It's a mailbox...No, it's a cardbox!

Is it a cute decorated, personalized mailbox?? Is it a fun, unique cardbox? Yes and yes! It's actually BOTH! Today I got home and ran to check the mail, just like I do everyday because I'm obsessed with checking the mail (or so Jordan says...) and today I was pleasantly surprised and beyond excited when I saw a big envelope and I knew instantly it must have the mailbox decals I had ordered from Etsy! It is only fitting that for our cardbox at the wedding that we use a mailbox! There were several options and people to go through on Etsy and I'm so SO happy and 100% satisfied with the shop I ordered from. First, I browsed all of the items at Marley In The Middle and sent Marley a message. She replied within the hour, was beyond helpful, and she even provided me with several proofs and different options to look at and choose from BEFORE I ever even placed the order and paid her anything. I could tell she was interested in providing good business, great customer service and amazing personalized products. I had ordered our last name and Est. 2012 in plum and the E monogram in light lavender, but when I got the envelope opened, Marley had included a note saying that she made a mistake and printed a set of decals in black too and included those as well at no extra charge! I ended up going with the black decals instead and I plan on using one of the extra plum decals on a glass backed frame with an enlarged wedding picture...also, something I've seen on Etsy and pinterest before but now I already have the decal to do it! The decals were super easy to apply and then I added the extra ribbon around the flag. It took me about half an hour in total. I ended up getting 2 sets of our last name/Est. in plum, 2 sets of our last name/Est. in black, and 2 E monogram decals all for $19. Now that is a bargain! This turned out SO cute and looks awesome, I'm happy it is the same on both sides! And big shocker, it has a monogram E on it...at least I'm consistent with my theme! Even Jordan is really impressed with it and excited that we'll have it at our wedding because it's so different than just a typical "cake style cardbox" and plus, I can't wait to use it at our first home! Yay for dual purpose wedding items that are so worth my time and money! I would highly recommend this Etsy shop for any personalized items and/or decals that you may need for a fun special occasion or anything else! Thank you Marley for helping add to our special day and creating these beautiful decals for us!

Sending Love Letters
To The Mr. & Mrs!

And finally, I can't stand secrets!! And right now, I'm keeping a BIG one in and it's killing me! Before we go any further, no, I'm not pregnant and no, we're not eloping or anything else crazy like that! But since I know Jordan from time to time reads this blog, I've been keeping this secret underwraps and trying to not even mention it because it's hard for me to not spill the beans. I don't know what is harder for me....trying to keep a secret to myself to not ruin a surprise? Or trying to get the secret out of someone, even if that means ruining a surprise for myself? Either way, they both frustrate me but I'm excited to be on the other side of it this time for once! I think tomorrow will be a good day to announce the big secret! :)

Prom, it's not just for kids....

What a wonderful weekend we had! My good friend, Leah, came to visit! She lives 5 hours away so we don't get to see each other much but it's always a guaranteed fun time when she is in town! On Saturday, Leah and my other really good friend, ironically also named Lea, went to do a first "unofficial" wedding dress fitting!!!!!!!!! I hadn't tried on my dress in quite a while and I have been debating back and forth, slip or no slip, so these two came with me to help give me their honest opinions. I brought along my shoes, headpiece and all jewelry and did my hair in an up do to give the full effect.....And let's just say, I was turning heads in the bridal shop, like it was my job. There were even some tears shed. So that was fun, exciting and an amazing feeling. I can't wait to get to it all again when my mom and sister are back in town for the first REAL fitting! The wedding is getting so close but yet is still so far away it seems! 

Anyway, after the dress fitting, the three of us girls then posted up at Chili's, stuffed ourselves full of chips, salsa and margaritas (hey, my dress fits with extra breathing room so it was a guilt free indulgence!) and then we came back home....and got ready for adult prom! We got all dolled up and if my boobs could fit, I would have rocked one of my prom dresses from high school but I settled for another fun party dress that I have instead. It was a fun, silly night with lots of drinking, dancing and shenanigans. Isn't that what prom is all about?! 

