Just Another Weekend...

In case you were blithely unaware, my obsession is Anthropologie. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE that store. I love their home products, their dresses, their cookbooks...

I went in this weekend and found some amazing $80 shoes. I did not buy them. I don't wear orange! And if I had bought them, I would probably be broke. However, if you do wear the color orange... Go buy them now!  Soooo sooo cute!


Unfortunately, my money went to this green dress that I probably couldn't afford.


Everyone I talked to at the store wanted this particular dress, specifically all of the sales associates. I usually wait to buy clothes from Anthro until they go on sale. I probably should have waited this time as well. However, they were already almost out of stock of this dress. There was one size 0 left in the stores. ONE. So I bit. I don't think this dress will make it to sales, and I have been waiting for it to come into stores since I saw it on their website a few weeks ago.

I tried it on with a cute black sweater, and I felt all dressed up for Christmas! Or like Zooey Deschanel. I'm sure some heels (as pictured above) would go great!

I also tried on the Carmindy Dress and the Sparked Threads Sweater. The dress was cute and much more subdued than what you see online in the picture. If I hadn't seen the dress in stores, I never would have thought of ordering it... or trying it on. The sweater was bleh. I'm used to my Free People Fluted Sweater that I love so much. The sweater at Anthro wasn't long enough or cute enough for my tastes which is sad since I'm so picky to begin with.

Finally there was the Jeweled Skinny belt that I got on sale. Justin and I had had our eye on another belt in the Anthro store, but... this one won out since it was on sale. We thought it may be cute with the Native Birds dress. (See here.) :) 

What do you think? Do you think the Caridad Ruffled Dress will go on sale? Do you like the Sparked Threads Sweater? Will the Jeweled Skinny Belt go with the Native Birds Dress?

Cleaning Up

Over the weekend Justin and I went to Ikea looking for options to clean up our spare bedroom. Our landlord was coming to figure out how to set up a security system, and we didn't really want him to think we lived like slobs. Hence, we started a major cleaning overhaul.

There was sweeping and vacuuming... mopping... and driving (our desk up to my parents house since we wouldn't be using it and needed a place to store it until we could sell it). I found one of my most favorite cleaning product ever... Softscrub. We started working on getting the grout in the bathroom cleaner than I even imagined it could get! (It worked in the toilet too, fyi.)

We could have left our house like that... clean but with junk everywhere. I'm not that kind of person though. Heck, I even did all of our laundry despite the fact that the landlord won't even be looking anywhere near our laundry basket!!! 

Unfortunately, the upstairs bedroom needed more than cleaning which is why we took that trip to Ikea. First of all, I need to say that if you can find your furniture elsewhere... do it. The furniture is expensive and takes up a TON of time. We had to wait at least an hour for them to get three boxes of wood from the back of the store. I mean... really??!!


Anyway, this Birkeland wardrobe was perfect for storing the fabric we had just laying around on the floor in our spare bedroom. The bedroom doesn't have a closet... or any other furniture at the moment, really. This wardrobe is HUGE once you put it together! (Or maybe the bedroom is just that small?) It holds a ton of stuff! Once we actually get furniture up in that bedroom, we are planning on allowing the use of the wardrobe for guests. In the mean time, it has solved our clutter problem.

On that note... our house is clean and ready for a visit from the landlord... or anyone else that wants to visit! :)

Bridal Shower (1950's Style)

I'm absolutely obsessed with anything 1950's, but I thought this idea was particularly creative and interesting.






I absolutely love the fun bright colors (specifically the red). And look at those cute aprons! What a fun way to incorporate the 1950's into a bridal shower!

I originally saw this fun shoot at The Pretty Blog. They feature so many pretty things! Go check it out if you want to find out more about this bridal shower... or just see more pretties! :)

Changes

The scare last Thursday (and Friday) have resulted in some changes that Justin and I are taking to make our house feel more like a home (as well as add some additional security).

Justin, I must report, is doing much better at checking and double-checking to make sure he has locked doors (with me triple checking). We leave far more lights on at night (with little regard to how this will effect our electric bill). I am now known to open the shutters for all of the windows to make it much easier to see out. (Justin had said it let's people see what we have/don't have, so he doesn't really understand why it's important for me to see who is seeing into our house and what is going on around it.)

The house still makes tons of creepy noises (as most older houses do) and with the electricity flickering when things come on or go off (as is normal for this particular house), I still get a bit unnerved.

