Happy Day!

So, I got married!

It would take forever for me to tell you every wonderful detail about this day, so I will just hit the highlights (you're welcome)

 Our wedding was in a favorite place of mine, Snowmass, Colorado. My super nice relatives let us use their gorgeous backyard for our reception and the ceremony was in the local chapel. 

Despite the forecast of rain, it was a beautiful, sunny day.  Over 40 of our closest friends and family made the trip and we were so blessed to celebrate with them.  The whole weekend was full of laughter, food, pedicures, hiking, exploring and did I mention food?  It was everything we had hoped for and much more!

Like I said, too many details to explain, so I will just leave you with these beautiful pictures taken by Jennefer Wilson Photography.  She did such a wonderful job and we are so thankful for the memories she captured! Click on the link for her blog post on our wedding!

 My bouquet was wrapped in lace from my mothers wedding dress and I wore jewelry from both my grandmothers

Our First looks!

wagon used for our littlest flower girl!

programs (format taken from this source)

even the fake deer dressed for the occasion! 

Beautiful flowers from Accent on Wildflowers

Reception tables complete with mountaintop views

Handmade luggage tags for party favors

We had a pie bar instead of cake! They were delicious.  The Pan and Fork Club was a delight to work with!

So there you go!  Our day was so special and I feel so blessed and downright lucky to be married to Matt. The past month has been filled with a two-week adventure through Alaska and British Columbia and unpacking an obscene amount of boxes!  

I am looking forward to posting more about the honeymoon and also updating you on the progress we are making in the house.  It's been a lot of fun turning Matt's bachelor pad into our home! 

Projects Lately!

I could give a thousand explanations about why I haven't blogged in so long.  I could tell you how I had a busy summer with work, traveling, etc. But let's be honest- we all know how life can get busy and things just get put on the back burner. 

Despite the lack of posting, I have done a few projects that I wanted to quickly document.  I only have cell-phone pics of these so the quality isn't great, but this is just a quick upload-forgive me!

Hope you like what you see!  

Crib skirt for a friend's foster baby!

Camera strap- commissioned for a Birthday present

Large sign for a relative's dining room

Thanksgiving burlap wreath

Canvas for a Sailing buddy!

I got to take a quick trip to New York this summer! My friends were nice enough to let me go to the famous MOOD fabric store.  It was even better than I could have imagined!  

I made a few projects from the fabric I bought there.

Elastic sheared dress with removable straps!  Perfect for the British Virgin Islands!

Baby blanket made from this awesome jersey fabric 

Quick purse, just for fun!

Christmas wrapping

Re-covered lamp shade 

Laptop case

Breaking news, people… I BOUGHT A MACBOOK!

Ok, so I actually bought it a few weeks ago, but so far I love it! I was in desperate need of a new laptop since my 5 year old Dell that I paid like $300 for had a battery that wouldn’t charge, a screen that was breaking off and I’m pretty sure every virus ever created!

I hate making major purchases.  I went back and forth forever on what kind of computer to buy.  Do I spend a lot of money up front and get a laptop that will last me a long time even though I have no idea how to use one (Apple)?  Or do I go with a PC which are familiar, much cheaper, but won’t last as long?  Really I don’t use a computer all that much so a PC would have been fine, but in the end I fell victim to the shiny, sleek MacBook and bit the bullet.  Call me a conformist…my only consolation is that hopefully I won’t have to repeat that buying process for at least 10 years!

Well, I had to make sure this little guy would be nice and protected if I wanted it to last, so I made I cute little case for it.

     

I didn’t really search that hard for instructions on how to make this, so I pretty much just guessed my way through.  I used duck cloth for the outside fabric and then just cotton fabric in a contrasting color for the inside.  In between the layers I used heavy-duty fusible interfacing- 2 layers for extra padding. 

I added a few embellishments and there you have it! A new little laptop case! This is a pretty snug fit, I probably should have added about an inch to my measurements, but I kind of like that it is in there pretty tight. I also sewed in some elastic tabs and snaps to keep it closed.

I took it to work with me and one of my co-workers liked it so much, she asked me to make one for her!  I was happy to and this one was even easier.  I love this chevron fabric!

And I found another use for those giant buttons my grandma gave me!

