Bloominous DIY Flowers

I was compensated for this post with product and/or payment; however, opinions are 100% mine and as always, I would never recommend something to my readers that I wouldn't use myself.

Psst.. Can I let you in on a little secret?

Weddings are expensive. 

Like, really, really expensive. 

Even if you don't have an invitation calligrapher, designer silk gown, or a stellar Frank Sinatra cover artist performing at your reception, the numerous expenses can add up really quickly -- and you shouldn't have to throw away your dream wedding plans just because you can't afford it.

That's where my friends at Bloominous come in. 

Bloominous is your partner who understands easy (and afforable!) DIY flowers. What makes them so special? Well..

• The DIY experts at Bloominous design collections that are not only beautiful, but also really easy to arrange.
• The flowers come straight from the farm, ensuring your stems are fresh and cut-to-order.
• Included step-by-step pictorials make it easy to build a beautiful piece in just 15min.
• Bloominous de-thorns and proportions your flowers to save you time.
• Packages carefully packed and ship by Air to ensure freshness.

Pretty cool, huh?

The concept for Bloominous actually came about when one of the co-founders was getting married and experienced first hand the high cost of wedding flowers. After a year of research and design, Bloominous was born (you can read the whole story here) -- this just goes to show that they know first hand what goes into budgeting a wedding!

Confession: I'm not a DIYer (I've said it before and I'll say it again -- I have no talent when it comes to creating things.. except for cute babies, of course) so I was extremely nervous about the process. Folks; I was pleasantly surprised! 

My flowers were shipped on Thursday and arrived Friday morning via FedEx (I got a little too excited and opened the package before taking a picture.. oops!). 

The contents of the box (the Party Pop collection) 

The box comes complete with ribbons and pins to make your own bouquet! 

As you can see, the box came with stunning roses, instructions, flower food packet, and bouquet adornments. Brandon and I were both amazed at how fresh the flowers were (considering they'd been shipped over night) and how they managed to perk up even more after they were watered!

I was super nervous about trimming the roses incorrectly so my hot cameraman (AKA my hubby) stepped in to save the day!

I really cannot say enough good things about my Bloominous bouquet! They are truly the highest quality and most fragrant flowers I have ever had -- I really wish they'd been around when Brandon and I were married! If you're looking for incredible wedding flowers (or just high quality flowers in general), you need to give Bloominous a try! 

My beautiful Bloominous flowers make me want to renew my vows to Brandon (because that's what most people do after 27 months of marriage.. right?)! 

{this moment}

I found the prompt for this post on one of my favorite blogs (Little Miss Momma) and thought I'd give it a go!

{this moment} – A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

inspired by SouleMama  

Easter 2015

Our little family had such a wonderful time celebrating His resurrection in my hometown -- it was seriously the perfect way to end such a peaceful and spiritually fulfilling Lenten season!

On Good Friday morning, Jackson and I surprised my parents by coming earlier in the day than Brandon (I told them we weren't going to be able to and my mom called right as we were pulling into town to see what we were up to.. Jax and I walked into the office while we were still on the phone and the look on her face was priceless!) which was the perfect way to start the weekend! We spent the rest of the day catching up on soaps, relaxing, and waiting for both Brandon and my brother to get off work and join us!

Saturday was the official kickoff to the fun & cliche Easter festivities! Brandon, my parents, and I took Jackson to meet the Easter Bunny, we had lunch, came back into town to take the babe to his first ever Easter egg hunt, napped, played outside, feasted on my mom's fabulous pepperoni bread, and celebrated our Lord and Savior at a beautiful Easter mass. After church, we all got comfortable and sat around visiting for the remainder of the evening.

This boy pleasantly surprised us all by going right to the Easter Bunny and sitting nicely with him while we all snapped our pictures (we were fully expecting crying and panic to ensue).

 

*Ignore me in the background picking up the eggs for him**

He's definitely my son -- he likes his candy (though I tend to prefer mine unwrapped)!  

Headed to mass with my beautiful family -- how did I get so lucky?! 

