Wedding Wednesday: Asking my Bridesmaids

Its Wedding Wednesday! Probably my favorite link-up of the week! (tied with #backthatazzup Friday…)

As soon as M.E. put a ring on it, I knew without a doubt who I would have stand by my side on my wedding day. And I'm sure they knew it already too. But I officially asked my bridesmaids to be my maids a little over a month ago, the morning we went to the bridal dress salon. Unfortunately, they only got half of their gift at that time because of a shipping mishap. Had the gifts been complete, this is what they would have looked like:

 I stenciled their initials on to plain craft bags (in white) and the tissue paper was pink (not white like the pic...)

 Inside each bag was one of these framed sayings (that I printed and hand traced)

Will you be my bridesmaid? I promise there will be no ugly colors, bows on the butt, puffy sleeves.

They say I'll need someone to hold up my dress when I have to pee. Will you be my bridesmaid?

I would like to ask you to be my bridesmaid with the understanding that you will not attempt to look better than me.

 And a wine tumbler with their names, so they won't spill on their pretty dresses!

Purchased from this lady. I can't seem to find her shop anymore, maybe its because she was a horrible shipper!

 The girls seemed to like them and I had a blast picking them out!

DIY: Windows & Moss

Happy Tuesday Bloggies!

Happy Tuesday from Bo!

Yesterday I told y'all about our house project adventures and mentioned the little DIY decor projects I made for our new mantel! I wish I had pictures to show you what they look like in all their glory on the new mantel but the mantel hasn't fully dried yet so... patience, maybe this weekend!

Picture Window

Pinspired by this

 This project cost me a whopping $7! I had an old window from my Mimi (she's an antique collector/seller so she finds things for cheap!) but you can normally find them at any antique shop, craigslist... I even had a friend find some when she spotted construction workers replacing windows at a house in her neighborhood (lucky!). You can upload your photo to Staples and they will print an engineer print for $7!

• old window
• duct tape
• scissors
• large photo

The most important part is measuring your window and then choosing a picture that has a composition that works. For example, don't choose a picture where one of the window beams is directly in front of your face, not cute. So measure your window and resize it using photo software (I used pixlr.com). Once you have your print, cut it out, and tape it to the back! Done!

Moss Letter

Pinspired by this

 Warning: messy project

•  scissors
• hot glue gun
• moss mat (found at Michaels, its moss glued to a net, so its easy to trace/cut specific shapes)
•  letter
• pen/pencil/marker

Open up your moss net stuff, pre-apologize to your fiance for the mess you're about to make. Lay the moss face down and trace your letter. Cut out your letter and glue the moss to the letter! Continue on cutting shapes from the moss and gluing. No need to make precise measurements, if you leave a spot uncovered, just glue some of the moss that has exploded all of your work area onto the funky spot. Done!

DIY - Golden Polkadot Bowls ($1 Store Craft)

Happy Friday Bloggies! Its almost the weekend - where we get to sit on our butts and wish we had money to shop and/or redecorate the house! This weekend I plan on ripping wallpaper off the walls and then laying on the couch because the weather ain’t supposed to be that great…

Speaking of redecorating and wishing for money, last night I was inspired to create a dollar store craft. I was inspired by For Chic Sake - such an easy project that looks so classy!

Golden Polkadot Bowls

NOTE: Do NOT eat out of this bowl. Spraypaint is not good for you.

Step 1: Gather supplies!

White bowl - $1

Stickers (could use any shape! these circle garage sale stickers worked great) - $1

Gold spray paint (had some at the house already) – free!

Painters tape (had some already) – free!

Step 2: Stick those stickers! (Actually wash the bowl first so there’s no dust or anything) Make sure you stick those stickers really well, wouldn’t want any paint seeping underneath! Also, tape around the outside.

Step 3: Spray that sucker! One coat will do. Then let it DRY. I got a little overeager and started pealing the stickers too soon. Be patient! After about an hour, peel away. Some paint may have gotten underneath your stickers and left less than perfect circles. Its cool, mine did – it adds character.

Step 4: Bring it to your office to make all your coworkers jealous or your sweet one-of-a-kind paperclip holder.

TIP: So many color options! A patterned bowl with black spray paint? A black bowl with neon spray paint? These would make great gifts!

Room Revamp

The first time Mark invited me to his bachelor pad, he wouldn’t let me in the downstairs room. I think I peeked the next time I was over while he was in the bathroom or something - it was a mess. At one point he had had a roommate, and then it was Bo’s room, and now it was a junk room. And the connecting bathroom? Forget about it. We had been dating several months before I was brave enough to venture in there.

Finally I convinced him it was time to clean it up, so we moved some things around and with some help from a buddy he installed hardwood floors. It was decent enough to leave the door open after that – not quite an eyesore any more (but the bathroom still needed some help.)

