Committed Family Members

        I have truly been blessed to have such a wonderful in-law family. Most of the time when it comes to wedding planning you hear of "Monster-in-laws", in-laws who have too many opinions, in-laws who don't really help at all, etc. Not this lucky lady! I have fabulous in-laws!
        Henry's mom is the best mother-in-law-to-be I could have ever been blessed with. Henry really takes after his mom, she is like the female version of him. She is not this prissy girly-girl. She is your true southern, down-to-earth, sweet-as-can-be mother! Ever since I have met her, she has treated me like another one of her own. The best thing about her, NO DRAMA! She is just so chill and kind-hearted - and very easy to please. I love her to death - can you tell?

Henry's Dad, Herman - Henry's Momma, Blondie - and ME! The wonderful day we both received our Aggies Rings!! WHOOP!

After dating only 5 months - Henry's parents paid for us to go on a month long vacation through New Mexico & Colorado - with the last stop being a week in Vegas and a Hummer Limo. WOOHOO! This is a pit-stop along our scary, narrow, side of the mountain drive. So pretty!

        Henry's sister, Audrey, who is now a bridesmaid has become one of my very good friends. I remember the first holiday at his parent's house his Mammer (who I had no idea who she was at the time) comes walking up to the house as we stand on the front porch and hugs me, greeting me as if she has known me forever - then she calls me Audrey. Henry laughs and informs his Mammer I am not Audrey, but his girlfriend. Mammer squints her eyes, says, "Oh! HAHA! Sorry. You look just like her!" - Henry then tells me his Mammer is losing her eye-sight, apologizes, and we laugh. I do feel Audrey and I have a lot of similarities - personality-wise and body-type wise. What I especially love is Audrey's care-free attitude as well, just like her Momma. Not to mention she is down-right HILARIOUS! She also has been so eager to help through this whole wedding process and I adore her!

New Years 2010 out at Henry's parent's ranch in Hico - Herman & Audrey. <3

       Henrys aunt, once-removed?, Terri has also been fabulous! Terri is the mother to one of Henry's closest cousins, Randy - who is a groomsmen. Terri has been my constant motivator to work out - we lately have been doing pretty good. I think we have been working out at least 3 times a week together. See, I am great at doing what I want to do, when I want to do it. Working out - eh - the idea of a great body sounds fabulous, the motivation to keep at it, not so great. I mean, who doesn't want to plop on the couch after a long day of work and munch on some fatty-goodness???? Apparently, Terri! Because before I get off work I almost ALWAYS have a text from her, "Zumba?" "Beach Body Workout?" "Track?" "Gym tonight?" LOL - God do I love her for that {I am sure Henry does too}. Now besides being my personal motivator to be in good shape, she is Mrs. Do-It-All - Anything I need help with, or anyone for that matter, she some magical way, finds time to do it all! With a smile I might add. Addressing/labeling/stuffing/sealing Save-the-Dates? DONE! Wedding invitation class? DONE! Making invitations? DONE! Bachelorette Party? DONE! She never ceases to amaze me - along with every other woman in Henry's family - for the most part. :-D

Terri & Randy, Henry's cousin/groomsman



Terri & Henry at our Ring Dunk Party!

        Henry's cousin, Megan, is the most recent addition to the Bridesmaid clan! Megan is in 10th grade currently, she is like my new found best-friend, despite the age difference {Which just dawned on me - it's almost a 10 year age difference! HOLY MOLY that made me feel old}. Almost every time Terri and I go to the gym, Megan is picked up along the way and dragged with us. :-) Luckily we live so close together. I am also SO THANKFUL she is crafty too! We have made Crayon Art <----tutorial found there----together, I roughly taught her how to make a tutu which she beautifully made, and she will later be helping me make 2 for flower girls. She is my soon-to-be new scrapbooking buddy {just took her to Hobby Lobby to get materials}. She helped address/label/stuff/seal Save-the-Dates along with Terri. She will be taking the Invitation class with me along with Terri, Audrey and Blondie. And last for now, but definitely not least, she will be putting those newly learned skills to the test to help me MAKE the actual invitations with the above mentioned crew - plus my Seester. She is a sweetheart like all the other Johnson women.

Cute Lil Megan! More photos will be available after this weekend :-)

        So like I said, I have a truly amazing in-law family! They aren't over-bearing, rude, or overly dramatic - they just love having a good time and are eager to help where they can. I am very blessed! Which is great to have since I live 5 hours away from my own family - that makes their part harder to help with the distance. My sister has been exceptional though despite the distance, we talk on the phone, text each other - and don't forget the almighty Pinterest! She pins away on that sight with, "Hey! Go look at all the stuff I pinned on Pinterest today! We should do that!" - She is my ultimate best-friend and the best seester EVER - Period. End of story.

Seester & I on Spring Break Vacation!

Seester and I wearing nasty hats! Yuck!

