our first Christmas cards:

Our first Christmas cards as newlyweds! As much as I wanted to make diy Christmas cards this year, I really had no time. So when I got an email from Night Owl Paper Goods about a sale on holiday cards, I decided to go with that. plus, I really love that these are printed on wood. Plus they come with a 2011 calendar printed on the back, so useful! (I'm all about calendars this year I guess) They had so many nice designs, Nick liked this one the best though :)

I designed a wrap around Christmas label for the envelopes but didn't get to take a picture. We got out of the hospital on Monday and I ran to the post office to send them off. I'm not sure if this will be a yearly thing for us, it kind of took me a while to get them together and I didn't even make them! (unlike Melanie's cute felt cards, which I'm sure took her a lot longer!) hehe. Did you send cards this year? I'd love to see pics if you blogged about it!

ps: in response to the comments below, I sent them in regular A6 envelope's (that I had leftover from the wedding, sweet!) and the postage was only .44 cents :)

weekend trip to the hospital:

*pics posted with my husband's consent ;) he's so cute!

You know how I was supposed to go to Renegade SF last weekend? If you follow my twitter, you may have known that didn't end up happening. What did happen was around 1am on Friday, well, technically Saturday - Nick started getting bad pains in his stomach and so we decided to go to the ER.

Our original plan was to leave for SF at around 8pm, get there by 4am and sleep for a couple hours. Instead, we came up with a weird/crazy plan of going to sleep early at 8pm, waking up at 2am and driving to SF to arrive in time to set up for the show. The 2nd plan was crazy but I know the Lord was really watching over us through it. If we had left at 8, we would have been on the road when Nick's stomach started hurting. and I wouldn't have known where to take him!

Anyway, they released us from the ER at around 4am and Nick said he was feeling better and that we should still go to SF. I really wanted to go but I was concerned about him. We prayed about it and I just felt like we needed to stay. At 7am, Nick's stomach pains were back and they were worse. We went back to the ER and they gave him a CT. It turned out he had a bowel obstruction. I hear these are quite common but his pain was really awful. He was throwing up and it seemed like the pain would never end.

We were praying praying praying. I asked friends + family for prayers. Praying for Nick to feel better, praying that he didn't need surgery. By Sunday he was feeling better and they kept us in for observation. We got discharged yesterday afternoon and I was so glad for my husband to be home.

So we thought we were going to have an adventure in SF, we ended up having a hospital adventure instead. It was a long hard weekend. But I am grateful Nick is better. I've never seen him in so much pain before. Thank you to friends + family who prayed for him. The Lord is good and I believe He really watched over us through this entire situation. Sorry to anyone who came out to Renegade, I got some emails + tweets about it. I was bummed about not being able to make it to SF but of course my husband's health comes first. My aunt said that there will be many craft shows, but I only have 1 Nick ;) so true.

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter:

I realized I never posted any pics from our honeymoon! Not sure if you knew we went to the Harry Potter theme park in Florida. Well, it's not a whole theme park, it's a section within Universal Studios Orlando. But it was amazing!!

So you first enter into Hogsmeade and see the train station. Nick and I were so overwhelmed by the total awesome-ness of it all. It's like the books came to life for us! (Cute vintage luggage right?)

Honeydukes candy shop. Yum!

hehe, he's so cute ;)

Hogwarts! So legit.

Zonko's joke shop!

They also had Ollivanders, The Owl Post & we ate at The Three Broomsticks. We had butterbeer and pumpkin juice, yum! Well, Nick liked butterbeer better than I did. It was interesting. We went on The Dragon Challenge and Harry Potter & the Forbidden Journey, it was intense! Totally had to close my eyes ;)

and guess what? When we were walking through Hogwart's, they had different rooms and displays set up and I totally saw a few of the exact same props/decorations I had at my wedding! Remember I posted some inspiration boards and mentioned some sort of Harry Potter decor. That made me happy :) It would have been awesome to have been the set decorator for this theme park. They had a lot of vintage/antique market finds in the shop displays too, so fun!

The pictures just don't do the park justice. You really have to go for yourself if you're a fan of Harry Potter.

