the one with the help

well i have finished another book on the best seller list, the help, and it did not disappoint. this book wasn't a book i would normally read but it was a very interesting and exciting book to read. i have yet to see the movie and i don't think i will or else it will ruin how lovely the book is written. below are some of my favorite quotes from the book...

• "i always order the banned booked from a black market dealer in california, figuring if the state of mississippi banned them, they must be good."

• "sorry if the fool who ever underestimates my mother."

• "she's wearing a tight red sweater and a red skirt and enough makeup to scare a hooker."

• "it seems like at some point you'd run out of awful."

• "that was the day my whole world went black. air looked black. sun looked black. i laud up in bed and stared at the black walls of my house... took three months before i even looked out the window, see the world still there. i was surprised to see the world didn't stop."

• "the day your child says she hates you, and every child will go through the phase, it kicks like a foot in the stomach."

• "you is kind. you is smart. you is important."

the one with san diego 2011

last week i had the pleasure of visiting my big brother out in san diego. we had such a great time hanging out, hiking, touring the wineries, swimming in the chilly ocean, and watching 3D movies! i'm so lucky to have my brother living in such a beautiful place :) it was a great little refresher as we head into the rest of wedding season and prepare for the holidays. make sure to check out the fun little video at the end!

the one where i get a feather

i don't by any means consider myself to be a trend follower but this time - they sucked me in. i have always loved the idea of playing around with my hair and used to loveee the idea of putting crazy colored streaks in it but i never followed through with it in fear that someone might think i was a little looney. so i finally decided to do something a little out of the ordinary and put feathers in my hair! i have been seeing them all around lately and love the natural look with a little bit of an edge. i'm lucky that in my job i don't have to worry about looking super prim and proper ( yay for being a creative! ). i have 4 thin feathers in my hair including black, burgundy, olive grizzly, and white grizzly. i love how fun they look! who knows how long the fad will last but they make me feel a little adventurous. you can really only see the white grizzly in the picture but i wanted them to be pretty subtle.

the next trend i've been loving but most definitely too chicken to try is the rainbow colored hair tips. super funky but a little too permanent for me as well.

one fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish

yesterday was my grandpa's 91st birthday and i decided to celebrate by making him fish cupcakes! he is both a farmer and a fisherman so he thoroughly enjoyed the fishies. i apparently have a thing for making animal cupcakes having made both pigs and pandas in the past for different friends! who know's what i'll bake up next :)

who put my stapler in the jello again?

i'm back to baking and this time i made something a little more comical :) anyone a fan of the office? dwight is one of the strangest and funniest characters on tv and i thought it would be funny to make him into a yummy treat. so i celebrated matt's birthday by making him dwight schrute cake pops! he's on a oreo dirt cake with some cake pop beets!

the armPITT of america

wow it's been a while! i have been very busy trying to enjoy every last moment of free weekends before tomorrow starts weddings through september, yikes. last weekend i went down to pittsburgh to celebrate one of matt's best friends (kevin) birthdays! it's always fun getting away for a weekend with matt :)

this is the first view you get straight out of the tunnel. it's a pretty neat view of the city and a great first look at it! although i have some things against this city and it's horrible terrible no good very bad street systems, it really is a pretty neat town!

pretty city lights.

(left) i got to try this yummy ice cream place called oh yeah! it was sooo tastey! i had butter almond ice cream with nutella mixed in. they are known for their ice cream, coffee, and waffles! they have about 10 ice cream flavors and then tons of mix ins with everything from cookie dough to beef jerky. (middle) this is the tunnel in west virginia that you go through on the way to pittsburgh. so many neat tunnels on the drive from ohio to pennsylvania. (right) it was a beautiful day on the ride home so i took a picture of my red toes-ies up on the dashboard as the wonderful matt drove us safely home.

we had breakfast at this really awesome place called pamela's. it was a little bit of a walk away from kevin's place but totally worth it! they are known for their crepe style hotcakes (picture below). they taste like funnel cakes! i had croissant french toast with carmel maple syrup. yumm!! 

