Nursery
This past January, my husband and I welcomed our son, Charlie. He came a little earlier than expected – 6 weeks to be precise – but luckily the nursery was ready when he came home.
I wanted something that matched the rest of our home and would be subtle enough that our son could grow with the room. We went with a teal green color alongside board and baton to give them room a polished look.
I didn’t want there to be too strong of a theme, but still wanted it to be child friendly so we have some subtle nods to woodland creatures and some overlap of things you’ll find throughout our home – we have deer antler, he gets a stuffed animal deer head. I have some cow hydes, he gets a fluffy bear pillow.
Our baby is still too young to hangout in here overnight, but I’m excited for the day when I regret all the white items I got for the room!
Romantic, Eclectic Wedding
Last February, my husband and I tied the knot. When dreaming about weddings, I never saw myself being a winter bride but my husband is a football coach and we were engaged in May … so winter it was!
My biggest desire was that I wasn’t tied to one pattern, color but rather it was an eclectic blend of things my husband and I loved that all together just worked. I wanted to see our personalities reflected on a budget and that each guest left full, known and sweaty!
Bridal Party
For my husband, I wanted his tie to fit the overall color scheme and I purchased a dried flower boutonniere for him so we would have a forever keepsake and helped reduce floral costs by quite a bit. For my bouquet, I requested it look like perhaps I’d just picked them in the fields, or something to that effect. I also supplied my own ribbon, going with a velvet pink that I found on sale at Joanne’s.
Each of our groomsmen had dried baby’s breath boutonnieres, which were incredibly more affordable than going through the florist. And I asked that each bridesmaids bouquet be made of the same flower, but each bouquet be a different flower. Then all those flowers were what was in my bouquet … sounds like a hard math problem. I’ve always been a fan of vases filled with one type and color of flower, and I wanted that for my bridesmaids.
I didn’t have one dress or one color for my bridesmaids, but I did love the floral pattern on two of the dresses and asked each lady to find outfits that matched and asked two of my bridesmaids to pick whichever dress type they wanted in that pattern. Almost everyone ended up purchasing from Revelry, which allows you to try on dresses and get swatches to choose what works for you for the wedding, and maybe another event afterward! I love that we ended with different shades, fabrics and even outfits with one of my matrons of honor opting for a sequined top and satin skirt. I also purchased pashminas for the ladies in case it ended up being a cold day … which it really really was.
For special touches, I wanted to carry my grandparents with me since they weren’t with us any longer, so I found some small bouquet frames so that they were still represented on our special day. Since our ladies weren’t matching, we didn’t want the groomsmen to match so we went with a pink, mauve pallet for the ties for men.
I found some adorable white, lace dresses on Amazon that were around $30 and got pink/mauve crowns from etsy for our flower girls.
I used a cricut to add a special touch to my shoes, which has stayed on even after wearing them out in the wild after the wedding. And since we were going with a floral pattern as our inspiration, I got my husband some special floral socks to wear.
Special Touches
For our parents, I wanted to get them something special to wear the day of as well as something to give my bridesmaids. For my mom and matrons of honor, I got them necklaces with their birth flower and a second disc with “mom” and “sister” and for each of my bridesmaids I got them a birth flower necklace.
For my mother-in-law, I found this beautiful necklace that included the sweetest note of thanks to the woman who raised the guy I would be spending the rest of my life with. Maybe one of my favorites, though, was for our dads. I took photos of us as babies and made iron-ons with short, stitched on messages that we added to the ties we gifted them for the ceremony.
Ceremony
Does anyone know the fantastic band, The Weepies? Well, I’ve long been a fan and one image of the band inspired something in me years ago that I tucked away for the day I got married. The idea of cute, cut-out stars always seemed like the perfect way to make a wedding a little extra special and unique. Now my vision involved a tent and hanging stars from the roof of the entire thing, but this was a handmade wedding and we did not have time for that.
Instead, we cut out funky stars and hung then by fishing wire with weights at the end and added it behind where our ceremony would take place. I have to tell you, I think I nailed it with this one. I loved every photo where you saw the stars.
