Wedding Series: Bridal shower fun (picture heavy!!!)

I mentioned in a previous post, my sister got married a couple of weekends ago. It was an ABSOLUTELY fabulous time.

Because her friends are all over the world, we decided to have her bridal shower the Friday before her wedding weekend. It was definitely a fun event and the hall location which was on the 6th floor of the church wedding ceremony was just amazing!

Here are some pictures from the bridal shower.

Here's the bridal shower invitation that was sent out.

Some pictures of the centerpieces and favor bags as we set up. Check out the doorway. How cool is that?

A close up of the door.

The main cake. A picture of my sister and her husband.

No post will be complete without one of my little munchkin :-D.

Aunty and her niece. Too cute!

And there's the diva herself. My beautiful niece striking a pose!

And of course we had some cupcakes as well. 

Cousins bonding. I really enjoyed seeing them all get along so well this weekend.

My oldest niece and my youngest niece. My oldest niece is the coolest and oh so beautiful inside and out. She really is a blessing to our family and she definitely acts the part. I love her soooooo much. She is also my God-daughter so she has an extra special place in my heart :-D.
My youngest niece is just so cute and full of surprises. I love when I catch her and she gives me a smile. It completely melts my heart. She is also the closest to JOE. They are only 4-months apart. Future BFFs I tell ya!

The bride herself and the daughter of a friend of hers who flew in for her wedding.

And there are those cake pops. YUM!!!

Setting up.

Food food food. YUM YUM YUM!!!

Some of the crew. From the left: My sister in law, my sister (the bride), my immediate younger sister and my youngest sister.

From the left: My sister in law, me and her sister.

The "story book" I made for my sister and her husband. Folks enjoyed reading it.

It was an event filled with laughter.

Even JOE had a fabulous time!

The bride thanking her guests.

My GORGEOUS niece!

The groom's family was also there. His mom, sister, grand parents and aunties made the trek from Scotland. It was such a big family event.

JOE and her grandma (my mom). Wonder who JOE looks like? Well, there she is!

I mean, doesn't she look like a beauty queen? Also very smart and has the most generous heart! Love her!

It was an event to remember. We really had a great time celebrating her bridal shower. 

Up next, the Nigerian ceremony! Another day of fun festivities. Until next time...

Hair update: 40 to 47+ weeks post

I am now officially 47+ weeks post texlax (will be 48-weeks tomorrow). Its been a pretty painless journey for the most part. Like I have said in the past, I never really did much with my hair so this transitioning process has given me the perfect excuse to do even less :-D.
I have been rather tired in the evenings so for the most part, I have been wearing my hair in a bun.

But here are some styles I have tried in recent weeks. I think these'll likely be my "go to" styles once I finish chopping the rest of my processed ends.

Flat twists with my faux puff at the back. I love this style so much, I wore it for my sister's wedding.

Wedding hair. Side view.

Wedding hair. Front view. Yup...JOE and I were sporting matching hair styles. Except that's all her hair and I needed a faux puff :-D.

This was a simple "wrap around" twist I did a few weeks ago. I was lazy, it was easy and it worked :-D.

Then last weekend, at 47-weeks post, I am not quite sure what happened but I deep conditioned my hair, washed it and then got a pair of scissors. 

I still don't know what I was thinking!

Thankfully, my sanity returned and I stopped before I did too much damage. Well, not entirely. I have always said my hair needs to be able to fit in a puff. Well, the back and middle fit but then I noticed as I was chopping in front that it wasn't long enough. That was the reality check I needed so I STOPPED!!!

Needless to say, the back of my hair and the sides for the most part are now completely natural (chemical free) and the front still has some processed ends.

I was trying to get a good picture of my curl pattern. This is freshly washed hair with nothing added yet.

With my shea butter mix.

To celebrate my birthday dinner that evening, I decided instead of doing the regular updo, I would do something different.

So I threw on a hair band. Woohoo!!! That should tell you how lazy I am with my hair because that was my idea of "doing something to it" :-). 

At this point, I think I have just one more "chop" left. I plan on waiting until all my hair can fit in a ponytail before I do any more snipping. Hopefully, that'll be in 4-weeks when I will officially be 1-year post. If not, I'll wait it out. Then again, like last weekend I might get scissor happy on my 1-year anniversary :-D.

There you have it. My hair journey thus far. I don't have any specific hair goals so far. Just want to grow out my natural hair and see how I feel about it. There are no promises that it'll stay unprocessed. But I will try it out and see. Plus perhaps I'll get bold and color it? GASP!!!

Do you have any hair goals? If so, what are they and how are they coming along?

Have a blessed weekend and remember to be kind to strangers!

Photo Dump Wednesday: Another year of blessings...

I celebrated my birthday last week Thursday. It was definitely an awesome celebration and considering we had just gotten back from my sister's wedding a couple of days earlier, J and JOE did an awesome job making it an extra special day for me.
I typically take the day off on my birthday to celebrate me and give me a chance to re-evaluate and be thankful for my life, my family and my friends. But because I had just gotten back to work from some time off the day before, I ended up going into work and leaving 2-hours early.
What did I do with my 2-hours? I SLEPT!!! I know, sounds boring but it felt like the best sleep I have had in the last year! It was soooo good to get a solid 2-hours of uninterrupted during the day :-D.

