Mom's arrival & Biltmore Estate & Gardens

My mom flew into Atlanta on Thursday April 17th. Josh had school all day, so I made the 3 hour drive by myself. It was so pretty and peaceful! All of the trees were sooo green and some were blooming :) I am really bad about enjoying the scenery in the car. I either knit/crochet, read, or sleep haha I can sleep just about anywhere, so the second I get in the passenger seat of a car, I start to doze a little :) Anyways... Her flight was scheduled to land at 3pm, so I left early enough to find parking and get inside. I finally navigated construction and made a few laps before finding parking. I got inside at 2:45, and I found out her plane was delayed :( I was so anxious to see her! It had been 3 1/2 months... the longest I have ever been away from either of my parents!! I stood at the arrival gate looking at the board every ten seconds to see if it had landed. It took forever to say arrived after having said landed. I was literally at the front of the line scanning every single head that came up the escalator. (Side note..I did some awesome people watching during this time! You see all kinds coming off planes at an international airport ;) She was finally able to call me and say she was making the 5 mile trek from the plane to the arrival gate since the train was completely full! I finally saw her coming up the escalator, and it was all I could do to stay behind the security line! That first hug was the best feeling ever! I'm sure we looked crazy blocking ALL of the traffic and hugging and smiling and hugging and smiling more for like 5 minutes straight :) Once we finally decided to head to the car, I got lost! I am terrible about figuring out directions. I knew exactly where I was parked, but we could not figure out how to get there! Everyone we asked directions to told us to get on the bus, but I knew we did NOT need to get on the bus. Finally a nice maintenance worker pointed us in the right direction to the escalator! I was so excited to see my mom I had completely forgotten I took an escalator haha We stopped off for a quick dinner so we could drive home in the daylight. My mom picked the perfect time to come, because it is absolutely beautiful this time of year!! My mom was in awe at everything. It was so refreshing to be with someone seeing this place for the first time. We have gotten so used to everything, that I forgot just what we have surrounding us :)

The first night we stayed up visiting for a while. The next day we made plans to visit Biltmore Estate in Asheville. It is America's largest home built my George Vanderbilt in 1895. The estate is 10 square miles, and the home is 178,000 sq. ft. There are 250 rooms in the mansion plus a 70 ft. swimming pool, bowling alley, billiard room, and a 2 story library. There are synchronized clocks and an intercom system throughout the entire house. Even though it was built in the 1800's, it was fully plumbed and wired for electricity. They also had a full time staff with living quarters in one wing of the house. We chose to take a behind the scenes Butler's Tour in order to see where the crew worked and lived. It was very informative and amazing to see! The maids slept right next to the kitchen, and the men slept above the barn. A lot of times, the crew worked from 6am to midnight keeping the house running smoothly. It is now owned by Biltmore Company which is controlled by George Vanderbilts grandson William Cecil. It was opened up to the public as a tourist attraction to raise money during the depression, but family didn't stop living there until 1956 when it was officially declared a house museum. However, one of the families still lives on the estate, and works at the mansion daily. It is truly amazing!

Grand clock above the barn for all of the synchronized clocks

Men's quarters and service entrance

Outside view of the spiral staircase

 

In addition to the amazing mansion with shops in the old barn, there are amazing gardens, a greenhouse, and a winery in the old dairy barn. They have live music down by the other shops at what they call Antler Hill. We were there ALL DAY! We were tired by the end, but it was so fun :) 

 

Selfie in the Greenhouse :)

Rare car: cost $5,000 in 1904 = $110,000 in 2014

Crochet Baby Headbands, Flowers, & Butterflies

I love quick little projects. That is a big reason why I was too lazy to learn how to read knitting patterns :) I also loved the idea of scrap booking, but it never held my attention long enough to make something worth keeping. In Art class I loved to make silhouettes and outlines on cool backgrounds because it meant I didn't have to spend too much time on detail. I have started so many different crafts, but I never work on them long enough to really make them worth it. I usually end up with a couple failed projects, a couple so-so projects, and a few worth keeping.

After 3 quick little crochet projects in the garbage (sad, but true), I have finally made something worth saving :) I have devoted way too many hours in the past 2 days to learning how to make baby headbands, flowers, and butterflies! Anybody expecting a little girl sometime soon?? I would love to see my little projects on a sweet baby girl :)

I found the pattern for the headband from this blog. It is very simple and quick! Plus they stretch so they can be used for longer!

The butterfly tutorial is here. It is so simple and so cute! 

I LOVE this rose! It gives the perfect amount of depth for such an easy make :) 

The pretty posie is the same pattern I posted the other day.

 This flower is also pretty simple, and I like the two layers without having to sew two flowers together.

 So that is what I have been up to lately! I have a lot more projects to attempt. Anybody interested in purchasing any headbands? I'm not sure my work is really worth selling, but I am sure we could work out a deal ;)

P.S. Sorry about blowing up everybody's Pinterest feeds..I just can't resist the beautiful pictures!

