It's been awhile!

Welp, A lot has happened since I posted last! Can't say you were not warned, as I predicted life has been turned upside down! I might go for a list and lots of pictures update here.

We welcomed my first nephew, and my parent's first grandson to the world July 1, 2011!!

He was perfect, and came out screaming with a nice set of lungs! Weighing in on the small side at 9 lbs and 11 ounces. He has been the sweetest addition to our family and we love having his sweet spirit around! 

Day 2: My personal fave! This one makes me laugh!

What a sweet heart, he's cooing and smiling all the time now!
My Dad has recently nicknamed him Charlie Brown.

2 months now!

Beginning with some DIY projects: DIY engagement pictures! Yep, I said it, we did our own. Anyone can do it if you have a friend or family member who is willing to let you use their nice camera! It was crazy when I started looking at prices for engagement sessions, some for $300 an hour! And nothing guarantees that they will be good, so if you can "boss" around a family member or friend to try and get in touch with your creative eye then do it! :) There's always photoshop! Here's a small sampling.

I love this antique quilt that my aunt has had in her family for years and years and she gave it to us a few years back.

  Dirty Outside Bare feet: Save the Date!

My uncle's rescue horse, Dolly

Playing "Posey Rosey" with my sweet future flower girl.

More photo editing is in store, but I felt pretty good about them considering it was our first DIY!

Our little photo shoot extravaganza even spurred more interest in photography for both me and my fiance ( So much that he sold his electric guitar and invested in a "good" camera.... Whaaaaaaaaat??- as Aziz Ansari's "Randy" character would say)

And with all the excitement I'm back to school with a busy semester ahead, and start my hospital internship next week!

Big things are happening, thankful for my blessings! Let's just pray I make it through! ;)

Have a great weekend!

Inspiration Board

Hey guys!

Man, I really am not good at blogging myself, but I have found myself reading tons of other blogs. There are blogs about everything! Who knew?! My new best friend is Google Reader! Some of my favorites are decor sites and of course wedding inspiration sites: my favorites being the projectwedding blog  and Green Wedding Shoes . Both have definitely given me some great ideas!

Currently nothing is set in stone in regards to our planning for next summer, as far as venues. Its just so far away that these big decisions are hard to make! But hey, a long engagement can be great for finding the most budget friendly options and DIY projects. We have looked at lots of places and churches and have gotten some good ideas of cost and locations.  I have had to come down to reality on a few things, and am coming around and trying hard to be more open minded for the big day! but WOW, can I just say, I now understand the stresses of making a guest list!

Here's an inspiration board of some of the things that I like. Kelly green is one of my favorite colors but I'm thinking that with 8 bridesmaids it might start to look like a St. Patty's parade... and although that would be fun, I don't plan on having green beer fountains or passing out beads. 

So, let me know what you think of having dos colores for the bridesmaids. 

( Not saying I'm sold on the blue with the green, its just a pic to test the waters! I am loving one strap dresses, and have for quite a while. I think they are flattering on all body types and I love the length of them!)

I don't think that my love is crazy about the idea of two or more colors, and I'm not totally sure about it either, However I think it is looking super cute in some of these pictures!

However, they all look like outdoor events, but don't you worry, with a wedding in August I will not be torturing my guests, neither young or old! Sooo.... what I'm saying is, do you think that something like this would look weird in a church? It's looking like the reception may be in a Country Club type setting. Is it a rule for different style bridesmaids dresses to be only for outdoor weddings??

           ( and should I even care about rules???)

I LOVEEEEEEEEEEE the pictures from the wedding above!!! It has a very vintage feel! I also hope to use these photographers : OLAS if at all possible for our day! They are fantastic!

I will say that I am leaning towards a classic feel but with some vintage touches! 

I am excited that there is a lot of vintage stuff going on in the wedding blog world, because it is super cost effective and I am finding that I am wanting to be a DIY bride and will be making a game out of it.  After all, its just ONE day! I've seen so many cool things that are super fun and budget friendly! 

