StoryTimeSaturday: Give your younger self a time-travel hug

A decade ago, my 19-year-old self was hopelessly lost. I'd dropped out of college twice; I was desperately bored and sad; and more than anything I just wanted to believe that I was a grown-up when I felt anything but.

Today, I feel grown up (most of the time); I'm happy and fulfilled. And sometimes (often lately, for some reason) I daydream about going back to late 2002 and explaining to then-Heidi that everything turns out A-OK, that if you follow your own dreams and idea of success, you'll get there.

I spent that time in my life questioning whether I was making the right decisions, even though many people around me didn't think I was. But I did what I felt like I needed to do. I was selfish, and I found my personal passions — even if that took trying four different colleges. I made lots of dumb mistakes (sorry, Mom) that took me to precarious places. I'm not exactly proud of everything I did, but I don't regret it either.

Those decisions put me on course to become who I am today. I want to give 19-year-old me a big hug, show her pictures of my wedding, my awesome group of friends, and my byline in the newspaper and say, "See, it all turns out."

But I also want to thank her for daring to go against what was expected of her to find what she really wanted — a creative job and life. I have very few regrets looking back, and that's because I've largely followed my internal compass, picking up external pieces of good advice from some very smart people. Surround yourself with those people, but if their guidance doesn't right true, it isn't what you should do. Listen to that almost-adult inside of you. She's smarter than you think.

So silly, lost, confused 19-year-old me, thank you. You're doing awesome.

*Hug*

Source: buzzfeed.com via Robin on Pinterest

StoryTimeSaturday: What I'm reading

I'm in this pattern of reading several books at a time. It tends to make reading go slower, so I'm not really sure why I've continued. Someone recommends a book to me, and I can't help but start it.

So here's what I'm reading.

Just Finished:

Source: buzzsugar.com via Morgan on Pinterest

Slowly reading chapter by chapter:

Source: barnesandnoble.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

My nightly bedtime book:

Source: amazon.com via Jane on Pinterest

Current book club selection:

Source: en.wikipedia.org via Shawna @ the Sky Parlor on Pinterest

Next on my list:

Source: itunes.apple.com via Martha on Pinterest

Got any recommendations for me?

StoryTimeSaturday: Bean boozled

We played "Bean boozled," over Christmas. It's an disgustingly awesome product by the makers of Jelly Belly. Essentially, there are different colored jelly beans and each color has the option of tasting like two different thing; one is delicious (like pears) and the other is revolting (like boogers). I took pictures as everyone bit into their selection, and it was so funny to see a) how people reacted and b) how quickly they realized whether it was dog food or chocolate pudding.

My almost-5-year-old niece Maia was an absolute hoot as she figured out she'd gotten rotten eggs and not banana.



Thanks to Jess for this post teaching me how to do my first GIF animation.

StoryTimeSaturday: Wedding hair and makeup (Part 6)

This is a weekly, eight-part series where I'm going to share just a small part of my wedding with you: the invitations, the photos, the decor, my dress, my makeup, my wedding party, the music and the dance. Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Whole series


This week we relive my hair and makeup. Kristen B at Salon Why? in downtown Fargo did my hair, and it turned out absolutely the way I wanted it. She is my regular stylist and also responsible for this, this and this haircut.







For makeup, I did my own. I knew that since I had a New Year's Day wedding, it was going to be hard to find someone working on a holiday morning.







I wore mostly Clinique products and followed pretty closely to my daily makeup routine, just using a little more than usual. I didn't want to look too made up.

Here's a rundown of my makeup:
Foundation: Clinique Perfectly Real Makeup in Shade 18
Blush: Sonia Kashuk Shimmering Loose Mineral Blush in Fairy
Eyeshadows: Clinique Color Surge Eye Shadow Duo in Double Date; and Sonia Kashuk Eye Shadow Quad in Brown-eyed Girl for a holiday shimmer.
Eyeliner: Clinique Eye-defining Liquid Liner in Black
Mascara: Clinique in black
Lipstick: Red-y to Wear in High Impact with Clinique long-last glosswear in Black Honey over top

StoryTimeSaturday: My wedding dress (Part 5)

This is a weekly, eight-part series where I'm going to share just a small part of my wedding with you: the invitations, the photos, the decor, my dress, my makeup, my wedding party, the music and the dance. Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

For so many brides, the dress is the most important piece of planning. I, too, loved my dress, but I was pretty relaxed about it.



I picked it out after trying on probably six dresses total. It was the last one my consultant showed me, and it had just come in that day. I was the first person to try it on.



What I loved about it was the heavy beading on the top and the fact that it was made of taffeta. The silhouette wasn't something I necessarily thought would work well for me. After trying it on, I fell in love with the shape it gave me, thanks to the sweatheart neckline and corset-laced back.




I had absolutely no alterations done, so my recommendation is to look for a corsetted dress if you want to save on alterations. I loved the numerous vintage-looking lace dresses I'd tried on, but I knew those need to pretty much be custom fit to really look great.

The dress is LoVeLa Style No. 9015 by Liz Fields. I purchased it at the Bridal Shop in Fargo.
 
This week's post is fitting because I just wrote a column for work about where my dress is now. Read that here.