Sunday was a rainy and gloomy day outside so Jordan and I spent the day lounging, cuddling, recovering, and trying to do anything we could besides study for finals coming up in two weeks. I can't believe it will be May this week! There is so much to look forward to I can't stand it!!!!

my handsome date :)

love circle
my beautiful and amazing friends

All Gone

And just like that, all of the delicious homemade tag alongs are gone! It's safe to say that they were a big hit, one of the best desserts I've ever made on my own from scratch, and it will also be a repeated recipe in the future! Nom nom nommmm I love a good sweet treat! Too bad I can't ever resist the urges of my sweet tooth or kick it to the curb as easily as I did with my habit of drinking pop. As of today, I haven't had a single pop of ANY kind for 67 consecutive days!!!!!! And all of my saggy and baggy pants and shirts are the proof of it....not like I have a lot of weight to be losing any way, but it's amazing how drinking all of those empty calories really affect our bodies. I've been feeling healthier and better about myself without a daily pop and plan to stick with my new habit! Hold the pop, I'll stick with water, tea or milk! 

Homemade Tag Alongs

I found a recipe on Pinterest that I just knew I had to make on my own! It was for homemade tag along Girl Scout cookies!!! Who doesn't love to devour a whole box of Girl Scout cookies in one setting? Oh wait, only I do that? Shoot, you all are missing out because a cookie coma is the best. When talking about Girl Scout cookies, people usually name Thin Mints or Tag Alongs (now renamed to Peanut Butter Patties...lame) as their favorite kind of cookie. And rightfully so because they're both the ones I'd pick but I'd choose the Tag Alongs any day over Thin Mints! Maybe it's because of my obsession with peanut butter and Reese's that they remind me of so much....good thing Jordan is equally obsessed with all things peanut butter and Reese's so I knew this recipe would be a win-win for both of us. This was our cookie project that we made yesterday! I followed the recipe from Baking Bites and tweeked it a little bit here and there....

Cookie Ingredients

1 cup butter (or 2 full sticks)
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp milk

Filling Ingredients1 1/2 cups creamy peanut butter
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp vanilla extract

Coating
12 oz. package of semi-sweet chocolate chips

Makes about 3 dozen

Total time: 2-3 hours

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F.

2. In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Mix in flour, baking powder and salt at a low speed, followed by the vanilla and milk. The dough should come together into a soft ball. (This was about the time I was wishing I had a KitchenAid mixer...I'm hoping that we get one for a wedding gift!)

3. Take a tablespoon full of dough and flatten it into a disc about 1/4-inch thick. Place on a parchment-lined baking sheet and repeat with remaining dough. Cookies will not spread too much, so you can really squeeze them in more than you would for chocolate chip cookies. Or you could roll the dough out and use a cookie cutter but that seemed more time consuming to me...

4. Bake cookies for 11-13 minutes, until bottoms and the edges are lightly browned and cookies are set.

5. While cookies are baking, I made the peanut butter filling. In a small bowl, whisk together peanut butter, confectioners’ sugar, salt and vanilla then set aside. 

6. Immediately after removing cookies from the oven, use measuring spoon or a small spoon to make a depression in the center of each cookie

7. Cool for a 10-15 minutes on the baking sheet then I transferred the cookies from the sheet right to the counter since they were on the parchment paper.

8. Once the cookies are cooled, heat up the peanut butter filling in the microwave in 15-20 second intervals until it is really smooth and creamy. It should be easy to work with. Carefully spoon the filling to into the depression on the cookie and across the top of them.

Mmmm! So much peanut butter!
I didn't make them as thin or pretty as the real Tag Alongs
but there's nothing wrong with some extra peanut butter!

9. Chill cookies with filling for 20-30 minutes, or until the peanut butter is firm. (At this point, I stopped and made dinner and then came back to the cookies...)

10. To melt the chocolate, I didn't want to use the microwave because I knew I would have to keep reheating it repeatedly to coat all of the cookies. So I made a make shift double boiler (after burning and ruining an entire bag of chocolate chips first. Good thing I bought 2 just in case!) I filled the pot about 2 inches with water and had the oven set on medium-high heat. Pour the chocolate chips into a heat-resistant bowl that can sit on top of the pot and make a secure seal or as secure as possible to keep the steam in, which is what melts the chocolate.

Some of the steam got out but overall, it had a
tight enough seal to keep the chocolate melted.

11. This part got messy so that's your fair warning! Dip the chilled cookies into the chocolate....there's really no easy/smooth way to do this. I tried it with a spoon, fork and tongs and ultimately, just by carefully using my fingers to hold the cookie and coat it worked the best. Let the excess chocolate drip off then place on parchment paper on baking sheet to cool. Once the baking sheet was full, I put them back in the fridge to chill and harden. 

12. Once they are chilled and hardened, pour yourself a nice big glass of milk and enjoy! And accept all compliments from a very satisfied fiance who 100% approved and also devoured some right away!

Go Cubs Go!
The Perfect Combination!

