Craft-licious

During the wedding planing process I have gotten to embrace my crafty side. I seriously love crafts. My first major in college was an elementary ed teacher for the sole purpose of doing crafts. Unfortunately an affinity towards gluesticks does not a good teacher make, although I am sure it doesn't hurt. But here are a few things my mom, and sister and sister in law and, actually, even my brother have helped with!

Just a little taste of my little damask -tastic wedding coming up next month!

First off we'll begin with a picture of my wedding craft crew minus my bro.

Kristi: Maker of the bows

Beth: Gluer of the ribbon

Lindsey: Chief designer - wire cutter, bling nazi

Mom: Fun Enforcer

I decided to make my bouquets. One, I thought it may be cheaper since florists were charging like $50 for a bridesmaid bouquet....two, I just wanted to make em. Is that so wrong?

Here are the early stages. At this point my hands were raw from using all my strength to cut wire. But my pain was alleviated by the satisfaction of getting to play with that fun green florists foam. A good time was had.

In these little contraptions you stick the bud of the flower in the top and then you cut off a bunch of stems and stick them in the bottom. I actually really liked this method. Then my brother hot glued them like crazy. Seriously, these flowers aren't going anywhere - except down the aisle.

My sister in law was my bow savior and helped me immensely! I chose green bows so they will stand out net to the bridesmaids black dresses. And of course, there's a subtle hint of damask. But not too much.... Just enough to say

"I am damask, but not TOO damask"

My lovely friend Jessie gave me a tip that Big Lots had flower girl baskets for $2. And they did! But, they were covered in daisies. Sad face. But you know what they say, when life gives you daisies - cover em with green fabric, hot glue and 79 cent fake flowers!

Voila! Here is the finished product. (please note the antelope head in the back of this picture - nothing says wedding crafts like some mounted game shot by my dad and hung on the wall)

And now just one of the reasons that if I was not marrying Josh I would marry Hobby Lobby....they sell stuff like this amazing damask hat box!

I am going to use this for my cards and all I did was tape some ribbon and add a black rose.

So there are just a few of the wedding crafts I've been busy with! I am also making the boutonieres which I will never ever spell correctly and my mom and I are making the ring bearer pillows - pics to come of those later! just always thinks pictures jazz up a blog a bit, so I wanted to post some!

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A new love for Polar Bears

I am sorry, but the stamp on my wedding RSVPs have a picture of a polar bear on them. Not very bridal or cool by any means. But I am learning to embrace the Polar Bear goodness. Especially because when I got home from the post office (nearly in tears, gosh I cry a lot these days) there were TWO (not one), wedding invites at my house who also had polar bear stamps forced upon them.

And did those brides care? NO. Should I? NO. Did their invitations still look lovely? Absolutely.

Was I still just as happy that two people fell in love even though their stamp had a picture of a polar bear on it and not something cuter? Of course!!

Was this God's way of telling me I am being ridiculous? I think so.

Are there MUCH MUCH bigger issues in life than not having a cute stamp? Oh my goodness yes.

Do I like rhetorical questions? Heck yeah I do.

Should I stop using this annoying question-writing format to get my point across? Defintely.

And so my friends, bring on the Polar Bears. Actually, it's kind of therapeutic. With each sticking on of the stamp I am saying to myself "take that bridal industry! See if I conform to your demands!!"


It feels so good.

Bridal Industry 0: Polar Bears Everywhere: 1

A poem about Josh that doesn't ryme...and maybe isn't even a poem.

He is the M and Ms in my trail mix. Unless there happen to be yogurt covered raisins in the trail mix....then he is those. Bascially, whatever is the best part of the trail mix is....he is that.

Even if he doesn't paint straight lines, he still makes me laugh and helps me not cry over my cookies that I think are hard.

And even if he gets paint on his new shirt that we just bought...I can't deny that he still looks pretty cute in a shirt with paint on it.

Even if I am SO not one of the girls who has a pretty cry, he tells me I am.

I messed up cooking a hot pocket when he was really hungry and he still smiled. I mean, who messes up hot pockets?!

He kisses me on the cheek during church. I am not even sure if that's allowed.

If I was making cookie dough and used an electric mixer I would at least give him one of the mixing things to lick and possibly both of them, I love him so much.

I love you spray paint

Is spray paint white trash?

Gosh I hope not.

Because lately I have been spray painting everything. I find this is a great solution to just ONE of josh and I's relationship problems (there aren't many, but c'mon...relationships are hard!)

So, you see back in my single days when there was no boy to be seen for miles and miles I was in a "shabby chic" decorating phase.

Some of you might know the "shabby chic" line from target - it is full of pink and little flowers birdies and lace. Very pretty, and a very real obstacle to get over when a man comes into your life.

Josh one time told me that one of my lamps looked like something a grandma would have and I immediately began to cry. Pathetic - but no one disses my lamp!!

So, here I sit with my can of spray paint. Taking my pink picture frames and baby blue candle holders and spray painting them a gloomy, but modern and ultimately more gender neutral black.

No pastel color is safe with this can in my hand.

And spraying is therapuetic. Especially when you know a little touch of that nozzle will instantly give you a new piece of artwork, possible lightheadedness, and one less pointless squabble over what's cute.

A love story...

Last week Josh and I were emailing and I wrote him this story....so naturally I thought I'd put it on my blog for the whole world to see:)



Once upon a time there was a girl.

