Quick update

I know I'm behind on my blogging.....sorry. Life's been busy, what can I say.

Today:
1. Went to my house to start prep on wedding stuff for this weekend
2. Attempted to wash vases & jars in my dishwasher (doesn't work when the hot water heater is turned off, just a FYI for anyone else out there remodeling), so I started washing them by hand - to be continued tomorrow
3. Received delivery of fresh flowers from both UPS and FedEx!
4. Packed my car and dad's truck with tent, tables and chairs
5. Went to Johnathon's ball game in ZR (SV wins!!)
6. Go to MOB house and set up party tent and tables and chairs for rehersal dinner
7. get home about 8pm and fall onto couch, tired

Thursday:
1. Make floral arrangements for rehersal dinner
2. Delivery arrangements to MOB for rehersal dinner in the early am hours
3. Return to my house and assemble all floral arrangements
4. Prep all supplies and 'stuff' for wedding

Friday:
1. Pack up cars with wedding stuff
2. Decorate Kokopelli's for outdoor wedding and indoor reception later that evening
3. Breakdown tent from MOB houses during wedding ceremony
4. Breakdown wedding/reception later in evening

Saturday:
1. Attend two baseball games in Pinckneyville @ 10am and I believe 1pm
2. Take pictures at a 55th anniversay party later that evening

Sunday:
1. High school senior photo session early Sunday evening

......I don't understand why I can't get anything done on my house! Oh and I have about 4 photo sessions to get edited. So that being said I think it's well past the time for me to be in bed, long day tomorrow and then again Friday and then again Saturday. I should have time to do a real house update next week - progress is being made, promise.

Wedding flowers

This is what I've been up to the past couple of nights and most the this afternoon.
You can see the rest HERE! I'm delivering them to the bride tomorrow afternoon.

Waiting on my parents to get home with Chinese takeout and the two movies I asked them to buy for me while they were at Walmart 1) New Moon (I know most of you probably already have it but I've been sick for two weeks and could have cared less about a move) and 2) The Blind Side. Can't wait to eat some sushi, egg rolls and maybe a little glass of red wine and watch some movies. Pretty lame for a Saturday night, but hey it is what it is.

New Business Cards

New business cards I designed yesterday for my decorating company....

three design - front & back (info on the back is the same on each design)

Johnathon's last basketball game was Thursday night! Yeah!! My rear is ready for a break from the bleachers. Either I'm getting older or those bleachers are getting harder, pretty sure it's the latter and two to three games a week can really wear a person out. I created the business card below to hand out to all the basketball parents Thursday night. Now I need to get the 7000 plus pictures taken this season uploaded to my website so they can view/purchase them.
Johnathon informed me he doesn't like the picture, says he's making a retarded face. Oh well!

I decorated a Golden (50th) Anniversary yesterday - congrats to Bill & Judy Rea. Should have those pics up by the end of the week. It was beautiful needless to say. Aunt Eileen and I have done two bridal shows this month and I decorated a quarterly VFW Auxiliary meeting in DuQuoin the weekend between the bridal shows.

Good News - I don't have anything scheduled for this weekend!!! WooHoo! I don't think I have another decorating venture until May (it'll be a BIG one though) so my mother gets her living room back as soon as I get everything completely put away - needless to say she's happy for the break.

The first of the year is always a blast for accountants, not only am I trying to get 2009 financials completed I also have to get all of my spreadsheets redesigned for 2010 and do I ever use a LOT of spreadsheets! Plus our banks & company owners are requesting a forecast income statement for year-end 2010. Which means I have to look into my crystal ball and interpret the sales forecast into a working P/L, forecasting how much profit we'll have in 12 months based on what they 'think' they'll sell.

So after working late every night this week getting the accounting chores done, I'll be working on finishing Lindsey & Ben's wedding pic edits (better late than never....right?). I have all of the actual wedding done, just working on the formal/after-wedding pictures. I tried to up upload some tonight but my internet is running super slow.....

While editing basketball and Lindsey's wedding pics, I also need to get oh three or four afghans crocheted. I haven't crocheted much since having the carpal tunnel surgery. Hope I still can, time will tell. At some point in time I have to find time to SCRAPBOOK. I haven't been in the basement for 'ME' time in soooo long. If you didn't tell my mother happy birthday Thursday, you missed it - oops for you. Also, very happy to report that my Aunt Helen had a successful 4-bypass heart surgery week before last and is now at home and recovering. Well, I think that's all I have to report for now.

My other blogs

Be sure to check out my photography blog and decorating blog.
I was able to get a few new posts up today!

Here's a sneak peak at the photography blog!

Sneak Peak @ Yellow & Black Wedding

Here is a sneak peak at the yellow and black wedding I decorated (with a LOT of help) this past weekend. Check out my decorating blog to see more......hopefully the photographer took pics once the wedding party arrived - I didn't!

Big THANKS!

