get out of here & on someone's fridge....

SAVE THE DATES = IN THE MAIL!

Aside from a few stragglers, international, wrong address...etc - I officially dropped those babies off about an hour ago!
Our building mail man is going to hate my guts because I shoved 180 Little postcards in our small drop box...oops.

:)

I spent 88.00 at the grocery store on stamps. ACK.

miss you

ive not written in a while.

ive been taking an e-break.

today would be my mommy's birthday.

i am sad about it.

thats all i have to say.

sad sad mallory.

U G H

I sincerely dislike blank.

ow! my aching hand.

The stack on the right is what is done, the stack on the left is not done.

Good Lord this is terrible.

Addressing stuff is the PITS! :)

No pain, no gain!

olympians!

My evening consisted of : my cheat meal, mcnuggets! Olympics! And the hills have eyes.

All in all, the best part was being home, snuggling with my future husband and our canine child, Amelia.


Goodnight moon.

busy

I've been so busy with work. I haven't been on the computer in 2 days. My google reader probably has 987 entries for me to read and I'm nervous!

I've been trying to keep work my main focus. See, at our salon everyone has started as a shampoo tech, moved to apprentice after a year-ish, train long enough under a master stylist to obtain 3,000 hours of on the floor work - based on 40 hour weeks - roughly a year and a half- two years...so all this saying I've been at my shop for 3+ years, worked my way up, and now I am preparing to take my state board exam after putting in my 3,000 hours. This is the end all, be all.

After you take your exam, loads of things change. You take the reins of your career. You begin to profit off the clients you've worked for two years to keep. You no longer work for their tips, you make comission. They start you on a mid-hourly pay, and comission, and slowly ween you off hourly pay until your comission profit is large and in charge. All in all I work for an amazing group of people who sincerely care about their employees. They pay half my health insurance and we have a killer 401k plan, and they ALWAYS offer amazing continuing education classes - at our own salon! They fly top stylist in quite often to teach personalized classes to us...all free of charge to us, simply to better the entire shop! - try finding another salon around that does those things, you won't.

This is why I have been consumed with hair lately. This test is really important to Eric and I - our wedding hinges strongly on it - the more money I start to make - the less strapped for cash we will be come wedding time. But I've got to show my true colors, nail this test, and earn a chair at my shop! :)

So please forgive me for not being around 100% - I swear I'll still write a few times a week !!!

Anyone else ever have a major job transition during wedding planning? Maybe that your budget rested on?

Goodnight!

ps- shutter island is a good movie...go see it!

dolla dolla bill yall.

Why do weddings cost money?
Why aren't we all graced with special "wedding currency" when we are born that pays simply for caterers, and bands and other lovely things??!! I have all these things booked & the mountain of small payments here and there is growing bigger and bigger by the day. Seeing as Eric & I are both working our full potential and having "some" to save ( I say "some" because it's still a relative term...) I just don't know where all this cash is going to come from.

Now, I know we will get wedding money & I will be making more money soon (PRO-fessionalll y'all!) it's still so hard to imagine setting aside over $7,000 for a wedding. Jeepers.

BUT! We can and will do it!

Anyone have any wedding tips of the financial variety?

fat tuesday! ( a day early! )

We celebrated by making homemade king cake, sans baby, and drinking abitttaaa!

it's booking day!

Today we will book my bachelorette trip to the one & only....



!!!!!!!!!!!!

We are going almost exactly a month before my wedding - 5 girls!
I love Las Vegas. I went this past summer for my MOH's bachelorette party. Then it was 6 girls - most of which were co-workers, so to be able to let loose in a wild city was wonderful. We ate at some amazing places & went out TOO much! Ha. But all in all we had an amazing time, which is why I decided to rally my troops to head to sin city to celebrate my up coming nuptials

We are staying at the Mirage in two rooms - and I couldn't be more excited!

On another note-
E got me a massage for v-day! I have an appointment today at 1pm.
Oh what a precious soul he is.

Anyone else get any goodies for V-day?

Snow day!

Today we got a LOT of snow. A lot being pretty relative seeing as we never get snow in Birmingham.

:)



Beautiful!

Tommorrow I'll be talking about my bachelorette trip!
:)

changes!

Oh my. After my doctors visit yesterday, she steered me to a diet specific to my condition....YIKES.

My foods are so limited.
Nothing to drink except water, chammomile tea, and milk.

No pepper, no artificial sugars, no deli meats...etc.

I'm taking the night off to rest.
I'll be back tommorrow!

