I recently went on a fantastic field trip to central Oregon with my Geology class. It felt so great to get out, hike, learn and explore the state. It is now two weeks later and instead of writing the 3-5 page paper on the trip I am supposed to be writing now, I am having fun cross processing the photos I took on the excursion. By involving myself with Geology it helps me deny my procrastination, because hey, I’m still looking at rocks…
So much has been happening! I haven’t had time to keep up with as many posts as I would like to so here is a conglomerate of photos of things that have been happening in our neck of the woods! ❤
This is out on our porch, you can see all the wood they just cut down below in the back yard
Reilly hanging out at home on the computer
Reilly turns 28!
On valentine’s day we made our way through a disposable camera, looks like I’ll need to work on the technique a bit…
Now that all the invitations are gone and mailed (with some responses back in under a week way to go guys!) I’m feeling a little sad that all my babies are gone ::tear:: I’m making a post to relive the magic
Here is Reilly sealing the envelopes
Hope you enjoyed them!!
I rarely thought about my wedding before getting engaged to Reilly but one thing I do remember loving as a child were wedding invitations. I loved how many cards there were, how elegantly they were designed, and all those little details that really made them special. Fast forward 10 years to me planning our actual wedding and you find me realizing that wedding invitations are NOT CHEAP! I can’t believe how high the prices are for invitations.. it’s astronomical. And this is only for a single sheet envelope, no RSVP card, no cute little information card or well designed map… I sigh. So I decide to make our own invitations! Here is the second step of process which is the actual design for the cards. I had so much fun! It was a blast to play around with colors and fonts and create something that really captures the aesthetic look and feel of our wedding. Here are two of the designs I just finished working on:
And here a photo of the finished product!
I just got all the things to make my wedding invitation! So excited! I love making everything as personal as possible because I care about everyone they are going to so much 🙂
So many things at the wedding are going to be hand-made.. my wonderful parents are growing cute little boxes of succulents for each table (which was my dad’s A+ idea, I’m very impressed) we are making paper flower poms to hang around, we’ve been collecting our own bottles for flowers that I’ll wrap with lace and string, and I’m sure as the day gets closer i’ll find some other fun DIY projects to incorporate into the big day!
Here is phase 1 of the invitations, which by the way I got from the Duck Store. They have by far the biggest paper collection around and I’d say it even rivals Papersource…
Our Save the Date video is done! We had soo much fun putting it together and Reilly’s brother Luke was such a huge help getting all the shots we were both in. Hope you like it! Can’t wait till the big day 🙂
Save The Date from Melissa Jane on Vimeo.
2011 is over!
This year has been crazy. For the first time I really felt like an adult on my own and then immediately missed the days of less responsibly. But I’m happy to report that phase didn’t last and I will continue to live my life exactly as I want; happily. This year I got engaged to the love of my life Reilly and we are letting our adventure unfold. Who knows where the wind will take us, we have our whole lives ahead of us and I think they are going to turn out marvelously. I have reflected a lot my life this year, all the ups and downs and have learned a lot. I confronted my stubbornness (Reilly still lets me be stubborn if i want to be) and saw the light on the other side, I learned what it takes to be a partner and one part of a family team, we raised a puppy, I took the pay cut to have my dream job and am glad for it, I joined a jazz
dance team, and I learned that no matter how many times I hike in Oregon my breath is still taken away.
I am so gratefully for my life I feel like my heart could explode. And then the sky would turn pink and it would rain golden sparkles and all world peace would be achieved.
This is us last New Years Eve
Reilly and I are very happy to have the most amazing engagement photos
We are so pleased with the photographer we found, Kacy Kizer. I actually was able to shadow her while she shot another wedding to build my portfolio and she did such a great job. She was so sweet and calm, I’m so lucky I found her! We have gotten so many compliments on these photos. They were taken on campus at the University of Oregon and Alton Baker Park in Eugene.
This year I got to go to the annual Ferrell camping extravaganza. It was fun see my new family and spend time with them. The Ferrell’s are a pretty interesting and diverse bunch because everyone is so equally spread out in age. You’ve got your little kids, teenagers, 20-somethings, the parents and the grandparents, it makes everyone at a little bit of a different stage in their life but there are no huge gaps so everyone feels connected. Here are just a couple of the photos, there are 114 on facebook if you want to see more.
Reilly and I got a puppy! He is an english cream golden retriever and his name is Flapjack or Jack for short. He is so adorable I could just pet him all day. There is a reason they say retrievers are the best dogs, Jack is amazingly smart and attentive and lives to please us. He learns just about everything we teach him almost immediately and remembers it. When we went camping we threw a stick in the water just to see what would happen and Jack jumped in, taught himself how to swim instantaneously, fetched the stick, and then brought it back to us onshore.
Henry is a little upset about having a huge attention hog in the house but he’s coming around. Now they even play together sometimes.
The Oregon Beat 
