Another Summer… Another Wedding

6.30.2014

Another summer, another wedding season. We have a minor amount of weddings this summer, three to be exact. I consider myself lucky, and I’m counting my blessings. We all know how expensive weddings can be, and that’s not including engagement parties, bachelor/ette parties, and wedding showers! I found an interesting article online about the proper way to “expense” them, but would have a hard time actually following through. See this article on Wedding Gift Etiquette for advice on how much to spend for each.

As much as I love attending weddings, I am just not one for showers. Real showers with soap and water, yes. Rain showers, okay. Baby and wedding showers…not so much. Now, of course I attend with a gift and a big smile, but I think it’s no surprise to most women when I say they’re a little boring. The best thing about them is the free food and drinks. Take advantage of both. Just be careful with the amount of alcohol you consume, you have to at least stay awake through the grand finale: the opening of gifts. This is usually the point when I start thinking…wow we really need a new _______ <insert whatever gift the bride just opened>

“Wow! I really need to buy new dish towels”

“Wow! We could really use a new blender.”

“Wow! We could really use one of those…wait…what is that?”

Then I remind myself never to invite any of these women into my house until I can buy all new housewares. And maybe new carpet too. I should probably at least get that cleaned professionally. And the windows! Those should be cleaned too. Okay no one is ever coming over. Could we get away with having another wedding shower? Is there such thing as a one-year anniversary shower? Wait, is that lingerie? Oh that’s cute…maybe I should take a trip to Victoria’s Secret when I leave here…

Because I didn’t realize that the wedding shower I was attending last weekend was registered at several places (insert foot in mouth here), I was fretting over what to bring as a gift. I searched for ideas online, and when nothing came up, I spent a while trying to come up my own gift. Now, after reading the Wedding Gift Etiquette, I realize I made a major ‘no-no’ when it comes to the gift. Wait for it….wait for it….

I didn’t buy off the registry!!!!!

Although I did feel a little bad, at least we have the actual wedding to make up for it. And my gift seemed to go over really well. I heard people referring to the gift, saying how creative it was (all the while thinking “Ha! And it wasn’t even on the registry!”). So hopefully she liked it as well, and I didn’t make too much of a mistake!I started with the idea that wine is always a good gift to give. Who doesn’t want to pour a glass of wine, relax, and de-stress. Especially while planning a wedding! I figured the most important steps of wedding planning were not completed yet, and made little tags for each task (Print Them Here). I printed them, cut them out, attached one to each bottle, put them in a basket with some fluff, and ta-da! Done!

I bought my basket at Michael’s, and while I was there, I couldn’t help myself from the $1 bins in the checkout lines. I found a cardboard ‘B’ as well as a cute flower pin for decoration. I used Modge Podge to give the B a little more spunk, and just used the two things as accents. I also put together a card to match!

The basket turned out really cute, and I think I’ll be making it again. But this time ONLY if they’re not registered! 😉

DIY, Holidays!, Home Decor

‘Merica!

6.25.2014

Who doesn’t love the 4th of July?! Even if you’re terrified of fireworks like our cat Lucy, you still get a day off work. That wins in my book every day. Lucy doesn’t work so she doesn’t see the value here. Someone should institute a “Bring Your Cat to Work Day” so she has a little better understanding of what I do all day. I’d be all up on that. Lucy would too. They have a lot of different food there.

Anyway, back to the subject.

Another Pinterest-y project coming right up! As much as I wish I could say this was my idea from the get-go, that is not the case. I pinned this project from someone else, and the original can be found here: Red, White, & Blue Mason Jars. She did hers a little differently, I went for what I felt to be the easiest/cheapest/less likely to mess up way. I’ll let you decide who’s directions you would like to follow. Either way they turn out super cute!

I started with three large mason jars (because I wanted mine to be a table centerpiece as well). Michael’s has two sizes, and the large ones are $2.99 (small/regular are $1.99). I went to Home Depot to buy three cans of spray paint ($3.97 each compared to over $8 at Michael’s), and picked up a Satin in each color. I just bought the cheapest they had, wasn’t too concerned about the exact type I should buy. When in doubt, get the one that visually looks the best!

Start by painting all your jars white. I hadn’t quite figured out the best way so I just put them on the ground and sprayed them. However, after a few of them, I realized I could stick them on my husband’s golf club (with paper to protect the shaft [hehe I said shaft]), and it worked much better! I let them dry that way as well, and it was perfect.While the white was drying (because I’m impatient), I used contact paper to cut out stars and stripes. For the large jar, I cut two stripes of three sections each (not sure exact size, see photo below). For the small jar, I used two sections for the stripe. Then I cut out stars in two different sizes for each. I wanted less stars on mine, so I only used a few.I didn’t wait too long to adhere the stripes and stars to the jars (as soon as they weren’t sticky anymore). Make sure they’re as stuck as can be (they will bubble in a few places). Then you’ll spray them with the next color (blue on stars, red on stripes). Let it dry, and peel off the contact paper. From here, my colored paint leaked into the white in a few places, so I just touched it up with white paint I had at home.I also made a small bell jar as shown below. I thought I’d like it just as much, but it turned out I didn’t. I wanted to show you though, with a few photos above so you could do it yourself if you do like it. I cut stripes/stars the same way, but had to do one color at a time, while taping paper over the opposite side. It wasn’t more difficult, I just liked the three jars better. This would make a cute gift though!

