Friday Letters.

It's Friday and this week could not have been any longer!  Luckily, I have the day off today to recuperate from this ridiculously busy week!

I'm linking up with Ashely today at The Sweet Season for Friday Letters!  Let's celebrate Friday....Finally!!
Dear Spring, thank you for finally making an appearance this week.  Although, I don't think your performance is quite up to par yet.  Keep working on it.  Dear Sirius, regardless of whether you are feeling neglected or not (which you shouldn't be because you're spoiled rotten) it is NEVER ok to chew a hole through Dad's boxers. I'm pretty sure you were supposed to go through this puppy/teenage phase like, 4 years ago.  Dear Grad School,  ugh!! Are we done yet?! Dear Stephanie, in case I haven't said it enough I LOVED my Cara Box and getting to know you!! Dear Sherri, I loved picking out your Cara Box items and I hope you really loved them!  Dear Kaitlyn, the Cara Box Excahnge is an awesome idea!! Thank you so much for sharing such a great idea.  Dear Wine, I think it's clear at this point that we have a love/hate relationship.  I'm ok with it.  

It's Here!! :: Cara Box Reveal.

It finally came!!! My Cara Box finally came all the way from Washington!

Cara {car - rah} noun : beloved friend

You know, even as an adult getting mail is ALWAYS fun (except bills....bills are no fun).  The one downside is that when you know it's coming, you tend to check the mailbox... a lot.  Like, everyday.   Multiple times.
I couldn't wait to get my Cara Box from Stephanie.  I knew she was going to send me all kinds of awesome things and I found myself rushing home from work everyday to find out if it had arrived yet.  It literally came just in time.  I got it in the mail just this afternoon and let me tell you... It was worth the wait! This was my first time participating in the Cara Box Exchange.  The theme for March was 
"my name is" We were supposed to send our partners a bunch of items that began with the same letter as their name.  I was paired with Stephanie at Just a Little Bit Louder (sending to me) and Sherri from 99 Shadows (who I sent to). You can see what I sent to her here. I feel so incredibly lucky to have been paired with these two amazing people.  I absolutely loved getting to know them through their blogs and our continuous emails to each other.  I absolutely recommend checking their blogs out if you have a second.  
Stephanie has this amazing spirit about her that really comes through in her writing.  You can tell how much she loves life. And Sherri has the most amazing gift for writing.  When you read her blog you can tell she loves it and that she's writing from her heart, always.
Anyway, I won't keep you waiting any longer.  Here's what Steph sent me in my box:

Look how pretty my package was!!  How could I not love opening my mailbox to find this?!

I'm not sure if she had any idea how awesome it was that she sent my package in a Converse box.  I never even told her that I love Converse. I mean, I wore them under my wedding dress!!

 Now that's love.

As I took everything out, this was my first look!

The first thing I saw was a big, white, glittery S.  This is going to look great at my craft station!

One of the first things we learned about each other was that we both LOVE coffee.  I think I'm legit addicted to the stuff so she told me she was going to send me some of her favorite coffee even though it didn't start with S.  I was fine with that.  Turns out, it does start with S!! I can't wait to try some of my Salvation Army Coffee.

This is an Allen Stone CD.  This is actually one of Stephanie's friends and he has his own CD.  How cool is that?  I can't wait to listen to it!

I seriously almost cried when I opened this one up.  It's a Sandy Hook Pure Vida Bracelet.  I've never heard of them before but Stephanie says she wears like 6 of them!  I love it and of course, it supports my hometown!  

Look at how nice it looks with all my other Sandy Hook bracelets!  

Love, love, love!

Who can't use some Stickers?  Being a teacher, I can truly appreciate the necessity for stickers everyday.

And finally she sent me a Suubi necklace.  Again, I had never heard of these but they basically stand for HOPE.  They are actually made in Africa and come with a little story about the person who made it.  I could not possibly love this gift more.  So, so, so thoughtful!

Here's a better picture of it!

So that's everything.  

Sorry for all the pictures.

Oh wait...not sorry, no.  Pictures are awesome!

I still can't get over how much we've learned about each other over the past couple of weeks.  Stephanie sent me stuff that was so incredibly perfect!  I'm literally in awe of how well we can communicate and get to know each other even when we are on opposite sides of the country.  I know I've made some great friends through this experience!

First Things First :: Link Up!

