Pho Fridays

After driving an hour to Roanoke just to have Pho at a Vietnamese restaurant, Joey and I have decided that we are going to make a tradition of Pho Fridays once we get to Charleston SC and have more Vietnamese restaurants close by. Pho is just the best comfort food, especially during cold months. And the best part is, its dairy and gluten free so your body still feels healthy and not sluggish after a big, hot bowl of it.

Props.

Some link love:

Want to know what Pho is?

Our favorite Vietnamese (and the only purely Vietnamese place, not some asian catch all) place in Roanoke.

Love Locks

[Russia]

[Italy]

[China]

[Germany]

[Japan]

I don't love very many sentimental and especially popular things, but when I saw love lock fences and chains in Italy, I adored it. Joey and I plan on somehow incorporating this idea into our life together.

Engagement Photo Preview!

I am happy to share some of the preview photos from our engagement shoot on Saturday with Brinn Willis of BMW Photography! It was such a joy working with Brinn again, and despite my nervousness prior to the shoot, Joey and I had so much fun with her and turned out to be a great de-stressor. What a wonderful afternoon!

I absolutely loved the idea of a canoe or boat--lucky for us, Brinn (you know, that awesome woman that took our awesome photos) had one, and though we were so worried about tipping over, I am beyond glad that we were able to include something so fun and unique.

I wanted to make a quilt for Joey and I to use in our engagement photos. I bought fabric in our wedding colors and spent the week before the shoot cutting over 100 squares and putting it together. To finish it, I hand stitched our names and a big 'F' for Fleshman in one of the corners.

After scoping out the trees we were able to find a spot to hang my refashioned "chandelier" from this post.

This is also the blue lace dress I mentioned in this post. Determined to sew a successful dress I made a mock up out of muslin, fit it just right, and made my own pattern pieces to ensure a perfect fit (which was great since I bought the original pattern in 2003 and the back pattern piece was nowhere to be found!). Don't worry, another post with photos of the dress is already in the works.

And did you notice my hair piece? I brought Joey's tie with me to the fabric store to find just the right green, and made the silk accessory the night before the shoot. What's more, no sewing machine required--all you need is a glue gun and a lighter!

I also chose to wear my cameo that I bought at a flea market in Siena, Italy. Its simply gorgeous and I just had to show off my authentic Italian, vintage find.

My final (and last minute) project was a couple signs: one for me that said "I said Yes", and another for Joey that said, "She said Yes".

Call me excessive, but I loved every minute of sewing, thrifting, crafting, painting, and designing, and I truly adore the way everything turned out. I'm so excited to see the rest of our photos (did I mention that they're by Brinn Willis?), and even more excited to marry the greatest guy around!

Brinn's blog. Check it out.

DIY Chandelier Refashion

In deciding how I wanted my engagement photos to look, I was inspired by things like this:

I knew I wanted to have some kind of fixture hanging from a tree for my engagement photos, (which Brinn of BMW Photography is taking on saturday!), so I headed to the Habitat for Humanity ReStore and found this beauty.

I took her home, dusted her off, and got rid of the rusty chain and wires.

After four coats of white spray paint, she was ready to get a little more oomph.

Voilà! It is nothing like the fancy chandeliers I've seen all over the wedding blogs lately, but it'll fit our style and will look really neat hanging from the beautiful autumn trees.

The break down:

• Light fixture: $5
• spray paint: $.86
• pearl strands: $6

Total: $11.86

Not too bad for a photo prop that I can use again at my reception in May huh?

Parent's Weekend

[Hot stuff right there]

[Joey with his mom, dad, and sister Alex]

A fun weekend, but a very busy weekend!

DesignFest!

No one asked how I spent today, but I'm going to tell you anyway! Work has definitely started to pick up and things are being scheduled and tweaked every hour. So off and on for over 8 hours today, I have designed the following for SVU's Travel Study Program:

Six individual posters for upcoming trip meetings, which included time scouring my collections of travel photos and my own trip photos (which always takes longer than you think to find a usable photo)...

Formatting the posters for six slides to play on flatscreen monitors around campus...

An 11x17 poster of all of the interest meeting dates, plus reformatting it into a 3x6 handout...

And updating the Travel Study website (which I'm still in the process of doing), which, for someone rather inexperienced in web design like me, is always a major project!

My eyes and fingers definitely need a break!

Book: The Happiness Project

Last year I saw this book while I was at Anthropologie in New York City, and upon returning to Virginia, ordered it from the always cheaper Amazon. Now its been my go-to book whenever I have some spare time to read.

I can honestly say I definitely recommend it. Now, it is a personal memoir, so a reader must take some things with a grain of salt, but it general, it is enlightening and creates a mental and emotional environment for personal inspiration and insight.

For example, While reading the book, I started to feel guilty that it was taking me so long, that I hadn't finished it in a couple weeks. But here's what I think Gretchen would tell me: Who cares! Probably what I've learned the most while reading this book is that I have to be Meg--not some idea of who Meg should be or who she's "supposed" to be, but Meg. Who cares if I can't read for hours on end? Who cares if I don't love playing sports at ward activities? I like what I like. I don't have to want to like everything or do everything. Obviously there are some things in life that are more important and I want to pursue (like exercising more, learning about emergency preparedness, various things that will help me raise a family, etc), but in general, I just need to be Meg. I like to sew or make extra details to package a plate of treats, I like to hand write letters once a week, I like to read interesting and unique news articles, I like to try new foods, I like to organize regularly. Some people might not like those things at all, and that's ok. What really matters is that I'm trying to be my best self, live my faith, and love those around me, and that is what makes me truly happy.

[Here is Gretchen Rubin's website dedicated to the happiness project]

What insights or inspirations have you gained that have helped you be your happiest?

TOMS got me

I've never really like TOMS shoes...and then I found these at Nordstroms.

Our Saturday Afternoon in Polaroids

With half an hour to kill before we had to go to dinner before Stake Conference, Joey and I took an unexpected trip to Boxerwood Gardens in Lexington.

(notice the flowers on my cardigan that I made myself!)