Works For Me Wednesday: Wedding Tips

Posted on August 25, 2009 by Barbara Harper

Works For Me Wednesday is hosted by We Are THAT Family as an opportunity for bloggers to share the tips they’ve learned along the way with others. Be sure and stop by to peruse a plethora of tried and true tips.

We’ve just had the first wedding among our kids. That doesn’t make me an expert, but there are some things I observed along the way (not just at our wedding but at weddings in general over the years) that might be helpful:

For friends of the bride and groom:

1. The bride in particular is getting bombarded on every side with wedding advice and expectations on several fronts. Avoid saying, “You should…,” “You ought to…,” “Why don’t you….?” Sometimes sharing something really nice you’ve seen at another wedding can be shared simply that way, “At my cousin’s wedding they did this really neat thing where they…” The idea is out there, the bride can think about it or not as she sees fit, but she doesn’t feel pressured.

2. If you use a gift registry to buy a wedding gift, be sure to follow the instructions so that the store registers that particular gift as having been fulfilled.

3. Include a gift receipt in the card or with the gift if possible: most stores do provide them. Sometimes the registry still doesn’t “register” for various reasons, and duplicates do happen. A gift receipt makes it so much easier if the couple does have to return something.

4. If you order something online to be delivered to the bride or groom, be sure to indicate that it is a gift if there is a place to do so in the ordering process. Usually there will be a little space for you to type in a note if it is a gift. My son and daughter-in-law did receive a couple of gifts that way that they have no idea who sent them. You could also let them know ahead of time that a package is coming from you via whatever store to their home so that when it comes they’ll know it was from you. They sincerely do want to send thank yous for the generosity of their friends and loved ones.

5. Attach your card firmly to the gift you are taking to the wedding. Most wedding gifts aren’t opened at the reception: they are at least taken back to the bride or groom’s family’s home: they may even be taken across the country before being opened. The couple wants to get the right thank-you card to the right people, and, of course, the gift giver wants the right card on the right gift. So use a lot more tape than you think you need, or, better yet, put the card inside the gift and then wrap it.

6. I saw many ways that friends or church family helped out, ways that had never occurred to me before:

Helping clean the bride’s family’s home before guests arrived.
Bringing over food.
Offering to house guests.
Picking up out-of-town guests from the airport.
Helping to set up, clean up, or serve not only for the wedding but for events before the wedding.
Running errands.
Bringing light snacks or something to drink for the rooms where the bride and bridesmaids or groom and groomsmen are getting ready before the wedding.
Being available the hours before the wedding to get items, run messages, etc.

7. If you see any member of the bridal party dashing by before the wedding and you try to speak to them, please don’t be offended if they don’t stop at that moment to talk. There are a multitude of things that come up at the last minute that have to be taken care of. Most everyone relaxes a lot more and has more time after the wedding or at the reception.

For the bride and groom:

1. Do as much as you can ahead of time. Things have a way of snowballing at the end with unforeseen details, plus you want to have some time to just relax with guests if possible.

2. Don’t be afraid to ask for help.

3. It’s a good idea to check your registries every now and then in case some of the items have been discontinued since you made the registry. It’s frustrating to go to a store and print out a registry and start shopping only to find that half the registry isn’t available. You may not want to peek at it because you don’t want to see what people have bought yet: perhaps a friend or family member could keep an eye on it for you. And if you receive something from another source or change your color scheme in a room, etc., be sure to adjust your registry accordingly. It saves a lot of time in taking things back later.

4. Consider your guests. My son and daughter-in-law did a great job with this, and I commend another young couple in our church who scrambled the day of their wedding when the weather turned blisteringly hot to change the venue from outdoor to indoor. But one wedding we attended a few years ago was outdoors — in the South in August — and the bride or groom or family, I forget who, got upset that some of the older people stayed inside a nearby lake house to watch. As it was the wedding coordinator fainted and my youngest son got violently ill after running around in the heat.

5. Don’t fret if something goes wrong. There are probably very, very few events that go off absolutely perfectly. The little (or big) things that go wrong are what make for funny stories in years to come.

6. Keep prespective of what the day is all about: celebrating your union together. No matter what else happens or doesn’t happen, if that happens, the day is a success.

Friday’s Fave Five

Posted on August 21, 2009 by Barbara Harper

Susanne at Living to Tell the Story hosts a “Friday Fave Five” in which we share our five favorite things from the past week. Click on the button to read more of the details, and you can visit Susanne to see the list of others’ favorites or to join in.