Birthday's, DIY

Oreo Cake Pop Success!

6.24.2014

I may be a crafter, but I am not a baker. Sometimes I think I can change that so I give cupcakes or cookies a try, only to throw them all in the trash. I follow the directions to the T, I swear they’re out to get me. Don’t even get me started on brownies. Those little tricksters are the worst. My husband keeps asking about the brownie mix we have in the cupboard. If he wants them, he’s going to have to hire a new wife for the day, because this one just can’t cut it.

This flaw is why I always make crafts for birthdays and holidays. I just cannot make the desserts work. Hey, know what you’ve got and go with it. When I came across this recipe on Pinterest (Oreo Pops), I thought to myself, “Even you cannot ruin this.” Turns out, I was right for once! They were super easy to make, and they didn’t involve me throwing anything across the kitchen. My husband was quite pleased with the results, even if they weren’t brownies. Although the kitchen was kind of a mess afterwards, these Oreo Pops were definitely a success!

I started with the following ingredients:

~Oreo cookies (I used “Birthday Cake” flavor – Target)

~One bag of Vanilla Candy Melts (Michaels, $2.99)

~One bag of Sucker Sticks (Michaels, $1.99)

~Colorful Sprinkles (Michaels, $2.99?)

I did run out of sprinkles, with just this one jar. It worked for me though, because I made some (about 8) without sprinkles for those that prefer plain pops. I still had enough with sprinkles (about 20) that it didn’t matter. If you’d like them all to have sprinkles, you would need two jars. I used the whole bag of chocolate, and just barely had enough.Then the fun began. I separated all my cookies (broke about four). If they cracked only once I was able to still use them, but sometimes one half would crumble making them unusable. After separating all of them, I melted about ten chocolate pieces in my microwave (45 seconds), and used this small batch to adhere the sticks into the cookies. I didn’t need a “velata” warmer (didn’t even know what that was) that the original recipe calls for. The microwave worked perfect.

I stuck all the sticks into the cookies, pressed the tops down firmly, and let sit for a bit. After about ten minutes I put the remaining chips into the same bowl, and melted them in the microwave as well (I heated for one minute at a time so not to burn them). From here I covered each cookie completely (usually had to use the spoon as well), and then dipped each side in the sprinkles. I didn’t have a drying rack or parchment paper, so I held two at a time for a minute before putting them back on paper towels. They didn’t stick at all to the towels so it worked great.I didn’t have any fun way to serve my Oreo pops, so I put each one in its own little bag. I already had these at home, but you can get them at Michael’s as well, I believe about $3 a box. If I was having a party at home, I would have just put them all in a bowl. But with transporting them to work, I figured they may as well look a little more professional.Overall, they turned out great and I even had someone place an order with me for more! I finally made a desirable dessert! Take that Martha Stewart! Maybe I’ll start selling these puppies on the street.

Birthday's, DIY, Party Planning

Phil Mickelson Pops In

6.18.2014

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could surprise our loved ones with exactly the thing they want for their birthdays? Yes. But in my case, impossible. Although my husband got a (much) less expensive version of the alligator belt that his idol wears, I could not get him the actual idol.

The Birthday Banner was cool, but not a lasting surprise. So in order to give B a little extra to look forward to, I added my crafting to one of his favorite people: Phil Mickelson. I would go as far as saying that my husband, my 34 year old husband, is the biggest Phil Mickelson fan in the world. He actually invited Phil to our wedding, with the hope that he might actually come. He rationalized this with the fact that Phil has his own jet, so he could “easily” make it to our Saturday night wedding in WI, since he was in a tournament in Chicago. I saw the flaws here, but I let him have his moment. As much as I’d like to think that when we said “I do” that day, it was the highlight of his life….I also know he was a little disappointed that Phil wasn’t there. I can’t lie, I was a little thankful that he wasn’t. Otherwise B would have had the first dance with Phil. No offense Phil, I love you too…but I did want to be the center of attention on my wedding day. I will still support him when he rewinds the Enbrel commercials so we can watch you again. And I will pretend that maybe it is possible that he has arthritis (like he claims), so he can feel more like you.

Anyway, I’m getting off track. Phil was in the U.S. Open the same weekend of B’s birthday. On Friday, when B realized that his “lifelong” dream of Phil completing the “Grand Slam” wasn’t going to happen on his birthday weekend (this year anyway), he was a little disappointed. He said (and I quote): “Phil doesn’t love me nearly as much as you do! He didn’t remember my birthday OR my wedding!” Well, I could have told you that smarty-pants. I’m sure Phil loves his fans, but he’s got nothing on this girl.

However, I had to show B that Phil DOES love him on his birthday, so I got a little creative and surprised him. I just Googled photos of Phil, then uploaded them to Picmonkey, and inserted comic bubbles into each photo. I cropped each photo as closely to his body as I could, then printed them on cardstock, and cut them out. Every photo had a little birthday greeting for him, and I hid them all over the house. Some were in plain view (on the TV) so he knew they were around, and others were hidden in cabinets and drawers.

B loved his surprises! He said he was glad Phil was finally supporting him, and I let him bask in the “glory” he was feeling.

And my personal favorite Phil was hidden on the toilet:

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