a very pinterest party

I often think the perfect tag line for pinterest would be Ecclesiastes 1:9

What has been will be again,

what has been done will be done again;

there is nothing new under the sun

When I planned my sister's bridal shower almost every idea/food/game/drink/decoration... came from something I'd seen via pinterest. I did tweak ideas to be what I wanted them to be and it does take some skill to make all the ideas come together so I'm not totally discrediting myself... but it was a pinterest party through and through (which is ok, because I'm still working on my New Year's pinterest resolution).

My original post about the shower had a lot of pictures, but I wanted to make sure and go back and try to give a little credit to my pinsperations, so here's the round up:

Be sure to check out how I made all these ideas work for me here in my original party post!

via here

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Is it too late to heavily invest in pinterest???

our whimsical home

At the beginning of the year I discovered (via YHL) an artist on etsy who does custom house portraits with a whimsical flair. It took me less than 10 seconds to decide I wanted a picture of our house done and what a cool tradition it would be to have our future houses done as well.

Apparently, the rest of the world is of the same opinion because Rebekka Seale is now booked solid for custom house portraits, but luckily, I got in early enough to just have gotten mine in the mail this week!!! 

I am head over heals for it! This is my first piece of "original" purchased art and to have it be of my own (and first) home, complete with my two favorite little doggies makes it extra special!

Don't you just LOVE it?!?!?!!!

Here are the pictures I sent her to work with

Again, I love how it turned out and I love the whimsical flair!

Not only did I get the original art, but also the image on cd with instructions for printing post cards.

So be prepared, I'll be sending those babies out right and left to anyone who's address I can get a hold of! :) haha!

piano guts

FYI: this is a happy-sad-happy story.

Last year we inherited a piano from Kevin's grandma. I was sooo excited! I took piano lesson growing up and even though I'm not really that good, playing the piano is very calming to me. Lots of times I even sing along (again, I'm not that good it's just fun to do)! Kevin even says he likes to hear me play/sing! One more time... he doesn't like it because I'm good, but rather that I'm having fun :)

Well, I was so excited about getting the piano that I decided our basement was going to need a face lift just to get prettied up for the piano.

So I took a big step and decided to go ahead and paint the paneling and we went from this

to this

beautiful right??!!!

but I did say there was sadness in the middle of this happy sandwich story and here it comes:

When the piano tuner came he discovered a crack in the bridge of the piano and said that the piano would not be able to hold a tune for more than a very short period of time. We called several piano repair shops and they told us that it would cost upwards of $1,000 to fix and that was more than the piano was worth. The repair shops didn't even want the piano for free so then we knew it was a dire situation. After several months of looking for someone who wanted a free piano in this condition and learning the city would charge $80 if we simply took it to the dump, we decided it was time to see what the insides of a paino look like, or rather

piano guts!!!

To make the best of the situation we Kevin took apart the piano piece by piece to salvage the cast iron & metal pieces and to enjoy this rare chance to take something so intricate apart that didn't need to get put back together.

This waranty slip was stapled to the back of the piano - I'm feeling pretty rich since we were able to select the hightest household income:   D - $10,000 and over

ice cream for everybody!!

Not only did we have fun taking the piano apart, but we were able to find another piano so I could keep up my skilled playing! Kevin saw an add in the State Farm classifieds and even though this piano was listed for $350 the previous owner ended up giving it to us for just $100 WAHOO!

This piano followed the previous owner's grandma from the bar to the church and then was used as a practice piano for the owner's concert piano days. It's a fun story and having someone else's grandma's piano is the next best thing to having your own!

Now to just finish painting the basement...

If only it weren't so easy to get distracted into playing the piano...

Someday it'll get done...

Someday...



sneak peak & a passport

Sneak peak: Curtains!!

I'm hoping to get my new curtains sewn & hung this weekend. Is anybody else as excited about this as me?? That would simply not be possible.



Also, I got my passport in the mail!

It only took a couple of weeks (3 maybe?)

So now we're ready for our trip to Punta Cana later this summer, I can hardly wait!!

sarah is getting married so I threw her a paaartay

My little sister (Sarah) is getting married (sniff, sniff *tear*)

I got to host her bridal shower this weekend and it was so much fun!

Warning: there are lots of pictures and I'll probably post again so you can see all my "pinsperations"

First impressions are always important and one of my favorite parts of the shower was indeed the invitation (print file from this etsy shop)

I love how cute this ruffle wreath is (DIY project, details here!)

Awww Sarah & Tristan

Everything turned out out so pretty (again, thanks to pinterest!)

I LOVE flowers and I love decorating with them and I love taking pictures of them so....

I got all the different ribbons at Hobby Lobby and hot glued them to the mason jars

The flowers were from the grocery store.

Each guest wrote a note/saying of love or wisdom to Sarah on a spoon!

(I forgot to take an after pic)

Now comes the all-important food

(I got all my fabrics from JoAnn's)

Mini cinnamon rolls

Fruit salad

Breakfast crescent ring

(with hashbrowns, bacon, egg & cheese)

Blue cheese stuffed mushrooms

(a go-to favorite, recipe previously posted here)

& asparagus mushroom quiche

(this was very yummy!)

I had a bunch of different fruit juices on had so you could create your own mimosa

Besides flowers, mimosas also make it on the list of things I love :)

And you know I can't do anything without cupcakes,

but these are MUFFINS... with icing

Banana muffins with peanut butter buttercream

Chocolate chip sour cream muffins with chocolate buttercream

&

Blueberry cupcakes with lemon cream cheese icing

Finally some pictures of people!!!

This is the family table

and this is the friend table

We started game time with this fun door prize:

"who has the groom"

the envelopes were taped to the bottom of each guest's chair and the person who had the groom was the lucky winner (everyone else had a celebrity Mr.)! These seriously crack me up every time I look at them!!!

The next game we played was called Staches & Tiaras.

I read a question and then an answer and guests had to guess if the answer was the groom's or the bride's and hold up a mustache (groom) or tiara (bride) to cast their vote

Tristan & Sarah gave the same answer for several of the questions so I guess that means they are going to get along all right :)

This is my mom... she doesn't usually have a mustache ;)

We also played wedding scattergories, match the wedding clue to the candy & the price is right.

I'll give more details on those in another post b/c they were all fun games to play at a shower/party!

Also, I didn't take any pictures during opening the gifts... I think getting up at 5:30 to get everything done by the 10:30 party time fried my brain... you know, more than it's usually fried anyway :)

Here's the formal family shot

and the friend picture

and Sarah (my sis) & I

Isn't she beautiful?! Tristan has no idea what a good catch he's made... but he'll figure it out :)

Sorry for the load of pictures, but it was so fun and I wanted to share!! 

UPDATE: See all my pinsperations on this follow up post

UPDATE: See how to plan for & play the games in this follow up post

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