Christmas Tree Oh Christmas Tree

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We might be a few months into our second year of marriage, but this year we got our very first Christmas tree!  Our new home needs a tree.  Clearly I had my priorities in the right order since the first order of business was to go purchase ornaments.  A couple years ago when we were registering for our wedding at Crate & Barrel I had seen a lot of cute ornaments.  Our first and only stop for ornaments was at Crate & Barrel.  Luckily for us there was a 30% off sale on all the ornaments!!  My husband and I filled up our basket with lots and lots of white, silver and red ornaments.  I was pretty sure we were buying too many, but figured we would return the ones we didn’t need.

It seemed like destiny as we drove up Massachusetts Avenue and right by a Christmas tree sale at the local church.  Instead of heading the Whole Foods or Home Depot to buy our tree we were going to get it from the church!!  They had a ton of options.  I am not really sure why we didn’t think of checking out the local churches in the first place.   At least we will remember this for next year!

After walking around the available “medium” size tree options a few times we quickly agreed on this guy:

Sorry for the crappy camera phone pictures.  It didn’t dawn on me to bring my camera … fail!  Anyways, after purchasing the tree we laughed a little at our lack of planning on how we were going to get the tree home.  It might have been December, but the convertible top when down and the tree when in the backseat of the car.  We made it home just before the rain started in.  Pretty good timing if I do say so myself.

We were home and had a tree and ornaments, but we were lacking lights and maybe more importantly a tree stand.  We threw the tree in a bucket and walked to CVS.  There we purchased a tree stand and 200 white lights.  Back to the house we went to decorate our tree!!

After a number of tries we finally go the tree straight in the tree stand.  The husband cranked the Christmas music and we spent the next hour or so arranging the ornaments perfectly.  Here’s a close up of a couple of the ornaments.

I am very happy with our final product.  Check it out …

What do you think??  I’m very pleased.  Our menorah and dradle looked great next to the tree throughout Hanukkah! Maybe next year we will buy a tree skirt and actually get some gifts under the tree :)  We did have a present under the tree for less than 24 hours.  Then I couldn’t wait any longer and gave my husband his holiday present prior to Christmas Eve.

Happy Holidays!

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Photo of the Week – Dog

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This picture was taken just a few weeks back.  We had just purchased these pillows from Crate & Barrel and Sophi took a liking to them immediately.  She started by squeezing herself in between the arm of the couch and the pillow.  My puppy is such a cutie!!

The husband thinks we will have a mutiny on our hands if we ever get rid of these pillows hahaha.  I mean look how sad she is when I pulled the pillow away from her  ….

Happy Friday!

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Daddy-Do List

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You’ve probably heard of the honey-do list, but when my father comes to visit it’s more of a Daddy-do list.  Ever since I moved into an apartment in college I’ve always had a list of things for him to fix or do while he’s visiting me.  There was one time my parents came to visit and my dad walk in the door, looked at me and said “so what do you want me to do this time?”.  I couldn’t help but chuckle a little.   Although he might sometimes pretend to be annoyed by my wanting him to do stuff around my house or fix my computer I think deep down he loves it.

So when he arrived a few weekends ago for a visit I already had my daddy-do list planned out.  The last time he visited us in the condo he installed a dimmer switch in the living room.  The best part of the dimmer switch in the living room is we can make “movie theater” lighting when watching tv. I love it. I mean who doesn’t like lights that dim?!?!

Anyways, I wanted him to install a couple of additional dimmer switches in the condo, but the big project I had in mind was building us a screen door.  As I had mentioned in my herb garden post we have this little “smokers balcony” off our living room.  Since the weather in DC is finally getting cool it’s nice to open the window and the fresh air in.  That’s front door offers a lot of air, but doesn’t keep the bugs out.  Seriously my legs and hands were eaten alive by the mosquitoes that got in our house.  So you know what that means … clearly we need a cheap/DIY screen door.

Home improvement DIY Screen Door | Life's Tidbits

That picture was taken prior to moving in.  I promise we now have furniture in the living/dining room.  My dad was up to the challenge and here’s how we (read my dad) made the screen door.

