Happy New Year!

 

Well hello!  It's been a while, here's a bit of what I've been up to...

 

Our 4th annual Christmas Baking day happened at the end of November, we scaled down this year (after last year had us in for a 14 hour baking day!) and just stuck to gingerbreads and sugar cookies - my all time fav...

 

 

Of course, this year we had a new member join in the baking festivities...baby Lily spent the day with us as well which was so wonderful.  Excuse the blotchy iphone pics, but here she is enthralled by the Christmas tree

 

 

While I filled myself up with Lily-snugs, Kyla was busy icing the gingers in the background.  See the table full!?  And that was not even the half of it. 

 

 

We got a new tree this year, a 7.5 foot Martha Stewart pre-lit, if you cared to know  :)  It has a foot switch where you can turn the lights from off, to on with soft white lights, to on with multi-coloured lights!  Ingenious!

 

 

I went for all red and gold wrapping this year, using whatever I had in my wrapping bins.  It looked lovely, warm and festive under the tree.

 

 

The large pressie leaning against the wall was my gift from Darryl which I will show you soon!

 

And now it's New Year's Eve and I'm about to start getting ready to ring in the New Year with some friends.  I was reminiscing through some pictures and found a snap shot of last year's new year party (which inevitably ends up with lots of dancing...it may just be me holding the dance floor down at times, but either way dancing is sure to happen)

 

 

And New Years from 2009 when we had a "moustache" themed party.  Some people sported their own, manly moustaches, but for those of us who couldn't grow them, we got creative.  I used some false lashes, others used tassles left over from holiday decor, and one person even trimmed her own hair and glued the fallen parts to her face!  Hardcore.

 

 

This year is the "platter party".  I'm bringing a chocolate/candy platter with a New Year's black/gold/silver colour theme.  Yum, yum, yum!

(fear not, the "black" is actually all grape flavoured candy, not black licorice)

 

 

 After seeing some cute clock rosette's over at Heather's blog I thought I'd do some up for the evening.  I bought the paper before realizing that each rosette needed three pieces of paper, so my big ones ended up having three different colours/patterns.  Woops!

 

 

Fun though!

 

Anyhoo, I wish you and yours a very Happy New Year!  See you in 2013!



Seating Plans

In the summer I showed you our seating guide inspiration.  We loved the idea of using our house's 92 year old original windows that we replaced.  This house means a lot to us, we've put a lot of our own blood, sweat and tears into it, it's the walls that house our own new family, it's the third member of our family!  So bringing a part of it into our wedding was only natural.

 

My original plan wasn't much of a plan at all, I was just going to write and erase as needed, but I can sometimes have a bit of a perfectionist streak, and having uneven, crooked writing would have driven me nuts.  So thank goodness a family friend (hi Susan!) asked if I was planning on printing a template out to trace.  Hello!  How did I not think of that!?  I blame it on the million other wedding things that were on the brain.  So after I found a font I liked, my mum printed our guest list out on overhead sheets and I taped them to the front of the windows.

 

 

The reason I wanted the printout on overheads was so that I could tape the sheets to the front of the window, flip them over and write on the back of the window (so that, once the windows were on display, the writing would not get smudged, scratched or wiped off because the writing was behind.  Make sense?)

 

 

Tracing a font made my life so much easier!

 

 

I don't have a picture of them set up at the wedding unfortunately but here they are all done and in our house!  There were two windows in the end. 

 

 

 

 

I wanted a font that wasn't too stuffy or formal because that's not really us, and wasn't the feel we were going for.  Just something nice with a little personality.  We made our table numbers, years, dates and numbers that were significant in our relationship (like our anniversary date, the year we started dating, the year we went away together, the year we spent in two different countries...)

 

 

 

Then during the wedding dinner, instead of clinking glasses to get us to kiss, guests were welcomed to guess the significance of their table's number (the DJ also said they could sing us a love song which some of them also did)

 

Right now these are sitting on the floor in our dining room, but eventually we'll get them hung up on our walls for some personalized wall art.  I just have to find the right spot, which I think I may already have, but we'll also have to make sure we don't tear any plaster down in the process - those windows are heavy, yo!

Card Box Reveal

So I realize I've dropped the ball on post-wedding stuff (sorry, Susan!!) and part of the reason for that was because I was waiting for our pictures to get to us, but there weren't pictures of my diys at the wedding, so I'll just show you the ones that I had taken before the wedding.