What areas would you/ have you cut back on for your wedding planning?

In other news, I bought my dress. Just this week actually. It won't be in of course until September or October, but I feel good about my choice, and I will do my best NOT to look at other dresses!

When I nonchalantly told one of my best friends, that I bought it, she said " It's not like buying a pack of bubble gum!" So let me change my announcement: I BOUGHT MY DRESS!!!!!!!!!!

And in other news, I will be an auntie for the first time within the next week! It's been a busy summer   trying to get ready for this little guy as well as doing some wedding planning- our world is about to get turned upside down!! I can't wait for him to get here!

Summer Scheme!

Alright readers! I know you have been in utter suspense waiting on this post. There seems to be quite the lag time in between posts due to a slight technical difficulty called the worst grad semester ever. Remember that first post you read about here? Yeah... well I do love new starts and I'm definitely ready for another one.

Now for everything you've been waiting for! My color scheme!

 KELLY 

 TURQUOISE

 SEAFOAM

 FUCHSIA

 

LIGHT ROSE PETAL

KHAKI 

Think Summer!..... 2012!! So far away, yet so close all at the same time. I'm actually really glad that he popped the question a little earlier than I thought 'cause I sure don't wanna be double bridezilla between studying for comps and planning. I even have time to change my mind a few times!!  I do love these colors though, and definitely envision them as a part of our special day! What do y'all think?!

Coming soon. Bridesmaids dresses!

Blog Redirected

 

A Cheery Picture to Brighten your Day!

Yes folks, exciting news in my world. He engaged me.

On Thursday, January 20th to be exact. 

It was a fabulous weekend! Since my rock star bluegrass boyfriend fiance usually is not able to visit on weekends due to his heavy tour schedule it was a rare and special treat for him to still be here on a Thursday with plans to stay throughout the weekend. I'm not quite so sure that he knew for certain that this would be the weekend that he would propose, but he mustered up the courage to ask my parents when I left for class that day. He knew that he better ask them quickly because they were headed out the door for a weekend gambling excursion. They like those every so often. Anyway, as he sweated through the permission asking part of the proposal, he told my parents that he wasn't quite sure at what point during the weekend he would ask me. Meanwhile, I was being my diligent self at school (fairly sarcastic tone), trying to knock out all the work I needed to finish before the weekend started when I receive a text saying "when are you coming home?" with my reply being "sometime after 4:00" followed by an "it is almost 4:00." From the tone of the texts, I knew that meant "stop dragging tooshy around" and get my crap done. So I quickly gathered my unfinished belongings and headed home talking to him nearly the whole way home, about what- I can not remember. As I head through the door, I'm greeted by my darling boyfriend who usually always greets me with a hug. Thinking nothing of it, (other than wondering why he wouldn't let me get the rest of my body through the door to put my computer bag down) the boy steps back, busts out a ring box and gets on one knee! I definitely screamed for probably a minute straight, possibly damaging his inner ear hair cells. I did say "yes" followed by laughter and "ahhh, what do I do now?" 

Oh buddy, but I knew what to do. Four years and counting, I'd already had this wedding planned! I often disguised it by calling it "Party Planning." Oops! He even reminded me of the fact that I knew what to do. Needless to say we got on the phone to announce our good news. My parents did not expect a phone call to be merely a few hours after they left, but he explained that he just couldn't suffer through the nerves and the sweat the entire weekend. It was a good plan on his part, because we were able to celebrate all weekend.

 

Anywho, Blog Redirected:

Let the Party Planning begin! 

 

Its a snow day, of course I'll blog twice

I love Art.

As I mentioned in my post before last I wanted to get back in touch with my creative side. So, I thought I would check out some of my old paintings and pictures I did in high school and college. Now that I am living at home again, all I had to do was check out some of our hoarding closets to find them!

