Wisely Planned Birthdays: Under the Sea, Under the Sea.....

I follow a sweet little blog called Simply Creative Insanity and today she posted her daughter's Under the Sea 6th Birthday party. I couldn't help but feature it because I just LOVED the centerpieces.  So creative and even better, INEXPENSIVE!!!  Take a look, I know you'll love it!  Then go over to her blog and follow her. You'll be glad you did!

Wisely Planned Wedding: Tattoo Chic

Rancho Las Lomas is a BEAUTIFUL venue here in Orange County and it was recently brought to my attention by my brother-in-law who is in the early stages of wedding planning.  While going through one of my new favorite blogs, Green Wedding Shoes, I noticed that this venue happens to be one of the favorites for O.C.  Well, this particular wedding took place there and was photographed by a very talented photographer, Amelia Lyon.  I just loved this couple's style that I had to have all of you see it.  Especially because I have a number of friends who would love this tattoo chic inspiration.  It's just the right amount of edginess mixed with the right amount of chic.

If you liked this wedding, you can take a peek at the bride's {Melissa} own blog, The Loveliest Day. She has great wedding ideas {hence, the awesome wedding of her own.}

I've been away.....

I am so stunned at myself for neglecting my blog lately.  You see, I've been consumed with my reading {and a sick child last week}.  As you may recall, from my last 2 posts, I was reading Twilight recently.  Well, I have since read New Moon and just today, started Eclipse.  I've become obsessed with the series.  I'm in love with Edward.  {Is that normal???}  I look forward to going to work, solely so I can read my book on the train.  It's quite ridiculous.  I don't know what I will read once I've finsihed the series.  I don't want them to end.

However, please stay tuned as I will be posting some really neat party ideas, soon.  {As soon as I know for sure that Edward grants Bella eternal life with him}  {sigh}

Wisely Planned...Wedding: Beautifully Rustic

As I said in my post below, Twilight has taken over my week.  There were numerous things in the universe telling me to cave in and just read the books, already!  Well, when I saw this wedding this morning, I knew I had to feature it!  It's absolutely GORGEOUS!!!  It reminded me of the Twilight wedding below.  And I'm not a woodsy or outdoorsy person, at all.  But this wedding is just stunning.

I saw it at Candy & Cake first and then decided to see the original post.  Jen at Green Wedding Shoes, featured it on her blog {you should head over to her blog. Her wedding inspiration boards are MAJOR!}.  The bride & groom provided her with tons of pictures and they gave a mini interview about their big day.  It's beautiful!!!  Here are a few pictures, but you can see the entire post here. And by the way, the photos are stunning.  Those are courtesy of SoCal photographer, Jasmine Star. Her photos are to die for!

Congratultions to Kristin & Brandon Kidd!!  This wedding was insanely beautiful!  And on another note of sheer coincidence....I mentioned in the post below that I commute to Downtown L.A everyday for work....well, as I admired the pictures from Jen's blog, I realized that the man walking Kristin down the aisle is a fellow train commuter!  He gets off one stop after me!  I will have to stop him and tell him he was fortunate to give away such a beautiful bride!!

Twilight Everywhere!

People that know me know very well that I don't do sci-fi.  I don't do vampires and dragons and any other "silly" movies, books, cartoons, etc that involve themes of fantasy.  I hate it, in fact.  I'm probably the only person on the planet that has never seen a Star Wars movie, or read a Harry Potter book or even read a Twilight book.........((insert screeching car sound here))..........wait........that was until this week.  A few of my friends have tried and tried to get me to read the Twilight books. They are what I would call, "Twi-hards".  They have Twilight shirts (yes, grown women) that they use as pj's, they are on "Team Edward" and they think that pale, pasty skin is SO in right now.  :) {sorry to out you, Kolini!}  I have refused for a looooong time to read these books.

Well, I commute to work every day on the train into Downtown L.A., so I have about 30-40 minutes of reading each way.  I read a lot.  Mostly chick-lit.  Sophie Kinsella, Jodie Picoult, Emily Giffin, etc.  My friend, Megan, let me borrow a ton of books that she was done with.  Amongst them was the Twilight series.  I have read almost all of the books she gave me.  There were about 15 books. The only ones left were the Twilight series.  So I caved and decided to start reading.  My best friend, Jennifer, said she was going to start reading it this week as well.  So I decided I would too, and we could turn it into a mini book club.  I actually had to ask which one was the first book, because I had no clue.

So I started it on Tuesday and am now on Chapter 8.....and I must admit {with great dismay to everything that I believe} that I am really liking it!!!!!!!  I know!  CRAZZZZY!  Hell has officialy frozen over!

Any way, I also found it inevitable to start reading because, Christi at P is for Party, posted a beautiful Twilight wedding photo shoot that someone did.  She featured it just the other day.  The same day I decided to start reading.  Since I knew nothing about Twilight, I wanted to know why this wedding was considered "Twilight themed". Well, for those of you, Twi-hards, look below and you will be able to see what makes it "Twilight".  I just thought it was very pretty and "woodsy" and just rustic and natural.  I loved it!! And then to my surprise this morning, Jen at HWTM, did a feature on the exact same shoot {original post here.}!!!!  So I knew I had to talk about all the Twilight coincidences going on in my life this week!  You can see the final "Twilight coincidence" in my next post after this one.  I loved this one so much I had to give it it's OWN post.  It's just BEAUTIFUL!!!  So keep reading.........

Whimsical Garden Baby Shower

I am so excited!  A friend of mine finally accepted that we throw her a Sprinkle!  Not a full blown Baby Shower, but more of a small and intimate gathering, allowing some of her closest friends to "sprinkle" her with gifts for the new little girl on the way (she already has a 2 year old boy.)  Myself and a couple of her friends are hosting it.  It will be at my house and the size of my yard is perfect for this little gathering.

I did some research to gather inspiration and have come up with a few things to inspire us during our planning. 

If any one has any Garden themed party ideas, I would LOVE to hear about them!

{The Sunshine Award!}

What a pleasant surprise today when I stopped by Danielle's blog, Belleza e Luce!  She has nominated me for a Sunshine Award!!!  The Sunshine Award is given to those bloggers who positively and creatively inspire other bloggers in blogland.  What an honor to know that Danielle think so highly of this lttle blog of mine. 

Stop by Danielle's blog to see all of her great party decor items.  She's very talented!

The rules for this award are as follows:

• Put the logo on your blog or within your post.
• Pass the award on to 12 bloggers.
• Link the nominees within your post.
• Let the nominees know they have received this award by commenting on their blog
• Share the love and link to the person from whom you received this award.

Here are the bloggers I pass this award on to:

1) Maddycakes Muse

2) The Creative Party Place

3) Grey Grey Designs

4) The Simple Life

5)  Party Box Designs

6)  Birthday Girl

7)  The Purple Pug

8) Polkadots & Pirates {the blog}

9) Kara's Party Ideas

10) The TomKat Studio

11) Simply Creative Insanity

12) P is for Party

Thanks for sharing your creativity with all of us, ladies!!!