Permanent Makeup

Last week, the website I designed for Sally Hayes Permanent Makeup went live! Check out the new site here:

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Bridal Showers

Since I really haven't posted at all in the past year, I've decided to go back and recap some of the big events that have happened in our lives. Prior to our wedding, I had two amazing bridal showers thrown for me. The first was in Arizona, hosted by my good friend Stephanie and my aunt Shelly. The theme was "Something Blue" and included Tiffany boxes, giant diamond rings, and lots of blue - check out those blue martinis! The whole evening was absolutely beautiful...

The second shower was in South Dakota and was hosted by my sister Kelli and my sister-in-law Beth. We played lots of fun games, including dividing into three teams, each decorating a wedding cake! Each team got a two round cakes, four cupcakes, frosting, and a bunch of decorations. They could also use anything they could find in the room. I was so impressed with their creations and had a tough time choosing a winner!

 

Thanks to all these ladies for throwing me two amazing bridal showers. I had so much fun and felt so loved by all my family and friends. Thank you all for celebrating with me!

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Curb Appeal

When Philip first toured our current house, which was listed as a foreclosure, he emailed me this photo of it, and I was head over heals in love! It was the yellow stucco, clay-tile roofed house I had always dreamed of living in!

The problem was, when I went to see the house, it looked more like this. Not the curb appeal I had been expecting.

These photos don't fully show just how overgrown it was, as these were taken for the previous house listing before the house sat empty and unmaintained for nine months. It was so overgrown, you couldn't see the gorgeous detail of the house that I first fell in love with. As much as I love huge old trees, because they remind me of the green, tree-lined streets I grew up on in the mid-west, we decided this olive tree had to go. So our first project was to cut down the olive tree. We also moved the lemon tree that was blocking the front window to the side of the house, and replaced it with a palm. We cut down the oleanders on the sides of the front window and replaced with them with airier Mexican bird of paradise shrubs (which unfortunately aren't in bloom right now). We planted a few more flowering shrubs around the palm, filled the bowl in front of the window with an assortment of cactus (Phil's favorite!), and planted some flowering vines on the right side of the house. And we had about 10 tons of granite poured in the front yard, took down the driveway gates and added accent lighting. So, after a few days of hard labor, and the help of my amazing inlaws, we can now see the beautiful house we fell in love with:

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Cake Pedestals

After my post about the mobile cupcakery, my friend Steph offered to pick up some cake pedestals from Costco for me. Here they are...





How adorable are those!?! And the best part... They're only $20 for the pair! Now I just need to find a fantastic cake recipe so I have something to put on them!

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Gorgeous Photos + Adorable Cupcakes = Drooling

Check out these gorgeous photos shot by Jose Villa of the Enjoy Cupcakes mobile cupcakery. These images just make me happy. And hungry...

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For real this time...

Ok, so I think it's time I jump back on the blog bandwagon. Philip and I have been super busy working on our house, so I have tons of projects to post about, complete with before and after pics. And we have also been doing quite a bit of traveling, so I'll have some fun reviews and photos from all those trips! But before I dive into all that, I'm feeling the need to update my blog a bit, including the name. I would love to hear any ideas you come up with, as I'm terrible at naming. Please share your thoughts, and I'm looking forward to sharing what I've been up to for the past year! Cheers!

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I'm BAAAAAAACK!

Hello all! Sorry for the long furlough. Apparently getting married and planning a honeymoon to Europe takes a significant amount of preparation :) Now that I actually have some time to breathe, I can get back to my blogging. Over the next few weeks I'll update you on everything that happened over last six amazing months. Until then, I'll leave you with this passage that's been working on my heart this morning.
Mrs. Ellerbroek :)

John Ashcroft wrote that in order to clean up New York City, "Rudolph Giuliani started by going after the little things. 'I am a firm believer in the theory that "minor" crimes and "quality of life" offenses are all part of the larger picture,' he explains. Among the first elements to go were the 'Squeegee Men,' drug-addicted and shady-looking riffraff who personified New York's rough edge. Armed with a soiled rag and a dirty bottle of watered-down Windex, these men would bully and badger motorists for money.

"Giuliani said, 'We're not going to put up with this anymore,' and he brought this intimidation to an end. He then declared war on graffiti, subway panhandlers, loitering, broken windows, and petty vandalism - minor offenses that would have gone unnoticed in days past while the police force was overwhelmed with homicides and violent crime. But Guiliani had a hunch: If you send out a signal that you won't tolerate these minor offenses, people will get the idea that the major offenses will be treated even more seriously.... It worked. Giuliani has been successful in reducing crime beyond all expectations."

What if we began the same policy concerning the "city" of our hearts? If we declare war on the "minor" sins, surely the major sins won't be able to lodge in our cities and defile the quality of our walk with God.

Live Fearlessly - A Study in the Book of Joshua
Lenya Heitzig and Penny Rose

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Wedding Website

I recently put together a fun little website containing wedding details for our guests, using a WordPress blog. (As a web development sidenote, I'm loving WordPress as a content management system!) We're still adding content, but feel free to check it out at www.lauralovesphilip.com. Enjoy!

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Engagement Photos

Phil and I just had the pleasure of having our engagement photos taken by Kimberly Bee of Kimberly Bee Photography. I absolutely love her work and have followed her blog for awhile now. She has such a creative eye and incredible Photoshop skills. I'm so thrilled that she will also be flying to Sioux Falls to take our wedding photos for us! So, below are a few of our photos, taken in Carefree, Arizona. They have yet to be edited with Kimberly's fancy Photoshop skills, but you get the idea. Love, love, love!

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Conference IQ Website Redesign

I have completed a site refresh for Conference IQ, an online meeting product. The only challenge on this was keeping the design within a Joomla template that was already in place. Even despite that, I'm really happy with the final layout. I designed the homepage and the secondary page template, and the client took it from there and loaded their content. Check it out at www.ConferenceIQ.com.

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