Live, Love, Paper.

I know it's been a long time since I updated my wedding blog. I haven't forgotten about it, but for a while there I wasn't doing anything wedding related. I will start to update that soon, but before I do, I wanted to recognize something wedding related that has made me very happy. Lee and I recently ordered our wedding invitations from a sweet little place in downtown Norfolk called Live, Love, Paper. It's in a fun little area called Ghent and it's right across the street from CHKD, in walking distance! Sharon, the owner was so very sweet.  She showed us several styles of invitations and helped us design ours to exactly the way we wanetd it. Her store is precious. It's very shabby chic and its located on the top floor above Press 626 Wine Bar. I passed by the wine bar everyday and never even knew that she was up there. She houses a great little business that I hope will become more recognized so that she can open her own storefront shop! Believe me, I will be a regular customer. I love paper..I remember once spending over 75 dollars in just paper and stationary and scrapbook paper, just because I loved it so much. Sharon  has done a great job with keeping the store intimate, it's almost like you're meeting her in her little attic apartment. She's put so much of herself into this business and she loves what she does. Any brides out there in Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Hampton Roads, anywhere for that matter, Sharon at Live, Love Paper will hook you up with some fabulous invitations! I had to post some pictures of her shop because it blew me away with cuteness, courtesy of Sharon! Good luck with your store! Please keep me updated!



















Sharon, Lee and I are so pleased with our invitations! We can't wait to get them! Thank you so much!

Here is a link to the website..it's still a work in progress!   http://www.live-love-paper.com/

well lookie here.. :)

I've been meaning to post this but I forgot. I got an award. Apparently I'm a gorgeous blogger!! It was given to me by my good friend, Shaylynn! This girl and I, we have a lot of history. A LOT of it! Though we've had our ups and downs, I think where we are now is the best place we could be. I'm dedicating my gorgeous blogger award to her..even if she did give it to me! And furthermore....for all you tens of readers out there, you should check out what's new with the Grant family..and that includes baby Grant :) Don't forget to hit up familyofgrants.blogspot.com! This will link you to Shay's other two blogs..the baby blog and her battle with cancer (that she won, mind you) blog! And without further ado....I had to find one.. NO,  several  of my favorite pics of Mrs Grant and myself..just to make this a little more sentimental.... TA DA!

and of course this one..

and next we have..

oooh and of course this one..

this one too... oh and who could forget..?..

and LAST but not least..and I think Shay and I will both agree that this one is our ultimate favorite....drum roll please....



Yeah,  I made it bigger! This will live on in Meg and Shay history................so THANK YOU, Shaylynn..for nominating me for gorgeous blogger! The above picture says it all. I think so anyway :)

Now, I know most of you thought this was over..but on the contrary. Part of the rules of the Gorgeous Blogger award is that I have to go on to list ten things about myself...which may be hard for me because I hate talking about myself! NOT! :) Then, I have to list 5 things that I dislike...so here goes!

1. I can cook REALLY well. And I love it! I wish I had a huge gourmet kitchen, big dining room table and a huge family to cook for! :)

2. Sometimes I feel like going to church on Sunday erases anything bad that's happened during the week. It's so refreshing and it feels like you can start over. I love going to church..even though I don't go often enough.

3. The smell of babies makes my heart melt.

4. I cannot count the number of times I go to Target in a week. I have a problem.

5. I have a system of telling how good certain restaurant food is, just by having the nachos. If the nachos are good..more than likely the rest of the food is too.

6. I have a love/hate relationship with motorcycles, red wine, bread, and Nascar.

7. I cannot sleep in cars, planes, or anything that moves..although I wish I could.

8. I want to live in Charleston, South Carolina in a southern plantation home and deck it out with all modern furniture and decor.

9. I have 5 people that I would love to (HAVE TO) spend the day with..in no particular order: Regis Philbin, Dolly Parton, Tori Spelling, Jessica Simpson, and Paula Deen.

10. I have no greater love than the love I have for God, My fiance, our precious babies (simone and pumba) our family and all our friends :)

Now... for things I detest, despise, loathe, want deported..etc

1. Being wet from the knees down.

2. News stories that bring me to tears

3. The smell of trash when you forgot to take it out

4. migraines

5. Being away from my family

I could go on, but I wont.

Finally........I must give out my goregous blogger award to 10 other bloggers. I can tell you, this wont be possible because I only read a few blogs. If I had time, Id read a thousand blogs. If you're reading this..and you happen to blog,  you're gorgeous! And you get the AWARD! AND you must be female btw :) Congrats to all the winners! haha!

