Moving Day!

Hey friends! I know it's shocking that I'm actually posting a blog today, and there is good reason for that! I have decided that the time has come for me to begin writing on a different blog. I have really been missing blogging lately, and I realized that I never blog on this blog for a few reasons. I created this blog to share our wedding plans with family and friends, and made hundreds of new friends in the process! Now that the wedding is long over, I just feel uncomfortable with having a blog with "bride" in the name of it. I know that many of my followers are brides-to-be, and I feel like I am letting them down when I don't blog about wedding stuff. And I think non-brides are turned off by reading my blog because they think it is ALL about wedding stuff. I also don't really love the look of this blog. It became way too cluttered for me, so I didn't enjoying looking at it, and I can't blame others if they feel the same way! I am definitely not deleting this blog, because I LOVE looking back at everything. This blog is priceless to me because I can look back at any of the posts that I made over the last 2 and a half years and I am instantly transported to that particular day or time, and I love that. So, that being said, I hope that ALL of you will join me on my new blog, which is located at: http://523griffins.blogspot.com. If you click over, you will see that I had to go with a line from a Dave Matthews Band song for the title of my blog... I mean, how could I resist??

Like I said, I hope everyone will read and enjoy the new blog, which I just did 2 quick posts on - so there is actually something to read over there! Thank you to EVERYONE who has visited this blog at one time or another. I NEVER imagined that so many people would read and interact with me. It has really been amazing!! Lots of love to everyone!

traditional anniversary gifts... what do you think?

so our one-year anniversary is just around the corner (as in, it is THIS sunday!) and i think we have decided that we just can't play along with the whole "traditional/modern" anniversary gift-giving requirements. for those of you who don't know what i'm talking about, here is a chart that tells you what type of item you are supposed to purchase for your spouse each year:


so, traditionally, this year we are supposed to get each other something made of paper. it seems that the usual gift for this year is tickets to something, just based on what all of my married friends have done. i didn't want to go that route because i didn't want to buy US tickets to something because then its a gift for US and not a gift for HIM. if you don't go with tickets, what else can you buy that is made of paper and something unique? books and stationary come to mind, but those are both things that neither of us want or need. once i realized how difficult it was for the first year, i started looking down the list and realizing it was only going to get worse. look at the 4 year anniversary: fruit and flowers. FRUIT AND FLOWERS? SERIOUSLY? i'm sure you could think outside the box and turn that into a trip to wine country because of the grapes that are involved but come on, who really wants fruit and flowers for their anniversary gift?

so now i'm really curious... those of you that are married, do you follow along with these rules? and if you do, i would LOVE to hear some of the gift ideas you have come up with. and if you're not married, do you think you will follow them?

never have i ever...

we've all played this game, right? and we know its a whole lot LESS about what you haven't done and a whole lot MORE about calling out your friends? well anyway, i was having a conversation with a friend last weekend about random foods that i refuse to eat and it turned into a pretty funny chat about seemingly normal things that i have never done, eaten, etc during my 29 years on this earth. i decided that i needed to share some of these things, so here goes!

1. i have never eaten: a hot dog, a snickers bar, fried chicken, mustard, chicken wings, pepperoni, or anything from mcdonalds except french fries (just to name a few)
2. i have never had my eyebrows waxed (it freaks me out - and no, i don't have a unibrow, thankyouverymuch)
3. i have never driven a car with a stick shift
4. i have never seen the movie "old school" (which is cause for divorce, according to my husband)
5. i have never been admitted to a hospital, broken anything, etc.
6. i have never had the chicken pox
7. i have never had a car payment or paid for my own car insurance
8. i have never had a credit card
9. i have never failed a test, quiz, etc
10. i have never been in any kind of wreck
11. i have never had a cavity

ok so now that you're all thinking that i am the most boring person EVER, here are some not-so-normal things that i actually HAVE done!

