#ChipAndStephanie

I had the amazing pleasure of being apart of my one best friend's bridal parties this weekend! I cannot even begin to try and describe how beautiful and wonderful this wedding turned out. Stephanie was such a beautiful bride, and Chip was nothing short of classy. The couple was beyond adorable, I am so happy for them! Check out our hashtag via Instagram - #chipandstephanie - to see all of the fun!

Besides that - I have to share some pictures, and give some major props to everyone who helped make this special occasion even more special for Stephanie and Chip.

The rehearsal dinner was at the Ramos House, located in San Juan Capistrano. This venue was sooooo beautiful! Chip's Mom did an amazing job decorating and putting everything together. On top of that, the food was to die for!

The next morning, it was time to get ready for the big day! The family make-up artist showed up around 8 and we all got started! Stacy, the makeup artist, was amazing... I need to have her on call for when I really need to look fabulous! As someone who has only had my makeup done once in my life, I was really nervous I would leave looking like a clown... with dark eye brows (since the sun and chlorine has bleached them out) and super heavy Cruella De Ville eyes. I was wrong - she made me (and everyone else) look amazing! 

For some reason, Orange County was experiencing a weekend of high humidity and slight rain (hello, this is July! No rain please). So naturally... HAIR EMERGENCY! Luckily, one of the bridesmaid's brothers is a hair stylist, and he was AWESOME! Forrest Devitt is his name... not only did he do all of our hair, he freaking killed it! We loved talking to him and watching him work his magic. Stephanie had her hair done by a long time family friend, Debbie, who was also in charge of our touch ups right before the festivities started.

Then, we headed off to the venue - Arroyo Trabuco Golf Course in Mission Viejo. Natalie, from A Good Affair blew everyone away! Natalie was not only the wedding planner, but she was also the florist. My pictures don't do anything she did justice, but check in with Allison Maginn Photography in a few days!

Stephanie and Chip's wedding was like a fairy tale. The lanterns and awesome band (The Hodad's) made the night so magical. Congrats to Steph and Chip... Have a blast on your Thailand Honeymoon!

More Mason Jar Fun!

In the theme of all things mason jars right now... I have another great and easy little craft!

Today was our banquet for swim team. I was in dire need of something for my captains as a little "thank you for helping coach Steena when she's about to lose her $h!t" gift. Being the last minute person that I am, I ran to Michael's after work today (I had 1 hour and 20 minutes to put something together and get changed) before I had to head to banquet. I picked up some small mason jars, ribbions in our school colors, and candies.

I made adorable little candy jars with ribbion on them. They are almost identical to the flower vases I made in the post below. I made 6 of them in a matter of minutes (ok, it was 30 minutes, but pretty good)! So easy, and SUPER cute! You can do them with any kind of ribbion... you just have to get creative! I wanted to do a fabric on the top, but apparently Michaels does not carry the cute fabric squares anymore. :(

And while I am here, a big shout out to one of my best friends and co-coach. I love you Hillary! I couldn't have done another season without you! 

I'm back! ...with flower arrangements!

The last 5 months has been so hectic, I cant even describe it! But being that I finished Graduate School on Tuesday, I thought I would celebrate. To be honest, I was planning on going home, running around in my underwear and drinking beer. That didn't happen. Instead, I decided to indulge in Thai Food, watch Doctor Who, and CRAFT!

At Michaels the other day, there was a TON of stuff on sale! Mind you, I went to Michaels to get a poster board for my Thesis presentation and then ended up spending $80 on stuff that wasn't for my presentation... go me! :) I picked up some mason jars, flowers, and ribbion so I could make some arrangements for my graduation party. Im so happy I did, because they came out sooooooo cute!

It cost me $78 to make all 3 of these. The flowers were $5, the burlap was $6.99, Mason jars were $2.99 and $3.99, ribbon was $5, and the marbles were $7 a bag (I only used 1 jar of marbles).

To start, I got mason jars, marbles, burlap, and ribbion

I measured the ribbion around the jars and layered them, then glued them with tacky glue

I arranged my flowers in the color ordered that I wanted. Honestly, that was the hardest part!

Then I cut the edges off the burlap (for the smaller jars) and glued it on the jar

Then I put the ribbion on!

And tied some burlap bows around the ribbion to dress it up

And look at that! Aren't they beautiful?

Heres my little pic collage! :)

8x8 Scrapbooking

So, as you know, I LOVE SCRAPBOOKING! But goodness, I HATE 8x8 SCRAPBOOKING! I've made a few and hated every moment of it. Pictures don't fit, things look smooshed and all together, its just not enough scrapbook.

But being that one of my best friends live in Belgium, I cannot make her a 12x12 scrapbook and ship it to her a reasonable price. Which leaves me with the horrid option of 8x8 (which, FYI, fits in a US Postal Service 'Medium Flat Rate' ship box and ships to Belgium for about $45).

Although my hate for 8x8's is very high, I have a few pages that I really loved and I wanted to share them!

Luxembourg Cover Page

(Color meets Old World)

Flander's Field Page, with John McCrae Poem

(Example of 8x8 pages just being so cramped!)

Ten Duinen Play page

(I love how the pink and purple played off our colorful clothes!)

Christmas is almost here!

I can't believe that Christmas is right around the corner! This year has gone by way too fast! I'm loving my latest Pinterest craft, and I want to share it with you...

I made the chalkboard and it has become the center of my house. My friends look forward to coming over and seeing the newest quote. As the year goes on, I change the bow to match the season or holiday. I have seen people put these over their beds, which would be very fun too!

Happy Holidays... Hopefully I will have more crafts to share in the near future!

Election Unit - Day 4 Recap

Today I presented the Presidential Candidates to my second graders. I was really worried that the information would be over their head. I was also worried that they were too little to care. While I presented my lesson, as seen below, the kids were SUPER engaged. They were all over learning about the issues. I did not prepare an activity for them just because of my worries of them understanding. But I was wrong! THEY LOVED IT! The other 2nd grade class came and joined us too. When I was done teaching I paired them up and had them discuss their thoughts. And goodness, their thoughts and opinions where AMAZING. They were having full on adult discussions! It was amazing. I hope that you can inspire you kids to be educated voters like I did.

Best of luck!

GO VOTE! :)

Election Unit - The Candidates

Need a way to teach your kiddos about the candidates? Here it is! You can find the full presentation on my TpT page!

I am so excited to teach my kids about who is running! I hope that this lesson will inspire my kids to be independent thinkers when it comes to voting. :)

Please enjoy and share with your colleagues! 

Happy Voting!