13. Store in fridge to keep chilled so chocolate coating doesn't melt. I stacked them and used parchment paper between so they didn't get stuck to each other. These were easier to make than I thought they would be and well worth the time! Now we can have Tag Along year round...sell your heart out Girl Scout but don't come knocking around here anymore! Oh who am I kidding, I'll still buy some! 

it's a date!

This will be the first weekend that I've been home in the past 2 maybe even 3 weekends? Which sucks. And now I have to work tonight until 9:00. AND it means that I'm missing spending the weekend in Chicago with my sister to celebrate her birthday. And that sucks big time. Stupid work, always ruining my fun times! While I'm really bummed I can't make it to Chicago and hang with Janelle and her gang since I haven't seen her since Spring Break, I am looking forward to being home for once and getting to spend some time with Jordan. We've both been running around the past 2 weeks like we're chickens with our heads chopped off. Always going two separate ways, falling asleep mid-conversation and/or movie and both focusing on what we got going on individually for school and work and life. So it's time to zero on in on us this weekend. We plan on going grocery shopping....as in, I'll go do the shopping and Jordan will carry them in. We plan on baking cookies....again, I'll do the baking and he'll eat them afterwards. And then he'll clean up all of the dishes because me and dirty dishes just don't get along. Actually, I despise of doing the dishes and if it's anything more than unloading the dishwasher, count me out. Anyway, back to this weekend. Then we'll probably play a not-so-friendly game of Phase 10 because it always ends in one of us winning (usually me...my record is 15-3) and the other losing, like all games. And I'm sure we'll cap the night off with a redbox, cheap wine and even cheaper beer because that's just how we roll. And I'm going to love every minute of it. Even if we both pass out on the couch and recliner tonight by 10:30, which I'm guessing we will, at least we have tomorrow to look forward to! Cheers to another weekend!

T is for Trolley!!!

As of today, Jordan and I have been officially engaged for 8 months! Wow! And thanks to a very, very generous gift offer from my cousin, our wedding party will be riding in style! There isn't that many options in our area for wedding transportation and I was starting to get frustrated at the few options that we had. Until, we found Cedar Rapids Trolley Co. and they told us they had something just perfect available on our wedding day... After the ceremony, our wedding party is going to be cruising around town in a unique, vintage styled trolley! 

Who doesn't stop and stare when they see one of these?!
I know I always do!

Yay! This really goes with our whole vintage-style theme...I haven't been to any friends or family member weddings where they've had a trolley so I'm excited that we have this and will be different from the norm! We definitely didn't want a stretch limo because on those you can't hardly talk to anyone or see anyone besides who you're sitting right next to and that just wouldn't be any fun! I can't wait to cruise around town and take pictures on the trolley! Thank you Cody for your generous gift and helping make our wedding plans come together and our big day special! We love you and appreciate it so much! That trolley won't even know what hit it once the Cross-Easton wedding party takes over!

Good Looking Labels

I love cute return address labels. I'm not sure why, but I always notice these when people send them on wedding invites or Christmas cards. And I also love free stuff. Naturally, that means I love the *free return address labels that I just received from Vistaprint! Of course, the * means something...I paid $2.00 for each set of 140 labels for shipping (so technically, yes, they weren't entirely free, but still!) At Vistaprint, if you sign up for a new account, they usually give you some sort of freebie. Since I follow the Krazy Coupon Lady Blog I noticed that on April 8th, (which is the opposite of our wedding date, 4-8-12 and 8-4-12, so it was a sign!) if you signed up for a new account, they would give you 140 free return address labels! Turns out they offer this deal pretty often so if you need some labels, use this site! I used 3 different email addresses to get this deal so in total, I only paid $6 for 420 customized, super cute and awesome return address labels! And it's even more perfect that we're only mailing out 135 wedding invites so I only needed one set of the wedding ones....then I got 280 of the E (duh, I'm obsessed with monograms) ones with our full name on them for thank yous after the wedding and Christmas cards...and anything else we have to mail out! Here they are but with our street and house number blurred out just to be safe:

Perfect for our wedding invites!
Love the little bride & groom!

And perfect for our thank yous!
Same as our wedding colors
and has a monogram! 

All in all, this was a very random find but I'm so happy that I just went with it and ordered them without hesitating! These turned out way better than anything I would have been able to make on the computer and I got them in less than a week....for $6.00,  I'd say it was a very quality purchase! It's just one more thing I'm happy to have put my personal touch on to make our invites and wedding unique! And besides, I can't WAIT to use the E ones because that means we'll be married, ahhh soo excited! Only 110 days to go! :)

Ahh it's (almost) the weekend!

