PAPER & MORE GIVEAWAY WINNER!!!!!

According to RANDOM.ORG, the winner of the Paper and more $25 gift certificate is - drumroll please - boom, boom, boom, boom, boom KRISTIN of Unspecified thoughts who said "I've been looking at them for our invitation envelopes! Not sure on the size yet but I'm pretty sure I'll be getting the A7 Solid Black Envelopes.. that gift card would be AWESOME!"

To all the other lovely readers who entered, I thank you very much.
Kristin, I will send you and email ASAP and congratulations on your win. It would be great if you could post what you made with your win at some point.

TTFN (ta ta for now).

Giveaway Wrap Up

Last day for my giveaway y'all! If you haven't yet entered, you still can until midnight tonight. You get a $25 gift certificate from Paper and More which you can use for anything on their site. Use your paper to make, Invites, Programs, Save-the-Dates, Signs, Place or Escort cards, Water bottle labels, Thank You cards or any other number of projects. So click here and enter.

Good luck ladies and TTFN.

Let it snow, let it snow...

I know that a lot of people are tired of the snow and the slush but honestly, I love it. After living in Toronto where there was snow practically throughout the winter, this is nothing. Plus I was born in St.Lucia and spent the first 21 years of life there and of course had never seen a single solitary snowflake. So you can understand why I love seeing the snow falling especially the big, fat snowflakes. My little man loves going out to play and I always take pictures. I think it's beautiful. Here are some of my pics:


This is the Super' of my building keeping our sidewalk clear.


This is our car or what's left of it.


This is right outside the 72nd St. subway in Manhattan on my way home from work.



TTFN (ta ta for now).

Make Up Tips for the DIY Bride

Thinking about doing your own makeup for your wedding? Then these valuable tips are for you according to "Our Wedding Day".
Whether you will have a traditional, formal wedding or a beautiful casual affair – you want to look your best. Some brides-to-be make an appointment to have their makeup done for them, while others prefer to do it themselves. A few advantages you have include knowing what looks great on you and having applied your own makeup more than once in your life.

If you choose to apply it yourself, here are some great DIY makeup tips for your wedding.

Makeup Preparation –
The night before your wedding, exfoliate your skin to remove dead skin cells. This allows the makeup to go on smoother, look more natural and last longer. Be sure to apply a moisturizer after the exfoliation! Spread moisturizer once again on your face about 20 minutes before you start putting your makeup on.

Foundation and Powder –
One of the best DIY makeup tips for your wedding is to blend. As you put on your foundation, use a makeup sponge or your fingers to blend the makeup. This will keep you from having foundation lines around your chin and jaw. Applying powder is important because it sets the foundation and helps the makeup last longer. Be sure the colors match your skin correctly so the makeup will look natural and beautiful.


Note: If you have dark circles, a few dots of concealer before the foundation will help give you the look of ‘instant rest!’

Blush, Shadow and Shimmer –
Blush should be applied sparingly to the apples of your cheeks. Smile while applying it and you will see exactly where it should go. Blend with your fingers so it appears natural and pretty. Your eye shadow, eye liner and mascara should be dependant upon what time of the day your wedding is. Ceremonies held at dusk or after dark, call for you to apply more to help your features stand out. However, if your wedding will be at midday, skip the eye liner and only apply a little mascara and shadow. Too much can make you look overdone!

A warning when applying shimmer – too much can make you appear sweaty or wet! Only apply a bit of shimmer under your eyebrows and on your cheek bones.



The great thing about doing your own makeup is that you can simply wash it off and start over if you don’t like it – without paying extra! Experiment with your makeup well ahead of time so you can perfect your technique and achieve the beautiful look you want.

I went to Macy's a few weeks ago and wanted to buy some foundation from the Clinique counter and the lady decided to try a few to get a perfect match. She then suggested that she just go ahead and make up my whole face. Of course I agreed and it turned out fab-u-lous. I'm so bummed that I didn't take a pic. Even my 2 year old said "mama nice" when I got home. Mr. Muscle said "wow, you should really wear make up more often, you look great". This coming from the man who said he didn't like to see women with too much make up. I don't wear any unless i'm going to a function or something. I've just never gotten into make up but I have to admit, when applied correctly, it really is great.

Is anybody doing their own makeup or maybe getting it done at a store like Macys or Bloomingdales?
TTFN (ta ta for now).

Paper and More Giveaway Update.

In my haste and enthusiasm to announce the giveaway, I neglected to mention that the deadline is Saturday February 27th.
Again, good luck and TTFN (ta ta for now).

PAPER & MORE GIVEAWAY!

