the thrift store I made this cute addition to our bedroom. It was inspired by Pinterest and we love it. Andrew even rigged it so we can attach the dry erase marker. He also had to fix the frame stand because we bought the frame for .79 cents and you can't really expect much. But this is the type of thing Andrew loves! He is super handy, which is a quality I recommend every girl trying to find in their man. If he can build or make something he is happy and I'm pretty lucky because he uses these skills to make lots of stuff for our house! We have made two more awesome projects that I will share later this week!

Going Green and Saving Money!

So I have decided to take my coupon and saving "kick" one step further... I made homemade laundry detergent! I know it's a little odd but I kept reading about the cost saving benefits and how homemade detergent has less chemicals and decided to give it a try.

If you google "homemade laundry detergent" your going to get lots of recipes for both liquid and powder detergent. However, all the recipes call for three standard ingredients that can be found at Walmart.
1. Fels Naptha soap-$0.96
2. Arm&Hammer Washing Soda-$3.24
3. Borax-$3.38

The recipe I used called for 1 cup washing soda, 1 cup Borax, and 1 bar of fels naptha soap grated and mixed together. Really simple!! You use 1 to 2 tablespoons in each load of laundry. The liquid detergents called for the same ingredients but you added water and all the recipes made huge amounts--smallest I found was two gallons. For a family of two (plus two dogs, but they don't create lots of dirty clothes haha) two gallons of detergent would last forever! So I decided the powder detergent was best to start with.

As you can see my total cost for the ingredients was $7.58. This is about the price I spend on store bought laundry detergent with coupons. But the cost saving benefit for the homemade detergent will come in to play the next time I make the detergent because I will only have to buy the $0.96 soap!

Below are a few pics from the project. The pic that looks like grated cheese is the soap. I also did not buy a cute container I used an old water pitcher I had till I find something better.

So far I have washed 3 loads of laundry using the homemade detergent and I'm very happy. I can not tell a difference! I know this might not be for everyone but it was a fun project for me and I plan to continue using it. I also have plans to swap some of our standard cleaning products with homemade products! If you have and good recipes let me know!

Hope everyone is having a great week!

Going to give this another try....

After one year of not updating I'm going to give it another try. The reason I have decided to try again are two fold--- 1) I love reading my friend Brandi's blog and my sister-in-law Amanda's blog and feel it is probably not fair that I get to learn so much about their lives yet I share nothing. 2) I'm engaged!!! Andrew and I are very excited about getting married and I want to include family and friends in the wedding plan process as much as possible.

So here comes the first new post and I must sadly say it is not about wedding planing! My sister-in-law introduced me to the greatest website ever....Pinterest! I have wasted lots of time browsing this this site getting ideas for the wedding and home decorating. One idea that I saw and thought was easy enough for me to complete was a Christmas Card book.
I love creating my Christmas cards each year so I go to great lengths keeping the cards we receive but I never know what to do with them. I did not have a great place to display them so they just sat in my kitchen till the end of the season when I packed up my Christmas stuff and put the cards in a ziplock bag with the year on it.
The idea I saw gave me a free template that I used with just minor adjustments! I made one for 2010 and 2011! You can see the picture below. I think they turned out pretty cute and I now have the idea to create books for birthday and other cards we receive.