erika's wedding - garters & ring bearer pillows

so in the midst of all the wedding planning for erika, she asked me about making two things for her big day.  her garter set & ring bearer pillow.  yet again, another adventure over to pinterest to start looking for different ideas & styles for everything.  after scrounging the fabric stores together for the right color fabric & ribbon, we were set for everything to get going.


the ribbon we found for her garters was a little bit pinker than the actual shades of fushia of the bridesmaid dresses, but we figured since it would be under her dress, it was good to go. 

as far as the pillow goes, we managed to find a fabric for the fushia that was almost idential to the swatch erika had in her purse.  after three different attempts with the top pieces trying to get them to lay flat, the final product went together super smoothly.  we found these super adorable star fish buttons on etsy that were exactly what we needed to tie in the beach theme in a classy but not overdone way in to her ceremony.  

2012 truckee river float

last summer jenny and i experienced our first time tubing down the river.  this year, with kasey in town we decided to head off to reno again for a float on sunday.  this could also be documented as the trip with the vicious sunburn.  yes, we did put on sunscreen.  it either wore off/washed off from the length of the float, or the factor of the sunscreen being expired (found out later on) could have played a part in the leg burns.  we survived, so that's what matters, right?  here are the highlights from the lovely waterproof camera. kicking us off, jenny's excited face :)
during one of the stops, kasey found a crawfish, and began hunting it down with amy. eventually, it was captured and posed with. jenny had a camera too. she didn't almost lose hers downstream like i did. we survived the float, and it wasn't until getting back to amy's and rinsing off that i noticed my burns. next year, we'll all remember we should use the SPF 80 for all over. i'm just glad my face didn't burn. as bad as my legs burned, face burns are the worst!

over the week

alright, so i finally came up with enough to share about and post... so now you'll get a blog post.  and another reminder of how i still need to show off and flaunt the things i made off for erika & matt's wedding.  why must i show them off?  the real question is, why not?  anyways... here goes!
07.08

after far too long, and after enduring a movie together with jenny that we thought would be better than it really was, erika & i got some excellent hang out time.  well, more like target shopping, chipotle eating, playing dress up hang out time.  three fantastic things, right?  i got these two rockin' newlyweds to play dress up for me for my photography business so i could have some fresh faces for my portfolio.  well, we had to be sneaky so we didn't crash an actual event going on at the location we chose... and were pretty good about not being seen. and that's all i can really say about that, because i would run out of things to blog about when i post their other photos on my other blog :)

07.13

as with tradition, each year dad & i do our recital portraits for our dance studio.  also with that comes having to do our portraits.  benny, the jets, and i all got off work friday and headed over to knock our portraits out of the way.  we met up with the other relations (jacob, aileen & entourage) and got things going.  well, as you can tell, not everything was your traditional ballet portrait.  but hey, we kept things entertaining!

afterwards, kelcey ben & i headed out to chipotle (3rd time i went this week.  not ashamed one bit) to get a late night dinner.  ben got the off menu quesoritto for the first time, and it was massive.  it did recieve a thumbs up in his book though, so that's a plus.
07.14-07.15
saturday, after five hours of portrait sessions, and finishing packing, jenny, kasey & i headed off to nevada to visit amy & luke.  luke's cousin was visiting from illinois, and had apparently never been in a place like this before (as in, has never seen a real mountain before) so there was some things to do.  we had a homemade taco dinner, followed by a trip out to reno's finest casinos for some gambling & circus acts.  and a giant swarm of super hero dressed people.  hey, i totally managed to dress in theme with my sweatshirt.  now if we only knew why...

sunday we had breakfast and then headed off to the river to do some tubing.  the trip down the river was really smooth, and we all had a blast.  until we noticed how sun burnt we are.  either the sunscreen wasn't strong enough, or it wore off and we didn't bring it to reapply.  either way... it was painful!  like, i'm writing up this blog post coated in aloe vera & have blue ice on my legs painful.  we went to dinner at a chinese/sushi place and then once it got to be around 7:15 (and i won go fish by a landslide) we headed homeward.  it was a nice little two day-ish day-cation.  someday it would be nice to head out there and see a live show as well!

june snapshots

i slacked again.  here's a run down of what happened in june after erika's wedding till the end of the month :) dance recital
june birthdays at grandmassushi dinner for cseb's belated birthdaymonthly "benny & the jets" dinner. plus andrea's birthday this time :) of course, this also had to happen since it was andrea's birthday:

june reads

the fact that all three books read this month were all nicholas sparks is purely coincidence.  i was hoping to knock out hunger games #3, but still working at getting my hands on a copy of it.  then i was going to search out book 3 of the uglies trilogy... but forgot to make it to the library.  i've found the "used" section of barnes & noble and have been putting past gift cards to use bit by bit.  and since i've been spending time with jenny & betsy, their nicholas sparks addiction has been rubbing off on me.  last month i watched all three of these movies, so it was quite appropriate that i read the books this month.  a little backwards, i know.  it's a toss up, but i think the lucky one was a little bit more my favorite read this month, closely followed by the last song :)

the last song - nicholas sparks
nights in rodanthe - nicholas sparks
the lucky one - nicholas sparks

june flicks

june was a bit of a slow month when it comes to movie watching and book reading. erika's wedding, recital rehearsals & show day brought on a lot of late nights where i got home later than planned and just crawled in to bed and crashed on the usual movie nights. i did make it out to the theaters once this month, so that as good. hopefully next month will bring a few more movie trips with friends. ready for the summer fun to keep on coming!
flashdance (1983)
love actually (2003)
american graffiti (1973)
50/50 (2011)
something's gotta give (2003)
step brothers (2008)
sherlock holmes: a game of shadows (2011)
how to deal (2003)
brave (2012)
while you were sleeping (1995)
drive me crazy (1999)

over the weekend - erika & matt's wedding

friday was the day!  erika's wedding day was finally here.  the weather was perfect, the venue was fabulous, and of course, the bride looked FABULOUS.  all her hard work and planning paid off.  even though my dress had pockets, i couldn't pack my camera in it the whole time. here are some photos from the reception, plus one lovely camera phone picture :)

their first dance was to canaan smith - we got us she played off the beach theme PERFECTLY in the reception. her cake was adorable! i enlisted the help of her two brothers, her little sister emily, as well as one of her brother's fiance to help decorate the car. for decorating in the dark, i think we did a pretty good job! we survived! it was a very long day (and night!) but i wouldn't have spent it any other way. i'm still so honored that i was her maid of honor for her big day, and i know her and matt will have a fantastic future together :)  it was a journey getting to this point, and the fun has just begun!  they're off on their honeymoon cruise to spots in mexico, and i cannot wait to hear all about it :)