DIY Bridal Shower Invitations

My best bud and her mother are hosting a bridal shower in the coming month

and I had the pleasure of helping them out with the invitations.

 

This was so much fun for me.

We looked at a ton of invites on Pinterest and saw a couple we liked,

so I combined our inspirations with the bride's personality and color scheme (purple and blue)

to arrive at this.

 

 

I personally love them,

and if time travel were possible and I somehow ended up back to planning my own wedding,

I'm sure I would want something similar for myself.

Hopefully, the bride feels the same way.

 

The invitations are 5x7's with rounded corners,

printed on white card stock.

I had a lot of fun playing with a ton of new fonts.

(Many of them can be found on the Resources board of my Pinterest page)

 

 

I also included 4x6 recipe cards on kraft paper

with the bride's name

so all the guests can share their wealth of food knowledge.

I love this idea since I got SO many great recipes at my own shower, many of which I still use.

 

 

Lastly, a little poem about her "wishing well".

This is a custom that was unfamiliar to me until a few years ago.

I'm sure many of you, however, have heard of it.

Basically, the wishing well is for little house gifts for the bride and groom aside from the registry gifts.

I love this idea as well since setting up a new home with cleaning supplies, pantry items (especially spices!), and other necessities is so darn expensive,

and typically you don't register for many of them.

 

The poem reads,

"Spices, detergents, and gadgets galore,

There are never enough,

you can always use more.

Please bring  little item for our bride,

would you please.

Spatulas, freezer bags,

or maybe Febreeze.

Wrap it in tissue,

and your name do not tell.

It's just a little something for her

Wishing Well."

 

 

A little twine and stamping on the envelopes, and it was all set!

 

Hope she loves them.

Engagement Gift- Family Recipe Album

I love my family.

And recently, one of my favorite people in the world,

who also happens to be my cuz,

said yes to a young man who asked for her hand.

After admiring the scrapbook/album/family recipe book that my mom made for me before my wedding

(I'll have to share that one later... literally 3 HUGE volumes and crazy detail),

I decided to get her started on some family recipe pages of her own.

Mine are much shorter

and MUCH less detailed than my mom's,

but I like the way they turned out nonetheless.

Each page has one of our favorite family recipes,

a family picture

 some old, some newer,

and I tried to include a tidbit about the recipe or the family with each page.

Congratulations, Amy!

And Erik, if you ever read this, you should know that I've begun to pray for you through the intercession of Saint Bartholomew, the patron saint of cheese(makers).

MAY YOU BE HEALED!

Car Birthday Invitations

It's that time of year again!

I can't believe it, but my little buddy is turning two!

yikes!

We had such a great time at last year's Winnie the Pooh party,

and we're looking forward to more good times at this year's Car party.

It took me about 1 millisecond to figure out what the theme should be for this year.

We pretty  much eat, sleep, and breathe cars around here.

:)

While Ben loves the Disney Pixar movie 'Cars',

and I've seen some awesome 'Cars' parties out there,

we opted for cars in general.

Updated vintage?

Is that a thing?

We're making it a thing...

So here are the invites.

 

I have a new love of my rounded corner tool.

And for square invites.

 

However, I couldn't find square envelopes that I liked,

so I made these with some fun-colored paper I had.

Who doesn't love some washi tape?

So, obviously, I'll let you know how it all turns out!

I'm purty psyched!

 

Valentine's Cards

I've mentioned many times before that my mom is the best.

She is especially gifted when it comes to paper crafting.

One of the top benefits of her friendship (and daughterhip?) is receiving her handmade cards on holidays.

So I just wanted to stop in today to share her Valentine's cards that we received yesterday.

One for Ben with super cute heart balloons.

I especially love the bicycle image.

And one for Chris and me

with a cool pop out heart banner.

Thanks, Mom!

And

Happy Valentine's Day

to the rest of you crazy kids.

Ikea Hack: Kid's Activity Table

Hello again, friends!

In an effort to come to grips with the fact that my little tiny baby is gone

and now I have crazy active toddler,

and also to make our living space more toddler-friendly

I've been searching for the perfect little activity table for Ben.

Not too big, not too small.

DEFINITELY not too expensive.

Not too primary-color-kid-decor, not too blasé.

And here's what I came up with:

A lot of people have this kids' table from Ikea, yes?

I think it's called 'Latt' or somethingorother?

Anyway, it's inexpensive, especially considering it comes with two chairs.

But it's a little boring (white and blah).

Simple fix.

I 'upholstered' the seat with a home decor fabric

and then covered that with vinyl so it will wipe clean easily.

Before assembling the table,

I also painted the table top with some chalkboard paint I had left over for a few other projects.

Easy enough.

