spring is here. officially.

Gabe and I spent all day Saturday 'Spring cleaning,' and oh man what a difference it made!  We're not completely finished, but already our home feels lighter, happier, refreshed, and it begged to be redecorated.  Seeking inspiration yesterday, I grabbed my bible and started absorbing.  I can always count on domino to pull through for me. Always!

One piece in particular I was hoping to learn how to liven up was my IKEA Docksta table {ya know, the Eero Saarinen tulip table lookalike}, because where I had it placed was not working.  While reading the chapter on entry rooms, it hit me.  I decided to swap my beloved vintage heavy green chest {an old craigslist find from Iceland!} that was next to my front door with the Docksta table I had in the dining room.

Voila!  The chest--which stores all of our games, wine corks, and candles--works fabulously as a buffet, and looks pretty sophisticated with the extra dining chairs flanking it.  And the green next to the red hutch is so gorgeous. 

The Docksta in the front room works beautifully.  Although it is wider than the chest, it feels like it takes up less space.  Most of the pieces in this room are rectangular and boxy--including our new chaise from IKEA {a major score last weekend in the As-is section!!}--and the round table breaks up and lightens the overall room.  I just love it.  Now all I need is a few bulbs of fragrant paperwhites in the tall cylinder vase on the green chest, and a short and full bouquet of fresh spring blooms in the entry way.  Hubby, are you reading this? ;)  Oh, and I can't wait to find better lampshades for both the lamp on the chest and on the entry table because I don't love the current ones. 

I have been coveting this bed since its debut, so yesterday I finally sprung for it.  After brunch, Gabe + I braved the weekend crowds at IKEA and picked it up, along with an adorable outdoor patio set {but that's another post}.  To my surprise and excitement, the bed only cost $99!  For some reason I had thought it was twice that, but no.  Only a bill.  Sweet! 

We didn't buy the slats that support the mattress, so we used the boxspring from our guest bedroom, which made our bed super tall and hotel-like.  I am not sure I love it being so high, although I always said I wanted a high bed, so I am living with it for a week before I decide whether or not to go back, get the slats, and ditch the boxspring.  And one of these days I will have matching, or at least coordinating, bed linens like a grown-up.  lol

Still haven't unveiled our master bath renovation, because the decorating is taking longer than expected...soon, I'll post some before + afterish photos. In other big reno-news, we ordered all new dual pane energy efficient windows and sliders for our whole house!  This is our next big project that will definitely produce major results.

What's the last thing you did to make your home happy?

our halloween party: continued

I'm on to a new {major!} project that is taking up all of my free time outside of work, so it has taken me a week to post the photos I promised you...a week? I know!  That's an eternity in Blogland.

Our party was surprisingly low-key this year.  More kids than young adults {our age}, which gave our party a different kind of energy, but a good different.  Kids bring their imagination and ability to entertain themselves, which in turn, entertains the adults.  They participated in our games and turned the area underneath our bar into a 'secret fort,' providing shelter from their make-believe enemies.  It was great.

The games we had this year went over well:

blindfolded pin-the-widow-on-her-web

kids' fort

 

I made the spider web out of green duct tape, and bought a couple packs of Martha Stewart's paper spiders with sticky dots.  There was a little table set up by the web where the kids could write their names with silver sharpies on the black spiders, then I would blindfold them {with a quick DIY blindfold made from Gabriel's pants legs leftover from a recent cut-off-shorts-craze he was on}, spin them around once, and well, you know how to play.  At the end of the night, I gave out three prizes to the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners who got closest to the center of the web.  Since we had a garden theme for the party, two winners received a cute gardening apron and a set of gardening gloves, tied together with Halloween ribbon, and the third winner received a small gardening shovel and two pots of vegetable garden kits, also adorned with Halloween ribbon.  Since all the winners of this game were girls, it worked out well.

