Friday Phone Dump & Checklists

A little over seven months of preparation, and I present you with this:

Venue... check.

Caterer... check.

Dress... check.

Shoes... check.

Jewelry... check.

Bridal party, rehearsal venue, photographer... check, check, check.

 Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue, garter, paper straws, rehearsal dress/shoes, eco-friendly confetti, playlists, lights, cheesecake, hair appointments, nail appointments, marriage license, photo lists, DJ, musicians, car decorators, thank you notes, and honeymoon... check, check, check, check, check, check, check/check, check, check, check, check, check, check, check, check, check, check, check, designed, and booked.

SINGLE DIGITS until I'm a Mrs... check!

(Ahh, how did that happen??)

Head-over-heels excited about starting this new life with my best friend... mega-check!

Happy weekend :)

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas... and not just because the final Haynes Christmas cards with all three Haynes girls' signatures/photo have been sent out, although they have.





Boom, done.
I will now officially be in charge of my own little family's Christmas cards.
I've already started planning. Bring it, Christmas 2013 ;)

But actually, it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas because I've done a little apartment decorating. And by "decorating," I mean "hanging white twinkly lights and lighting every frosted peppermint snow candle in the whole town."

Once upon a time, that window was framed with an elaborate paper chain that resembled curtains, also known as the "wedding countdown chain." Do you see what is left of that chain? Is this real life?


Little knickknacks have found their way onto my shelves:




Even the thermostat is celebrating the season...


...at a comfortable 75 degrees, nonetheless ;)


Old dorm room Christmas decor has made a reappearance:




And new pieces have been added to the collection as well:


A man at my church made this (incredible, right??) and gave it to me and Zach while we were in town for our wedding shower. Zach hasn't stopped talking about it - I'm pretty sure he likes it more than every kitchen appliance we now own.


Speaking of new Christmas decor pieces, my parents and grandparents got me the Willow Tree Nativity & Shepherd/Stable Animals set for my birthday, and I'm loving its place on the half wall in my entryway:





And then, there's the Christmas tree.

The Two Golden Rules of Christmas Trees According To My Mother are:

1) Thou shall not have a fake tree.
2) Thou shall not have the tree up when the ball drops on New Year's Eve.

End of story. Personally, I am a huge supporter of these two Christmas rules. However, my last day of work before heading out for Christmas/the wedding/our honeymoon is December 21st... meaning I would have to take the tree down on the 20th. I wasn't about to haul a live Christmas tree up to the third floor and get him decked out, only to have to clean the whole thing up a couple of weeks later.

So I compromised:

And I'm loving it :) Perfect for my first (and only) year all by myself in my apartment.

Plus, it's not like I had an abundance of ornaments when I moved in (although that has rapidly changed):

My sister called me from the beach back in September & told me she had stumbled across an oboe ornament (I played the instrument for 7 years). She then told me that she would buy it if I blogged about it. I don't think my sister reads my blog (actually, I don't think anyone in my immediate family reads my blog), but let it be known that Katherine gave me the oboe... and even got a Starbucks ornament to go with it :)

A lady in my church gave me 20 different ornament that she made herself. My crafting inspiration has reached a new level.


• • • • •


This is my third Christmas season with a blog, and it's crazy to see how much has changed (and how much hasn't)!

• December 2010 was defined by art projects and my grandfather's extended stay in the hospital.
• December 2011 was defined by term papers, my parent's 25th anniversary, & Zach's return from Afghanistan.

And now?     I think it's safe to say that December 2012 is pretty well-defined by wedding planning.   Wedding planning and a Charlie Brown Christmas tree ;)

Friday Phone Dump

Recap of the past few weeks a la Instagram (@simplybeffie)
-- a pretty accurate representation of the "wedding/Marine Corps/Christmas" madness described in yesterday's post.

Friday phone dumps means the weekend is here, and this weekend brings:

1. Bowling, pizza, & wings with my co-workers for our staff Christmas party :)

2. Internet at my apartment (FINALLY! I'll be able to post from my living room!)

3. Road trip to & from Winston / time with family 

4. Haynes family Christmas in Mount Airy

5. My wedding shower :) :) :)

What are your plans for the weekend?

