New Year: 2015

Hey bloggers!

Sorry for my wave of absence these past two months, with starting my new career as an RN and then starting night shift my days have been pretty mixed up! However I am excited to blog again! And just like that, it's New Years Eve! Wow, time flies. Here were my goals from last year: 

1. Graduate from nursing school and pass the NCLEX!

2. Get hired as a full time RN

3. Travel somewhere new and/or take a road trip

4. Get one of the two books published!

5. Do at least one 5K

And guess what?! I did all of them!

1. I graduated and passed the NCLEX with the minimum 75 questions on my first try! (A lot of prayer was involved).

2. I got hired on my favorite floor at Moffitt, 5 South as a full time RN where my mom was a patient when she sayed at Moffitt!

3. We traveled somewhere new AND took a road trip to Birmingham, Alabama this summer for Madi to shadow at an amazing hospital for sports related injuries in Physical Therapy!

4. I got my second book, M Is For Mystery published this year! 

5. I also did the Miles for Moffitt 5K :)

Honestly a lot of great things happened in 2014, but it was also a very hard year for my family. We lost two amazing family members, and had a lot of health issues. But I have never been stronger in my faith than I have this year!

In 2015 my goals are:

1. Get married to the man of my dreams, AKA Madison Tyler Franek :)

2. Try something new in Bora Bora

3. Take a trip to a new place

4. Do another 5K

5. Hit my weight loss goal for the wedding!

So that's it! How was your year? Do you have goals for 2015? I'd love to know!

Thanks for keeping up with me,

- Olivia :)

My Random Addictions: DCOM Movie gifs

Hey all,

So I don't know about you, but whenever I saw the image below on my screen as a kid, I knew it was going to be a good night. So I decided to google DCOM gifs and found some great ones from my favorite old school DCOMs! Because I'm clearly already obsessed with Disney Channel Original Movies, and if you read my blog frequently I love gifs. but I have a newfound obsession for DCOM gifs :)

1) Brink- who doesn't love Erik Von Detten? Plus awesome skating skills. Love it.

2) Zenon Girl of the 21st Century- because who doesn't love the kid from Harriet the Spy and a girl who has the coolest catch phrases.

3) Halloweentown- Obviously the best Halloween movie ever. Halloween is cool.




4) Mottocrossed- Because the main guy was hot, and so was the brother.



4) The Luck of the Irish- The best St. Patty's day movie (and only one that's worth watching right?)




5) Cadet Kelly- Hilary Duff + Christy Carlson Romano= 90s Disney Channel Idols





So I'm just a tad obsessed with DCOMs and gifs. These were just a few, but I love them. What are your favorite DCOMs? Have you seen any funny gifs? I'd love to hear about them!

Thanks for reading,
-Olivia

DIY Pizza Poppers

Hey everyone! 

So here is one of the easiest but most delicious appetizers ever: pizza poppers! They're super easy to make and only take a few ingredients. 

What you'll need: 

Pillsbury low fat crescent rolls

Low fat Mozzarella Cheese Sticks

Pepperoni

Marinara Sauce (for dipping)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees or as the crescent rolls call for. Unroll the rolls and place pepperonis on the bottom with half a mozzarella stick on top and then more pepperonis if you'd like. You can also add other ingredients if you want. Then roll them up and try to close off the ends as best as you can. These are best served when warm, and don't reheat well so try to make them about 30 minutes before your event and keep them in a covered glass container to keep heat in. The marinara sauce is for dippiing, but they taste great without anything on them either! So that's all for now! Try them out! They're delicious!

Thanks for reading!

- Olivia

#BookWorm: If I Stay and Where She Went

Hello fellow readers!

This past week I finished up If I Stay and read Where She Went. Both were phenomenal. I love Gayle Forman's writing style. It's not complicated, and very much like if you were hearing someone's actual thoughts. If you haven't read either: don't worry I won't spoil anything. The premise of If I Stay is that a family gets into a car accident and the main character Mia has to decide if she wants to live or not. The second book is about Mia's boyfriend and his life after the accident. I love that the author gave Adam's point of view in Where She Went. If you like dramatic and thrilling romance books with teenage-college characters, you'll love this series. It was hard for me to finish the second book, only because I liked the characters that much and didn't want to let them go! I'd give them a combined rating of 9/10. Yep, that good. I plan on reading more of Gayle Forman's books.