Some wedding details

 

I was enlisted to help with a really fun project for the reception. The bride and groom both come from a legacy of strong marriages. She wanted to showcase this somehow so we came up with the idea of creating a photo gallery.  She was able to find pictures of parents, grandparents, great grandparents and I think great-great grandparents.  We printed the pictures off on 11X14 paper and used spray adhesive to  wrap them around foam board cut to 8X10.   I inked the edges and then gave them one coat of mod podge. It created a sort of gallery wrapped canvas look without the expense.

We took all the pictures and arranged them around one of their engagement pictures on this backdrop.  They are attached to the ribbon using duck tape. The banner just added some flare.  Simple burlap pennants with stenciled letters sewn on a white ribbon.

This was such a cool way to honor their families and acknowledge the legacy they come from!

It was neat to see people stop by to look at the pictures.  This picture is really sweet.  It’s the brides grandparents looking at the picture of themselves and their family.  I believe they have been married for 66 years!  They pretty much stood by this the entire reception telling everyone who the pictures were of.

 

This was the guest book.  Guest were able to sign their name, write and encouraging thought, etc on monogrammed cards and then hang it on the tree.  She had a sort of Cherry Blossom theme, so this went nicely with that!

The reception was held in the foyer of the church, which is quite large, but she did a great job at making the room feel a lot more intimate!  Isn’t this beautiful!

In all, this wedding was so beautiful and very much representative of the Bride and Groom. Not bad for a 4 month engagement!

“Girl’s Only” shower and a must-have travel accessory

My friends wedding was this weekend! It was beautiful, elegant, fun and very special. I want to show you some of the cool details she added to make the day perfect, but I’ll save that for my next post.

Right now, I want to tell you about the fun “girls only” shower we threw her a couple of days prior to the wedding.

It was on a Thursday night, so we had to make it a little later so people could make it from work/fighting Houston traffic. There were about 15 women total and we enjoyed some of Dean-na’s favorite snack foods including hummus and pita bread, Chili’s chips and salsa, mini fruit pizzas, and of course Chick-Fil-A nuggets! We also had an awesome cake that was brought in all the way from College Station.

I was in charge of decorations so I went with the ever popular tissue paper poms that I just tacked up on the wall along with a yarn/nail art piece I made awhile back.

On the table we used the DIY cake stands (see this post for the how-to) and just some flowers. I also had pink hydrangeas set around the house. Pretty simple, but I think it worked even with our lack of serving pieces!

After everyone got their fill of snack food, we opened gifts. She received a lot of nice things of course!

I was able to make something that I had been wanting to try for a long time. I feel in love with this when I saw it on Pinterest, but never had a reason to make it until now. The lingerie caddy can be folded up to put in a suitcase and then hung up on a skirt hanger when you get to the hotel.

I found the instructions to be very straightforward, and didn’t have any trouble except with the box pleats. For whatever reason, that was difficult to get the hang of, but after the first few, I had it down!

I also monogrammed the back side of it with her new last name and put some fun things in the pockets! I was able to do this start to finish in about 4 hours.

I think she really liked it and I hope it is something she can actually use for a long time. Not only can you use it for it’s intended purpose, but the pockets are different sizes so you could put jewelry, socks, electronic cords, hair accessories or any other small items you would like to keep together and not lose in the abyss of your suitcase!

Bridal Shower Hostess gifts

 

Remember my friend who just got engaged?

Well, she is getting married in less than a month! This week we completed a big project.  Between the 3 showers she is having, there are 22 hostesses. That is a lot of hostess gifts.  She didn’t want to spend a ton of money, but still wanted them to be personal. We settled on making monogrammed hand towels for each hostess and I think they turned out nice!

 

We had a sort of assembly line going and in all it only took us about 4 hours to finish all 22 of them. The bride-to-be cut out all the letters, our other friend was in charge of ironing them on, and I zig-zag stitched around them with a contrasting thread color and sewed on the rick rack with a simple straight stitch.

What made this project even simpler was that we purchased the hand towels with a linen border already in place. We just added the rick rack and monogram! We bought the towels here.

She will package these with a little bar of soap that goes with the theme of her wedding.  Won’t they make great gifts? It was a little extra work, but in the long run it was worth it and I think the hostesses will appreciate the extra effort.