Personal Touches ~ Thanks Playtex!

My sister found these awesome sippy bottles that are too perfect for your little one. The inside of the cup comes with blank paper and a coloring sheet for your child to decorate himself. I decided to take a regular size sheet of scrapbook paper, run it through the printer, and viola! I have super cute bottles for our nephews to carry around the day of our wedding (what cute photos, huh?!) and use again!
Colby's says "My aunt is the Bride" and Hayden's says "My uncle is the Groom". I kept it with the paisley theme but used blue instead of pink and green so their mommies would let them use it more often! haha

Directions on getting the cute bottles:
Go to www.drugstore.com
In the search box, type in "playtex create your own"
The bottles should pop up. The only thing is that you can't pick your bottle top color, but I've ordered a few of these and they all seem to have been unisex colors.

If you look around on the site, they also have cute plates that you can create as well.
Another good idea, is find fabric, cut it to the matching size, and take it to get monogrammed with the baby's name or initials!

Enjoy!

MORE SNOW!

More snow!! Ok, yes, I have been wishing for snow, snow, snow...but now I'm done!! We've missed a lot of school and I am worried about my poor little students not getting in all the information before the stupid CATS testing! WHY do they make the test so early in the year anyways?! Who knows, but I'm over the snow!

However, Brian and I were both off yesterday for President's Day so we were able to play in it a little and get a bunch of things done for the house! Have I told you how impressed I am with his handyman skills? I seriously thought they did not exist, but once he was given the chance he's awesome!

The picture is Brian playing a little golf in the snow...he's crazy!




Read more: http://www.mylivesignature.com/mls_wizard2_1.php?sid=54488-75-0A7D038DE2E305B273FF2D0EE179AAD0##ixzz0fBiQN1Za

Personalized Gifts

These are some of my absolute favorite websites for personalized gifts. I know not everyone likes their initials and monogram on everything...but a little bit never hurt anyone! I've bought a lot of things on these sites for bridesmaid gifts, hostess gifts, flower girl/ring bearer gifts, baby gifts, etc.
After the wedding I can't wait to outfit my home with the websites! I would love to post my fav. items from the sites, but I can't yet since I haven't had the Bridesmaid Luncheon yet! :)

My Preppy Monogrammed Gifts:
http://www.preppymonogrammedgifts.com/catalog.php?category=42

The Pink Monogram:
http://www.thepinkmonogram.com/php/first.php?ACT=9125

The Lily Pad:
http://lilypademb.com/

The Wedding Fairy:
http://www.weddingfairy.com/

Olive's Limited:
http://www.olivesltd.com/Intro.html

Snootie Patootie:
http://www.snootiepatootie.com/index.html

Hosting my first shower in my new home!

I've hosted a few showers before at my Merrick Place apartment, but this past Saturday was my first shower to host in my new home. I was so nervous about having it there since Brian is the only one living there and we haven't exactly finished our decorating! I threw it for my friend, Amanda, whom I know from college. With that said...you know how much you always want to impress your girlfriends - especially your college ones!!! Most of the girls already have beautiful homes that are decorated to a 'T', and I wanted to be up to par!
After lots of planning, and actually not a lot of stress (yea, for real, can you believe it?!) I pulled it off! Of course, Brian also realized from now on when I say I am 'hosting' something, that also includes him! He was such a good help to "get me this, lay this out, clean that, etc.". What a good man he is!

Some of my favorite things from the shower, that I would recommend others doing to really show the Bride how much you care are:
-Make it all about their bridal colors, for a bride-to-be, these are the only colors they see in!(gift bags, food, plates/napkins, punch, etc.)
-Think of small things that makes your shower stand out - like a Movie Maker DVD playing in the background with music for guests to see, or monogrammed items with the bride's new last name (who doesn't love the idea of the 'new name'!)
-Try doing something that shows the bride that all her friends are so excited for her - like having guests write short notes on a champagne bottle to open on their 1 Month Wedding Anniversary (this is the only time since high school relationships where you can celebrate each month of your love~of course ONLY for the 1st year or people will be grossed out, ha)
-Take good notes for bridal gifts - brides want to be able to personalize thank you notes so write down everything each person gets her

What ideas do you have that have worked well or you would like to have?

Aunt Anabel Shower and BBandT Bank Shower

Here is a glimpse of the last 2 showers I had. My shower given by Aunt Anabel almost didn't happen due to the snow! Luckily, we were able to reschedule it to the next day (Sunday) and my future mother-in-law was still in town to be able to attend. My Aunt was so thoughtful with diamond accents everywhere and tasty food!

Brian's office also held a shower for us in their conference room. Once again we had delicious food and such thoughtful gifts! :) This engagement time is so fun!!