A Bucket List

This is my entry in the Just Ask Bucket List Getaway Giveaway. Just Ask offers a breast and ovarian cancer screening and is encouraging people to share 15 things that I want to enjoy in my lifetime as a reminder to be aware of my health. Want to enter? Head over to TodaysMama.com to get the details. 

1. Take my Grandpa on a vacation. Seriously. This man has always paid for my sister and I to go to Disney World. It would be amazing to surprise him and take him somewhere. Universal Studios please? :)
2. Visit Italy. It would be neat to visit family still over there, and learn about my culture first hand.
3. Be in a movie. Whether as an extra, or a real character. It would be fun to live out my dream!
4. Get a job I love. It would be awesome to do something enjoyable.
5. Create "blessing bags" (http://kwavs.blogspot.com/2011/05/blessing-bags-how-to.html) Such a great idea.

6. Take my Mom to Ireland. She's always wanted to go, and since she's spent her whole life giving to others it would be wonderful to give back to her.
7. Buy my sister a horse. It would be neat to make her childhood dream come true.
8. Get a "real" camera. Dabble in photography.
9. Get my husband a gift he loves. He's so hard to buy for. :)
10. Go surfing. Maybe I'll stick to trying it at Typhoon Lagoon at Disney. . .
11. Have a kid. . . but praying that's a good 5-10 years from now ;)
12. Convince my husband to let me get a puppy.
13. Buy our dream house.
14. Play "Glenda" in Wicked!
15. Take my Grandpa on a hot air balloon ride. Can you tell I love this guy?

Message in a Cookie!

When I stumbled across these cookie cutters from Williams-Sonoma, I had to have them. Normally, this would be way out of my budget, but I knew I could have lots of fun with these! First off, here's the link to buy them. Williams-Sonoma Message in a Cookie Cutter Set. They are just too fun! The possibilities are endless. The only picture I have from using them is of my Easter cookies. They turned out really cute. It's definitely an easy way to impress the guests! I'll be honest, they are pretty time consuming. This isn't something you'll want to bust out every day, but it does add a lot of fun to your designs.

Some Tips:
1. Roll the dough VERY thin. Seriously. The dough rises (obviously) and the letters will disappear into cookie land.
2. Many reviewers say not to use the dough recipe that comes with the cookie box. So, look for your own!
3. Look for decorating frosting pens. They make it SO much easier to decorate these.
4. When stamping, liberally apply flour to the cookie cutters. Trust me. You will thank me when your message doesn't look like a blob.



Now for some pictures. :)

This is what the box looks like. Lots of cute decorating ideas!

Easter Cookies!

Picture from the Williams-Sonoma website (aka I didn't take it... aka now you can't sue me!) 

Yummy Fall Breakfast Smoothie!

Pumpkin Pie Breakfast Smoothie

Click on the link above to try one of the yummiest breakfast smoothies I've ever had! Vivian Levine gave myrecipes.com a wonderful adaptation of this creamy breakfast drink.

I Can Make That! DIY Photo Booth

When planning my wedding, one of my most desired "extras" was a photo booth. I searched high and low for one I could afford with my minuscule budget. Every one I came across was in the $1000 range. I tried finding other areas to cut to make it more feasible, but it just wasn't happening. While at a bridal show, my Mom and I finally found the answer to my prayers. A super affordable photo booth! Talking with the man about all the exciting possibilities made me even more eager for the big day- That is, until he asked me that dream-crushing question: "Where is the wedding?" Turns out, my wedding, three hours away from their base, would cost me a huge traveling fee. Of course, putting them right in that bracket with the others of way over my budget.
All seemed lost as I finally sent my photo booth desire into the pile of things I could never afford. (Why is this pile so big in the wedding world?) For some reason, I couldn't stop thinking about it. I wanted so badly to make it happen. This opened up my eyes to another world of DIY photo booths. Many of the ones I saw online seemed to be expensive in their own right. People were buying fancy cameras and hooking up computers and printers. . . for me, this kind of blew the whole "save money" portion of the idea. I had to get creative. I found a damask curtain at my house from Target. It was cute, went with my theme, and FREE since I already had it. Doing an internet search for free photo booth props resulted in some super adorable mustaches and funny ideas. I talked to my photographer about it, and she told me she would be more than willing to stand there and take photos of all the guests. It ended up being a HIT! We put the pictures online for people to print out themselves. Many even took pictures with their own cameras. For basically free I was able to add a great element of fun to the wedding. I will leave you with some pictures from LGPhotography and some links to print out your own photobooth props! The blogs that made the props are super cute, and I definitely recommend checking them out. Such a fun, cheap way to add so much to your big day, or any party.


"Tip Junkie" Free Mustache Printable!
"Catch My Party" Free Printables!
"Oh Happy Day"- Free Printables!

Oh, so creative.

Before- Old Fisher-Price Castle 

After- Repainted castle made a great accent at our castle wedding! Photo credit: LGPhotography





My Mom's creativity has never ceased to amaze me. I'd like to say that her creativity was passed on to me, but I highly doubt it. She has this amazing way of taking things from ugly to fabulous. A lot of people have these castles sitting around, and you've probably seen your share at local garage sales. I think this would make a gorgeous addition to a little girls room. My Mom spray painted this castle with left over ivory spray paint from another project. It needed a few coats to get that solid pearlescent color. She put a piece of damask ribbon on the "door" of the castle. In the windows, she placed crystal stickers by David Tutera's wedding collection. The project was a cheap way to take my husband's old toy to a wonderful accent. Such a chic and easy project!


-A