The movie for If I Stay came out around Labor Day, and I LOVED it. It was one of the few movies I saw before reading the book. It was phenomenal. I really hope they make Where She Went into a movie. They did combine some things from the second book into the movie already, but nothing super life changing. And they talked a lot more about Adam's family life than the first book did.

So what did you think of the books or movie? I'm currently reading It's Kind of a Funny Story, and am enjoying it so far!

Thanks for reading along with me,
-Olivia

Tangled Transformation: Halloween and MNSSHP 2014

Hey all,

So this year I decided to transform myself into Rapunzel for Halloween! I had been planning on doing this for a longggg time. Like since the Spring. What can I say? I love Halloween ;). The whole costume was < $30. So I thought the answer to getting Rapunzel long hair was simple: a wig! Well, wigs are annoying. And itchy. And it didn't match my eyebrows at all. So I created a home-made weave/clip in extension. Here's how it worked:

I took the wig I bought off Oriental Trading (5 feet for $13) and cut off the head piece (about 1 foot) and cut about a foot off of the bottom because it was way too much to work with (I know now how Rapunzel felt). I put it in a pony tail holder and then hot glued around it. I hot glued a big barette clip and a small barette clip to the back of the hair on the top part. TIP: Make sure you hold the hair tightly when you cut it and play with it, otherwise it will come out of the pony tail holder easily. I then hot glued some of the hair on the top of the barette so it wouldn't show through and separated the hair into 3 sections so it would be easier to braid. I cliped the "extension" into the back part of my hair and put another tightly wrapped pony tail holder in to secure it (it held my hair and the "extension" below the barette). I braided my own hair partially first and then after about two "rounds" I added my hair to the three separated parts of the "extension" and had them join the already started briad. I thnk it came out great! I wish I would've had more flowers, but overall loved it.

The costume was all due to my Grandma, we took a cheap Walmart purple sundress, and a purple goodwill shirt and combined them to make the costume! The lace and pink ribbon was bought with a coupon at JoAnn Fabrics. Probably a total of $10. I wanted something short because of the Florida heat. Pascal was purchased for $6 on ebay and handstitched by me onto my shoulder.

Madi's costume was easy. I already had a satchel looking bag. We bought "boot covers" off of Oriental Trading on sale for $10, and a navy t-shirt for $2 at Michaels. I cut the shirt down the middle and cut off the sleeves. Then I made the sleeves into the collar using a paper bag underneath to make it sturdier. He then wore khaki pants and a long sleeve white oxford shirt.

There you have it! A Tangled Couple :)! It was so much fun and I loved the way it turned out! We wore them for Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party and also for our own Halloween Party.

Happy Halloween!
Olivia :)

Happy 2nd Birthday to DHTBB!

Can't believe it's that time again! The second birthday of Don't Hit the Backspace Button. For all of you who have read from the beginning, thanks for your loyaltly! And to all the newer readers, thanks to you too! I'm lucky to have this outlet and that other people enjoy it too. It's funny reading my reflection on the last DHTBB birthday it said "Looking forward in a year I'll be graduated, hopefully working as a full time nurse, my brother will be in college, Madi will have applied to PT school. Just way too crazy. I can't wait to see what God has in store for me! So how crazy has this year been for you? Have you thought about next year? Think about it and set goals to make it happen! You can do anything you set your mind to! Well most of that has happened. And it's true! You CAN do anything you set your mind to. This year we're looking forward to a wedding, North Carolina, Nike's 2nd Birthday, Madi Graduation, and so much more! I'm so excited to share it with you all!

So again, thanks for reading. I appreciate all the feedback I've gotten over these two years and can't wait to continue this journey with you all!
- Olivia

#BookWorm: Gone Girl

Hey fellow readers!

Ahh the frustrations of Gone Girl. If you've read it, you feel my pain. If you haven't, well you should just to know what I'm talking about. It's about a man who's wife goes missing  and it looks like he is framed for killing her. If you've never read a book by Gillian Flynn, which I hadn't, then just a heads up: she's creepy. Like who comes up with this stuff? People kind of scared me away from it like it was going to give me nightmares or something, but it wasn't that bad. And I am scared of the movie Hocus Pocus. Yup. So the frustrations of this book are not just the dumbest ending ever, but things inbetween as well. It was a page turner, I finished it in four days while working two 13 hour shifts two of the days. However, it just made me frustrated.
I would reccommend it to people who love a good mystery/thriller like I do, they've always been my favorite stories. And I do plan on reading more of Gillian Flynn's books. Now I didn't see the movie yet. I was planning on it, but after finishing the book I was kind of wondering how much I would really enjoy watching it being played out... So I decided against it, however I will be definitey renting it when it comes out to Redbox! Overall I'd say this book is an 8/10. Interesting plot, some stupid parts. And towards the end just got way too dramatic. It was like lets spend 3/4 of the book on one thing then shove  the other ninety nine in the last seventy pages and have the worst ending ever.

