New blog!

Hi everyone!

Looking for Nice Ideas for All? I’ve officially moved my blog to a new URL.

You can follow along here: https://masonjarmoments.wordpress.com/
Hope you’ll join my for new adventures!

Thanks!

Lauren

Wedding Hangers

Just last week, the person that I have lived with the longest other than my family members (3 years) got married! As a wedding gift, I crafted this wedding hanger for her:

I created the same thing for our engagement pictures and my wedding hanger. Since then, I’ve been receiving requests for commissions to make friends’ hangers and friends of friends’ hangers. I’m pretty pumped since I truly think it adds so much to the dress picture on the wedding day and I love doing these!

Excited to think about what I can do with it! An Etsy shop may be in my future… who knows!

Latest Kitchen Decor

Well, it’s been about 3 months since Chip and I got married and we are finally just getting a bit settled in our new home! Life has been absolutely fabulous, but oh so hectic. More than anything, we’re loving just finally being a team, married and starting our life together.

This past weekend was the first weekend since our wedding that we both have been at home for a whole weekend with no guests staying at our house. Whew… it was awesome! While Chip was studying (he is taking the 1st step of the boards next week), I decided I would begin to get back into my love of crafting with this little bunch of fun above our kitchen sink:

Total cost: $3.50 (heck yes)

I had everything on hand except for the Be Grateful print which I found here and printed at FedEx. I spray painted/recycled random frames from throughout the house and used the plastic, silver spoons from a bridal shower I threw.

The “Taste” was a wedding gift from my cousin and her boyfriend. He hand-crafted it in his school’s workshop out of scrap metal. Forever grateful. (See what I did there?)

The thought behind Chip and I choosing the word “Taste” was two-fold:

1. It’s in the kitchen. Simple as that.

2. It’s a reference to Psalm 34:8 – “Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.” It’s a great reminder for us each day to savor every moment in our new home together.

Overall, I feel pretty great about the newest addition to our kitchen and can’t wait to continue making our house a home! So many great things in store! Stay tuned for updates!

 

Officially Lauren Locher Carnes

Let’s just say that I could not be happier. The wedding weekend was absolutely the most perfect thing ever. I keep replaying everything in my head and just smile constantly. Not to mention that the honeymoon was fabulous, relaxing and gorgeous.

Even more, I am beaming that I officially am Mrs. Alan Keith Carnes, Jr! We are so blessed.

Can’t wait to share this time with you all as I venture into life as a wife!

 

Wedding Weekend is Here!!!

We. Get. Married. This. Weekend. (!!!!!)

Couldn’t be more thrilled! It’s finally here!

Beautiful friend’s wedding

So as I plan for my own wedding in a little over 20 days, I thought I would say “happy almost 2 month anniversary” to two of my dearest friends and post a couple photos I shot from a their wedding in December. It was in lovely Sarasota, Florida and the weather was ideal. The weekend couldn’t have been more perfect, and I was so blessed to be a part of it (and Chip was in the wedding party with me, to boot!)

Check out those flowers pre-bouquet:

Love this one of a few of the bridesmaids watching as the bride had her hair done:

And how about the most precious ring bearer I’ve ever seen. He and his siblings were definitely the hit of the party (besides the sweet couple, of course):

Her wonderful parents as they watch the pre-wedding photo shoot:

My personal favorite of Cinderella herself:

And finally, a photo of the beautiful Mrs. Karempelis and me:

Courtesy of one of the bridesmaids...

What a beautiful day! Now I’m so looking forward to celebrating with Mr. and Mrs. Karempelis on my wedding day! Coming soon!

Creating invites calls for this…

As you may remember in my post about our Save the Date card, I designed the stationary for our wedding. It was so important to me that the paper goods had a special meaning to them (more on that later).

After creating, printing, cutting and hand addressing (and cursive is not my strong suit) every invite and envelope, I realized one thing… that I was going to need a return address label – because I sure as heck was not about to write our address 200 times.

After much searching on Etsy, I came across this lovely store, Save the Date and was immediately sold on this self-inking, eco-friendly, customizable stamp.

From http://www.etsy.com/listing/65762998/custom-address-stamp-eco-friendly-self

I was so thrilled at how quick and easy it was to have our own stamp custom designed by Tiffany from this shop. I was even more thrilled at how quick and easy it was to stamp every envelope and response card when I promptly received the return address stamp in the mail. Happy to avoid the hand cramp from writing…

Plus, it was so exciting to see the new address on each of the envelopes and to receive response cards in the mail every day. I always look forward to the fiance telling me who has sent them back to his new home (soon to be our new home!).

What could you see a stamp like this coming in handy for? I’m thinking house-warming gifts, shower presents, etc. Do share!

Save the Date Design

Now that I have a moment to breathe after everything that came along with this time frame, I thought I would post something that I realized I never posted about way back when – our Save the Date card!

You may remember when I created a Save the Date card for my bridesmaids, but shortly thereafter, I put one together for all wedding guests to mark their calendars! Typically Save the Date cards go out about 6 months ahead of time. However, with our engagement photo shoot in October, ours went out a bit delayed, but I think it was well worth it for some amazing photos from one of my dearest friends!

Check out how our Save the Date design turned out. Considering I made it as a random tester one night on Powerpoint, I am pretty impressed!

Front

back

In case you’re interested in printing your own Save the Date cards, try out VistaPrint! They allow you to upload your own image and it is significantly cheaper than ordering them through other websites! I just printed them as postcards, added a little postcard stamp and off they went!

What have been neat Save the Date cards you have seen? I’d love to see!

Busy busy

So apparently a combination of:

1. moving the future-hubby into the house we will live in post-marriage
2. Christmas season
3. Passion 2012
4. and planning a wedding that is only about two months away

makes one girl a very busy-bee. I promise I still exist and will resume blogging, but it may be a bit of a hiatus until March 10…

Can’t wait!

From a house to a home

We officially close on the house on Wednesday! We have had our walk-through (basically to learn how to work the house and not break it). I have about 4 pages worth of notes, so hopefully as first time “homeowners” we will be able to take great care of it! The fence is in and kitchen appliances have been hooked up. Now all we need are the keys!

To document the momentous occasion of the fiance and I being in our new home for the first time together, the agent shot this photo for us. How sweet…

As the final few days come to a close, we are trying to get a few things re-done and organized before the moving truck transports everything to Athens. Stay tuned for some furniture makeovers!

And in other news – it’s officially 3 months until the wedding!