The pictures I took of the other games unfortunately didn't come out.  We had a large mason jar with live earthworms that guests had to guess how many were in there.  Gabe used a large jar to mislead people, and it worked.  Looking on the sheet, since the worms only covered the bottom two or three inches of the jar, people were guessing around ten worms.  Only one kid {again, imagination!} guessed the correct number, which was sixty!  Remember Dino?  Yep, he guessed it, so he won a pack of all-black playing cards and a pack of golf balls.  He was ecstatic.  Not exactly garden-related gifts, but they were cheap and I was impulsive on my last trip to Michael's craft store...

There was also a kids' table set up with like twelve mason jars in varying sizes, filled halfway with warm water for the kids to drop little capsules in to grow spooky Halloween sponges.  This was the first place they all ran to when they got to the party.  There was also a coloring book and planting pot of crayons in case any of the younger kids wanted to color, but I think there was too much excitement for a dedicated task like coloring.  Some of the teenagers were glued to the couches, too cool to join the little kids' adventures, so I threw them a tube of glow sticks  and told them to crack/assemble/scatter them around the house.  This actually worked!  They were actually fighting over them.  Funny kids.

We also had the electronic dart board set up and of course, the costume contest voting station.  The three categories this year were as follows:  Sexiest, Most Bizarre, and Most Creative.  I included these categories on the invitations I sent out early in the month, to help guests decide on their costumes if they were trying to win the contest.  Some folks need competitive inspiration, you know.  I just look for any excuse to dress up, personally, and could care less if I receive any recognition.  But with these categories this year, I was secretly hoping people would put more creative thought into their costumes and perhaps DIY rather than BUY. 

And the winners were...

 Most Bizarre:  my pop.  an insane asylum patient all dressed up for the party

 Most Creative:  Dean.  a Pan's Labyrinth faun

Sexiest:  Me. a plastic pink flamingo lawn ornament. However,

I didn't want to recieve a prize, so I awarded the second place {secretly!}

winner:  new sister-in-law Sarah.  a 'sexy bitch'

My favorite costumes are the ones that involve face and body paint.  We saw a wood-nymph, Tony Stark/Ironman, retired leatherhead, retired cheerleader, and a kitty.  

The food was a hit.  Everything I made and bought was given a garden name, and I even used real garden tags to label the food.

 

We had:

• pruners puffs  -  green olives rolled in puff pastry and baked; they looked like eye balls in puffy sockets, and were actually delicious.
• compost cookies  -  homemade chocolate chip cookies with pretzels and tortilla chips shoved in the tops {inspired by these}
• potting mix  -  chocolate pudding cups topped with crushed Oreo cookie crumbles and sour gummi worms
• harvested hummus  -  just that, hummus
• pumpkin seeds  -  again, just roasted pumpkin seeds that Gabe made using the guts from our friends' pumpkin carving party
• overgrown vines  -  red vines
• bones of the garden  -  my new obsession; Snyder's hot buffalo wing flavored pretzel pieces {seriously, try them.}
• cultivated chili  -  homemade veg chili
• compost tea  -  Kool-aid, ginger ale, + water; mixing grape and orange flavor packets together makes a brown/black colored drink

And others brought red velvet cupcakes, chips/bread, spinach + artichoke dip, and wine.  We had plenty of grub and plenty of libations.  There was vodka that the adults could add to the compost tea {although the vodka remained unopened, surprisingly}, lots of wine, sparkling water, and lots of beer.  We still have beer leftover, which is an entirely new experience for us after a party.  {P.S. We are not responsible for that bottle of Sutter Home white zin you see in that first pic. Just gonna throw that out there...}

Here are a few randoms from the night:

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see, our furry children also wore garden-themed costumes.  Bowie was our evidence-hider, and Ziggy was a pinwheel, which I made for her in about two seconds out of post-it notes and a thumbtack at my desk.