Then I moved in and it became a Mark/Angie junk room. It sat like that for a couple of months before we attempted to organize it again.

WELL Mark was out of town this past weekend and I decided it was time to get that room’s act together once and for all. I mean how can I plan an organized wedding when our house is an unorganized mess?!

before

after

before

after

before

after

before

after

 You’ll be surprised to know that I didn’t throw anything away! I just found a home for it all – and that’s where the bed raisers really came in handy. Also, I started a ‘garage sale’ pile. You know, just in case we ever have a garage sale……...

Also check out my sweet curtains, closet curtain, and new long bed skirt (because I raised the bed I needed an extra long bed skirt). Both made from canvas drop-cloths I got from Home Depot for cheap!! I got my inspiration here:

http://meganbrookehandmadeblog.com/2012/08/diy-drop-cloth-curtains-no-sew-curtains.html

http://www.littleloveliesbyallison.com/2012/05/tutorial-easy-diy-bed-skirt.html

I apologize for not having pictures/instructions of how I made my linens, I was too exhausted from moving the bed and the carpets around to think about trying to find a camera.

 

I got the results I wanted: the room doesn’t look like a college guy’s room anymore, but it’s not too girly. And although it’s a storage room for sure, I’m not embarrassed to let people see it!

I have a couple more projects to finish, like the chevron canvas and some pillow covers from the leftover drop cloth, but that’s for a later date, another weekend when Mark leaves me alone to entertain myself…

Although he did promise to help me re-do the bathroom.

DIY: Happy Everything Jar

Most of the time my DIY thought process is like this – see something on Pinterest I must have, can’t afford it, heck, I’ll make it myself!

Example of the day: Happy Everything by Coton Colors.

I just love the idea of it! But I just can’t afford to buy it for myself or all my friends. So it was time to get crafty.

Step one, rush to Michaels to gather supplies:

Large mason jar (I had on hand)

Thin piece of wood

Black paint

White paint

Brushes

Modgepodge (I had on hand)

Scrap book paper

Hot-glue & gun

“Season stuffing” (i.e. for Valentine’s day I got flowers and tinsel hearts)

Paint the inside of the mason jar white.

Paint the wood piece black.

Trim the scrapbook paper to fit the wood piece.

Paint a thin layer of modgepodge on the wood piece to glue the paper.

I designed the text image on the computer and printed on regular old cardstock. (email me and I will send you the pdf!)

Paint another layer on top of the scrapbook paper and glued the “Happy Everything” text down.

Paint another layer of modgepodge on top to seal.

Once everything is dry, hot-glue the wood piece to the jar.

Viola! Switch out your “season stuffing” for the seasons and the holidays of the year!

I have so many ideas for 4th of July (red, white & blue flowers), football season (garnet and gold sunflowers), Christmas (poinsettias) the list can go on and on!!

Chandelier Pre-DIY

This is just a Pre-DIY because I’m still brainstorming!

So I have this chandelier. Its ugly, and I’m not sure if it even works… But I can’t bring myself to throw it away!

So I googled some stuff and I came up with 2 Chandelier Repurpose DIY options.

Option 1: Fireplace Chandelier.

I got this idea from an interior decorator friend of mine. Shout out to Laura Bryant Designs! Basically, just plop that newly spray painted chandelier into the fireplace, especially during the summer months when you won’t be having any fires. While I love this idea, I need to measure first. I don’t think our fireplace is that big or if the fixture can balance on its bottom. Unfortunately, google had only one example to offer and I’m not sure how I feel about it…

Option 2: Plant Chandelier

Chop of the ‘light candles’ and liquid nail some pots on that sucker. Spray paint. Hang on the porch. Either plant some herbs, flowers, or stick some fake flowers in those pots and viola! Google had these examples to offer:

Do you have any other ideas?? I’m looking for cheap and not too girly (boyfriend doesn’t like too girly).

Weekend recap - Feelin good!

Happy Monday! What? Have I lost it? There's no such thing as a 'happy' Monday!

Well, all things considered, today I'm feeling good.

Woke up early, did a little workout routine, made some eggwhites with cheese & and had coffee from our fancy still-new-to-us Kuerig while watching the Today Show from the kitchen table instead of bed!

Now it's almost 1:00 in the afternoon and I'm still feelin energized and I'm not starving! Maybe there really is something to this exercise & eating right thing....

I hope everyone had a fantabulous weekend! In bullet points, mine looked like this:

• Dinner at On the Border with some girlfriends (looked up the menu beforehand so I knew exactly what low-calorie dish to order and pushed the chips basket as far from me as possible!)