In the past few months, Justin and I have been trying to spend as little "extra" as possible with regard to ourselves. We have a very limited budget with the majority of my paycheck going directly into savings. However, after some discussion, Justin and I have decided to splurge a bit (if possible) and buy things to make our house feel more like a home (and less like we've just moved). A rug in the living room, curtains, and more comfortable seating are just a few things we are considering. Unfortunately, all of these things cost money... and we are coming up on the season of giving. *sigh* Maybe one day we will have it all figured out!

In the mean time, I wanted to give a shout out to the following:

a) Georgia Power: While I did not appreciate the scare on Friday, I do appreciate the "public apology" via twitter. I appreciate you looking into the problem... and the fact that you will not be changing our meter again in the near future.

b) City Police Department: You guys have been SOOOO AWESOME! From arriving within minutes of us discovering my car had been broken into, to taking fingerprints, and having an officer come out to search my property with me, I truly appreciate how awesome you are! It definitely makes me feel safer living in this area!

c) DDS: I do not agree with how you update licenses, but I am ecstatic that the process has been as painless as it has been! (And only cost $5!)

d) Our Bank: You also have made this process as easy as possible. We truly appreciate the time spent working with us to get our accounts in line. Sometimes I am so glad I am not with a big banking company like Suntrust! Eeek!

e) My husband: who has been supportive, helpful, and awesome.

f) Our landlord: who also has been super helpful and is so awesome for agreeing to put a security system in for us!

Programs

Honestly, this was one of my FAVORITE parts of the wedding planning process. I spent sooo much time planning out the invitations and save-the-dates that it almost makes me sick. Do you know how little time I spent planning the programs? Do you know how much more proud of the programs I was than any of the other wedding paper products?

First we started out with paper. Thick paper. Program paper. 

Or maybe we started with the actual program. I don't remember.

Not being Catholic, I had to spend a lot of time on the wording and researching other Catholic wedding programs. Originally we were working with Father Tim, but he ended up having to do something for the archdiocese on the same date as our wedding. It was sad, but we scampered to find another priest to fill in. We ended up not even having a priest officiate which worked out quite well for us.

Point being... I had to e-mail him and the church coordinator about the wording and events within a Catholic wedding (that did not include communion). I needed to make sure I included all of the prayers and everything that needed to be said since only a few of Justin's friends and my dad's side of the family were the only to have ever experienced Catholic mass before.

Meanwhile, the wording for Catholic mass got changed as we were planning the wedding making things even more confusing. Ahhh!!!

So anyway, the program was double sided beginning with a cover page (including our names, the church name, the date, and the time) and ending with our thank yous and remembrances. We also made sure to include the names of everyone involved in the wedding mass including readers, singers, and ushers that were not necessarily standing with us at the front of the church during the mass.

I used a similar type to that which had been used on our invitations and save-the-dates.

My favorite part was the outside of the program. Justin had sifted through and bought a bazillion(!!) blue flowers from Ikea for our floral arrangements that I had NO IDEA what we were going to do with them! In January, I had bought a TON of ribbon from Hancock Fabric on sale that I also did not know what I would do with. So it came together. My mom and I spent 2 days cutting flowers, ribbon, and using a glue gun. *ugh* SOOOO TIME CONSUMING! But it looked so pretty, and I was sooooo happy with it! I was really afraid that all of the programs piled on top of one another would lead to flat flowers, but luckily this did not happen. On top of it, Justin (yes, Justin) had to teach my mom and I how to tie the bows so they would lay pretty. (Justin knows how to do everything! It really is scary occasionally. Apparently he learned this skill on a "How to Correctly Tie Your Shoe" website. Go figure. lol.)

At the same time as we were gluing flowers and tying ribbon, we were also poking holes in the pages of the program and sewing the books together. (Also very time consuming. So glad my dad was able to help!) Finally, we glued pockets inside the program covers to hold the map and information about the reception site. (The church coordinator had suggested the use of pockets to make church clean up easier. She said inserts typically get left at the church in the pews as they fall out of the programs. Then you have guests that can't find their way to the reception site! It probably didn't help that I had left the reception site as a surprise to everyone except out of town guests, immediate family, the wedding party, and the vendors.)


The one thing major that we did to the programs, that was even a surprise to me, was include two birds and a heart sitting on the ribbon that went around the back of the program.


My mom used to joke when I was young that if we saw birds sitting on a power line that they were having a meeting. I had a bird hole punch I bought for the wedding not knowing if I could use it. (Yes, they are technically black birds that I punched as blue.) Anyway, I was just playing around and being silly when I discovered that this could be a fun and unique way to personalize our programs without losing the class I was hoping to achieve. So my mom cut out approximately 300 "blue birds" on some thick blue paper while I used my Silhouette Cameo to print 150 hearts. Then my mom got to work gluing. I figured not many people would notice, but I was amused... Justin was amused. Everybody who knew anything about this little touch was able to notice and be amused.