All of our costumes were pretty simple to make this year.  The only time-consuming piece was my flamingo wings.  I converted a set of fairy wings using 'pink flamingo' duct tape for the feathers and lemongrass for the feathers' spines {?}.  The third photo in my last post shows the green duct tape grass blades I made to wear around my ankles, suggesting I was stuck in the grass.  I bought the pink bodysuit from American Apparel, since I didn't have any luck finding one at thrift stores, and the tights I picked up at Target, and look forward to wearing them again this winter cuz they're cozy sweatery tights.

I attached an elastic band to a wig that matched Gabe's hair perfectly for his garden gnome beard {a friend + I picked it up at a yard sale years ago, joking that one of us would dress up as Gabe for Halloween one year}, and removed the white fur from a Santa's hat we picked up at a thrift store and made his gnome hat with a little added support from a thick-paper junk mail flyer.  The turtleneck and pants were also thrift store finds, and he already had the belt and boots on hand.

Regarding the first and fourth photos from my last post, I made little party favors for the guests to grab on their way out using  toilet/paper towel rolls, spray paint, a silver sharpie marker, and candy!

They looked like little bats with pointed ears. 

We handed out the leftovers to trick-or-treaters.

Gabe's decorations inside and outside of our house were, as always, the talk of the party and the town.  Literally.  On Halloween night when we sat outside and handed out candy, we heard several parents who were taking their kids around tell one another that they drive by our house everyday and slow down to look at all the decorations.  We go all out for this {and only this} holiday. 

 

 

Gabe made the Martha-inspired spider sacks out of nylons, batting, expando-foam, and fake spiders.  He also made the raven perches using chain, spray paint, paper rolls, and some leftover paper ravens from last year's party.  And, he made that silhouette of the girl {me!} holding a pair of garden shears out of foam board and spray paint.  On Halloween night, he set up a strobe light that flashed behind the silhouette, making it look like it was moving, which scared the hell out of both kids and teenagers that walked by our house.  Everything else we decorated with inside and out was junk we had on hand.  We hardly spent any money and had an excellent response.  That's our kinda party!

We probably would find our true calling in a town like Salem, Massachusetts.  Who knows?  Maybe we will someday...

...Now, back to my major project.  Have a splendid weekend!

Halloween teasers

Busy. Busy. Busy.  Our 3rd Annual Halloween Party is this Friday, and Gabriel and I are in full-throttle planning and prep mode, but I wanted to share with you a few teaser photos, sans descriptions, until I do a full post on the party w/ our DIY projects.

 

 

 

Gotcha hooked now, don't I?

Mmmmmmm...kale chips...

Barring a major camera malfunctioning, I will definitely post on the party next week.  What are your Halloween plans??  Have I mentioned this time of year is my ultimate favorite?!

Happy Halloween, friends!!

next weekend, i will have a new SIL ... {WEDding WEDnesday}

That's right, my little brother is getting married.  To my best friend from high school.
Life is funny, and rewarding, that way.  Their relationship is young, but their chemistry is undeniable, and I could not be happier with whom my little bro chose to spend {and make us spend} the rest of his life.  And if he thinks she and I are crazy when we're together now...just wait til we're related.

Anyhow, Sarah, my brother's bride, actually inspired today's WEDding WEDnesday post.  She left me a voice mail the other day asking what I used for the money dance at our reception, in terms of a pouch or bag.  First, let me say that I was not always on board for having a money dance, but our DJ eventually convinced us to go for it and call it a honeymoon dance.  That tasted better going down.  Mom was thrilled we were having one, and in the end Gabe and I were too.  Not only did it allow us a chance to dance with several of our guests with whom we would normally not get the opportunity to dance, but we made a healthy chunk of moola!  I won't divulge the dollar amount, but in case you are curious, let's just say we could have bought this, this, these, this {in both colors}, and these, and still had change leftover for a couple of coffees.  So, having the lovely experience that we did, I reassured Sarah of the benefits of having a money honeymoon dance.

