That's just crazy talk!

I’ve been in a “get shit done” mode for the last few weeks and it has really been paying off. I’m exhausted because there has been little relaxation involved, but things are getting done and are making me feel less stressed about everything going on. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still very stressed out and I don’t see how everything can get done before the end of summer & before the wedding – but the more I check off my list the easier it gets.

This weekend started off with painting the dining room at the farm. I’m kind of jealous because it turned out really good and I love love love the color! After I finished painting I did a little bit of weeding and planning with the garden. I’m excited to really get started on it! While I was there, Justen and Ashley were cleaning up the farm (getting rid of scrap metal, trimming around the trees, etc). Apparently he has big plans for the farm before the wedding. He wants to turn the office into a bathroom, take down a few trees and he wants to tear down two buildings and bury them. Hopefully he can get that all done before September! After spending half the day at the farm I went home and spent a few hours cleaning the house and cutting out fabric flowers for the wedding.

Saturday I spent the majority of the day cleaning/organizing and running the dogs to and from the groomer. I took a little break when Phil got home from work and then we left to go to Josh & Loin’s house for a bonfire for Joshua’s birthday. It was a good time! It felt good to get out and have a few drinks with my friends. :-)

The next day Phil and I slowly woke up (since we were up til 3 a.m. the night before) and finished the underground fence for the dog. We got it all done and went to grab the collar to test it out to make sure everything was working before completely burring the wire and we couldn’t find the collar. Cool…. Phil misplaces EVERYTHING and now it’s lost. :-( So, we can’t start training Winston quite yet but it’s done. If we can’t find the collar Phil gets to buy a new one. After that we decided we needed a break so we went out for dinner at Chipotle (my favorite!), then had a little desert at Mc D’s and then went to see the Hangover II. The movie was funny, however, it was an exact replica of the first one so it was obvious what was going to happen.

Then Monday came (the last day of vaca!!) and we spent the day running errands. I bought my first tree for our yard!!! I’m overly excited about it. It’s just a tree… but it’s our first tree in our new house! It’s so cute! So after running errands we got home, planted our new tree and Phil started power washing the front of our house/deck while I cleaned and did laundry. All-in-all - very busy weekend.

Over the next few days Phil and I have plans to finish power washing the front of the house, clean/organize the garage, seed/fertilize our yard and take on the big job of shoveling up all the pebble rock from the front walk-way and put it in the back of the house where the deck is going and then re-do the entire front walk-way. Ugh… now that is going to be quite a large job and will take a few days… not looking forward to the work but it will be nice once it’s done.

That is all.

Another wedding blog people… I’m sorry but it’s the only thing I have to talk about! Last weekend, my Aunt Laura and grandma came over to see the house. After the tour and a little bit of chatting we decided to head over to the farm to check out the ceremony site for the wedding so Laura could get some ideas. Laura is very into gardening. She is in a garden club and most of her front yard is a garden and it’s beautiful. I fully trust her gardening tips. When we got to the farm and she instantly got tons of ideas and saw all the potential. The farm isn’t horrible… it is just overgrown and all the goods are hiding underneath all the crab grass and weeds. This weekend I plan on going to the farm to finish painting the dining room and then I’m going to start weeding. Laura plans to come out to the farm next weekend and we are going to start the madness. I’m excited but at the same time I’m extremely overwhelmed. It sounds easy but I know it is going to be a lot of hard work. But all the hard work will be well worth it in the end because we will have a beautiful ceremony site that means a lot to me and Justen gets to have a nice looking yard after the wedding is over.

I also started my fabric flowers last night. It took me a few hours just to trace 10 flowers and cut out 8. After cutting out 8 my hand cramped up so I couldn’t finish the last 2. Only 52 more to cut out and then I have to sew them all! This is another project that is going to take me a while but it will be well worth it when it’s done. I like that I’m adding something to our wedding that I did myself.

All this gardening and crafting talk is making me really feel like a Tuomala finally! By that I mean my mother’s side of the family. They are all very crafty, talented and love to garden. Someday I hope to be half as crafty and talented as they are!

We also finalized our invitations and our guestlist and Rachel is going to start making them. She is coming to Wisconsin in the middle of June and plans to bring the finished product with her. So, hopefully all of the invites will be out by the end of June. This whole wedding experience seems to be flying by so fast! I can’t wait until the big day is here and I get to marry my best friend in the whole world! Then we get to start having babies! :-) :-)

I feel like I’m on a roll this week! I finally found someone to marry us, I found and purchased our fabric for the fabric flowers, I ordered the centerpieces (except for the candles) and I ordered return address labels so we don’t have to write all that out by hand! Four checks off my list! Whoot whoot!