1. Jeremy’s birthday last Saturday.

2. My birthday….today!

3. Working on my sewing/craft/guest room. I got my sewing desk in there (I say “I” — actually Jeremy and Jesse did a lot of the heavy moving for me. Thanks, guys!), found the work table I wanted, looked all over town and finally found a white bookcase. I struggle a little bit with these kinds of things because a part of me would love to discover solid antique furniture and refinish it and that kind of thing, but I don’t really have the time or that kind of money to put into it; on the other hand, I don’t want to do all cheapy plastic stuff. So I am trying to find the balance — utilitarian yet aesthetically pleasing. Still need to find a daybed or futon or something — everything I have seen so far is either too “cheap” or too expensive. That’s the one piece that I want to be nice since guests will be sleeping on it. I haven’t brought a lot of other things up there yet til I decide exactly where I want things placed — I’ve changed them around already once. But I have enjoyed sorting through some things and getting some my clutter out of the sunroom.

4. Wedding shoes — if you’ll forgive me one more wedding story. I forgot to mention this in any of the wedding posts. My dress was “oatmeal” in color, and the only beige-ish, off-white shoes I had were cream-colored and looked yellow next to the dress. I have a very hard time finding shoes that fit right and really didn’t have time to go shopping. I was about resigned to just wearing basic black shoes when I remembered — and I am embarrassed to admit this — a couple of years ago I had tried ordering a pair of shoes online, but they tended to slip off the back of my feet, and I packaged them up to send them back….and….never did…and they were still in my closet. I opened up the package — and they were the perfect color! They did slip a little but not as badly as I remembered.

5. GPS systems! This came in so handy on our trip — not only traveling from here to there, but getting around in a different city. So much nicer than having to pull over and unfold a humongous map. I thought about asking for one for my birthday, but I wouldn’t really have that much need of it on an everyday basis. There are times it would be handy, though. Maybe someday.

Have a great weekend!

A Thousand Words In Idioms: The Cookie Version

Posted on August 19, 2009 by Barbara Harper

Jientje at Heaven Is In Belgium hosts A Thousand Words In Idioms wherein she asks participants to illustrate an idiom with a photo.

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That’s the way the cookies crumbles.

This was a packet of cookies I got for our recent road trip, but somehow they got to the bottom of my purse and got all crushed. But they illustrate “that’s the way the cookie crumbles,” meaning, sometimes in life things just happen. You wouldn’t usually say this to someone when something really bad happens, like a major illness — that would be insensitive. But for little everyday disappointments, it’s just a way of saying, “Life is like that sometimes.” It can be similar to “Don’t cry over spilled milk” –it’s not worth getting upset over.

I thought about having Jeremy throw these up in the air while I tried to get a picture for tossing your cookies, a euphemism for throwing up or vomiting, but I didn’t want to think about that too very much and I didn’t want to waste the cookies — they still taste good! I can only sacrifice so much for my art. 🙂 I wish it were true that calories leak out of broken cookies, but, alas, it isn’t.

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A Tough Cookie

This can refer to someone who is hard to deal with or someone who stands up well under pressure and can handle untoward circumstances.

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Smart cookie

This refers to someone who is clever or intelligent. I can almost picture this as a cartoon character spokesman for a cookie company commercial.

Is anybody hungry now?

You can find links to more imaginatively illustrated idioms or join in the fun at Jientje‘s.

Blue Monday: Rug and room

Posted on August 16, 2009 by Barbara Harper

Smiling Sally hosts a Blue Monday in which we can post about anything blue — pretty, ugly, serious or funny — and then link up to other Blue Monday participants.

I haven’t participated in a Blue Monday since last March — I had run out of blue things! But now since my middle son just got married and moved out, and I am getting his room as a sewing/craft/guest room, and his room was just painted blue a few years ago, I am keeping that as a major color.

My husband took us rug shopping last week as one of his customers was having a sale. He encouraged me to look for a rug for this room, but at first I was reluctant to do so without the furniture in it yet to know what size I needed. But he found this one, and I love it.

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There weren’t too many rugs with any blue, and fewer still with pink, so I was delighted with this.

That’s about all that is in there for now. But I am sure I’ll share pictures when it is finished — and maybe a few along the way. 🙂

Friday’s Fave Five

Posted on August 14, 2009 by Barbara Harper

1. My son’s wedding! (Details here, pictures here.)

2. Getting my “mother of the groom” dress fixed. It needed to be altered a bit around the top, and I really wanted to somehow widen the straps — even though it had a lace jacket, the 1 1/2″ straps underneath were just too bare for me. I procrastinated partly because I was keeping my eye out for something else. Finally it came down to crunch time, and two different ladies that I asked to help me (either of whom would have whipped it up with ease) weren’t available; the alteration place fixed the top but wouldn’t touch the straps because they said it wouldn’t look right. Finally I found some fabric that didn’t quite match but worked and tried it myself, making 4 1/2 inch wide straps — and, thank God (I mean that literally!!!) it worked. Such a relief!

