Setting Up Shop

Recently, I joined the community at Etsy.com so that I could keep track of all the great goodies I find on their site.  (like this, and this . . . and this)  I've been thinking for a while about setting up a shop on etsy and trying to sell some of my paintings. The tricky part is figuring out the cost of shipping, which you have to post in order to sell an item on Etsy.

So, to get started, I decided to sell some jewelry pieces I've been working on instead.  You can check out my shop here!

A few of the things I've made:

Gold Metal Charm with blue Swarovski crystal

Sterling silver flower

The whole gang

I also picked up some vintage buttons that I'm really excited about turning into earrings and rings

Eventually I'll figure out how to ship paintings, but for now I'm happy to have a few things out there.

Blogger Score!

I scored some amazing earrings on a blogger giveaway hosted by belle maison.  They arrived in the mail this weekend, and I think I'm in love.  Check them out!

The earrings are from Vivre; where you can shop online for men's and women's cloths, gifts, and accessories.  Super cute and very versatile.  I can see myself amping up a simple jeans and tee combo or wearing them with a cute cocktail dress.  Am I a lucky duck or what?  Big thanks to Vivre for the earrings and belle maison for hosting such a great giveaway!

Wine and Beer

One of the great things about our wedding venue is that they allow you to bring your own alcohol, and they'll serve it.  For our wedding reception, we've decided to have wine and beer for our lovely guests.  Picking the alcohol will involve trying LOTS of different kinds, deciding not only what variety to get but also what brand of each particular variety we like best.  It's going to be rough work sampling, but John and I have bravely undertaken the difficult task of choosing wine and beer for our wedding reception, and we're starting with the wine.

We got a sauvignon blanc, a pinot grigio, and an unoaked chardonnay to start with, tasting in that order.

Only $6 - score!

We took notes on what we thought of each wine:

Wine and coordinating comments

My smarty pants fiance took notes like "light classic aroma," while I took notes like "zing!" and "smells like alcohol."  Insightful, I know.

Surprisingly (to me anyway), the pinot grigio was our least favorite.  Now, this isn't to say that pinot grigio is ruled out for the wedding, but this particular one certainly is.  The hands down favorite was the sauvingon blanc, and at $6 a bottle, it definitely falls within our alcohol budget.

Next, we'll be whittling down our whites and picking which reds to serve too.  It's a tough job, but somebody's gotta do it.

100 Days and Counting

It's hard to believe, but we are 100 days away from our wedding!! So far, we've made a lot of great progress.  The invitations and dress have been purchased, and we're oh so close on wedding bands.  The bridesmaids' dresses and cake have been ordered, the DJ, photographer, florist, and venue booked. We've registered and even sampled food.  With all that's been accomplished, it's amazing to think that there is still so much more to do.

Remaining on our list is basically everything that has to do with the men in the wedding; printing, addressing, and sending invitations; finalizing the menu; and picking songs.  Despite all that's left, I think we are well on our way to finishing up with plenty of time to relax and enjoy the time leading up to the wedding!

Anyone have any fun ideas for things to do the week leading up to the wedding?  I think it would be great to do something fun and relaxing . . . a yoga class? a massage?

A New Way to Follow

If you have a google account you can and have always been able to follow my blog.  You can also sign up to receive email notifications of my posts.  I also recently added a twitter button if case (for whatever reason) you want to tweet about a post.  Now, I've added bloglovin' to my list of "follow me" methods.  You can either click the link below:
Follow my blog with Bloglovin

or click the button on the right!

New Neighbors, New Art

Very recently, I was watering the hanging basket in our backyard when I noticed something peculiar.  Right before I took the basket down, a bird flew away.  When I set the basket on the ground to water it, I saw that there was a little nest and four little eggs!  It is such an incredible nest - it almost looks fake it's so perfect.

There's actually a few more eggs in there now if you can believe it (6 total).  Inspired by our new little neighbors, I made a new little painting:

I hope you like it!