Bouquet Making

I decided to make my own bouquet for the wedding since we weren't using any flowers. I found an amazing one on etsy and it was beautiful but it was so expensive! This is what it looked like.

So I figured I should put my art degree to use, and started gathering supplies to make my own. Here's what I used:

A large styrafoam ball, cut in half (we couldn't find halves at the store)
Scrapbooking paper
scissors
a hot glue gun
a 1 1/2 in dowel rod
buttons
ribbon
long straight pins

After cutting the styrafoam ball in half, I had Brandon cut the dowel rod at an eyeballed length to make it look like a handle. I pushed the dowel rod into the bottom about an inch to make a dent. I then wrapped the handle with yellow ribbon and then wrapped a white ribbon with grey detailing over it. I then hot glued the handle into the styrofoam ball.


Then we had a massive cutting/folding/gluing party to make so many pinwheels. We decided on three by three inch squares and Brandon made a template to cut the corners evenly so I could fold them.

 

 

After using hot glue to secure the corners in the middle, I covered the ugly glue spot with a cute button.

 

Eventually I had a large pile of colors and patterns to pick from.

 

I'm sorry I didn't take any pictures of me gluing them to the styrafoam, but basically I did what I could to cover all of the white and make them fit togehter nicely. There were a few gaps that I couldn't cover, so I took a pinwheel and used a long straight pin to stick it into the styrafoam and it added a little depth to the layers of pinwheels.

 

I then used a large (1 or 1 1/2 inch) ribbon and glues loops on the bottom of the styrafoam by the handle to cover it the best I could. It also added more roundess to the whole thing instead of looking like half a circle. Lastly, I used very skinny grey ribbon and just glued some loose pieces to the base right by the handle so they would dangle.

 

Final result....

 

 

 

I LOVE IT!!!

And the best part was it all cost me less than $10. Maybe I should open a business?

This and That

So, I'm not sure what exactly to write about minus just the little things that have been going through my head.

1. I am very excited that we already got a lot of neat things for our apartment, like a whole cabinet full of beautiful dishes. But we don't have any silverware. Or a vacuum. Or a place to sit. haha

2. In less than one month, I will be married!

3. We're going away this weekend to a lake house my friend's grandparent own and they've invited a ton of us to come stay with them.

4. After kickboxing and zumba this week, I'M BEAT.


Sorry this port isn't more interesting. Nothing major has happened this week. Any suggestions on topic you would like me to write on?

Where is home?

Exciting news! Brandon and I will be moving all of our stuff into our apartment over the holiday! He will be living there for the first month and getting everything unpacked and settled. I joke with him that this is NOT the time to turn it into a "mancave" but we'll see how well he listens. It's really odd to completely pack up my life. I've gone away to college several times, but it was always with the expectation of coming home. For college, I'd make piles of what I wanted to take and what I kept at home because I didn't need it or didn't want it at school. Plus I came home every weekend, so all of my furniture stayed at my house.

But this time, it's not so much of a take it or leave it situation. When Brandon and I were digging through my basement where we kept all of my college furniture, it was more like take it or sell it. Now, I may be a bit of a messy person, but I'm not a packrat. But when it comes to little things like my rock collection when I was a kid (in an old 1986 Snickers metal tin!), do I take it or do I get rid of it? It's like all of these things that haven't been important to me but have always been there in the background are now pulling at my heartstrings again. What about all of my stuffed animals I've had boxed up for years?

I know Brandon has been feeling the same way, too. Cleaning out his closet, he's found a bunch of action figures and toys he played with as a kid. It's kind of like "Well, now what do I do with these...." Oh sure, some people keep them in their attic 'for our kids to play with someday' or leave them with their parents because they don't mind storing stuff. But it's the nostalgia more than anything that overwhelms me. My house is not going to be MY house anymore. It will become my parents' house.

When all you've ever know is about to change into something you've NEVER experienced, it can be quite scary. But I'm excited that we can start this new chapter and build our own home together. But it definitely makes you feel like you're leaving an old life behing for a new identity-one made together. Time to spread our wings, leap from the nest and pray for God to be the wind under our wings.

All Things New

So I haven't kept a blog in a long time, and hopefully I will keep up with it this time around. A lot of you may know thet last time I had a blog, I was chronicling my journeys through Haiti, but after getting so sick, I abandoned my blog out of sheer frustration and disappointment.

This time around, the new changes in my life are going to be permanent, "for better or for worse." That's right, I'm getting married! And moving! And starting a new job! Ahh! It's like I grew up or something. :)

So I figured that I'd start with who exactly I am marrying and how we met. For starters his name is Brandon Myers (hence the blog title). He's turning 24 next week, and he lives about 30 minutes away from me and a mile from my grandparents. This first time I saw Brandon was at our home church in October 2011. I was standing in the choir singing and noticed a new guy on the front row. When my mom and I sat down for service, I leaned over and pointed and whispered, "Mom, that boy is really cute." And she said "Then why don't you go talk to him?" And I was so taken aback by her boldness, I quickly blurted out, "No! That's not my job! It's the guys' job to come talk to me!" And she just smiled and let it go.

That week at work, I was talking to my good friend about how long it had been since I had dated anyone (two years for those of you wondering) and she encouraged me to try to meet new people. I am very shy when it comes to dating because I'm extremely picky and very cautious about opening my heart to anyone. One of the other girls chimed in and told me about an online dating site where she met her boyfriend. Immediately I was thinking 'No way. Only very loney creepy people sit online trolling other's dating pages.' But this girl assured me that this site was for younger people and a lot of them just wanted to branch out and meet poeple; it wasn't all about dating. So I hesitantly went home and built myself a profile. And guess who's popped up in the first five people I met?

The funny part was that I didn't even recognize him from his picture because it was of him next to his motorcycle with his helmet on. It was more of his personality description that caught my eye. And so I sent a quick "Hey. How's it going?" generic message and almsot fell out of my computer chair when his reply was "You go to Urbancret Church, don't you?" I always joke that my first thought was 'See, this is why I don't do online dating! Stalkers are EVERYWHERE!' It took me a minute to realize the guy who had caught my eye the week before and the guy whose profile caught my eye that day were one in the same. Now tell me THAT isn't a God thing?!

We slowly began talking more and more, then texting. And our first time meeting was in a group of friends when I asked if he'd like to join us for a movie. And I was smitten. I probably walked around for the first several weeks with a silly grin on my face. Now this isn't to say I changed my rule about opening my heart, but for some reason, everytime I felt the need to pull back and turn and run in fear, God kept my feet firm right where I stood. I continually prayed and asked God if this was the right way He wanted me to go and my feet continually stayed glued on the path we were on.

After about two months of talking, we officially started dating the first week of December. We were sitting in my living room and he puts his hand in his pocket and pulls out a small ring. He said "I've got something for you. Have you ever seen one of these before?" I studied the small silver ring with two hands holding a crowned heart. "No, what is it?" I asked. He said it was called a Claddaugh ring and it was something that traditional Irish guys would give to the girls they were dating. Wear it with the heart pointed towards you , and it meant your heart was taken. He asked me if I'd like to wear it and I teased "Ok, but which was do you want me to face the heart?" And he just kinda backed down and said "Any way you want, I guess." So I slipped it on, heart facing me and said "So I guess this means we're officially dating now?" And he just grinned and said "I guess so."

I was still so cautious about being in a relationship again. To me, relationships hurt. They left you bitter and cold because they never worked out for me. But God had long before begun a healing process of my heart and brough this new guy into my life to continue to stich up the scars. And I am forever blessed.