Overall, I was so proud and excited for my guests to see our wedding programs. A lot of time and love went into them. I felt involved in every detail... and yet I felt like everything just came together.

I don't really have any suggestions for creating your own wedding program except to have fun. The minute you start worrying about copying somebody else or not being creative enough, you will probably get locked up and not be able to imagine what it is you want. Worst case scenario: call me.

Thursday

On Thursday morning Justin and I woke up to find the trunk open on my car. Upon further investigation, Justin noticed that nearly everything in my console was gone and everything in my glove compartment had been gone through. Lovely way to start the day, yes?

First I checked with my bank to make sure no money had been stolen or used -- it hadn't. Then we contacted the police. Within 10 minutes, we had 3 police cars in our driveway. (It's nice to have such efficient service!)

Unfortunately, Justin had either forgotten to lock my car and/or hit the unlock button unknowingly from inside the house creating the perfect "crime of opportunity". Also, unfortunately, I am a very forgetful person, and I had shopping cards (i.e. Kroger), gift cards (such as the ones received from our wedding), a little bit of cash (in case of an emergency), my license (You don't know how many times I've driven off without one!), Health insurance card (Justin put it with my ID), and debit card in my console. Of course the thief, not having time to go through and pick out what s/he wanted, took all of these things. As well as a switch for Justin's truck and a motormount for my car.

I'd like to say I've learned my lesson, but it really was random of me to have giftcards and car parts in my car. I had no intention of having my health insurance card with my ID until Justin put it there. I'm also really, really picky about locking my car. I double/triple check every time.

Anyway, the point is not whether or not I lock my car or what exactly I keep in it. The point is that now I find myself afraid. I'm not afraid of what has been done. The thief can keep the gift cards, my license has been reported, my credit frozen, and my bank accounts blocked. I'm just afraid of the thief coming back again. I'm afraid of someone thinking that the car was an easy target so why not try the house!

In over 10 years, I have never had a problem with what I keep in my car. I do not keep what I have out and visible. I regularly clean out my car. In fact, I get embarrassed easily when my car is a mess (i.e. not vacuumed, trash in the car from children, mud on the seats, fingerprints on the glass).

But it also makes me feel uneasy that my husband is forgetful and does not always think to lock my car. It makes me almost afraid to go anywhere with him in it... that maybe he will forget to lock it again.

I know I shouldn't blame him for my things being stolen. I knew the risk of keeping things in the car. I took the chance knowing how forgetful I am. That is my fault. I just hate that a decision was made (or not made) that made it easy for someone to break in to my car (possibly encouraging future break-ins in the future).

This break-in has truly had a negative effect on me making me want to move. There is no garage for me to safely secure my car in. I feel like even seeing my car outside the house is enough to encourage the thief to come back for more. I wonder if moving the car even closer to the house provides more protection? Would having a camera as well as a motion sensor light scare a thief? Do we need to get to know our neighbors better? Would that even matter at 2AM in the morning? And what did I hear at 2AM in the morning? Was that the person going through my car? Were they going through anything else? Was it an animal? Would it have stopped the person if I had turned on the light rather than not wanting to wake up my not-sleeping husband? Is there anything I could have done? Anything that I should do in the future?

Last night we slept with the lights on in the front room... just because. I felt like someone walking by the house may not know if we are awake or asleep and decide it wasn't worth the risk. I don't know if that is logical or a waste of energy. And the thing is... I really hope I never find out.

I'm hoping as the days go by, I can begin to feel more comfortable again. I'm hoping my husband has learned his lesson. I'm hoping we can take whatever measures we need to make the house more secure.

I think the thing I am most saddened by is the fact that we lost wedding gifts that our friends and family gave us. I feel like we have wasted their time and money rather than doing as I intended... helping it to go as far as possible using coupons to get great deals. That and the loss of security I once had.

Justin says the 'quick fix' may have deterred the thief from stealing something more valuable or attempting to break into our house. I hope s/he enjoys their wedding gift cards and car parts. I guess whatever makes a person happy is fine by me...

By the way, as a side note, Macy's was absolutely awesome when I called to explain that my giftcards had been stolen. They offered to send us a complimentary $25 giftcard which I accepted happily! So Macy's... I <3 you! Thank you for being awesome!