More Projects

Yesterday, I told you that I was going a little bit, um, nuts around the house.  Today, I finished my final project.  For now.  I'm still convinced I'm going to repaint our kitchen and paint the cabinets.  Some day...

This was my inspiration picture.

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I went to Michael's and checked out the canvas/styrofoam.  Both were considerably out of my price range in the 12x12 or even 9x9 options (even 12x12 styrofoam was $5 a piece - no thanks!).  I had just about given up, when I came across some hidden packages of 4 6x6 canvases, on sale, for $12.  I picked up 2 packages, plus an extra single 6x6 (also on sale for $3).  I went nuts in the scrapbook paper aisle.  No, literally, I went nuts.  There were so many options, I had no idea what direction to go in.  I really like the monocromatic look in the inspiration photo, but they didn't have enough paper in one color that I really liked.  So, after about 35-45 minutes of picking paper, putting it back, picking it up again, laying it out in the store....I decided to mix it up a little.

I got it all home, and since the canvas is wrapped around and stapled into wooden frames, I thought I could do the same.  I got out the stapler, and, lo and behold, it worked!  I wrapped most of them last night, then hung them this morning (after running back out to A.C. Moore to get the picture hangers, oops!).

I'm really happy with the way the whole thing turned out.  Hanging them was kind of a PIA, but it was worth it.

Matt got home today and loves all the new decor.  Yay!

Is it Possible to be Nesting...

When you're not even pregnant?  Maybe it's all the time I've been spending on Pinterest?  I don't know.  I just don't know how to explain it, but I am just completely obsessed with decorating and crafting.  I'm redecorating our entire living room.  And doing it completely DIY.

I've recently been feeling like we need to make our home more "grown up."  We've had photographs on nearly every single surface in our home since we moved in.  Not that I don't love photographs.  But it was starting to feel very dorm room to me.  Not 30-something married couple home.

So, this weekend, while Matt's in Hershey and I'm stuck at home on-call, I took matters into my own hands.  I went to Michael's, Target, and the dollar store, and stocked up on decorations - hurricane glasses, candles, scrapbook paper, canvases, wreaths, flowers, spray paint....all kinds of good stuff.  Wanna see what I've been up to?  I got a lot done today, so I'm super-excited.  Tomorrow, I'll show you what I get done tomorrow.

Up first, a project I worked on a few weeks ago.  My anniversary gift to Matt.  I know that paper is the modern traditional first anniversary gift.  And I was going to go full tradition.  But I fell in love with this idea

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...and so I'm bending the rule a little.  Technically, I know, canvas is fabric, not paper, but since I painted on it, I treated it like paper, therefore....it's paper.

I painted lyrics from our wedding song on a 12x12 canvas.  12 lines, 1 inch each.  I have just the spot in our bedroom that we'll hang it, too.  I hope he likes it as much as I do.

Ok, so here's what I worked on today.  First up, I really wanted to do something about our door.  We have some seasonal wreaths, but our autumn was is totally falling apart.  I pinned this a few months ago, and finally decided to tackle it.

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I got the wreath and flowers from Michael's.  And instead of getting numbers, I got a letter.  I don't have the "I" painted yet, but I edited it in so you get the general gist of what I have here.

Ok, next?  We used to have a chalkboard/magnet board/key holder hanging on the wall next to our front door.  I was really starting to hate it.  It looked messy and I just couldn't stand it anymore.  So, after seeing pictures like this on Pinterest...

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I picked up some scrapbook paper, and dug out some old, unused frames.  I printed out the letters, using various fonts, and attached them to the scrapbook, then threw it in the frame.  I bought the shelf at Target, and the flowers are from our closet.

I really love it.  I sent Matt a photo of it and he's thrilled.  Yay!

Last but not least, our new fall centerpiece.  I totally loved these pictures.

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I got the hurricanes from Michaels and the candles from the dollar store.  Unfortunately, I couldn't find candy corn or whole nuts anywhere (I know, can you believe it?!).  As I wandered around the aisles of Target, I had an epiphany...

Reese's Pieces!  They're automatically fall-colored, and they're made my Hershey!  Bonus!  So I put together this little tablescape, and I really like it.  Tomorrow, I'm going to roll the two brown pillar candles in epsom salt so they get all sparkly and pretty, like this one!

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One more project that I started today and hope to finish tomorrow.  I'll show you that one soon! 

Have you ever had a transition period in your house?

Nerd Alert!

You guys.  I love Harry Potter.  Possibly more than any book or movie series ever.  My sister gave me my first Harry Potter book back a thousand years ago when it first came out, and since then I have devoured them.  I have read them over and over.  I have pre-ordered new books so that they arrive on my doorstep on the day of release.  I have gone to see every single movie in the theater.  I have purchased (or had purchased for me) every movie.  I have the special edition books (The Tales of Beedle the Bard, and Harry's schoolbooks).  I have a Harry Potter keychain.  And a pewter Harry Potter Christmas ornament that does not hang on my tree but rather sits in its box on my bookshelf.  On display.  In our living room.

Yes, I realize that I am 32 and not 12.  But there's something about these books that just totally suck me in.  It is the first series where I really feel like I lost myself in the book.  Where I really believed that a place like Hogwarts existed.  Where I really tried to picture what a hippogriff looked like and how butterbeer tasted.  I love seeing the movies not only because I love seeing the stories come to life, but also because I love seeing how closely my imagination of these things matches the director (who, as you know, consulted a lot with J.K. Rowling). 

