All snowed in with nothing to do!

It's officially happened. I don't currently have ANY projects that I need to be working on, and I have no idea what to do with my free time! Granted, we still don't have invitations, but that is because I am still working on the design. And I'm actually not even stressed about them, because I have my plan all mapped out, we just need to finalize everything. I haven't had to go to work in 2 days and normally I would be so happy to have time to work on wedding stuff. But, I am so caught up/ ahead of schedule that I have actually been able to..... relax.....and boy has it been wonderful. Here is the reason why I haven't had to work this week:

{looking down our street from the non-existent driveway}

{tree in our front yard that fell from the weight of the ice & snow}

{Carter investigating the damage!}

So, as you can see, it is a mess. There are about 2 or 3 inches of solid ice covered with at least 2/3 inches of solid snow. Days like this make me thankful that I don't live in the Northeast, where this happens way too often! Instead of working on wedding stuff, I have been watching hour after mind-numbing hour of the Real Housewives of Orange County, of which I have probably seen each episode at least 3 or 4 times. I just love it! After that marathon was over, I had to switch to the Soap Network and old episodes of the O.C. and One Tree Hill. When I haven't been losing brain cells in front of the TV, I have been hanging out with this little snow-loving guy:

Gosh, isn't he the cutest? He would stay out in the snow all day if I would let him. It is just the best thing to watch him romp around and dive in the big piles of snow. As much as I love being at home with him, and being off work, I don't know how much more of this weather I can take. On the bright side, we have 117 days until our honeymoon in Maui! Yes, it's a long time, but at least we have something to look forward to!

Our Pink & Green DIY Card Box

This may be my favorite DIY project yet. Not so much because of the finished product, but more because it was just soooo easy. We needed a card box for our gift table, and I wanted something that was just sort of small, because we are also displaying one of our framed monograms (not the one pictured) on the gift table. So, I made a trip to Hobby Lobby and got the supplies:

A 10X10x10 cardboard box with lid, fabric, ribbon, a craft knife and spray glue. My total was around $20. Because I chose a damask-style fabric with a design that goes in one direction, I could not just wrap the box like a present and call it a day. Instead, I cut 2 long strips of fabric, each long enough to secure inside the rim and just wide enough to fold the edges over. I sprayed the long sides and folded the edges so they would have a finished look. Now, if you ever plan on doing this, and you can sew, it would probably be a good idea to just hem the edges. But, I am still a very novice sewer and even hemming an edge can be tricky for me. Sad but true. After getting the edges finished, I attached one panel to the box, which looked like this:

After applying both panels to the sides, then came the lid. I basically wrapped the lid like you would wrap a present, only making sure that the sides were straight and not pointed. After the entire box was wrapped with fabric, it looked like this:

For the slit in the top of the box (which I forgot to picture), I attempted using the craft knife that I bought. Bad idea. That knife wasn't even worth the $1.99 w/ 30% off that I paid for it. It broke as soon as I attempted to cut with it. So, I had to rummage through Ryan's tools for something, and luckily he had a very sharp box cutter. This worked perfectly. I made a slit just large enough so that you could see it, but not so wide that you could see inside, since my unfinished fabric edges were secured in there. My last step was to wrap some pink satin ribbon around the center, securing it with the spray glue, and then attaching a little sign on the front, in the same font (albemarle swash) that we have used for all of our wedding stuff. Here's the finished product:


This entire project only took one rerun of The City to complete, which is less than 30 minutes for those of you who don't speak MTV. All in all, I am really happy with the way it turned out. But, I do have another suggestion for anyone who may attempt this project. Basically, spray glue= evil. My fingers are sticking to the keys as I am typing this. It gets everywhere and is sooo hard to get off of your fingers. So, it may be wise to try something else. Or if you do use spray glue, maybe try some latex gloves or something.

As of tomorrow, we have 4 months to go... and hardly any big projects left! woohoo!

Etsy Love: unlesssomeonelikeyou

Don't tell Ryan, but I have a serious crush on someone. That someone is Etsy seller unlesssomeonelikeyou. I was browsing around Etsy today looking for unique and different wedding invitations (no...we still don't have invitations... more on that later) when I ran across this seller. I was immediately in awe of how cool and different their invitations are. The little blurb about the seller basically says that they wanted something different for their invitations, so they created wedding posters to send each person that was invited in lieu of a traditional invite. Here are some examples:

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Seriously, how awesome are those posters? The only problem, I really don't think we are "cool" enough for invites like that! ha! After I decided we couldn't use them as invites, I thought about framing one and letting guests sign it as our guestbook, but we have already spent a small fortune on the Polaroid guest book idea, so there is no going back now. I really thought these posters were way too cute to pass up, so I ended up ordering one similar to the first picture shown. I think it will look great framed & matted in our home. I will definitely share it with you when it arrives:)

And on a side note, please continue to pray for Harper, Kelly and Scott from Kelly's Korner. Anyone who reads her blog regularly knows what a wonderful person Kelly is, and that everything they are having to go through with Harper is heartbreaking. I'm sure they would love for you to stop by and give them some words of encouragement!