 

Three months ago I shared with you the card box inspiration I had been eyeing.  I mentioned that I had come across a grey AND yellow suitcase at Value Village for $3.99.  What are the chances!?  There was a bigger size that I was going to get, but I'm glad that Darryl put his two cents in...the bigger one would have been too much.

 



 

The inside had a nice sunny yellow...fun!

 

 

I painted some wooden letters to spell "cards" in white

 

Then cut some burlap triangles and hung them on a scrap piece of fabric I had.

 

 

 

Then I decorated the interior with my left-over brooches and some doilies, just cause they're cute and tied in with my brooch bouquet.

 

 

The grey ribbon was an extra from our invitations

So many pretty brooches, but I had just run out of room in my bouquet...and I knew I wanted to decorate the card box with some too, so it all worked out well in the end. 

 

I kept the doilies in place with pins, with little yellow tips

And we topped it off with Darryl's favourite picture of us, from the early years of our relationship, camping with our first joint purchase (a $4 one-man tent from a garage sale, we paid two dollars each.  It was a big moment for us lol)

So while I didn't catch any pictures of it all set up for the wedding, a few days later we snuggled in to open and read our cards.  It was fun, we tried to guess who each card was from(based on the writing on the envelop, the style of the card and it's placement in the pile of other cards lol) before looking inside.  It was a fun way to draw the process out and make it last a little longer. 

 

So there you go!  That's how our card box turned out - sorry it took so long to post!

2012 Costume

Hello there! It's been about a month since I've posted anything. What can I say...not much has been going on house-wise, I was in a bit of an adjustment period at work that left me exhausted every night and I've felt a lack of inspiration and drive lately.

But, onwards and upwards!

 

Obviously, this is extremely late, but I just wanted to throw a quick post on here so that I can take a look back next year when I'm scrambling for a costume idea.

 

I've had this idea doggy eared in a magazine for a couple of years now and finally had a reason to make it:

 

 

 

Our staff was having a costume contest but I didn't have much time to devote to it, so I got out my glue gun, a bunch of spiders I had in my Halloween bin and bought some nude nylons...

 

I was trying to get both the spiders on my leg and on my shoulder into this picture, hence the uber-pose.

 

I had more spiders crawling up my arm, but many fell off on my way home from work as I put my coat on.

 

 

So fun, easy, quick and cheap!

 

The original cockroach version is creepy, but just too close to home for me after a year of being terrorized by them while living abroad for a year, so I opted for spiders instead.

 

I have a couple other posts that I've been working on that are also long overdue, so I will be back in a couple of days!

 

Looking Boo-tiful

Hello!  I hope you've had an enjoyable weekend.  I attended a low key bachelorette party where we went for mani/pedis, thai food and then made a time capsule for the bride and groom to open on their 5th anniversary.  The day was wonderful.  The drive home was scary.  The rainfall was very heavy, I hydroplaned a couple of times, my antilock breaks went on when I stopped, one of my headlights was out (I was driving home at midnight for about an hour and a half long drive), the fog in some of the areas was so thick I had to pull over, stop, and talk myself into going a little further.  I was very glad to finally pull into my driveway and get out of the car! 

On sunday, I went for a little family walk with my sister, brother-in-law and baby Lily, watched a movie and then actually cooked a decent meal from scratch (a rare occurance for me, but something got into me and I felt inspired to create!  lol)

Anyhoo, I'm not much of a seasonal decorator - Holidays, yes! - but seasons, not really.  I appreciate all the lovely pictures I see of beautiful Fall decorations, but I don't have the drive to do it myself.  But when the holidays come, I love to do a little something to get in the spirit.

Last weekend I got out my Halloween bin and put a few things together.  I used the the decorations I got on clearance last year at Michaels and got the living room set up.

 

The feathers are from a centerpiece at a wedding we were at last year, the hurricane was a wedding gift and the glass stones I normally have in there with a white candle.  So I put in the black candle, the orange tea light holder, the ceramic skull and scattered some little spiders around.

 

 

I love classic orange and black for Halloween, so my orange vase and some more black feathers went well together

 

And then the doily spider webs I made last year, I hung from the curtain rods.

I put a few things up outside, but nothing to write home about, so if I add a few more I'll snap some pictures.

Are you getting your Halloween decorations out?  Do you like seasonal or holiday decorating?

Adding to the Gallery Wall

We recently added a couple of frames to our gallery wall.  I'm short on time so let's just get to it, here it was before...

 

 

 

 I had two more things I wanted to add to our wall, but felt the need to wait until after we were married to hang them.  So after our wedding we added two more frames on the left side ...

