Wedding DIY: Grab bag...and a bonus ;)

Hey there kids!

I'm here today to bring you an assortment of little DIY's I've been working on lately. 

I saw THIS post on Pinterest, with a free printable for a kids coloring book. I hadn't considered "the kids" too much, but I couldn't pass up free and easy! So, I printed 20 of these at work(free!), and bought a 64 pack of crayons ($3.50) and a wicker basket from Michael's ($3.99), and ta-da! Distractions for the crazy adorable wee ones!

I'm a little confused why this one came out inverted... alas.

I am probably going to print some more, and buy one more box of crayons (or maybe think up a "different" craft/distraction) since there are only about 20 of these books/crayon bundles. 

Next up, flowers!

I, personally, am a frugal person. If I had an unlimited budget... I'd have flowers dripping off everything. BUT, since we're largely funding this ourselves, I can't justify spending hundreds, let alone thousands, of dollars on a perishable item (that I ain't even eating!). 

Enter: Minneapolis farmer's market. There are hearty bouquets of flowers for $4-$6 at the downtown market on Thursdays. So, M's mom bought me a bouquet last week, so I could see what varieties they had in season in early October...make sure they'd last from Thursday to Friday night (when I'd make them) AND to do a 'dry run' of an attempt at a boutonniere. I'm not too concerned about a bouquet, I've seen enough tutorials and trust that I can bunch up some flowers and wrap a ribbon around them pretty easily. It also doesn't hurt that I'm not picky in the slightest about flowers. 

SO, here's the "sample" boutonniere I whipped up, to see if I could do it!

Not too shabby! And, if all the flowers die and/or fall apart the morning of the wedding.. meh. I really am not that concerned about it. Does that make me weird? maybe.

 

Last up.. since I'm not sure my girls read this.. I'll share a part of their gifts! Even if they do read it, this isn't the only thing they're getting, anyway.

I loved the idea of personalized hangers, but didn't like the price tag ($20-$50 depending on where you go). I saw a tutorial on making your own. Really, all it involves is buying floral wire (which I learned accidentally) and drilling a teeeeeeny tiny hole on either side of a wooden hanger to anchor the wire, and then a dab of hot glue to secure it. I finished mine off with a burlap bow, to keep with my burlap theme. 

Here are two of them!

a

Laaassttlyyy... I have a top secret bonus for you guys. 

I've seen a preview of our engagement photos. and, I cried. (#dramatic) 

They are more than I could have imagined. I got the log in information for the online proofs, and the DVD is coming in the mail as soon as they receive it. I asked if I could pull photos from the website to share with people, or if I had to wait for the DVD. she said I could do it with the DVD. I'm not sure if that meant I wasn't functionally able to "save" them from the website, or LEGALLY, I couldn't share them. On Mac's, you can do a Command+Shift+4 screen grab though. SO, functionally I could grab them, I'm just not sure if I'm supposed to. And out of a fear of being sued before I'm even a lawyer, I am going to wait to share them until I get the DVD. Plus, the "screen grabs" have a little tag in the corner from their editing. 

That being said, since this blog has never been posted on FB, and I'm not sure they'd ever see it.. I'll share the cover compilation photo from our proofing album. 

Squeeeeeeeeeeee!! I just love them. 

Hopefully this tides you over until I get the DVD and can post the rest! Besides, the left, and 2 middle ones are 3 of my favorites anywhoo.

OH, and M and joined LA Fitness tonight. Joint family membership for, wait for it.. $50 a month. I'm THRILLED with that price tag. Lifetime was $70 for ONE of us. woof. So, I'm going to get my fitness on! Now that I don't have to worry about having a charged ipod and dying of boredom. :) 

-Kelly

This n' that

I sat down to write a little weekend recap post and realized the only thing I really took photos of this weekend (well..that I'm sharing in this post ;-) ) were photos of TJ. Woops..?

Friday M and I ended up going over to a friend's house to watch the Gopher's hockey game.. came home, and watched Breaking Bad. 

Saturday, M went tailgating at 7:00 a.m. in the cold misty weather (crazypants) and I slept until 9:30. I had an irrational freak out about the state of our closets earlier in the week (yeah, I said irrational for a reason) so I headed out to Target and Michael's to get some organizational and crafting materials. 

I bought some new sheets too..and then like any good cat mom, stuck the empty sheet bag on TJ's head and watched him flip out.

