diy mama

lifestyle blog sharing diy, family, travel, organization & disney tips

Life

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October Goals

octoberHappy October 1st! I’m doing another round of Monthly Goals to help me stay on task for the month of October. First, let’s see how I did on my first month of goal planning in September. I achieved all three goals under family! With the occasional later bedtime while traveling or the weekend, we’ve got Soph on a more regular bedtime routine! Jeffrey and I went to see Mike Birbiglia and Soph and I went to every Babies Loves Books except the Monday she was visiting her Grandparents. My Life goals were not as successful! I did not complete ANY of them! We stopped Whole 30 a week early just because. There really was no reason. We are going to continue to eat those foods with an occasional treat until we reach our goals. We both lost a lot (24 lb for me) but still have a ways to go. I can’t figure out how to get my darn Lumo Lift to stay on my body, so until I get that figured out, it sits on my desk. I didn’t even attempt Me Before You because I read reviews on how terribly sad it was and couldn’t put myself through that! I got half way through Daring Greatly and am really enjoying that book! I did nothing with Project Life or my closet building plans. I saw that it was going to cost $890 for new wood hangers and decided the closet reno will have to be for another time. I did pretty terrible on my Blog goals as well. I still have not completed Blog Life and I only revamped one old post. I did, however, repin like a mad woman. I also got asked by Anna to be a co-host for a big Pinning Party this Saturday for Boogie Wipes! I’m OK with the things I didn’t get accomplished because I got a lot of non-goal items accomplished!

Family

  • To be present this month. There is a ridiculous amount going on this month and I want to be sure to be present for my family rather than going through the motions and checking events off my to-do list.
  • Continue Babies Love Books every Monday
  • Take a family walk 3 times/week
  • Find a date-night sitter for Soph

Life

  • Swim 2 times/week
  • Read Eleanor & Park
  • No laundry on the weekends

Blog

  • Complete Blog Life (for realz)
  • Revamp 2 old posts
  • Make 2 new pins for 2 top re-pinned pins

guitarPS. is this not the cutest? What are your goals for October? How’d September turn out for you? I fear October, November and December are going to be tough to accomplish all my goals but I’m up for trying!

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Our Wedding

Hello lovers! Happy Fall! I know, my mind is supposed to be all things apple cider, pumpkin cookies, sweaters and colorful leaves but I’m feeling very nostalgic for my family. Not sure if it’s Sophie’s birthday coming up or our drawn out anniversary celebration but I am beyond thankful for the family that I get to spend my life with. I’ve been thinking about our beautiful wedding day where we were surrounded by all of our favorite people. Weddings are strange, there’s this feeling of stress for the bride to make sure everything is perfect, perhaps a bit of a grudge for the guests coming to spend their time and money and a touch of forced happiness for the big event that is supposed to be the happiest day of your life. I’ve felt all of these emotions regarding my wedding day and others weddings I’ve attended, but in the end, weddings rock and are a beautiful tradition that I’m grateful to experience.
BergmanWed-1078The day of my wedding started out strange. I was alone in our wedding suite for the morning while my friends and family went to get ready with their families. I was receiving phone calls of Uncles being rushed to the hospital, cousins missing flights and flowers being locked in the refrigerators. Wondering if all of my decorations were being laid out correctly, welcome bags being put in the correct rooms and whether my cake had arrived yet. This huge event that we had planned, prepped and paid big bucks for had finally come and I was alone in a hotel room worrying about it ALL.