PS: I'm having way too much fun playing with the photos/links/design of this entire sidebar ------>

Thoughts?

Sketchbook: December Madness

This is a fairly accurate representation of what my month looks like:



And no, that's not what my wedding dress/hairstyle look like. As if I would draw the real thing...

It would take thirty minutes of scrolling to list everything going on this month, so I condensed the highlights into a sketch. 

Wedding: We're officially in the final 24 days of wedding planning (woo!) so lots of emails with the site coordinator and phone calls with the guitarists and conversations with my mom who is serving as the liaison between me and the caterer/hairstylists (bless her!). Lots of packages showing up at my door (most recently, the garter), as well as lots of RSVPs... almost all yeses! Lots of last minute DIY decor... but all the major things are set, and I'll be married at the end of the day regardless of if I complete 2 or 22 crafty wedding projects between now and the end of the month :) My co-workers threw me a shower last month, and I'm going to Winston this weekend for a shower hosted by my mom's side of the family. I'm sure there will be more on that next week!

Wake Tech: After multiple trips to the Wake Tech campus this week & meetings with admissions, advisors, the VA office, and the registrar... Zach is an enrolled student and will begin taking classes in the criminal justice department a month from tomorrow! (We don't skip a beat around here.) We still have a few more trips to make. Despite the fact that Zach has been stationed in North Carolina for nearly three and a half years, his "home of record" when entering the Marine Corps was Virginia... which means 4x the amount of tuition as an out-of-state student. Because that makes a lot of sense, Wake Tech. They will consider him in-state if he gets his NC license within 30 days of his End of Active Service date... but no sooner (then he'd still be considered out-of-state?). So now we get to add DMV to the list of offices to visit.

Christmas: The first of eight (yes, eight) of my family Christmas gatherings is this weekend as well... and will soon be followed by one the next weekend, one on Christmas Sunday, one on Christmas Eve (plus Zach's family... so I technically get nine Christmas celebrations this year), three on Christmas day, and one a few days after Christmas. Deck the halls, baby. We don't mess around ;)

Marine Corps: Like I mentioned in the last post, Zach has received his DD-214 and is now on terminal leave. The best way I've found to explain this to my non-military friends is that terminal leave is like senior beach week (month): he's done, done, done... but his "graduation" day (End of Active Service) isn't until next month. So yeah, terminal leave is fabulous. But be expecting a huge 4-year Marine Corps recap post next month once everything is official and Zach is a civilian again.

Miscellaneous: As a final parting gift before Zach left Camp Lejeune last week, the Marine Corps removed his wisdom teeth. They're so nice, I know. His "move out of the barracks" celebration dinner consisted of... mashed potatoes. No worries, he's doing well and back to solid foods. Fingers crossed that all remains well, nothing gets infected, and I don't end up walking down the aisle to a chipmunk :) In other news, I'm still loving my job & I'm as busy as ever: getting ready to design the winter issue of our magazine, helping to plan the largest annual autism conference in North Carolina, working on a total website revamp, and doing a lot of design work for a new program we're launching in Charlotte this month.

• • • • •

Wedding planning, school enrolling, civilian transitioning, Christmas celebrating: just your average December ;)


Eh, perhaps slightly less-than-average...

Weekend Snapshots + Giveaway Winner

A few snapshots from my weekend:







After four years... Zach literally "hung up his boots" and has his DD Form 214: Certificate of Release or Discharge from Active Duty. Could that smile be any bigger?

More from the most recent exciting life happenings in the upcoming week.

• • • • •

In the meantime...

The winner of the 2013 Wall Calendar Giveaway is Entry #15: Hannah! Congrats, Hannah :) Send me an email at beth [dot] haynes [at] duke [dot] edu & we'll begin working on gathering your photos for your own calendar.

A huge thank you to everyone who entered -- I loved reading your answers and am excited about all the things to come in this little blog space :)