Pay no mind that some of them are straight up copied, I mean inspired from Van Gogh, National Geographic, Gustav Klimt, Ballard Designs Magazine and other random places. I mean if I can paint it and it look decent enough, why pay so much?!

 Here are some that I found:

Bluegrass Guitar (but really classical guitar on blue grass)

 Acrylic

Randoms

King Tut, Amaryllis, Van Gogh/ Disney inspired Asian girl

Mixed Media Fruit

Mixed Media: Eye Ball and Dogwood leaves, and a Plant

Gustav Klimt version

Water Color Flowers

Acrylic: Inspired by Van Gogh and Ballard Designs

Inspired by The Alchemist

A little shout out to my bf: Just as I was telling him that I would probably not really blog too much, he tells me that he got me a present. Yes!!! I thought to myself. I loveeee presents! He's a great present giver, but can rarely keep a surprise. So he says, check your email. He bought me my very own domain. Yep. wanderandponder.com. So I guess I have to blog now! Yep, and you'll have to read it ;) On that note, I'm pretty sure he only bought it since he bought himself one. It's called Procrastination Sucks! and guess what procrastination does suck, and he hasn't attempted a post yet. And on the bright side, I've posted twice in one day. No procrastination here. Hah!

So I have some new ideas for a couple of new paintings that I want to do so stay tuned. If I weren't stuck inside today would be a great day to go to Hobby Lobby and grab some canvas!


PS: If anyone knows how to get the ugly gray thing off of my blog, can ya let me know?! Thanks!

Snow mobiles and Toques.

Yeah. We don't have those here, but my Canadian boyfriend taught me what they are. When it snows in GA, the whole place shuts down. This year it has been quite frequently actually. I mean we had a White Christmas and now 5 inches here! That's a ton for us! Here's some snow pictures!

Here's some footage of Piper and Lanna playing on the ice today. Please ignore my special laugh.

Too Early for Another Post?

Nah. I gotta get this thing started some how! First day back to grad school was definitely not as brutal as I thought it would be. If you just walk in with no expectations and go with the flow, life is golden! It is an amazing feeling to start over with a great attitude, I love new beginnings! 

Speaking of new beginnings I might as well jump on the  

2011 resolution bandwagon. 

I normally like to call them goals, but I'll go with it for my blog's sake.

Here we go:

Floss More!! Let's face it, it's just something you gotta do yet so annoying and gross. I gotta admit though I'm all about prevention in every other area of my life so why not this one too? Flossing is apparently way better than brushing at least from what I remember learning in my Health Occupations class in high school.
Get back in touch with my creative side!! Start painting more and get some good projects going!  It's totally a great stress reliever and I'm hoping this blog will give me incentive to create things so I can share and get some feedback on.
Go to spin classes ever so often! I mean I don't want to over commit myself or anything, but I used to really love going to spin classes in college and in Nashville. I mean really, I pay fees for our on-campus fitness center and I never set foot in that place.

Get ripped arms! as in add some muscle with some tonage. 

Be more consistent- generally speaking.

Do daily devotions.... daily meaning consistently. 


# 1 resolution: NO, ZERO, NADA purchasing of clothing items or shoes for an entire school semester. Think I can do it?! Well now, you will be holding me accountable. Man, that's gonna be tough, considering that my town is a geographical oddity and the hippest place in town is TJ Maxx. But I really just do not need ANYTHING! The ONLY exception, I am possibly allowing myself to buy is an extra pair of scrubs for my clinical rotations. Since I only have one pair of the ONE color we are allowed to wear, and we all know scrubs can get nasty! 

Well, who said anything about not getting free things?! 

Remember my yesterday's post? Of course you do! Well, one of the blogs I stalk is The Adventures of Ordy and Joon,  Move over Kim Kardashian!! Joon's fashion sense is fabulous, she's like a Persian princess, haha,  and she is giving great things away! Check out her blog to find out how to enter to win!