Per usual, TJ provided some quality control with respect to the cloth bins:
 

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

 

I was cleaning out the hall closet and stumbled across a kitchy little cat outfit I had bought last year around Christmas. TJ was quite little back then, so it was HUGE on him. I thought, "hmm.. wonder if he'd fit in it now." 

So we strapped him in, and hilarity ensued

He just laid on my lap and purred, so I figured "he must like it!" and plopped him on the ground. I then captured the single best video of TJ I've ever taken. 

 I cleaned the closet.. you can see there's somewhat of an improvement (Before: Left, After: Right)

I also bought a pack of crayons to finish off a wedding DIY (which I will be bringing you later this week.. mostly so I have something else to blog about).. but honestly, when is the last time you've had a NEW pack of crayons? Just opening the lid and seeing them made me smile. I had OCD as a wee child, even, and would dump them all out and then organize them by color.

The rest of Saturday involved a lot more of this:

 and not so shamefully, about 6 more episodes of Breaking Bad. We actually just finished Season 4..and need to figure out when the first half of Season 5 comes out on Netflix. (2nd half of Season 5 is next summer. cruel.) 

Sunday, I had Molly and Sarah over for brunch...which I took zero photos of. The food was THAT good. Then we went to M's mom's for dinner and the Vikings game. Basically, we did a lot of eating. I finished up a bridesmaid gift too, which I will bring to you later this week. I'm pretty sure most of them don't read this, or at least not frequently. Regardless, I'm not too concerned about it being a surprise, since there will be more to the gift that's not DIY anyway. 

Hope you all had a good weekend! 

I continue to compulsively check the photographer's website for sneak peaks to no avail. I'm kind of dying to see them at this point. If they're horrible, you may never see them, but I'm hoping to have access by the end of the week/early next week! 

-Kelly

Friday's Letters (bad blogger edition)

 

Hi, remember me? there once was a blogger named Kelly

she always loved cheese in her belly.

 

jk, things are getting weird with that route.

 

Sorry guys, I've been an absent blogger. Truth is, last week I was an anxious hot mess and just focused on bar results.

This week..well...this week you can blame M for my absence. Whilst making my veil the other day, instead of watching it on his tablet, M put Breaking Bad on the big TV. 47 minutes later and we've watched about 10 episodes since Sunday. I resisted watching.. not because I thought it'd be "too gory" or something.. but because ANY TIME people rave about a tv show/movie, etc., my natural inclination is to resist it. Makes no sense, right?

 

Welp, they were right, I've joined the chorus, Breaking Bad is SO GOOD.

 

In that vein, here we go:

 

Dear Walt, stop pissing off Gus. stop being stupid. just cook yo meth, and shut yo mouth. Gosh.

Dear Photographer, I know you said 2 weeks for engagement photos (and today marks 1 week) but if your page views on FB have gone up in the last week it's because I check your site no less than 10 times a day, but am too embarassed to drop a hint that I'm DYING for a sneak preview.

Dear Saturday, (Yeah I'm skipping Friday.. we all know how sweet she is)... I firmly intend on dominating you with crafts and organization. I may or may not have had a mini melt down about the state of affairs at the house last night..so, we're fixing that!

Dear TJ, why you so sassy, baby-kitty? Figures we picked the most angsty kitten of the bunch. I wouldn't trade you for anything though..even when you barf up the flowers I told you NOT TO EAT yesterday... or tear around the house at warp speed, or cry and cry and cry for dinner. Because your snuggles are SO worth it.

Dear Appeal that I'm helping on, go awayyyyyyyyyyyyyyy.plz.now.

 

 

-Kelly

Wedding DIY: the veil

First of all, I'd like to say thank you for all the incredibly sweet messages on Friday's post! 

To use the word "relieved" is a vast, vast understatement. It feels like I have my life back. Absolutely nothing has changed in terms of my day to day activities.. but I feel like I'm no longer being held captive by this big invisible THING. I didn't realize just how tense I was until the last few days. oofta. 

Moving on.. I'd like to return to our regularly scheduled programming around these parts: bride brain. 

I do this thing, where I OD on wedding crafts, and then don't pick up a glue gun or look at Pinterest for a week or two. 

Today's topic: veils. 

