slumdog millionaire

Have you seen this movie yet? I am not surprised at all that it won best picture of the year. We went today to see this and it was amazing. Definately one of the best movies I've seen in a while. The child actors were fantastic. Go see it!

new followers box

I'm gonna be honest, I'm not digging the new "followers" box. I'm confused and want it to go back to normal. Make it stop!!!

Welcome to the world Bryce

Bryce Charles Whitlock

7 lbs 10 oz of cuteness

2-25-09 4:42 pm

I went to the hospital tonight to see Grace and Jason and Bryce since I didn't get to see Bryce last night. The entire family is doing well and are going home tomorrow. Bryce is the cutest little thing. I especially love his nose. He's perfect and I can't wait to post more about him!

old navy finds of the day

I'll make this quick but I just have to share my Old Navy finds of the day. Rain jackets are 50 % off, so go quickly and pick one up! Kind of makes me wish for rain! I've been feeling really winter drab lately, but as soon as I walked into Old Navy and saw all of the bright colors I just knew that Spring will be here soon!

Slick floral raincoat

Canvas yellow raincoat

Twill blazer (would not wear the blue underneath)

Gingham headbands

Enamel earrings in navy

a baby is about to arrive

My good friend Grace is in the hospital and being induced as we speak! She is expected to deliver baby Bryce in the early evening tomorrow. We went to the hospital tonight and sat with them for a while, just one last visit before their new addition arrives! You can check the progress HERE. She is also one of my lovely bridesmaids!

great contest

Prep in the Big Apple is hosting a fabulous giveaway. Go here to enter for cupcake yummies! Deadline to enter is 10 pm, Sunday the 22nd!

Bloemendaal House

This is the amazing place where we will be getting married in less than 4 months! It's at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden and it's called the Bloemendaal House, which I believe is dutch for 'valley of flowers'. The house is victorian and it is huge. In front of it there is a beautiful rose garden with brick walkways and at the end is a gazebo with roses on the top. I believe that in June the roses have stopped blooming but we'll be fine with that. We have a string trio that will be playing the ceremony and this is something I've wanted since I was a little girl! They will set up off to the side and the bridal party will stand down each side of the walkway. Our band E3(you might recognize them from their '90's hit "Who's Got the Hooch" hehe) will set up on the stage in front of the house.

Justin proposed to me May 11 at Lewis Ginter so we thought the natural place to get married would be here. We went last April to walk around and see all the blooms and I saw a girl in her wedding dress taking her bridal portraits. I got high on my horse and said something like "look at that girl, she's strutting in that dress and she's so lucky she's getting married here." Little did I know in a little more than a year that girl would be me! I feel so fortunate, especially because I get to do all of this with my sweet Justin! Thank you Lord!

great bridesmaid gift ideas

I was browsing around one of my favorite sites Room Service Home and they have the cutest stuff. I thought these would be great for bridesmaids gifts, birthday gifts or anybody really! I think my favorites are the lucite party trays with monograms and the decoupaged clip boards, which actually come from The MacBeth Collection, which could use it's own post because they're so fabulous! These are the things you learn when you work for cutesy retail shops. Oh how that college degree does me good!

american idol re-cap

I told myself that I wasn't going to dive into tv shows and gossip on here but I've since thrown that idea out the window. I watched American Idol on dvr this morning since I'm still sick and here are my thoughts. I didn't even want to watch this year because it's season 8 but oh well I'm still watching!

My pick for best of the first night:

Ricky Braddy - Boo! He didn't make it

Might be moving on:

- Alexis Grace -a mighty hussified version MADE IT

- Daney Gokey - Hero was not the best song choice MADE IT

- Michael Sarver - come on, how could you not like him? MADE IT

- Anoop Desai - likeable but bad song choice for sure

- Ann Marie Boskovich - hit some pretty good high notes

Likely to not go through:

- Jackie Tohn - not my kind of girl

- Stevie Wright - poor girl she was too nervous

- Brent Keith - did he think Simon would really like the song Hicktown?