We also knew there would be a lot of children at the wedding. I know some folks prefer a childfree night, but some of my favorite people were under the age of 5 so we wanted all the children to come, but knowing they’d be there I wanted to create some easy distractions for them during the ceremony so we bought some small clipboards , prepackaged crayons and printed wedding photos from a free online site. I added a little string to make it look more put together and loved the final result.
For the decorations, we cut tree trunks down to fit candles and fresh greens, bought from Sam’s – great way to get fresh florals for less! I also bought black foam board and used the cricut to cut out what we needed for signs and found some old picture frames to put them in. It had the look of chalkboards for the fraction of the price.
Reception
For our reception, we chose to have it inside a barn that was repurposed for events. I wanted the reception to fill like a big family gathering, so we went with long tables that gave me some great options for decorating. I started collecting small frames when we began planning the wedding and added a few of my husband’s football plays, lyrics to some songs that were special to us and maps of places we had lived and placed those up and down the tables.
I didn’t want anything to match, that way it all matched, so we had gold and silver chargers, different colored frames and a mixture of flowers from Sam’s, Publix and even my parents backyard. We also used eucalyptus to fill in any empty spots. For the runner, I purchased large amounts of cheesecloth and died it mauve to go with the rest of our decorations.
Our cake was from Publix and was delicious! Our topper was inspired by Etsy, but hand painted by my very talented sister and my dad built our cake stands out of wood. We used the cricut to cut out “you and me” and “forever more” as a nod to our first dance song, “New Years Day” by Taylor Swift.
For our exit, I purchased dried flowers off of Etsy so that they could be thrown without harming the environment or the animals and we bought a few large sparklers to give the exit photos a little extra pizzazz.
The rest of the night was dancing, eating and laughing. I know I am biased, but I think this wedding was one for the books. It was everything I had dreamed of and so incredibly fun – which was all I wanted, a good time!
Micro-Neighborliness
Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash
Recently, I listened to the podcast, “It’s the Little Things” where they spoke on the idea of fostering micro-neighborliness. The idea that small acts in your neighborhood could slowly build not just friendly waves shared by strangers but an actual community where you live
I purchased a home in March, my first home! And since that time I’ve had few periods of rest and focus, but have managed to add a little paint, decorate for the fall season and have friends over.
But I cannot name one person that I live near. There’s a family next door who loves to sit outside and listen to music, there’s a woman across the way who chats outdoors on her phone and has frequent visitors and the kids behind me once set up a basketball court in my driveway … which I asked them to move.
So, my neighborliness hasn’t even been micro. It’s been non-existent.
The crazy part is I think one of my giftings is creating a community where I am. In every workplace, I’ve made it a point to create and enforce an atmosphere of camaraderie and care, but for some reason when I get home the idea of moving from the couch has felt almost impossible.
But NO MORE! I’ve written up a list of 10 to-do items to create the type of neighborhood I want to live in. One where I know my neighbors, can love on them and can create a home inside my neighborhood. I’m writing this here because eight months of living in my home with no action means I need accountability.
Photo by Nina Strehl on Unsplash
Neighborhood Outreach To-Do List:
- Just Popping In. Create a little “welcome to the neighborhood” giveaway to give to every home in my proximity.
- Be outside. Walk or sit on my porch for one hour every week. (Start small, work your way up to more time).
- Learn one household of names a month, more if I’m feeling ambitious.
- Welcome new neighbors. Be the neighbor you want to be!
- Participate in the Neighborhood Events.
- Give out Christmas presents. At my apartment complex, I created some hot chocolate mix inside an ornament – it required a little more finesse than I realized, but the outcome was awesome. I got to know several neighbors and even had one give me cookies the next day!
- Give out seasonal food. Once a season I want to sit outside and give out a treat for my neighbors.
- Popsicles / Lemonade – Summer
- Caramel Corn / Hot Cider – Fall
- Gingerbread Cookies / Hot Chocolate – Winter
- Easter Cookies / Strawberry Lemonade – Spring
- Organize a Block Party. This one is going to take me getting to know people, but I think if I get through 1-7 then this one will come together!
New Year’s Resolutions
Happy New Year!
I’m your average 20-something woman. I want to lose weight, eat better, find my hidden abs, etc every year. Then for good measure I throw in less tv watching, more book reading and so on.
But this year I want to do something different. I want to make a list that goes beyond the typical – I want to get crafty, I want to learn, to challenge myself, to fill my apartment with all the homemade items I can and have someone say, “Where did you buy that?”
“Oh, I made that myself!”
So I am declaring on this blog my Resolutions for 2016:
- Learn calligraphy. I love making my own cards, but the way some people write BLOWS MY MIND! And I want to get in on that action.
- This one is pretty obvious if you follow this blog: I want to blog more! I want to do one post a week with a challenge or update or something. Once a week – easy peasy.
What? You and your sister don’t sing in the most high-pitched tone you can to celebrate New Year’s? Well, that’s a mistake.
- Hone in on my cooking skills. I love reading blogs about people cooking and baking these wonderful dishes while I hear my microwave churning my dinner of the night. NO MORE! I’m going to get out the pans and dishes I never use and challenge myself. Fingers crossed it tastes decent.
from ABeautifulMess
- Upholster a chair. This one has always seemed really hard to me. I can do a cushion seat – but a chair? I have one that needs a re-do, and I will be the one to do it!
- Craft more. Since moving to Central Florida away from the helpful tools my parents provided I have really put crafting on the back burner. Grant it, it’s more challenging in an apartment as oppose to a garage and giant yard where I can spray, saw and making noise. But I love crafting and want to do it more!
This photo has nothing to do with crafting, but look how cool we look. You would never know we were not in sync (my bad).
A Dino-mite Birthday Party
I can count on one hand the gifts God’s given me that I believe I am truly amazing at, and one of those is themed parties. This year, I was inspired by my friend’s love for Jurassic World and decided to throw a dinosaur themed birthday party!
So what does a birthday party for a 24-year-old woman look like in dinosaur form look like? Let me show you!
Party City had some fairly inexpensive Jurassic World party goodies, I grabbed the banner, ceiling decor and balloons! The black claw marks on the wall were made with construction paper!
I also Pinterested like a crazy person and found some really cute ideas! First, you have to have party hats for any decent birthday party – that’s just a rule for life. I added coloring paper to the back to add a little dino-decor to the hats.
I bought some stickers to label everything, and decided to make everything sound like a dinosaur name. We even had a “gameasaurus” for our pin the dinosaur fossil head to the skeleton.
Jurassic World tattoos and an adorable crown for the birthday girl.
Veggies and fruit for the “herbivores”
I made meatballs for the “carnivores” and let me tell you – delicious! Add 32 ounces of barbecue sauce, 32 ounces of grape jelly and let it sit on High in a crockpot for three hours.
Dinosaur eggs
I used chalk to add dinosaur footprints up the stairs to my apartment. I also cut up black paper and taped it to the wall to look like the dinosaur rips.
And like any good party, we obviously had to have some themed games. I had dinosaur trivia, pin the dinosaur fossil head to the skeleton and the spin the wheel and do what it says game.
2014 in review
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 40,000 times in 2014. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 15 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.
A Very Turkey Thanksgiving
This was the first Thanksgiving where we didn’t go home but my parents came to us so we decided to make it a less traditional and classy Thanksgiving and really theme it up – my favorite thing to do!
We started with a wreath, which was simply brown yarn, turkey-colored tulle, googly eyes and construction paper!
We also wanted to make our time leading up to the meal interactive so we cut up some construction paper and did a grownup version of hand turkeys!
Then of course there’s the place settings and touches of decor. We found turkey plates and pre-bought turkey decor at a local party store.
Our favorite decoration we made were felt turkey napkin rings with ribbons, googly eyes and love! We got the white napkins from Walmart.
Last of all is our turkey lights, which was just construction paper, mason jar and googly eyes with a tea light inside.
Fall-La-La-La-La
Happy Fall, Y’all!
Since I live in central Florida there’s not much fall in my life. The key to staying seasonal with the rest of the country is to overwhelm your home with pumpkin-flavored everything and as much fake fall stuff as you can cram into a 700 square-foot apartment.
This past Saturday, the roomie and I hosted a fall crafternoon complete with pumpkin bread, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin coffee and funnel cake (FUNNEL CAKE!?) and pumpkin painting.
To say the party was a success was obviously an understatement.
Pumpkin Painting:
I highly recommend a pumpkin painting party. Your pumpkin will last the whole fall season and you can make it match your home (hence the gold and white all over).
Now, on to the food ideas – Time to make some funnel cake!
Ingredients:
Vegetable Oil
1 Cup Pancake Batter
2/3 Cup Water
Powdered Sugar
Heat up the oil on the stove top – I saw somewhere that it should be 350 degrees, but as a normal person I did not possess a thermometer for oil so I guessed by putting some of the batter in the oil and waited until that began sizzling. Once it seems nice and cooked on one side, turn it over and prepare a plate with a napkin on it. When it is done, take it out and sprinkle some (or in my case, lots) of powdered sugar and serve up!
It’s a Bachelorette Party!
My little sister will soon be heading to the alter so a bachelorette bash full of diy projects was surely needed! Her future husband’s last name is Fruchtman, so we decided to do a play on words and theme the party with “Fruchting” (pronounced, Fruck-ting) at the center.
Pins:
Foam
Pins
Permanent Marker
Ribbon
Hot Glue
Getting Nailed:
Washi Tape (I chose some sweet silver glitter washi tape)
Nail File
Nail Polish
Tags (I found chalkboard tags at Target)
We made pink lemonade and cut up lemons to make it look cuter. Super easy – just buy some from your local grocery store. I suggest the Old Time Country mix. We borrowed the drink dispenser from a friend.
We found an adorable chalkboard at JoAnne’s and my friend Kaitlynn used chalkboard paint to write on it. She’s got talent as you can plainly see! You can get the paint at JoAnne’s or Target.
We decided to make our own headband for the celebration – we found something similar online and then added our own spin:
Headband:
Tulle
White Headband
Silver letters (also found at JoAnne’s)
Stick-on pearls
Hot Glue
Sash:
Ribbon
Black fabric paint
Black stick-on pearls
Sign:
Scrapbook paper
Twine
Permanent Marker
Hole Punch
We used scrapbook paper and twine to make the letters – we just cut the shape we wanted and used a hole punch.
We bought a dozen mason jars, cute paper straws and stick-on chalkboard lettering to make cups for each of our guests. (all found at the one-and-only JoAnne’s!) For the cupcakes, we ordered from Publix – they looked much better than anything I could have done and used a cupcake holder to liven up the display. Kaitlynn cut up bra- and undie-shaped toppers for the cupcakes (she’s clearly meant to be a party planner).
Topper:
Scrapbook paper
Wood toothpicks
Scissors
Glue
After the lingerie portion of the evening, it was time for the party! We slapped on some adorable tattoos and headed out for sushi, a piano bar and some dancing the night away. It was a pretty good time.
So excited for the rest of the bridal festivities for the little one. Congrats again, my love!
Crafting with the Kiddos
Later this month I will get to start volunteering at a local children’s hospital and I am so excited. I will be working under the child life specialists, so among my duties will be playing with the patients and coming up with crafts for them to do.
Right up my alley, right?
I’m still waiting for one more training session before I can start, but in the meantime I’ve started looking around the internet for crafty ideas to do with children. Here’s what I’ve come up with:
Source: http://www.muminthemadhouse.com/2010/07/12/childrens-craft-showcase-how-to-make-paper-flowers/
If you have any ideas that would work please share them!
Just Call Me Miss DIY 