Category: Family and Friends

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Caring For Floral Arrangements

It’s always nice to get flowers delivered to you. I love getting a big bouquet with a nice vase and a little card. I usually always get a bunch on Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day. If I’m lucky I also get some flowers on my birthday. This year, for Mother’s Day, I got a lovely bouquet from the kids and my husband. I love the arrangement. It has gorgeous yellow lilies and violet and lavender additions to compliment the yellow.

I want to make sure that my flowers last for awhile so I’m taking special precautions as I care for them. I’ve given them plant food and fresh water. Once the water gets dirty I’ll change it and refill the vase with clean water. I’m making sure to keep the arrangement away from any heat source as well. So even though they might look great above my television set, I don’t want the heat to age the flowers prematurely. I sprayed the flowers with a floral preservative to help keep them as fresh as possible.

I know that if I follow these precautions, my floral arrangement should last awhile and I’ll be able to enjoy them for a few weeks.

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Wedding Favor Boxes Can Enhance Your Wedding Favors

Once you decide on your wedding favors it’s time to find the perfect wedding favor boxes to present the favors to your guests. Wedding favor boxes are a great way to set out items on the guest tables and have them blend in with the decor. Maybe you are offering leather key rings but the color of the key ring doesn’t really match the decor. By putting the favor into a box you can chose the color and presentation that is displayed and keep the color palate of the wedding intact.

Wedding favor boxes don’t have to be expensive. There are plenty options of favor boxes that are affordable and don’t’ look cheap but are quality products. You can usually find them in paper, plastic and tin. These don’t even mention other types of boxes that really are part of the favor as well and not just fancy packaging.

For example, you could place a wine stopper and coaster set inside a miniature picnic basket as a nice favor for your guests at an outdoor vineyard wedding. The picnic basket really is the favor box but is stylish and functional too! Its’ possible to find wedding favor boxes that actually enhance the favors inside, as seen in my example with the picnic basket.

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What You Should Know About Wedding Invitations

Jill and Chris haven’t set the date yet for their wedding. However, I thought I would start collecting information for Jill about all things pertaining to the wedding. Since I’m doing all of this hard leg work I thought I would share it with all of you too. There is no sense in it not going to good use by others as well. I can just print off my blog posts for her or just e-mail her links as I find new information.

To get things started, I decided to go with wedding invitations. I’m starting with wedding invitations because they are usually one of the very first impressions everyone will have of your wedding. I say usually because save the date cards come before the invitations but I’m not sure if she will be sending those out. The invitations will set the tone of the wedding and can introduce many aspects and themes of the occasion.

It’s important to pay attention to detail with the invitations. Color schemes can match the bridal party’s chosen colors or just be classic. The design flow can be simple and elegant or complex and unique. Whatever the couple chooses to go with will give every one an idea of what they can expect of the wedding to come.

The wording of the invitation is one of the trickier points to master because you need to follow proper etiquette. It all depends on who is paying for the wedding, who is hosting it, who is attending and  more. I suppose once you can answer those questions the rest will be pretty easy to figure out by looking up wedding invitation wording etiquette.

No matter what the happy couple choose, they have to remember to get them out in a timely manner.

 

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What Would You Do If Today Was Your Last Day?

What would you do if today was your last day to live on the earth? Would you spend all of your money on frivolous things? Would you eat high calorie food and have have seconds and thirds and not care? Would you want to be all alone to meditate in your last moments alive? Who wold you want to spend your last moments of your life with? What would your last words be and who would you say them to?

If today is your last day how are you spending it? I’m spending today with my family. We’re having a family game night and movie night. We’re making homemade pizza and everyone is decorating their own pizzas and then we’re going to play a few board games. Finally we’ll finish up the night with a movie and some popcorn followed by nice warm mugs of hot cocoa.

I love spending time with my family, and if today really is my last day I’ll be happy to be spending it with those I love and hold most dear. What are your plans for the day today? Who are you spending it with?

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Crafts For All of Your Left Over Shims

Shims usually come in a pack. Ever wonder what to do with all of those left over shims? Well I’ve a few craft ideas for you to use up your shim stock.

1. Make a decorative piece of wall art by gluing the shims inside of a frame.

2. Create a beautiful sunburst looking wall mirror by surrounding a circular mirror with shims. If you turn the shims so they are stacked on each other and then lay them around the mirror it will look like a star burst. Cut the shims to different lengths for each point of the star.

