San Diego Wedding at The Ultimate Skybox

Casey's childhood friend, Clayton got engaged back in October. It was such an exciting time, we had gotten engaged 5 months earlier, and my heart was just exploding with love. Our lives are growing and changing at an insane rate, it's nice to have people that are on the same crazy train.

Whoa time warp--2009! Fun fact the couple in the middle recently got engaged--in June.
Almost everyone in our group is married or about to be, it's a really fun time in our lives.
P.S. What am I wearing? I have come a long way since 22.
This is really humiliating and I am regretting putting this picture on here!

That is Clayton and Melissa far right. They met at the NASA gym, Melissa worked in Mission Control and Clayton was working in the gym at the time and the rest as they say is history! I think they had been dating about 6 months in this photo, we were just getting to know Mel, but she fit right in. To say I have throughly enjoyed getting to know her over the years, would be an understatement. She is such a good friend, from helping me with wedding crafts, to coming to the many wedding events we had, to emailing and venting to each other. I just love her, so when I found out Clayton was proposing I wanted to do something nice for her. He proposed in Dallas at a winery. I sent him with a little care package for her to open the proposal night, I wish I had taken photos : (. I sent a wedding magazine, nail polish in a bridal blue shade similar to their favorite baseball team, the Texas Rangers blue, and a T-Shirt I made:

Sweet Cake Cornbread

Cornbread is a very personal thing here in the South. Generally you will find that us folks South of the Mason-Dixon like our cornbread crispy on the outside; buttery and salty on the inside. My number one comfort food is a bowl of slow-cooked pintos with a slice of salty cornbread soaked in with beans. My mama and I ate this more times than I can count, and she ate it when she was a little girl with her mama, and so on and so on. In my brood we dont have any antique hand-me downs, or a lot of black and white pictures of days gone by; but we do have a few recipes that keep us connected to our family past, present and future. I know it sounds silly but when I sit down and eat pintos, cornbread and fried potatoes, all is right in the world.

When I first introduced this meal to Casey he was flabbergasted. "Where is the meat!" he demanded. I said "Well its kind of a traditional meal, Southerns were often going through hard times and didn't have a whole lot to eat. The beans have protein so they are the "meat" or the main course. "Yeah ok, but can we have some meat?" He just didn't get it! I am glad to say 7 years later, he gets it and actually enjoys our penny-less pintos. One thing he hasn't caught on to is our salty cornbread, he a sweet cornbread (corncake) man through and through,

We have gone back and forth on this, and I have asked his mother about it. They are Cajun, but still Southern, what gives with putting sugar in your cornbread. Even though this goes against everthing I believe in, I made this cornbread for him after I found it on The Sister's Dish. They said it tasted like Boston Market cornbread, and I knew Casey would love it, so it had to be done.

I have to admit I could not stop eating it. You have been warned. Continue Reading...

Mini Box-y Make Up Bag

I love bags, all bags--totes, suitcases, book bags, make up bags it really never ends.

I'm sorry you had to see that.

Naturally, when I decide I want to make something it is usually a bag of some sort. At some point I hope to grow and make other things, but for now you will see a lot of bag making goin' on up in here.

I have been wanting to make a boxy bag or as I like to call it a toiletry bag/dopp kit. It is more the shape of a mans dopp kit, and I adore the shape! I saw this amazing bag on Say Yes to Hoboken, which is an absolutely amazing blog, I highly suggest checking it out.

This small bag is perfect for a beginner, and perfect for someone new to zippers. I can not lie, those zippers can be tricky, especially when you are just starting out. Continue Reading...

Family Wedding Photo Display

When I started getting to know Casey's mother, Gaty some 4 years ago, it didnt take me long to figure out how devoted she was to her family--past, present and future. We are both lovers of memories and vintage EVERYTHING.

Our ancestors are the very root of us, that is true for every one, but even more so for Gaty and the Thibodeaux clan. Ancestor worship is alive and well in their family, and its refreshing to see so many family members and pictures from the old days. Gaty and I have sat and looked at old pictures more times than I can count. 

Whether we are looking at her mother's (gammy) portrait

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Online Family Planner

I hate hearing, "Babe, what's for dinner?" everyday around 2:30 PM. "Ky, when is the water bill due..oh and how much was it?" I just knew in this day and age there must be something online to help keep us both informed and organized. It didn't take 5 minutes until I found www.cozi.com, which in my opinion is the best online shared calendar. Cozi has android and iphone apps so all your family's information is literally at your finger tips. My favorite thing on the site: there is an option to have Cozi email you, your weekly run down. Every Sunday morning I get an email and I know what I've got in store for me the rest of the week!

