Just Another Manic Monday...

Today is going to be a busy day, actually this whole week is going to be busy! My plans for today:

Write and send out Christmas cards

Work on a baby shower gift (I will show pictures of this after the date)

Vacuum

Clean

Finish laundry

My plans for the week:

Finish working on a baby shower gift

Wrap Christmas gifts

Work on and finish handmade Christmas gifts

Bake goodies for my sis-in-law's baby shower (I'll post pictures of this in a later post)

Christmas shopping for my youth group girls

Attend the Family Force 5 concert in Las Vegas tomorrow with my little sis and her friend

Decorate guest bedroom

Grocery shop

Happy Monday!

Day 20: Hobbies of Mine

Going to the gym

Zumba

Belly Dancing

Scrap booking

Arts & Crafts

Dancing

Cooking

Decorating my home

Shopping

Reading

Blogging

Traveling

Camping

Painting & drawing

Fashion

Hiking

Day 19: A Talent of Mine

On day 17, I showcased a drawing of mine and stated that I would be showing more of my work for all of you. It has been a talent of mine for quite some time to draw, paint, and do anything arts and crafty! I love working with all media types: from acrylic, oil, pencil, ink, paper, and oil pastel. I love art and my passion truly lies with painting! I have to be honest though, I haven't painted for quite some time, it's been at least 3 years. My excuse - college and homework got in the way of my life. Anywho, here are some pictures of my favorite pieces that I've done.

The painting that started my love for art

(4th grade - watercolor on construction paper- My Version of Monet's Water Lilies)

(2001 - 6th grade - watercolor on watercolor paper - Island)

(2001 - 6th grade - watercolor on watercolor paper - Flower Field)

(2002 - 8th grade - oil - Vacation)

(2005- collage- handmade paper, acrylic paint, wood, calendar picture, and mod podge on canvas.

(2006 - oil pastel - Christmas Holly)

(2006 - acrylic and black sharpie - Dog Cartoon)

(2006/2007 - acrylic on canvas - Flower)

(2006 - oil pastel - Tiger Lilly)

(2007 - pencil and colored pencil - Sunflower) & (2006/2007 - acrylic and pencil- Ballet Shoes)

(2007 - Watercolor and glue - Flowers)

(2006/2007 - Acrylic - Geometric Letters)

(2004 - Acrylic on canvas- Flower)

(2003- Acrylic - Geometric Shapes)

(2007 - Acrylic - Black and White Tulip)

Recent Date Night and The 12 Days of Christmas

So I recently stumbled upon this blog, Love Actually, a few months ago after my best friend mentioned the site to me. This blog as well as the Dahling Dating Divas are my top favorite blogs right now. Why you ask? What these two blogs share in common is their love for love & marriage. It is the aim of both of these blogs, to give married women ideas to keep their marriage fun, exciting, and alive! One thing I love about these two blogs is that they offer dating ideas for those on a budget and offer free printables that you can use as well.

In October, I tried one of the date-night-in ideas on the Love Actually blog, called 'The Body Shop.' You can read more about the date-night and print off the free printables here. The theme of the date-night was a car-shop. From food, attire, decorations, and movie, everything was themed around a car body shop. Each room of the house was also given a name, as a normal car body shop would have, i.e. inspection garage, maintenance shop, and car wash. Here are some pictures from our date night:

(The invitation to the date night, which I appropriately put on the dashboard inside his car before he left for work, and a small gift. The gift was garage door openers - not too exciting I know, but our garage door openers had been broken for awhile and I had been meaning to fix them. The date night gave me an excuse to go get them done, plus it kinda fit with the theme of our date night). You can download the invitation printable at the Love, Actually blog here.)

(First stop - inspection garage. Here I gave him a mini gift for his car. You can download and print the free printable here at the Love, Actually blog.)

(Second stop - time to fuel up! I decorated our dining room table the best way I could to fit with our date night theme. I think it turned out pretty well. For the free Love, Actually printable.)

(Our feast: corn on the cob, spicy chicken wings, steak fries, celery sticks, and beer. Total guy food and super delicious!)

*The last stop was the car wash - not going to mention anything more. ;) To close the entire night, I had planned to watch 'Too Fast, Too Furious 2,' again the movie was about cars and the date night-in was car themed as well, but Raymond wanted to watch a war movie instead. Oh well, it was the thought that counts. Raymond and I had so much fun. I had never thought to do a date-night-in before, but I'm glad I tried it and I will definitely be planning more in the future. For this date night, I spent about $30, aside from food. This included all the decorations, attire, gifts, and paper utensils. I recommend going to The Dollar Tree for most of the date night supplies, it will definitely help you save money.

The 12 Days of Christmas...

I started doing the 12 Days of Christmas for my husband last year, and decided it was so much fun that I will definitely make it tradition in our family. Plus, it helped make Christmas shopping for him a lot easier. Whenever I asked him what he wanted for Christmas all he said was, "You." At the time, that didn't help me, but once I started thinking about the 12 Days of Christmas and reading a few blogs for ideas, I began to see how much of a servant I can be for my husband and to give him all of my love, which is all he truly wanted in the first place.