{that's little, well, bigger, but younger brother}

{and yes I realized my lipstick desperately needed re-freshening, but no time}

While the pouch definitely came in handy, keep in mind not everyone will want to follow suit, and you'll have bills sticking out of your cleavage throughout the dance...good times.

And Sarah, if you are reading this, I used an Anthropologie muslin drawstring bag.  You know, the one in which the sales associates roll up and stuff your receipt?  Yeah, that one.  Free & effective.  Simple as that. I could make you a custom pouch, lickity-split!  You just say the word and I will bust out the ol' sewing machine.  :)

 

 {full pouch!}

{anthro pouch photo source: juliebidwell}

move over Lonny, there's a new mag online

Okay, that sounds mean.  I appreciate Lonny.  You should read it.
You should also read Standard!
I just flipped through this new online magazine--dedicated to all things eco without the annoying redundancy of reminding readers that every aspect of the mag is green--and it is intriguing.  I am seeing good things in its future.  I especially recommend reading the two following inspiring articles:

  p. 76  That Old Thang?
  p. 88  Bride of the Wild West

The former tells the neat story of two friends, both actors, relocating from LA to Austin without purchasing anything.  The two have very different styles:  she prefers, "glamorous, white, and chic" collections, while his pieces are "very masculine Arts & Crafts."  That they meshed both styles together so effectively is refreshing!  Maybe you and your significant other are combining two spaces into one and need some reassuring that all will work out.  Read this article.

The latter is a fun spread showing a new spin on the modern bachelorette party.  It is set in the desert among Joshua trees {which Gabe was completely enamored with on his roadtrip to/from Arkansas last year}, and has a girls' club-native-theme.  Really cute.

Check out Standard mag and let me know what you think!  And if you're feeling it, show them some love on their website.

I'm really digging these online mags.  Up next: Rue!

{first photo was found on AT}

Easy {free!} cake topper - WEDding WEDnesday

Isn't he cute? This was our final product, although it wasn't our original plan.

I spent months rummaging through Google Images for pictures of campfire scenes, s'mores, tents pitched in the wilderness and so forth, gathering inspiration for designing a custom cake topper to represent one of our favorite pastimes: camping.  Everything I thought to do seemed so tacky, though.  I could only imagine two figures holding tiny branches roasting mallows over a fondant log fire looking too whimsical for our taste. {haha. taste. punny!}  It wasn't until after we met with our baker, the awesome Kristine of Babycakes Bakery, that I decided against the camping scene for the cake topper. Gabe and I told Kristine we wanted a mini cake on the top tier of our cupcake tower, so we would have our own special treat for the day as well as something to cut into at the reception for the traditional cutting-of-the-cake-and-smashing-it-in-your-newlywed-spouse's-face moment {read on for more on that moment}.  When it came to deciding on the flavor of our mini cake though, there was only one choice on which Gabe and I both agree: lemon meringue.  :::Drool:::  Kristine suggested covering the entire thing in stiff meringue peaks, something she had never done before, and for us to decide on a simple cake topper to complement {not compete with} the textural mini cake.  From a design standpoint, this made total sense to me, and was also the moment I scratched the mental picture of the roasting scene.   

At that point I hadn't made any decisions, and in fact I didn't decide on what I was going to top our cake with until a couple of weeks before the big day.  Enter: Abby.  My dear friend with excellent style volunteered {along with other friends} to help my mom put on my bridal shower, and called dibs on the tablescapes.  And best of all, her gift to me was letting me keep all of the goodies from the centerpieces!      

 

 Gabe planted the purple flower plants in our front garden and they love us.

I fell in love with the chubby blue birds that held photos of me and Gabe throughout the years, and thought one would be just perfect atop our little cake at the reception.  Gabe loved the idea and chose the picture that the birdie would hold--one of his favorites.  