It's been a tough couple of weeks.   I've had some MAJOR bloggers block and I blame it on how busy I've been.   I've been on a mission for a couple of days now to find some new and exciting link ups to participate in.   It's not so much that I can't find any awesome link ups.   More like there are SO many awesome link ups.   I can't decide.   But I stumbled onto one today through Veronica at Passion, Pink & Pearls that I just had to participate  in.  It's short, simple and super fun!
It's hosted by Halie at Penguins, Pasta & Polka Dots and co-hosted this week by Veronica and Jess at Jess is More.  I had never seen either Halie or Jess's blog until today when I came across the link up on Veronica's blog.  But that's one of the things I love the most about blogging.  You're always connecting with new people and making new friends.  There's always something new to find and you never know what surprise is coming your way next!

Here's the deal with First Things First...

each week Halie will give a new set of three firsts for us to talk about.  This week's firsts are

one. First roommate(s)

two. First time living away from home

three. First dorm room

So here are my firsts!!

First Roommate (s)

I met my first roommates when I went off to college.  To be honest, that was not a fun time for me to remember.  Not because of my roommates.  They were awesome.  But because I quickly found out that a college three hours from home was not where I was meant to be.  My first semester of freshman year was awful but my roommates were seriously the only things that got me through it.  I ended up in a dorm room that was considered a 'quad' which basically meant that they gave us an extra big room and stuck four girls in it instead of two.  

Two of my roommates, Erin and Alison were absolutely amazing.  Again, the ONLY thing that got me through that semester.  Our fourth roommate pretty much did her own thing.  She had other friends so we didn't really hang out all that much.  

We were pretty typical college freshmen.  You know, 2 am trips to Dunkin Donuts, movie nights, the usual college stuff (minus the drunken parties every weekend). That really wasn't our scene.  I loved my roommates so much that when I made the decision to transfer after that first semester I was scared to tell them.  I didn't want them to be angry!!  But they understood completely and when I got to Marist - where I finished out the remainder of my college career in absolute bliss - I knew it was the 100% right decision for me.  

Man, all this reminiscing really makes me miss those guys.

First Time Living Away From Home

Again, this would be as a college freshman.  As I said before that was a really tough time for me.  I'm a homebody.  I was (still am) really attached to my hometown, my family was (still is) my life, I missed my dog, I had just started to feel like I made the perfect group of friends and BAM, I have to go off to college.  

Change is not my strong point.  In fact it tends to send me into anxiety ridden panic attacks.  It's not a fun time for me or for anyone within earshot of me.  On top of it, I was attending an agricultural school where nearly everyone went home to work on their family farms every weekend.  So I ended up driving the three hours back to CT every weekend.  

It's fine.  If I had never spent that semester in PA I would never have know if Marist was truly the right choice for me.  Don't get me wrong.  I would have loved Marist either way but going to Delaware Valley first made me appreciate it even more.

First Dorm Room

Sadly, I have no pictures of my first dorm room.  Again, I wasn't in the happiest state of mind so pictures really weren't top priority for me.  When I went to Marist, housing was tight.  I had to live off campus for the first year but luckily I had an awesome group of friends that made me an honorary suite-mate.  I lived in the common room of their 6 person suite on an extra bed.  I'm actually not sure where we got that extra bed but it was perfect for me to crash on when we were out late or we had 8 am classes the next morning!

So that's my first ever First Things First!  Hope you guys enjoyed reading as much as I enjoyed reminiscing! Thanks Halie for an awesome link up!

Surprise!! Surprise!!

My blog got a makeover!!!  
I've been working with Kayla for quite some time now on this new blog design and she did a fantastic job!  Don't you think?!  So before I get into my amazing weekend recap I wanna take a second to highlight her.
I love my blog.  And I mean LOVE.  Like a fat kid loves cake...that's how I love my blog.   And what do you do to something you love?   You dress it up.  Make it look pretty.  Show it off.   So that's what I decided to do.  The problem was....
I'm broke.  
But I was determined.  So I started researching and there are a lot of great blog designers out there.  Kayla stood out to me because...
one. She has an awesome blog that I love to read. two.  She does some really amazing blog designs. three.  She's totally affordable.
She was great every step of the way and I loved working with her.  If you're looking to spiff up your blog a little, I would 100% recommend her.  
Ok, now onto my weekend and man, what a weekend it was.  It was packed but almost all of it was in a good way.  Ok, the three hours of school work I did yesterday was not in any way, shape or form exciting but the rest of the weekend was A-OK.
As usual, I think the weekend is best expressed in photos.
On Saturday, we were part of a great event to honor my home town, Sandy Hook.  