Back to the drawing board I suppose. I am now reading If I Stay which I have already seen the movie, but loved the story so much I wanted to read it, and want to read the sequel ;). So did you read Gone Girl. What did you think? Did you love it/hate it/want to burn it/see the movie? If you saw the movie, tell me your thoughts!

Thanks for reading with me!
Olivia

My Random Addictions: Loving Movies that Critics Hate

Hey all,

So I just saw the new movie The Best of Me last night. Wow. I LOVED it. Then I went online to look at  the ratings, and the critics gave it a 7%. SEVEN out of one hundred. What?!  That is when I decided that I love movies that critics hate. Not every movie they hate, but a lot of movies I love they hate. Also they rate them on ridiculous things. For example Bill Zwecker from the Chicago Sun Times wrote "We've seen this story told in similar fashion so many times in the past. I only wish we could have had it delivered in a fresher, less cliché-filled package." Um okay #1, it's a Nicholas Sparks book. It's about romance and drama, so yeah some concepts are similar to other Nicholas Sparks book, but what the heck were you expecting? Something TOTALLY out of the blue like a Transformer coming out of the sky? I'm sorry I don't see what you were looking for. No it wasn't 100% to the book. Some things could've been added, but I loved it. And cried. Don't get me wrong, I know I'm a typical overemotional white girl but whatevs. #basiclifeisthelifeforme. They also gave A Walk to Remember a 27%. Like really?

Another example of a movie I LOVE but they hate is A Cinderella Story. Literally one of my top ten favorites. Clearly made for tweens in the early 2000's, but has a great message and is the best rendition of a modern day Cinderella to this day. They gave it an 11%. I can't. Yep, can't even. If you haven't seen A Cinderlla Story ask yourself: are you a girl? No? I don't blame you. Yes? What are you waiting for?! Seattle Times said "Duff is cute and chirpy; Murray is cute and bland, and the stepsisters squabble a lot. Ho-hum."...K?

Now let me get into a movie almost everyone I've talked to loved. The Amazing Spiderman 2, for example. SO GOOD. Critics? 53% rotten. WHAT?! If you loved the first one, how could you not love the second? One reviewer "Okay, I don't want to hang the failure of this mega-budget sequel on a single actor. It truly was a team effort. But, Garfield looks most unattractive as the webbed wonder." LOL now I know you're crazy.

Lastly to make my point super clear. She's the Man. If you are either gender and haven't laughed while watching this movie, you're literally weird. Like belong in a psych ward. Where Amanda now is or should be God bless her now-crazy soul. She's the Man is literally one of the funniest movies ever. Not disgusting humor, which I am also occasionally fond of, but just genuinely funny. And Channing Tatum? Who wouldn't want to watch him play soccer shirtless for three hours? 

So I could go on and on, but there it is! I love movies critics hate. What about you? Do you tend to run with the critics or are you more like me and like the opposite most of the time?

Thanks for reading,
Olivia

#BookWorm: Four: A Divergent Collection

Hey fellow readers,

So I just finished Four: A Divergent Collection this weekend and wow. I was surprised how much I liked it! Don't get me wrong, I loved the Divergent series. Veronica Roth is truly impressive. But I thought this book was going to just be like a recap of things we already knew. You learn some interesting things about the story of Divergent and how it came along. For example, Veronica Roth wrote the story from Tobias' perspective at first, but then stopped writing and came back to it with the story wanting Tris to be the main character. Isn't that awesome? And made this newest book even more fun to read. There were five short stories in the book. Most pre-Tris days, which were fascinating. You find out why Tobias picked Dauntless and what his initiation was like. Then with Tris, his views. It makes me hate the person who casted for the Divergent movie even more because they make Tobias this cocky confident person when he's not. At all. But nevertheless Theo James is hot. So I get the appeal.

If you liked Divergent: read this book. Duh. It's great. You won't regret buying it although it doesn't "continue" the story where Allegiant left off. Overall I'd give it a 8.5/10. I loved the stories, but wish there were more! Come on Veronica Roth keep it going! I didn't like a few things, like I felt some parts of his story and Tris' story in the series conflicted a little bit and it wasn't a page turner since the stories were short stories. I knew that particular one was going to end.

