ideas and inspiration

guys, it's only been a week since my last post, look out! mostly I'm here because I can't stop scouring random blogs and decorating magazine sites for ideas and inspiration for the new apartment. i can't wait to cozy in with a blank canvas to work with! so i decided i needen an outlet for all this stuff i was coming upon and so here i am! here's a few glimpses of what i've found:

here's one I'm super excited for

at first i passed through this picture almost immediately but just as quickly had to go back to it. i LOVE teal and red. i can't get over it. so i tried to think of where I could incorporate this into our new place without buying a bunch of new stuff. then it came to me... bathroom! the napkins here in the picture are toile which would make a lovely shower curtain that would pop perfectly against pale, barely there aqua walls no? Then between our towels, bath rug and coutertop accessories which are all brown, we'll have enough balance in the room and the dark will really stand out richly against the other colors. YUM!

and more fun

although I'm still slightly debating this, i think we're going to go deep blue in the bedroom. love, right? riiiiiight :) mostly the debating is between the shades of blue. I found this picture and fell in love with the richness of the blue wallpaper (it's hard to see but it's also patterned- which i love but i don't think wall paper is among my options... and probably quite the hassle too!) the other thing i loved about this picture is that it mixed the blue with browns and whites which is what we have and what i wanted in the bedroom although ours will be lighter with more beige that brown brown.

here's another shade of blue i'm loving. what do you think? too bold? or just enough?

here's a spontaneous one for you

i found this one yesterday and LOVED this color combo. we've got a pretty dusty rose, with the deep brown and cream and a slight hint of lime. NEVER would have came up with this my own but then realized this would actually be perfect for our kitchen (which i couldn't figure out!) and it would flow very well with our adjacent living room. for the living room I'm going to do a dark purple, think warm eggplant or plum. I'm not going to do this on all of the walls though. i can't remember for sure how our particular apartment was. i know we have crown molding at least around the ceiling. however if we have it halfway down the walls too, I'll do the purple on the bottom. If we don't have it on the walls, I'll paint the focal wall the dark purple and the rest a sandy beige or something to go with our furniture. I haven't found a great picture that has inspired me for that one so i guess you'll just have to wait for the after pictures that will come somewhere down the road.

=)

does anyone else get this excited and crazy when the option of paint is presented to them?? I think i've lived with cinder block walls and roommates for too long... while it was wonderful that time has passed and I'm SO ready for my darling big girl apartment.

ooh boy are we just getting to the good stuff <3

busy busy busy

well it's been quite a while since we've had an update on here and it's about time! life is wonderful, crazy, and never a bore. being married to your best friend is a great adventure. you don't think you have more to learn about eachother until you live together, then boy do you learn! there are times when you have to stretch yourself, rise above your habitual ways, and really take a step back and take a look at the bigger picture. not that marriage is a trial, it's not :) but if you plan to learn and grow together you have to be willing to actually do so. nhat may mean some discomfort, perhaps some arguing, and maybe a slight feeling of insanity of times. BUT this is all good for us. not to mention all the simple joys that come from married life, it's just overall a great deal. now, words of wisdom aside, here is what is new with the Shepherds! the wedding was great and the reception was such a kick butt party! Of course small details fell through but it was too late for anyone to really care and spending the night with family and friends was priceless. the next day steven and I left for Vegas where we flew out to cabo san lucas, MEXICO! our resort was right on the beach and it was gorgeous!! I will forever wish to wake up to the sound of waves outside my window. my favorite thing we did there was snorkeling (although I did swallow some salt water in the process). SO awesome. poor steven got sick while we were there though so we spent a decent amount of time aroung the resort. we still squoze in time for horseback riding, massages, and a dinner cruise though, yay!

well eventually the honeymoon ended and the reality of real life sunk back in as classes started up again. while the apartment came together fairly nicely as we got settled, it just hasn't been a great fit for us and we decided to look for someplace closer to school and work, in a student complex, and with a dishwasher :) and we found one! so, we will be moving in the beginning of december. oh, and did I mention we can paint the walls WHATEVER color we'd like? double bonus.

besides the big stuff, I crashed our scooter last week and am currently recovering. in reality I didn't get it too bad but my right let did get pretty banged up and some of the cuts are getting infected so thursday the doctor gets to check that one out. but no broken bones or serious trauma so i'll take that as a win.

Steven is working hard to wrap up his midterms this week and then we might get to relax for a weekend until my second round of exams starts up. sometimes it feels like we just run non stop until christmas. speaking of which I AM SO EXCITED FOR THE HOLIDAYS THIS YEAR!!! not sure if it's just that it's our first round of them together as old married people or if its because it means visiting everyone i miss and love. in a few weeks, we'll be flying to Colorado for my sister-in-law's wedding so we'll get to see all of Steven's family. Then thanksgiving in st. george with mom, the boys, and lots of grandparents, cousins, and aunts and uncles. then christmas in nevada with daddy-o then off to Portland for a friend's wedding!

so a book and a half later, here we are, decently up to date, just getting to the good stuff <3

Progess!!