The Sandy Hook Run for the Families took place in Hartford and had 15,000 people participating.  It was actually originally scheduled for a different town, closer to Newtown but it had to be moved due to the overwhelming size!  On top of the crazy amount of participants, about 30,000 people turned out to line the streets and cheer us all on.  Almost $500,000 was raised!
After almost four months, the outpouring of love still brings tears to my eyes.   There are no words that I can say to express my emotions when I see so many people supporting our community.  
Amazing.

This is our team, "06482 Family".   We're missing a couple of our members here because we got separated during the race.  We. Were. Awesome.  'Nuff said.
After the race we headed home.  If you read my post about last weekend, you know we've been trying to make a decision on how to solve our car problems.  As of Saturday we still hadn't solved anything.
Over the past two weeks we've be from....
'Let's fix Jeremie's car.'
'No, that seems pointless.'  
'Let's buy a used car.'
'That seems kinda stupid too.'
'Let's lease.'
'Well, if we're going to pay $200 a month, we should at least be paying to own.' 
'Let's buy a new car.'
So that's what we did. WE BOUGHT A CAR!!!

It's pretty crazy to think that we actually just drove this baby home because we really didn't think Jeremie would be getting a new car for at least a year.  But hey, you just gotta do what's right for you and we both agreed that this was the best decision.  

Thank you to everyone who left comments last week giving us advice on leasing!  We seriously took everything and every option into account before making our decision.

And finally, we are saying goodbye to an old friend.

 That's right.  Our '94 Honda Civic will be going to a better home soon.   This was my very first car.  I remember the day we went to look at it and the test drive and how much I wanted it as a 16 year old!
And then, when I got my new car in 2009, Jeremie happened to be in need of a car so he bought the old man.  So, it's been in the family for a while and we're really going to miss it (and by 'we' I actually mean me because I'm pretty sure Jeremie was sick and tired of dealing with it).  
It's a little sentimental to me but it's time to move on to bigger and better things. So long old friend.   You'll be fondly missed!
So that was my weekend and I'm exhausted. How was ya'll's weekend?  I'd love to hear about it!

R-E-S-P-E-C-T.

Find out what it means to me.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T......

What does she say there?!? 

Does anyone actually know the words?

It's funny how you can listen to a song your whole life and never actually know the words to it.

Respect is something I try to teach to my kids everyday and I realized something today.  I expect my kids to be respectful all the time.  In fact, sometimes I get mad at them for being disrespectful.  But you know what?  Even as adults I think we have difficulty with respect sometimes. Especially when it comes to respect in a relationship.

In a relationship, I think respect is right up there with communication.  

I'm not sure which is more important.  You can be super respectful towards each other, but if you can't communicate everything will fall apart.  Or you could communicate the crap out of everything but if you don't respect each other you'll never have a well developed and close relationship. 

So really, I guess they tie.  You need both in equal quantities.

It's not always easy, though is it? To be respectful towards each other.

ALL the time.

Sometimes when you're angry, don't you just want to scream?

Or when you're frustrated, don't you just want to say....

"GEEZ, WHY CAN'T YOU JUST DO IT MY WAY!"

I heard someone say once that we hurt the people we love the most because we know they'll always come back.  It's true when you think about it.

Sad, but true.

Really, though, we can do that with our family because they're stuck with us.  They always have to come back no matter how many angry, frustrated, hurtful words we throw at them.

But with a spouse, how many times will they come back before they just give up all together?

In our relationship, Jeremie and I have been working on our communication skills pretty much since day one.  That's because I basically have NO communication skills.

Like, zero.

I like to shut down when I'm mad.  

I forget to ask how his day was unless I consciously remind myself.

I don't always share my emotions even when it's something I should be sharing.

Luckily, Jeremie does have communication skills and he teaches me how to talk.

But respect is something we can all work on.  If I expect my kids to be respectful all the time, why shouldn't I expect the same from myself?  And I'm not saying Jeremie and I aren't respectful towards each other.  We have a GREAT relationship and I couldn't be happier. But I'm always amazed at how much we are learning and how many things we can work on.  

I used to think that you found someone you loved, got married and everything was just easy.  Like, you were just in a relationship and nothing changed.  It was no different then living as a single person.  But now I understand that molding two lives together can be a challenge and you can't just sit back a relax. No matter how long we are together, we will always have things to work on to make our relationship better.

