Lauren is...

falling behind!

2011-05-25T20:45:00.000-05:00

Ok so I am slowly starting to suck at this whole blog thing. Life has been a little nuts getting ready for Mandy's wedding but all that it done with and it is summa time!! I love love love summer! But here are some pics from Easter and Mandy's Wedding. Enjoy!

YUM!!

GLITTER EGGS!!!

Hali's Fave!

Maddi's Fave!

My Favorite!

Matt's Favorite!

Marco and Mandy's Wedding

Cutest Flower Girl EVER!!

showering weddings!

2011-05-02T00:17:00.001-05:00

Okay so I am a little behind, I have like 3 posts in my head right now but I will start with one right now. As many of you know my friend Mandy will begetting married in a few weeks. But I had the pleasure of throwing her family wedding shower. I love love love her family, Mandy and I have been friends since birth pretty much and consider them my second family. And a funny side note her Mimi and my grandma grew up together and had slumber parties! And now her Nana and my grandma are super close, so it was kinda destiny I guess. Well anywho enough of that. I love throwing showers and parties, so for this shower I did a kitchen/recipe theme. I hand stamped over 200 note cards to look like recipe card and mailed them with the invites. We had it at this amazing place called Canyon Crossing off Old North Road in Sand Springs. But enough with the details on with the pictures!!

These are the center pieces I made, since it was a kitchen theme I just got a bunch of matching kitchen utensils and a glass vase from the dollar tree and the blue is just a kitchen towel and a doily.

I just loved the way it looked all put together!

I made everyone a personalized glass!

For food we had Caprese Salad, deli rolls, mini cinnamon rolls, and these devilishly delicious lil smokies wrapped in bacon and drizzled with brown sugar!

This punch was called Spring Time Punch. It called for champagne but I used sparkling grape juice and about a cup of orange juice and frozen mixed berries! YUM!

This is me and 3 of my most bestest friends ever! I love these girls with all of my heart and so blessed to have them in my life!

This is Avery, one of the flower girls, I wonder if she liked the cake? ha!

Look at all those lovely gifts!

This is a little recipe box I made for her and all her awesome family recipes!

And we just had to play all the cheesy shower games!

This is Mandy's little sister Lacey! She is annoyingly georgeous!

We might have got a little carried away with the games! Oh well is was a blast!

Such a beautiful bride!

Well that is all for now I hope to have my Easter pics up soon! Even though it was ugly weather but it was still an awesome day starting at 6AM!!

busy busy!

2011-04-14T01:05:00.000-05:00

Well Hello!

Ok so I am getting worse at this whole blog thing! But I am going to try to be better promise. It is like

1230 am so I am going to make this short and sweet and just do a little photo blog.

This is a hair bow holder I made for my friend Trina at work. The nursery is decorated in ladybugs! I got this frame at Hobby Lobby for $10 bucks mostly b/c the original paint job was terrible but I just spray painted it a shiny red a TADA! I love all the ribbons I found!

This is a recipes box I made for my friend Mandy's Family Recipe Shower this weekend. I hand stamped 200 black cards with a recipe form and sent them out in the invitations for the family to fill out and bring to the shower. I had a bunch of awesome paper I Modge Podged on here and hand wrote "Recipes" on here. HA not just printed it.

These are the center pieces I made to be given away as prizes I think they need a little something extra but I am not quite sure yet. Any suggestions? I got all of the stuff from the Dollar Tree! Woop Woop! Gotta love that place! and the vases from Target my other addiction .

This is my newly redesigned bookshelf, Mandy is getting married and being the ultimate DOF'er (thats Ditcher Of Friends) but as a lovely conciliation prize I get to keep her amazingly awesome shelf from IKEA! and she came over the other day to help me redesign it.

This is my favorite shelf obviously (and yes katie I stole you pic!...did you notice what my grandma bought me...it's on the bottom) The Harry Potter Pop Book deserves a post all its own...just maybe!

And the to top it all off I designed my own Bookplates! I think they are pretty rockin! and now I am in the process of labeling all my books! Whew!

Ok well that is enough for now I am exhausted! Goodnight!

crafting!

2011-03-25T00:12:00.001-05:00

Ok so I have become slightly obsessed with sewing, crafting, Etsy, and all things handmade! I have decided I want to start my own Etsy shop online so I have just been trying some new things, just kinda testing my skills. I have been collecting a bunch of stuff to make this possible; knick-knacks, material, thread, needles, buttons and some other odds ands ends. The one thing I am really stuck on is a name for my shop! With Etsy it is permanent so it's gotta be good..any suggestions?

Here are some things I have been making lately...

And this I made for a friend of mine at work. She was going to a 2 year olds Minnie Mouse Birthday party! I am hoping to see pics of the little girl wearing this soon!

Well I hope you like and I hope one of you comes up with a genius Etsy name!

Oh yeah and done forget to donate and do your part to help with Japan(and possibly win cool stuff!!)!

helping Japan.

2011-03-23T12:12:00.001-05:00

On March 11th, the island nation of Japan was hit by a series of severe earthquakes — including its largest in over 100 years (8.9 magnitude) — which was subsequently followed by a devastating tsunami that has wreaked untold havoc upon Japan’s coastal cities. While the full scale of the destruction is still uknown, over a thousand people have already been pronounced dead, hundreds more are missing, and thousands are now left without homes, schools and jobs. My thoughts and prayers are with the victims of this tragedy and their loved ones.

