Oh Etsy How I Love Thee

I made my first Etsy purchase!!!!  Brooklyn sent me a link on facebook to an Etsy shop Sugarskull7s selling a mason jar stamp!

I bought it the next day!  My plan is to use it for thank you cards and also to feed my mason jar obsession.  It is a never ending beast that must be fed ;)  

One Etsy purchase made me want to make another, but I held back until I could decide which necklace piece I wanted to go with.  Which leads me to something that I need help with.  I am trying to decide between two different resin Cabochons from Sun and Moon on Etsy and I don't know which to pick!

The first one is 20 mm in diameter and I would order it in color 13.

Here is a picture of a paper cutout in the size of the flower that I placed about where I would like it to fall on the bridesmaids.

The size is a little small but I thought about placing it on a metal backing larger than the flower kind of like the picture below from Amula.

The second one is larger, but I do not know how I feel about the shape.

Below is a picture of the paper place holder.

Here is where all of you come in.  I need feedback!  Which do like?  Do you like either one of them?  Have you seen other cabochons for sale on Etsy?

Let the Bridal Showers Begin!

My first Bridal Shower is May 18th and I am so excited!!!  It is a little early for my taste, but it is for my friends and family back home in Michigan and this is my one scheduled time to go home before the wedding :)

My matron of honor, Andrea, and my mom are the hosts and they have both done such a wonderful job planning to make the event really special for me.  One of the most exciting parts are the invitations (I get excited about little pieces of paper... weird... I know).

She ordered the invitations at Shutterfly and had a discount to make ordering a large quantity more affordable.  Got to love coupons!

I cannot wait for all of my other showers!  They are such a great time to celebrate with friends and family and create memories leading up to the special day :)

On a completely separate subject, I have a big girl job interview tomorrow.  I applied for the job not expecting much because they are a very large company and I am a new college grad, but I had a phone interview yesterday and they called me today to schedule an inperson interview.  Exciting, but I want to vomit on my feet.  Part of the preparation for our marriage is me finding a stable career that can support us while Cameron is in school, so I know that this is good and needs to happen, but I am so unsure that I am ready.  Please be praying for my nerves and that everything works out the way that God has planned.  I want His will to be done, and I am trusting in Him to provide for us as we start our life as a family.

Easter Baskets Turned Manzanita Branch Holders

A while back I posted about some inspiration I had been recieving from around the web about what to do with our manzanita branches that we purchased a few months ago on craigslist.  The picture below is the idea that I was in love with from Love and Lavender and I have been looking for containers to duplicate the look with ever since.

The other day Cameron and I were updating our registry at Target, and I saw these adorable little pails in the dollar aisle!  Yes, each of these little guys was just $1, which means that it only cost me $19.38 with tax to get 18 pails for the 18 branches that we have!!!!

At first I did not know if these pails would be too small (and Sam echoed my thoughts), but when I got home I made asked Cameron nicely to hold the branches in the pails to let me see the proportions and I was happy to see that they looked great!

Who is that handsome guy hiding behind those branches ;)

Now I have 18 little yellow pails hanging out in my room waiting for me to begin putting together some centerpieces... guess I should start on that project soon!  

I am thinking that I will need to add some lovely flowers to soften up the centerpiecs as well as add table numbers on a mason jar cardstock cut-out... can't wait for the finished product!

Have a lovely day!

Bridesmaid Bouquets

When I began looking at flowers for the wedding I was blown away by how expensive they can be!  After talking with several florists about the price of a simple nosegay bouquet of roses for my bridesmaids, I decided to try making my own out of silk flowers.

There are three upsides to this choice:
1:  Silk flowers cost a lot less than real ones.  I bought six silk roses for one boquet and it was $6.  This is compared to the $22-$25 I was quoted PER bouquet from the florists I talked to.  That adds up to a lot when I need 8 bouquets!
2:  Silk flowers will not wilt in the hot hot hot August 12th weather here in Missouri.  I have heard horror stories from friends who had real flower boquets in their summer weddings, and they had to travel around with a spray bottle of water to keep the flowers looking good for outside photos.
3:  Silk flowers give me the freedom to work on the bouquets at my leisure between now and the wedding, where as if I choose to make the boquets on my own with real flowers I would be scrambling to make them in the few days leading up to the big day.

I decided on six yellow silk roses per bouquet, and wrapped the base in pewter ribbon.  First I started by wrapping the six flowers together with floral tape:

Here is what one looked like at this point:

I then wrapped over top of the floral tape with pewter ribbon from my Jo-Ann Fabrics trip, securing each end with hot glue.

