Getting Hitched...Sharing A Few Engagement Pictures

So in less than a week I get to marry this cutie. 

I thought in honor of that I would share a few of our engagement pictures taken by the wonderful Mary and Gabe of Honey Heart Photography (Lexington, KY). 

Aren't we just the cutest? Ha. I love us and I can't wait to be married. It's going to be so fun. 

While I knew planning a wedding would be tough, I had no idea I'd be as busy as I have been nonstop for as long as I have. Ha! Throw a pretty demanding job on top of that and you've got a girl with absolutely no time left to blog. But don't worry- I haven't stopped creating. This wedding will have handmade (almost) everything! It has been seriously fun... and seriously time consuming. :) I wouldn't have changed it for anything, though. I can't tell you how many times I told Matt or a friend about my idea for something and they would look at me like I was crazy and would try to tell me to do something easier, and I, of course, wouldn't listen. Almost everything has turned out how I had imagined or better than I'd imagined, and that has been so fun. 

I hope to share it all with you after the wedding. Stay tuned friends.

If you loved these pictures, you should so check out Mary and Gabe of Honey Heart. They're kinda great. Excited to spend some more time with them on Saturday. 

Baubles and Bead Caps Necklace DIY

Today I'm over at 30 Days Handmade sharing my Baubles and Bead Caps Necklace Tutorial! 

Be sure to go check it out! 

Just Chains Earrings Tutorial

When writing the post for tomorrow's jewelry post I'm contributing to 30 Days' Blog, I realized I never shared last month's! Oops! 

Go check out my Just Chains Earrings Tutorial! 

Bluffton, South Carolina and Hilton Head

I know I haven't been around much this summer, despite my hopes to post a lot. I can't even say what I've been doing really-not because it's secret, but because I don't even know where the time has gone! I just know I haven't been blogging. It's been a busy summer full of teaching summer school, wedding planning, visiting with friends, celebrating expecting mothers, cooking, and trying to support Mr. Lovie as he studied for the Ohio State Bar Exam. Matt and I were lucky enough to ended our summer and celebrate him being finished with studying with a visit to his mom's house near Hilton Head. We had a great little family vacation. I enjoyed practicing using my camera on manual mode while we were there and I had such a great time with it. I'm not a professional by any stretch and there are so many things I want to get better at and learn more about, but I thought I'd share.

This cutie is Matt's niece. That winky smile is my favorite. This may have been the only time she was halfway still, but I enjoyed chasing her up and down the beach.

Splash, splash splash!

You guys! This ocean is just so funny!

"Do it!" is what she'd yell as soon as her dad would stop spinning her.

No hands! 

Brothers.

Gotcha. Another rare still moment in between chasing the water in the fountains. 

When the water would go down, she'd say "oh nooooo" so sweetly.

And then the water would scare her. Hahaha. 

Splash splash splash.

Squinty girl.

Last ones at the pool.

My cutie and me at our day trip to Beaufort, SC.

These will become the most awesome peach cobbler. 

Sunrise magic.

I hope you have all been having a wonderful summer. Thanks for checking in every now and then and/or continuing to subscribe to my blog. I love you guys for not jumping ship since I haven't been posting often!

I've got a school themed idea coming up soon... does anyone love Pete the Cat as much as I do? Probably not (unless you count my kinder kids)-more on that soon! 

My first day with kids was Thursday. It's hard to believe I just started my 7th year of teaching! 

Glitter and Lace on Kraft Paper Gift Wrap

I'm so excited to share my Glitter and Lace on Kraft Paper Gift Wrap tutorial with you. 

My Fancy Bows tutorial has been a HUGE hit on Pinterest, and I love love love wrapping gifts, so I thought I'd try to come up with some more fun ideas. Here's one for now! 

When I needed to wrap a few wedding gifts and was out of my usual wedding wrapping paper, I thought I'd whip up something fun instead of going to spend more money. I knew I already had a huge roll of Kraft paper I had bought to make table runners at Matt's grad party so I went with that. Using what you have is always better than buying new!!

There are SO many fun Kraft paper ideas out there like these...

one, two, three, four

but I wanted to put my own spin on it-which would, of course, include gold glitter. Because I love gold and who doesn't love glitter?! 

(Well okay... I know one person who doesn't- Mr. Lovie. He HATES glitter and was a little sad to say the least about the glitter I tracked all over our house during this project-oops. Do this outside if you can! Then you can just hose your porch/yard down. Ha)

 I know traditional wedding wrapping paper is white/silver, but I think the ivory lace on these helps to lighten up the darker look of the kraft paper. 

So fancy. :) 

Let's make some. 

I got a mondo roll of kraft paper at Lowe's, but it is SUPER thick and was a little difficult to use as wrapping paper. It was perfect for the table runners at Matt's Grad party, but a little thick for this use. It was fine, but just a little thinner paper would have been perfect. I've seen smaller rolls of this (and most likely, thinner paper more suitable for wrapping gifts) for sale at Target. 

Simply use a paint brush to paint a design in glue or Mod Podge. And then sprinkle on the glitter. I always have Mod Podge and it's a little thicker than glue so I like it better almost always.  

Dump off the excess glitter and you have your pretty design! You can never ever go wrong with polka dots in my book.

Wrap it up, tie some lace trim around it. Done. Love. 

My second favorite package was this fun curly loopy lined wrapping paper I made. I just simply alternated small and large loops. 

 I used a super fine glitter, which is beautiful, but it got EVERYWHERE. :) I mean glitter usually does, but whew. You might want to go with a less fine glitter since you'll be handling the package you wrapped. You don't want to be covered every time you pick it up. Glitter that is a little more coarse won't stick to your skin as much. 

I loved the idea of writing words, too! It turned out great - if it wasn't wrapped around a box. Ha. I should have made the words much smaller since once the paper was used to wrap, it didn't have the same effect I was going for. 

Still good, not great. I love this idea if you want to be patient enough to write small words. 

This was a super fun project (and free since I already had all the materials on hand!) and my gift definitely looked very different (and more fun!) than most of the gifts on the table at the wedding. This idea, of course, could be altered for any event you may need a gift for. 

Happy creating! 

Linking this idea to all the parties on my sidebar!