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As the day went on, my bridesmaids and Mom got to the hotel room and started getting me primped for our photo shoot. Now I could relax and have fun! All my worries went away and I was beyond excited! My sister did my hair and I did my makeup so we weren’t worrying about dealing with any extra hands. We were extremely lucky to have teamed up with a great photographer and had a ton of great shots from our friends and family throughout the day.
Sneak first-lookWe wanted to do the ‘first look’ moment out on The Circle so that every time we visit we’ll remember the butterflies of anticipation. I’m a true Hoosier and love Indy so I’m so glad we got to spend our special day there.
BergmanWed-1116 BergmanWed-1128 BergmanWed-1134We got the normal ‘sweet family’ photos as well as the ‘ok, now be crazy’ photos before the 3,000 bikers swarmed our photo sesh!
BergmanWed-1286BergmanWed-1295BergmanWed-1229BergmanWed-1298BergmanWed-1307There was a motorcycle rally on the circle that made our day really fun! We felt like celebrities as bikers were honking, taking our photos, asking for us to pose with their bikes and giving us money! It was awesome.
BergmanWed-1235BergmanWed-1250Jessika did an amazing job of letting us do what we wanted and captured the exact feelings that we were having. She’d promp us on where to stand but let us do what we wanted for our photos, which I loved.
Jimmy-Johns-WeddingA lot of people have asked me about this photo from my About Me page. We were hungry and were missing out on the cocktail hour because of the shoot. Jeffrey works at the corporate headquarters for JJ and we’re big fans so we got JJ for our wedding party.
BergmanWed-1349The foyer of the reception had a baby grand piano that I had made a little vignette with wedding albums and framed wedding photos from our families. It was very special for our grandparents and family members to see their wedding photos.
wedding-decor1We bought our flowers in bulk through a local florist and divided them into all the vases I’d collected. The hotel let us store the flowers in the refrigerator for safe keeping (this might not happen at all hotels, I used to work at the Hilton where we got married.) The table centerpieces were made up of stacked white books to represent Jeffrey’s love of reading. We had Babies Breath as well as yellow and white Daisies in honor of my parent’s wedding flowers. My sister painted signs for our ceremony and reception to help guests not crash the wrong wedding. My cousin wrote the ‘photos’ poster last minute for our photo booth because I’d forgotten to write one! My family took all the vases and books and arranged them on all the tables for me while I was at the photo shoot. I had all the vases and books numbered and a photo of each arrangement as a guide. I didn’t care if they looked exactly like that but thought it would make it easier for them in the short amount of time they had to decorate. wedding-decor2I wrote out all the name cards in different fonts and printed them on card stock to match our color theme. I’d also printed the drinks banner and table numbers from a Martha Stewart template I’d found. I ordered a few props from Etsy for the photo booth which seemed to be a big hit according to the insane amount of photos we got from the booth!
BergmanWed-1452 Our ceremony was literally 5 minutes long; honest, meaningful and to the point!
BergmanWed-1489 BergmanWed-1495After the ceremony we had cocktail hour for our guests while we went outside to shoot a few more photos as a married couple. The photo above describes our relationship perfectly!
BergmanWed-1551Our Dads and wedding party all had awesome speeches and we gave a speech to thank everyone for sharing our special day with us. Our cake was yellow cake with fudge chocolate icing because that’s Jeffrey’s favorite cake combo. It was the best wedding cake I’ve ever had (and I’ve had at least 100 wedding cakes through working catering.)
BergmanWed-1612phtoto-booth1The evening wrapped up with hours of dancing, drinking and lots of inappropriateness in the photo booth. We only stopped dancing when they turned the lights on and started cleaning up. I’m so happy for the memories I have from our wedding day. I am forever grateful that all of our friends and family came to spend the day with us to make it absolutely perfect. I’d love to have another party without the pressure of a wedding but full of drinks, dancing and cake! What did you love about your wedding? Did you diy any part of your wedding? Anyone have 3,000 bikers to help celebrate their happy day? I’m going to go watch the video my Dad made for our wedding!

All photos were taken by Jessika Feltz Photography other than the last photo booth photo.

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Fall Nail Ideas

Hello lady! Although my nails are bright pink with glitter, I usually try to keep my nail color matching the season. I’ve been searching for some fun new fall nail ideas and have round up a few of my favorites. Since I change my nails every week, there won’t be a problem fitting in tons of new fall nail ideas! Which one’s your favorite?

Fall 2013 Purple Gold Accent12 jewel-tone1 loudlavish1 nudesparkles1 penny_talk_copper12 TBDlayerlovingtop12 tribal11

  1. I love the simple idea of doing a fall color (plum, maroon, nude, chocolate) and pairing it with a gold glitter party nail.
  2. Jewel tones look great on every skin color and shout fall!
  3. Grey on white with a little flaire goes great with all comfy fall outfits.
  4. You can’t go wrong with glitter but sometimes it’s too fun and colorful. Pair it with a nude polish and it’s win win!
  5. This rose gold polish is stunning. You could dress it up for an evening out or wear it with a chunky sweater to ring in the fall weather.
  6. I’ve done this mint & glitter look a few times and I always get compliments. It is a playful girly look that will keep you smiling.
  7. Because I don’t have a steady enough hand, I had the salon do these tribal nails and I felt pretty amazing that entire week.

Do you switch up your nail color for the season? What about for concerts, movie premiers or vacations? Every event is an excuse to have fun nails! Do you have metallic polish? How well does it apply and did it chip easier than normal polish? Have any tricks to get glitter off easier? I’m pretty sure glitter polish could bond any two surfaces together for life!

For more nail art ideas, check out my board on Pinterest.