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I wore the jacket the whole time, and you couldn’t really see the straps from the front, but they could be seen from the back, and I just felt more covered with wider straps — especially in the front row with my back to everyone!!

3. The wedding party. All the bridesmaids and groomsmen, photographer and music people, were great kids and pitched in above and beyond the call of duty. I had met some before and enjoyed getting to know the rest.

4. Meeting some dear people in the bride’s family and friends who I hope to keep in touch with.

5. God providing for us in an obvious way when a tire blew on the trailer we were renting on the way home: My son and new daughter-in-law just “happened” by at the time and we got the tire to the Wal-Mart service center just as they were closing. If either of those things hadn’t happened, we would have been stuck for a lot longer and with more trouble and expense. Plus in the brief time we had to disconnect the trailer and leave it on the side of the road, God let no one crash into it or steal it or its contents. And as an added bonus we got to eat dinner together before getting back on the road.

Bonus:

6. Rug shopping. My husband and I took our son and new daughter-in-law shopping for rugs at one of his customer’s places of business this week where they were having a tent sale. The kids have hardwood floors and got a couple of great area rugs (I didn’t think to get pictures of theirs), and I got a couple of small ones myself:

One for the living room:

And one for the sewing/craft/guest room that I am going to convert Jason’s room into:

It’s really hard to find pink in rugs! Most everything I saw had more orangey roses if they had roses, and red seems to be the general popular color now.

It’s also been fun vicariously sharing the kids’ excitement as they set up housekeeping. Brings back memories. 🙂

Friday’s Fave Five

Posted on July 24, 2009 by Barbara Harper

1. The birthday of Jason, my middle son.

2. Jason’s excitement about setting up housekeeping. He found a house to rent nearby and was so excited to show it to us and buy the first few things for it. He’ll be even more excited to bring his bride home in a few weeks when he gets married. Though there have some bittersweet moments at the thought of his “leaving the nest,” it’s also a happy, exciting time seeing him take these steps.

3. Chocolate night at church. During the summers on Wed. nights at church we have Family Camp type meetings with a fellowship afterward, and each fellowship centers around a theme — breakfast foods one night, peaches one night, etc., and last night was chocolate night. My favorite. 🙂 I made a Four-Layer Dessert (except I made a graham cracker crust instead), which we all love, but I only make it for a fellowship like this or when we have company because it’s just too much for our family. Plus I was hoping someone would bring a certain type of cake — I don’t know what it is, but it’s flat and has a particular flavor of icing. I think it might be Texas Sheet Cake, but I’ve never tried making it myself. Someone (I haven’t figured out who) often brings it to church fellowships, and I was hoping it would be there and I would get some — and they did and I did!

4. Books about craft areas. Have I mentioned that when Jason gets married I am inheriting his room as a sewing/craft/guest room? Maybe once or twice? 🙂 I was going to ask for Where Women Create and Organizing Your Craft Space, both by Jo Packham, for my birthday, but then I realized that I’d have the room by my birthday and could use the ideas before then. Both arrived this week. I devoured the one and started the other last night. I’m enjoying the luscious pictures and great ideas.

5. Where Bloggers Create. I saw at Quill Cottage that today is a blog event called Where Bloggers Create in which bloggers are invited to shop what their creative space looks like. I’ve been looking forward to this since I first saw it mentioned. I won’t be joining in, because my creative space is in need of much help, whether I were getting a room for it or not. But I’ll be looking forward to getting ideas and inspiration.

Happy Friday!

Friday’s Fave Five

Posted on July 17, 2009 by Barbara Harper

1. It hasn’t been quite so swelteringly hot this week (at least it didn’t feel as hot to me) and what rain we did get wasn’t a bad storm. But we did have to call the AC guy out to service our AC because it hadn’t been quite keeping up, and now it’s running beautifully. Thank God for AC and AC guys.

2. More details are coming together for Jason’s wedding next month: dates decided on to travel, flights scheduled for a couple of people, hotel booked for us and wedding party and my family coming in from TX.

3. A friend of a friend gave them a free dryer and they found a table and chairs on sale.

4. A new monitor for my PC. Mine had been getting harder and harder to get to come on and stay on, and finally last Saturday it just died completely. I’m thankful that if it had to happen it did so on a day when my husband was home and had time to deal with it, so I was only without access to my computer for most of Saturday. I’m thankful to Jim and Jeremy for buying and installing it for me!!

5. Last Saturday I got a ton of stuff done (and I am trying not to think about the fact that being without access to the computer had something to do with it…) It felt great to get so many things crossed off my to-do list and to start this week with a clean house.