Guys things are actually wrapping up! We're down to 8 days till the wedding day and everything is falling into place :) last night steven and I stopped by the craft store and picked up a few last things to wrap up some projects with. That being said, I finished the headbands for the bridesmaids today and they look awesome! Next on my list is the fabric hoops... you'll just have to wait and see them, and the paper fortune cookies. The cookies are a surprise for Steven, I found this idea on a blog and decided to make it my own. Inside the fortune cookies, I am going to have pieces to a letter I've written for him to be given on our wedding day. The cookies will be placed on the tables and the guests will bring them to steven throughout the night as they find them and start to realize what they are. fun, right? yes =) there really is not a whole lot left to do. This weekend we'll be moving the rest of stevens stuff into the apartment (minus what he'll need for the couple of days before we leave for St. George). Then we'll just get the place cleaned and organized, ready for us to come home, wrap up the loose ends, then we take pictures first thing wednesday morning with our photographer (to get some out of the way up here where its cooler) and head south for the crazy weekend!

bam.

This last weekend was probably the best in a while. With pioneer day as a holiday in Utah, I had an extra day off work which was perfect because Steven and I had plans to head down to St. George! At first we were going to have to come back for Monday, but then Steven was able to get his shift at work covered. awesome. We got SO much done this weekend it felt great! We drove down friday night and visited with family for a bit, then Saturday morning we ordered all the boutonnieres, corsages, and of course my bouqet. Then we stopped by our rental place to finalize details with our set up for tables and chairs. We then made the drive out to Pine Valley and figured out the arrangement for set up, what we still needed, and talked to the park ranger about the electricity and clean up. Coming back into town we picked up our napkins, got a birthday present for my Grandma (turned 60, the family threw a big party for her), and picked up bridal shower gifts for my roommates. Sunday we relaxed :) Then monday, we made arrangements for my makeup and probably hair to be done at the salon, bought new shoes for steven and I (mine are adorable!), picked up a skirt for my mom, and cups for the reception... I think that was about it! We picked up a couple of other things we needed for here and there but wow! SO much stuff crossed off of our list of to-do's and we are excited! today I woke up and realized a week from today I'd be heading into work for my last day before running off for the wedding, what a happy thought, I can't believe how close it is! 11 days and counting =)

mmm 23 days... we can do this right??

who knew so much could go crazy in wedding planning? Guys we finally have our venue set for the reception (!!!) and it is going to be lovely, but most importantly, not scorching hot. with this ginormous detail out of the way, we can send out the rest of our invites tomorrow and breathe, at least for a few seconds that is. Steven's ring came in the mail yesterday but I still have to have it resized, yikes! can you say rush shipping? I think that's the next biggest thing to take care of now that the reception is squared away. My mom is up from St. George now and on Saturday begins the baking/crafting/buying/planning fest of my life. We have centerpieces to put together, errands to run, details to cover, and lots of cooking and freezing to do in prep for the big day. oh how nice it will be to relax and enjoy the day when it comes! However a lot of the stuff we have left at this point is the fun stuff. Last night I bought fabric and started making the headbands I'm giving the bridesmaids and they are going to look awesome! plus they involve burning things which is always a blast. alas, first things first, there are more important things to be taken care of before I can play with those and finish them up such as... HARRY POTTER PREMIER TONIGHT! aka date night with Steven. beautiful =)

voila!

guys it all worked out! Thanks to my man of a man, who jumped on it with our photographer, we were able to iron our the complications with our invites and get them done and ready to go :) here's a sneak peak!


















Steven's brother Jeff designed these for us, don't they look awesome?! They fit perfectly the style I had in mind, and are simply lovely. loooooove it! note to self: crossing fingers works, duh.

introductions

you know what it's like when you're reading a good book and you just can't put it down because it's getting right to the best part? you know how sometimes a friend wants to change a song on the radio but you love it and make them wait till your favorite line you belt out is through? you know how dreamsicles have the creamy part right in the middle and you can't wait to make your way there after the first bite? (as well as cow tails, and those chocolate dinosaur eggs with the gummies in middle!!) this is me right now. the stuff that has led me up to this point has been quite a ride but now, we're getting to the good stuff. I am a bride to be in 38 days.
Meet Kayla and Steven

 adorable, right? we can be normal too













                                                                    mostly we're just a little on the ridiculous side though






lets be serious, its more fun





we're getting married 8/6/11 <3 which, from what i hear, is a great day to get married, although there still seems like so much to do before then. right now, we're mostly just trying to get the invitations in the mail. complications with our pictures keep pushing it back but we're soon going to be out of time! hopefully a good friend will be around to save the day so everyone can save the date. cross your fingers for us! <3