- Casey Carlson - very pretty girl but not the greatest song choice

- Stephen Fowler - poor song choice

- Tatiana Nicole del Toro - this girl is nutty

Who is your vote for?

lamps i love

I found these lamps on the Shades of Light website and I just love them. I think they would look so cute with the Serafina duvet we registered for from Pottery Barn. They are a little pricey at $299 per lamp base and $79 for each shade. I think if you found a cheaper base then you could splurge on the shade. You know who else has really cute lamps? Pottery Barn teen. They have polka dots and are too cute.

booking the honeymoon

****Update: Honeymoon is officially BOOKED!! ****

Later on today we are going to book our honeymoon! I am still sick today and hopefully I can go back to work tomorrow. This has been a long six days and I have been very discouraged with feeling so bad. Today is the first day I can sit up for a long amount of time without having to put my head down immediately. So sad, I know. We have been researching our honeymoon trip and every hotel that we have liked at some point, I found a problem with. Justin was just ecstatic when I finally found one that I didn't have too many problems with. It's the Hilton Hawaiian Village on Waikiki Beach in Honolulu on the island of Oahu(whew, that's a mouthful).

Here is the Rainbow Tower where we want to stay. The rooms are oceanfront and you basically walk out the door and voila, you're on the beach. There is a lagoon to the front of the picture where you can paddleboat, swim, sunbathe...

Here is one of the several pools they have on the resort. I love going to the pool but I feel like when you're in Hawaii there are much better things to do, like drive around and find waterfalls, although this pool does look rather splashy.

Here is the beachfront at the hotel. In the background is the Diamondhead mountain(volcano? not sure). We are so excited to be going in less than 4 months. We really want to rent a Jeep and drive around the island, visit Pearl Harbor, climb a volcano, go hiking, see a luau....any other suggestions?

little lost mia

My sweet little kitty Mia was lost today. Don't worry, she was quickly found in a tree in the backyard covered in pine sap. She was gone all morning and let's just say when we found her she was less than thrilled. Had to snap a picture before saving her life.

happy valentine's day

Unfortunately this Valentine's day will not go down as one of my favorite's. We spent most of the afternoon at Patient First waiting for the diagnosis of 'flu', which was no surprise. The doctor did give me some potent cough medicine to knock me out. We watched 2 movies and then Justin took me home. Not the best of days, but it was very sweet of him to sacrifice his day, and health, to try to make me feel better.

- On a lighter note(no pun intended), my total weight loss in the past 4 weeks is 10 pounds! It's almost time for new pants!!!

This picture below cracks me up so much I just had to post. This is Justin's idea of Valentine's day. It's probably what his little thought bubble is thinking when I am talking about Valentine's day. I guess that's what happens when you are marrying a police officer/sportsman.

4 months

4 months and counting! I can't believe it's getting that close. We went to Lewis Ginter on Wednesday evening for a catering party to sample the food we could have for the reception. Everythig was so yummy! My favorite's were the giant shrimp, crab dip, martini mashed potato bar and strawberry/mandarin orange poppyseed salad. All of the 2009 Lewis Ginter brides/grooms were there. It was a crazy amount of people!

h

I am still sick. It's officially the flu. I will probably be too sick to go to Ruth's Chris tomorrow night for dinner. Stink!

sick day

Boo I think I have come down with the flu. I feel awful! Justin brought me orange gatorade, theraflu and tylenol. So sweet. But, I did get a call saying my dress is in! There's a bright spot!

yummo

What could be cuter? Eleni's New York

cute valentines ideas

Cupcake toppers from Etsy

Marble magnets by Etsy

Mini Cooper valentines from Etsy

Embroidered gift bags from Etsy

thank you pearls events

What a day! Long day at work and even longer 3 hour class afterwards. When I got home I checked the mail and Pearls Events sent me the prize that I won - the cutest little Valentine's notebook from Pottery Barn and a Target gift card. Oh what fun. Thanks Aletha!

i got mail

Oh how I love getting mail. Especially when you've been waiting for something for 4 WHOLE days and it finally comes. What I am refering to my friends are my new Biggest Loser and Jillian Michaels workout DVD's, the spring Lilly catalog and an invitation sample from Minted. Naturally as the story of my life goes, the invitation is the wrong colorway. Hopefully they will rectify the problem asap. They were great to work with for my save the dates so hopefully I'll get the new one soon. I'm going to start Jillian Michael's 30-day Shred tonight. She says you can lose up to 20 lbs in 30 days. We'll see about that!

new blog design

I got a blog re-design from Erin at Designer Blogs. She was really good to work with and she was very patient with me as I changed little things here and there ALL. DAY. LONG. I'm still trying to get the hang of the new design but I really like the background and the header. She does a good and fast job. Do you like it?

disclaimer: ooh's and aah's may occur

When I found out one of my best friend's in the whole world was going to have this baby I cried and cried. Her name is Emma Elizabeth and she is the most precious thing I've ever seen. Sara sent me these new pictures and I had to share because well, I'm kind of partial!