When it came time to cut into this beautiful scrumptious looking cake, we realized the restaurant forgot to provide us with a cake knife as promised.  Upon realizing this in a half-second, my Virgo problem-solving-mode kicked in to high gear.  I turned to our guests, who were all readying their cameras and shifting their weight to get a good view of our sweet moment, and asked {laughing}, "Does anyone have a butter knife we can borrow?"  The room burst into laughter and two people came at us quickly with the knives from their place-settings.  It was such a great moment, all the way through smearing meringuey goodness in one another's hair.  

Good times.  And now the little chubby blue birdies sit on our fireplace mantel, holding some of our favorite photos.  

Happy hump day!

I don't get it.

"Wine bottle holder" from Wisteria.  I am just baffled.  Those are empty bottles.  Empty.  Kinda depressing.  Plus, the stand costs $150 and holds 88 wine bottles.  You'd be missing out on like $4.50 in recycling profit!  Okay, so maybe you don't get a chunk of your paid CRV back when you recycle, but you could re-purpose the empty bottles.  The resources are ubiquitous in Blogland.  Here.  Here are a couple of ideas that make much more sense than turning the bottles upside down and displaying them on a spiny rack in your kitchen.

DIY recycled wine bottle torches via re-nest

DIY hanging vases via 100 Layer Cake

Your husbands will thank you for choosing the torches.

I wonder if Molly has seen this photo in the Wisteria catalog.  She'd probably have much funnier things to say about it.

WEDding WEDnesdays: low-tech, high-impact

When it came down to it, a photo booth was not in our budget, although we had always planned on having one at our reception, even before they were popular.  Our Plan B turned out to be a much bigger hit, and I am so happy we didn't skimp so we could ultimately afford to rent an actual photo booth.  What did we do?
We took down the Suzani-print drapes in our living room, gathered some twine and a vintage wooden picture frame, and we made our own photo booth at the ceremony site.

Guests were encouraged to take their own pictures while waiting for the ceremony to begin in the 'booth.'  These shots were from our photographer, Scott.  Gabriel and his groomsmen set it up before guests arrived in a very short amount of time, and the best part is there was no waste or expense.  The drapes and frame are now hanging in his music recording studio in our house (but that's another post). 

In the reception room, hanging on every wall behind guests' seats, were streamers of photos of me & Gabriel throughout the years.  Mixed in were childhood photos of each one of us, family photos, and the two of us during the past [now ten!] years.  He and I made a few of the streamers at our house, using ribbon and clothespins we already had on hand, but my mom and mamaw made all the others.  It was a lot of fun in the months leading up to the big day to have our friends' parents and our families contribute photos they had of us too.

This element has to be one of my favorites of all our decorations.  It was so touching to hear and see people mingling with others while reminiscing and commenting on all the photos.  It got people out of their chairs before and during the reception, and provided an easy ice breaker for guests who didn't know each other--not that it was necessary in our friendly outgoing crowd.  And, just as with the 'photo booth,' there was no waste associated with this project; all the materials and photos are either being re-used or stored for future use. 

I had heard horror stories about computer slide show malfunctions, so we chose to go the low-tech route with the photo streamers.  I'm so glad we did.  Not only did we save stress and $$ by nixing the slide show and all the technical equipment associated with it, but looking through the photos our photographer shot, I love seeing these streamers in the background behind the happy guests.  I think they helped set the tone and added to the homey mood in the room.

Never underestimate the power of personal touches, my friends.  

Perhaps that last line should have been the theme for 'WEDding WEDnesdays.'

{Suzani drapes were purchased at Cost Plus World Market.}

WEDding WEDnesday - paper goods: eco-friendly and cohesive

There are a handful of wedding items that have become basic or expected items, that I agree are necessary and practical.  I.e.: the Save the Dates, Invitations, RSVP cards, all for obvious reasons: to get the word out!  Brides must remember not everyone has a computer, so you cannot expect everyone to go on your website and click "RSVP" just to save paper/money...