What you need:

First he measured the door frame and then cut the aluminum screen frame down to size.  We purchased 4 pieces of frame.  We probably should have bought an extra just in case because somehow we cut the frame a little too small.  Luckily my dad is a master problem solver and with a little cooking twine we were able to add in the extra amount of space we need.

After my dad figuring out how to fix our little measuring problem we laid the screen out over the door frame.  Make sure to give yourself a little extra screen around the edges.  You don’t want it too tight or the screen door will bend inwards.

Take the screen spline and roller and attach the screen to the frame.

Then we cut off the extra screen along the edges.  We realized there was nothing to hold onto when pulling the screen door into place.  Sooooo Daddy to the rescue as always.  We put screws in to use as handles.  At some point I plan to go ahead and buy one more piece of aluminum frame and attach that so the handle is a little easier to grab.  For now the screws are working out just fine!

So there you have it. A pretty easy, cheap and quick DIY screen door.

Best part is you can barely tell there’s a screen door in there unless you get close up to it.  Here’s your close up:

Happy home improvements and a little DIY!

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A DC Bride’s Wedding Dress with a Side of Buyers Remorse

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The title sounds worse than it is by A LOT, but I thought it accurately summed up the situation.  My husband will tell you I am one of those people who loves something in the store (or online) and then immediately second guesses my choices once the item is purchased and home.  For example when we got our dining room table chairs I obsessed about if the cream went okay with the beige/darker cream couches we have. I think it took a good two weeks for the buyers remorse to dissipate.  I love the chairs and think they look great … so seriously what was up withe the buyers remorse?

If it happens with purchases like a pair of jean or a chair, then clearly the buyers remorse would kick in for a wedding dress, right?

I started watching “Say Yes to the Dress” before I got engaged and once we were engaged I thought heck I will try on 5 or 10 dresses and find the one I want quickly.  Unfortunately I wasn’t a 5-10 dress kind of bride. I think I was probably more in the 30-40 range.  I would chalk a lot of that up to trying on almost any dress suggested so I could narrow down what it was I really wanted.

I tried on a lot of dresses before deciding on THE dress. The day I found my wedding dress I was with my MOH and one bridesmaid.  And just to make things interesting the dress I decided was THE ONE happen to be part of a trunk sale.  This dress was only going to be in the store for that weekend and then it would be packed up and sent to another bridal shop.  There was no way I was going to buy a wedding dress without my mother seeing it. The owner of the store suggested we skype with her, however while having lunch, my sister and I decided my mother should fly from Boston to DC just for the day.

Oh yes I am that crazy and thought it was TOTALLY appropriate to have my mother fly in Sunday morning and out that evening just to see the dress.  After some serious convincing my mother agreed to fly in for the day.  We found a “reasonably” priced ticket and the next day she arrived bright and early to do some dress shopping.  Smartly, she requested that we go to at least one other store so she could have other dresses to compare THE dress too.

We began at Hannelore’s and I tried on two dresses for her.  The first and the immediate favorite at that store looked like this:

Anne Barge, Style 612

The second, which I had liked the first time, but not loved got cut almost immediately. We quickly realized in pictures you couldn’t see the beautiful lace in the boddus.  It just didn’t “pop” to us.  Here’s the second dress:

Romona Keveza Legends 804 – Look at my sister in the background … how bored does she look. hahahahaha. It was because she knew it wasn’t the right dress!

After taking my measurements for the first dress and pretty much talking myself out of the dress my mother had initially flown in to see we headed to Love Couture.

They already had “the” dress as well as one other I had been considering ready for us.  I slipped into the dress and was grinning ear to ear.  As my sister had predicted while we were in Hannelore the Stephen Yearik dress was a better match for the look I was going for.  Here we are trying on the dress at the store:

Stephen Yearick

Two days later the buyers remorse kicked into high gear. I started pulling up the two dresses and comparing/contrasting them. My sister, the MOH, kept telling me I was crazy for doubting my initial decision. I waffled back and forth for the next few months. I started checking out second hand versions of the Anne Barge dress and seeing if I could afford (heck no!!) the second dress I liked as well.