Instead of starting the 12 days on Christmas though, I start from the 12 days leading up to Christmas. Last year, I used the S.H.M.I.L.Y Time blog for various ideas to do each day - which included acts of service, gifts, compliments, and fun activities. Some of the things I gave Ray were: 100 reasons why I love him, breakfast in bed, love notes & candy filled inside his work bag, compliments hidden throughout the house, in places I knew he would find them, and foot massage, which had the story of Jesus washing His disciples feet and Luke 7:36-50 for Ray to read, to name a few.

This year I will be doing the 12 Days of Christmas Love, Actually style. I'm so excited for the 12 Days to begin and I already have ideas for next year too! This year he will be getting a gift each day and a note to go along, that explains the gift. Visit the Love, Actually blog above for the free printables. The delivery of the 12 Days of Christmas is a little different from last year. This year I put each note in it's own envelope and put the countdown on the front of the the envelope. I then attached all 12 envelopes with a clothespin to a Christmas garland that I have hanging from my stair rails and each gift is numbered and found under our Christmas tree too! Here are some pictures of the 12 envelopes:

For more ideas for the 12 Days of Christmas, check the Dahling Dating Divas blog here.

Happy Dating Everyone!

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas...

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas over here at the Morgan household. All our decorations are up, Christmas presents are making their way under our tree, smell of cinnamon spice and cookies are in the air, and Christmas cards are almost ready to be sent out to family and close friends. Not to mention that the semester is finally over for Christmas break too!

It's also beginning to look a lot like Christmas in our neighborhood and my parent's as well. I just had to show everyone a picture of this house in my parent's neighborhood. This house is crazy! There are tons of lights, Santas, Christmas trees, presents, ornaments, etc. Anything that is Christmas related, trust me, can be found in this person's front yard! It's a bit overwhelming when you first look at it because there is so much going on, but I love it! I haven't seen a home this decked out in a very long time, so kudos to them!

Christmas man's house during the day:

And, his house at night:

Day 18: My Wedding

I've already posted a lot about my wedding already, but I thought I'd share a few quick facts about my wedding and a few more of my favorite pictures from my special day.

My Wedding 101

I was married on May 30 in Las Vegas, NV.

Our wedding & reception was held at Sunset Gardens.

My little sister was the maid of honor.

I was 18 and my husband was 20 when we got hitched.

The color scheme was red and ivory.

Our cake was a 3-tier vanilla cake with raspberry filling and laced with red roses.

My bouquet: red roses, stephanotis, orchids, and green filler.

My sis-in-law did all the flowers for my wedding, and they turned out beautifully!

Pastor Mike Laughrun, from my church Hope Baptist pastored our wedding.

My cousin Kristen sung 'Inside Your Heaven' by Carrie Underwood for our first dance.

'Cinderella' by Steven Curtis Chapman was my father-daughter dance.

I almost fainted after the ceremony!

I had to take a break during the photo session after the ceremony because I got dizzy and couldn't stand. My daddy was the first one to get a chair and Hor D'oeuvres for me to snack on. Thanks dad!

I got my make-up done at Estee Lauder at Caesar's Palace for free!

My dress was a white, strapless ball-gown that I got at David's Bridal for on sale for about $300. (And it originally wasn't supposed to be on sale-but they gave to me for that price anyways!)

My little sister's best friend Suzi's older sister Christine did my hair and all my bridesmaids hair.

My something old/borrowed was my necklace and earrings set. It belonged to my grandma, who gave the set to me before her Alzheimer's Disease got really bad. I wore this set at my wedding.

My something blue of course was my garter, which was handmade for me by my mother-in-law.

We were engaged for 7 months before we got married.

We had been dating for four years before we got married.

Our honeymoon was in Rivera Maya, Mexico - Cancun area.

Sites I recommend for weddings on a budget:

http://www.orientaltrading.com/

http://www.partycity.com/

http://www.joann.com/joann/home/home.jsp

http://www.michaels.com/

http://wedding.theknot.com/wedding-planning/wedding-budget.aspx

http://budgetdreamweddings.com/

Books I read during my engagement:

Sacred Marriage by Gary Thomas

Before You Plan Your Wedding... Plan Your Marriage by Greg & Erin Smalley

Bride Ideas: A Creative Wedding Journal and List Maker by Stella Kim

Cheap Ways to Tie the Knot: How to Plan a Church Wedding for Less Than $5,000 by Cara Davis

A Simple Wedding: A Faith-Filled Guide to Enjoying a Stress-Free Wedding by Sharon Hanby-Robie

A Piece of Art

For today, I am to share a piece of artwork - a painting, sculpture, collage, etc. I thought I would share one of my pieces of artwork for you. In two days, I will be posting more on a few of my talents, in which I will showcase more artwork that I've done. As most of you know, I love to draw, paint, and do anything that involves arts and crafts. I love to create! The artwork below is a close up of a piece of holly that I drew in my high school art class in 2006/2007. It is done with oil pastel and sprayed with a finisher for shine and to protect the surface from damage. I wish I could tell you what I named the piece, but I don't have a name. Today, I will call it Christmas Holly.