Dry Erase Frames

Apologies for the lapse in posts - it's been a hectic few weeks at our house, with little to no time for crafting!

I am slightly apprehensive about posting this project, as they are Christmas presents for family and friends.  But then I rationalized a few things: 1. some of you out there in the interwebs might be looking for inexpensive gift ideas for YOUR near and dear, and 2. most of my family has no idea I have this blog - therefore, they won't even know.  Plus, I only post a photo of ONE of the finished frames, so it's not like anyone will know what theirs will look like!

This is seriously such a genius idea.  Picture frames + scrapbooking paper + dry erase markers = cleaner and prettier message board than a chalkboard.  I despise chalk - I can't deal with the, um, chalkiness?  Ick.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand.  I bought packs of plain frames at Michaels during their Black Friday weekend sales - the frames were on sale for $9.99 (normally $14.99) for 4 8x10's, and I got 3 packs (12 frames).  I had a coupon for $5 off my total order, and when I picked up a pack of scrapbook paper that was on sale for $9.99 (normally $19.99), I ended up spending $34.96 for $64.96 worth of supplies.  Score.

I already had several cans of spraypaint on hand - I am a huge advocate for remodeling via spraypaint.  I got out the red, blue, white and army green paint, and took apart the frames so that all I was left with was actual frame itself.  Out to the shop I went, and repainted the boring black frames in pretty colors.

Next, I took the cardboard backing from each frame and, after matching a sheet of scrapbook paper to each frame, trimmed down the paper to fit in the frame.

Put all the components back together, and voila! 

Instant dry erase board you can hang on the wall, on the back of the door, etc. to leave messages on.

I figured these would be great for working parents to leave their kids notes/chore lists/etc. for when they come home from school.  I happened to use one just the other day - we had a plumber come by while I was at work, and I left him instructions on the dry erase board on the porch so he knew where everything was, as well as my cell and work numbers in case he needed me.  Old-fashioned text messages - LOVE!

Jewelry Rack Time

At our wedding in July, we made the adorable little signs above (Hi Dad!) to direct our guests to the location (I have blacked out the sign in the photo above to protect my parents' privacy).  We used the first initial of my husband and I on the signs.

We had 3 of the signs total, and they were just too cute to scrap or burn after the festivities.  My husband and I packed them up with our wedding gifts and brought them home with us, with me vowing to create something cute for our home with them.

My first project with sign #1 was to create a personalized house marker for the end of our driveway.  I wanted a way for visitors to identify our house without having to read the mailbox.  So I took one of the signs, and screwed it at eye level into the trunk of a pine tree at the end of our driveway, and voila!  Instant personalized home marker!

The second sign I put on a shelf in our bedroom, surrounded by photos of my husband and I on all our many adventures together.  Simple enough.

The third idea actually came from Pinterest (I am a self-admitted Pinterest ADDICT.  That's the whole reason I re-established this blog that was leftover from my wedding planning - so I could Pin all my fun craft successes and failures).  I saw an adorable idea to screw drawer pulls, cabinet knobs, doorknobs, etc. onto boards to create coat hangers, jewelry racks, etc.  The hubby and I were at Home Depot this weekend, so I grabbed a pack of cup hook screws (they only had the brass plated ones.  Oh well).  They cost around $2.50 for a pack of 25 of the large ones.

While dinner cooked, I marked off hole locations 3 inches apart across the top of the board (the board is 22 inches wide, and I wanted uniform spacing so I measured off 7 hooks).  Then along the bottom, I did the same but offset the holes by one inch from the edge so that the hooks would not all be directly lined up.  I did this so that the jewelry on the top would not get snagged on the bottom hooks.

Next, I got out my power drill (rather, my poor excuse for a power drill...but that's a story for another day) and created starter holes for the hooks by screwing in a screw just a tiny bit, then backing it out.  I have to admit, I did this AFTER trying to hand screw in the first cup hook without any starter hole - and my hand was throbbing immediately with the pressure required to screw it in.

After finishing all the starter holes, I used my husbands leatherman to get a good grip on the hooks and screw them in one by one.  Even with the starter holes, screwing in the hooks by hand was still rough on the hands, so thus using the leatherman to get a good grip and make the whole process easier!

The result:




I may redo the hooks someday with something a little flashier, or even just take the hooks out, spray paint them a fun color, and put them back in.  I just wanted to get a concept/jumping off point.