There are inexpensive ways to produce these items yourself, like I did.  First: skip the fridge photo magnets.  They're pricey, not everyone has a magnetic fridge facing, and even if it is magnetic, many folks are anti-magnets. I'm just sayin'... I get that it's a cute idea, and I'm not putting down those who send them out, this is strictly a DIY post to inspire alternative methods.

Below are bitmap versions of these items I created, either in Microsoft Word or Excel--super simple stuff, friends.  They were as easy as fitting into the 4- or 8-card postcard templates, printing, and detaching at the perforated lines stamped on each sheet of paper, with an additional design element thrown in here and there... [refer to previous posts for paper type]  

For the Save the Dates, we made them on 4-card postcards, printed front and back, with the photo of us in 'washout' so as to use less ink.  One postcard was sent per household, with our return address printed on the reverse side (censored for blog), and a heart where the postcard stamp would go.  Bonus! Postcard stamps are significantly cheaper than normal postage.  We printed out mailing label-stickers for the recipients on Avery 30-label sheets in Word, which also acted as a general database for storing everyone's addresses for wedding related mailings and future needs.

For our invitations, we used the unbleached recycled 4-card postcard paper, and again, printed on front and back. The front informed guests of the basics, and the back had a simple map and specified that the ceremony and reception would take place at the same location.  I used a silver metallic marker to draw a cute heart at the top of each invitation above the "Boy met Girl" line.  

Honesty is the best policy, so be honest and remind yourself that rarely do guests save the invitations, or any paper good from weddings for that matter, so it doesn't make any sense to spend money on calligraphy/glossy hi-res color photos/embellished invitations that will likely be in the waste bin the day after your big day.

We printed the RSVPs with each guest's name typed on the lines under "Invited Guests," and the response options made it easy for people to give us a simple answer.  Many people even wrote us fun notes on the remaining lines, which made receiving each one that much more fun!  On the reverse side, the card looked very similar to the Save the Dates postcard mailings, and of course we stamped each card with a postcard stamp.  These were packaged along with the invitations in a postcard-size envelope, and the cost per packet was less than a dollar, including postage! 

 

The table markers were printed out on 4-card postcard paper, using yippy skippy font--same as our comment cards--and trimmed with a Martha Stewart paper edge cutter.  We then glued each number to the inside cover of vintage books, a collection we picked up from Goodwill for a buck a piece.  

The book covers matched our color palette, and we used the pages of the books to make petal cones for the ceremony!  Each aisle chair had a cone full of petals (donated by our BM's mom from her abundant rose garden), attached with a straw ribbon loop.  This project was practically free, and is one of my favorite, since we were able to be so resourceful to pull it off.  They also contributed to my favorite photo from the ceremony:

 not sure who wore that lipstick better, me or him...

Using the 8-card postcard paper, I printed out the notices we received from our honeymoon registry when people purchased gifts for us, which I showcased on our gift table 'honeymoon board' at the reception.  By the way, the little orange man thumbtacks were a wedding gift from my MOH from CB2.  Love!

Lastly, I know I wrote about the favor labels in a previous post, but I wanted to show you the trick I used on the 8-card postcard paper.  I carefully measured and placed two asterisks on both sides of the labels, so that anyone helping me attach each one to the jam jars would know where to punch the holes for the hemp twine.  It's the little details that, if overlooked, can cause frustration.  Anyway, even with all that careful planning, things out of your control can screw with you, like my printer frizzing out on the second-to-last label each time...

Doing what you can on your own, such as projects similar to these that I am sharing with you, not only cuts down on costs, but waste and stress as well.  Oh the stress and pressure of putting these projects in someone else's hands, even if they are professionals! 

...But that mainly speaks to the control-freak Virgos. ;)

.More to come next week.

...all professional photos taken by Scott Fischbein of Fischbein Photography....