the birthday boy! it's actually funny because i'm used to his ridiculous mustache but i forget that others still find it quite hilarious so it's hilarious when we are in public with him and someone goes "whoa!" or " nice stache!"

ummm... i think there was a fly on the beer pong table? haha clearly alcohol was involved.

it was such a good weekend and on sunday after we drove home i got to spend the whole day in columbus with matt and end with a nice masterpiece mystery miss marple. we may have dozed off in and out of it but it was the perfect ending to a exciting weekend!

oh me, oh my, i got to see fireworks on the 4th of july!

for the first time ever, i got to see the fireworks in the country this year! there was something really special about sitting in lawn chairs with just a few close friends and watching the colorful bursts light up the sky. not to mention i got to watch a beautiful sunset as we patiently awaited. another awesome thing about where we were situated is that we got to watch about 4 different cities firework displays! i hope that this becomes tradition and i can leave behind the thousands of people that crowd around in the city.

 

 what a beautiful grand finale!

GRANNY'S 80!

hide yo kids, hide yo wife!

it's time for a best of youtube post that will do nothing but make you laugh!!!

i love when animals look like they're smiling

searching for love in all the wrong places

when i was little i believed in fairy tales and falling in love with the little boy you grew up with all of your life. then, i grew up...sorta. i then believed that i was going to fall in love with my high school sweet heart and we would go to the same college and live happily every after. although that does happen, it didn't happen for me. i actually remember graduating high school and feeling a little sense of regret that i hadn't found this high school love to share my college experience. then, i grew up a little more. i realized that life isn't always like the movies where you meet your future husband when you're still in diapers or in that really awkward phase of middle school or even when you're a know it all high schooler. of course by this time i figured i would be like many people and fall in love in college. but i went to ohio university, a school known for it's parties so needless to say, i wasn't going to meet my husband bonging beers or stumbling down court street. then, i grew up one last time. i learned that it doesn't matter when you meet that special person, it just matters that you do. maybe it will be at 5 years old or maybe it will be at 45 years old. all that matters is that you find them.
when did you find your special someone?

i love making cards... thiiiiiis much!

i have an obsession with making cards. they usually look like cards that someone would get a 5 year old with their bold colors and blocky lettering but i love making them! i love sending people mail so since matt and i started dating i send him a card every once and a while :) here is the first cards i sent matt when he was sick and i was wishing i could be in columbus with him to make him feel better.

i got the idea for the one i made today on pinterest. but i made it my own! i hope he likes it :)

the one where i'm thoroughly enjoying summer

although i no longer actually get a REAL summer ( i.e. laying by the pool, doing absolutely nothing all day every day ) i have been having a blast so far! i am finishing up my first round of weddings this saturday after a hot and sweaty six in a row. it will be nice to have a few weekends break before it starts back up again in july through september, yikes! so what have i been up to? my goofy friend erin was in town for a couple days so i got to see her for a little bit before she headed to seattle for a couple weeks. it's so good being around friends! i'm planning on visiting her in july at her grandma's in kentucky, can't wait for that! here's a typical picture of us from the night. do we ever take a normal photo? no. that's what makes us so special. :)

with summer beginning it means that matt has more free time too and i have gotten to see him three times in the past week! it's been so good just being able to spend more time with him. we have planned a trip to visit james at the end of august and i can't wait for that! we have gone through quite a few seasons of different shows over the past year of dating ( the office, psych, sherlock holmes, downton abbey, miss marple, poirot ) so we decided to start friends this summer ( one of my all time favorite shows! ) so we will be making our way through all 10 seasons hopefully by the end of summer.
what else is going to be amazing about this summer? so many great things are happening! i'm getting to see friends, spend lots of time with matt, go to kentucky, watch my best friend from growing up get married, spend time with my oklahoma relatives, visit james in san diego, shoot lots of beautiful weddings, enjoy fresh produce from the farm, and i could go on and on! i'm so excited for this summer and all of the great things it has in store for me!