3. Cover a planter box side with multiple colors of shims to add some texture and pops of color.

4. Staple a few to a piece of wood to make your own picture displays with no glass needed.

5. Stack a few shims together to make a Christmas tree and paint it green and leave the bottom shim turned vertical and stain it brown. I had to add this one in because it’s so close to Christmas. We actually made this one ourselves last year. It was quite easy to do and because shims are so inexpensive we got enough for everyone in the family to make one for themselves.

Do you have any fun ideas on ways to use up those shims you have laying around or even fun crafts to do with shims on purpose?

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Celebrating the Unity Ceremony With Sand & Candles

It is becoming more and more popular for couples to elect to have some form of unity ceremony during their wedding service. Unity ceremonies can symbolize the joining of two families into one and or the joining of the bride and groom into one flesh.The unity ceremony can be performed with candles or sand.

The candle unity ceremony consists of two long tapered candles and one larger unity candle. The tapered candles can either represent the bride and groom each or their respective families. It’s common for a representative from each family to light the tapered candles. This is usually done by the mothers of the bride and groom. During the ceremony the bridge and groom light the larger unity candle together with their tapered candles. This large candle represents the new couple and or the joining of the families into one unit that love the happy couple. The unity candle is often decorated with the wedding invitation, monogram, some inscription or a picture of the couple. These candles are more than often white in color. Depending on the representation and symbolism the couples elect to follow the individual tapered candles may be blown out or left lit.

A similar unity ceremony can be performed using sand. Instead of lighting a candle together, the couple uses colored sand from individual vessels and pours them together into a larger container. The sand can match the color scheme of the bridal party or be your classic black and white. Some couples elect to use a different color for each family member and have everyone participate, especially if there are children involved in the new marriage.

Whether you choose to have a sand or candle unity ceremony is up to you. There are many options to choose from style wise to have the perfect additions to your wedding ceremony.

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Wedding Flutes To Make Your Toasts Memorable

Wedding flutes can be a terrific item to have personalized in order to commemorate your special day. You can get fancy wedding flutes or even simple and elegant wedding flutes, it all depends on your style and taste. During my searches I’ve even come across sets of wedding flutes that sit in a stand together and share a base.  I think these types of wedding flutes are precious and really make a statement, especially when the stems form a heart together.

Perhaps you would like your wedding flutes to be etched with your new monogram or the date that you are joined in holly matrimony, all of these options are available to you. Selecting the perfect champagne flutes for your wedding reception will make each and every toast that much more memorable.

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Free demonstration

Stan was really excited about the new web-to-print software program that he is thinking about recommending to his boss. He signed up for a free demonstration of the workflow dashboard for the program, and now he is waiting for his boss to schedule some time to sit with him and review it with him so they can discuss the features and benefits of the program. He’s hoping to impress his boss, and get that long over-due raise in pay he’s been promised for the past several months! I wish him the best of luck – it’s really hard getting a raise in pay in this business economic climate!

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An Engagement Ring Like None I’ve Ever Seen

With all of this wedding talk I realized I never said anything about Jill’s ring. It’s a beautiful scott kay ring. Her fiance really did a great job picking out a fantastic ring for her. He didn’t get her something that looks just like everybody else’s rings.

The band of her ring is not plain at all. It has carvings all along the sides of beautiful shapes that look almost like leaves. It’s very elegant. And, the mount is not plain either. It’s set in a giant circle of white gold that is further encrusted in a ring of 30 diamonds.What more could a girl ask for? It’s beautiful.

I wish I would have snapped a picture of it to share with you all. It’s nothing like I’ve ever seen before. I can’t wait to see what they choose for their wedding bands. I didn’t ask him if he got a matching wedding band with the engagement ring or if they plan to get matching bride and groom wedding bands. I’m pretty sure no matter what they chose it will go very nicely with the gorgeous engagement ring he spent a while choosing for the woman he loves.

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Ruritan Community Service Clubs

When my friend Linda Bradshaw was talking about different ways to promote the Ruritan community service clubs she is involved with, we started talking about how she could buy a vendor table space at area vendor shows and create a display with a nice a custom printed tablecloth covered with brochures and flyers, and run a power point presentation on a laptop, or with a projector onto a screen. She’s really excited about her role as Lt Governor and Publicity Chair in the Rapidan Ruritan District of the community service club. I just hope that she gets some help with all of her good ideas and doesn’t end up burnt out from doing all of the work herself!