A Walk Through the Garden

Sorry for the excess of flower-related posts, but lately I've had so many blooms back there! We've had a really rainy summer so far, which is horrible for getting outdoor and house projects done. But it's awesome for growing flowers.

Today was my bridal shower, and I hope to have a wedding update posted soon. I'll give the lowdown on where we're at with the wedding planning, and hopefully share some photos from the shower! It's getting closer to the big day - only 48 days away now.

I'm feeling better about the selection of flowers we have in the garden. I think we'll have quite a few that we'll be able to use - maybe even a hydrangea bloom or two!

Of course, if you haven't been following along, I've been trying my hand at growing flowers this year for the first time, and instead of planting veggies in our garden this year, I planted flowers. I'm hoping to have lots of flowers to use in the centerpieces at our wedding. So far, it looks like we'll have some Zinnias, some Dusty Miller, and maybe some Dahlias and a couple of other blooms for our wedding in August.

So, let's take a little walk around the yard, shall we? And we'll see what's growing besides weeds!

More Zinnia blooms are popping up left and right. I've officially decided these are my favorite flower to grow from seeds. They are SO easy! All you need is rain and sun, and they grow like crazy!

I love how there is a variety of sizes and colors, too. I planted both mini Zinnias and the "giant" sized ones. And we have plenty of pink blooms coming up, which is perfect, since that's one of our colors.

I am in love with the flower below. I hope these all stay through August. I've never grown them before, so I'm not sure how long their blooming season is.

I think this section may have been the pink and purple variety pack. These would look awesome in my vases. SO hope they are still thriving by August 15th.

Another flower that's really taken off in the past few weeks is the Alyssum I planted from seeds. These would be a great accent, especially since I was never able to get my Baby's Breath seeds planted. I need those smaller accent flowers too, so I'm kind of excited about these.

Another flower I'm really excited about is my Hydrangea in the side yard. It's finally blooming!! I wonder what it will look like by August. It never bloomed last year, so I was super happy to see a bloom on there finally. These babies are slow bloomers, and are not always the easiest to keep alive. They need lots of water, and if they get too much sunlight, they can dry out pretty easily.

I would hate to cut off the only bloom this guy has, but it would be cool to be able to use in the wedding. We'll see if any more appear...

So that's another glimpse at the flowers growing around the garden. On a related note, we got a lot of wedding things accomplished yesterday. We booked the rehearsal dinner venue, and I had my first alterations appointment. I pick my dress up again in late July! Trent brought his suit in for alterations, too, and his dad got his suit ordered. 

After we got home last night, we took Saleen on a walk. Her skin allergies have been bad again, like every summer, but she's always happy to go on a walk around town.

It's nice to wind down and just hang at home every once in a while, since we've been busy with wedding stuff a lot lately, and will continue to be for the next month and a half!

But the final To-do list is made, and every item checked off the list is one step closer!

More Blooms!

I have more blooms! My zinnias are blooming like crazy! We had a really busy weekend, and I haven't been able to go out and check on them in a few days. Tonight I went out there, and there are so many new blooms since last time.

I'm getting some pink ones, some red ones, and some yellow. Most of them are the mini zinnias, but the Giant State Fair ones are getting close. They're just much taller!

Here's some of the taller ones getting blooms:

I love this pink one! These would look gorgeous at the wedding. I hope we have more!

Look how mighty these guys are. We've been getting so much rain lately, and these babies just shot up from seeds!

The flowers in my pots are still doing well, too. I really want to use some of my Dusty Miller for the wedding. They're still growing right along!

A lot of my pots are actually overflowing. If we continue to get this much rain this summer, I may have to invest in some larger pots...

But I'd rather have them overflowing than dying, so it's a good problem to have, I suppose.

Overall I'm pretty pleased with the wedding garden so far. A lot of the spaces filled up with weeds, but that's ok. There are still plenty of Zinnias, and there are some Dahlias blooming, too. I'll probably also get some flowers from the florist to help fill up my vases.

The wedding is definitely getting closer! Less than two months away! This coming weekend is my first alterations fitting, then my bridal shower. And tomorrow night we're meeting with the officiant. Also, cannot wait to share what we have in store for our ceremony backdrop! We picked up a few things this weekend. Hope to post about that soon. :)

The Time I Pulled Weeds After 6 PM...

Ok folks, fair warning. It's about to get up close and personal up in here. I'd like to offer a little bit of advice. If you live in the Midwest and just got several inches of rain within a few days, don't weed your garden the next night, after 6 PM. And if you do, make sure to wear plenty of insect repellent. Because last night, I did exactly that (sans bug repellent) at about 6:30 PM, and this happened:

Mind you, this was only in a matter of about 20 minutes or so. I only got through half of the garden, until I got to the point that I couldn't take it anymore. I guess I should have: A) Remembered my bug spray, and B) worn a jacket. I had a short sleeve shirt on. My bad!