On Sunday, Jackson woke up to find that the Easter Bunny had visited Grammy & Grandpa's house! Jax wasn't too into the Easter egg hunt itself (it took us a good 45 minutes to hunt/open all 12 eggs) but enjoyed opening and closing all of the eggs..  oh well, there's always next year! The Bunny spoiled Jax with new books, puzzles, toys, chalk, and other little non-candy knick knacks that he's been playing with ever since. After everyone was up and moving, our gang packed a picnic lunch and headed to the lake to do a little fishing -- we used to go fishing on Easter when I was in high school and I'm so glad we decided to do it again this year! It's a fun tradition that I look forward to carrying on with my family. 

I lied.. a few of the eggs actually did contain candy. 

We fish you a Happy Easter.

Dad with the first catch of the day!

Awful picture but this is some of the picnic spread -- my mom made her famous fried chicken and it was as delicious as ever!

Jackson was asleep on me so I had to take this picture one handed but here is Brandon with his first fish of the day. 

I re-shaded his face as soon as I had my picture :)

We couldn't have asked for a better way to spend such a special day and it made me realize again just how blessed we are to have such wonderful family (both near and far) and to have a God who loves us so much that He gave His son for you and me. I hope that you all had a wonderful day with your family and friends! 

Monday (or "The Comedy of Errors")

Yesterday was definitely a Monday.. did you feel that way too? 

I'm not sure if it was just an off day because we had such a fun and enjoyable Easter weekend (more on that hopefully tomorrow) but it just seemed like nothing was going right..

Here are a few examples:

1. I had a doctors appointment at 10am in Westminster (which is about a 30 minute drive) and had to get Jax and me up and moving by 8:30 to ensure we were dressed, fed, and out the door by 9:15. We miraculously made it early but the doctor was running late--so my squirmy toddler and I were trapped in an 8x8 room for a half hour. 
2. After my appointment, I took Jackson over to the park by our old apartment to play for a bit and then I carried him over to Barnes & Noble (about a 1/2 mile walk).. in my boots.. and came home to a gnarly blister on the bottom of my foot. 
3. Had to stand through the entire story time to ensure that my son didn't yank the book from the storytellers hand (believe me, he tried.. multiple times) or steal crayons/toys from the other toddlers. 
4. The classic "Jax, please stand nice and don't touch anything while mommy goes potty!" in the bathroom stall at Barnes & Noble (of course he touched everything and crawled around on the gross bathroom floor..). #momfail
5. Not sitting nice in the cart at Costco.
6. Falling in the cart (and crying) because he wasn't holding on and mommy wasn't paying attention. #momfailpartdos
7. Accidentally giving my 15-month-old his first taste of pop (here's what happened: the pharmacy was taking forever to fill my prescription so I figured Jax and I would go to the food court and share a hot dog while we waited.. anyway, I got my usual Diet Pepsi and let Jax -- who at that point hadn't grasped the concept of drinking out of a straw -- chew on the straw. The next thing I know, he is chugging my Pepsi.. and wanting more.. I threw the cup away shortly after).
8. The pharmacy messing up my prescription yet again (the doctor told me she sent in a 90 day supply and they only gave me 30.. happens every. single. time). 
9. Arrived home to find that the cat jumped up on the counter & managed to opened a tupperware container of corn bread (half a piece was missing), cleaned up the cornbread crumbs, put away the groceries, broke open the cat's new bag of food (there is now cat food all over the floor of our garage), and fed the cat. 
10. Cleaned up cat's cornbread vomit. 
11. Picked up shrub branches from the backyard while Jackson and Bella played.
12. Let cat back in the house. 
13. Brought Jax inside 15 minutes later to find that the cat threw up grass all over one of Jackson's new Easter books. 
14. Cleaned and did dishes. 
15. Laid in bed with Jax and watched obscure PBS programming.
16. Took a blissful and well deserved nap with my cuddle bug. 

Major first world problems, I know.. I just had to vent and write it out so thank you for listening/reading (though I'm sure most of you stopped reading at around #4.. I know I would have!). Here's to what is hopefully an uneventfully peaceful rest of the week! 

