A Passion for Pinterest!

The upside to being stuck on the couch recovering from surgery is that I get a lot of baby-free time to spend browsing Pinterest.

I'm trying to decide which recipe to try first - maybe something I can bring to our holiday staff party or as part of a cookie exchange with friends...

 

I'm also trying to decide which DIY project to take on first, likely after Christmas...

How do I decide what to do first???

Who Doesn't Love Halloween??

No-Sew Fleece Blanket

I came across this post ages ago and intended to make a blanket for a friend's baby. Well, many moons later and I finally got around to making it, except now it's for our baby!

Squares have been cut from the corners and the long flaps are folded back on top of the blanket. The strips are cut and the first one is tied!

Basically, you just take two pieces of coordinating fleece fabric, cut it into two squares of whatever size you want. Then cut out 6 inch squares from each corner. So you'll be left with a square of fabric with four long flaps. Put your two pieces of fabric together, wrong sides facing each other. Now, along the flaps, cut 6 inches in, creating strips of fabric about an inch and a half wide.Then tie them in a knot. Fleece doesn't fray, so then you're done - no sewing!

All done!

Confused yet? This link has much better instructions!

Cloth Wipes

It occurred to me as I was starting to write this post that these really aren't just baby wipes. You could use the same process and materials for 'family cloth' aka your very own reuseable toilet paper! Somehow I doubt many of my friends are that committed to the environment... but if you are, I would love to hear about it!

So, here goes my make-shift tutorial for basic cloth wipes:

 Using a rotary cutter and a mat (or scissors and a ruler) cut fabric into 6 inch squares.

 I decided to use two different fabrics for double sided wipes. So, one side will be flannel and the other terry cloth (I reused an old bathrobe for the terry cloth!).

 Place the squares with right sides facing each other (the right side of the terry cloth is totally a matter of preference!).

 Sew a straight stitch around the edges, leaving a gap of a few inches.

Trim around the edges, close, but not so close that your stitching will come undone. Trim the corners on an angle.

 Turn the wipe inside out through the gap and push out the corners (I used chopsticks to push my corners out).

 

Folding in the part of the wipe where the gap is, do a straight stitch around the edge.

Now repeat a billion times and you've got a stash of reuseable cloth wipes!

Christmas Crafting

Oh how I love some good ol' christmas crafts! My parents are now foster parenting 3 amazing children, and I decided that these kids need to have the kind of homemade goodies that I got from my mom growing up. So, I made stockings!

I was also pretty thrilled that the stockings themselves were less than $2 a piece from walmart, and the decorations only a few dollars from dollar stores. Even better - no sewing needed! All you need is scissors, glue and creativity!

Picture Perfect Project

We knew we wanted to do something unique with our wedding photos. We had originally planned on having our favourite photo put on to a large stretched canvas but our budget prevented that from happening.* Somehow we had never really considered the mismatched picture frame idea, even though I love it! Today we decided to head out to our local second-hand stores and see what kind of mismatched frames we could find. We were pretty darn successful, and thus, the mismatched picture wall idea prevailed.

Here's what we did:

Step 1: Scour second-hand stores for cheap frames.

Step 2: Purchase a can of spray paint and some picture hanging hardware (a couple must-have frames didn't have this feature built in).

Step 3: Lay down some newspaper, cardboard or other protective surface wherever you plan to paint.

Step 4: Sand and dust off your frames (it helps the paint adhere better).
 

Step 5: Paint, dry, repeat until each frame is evenly covered. (At this point I also painted the matting that came with 2 of the frames, because dusty rose and maroon just didn't 'go' with our bedroom colours).

Step 6: Attach hardware, put your pictures in your frames and hang them however you like!

We're still working on steps 5 and 6. We're no experts on spray painting techniques, so we ran out of paint with only a tiny bit more painting to do (oops). Then, we also need to have a few more pictures printed to fit the unusual frame sizes we bought. Lastly, we will hang them and enjoy our mismatched picture frame wall!

More pictures to come once the project is completed!

* Note that you can often do this fairly cheaply with web sites such as Shutterfly. They almost always have specials or discounts, especially when you first open a (free) account.

Say Cheese!

Doesn't this look delicious?? Over at Progressive Pioneer there's a great post about making your own cheese (see the results above!). We're definitely planning on giving it a try someday soon. Have you ever made your own cheese? Any tips?

Favours!

I guess most people wouldn't post about favours before their wedding as they are sometimes seen as a gift to the guest. Therefore, it would ruin the suprise.

