crazy busy weekend

Hello all, hope your weekend was great! Mine was super busy- but really fun! I started my weekend off early and headed to Madison Thursday night to see a Mallards baseball game with my friend Ellen. Although we didn't watch much of the game, we had a lot of fun catching up with each other. While in Madison I also visited a great fabric shop, Stitcher's Crossing, and found these great prints:

Friday night my parents came into town late and stayed the night. On Saturday we all woke up really early for the Fremont Triathlon! My family and I have done this 'mini' triathlon for 5 years now. This year's race was a 1/8 mile swim, a 12 mile bike ride and a 2 mile run. And this year was my mom's first year joining us! She usually is our cheerleader and photographer, but after some persuasion from Dad she joined us- and did really great!

On our way back to my apartment we picked up Seth's mom, Diane, in New London for Wedding Dress Shopping!!! We first headed to David's Bridal then off to another bridal shop in downtown Appleton, The Bridal Event. I probably tried on over 20 dresses and think I have it narrowed down to two. Although I had my parents and Diane with me, I still want both my sisters there with me to let me know what they think.

Saturday night after my parents headed back home, Diane and I headed to a barbecue at our friends Matt & Kristina's house. Seth was at a bachelor party all day so the two of us decided to go together. Seth went to high school with Matt and Kristina and their moms are great friends with Diane. It was good to see everyone and a great way to wind down a busy day.

On Sunday Seth and I had a super lazy day until the afternoon when we met up his family for his grandma's 80th birthday! We met up for dinner and drinks at her favorite restaurant, The Black Otter, in celebration. It was the perfect end to a crazy busy weekend!

so not scarf weather...

I realize that it is so not scarf weather, but a few weeks ago I saw a really awesome tutorial for a braided scarf. I've seen them before and always wanted to make one. Plus it seemed pretty simple to follow and because of simply simon's Christmas in July I've been thinking wintery lately.... so I've started one.

I'll hopefully be sharing some pictures tomorrow of my own braided scarf (minus the braid- I'm not there yet)! Now that I'm about half way done I wanted to share the link with you and cannot find it-grrrrrrr!

I have however, managed to find a similar scarf here- with a tutorial! Doesn't it look so warm and cozy?

braided knit scarf

funny face save the date

After yesterday's save the date post I found this hilarious save the date. I guess that's one way to save on paper!

funny face save the date via journeys of mangonett

save the dates

Lately save the dates have become more and more of a fun way to express the personality of a couple. Seth and I have know for a while now exactly what we'd like to do for our save the dates... needless to say it does have something to do with baseball. I won't start making for a little while yet, so I'll wait to share what exactly we have in store for them.

With our limited budget we considered for a little while whether or not we really needed them, but being that our wedding will be on a holiday weekend (labor day) we decided we should stick with it and still make them. In order to kill two birds with one stone we've also decided to send them at Christmas time- so maybe we will be saving a little bit that way.

Today I found these amazing save the dates over at Craftzine. At first I thought "Wow, that's really over the top! How could anyone afford to send out X amount of those?" But then I realized that the couple sent out a photograph of it in an e-mail save the date- what a great idea & it's beautiful!

diorama save the dates via craftzine

christmas in july

Yes, that's right, Christmas in July! My sister, Desiree, over at .simply.simon. is planning to finish all her Christmas shopping by July 31st! To celebrate she'll be sharing gift ideas, Christmas crafts and holiday tips over on her blog.

Desiree (Dez) has her hands full with my 16 month old niece and another bundle of joy due mid-September and thought it would be a good idea to finish Christmas shopping before the new one arrived. To get in the holiday spirit I'll be sharing a Christmas tutorial (& my first tutorial) in the next few weeks!

Until then, check out these awesome tiny gingerbread houses that are meant to perch on the edge of a mug of hot chocolate. It's been hot and muggy here all week, so I don't know how I feel about drinking hot chocolate now....... but how could you resist these adorable creations? To make these tiny treasures check out the tutorial at not martha.

tiny gingerbread house tutorial by not martha

For more on Dez's Christmas in July read here.