Then we went on a cruise around the Bahamas, but my battery was low. (what was I thinking not bringing my charger?) so I busted out the good old disposable camera for the rest of the time. The cruise was nice and relaxing and fun! The theme park was definitely the highlight of the trip though, and Nick talked about wanting to go back to Hogwarts throughout our whole cruise ;)

a 'just because' gift:

I just want to talk about my husband for a second. He is really one of the best gift-giver's I know. His gifts are really thoughtful, mostly practical, and sweet. So the other day, he told me that he had a gift for me. I opened it up, and it was a canon rebel. My very first SLR! and it's not even Christmas yet! He said it was a 'just because' gift because he knew I was feeling un-inspired lately. Yikes, he really raised the bar for 'just because' gifts.

Now don't get me wrong, we don't go buying each other expensive things like this all the time.. and we didn't get a wedding gift for each other so I'm partially putting this toward that. :)

Anyway, I thought I'd bust out my old camera and

do one last shoot .. taking pictures of my new camera!

REBEL!

Turning it on for the first time, so magical!

Nick also said he would take a photography class with me. Isn't he the best? I've been wanting to take a photography class to learn how to use a slr camera.. & I love taking classes with my husband (we took a letterpress class together last year!)

I am just reminded everyday of how blessed I am to be married to such an amazing guy. Not because he gives me cool presents. Just because he is my best friend, we always talk & laugh together and we love spending time together. I love being married to him!

Our Wedding Shower:

last weekend we had our wedding shower that my mom threw for us. something about my mom: she is one of the most generous people i know. she loves to give. so when we had our shower and i asked her if we could get an ice cream truck, she didn't spare any expenses. we had a yummy taco guy, king kone ice cream, and a photo booth. the photo booth was technically free since my bro and i own it ;)

our dear friend ruby was there and snapped some shots of the party. i am so grateful she thought to take pics and her photos are so legit. most of all these photos are by ruby ellen!

some pics of nicholas + i:

^ little ethan and christian getting their icecream.

my beautiful mom.

sweet friends: ruby + linda.
brave, true, and soul.

bravey + truey, with all their toys my mom gave them, hah.

my ring :)

yum!

other fun shots from around the party:

all the pics were taken by ruby!

i am sure she is for hire for any event ;)

the party was at my mom's house. we are blessed with great friends - my mom's friends all were there to help her since she's not her full 100% with the chemo. friends came, made punch, made salad, baked pies, set up the tables and chairs. one of her friends got us a great deal with the table + chair rentals: only $5/table and $.50 cents per chair! haha, when my mom told me i was like, what can you even get for .50 cents these days? apparently you can rent a chair. what a great deal!

we had so much fun and i think the guests had fun too. i am glad that is done though: now we are going full force into wedding planning for the next 30 days! i am excited but am just ready to be married, you know what i mean? some days i am tempted to just run down to the court house. and we just want to go on our honeymoon so we can go to the harry potter theme park! ;) xo.

tidbit:

 a chat.

he is so cute.

Custom Portrait:

what do you guys think of our custom portrait by nan lawson?

the outfits are based off our engagement session.

i love it. she is so legit. nan makes me want to

draw, and take pretty photographs.

inquire about a custom portrait for yourself today!

you can find her at the other links:

site | illustration shop | photograph shop

twitter | flickr | tumblr

thanks nan!

a GLEE surprise:

i have to share my weekend update with you, though this was a couple weekends ago. so i like glee. i think it's a great show. i read some twitter controversy going on a while back about how they auto tune their voices and everything, but i can't carry a tune so i'm not a stickler when it comes to these things.

nicholas told me he had a surprise for me, and i had no idea what it was. he just said it was on a thursday evening and that i was really going to like it. i tried guessing and thinking what it could possibly be.

so we're in the car and i happened to call my older brother to ask him a question and as i was saying goodbye, he was like, "wait danni are you going to see glee now?" and i was really confused. lol. i replied "glee? what are you talking about?" to which he replied, "glee. aren't you going to see it tonight?" i said "bro, what do you mean glee? like glee the tv show? like you mean a glee taping?" lol. this continued for a good 2 minutes. neither of us got it. he didn't realize it was a surprise, and i had no idea what he was talking about.