Daxton Michael Parsons

We are thrilled...no...beyond thrilled...completely and utterly soaring to announce the arrival of Daxton Michael Parsons! Our friends Seth and Julie welcomed their second child into the world on April 27th at 12:14 PM. Weighing in at 8lbs, 5oz and 21 and a half inches long. We couldn't be happier for our friends and big sister, Leira! We already love him more than bacon..which is a lot for us! We can't wait to spend some time with the family of FOUR! We are so blessed to have such good friends down here in 757. We hope to have lots of fond memories with them. Here a few birthday pics of Dax :)

Note: Some of these pictures are credit of Seth and Julie, while some are ours :)















We love you, Parsons family! :) Can't wait to babysit in a couple of weeks....wooohoooo!

This and That

Where has the time gone?! I know I haven't been blogging at ALL lately and for that I'm sorry. Mostly sorry to myself because its a huge stress reliever to me and I love documenting my life with something other than my own thoughts. NOR do I have the time to scrapbook.  The last few  several weeks have been filled with ....well.. lots of stuff. Here is a quick recap--

we did a little of this..



A little of That..



Some more of this...



A lot more of this...



and lots of other stuff.

From now on I solemnly promise to blog more...

Thanks.

:)

A spring in my step!

Birds singing! Warm weather! Sunshine! Bring it on! I'm so ready for spring time! Spring makes everything feel so fresh and clean! We've been doing a bit of spring cleaning ourselves. We cleaned up so much that we ended up in a new apartment. I have to admit that it's not as dainty and wonderful as our old place but I just keep telling myself that we are living here so that we can by a Mac-Daddy house in a couple of years :) We've noticed so many changes in our financial situation already! We actually have extra money now..which is always nice. We deserved a splurge...so we indulged a little and bought a new beautiful coffee table. We're buying a new couch, paint, curtains, blinds..the works. Lee told me he felt bad that we moving to a new place that wasn't as nice as our last one so he's giving me the wheel and letting me turn this place into our home. He said he doesn't care what it takes, he just wants me to be happy and feel comfortable here. Isn't he wonderful? Lee knows I don't need all that stuff to make me happy...but its a bonus ;) We are very happy to be here. We purged and donated a lot of things and it really took a load off...the CHKD thrift store certainly has reason to thrive :)

We've also been very lucky to have such great weather lately. I'll admit, being busy hasn't given us much time to enjoy it yet, but we did challenge each other to a tennis match (no NOT on the Wii)! Lee usually beats me at video game sports, but I murder him when it comes to real athletics. It's true. I slaughtered Lee at tennis...we are both terrible mind you, and usually we have to have at least one court in between us and another pair. AND "doubles" is absolutely unheard of.  We just like to have fun and embarrass ourselves.

So, I've been putting off wedding planning because of the move and then it occurred to me that we are GETTING MARRIED in 6 months. I have SO much to do! I thought I had a lot of it done, but really, there is so much more to do. NOT that it's a problem because I love planning my  our wedding :) Most importantly, I can't wait to be Mrs. Hammarback ( I know...the kiddos will hate spelling that one). Lee has such a wonderful family  I mean, who else's family could get away with THIS? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NsIsrtP9QM Everyone I've met has been so loving and made me feel very much a part. My family adores Lee..and I think they are confused about every other guy I've ever brought home, because Lee is pretty much the polar opposite. Maybe that's why it works! Anyway, I'll be dress shopping this weekend.....I feel after the dress is taken care of, everything else will fall into place.  :)

Moving on.......... Did anyone see Molly and Jason's wedding? LOVED IT! AND, a lot of people were talking about how because of the rain, they should've moved the ceremony indoors...i disagree. I LOVED the fact that they kept going even in the rain, and actually enjoyed it. Lee knows I would've been so mad about my hair and makeup..and probably would've stopped the wedding to get an umbrella but I was proud of Molly and Jason for sticking it out! Amazingly her hair and makeup still looked beautiful..I guess that's what happens when you get Jessica Simpson's personal hairdresser for a day! (jealous!) anyway, I just had to point out that I loved the way they handled it. On another note..Jake, you're an idiot and I do not approve of your new relationship. Good Luck.

Last but not least....Lee and I want to wish John good luck with his concerto tonite! We love you, John! Here's a link to a clip of John playing another concerto. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MUgFDbK38o&feature=related Lee and I love to gloat. We're so proud :) Love you, John!

Also..Happy Birthday to TWO wonderful human beings. FIRST Julie Money..formerly Hammarback. Lee's mama and my soon to be mama :) We love her dearly... I only managed to find one video of Julie...she might not like that I'm posting it but tough :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4URpwI5Ypo&feature=related

Also, Happy birthday to Seth! Lee and I are so lucky to have you and Julie and Leira in our lives..although we should see each other much more! You've brought so much joy to our lives since we moved down here. Love you all! :)

The End!!!!

First project of the new year!

