Careen and John's Wedding

Here's a couple quick pictures from Careen and John's wedding on August 11th. I was honored to be a bridesmaid at this beautiful event. I met Careen (and actually, all the girls in these pictures) in church in a small group for single girls ~ now a bunch of us girls are married and some even having babies....God really brought us all together in His perfect timing!

Careen was a stunning bride! The wedding was in northern Wisconsin....I have to say, small town weddings are the best :) I may be slightly biased though!

Landscaping Before, During & After

We bit the bullet a couple weeks ago and decided to sign the contract for our landscaping work....Our front yard was ok, but our backyard was FULL of huge, scary weeds and I'm sure ticks, bugs and other creepy crawly things. The builder of our home did not sod our backyard or do any other landscaping except for sod in the front and side yards.

I wish I had some better "before" pictures of our backyard...the weeds just took off in early summer and it was treacherous out there! The photos I have are from when we had our home inspection and first moved in.

Upon thinking about this post, I realize I haven't even taken any inside photos of our home! I will have to get working on that as we've received most of our furniture now and things are finally coming together.

Back to landscaping...

Before:













During:


After all the weeds cleared out and backyard leveled out somewhat...this was heaven to our eyes!




The lawn edging going in....rock will be next.



Truck parked in our backyard!



Next day was the sprinkler system installation. Glororious, glorious automatic sprinklers.





After:




We have a backyard!!



Our new paver patio. We have our patio table & chairs and grill on it already. We just need to built some steps down from the patio door in our dining room, and we will be set!



In the right corner, I will be planting some flowers here. Not sure if I will do this year or wait until next.



Our front yard with one lonely tree (i.e. stick). It is much greener today as it has been raining non-stop for about 30 hours. We (as well as our water bill) are loving the rain!!

Eventually, we will be planting bushes and plants in the rock, as well as in the flower bed. I'd love to have a vegetable garden next spring with corn and carrots and the like. We're also hoping to get some evergreen trees and other trees from up north to plant in our backyard. It's pretty plain right now, but we've made a lot of progress in only a few months, so we're pleased with the results so far!

Thanks for looking :)

I thought I'd never get here!

I forgot my login information to this blog...it kept saying I do not have a blog....that could be true for as much as I post.

Thanks to anyone who may be checking this! ;) Someday I will get it going ... maybe ....

Getting my hair done!

Exciting news....I know...but it's literally been (gasp) months, since I got my hair done.

Haircut and color is in my works! I'm headed out in a few minutes to visit my friend, Hollie, who is a fantabulous hair stylist at The Hair District in St Louis Park. I highly recommend her!

I'm planning to get several inches cut off and hopefully something done with the color to make it vibrant and pretty again. It's sooo dull and blah...

No garage sales for me this morning! I've been packing and doing bills! :P

Minnehaha Falls

Dh and I went to Minnehaha Falls today after stopping at a church sale (!!!). Weather was beautiful, and the place was deserted...so we had it all to ourselves! The last time I was there was several years ago, and dh had never been. It's a classic Minneapolis landmark, and it was good to step out of our 'comfort zone' of the suburbs to check out something new!

I also started experimenting with Photoshop to put a border around this picture. I love the look - just adds so much to it, and once I figured out how to do it, I realized it is super fast and simple to do. What do you think??

Had a pretty good day at the church sale too - it was just good to be back out saling!! Picked up three FLAX shirts for $1 each, a pair of plus size women's Levi's for $1, a new Twins t-shirt for me for 50 cents, a Charles Woodson football jersey for $1 and a bottle of Clinique body wash for 25 cents. Yeah!! Got a good shopping fix out of the deal, and dh didn't even complain. :)

More Minnehaha Photos...

I think these would look better in the summer-time...but there's something to be said about the "awakening" of the forest in spring....

My first goodie package from a fellow blogger!

I admit that I've been checking the mail every day for the package I received today!! I only check the mail every few days because it only is filled with junk mail and bills. But, this week has been different! :)

I won this little contest on Shara's blog the other day...and I was so thrilled. This is my first blog goodie package I have ever received, and boy, was it ever SWEET!!!



Isn't this so cute? Love the little handmade card. I was actually just telling my dh the other day how I should be using my free time to do crafts with pink ribbons and bows. He laughed at me -- you do crafts??! I'm so blown away by the blogs I read...that I wish I was crafty and creative. Maybe one day...it seems like there is always something else to do. I know, priorities...

Anyway - I digress.




Some of the outside of the package... awww!!

And when I opened it....and took the pink ribbon off....I found this!!



I love this container. It will definitely find a new home in our new kitchen!! :)

I could hardly contain my excitement when opening the package... I kept yelling for dh to come see what I got, but he chose not to. What a dork!

This is the first item I saw when I opened the container...I won't be offended ;)



And what came next, but....



WOWWWW!!!! This photo does not show how much candy is actually in here! It was STUFFED! I had told Shara I had a bit of a sweet tooth (uh, understatement.) and did she deliver!! All kinds of goodies like sweethearts, bubble gum, pixie sticks (when my dh finally showed up, he gasped and said I LOVE THOSE!!!! He made a comment about snorting them, but I won't mention that here), Mike & Ikes, Sprees and much more! My dh made me promise to share with him, which I reluctantly will ~ just kidding!! There is MORE than enough to share!!

THANK YOU Shara!!! You are such a sweetie!!!

Happy Easter everyone.