In the end all the buyers remorse was erased when I went to the store to try my dress on the day it came in!  After the alterations, makeup, jewlery and all the other good bridal stuff here’s how it looked on our wedding day:

Photo Credit: Korie Lynn Photography

Thanks for taking a walk down memory lane with me.  Buyers remorse be gone because on the day of our wedding I wouldn’t have wanted to be in any other dress!

Happy Dress Shopping!

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Wedding Detail: Candy Buffet/Display

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Shortly after getting engaged and reading (too) many wedding blogs I became obsessed with having a Candy Bar/Buffet at our wedding.  Here are two candy buffets that were part of my inspiration:

Wedding Candy Buffet

Found on WeddingBee

Wedding Candy Buffet

Found on Aisle with Style by the Photo is from Hostess Blog.

Best place to buy anthropology jars that I found was Marshall’s.  All the good jars were about $12, which isn’t too crazy.  We went to multiple Marshall’s and waited a couple of months and then went again.  It took a while to compile all the jars, but in the end all the trips were totally worth it.

Other places I found candy jars were Michael’s, Crate and Barrel, Ebay and Craigslist.  9 time out of 10 though Marshall’s had the cheapest and best options.  I would definitely suggest doing some window/online shopping before buying from anywhere.

About 6 weeks before the wedding we purchased all the candy.  That’s not to say I had already picked out the candy months before purchasing it! :)  We went with purple, white and pink candy to go with the color theme of the wedding.  Well sort of, cause pink wasn’t a wedding color … but so many good candies are pink though!

We got the bulk of the candy from Candy Warehouse.  Here is exactly what I purchased:

  • White “Just Married” Sweet Tart Circle Rolls: 5LB Bag
  • Lavender Foiled Milk Chocolate Balls: 5LB Bag
  • Princess Candy Necklaces & Bracelets: 24CT Box x5 (this was too much probably only needed x3)
  • Strawberry & Creme Salt Water Taffy Candy: 3LB Bag x2
  • Green Rind Watermelon Slices: 5LB Bag
  • Haribo Gummi Pink Grapefruit Slices: 5LB Bag

The jelly beans were slightly cheaper at Bulk Candy Store.  Here’s what I ordered:

  • Island Punch Jelly Belly: 5 lbs
  • Coconut Jelly Belly: 5 lbs
  • French Vanilla Jelly Belly: 5 lbs
  • Strawberry Daiquiri Jelly Belly: 5 lbs
Here is the candy buffet all set up at the house two days before the wedding –

Wedding Candy Buffet | Life's Tidbits

A few small tidbits to consider:

  1. I had ~100 people at the wedding and this was too much candy for the size of our wedding.
  2. If we had provided the “to go” candy boxes at the tables people who missed the candy bar/buffet might have gone to seek it out. This could have meant not so much extra candy after the wedding.
  3. Don’t open the candy until a day or two before the wedding/party as the candy could go stale.
  4. The hotel provided the scoops, which meant we didn’t have to buy any!
  5. Make sure you visit your own candy buffet! We were so busy talking and dancing I didn’t make it by the buffet and I wish I had.
  6. If you are going to make name tags for each type of candy do so ahead of time. I ran out of time the week before our wedding and that detail just didn’t make the cut.
Over all I loved how our candy buffet came out!
Wedding Candy Buffet | Life's Tidbits
Photo Credit: Wedding Guest

Wedding Candy Buffet / Candy Bar / Love it Sweet| Life's Tidbits

Photo Credit: Korie Lynn Photography

Wedding Candy Buffet | Life's Tidbits

Photo Credit: Korie Lynn Photography

I think the candy display was cute and came together how I had envisioned.  I sold all of the candy jars to a bride-to-be in the DC/VA/MD area. It felt so nice to see the HUGE smile on her face as she loaded them into her car … and how relieved she was the search for jars was over.

What extra tidbit would you have added to the candy bar/buffet?  Anyone have tips for other brides?

Happy Planning!

Signiture_Nicole

 

 

 

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