sneak peak

I am SO excited to have just received the pictures from my grandmother's 90th birthday! So excited that I just have to share just a couple. Don't worry I will be sharing boat loads of pictures next week but here are just a few preview shots! Leah from Leah Banick Photography did one amazing job! 

can you believe she just turned 90!?!

okay so that was more then a couple...but there are just so many adorable shots! 

hope everyone has a simply fantastic weekend! 

technology makes us silly sometimes

the instagram version of my iphone

lets face it, we live in one heck of an iphone obsessed country. a group of my friends were out this last weekend and as we were sitting around the table i noticed that every single person had an iphone. if its not an iphone then its a droid, htc, or some other smart phone. our generation is obsessed with keeping "connected" at all times. however connected probably isn't the best word. we are more obsessed with appearing to be connected. We want our information to be out in the world, but more importantly we want to be able to find out whats going on in other peoples lives. Whats silly is that with all this technology we are partly a little more disconnected. We don't have to call someone and ask them how they are doing, and have that "in person" conversation. we just text them, facebook, or twitter them. its pretty much allows us all to be low level stockers to anyone we may be interested in. 

for 59.99 you can to get this "vintage" inspired phone

our iphones have also become our cameras, our camcorders, out personal assistants, computers, and can settle an dispute about random knowledge or answer to any random question we may have. along with keeping us connected we now have an obsession with making our high quality iphone cameras look like they are "vintage". with antique filters from instagram with fun borders so we apear almost more "simple". i for one am totally one of these instagram obsessed people. we also have "vintage" blue tooth cordless phones that we can buy to make it appear we are on an old school phone. we love our technology but i think we love the idea of how simple things used to be. I almost think that part of us wishes things weren't so connected ALL THE TIME and a little more mysterious. I'm not complaining at all about the amazing technology we use on a daily basis. i love technology. im obsessed with technology. but i do think part of us, part of me, misses how things used to be...just a little bit. not enough to ever give up our amazing other half we call an iphone, but just enough to feel nostalgic about all these different apps, and accessories we can get now. we are human. meaning we will probably always want something we don't have. whether thats a cool new gadget or a simpler way of living.

i know im not that techie of a girl but when i stumbled across these "vintage" inspired phones, that to me don't seem that "vintage" i just had to say something about this whole thing. 

random thoughts for a simply random techie tuesday. 

sometimes you need a day

this weekend was back to hecticness. i am finally feeling back to normal and with my sickness gone i wasted no time having a jam packed weekend schedule. saturday i was up at the crack of dawn prepping and helping my mom with a MASSIVE garage sale. It was very successful but had to cut my time short at the sale to head back to corvallis and meet up with my lovely bride. We got to talk wedding decor and design and picked out some AMAZING linens. They pretty much brought the wedding to a whole new level :) 

Sunday rolled around and I decided to take a day for me. anyone ever do that? where you just want to do what you want to do and not have to take anyone else's opinion into consideration. sounds kind of selfish but honestly it was perfection. I needed to head to Portland to purchase a few ton of vases so I just made a day out of it. Heres what it looked like..

wore my new casual fun cute sweatshirt. you can by comfy and cute. :)
however, i did discover my shoes are cute but not that comfy :( 

of course stopped at jamba to start my day off

purchased 66 vases from ikea. starting prep for two different events next weekend. totaling over 75 flower arrangements . ha...im crazy..i know..

made a stop to visit my dad. the moment i got to his spot the clouds cleared and sun came out.
a beautiful day.

attempted to do a little shopping but ended up making it to only like 2 stores.
but did get these super cute nikes

the cool thing about a me day, you don't have to please anyone but yourself. i had grand plans of doing more shopping, because honestly i do my best shopping alone. but i was tired and thankfully didn't have to drag myself anywhere but back to the car to drive home. successful me day for sure.

hope everyone had a simply great weekend! 

BirchBox

A couple months ago I was introduced to Birchbox. Birchbox is an online beauty store with a twist. There are all sorts of amazing products that you can buy. However, Birchbox is known for the brillant concept of selling sample boxes for a low monthly rate of 10 bucks! Let me explain. $10 = 4 to 5 high end make-up or beauty samples each month. I mean who really wants to buy a product online without trying it first. Well this allows you to do just that. When i heard about the concept i jumped at the opportunity to sign up. I had to wait about a month for my invite but I got one and received my first box last weekend. I was so excited. The packaging of course was adorable! And I loved my first months samples! Here is what I got!

1. BENTA BERRY G-1 exfoliating facial cleanser 

2. Kahina Giving Beauity Argan Oil

3. Kahina Giving Beauty Facial Lotion

4. Yes to Blueberries Brightening Facial Towelettes

5. Wonderstruck Taylor Swift

6. Pur Minerals 4-in-1 Mineral Tinted Moisturizer 

Not bad for my first box! Not going to lie I was a little sad I didn't get a nail polish. Just because I love nail polish but maybe next month! And I LOVE the cleansing towelettes! Would totally buy them again. And the best part is that if I do want to purchase any of these products it will ship for free! a nice little bonus. Birchbox also has a reward system. The money you spend on boxes or in the store equals points that you can later use in the store as credit! Basically its a pretty fun little box totally worth the 10 bucks. You should join. Click here to join under me so you will get an invite faster! 

