The Dress

Here is the dress I want to get married in. Only it's black. My wedding dress will be white, and a little longer. This one is a practice version made by CherryPieVintage. I get to try it on and galavant about to make sure it will fit right, stay up, etc. You know the drill. Miss CherryPie Vintage just finnished the dress today. I cant wait for it to get here. I might check the mail every day. Even though I know it's coming from New York.

One In Every Color-Books

I've been seeing pictures of books arranged like this all over. I love the arrangement. I LOVE the colors! This would be a dream library. Here's the sort of dilema that arised from this. Do you guy books because they're the right color now? Or do you still buy them only because theyre good. And what about all my Babysitters Club and Boxcar Children Books. Theyre all different colors, not like Nancy Drew. Is it important that they all stay together? Or do I break them up to put them in order!

We've Been Branded!

Our "Wedding Logo" is in it's final stages and I LOVE it! For the last ...I don't know how long, Ashley has had some major patience with me...Ashley at Izzy and the Bean (isn't their name cool!)has been working with us to put together the perfect Graphically Designed wedding logo/monogram substitute. Luke's single monogram LNJ will be the same as our married monogram because his middle initial "J" is the same as my first initial..."J" (in case you weren't sure.) Sooo I was kind of thinking it'd be cool to come up with a substitute. I put of an alchemy request on ETSY and that's how we got in touch with Izzy and the Bean! Yay so excited! Stay tuned for the "first glimpse!"

Blooms and Buttons!

Some of you might remember from my previous post about Princess Lasertrons flowers that I was very smitten with her wedding arrangements. I even inquired with her regarding a possible cost after we got engaged. Alas...they were...well...out of our budget. Sooo we (my mother and myself) are going to attempt our own version of these pretty petals. Now of course you wont be able to see the real deal until after the big day. These are just some hints, pondering, and me looking for feedback.

Here are some of the cut out shapes and possibilities for multi color flowers. (Keep in mind they have no stitching yet, and no buttons) These represent the monochromatic possibilities.

Here are a few of the monochromatic blooms together.

And these buttonous beauties arrived in the mail from my friend Janice! When she was visiting her family in Fresno she stopped by to visit us, at which point I learned that she has a knack for finding buttons! Janice even stopped by again with a box of crayons to use as samples to know what colors I was on the hunt for! Aren't the buttons she sent fabulous?! The little green ones on the bottom are the most delicate glass! I can not wait to start putting these guys together! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

One In Every Color-Socks

Some of you may have remembered my last sock post. Well...we were walking through Costco and I couldn't resist these beauties. They came all together. In a pack! There's just something enticing about a product that comes in every color! It calls to me!

Happy Hydrangea...I mean Birthday!

This year my birthday fell on our first day with students at work. Rather anti climactic. BUT when I got home these beautiful flowers were waiting for me! I LOVE hydrangeas! Some even know that I've been plotting for years to name my someday daughter Hydrangea Anne (Hydi Anne.) So I brought these pretties in. Wanna see the best part? Here it is:

That evening we went out to Dai Bai Dang! Love their pot stickers!

Partway through dinner, the lights were sort of flickering and I thought "Man, they're having trouble with the mood lightning. I skimmed all the lights and saw a stream of smoke coming out of one of the lights! I jumped up hollering "The light is on fire!" I hurried to notify one of the staff, and returned to a table full of mocking friends. It's okay though. I saved us from all burning down. We returned to Mike's house for some brownie, lemon cream bar, and cookies! (Cake isn't always my favorite, so Destinie got some alternatives!)

What and AWESOME birthday!

Roman Golf Holiday

So this last Spring at "Quilt Camp" I won a quilt kit. Lets just say it had...a lot of tricky triangles. Fabulous pattern...just a bit above my...skill level? At "Quilt Camp" Jullie, upon finding out my boyfriend (now fiance!!!) was on the path to becoming a golf pro, offered me some left over fabric she had used to make a project for her son (who IS a golf pro.) Then I was leaving Cindy's house when I spotted her pile of "donate to church quilting" fabric. See all those fabrics next to the golf fabric? They were there! Just calling my name! Begging to go with the quilt. Sooo I decided to donate the difficult quilt kit to the Church Quilting group in exchange for Cindy's fabrics. The church quilters are so much more qualified to complete the tricky triangle quilt and I am working on turning this quilt into a "Roman Holiday" Quilt. Stay tuned for updates!

