"First Christmas" Ornaments

Besides having an amazing first Christmas with my husband and being married, it was extra fun getting some really sweet ornaments from our friends this year.

Molly and I decided to start our own Christmas tradition this year and give each other an ornament each year. Molly got us this adorable "Our 1st Christmas Together" ornament for our tree:

Chris's cousin got us this wedding cake "First Christmas Together" ornament. It's actually a bell, and there are two rings hanging inside to ring it, very cute!

This ornament we got from Mike and Kerry. Not only is it personalized with our names and our initial, but it has three lines from our first dance song Steady As We Go, and includes our wedding date. Such a sweet surprise!

Then there's Zoey's First Christmas ornament which we made on Christmas Eve, with an imprint of her paw! Yes...we're "those" people:

Did you get any great ornaments for your first Christmas together?

More Ornaments

I participated in two holiday ornament swaps this year. The first swap was with Elisse as I shared in this post. Elisse recently posted about what I sent to her and I'm loving how cute the ornaments look on her tree! See what I sent her here.

The second exchange I did was with Barb at This Life of Ours. Barb does the neatest crafts and sewing projects of her blog so I have to admit, I was slightly intimidated because I just KNEW she was going to send me an adorable hand-made ornament. And I was right! Barb made this tree out of little fabric circles and it's such a cute idea:

I can't wait to show this to my mom because she has a ton of these little button covers she made lying around her sewing room. This would be a great use for them!

Barb also sent me the cutest reindeer ornament from Starbucks. This reindeer reminds me so much of some toys that I had growing up with the movable arms and legs like this:

I was a bad blogger and just sent my ornaments to her last week. I just hope that she gets them in time for Christmas!

Happy Holidays!

Hellllo Folks! I'm back!! Sorry for that more than a week long hiatus and I don't really have an explanation. I'm not in a wedding planning slump, but I did really need this week to get back to some hardcore research (mainly on flowers and invitations) and was devoting most of my time to looking into that and making some phone calls, rather than working on posts. Add that to all the extra stuff to think about now that the Holidays are here and it's hard not to get caught up in a ton of things all at once!

I had the most relaxing weekend at home in Pennsylvania for Thanksgiving. Chris and I did Thanksgiving separately with our families (we aren't figuring out how to split up holidays until we're married) but he then joined us on Friday evening for the weekend. We helped my parents decorate for Christmas Friday night while we watched A Christmas Story.

And I made a Christmas wreath! I made this from all things I found in my mom's sewing room. My mom has an endless amount of sewing materials in our basement and trust me when I say, I'm not exaggerating. She has boxes and boxes and closets and shelves and drawers just filled to the brim with stuff. I snooped around and made this from materials I collected. First, I wrapped and glued some candy cane fabric around a styrofoam ring I got at A.C. Moore. Then I glued the green ribbon around it, tied the silver ribbon into a bow and attached that. Lastly, I made the green flower at the top with some fabric and sturdy string I found. I'll explain how I made that at a later date, but it was really easy and I made a ton of them this weekend. This was very fun to make and I really want to put it on our door, but we don't have anything to hang it up with! So, right now it's just on a random hook in our bedroom. I also painted a wooden box that says "JOY" on it, but I'm finishing that up this weekend, and I'll post about it next week.

And finally, to get me even more in the Christmas Spirit, I participated in 2 Blogger ornament swaps this year! The first one was with the lovely Elisse at furelisse.com. She sent me these gorgeous angel ornaments as well as two cookie cutters to start my cookie cutter collection! Chris and I are planning to get our tree this weekend and I can't wait to decorate with these beautiful ornaments. I'm also definitely going to be making and decorating sugar cookies this season and I can't wait to use my new cookie cutters. Thanks so much Elisse, and be sure to check out her blog at furelisse.com

Finally, for a wedding update: I have TWO appointments on Saturday with florists on Long Island, and should hopefully have flowers decided and booked by the end of next week. Once it's all set, I will update you on why this part has been a bit stressful for me.

Wedding gifts

As usual, I need a day or two to put together the recap from Ashley and Jeff's wedding. We had a fantastic time and I can't wait to write about it. But now that both Ashley and Christina's weddings are over, I can finally post pictures of the ornaments I included with their wedding gift!

Even though Christmas is a few months away, and even though I'm sure they'll get something like this from their parents or other friends this holiday season, I thought it would be cute for them to have something right away when they decorate for Christmas. I ordered these through Calliope Designs. She can personalize any of her many ornaments. My mom got Chris and me one of these last Christmas for our engagement, and she got one for my sister for her "first Christmas in her new home". I think they're so adorable, and couldn't wait to order these for the couples.

Tonight I'm going to the Long Island Bridal Extravaganza with Kerry! I'm hoping it will be very helpful in giving me some more ideas. Recap on that and the wedding this weekend coming soon!