Hope everyone has a simply wonderful Thursday! 

im alive....kinda...

looking out at the pretty sun from my spot on the couch

apparently my body has decided to give up on my non-stop busy schedule that its been enduring. Because for the last 7 days i have been on my butt. and when i say on my butt i mean on the couch or in bed sleeping, napping, and watching movies and not doing ANYTHING. i have never felt anything like whatever i have going on. I am constantly exhausted regardless of how much sleep im getting. Its exhausting being exhausted. Apparently this is my body's way of making up for sleep and rest...honestly..its probably making up for the last 3 years....And on top of that Oregon decided to finally have a sunny AND warm weekend. And of course it would happen when I am unable to enjoy any of the amazing benefits. knowing me I would have had made some calls and had the first bbq of the season. But that is okay. I am going to continue to take it easy. I do not want any sort of relaps of this thing. Today is the first day in a week that a i sense any sort of progress. Hopefully taking it easy for another week will do the trick. I have a busy May ahead of me and can't risk any sort of sickness. Anyways I hope everyone got to enjoy the sun for me! Looks like its decided to hang around for a couple more days! 

Have a simply wonderful monday. 

cinta turns 2!

2?! I honestly have no idea how Cinta Dinners has officially been happening for over 2 years now. Granted I have been doing dinner parties and planning for over 4 years now. But being an official tax paying business is something that I am proud of. This business is something I truly am proud of. This last year was off to a fantastic start. We were averaging at least 1 to 2 dinners a month. And that was a perfect amount considering I have a full time job and Jereme was still in school and working another job as well. When we approached summer we got the amazing news that my business partner Jereme would be off to Thailand to teach for the next year. I was so excited for her and such a fantastic opportunity. However, the way Cinta looked would not be the same without her. I stopped really pushing for dinners but was more then happy to do them when asked. With her decision to stay another year I am truly saddened but know that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity and Cinta will always be here when she returns.

Now that we are into the next year Cinta Dinners is now evolving into Cinta Events. A complete redesign of the website, business cards, and all materials is happening. I know I have been talking about this redesign for months now but I truly do not want to go public with things until I am absolutely in love with every aspect. I will still be doing dinner parties, but really want to shift my focus to event and wedding coordination. It is truly my passion and love. I am excited for what opportunities are to come in the next few years. I will still be working a full time job to pay the bills but I do have an ultimate goal of being my own sole boss someday. And someday that will happen. But for now I keep trucking along and gaining the experience and hands on work that comes with this industry. 

we did so much more then pictured here but it indeed was a fantastic year.

excited for what Cinta will do in 2012! 

Hope you have a simply lovely Tuesday

we did it!

this weekend was my grandma's 90th birthday celebration. and I am happy to report that it turned out beautifully! I am exhausted by the weekend but all the hours of work and lack of sleep was well worth it. My smartest decision this weekend was to take friday off from work to head to salem and begin prepping and decorating. There is just no way I would have been able to finish everything in one day. especially considering I had to take part in the birthday festivities. the dinner took place at our rental house that just happened to be empty right now. meaning we had to bring EVERYTHING in. tables, chairs, pots, pans, the whole nine yards. and to top it off everything had to be out by Sunday because the new renters move in today. 

Without a doubt I would not have been able to have such a successful evening if it wasn't for a few lifesaving people in the kitchen. I owe Jereme and Adonica a HUGE thanks for making a dinner for 20 happen! They pulled it off and everything was SO yummy! I also had an amazing photographer. Leah of Leah Banick Photography did an AMAZING job taking some great family pictures and pictures throughout the night. I am SO excited to see what she was able to capture. This evening would not have been possible at all without this amazing team behind me. So thank you ladies for all your hard work! 

because it was such a busy couple days I didn't have a ton of time to snap good pictures of stuff. Thats why I hired someone to take the pictures but I did manage to snap a few iphone and instagram pictures. I will share the amazing professional ones later but here is a sneak peak of the party.

accent wall, straw flags, place settings, and shelving decor 

pictures, flowers, grandma's wedding pictures, and myself heading home exhausted after clean up yesterday 

over all i am really happy with how everything turned out. my grandma loved it.

she had an amazing time, and it was great to see family. meaning it was all a complete success 

hope you have a simply wonderful monday. 

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1 year?!

Yesterday marked the 1 year mark for my little "just for fun" blog. It's a little crazy to think that it's been a year since I decided that I wanted to start a blog. And to be honest I seriously am surprised anyone at all even reads this thing. I openly admit that I am no writer, but it has been a great creative outlet for me to share the thoughts and ideas that pop into my head. A way to keep in touch with people and a way to put a little piece of myself out there into the world. So thank you, thank you for stopping by and looking around and reading. It has been a fun undertaking that I do plan to continue. 

Happy One Year Simply Pink! 

wedding wednesday: mason jar edition

mason jars. if anyone hasn't noticed mason jars are the new IT item in the world of weddings and events. who doesn't like that little touch of country chic in an event. there are so many great advantages to using these little guys. but my top two reasons:

1. cheap and inexpensive. lets be real. you probably have a few laying around the house from when grandma sent you home with some jam or canned fruit. And even when purchasing they are inexpensive, only about 8-10 bucks for a dozen.

2. 100 different uses for them. You can use these jars for pretty much everything under the sun. They come in so many different sizes so the ideas are endless. You can use them to bake with, flower vases, drinking glasses, candle holders, storage containers and the list goes on. and bonus! they make each use adorable! 

here are some adorable uses

click here to check out my pinterest page for sources! 

hope everyone has a simply fabulous wednesday!