Next up: Gone Girl. I'm trying to read it before this weekend so I can go see the movie with Madi. But I've heard mixed reviews about the movie part. And the ending. Time will tell! Have you read it? Don't tell me just yet, but I hope you liked it.

Thanks for reading,
Olivia

DIY: Pumpkin Spice Cupcake Muffins

Hey everyone!

Another new recipe to add to the books this week as I tried out Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes. I call them Cupcake Muffins because they are somewhere inbetween a cupcake and a muffin. This was a recipe I thought about while making the pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, and I decided to give it a whirl! And one of the best parts? They're eggless! Yay for egg free recipes! Here's how I made them:

What you'll need:
1 Spice Cake Box Mix
7/8 Can of Pumpkin (the rest went to Nike ;))
1/2 Teaspoon of Cinnamon
1/3 Cup of Olive Oil
1 Cup of Water
1/4 Cup of Brown Sugar
Cream Cheese Frosting
Decorative Sprinkles

Candy Corn

Preheat the oven to 350. I mixed the cake mix, can of pumpkin, cinnamon, and olive oil together in a large bowl. After that, I noticed the mix looked a lot like the mucky consistency I got when I made the cookies, and realized that I needed to add water. After I added the water, it was much more like an egg filled cake mix would normally be.
TIP: When looking at the mix before mixing, it looks too wet, but it isn't!

I then added the brown sugar as a little experiment to take some of the strong pumpkin flavor away. You don't have to add the cinnamon or brown sugar, that was just my own touch.
TIP: Use a small gravy ladel or ice cream scooper to put your batter into the cupcake tins. It helps give you a good amount of batter in each to make the perfect size cupcake.

The cupcake box said to bake for 17-20 minutes, but I always do the lower and subtract two minutes. I hate overcooked baked goods. 15 minutes worked out perfectly! I wanted to make enough for everyone at work tonight, so mine were a little on the small side, but if you made a good ice cream scoop size the mix would probably make about 18-20 cupcakes. Doing a little smaller made 24. Let them cool for half an hour then decorate them with the frosting, sprinkles, and candy corn to your liking!

So what do you think? Pumpkiny-deliciousness? I thought so ;). Do you have more yummy fall pumpkin recipes? Let me know! I love trying new things!

Thanks for keeping up,
Olivia :)

DIY: Fall Leaf Lanterns

Hey everyone!

Happy fall! Since it is in full swing now, I wanted to share a project I worked on this week: DIY fall leaf lanterns! They're so adorable, easy to make, and you can live in Florida and do them ;) I am obsesesd with fall time: from the outfits to the yummy treats to the smell of pumpkin spice (white girl right here), it is my favorite season! So try these out and tell me what you think of mine!

Here's what you need:

Mason Jars- $10-15 for a pack of 12

Mod Podge (small bottle)- $2-3

Fake (or real) Autumn Leaves- $2 on clearance at craft store

A couple heavy books- around the house

A paint brush- $1-2

Rubber bands-$1

Fall scented tea light candles-$5 for 12

I bought fake leaves from Michaels (since I live in Florida), but I removed them from the fake branches and put them flat in a book with other heavy books on top of them for 24 hours. After your leaves have been semi-flattened: you're ready to start! If you're using real leaves, put newspaper between the book pages so the moisture doesn't ruin the text. Next, take off the lids on the Mason Jars. You can make as many as you want, you just have to have the right number of leaves. Cover the entire base of the Mason Jar with Mod Podge and the back of the leaves. TIP: Paint and paste one leaf at a time, the Mod Podge dries pretty quickly. After that, you'll stick as many leaves in whatever pattern on the jar and apply rubber bands to areas where you think might pop up or not stick well. I used about 4-5 rubber bands on each jar, and make sure they're pretty tight. 

Let the jars dry for about four-six hours, turning on a fan can speed up the process. You will know when they're dry when the glue isn't showing on the outside of the jar anymore. Touch the jar to make sure it's dry, and remove the rubber bands carefully! You can see some reside from the glue when you take off the rubber bands, but when you light the candles you can't tell. Last, put the tea lights in the jar, and light the candles! Wah-lah: gorgeous falltime lanterns! I LOVE how mine came out! I was a little weary at first, because the leaves are fake, but with the pumpkin spice tea light glowing and the fall aroma in the air, I couldn't love them more: and they won't brown with time, so they'll be good for years to come!