I am hosting my second giveaway. Yup, yup. This one is from Paper and More. The lovely people at Paper and More have agreed to give a $25 gift certificate to one of my lucky readers. I bought all of my papers from them to make my invites, programs, place cards, menus and all my paper products. Their paper quality is great, customer service is awesome and the shipping turnaround is really, really fast. They have tons of cardstocks, vellum, envelopes, pocket folds, seals etc in all kinds of colors. Here are just a few of their products:
This is the card stock that I used.

This is the petal card fold closed

and opened.


These are the embossed swirl cards that I used for my invite backing. They're 5x7 but they also come in text paper weight and 81/2 x 11 card stock. Trust me they have tons of great stuff.

I can’t say enough about these guys and I’m very happy to be hosting their giveaway. If you are planning on any DIY projects, then head on over. There are so many more products on their sites. And shipping is only $3.99 for orders over $15.

So here's what you do to get 3 entries.
1. MANDATORY - Go to Paper & More and tell me what you would get and what you would use it for.
2. Follow my blog.
3. Blog about this giveaway and post a link here.
Please make sure to leave a way to contact you like an email address.

Good luck ladies and TTFN (ta ta for now).

My First Award!!!!

I am now a Sugar Doll, well not exactly but thanks to The Pink Bride who passed on this lovely award to me, I now have a Sugar Doll award. YAY! Thanks honey. I now have to write 10 things about myself and pass the award on to 10 other lovely readers. So here goes:

1.I’m West Indian from the lovely island St. Lucia and Mr. Muscle is Jamaican.

2.I used to be an elementary school teacher.

3. I like things how I like them and it's really hard seeing it from another point of view.

4. I lived in Toronto, Canada for 5 years.

5.I really, really want to become an event planner after my wedding and will enroll in a course.

6. I already have a son and hope to have a daughter right after the wedding. Well I’ll start working on it after the wedding. (I
see you rolling your eyes.)

7. I’m obsessed with tiffany blue/aqua. Yeah what a surprise right?

8. I ultimately want to become a CPA – Certified Public Accountant. Not Crazy Person Always ha, ha I just made that up, clever
huh?

9.I love peanut butter and cheese –together (I know ewww! Yeah maybe double eeww!)

10. I burn my hand cooking almost every month or so. I even burned my stomach once when I was cooking with no shirt
on. Don’t ask.

And without further ado, I choose to pass this award on to:

Brittany Allen
Laura AKA Miss Mojito
Alicia - San Diego Budget Bride
My Dream Ring
The lovely Nester
Unspecified Thoughts
TTFN (ta ta for now).

WHAT’S IN A NAME?

So I’ve seen some of you creative Bloggers out there coming up with really clever names for your guys like Chocolate Lover’s “Mr. Milk”, Born to Be Mrs. Beever’s “Mr. Fix It” and Ms. Mojito’s Mr. Mojito among others, and I thought that maybe I should rechristen my guy.

So here are my thoughts:
Number 1. My name is Jem (pleasure to meet ya ) which really is an acronym for our names. My future last name starts with M and our first names start with J and E respectively. Therefore J + E M =JEM. Now Mr. Jem just doesn’t sound right, plus what would that make him Mr. J and E M? Nah, no good

Number 2. His number one passion, oh sorry I’m his number one passion (he he). So his number two passion is sports. All things sports. Football, basketball, baseball, etc. etc So maybe Mr. Balls? Ha ha ha. I swear I only realized how it sounded after I wrote it. Ok so that’s not going to happen either. Plus I don’t think he’d appreciate that so much.

Number 3. He’s a health Educator/ Counselor. Hmm… should I call him Mr. Healthy or Counsel man? Okay, someone needs to hit me, cause all these names sound dumb as hell. You realize I’m going through this thought process as I’m writing this.

Number 4 or technically number 5 since the last one had 2 potential names. Number 5 – Mr. Aqua? Well I am the aqua bride. So what’s the problem? For starters, it makes him sound like some underwater hero. I like the hero part, not so much the underwater part.

So that brings me to number 6. My baby loves to work out, especially his upper body and his arms are big and muscular. I feel so protected in those arms so I think I’ll call him - wait for it - Mr. Muscle. Yeah Mr. Muscle! Don’t hate ladies, my boo boo's got muscles and stuff. So from now on, My Darling FH will be replaced by Mr. Muscle. I’ll tell him his new name when he gets home. My not so very modest FH will think that’s a very appropriate name for him. My Mr. Muscle.

So what do you think?


TTFN (ta ta for now).