        Now I wish I could adopt my co-worker too - her daughter who is also my friend, is also getting married rather soon! Unfortunately, they are in similar situations. My co-worker lives up here in the DFW area, her daughter/my friend, just recently moved to Houston with her fiance. My co-worker and I talk about wedding stuff all the time! Constantly brainstorming ideas, figuring out stuff we forgot, helping each other find deals on items - not to mention she has like a little notebook and every time we think of stuff she says, "Oh! That's a good one! I need to make sure I tell L----". She is so on top of everything for her daughter! I mean, they literally wouldn't need to hire a wedding coordinator because she is just organized beyond belief. I mainly love how she doesn't let the distance affect her involvement in her daughters wedding - no matter how far away, she is constantly calling vendors for her, thinking of stuff, doing whatever she possibly can. So - after L----'s wedding, I may steal her. lol

Co-workers Daughter, L, myself, & other co-worker, Stephanie out on one of our many girls nights watching Whiskey Meyers in concert, Downtown Fort Worth

        Needless to say, I am one lucky gal! I have a lot of wonderful people involved in my wedding - whether small or big, one time or the whole time, they all mean a lot to me - and I appreciate every small second, even if it wasn't mentioned above. :-)

Crayon Canvas Craze

I am sure many of you, especially those who are on pinterest, have seen the new Crayon Canvas Craze. People melting a rainbow of crayons onto a canvas that is. It's awesome! It's cheap, easy, and can have many variations. Also, for those with lil ones - it would be a great fun project for kids! Below I have tips in italics and the basic steps in bold for easy browsing.

The "traditional" take on crayon art - Rainbow Falls crayon canvas by JKCreate on Etsy

I decided to make my own variation of a crayon canvas. Now most of them have picked out a pack of crayons, put them in color group order, glued them to the top of the canvas and melted away for al rainbow look! I decided to do a "fall" twist. Here are the items I needed to do this:

• 96 pack of crayons ($3.97 at Walmart)
• 2 24 packs of crayons ($0.40/each at Walmart)
• 1 Canvas ($7 at Hobby Lobby - Normally $12.99, but I kept my eyes peeled for the 50% off week)
• Blow-dryer
• cardboard
• Elmers Glue or Hot Glue

I picked out all the colors of orange, pink, red, yellow, and light brown crayons, then I separated them into their color groups. I laid them out on the edge of the canvas I chose to use and set 2 reds, 2 oranges, 1 yellow, 1 brown, 2 pinks, repeat. I then took my piece of cardboard, which I ripped off the flap of a cardboard box we had, and glued 1/3 of the crayon onto the cardboard - the bottom 2/3s with the point hanging off. I chose to do this because I did not want my crayons on the finished project. If you like the look of crayons -then by all means glue the crayons on the top of the canvas! :-)

Crayons glued to the cardboard

I let this dry for a few hours and ran some errands. When I came back I took my canvas outside, leaned it against our brick wall. I duck taped the cardboard of crayons above the canvas onto the brick so the tips would just barely hung over the canvas. Then the melting begins! Tip {1}: Keep the blow-dryer on medium! Low isn't hot enough, high had crayon wax splattering everywhere lol! I kept the heat setting on high. I began by keeping the blow-dryer up against the crayons until it started turning glossy, once the wax started its dripping I tilted the dryer to blow straight down the length of the crayon and canvas - pushing the wax out and down. Tip {2}: Only blow-dry like 5 or so crayons at a time - they dry rather quickly. You can use your blow-dryer still pointed blowing downward to help guide the crayon wax further down the canvas - it will begin to dry and clump a few inches down otherwise. Even if it does you can go back and blow-dry the clumps to move the wax further down later. Once satisfied, move to the next few crayons and repeat until done and desired look accomplished!

Finished project of my Crayola Canvas - The red kind of over-powers the other colors in the photo, but in person the definition is awesome - to me that is :-)

Tip {3}: Keep in mind the colors you choose and the colors you set them next to. Colors blend! I chose to mix my color groups so they would ultimately blend - if you want defined colors, then be sure to separate your colors of choice. I also wanted a little more definition of colors toward the bottom - so I took my cardboard of crayons angled it towards the middle of the canvas and blew down the length of the crayons so it would drip on the canvas at the place I wanted. I then used my blow-dryer to keep the wax dripping down the length of the canvas.

Angled crayons to get the colors further down

Angled view of canvas - at the top left you can see how quickly the crayon dries by the initial clumping - by using my blow-dryer angled downward I was able to keep the wax moving for as long as I wanted. The clumping adds an extra 3D texture to the canvas and actually looks rather cool.

Hope this makes sense and is easy to re-create! I plan to make a few more and will try to make a How-To Video :-) If you are interested in one for your own house I would be more than happy to make one for you! :-) Keep your eyes peeled for my newest idea involving the Crayon Canvas Craze!

Of course I had to take a Hipstamatic Photo :-)

Finished product hanging on our wall! :-) It's awesome to walk down our hall and see this.

Be sure to check out other fabulous ideas at the link-up party below: