Bridal Shower

My friend, Krissi, just got married! Woo to the hoo!

She asked me to be one of her bridesmaids, and I was thrilled.  All of the other bridesmaids live up North, in New York, and they threw her bridal shower and bachelorette shindigs up there.  Since, I am down here with Krissi in good ol’ Florida, I wanted to throw her a party to celebrate with her southern friends.  Don’t be fooled though, we don’t have many friends down here.  We pretty much hang with just each other.  Anywho, I wanted to throw a bridal/bachelorette/girls night/Krissi day for my lovely friend.

Here’s what went down…

I knew I wanted to hang balloons upside down from the ceiling, because I have seen many cool examples on Pinterest.  Here is what I came up with…I bought clear-ish balloons and filled them with pink confetti glitter, then hung them from the ceiling with pink ribbon. I’ll give you a quick fun fact about Krissi, she is a health nut, and she was even more so because of her upcoming wedding. So, I made some cupcakes, which were the weight watchers recipe for red velvet.  I threw some colorful sprinkles on top, since I was going for a colorful “sprinkles” theme. I, also, framed a couple of my favorite photos of her and her hubby to be, Sean.I made another good ol’ mimosa bar, because a Krissi party isn’t a Krissi party without mimosas.I had other bevs for the non-mimosa drinkers as well. Plus, these amazing straws…I picked the dog faced straw for my drink, who woulda thought?To continue with the “sprinkle” theme I found these awesome polka dot baskets and serving trays at Michaels. I made white chocolate and sprinkle covered pretzels and popcorn.  I could eat that popcorn for every meal for the rest of my life.  Seriously, melt some white chocolate and pour it over some popcorn, you will not be disappointed,For favors, I did these cute little succulents in mini pots.  The big guy was for the guest of honor, of course. I found these little pink lanterns, that light up, at the dollar store. Sorry for being a bad blogger because I didn’t get a picture of them lit up at night, but it was really cool. Krissi was pretty pumped about the jello shots… Of course, we got her some goodies for the celebration. I drew her pup, Oliver, and also got her a couple things on her registry.   She, also, received some mula and even some pesos for her honeymoon in Mexico! Just look how excited Charlie was about the pesos! And, look how thrilled he was to be smooshed by me!

We had a blast, and we will miss our Krissi so much when she moves back to NY.  Love you Krissi!

Here are some photos from her fabulous wedding…

 

Family Visit

A few weeks back, my mom, dad and sister came to visit.

I figured you have been dying to see the photos from this little family reunion.  So, I won’t keep you in suspense any longer…

Look at that family!  Couldn’t you just eat them up? I just love them!We had a super laid back visit, we just went where the wind took us each day.We did do the touristy thing and asked a fellow Jacksonviller to take our photo in front of the Main Street Bridge.  Fancy huh?We visited the Jacksonville Landing one day.

Jess got her fortune told by Zoltar.  It was astonishing.We did lots of lunches and dinners with friends. The Slide Into Summer Music and Craft Beer Fesitval was happening while they were in town, so we made a trek to that, of course.  We love us some live music.They had awesome food, music and vendors. The venue was in Fernandina, right on the beach.And, we even got our first family selfie!   The headliner for the festival was Railroad Earth, which we are all big fans of.  My dad left a couple days before my sister and mom, so we got to have a couple days to shop and do things that he would prefer not to.And, lastly we got to catch one of Justin’s hockey games… All in all, we had a blast!

Baby Shower

So, my friend Gwen had a baby!  And, a few weeks ago I threw her a shower.  It was so much fun and I got to make a ton of different shower decorations. Wanna take a gander?  Okay!

First up, I made this little “Baby Warren” sign.  I just cut the letters out of some pretty patterned paper, and clothes pinned them to this chicken wire frame.  FYI, the babies name is not Warren.  Gwen wanted to wait until she saw him to decide on his name.  Their last name is Warren.I, also, used the same floral patterned paper to make a couple bunting banners.   I just cut some triangles out of the patterned paper, popped two hole punches in the top two corners and strung some string through them.  Voila!  Bunting banner made from paper.I thought a mimosa bar would also be fun for us non-prego people.  And, of course, Gwen still got to enjoy the juices and fruits to garnish…I made some ham and turkey pinwheels for brunch…And, some dips and snacks of course…For activities at this shindig, I didn’t want to do the typical baby shower games.  So, I thought onesie painting would be fun!  I had seen this idea around Pinterest, and thought it was simple enough to recreate.  I purchased some plain white onesies (in assorted sizes) and bibs from amazon.  I, then, hung them with burlap twine and clothespins from the posts in my back patio.  This way everyone could just grab the onesie or bib they would like to paint.While pondering this activity, I figured the paint would seep through the onesies if I didn’t put some kind of barrier in between.  So, I cut up some pieces of cardboard for the girls to put inside of the onesies, so the paint wouldn’t bleed through.  I, also, thought that not everyone may be comfortable coming up with a design to paint off the top of their heads.  So, I made some stencils.  I just printed some outlines of objects on cardstock and cut them out.  Boom!  I had me some stencils.

This was a really fun activity, that I think everyone enjoyed.  The stencils were very helpful. Everyone got to be creative, without having to be super artistic.  As for paint, I always pick up acrylic craft paints while at Michael’s, so I had a ton on hand.  I didn’t want to have to buy a bunch of fabric paint that I probably wouldn’t be using again.  So, I found a bottle of this Delta Creative Textile Medium at Michael’s…All I had to do was add the Textile Medium to each paint color that I wanted to use.  It was a 1:3 ratio of the medium to the paint.  And, I had myself an assortment of fabric paint colors ready to go.  Everyone did such a great job, and thankfully Gwen loved how they turned out!Here are a few of the finished products…Pretty good, huh?

I didn’t want to get too crazy with the baby shower games, but I did put together one pretty common game.  It was the one where you guess what’s in the diaper.  I just melted 5 different candy bars and plopped each one into a diaper. All the girls had to do was inspect each diaper and write down what they thought was inside.  I think you get the gist of it.  It was quick and fun, and I had three prizes for the three girls that got the most correct answers in the fastest time. For the prizes, I just put together a few fun themed baskets…The first basket was a movie night theme.  It included: the movie Knocked Up (I thought it was appropriate), Junior Mints, Swedish Fish, and a box of Crunch n’ Munch popcorn.  The second basket was baking themed.  It included: a brownie baking pan, two different brownie mixes, a measuring cup, a spatula and a whisk. The last basket was gardening themed.  It included: two flower pots, a bag of soil, four packets of flower seeds, gardening gloves, a shovel and a little garden gnome.For desert I just made some cupcakes and had some assorted candy.          And, lastly, Gwen opened her presents!  We even Face-timed with her parents so they could get in on all the action. She got some really great stuff!

And, for favors, Gwen and I made some lavender sugar scrub for all of the girls to take home with them.Oh, and by the way, this is Owen…Isn’t he amazing?

Campin

A few weeks back, we went camping at Santos Campground in Ocala, FL.  We headed down on a Thursday and stayed through the weekend, leaving early Sunday morning.

We met Justin’s family there, they had arrived a day earlier.  We set up camp and immediately went hiking.Santos Campground has, both, hiking and bike trails.  We hiked in the morning with the dogs, and biked in the afternoon(without the dogs).It really is a beautiful place to camp and explore.Char was the protector of our site……But really, I think he enjoyed watching our fellow campers.

At night, we had dinner and hung out by the campfire.

I took a lot of photos on this trip, so bear with me.And, of course, the only biking photo we got…

So, if you’re ever in Florida and looking for a place to camp.  Check out Santos Campground, we totally dig it.

Cruise

Warning, this is long.

Did you know that we got married?  Well, we also went on a honeymoon.  And yes, this all took place 8 months ago, and I am just now writing about it.  Better late than never, right?

Our honeymoon was a Royal Caribbean cruise.   We figured a cruise would give us the best opportunity to see as many places as possible.  Plus, we live in Florida.  So, it’s just a short drive and we’re at sea!This is the cool little shopping area on the cruise, and me awkwardly standing in the center…It was fun to stop into a different bar on the ship each night.  This was a historic/gothic type bar that we hung at the first night.The first port we stopped at was in Labadee, Haiti.When we first arrived we explored some trails in the woods…It really is such a beautiful place.  Look at that water…We also found some very interesting trees…For the rest of the day we hung at the beach, then went snorkeling.  It was amazing to see all of the different coral that made up the reefs and of course all of the fish.Did I mention that each night we had a 3 course meal!  And, FYI you can order more than one meal!  We ate wayyy too much food on this trip.Our next stop was Falmouth, Jamaica.The port we stopped at was adorable, but also very small. It was suggested that we set up an excursion at this port. It was also suggested that we don’t venture out into the local towns on our own.  So, we took their word for it, and booked a horseback riding excursion.In the photo above we are en route to horse back riding on a bus full of other cruisers.  Let me tell you, it was terrifying.  Not only do they drive on the other side of the road, but they drive like maniacs.  But, we did make it in record time to ride some horses.This excursion was at a cute little ranch in the middle of nowhere, with a bunch of hilarious horse handlers running the show.The horses were beautiful, but of course I felt bad for them.  We rode a bunch of trails in the woods, and we also got to ride in the ocean.I almost fell off my horse like 3 times and truly thought I was going to be trampled by the horses behind me, BUT it was so much fun!We also saw a couple shows on the ship.  One was an ice show and the other was a magic show, both were great. Next stop was Grand Cayman.  Now, this was probably the most beautiful stop on our trip. Look at that beach and the water!We rented some snorkeling gear and went snorkeling right off the beach.  Seriously though, that water….And, there were wild chickens and roosters everywhere.  Another win for Grand Cayman.  After snorkeling, we had lunch at a cute little place on the water.  We had some nachos and conch fritters, everything was delicious.This was at our favorite bar on the ship, it was nautical themed. Our last stop was Cozumel, Mexico.We decided to just walk the streets and do some shopping and eating here.  Along our way we saw a lot of these guys…Everywhere we looked there were iguanas, some were huge.

We had a couple drinks at Fat Tuesdays….And Justin got into a gun fight…He’s always such a thug.  Can’t take him anywhere.

Then, we had lunch at Jimmy Buffets Margaritaville.It was right on the water and the staff were so fun. They danced and made a nice balloon animal for Justin…We had so much fun and plan to go on another cruise… hopefully soon!

 

DIY Infinity Scarf

I totally dig a good infinity scarf, I especially love a chunky one.  I have a few of my own, and I inspected their construction.  They seemed simple enough, I figured I’d give making one a try.  It turned out pretty well, so I decided I would share how I did it.  Here’s all you’ll need:

• About 2 yards of fabric, preferably light weight(1-3oz.).  Something double-knit or jersey would work well.
• Thread in a similar color to the chosen fabric.
• Scissors.
• Sewing Pins.
• Sewing Machine.

The fabric I chose is a gray, light-weight jersey material with little white scalloped stripes throughout.I used a gray thread that I had on hand that just so happened to match my fabric perfectly. Huzzah!To start, I laid the 2 yards of fabric out on my desktop…Then, I just folded the whole piece of fabric in half, longways(like a hot dog).  I folded it so the scalloped side of the fabric was facing inward.  So, in other terms the fabric was now inside out.I, then, pinned the open edges together, making it one long tube of fabric…From there, I just sewed the pinned edges together…I love when fabric has stripes, then I can use the stripes as a guide for sewing the fabric straight.

