Cute Ideas

Here's some cute ideas that I've seen online recently. The first is a gorgeous way to display iced champagne or wine. The rose buds inside ice cubes make a huge impact and are completely beautiful! Below: this popcorn bar is a great take on the current DIY candy bar trend. I love the idea of a DIY favor bar, and this popcorn idea is right up my alley. There's lots of gourmet popcorn companies that could supply you with the favors, or you could make the seasoning yourself. I like the idea of mixing sweet and savory flavors. Daddy SE loves popcorn and this would be a great hit in his book too.

Here's some gourmet popcorn websites- some of their flavors are crazy!
Dale and Thomas Popcorn
Kukuruza
Popcorn Palace

Are you jumping on the DIY favor buffet bandwagon? If so, what are your colors or food choices?

First Dance Song

As if he couldn't write any more amazing love songs! Brad Paisley is back at it again. His new single is called "then" and I'm pretty sure it will turn out to be a huge first-dance hit. The lyrics are so beautiful and they will strike a cord with almost any couple. Enjoy!

Tour of Nashville

The trolley has become a staple for transporting guests around town. I'd prefer to so something a little more fun....
Picture #1: here
Picture #2: here

Wordle

About six months ago I came across an online program called Wordle. It allows you to input your own text, choose colors and fonts, and create a personal masterpiece. Frequently used words are bigger, and you can choose to have some words not displayed at all.

This would be a great gift for a friend, parents, or significant other. Because you can input whatever text you want, the image could be personal text or copied from a published work. Aside from creating a gift for someone special, this is a great way to display text that has special meaning to you. It'd be great to input your wedding vows and create a framed image to hang on the wall. For the image above, I used a ceremony reading from The Knot. You can see the original text below.

What would you use this for?

"Take me to the places on the earth that teach you how to dance, the places where you can risk letting the world break your heart, and I will take you to the places where the earth beneath my feet and the stars overhead make my heart whole again and again.

Show me how you take care of business without letting business determine who you are. When the children are fed but still the voices within and around us, shout that soul's desires have too high a price, let us remind each other that it is never about the money.

Show me how you offer to your people and the world the stories and the songs you want our children's children to remember, and I will show you how I struggle, not to change the world, but to love it.

Sit beside me in long moments of shared solitude, knowing both our absolute aloneness and our undeniable belonging. Dance with me in the silence and the sound of small daily words, holding neither against me at the end of the day.

And when the sound of all the declarations of our sincerest intentions has died away on the wind, dance with me in the infinite pause before the next great inhale of breath that is breathing us all into being, not filling the emptiness from the outside or from within.

Don't say, "Yes!" Just take my hand and dance with me."

-- Oriah
Visit www.wordle.net to create your own!

To Invite or Not to Invite....

I found this image on a wedding blog awhile ago and found it to be so hilarious. There are so many "rules" regarding wedding etiquette for guest lists. Sometimes it's hard to determine whether to have someone on your guest list: your freshman year college roommate, Mom's book club friend, etc. There's also the difficult question of whether someone inviting you to their wedding means you need to have them at yours- especially when it seems all your friends are getting married at the same time.

This picture sheds some comical light on a tricky situation. Did you have trouble making your A list and B list?

Ideas for New Posts

I'm thrilled to have my first couple blog comments this week! It's incredible to see how people from all over the country, and world, can end up on someone's site. Please keep commenting and I'll be sure to try and respond as best I can. Also- let me know if there's things you think I can change or write more of. This is such a fun thing to do and I'd love to have a blog that has the following of Snippet, SMP, SWSMags, or Weddingbee. Can you tell where my interests are? I digress...

Here's some ideas I have for upcoming features:
A. Recent movie/book reviews
B. Scrapbooking/craft updates
C. Beauty product reviews (similar to mascara reviews on Yellow Brick Blog)
D. Thrifty Thursday: I'll either make an outfit on the cheap or write about some other way to save money.

I'm going to read my extremely riveting text for Responsible Leadership. Okay...and maybe a little bit of Love the One You're With