The images and news reports coming out of Japan are absolutely heartbreaking, I can't even imagine what these people are thinking and feeling. But my friend Katie told me about this easy way to donate and be entered into a contest to win some pretty cool stuff. (leave it to americans to find a way to get something when we give. ha!) So please go and donate! It's only $5 bucks!

Just click on the picture and donate!

takin more pics!

2011-03-16T00:20:00.000-05:00

Well it's been a while but I am back! Miss me? I know! Well I don't have much to say but I have some new pics of Marco and Mandy's engagement pictures take 2. We tried again b/c it was so cold last time and no sun but after several road blocks we got to shoot again but we were fighting daylight. But we still got some pretty great shots. Check 'em out...

Cooking!

2011-03-02T21:19:00.001-06:00

So today was a pretty good day! I took my grandparents to the airport this morning, they are going to see my mom in Florida for her birthday and she is getting married on Friday! I am so happy for her and Rodney, but I am heart broken I cannot be there. But I know she will look beautiful and I will get to see her soon! This afternoon I got to hang out with madds and play out side! It was BEAUTIFUL!

On Tuesday I went to my WW meeting and found out I have lost 4.6 pounds this week! YAY! I also got this great cookbook called Just 5. It's 125 Recipes with 5 ingredients. This is what I needed bc I don't have a mom kitchen that already has ever spice or condiment ever!

Tonight I made Spicy Blue Cheese Turkey Burgers. YUM!

They were super easy and delish! So here is the recipe in case you care to try!

1 lb. ground skinless turkey breast

2 green onions chopped

3 tbsp. plain died bread crumbs

2 tbsp. hot sauce

1/4 cup reduced-fat blue cheese dressing

Combine turkey, green onios, bread crumbs, hot sauce, and 1/4 teaspoon salt in medium bowl.

Form mixture into 4 (1/2in thick) patties.

Spray ridged grill pan with nonstick spray and set over medium heat.

Place patties on pan and cook until instant-read thermometer inserted into side of each one registers 165 degrees, about 5 mins per side. Serve burgers drizzled with dressing.

Enjoy!

Foh-tuh-graf-ing!

2011-02-28T00:17:00.003-06:00

Well this weekend was a blast! Saturday was busy! I got up at 7am to take Mandy and Marco's engagement pictures! (I will post some of my faves at the end of the post.) The weatherman told me it would be 70 an sunny! SIKE! It was 50 and freeeezing! But they were such good sports including my mini assistant.

We came across many interesting things through out the day. One being Bells graveyard!

And the other was this group of people making a movie or maybe musical downtown. We go to watch a few takes it was pretty hilarious. Check it out!

After we went to Jo Mommas and it happened to be kids day! YAY! Maddi loved it and I won two tickets to the Tulsa Shock. Can't beat it! Right after lunch we had to rush to my friend Alexis' baby shower. It was a great little reunion of friends I got to see my friend Laura's baby bump! And of course they had many delicious treats but I can gladly say I resisted! OK OK I had a cake ball! But that's all I swear! But I have to brag on myself a little...I have been doing pretty dang good at this diet thing! Going on 2 weeks now. Afterwards I took Maddi to see Gnomeo and Juliet. (but not after trying to convince her to see the Justin ~~Beiber~~ 'Beaver' Movie! ha!) It was pretty cute, I am pretty sure we both took little naps during the movie. OK well thats my Saturday in a nutshell... now for M&M's Pics

Reading!

2011-02-25T14:36:00.001-06:00

So I am not usually a big fan of Bono mostly because of his little colored glasses but this is a pretty good little interview. Enjoy.

Read Me!!

Partying Like A Sandite!

2011-02-24T23:32:00.000-06:00

Oh WOW!
Well this morning was pretty boring...work! But tonight I had my first Cherry Berry experience! Ice Cream and Captain' Crunch. YUM!!! To bad I am dieting so this is going to be few and far between treat. Speaking of the diet, it's going pretty well. I am in need for some delicious low-fat recipes if anyone has any please send them my way!
After Cherry Berry Mandy and I went to the Lady Sandites Basketball game, where we accidentally ended up in the student section. (Awkward) For all Young Life leaders you can understand, I wanted to be near but not necessarily in. The girls played an awesome game it was close right up until the last minute. It was so fun and hard not to act like the kids around me. Up until they point across to the adult's section and one of my YL boys goes, "Hey look at the old people dancing!" I look over and most of the "old people" are my age or very close. OUCH! Soon after this I was attack by Mr. Sandite? (Mascot) and I am terrified of things wearing masks! Not cool. And to top it all off When the game is over and we won the students go to rush the floor, I somehow manage to trip this girl. When I turn around to see if she is ok she has fallen down 3 bleachers on her back!! I would like to take this moment to say: I AM SO SO SORRY MYSTERY FALLER!!! I know how you feel b/c I have fallen down many a step, but thats for another time. Lesson Learned!

goodbye and goodnight

blogging!

2011-02-24T00:52:00.000-06:00

Alright well I guess I'll have another go at it. I started a blog last year but I think I only posted a total of umm... maybe 3. So this year I am going to shoot for at least 4. I have to thank Mrs. Katie Martin for the inspiration. You should totally check out her blog she is way funnier and interesting, and she has adorable kids.
Well before I didn't really blog because I didn't really have much to say, I think I let the pressure get to me thinking I have to witty and clever and have something brilliant to say. Well to heck with it! I don't really have anything that important to write about but I have a bunch of little somethings, like; my new love for crafting, my first sewing machine, my niece Madalynn, and my new diet. So there we go. Okay well it's 1 am so I am done for now but fret not I shall return.