Bicycle-Themed Wedding Shower

I am so freaking excited to finally start sharing some of my wedding posts! I kinda stopped blogging last August right as all the fun was starting, so pretty much nothing made it to the blog. And now it's finally time! So get ready, because there will be about 20 or so come at ya. I'll try to space them out (if y'all want me to), or I can just send a flood of them a couple days in a row. We'll see how it plays out.... But regardless, I can't wait to share all the lovely wedding things with y'all!

My very first wedding shower was thrown by some very special women -- my sister Megan, my Grandmother, my Mama, and some amazing helpers - my "Aunt" Jane and her daughter Amanda. ("Aunt" Jane is my mom's best friend, and not an actual relative, but she might as well be sometimes!) They hosted the shower at the University Center Club at FSU. I knew they had been working hard on the decorations for a while, but I didn't know what they were doing. So I was thrilled and surprised to find out that they had incorporated some amazing bicycle decorations, to match our wedding theme!

Sister, Grandmommie, me, Mama

Me, "Aunt" Jane & Amanda

My Granddaddy actually took apart an old bicycle, cleaned it up, and then painted the wheels to match my wedding colors! It was so amazing, and I was so impressed! They they attached pretty flowers and sparkly pieces as well. They also used the seat, the pedals, the handlebars, and even bought a brand new basket all as the centerpieces for the tables. And come to find out, practically my whole family got involved in making the centerpieces - my Papa, Aunt & Uncle all ended up helping and I was so touched they all had a hand in it! Amanda made homemade oatmeal raisin cookies, and little purple pieces that look like bicycle gears. So cute!

Blog-friend turned real-life-friend Angie :)

It was a seriously beautiful shower, and I'm really glad it was the first one. It was a great way to kick off the wedding festivities, and my sister, Grandmother and mom did a wonderful job with everything! I was so touched they took the time and energy making my shower match my bicycle theme. They put so much hard work into it, and it really showed. The guests all loved it, and thought it was cute. And of course I loved it too! (And the great part is I got to keep all the cute decor, and recycle it for the wedding too!)

Thank you again to those lovely ladies in my life, who hosted such an incredible shower for me!

And I'm linking up with Kristyn at Chits & Giggles today for Wedding Wednesday!

Sunny Love,
Halie

Precious Little Turquoise House!!

If y'all haven't noticed, I've been a bit M.I.A. from the blogosphere the last couple of weeks. And it's been quite refreshing. I mean, planning a wedding and moving into a new house takes a lot of time and energy.... and yes, I did just say moving into a new house!! Jeff and I finally found a perfect little rental house for the first year of our marriage, and so I'm here today very quickly to share that with y'all, at the request of my dear friend, Angie :)

Our house is a cute little 2/1, with a front porch, and a side deck, and a non-working, cute little fireplace. It was built sometime in the early 1900's, although we don't actually know when. The owner claims that it was even a speakeasy at some point during the Prohibition Era! How crazy awesome is that?! And get ready to be shocked, because it's a very bright color. But it's just so ME, and I actually love it! I don't think I would ever choose to paint my house this color if I owned it, but I actually really like it the way it is right now, and can totally handle it for our rental house.

It has two front doors, because it was originally built to be a duplex.

And now for some photos of the inside. Keep in mind we took these the day we first went to go check it out, so it's basically completely empty, with the exception of the tools and supplies of the property manager, who was still doing some touch-up work on it...

Living room, with "other" bedroom behind it. (This will be craft room/office/twins' room when they visit)

Other corner of the living room, with my car through the window :)

Through that doorway is "our" bedroom, and the doorway behind that leads to the closet & bathroom.

Our bedroom, closet/hallway thing, and bathroom in the back.

Other side of our bedroom.

Our closet.

Laundry room/mud room that is next to the bathroom, & behind the "other" bedroom.

View from the laundry room, through the "other" bedroom,  to the living room.

This is (most likely) the original window hardware from the early 1900's!

Cute little (non-working) fireplace - can't wait to decorate this all cute for fall with pumpkins and stuff!

Panoramic of living room and half of kitchen. Oh, and I love those built-in bookcases!!

We got Jeff all moved in this past weekend, well for the most part anyways, and then I'll be moving in after we get married! (Which is now just 31 days away! Holy stinking moly!) Things are still crazy and all over the place, and nowhere near finished, but it's so cute and I love it, and we're having fun so far. Can't wait 'til I get to leave here too! :)

Thanks to my Uncle Keith for letting us borrow his big ole' truck to bring everything in!

(Sorry for the crappy, nighttime iPhone quality of the next few pictures....)

There's no pantry, so Jeff put a back on one of my bookshelves, and we turned it into a pantry!

Hand-me-down table and chairs that we're going to fix up. Probably going to have multi-colored chairs!

Little bookshelf pantry :) We might eventually put curtains on the front to keep it neat.

Panoramic view of the kitchen.

In a few months, I'll of course share another post with updated pictures once we start getting more settled! I can't wait to add cute little touches all over the place, and really make it our own! For now though, we're still working on basics like a couch and getting internet. But at least we finally have our own place! The bright turquoise color is actually pretty awesome, and the inside is super cute as well. I love older houses, and this one has plenty of charm and character.