Work it. Make it. Do it.

Makes us

 Harder. Better. Faster. Stronger.

Oh yea, I just quoted Kanye West. I guess I'm just in a singing kind of mood.

 I'm a little ashamed of it but not enough to go back and take it out because it's true. 

Relationships are work. 

And it's so worth it.  

There is no feeling like being in a strong, open, respectful relationship with someone you love.

Monday AND Tuesday Blues.

Hey guys. I don't know about you but I have had a seriously busy few days.  And they weren't like the 'good' busy kinda days. They were more like the 'ugh, what do I have to do now' kind of days. I know we've all had them and they're never fun.  Not only does it give me no time to blog but it prevents me from doing any fun DIY stuff to blog about and it leaves me with absolutely no time to think of things to blog about.

So let me tell you a little bit about my weekend.  Jeremie's car is a 94 Honda civic with over 200,000 miles on it.  It was actually my first car when I turned 16 and then Jeremie took it from me when he started driving.  So it's been in the family a while.  Well, I think it's officially on its last leg so we've been weighing our options.  The problem is that we can't really afford any of our options!

We could fix his car. But that seems like a waste of money. We could buy a used car. But then we could have to fix something on that in just a couple of months.  Would it be any different than jeremies car now? And finally we could lease a new car.  Which is a lot of money.  So that's been my whole weekend.  We go from one option to the next to the next and back around in a circle.  Over and over again.  It's been very tiring.

I THINK we've finally decided to lease but if anyone has some good advice we're willing to listen. And I don't want to leave this post on such a downer note because that's just no fun for anyone.  So here are some of the positive things happening lately:

This weekend I'm walking in the Sandy Hook Run For The Families 5K in Hartford.  I have a small team of people walking with me and even though the weather people are saying its going to be 40 degrees, I think it's gonna be an awesome day!

I have two blogger exchanges I've been working on.  I'll be sending my Cara Box out on Wednesday and I'm super excited for Sherri to get it!! Then I get to start working on my next gift exchange which I'll be sending out and blogging about at the end of the month!

If we do, in fact, lease a car it'll be brand new which means we can stop worrying about possibly having to fix a car once a month! If you've ever owned a car that is constantly falling apart you know what a relief this will be. 

One of my good friends is having a baby in just a couple of months and I'm really excited to start working on her DIY baby shower gift!

And finally, there are some super exciting changes coming to the blog soon.  I can't wait for you all to see them!

Now it's time to finish out the week on a better note than it started on!

The Social Media Game.

This is a post that has been on my mind for a while now.  It's one of those issues that came up a couple of weeks ago and I thought 'hey, that might make an interesting blog post'. But then I was back and forth. Should I post about it? Should I not post about it? Should I? Shouldn't I? I've finally come to the decision that yes, I should post about it because I feel like it's an issue that everyone deals with at some point or another.  

Here's the issue:

                              Friend? 

                              Foe?

Or both?

At work a couple weeks ago I got on the topic with a couple of coworkers. One of them is a middle aged woman with a college aged daughter who uses Facebook.  The other is one of my friends who is totally against Facebook. She's kinda the type that uses the Internet to order something online or look something up on google and that's it.  Which is fine.

So we're talking about Facebook and sharing our different opinions on it and my coworker said that her daughter would never do anything inappropriate on Facebook because the 'last thing you want is to get caught in a picture with the red solo cup in your hand'.  And it got me thinking.

I started using Facebook when I was 19.  At the time it was only for college kids - remember those good old days? 

Did I put stupid, drunken pictures of myself up? Yes.

 Did I think twice before I did it? No.

 I WAS IN COLLEGE!!!!!

 I was young and stupid and carefree.  And is that really so bad? That I had fun in college?

Sure, it would look bad if I was posting that stuff now but if I saw a college kid posting stuff like that I certainly wouldn't judge them badly.  I would think 'hey, there's a typical college kid.' You know?

Of course, I've since taken those pictures of myself down.  I'm a teacher so it's pretty important that I don't have inappropriate things up that my kids could accidentally stumble upon.  But on top of that, I'm kinda past the partying stage.  I'm married and I'm gonna be 30 in a few years.  I'm long past the teenage/early 20's "lets go out and get drunk every weekend" phase.  Actually, I'm not sure I ever really went through that phase.