Originally I had written off wearing one because I dubbed myself looking "cartoonish"... I toyed around at David's Bridal with M's sisters one day and ya know... actually tried one on, and surprise surprise- I wasn't totally repulsed! It was an elbow length veil, and the comb was attached in such a way that it didn't poof up, it just laid flat (if that makes sense). 

That was when I decided, if I could DIY a veil I'd consider wearing one. No offense to any of you reading who paid $100+ for a veil, but no. way. in. hell. could I justify that for tulle. Wanna know how much tulle costs? I bought 2 yards for $1.50. Yeah. Can we say, markup? 

That's when I stumbled upon this tutorial from A Practical Wedding. 

Looked simple enough. BUT, I was concerned that a DIY veil that was just tulle may look cheap, since my edges would be rough, and my sewing on the comb may not be perfect. SO I had an idea. I asked my mom if she had a veil and went to look at it. It was actually just plain tulle on a caged hat thing. 

However, it was in the bag that her veil was in I looked at her dress in real life for the first time (I've had a photo on my dresser for years). 

I asked my mom if I could use parts of her dress to make a veil. Mom said "go for it!" dad gave me some grief. I think he thought I was just going to go all Edward Scissorhands on it. I guess I figured.. if my daughter wants to use some tulle or something from my dress, I'd rather have her carefully take some pieces and USE it vs. it sitting in a closet for forever if she doesn't want to actually WEAR it, ya know? 

So, I took it home. 

Here she is! 

So, you see at the bottom there are two tiers of ruffle/lace? The upper tier had a white lace that was sewn in below a satin ribbon. In looking at it, I realized I could snip it off pretty cleanly, and honestly you'd never know it was supposed to be there if you looked at the dress. Hence, I wouldn't "ruin it" like my dad feared. 

So I snipped the lace off around the entire dress. I knew if I wanted to trim my veil with it and have it not look totally tacky, I had to snip it close to the "applique" portion. I looked at this tutorial and saw that she cut out a pattern she liked. 

I followed the first tutorial for the most part, and tweaked it based on what worked/how the tulle fell. I honestly couldn't describe it if I tried. I gathered it, sewed it, folded it over (so it had a clean edge) and sewed it again, and then sewed it to the clip. I then trimmed the lace into the pattern you see above. 

I had purchased clear thread to sew, when I realized hand stitching the entire thing would be brutal. I turned to my trusty glue gun. I used the world's teeniest dab of glue on the parts of the lace that were the thickest/not as porous. (Like, see the flower in the above photo? I glued on there)  

The comb portion was pretty plain and I knew I wanted to decorate it a bit. I had some rhinestones from pimp cups I made for a bachelorette party (I'm super classy). If you look in the above photos, you can see the "branch" portion of the lace that I cut out and overlapped for the design on the clip. I then added the bling. 

I then decided to add lace up the sides too, but thought the size I used for the base may be a bit too big. So I just trimmed a smaller pattern (you can see where it came from, it's just the very bottom of the bigger lace design-- I'm just realizing I'm not sure ANY of these descriptions have made any sense. haha. my bad.)

So, I added that to both sides. 

I made a veil that is sentimental and detailed for a whopping $3.50. 

Ta-da!

I had the rhinestones

I had the glue gun/glue

I bought the tulle for $1.50 (2 yards in case I messed up)

I bought the metal hair comb for $1.99

Matt even was impressed! He hasn't wanted to see any of the details but I told him I wasn't locking myself in my room to craft, so I did it next to him on the couch. 

I WILL say, I do have somewhat of an appreciation for how much veils cost. Holy eye-crossing detail oriented work. and I just skimped and used glue (although I will say, you can't tell it's just glue).. I can't imagine sewing it. Oof. I'm incredibly proud of how it turned out though, and hope it's something I can pass down to my daughter. If she doesn't want to wear my dress, that is. 

-Kelly

Esquire

Well, you can probably guess by now what's kept me distracted and away from blogging. 

I have really had a one track mind ever since I found out results were going to potentially be released October 5th. 

Yep, today. 

Basically it was wake up, work, and pray the minutes away so that Friday would get here. 

At the same time I was petrified for Friday to get here because I was 100% convinced I failed. 

We took our engagement photos this morning.. and where I had thought results would go up by 9 a.m., I was later informed it would be 11. Our photos wound up by 11:15 and I was in the car in hysterics trying to open the damn website.. to no avail. 