1. i have been to the top of, and inside a volcano
2. i have watched humpback whales breach in the ocean from a boat that was about 20 feet away from them
3. i have owned my own business
4. i have met my favorite musician EVER, dave matthews!
5. i have been to NBA, MLB and NFL games... and even got to be a VIP at a Chicago bears game once where we got a police escort to the game and then got to go on the field during the pre-game!
6. i have watched someone give birth
7. and i have also watched someone die
8. i have been to 31 US states (and i'm not too interested in some of the ones i have left haha)

i could really go on and on about the funny things that i have never done, and especially the things i have never eaten! now blog friends, PLEASE tell me that i'm not the only one who has never done a lot of random, normal things?!

i'm alive...but just barely!

hey friends! im sorry that has been almost a MONTH since the last time i blogged, but i have been SO BUSY! here's a little run-down of what's been keeping me away from my blog...

1. sickness!

for about the first 8-10 days of march, i was layed up in bed with some sort of crazy flu-type virus. i had the craziest cough i have ever heard come out of a human being. my brother, who is a doctor, actually thought there was a possibility that i had the whooping cough! luckily, after being on antibiotics for about 6 days, it finally went away. but of course, after it was gone i had that yucky lethargic feeling you get after being sick so i pretty much did nothing for a few more days!

2. work!

i know i never really did a "formal" post about my new calligraphy business (since it became an actual business) because well, i sometimes think its awkward to self-promote. but i have to say that creating an actual website has GREATLY increased my business and i am very luckily to be very, very busy right now! it is wedding season, so i'm glad we got everything up and running at a good time! all of my blog readers that are brides-to-be should check out the blog on my business website. i blog from time-to-time (when i actually HAVE time!) about wedding-related things that i love!

3. (finally) getting our biggest master bedroom closet in order!
i probably need to clarify that a little bit. our house is overflowing with closets. our master bedroom and bathroom have a grand total of FIVE closets between the two of them. our main master bedroom closet is about the same size as my first dorm room. for a long time, i have been shopping and reading and trying to decide what to do with it to make it look more organized. because i'm off my blogging game i forgot to take before pictures, but here are some current pictures of this work in progress.



let me start by saying that, yes, my husband does have more clothes than that. the problem with his side of the closet is that his shirts are so long that they overlap the bottom shelf if we hang them on the top. eventually we want to take out those wire shelves and put in the long closet poles but that is another project for another day. i bought the dresser at ikea last week for $129 and drawer organizers for the inside for $10. let me tell you - those drawer organizers have changed my life. sometimes i open the drawer and just look at all the organized goodness. another big change in the closet was that we switched out all of our white plastic hangers for cherry wood hangers and i am sort of in love with those as well. it was kind of an expensive switch, but i think it is already paying dividends. i just love how finished the dark hangers make it look, even when everything else in there is a mess!

okay i'm done making excuses! just wanted to fill everyone in on why i have been a horrible blogger! now i need to go read some blogs before something else comes up! have a great day, friends!

another little project!

back when i was planning our wedding, i bought these frames to make framed monograms for our gift table and the corner of our bar. while i still love the framed monograms, we don't really have a place where pink and green makes sense in our house. i love the thick white frames so i decided to re-use them to add some color in our kitchen. here are some pictures:






i just bought some modern-looking scrapbook paper that matched our kitchen and put it in the frames, then made a little design in photoshop and framed that between the two. i really love the interest and pop of color that it brings to the kitchen. what do you think?

see ya later, snow!

today, we will be going from this...


to THIS:


tonight we are heading to san diego to visit family and friends and also for ryan's grandfather's wedding. let me tell you, my ghostly white self CAN'T WAIT to see the sun again. you know it's bad when the local meteorologists are SO EXCITED that the weather is going to get "up to freezing" today. ugh. get me out of here!!

easiest valentines day bouquet EVER!

after my last post, i had several twitter messages asking "what is in that bouquet on your table?" well let me tell you, it is the cheapest and easiest thing ever! here is a close up:


i just took one of my monogrammed vases (you can't even really tell that part) and put in a bunch of sweetheart candies (that is - after i found out that my dog ripped open the bag and ate half of them!) and then some fake red and pink tulips. i'm normally not a huge fan of fake flowers, but i couldn't figure out how to make this work with real flowers and the water that would need to be in there without using 2 nested vases. this is the extent of my valentines day decorating... as you can tell, we REALLY go all out! :)