Smells Pretty Fishy

Oh wait it's this funny hat! Valerie's boyfriend's mom was diagnosed with cancer just before our mom. It was established that she would be losing her hair, and so I wanted to make a hat. I didn't want to make just any hat. I wanted to make one that would promote laughter. Everyone who saw this pattern (found on Ravelry) could not help but laugh(or at least chuckle.) Even my students sort of giggled and got giddy when I gave them a chance to participate. I recruited my students to help make a joke book. They got to use a joke I already had, or make up their own. They decorated their page and I took a picture of them with their page and the hat over their head. (Don't worry, I washed the hat before I mailed it to Matt's mom.)
Here are a couple of my favorite, student generated jokes: If Starwars was done in the ocean what would the characters be? Answer: Starfish What did the Jellyfish say to the octopus? You're huge. (That ones not as funny if you haven't seen this students eyes get really wide and heard her excited voice say "you're huge." My co-workers and I couldn't stop laughing at these ones.
While I don't think I'll ever use this cupcake yarn again, the colors were just what I wanted. I was surprised how long the hat took to make but was pleased with the results and hope the hat brings on laughter!

See Monkey, Doesn't Do Much

Ben and Alli , two of my high school youth group leaders, just welcomed baby Clark into the world, and now that my knitting/crochet skills have increased (and my fear of potentially complicated patterns has decreased) I thought it fitting that I join in on the welcoming! I made this little guy to go with Clark's nursery decor. He's was a pattern off the top of my head, which sort of makes for his "roughness." I used a synthetic yarn to avoid any potential allergies, and stuck a few of those "glass marble like but flat "thingies" you can get in the floral wire area at Michael's" in his body to help him sit up!
He makes me chuckle!

Nautical Sandman?

I've been finnishing up some projects, but either due to being busy, or wanting to suprise the person the project is for, I havent been posting as much as I should. Anyway, this is the hat I loved, and made to go with the sweater. The yarn is one of my favorites and is handyed by Maria. Both pieves are VERY soft! Loved making them! (Took longer than I thought.)I'm a little worried I made both too big, as a toddler might not willingly wear the two pieces. Thoughts?

How We Met

I was perusing wedding website options. Not sure I'm sold on the idea. I'm pretty stuck on blogging, but anyway. All of them have a "How We Met" section. Hey, I can blog that though. Its not restricted to "Official Wedding Websites." Soooo here it is. How we met.

We met through our roommates. My roommate Kelsi was dating Luke's roommate Cody. At the beginning of the semester Cody and Kelsi had invited each of us to go with them to watch a movie in Pullman. In an attempt to make it seem "not like a date" we each brought someone along (Drew and Jenny) Our attempt failed and just made it into a bigger group date. For the record: Jess sat by Jenny. Jessica drove Jenny, Drew, and Luke to the Pullman, WA movie theater in her yellow bug. The first thing Luke said once they were on their way was: "How long have you been driving a manual car?" Yep. That's how guys get girls these days. Insult their driving.

An Unknown Audience

With the engagement, I have had the exciting opportunity to share our news with...well everyone. The thing that has actually surprised me is that more people actually say: I heard about your big news! So yah, I realise that I published the news on my blog, and yes my facebook status still says: " Jessica is engaged. To be married. To Luke. Swoon." I just didn't think THAT many people actually read my blog! I also didn't realise word spreads THAT fast! Not that I mind. I'm happy to talk to anyone about it...for hours. Just ask my poor friend. Or Luke's mom, or Mark and Cindy, or Luke for that matter. Anyway, it's exciting and I'm having fun!

On another note, I got an exciting piece of news from Luke today.
Many of you know that Luke is working his way through the Professional Golf Management Program at the University of Idaho, and is currently working an internship at Circling Raven Golf Course. So I have lately been known to throw in a comment about golf , or points of interest regarding golf, here and there on the blog. A while back (on this post) I commented about Luke's tri-pod pose and how I was reading up about it in the book Golf, Naked-The Bare Essentials Revealed by Greg Rowly, PGA the book is very informative about all the little things from pranks to etiquette and is most importantly entertaining. Which explains WHY in the world I am reading about golf. Anyway, back to the point. Luke was at Circling Raven and who should he cross paths with, but Greg Rowly himself who remembered Luke from the PGM program, but more importantly knew about my blog!!! AND that I cited him. SWEET! I was pretty thrilled to hear that. I even used that high pitched excited voice Luke (and my family) is having to get used to hearing. Anyway, just had to share. I'm too excited to keep it in.

Just goes to show, ya never know who's reading the blog!

Ps. If you ARE reading my blog, please, don't hesitated to comment! Bloggers LIVE for comments! Seriously, they make our days!

PPs. Luke just finished reading me another golf book that I liked a LOT too. This one resembles more of a Nicholas Sparks story. With golf speak. Miracle on the 17th Green: A Novel about Life, Love, Family, Miracles ... and Golf. Very good. Feel good story. It made for nice together time. Sort of a good compromise found in book.