Let me start by saying that the two wedding/receptions this past weekend KICKED by BUTT! I didn't attempt to get out of my bed until after 9am yesterday morning (I'm usually awake before 6 and out of bed by 7 at the latest even on weekends) and then moved in sloooooow motion all day yesterday.

Lindsey & Ben's "orange/beach" reception came together as I'd mentally pictured it, so I was happy. My only regret is that I ran out of time to get one of their wedding pictures professionally printed (aka NOT Walmart). Kris, the mother of the bride, was extremely happy and passed along how impressed everyone was with the decorations. The tables were covered in orange satin with sea shells scattered all over the tables and two alternating centerpieces - 1 floral and the other a candle set in sand.

The other wedding/reception this past weekend was the "yellow/lemon" reception set for 350 guests. Holy cow was it ever a LOT of work. When all was said and done though it was worth it - I think it's my favorite 'decorating' job thus far. I'd shown Ashlee & Bryan literally hundreds of pictures of black/white/yellow decorations that I downloaded from the internet, after a couple of meetings we settled on 3 alternating centerpieces and a few other elements to make their wedding special. I must say I think I nailed it dead on.

I owe a BIG THANKS to all who helped prep stuff the week before, setup on Friday, arrange flowers on Saturday, tear down late Saturday night and cleanup on Sunday - Mom, Dad, Johnathon (great helper with lots of energy!), Aunt Eileen (who hand washed every vase for me Sunday even thought I wanted to put them in the dishwasher), Brenda, Staci, Arielle, Bethany, Julie & Nina. Without a great support system there's absolutely no way I could do this! So thanks again!

Sorry there aren't any pictures yet, like I said I was spent yesterday. I did manage to accomplish a few things while moving in slow motion: rearranged the garage a little, segregated out what decorations I'll need for the wedding this weekend, put away a few items I won't be using again soon, and washed about 6 loads of tablecloths (only about 12 more loads to go - which I need this weekend!)

I have a full week but will try to get pictures posted soon.

GPS???

My day job has been keeping me BUSY (worked 109 hours in an 80 hour two week pay period). I had to have the first quarter financials done, the four companies consolidated with ratio analysis and in a professional format to present to our two banks. We had one meeting on Wednesday and the second one in St. Louis on Thursday. Friday was the fist day of the month which starts the month-end cycle all over.....

It rained almost the entire way to/from St. Louis. My directions to the bank are simple in theory, follow US64 to exit 34B. Problem is that US64 is closed at exit 36. So I had to get off on Kingshighway and then figure out how to get to Clayton the 'back' way. Since I don't have a GPS my only other option was to call the bank and ask them for directions. Good thing I did too, it wasn't a clear path from my alternate point A that I was at to point 'B'ank. In fact I took 7 additional roads to get there. That being said, I was only 3 minutes late to the meeting!

I was hoping to find that this had an available built in GPS system....no luck, but I still want one really, really bad - JEEP not GPS. I'm still a little disappointed too that you can't get the remote start with manual transmission. So do I get the remote start or go for the manual trans which I enjoy driving? decisions, decisions

Yesterday and today I'm working on invitations. I've designed, ordered, received and stuffed Arielle and Bart's graduation announcement. Yesterday I designed and printed their party invitation, which is a two part invite (150 on them) that has to be hand cut (both pieces!). When I finish cutting them I have to do some design work to the top part, attach them together and stuff them in with the announcements. Then I need to work on Lindsey and Ben's wedding invitations. I have the general design done for these, just need to work on fonts/spacing, print, cut, adhere to backs and hand-tie on the extra 'decoration'.

Sorry I can't post pictures, too many of you will be gettting both of these in the mail soon! All non-relatives check back in a couple of weeks and I'll post pictures then.

Congrats to Cousins

Very special congratulations to Jeff and Mary on the arrival of their son

Benjamin Martin Patchett

I stole the pic below from their blog.....he sure looks a lot like his father but we won't hold that against him, he's still a cutie! He entered the world on Easter morning.

Another cousin has started a blog (YAHHHHH) and got her first post up today.

Check out Heather's blog and show some love. She's starting a photography business in Virginia, I'm thinking PF Photography needs to branch out to other states....then when she moves back to SoIL she won't have to change her business name and we can kick some major photo butt together. We already have the same camera and can share equipment/lenses, I think the flamingo founder would get a real kick out of that.

I posted a few pictures from Lindsey's bridal shower today on my decorating blog. It was upstairs in the Sesser Opera House and catered by Dyel's catering (delicious of course). My only job was to decorate the tables.

I gave her a thin canvas print from their engagement photo session last weekend. Love the thin canvas prints. They're only about 1/4 inch wide and have foam blocks on the back for mounting them to a wall which makes it stand out about an inch from the wall.

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the way they look hung.

I just watched Desperate Housewife's and got a little teary eyed at the end. I somewhat knew what was going to happen but it still got me a little choked up. Now I'm watching In Plain Sight, super excited it's finally back on. Caught up with an old friend from the McDonald's day a few minutes ago on FaceBook - be sure to look me up if you have an account.