My Bridal Portraits (and the story of dress shopping)

Everybody I talked to about taking bridal portraits seemed to have an opinion one way or the other. It seems as though people either love them, or they think they are a waste of time. I personally LOVE bridals! Guys don't care about getting all dressed up and taking tons of pictures, so this gives the bride a chance to "show off" a little :) Also, it is a trial run through for hair, makeup, accessories, and of course… the dress! It would be terrible if the day of your wedding you decided you didn't like those earrings, your hair was too high, or your dress didn't lay just right. For all of these reasons, I decided to have bridals done! My other "must have" was to feel absolutely comfortable with my photographer! It is pretty tough to feel beautiful when you are nervous :) Therefore, I knew from day one that I wanted my best friends mom, who is also an awesome photographer, to take them!! (Thanks a million times over Jacque!!!) Kendra and I have been best buddies forever! So, of course Kendra was my maid of honor! That made taking pictures with her and our mom's that much more fun!! Julia, who is basically my second mother, is a lovely beautician, so she was in charge of hair & makeup :) My dad was just the innocent bystander that was forced into handling all of the ladies! 

When I thought about what kind of dress I would want, I was all over the place! I have always loved poofy, princessy ball gowns. I also LOVE fashion, so mermaid styles appealed to me. I knew I had to have bling! I also really love bows and flowers. …Like I said I was ALL OVER THE PLACE! :) That made dress shopping stressful and fun! I liked just about everything I tried on, but there was always something not quite right. The first place I went was Petals & Promises in Logan. I had seen a lot of their dresses at the Bridal Fair on campus, so I knew I liked their inventory. I walked through my sizes, and picked out a bunch of different styles to try on. When the lady started helping into them she said, "I have one on the sale rack that is in your size. I'm going to go grab it." Everyone knows how much I LOVE a deal!! When she started helping me into it, she says, "I don't know how you feel about this, but the bottom rips off to make a cocktail dress." AHHH I was soooooo excited!!!! Never in my wildest dreams did I think I could ever afford a dress like that!!! That was a very distant dream of a dress! On top of all of that, it had bling & flowers! I knew this would be a hit :) The only downside was it was ivory. I always thought I would want a WHITE dress. I loved everything else about it, so I tried it on. Even though I had liked everything so far, this was the first time I came out of the dressing room beaming! My mom knew right away that this was the dress! I told her my concerns: it was ivory, it was kinda tight, but worst of all…my best friend & maid of honor wasn't there to share the joy with me :( We decided to sleep on it. They agreed to hold it for 24 hours, but since it was on clearance that was the longest they would wait. Well it was a Saturday, so that meant 24 hours was Monday morning! I thought about it ALL weekend, kept looking it up online to critique even more. I called Kendra and told her all about it, and she helped me think through everything. I felt better having "shared" with her. In the end I decided it just wasn't right. I couldn't get over the ivory. 

Nearly two months later, my parents and family friend Nancy came to Logan for my confirmation. (Nancy was my sponsor :) I knew we had to go shopping again, and we were guessing Petals & Promises may have gotten some new styles in by now. Plus I wanted Nancy and my friend Hanky to see me in some dresses :) I went through my sizes again, and I picked out almost all of the same dresses! I go in the dressing room to start, and the same lady that helped me before was with another bride. She said to the gal helping me, "Hey that is my sale rack bride! We still have your dress!" (Yes she said MY DRESS!!! Was this a sign??) I couldn't believe that after two months on 50% off clearance it was still there! I said I want to try that on last because I already know I love it! I tried on a few others, and then I tried on a WHITE dress. I mean it was WHITE WHITE! It made me look like a ghost! That is when I realized nothing could compare to the ivory! It made my skin look golden rather than white. It was perfect! There was no reason not to love the ivory! My dress was absolutely perfect for me :)

When I came home from UT one weekend, my mom had a surprise for me! She had found my grandma's wedding dress in an old shadow box!! We had no idea we had it all of these years. It was very special for my mom and I. My grandma was tiny tiny, so there was NO WAY I would be trying that little thing on!! (Maybe my left thigh could have, but I wasn't about to chance it haha) We wanted to get a picture with all three generations of dresses in one picture! We knew we would get mannequins for my grandma's and my mom's, and I would wear mine. It was Jacque's idea to stage the picture as it is :) It was perfect!!! I love that I am looking back at them as if they might offer inspiration for me :) It was very special moment for me! 

Ever since I was a little girl I remember thinking about my mom's wedding dress. In my mind it was her dress. It was her style when she got married. I knew the "thing" was to wear your mother's wedding dress, but for me I always felt like that was weird. After all, it was HER dress. In my mind that was special to her and my dad on their wedding day, and I wanted the same for Josh and I on our wedding day. For as long as I can remember, I have known I wanted my own wedding dress, but I also knew that I wanted to take bridal portraits in my mothers wedding dress! It was very important to me that I get to put on her dress and have the memory for both of us. It just wasn't supposed to be on my wedding day. I am not sure how others feel about this, but for me it was very important! I knew exactly what I did and didn't want for our dresses :) When it came time to go shopping for a dress, my mom knew I wouldn't be wearing hers. It was almost like an unspoken agreement. She says she doesn't know why she kept it because she didn't expect me to wear it. But she did! That is when I told her I wanted to have portraits done in her dress too :) It was also very important to me that she didn't see me in it! I had tried on her dress one afternoon at home, but not while I was dressed up. I had our cousin Marge "entertain her" while I snuck away with Jacque & Kendra to take pictures. I planned to have them printed for her before she saw them, but life got in the way! Oh well. They are still special in our hearts :) 

This was honestly one of the best days ever! We had so much fun!!