Well, first of all, I don't really like most wedding favours and almost never keep them, so I decided not to think of them as gifts to the guests. Second of all, I wanted a little something for our guests to nibble when they arrive, as we all wait for dinner. Third, I love chocolate. Fourth, did I mention I love chocolate?

So after a lengthy search for just the right little nests... and a trip to the bulk aisle to stock up on chocolate mini eggs. Success! Our favours are ready to go!

Shoe Solution

Well, I looked in a couple shoe stores for the perfect pair of shoes but with no success. Then, I revisited the idea of wearing a pair of white flip flops a friend gave me last summer. They're perfectly clean and new because I saved them with the intention of wearing them for the wedding. Then somewhere along the line I changed my mind and was set on a coloured pair of shoes. Well, I tried the flip flops on again today and they are so comfortable that I just don't want to risk a new pair of shoes! So it's settled! I may see about dressing them up with a little DIY-ed fabric flower or something.

Seating Chart Savvy

Our seating chart is a work in progress. It started with a vision and has been a work in progress ever since. The vision was a cork board with strands of twine draped across it. I envisioned plantable paper hearts hanging from the twine by vintage clothespins. Well, some of this worked out and some of it not so much.

I got a corkboard through our local freecycle network, however, it's a bit smaller than we needed. So, instead of having one heart per person, I decided it would work better to have one heart per couple or family, since they will be seated at the same table anyhow. Problem one solved.

Next, I attempted to make my own plantable seed paper. While it's not the most difficult DIY task I've attempted, it was a bit too fussy and time consuming for my liking. It was hard to make the paper thin enough to cut easily and it takes a really long time to dry. Giving up my kitchen table to a bunch of drying paper for a week was not part of my vision. Instead, I settled for handmade paper that I upcycled from various craft projects I had on hand and no longer needed to keep. Problem two solved.

Now for the vintage clothespins. I tried to get free clothespins through our local freecycle, but apparently nobody was willing to part with their beloved clothespins (which is good, it means they're using them instead of a dryer - cheers for eco-friendliness!). Instead I opted for purchasing new ones, however, I chose to go with bamboo since it is a wood that can replenish relatively quickly. Problem three solved.

So, the picture above is still a work in progress. In the end the hearts will overlap slightly in order to fit them all on the board. But overall, I like it!

To-Do or Not To-Do

The question I'm facing a lot these days is whether to do another DIY project that I think would be lovely, or to eliminate it and give myself the gift of one less thing on my to-do list. This is another one of those things! This lovely little frame is meant as decoration for the table that will host the seating chart. I think it's lovely and simple, and something we would probably keep to decorate our home with afterwards. However, I would need to scour thrift shops for the perfect frame and come up with the numbers as well. It can be done, but do I have the time?

Who am I kidding - of course I have the time! I remember the days of university, finishing papers within a half hour of leaving for a Mexican vacation. If I had time for that, I have time for this! Wish me luck in my hunt for a thrift store frame!

Ribbon Wall

 

I'm in love with walls of flowing, multi-coloured ribbon. I hadn't planned on having any decorations at our ceremony (seriously - none!) but now I'm kind of tempted to create a ribbon backdrop. I think it might be a bit pricey, although I should look into the cost of ribbon before I rule it out altogether. It might also be time consuming considering we're also moving, looking for new jobs and doing the rest of the wedding tasks. Even with those reasons not to take on another project, I keep coming back to it. I'm in love!

Table Number Ideas

I had originally planned to do simple tent card table numbers on card stock, printed off at home. They'll still look nice, but without the added stress of an elaborate DIY project.

Now I'm on the fence. I saw these tin can table numbers over at 100 Layer Cake and they're so pretty! I love that they'd be made out of something that would be recycled anyhow, and you can customize the inside colour (you could spraypaint instead of using paper to avoid catching the paper on fire if you're using real candles inside).

Is it worth adding yet another DIY project to the list? Or should I minimize my stress and stick to the simple paper tent cards?

DIY Inspiration

 

I finished reading The Birth House (excellent read, by the way) and need a new book to peruse. Although this isn't the type of book I would curl up with for hours, it's a must read anyhow! As soon as the library opens I'm running over there to pick up The DIY Bride: 40 Fun Projects for Your Ultimate One-of-a-Kind Wedding. And if you haven't already, check out the author's web site and blog: DIY Bride.

Apple Cobbler in a Jar!

