Happy Father's Day!

Happy (belated) Father's Day to all of my wonderful fathers! I am lucky enough to have three fathers in my life- my father, my step-father, and my father-in-law. I love them all so very much and am grateful for each and every one of them!

Oh how I love my daddy! When I was growing up all of my friends were envious of how cool my dad was. :) He loved to go shopping, bake all kinds of delicious treats and we would stay up late watching all kinds of movies. And they are right, he is pretty awesome!! I miss him so much and wish we lived closer together so we could still go shopping, cook together, and have family movie nights! He has always been so supportive of me and I am so thankful for him!

My step-dad Greg has been a part of my life for a long time now and I am so thankful for him taking on the role of my second dad! He's always been there for me and our family, and I feel very special to have two wonderful fathers in my life! He's a very talented fellow with so much knowledge to share! I have learned so much from him and could listen to him talk for hours. I miss him so much too!

The day Tim and I got married I also got a third dad, my father-in-law Tim! He has welcomed me with open arms into the Donahue clan, and I feel very lucky to be part of their family! He introduced me to Rambo and oh-so-many crazy food concoctions (that I'm still not so sure about!). He's an inspiration to all of us, and I can't wait for all of the fun times ahead!

Thank you all for being such wonderful fathers! I am so thankful for your love and guidance. 

Here's a few more fun photos!:

xo!

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Fun and funky!

Lately I have been enjoying playing around and having fun with different nail polish colors. I have been particularly enjoying some yellow shades, mint greens, glitters, and metallic polishes. Here are some I am excited to try!

First of all, how great is that name? It's practically made for me!! This color is called "Cheeky Chops" and I love it! You can find it here. 

This one is called "The Full Monty". It seems like a great classic gold polish, good for all seasons! It can also be found here. 

I have this fun sparkly collection and I love it! These glitters look great alone or swiped over another color. These are currently on sale and you can find them here.

Last but not least we have "Mint Candy Apple" by essie. I adore essie nail polishes. They have a great color collection and the polish goes on so smoothly! I must add this to my ever growing collection! You can grab it too, right here!

I am slowly branching out and testing out different designs and patterns...nothing too impressive so far! I might just stick to good ole fashioned solid colors. 

Oh How Time Flies!

My oh my! The past week and a half has been so busy and as a result I have sadly neglected my little blog. So much to catch up on!

I started my new job last week and so far it has been great! I am adjusting to a new schedule and to commuting via public transportation, and my poor feet are exhausted! On the upside, I am learning so much and getting to be surrounded by creative people and projects every day!

Also, I discovered Native Foods Cafe last week and I keep wondering why on earth no one told me about this delicious establishment before?! It's all vegan and oh-my-gosh-so-good. Seriously, check out this menu. I am forcing myself to bring my lunch to work or else I will be eating/spending all of my money here every day. I am going to make it a weekly treat though!

More posts are on the way!

J.Crew and the Man Who Dressed America

The hubby and I watched this video the other night and I found it worth sharing! It's really interesting, particularly if you work in retail, are a J.Crew shopper, or lover of fashion. Hope you enjoy!

Monday, Monday

How can your week not get off to a good start after looking at the adorable face? Wrigley says, "Have a great week!"

I start my *new job* today and I am very excited! Wish me luck!

Coming up soon:

A continuation of the guide to Rome (I haven't forgotten! The next installment is a good one!)

Musings on True Blood...I am way behind the times, but I finally started watching it!

and Mr. Butter's very first adventure on the city bus!

A DIY Wedding

When Tim and I started planning our wedding I knew that I wanted to take on some DIY projects. I love arts and crafts and it was a great way to personalize our special day. Instead of going the traditional route of choosing wedding colors, we decided to choose a theme. We wanted to go to Italy for our honeymoon so we decided on a rustic Italian theme. Once we decided on the theme all sorts of fun ideas started pouring out! Here's some of the items I made for our wedding:

Boutonnieres for the groom, groomsmen and fathers. So simple to make and they will last forever!

A floral headband for our flower girl!

I made the pillow for our rings using a template I found via Martha Stewart. I love how it turned out!

A lot of the venues we looked at would not allow flower petals, so I decided to make a flower ball for our flower girl. I liked it better than having another bouquet and it was super easy to make! 

I wanted a simple cake (the simple ones always seem to taste better to me than the super decadent ones) and when I found these faux grapes I had to have them! 

I made a "thank you" ("grazie" in Italian) sign to put on the table with the favors for the guests. I used a map of Rome as the background. It's one of my favorite pieces from the wedding. I also built a mini wooden leaning tower of Pisa as a table accent. It was one of the more challenging projects but also very rewarding!

Excuse the poor quality of this photo- this was taken at our old apartment when I was testing out the set up. I found a little suitcase at one of the craft stores and decided it was the perfect card box! I added a few more faux grapes to spruce it up a bit. 

Instead of table numbers we opted to use table names. I drew pictures of famous Roman monuments for each table. Time consuming, but worth it!

Making our wedding invitations was another one of my favorite projects for the wedding. It saved us a ton of money, and although it was a lot of hard work, it was certainly rewarding! I loved the traditional Italian paper- it added just the right amount of color!

One night I stayed up late working on assembling the invites while watching Bridget Jones' Diary. I giggle every time I see this photo- it was a complete accident that I snapped the photo just as they were kissing!

Looking back through all of these photos makes me a bit nostalgic for those days. I put in a lot of long hard hours but oh how it was worth it! 

Did you make anything for your wedding? What was your favorite project? I'd love to hear!

Butter Goes to the Beach

Yesterday the Donahue clan spent the day at the Oregon coast. It's always lovely getting to spend time with the family, especially a pretty day by the sea. Here's some photos from our little adventure!

This fella decided this was a perfectly good spot to take a nap. Good for you, buddy!

We were taking a few obligatory couple shots when Mr. Butter's father thought it would be a good idea to photo bomb us. Well played, well played indeed.

We played a round of mini golf and Mr. Butter scored a hole in one on the first two holes! In the end though it was a pretty close game. 

We also went for a ride on a surrey. Last year all six of us went for a ride, but the bike that was supposed to seat six of us this year was not quite large enough for all of us...We were holding on for dear life! But it was fun as always. :) 

And of course, a trip to the beach wouldn't be complete without some taffy! I love roaming the aisles to see all of the different flavors, but I really only enjoy the hot cinnamon. 

I already can't wait for our next trip over to the coast!