Because I had the board already (it's just simple, cheap plywood - you could use a board from a pallet for this perfectly), the entire creation time for this, from start to finish, was less than 15 minutes.  And it may have even been less than that, as I was trying to keep the cream from boiling on the stove for the 4B's tomato soup I was making (as seen in yesterday's post).  The cost for me was only $2.50 for the cup hooks, since the board was already made and came from my dad's endless home-building supplies (as did the white paint).

Stay tuned for more successes and failures!

Tomato Soup Paradise

I was born and raised in Montana - the land of 4B's Restaurants.  4B's was a family friendly diner chain across the state, where you could get flattop burgers, the richest hot chocolate, and even desserts called dirt n'worms.

When I was sick, having a bad day, had late sports practice, etc., my mom would always pick up a to-go container of 4B's Cream of Tomato Soup for me.  It was creamy, tomato-y, with bits of onions and plenty of butter loveliness floating on the top.  Crumble a few crackers in to add a little more texture, and I was in childhood heaven.

Alas, all good things must come to an end, and 4B's closed several years ago statewide in Montana.  It was the end of an era, and I personally believe all Montanans were sad to see it go.

When I was in college, my mom mailed me a care package that had a box of recipe cards in it, all written by her.  And my favorite was, and still is, the 4B's Tomato Soup recipe that she managed to acquire.

So here is the recipe and a photo of my serving last night, full of crackers - enjoy!

1-32 oz can diced or crushed tomatoes
9 oz chicken broth
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp diced onion
Pinch of baking soda
2 cups cream, half and half or whole milk
Mix all ing except cream. Simmer one hour. SLOWLY heat cream over VERY low heat, and add to other pot in 1/2 cup increments to avoid curdling. Do not let cream boil.
*Note - I let my tomato mixture simmer in the crockpot all day - I mean, ALL day, and it was just as good as this method!
Enjoy!

Hair!

I know exactly how I want my hair to look for the wedding.  Low, curly, off to one side, chic.  My sister got married a few summers ago, and her friend did my hair in this adorable low, side swept chignon with straightening iron curls that I ADORED.  And then it rained (no, POURED) even though she got married in the middle of the desert in summer, and it was ruined.  Awwww nuts.

I also really love my hair short - when my fiance and I met, I had this adorable chin length blonde bob that I loved (and obviously so did he or we wouldn’t be here today!).   Everyone keeps telling me “Don’t cut your hair this close to the wedding, you’ll regret it!” but it grows back - and in my case, it grows FAST.  So I’m going to keep it trimmed up (it’s right at my shoulders now) and it should be just the right length for the style I’m going for.  And then right after the wedding, I’ll be going back to my cute, short bob!  Hooray for a win-win situation!

And now….for my inspiration photos!

I love this last one - that braid, so casually incorporated in, just kills me!  She looks so put together yet it seems so effortless, like "Oh this?  I just threw it back and here I am!"  <3

Boots boots boots boots!

I wanted to make sure I detailed the accessories I have for the dress, and correct my earlier statement about the cost of my bra.  The bra was 59.99 total - 53.00 plus 6.99 shipping through a seller on Amazon.com.  The exact same bra, the Satin Torsolette strapless bra, through David's Bridal would have been 75.95 total - 69.00 plus 6.95 for shipping.  So I saved almost $20.00 by shopping around!

I touched on this a little bit in my last post, but I wanted to explain my footwear choice.  I really wanted to have a low-key, country style wedding.  One of my bridesmaids is from Texas, and even though I've never even been to the South, she has be saying things like "Oh bless her heart" and "Ah Lawd"...so through my newfound southern-belle-ness, I have also fallen in love with cowboy boots.

I also love weddings where something unexpected happens, or you can't help yourself from saying or thinking "OMG how cute!"  When I saw these boots, that's exactly what I thought.  Even though the colors for the wedding are browns and greens, I also really love purple and I'm going to try to incorporate just a little here and there to keep it from being too overwhelmingly girly....thus the boots.  And they look so perfect with my country-chic lace dress!

<LOVE>

The Dress!

Aaaahhhh, the all-important decision of the perfect dress....

I didn't give this one as much thought or care as most brides for three reasons:
1.)  My fiance would find me sexy in a white bed sheet.  Seriously.  That's how I know it's love - he finds me attractive (and tells me constantly) in sweats just as much as when I'm all dolled up;
2.)  As previously stated, I'm getting married on the side of a mountain - therefore, whatever I'm wearing will most likely end up muddy and a little worse-for-wear by the end of the night.  AND I'm doing "trash-the-dress" photos in the week after the wedding (more on that later);
3.)  I'm wearing it for 4-8 hours max.  I refuse to spend more than I make in a week on something that will be worn once and probably end up destroyed anyway.