Hey everyone! I am obsessed with anything crafty or anything that will keep me organized. I love making things because it de-stresses me. Today, I stayed home from work. I was really really sick this morning...like pukey sick..yeah I know you wanted to know! But as the day went on, things got better...and I'm feeling almost 100 percent now! I decided instead of sitting around feeling sorry for myself I should do something productive..such as cleaning the house. When i started cleaning..I realized there were a million things I wanted to do to organize myself before we move! So..that's what I decided to do! Lee is going to kill me for not packing!!... Anyway...I have this huge pet peeve. .... THIS!I hate that my jewelry is SOOOOO unorganized. I feel like a bafoon for letting it get this outta control! I'm always losing my earrings or breaking a necklace here and there...imagine that! So I decided to rid myself of this problem that I have and have a special place for my jewels! I don't like jewelry boxes...they bore me. I have one that I like...but its nowhere near big enough for all of my jewelry so I'm dedicating that one to REALLY REALLY nice rings and earrings and such. BUT for all the rest of my beauties, here is what I came up with...and on the cheap!

First I bought this cork board from Target (french pronunciation please)... I chose this one because it had a pretty frame and the cork was a pretty green color..I seriously contemplated painting the frame part white (Because I'm obsessed with painting things white) but I decided not to. I have enough white frame-age around the house.  Because of the cork board being a little more dainty than some of those others it did cost me about 14 bucks...but it was worth it :)

After that, I headed over to Joann fabrics to find a fun ...fabric. Believe ME..this was very hard for me. There were so many fabrics that caught my eye...but after going over it and over it in my head..I chose this simple green zebra print which I am very happy with!I bought a yard of it..and had a TON left over for future projects! I cut it to size and hot glued it to the cork board...No, I did not get it exactly to size but I will show you how to solve that problem..or the the way I did it. I took this little guy..(pretty nails also purchased at the fabric store for about 3 bucks)please ignore my nails..yes I bite them..I'm trying to stop! So anyways..I took this little guy and some brown ribbon that I got for 1.79 also at the fabric store (a whole roll! I love leftovers!)..and did this around the edges to make it a little sleeker!I went all the way around the board and then I started going from left to right.... like this...I added a few more rows and this was the ALMOST finished product..........This is the basic idea. You can hang your earrings on the ribbon just like this! I'm going to add hooks to the bottom of the board to hang necklaces, bracelets, scarves, etc. I just didn't have any hooks. I will hang this on the wall by a ribbon or something in the new apartment and I will show a picture of the finished product! Do you likey?? I love it! It was really easy and literally took me less than an hour..this was my practice one, but I think I'm going to start making them as gifts (would make a great BM gift!)...or maybe just make another one for myself because I have WAY too much jewelry!!

Will you be my Val Pal?

It's been a few weeks since I've blogged and I do apologize to everyone. I know you're all thirsty for more blogs from us me. Lee will blog one day. I promise! First, I want to talk about Valentine's day. I know what you're thinking. It's easy to like Valentine's day when you're in love,  but folks there was a time when I despised the pink-heart-riddled "holiday" as well....and oddly enough it was when I was single. I then referred to it as Single's Awareness Day. And hey, I'm not knockin' all those single people out there...there are many ways to celebrate such a day and I did just that. I even went as far to make Single's Awareness Day Anti-Valentine cards...I'm not kidding. I even made one for myself.. They're of course black and filled with quotes such as "Whether we're single, dating, married, or divorced, the dreaded February 14th arrives each year to ambush our self-esteem. No other twenty-four hour period convinces otherwise happy folk that they're in fact social pariahs." That was quoted from a little book called "I hate Valentine's Day!" I know I sound bitter right? That little manual made me fill a little bit better when I walked into CVS around new years eve and saw the ritual onslaught of Whitman's Samplers in cardboard heart shaped boxes. It was filled with good advice like..People and places it's best to avoid and alternative ways to celebrate the holiday. I don't know why I felt so bad about it...I mean yeah it's a little tacky and overdone but I can't help but think back to elementary school days. Stapling two paper plates together and creating a pocket covered in magic marker and heart shaped stickers so that your classmates could fill it with valentine's that said things like I wuv you beary much and Happy Valentine's day, I am your boyfriend.  Inevitably, there would be a ton of candy and someone would always throw up but there's nothing like riding a school bus home with a bunch of crazed kids on a sugar high right? Those were the days. ...