Once I had the whole edge sewn together, I cut away any excess fabric outside of my stitch.  This step isn’t necessary I just didn’t want a bulky seem.From there, I stitched right over the same stitch one more time, just so I had a nice strong seam.Then, I turned the fabric inside out, making the scalloped side facing outward.  From there, I folded the fabric in half again.  I folded from right to left, this time like a hamburger (I like food).Now, the tricky part.  I  had four layers of fabric at this point.  The right side of my pile were all open edges.  I grabbed the two center layers and pinned them together…I pinned the good side(scalloped side) to good side(scalloped side), this will end up being the inside of the infinity scarf.  I pinned the entire edge which came right back around to where I started pinning.  Hope that makes sense.  I, then, sewed this edge, leaving only a small opening…See the scalloped side hanging out in there?  Well, I just started pulling the fabric out of this hole until I had the whole scarf turned inside out.   I was almost done at this point, just needed to sew that hole up.  So, I just turned the edges of the hole inward and pinned the seam together…I sewed that seam up, and I had this…And there you have it!  A new homemade infinity scarf…This was actually a gift for my sister, and she didn’t even believe I made it at first.  See Jess?  I did make it!  Hope you enjoy it!

 

Hello Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone!  A little late?  Shucks.  Well, here are some photos of our Christmas festivities….  Enjoy!

We spent our Christmas holiday with Justin’s family.  We had a great time as always!

We played our usual card game, Phase Ten, a couple times.  Justin won every time (he is no longer allowed to play).Justin’s mom got, both, him and his dad the same golf polo and shorts.  So, of course, I needed a photo of them being twins (they will both hate me for posting this, but it is necessary). I mean, is this even real?  They are so the same person!

I, even, coaxed everyone into taking a family photo.Look at all those Maces’!

Of course, the dogs had a great time.   And, you know I had a dog photo shoot! Hope you all have an awesome dog to spoil too!  Merry Christmas!

 

Giving Thanks in New York

I know, I know, Thanksgiving is long gone.  I mean, we’re past Christmas already!  I’ll get my stuff together and be a better blogger, I swear!  Anyway, I wanted to share some photos from our Thanksgiving in New York.  Justin and I went to visit our family and friends up North for a few days, and it was a blast.

We spent Thanksgiving day at my sisters…

It was my first Thanksgiving with my family in a few years, so it was great to all be together.

I, also, got to meet my friend Christina’s daughter for the first time.  I just fell in love with her…

I mean come on, look at that face!  I got to spend time with some of my friends as well.

It was great to see everyone, and we had a great visit.Until next time New York!

Cards and Sparks

Going into planning our wedding, I thought it would be a lot of work, but it was more than a lot.  You have to think of every detail, I mean EVERY last detail.  You have to plan everything from the food, to the music, to bathroom arrangements, even things as simple as where people will put their cards.  Don’t get me wrong a lot of these things are fun to put together, but it can be a lot all at once.  Plus, I am not the type of girl who dreamed about my wedding day since I was born.  I didn’t really have a good idea of what I wanted in a wedding, so I started from scratch.

Anywho, this post is about a couple more things that I made for the wedding.  Just some more artsy-fartsy wedding stuff!

The first project was to find something to hold and display the sparklers that we planned have at the wedding.  Sandy suggested this galvanized bucket, that she had on hand…

And considering I’m a big fan of anything galvanized, I was on board.  Use whatcha got.  Amiright, people?  Now, to dress it up a bit.

I picked up these little burlap flowers at Michaels a while back for under $5 (can’t remember exactly how much, so that’s a ballpark). I knew I wanted to use them somewhere in the decor for the wedding.  How about on a galvanized sparkler tin?  Huzzah!Before I got going, I decided I wasn’t quit digging those buttons.  So, I dug around my art room and found a solution…Pearls!  They feel a little more “wedding” to me then the buttons.

I pulled the buttons off, and hot glued the pearls on…Ah, much better!

