Engagement News!

My best friend is getting married!! 

Hayah, that is. 

Here we are at our "engagement shoot", after she had told me her amazing news!

If you read my blog, you know that I talk about her constantly.  She's my best friend of 12 years, and we're inseparable.  

I knew that there was talk about her getting married, but I was still so surprised to learn that she was engaged.  It seemed to come out of nowhere.  

Before I go on, I just want to say that the lucky guy is an amazing kid who I know will make her happy in life.  He's sweet and kind and pretty much a male Hayah.  

They had known each other for years before their announcement.  Their families have always been good friends and gotten along well.  It really only made sense that they would become family themselves. 

It's so exciting to see her life unfolding before me.  We've been there for each other in thick and thin for everything. See, the thing is, we've never really had bad patches. We've never been fair-weather friends.  We don't only call each other for the bad, or for the good either.  Our friendship is life-encompassing.  

Her engagement party was amazing.  It was a traditional Muslim affair, and it was beautiful.  It was intimate, with only family and some friends invited. [The wedding will be packed, however.]

Hayah and I, on her engagement day. ♥ [I love borrowing her clothes!]

Cute little table decorations outside, where the kids sat!

This picture is a little blurry, but I love all the flowers on her! This also shows her mehndi [or, henna] and her new shiny engagement ring!

Treats I made for the event! Mickey and Minnie Mouse chocolate dipped oreos!

The best girls I know, or the self-deemed "Bridesmaids"! :]

They had these adorable boxes of treats made up with their names on the ribbon!

Her BEAUTIFUL engagement ring that I just had to steal to take a picture of.

It was a very sweet ceremony, and we have hundreds of thousands of pictures to remember it by! 

I don't really feel comfortable posting pictures of people without their approval, so that's it for now! But isn't it just the sweetest?

Update: I now have approval to post some more pictures, this time with the groom-to-be, as well! 

Hayah's house was done up beautifully for the event, with lights, curtains, chairs, rugs, tents, you name it!

All of the pictures captured are sooo cute.  It's hard to have them be anything else with how adorable they are!

All the girls got ready together. I can't post pictures of that, but here was my  look!

Gal-pals, the bride, and the groom!

I feel the need to tell you all that this photo was staged! We forced them to reenact the proposal so that we could film it. They've already thanked us for making them do this!

They're currently hoping for a December wedding, and I cannot wait.  More opportunities to wear shalwar kameez? I'm in! 

♥Riley 

P.S. If you're reading this Hayah, sorry if it was awkward! LOL

Cute Felt Anniversary Card!

Here is an easy tutorial on how to make physical felt cards for your loved ones, for any occasion! 

You can hang it on a wall, and it would make an adorable addition to any room. 

December 7th was Dave and I's 7th anniversary!  I was 15 when we got together, and he was 16.  He's the best thing that has ever happened to me! 

Our mutual favorite animal [or one of our favorites] is the manatee.  They have no natural enemies and our quite fast.  They also are very intelligent.  

You will need:

• A lot of different kinds of felt, mostly bits and pieces, with one to two solid pieces for a background
• Glue, hot glue or fabric/tacky glue
• Paint or puff paint for details

All in all this card will end up being $3 to $4

I looked up some different cartoon manatees to get a basic shape.

I needed pieces of gray for the manatees themselves.

I chose to use a pretty blue for the background color. I glued two sheets together to make them more sturdy.

I chose to use felt in the color "Silver Grey" for my manatees.

I traced a basic shape onto the felt.

Here it is with my hand for sizing purposes.  I realized that it looks quite small on its own, but they are actually larger.

I then cut out the manatee from the sheet of felt with some fabric scissors.  

I decided to make the marked side of the manatee the back side.  I needed two manatees cut.

I then traced it right side up, to make two different facing manatees.

I cut out little fins similar to the shape and size of my tracing.  I think they are just adorable.

Here is a close up of the manatees.  I made them hold hands! Then I cut out a little mouth for the manatees.

I made the girl manatee, the one on the right side, have a smaller mouth than the male manatee.

This is what they look like with both their mouths, a little zoomed out.  

I decided to make the girl manatee look a little girlier and cut out two hearts and a circle out of pink felt.  I put the points of the heart together, and put the circle on top of the points.  I often fuss over the shape of bows, but thought this was simple and cute, and fitting, as well.

Oh, I just think they are so cute! I used hot glue to affix all these pieces, but you could use fabric or tacky glue as well.

You can see that they are hearts and a circle in this picture.  

Then I decided to add pennant flags to the top.  I cut out 16 triangles and glued them to the top.  Five for happy and eleven for anniversary.  

I overlapped them a bit, as shown in this picture.  I wrote "happy anniversary" in puff paint on them, but I do not have a picture of it yet.  

Then I started making food items for the side, to make it a true manatee party.  I cut a tan circle out, as well as a smaller yellow circle, and five little red circles.  This, is a half pepperoni, half cheese pizza.  I made this because I am vegetarian and Dave and I always make our pizzas like this.

Then I decided to make a cheese quesadilla.  I cut a cream circle and a yellow half circle.  

I folded the cream circle over the yellow circle and glued it all down.

After cutting out the red circles, I noticed that a perfect little bow tie had been made.  I decided it was perfect for DaveO manatee. :]

Here is a little cupcake I made, with a cherry on top.

These are the broken down parts of the cupcake.

I then decided to make a burrito, after our love of Chipotle. 

Here is what my card looked like at this point. 

I folded in two sides of the circle, and rolled it up, then glued it down.

This is what it looked like finished. 

I then glued that down.  

This picture may be more clear.

I then added little puff paint eyes for the manatees, where they were shown in my tracing.  I don't have a picture of them after I put them on, but I will put one up soon!

There are all kinds of details and options in making felt cards like this.

Thanks so much for reading!

♥Riley

P.S.  I'd love to see your interpretations! :]