Bonus #6. I almost can’t do one of these without a food reference. 🙂 For a long time I didn’t care for Sbarro’s pizza — I always thought it looked wonderful but didn’t taste all that great. Then they came up with a stuffed pizza — two layers of crust with sausage, pepperoni, and cheese in between and bacon on top. Wonderful. I had a slice today. Gave in and had a piece of their chocolate cake, too. And last Sunday Jim grilled some scrumptious pork chops — he just sprays them with Pam and sprinkles garlic seasoning salt on them.

You know, I really had to think about it this week. It hasn’t been a bad week in any way — it just seemed like a normal week in which nothing outstanding happened. But I know sometimes in crisis situations I’ve longed for just an ordinary day, and so I am thankful for an everyday ordinary week and all God’s everyday blessings.

Friday’s Fave Five

Posted on July 10, 2009 by Barbara Harper

It’s going to be hard to narrow it down to five this week!

1. Jeremy’s iPhone ap. He’s been working for a long time on developing this application for the iPhone called FoodPad Calorie Tracker with which to keep track of calories. It has a lot of neat features!

2. Goodies! I bought these from Shabby Shan’s Cottage via Make Mine Pink’s Pink Friday.

If you know me very well, you know this is me. 🙂 I haven’t decided where to put it yet.

I also got these teeny vases. They’re about 4″ high. I thought they were blue with pink flowers when I ordered them, but they are still pretty as white.

She also tucked in an extra little bonus gift.:

3.A new CD. I love the music produced by The Wilds, and their newest CD is Creator, Redeemer, and King. I’ve been listening to it frequently this week. I love all of it, but especially It Was For Me, My Faith Still Clings, Calvary Invitation, and new-to-me Face the Cross.

4. My favorite contestant on America’s Got Talent so far:

(Song starts at about 1.46)

5. Two GREAT favorite links. One was left on a question I had earlier about tips for craft organization and storage
ideas: this has to be the ultimate craft studio. So many great ideas!! The second one I can’t remember where I found, but it is a site called A LEGO a day. Legos were one of my kids’ favorites even long after they stopped playing with other toys. This site took a photo involving Legos once every day for a year and added a catchy caption to most of them. I’ve only looked through a few pages so far, but my favorites are Just married, How low can you go, Going for a drive, and my ultimate favorite, Put on a happy face.

Happy Friday!

WFMW: Need craft organization tips

Posted on July 7, 2009 by Barbara Harper

Works For Me Wednesday is hosted by We Are THAT Family. General information about WFMW can be found here or by clicking the button above, but the basic idea is to share a tip that you’ve found useful that you’d like to share with others.

Today I don’t have a tip: I need tips for how to store and organize crafts items, particularly scrapbooking supplies, so that they’re easily accesible. I have things scattered and tucked hither and yon and would like to make it more usable. I can use suggestions about store-bought organizing tools or made or “found” ones — I have a gift card to Michael’s that I could possibly use for this.

I do have one of those accordion file boxes with dividers for different colored scrapbook paper plus some of those clear plastic drawers. But some of the stuff is just jumbled together in the drawers.

So…what are your best ideas for storing

Ribbon
Cricut cartridges
Cuttlebug templates
Scrapbooking paper and card stock
Stickers
Embellishments for scrapbooking and card-making
Stamps (the kind you stamp in ink with, not the kind you collect)
Ink pads
Artificial flowers

…and any other crafts you can think of.

Thanks!

Friday’s Fave Five

Posted on June 26, 2009 by Barbara Harper

1. Sunshine! After all the rain last week, it was nice to have almost no rain and plenty of sunshine.

2. Air conditioning! It’s been in the 90s and pretty humid. I can hardly be outside or run through the mall or W-Mart without sweating and turning all red. I don’t perspire in a dainty, ladylike way, unfortunately. I don’t know how I’d live without AC in the house and car.

3. Father’s Day. It was a fun time to honor Jim and make his favorite Boston Cream Pie.

4. Pink accessories and supplies. It’s silly, but this just makes me happy.

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I also saw a pink filing cabinet I’d like to get for when I convert Jason’s room into a sewing/craft/guest room after he gets married and moves out.

5. A successful shopping excursion. A former pastor used to say that women could go shopping for a white blouse, hit every store in the mall, not find a white blouse, and still have a good time. Not me!! If I can’t find what I am looking for, I get frustrated. I don’t really like traipsing from store to store looking for something — not for very long, anyway. Yesterday I found shorts for Jesse for camp, a gift for a baby shower, sheets for my bed (I’d wanted some with a pattern but had only been able to find solid ones), and towels with the colors I wanted — all at one store! And at great prices!

I’d been looking for towels with blue and tan and maybe a bit of brown, but at other stores the blue in the towels like that was kind of on aqua blue, which wasn’t what I wanted. I was glad to find these:

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