It's Thursday!! And tomorrow I get to sleep in! AND I only work 4 hours then I'm off to Des Moines for the weekend to visit the two cutest kiddos I know and love so much!

Sibling Love
Teagan & Kemper

I haven't seen them (or my bro and sister-in-law) since February...To be exact, since our epic weekend out in Madison. Which means it has been far too long! I can't believe a month and a half has passed by so quickly! Ahh so many things have happened and yet, I still have so much I need to do! But oh well, I'm not worrying about that now! My brother is running in a race and Kat is doing hair for a wedding so I get to babysit and spend a quality Saturday morning with the kids. I'm so excited for some snuggling, giggling and being a kid again with those two....and then of course, I'll enjoy some nice cold ones Saturday night with the adults of the house. Ah I can't wait! Now hopefully nothing bad happens to me tomorrow since it's Friday the 13th, that would be just my luck! Happy early weekend everyone, don't cross paths with a black cat tomorrow!

MORE bags, bags, bags.....

After a much needed spur of the moment road trip to my Grandma's this past weekend, I'm finally feeling a little more upbeat since my previous post(s). Sometimes, I just really need some quality family time and I'm so lucky and thankful to have my Grandma less than 2 hours away...especially since my parents don't live that close now anymore. It really sucks on weekends when I want to get away but especially on a holiday weekend. My Grandma did what every Grandma does--stuffed me up with food, played a few hands of cards, and then sent me home with an Easter basket while I was in a slight food/candy induced coma. There's nothing better than a Grandma's lovin.

Since I had been focusing on school the past two weeks, I figured it was time to start chipping away at another wedding project. I made a trip to a consignment store we have in town here and just to clarify, this consignment store is the bomb. They only accept items that are new/in good condition/in style and all that jazz. Basically, I've found tons of good finds and usually with the tags still on them! And I also always drop off stuff so I usually come out even or make money by getting rid of my stuff, awesome! So from the title of this post, I'm sure you can guess what I found....MORE BAGS!!!! As part of the gift to my girls in my wedding, I'm giving them these awesome tote bags to carry all of their stuff and then I'm also filling it with some goodies. So, while roaming around the consignment store, I came upon these beauties hanging up in the health/beauty section...

What are the odds...
They happened to have 10 brand new make-up bags
from Bath & Body Works with the tags still on them!

Yes, they had 10 bags which is exactly the number that I needed!! I have been searching high and low on the internet and in stores for low price make-up bags...Considering I need 10, I really didn't want to spend anywhere from $3-5 per bag! So, to add to my excitement, these bags were priced at the lovely price of $0.50 A PIECE!! Umm what?! Done and done. Perfect, brand new bags with the tags and for only fifty cents....I may or may not have squealed out loud and couldn't stop smiling. I love finding a good deal, especially one like that! Right when I didn't think this could get any sweeter, once I went to check out, the cashier told me I had a $12 credit on my account...so I got the bags entirely FOR FREE!!!! Yipee! :) Of course, the next thing I did was go across the street to Target and picked up some travel size items because I wanted at least one of the bags to have stuff in it! Here's what all I have so far:

-hairspray = $1.50
-static guard = $2.50
-tide to-go = $2.50
-deodorant = $0.99
-hand sanitizer = $0.99
-advil = I had this already but will probably get the individual packets for the rest of the girls...unless I can find some free pill boxes/packets then I'll fill those with Advil from a big bottle I have
-tums = pack of 3 for $1.70
-shout wipe = pack of 12 for $3.25
-kleenex = for some reason, I had 12 of these travel size kleenex packs
-band aids = had these 
-nail file = pack of 15 for $1.50
-Q-tips = had these
-bobby pins = pack of 50 for $2.50 then I cut cardstock paper to put the bobby pins on for each bag

I don't know why but I love travel size items!

Everything (so far) together!

There are a few more things I plan on adding to the bags like lotion, tampons, lip gloss, gum and/or mints. I don't think I'll put Static Guard and a Tide-To Go stick in each bag since those were a little pricier. So maybe just mine and my sisters because the maid of honor also needs a top notch bag! I'm estimating that each bag in total will cost $10-12 on average which is a good price range since I have a big wedding party to get gifts for. I also plan on making a "mini sewing kit" for my bag with ivory and purple thread, a needle and scissors...just in case! I've been looking at other blogs and magazines to help create these "Emergency Kits" and it's been a lot of fun! I want to make sure we're all prepared because not having things like this, would cause me anxiety for if/when (but hopefully never!) something does come up! It's always better to be over-prepared than under-prepared! And plus, these will be great for all my girls for after the wedding too because they can use this bag again and it will already be filled with the travel essentials! I love multi-purpose gifts or "the gift that keeps giving." I know my time and money is being well-spent because this is stuff that everyone will use at some point or another! So am I missing anything crucial or fun?! The rest of the goodies/present for their tote bags are a surprise...I can't give away all of my secrets!

no really, check the 'tude.