 

I was recently inspired by a post about single serving pie in a jar over at the blog, Our Best Bites. I will definitely try making the pie once I have a few different types of fruit in the house to experiment with. In the meantime, I took my family's apple cobbler recipe and put that in a jar! I thought the recipe would only make 4 jars, but I ended up with 6 and some cobbler topping leftover. I could've kept going, but I was out of apples!

We baked two of them after dinner the other night and they turned out great!

I bet if someone was feeling super adventurous they could make a bunch of these as wedding favours! Or, if you're feeling moderately adventurous, as gifts to your bridal party. I think I'll use this idea for birthday gifts!

Invitations

I finally finished our wedding invitations! We had a minor stamp dilemma at first (we didn't end up using the one we bought), but it worked out even nicer in the end. They were printed off on coverstock paper on my own printer. My mom came over with her big, fancy paper cutting machine and cut ALL the invitations. Then I stamped them with a cute little tree stamp, and voila! Now as soon as we get addresses from all our relatives (now there's a challenge!), we'll be able to mail them out. I'm excited!

Favour Frustrations

Wedding favours are driving me mad. I know they are not expected and not really necessary, but there are a couple reasons I'm still determined to do them:

1. Weddings are a busy time for a lot of the guests (bridal party, family, etc.). This often means people forget to eat. I want edible favours so the guests have a little treat to tide them over until dinner is served.
2. I'm also pretty keen on donation favours. I would love to donate to a few of our favourite non-profits and attach little tags to each guests favour to let them know a donation was made on their behalf. The thing is, I feel like this has to be attached to something. This idea also doesn't take into account the edible option and budget won't allow me to do both.

So, I'm struggling. I know I could make a bunch of wedding themed cookies... but that will be tons of work and stress that I was hoping to avoid. And with moving away from my bridesmaids, I'd be all on my own to do the baking and decorating.

I wish I could end this post with a solution, but I'm just plain stuck. I've looked at a million blogs for ideas and it doesn't seem to be helping. We actually got really excited about little bird nests filled with a few mini chocolate eggs. Then we went to the craft store and saw the price on the nests... not happening!

Any suggestions??

A Little Something Extra

I came up with the idea that I wanted to add a little something extra to the tables at our wedding reception. In addition to the centerpieces (or as an extension of them) I created these curled strips of paper. They are aged by dying the paper with tea and each strip when uncurled has a quote about love, friendship or family. I think they'll look cute sprinkled around the centerpieces and will be something nice for guests to read!

They're incredibly easy to make. First you type up all the quotes you want to use and print out as many as you'll need. Next you brew some tea in a rectangular cake pan. I used two bags of orange pekoe tea, but anything dark would work. Dip your paper in one sheet at a time and give it about a minute to soak. Take the sheet out and let it dry flat on a dish towel. 

When it's dry, cut the strips and trim the ends (if you want). Then roll them up tight, uncurling them after you've rolled them to make them a little looser looking.

What do you think? I might add a few to other random tables... where the seating chart will be when people walk in, at the photobooth, etc.

Catnip Bed

 

A little break from wedding posts to talk sewing! I had such success with my hot packs that I decided to experiment with the same idea for my cat, Gabby.  For this fun little project you'll need fabric, a lining fabric (I think I actually used an old pillowcase), thread, sewing machine, rice and catnip. 

Put all four layers of fabric together as follows: lining fabric, outer layer fabric - right side facing up, outer layer fabric - right side facing down, lining fabric. Sew around three edges using a small stitch (so the rice won't fall out later). Turn right side out. Top stitch around the three edges. Next, do a few curvy stitches from the open side of the pillow to the opposite side (like quilting). Make sure not to sew too close to the open side (you need to leave room to fold the fabric in and sew it shut later).You should have separate 'compartments' in the pillow now, with one side open so you can fill them before sewing them shut. Now fill each compartment partially full with a mixture of rice and catnip (about 3:1 if you're using good quality catnip). Fold in the open edge and sew shut. 

Now you have a fun little bed for your cat! Or, if your cat is anything like mine... an extra large toy! For increased playing pleasure, pop this baby in the microwave for a minute and watch your cat go crazy!

$10 Wedding Dress

Sound unbelievable? Sound too cheap to be true? Well, Threadbanger Projects to the rescue! They have posted a video tutorial on how to sew your own $10 wedding dress. With a little imagination, you could embellish it to your liking or keep it simple for a more classic look.

It could also be done as a dress for other occassions, or it could be done shorter, or in other colours... there are so many options!

Check out the video here: