small steps but a big leap...

i'm so excited about the wedding invitations. here's a rough draft of what i have in mind and have done so far. the first is the cover. it probably won't be so wide. the second is when the invitation in opened. the left is a pocket where the registry, reception, map, etc. info will be. i'll be using different pattern paper that meshes a lot more better than the red. but since this was the first i decided to experiment with the paper i'd least use. and i'm aware of the typo that since there are two hearts being joined heart should be PLURAL! but doesn't matter for now. i'll fix it, still so exciting!!!!

lovely day...

ms. ortiz, you have a gift waiting for you in the office. within nanoseconds all of the 20 very very curious pair of eyes fell on me. ummmm, what's today i asked. friday. february sixth they all offered at once. i looked dumbfounded and they all mirrored my expression. hmmm. it's not my birthday. valentine's next week. there must be a mistake. embarassing. i'm going to receive another teacher's gift and have to hunt them down after school. student a, go get it for me please. and off she went in a hurry and very excited to run the errand. whispers from student to student played background to my thoughts of wonder and stopped when in came wonderful student a with a smile on her face. i saw the bag and knew it was from tony. but why? well, the letter inside the gift explained it all and i felt like a selfish dud for not remembering. he wrote happy one-year-till-we-get-married anniversary. in case you want to practice. and inside was a fabric music bouquet that plays the wedding march. i melted... and left the class below as i floated on cloud nine for the rest of the day...

stop and smell the peonies...

i've been a bit obsessed with peonies lately. this picture would so be my wedding centerpieces if peonies were in season during the winter time. just a mason jar and three pink peonies. forget the jumbo and overdone brouhahas. this is beautiful, romantic, and simple. surrounded by small delicate laced candles, icing!

toot toot...

so, um, not to toot my own horn. but yeah.

in ruidoso i went into a corner store and found this lovely and sassy toothbrush holder. love it!

it's brrrrrr's turn...

tony finally got his wish for a brrrrr vacation. it was early january that set the month for tony and i's very first in-law-to-be vacation. we met my mom and dad in el paso and met up with his mom, sisters, cousin, aunt, uncle, and niece the following day. it was the first vacation for both sides of the family to take part in. the weather was so lovely now that i knew how to dress for it. i'm not a cold person one bit and cold weather is just a nightmare. but tony told me it was all about the layers. so i layered and layered and layered it on and voila! lovely weather! i just know if i lived in a colder climate i would be a scarf and vest obssessed freak. the drive from el paso to ruidoso took about two and a half hours. an half extra more because of a detour to white sands national monument. this was amazing! miles and miles and miles of white, and i mean white sand! beach sand can cause me to pout and whine but this sand was nothing like it. it rolled right off your skin, your feet, your shoes, your anything! we slid down some hills and it was so fun. the best part was seeing my dad slide down! it was crazy how you're driving along a deserted, dry, the-hills-have-eyes kind of road and then suddenly around the bend is nothing but evergreens. entering the adorable town of ruidoso with its shops and cafes, leftover snow on the sidewalks and huge mountains in the background was quite a view. tony and i shared a two bedroom two bath cabin that felt like a second home with my parents. his family shared a three bedroom cabin with the most amazing view of sierra blanco mountains. when we go back, we will definitely stay in a storybook cabin again, that's the name of the cabins by the way. it was so beautiful and the air was so clean and crisp. now i chickened out on the sleding and skiing. somehow i got a bad case of chicken fever. it hit hard and i didn't want to take the narrow winding road up the mountain twice so while tony and his family went skiing, my parents and i went shopping. it was a beautiful trip, definitely for those who appreciate nature. quite stunning for sure.