“I'm selfish, impatient and a little insecure. 

I make mistakes, I am out of control and at times hard to handle. 

But if you can't handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best.” 

― Marilyn Monroe

Yes, Marilyn. You tell 'em. Just because someone has an opinion, an idea, a vision, a WHATEVER IT MIGHT BE, that you don't agree with, doesn't make that person selfish. It makes that person unique, an individual, and themselves. It makes that person different from everyone else and independent. It doesn't mean they are being rude, disrespectful and need to apologize. Someone should never have to apologize for having their own ideas and views that don't match up with another person. In this crazy world we live in, everyday we are manipulated into wearing or not wearing something, eating or drinking certain things or avoiding various foods and drinks, listen to this, don't watch that...blah blah freaking blah, the list could go on and on. What I'm saying is, everyday we as individuals are challenged. Do you want to conform to society and listen to everything thrown at you about what you should or shouldn't eat, drink, wear, watch, or read? Do what makes YOU happy. And fight like hell for it to stay happy. If this means pissing people off, being painfully honest or being downright blunt to people, then so be it. If the person challenging you truly cares and loves and understands you, they'll come around. Maybe eventually they'll just agree to disagree with you. If they don't, well then, later nerd. Because bottom line is, when push comes to shove, shoving back gets exhausting and in the end, you realize it isn't worth the effort.

check the 'tude.

Today is one of those days where all I want to do is reality check people. Everyone in my path could fall victim at any time. Of course, there's quite a few who are most definitely at the top of my list. And then there's those who just need to be slapped for saying something dumb. Like, "Ooh the papers were due today? Can I email it to you by like, ummm, Friday?" No kid, you can't. It's Tuesday and it's not my problem you can't read dates and figure out when stuff is due. Get it together. Seriously! I'm not even going down that road right now. Instead, I'm just going to keep listening to my Pandora playlist of showtunes and grade these awful, awful papers. Watch out today people, because you don't want to mess with me! Sass pants are on and they're not coming off anytime soon!

A tisket, A tasket...A cute handmade flower girl basket!

My wedding project list seems to be getting smaller and smaller by the day which is an awesome feeling considering in 3 days, we're at the 4 month mark away from the wedding! Holy smokes, how did this creep up so fast?!!! I can't believe we've already been engaged for 8 months and only have 4 to go! All the wedding blogs and magazines I've read all say how fast the time goes while engaged and planning the wedding....and now I couldn't agree more! It's been fun and exciting, stressful and emotional, and we've had lots of happy and sad tears! This has really proven to us though how well we work together and help to balance each other out which makes us really look forward to our wedding day! Now, I'll show off my latest wedding project! The flower girl basket for my niece, Teagan!

Here's what you'll need:
-a "basket box"
-paint and paintbrushes
-sand paper
-hot glue gun
-any fun extra to decorate it with (I'll point those out in the pictures)
-And Jordan says "a steady hand"

Total cost: I had all of the paint and brushes and my mom got the box from Hobby Lobby and made the tulle flowers....so I'm estimating a total cost of $10ish on average

Total time: 2-3 hours

Start off with a plain, smooth "basket box"
as I like to call it!

Paint it any base color of your choice.
I used the paint left over that we got for free!
And I enjoyed a Shock Top Lemon Shandy while crafting :)

After sanding it off around the edges and in the middle
(to give it sort of a rustic look)
I free handed the words: Here Comes The Bride with a pencil

Very slowly and steadily, I traced along the words....
a short stiff bristle brush works best for this!

Once it all dried, I used the lace off of the flower girl basket
from my parents wedding and wrapped the handle with it!
Then I hot glued the tulle flowers onto the side of the handle

purple and green flower "poofs" on the side
to finish it off!

And that's it! Super easy and so stinking cute! Plus, a fun wedding heirloom to hold onto to pass on for future weddings! Who isn't going to love seeing my 4-year old niece Teagan carrying this down the aisle?! Now I just need to pick up some petals for her to throw and she'll be ready to strut her stuff....I'm praying that she doesn't chicken out now the day of the wedding!