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hair chronicles pt. 2

Well as I decided to do a little more hair searching, I took a 500th look at the up-do that has had me drooling, wanna see?




and yes, I believe it is the one.
I say that like I said about my fiance.

I have love affair with hair. Don't tell him.

Being a hairstylist I have to be realistic and say that up-do has some serious hair all hidden in there. Seeing as my current hair is MAYBE chin length, I have some serious growing to do. OR luckily I can just grow like a champ until a little bit prior to the wedding and get our fabulous extensions put in for some instant long locks!

I also may invest in one of these pretty babies -

Courtesy of : Prim and Posies etsy shop!

:)

hair chronicles.

Let it be known that I have a serious problem with my hair.
I cannot grow it because I want to cut it.
I try so hard but it always ends up in some sort of cut cropped cut.

Now, being a bride-to-be, the hair issue keeps coming up,
"Mallory? Are you going to let your hair grow?!"

I want to say,
"Of course I am!"
But I simply cannot decide.

I fell in love with a wonderful swirly, soft up-do a while ago - but then I see precious short haired brides, I feel like it would be adorable as well.

ACK.

More when I return home from work.
(I'm going to JOHN MAYER! So it may be tommorrow!)

what's up doc?

I'm sitting at the doctors office. Waiting, of course.

I am byfar the youngest person here.

On the tacky table there is a copy of 'Senior Living' and 'Seniors Directory' - this is awful.

Anyone have any terrible dr tales?

Ack. I'm too young for my bladder to be broken.

Fab Feb!

February so far has been a ball! Tommorrow E and I have tickets to go see precious John Mayer! Yahoo!

Today Amelia and I went to the dog park. She entertained herself by rolling/laying in the mud - pig style. I don't understand. Here are atleast 10 fun dogs running around, playing and my PUPPY would rather take a mud bath? She is so weird. Results :



We promply went to the pet store and used their pet bathing station...the best $6.99 i've ever spent.



Anyone have any tips on dog parks? Any clue as to how to keep her clean? (ha.)

Anyways, I have been e-mailing with the band I've booked and I seriously am amazed at their willingness to work with me on finances, etc. What a wedding blessing!

We are still well below the $7,000 budget..here's hopin.

Happy Monday!
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candle light

I am currently checking out church resources to get candles for my ceremony.
Generally speaking the wax protectors are terribly ugly and I do foresee myself making new ones.
I sat on photoshop trying to figure out how to design a pretty circle without it looking cheesy, and it just wasn't working.

So i decided I'll wrap the bottom of the candles with pretty fabric and twine. Hopefully it will steer peoples eyes away from the horrible dated plastic.

Or, most people won't notice.
I'm just obsessive.

I've also been on a hunt to find some precious items for the little candle lighters to wear.
My thought is jeans and a white shirt and vest with matching grey lace up vans.

I just really don't want them to feel like idiots. Cause weddings for kids are already awkward enough.

invitation?

I'm trying to design this amazing invitation for our wedding & my creativity isn't showing up to these design sessions.

Do you like this one?



of course we would include rsvp cards and directions...but just the general idea? I love the swings, I think they're charming.

let there be light!

supplies:
-white gift/lunch bags
-led tea lights
-laser-cut scrapbook elements
-spray mount
-decorative edger!

First, I cut all the bags to around the same height. - I may have cut off 4 inches of the bag?
Then I cut out about an inch or two of the sides so the bag would come together tightly at the top.
Then punched the top of the bag with the edger - lacey!
After that I sprayed the backside of the scrapbook decal and centered it on the bag - stick an led candle in & voila!

the results...






and a sweet little picture from today :

reason 394085974988543 that i LOVE birmingham...

happy valentines from alabama power...i wish i could see this from my loft!
its so sweet.

projectos!

Currently, I have 29 projects going all at once. (I'm exaggerating of course, but you know...)

I've bought GOBS of craft supplies & I feel like an elementary school art teacher.
Hot glue, paint, & yarn.

I've created the book page wreath.
Now, I am getting ready to make luminaries that include a Martha Stewart lace paper punch and some serious spray mount.

Oh gee.
I'll share when they're finished. :)

wedding progress !!! eee !!!

Oh my goodness dearest readers!
We are seriously taking LARGE strides in this entire wedding thing.
With the venue booked, I finally felt comfortable booking other important details

My precious friend Kelly of Spindle Photography will be shooting wedding.

A family friend will be providing us with a wonderful southern menu.

and we've been in talks with a band & just about have the kinks worked out ( and by kinks, I mean $$$) Ha.

