You had me at Merlot

          You had me at Merlot, just one of the fun prints I made for last month’s bridal shower using one of my favorite sites, PicMonkey. This will be a super quick post showing some DIY decor, and I’ll put the printables up for you to use if you like!

We collected wine corks for weeks and used them all over the shower. Two things we made were cork monogram letters of the bride and groom’s initials, and décor on picture frames that held the wine quote prints. I bought the 13 inch wooden “M” & “K” from Hobby Lobby; they were only a few dollars each! We hot glued the corks onto the letters vertically so the purple and red stain from the wine showed here and there. Same goes for the corks on the picture frames, simple as can be- hot glue them right onto your frame in any design you choose.

If you haven’t played around on PicMonkey you should check it out, you can edit photos and design/create anything from logos to party invitations, its fun! I knew I wanted to frame some cute wine quotes for the shower but I couldn’t find any I loved, or that matched our theme, so I made my own. They’re below and you can save the pictures to your computer and print from home or send them into any photo center. Wine lovers enjoy!

          xoxo,

                   Rachele

April Showers

We’re back! Back in our own home… doesn’t it feel amazing to be back in your own bed after a long trip??! I had the best time in our hometown and was able to fit so much in; a bridal shower for my best friend {Kayleigh}, and her beautiful wedding, Mother’s Day with our Moms and Grandmas, my Dad’s birthday, family photos and time with our friends and family. I’m sure I have hundreds of pictures from the trip, but I am going to limit myself to sharing some from the bridal shower!

We threw a wine and cheese shower and the theme was ‘Stock the Cellar’. We asked the guests to bring the bride a bottle of wine to help get her collection started. We handmade a lot of the décor: personalized bottle labels, cork monogram letters, printable chalkboard quotes, and a rustic wine crate and rack. We had purple wild flowers, in wine bottles, on each table, and a collage of pictures of the bride and groom. It turned out so beautiful, the weather was great, the yard was gorgeous and Kayleigh made out like a bandit with all of the wine she was given!

The food, drinks and desserts were sooo yummy and all homemade by our girlfriends, Aubrey and Amy. Aubrey is also the owner of Alluring Events and Design, you definitely want this girl on your side when planning anything from birthday parties to huge weddings! Here is a link to her site, lucky me to plan a shower with such a talented chick! Amy, who I’ve raved about before, makes the most delicious desserts, you can contact me for her info… she made white wine frozen yogurt and homemade truffles for the shower, I literally stuffed my face! I also want to send a shout out to Kaitlyn, Laura and Channing who did so much to make this shower beautiful for Kayleigh, you girls rock and I loved getting to spend so much time together this week!!!

Okay, that’s enough from me, time for the good stuff, the pictures…

Over the next month or so I am going to put a few posts up that show how we made some of the décor and chalkboard printables, be on the look out! Kayleigh is on her honeymoon now… Hope you’re having an awesome time!! Love you!

          xoxo,

                   Rachele

Dinosaurs & Monsters (and the cutest little boy)

Little boys are made from snakes and snails and puppy dog tails… and dinosaurs and monsters, right? Well, at least one little boy is, and that is Callen, our godson. Callen was born in November of 2011 and we have been completely in love with him ever since. A few weeks ago we found out that Callen will be a big brother in January 2014, yay! We could not be more excited for his new little brother or sister, and we already know Callen will be the coolest kid to have as an older bro.

Callen happens to be so cool because he has awesome parents, Amanda and Nate, who are some of our best friends, and our family, and former co-workers. Our relationship is a little complicated, I'll do my best to describe it… JD and Amanda are cousins and grew up together like siblings (that is pretty easy to understand, but the following is where it gets tricky), I met Amanda at work, we became friends and we also started traveling for work and were sent all over the country. On one of my trips, in Oklahoma, I met Nate and we worked together for about a month. On a different trip Amanda and Nate met each other. So, the three of us all knew one another but worked together at separate times and in different states. Eventually, while in Florida together, Amanda and I discovered that I had gone to high school with her cousin, JD, and we were two years apart but had never met. Long story short, JD and I ended up dating because of Amanda, Amanda and Nate ended up dating later that same year. JD and Nate proposed to us girls within months of each other and we all got married in 2011. Now we are family, and as an added bonus we are all great friends! I left out a ton of details, but that is basically how we all became connected and how JD and I were blessed with being Callen’s Auntie and Uncle.

In all of the excitement of baby number two on the way I went through pictures of Callen’s baby shower and first birthday party. He is a very popular little man with the Poplins!

For his baby shower we had a ‘dinosaur’ theme complete with dinosaur cupcakes and baby dino egg cake pops. There was a station to “decorate a onesie”, games, treats and dinosaur egg centerpieces that were waiting to hatch just like Callen.

The theme of Callen’s first birthday was ‘cute little monsters’, very fitting for a one year old boy. We made snacks to fit the theme, had a felt monster for the “pin the eyeballs on the monster” game, and of course gave him a monster cake to smash into.

Both the shower and party were DIY. They were a lot of fun to plan, craft, create, decorate and enjoy. I am so proud to be this sweet little guy’s Auntie and I can’t wait to do all of the same things for the baby on the way. Congrats to Amanda and Nate on their little growing bean! Will the next one be snakes and snails or sugar and spice!?

 

xoxo

          Rachele

Dinosaurs

 

 

Monsters

The FAM

Blessed with Beautiful Besties

 

So, I’m a girl who happens to be married to the world’s greatest husband; a man who is truly my best friend. I’ve also been blessed with girlfriends who have supported me my whole life; they are my sisters, my family. I live far away from them now, and even though I’ve got my main man by my side I am still missing my girls.

Before the wedding my girlfriends threw me a “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” brunch knowing my favorite meal/food is breakfast. Mmm mmm what can be better than breakfast foods!? A little while ago I put pictures from the shower on Pinterest and since then those picture have been some of the most re-pinned pins I have posted. Because of that I am going to add some more pictures of the brunch to Pinterest and hope they’re as popular as the others.

I thought I’d let my best girls know how much I am missing them and show off all of their hard work on my bridal shower. If you’ve been around them at all you know how talented they all are, they can cook, bake, decorate, sew, plan, organize, create, design, and make a girl feel loved like no other. So, with that said, here are some pictures of my favorite detail shots and my favorite ladies. Love you girls.

 

  xoxo

            Rachele