Still ridin the mo' train...

And by "mo" I am of course referring to momentum. This week, I have crossed two more "little things" off my list! Anyone who reads regularly may remember the coloring books that I blogged about a while back. I needed a holder for the coloring books, so I made one that would match the basket for our programs. Here is the finished product:


This was a reeeeally easy project, but I think it will give a nice effect since it will match the program basket. I also finished my flip flop buckets, and the signs for these buckets. For anyone who is new to this idea, you basically offer flip flops at your reception to any women (or men, if you choose) who want to kick off their heels and boogie in something more comfortable! Here are some pictures of the flip flops, signs and finished product:





I wrapped each pair of flip flops in ribbon simply for the presentation. I think they look much more enticing that way! I also put the sizes on the toe area so that it would be easier to find your size, rather than searching through several buckets. Those tags peel right off. I love this idea not just for the functionality, but also for the extra splash of color. I really hope that the ladies at our reception will actually put these babies to good use!

Bathroom Basket Signs... Check!

Just call me Little Miss Progress this week! Tonight I finished up the signs for our bathroom baskets. I wanted a little something beside the basket to let people to know that the stuff inside was supposed to be used... in case they were unfamiliar with the whole idea. I bought the baskets, which are actually a photo box and an accessory tray, back in May. My Mom and I have been accumulating some stuff to put inside them here and there whenever we see a good deal, but we don't have a whole lot just yet. I decided to do a little mock-up of what the baskets would look like in action. Here they are (with some random stuff from my cabinets... the actual wedding baskets would be much more full!) :



And here is a close-up of the ladies' basket sign:


The pictures are hard to see, but the little poem I used for the ladies' sign reads:

We're so happy you're here to share our special day,
But should something happen to go astray,
Please help yourself to the contents within,
Hairspray, hand lotion and even aspirin!
Use what you need and leave the rest,
It may be useful to another guest.
So repair the damage that may have been done,
Then hurry on back and join the fun!

Compliments of the Newlyweds

And the mens' sign reads:

If you've stained your tie, your hair is out of place,
You've got bad breath or whatever the case,
We've put together a basket to help you along,
Now hurry back out before you miss the next song!

Compliments of the Newlyweds

I used the same fonts that I used in our programs, so there will hopefully be a cohesive feeling to everything. I found some variations of these poems in a lot of different places online, and then just adapted some of the words to be more "us." These little signs cost me about $7 to make both of them, but I feel like they add so much more to just a plain ol' basket full of stuff!

Our Preppy Programs: A Labor of Love!

Last night, we got to mark a BIG one off of our wedding to-do list when we finally finished our programs! I started working on the design for the programs months ago, and made more and more samples until I got exactly what I wanted. I have always thought that the program was a really important part of the wedding because you get to acknowledge everyone who will play a part in your big day, and it is the first tangible thing that your guests will receive to set the tone for your wedding. I hope no one takes offense to this, but a folded printout piece of paper just doesn't set a great tone, in my opinion. So, I wanted to create something that went along with our overall theme and color scheme. Here are some pictures of our final product (please excuse the ugly blurring!) :

We really started working on these over our Thanksgiving break when Ryan & I made a little assembly line of cutting the white cardstock, cutting the pink cardstock, rounding the corners, etc. We finished most of that part over Christmas break, and at that point they just needed to be assembled. For this part, I used Therm-o-Web Tape Runners to secure the white card to the pink, and then to secure the top of the second white card. I used some other tape runner brands when I would find them on sale, but I would not recommend anything but the Therm-o-Web. The others were not as permanent as I would have liked, and the tape would get caught up and ruin the whole roll. After all 200 were assembled, it was time to apply the ribbon. We used green satin ribbon in 5/16" size. We went back to our assembly line technique for this part, and Ryan would measure & cut the ribbon and then I would apply the ribbon to the program, again using the tape runner. This process took forever. But each time I would finish one, I would tell Ryan how I was madly in love with these programs, so it was definitely worth it. The cost breakdown went something like this:

• 100 Sheets Pink Azalea 105# Metallic Cardstock from Paper & More : $32.99
• 200 Sheets White 100# Paper Company Cardstock from Michaels : $20.00
• Therm-o-Web Tape Runner & 12 Refills from Michael's : $67.00
• 6 Spools Offray 5/6" Green Satin Ribbon from Hancock Fabrics: $2.12

Total= $122.11, or about 61 cents per program.

Was this process headache-inducing and seemingly neverending? Yes. Would I do it again? In a heartbeat. I am SO happy with the result of all our hard work... and even happier to mark a BIG project off of the to-do list!