Here are more details for the chairs:

Take the seat portion of the chair and cut your pieces of fabric and vinyl.

Note: don't use anything too think.

You want to make sure that it will fit into the slots that hold the seat in place.

Place them right sides down on a work surface.

Cut notches out of the corners as shown.

This helps it all fit together in the end.

I glued the pieces in place,

pulling them tightly.

Repeat with the vinyl

The glue is mostly to hold it in place until you get the chair assembled.

Be sure you don't gunk it up with a ton of glue.

This thing needs to be svelte.

Since this may be a tight fit when you go to put the chair together,

you may consider using a rubber mallet to gently tap the pieces in place.

Just be careful.

The pacifier isn't necessary.

Done. Repeat for the second chair if you wish.

Now let's color!

Ben's Valentine's Gift

In the interest of "being real"

I must disclose that I'm not much of a Valentine's person.

Maybe it's all the pink (ick)

or the feeling of forced lovey-doveyness

or the fact that it falls in my least fave time of year...

probably "D", all of the above.

So really it's a minor miracle that this happened at all.

In my 1.5 year(s) of blogging, I don't have the best track record when it comes to V-day crafting

(see above statements).

Last year, I did complete my LOVE mini-quilt/banner,

but by the time I posted it, it was approximately 9 pm on the 14th.

you're welcome blogosphere.

No matter!

I did put together two of these quasi-valentine's gifts for Ben and his lady-friend, Lucy.

I originally intended them to be Christmas gifts,

and guess what?

Didn't order the books on time.

Shocking, I know.

All is well, t hough, because V day is about love

and there are few things that I love more than books.

and felt.

and kraft paper with twine.

The book is one of my favorites from childhood,

that I've been wanted to purchase for Ben since I got pregnant.

It's The Jolly Postman by Janet and Allen Ahlberg.

The gist: a postman delivers mail to different fairytale characters

The best part: yes, there's actual mail that you can open and read.

Take a look! It's in a book! Reading Rainbow!!!

To go with the books,

I got these cute little mailboxes from the dollar bins at Target.

Then made felt envelopes to put inside (tutorial below).

and some heart, of course.

Felt Mail Tutorial

Step One:

Cut felt as pictured here.

Easy enough, yes?

Step Two:

Sew on a rectangular "stamp" in contrasting color.

I zigzag stitched around to keep it in place.

On some of them, I also sewed a zigzag for the "writing".

Step Three:

Fold the envelope so the sides match up and sew along each side (as pictured)

I did some with a straight stitch and some with a zigzag stitch.

Step Four:

I sewed a crease into the top of some of the envelopes so the flap would stay down, and the others I just tucked the flap in.

And done!

So cute.

Wrap it up

and gift away!

Happy V Day, all!

Cabled Cowl [Knitting Pattern]

I mentioned a couple weeks ago that I was sucked in to the Downton Abbey Knit Along,

and then in my excitement proceeded to crochet (and finish) my project in the very first episode.










All has ended well, though,
because I started a new project,
knitting this time.



















I was in the mood to knit,
and more specifically,
make a project that included some cabling.

So here's how it turned out!

If you've been following along, you'll notice that this pattern is very similar to my cabled wrap.
Another project which I love and wear all. the. time.

 

Reasons I like this project:





It's cabled (I love cables).

It's toasty warm.








It's long enough that you can wear it long like in this pic
(blurry, yes, but you get the point)









lazy eye

or you can wear it doubled up for super warmth.











So here's what you'll need:
Yarn (duh). I used less than one skein fisherman's wool (medium/4)
Size  9 (5.5 mm) circular knitting needles
cable needle
yarn needle to weave in ends

Abbrevs:
st- stitch(es)
rnd(s)- round(s)
K- knit
P- purl
C6B- place 6 st on cable needle and place at the back of your work, K6, K the 6 st on your cable needle


Cast on 144 stitches. Join the end to the beginning so you have a loop.
Rnd 1: Knit
Rnd 2: Purl
Rnd 3: Knit
Rnd 4: Purl
Rnds 5-19: *P4, K12, P4, K16, repeat from * around until you reach the beginning (4x total)
Rnd 20: *P4, C6B, P4, K16, repeat from * around until you reach the beginning (4x total)
Rnds 21-32:*P4, K12, P4, K16, repeat from * around until you reach the beginning (4x total)

Repeat Rnds 20-32 twice more (you will have cabled this sequence three times total).
Next 15 rnds: *P4, K12, P4, K16, repeat from * around until you reach the beginning (4x total)
Next rnd: Purl
Next rnd: Knit
Next rnd: Purl
Next rnd: Knit
Last round: Cast off and weave in ends.

Boom. Finished.