This is the monthly view on the website, this is how it looks when it prints out. We both add bills we have due, our pay schedule, important events and birthdays. When we have little bambinos running around and I become a soccer mom this will be fantastic to keep track to ballet, baseball activities, play dates, parent teacher night etc.

Here is the weekly view, this is how I view it mostly--as a weekly view. 

Monthly just overwhelms me too much! Continue Reading...

Lemon Icebox Pie

I had this pie for the first time a year ago at one of my favorite restaurants, Zelko's. I had no idea that it was a down home type dessert until I got home and started looking up recipes. It consists of very basic ingredients, and requires no oven--perfect summer dessert.

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Wedding Slideshow

People seem to have a lot of opinions concerning wedding slideshows. I think its a love or hate kind of situation. I would be one the LOVE side of the fence. I am a lover of memories, photos, just nostalgia in general; I always have since I was a little girl. Nothing excites me more than photos, especially old ones.

I always knew I would have a slideshow at my wedding even before I met Casey, but lets get real I knew a lot of things about my wedding before I met Casey. My mom had a slideshow at her wedding and in between each picture she had scripture that spoke about marriage. I originally was going to have a hand full of pictures and do quotes about love and marriage throughout the slideshow. As I started the overwhelming job of sifting, sorting and choosing photos it became apparent that there was no way I was narrowing this baby down to just a handful of photos. Our mothers had been picture freaks, and I am a picture freak and honestly we are just too cute! It was very difficult choosing and making sure we included everyone.

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Fifty Shades of Handsome!

Tomorrow I will have a fantastic post for you guys. TODAY I am blogging about what I call cotton candy. It has no real value, has no nutritional value, it doesn't keep you full but MAN is it good.

I, like every other woman started reading Fifty Shades of Grey. I read the book in 2 days, and was hungry for more! While I was reading I realized the main characters reminded me of two other very famous characters--Edward and Bella. Fifty Shades of Grey started out as Twilight fan fiction, which I figured out after some internet trolling. The popularity of Twilight and Fifty Shades of Grey really says something about us as females. The male characters like to control their women--but not just that they like to take care of them physically and financially. It is interesting in this day and age of independent women, non-traditional gender roles etc-- most women (not all) still like to, (or at least like the idea of) be taken care of by a man--above all being protected by him. If that wasn't true then these books wouldn't be so popular. Innately we want a man to be our savior and protector even still in 2012. Just something I find interesting.

That is not what this post is about! This post is about who I would cast in the Fifty Shades of Grey movie! I have really strong feelings about this.

In my head I picture Christian Grey looking a lot like Alex Pettyfer. Dirty blonde hair and light eyes--not tan skin, but not pale either. E.L. James describes Mr. Grey as having copper hair--which I hope they ignore when making the movie--copper is in the neighborhood of red. Christian Grey is no ginger.

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Spaghetti Pie - One Dish

Casey and I have been making a real effort to eat at home. So far we have been doing pretty good; taking our lunches and enjoying the time together in the kitchen--well mostly-- unless one of us (not me) over cooks the pork chops or something like that. The part that is the most difficult--you get home around 6 cook, eat dinner around 7 and then clean--by now its somewhere past 8, time for showers and its off to relax and go to sleep! It's a real pisser for me that most of the night is taken up with cooking and the aftermath of dinner.

Which brings me to this recipe. I loved this, it was just like spaghetti with meat sauce, but i only dirtied up one pan! You make the sauce and just stick the noodles right in to cook! I loved it, and how had I never thought of this before? If that thick albeit delicious layer of mozzarella cheese is too much for you, leave it out, the dish definitely didn't need it. The same goes for the heavy cream, maybe a splash of milk instead. You can also use low card spaghetti, I love dreamfields.

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Invitations Part 2

I knew from the get go that I wanted to make my own invitations. For one thing I knew I wanted something elegant and simple but not too simple, and for what I had in mind would have cost a pretty penny. I went ahead and had my invitations printed professionally. I had them print the text on the invitation and the reply card. It was so stressful printing out the tiny save the date cards. I knew it would be a lot of work to do the invites and I didn't want to add any unnecessary trouble. Make sure of all the cards you need before placing your order. I didn't realize until it was too late that I needed to include a card with all the hotel information on it. I ended up designing and printing my own at the 11th hour.

As you saw in part one the first thing I did was cut the liners for both envelopes.

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I have returned.

I see all these bride bloggers, and I just do not know how they do it. I couldn't do it! I am a married woman now! So I have so much more time on my hands to share fun projects with you.

I plan on going through everything I made one tutorial at a time. And then through all the events and wedding. I already got my wedding photos back! So I am anxious to share them. I'm a little sad that the wedding is over, but you know what the fantastic thing is? My best friend just got engaged!! She is right at the beginning of all the fun stuff, so I hope she will let me share some of her projects too.