I don't even know how many mosquitos were feasting on me, but in 20 minutes, those guys sure went to town! Moral of the story, guys...remember - think before you weed! Or you could end up bit up like me, and that would not be fun. Hope it's all worth it. :p

More Rain Means Blooming Flowers

Ok, has anyone else in the Midwest been getting crazy down-pours lately?! Wow. I thought it was over, but then I could barely see the road on my way home from work yesterday, and the roads were flooding fast. We had a little water in our basement, since we've been getting rain like crazy - several inches in just a few days.

There is one good thing about a lot of rain, though - combined with all the sun we're getting in between, it makes things grow. And that means it's good for my flowers. I had my first Zinnia bloom this weekend!

And there's more on the way.

Nothing better than watching flowers you planted as seeds growing beautiful, bright flowers! I'll share more as they come, and as we get closer to the wedding. Hopefully we'll have some blooms to choose from.

Wedding Cupcake Display Deets

Hola! We had quite the rainy weekend. Saturday night it just poured down rain and flash flooded everywhere. Typical June!

Onto a little wedding update though... So, in lieu of a giant wedding cake, we're actually just having a small cake, along with 3 different kinds of cupcakes for our guests. And I'm pretty excited about it. Because these are the flavors:

Yep, I got my little chalkboard stands ready for the cupcake display. I am really looking forward to making the cake table look amazing. I have 5 cake stands, which are all different and completely mix and match..then I recently picked up this cupcake tower as well:

I was afraid we wouldn't have enough surface for the cupcakes. If anything I guess we could put any extras on the table, but just to be safe I wanted another stand. And also, this will be a little higher than the rest of them, so it helps with the hierarchy visually. And it's super cute and vintage-y. :)

Plus, you can't beat the price. This was another Hobby Lobby find. I got some good deals this past weekend! $16 on sale, when it was originally marked $80. Pretty awesome.

I think that completes the look for my cupcake table! There will really be a wide variety of stands, from clear glass to milk glass, to ceramic.

Not sure which stand the cake will be on, but I was thinking one of the milk glass stands. Putting together this table has actually been pretty fun. I'm planning on making another slightly smaller tassel garland too, like what I made for the sweetheart table.

I'm mostly excited to see what it will look like with the cake and all of the cupcakes on it! Lemon, peanut butter, and strawberry goodness. :)

Newest Quirky Decor

I've added another animal friend to my collection. Yesterday I told you that I made a little trip to Hobby Lobby, and well, I found the cutest thing that was on sale - clearance in fact.

A gold turtle!! It was love at first sight. I've been looking for something gold and quirky for the coffee table. And this fit the bill.

Also, for this price tag, how could I say no? Only $5.

So I think this guy will stay for a while. I was pretty lucky to stumble upon him in the decor section. 

Hobby Lobby has the best selection of gold decor right now I think. It's kind of mind blowing to go in there after you haven't been there for a while. You want to pet all the gold things. At least I do. :)

Hobby Lobby Word Art Inspiration

Happy weekend everyone. So last night I stopped into Hobby Lobby to get a few things, and could not believe all the cute decor there! I was especially in love with all the amazing art. I wish I would have taken some pictures in the store, because I can't find everything online, especially some of the framed prints (they had a Katie Daisy print there!), but I did find some really cute word art on their website, so I'm sharing some of it today.

The cool thing is that a lot of these framed art pieces could be duplicated or used as inspiration for some DIY art for your home. By spray painting a frame gold, and trying your hand at some calligraphy with a gold Sharpie. Or by making a frame look "weathered" with some stain, or creating a chalkboard and chalk pen masterpiece. The wooden letters could be DIY'ed, too if you had the right tools. I love these word art pieces. So here's a little bit of inspiration for your weekend.

 

All of these prints are on the Hobby Lobby website. Here are the links to each:

1. Amazing Grace, How Sweet the Sound

2. Oh, Let's Be Adventurers, Darling!

3. Let Your Heart Sing

4. Home is Wherever I am With You

5. Hello

6. Hello, Sweet Beautiful Girl!

7. I'll Eat You Up, I Love You So

8. We Go Together Like a Needle & Thread

9. Love / Heart 1

10. Love / Heart 2

I didn't pick up any art while I was at Hobby Lobby yesterday unfortunately, but I did get a little something I was pretty excited about. I'll share soon. :)