2 weeks and counting

2 weeks from today I will be a wife!  I just got home from my bridal shower so I am on a high from several cups of tea and many great laughs and a few (happy) tears!  I have such wonderful friends and a wonderful mother and mother-in-law to be.  

I had many gifts to unwrap and find a place for in our house.  We are desperately going to need to re-model our kitchen after the wedding because we are running short on cabinet and storage space!  

The first set of German family arrived last night and it's starting to feel real!  I am getting so excited, almost giddy with joy and happiness from getting to marry a wonderful man and spend precious time with all our dear family and close friends before the wedding.  Things are about to get crazy here in the next couple of weeks but I will try to post here again before the wedding!

Just checking in...

The wedding is quickly approaching and I am in full planning mode. We have been collecting candlesticks and milk glass vases and mason jars and wine boxes....I scour Ebay and the local thrift stores constantly for anything vintage I can find. I really hope that all the planning and collecting and preparing will result in the beautiful vision I have in my head!

Today I hit the jackpot at Goodwill, I even snagged a couple of non-wedding goodies like a polaroid camera I had been after (crossing my fingers that it works but it looks like it's in really good condition!) and a really cute vase for the house. It's been rainy and overcast here and my camera battery is dead so I have no pictures for you. One of my goals for after the wedding is to improve my picture taking abilities and to take more photos overall. We paid so much money for our camera and I hate that it only gets used on vacations.

The house is quiet now and I can hear the rain falling pretty hard outside so I'm going to take advantage of these few minutes of peacefulness and enjoy a cup of tea and watch the rain. Have a lovely weekend everyone!!

Photo: Flickr

How Does your Garden Grow...

At the moment, slowly.  We have almost everything in the ground now.  Our once prolific squash now seems to have some kind of disease on its leaves which I think I am controlling with a neem oil spray (organic of course).  We have already suffered from a bout of white flies, they are persistent little things and I am trying to combat them in a number of different ways.  I've ordered yellow sticky paper, some kind of attractant of beneficial bugs that will help eat the whiteflies, neem oil, insecticidal soap, and some homemade garlic, onion, and red pepper spray that made my kitchen quite smelly for a few days.  

I'm also collecting coffee ground and tea leaves to put in the garden and egg shells and egg boiling water, apparently a good source of calcium for vegetables.  In addition to all this madness, I've developed a sort of addiction to ordering seed!  I have these ground cherries that I have been dying to plant but we are trying to focus on everything else we have planted and it's still really hot down here so I don't know how that will affect some of the things we have planted like carrots and kale which really need a cold snap to have a good flavor.  We shall see...it's an ever growing science experiment in the back yard right now!

Photo: Candice

We're almost there...

Sorry posting has been so intermittent over here, I always have good intentions but lately I feel like all my time is being consumed by other things. The wedding is quickly approaching, a little more than 4 weeks to go! The big tasks are done for the most part and now it's all about the little details.

I have moments when I feel like everything is coming together really nicely and other moments where I panic and am overcome with anxiety thinking it will never be what I envisioned it to be. Which is actually pretty funny when you think about all the details you agonize over like which wine glass to use or which plate or chair looks better and it's completely lost on your guests. They come to see you get married, to dance, to eat, and to have a good time and when it's all said and done you probably won't even remember which plate or chair you decided to go with either...all you will remember is how happy you were in that moment, how nice it was to have all your family and friends in one place celebrating such a momentous occasion, and how much fun it was laughing and dancing and crying together for the first time, as man and wife...

Photo: Flickr

I'm missing New York...

Photo: Ana Santos

A Perfect Saturday Morning...

How was your weekend? Mine was very relaxing. I spent time with family and caught up on my ever growing pile of magazines...

Photo: Candice

Ebay Junkie

I've turned into an ebay junkie. Like most junkies, I don't claim responsibility for my actions. It's the wedding's fault...it's turned me into a deranged lunatic who has thrown all logical thinking out the window at any attempt for something that will make my wedding day more beautiful.

I decided late last week that it would be a much better idea to look for vintage linens and silverware for the reception rather than pay to rent some tacky polyester linens and flatware that wouldn't really mesh well with the whole "vintage garden party" theme I'm going for.

Thus commenced a weekend of staying up until 2 am, trying to win countless ebay bids and spending an entire day glued to my laptop checking my watched items over and over until I wore the print right off of my keyboard.

I know, I know, i could have used e-snipe, but there is something about the thrill of victory when you are right there in the last seconds of an auction, fighting it out, probably with some old grandma who has been trying for years to complete her collection of silverplated 1934 Rogers flatware. Some kind of competitiveness you didn't know you had shows up, and it leads you to pay more than you ever intended for some rusty silverware as you silently curse the old grandma who's last dying wish is to complete her flatware collection. Like most addictions, it brings out the worst in you.

But I'm happy to say that I am now the proud owner of 90+ pieces of flatware and several beautiful vintage embroidered linen napkins.

Photo: Flickr

Our seedlings

Here's the first round of seedlings. We started two varieties of tomatoes, chives, lettuce, spinach, cilantro, and basil. There are more seeds on the way: onions, winter squash, carrots, lavender, and leeks.

We went to talk to a neighbor the other day about keeping backyard chickens. I'm not quite sure if I'm ready for the responsibility that comes with keeping fowl in our yard, but it's definitely peeked my interest. The chickens were very cute and surprisingly quiet. For now though, I think we're going to stick with our raised garden bed although, there have been some discussions about backyard beekeeping...stay tuned!

Photo: Candice

Gardening

Sorry it's been quiet around here for the past few weeks...we've been busy getting our new garden ready!  In Florida the Fall season is the best time to grow.  According to a book we bought specific to Florida gardening, you can grow year round here but we decided to try our hand at it during the easiest growing season.  

I'm finally starting to understand how to use Photoshop so I got kind of fancy when putting together this photo collection and added text to the photos!  Not bad, huh?

Photos: Candice

Our Labor of Love...

This is the result of weeks worth of work, and headaches (and I'm not going to lie, many arguments), but the invitations are finally finished!  We dropped them off at the post office this afternoon.  

I was a little reluctant to let them go, they looked so pretty in a big pile with all the vintage stamps so delicately affixed to the corner of each invitation.  I am so happy we decided to go with the vintage stamps.  It ended up being an easy and fun addition and they really stand out against the chocolate brown envelopes.  We chose stamps that were relevant to our life and the theme of the wedding.  

In that last photo you can see the front card in the invitation set, it's a monogram we designed. I'm so happy with the way they turned out.  In retrospect, I don't know if I would ever take on the task of designing the invites again, but we got through it and the end result is perfect!

Photos: Candice