• Went to the movies to see Anna Karenina. Quick review: strange, beautiful, romantic, long

• Woke up early Saturday morning to meet Ma & Da at Market Days - an annual Arts & Crafts show at the fairgrounds. Maaaaybe bought my coworkers their Christmas presents ;)




• Completed a Saw it. Pinned it. Did it! Love it.

 

I took a Dollar Store Santa hat, cut the white parts off, used the red part as a pattern for the burlap, hotglued it all together, & found a brooch (from a jewelry dollar store here in town). After the picture I added a gold ribbon behind the brooch. Viola! Santa Chic.

• Went to the Tallahassee Winter Festival & Parade! The office hosted a little pizza party so the family and I camped out in boss's office and watched the Parade.



• Watched the Noles kick Georgia Tech's butt! We're Bowl bound!

Lola watching/distracting me from the game.

• Sunday was a day of cleaning, the Seminole basketball game, and napping on the couch with my Sweetie.

Happy December! I hope everyone is as excited as I am, its the most wonderful time of the year!

Very truly yours, A. Bean



DIY: Holiday Advent Calendar

Yesterday, while browsing Pinterest on my lunch break, I came accross some DIY Holiday Advent Calendars... and got totally sucked in. Googling, blog searching, etc. obsessed with the idea of making an advent calendar for boyfriend and I to enjoy this Holiday season.

I remember when I was kid how thrilling it was to pull that little cardboard door open & pop out the peice of chocolate everyday in December, counting down the days til Christmas.

But we're adults now, and I can go buy my own chocolate whenever I want. And I do.

So instead of chocolate in our calendar I came up with 24 activities for boyfriend and I to do together. But sorry, I can't list them for you.

Part of the excitment is the surprise of what is in the envelope - and if I tell you boyfriend might see it! (Tip: just google Holiday activities for ideas!)

To make sure I get in on some of the excitment of the surprise - I rushed out to Michaels yesterday for supplies ($20) and made my advent calendar last night. (On the theory that I will forget what I put in the envelopes by December 1...)

Also, I knew I was going to be up late watching the election results so I needed a project to keep me busy; otherwise, I would have fallen asleep. (Which I immediately did after I finished the calendar...)

 DIY: Holiday Advent Calendar

Supplies:
scissors
glue (I forgot glue!! But I had some modge podge on hand that I painted on like glue - whew!)
hot glue
marker (for the numbers, stickers could work too. I printed the numbers in a pretty font, placed my white circle on top of the numbered paper and used a red paint pen to trace each number)
holiday scrapbook paper (I printed a 2" circle on cardstock to use as a stencil to cut each circle)
envelopes (found these cute 3.3" square ones)
ribbon
white paper (I printed 24 1" circles on cardstock, and cut them out by hand)
any embellishments (Michaels has tons and tons of fancy stickers/glittery stuff)
Holiday activities (I just printed mine out and cute them into strips, folding to put into the envelope)

Directions:

1. Cut all (24) white circles. Trace/write/stick your numbers on.
2. Cut all (24) holiday circles. Glue your numbered white circles into the center of each.
3. Glue a complete circle on each envelope.
4. Stuff an activity in each one.
5. Lay your ribbon out flat. Position the filled envelopes so that they are all equally spaced. Hot glue a front corner to the back of the ribbon. (Otherwise it may be hard to open.)
6. Viola! Finished! My original plan was to hang it off of our mantle but since it was waaaay longer than expected, I'm thinking just along a wall somewhere...

Can't wait til December 1!

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3 & 4

Bad example of Step 5

Very truly yours, A. Bean

Dear sewing machine,

So about 3? years ago, Santa brought me a beautiful pale blue sewing machine - just what I had asked for!! That Santa, he knows me so well.

3 years later, it was still in the box.

See? In the box. See? Pretty fabric.

But after some motivation from a friend a few days ago I (boyfriend) dug around in the closet and pulled it out. I found some pretty fabric at Joann’s and I was going to make a skirt!!

It took some serious concentration to thread the machine (without my mother or middle school Home Ec teacher standing over my shoulder) but I did it! And I used the pattern I had to cut my fabric into my 2 skirt pieces… and sewed up the sides! And voila – halfway done making a skirt that was 3 sizes to small!

Fooey. I wasn’t about to waste my time or money or beautiful fabric on a skirt that’s too small! So I youtube’d some videos on DIY infinity scarf, laid my ‘skirt’ out flat on the ground, and chopped it up to make a scarf.



Voila! Here I am modeling it in boyfriends t-shirt.



And here’s Bozo modeling looking ever so sweet.

And here I am modeling this morning – and I’m impressed with myself!!

Do you sew?? What tips do you have for me?

Very truly yours, A. Bean