Sat down at the computer at home, typed as fast as my ice cold fingers would allow, and saw the words I'd been waiting my entire life to see: 

Dear Ms., 

I am pleased to advise you that you have received a passing score on the July 2012
Minnesota State Bar Examination and you will be recommended to the Minnesota
Supreme Court for admission to the bar of this state.

Longest story short, I PASSED THE BAR EXAM! I'm ecstatic. I feel like my mental health is already significantly improved. 

Off to lunch to celebrate the rest of the day off with M, with a renewed positive outlook on life! hahaha

thank you to everyone who had faith in me, even if I secretly wanted to choke all of you who told me "you'll be find, you'll pass!" it's the nature of the test.. I swear. 

peace, love, lawyered. BOOM!

Bloggers be bitches....(sometimes)

This is a post that's been brewing in my head for a long time now, but I wanted to wait until I couldn't be accused of writing this in response to some specific post. Because quite honestly, it's not.

That and I haven't really been able to sit down and formulate a new post because my brain is mush and I've been terribly distracted. If you follow me on Twitter you can probably gauge why.. I'll be back soon to explain, hopefully.

 

I'm a new blogger, so on one hand I feel "unqualified" to comment on bloggy politics,.... on the other hand, I feel like I'm intelligent enough to raise the bullshit flag when it needs to be raised.

 

Here's a newsflash: People are allowed to disagree with you

 

and here's my disclaimer,

 

so long as they do so respectfully.

 

There's a cycle I've noticed in the comment sections of blogs. It goes like this:

 

1. Blogger writes a blog post that has the potential to invite dissenting comments, i.e. "controversial"

2. Commenter disagrees, points out some hypocrisy, or otherwise voices an opinion that is counter to the bloggers. DISCLAIMER: I am only referring to dissenting comments posted in a respectful tone. There's a difference between

"hmm, I'm not so sure I agree. In some respects, you're even acting a little like those people you profess to dislike..? I don't mean to be rude, just pointing it out."

 

and

 

"you're a stupid hypocritical idiot."

 

3. Blogger, and/or her "gal pals" gang up on dissenter in the comments, usually with a litany of

"if you don't like the blog, CLICK THE X/stop reading/move on" followed by a chorus of "we got your back!"

 

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaittttt a minute. Because someone disagrees with ONE THING the blogger has posted, ipso facto they must dislike the entire blog, and are labeled a "mean girl" for continuing to read, for disagreeing and "wasting the time to comment just to be mean/disagree"..?

 

I fail to see the connection from A to B there.

Here's an honest question... is there to be NO dissent in blog world? If you follow a blogger, do you have to agree with 100% everything they post, or click the unfollow button?

 

That's not rhetorical either, if anyone wants to offer me some insight into this, PLEASE do in the comments.

 

It just honestly baffles me the frequency with which I see this. Someone is leaving nasty negative anonymous comments ALL the time? No room for that, anywhere in life. However I don't think we should be demanding people go away when they hold or express a viewpoint that is slightly different than ours on ONE issue. Guess what folks, that's LIFE. I know we like to insulate ourselves in blog-world to happy positive things, but my goodness if you can't handle someone disagreeing with you on a blog, how do you fare at your 9-5? with people you encounter on the weekends?

 

Not to mention it makes the attacker-backs look juvenile. Responding back negatively has never personally made me feel better. I leave the situation feeling crummy. I can even understand where an outsider may objectively view a comment, whereas the blog author may take it more personally, they may not read the same tone into it as say- I would. But why can't we then (maybe wait 5, 10 minutes for the intial "fight" response to cool down) and send an email saying, "hey, I appreciate the comment, I'm not sure if you were being mean/sincere and no I didn't consider things the way you suggested.. I appreciate you still reading though!"

Respect and kindness never killed anyone.

Mixed bag

We went into this weekend with few plans, somehow ended up busy, yet I sit here on Sunday totally relaxed with a kitty on my lap and FRIENDS on the tv. It was the "good" kind of busy, the unplanned yet relaxing kind of busy. 

It began Friday after work, I stopped by Target because one of M's friends' girlfriends' gave me a tip on a pair of dark denim jeans they had for cheap. I ended up leaving with 2 pairs of jeans and a retro T-shirt. 

I came home and found out M had been doing some shopping too....