Speaking of Valentine cards..... I had to share with you the card we received in the mail from Lee's Grandma Fay. In a small envelope, covered in hearts and kitten stickers was our names and address TYPED on a TYPEWRITER no less. On the inside we found TWO individually signed valentines...you know the kind you buy for school with the puppies and kittens on them. One was addressed to me. On the back it said From: Gr Fay To: Megan...and the other one, the same, except to Lee.  Mine had a kitten sitting on a stump and it said "I'm stumped! Will you be my Val Pal?" BAHAHAHA...the other one had a puppy inside a barrel and it said "I hope your valentine's day is a barrel of fun!" Last but not least...We received not one but TWO wallet-sized Olan Mills  headshots of Grandma Faye (hand strategically placed below the chin)! Precious. Is that not the sweetest...or most least expected thing you expect to receive on Valentine's Day. Bless her heart...she's hanging on my wall at work. :)

Although Lee and I find cheesy (I mean cool) ways to celebrate our love all year long, I was excited about Valentine's Day. Last year we didn't really do much of anything because we were focused on moving to Virginia Beach..and surprise, surprise this year we are moving again! But, somehow through it all (because love conquers!) We managed to have a little fun! A few weeks before Valentine's Day Lee got me tanning sessions for our engagement pictures. I really wasn't expecting anything else to be honest..but he surprised me once again. Now the story I'm about to tell may deter some of/all of my Male readers. (If there are any) I've been telling Lee that I need new bras. There I said it. I wanted some new bras because I haven't bought any new ones for a while and quite frankly it was necessary...with me getting married and all..I will practically be a new woman, therefore, I need new bras. While at work a couple of days before Vday..my friend Brandy (and co-worker) gets a text message, FROM LEE. Weird. Lee hardly ever texts. She looked at it and started laughing. She said " I don't think I'm supposed to show this to you, but I have to because it's so funny!" Of course she had to show me the text...she couldn't say "Oh, Lee just text me"...and then laugh out loud and let me sit there wondering. Bad timing, Lee. The text said "What size bra does Megan wear?" First of all, there was not a hi, how are ya, or even a hello.. just straight and to the point. Second of all, why does Lee assume that Brandy even KNOWS what size bra I wear? Does he think we sit around a talk about each other's boobs and brassieres all day?? She  said " I don't even know how to respond to this!" Obviously, I was getting either bras or trashy  (I mean tasteful) lingerie for Valentine's day. Bummer...yeah I wanted bras but not for Valentine's day!! Oh well..its the thought that counts right? That night I went home and messed with Lee's head. ( sometimes I'm mean) We were standing in the kitchen and he said "I got your Valentine's present today!" And hugged him and said "Awwww, as long as it's not chocolate or underwear I'll be so happy!" I had to control my laughter when he got a big nervous look on his face..BAHAHAHAHA! Well kids..I was wrong about ol' Lee. He ended up suprising me with a VERY thoughtful gift..or what I thought was pretty thoughtful..not to mention awesome! BEHOLD....



That's right! Lee got me a gift certificate for an appointment at The Full Cup (PUN intended)...and there goes my last male reader. It's a bra fitting salon! 100 smackaroos to a salon that pampers you and fits you in fancy, schmancy, oh so comfy bra! I was expected to open a box from victoria's secret and find a bra that didn't fit me or restricted the girls. But no, my thoughtful little husband to be got me a wonderful gift. I was very impressed! Yay! Ok..so enough hooter hooplah! For Valentine's day we spent the day together. We went to a restaurant called Fire Ninja and had some yummy yummy sushi. Lee and I had sushi on our first date. Well our semi-first date. Nick and Shay would know what that means. I'll never forget it. I was so nervous, I somehow managed to spill Japanese beer all over my plate, got rice down my shirt, and struggled with the chopsticks. Even on our Vday date..all of the above commenced..except I manged not to spill Jap beer because this time I had a much more sophisticated drink. The Hello Kitty..and I only manged to dribble that one down my chin. (woop woop)

Get ready for the next part of our date. This was more of a Lull if you will. I heard on the radio all week that there was a contest at pembroke mall (imagine tanglewood..but worse, and carpeted..I know right?) that was giving away a trip of your choice to either NYC, Vegas, CARRIBEAN CRUISE, or snowshoe) Really, snowshoe? Who would choose snowshoe after all  of those choices?? Our guess was that airfare wasn't included..go figure. But who am I to pass up a free trip somewhere? Not this girl. So we went to the mall and signed up and our chances looked pretty good. You had to be present to win, and I'm pretty sure there were about forty people there. They kept calling out names and no one was there..my heart was beating really fast because I thought for sure they were about to call my name! Nope...not even a free necklace from Kay? There's three hours I'll never get back! ...I'll have to agree with Lee that the anticpation was nail biting fun!

After THAT, we went to see Valentine's Day. The movie. I know, it's cliche..no booing please. It was cute. I liked it a lot..I won't say I LOVED it but I did enjoy it. Plus we had a free gift card from Christmas and it was well worth it. So there. That was my Valentine's day.....How did everyone else spend theirs? I'm dying to know!!.......................

L-O-V-E,

Megan (and Lee)