A Gift

The people who support us the most tend to be our parents. They support us while we grow up, make mistakes, and now as we plan our marriage. How do we thank them for all of this? Any material gift seems insignificant. BUT, we must try!

We plan on giving our parents some type of plant. Both sets of our parents have recently moved and are adding landscaping to their new place. I thought it would be nice if we'd help them out. B and I have a Rosemary bush we have somehow kept alive over the past year, so we thought we'd give that to my parents. It needs a larger pot and B and I will be moving in the next few years and I don't want to plant it and lose it. So, on to a new home it goes. B and I will choose a fabulous plant for his parents as time draws nearer.

Another gift I thought would be nice is a handmade one. As you have seen, I LOVE to make things. I saw in my vast search of projects, people have made coasters out of tiles. I purchased some paper, tiles, modge podge, etc.

Paper, #400 sand paper, #0000 Steel Wool, sheets of cork

First, I cut the paper into 4" x 4" squares. I used a paint brush to spread modge podge on the tile and then centered the paper on the tile. Next, I modge podged on top of the paper. Every 20 min. I modge podged until I had ~5 coats.

Wet modge podge on the tiles.

Once dry (a few days later), I used the #400 sand paper by wetting it and smoothing out the paint brush lines. Once that dried, I used the #0000 steel wool to smooth and give it some sheen. It was recommended that I add another layer of modge podge, so I did. I finished the coaster by spraying it with a colorless gloss spray paint that sealed it. I used hot glue to attach a 4" x 4" square of cork to the bottom of the tile so it wouldn't scratch a table. DONE!

The green are for B's parents and the cream/red ones are for mine. We chose paper that would coordinate with their living rooms the best.


One place I got my inspiration from was: http://diy.weddingbee.com/topic/from-coast-to-coasters

This project is so easy and inexpensive. The tiles were $0.16 each. I made 4 tiles in each color, but a 12x12 piece of paper provides 6 coasters and is less than $1 each. The modge podge can do many coasters and it was ~$4 plus I had a coupon. Cork sheets were less than $3 and there is enough to make ~16 tiles. I already had the spray paint so I am not counting that. The sand paper was cheap too.

My aunt is throwing me a bridal shower in 1.5 weeks and she is a photographer. She sent me 4 of her favorite photos and I am going to attempt to use them to make her coasters as part of her hostess gift.

Did this inspire you? Will you be hand making some gifts for VIPs in your life?

Where have I been?

You've missed me? Awe, that means a lot to me!

This past week has been so crazy! I have finished all of the invitations (photos soon to come, I promise), wrote and submitted an abstract for a poster, made a poster, attended a friend's bridal shower, and completed some projects.

So from my absence, I have so much to tell and show you!

Stay tuned...

Change is good

The questions that brides struggle with a lot is the changing of their name. Am I going to miss being a _____, or am I going to love being the new ________? It is a difficult decision, for some.

I have never questioned whether or not I was going to change my last name. I was talking with my sister a few years ago about this. She said she had a very hard time letting go of our maiden name and embracing the new one. I told her I had no problem letting go. My last name doesn't make me. I make my name.

The question I struggled with more was, was I going to move my maiden name to my middle name or get rid of it all together. Tradition would tell me to let go of my current middle name and move my maiden name to the middle. For me, this doesn't not work. You see, I LOVE my middle name (especially since B and I share our middle name). My first name can also be a last name, so if I moved my maiden to the middle I would have 3 last names. YUCK! It just won't do.

So, my decision? (As if you haven't already guessed) I am letting go of my last name and embracing the new while keeping my middle name.

Are you struggling with the name change?

A party, for me?

What's that you say? I get a party? Oh heck yeah!

I received my invitation to my first bridal shower about 1 week ago. I was so excited to get it that I took pictures to show you.

A little back story for you: My sister told me early on in our engagement that she wanted to host my bridal shower, awesome! The when having dinner with my aunt and uncle, my aunt asked if she could and I told her my sister wanted to do it. She reminded me that she had done my sister's shower and would be willing to help her with it. My uncle suggested that my sister host it at my aunt's house. This was a great idea since my sister was trying to figure out where to have it.