So that's it! My latest DIY project. What do you think? Have you ever made fall lanterns? If you have, share some tips that you found helpful. If not, try it out! It was a pretty inexpensive project that had great results, and would make a great gift! I only made five, but I totally have enough supplies to make five more easily.

Thanks for reading,

-Olivia :)

#BookWorm: The Wedding

Hey fellow readers!

I finally finished another book! With the NCLEX in my past, I started leisurely reading again. I am working on my list, and The Wedding was the next one up so I decided to give it a whirl. I cannot tell you how shocked I was that I actually really enjoyed this book. Why was I so shocked you may ask? Because it's a sequel to a Nicholas Sparks classic The Notebook. If you HAVEN'T read The Notebook or don't know that the ending is different from the movie, stop reading here because this is a major spoiler alert.

The Wedding is about Noah's granddaughter who is getting married and the preparations for her wedding. It is a middle aged male perspective the entire book, Noah's son-in-law Wilson, and a majority of the story takes place in the present when they're middle aged. Typically I like books about younger couples and from a female perspective, but this one was great. I was worried it would ruin my thoughts on The Notebook, but it didn't. I loved Noah and his relationship with the swan in the book, and loved that they included a lot of flashback moments from Noah and Allie's crazy relationship. Overall I would give the book a 9/10, yeah that good. Which is odd since normally I like the female perspective (like in my review of Dear John I kind of bashed him for not including more female perspective), but I honestly didn't miss it in this book. I was impressed. Again, if you hate romance stories and/or Nicholas Sparks, first of all you're cray, second of all you won't like this book.

Also did anyone else see how they changed all the old Nicholas Sparks covers to pictures of couples? Like what the heck? I hate hate hate the new covers. So annoying. Google it, you'll be angry too if you're a Sparks fan.

I started reading Four by Veronica Roth, which is a collection of stories from the view of Tobias. I will let you all know when I finish, but so far so good. So what are you reading these days? Has your list expanded? Let me know!

Thanks for reading,
Olivia

DIY: Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Hey everyone!

This week I had some free time since I am starting my big girl real world job next week. I decided to experiment with some pumpkin baking since it is officially Fall! I decided to try Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies based off of a recipe I found on Pinterest, but I changed it a little bit. What you'll need: 1/2 cup butter (I used I Can't Believe It's Not Butter) melted, 3/4 cup brown sugar, 1/4 cup granulated white sugar (or confectionary sugar if you don't have granulated, 1 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract, 5-6 tablespoons of pumpkin puree, 1 and 3/4 cups all purpose flour, 1/4 teaspoon salt,1/2 teaspoon baking powder, 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg, 1/8 teaspoon gound cloves (estimate here), and as many chocolate chips as you think. 

Mix all the ingredients minus the chocolate chips. Let them cool in the fridge, I did for about 2 hours, but you can anywhere from 30 minutes to 3 hours. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. After that add in the chocolate chips using a soft spatula. TIP: For easier to work with dough, freeze for 30 minutes after cooling for an hour. Form the cookies into as round of a shape as you can on the baking sheet. The pumpkin is hard to work with so be prepared to get your hands a little dirty. With the ingredients above you can expect about twenty small cookies or twelve large cookies. TIP: Don't forget to spray the pan, these cookies are really sticky! Bake them for 8-10 minutes. Let cool on counter for an hour and then place in covered container in the fridge for two hours for better taste. TIP: If you're using a top and bottom rack, after four minutes switch the bottom cookie sheet to the top and vice versa so they are baked evenly. Also use a lighter cooking sheet!

I'm not a huge pumpkin person, but Madi is and he loved them (not to mention they're butter free and contain no eggs), and I brougt them in as a Telefund experiment and a lot of people liked them! But if pumpkin is not your cup of tea, don't make them. Because they're pumpkin. I want to try a couple of other fall themed recipes, and will post if I decide to make them! Let me know what you think. Do you have any fall recipes that you love to make or anything you've heard of and want to try? Let me know!

Thanks,
Olivia :)

Wifey Wednesday: Organization

Hey all! Sorry about not posting last week, this series will most likely be a once a month thing, since my schedule is just going to get crazier once I start working full time again. Anyways, I wanted  to share some tips on how to be successful in planning a wedding: organization. If you're terrible at deadlines or keeping things together and have some extra cash, hear me out: get a wedding planner. Luckily, I am super organized and will share with you my wedding timeline. Every magazine or article you read about weddings usually has a wedding timeline, it's pretty generic. But you have to make it fit to your engagement length. If your engagement, like mine, was more than a year, you have way more time to figure things out. If you have a super short engagement, six months or less, then you have to condense everything in that short amount of time. Here are some of my suggestions as far as timelines go:

1) Find your dress early. I got mine two weeks after we got engaged! While some may say that is crazy, and why do that, it really helped pull the vision for my day together and gave me the piece of mind knowing what kind of workouts I should be doing based on the dress type and such.