 

 

 

 

But seeing as the sunshine is whiting the pictures out, here's a close up.  One is of one of my favourite engagement pictures where it shows both of our families officially joining as one...

 The second one I had seen at 29 Rue House and thought they were absolutely adorable...little personalized periodic table of elements art!  So once we were married I just had to do one up for us.

 

 

And that's that.  Super quick post!  I love these two new additions and am already looking for a few more things to add to the wall.

 

I wish you all a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend, enjoy your long weekend if your work gives you one, enjoy time with loved ones and filling your bellies!

 

 

Link Up

I'm still here!  It's been very busy around here, but I'll be back shortly with a few updates...for now I'm linking up with Thrifty Decor Chick for the October Before and After Party.

DIY Pillow Covers

I hope you all had a great weekend!  It's been quiet over here because I got a new contract job for the year last week and have been working some long hours while I get settled.  It was a well-needed weekend and now I'm all rested and ready to go for week two.

I have been putting these pillow covers off for at least nine months.  I don't know why I was able to sew these stuffed turtles with no problems at all, but when it came to sewing a basic rectangular pillow cover, I froze.  My problem was getting the measurements right.  I read some where to take the length and width of the pillow but I thought for sure that wouldn't allow for the puffiness of the pillow, so I ended up adding inches on for that and came out with a massive pillow cover and a whole lot of frustration.  So I hid it all away upstairs for almost a year. 

From time to time I'd think of these fabric samples from about a year ago that I had envisioned as nice little throw pillows on our couch but would quickly dismiss my thoughts. 

Finally, two weekends ago I got sick enough of my poor excuses and pulled my sewing machine and materials out again.

 

Once I decided to igmore my stubborn thoughts that all the pillow cover makers before me surely must have been missing something, I listened to what their many many tutorials told me and took the basic pillow measurements and got to sewing. 

 

I am not about to make a tutorial on here because lord knows these are far from perfect and I had zero meathod to my madness and just a whole lot of trial and error.  So here they are all finished up and cozying up to our couch.

 

 

 

Despite their rocky start I am quite pleased with how they turned out.  I backed them all with a simple white fabric to be sure that I would have enough for all four pillows.

 

Darryl had been gone for the day and was pleasantly surprised to come home to some new pillows

What did you guys get up to this weekend?  Sew yourself any pillows?

Wedding Gifts for Your Parents

Finding gifts that properly showed our appreciation for all that our parents have done to help us out not only over the course of our engagement, but through life in general was really difficult.  There were tons of gift stores that had lots of ideas, but nothing felt right.  My family has never been much of a trinket collecting household so that wasn't right either.

 

Thankfully Etsy has loads of talented people and all of a sudden it all started to click together.  For each of our parents I ordered a handkerchief with a wonderful poem stitched in our wedding colours

 

If you're interested in any of these, I ordered from Hannah B's shop and she was a delight to work with!

 

At the same time I also ordered a hankie for my niece who was too young to be our flower girl, but plays a huge part in our lives

 

 

 For my dad I ordered some personalized cufflinks.  I thought it would add a special touch to wear them for the wedding.  These have thought and sentiment and memories attached to them.  One is of me as a baby asleep on his chest, the other is of me and my sister with him.

 

These were ordered from PhotoJule's shop, and again great service!

 

Once I had ordered something personalized with pictures for my dad, I thought it would be nice if the rest of the parents had something similar.  While the women wouldn't be wearing cufflinks, they would be wearing wrist corsages so I thought I could use those to attach my gift to.

 

I made these guys by shrinking some baby pictures down at Staples and putting them in those little charm frames from Michaels.  I made a set for my mum, Darryl's mom and his dad (his dad's suit didn't have cufflink holes but I still wanted him to have a little baby picture of Darryl to wear on our wedding day so we attached it to his boutonniere)  I just thought it would be sweet to have a chance for them to look down at their kids as babies during such a monumental moment in our adult lives.

 

I also stole my sister's gift idea from when she got married and bought them all a picture frame engraved with our wedding date.  Then when we get our wedding pictures back we'll give them a picture to put in it as well.  I wanted to get those as well because the hankies and charm pictures were something for them to use on the day of the wedding, but after that they'll likely be stored away for safe keeping, so the picture frame would be something that could be out on display daily.  A perfect way to commemorate such a special day.

 

What have/would you gift your parents and future in-laws for your wedding?  Have you come across any great etsy finds or inspiration on pinterest?