Monograms & Mimosas

This past Saturday a few of my sweet bridesmaids and my friend Sara's mom hosted my first wedding shower. From the moment this adorable invitation arrived in the mail, I knew this was going to be the perfect shower:

You see, I might have a slight obsession with all things monogrammed. The shower was so much fun and I got so many adorable gifts. The shower was at my MOH, Sara's, parents house and everything was so perfectly decorated and planned--from framed pictures of James and I to the cutest little favors with heart shaped soap inside. Here are a few pictures from around the house:

The gifts were a good mix of monogrammed items and non-monogrammed items. I can't wait to start using the monogrammed gifts after I make the official switch from ADC to ACO!

I am so thankful to the sweet hostesses for bringing the shower together--it was perfect!

Throw Pillows

I've been on the hunt for a bold pair of throw pillows to go on the couch in James' living room. I personally prefer lighter furniture, but James bought a chocolate brown sectional last year, and we aren't buying a new one. So I'm just gonna have to work with what we have! My overall vision for the living room is to decorate in browns, beige's and blues. I love browns and blues together and I think the colors will make for a peaceful living area. I generally like to keep things pretty simple design wise, with some bold prints thrown in every here and there. We registered for this simple pair of smoke blue throw pillows at pottery barn:

Ever since we registered for these, I have been looking for another pair of throw pillows in a fun bold fabric. Finally, tonight I settled on these brown and blue ikat print pillows I found on Etsy:

Closet Update and Birthday Celebration

So, I have been REALLY bad a blogging lately. Things have been crazy busy with work and wedding planning. 88 more days till the wedding! So exciting!

I haven't posted any pictures or given an update on the closet renovation since James and my dad got in there to start ripping out walls. Over the span of a few months, the two favorite men in my life tore down walls, built walls, wired the electrical, sheet rocked, painted, carpeted, and trimmed a walk-in closet in James' house. Wow, I sure am lucky to have such handy men in my life who enjoy putting in some sweat equity for a girl they love. James and my dad completed the closet on New Years eve day. I'm a little ashamed to say that, because that means a month and a few days have gone by without me blogging with an update. Woopsie....

We went ahead and purchased one wall of our elfa closet storage system from The Container Store and it was installed on the same day James and Dad finished the closet. James was really excited to move his clothes back into the closet and not to have to walk halfway across the house to the spare bedroom closet to get dressed every morning. Here are a few photos of the almost finished product (we will be purchasing the other 3 walls of the elfa storage unit before I move in on April 30th to make room for my things):

Aww look, James even left some room for me. I have a confession to make- my biggest fear is that once I actually move all of my clothes in, they might not fit. I keep telling myself, there is no way this is possible, as there will be another 8 feet or so of closet space just for me. If this in fact happens, we might have to stage a shopping intervention. Let's be honest, James will probably stage one anyway after we get married. Lucky for me I have stylish friends who don't mind sharing their clothes. Do you think 50 is too old to borrow clothes? I hope not...because I still plan on raiding friends closets at 50.

We also celebrated my 24th birthday this past weekend. Normally, I am really not a fan of birthdays. I think its a combination of getting older and having all attention on me... but I actually really enjoyed my 24th. I started off the birthday weekend with dinner at JCT Kitchen on Friday night with James and my parents. I had the shrimp and grits, which were delicious. Saturday night, was birthday dinner #2 at Basil's with some of my sweet girlfriends.

Sunday we had brunch with the O family after church, spent the whole day at The Ostenson's going through James' old baby pictures for the wedding rehearsal slideshow, and then moved on to a homecooked birthday dinner with the fiance. Before I tell you all about the amazing dinner James cooked me, I have to share some super adorable pictures of James when he was little... just a sneak peak!

Sweet short shorts, James! I think its pretty safe to say that our kids will be blonde haired, blue eyed with dimples galore. Okay, moving on to this amazing birthday dinner. While at Mom and Dad O's house, we made copies of a few of James' mom's recipes. The menu for dinner was Chicken Divan and for desert a chocolate chip pound cake with vanilla ice cream and homemade hot fudge. Needless to say, I definitely had a cheat day from the wedding diet. Happy birthday to me!

This has been the longest blog post ever! Here's to trying to post more often rather than writing a novel once a month.