 

Someone came home with a 60 inch flat screen. M tinkered a little bit, but after a guilt trip we continued on with our plans for a date night. I wanted chinese food, but after stopping down by the mall, I saw a place that M and I have said we wanted to try out for a while. It was such a warm night, so I thought this would be a fun audible. SO, we went to the Galaxy Drive In in St. Louis Park!

 

 

 We parked in our spot, put our orders in, and wandered around the area. 

M tried to steal a bone from a child...

 

and had an awkward encounter with Humpty Dumpty

 

 aanndd then we played a game of giant tic tac toe (which a small human crashed, as you can see above). Turns out tic tac toe isn't so fun as an adult, since the strategy is obvious and all of our games ended in a draw. They also had a giant chess set, and a fire pit that you could purchase a s'more kit for.

The food was great, and it was a fun "different" date night! 

Saturday, M and I went to a waffle feed to benefit the St. Louis Park volleyball team. The girls came door to door earlier that week selling tickets. The running joke in our house is that I am NOT good at being firm/saying no to door to door salesmen. I am not TOO bad at saying no to home repair people, but if it's a neighborhood kid selling food of some kind? I'm 0 for 2. Bought a tub of cookie dough once before. 

We showed up expecting, like, Eggo waffles.. and found homemade Belgian waffles. With a WIDE array of syrup choices, and whipped cream and powdered sugar and sausage and OMG it was good.

After that, we went to M's best friend's house to watch the Gophers game. I painted my nails and ate food,... but mostly was there to hang out. I left M there and took his car to Rosedale Mall to pick up some finishing touches for engagement photos (which are this Friday!!!)

I bought the dress (which is a cream color) at Francesca's

Had the belt (I think that was a Charlotte Russe or Target buy) 

Necklace (of which there is a close up below, in the hair pics) was F21 ($6.80)

Sweater was F21 ($14.50) (in case I get cold) 

I'm struggling with what shoes to wear. My 2nd outfit is dark denim skinny jeans, a long sleeved white T-shirt, and a fun scarf, -- that I'm wearing my riding boots with. I don't really want the same shoes in both sets of photos, plus I'm not sure these particular boots go with the dress. I'm in the market for some flats, or something like that. I have 5 days, and a limited budget (after the damage I did Friday/Saturday..woops)-- so, suggestions are welcomed!

As I was browsing F21, I found these: 

 

I've always said, if I decide to wear earrings for the wedding, I LOVE the "teardrop" style, kind of vintage look. I saw these and stopped dead in my tracks. I have no hangups about buying "fake" earrings, and these were too beautiful NOT to buy, just in case. (especially with the $6.80 price tag)-- SO I have these, and think I'll end up wearing them. 

I also had an idea of what I wanted M to wear for at least one of the outfits, but when browsing his closet, realized he didn't really have anything comparable. So, while I was at the mall, I poked around Macy's and found this shirt, originally $69.50 on sale for $29!

 

He'll wear this when I wear my dress. It's a pale blue, and not quite a silky/formal button up.. it's JUST dressy enough without being too much. He'll be pairing it with dark denim and sperry's. 

Came home from the mall, opened the door, and this ensued:

 

This one cracked me up, with the little lean. We learned recently our neighbor feeds these 2 squirrels that are ALWAYS around, which would explain their boldness around humans. TJ sits at the front door most days and just stares at them, but Saturday I walked up to the door..and when the squirrel saw me, he ran AT the door- not away. He went as far as putting his paws on the glass right in TJ's face. 

Sunday I had brunch with some girls in St. Paul, and then had a hair appointment at Phresh in St. Louis Park.

Here's a before and after (and ignore the awkward smug smile.. I'm never sure what to do with self portraits. I also was walking and trying not to look super vein snapping photos of myself in front of strangers... clearly failed on both accounts)

My hair was a bit of a mousy color before, so I wanted it solid and darker for photos. It'll wash out a bit before Friday (and I'll have it styled more like on the left) but I like how dark it is! I'm also getting a brow wax for the first time tonight.. kind of nervous, but it needed to be done, and in case you've noticed a theme here, the idea of having professional NICE photos taken of me, potentially zoomed in on my face, has sent me into panic mode. I'm scared my makeup will look like it was applied by a 10 year old and my brows will make me look like sasquatch. Needless to say Leah's coming over Wednesday to play with my makeup and give me some pointers. 

The rest of the weekend involved a lot of this with my favorite furball: 

Hope you all had a good weekend! 

-Kelly