And it's not like I was posting pictures of me doing hardcore drugs or anything.  So I played some beer pong? And yes, I guarantee that I was holding a red solo cup in those photos. But I really don't see that as being such an awful offense. Maybe I'm wrong.

So tell me what you guys think. Is it ok to be a young, careless Facebook user? Or should we all be presenting ourselves through social media like we're perfect little angels?

Bet You Didn't Know...

A while ago I did a little post called Five Random Facts.  I intended to do multiple segments of this post but I have been drawing a serious blank on what my next Five Random Facts post should be.  And tonight it just hit me.  Like, right in the face.  BAM. 

My five random facts don't have to be some life altering, prophecy fulfilling event.  It can be something as simple as what I do in my daily routine.  So that's what I present to you today:

Five Random Facts About My Day

Jeremie will ALWAYS make fun of me for my daily routine.  Admittedly, I live for my routines.  If I'm even the tiniest bit thrown off, it tends to put me into a bad mood.  I hate, hate, HATE not having part of my routine.  What can I say?  I'm a creature of habit. 

Being that we're both teachers and we both work with Autistic kids (who we LOVE because they're the best), Jeremie jokes about me having some tendencies that are "on the spectrum".  Ha. Ha. Jeremie.  You're just so funny. I'm pretty sure he actually thinks my routines are cute even if he'd never say that.

Anyway, here are my Five Random Facts:

I make everything for the next morning at night.  

I put everything in the coffee pot and turn on the timer.  

I make my lunch and put it in the fridge.

I lay out my outfit for the next day.

And I make sure everything I need in my school bag is ready to go.

This is all pretty much in an effort to get up and out of the house in 30 minutes so I can sleep as late as humanly possible.  But I also just like to have everything done ahead of time.

My bed NEEDS to be made.  Everyday.

I will not even sit in my bed until I've made it.  

Jeremie sleeps later than me so even on days where I can't make it before I leave, I make it when I come home at night.  I actually read a study that said making your bed everyday can make you happier.  

Yup, that's right.  Make your bed boys and girls.

Before I leave the house in the morning I do a mental checklist.

Water. Check.

Coffee. Check.

Breakfast. Check.

Lunch. Check.

Phone. Check

Keys. Check

iPad. Check.

Every. Day.

I watch GMA every morning.

I love Good Morning America.  It's my go-to morning news show and I watch it every morning. 

I don't even care that most of the time I'm running around getting everything ready to go and I actually only catch 2 or 3 news stories.  And even those I don't hear completely.  I figure, as long as I get the main idea that's all that counts.

I have a bedtime routine.

Usually I play a game for a little while.  Right now it's Plants vs. Zombies.

Read for a while.

Turn on the fan  - I have to sleep with a fan on.  When I go to a place that doesn't have a fan I usually have a small panic attack.  One time our power went out and Jeremie found me an app for white noise.

Take off glasses.  

Drink some water.

Turn off the light.

Every. Night.

So those are my five random facts.  Bet you didn't know I was that into my routines, huh?  

Do you guys have routines?

I'd love to hear about them!

Weekend Getaway :: Sensational.

Before I tell you about my awesome weekend, I need to start with a little back story.  Back in December Jeremie and I went to a tribute night for Sandy Hook which was put on by a friend from high school.  It was an awesome night.  They had a great turn out, I'm sure they raised a ton of money for Sandy Hook and we all got to catch up with old high school friends.  It was just nice.  Have you every had a night like that?  Just nice.  I love nights like that.

Anyway, we went to this Sandy Hook night and they had a pretty decent sized silent auction and a raffle.  Jeremie and I weren't planning on bidding on any of the auction items since money is a little tight.  Especially since Jeremie started his masters program which is a full time, unpaid internship.  But hey, it was to benefit my hometown so we bid on a few items.  One of them was a two night stay in Stowe, Vermont.  We bid on it a couple of times and WE WON!!

Best. Decision. Ever.

So we went away from that night a little tipsy, having had a great time and with a two night stay in Stowe on the horizon. Not too bad.  

This weekend we went on our trip and it was FANtastic.  So amazing.  The hotel we stayed at was right on the mountain.  We could literally walk out onto the mountain, put on our skis and go! It had an outdoor heated pool and hot tubs that overlooked the mountain.  We went swimming on Friday night after our long drive but it was so windy out that we were freezing for the most part.  So we called it quits and tried again the next day.  We had better success with that after a long day of skiing and not so much wind.