Happy, Happy Valentine's Day!!!!

Happy, Happy Valentines day my lovelies. I hope yours is romantic and surrounded by loved ones or the loved one. Whatever you do, enjoy!!!

TTFN (ta ta for now).

I added another party...

to the party. The bridal party that is. Our bridal party currently is made up of 8 people. A matron of honor, best man, three each of groomsmen and bridesmaids. I was quite happy with this until I remembered my FH's other sister. Mind you, i've made all the bouquets and bought basically everything that I needed to for the bridal party. Today when I mentioned his sister to my FH, he asked why I hadn't asked her to be in my bridal party and I asked him why hadn't he? I thought we had talked about this and I told him who I had in mind. My sister as my MOH, my 2 cousins and his sister as my BMs. Dresses for the bridesmaids have been approved and bought and the thing is that there are no more of those dresses, period. I think I must have bought the last three.




So what's a girl to do? Well, I decided that I would have a matron of honor, and a maid of honor and 3 bridesmaids. That way, my maid and matron can have the same dress and the bridesmaids will wear their current dress since my sister hasn't bought or even made any final decisions on her dress yet. I told her today that she was going to have to share her title and I think she was a little PO'd. Short of just cancelling the dress and starting over from scratch, I don't see any other solution. I don't think I can ask the girls to do that, although I paid for the dresses myself as a gift to them. I just don't want her to feel left out cause we have a cool relationship and she would be the only sister not taking part. They're both half sisters to my FH, one maternal, one paternal so I don't want either one feeling left out or more special than the other. Ohhhh, what's a girl to do.

Since we added one more lady, we now have to add one more guy to even things out, so now my FH is going to ask my bro. It's back to work for me, I now have to head on over to michael's, dust of my drill and get to making another crystal bouquet and boutonniere. Aye yay yay!
TTFN (ta ta for now).

Children at the wedding.

Ladies, I really need your advice and I mean seriously. So my dilemma is whether to have children at the wedding or not. No please hear me out first. I love kids ( I have a 2 year old myself) and I would love to have them at the wedding but my problem is that based on the guests invited I have 22 children. That's not counting anyone above 12. I'm talking about 22 children under 9. I've finally found a venue and the capacity is 100 people. I have 90 adults on my list although I haven't sent out my invites or received RSVPs yet so I don't have the final count yet.

The thing is I've heard alot of people say that if they can't bring their kids to a wedding, they're not going. Yet the last at least 4 weddings i've been to, the invitations said adults only or adult reception etc. I didn't have any issues with that since I don't think I can have a really good time at a party with a baby anyway, especially one that goes well into the night.

But I really don't want to alienate anyone. I don't want anyone to refuse because they think i'm being selfish. Please let me know what you think. Am I being unreasonable? What would you do? Help!!!!!
TTFN (ta ta for now).

Centerpiece Mock up II

Hello my lovlies, I had an earlier post where I showed my tablescape among other little projects. I got good feedback on it, but like all my other consumed bride colleagues, who are constanly scouring the world wide web for even more inspiration. For those of you who didn't see it, here's a pic of the original idea:

Bear in mind that this is my cardbox and if I go with this option, it will be slightly smaller and shorter but the concept will be the same.

Here's the second option with the lights on:


and with the lights off:
So I need your honest opinion, the boxes would cost about half what the vases would cost but I would honestly go with whichever is prettier since either option is within our budget. Which one do you like best?
TTFN (ta ta for now).

Weigh- In Wednesdays

Yay in the midst of all the madnes, i've lost another 2 lbs. So thats 5 lbs so far, 29 to go. It's really hard and I have to pass up on some really delish looking things especially deserts like cheesecake, cheesecake people! Oh well, it's for a good cause and as cliche as it may sound, I feel like a new woman. I'm more energized and in a much better mood. I just have to drool when I see all those really, really, really mouth-watering, tantalizing, succulent, fall off the bone gastronomic delights. Ok i'm making myself hungry so i'll sign off for now. TTFN (ta ta for now).

Wedding Obsession

Is everyone as obsessed with their wedding or is it just me? I mean I eat, sleep and breathe my wedding or just weddings in general. It's the last thing I think of before bed and first thing when I wake up. I don't think that's normal, is it? Please ladies, let me know if I need to take a chill pill. Does anyone else feel like this? TTFN (ta ta for now).

Double Trouble Monogram Giveaway!

Ashley at Bride on a Budget is hosting a for a custom monogramMonogram Giveawayfrom Double Trouble Designs to three lucky winners. Go on over there now to enter.

Good luck ladies and TTFN (ta ta for now).