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.

let it snow, let it snow...

well my, my. look at the snow my lucky little tennesseans received...

stamp love...

it's been forever and more since i last posted...i just came back from a wonderful vacation and i'm in the process of moving so i look forward to settling in and blogging away...but for now and old time sake i'm gonna post a little post about some stamps i purchased a couple of weeks ago from etsy. i've been thinking about the wedding invitations and have decided to give embossed stamps a try. as i was browsing etsy, i came across these stamps below and became totally smitten and purchased away with glee. i'm not a hundred percent sure how i'm going to use them but i've got some good ideas....i can't wait to get started! and boy i can't say enough about etsy. it's an amazing store and i could spend all to the last penny there...

this customized adorable return address stamp is from foryoo ... i'm feeling white ink on dark-paper-bag-brown... we just got our customized stamp in and it's the cutest!! i don't want to jinx anything so instead of a last name it reads ST and then SONYA and TONY...love it!

this cutey is from nikoart. i'm thinking of using this on the very back of the invitation... i saw another stamp that's in the shape of a circle with the lyrics "all you need is love. love is all you need" that will most likely be my next buy... i think the owl within that circle will be icing!!

these lovebirds are from terbear. i love the clean lines and they will look fantastic embossed in pink... eeks!! i can't wait...

emotions running plentiful...

several things...one, i just finished the novel p.s. i love you. i haven't seen the movie yet and heard the book was better and now i can't wait to see the movie. i cried maybe, 1o times! what a book. it's my biggest fear: losing someone you don't want to even think about living without. i'll stop now so i don't start up again...yesterday the family celebrated my aunt and uncle's fortieth wedding anniversary. my uncle rented a big 'ol suite with the most beautiful view of the city. the piano man set the mood grandly and it was nice to enjoy everyone. love was in the air... i just received my dress green etsy purchases. hello christmas shopping! i could browse art on etsy forever and a day...of course that's where i found the prints up and below. something about birds i tell you. it's the flying. lucky devils.

(Top)

"Wild Garden"

(Left to Right)

"Flock"
"Lovely Bird Design"
"Little Sparrows"

my heart just skipped two beats...

so gorgeous my heart just skipped two beats...

a realization and some...

this past weekend i realized a few things...
1. tony makes the best spicy chili ever.
2. i'm a hopeless sucker for teeny-bop vampire romance. get it, "sucker"... get it.
3. joanna newsom's "sprout and bean" is my favorite new song.
4. hearing the preservation hall jazz band live makes me very, very, very happy. more then i thought jazz could ever possibly do.
5. the blind boys of alabama can see so much more than me. what an inspiration.
6. you're never too old to shimmy and shake.

forever and a day...

yes, it's been forever and a day since my last blog. geez, where to begin. my ring came in! i love it more and more, sometimes i can't stop staring at my hand...i feel so vain! bad me. tony and i book the reception hall next month followed by the church in february and then the details begin! i finished my third marathon..slowly but most importantly surely this past sunday. school is causing some distress, the new principal's expectations are up the wazoo and with wedding excitement, the marathon, and plain old reliable fun i just can't seem to sacrifice the much needed time it will take to get things done the right way. really, can the days be longer? but how can i complain. my lovely company makes all the difference. i am lucky and thankful. ooo, i just forgot my crazy, pathetic, psychotic obsession with the twilight books. tony's glad to have me back, although i'm dragging him to the theater saturday morning to see the movie. i think he's a little curious as to what the deal is. but really, what a story. a very unrealistic, fantasy, perfect world with perfect lovers and perfect endings kind of story. but still. ahhh. can i come back as a story book character in my next life, preferably bella...and tony as edward...see what i mean, pathetic and just plain weird, time to move on. my darlings moved back up to tennessee and my dad moved to el paso, my mom will soon be following and then so will tony and i for a little visit in january. we booked our flights today. we're planning a little vacation in new mexico for some fun in the snow ...hopefully with our family who are thinking of joining in ... ahh, much much to look foward to...

a lovely question...

on friday, october 3rd 2008, i happily accepted my lovely tony's marriage proposal!! that whole week i had been looking forward to that friday because tony was finally going to show me the "premiere" of our california vacation movie that he and his friend had been working very hard on for the past two months or so. let me say, the movie was amazing. tony had been raving about the cool effects and shots they were working on during the past months so i was so excited to finally see it. well, again, the movie...amazing. he made several copies of the movie but the one we were watching was a "special edition" because at the end was quite a lovely addition...a lovely proposal! he presented me with roses and a huge ring... and i'm talking huge... 7in x 8in! he actually made a huge gold diamond styrofoam ring! i'm not a ring gal myself, i actually only own one ring and that's my high school ring...my accessory obsession is earrings.....he knows my pickyness with jewelry all too well and the next day we found my PERFECT ring together: a unique emerald and diamond beauty by new york designer sarah perlis.