So, because of my love of all things Harry Potter, I was bored the other day and started playing on Pinterest and Etsy.  Here are a few Harry Potter things I just luuuuuurve.

(source)

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I don't do tattoos, but this might make me reconsider

Hogwarts snuggie?!  Yes, please!

I wish I could pull these off!

So true

And for future Erin/Matt babies...

Gryffindor beanie!



Onesie



For the nursery wall

So?  Am I a huge dork, or what?

DIY - Four Down!

Matt and I got started on the wine bottles this weekend! We have been "brewing" our own wine now for about 3 years. We really like it, and usually the wine turns out pretty good. We really didn't want to do a favor - we were going to just do charity donations (in case you're interested, we would have donated to Shriners Hospitals for Children of Philadelphia; I used to work there and it means the world to me). But then somehow we came up with this idea, and we both loved it.

So we decided to do Cabernet Sauvignon. We've made it in the past and it's come out well, so we thought it would be a good bet to try it again. We had to make 2 batches, in order to make enough 187 ml bottles for everyone on our guest list. We certainly don't think everyone will show up, but at least we have enough just in case they do. We had to do one batch at a time, and we finished bottling the second batch last weekend.

Say you: What does it mean, to "brew" your own wine?
Say me: Well, I say "brew" because it's not as complicated as it sounds...

First step is that you go to your local home brewing supplier. Ours is in Montgomeryville. So you go and get this big box of juice, which also comes with some of the other things you need. The box (I think) tells you what else to buy, but I would highly recommend talking to someone at the store to confirm stuff. The process can get a little overwhelming. So anyway, you basically take this box of juice, and put it into a big plastic jug, along with some other things (yeast, stabilizers, etc...Matt does all of this) and let it sit for a couple of weeks. Then you rack it (meaning you transfer it) into a big 6 gallon carboy, stir in a few other ingredients, and let it sit again. A few weeks later, you bottle it. It's fairly simple.

For our wedding favors, we did 187 ml bottles. Usually, we use full-size wine bottles, but for this purpose, we didn't think full wine bottles were appropriate. So we bottled into the 187 ml bottles (which, by the way, was hard...and messy!). We weren't able to use corks for the little bottles, so we ended up capping them with beer bottle caps.

We went to Kinko's today to print out the labels we made from our engagement photos.

We also made ingredients labels for the back of the bottles. I got the idea for the personalized barcode from a poster on Weddingbee.

We had also gotten ribbon to tie on the them, but when we started tying it into bows, it looked really stupid. So Matt played around with it, and came up with tying the ribbon like a tie! It looks so. good!

I cannot wait to see these displayed on our reception tables!!

(all photos are mine!)

Favors

Matt and I have been making our wine for about 3 years now. We decided that we wanted to do that for our wedding favors. So we're making a couple batches of Cabernet Sauvignon and bottling them in miniature bottles (187ml). We made and bottled one batch so far, and it's pretty decent wine! We got a little fancy this time and added oak chips during the fermenting process, and it actually did add a nice flavor to it. Anyway, we usually make our own labels for the wine, so why should our wedding favors be any different? We decided to use some of our engagement pictures on them. We promised Ben we'd tell him which one we chose, but I think we're going to use a few of them. That way there's a variety on the table. Here's an example of one that I came up with today.

We ended up having to cap the bottles (like beer bottles) because the corks were either too big and didn't fit all the way into the bottle, or they were too small and you could push them all the way through. So we decided to cap them instead. This way we know they're sealed! But because the caps don't look as "nice" as the corks would, we bought some ribbon to tie around the bottles. They have some cute sayings on them and I think that'll make the bottles that much more special.

I'm so excited about the favors!

DIY - One Down!

So I printed and did a practice run of our table numbers. I'm totally in love with them, and can't wait to get more of them done! I think they're gonna look so good at our reception!

I printed them at home, on ivory cardstock that I ordered online from Paper and More (who, by the way, are amazing). Then I wrapped a brown grosgrain around it, attaching it with a fabric glue stick. Then I attached the peacock feather with the same glue stick. Super easy!

Flowers

So when we met with David at JDK, we had a short discussion about flowers, but I really didn't know yet exactly what I wanted for bouquets or centerpieces. I had some vague ideas and a few pictures, but nothing really concrete yet. I did know exactly what I wanted for the guys' boutonniers, though:


How cool is that?! It's so fresh and different. Love. As for bouquets, like I said, I had some general ideas, but had no clue what flowers to use. I have seen a LOT of bouquets like this one:

But I know those flowers (cymbidium orchids) are crazy expensive, so I wasn't counting on it. I did know I wanted my girls to be carrying green bouquets - I love the look of a monochromatic bouquet. At the time that we met with David, I had this one picture of an all-green bouquet:

And I liked it, but I've since found others that I like way more. I'm not gonna totally give it away, but I am leaning towards spider mums, button mums, carnations, hypericum berries, delphiniums, and dahlias. LOVE! I'm still planning on the girls carrying totally green bouquets, and I plan to carry green and white.

The centerpieces and floral decor for the reception will include the same colors - green, white, and some blue flowers, with, of course, the peacock feathers. When we were meeting with David, we told him that we were picturing minimalistic. He showed us an arrangement they had set up in the office with 3 black square vases and yellow and white flowers. We really liked the look of it - it was super clean and simple. Ours would probably be with white vases. And then David suggested using something taller on some of the tables, too. We just kind of agreed to everything, because, well, David's kind of awesome!