This entire process has been crazy. I never was a wedding girl, I never really cared AT ALL. It was all kinda silly to me.

But now being the bride I've been obsessed with it all. I'd love to have a wedding with such style and grace and charcter that people talk about it and talk to others about it.

:)

Here's hopin.

Anyways, for your viewing pleasure - I present, the wedding shoes...

Muffin :(

Poor muffin died tonight.

Poor Ginger.
I love her and I loved muffin. :(

Hopefully the beer i left on her doorstep works.

:)

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here, on the street where you live

ps; im anemic...psh...who knew!!? after 8 blood/urine tests they told me this week.

Book wreath attempt 1!

Yay! I adore it!




I bought a really old book from a silly Junk store here in town for 35 cents & a small ROUNDED foam wreath.

I kind of 'crinkled' the bottom of the paper until I got a good 'leafy' form and pinned an end to the wreath - usually using 3 pins/book page. ( The key was getting all different shapes out of the pages!)

& TA-DA! It only took me 2 episodes of Keeping Up With the Kardashians! :) Har har.

I plan on using these on the beautiful arched doorways into the venue - hang them with some silky swanky ribbon? Eh?
HAPPY!

inside the venue!!!

PRIOR VENUE ENTRY! WITH MORE PICTURES!






Check out my handsome hubby-to-be :) OWOW!!

But really, how beautiful! I am so thrilled to have found such a swanky venue at such a BUDGET price! HELLOOOO Parks & Rec! I booked this place (which also has a MASSIVE 50ft x 30ft back patio AND a kitchen!) for the day before my wedding AND wedding day for oly $750!? I cannot get over it. AMAZING.

They also don't have silly rules like, "YOU MUST USE EVERY VENDOR WE TELL YOU TO." Cause really? What's the fun in that?

i'm a happy happy bride.


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bridal bootcamp.

okay, so it's time to shed those obligatory pounds before i am the star of the show.

its going to be a rough rough battle.

the past 3 weeks i have eaten very healthy (aside from literally 4 meals) which is a HUGE step up.

not drinking hardly any soda. eating lean meats...etc.

but tonight the dreaded workouts began.

4 miles on the bike, burnt my arms out, worked out my legs, and did push-ups until i collapsed.
here goes nothin...

advice?

Loft feet and wedding venue view.

Port au Prince

Haiti is heavy on my heart.
I've been watching CNN since I got home at 5pm.
I cannot quit thinking about all the people and broken hearts and bodies lying on cold stone.

A dear friend of mine is lost amidst all the rubble & chaos.

Pray for Roger Eason please.
I cry thinking that he could be lost.

God Bless all the people donating.

Pounds

I've lost 8 pounds in a week. Yay! Wedding bod, here we come!


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bridesmaids are lovelies.

my door, welcoming the maidens!


everyone's BM guides & sweet glasses (i dont know why i love putting names on EVERYTHING!)


my ring - chillin on the moss candle holder.

ALL THE MAIDS BEING GOOFY! (minus precious jana who is in kansas city, wahhh)


lindsey, my beautifulllll matron of honor!


ginger, maid of honor! :) yay!


Tonight was such a special night for me. Having all the bridesmaids over PLUS my stepmommy and FMIL - it made my heart flutter. All these women have been SO influential in my life & having them all in one room laughing at the same jokes, responding to each others stories...etc I could have just danced and giggled all night.

But instead we planned showers! And dresses!

The books I made each of them included one another's phone numbers & the yarn used to tie it shut was either dark grey (MOH & MOH) or light grey (everyone else) They wrote down the shower dates & which one they could host, etc. All of it made me SO happy :)

Eric's mama cooked FATTY AND GOOD shrimp & grits, I made a salad, his granny made cornbread, and stepmommy made PIES! We had fruity COCKTAILS and WINE! (Notice all the things I like are like 3940383 calories & capitalized!) We laughed and listened to Norah Jones sing about love.

My Lord it was quite an evening.

I love these persons/ ROLL TIDE ROLL!

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Peaceful

Mornings in the loft.



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VENUE DAY!!!!!

i booked the wedding venue.

:D

the mountains according to my iphone...

The entire trip was wonderful and exciting. Nothing like being with your favorites in a winter worderland. It was only missing G!

On the day we were to go skiing I was sliding down a hill on my butt and my face slammed into a huge block of ice - I cannot explain all the pain I felt all at once. I don't remeber ever getting up - all I remeber is some how getting to the ski patrol station. I got a concussion and I seriously believe my nose is brooooke.

Sad sad sad. Anyways, a picture for your time...
The view was amazing :


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