You know what brides/ newly married ladies NEVER talk about and blog about? How to handle the huge mountain of gifts, boxes, paper etc that comes after the wedding. My dining room looks like this:

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Preview of projects to come.

Sorry I have been MIA guys, I have had so much going on with wedding stress. Then my health took a turn for the worst with my ulcerative colitis then on top of that I was cursed with a kidney stone! Needless to say, I've been a little distracted.

I want to give you a quick run down on all the fun things coming up here at The Little Woman.

I got all my invitations out! HALLELUJAH! What a relief. For about 24 hours I felt on top of the world and more importantly on top of my ever growing wedding to list. Here is a sneak peek of my invitations. I will be posting a detailed write up of the whole process and my final vote on DIY invites.

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Save The Date / Embossing Tutorial

I decided I don't want to share how my invitations look until all my guests have received them. So in a week, or two I will post all the pictures. Until then, here is how I made our save the dates. I typed it up and printed them all myself. I bought the paper from paper source. I probably could have dressed them up a bit, but the invites and save the dates have a similar look so I wanted to make sure the STDs (hehe std) stayed more casual looking.

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Inspiration Boards

I made a real life inspiration board with rubber cement and several-hundred bridal mazazines, you don't mind that I call them mazazines do you? Anyway, the end result was just not that great or as dreamy as the virtual inspiration boards I keep seeing. I finally made one, a little too late mind you but whatevah! Without further ado, my wedding board.

Image 1: Clayton Austin Photography, Image 2: Rebekah Westover, Image 3: Style Me Pretty,  Image 4: Style Me Pretty,  Image 5: Style Me Pretty,  Image 6: KWP Weaver, Image 7: Unknown, Image 8: Style Me Pretty, Image 9: KWP Weaver

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Engagement Photoshoot

I was very antsy in my pantsy about engagement pictures. After obsessing over so many cute photos online, I had built my expectations way up. A month before our scheduled shoot I started deciding on a style and buying clothes! Does this mean I wasnt still buying accessories the DAY of my shoot? Of course I was. At the last minute I ditched my usual black/gray and spiced it up with some turquoise. Usually my impulse decisions dont work out for the best but this time it did.

My tips for engagement photos

1. Pick a photographer who's style is totally you. I originally wanted a more vintage look, but I decided it would look very dated in about 10 years when this trend goes away. I love love love my photographer, Alyse French, and everything she shoots. She has a vintage feel while still remaining timeless.

2. Pick outfits that are comfortable. I wore brand new teal pumps. MISTAKE. I dont regret them, but i reget not breaking them in first. Yikes. I was sweatin' like a you know what, it was very unbecoming. I did take a lot of time "styling" our shoot, and I think it made a big difference. I pictured the look I was going for and executed it pretty nicely.

See I took them off to walk, killer.

Wedding Invitations Part 1 - Envelope Liners

I am smacked dab in the middle of making my invitations, this weekend will be the assembly line/ sweatshop. I have enlisted the help of my future mother-in-law and maid of honor, I will let them have lunch breaks and if they ask real nice maybe some water.

I have been trying to get all the little parts of the eventual whole, together before my peeps come over.

As I slowly learned about wedding invitations, and all the fun things you can do to them, and dress them up. I kind of decided I want to do everything possible. Everything. I had never heard of envelope liners before I started looking in to doing my wedding invites. I immediately thought "Ehh, thats unnecessary". Here we are 8 months later and they are so necessary, well maybe not. I will tell you why I think so.

First we have to start with Paper Source, have you heard of this place, have you been here? I ran across the website and all the awesome resources here, I especially love the outline of all the possible tools and things to do and use for your invitations.

I will go over every step in creating my own invitations, and I will give you my review at the very end. Worth it or not worth it? Time will tell my blog friends time will tell.

You can use anything to make envelope liners, scrapbook paper, glitter paper, fine handmade papers. This Napelese paper is gorgeous, absolutely to die for, sadly it is way out of my price range. I still like to admire.

 

I love this paper but I would have needed a whole lot of it.

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Bridal Shower Hostess Gifts

For some reason I stressed out so much over what to get the hostesses of our shower. I scoured the internet, nothing seemed suitable. After all, it takes a lot of time and money to put on such an event and I wanted to my gift to show how much I appreciated that. Finally Gaty explained to me, you can't pay them back. It's not about trying to reciprocate, which I guess I got caught up trying to do. It's about giving them something nice and thoughtful. I have one more shower to go and hopefully I will not be stressing so much about what to get although these shower throwers have a different age range--eek. I kept thinking bath and body works, I dont know about ya'll but I get that kind of stuff all the time. I feel like every time I need to get a gift for an older lady in my life that's my go to. I wanted to step outside of the box a bit.

