a year in review.

January:

February:

March:

April:

May:

June:

July:

August:

September:

October:

November:

I was a little slack on taking pictures this month.

December:

Crowe Christmas Card

Each year my family takes a unique Christmas picture that we send out to all of our family & friends. This year, my Mom and Dad came up with this cute idea & rhyme to go along with our wedding!

"HO! HO! HO! Caitlin must go...Its her last Christmas as a CROWE, We've been busy planning a wedding all year, but now its time to spread some Christmas cheer, so to all of you we hold so dear, Caitlin's last name will be YOUNG next year!"

From left to right: Cliff {Fiance}, Me, Cody {Brother}, Dad, Mom, Cameron {Adopted Brother from another Mother}


Last year's {2009} Christmas Card

bridal shower theme idears

163 days to-go.

In saying that, it's time to begin thinking about bridal shower themes.

Here's some interesting ideas that I've came across.

Please share shower themes & ideas that you have attended that were a great hit!

• Stock the bar
• Lingerie shower
• Wine and Cheese Tasting
• Around the clock- Write a different time of the day on every invitation so each guest brings a gift related to that time like a Starbucks gift certificate for in the morning or a cookbook for the evening.
• Bed and Breakfast- Picture a quaint little inn. Decorate with soft colors and lots of flowers. Guests are asked to bring any gift for the bedroom or kitchen. Favors could be fancy chocolates or a sachet pillow.
• All Throughout the House: This may also be called a "room by room shower." Guests are assigned a room of the house and asked to bring an appropriate gift. Examples: kitchen...blender, bathroom...towels, bedroom...sheets, etc. Your centerpiece could be a grapevine birdhouse decorated with flowers, and favors could be mini houses.
• Alphabet Time: Each guest is given a letter of the alphabet, and is asked to bring a gift that starts with the letter. This idea can work well for teachers or anyone who works with letters.
• Garden party- Wonderful gifts include gardening tools, flowerpots, flower seeds, potted plants and a watering can. You could even give the bride a sun hat and a handmade voucher for an hour of weeding so she can get out of weeding the garden.  

I'm ALIVE & ALL is well!

Hi fellow blogger friends! Let's just say......"I'm BACK!"

I never intended to take such a long break nor did I intend to lose touch with all of you guys. One thing led to another, and well needless to say, I pretty much have spiraled out of control.

I have recently opened up a vinyl monogramming business in partnership with my future mother-in-law. We have been SLAMMED. It all started about the week I quit blogging... say, October something? We actually started out slowly by selling Geneva Silicone Watches & little what-nots that could be monogrammed easily. Shortly after, we began broadening our inventory daily. We purchased a domain, a website, an online storefront, a few machines, hundreds of sheets of vinyl, ohhhhhh the list continues... picture frames, clipboards, notepads, re-usable totes, glass plates and platters, buckets, tin pails, baby items, glassware, glass blocks, ornaments, etc.

Since we had such a short amount of time to get the business up and running prior to the holidays, we worked 24/7. FYI: staying up till midnight or later e.v.e.r.y. single night and waking at the crack of dawn just isn't my thing. But I did it. We pushed forward and although it didn't seem like progress at the time, we have certainly came a LONG way from the very first day when this whole business was just an "idea" being tossed around in our heads. 

Now that Christmas and the Holiday's are over, business has began to slow down and I have a few moments to catch back up on the life I've put on hold for quite some time now. I hope to take it back a few months and catch up on posting about things that have happened and document this whole "business" process. I want to one day look back and see how far we've came.

For those of you that are interested, feel free to take a look at our website: theembellishboutique.com
Also, "Like" us on Facebook!

Here are a few store photos.

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!

I can't wait to catch up on everyone's stories & share some of my lost time :)