My Sister's Wedding!

This week has been a blur!! We spent last weekend in Southern California to see my little sister get married, Whooo!!! She looked stunning and I definitely shed a few tears. In traditional Kristi fashion I lost my phone and didn't even bring a camera. Don't worry, I did track down my phone but was not able to have any pictures of my own from the wedding. I was super blessed to be the Maid of Honor (ok, the Matron of Honor) and all my kiddos were in the wedding. It made for a busy and fun filled day. My girls are still talking about it and how they loved all the stand up shoes (heels) :) I thought I would show you some pictures that others took of their special day. My mom did a ton of work to make it all come together. We are so thankful for a supportive and loving family and thankful to have another uncle in the family. 

Don't they look great! Also, my sister in law and her family did all the flowers and thought they turned out beautiful!

My sister loves pictures so she had a photo book made as her sign in book.

Their ceremony was at a local church. 

The reception was held at Yorba Linda Friends Church in their old building. She had 310 people come to the wedding so she needed a large space!! My mom did all the signs for the different locations and I made a little sign for the candy bar that says, "Love is sweet so take some treats"

I also made the world's largest cupcake stand pictured here. My mom and some helpers made all the cupcakes at their restaurant and then displayed them on the stand. 

There were 11 bridesmaids!!! Just so you get a sense of how many people that is, here we all are. 

I thought this was a fun picture. You can see the photographer squatting down in the front. Can't wait to see this pic!

This is a picture of my sister with my brothers. I think this picture is super special as we have all grown up together and continue to be friends. I know I am blessed to have the siblings I do. 

I am so glad that I was able to share in this special day and am thankful for new family! Love you Melissa and Kevin and can't wait to see you!

The Patio

I have always loved houses with porches. There is something in them that hails back to a more romantic era when the patio was a place of conversation, fun and most of all a place to relax after a long day. Who can't drive by a house with a porch and want to sit back and have an iced tea. Ok, so I am a little obsessed with tea, but the fact of the matter is that porches can be such a wonderful place to relax while being outside. In my case I am able to watch my kiddos ride their bikes on the sidewalk or use sidewalk chalk all while in the comfort of my new little patio. Many of the pieces I have had for a while, but just rearranged, recovered and re potted this summer. I love sitting out here and have really enjoyed the change. I love it when people come over and say they wanted to stop at the porch and sit and relax. AHHH, I have succeeded. If you are in the neighborhood, stop by and we can have a glass of tea together :)

I did a little post on the pallet table if you want to check it out here.

Here is a before picture. This is obviously from a different angle, but shows how it used to look.

I also made this little box to go by the front of the door to contain our shoe madness. I probably should have made it bigger, but it works for now!

I recovered the pillows I had with upholstery weight curtains that I found at a garage sale, score! I also wanted to use up fabric that I had, which made it fun to see what I could make.

I used stencils to add our name to the pillow. At least people will know if they are at the right house!

My favorite thing is that my hubby graciously hung up one of the windows I made on the front of our house. I was super excited and still love looking at it when I get home. Silly, I know.

Seriously, please come and visit. We can sit outside together and talk (as long as it is not 100 degrees outside in which case we can move inside where there is air conditioning)!

 I love my new little space!

A little bridal devotion

My little sister is getting married in a week. I cannot believe that it is almost here. As my only sister we have shared so many things while being a bit different. She is one of the funniest people I know and brings me so much joy. She was there when my youngest son was born. She is a great aunt to my children and I so appreciate her presence in my life! A couple weekends back I went to her bachlorette party. I was able to do a devotion for everyone there. I was most definitely the old maid among the group as I have been married almost a decade, yikes! I was excited to think through my marriage years and hopefully give her some grain of wisdom. I wanted to give her something as a tangible reminder of what I shared so I made this little jar with words from my devotional on it. 

I 

As I was looking for ways to display the words, I found these cute little canvas at Michaels. They measure about 1 in X 1 in and come in a pack of 6. I also used a sharpie and had my alphabet stamps on hand to write the words. 

I used the sharpie right on the letter and then pressed it onto the canvas. 

I didn't want my lines to be super straight or my letters to be perfect so I just eyeballed the words. Ok, I'll be honest I was lazy, ha! If you did want them straight you could just make a faint pencil line to keep the letters lined up. 

I then used brads that are used for scrapbooking to finish off the corners. 

I had to cut off the back so I used needle nose pliers to cut the back off and then hot glued them to the corner. 

I ended up making 5 but thought they turned out cute and I was excited to give them to her. I placed them all in a mason jar and put some ric rac around the top with a button and used hot glue to secure them. Seriously, I think a hot glue gun is a girls best friend. 

Cute, easy and done!

 If you would like to see the devotional to be able to give some context to the words please click here. This devotional was definitely tailored towards my sister and there is so much more that could be said about marriage.  I hope this is encouraging to you no matter what stage of life you are in. I am looking forward to watching my sister walk down that aisle next weekend, stay tuned!