My FMIL and I were headed to dinner and right next to the restaurant was an anthropologie store, we popped in just to take a look around. I don't know why I had never thought of it before. We found all kinds of neat stuff for gifts.

I ended up getting them a monogramed mug, Now, I want one! My mama always taught me not to buy things for yourself when you are picking out gifts for someone else.

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Co-ed Everything? I Don't Think So.

I will be the first to admit I am a traditionalist in most areas of my life and wedding. I cut loose and had a couples shower, which is something I never thought I would do. Having men involved in a wedding shower is more appropriate because there is alcohol and tools and all kinds of different gifts that would be interesting for men to see. What I do not understand is men at baby showers? Say what you will, argue all you want but MOST men do not care about breast pumps and crib bedding. I went to a baby shower a few years ago and it was co-ed more in a sense of grandpas and uncles were there, not so much young dude friends. It worked pretty well besides the fact that there were just too many people there.

Where I absolutely draw the line is, co-ed bachelor and bachelorette parties. I know I am ruffling some feathers here, but hear me out. The whole purpose of a bachelor/ette party is so go "sow your wild oats" so to speak. If nothing else then to just get away and enjoy being just you and your friends before you get married. So when did this happen, that it was okay to party together when the whole point is to be separate? Are these people so attached to their spouse that they can't be apart for a night? What does that say for the rest of their lives? They have the whole wedding weekend to be all together with your friends and wedding party. Plus isn't going out with your man and your friends something you all do throughout the year? On another point--what does it say about the trust in the relationship? If neither person is comfortable being away with their friends for one night then why are you getting married? Am I way off base here? Did you have a co-ed bachelor/ette night and it had nothing to do with anything I listed above?

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Love Birds Couple Shower

In October I got a phone call from my fiancé Casey's Aunt saying that she and her sister (my Casey's other aunt) would like to throw me a lingerie shower. I was immediately panicked. An underwear shower, with my in laws and my mother? HELP!

It was such a conflicting feeling, I felt so grateful and excited that they wanted to gift me with a shower. I also felt horrified at the thought of opening edible body chocolate and see through nighties in front of the people who had changed Casey's diapers. I think the days or receiving nightgown and dusters are over, or are they? How are things done in your community? Would this be a normal occurrence, a shower including the whole family even grandma with no naughty gifts in sight; or would you be stuck with all eyes watching as you unwrapped leather crotch less panties?

Luckily, I have been blessed with the best in laws of all time, and the lingerie shower became a couples shower. For the longest time I had been a strict traditionalist, girls only at showers. In recent years I have seen how a couples shower is more like a cocktail party and can easily and seamless involve both sexes. I still stick to my ladies only at baby showers and bachelorette parties rule (that's a whole other blog post). I thought it would be nice having Casey involved, especially since it was his family throwing the shower. Who doesn't like a cocktail party with gifts?!

On our way to the shower all of the sudden Casey started to get really nervous. "What do we say after we open a gift? Thanks it's just want we wanted? Well of course it is, we registered for it!" We went back and forth on what were some appropriate responses. He was starting to make me worry, but when we got there and had a few glasses of wine it felt natural and not at all awkward.

We had a fantastic turn out, it felt so fantastic to be surrounded by our friends and family, just a little taste of what the wedding day will feel like. On the downside of that it felt like poo that we had all these people here just for us, but couldn't spend a lot of time with each person. I know it will feel like that times 100 the day of the wedding.

They had my favorite cake flavor red velvet. 

The other usual suspects too of course; chocolate, strawberry and vanilla

 Look at the shimmery fondant B's! Adorable

They gave me all the cute love bird decor. 

Cant wait to decorate with it next valentines day!

This is the favor/guest book table

They made little love bird pin cushions for the girls...

and tape measures for the boys

Gaty made this guest book for us.

We had BBQ at the shower which was so perfect for our crowd.

A towel cake centerpiece! Have you heard of a diaper cake? At baby showers someone will make a "cake" make of cloth diapers, baby clothes and accessories. This is the wedding shower spin on that.

Stacy my former roommate and bridesmaid, and Mimi my maid of honor!

This is one of my most treasured gifts. 

Casey's mother, Gaty, made this quilt for us. 

Her very first quilt, and she made it for us! 

Another one of my most treasured gifts. 

My mother put together a gorgeous bag filled 

with sunscreen sunglasses, flop flips, waterproof cameras THE WORKS! 

And a fantastic contribution towards our honeymoon.

We have the best families.

My beautiful mother and I.

Bride and Groom

It was such a lovely time, I highly recommend having a couples shower. I love that it helped Casey feel apart of it all, and now he knows what this whole shower thing is all about.