We had two awesome dinners.  One of which was at the top of the mountain and we got to take the gondola up!  They give you a blanket to snuggle with and a lantern to give you a little light but we didn't use it.  We just admired the lights of the town all the way up.

And the skiing was amazing.  It was about 50 degrees so after about an hour of sweating our butts off we went inside to strip everything off.  We went back out in just out hoodies and skied the rest of the day like that.  If you're a skier you know that this is the best feeling ever.  

So, all in all we had a super, super, SUPER weekend.  It was great.  .  

Our back yard on Friday.  Thanks to this lovely weather we were able to leave at 1 pm instead of 5 pm.  

This is the ONLY reason I am happy we had snow day number 12(?) on Friday.  I lost count.

You know we just had to take these classics.  

The pool at the hotel, overlooking the slopes.

Pretty awesome!

Enjoying the view at the very top of the mountain!

The view from the gondola on our way up to dinner.

It looked better in person!

Quite possibly Jeremie's favorite store in Vermont.

Goin' on a tour!

I like this picture primarily because we both look slightly insane.

We got to try a "top secret" Ben & Jerry's flavor at the end of the tour which was a pretty great way to end our vacation.

Hope you guys all had an awesome weekend too!    

Friday letters.

Man, has it been a long week.  Does everyone else feel that way, too or is it just me?! 

I have had soooo much going on this week and yet, when I look back I can't remember anything truly significant that happened.  Although I did make two new blogging buddies through the Cara Box gift exchange.

Shout out to Sherri at 99 Shadows and Stephanie at Just A Little Bit Louder. You guys should all check out their blogs if you get a sec because they are both awesome people.

Anyway, Friday means that it's also the weekend and I have some pretty awesome stuff going on! So here are my Friday letters this week.

Dear Winter Storm/Nor' Easter Saturn, you call yourself a winter storm?! So far I am unimpressed. You have 24 hours to redeem yourself.  Ready, go.  Dear CMTs, you really make the month of March a very long month for both teachers and kids.  I'm not sure I'll ever forgive you for that. Dear Sandy Hook Run For The Families Team Members (a.k.a. Team 06482 Family), I'm so happy we're all doing this walk together. Thank you all for joining up!! It's going to be a super fun day!!! Dear Stowe, the Hittenmak's will be invading your beautiful ski town this weekend to swim in your 90 degree heated pool, relax in your hot tubs, ski on the slopes (even if you charge OUTRAGEOUS prices for a lift ticket) and to have a freaking awesome weekend.  Watch out!

Happy weekending everyone!!

I Came. I Saw. I Pinned. I Crafted.

I finally did it. 

I saw it.  

I pinned it (like a year ago).  

I crafted it.

I finally made a DIY card book for all the cards we got at our wedding.  Do you ever wonder what to do with all those cards you get?  On one hand, they are special.  They contain all these nice messages from your friends and family.  Everytime I throw out a card from someone I actually feel awful about it.  Like I'm throwing away a gift that they sent to me.

But then again, it's just a card. What am I going to do with all those old cards just laying around the house?  So for the most part I end up throwing old cards away.  But my wedding cards?   I just couldn't bring myself to do it.

So I saw this idea on Pinterest probably about a year ago.  I pinned it and swore I would do it with all my wedding cards.  Then we got married in October and I didn't have time for DIY after the wedding. 

I needed some time to destress and relax and I still had a lot of organizing/cleanup to do.

Then November came and went....and it's a busy month. 
You know?
Fall cleanup, mashed potato eating.  That sorta thing.

And then December came....and so did the holidays, and some other events and I just didn't have time for DIY gifts that weren't presents.

And then January came and there was no excuse. I was just lazy.
February....

 March...

And I finally had to put my foot down.  I was lazy and I was going to do something about it.

So I grabbed all my cards and whole punched them as I watched TV one night.  

I took two of the ribbons off my bridal shower bouquet and threaded them through all the cards.

Tied some nice bows.

And voila!  

A beautiful card book that I can forever keep all my wedding cards in. 

It was a little less compact than I thought it would be.

A lot less compact.

It's about 5 inches high?  So it may take me a little time to find a good place to keep it.
I counted.  We have 73 cards in the card book.
I had no idea when I started making it how many we had!
Nonetheless, it looks great and it's a creative way for us to save those memories from our wedding.


Have all your wedding cards just laying around?  I'd totally recommend this!
I also plan to start a Valentine's day one that I can add our cards to each year.
Because those are fun too ;)