Camelot 1st Birthday

i helped a friend with her son's first birthday. it was in the outdoor area of a cafe.  the location was perfect but because it was public, there were lots of other people and kids who wanted to be part of the fun!  she wanted a knights and dragons theme because her son was born in the year of the dragon.

i created a candy/snack bar that had dragon food (cheerios), cannonballs (maltesers), swords (pocky and pretz), chessmen (cookies), knight shields (ritz), fish (swedish fish), and dragon nails (bugles).  for the signs i printed them on a sword graphic then adhered it to a shield and then a ribbon

 cricut sign

Coral and Aqua Baby Shower

I helped organize a friend's baby shower and it was a DIY affair from the food to the decor.  the only theme here was that she liked the color scheme of peach, coral, orange and aqua, teal, mint.  we shared pinterest boards to get ideas down.  the invitation had the ideal colors so all materials/graphics matched the invite

the first step was looking for a caterer.  after deciding that they cost too much we decided to do a mixture of food from a restaurant and some easy recipes.

baby shower sugar cookies made by a friend

mini desserts from whole foods

 

we got 3 bloomspots for 2 dozen mini cupcakes from mission minis

oranges were halved and gutted for fruit cups

 my MIL made roast beef and egg salad and cucumbers and we made three kinds of tea sandwiches

a charcuterie plate

 popcorn

 then we worked on decor.  i made two diaper cakes as gifts.  the middle is rolled up swaddle blankets. 

 there were games

 mad lib wishes for the babies

 i used this easy tutorial to make bunting banners.  one says baby baby

 and the other says yay carol

 the favors were mini succulents that we planted into votive holders

 the guest book was alphabet blocks

 for decor we also had pompoms, rosettes and lanterns

 flowers were from trader joes in blue ball jars

 more lanterns

it was a really tiring experience but got so many compliments!

Nijago 6th Birthday

while we were in whistler, we celebrated my cousin's son's sixth birthday with a small party at the fireside lounge inside our hotel.

i made signs by printing out ninjago picture from the internet.  Using my circle cutter, i cut circles out of the pictures and glued them to cardstock circles.

Nautical Baby Shower

My sister-in-law is due to give birth to a son March 12th so we held a small, intimate, nautical themed baby shower in her and her husband's honor at her parents' home in Fremont.

i created the life preserver out of a styrofoam ring and yarn

candy bar

lanterns

diaper cake 

iron on transfer onesies

sign made from cricut

ocean jello cups

smores boats

candy bar

the planner

so in the beginning we were waiting for our budget to flush out a bit more before we decided if we wanted a wedding planner.  we decided that we didnt have the funds for it so we wanted to be super detailed about the timeline etc.

then Angie came along!  she asked if i had a planner and of course i said no.  she said she wanted to plan my wedding!  she was trying to start her own event planning business since quitting her office job.  i gladly agreed.

she basically became my day of coordinator and i was so grateful for having her.  i knew in the back of my mind that we probably needed someone to "run the show" backstage.  and it was so nice!  i didnt really have much to stress out about.  looking back angie probably took on a lot of the stress.  i was reading articles about why wedding planners are great.  they can save money with their connections etc.  but for me it was all day of.  a week prior to the wedding we took a lot of time and a lot of emails to really flush out the schedule and timeline of events.  i knew that it would payoff and help make things run a lot smoother.

angie is also just so sweet.  she remains calm but cheerful and doesnt show much stress.  it was so nice to have her around

the decor

so i dont really have a theme for the wedding.  its just a whole bunch of stuff that i saw and really liked.  so most of the decor i saw somewhere and attempted to make myself.  you can see more over at my other blog.  there are still several projects that i havent started and some that are not complete.  im hoping it will all come together somehow (fingers crossed) at the wedding since theres no way for me to see how it will all look together.

the fitness routine

ive wanted to write about this for a while but its always been a difficult subject for me.  for as long as i can remember ive been dissatisfied with my body and having an upcoming wedding doesnt help!  there are some expectations that a bride always loses a ton of weight before the date etc.  im trying to balance wanting to look good, healthy, and fit with wanting to lose a ton of weight.  of course i would love to lose a lot of weight but i know it wouldnt be good for me.  it could put me in a downward spiral into disordered eating and i dont want to jepordize my metabolism before i get pregnant etc.

i dont even remembered why i started dailey method but i did and i love it!its been convenient for me to go tuesdays, wednesdays, and thursdays because its on my way home from work.  some days are harder than others but its definitely a respite from all the body hate that i have going on in my head.  my body does feel more strong, more flexible, and more fit after class.  the class basically consists of similar portions - warm up, high c curve (abs), arms, legs/thighs, low c curve (abs), seat work, and then warm down.  the exercises each day vary but the sequence is pretty much the same.  i also got their dvd in case i wanted to do it but couldnt make it to class.  there is also a lot of working a muscle and then stretching it out right after in class.  so after we work our thighs, we stretch them out. classes are expensive though and im not sure i can keep up this habit for long!

stephen has also recently started working out through P90X and so i join him on days where hes doing arms, yoga, or plyometrics.  i skip the back and shoulders because im self conscious that i would get too big there.  Plyometrics is basically cardio without a machine.  its a lot of jumping around like a lunatic ahha.  often times i feel like a monkey. the routine now is P90X twice a week when stephen is in town and then dailey method once a week.  i think closer to the wedding i may aim to work out more than 3 times a week but will have to see. so stephen gave up on the p90x so no more of that! 

my friend told me about a new yoga and cycling gym in the area so i joined that through a bloomspot!  now i do yoga once a week and also spin once a week. i then started to do spin three times a week instead and them maybe yoga once a week.  this gym is also on the expensive side so once my 20 class packages run out i may not renew