She was a nice girl. Nothing too interesting about her... except she had really good instincts. One time she went to a small group bible study with a friend and she saw a piece of man bacon with blonde hair and big muscles and she thought to herself "I am gonna marry that guy." The girl didn't think this about any boy before. She told her mom, her sister and her best friend - she was gonna marry man bacon. But the man bacon was silly. He managed to supress his love for this girl for weeks and months and years until he couldnt take her hottness anymore and he asked her out by setting up a meeting in his outlook express. Ah...the girl thought this was pretty cute.

The girl thought the man bacon was pretty cute too.

He came and picked her up and they went to a pizza place. They waited two unbelievably short hours. During the wait, the girl stepped in mud and the boy had to wash her feet off in the fountain. Silly girl, she was ALWAYS doing dumb things around man bacon, but now the girl began to see the man bacon liked her silly things.

Anyways, months and weeks went by and the man bacon and the girl became the best of friends.

They went on walks, sat on the swing, watched movies, the girl baked for him, they sat under the lights of the Christmas tree, they watched LOST, they cuddled, they kissed, they hugged, they held hands on looong road trips, they listened to coldplay, they dreamed about houses, they went to Disneyland, the boy gave the girl a ring, they planned a wedding, they bought a house, they ate safeway brand queso, they did puzzles, the girl made a lot of tacos because this is the only thing she knows how to cook, they did more cuddling, they painted, they became obsessed with the DIY network, they stayed up late listening to music and they watched lightning. They were very happy.

Then the girl wrote this email. And she thought the story was pretty cute, but she didn't know how to end it or what the point of the story was other than she loved Man Bacon and she did not want to print out people's group lists for staff tonight and thought this was much more fun. So she wrote it.

New follower - new post

Just a post to commemerate my SECOND follower - my future mother in law. This brings my number up to TWO:) Which is great! I seriously am thankful for my new family and their support of my sporadic blogging skills.

In other news, today marked a turning point in my life. Today I managed to go to the mall for ME but ended up only finding cute clothes for JOSH. Hmm....I am not sure I like this transition where I buy stuff for Josh and not me, but as I was leaving the mall I was just as excited to have found this cute shirt for Josh...it felt just as good as if I had found a cute shirt for myself! I guess I really DO love him...

(that was a joke - please don't measure your love for someone in the amount of times you go to the mall and buy a shirt for them...especially if the shirt was off the clearance rack (which was another joke, whether shirt was on clearance rack or not is not important - feeling the need to explain my genuine love for Josh since I know his family is reading this:))

Tomorrow marks my first wedding craft day. Which is basically my mom luring me with the promise of yummy food and forcing me to finish all my half started wedding crafts like, um bouqets, aisle runners, card box, boutonierres, etc. etc. So, hoping it goes well. If I was a really dedicated blogger I would post pictures of tomorrows crafting endeavors. We shall see.

It's seriously getting to be go time with this whole wedding thing. Last week I bought contact solution and realized that the next time I would need contact solution, I would have a new last name. Silly, but true.

Alright faithful readers. Till next time.

:) L

10 weeks, one day - but who's counting?!

Well, just a quick update to say that Joshy and I have our keys and we've uploaded an album on facebook and everything!

I think we're getting internet in our new place soon - so possbily more cool things to come to the Stamm Fam blog.

This week Joshy and I have been busy, well doing not much.

Basically the highlight of our week was discovering the Safeway brand jar of queso - that, if I do say so myself - is better than any name brand out there.

Also, another highlight is the process of MAKING BOUTONIEERES. I really should NOT put a word in all caps that I am 98% sure I spelled wrong but I wanted to stress how fun this was. Not sure all caps is the way to get that point across to readers...but shoot, I love doing stuff like that!!

Some may say it's white trash to have fake flowers at a wedding - but you know what I say? It's fun. And you get to get everything ready beforehand and you can look at the boutonierres and think "wow, I made that while Josh was watching football and wasnt paying ANY attention to me so I had nothing better to do" ....but seriously, I am loving the crafts that come with a wedding and going to hobby lobby and seeing all the fun things and fabric really gets my head spinning to see what I could do with everything.

Even if the crafts dont show up at my wedding....I am getting lots of cute ideas to do in the future:) I am determined to learn how to sew - possibly cute aprons which I am loving - anyone see these at Anthropoligie? They are AWESOME. I always love wearing an apron! Last year we went on a missions trip to mexico and got Home Depot apron things - and I sometimes wear mine to clean house, I am a dork.

Of, sorry about the apron bunny trail....

We are taking a break on painting, etc, because shoot...we're not actually married yet - and the cuter our house gets, the more we want to be there together ALL the time - which is not super beneficial to us or our other relationships. So we have a beige bathroom, guest room, a smelly sun room with weird green putt putt flooring, etc. etc. but the important thing is that everything has great POTENTIAL! In due time, I think we will get it to where we want it.

In other news - we are about 11 days away from the final weigh in of the Stamm Fam Biggest Loser challenge. On this challenge Josh and I have struggled a bit - but I have lost almost 9 pounds and he has lost over 25 - which may seem good, but the rest of the Stamms don't mess around! They've lost some serious weight. We have more pounds to go and I for sure won't win the contest, but I think we're feeling the motivation again - despite the queso setback earlier this week. I would love to lose about 5-8 more pounds before the wedding and josh is hoping for about 20 more. I know we can do it!

That's all for now!