Ormond Beach Shower (shower #1!)

I just loved seeing how this shower turned out. My mom's friend Lisa opened her home and let us have full range of everything. It reminded me of having showers at Dorothy's house which was a good feeling. :) 

I was so excited about this yarn pompom cake topper. It was the perfect addition to this long rectangular cake. I love the shape of this cake- it's so unique. 

Our menu for the day was lemon basil chicken salad, roasted vegetable orzo, Greek panzanella, fruit skewers, and herbed goat cheese crostinnis. Everything tasted so good and was a hit!

We served our family's favorite fruit tea and cucumber water, complimented by paper straws and mason jars.

My brother John's wife, Tiffany helped me host at the party. 

The burlap garlands worked perfectly in this space. And of course, pompoms were a must!

I made this cupcake tower for John and Tiffany's wedding three years ago. My mom saw it stored away in my laundry room and thought it would be the perfect display for our sugar cookie favors. We changed the color of the ribbon to match this shower. 

 Present time!

The bride-to-be!!

Our side of the family

The bride with both mothers!

 Bride and MOH!

 Some of my mom's friends from church

 Natalie and friends of Dan's family

 Natalie and her church friends

And finally, Lisa! My mom's wonderful friend who helped so much with this shower. It was a wonderful time! 

wedding shower preparations & Gate River Run 15K

O'Steens never do things the easy way.. or so it seems... Take for instance, my wedding. I lived in the DC area, had six bridesmaids in six different states, a fiance in a separate state, and the wedding took place in NC where no one in my family lived! I remember us thinking, "It'll be so much easier when Natalie gets married" since she lived in FL where my parents were living. Little did we know, that would not be the case. Natalie is in FL, my parents are in Los Angeles, and Dan is in VA. It makes things a bit more difficult to plan, but we go with it and make the most of it!

I started planning a wedding shower for Natalie last month. I had a three day weekend in March, so that's the weekend we picked. It just so happened to be the same weekend as the Gate River Run 15K in Jacksonville that Natalie was already signed up to run. I had just run a marathon a month ago, so I figured, I could just do it with her! And then the bachelorette party/shower got thrown into the same weekend! Why not? I was already making the trip down to FL, and we were running out of weekends before the wedding to schedule these events. So it was decided. And the decoration-making and planning began. If you follow me on instagram, you saw that I had lots in the making for this shower!

My mom texted me pictures of her friend Lisa's house (where shower #1 would take place), and Natalie's roommate emailed me photos of their house (where we'd have shower #2)... And I began pinning away and sketching out ideas on my iPad!

It was a little hard to keep the two showers separate in my mind, but it all ended up working out just fine. I worked on a project every night after work for several weeks- our house was a craft zone disaster! 

This chevron photo booth backdrop was quite the task. I loved the way it turned out though!

 Painted table runners (as seen on Oh Happy Day!) were the perfect touch to shower #2. It was kind of fun to sit on the floor and paint!

 Brian's study room turned into the most festive room in the house!

My mom flew in on Wednesday and helped with some of the preparations while I was at work. It was fun decorating cookies together! 

Toby jumped in bed with her every morning. :)

I had a sinus infection, and my mom was starting to come down with a chest cold... We weren't feeling great, but we didn't let that get in the way! 

Mom dropped me off at Natalie's house in Gainesville, and then she headed on to Ormond Beach that night. I decorated at Natalie's house on Friday night, and then went to bed after midnight. We had to wake up at 4:15 am to leave for the race in Jacksonville on Saturday morning! It was early and dark and cold, but we were determined to get there in time. 

The race itself was really great! It is the largest 15K in the country! I felt like I was running in an obstacle course.. there were so many people! 

We finished in great time, chugged some chocolate milk (our favorite recovery drink), and headed to Ormond Beach in time for the showers the next day!

catching up...

I have been busy these past several weeks! I have slacked off on my weekly posts... January and February flew by. Nothing huge has been going on with us... Just the usual work and school routine. With the marathon over, I've had extra time on the weekends for little projects that I'm very excited about. I can't share all of them now, but I'll give you a little glimpse as to what I've been up to. 

At the end of January, Ashley came to visit! It was just like old times being roommates.. She came after work on Friday, and we made dinner together, geeked out over speech therapy apps on the iPad together, discussed our new gluten free eating, baked GF chocolate chip cookies, watched a movie, and caught up on life until 2 am  It was perfect. I'm so excited about her new adventure as she moves to Asheville!

The next weekend, we decided to spend the afternoon with our nephews, Truett and Jack. We started off at the park and then went to the mall. We did all things fun. Threw coins in the fountain, went to the Disney store, rode the carousel, took pictures in the photo booth (a little crammed with all four of us!), had balloons made into a sword and Spider Man by a clown, and ate ice cream. It was so fun!

In February, Julie and I went to the YHL book signing! We waited for a while in the freezing cold, but it was fun to meet them and say hello. You can see the backs of our bodies on their blog entry here. It's the last photo posted. :)

On Valentine's Day, I had this cute cupcake in a jar waiting for me on my desk from one of my favorite students. I thought it was so cute. 

Valentine's weekend was a four day weekend for me! We had a furlough day at school and then a holiday on Monday. Kristin and I had a wonderful day in the city filled with shopping and brunch. I felt like I was on vacation. It was a beautiful day in Atlanta! We have had a TON of rain lately, so seeing the sunshine and the blue sky was a rarity. 

Frozen yogurt in IKEA! :)

My new favorite fabric store in Atlanta. I can't believe I didn't know about this store until now. Apparently, behind the store, there are sets for the Hunger Games. We totally forgot to sneak a peak!

 I wanted everything in this store...

Toby turned three on February 22nd. He's getting so big! 

Most of my free time lately has been devoted to making baby gifts and shower decorations for Natalie's showers I'm hosting next weekend. I will do a post on shower decorations another time, but I can show you a few baby gifts I've made! 

My new favorite project: Making appliques and sewing them onto onesies. Look how cute! A coworker bought six from me to give as gifts.

Here's a bird onesie I made for Julie's shower. I love the long legs. 

This one was for Julie also.. Josiah is a photographer, so I thought this was perfect. I love the chevron pattern. Old Navy is currently out of them, but I hope they get more in stock! I could literally make these all day every day. They make me so happy. I have other patterns made but can't show them yet... Some of my favorites I've made are actually for boys! I'm just as shocked as you are! 

Over Thanksgiving break, Ginna taught me how to crotchet granny squares! It was so mindless and fun, I decided to make a blanket to give Julie at her baby shower. Her nursery colors are coral and white with a touch of yellow, so those are the colors I chose. It took lots of hours, but I loved how it turned out! It looks so good in her nursery. 

And here we are at her shower yesterday! It was a sweet time celebrating Baby Morgan. I can't wait to meet her little baby girl this spring!! 

Brian's parents also came this weekend, but I did't take any pictures. We had a fun time hangign out with them yesterday... Susan introduced me to the rotary cutter. I am SO EXCITED. It is going to save me so much time as I work on banners for Natalie's wedding reception. 

It's a busy but fun time of year. I can't wait for spring weather and school to be OUT. Twelve more weeks until summer break! I think I can, I think I can.....