Story Time Saturday: The wedding decor and cake (Part 4)

This is a weekly, eight-part series where I'm going to share just a small part of my wedding with you: the invitations, the photos, the decor, my dress, my makeup, my wedding party, the music and the dance. Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3


This week it's all about the decor. I did most, if not all of it, myself with the help of my friends and mom.


The cake. My mom's friend is a cake decorator, so we had her make a two-tiered seafoam green cake for us to share amongst the wedding party and keep for our anniversary. Each tier had clear rock candy as the edging, which made it oh so wintry.



We got the adorable wood cake banner from baumbirdy. It turned out fabulous, and we even used it for our second reception this summer.

Decorations. To me, decorations weren't a big deal. The venue we got married in was already so beautiful, with gorgeous woodwork and giant windows overlooking the river and trees.







We made a little "archway" on the windows for the ceremony area. I strung different colors, sizes and shapes of tissue paper on clear wire, securing it every foot or so with a dot of hot glue. I found some cute vintage-looking Christmas lights and wrapped the tissue garland around it. For as little effort as it took and as cheap as it was to make, I think it turned out pretty magical looking.



My favorite decorations were the faux snowglobes that stretched down the middle of the tables along with tall pitchers of "snow covered" branches.

My bff Cristen and I made these in one afternoon. Here's what you need:
Glass bowls from a craft store (We got two different sizes)
The bottom trays for terracotta flower pots
Spray paint
Faux trees (or little woodland creatures would be adorable)
Hot glue
Tiny foam ball snow. We found it worked best because it was full of static and stuck to the trees)
Tinsel piping

1. Spray paint the terracotta bottoms whatever color you want for the base.
2. Hot glue the trees on the base.
3. Turn the globe so the open part is face up and put a few tablespoons of "snow" inside.
4. Spread hotglue on the lip of the globe opening and secure the base (with trees attached) to it.
5. Hot glue the tinsel around the top of the base where it meets the globe to hid some of the other glue.

And voila, super easy, no-water-required snow globes.



We also spread different sizes and shapes of white candles all over the room. It gave a nice glowy look.


This was my throwing bouquet.

One of my regrets is that I didn't get more photos of the flowers. They turned out so beautiful. We went with a white and muted green color palette. Again, flowers weren't something I wanted everywhere because part of me felt really wasteful getting a boatload of flowers in Minnesota in January.

Story Time Saturday: The wedding photos (Part 3)

This is a weekly, eight-part series where I'm going to share just a small part of my wedding with you: the invitations, the photos, the decor, my dress, my makeup, my wedding party, the music and the dance. Part 1 | Part 2

My college friend, Chris Franz, who is an amazing photographer, took picture for our wedding. He did such an amazing job.

Here are a few of our favorites:






It was — no lie — 20-below-zero the day of our wedding. And look at all that frickin' snow.

StoryTimeSaturday: Wedding invites, crosswords and signs

Photo by Chris Franz

Last week, I started an eight-week series on my wedding, which coincided with a helluva blizzard. Read about it here.

Today, I want to show you my invites, custom crossword puzzles and programs.


I designed several versions of the invites myself, but after striking out having them printed the way I wanted, I ended up ordering from Minted.com. They were absolutely gorgeous, and I highly recommend them for any announcements, invites or thank-yous. This looks kinda ugly with how I crossed out our names and wedding website, but I assure you, they were gorgeous.


I designed this custom wedding crossword as one of our reception activities. I tied a tiny yellow golf pencil to to the top, and I think they turned out pretty darn cute. Interested in doing one for your own wedding or any kind of party? I'm considering starting an Etsy site to design them, but I'm not sure what the interest is.


Lastly, here are the simple programs I made to coordinate with the crosswords. They folded in half, so this is the back on your left and the front on your right. The inside listed the order of service and my attendants. I made a similar one for my friend Kathryn's wedding this summer. Again, if you're interested in me designing something like this for you, leave a comment.

Stop back next week for the next installment of my reliving my wedding.

StoryTimeSaturday: The wedding edition, Part one

Wedding photos by Chris Franz

Troy and I got married on 1.1.11. Despite our marriage being a dream come true, our actual wedding week was a bit of a nightmare.

By the time December rolled around, I was sick of people questioning my rationale for having a winter wedding in western Minnesota / eastern North Dakota. (For those of you unfamiliar with Fargo, it sits on the border of North Dakota and Minnesota. Our sister city, Moorhead is just across the Red River in Minnesota). But I have always thought winter here is so beautiful and magical, and the thought of starting the new year out as a newlywed was such a romantic notion.

By Christmas, the meteorologists were predicting a doozy of a blizzard for the weekend of our wedding. That doozy came a few days early and was followed by an even doozier doozy of a blizzard the next day. Back-to-back blizzards, even in North Dakota, are pretty unlikely. The entire state was basically shut down from Dec. 28 to Jan. 2. A 100-car pileup on the interstate left the roads closed for just as long.

I cried a few times, had a few bridal breakdowns, and I admit that it's sometimes still hard for me to talk about. I put so much thought and work into every aspect of our wedding — as most brides do — and it's still hard that we had a perfect wedding that only about a fourth of our guests were able to experience. So this series is partly therapeutic. For the next eight Saturdays, I'm going to share just a small part of my wedding with you: the invitations, the photos, the decor, my dress, my makeup, my wedding party, the music and the dance.