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10 Things I’m Thankful For

Hello lovelies! I’ve been feeling very thankful lately. Sometimes I get wrapped up in ‘not having enough_____ (time, money, friends, space, clothes, chocolate etc.)’ and have to catch myself by thinking about all the awesomeness that I do have. I’m reading Daring Greatly right now which is helping me learn to ’embrace vulnerability and imperfection, to live wholeheartedly, and to courageously engage in our lives.’ All of these things sound so simple, yet are tough for us to live in our every day lives. To start daring greatly, I’m going to notice the things that I’m thankful for every day. flowers

1. My pup who sits here as I write with her head on my lap. Tomorrow she is having surgery to remove a tooth and I’m worried for her to have anesthetics. I’m thankful that we didn’t have to face the hard choice on if we should go through with the $700 surgery because of money. A lot of people do not have the option to give medical care to their pets and I’m so thankful we do.

2. Sophie’s amazing grandparents. We are so lucky to have both of our parents in her life. They both care for her unconditionally and I can really see the love that they have for her.  I was fortunate enough to have grandparents who loved me so much and I am so happy that Sophie can experience that type of love.

3. Music. I love that intense orchestral music can make me scared during a movie. I’m glad that listening to pop music can keep me motivated to clean. I’m thankful that you can feel a special bond with someone who shares the same love for a band that I do.

4. Pumpkin flavored everything. When I was pregnant with Sophie, I craved pumpkin more than anything. It’s closing in on fall meaning pumpkin goodness is in my future again.

5. Awesome neighbors. Our neighbors are always there to let us borrow a cup of milk, watch Sophie for a few minutes, give us recipes, share books, teach us a new craft, be a workout buddy and hang out with us on the sidewalks while we wait for our families to come home.

6. All four seasons. In Illinois, we can get all four seasons in a matter of two weeks. I’m not a huge fan when that happens but I am thankful that we get to see the grass and flowers grow from the rain in the spring, sunny warm nights in the summer, beautiful colors on the trees in the fall and snow to play in during the winter. I used to love all four seasons when I was young and I know, now that we have Sophie, that I’ll love them again just as much.

7. An easy going partner. I can change moods in one second flat and am so thankful that Jeffrey is extremely level headed to balance me out. He is happy to go along with my ‘fun adventures’ and just stay home to be with our family.

8. All the luck that I’ve stumbled into and opportunities that I’ve been a part of. If I talk about all the fun things that I’ve been lucky enough to be a part of, I’d just sound like I was bragging. A few of my favorite lucky things are my wonderful childhood, meeting my love, going to Purdue, being a Disney cast member and having a successful pregnancy.

9. Glitter, jewels and gems. I love sparkly shiny things. I’m thankful to have seen several exhibits on gems and start a collection of them. I think everything and everyone should be accessorized with glitter, jewels and gems!

10. The feeling of safety. Today, 9/11 is a reminder that terrible things can happen at any moment to change our lives. I’m thankful that I do not have daily fear of something terrible happening like so many people have around the world. I’m thankful to be raised where I was and to have the opportunity to live where I do today.

What are you thankful for? How are you living a wholehearted life? It’s hard, but like everything else, one step at a time.

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A Letter to Us

Dear Us,

Today is your 4th Anniversary of marriage! Four years has flown by. Sometimes it feels like we’ve been together for way longer than four years. At the same time, I still get butterflies thinking about us. We’ve now added a happy baby with a huge personality that lights up our lives. She is perfect. We still like doing things together as a couple but she gives us more entertainment in 15 minutes than anyone else can. We’re past the point of buying trips to Disney for our Anniversary but still make it a point to do fun things. This year we are going to the apple orchard with Sophie on our Anniversary weekend. A few weeks later we’ll go see Mike Birbiglia’s stand up and a few weeks later staying in a hotel with a fun night at Mideival Times. Most of all, we like being at home, together, doing nothing. We like making diy home improvements for our little craftsman home in Champaign.

our-homeWe’re also realizing that we’re outgrowing the home we built. Once we want to have a sister or brother for Sophie, we’ll have to move. This makes us sad and happy at the same time. We love all the personal touches we’ve made to our home and the amazing neighbors we have just a few steps away. We’ll miss the park being just around the corner and the amazing sunsets over our field. Honestly though, none of that matters because we’ll still be together.

kissWe’re looking forward to our adventures ahead called life. Sometimes it’s hard to live in the moment, because I get excited about things to come, but when I do, it’s the best place to be. Happy Anniversary to Us. I’ve never been happier in my life.

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