So glad we found this cute little place of ours!

Much Love,
Halie

Pinstagram Summer

I took the last couple of days off from blogging, but I'm still alive and kickin'. It was weird not coming here and writing a post, and still weird throughout the day with no comments to read and emails to respond to, or check on my stats too many times....but it was also good to just breathe a little bit. I'm not here with any sort of writing that would win any prizes, I just want to share a few of my Pinstagram Summer moments from my life recently. It just seems like so many more things Instagram-worth happen during the lovely summer months, and I've certainly been sharing my share of photos lately....

1 / Beautiful sunrise on an early morning run

2 / Super cute trinkets and sweet note from my friend Megan in Tennessee

3 / Big Easy Snowballs with my family

4 / Wedding invitations ready to be taken to the post office!

5 / Gorgeous, random hibiscus flower in the middle of our azalea bushes at home

6 / Finally got to play Cards Against Humanity, and had a blast

7 / Free chocolate ice cream cones at Bullritos, somewhere in Georgia

8 / My wedding shoes are in that box!!

9 / Chipotle salads are really freaking delicious, and don't even need the dressing

1 / Putt-putt night with Jeff and the twins

2 / Beautiful blue skies and corn fields in the middle-of-nowhere-Georgia 

3 / Movie night with my man 

4 / Love my amazing photo guest book I made using Shutterfly!

5 / Drink break during a long day of running errands and shopping

6 / Sweet Bath & Body Works haul from their semi-annual sale

7 / Pretty flower/plant-thing from my coworkers, before moving to my new job

8 / Love summer days spent at the pool

9 / Matchy-matchy family for the twins' Superman-themed 7th birthday party!

And for you bloggers who stopped using Vine the minute Instagram got video, you've been missing out on (barely any) videos made by yours truly. But when I do remember to make a video on Vine, they're kinda cute :) Or at least I think they are...



So that's all I've got to share with y'all today. I may not be back to every-day-blogging status again for a while as wedding planning gets crazier and crazier, but I will still be here when I can be. And then hopefully I'll be able to resume my regular blogging schedule again in just a couple more months! Thanks for sticking around here with me though! Bloggy friends are such good friends :)
Much Love,Halie

Planes, Grains & Automobiles

Monday morning - we meet again.... and this is a seriously exhausted Monday morning at that. This weekend was so crazy busy, I got very little sleep, and I could have definitely used an extra day just to recover from it. So let's just head straight into our normal recap, shall we?

FRIDAY
Jeff's parents took us and the boys to see the new Disney movie, "Planes," and it was really, really cute. Good job Disney for making another heartwarming movie that brings a tear or two to my eyes... But really, it's a great little movie and we all enjoyed it :) After the movie, we got the rest of the boys' stuff packed in the car and ready to go for the next morning.

SATURDAY
Got up bright and early for our drive up to north Georgia to meet their mom. We grabbed breakfast from Chick-fil-A, and then hit the road. A couple potty stops and five hours later, we ate lunch, and said our goodbyes to those super sweet little boys. We are so thankful we got to spend six full weeks with them this summer, and we just had so much fun with them!

We then made our way over to Atlanta, to visit Jeff's best friend/best man. We went to a cookout at one of his friends' house, and had lots of fun. All of his friends were really nice and welcoming, and didn't make it awkward for us even though we knew no one! After a delicious dinner (grilled chicken and sausage made by an awesome guy from Australia) and some homemade ice cream, we all played Cards Against Humanity. It was my first time playing, and I loved it! I want it for myself now of course. There were 12 or 13 of us playing, and I actually won with five black cards! Holla!

SUNDAY
Woke up bright and early again to head home from Atlanta. We splurged again and got Dunkin Donuts for breakfast, and it was oh so yummy. We took a different route home from ATL than we normally do, and we loved it! It was so gorgeous. We saw so many fields of crops and things, and it was actually really interesting. (We ended up Googling how corn and peanuts are harvested, and we learned something new while we drove...)

A couple of potty stops, some gorgeous back roads of Georgia and about four and a half hours later, we made it to my Grandparents house for a big family lunch! We celebrated my Aunt and my Papa who both have August birthdays. I later worked on addressing the envelopes for our wedding invitations, then we had our first pre-marital counseling session. We stopped by Publix to grab a bit of groceries and pick up a Redbox (since we had a code for a free night!), and then spent some time just resting at Jeff's house...while I addressed some more envelopes.

Super busy, and super fun. We had a great weekend, but we are definitely both exhausted. I skipped my run this morning so that I could sleep until 7 am, rather than 6 am, and just that one hour wasn't quite enough. I'll run tomorrow morning though, so I can start week 6 of 5K training! Tonight and tomorrow we will be busy working to get our invitations stuffed and ready to go, so that we can get them sent out by no later than Friday! Ahhh, so exciting! They turned out great, and I can't wait to show them to you in a couple of weeks, once they've been sent and seen :)

Hope you lovely ladies are having a good Monday so far. I'm looking forward to working on wedding stuff tonight, and making what Jeff has named "Adult Bagel Bites" for dinner! I'll try to make them kind of healthy-ish, and count the calories, but they're just gonna be so yummy!