2) Pick your venue early. We had a specific date, because it was our dating anniversary and it fell exactly seven years later on a Saturday. It had meaning to us. But we also had a very particular venue want: inside with a water view in Central Florida. Not always easy to find both. So start early! Look up places online and read reviews. I cannot stress enough: GO VISIT IT IN PERSON. You could see pictures of a wedding and say "wow this looks so nice!" but it was a wedding of 50 and you have 200+ people coming to your big day.

3) Don't stress about your dress accessories too soon.  I've met so many brides who find their dress and then FREAK out because they can't find the right shoes and buy an overprices pair of shoes and necklace because they don't want to miss out on the opportunity and then find a better pair later on, but it is too late to return the other shoes. Don't be that girl. I found my shoes six months after my dress on etsy and waited for a good deal before I bought them.

4) Hair and makeup places book FAST. On my timeline I had looking at hair and makeup places about six months before the wedding. Well a lot of them book way before that, so consider looking into it sooner if you are using someone for hair and makeup. Luckily I have friends who are awesome at hair and who are awesome at makeup, so I am using them.

5) Pick your photographer early and reasearch them well. Our venue had a list of "preferred" photographers that we basically had to use, so we had plans to meet up with one, then he took himself off the list and hated on the venue when calling to let us know. Not cool, glad we didn't go with him. Then we found an awesome couple who do work together for a GOOD price. But we signed with them about 13 months before our wedding.

So if you have a short engagement: find your dress, book your venue, then pick your photographer ASAP.

That's all for now. Keep telling me what you want to read about wedding or wifey wise :)

Thanks,
Olivia :)

Wifey Wednesday: DIY Save the Dates

Hey everyone!

So I am very excited to share with you all my Save the Dates and how I put them together. For those of you personally attending the wedding, you have already seen them or will be seeing them in the mail very soon! I wanted to show you what I did and how you can add simple touches to make your Save the Dates more personal. The front and back of my Save the Dates are on the right. The scoreboard and basketball theme was the one thing Madi wanted to do, so I went with his wishes. When we took our engagement pictures, our orignal plan was to do a bunch with the basketball, but due to lighting, and Madi forgetting the ball at home for the second half of pictures, we only had two pictures that looked normal with the basketball, but our faces looked super bright so we came up with this design on the right.
In order to make the scoreboard with the date we wanted it was a little more complicated than I had anticipated. I thought there would be a fake scoreboard generator, but no such luck. (If you know of one let me know!) So I googled scoreboards and found a website with the grey background and had to copy and paste the same color numbers into Paint to create the scoreboard with our actual date on it. Yeah super complicated for real. The rest was done through PicMonkey.com which is a photo editing site that I LOVE and reccommend to anyone. It's free for basic things, and has updgrades for premium paying users. I use it for the basic editing and collage making. I guestimated on the size of the Save the Date and then went to Vistaprint to make the magic happen.
Vistaprint has the option to upload your own design, and so I adjusted the Save the Date to the correct size on PicMonkey which took a couple of tries before I got it the same size, and then uploaded it making sure it wasn't cropped in any weird places and that everything was centered.
For the back I tried to get the size of the Save the Date on Paint and pasted the color blue of our wedding then uploaded the blank blue jpg file to Vistaprint and added the font with text boxes so I could change the colors. Each individual line was a different textbox so I could adjust the size accordingly.
TIP: when you are making your back piece (if you decide to do it this way) make sure the whole image is very large so it doesn't look pixelated on the actual Save the Date card (mine did a little bit and it bothers me so just a heads up!)
I also decided to spice them up a little bit by buying grey envelopes off of Invitation Outlet since that is our second color, and got them for a pretty good price and then bought these adorable Save the Date stickers off the shop called Nice Package Design. They were a little pricey, but overall super cute and I think they added a little something to the presentation of the envelope.

So that's how I did it! Doing my Save the Dates myself saved me A LOT of money and I think they turned out awesome and had such a personal touch. What do you think? I am so excited to keep sharing more of our projects and experiences on the new Wifey Wednesday series. Hope you all had a fabulous Labor Day weekend!

Thanks for keeping up,
Olivia :)