After each end was secure I cut off the excess flower stems with a wire cutter.

I am insanely happy with how they turned out!  They will look gorgeous contrasting against the pewter bridesmaid dresses.

Jo-Ann Fabrics Trip :)

May I just start out this post by saying: fabric and ribbon is expensive!  With that being said Jo-Ann Fabrics is a pretty awesome place to go, because you can always find a 40% off coupon online :)  Giant sized smiley face for that!

I went there looking for yellow and pewter ribbon to use for many random wedding projects and I was super excited with what I was able to pick up.

First I needed yellow ribbon for the flow girl basket handle.  This is what I found:

Second I needed skinny yellow ribbon for tying random things on random places for the wedding (sorry that was vague).  Here is what I found for $.50!!!!!

And now here is the surprise find of the day.... PEWTER RIBBON!!!!  I had planned on buying pewter ribbon from David's Bridal for floral boquets so that it would match the bridesmaid dresses and not clash against them.  Downside to the original plan is the cost of pewter ribbon from DB: 2-inch satin ribbon spools are $12.99 and the 1-inch spools are $6.99.  Not so nice of a price when you need a lot.

The ribbon even had the right name!  It was meant to be :)

The match is amazing and the savings are lovely!  The 2-inch ribbon was $3.49 a spool and the 5/8 inch ribbon was $2.49.  Big difference from the DB prices, which allowed me to get a large selection and quantity of ribbon for my many wedding craft projects :)

Below I have my receipt from the trip and you can see that even without a 40% off coupon (I was not planning on going to Jo-Ann Fabrics when I left the house) I spent less on 8 spools of ribbon than I would have on 2 spools of pewter ribbon from DB.  I am ecstatic!

Biggest lesson learned from this trip: think outside of the box and always know that a deal is out there!  Happy shopping :)

Flower Girl Basket

Remember this post from a little bit ago where I showed you my amazing finds while thrifting with Cameron?  One of the amazing finds was a flower girl basket for $.50!

It was a great find seeing as how other flower girl baskets I have seen are going for $20-$30!  Umm heck no!  The only problem was that it was predictable, and definitely not cute enough for my flower girl.  Solution: get crafty and make it amazing!

I decided to start by bringing in gray by using the fabric flowers I have been making for the bridesmaid dresses.

Sadly I burnt myself while hot gluing the flowers around the edge.  I thought you would enjoy my pitiful sad face (Cameron thought it was funny).

I just glued flowers all around the edge, and tried to alternate from small to medium flower size.

Here is what the basket looked like with the fabric flowers all around the edge.

I took the rhinestone center from the original basket, and stitched it on to the center of a flower.  I really enjoy the look!

At this point in my project, I knew that I wanted to incorporate some yellow so I headed over to Jo-Ann Fabrics to pick up a variety of yellow ribbon.  I'll do a breakdown of that shopping trip at a later date :)

I simply wrapped the half inch yellow ribbon around the handle and secured it at both ends with some hot glue :)

I am really happy with how the basket turned out, and a bonus is that my flower girl is as well!

Joplin Adventure: Part 2

As promised, here is part two of our Joplin Adventure.  When we woke up on Saturday morning (early for Sam and I, but not so much for Cameron) we headed straight for Springhouse Gardens.  I was really excited to show Sam our reception site, and be able to hear all of her great ideas for the space.

This is the view when you first walk in to the venue through the gates.  We are going to use this area as the dance floor.

The top picture is where we are going to place the head table as well as close family members (ie: my mom because she is cool).  The bottom picture looks behind the venue where we are going to have yard games.  You can also see the springhouse in the back along with the beautiful water fall!  Pictures out here are going to be amazing!

To the left of the dance floor area is a large greenhouse building.  I am so excited to decorate this space!  This may be the future home of our mason jar chandelier.....

This room is also really cool because it has a giant chalkboard wall!  Sam and I got so excited thinking of the possibilities for this wall.  And if you look to the left in the picture you will see a large rolling counter that we are going to use as a drink station.

In addition to the large rolling counter, Springhouse has some really fun greenhouse pieces that we are free to use at the event.  We are thinking of filling the two tubs in the top picture with ice and using it as a soda bottle cooler.  The two carts will be fun for flowers and the cocktail hour.  And I am really excited about the wire structure (I do not know what to call it) on the left side in the bottom picture.  We are thinking of hanging our favors on these!

The area above is where we are thinking of putting the buffet table.  It is a nice long area with room enough for people to on either side easily.

That concludes our Joplin Adventure!  I hope you all enjoyed getting to see more of where our wedding and reception will take place, and as always send me your ideas!