I just realized I didn't take any pictures yesterday so here is Jax with his new stuffed bear from Great Grandpa & Grandma Sandmeier. 

{this moment}

I found the prompt for this post on one of my favorite blogs (Little Miss Momma) and thought I'd give it a go!

{this moment} – A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

inspired by SouleMama  

Give Thanks Friday

Today is Good Friday and I am completely baffled by the fact that the Lenten season has come and gone.. I really, really love this time of the year because everything just seems so calm and peaceful as we reflect upon our Lord and the beautiful gift He gave us all because of His abundant love for us. Every night after Jackson falls asleep, I've been going into his room to pray over him and to thank God for giving me this beautiful life and for giving His only son for us. It's true: we love because He loved us first. 

As I mentioned on Ash Wednesday, I brought back my "Give Thanks" posts as a way of putting things into perspective for me during Lent -- now that Lent is over though, I'm still going to try to continue writing down the things I'm most grateful for either on here or in a journal. I encourage you to do the same. 

1.) Last weekend, we began to landscape our front yard (and even though it's only a patch of dirt right now, it already looks SO much better than it did before with the gigantic, trash filled hedge). I'm so thankful to have a husband who works so hard on these projects and takes such pride in our home.

I kid you not; I filled two full size trash bags with cups, papers, etc., that littered this gigantic, ugly hedge.

2.) Brandon took me to a couple's cooking class at Sur La Table for my birthday and we had such a fun time cooking, shopping around the store, and feasting on our 3 course Parisian meal -- I'm so glad that Brandon thought to do that for my birthday date!

3.) We had some wonderful (and unfortunately not so wonderful) weather days last week and enjoyed many park outings/stroller pushing excursions. We're so blessed to have nice neighbors two doors down who we can meet at the park to play with! 

4.) I'm so thankful for my little sidekick who is always by my side ready to help with anything :) This week is was helping me read books, clean, and decorate our homemade Easter cookies (which I hope to turn into our annual tradition)! 

5.) Above all, I'm thankful to have a Father who loves us all so much that he died so that we can have life everlasting. I don't think I ever really thought about and appreciated this until I got married and became a mother -- how lucky are we?! Thank you God for loving us all unconditionally and giving us such a beautiful gift.

I hope you all have a wonderful Easter weekend with your families -- don't forget to count your blessings and give thanks for all of the beauty in our lives. 

I Think That 25 and I Are Gonna Be Friends..

I turned 25 less than a week ago and have already decided that I love it.. after all, having a great birthday week means you're guaranteed a great year, right?!

My actual birthday day was filled with Easter cookie baking, naps, and a delicious Hibachi dinner with my two favorite boys (Jackson enjoyed the experience for the most part -- minus the giant flames, which was to be expected). On Friday, Jackson and I worked around the house, ran a few errands, ran into our favorite neighbors at the park, and made marvelous maniconi for supper. It was a very relaxing couple of days which was perfect because..

..we began doing some front yard landscaping on Saturday! I don't want to share too many pictures yet (though I took a bunch to share down the road when our project is complete) but it already looks SO much better. My big job for the day was hauling yard waste from the front to the back and that was flat out exhausting -- Brandon did way more of the "heavy lifting" than I and somehow managed to find the energy to take me on our special birthday date!

After dropping Jackson off at his Great Aunt Nancy & Uncle Rolf's, Brandon and I headed to Cherry Creek to take a couples cooking class at Sur La Table. The kitchen (pictured) was amazing, the food was delicious, and we learned how to prepare a 3-course Parisian meal. The class itself was fun but Brandon and I both decided we would have preferred something a little more private (we had to partner up with another couple which was super intimidating considering they'd taken one of these classes before and had mastered several of the techniques). Despite having to partner up and be social (ha), the class was a ton of fun and I'd highly recommend it to anyone looking for a unique date night. 

25 has definitely started off on the right foot and I'm excited to see what the year has in store for our family. As always, thanks for visiting my little corner of the internet -- it truly does mean the world to me!