then it hit both of us at the same time. i realized and was filled with such excitement i was like, "ohmigosh, i gotta go!!!!" and he was like, "oh wait, never mind. i don't know what i'm talking about. ok bye!" haha. the whole time nick was just about to die listening to our conversation and hearing the surprise spoiled.

i got off and looked at him and asked if we were seeing glee?! he said he got GLEE IN CONCERT tickets a couple months ago! i was SOO excited, it was the best surprise ever!

the concert was in la at the gibson amphitheatre at universal studios.

they showed all these classic glee quotes before the show started.

they sang all my fav's, including defying gravity and bad romance.

the entire glee cast was there, it was legit. during the performance i thought "i can't believe i'm here seeing all these glee people in person! this is unreal!" hehe. so all that to say, i have the best fiance, soon-to-be-husband EVER! ;)

Our Engagement Photos:

i don't know how to start except say how truly blessed i am. waking up today felt like christmas morning. ;) not only did we had a really great engagement shoot, 100 layer cake and Green Wedding Shoes have posted our photos on their beautiful blogs today. I've had the opportunity to meet all the girls from 100LC and Jen from GWS (hurray for living in southern california + blog socials!) and I can honestly say they are the sweetest ladies ever.

The girls of Simply Bloom, Vania + Christine, really made our vision of the shoot come to life, their talent is amazing! I wasn't sure what to expect but they made us feel really comfortable and told us exactly what to do. They were so sweet and worked with us to get great shots - it was nice to make new friends too.

Be sure to stop by both blogs - as there are different pictures at each one! You can also read our experiences and some tips we learned from the engagement shoot ;) bubbles, wood letters as tall as me, bunting: it was all very us! Thanks you Jen of GWS and Jillian + Amanda of 100LC for the honor of having the photos on your blog.

tidbit:

 we'll have a batman child just like this one day.

(via banjobrown)

tidbit:

 sorry you got let go.

i love you babe :)

my engagement ring:

so if you're a recent reader to the blog, on november 6, my sweet bf and i got engaged! thank you to everyone who shared in our joys and celebration from the story! and friends who congratulated us at craft shows over the past couple months, it is so special to be able to share it with you.

anyway, i wanted to share my special engagement ring with you today... and really kind of just brag about my fiancee for a second ;) i found this piece of paper on my floor, and when i opened it up i realized that it was a schedule for the day he proposed, broken down minute by minute. i'll admit: i teared up a little and it made me realize just how much work he put into it and how blessed i am to have someone who cares for me so much.

here's the schedule i found:

so cute right? i think it's cute ;)

and i went a little crazy on the pictures of the ring he made out of a block of wood. all he used was a hand saw and a some sandpaper (in the picture above, with the wood block too) he said there was sawdust all over his apartment... when he showed me the block of wood that he started with, all i could think was.. wow, that's legit! hehe.

the block is the 'back up' piece he made just in case he had to start over.. so yea, he started with that wood block and sanded and sanded and sanded until he came up with the ring you see next to the block. he also told me he just guessed on the drill bit size and drilled! it fit my finger perfectly so it was definitely meant to be! he even somehow managed to carve little hearts on the side.

i wore it for a month but we were both afraid it would break esp.. then for christmas, he surprised me with these beautiful rose rings he picked out on etsy! i love them.. and i feel like they're symbolic in a way... the 2 roses represent him and i and the 1 rose represents Christ! when i mentioned it to him he said he thought the exact same thing! so i am just wearing the 2 roses ring and i think the 1 rose will just be my wedding ring. :)

ps: if you want to know where the rings are from, i can ask him!
just let me know!

2 rings, i am a lucky + blessed girl.
thanks for letting me share the engagement rings
with you ;) happy friday dear friends. xo.

---

update: nick told me the shop he got the rings from is jennykim!
her work is just fabulous!
thanks for all your sweet comments! nick thanks you too. :)

Also: silver earrings online