Much Love,
Halie

Planning, Dresses & Purple Pens: Some Favorites

I got up this morning (even when I really super didn't want to), and did my early morning run of 2.5 miles. And it felt rough. But at the end, I felt good because I have now completed week 5 of my 5K training, and we're just under a month away from race day! Holy crap that's crazy! But I'm excited and ready and I can't wait to have a blast actually running a race...weird!

Today, in honor of completing week 5, I'm sharing five of my current favorite things for "5 Fave Friday."

ONE - Cute, snuggly little boys. Every night for the past two weeks, I've been reading a book to them out loud, and every night they come and snuggle up next to me, and sometimes fight about who's turn it is to sit closer to me. And it's just so stinking sweet. It kinda makes my heart almost burst it's just so sweet. I really do love them, and I'm incredibly blessed to be able to inherit these these precious boys as my step-sons!

TWO - Gems with Friends. It's one of those Zynga games for your phone (like Words with Friends and all those others), but this one is definitely my favorite of all of those. And I'm more than a little obsessed. The problem is, almost no one I know actually plays it, so all of the 'friends' I play with, are just anonymous opponents. So some of you lovelies should get it and then we can play together :) My username is Halez88...

THREE - Buying new dresses, in smaller sizes. It seems like almost all of my clothes are now at a point where they're just getting too big to still be worn. And hello - obviously that's exciting! But my favorite is buying new dresses for work at Target, and instead of buying an XXL (I have a couple of those from a few  years ago), I'm now buying just an L. Definitely a favorite.

FOUR - Wedding planning. Duh. I was going to try not to talk about wedding planning on this list since I talk about it in just about every other post it seems like...but I've got serious "Bride Brain" right now. Soooo #SorryImNotSorry, but planning my wedding is definitely a favorite.

FIVE - Writing in cursive. I know that's a really weird one, but I'm just trying to share 'the real me' with you guys, as nerdy as that real me might be sometimes...But seriously. I started doing it a couple of months ago, in order to practice my cursive handwriting, so that it would look pretty when I hand address our wedding invites. Well now, I just do it all the time! And I really have gotten better, so at least I accomplished my goal of improving. I'll be addressing the envelopes next week, so hopefully I make each one look so pretty!

This awesome purple pen is also my favorite....

And that wraps up five of my most random favorite things right now! Hope you guys liked this little glimpse into some of my weirdness ;) Sometimes I try to keep the weird stuff to myself, but sometimes I just gotta let it out and share it. Today was obviously one of the sharing days. Don't hold it against me though, mmkay?

Tomorrow we take the boys back to their mom, and we won't see them again until our wedding. (Whoa that sounded weird and crazy.) It's been a great six weeks with them this summer, and we've had so much fun together! We have to wake up super early in the morning to hit the road, then drive five hours to North Georgia. Then Jeff and I will head over to Atlanta, to spend one night at his best friend/best man Adam's house. Tomorrow is also our two-year anniversary! But we're putting the celebration on hold for a few days, and we'll go out one night next week. Sunday my whole family will get together for lunch to celebrate our two August birthdays, and then I'm hoping to get some wedding planing or wedding crafting done in the afternoon/evening.

Definitely going to be a busy weekend, but I'm still of course looking forward to it! Hope y'all have good Friday's, and fun weekends as well!

Much Love,
Halie

Plane Tickets for the Honeymoon Have Been Purchased

So for a very abbreviated story real quick - I was cut off BIG TIME in traffic this morning on my way to work, and it infuriated me. I was yelling and laying on my horn like crazy, and my heart was racing. My mama (who was directly in front of me in her car), saw it happen and she said was so livid she wanted to get his tag number and call the police to report his aggressive driving. Suffice it to say, that wasn't the loveliest way to start off my day.....

But in much more pleasant and exciting news, I really just wanted to stop in here for a bit and say how freaking EXCITED I am, because Jeff and I got our honeymoon booked last night!!!!! Thanks to his very generous parents and their time-share-owner-points-stuff through Sheraton hotels, we will be spending seven nights at the Westin Lagunamar Resort in Cancun, Mexico!!!!

We also got a jump on it and booked our plane tickets last night, and found a pretty awesome deal through Priceline.com. Thanks for negotiating those prices for us, Mr. Priceline Dude. We appreciate that! So now, Plane Tickets for the Honeymoon Have Been Purchased, and the reservations at the resort have been made! And clearly I'm pretty pumped about that! Just to make you drool a little bit, here's some photos from their website of where we'll be staying :)

You guys, I'm so excited about this I can hardly even stand it! We're only 58 days away from wedding day, but that feels like so long in respect to boarding that plane to Cancun! Holy crap, we're going on our honeymoon to Cancun! Seriously, I might explode with excitement and happiness. Be prepared to clean up bits of confetti and glitter and sunshine rays, because I'm sure that's all that's inside me right now with all this excitement :)

Much Love,
Halie