However, now that I'm thinking about my very large to-do list it doesn't seem like much.... ugh, so much to do!

Over the weekend Phil and I knocked some more items of our wedding to-do list. We went to Target and registered for our gifts. I knew it was going to be a pain in the ass and it was. Phil and I don’t agree on a lot since we have completely opposite taste in design. But after some arguing we got it taken care of. Now I just need to go online and tweak a few things and add a few more things since our scanner gun died towards the end. But, that’s basically checked off the list!

While in Woodbury we also stopped at Joann’s to find some gray and yellow fabric for our fabric flowers. There wasn’t a whole lot to chose from in gray so I didn’t exactly get what I was picturing. But, I got what they had so I could see what the flowers looked like in color. Here are the two final products:



I think I’ll buy different fabric and maybe do different kinds of fabric together, like throw in some lace or something of that sort to give it a little bit of different textures. So, once I find and purchase my fabric I can start making my many many fabric flowers!

Next few things on our wedding to-do list that I want to get done within the next week or two is find someone to marry us, finish getting people’s addresses, decide on where we are going for our honeymoon and book the tickets. There are still many many other things we need to get done but those I think are the most important right now.

Fold it in half.


You are going to cut out a bunch of these petals. Here’s what they look like. You really don’t need a template. Real flower petals all vary, right? I also don’t use any fabric stiffner because I like the movement of the fabric, again, like real flowers.


Here’s what the petals look like open.


Start by making larger ones and get progressively smaller. Not too small, though. For a large flower, you will need about 15 petals. Begin stacking them as shown.


Here’s what it looks like when they are all stacked.


Now get a needle and thread and pull the first stitch through the middle.


Stitch a small ‘x’ so everything is in place well.


Now that everything is secure, we are just going to form the flower more. I fold it in half and stitch it through.


Then after that I fold in half again and make another stitch through.


Here’s what it looks like after those steps.


After that, tie it off in the back.


You can add to it whatever you want to attach it. You can buy pins and glue it on, you can use a safety pin, a barrette, whatever you want. You can also add fun things to the center like a pearl, a diamond, a fabric center, a button- anything.


Here’s the pink one I did.


Doesn't this look easy!!! It would obvioulsy take a while to make 70-100 of them but I have 4 months to make them and maybe even my wonderful, awesome bridesmaids might help me a little... ;) ;)

So this weekend Phil, Jimmy P. and I went car shopping. Before even getting to any car dealerships I already had my heart set on a Honda Pilot but I went into it being open to other options. The first place we went was Walser Honda because they had 15-20 Pilots. I had a limited choice since I was picky on the color. I didn’t want any of that gray, white, silver bullshit. The last two cars I bought were silver and white and I didn’t want some ugly boring car. Plus, I figured that if I was going to pay as much as I was, I was going to get a color I liked. So the only options I had left were black and dark purple. When we got to the dealership it was pouring rain. I found one out of all the Pilots that seemed to fit what I want and my budget the best. Then we went for a test drive. I was pretty nervous about test driving any vehicle. For one thing, it was pouring rain. Second, I was in the cities and I hate driving in the cities and not knowing where I am going. Three, I had to drive with some stranger in my backseat. And four, I was test driving a vehicle that was twice as big as my little Civic. Even with the rain, the city driving, the “truck” and the weird guy, I knew instantly that this was the car for me. I loved driving it! I thought it would be difficult since it is humongous compared to my civic but it felt so good and it was so much fun to drive! After test driving the Pilot we headed over to a few other dealerships. We went to Toyota next, then Mazda & Nissan. I was disappointed in the Toyota dealership because I was seriously considering a Toyota as well. But, they didn’t have anything even worth test-driving. So, we headed back to the Honda dealership and asked them to bring the Pilot in the garage - out of the pouring rain so we could have a better look at it. The three of us spent a while going over every bit of it to make sure there weren’t any dents, etc. After taking a good long look at it and going over everything in my head to make sure I was getting a good enough deal, I decided to purchase. I couldn’t be happier with it! All I can think about now is driving it. I’m quite excited that I purchased it just in time for the 100 mile garage sale this weekend! I can fit all my friends AND small furniture and other treasures we find in my new Pilot. :)