J ordered me a bouquet of my favorite roses (yellow roses). They were to be delivered to my job but due to scheduling issues and my leaving early, the flowers were not delivered at my job. Instead, J had to pick them up and bring them home. It was still a beautiful and pleasant surprise :-D.

I love the cards that my friends and family take the time to write up and send me on my birthday. It truly makes my day.

And of course, no birthday would be complete without my favorite cupcakes from Red Velvet Cupcake. LOVE that place! Thanks J for always thinking of cute ways to make my birthday awesome!

JOE got me a $50 gift card to DSW! Now, that's MY child :-D. Totally knows the way to her mom's heart.

On Saturday, while J's parents watched JOE, J and I went out for dinner and frozen yogurt to celebrate my birthday. We had a great time. Oh and stay tuned for my next hair update post.


I know it is not TBT but this was just too cute not to post. My mom had this laying around when we went to MA last week. My older brother is on the right, I am on the left and we have a family friend in the middle. By the way, those red shoes I have on were my ALL TIME favorite shoes when I was a kid! I immediately recognized them when I saw the picture. Oh the memories :-D.

Have an awesome hump date. Hope the rest of your week is TERRRRIFIC!

DIY: Bridal shower favor bags

My sister got married over labor day weekend in MA. Because she lives in Europe, we decided to have her bridal shower the night before her Nigerian wedding. That way, her friends would already be in town for the festivities. It made perfect sense and worked out so well.

I decided to do the favor bags for the bridal shower and I must say I love the way everything turned out. It was more cost effective and also gave everything a personal touch.

The theme of the shower was "Sweet Treats" and the colors were pink, white and gold.

I printed these labels for use on the boxes that would go in the favor bags. I loved the way the wordings rhymed. And before you ask, I found this while doing a Google search. It is not original to me so feel free to use :-).

These were not the easiest boxes to assemble since they came with no instructions. however, a quick search on Google led me to their YouTube page which was very good at explaining how to assemble them. Once I did the first box, the rest of it was much easier.

Finished product. Each box was filled with Hershey's Kisses. 

The next items to go in the bags were the homemade chocolate covered Oreos. I got these sprinkles from Michaels.

2 bags of candy melts. I was able to make these ahead of time and transport them to MA. It was much easier than trying to make them when I got to MA.

J and I worked as a team to get these done. I decorated the cookies and J added the sprinkles before they solidified. 

While JOE looked on longingly and hoping we wouldn't catch her snatching a cookie. Thankfully, she didn't and since she was so good, we gave her a couple of cookies. We discovered our daughter's love for Oreo cookies during out trip to Mexico earlier this year. I didn't even know she knew what Oreos were. She amazes us each day!

I tried to shape them like roses by using my fingers to do swirls.

Finished and bagged cookies.

A labor of love :-).

We grew up drinking lots of hot chocolate and I figured this would be another yummy treat to share with the guests especially since hotel rooms often offer coffee and tea and no hot chocolate.
This is the brand of hot chocolate we like in our household so I chose to use it since it is one I am very familiar with.

Each container would have some white and some dark chocolate morsels.

I ordered labels online to put on the top of the containers. This was definitely a good deal because I was able to get a coupon code online and only ended up paying about $16 (including shipping and handling) for these labels as well as the ones for the actual favor bags. These labels read "Just add milk or water to make a cup of chocolate your go-to treat."

All ready for consumption :-).

Finished product.

And of course, everything had to go in somewhere. These were the other set of labels I ordered. It reads "So sweet of you to come!" I put them on white bags I purchased from Michaels. 

J was very instrumental in putting all the treats in the bags. It was another "assembly line" process. I put the tissue papers in the bags and J added the treats. I love the way they turned out!

In addition to the favor bags, I also did a "Fairy Tale" book of my sister (Abi) and her now husband (Craig)'s love story. 

For this effort, I used Shutterfly. They have a good selection of options for photobooks and since I have used them in the past with no issues, I trusted that the photobook would turn out great. And it did. Guests loved reading their story!

Since it was a sweets treat shower, it wouldn't be complete without some sweet treats! For that, I made some chocolate covered donut holes! These were very easy to make.
All you need are chocolate donut holes (I got mine from Dunkin Donut), some candy melts, lollipop sticks and cupcake liners!
- Melt the candy according to the directions on the bags
- Dip one end of the lollipop sticks in the melt and insert it in the donut holes
- Use an icing knife (a regular table knife will work if you know how to use it) to fully coat the donut holes with the candy melt
- Put it in the cupcake liner and let it harden for at least an hour.

I have so many pictures from the shower and wedding festivities and can't wait to share them with you next week. I'll have to do separate postings for each one. Until then, have a wonderfully blessed and safe weekend!

And remember to be kind to strangers!