Bridal Shower

My friend, Krissi, just got married! Woo to the hoo!

She asked me to be one of her bridesmaids, and I was thrilled.  All of the other bridesmaids live up North, in New York, and they threw her bridal shower and bachelorette shindigs up there.  Since, I am down here with Krissi in good ol’ Florida, I wanted to throw her a party to celebrate with her southern friends.  Don’t be fooled though, we don’t have many friends down here.  We pretty much hang with just each other.  Anywho, I wanted to throw a bridal/bachelorette/girls night/Krissi day for my lovely friend.

Here’s what went down…

I knew I wanted to hang balloons upside down from the ceiling, because I have seen many cool examples on Pinterest.  Here is what I came up with…I bought clear-ish balloons and filled them with pink confetti glitter, then hung them from the ceiling with pink ribbon. I’ll give you a quick fun fact about Krissi, she is a health nut, and she was even more so because of her upcoming wedding. So, I made some cupcakes, which were the weight watchers recipe for red velvet.  I threw some colorful sprinkles on top, since I was going for a colorful “sprinkles” theme. I, also, framed a couple of my favorite photos of her and her hubby to be, Sean.I made another good ol’ mimosa bar, because a Krissi party isn’t a Krissi party without mimosas.I had other bevs for the non-mimosa drinkers as well. Plus, these amazing straws…I picked the dog faced straw for my drink, who woulda thought?To continue with the “sprinkle” theme I found these awesome polka dot baskets and serving trays at Michaels. I made white chocolate and sprinkle covered pretzels and popcorn.  I could eat that popcorn for every meal for the rest of my life.  Seriously, melt some white chocolate and pour it over some popcorn, you will not be disappointed,For favors, I did these cute little succulents in mini pots.  The big guy was for the guest of honor, of course. I found these little pink lanterns, that light up, at the dollar store. Sorry for being a bad blogger because I didn’t get a picture of them lit up at night, but it was really cool. Krissi was pretty pumped about the jello shots… Of course, we got her some goodies for the celebration. I drew her pup, Oliver, and also got her a couple things on her registry.   She, also, received some mula and even some pesos for her honeymoon in Mexico! Just look how excited Charlie was about the pesos! And, look how thrilled he was to be smooshed by me!

We had a blast, and we will miss our Krissi so much when she moves back to NY.  Love you Krissi!

Here are some photos from her fabulous wedding…

 

Life With Zack

In case you do not already know, I have a minor obsession with animals. I won’t even kill bugs.  You may think I am crazy, a lot of people do.  But I just can’t see why I should take a living creature’s life.  Now that I have you up to date on my obsession, I want to tell you about my main man, Zack.  This guy…

Who just so happens to be my favorite kind of animal, a dog. He’s a yellow lab to be precise.

When I was 11 years old, I went with my dad and my grandmother to Pennsylvania from New York, because my dad had to have THE best hunting dog.  He had the perfect genes to become the best duck dog my dad had ever owned.  I was just excited to get a puppy. I didn’t care what genes he had. We are a dog family, since I was a kid. We have always had at least one dog at all times, majority of the time, they were labs.  Zack was our second yellow lab, and he was the most handsome lab I have seen (I may be biased).  My dad didn’t want Zack to be a family dog. He was strictly a hunting dog.  This probably had to do with the fact that I spoiled our dogs and overfed them.  What can I say? They loved food, and I wanted them to love me.  Zack spent most of his early years training with my dad and hunting his little heart out.  He was a great hunter, but also great at destroying things.  He was a crazy young dog. One time, he even ripped part of the siding off of the back of our house.  Let’s just say my dad was less than pleased with Zack that day.

Fast forward a few years to when the “strictly hunting dog” goes everywhere with me and even sleeps in my bed.  It was a lost cause.  Justin also fell for him.  When Justin and I decided to move to Florida, my only condition was that if I go, Zack goes.  It wasn’t hard to convince Justin either, because he already loved him.  Unfortunately, I had to move without him for a month, and let me tell you, the night before we left was a rough one.  I cried and explained to Zack that he would be with us in just one month.  I kept telling Justin that I hated that I couldn’t make him understand, and I felt like I was abandoning him.  But, the month went by quickly, and my parents delivered Zack to Florida. Our lives went on like we hadn’t missed a day.

Everyone says Zack moved to Florida for retirement, and I guess he did, now that I think about it.  He spent his days with us lounging around the house, visiting the dog park, eating whatever he could beg his way into, and going for countless walks.

Even though he had some absolutely insane moments as a puppy, he was always such a sweet dog. He truly wouldn’t hurt a fly.  I remember walking him one time, and he got bitten by a neighbor’s dog. All Zack did was cry. No biting back. No fighting. Just whimpering.  I have never even seen him growl. I asked my dad the other day, if he had ever seen Zack growl, and he said he couldn’t recall a time either.

I loved coming home to his crazy smile. He truly was a happy dog.  Although, when we got our chocolate lab, Charlie, he did protest for a good 2 weeks. He spent all of that time in the bathroom, only coming out for food.  He eventually got used to Charlie and quit the protest.  We know deep down Zack loved Char, but we know for a fact that Charlie L-O-V-E-D Zack.

Zack was a tank. He never had any real health issues. The vet always said he had a strong heart and lungs at every check up.  In the last year, he started to have trouble making it outside to do his number twos, which wasn’t that bad, because he made it outside for his other business.  Fist bump for that one, Zack!  He also struggled on and off with pneumonia, and we thought we were going to lose him a few times.  A couple of weeks ago, our fears came true and the pneumonia did win.  He only had one rough day. Although I had to make the decision, I know he wouldn’t have made it through the night. I am just glad it was only one bad day, and I get to remember my many more happy days with Zack.

Zack was my shadow. I am not going to lie. I miss him like crazy, even his seriously heavy panting and my tripping over him every time I turned around.  I still wake up and expect to see him waiting on my every move. Even though he’s gone now, and I truly have sad days without him, I’m glad I had him for the 16 awesome years he was around. So, thanks for the good times, Zack. You were a great best friend.

P.S. Zack was the best dog ever to dress up.  So, I’ll leave you with some amazing photos of some of his favorite outfits.