I went back and forth between ordering something online and having someone tailor it for me, and being able to try on multiple dresses in a store and buy something in-person.  I don't have any bridesmaids or family withing a 5 hour drive of me, so I was really fortunate to have some great coworkers take me to a nearby bigger town where there is a David's Bridal.

I knew I wanted a lace dress or something with a flowy chiffon overlay at the least, but I was dead set against anything strapless or poufy (inspiration photos below). 

Long story short, I ended by first trip to the dress shop nearly in tears.  I am a 5 foot 5 size 4 with a, shall we say, ample bust.  It seemed like every dress there was a v-neck or low cut, and I am so large in the chest that they were putting me in size 8 dresses.  So my entire body was swamped in a too-big dress with my chest hanging out on top - I continually looked like Stripper Bride Barbie.  Trip no. 1: Complete Failure.

I decided to schedule a trip to Portland when a whole bunch of my family, extended and immediate, would be in town for spring break.  This way, I could have my mom, several aunts and female cousins, and some friends available to help me.  And you know what?  I was in and out of a David's Bridal in less than an hour with my dream dress in hand (see below).  Yes it's lace, and yes it's a sheath style.  But it's also strapless and has a gorgeous little lace train....and I couldn't be happier.  And my price?  $449.00, plus $10 for a garment bag.  I also made sure to look at the tag for the strapless bra they had me use when trying it on, and I found the exact same one through Amazon.com for $35.00 instead of the $55.00 they were charging.

Admittedly, the dress does not yet fit.  I still had to get a size 8 because of my bust, but already it's too big because I've lost some weight.  I'm going to Montana for Memorial Day, and am going to meet with my high school Home Ec teacher, who is also the woman that taught me to design and sew my own clothes, to get the dress altered.  She has been a tailor and clothing designer for a long time, and designed and made gorgeous wedding dresses for a lot of my friends back home, so she is really the only person (other than my family members) that I trust to alter my dress.  Because my dress is lace and has beading, I would have had to pay more than $200.00 at David's Bridal for the fitting (up front no less, so if they completely destroyed my dress I'd be S.O.L.), so I'm excited to save money AND have someone I fully trust handling the alterations!

**A note about the picture above - I don't get her shoes.  Yuck.  I guess some may think the same of me when they see my footwear choice - I'm wearing lavender cowboy boots under my dress! :)  I like simple little unexpected surprises!

Invitations

My fiance and I didn't want to send out Save the Dates, because we had so many guests coming from out of town that we wanted to make sure they had ALL the information they needed as far in advance as possible.  So with that in mind, we decided to order the invitations in January and we started sending them out in February. 
And instead of putting a ton of details into the invitations like wedding registry lists, we put a business card-size insert in that matched the invites directing them to our free wedding website that we created through www.weddingchannel.com.  We were able to link our wedding registries and create complete pages about our wedding on there, including lodging info, attire details, pictures, our story, and even stories about our wedding party!  And creating the website is completely FREE!
We decided to go through www.vistaprint.com for our wedding invitations.  We ordered 250 invitations with plain white envelopes and 250 RSVP cards with plain white envelopes - the entire order for everything came to $188.23.  Now, I know what some of you are thinking - 250?!?!  Is she crazy?!?!  Well, I know I over-ordered (our guest list is around 200 with all the relatives and their kids, so we really only needed about 150 invites), but I kept this in mind:  for some reason, the town we live in has HORRIBLE USPS service.  It can take anywhere from 2 days to a week for a piece of mail to get to PORTLAND - which is only a 5 hour drive from here.  We discovered this around Christmas time, when the gifts we sent out AND the gifts arriving from our family were all late getting here and there.  We sent something UPS Ground to the Midwest, and it made it there faster than our priority mail package to the same area mailed around the same time.
Long story short, I had a feeling that mail was going to go missing, and it did - we have had to resend approximately 25% of our invitations.  This is extremely frustrating, but at least I know we will never be short of replacements!  And the difference in cost between 150 and 250 invitations was only about $30.
A bit of advice with using www.vistaprint.com - sign up for their mailing list, and sign up for the free bridal kit.  By doing so, you will start getting emails and postcards in the mail with discount codes for anywhere from 10-30% off your entire order - can't beat that!
I've attached the censored version of our invitation and the RSVP below - I love the green!  And I love the personalized tree with the first initial of my and my fiance's names!

Next time:  the dress!