I also picked up some thick burlap ribbon for a couple bucks, at Michaels…I wrapped the burlap around the top of the bucket, just under the rim and tied it in place…

As for how I attached it, I just tied it in a knot on the back and cut off the access ribbon.Voila!  Then, I hot glued some of my burlap flowers on…And Boom!  Just like that, I had my sparker tin.

As for the actual sparklers, Sandy purchased them in bulk online.  She also had matches made, personalized with our names and our wedding date.  I then, just put together a document that we could attach to each sparkler.  I decided to put use saying “Help Us Light Up The Night” on each sparkler.  From there, we just attached a set of matches to each document with some hot glue.  Then, we put a couple holes on the top and the bottom, where we could slide the sparkler through.

Next up, I had to figure out what I was going to do for our card box/holder/basket, or whatever object you can imagine that can hold cards.

Here is what we used…

A birdcage! Sandy’s neighbor just so happened to have this guy on hand, and we thought it would be perfect to hold our cards.

I wanted the cage to match the sparkler tin, so I used the burlap ribbon and flowers again.This was a little trickier than the just wrapping the sparkler tin.  I had to weave the burlap in and out of the wire sides of the cage, still simple enough though.  I did this on both the top and the bottom of the cage.  I then, just tied the burlap and cut off the excess ribbon, once again.I also, tossed a paper doily in the bottom for fun.

Sandy picked up a couple cute little chalkboards from Hobby Lobby and painted the edges a sage green, I then just simply wrote “CARDS” on one.  You don’t want your guest to be confused to where the cards go, right?In case you’re wondering, I used twine to attach the chalkboard.  I just slipped it through the holes on each side of the frame, and tied it around the back of the cage.  From there, I just hot glued a couple of the burlap flowers on top and called it done!Pretty radical, huh?  Here they are being all matchy matchy…

As you can see, I made a “TAKE 1” sign for the sparklers, but that didn’t actually get used, we thought it looked better without.

Want some wedding photos?  Okay!Woot woot for sparklers! Below are our mom’s hanging out next to the display.  Aren’t they cute?And how about the card cage…Hubba hubba!

Lastly, us at our sparkler send off!  You gotta do this at your wedding, it was totally fun and the pictures are pretty cool too!                     

DIY Coffee Wedding Favor

I had considered many different favors for our wedding, and of course most of my ideas came from Pinterest.  I thought about succulents or candy, but ultimately decided on coffee.  I thought coffee would be fun and useful for most everyone, besides those few people who don’t drink coffee (they’re lame anyway).

We purchased small apothecary jars from a site called Favor Online.  Since we were buying them in bulk, ordering online was a great option.  Here is one of the jars….

Already filled with coffee as you can see.

I, also, wanted to give all of the jars a tag, labeled with some kind of cheesy saying.  Some examples I had found online are: “Thanks a latte”or “Love is brewing”, but I decided to go with the least cheesy of them “The perfect blend”.  From there, I just made a quick tag using some of my favorite fonts(Villa Didot and Janda Elegant) and, of course, our chosen saying. You dig it?

As you can see, I hole punched the tags as well, so we were able to attach them to the jars.  I, then, used some yellow string to tie the tags in place.

Easy peasy!

As for displaying them, I thought an antique crate would be perfect. I picked this one up at the Avonlea Antique Mall in Jacksonville.

Oh, and this crate just so happened to be the perfect size to house all of these suckers.  What luck?

Here are the favors all set up at the wedding…

I love how they turned out.

As an awesome surprise, my in-laws had these personalized koozies made for the wedding, as well.  They, also, sort of served as additional favors for our guests.

It was such a great surprise, and they were a hit at the wedding.  Look at all of these people thoroughly enjoying their koozies…

Hope all of our guests enjoyed their coffee and koozies.

What were your wedding favors?  Or did you skip the favors all together?  Did you DIY yours as well?  Tell me all about it!