She here is the invitation my aunt sent out to attend the bridal shower my sister and aunt were to host:

My sister told me my aunt had my uncle design the invites. I think he is a pretty good job, don't you?

I'm super stoked about the shower and I can't wait to wear my new dress!!!

Dazzle

The dazzle I am speaking of is ShoeDazzle. Everything for $40 and the stylists find you shoes. O. M. G.

Thus far the stylists have been a little off for my taste, but then in my alternative selection for March, there were the most Beautiful shoes my eyes have seen. They are named Pixie.

Pixie from Shoe Dazzle

The dusty rose is to beautiful and the shape and style of the shoe is so classic! They arrived and the shoe in person did not fail to meet my standards:

The heel height was a bit taller than I had imagined (I'm not used to wearing heels anymore) so I had a little trouble walking in them the first day, but I managed. The second day I wore them I purchased gel stickies for the pads of my shoes and they fit and felt much better.

So before you stop reading this post because you are saying to yourself, "girl, your colors are not pink" I have so many pre-wedding activities to participate in.

I have purchased a black and white polka dot dress from White House Black Market and thought that these shoes would be perfect with it. I am planning on wearing this dress and maybe these shoes to at least one of my bridal showers.

WHBM

A terrible phone pic of me in my dress and shoes!!!

My fiance even said he like the outfit and didn't ask how much they were. He only asked if they were a "just because" buy or a "useful" purchase.

Have you made clothing purchases for pre-wedding activities?

Fabric flowers

I guess a theme for our wedding is, no real flowers. I laugh about this because I LOVE flowers. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE! Being that our wedding is outside at my parent's farmhouse, there will be flowers in the gardens. But, as far as corsages, bouquets, and centerpieces, no real flowers.

Source

As you can imagine, I have scoured the internet for every tutorial imaginable. I was looking for flowers that I thought were pretty and easy/quick to make. I didn't want to be stressing over making a dozen fabric flowers if each flower was going to take a long time to make.

I first found tutorials in the Martha Stewart website:

Martha Stewart for above 2 photos

I tried the tutorials for the Dahlia (1st pic) and the garden rose (2nd pic). The dahlia DID NOT turn out well! It may have been the fabric I chose, but it was not good! But, the garden roses turned out well:

Garden rose I made

I was hoping to put a fabric flower on a headband for our flower girls, but this flower come to a point in the back and would probably not sit right. So, on to look for more...

I kept finding similar tutorials for flowers shown in the very first photo above, so I tried it out. They seemed easy to make since all I had to cut were circles of the fabric in the same size. Some tutorials told me to sew and some told me to hot glue. Since I am a sewer, I started with that. The flower turned out nicely but it took longer than I had expected.

So, next I thought I'd try the hot glue. Boy did this go faster than I could ever have hoped. Even though there was a lump in the middle from the glue, you couldn't tell and the flower still looked good. I was able to knock out 2 flowers in the time it took me to sew one.

These flowers I made are all a little large to go on top of my flower girls' head, so I will have to make more that are smaller.

Tutorials I have found:
Chrysanthemumfelt flower
Fabric flower similar to one I did above
Fabric Carnations
Hot Glue Flower I did above

Some other ideas I have for fabric flowers are wrist corsages and brooches for clutches I am going to make.

Source

What do you think? Great idea or what?

DIY Chalkboard

I thought I'd share with you how I made the chalkboard for my photobooth. It is really easy and staight forward.

1. Gather supplies: Fine sandpaper, very fine sandpaper, challkboard paint, painter's tape, wooden board.

I purchased the wooden board from AC Moore. The edges are grooved similarly to baseboard.

2. Sand the wooden board. I started with the fine sand paper and finished with the very fine so the board would be very smooth and easy to write on:

3. Decide on the design. Do you want a wooden border; do you want only the edges to be wood?
I chose to do a wooden border so I placed my painter's tape around in the design I wanted:

4. Paint; I took the board outside and used the chalkboard spray paint. I made sure to cover all the areas. Let dry and repeat as many times as you think necessary.

5. Once you have put on all of the coats of paint and it is dry, remove the tape. DONE!

Do you think you will make a chalkboard?