Girls just wanna have fun!

A Tweet my boys sent me from my SIL's account

John and the boys went camping the weekend of my sister's bridal shower (8/12-8/14.) Lucky for me, my niece Demi agreed to sleep over to keep the girls and I company because I'm the biggest chicken-shit ever. It had been almost two years since we had one of our infamous sleepovers, and it made me realize how much I've missed her.

We had a blast-- whether we were watching Never Say Never or Odd Future music videos, laying in bed watching old movies, window shopping at super rad antique/vintage oddity stores, or exploring (and getting lost with very little gas in my tank!) in the Haight-Ashbury. It was good times through and through! She was a tremendous help that weekend.

Here are a few pics from my sister's bridal shower at Crown & Crumpet. There was a mix-up with our reservations -- we were supposed to get the private couch area by the fireplace -- but all in all we had a great time. :)

The banner was supposed to go above the fireplace so we had to improvise. LOL!

Favors and menu made by yours truly.

Noie's 1st tea party (Niki was with my MIL that day.)

The Bridal Party (and me unsuccessfully trying to hide Noie in her SleepyWrap.)

Snowflake Tutorial

When I found out I was pregnant, I instantly knew that the baby's 1st birthday was going to be a "winter wonderland." My winter wedding plans were derailed by the little miracle growing in my belly so I vowed to have my wonderland come to life one way or another! Now here I am, exactly one year from the day I was originally supposed to get married, writing about my little snow baby's 1st birthday plans. :)

For the past few weeks, I've been obsessed with snowflake-making. If you follow me on Instagram or Twitter, you may have seen me churning out quite a few of these bad boys. I originally learned how to make them from a holiday craft handout that the boys brought home from school. Over time, I refined my technique and after numerous requests, agreed to post a tutorial on how to make them. This is my version of the many, many 3D snowflake tutorials out there. I promise it's a lot easier than it looks once you get the hang of it. :)


Materials:
6-8 sheets of paper*
1 pair of scissors
Tape
Stapler

*The size of the paper you use depends on the size you want your snowflake to be. Keep in mind that smaller snowflakes are much harder. With that being said, I suggest you use a standard 8.5x11 paper for your first snowflake. For the example below, I quartered one 8.5x11 sheet of paper. It's easier to photograph a smaller snowflake for tutorial purposes. (I used vellum paper, but you can use any paper you want.)

Materials

Step 1: Take the paper and fold it at a diagonal as pictured below.

Step 2: Trim off the excess paper to make a triangle. You can skip this step if you're using 12x12 scrapbook paper for your snowflake.

Step 3: Fold the triangle in half to make a smaller triangle.

Step 4:  Take your scissors and snip the folded side leaving approx 1/8" at the end of your cut. (I put 5 straight slits.) You can eyeball the spacing -- it doesn't have to be perfect.

This is what it looks like when it's opened up.

Step 5: Now comes the fun part. Take a pencil (or your finger) and tape the two points of the inner slits together.  

Step 6: Flip the paper over and connect the next row of slits on the opposite side. Flip over again and connect the next row and so forth. Repeat until all ends are taped together.

Flip & Tape.

Flip and Tape

A side view of the flipped & taped sheet.

The final product: One "arm" of your snowflake.

Repeat Steps 1-6 six to eight times depending on how many arms you want your snowflake to have. Note: Things go a lot faster  if you mass produce your triangles before hand.

 Step 7: Once you've created all of your snowflake pieces, it's time to connect them together. Take the center "x" on the side of the individual arms and tape or staple them together to create a chain. 

Before being connected

Hope this picture clarifies where to connect them

The "chain"

 Step 8: Take a small piece of tape and connect two arms together. Repeat this step until all of your arms are taped together in pairs.

For the sake of the tutorial, I took a picture of how to connect the ends BEFORE I made the chain.

Step 9: Close the chain once all of your centers are connected and stapled in the middle.

 And there you have it, the finished product. :) Happy snowflake-making ya'll! :)

My First STD...

If you thought this was going to be a post about my first sexually transmitted disease, you were wrong my friend. I've never had a STD, but I'd like to take a moment to state how much I enjoy that particular wedding acronym. You wouldn't believe how much fun I've had  using that term in the presence of non-crafty folk. I miss the amusement dearly and hope to publicly use the phrase "making STDs this weekend" in the near future.

No my friends, today I'm sharing a picture of the very first Save-The-Date I've ever made.  I crafted 250 of these bad boys for my sister Stef and her then-fiance Josh's vintage-style wedding. They know what they like so it was really easy to come up with font combinations that worked for them. I just adore how the STDs turned out even though, frankly, I'm certain I've got carpal tunnel after tying 250 teeny, tiny twine knots. ;)

This STD was the first of many, many craft projects stemming from what I will now refer to as the "Wedding-mageddeon" part of my life. Three weddings in two weeks = end-of-the-world for my poor back and fingers. But as much as I bitch and whine, I wouln't change that time in my life for the world. ;)

My First STD

Pink, Teal, and Gray Save-the-Date


While we're on the subject of "saving the date," I thought I'd also sneak in their super cute engagement photos. You guys know I'm a sugar-fiend so these candy shop shots had my sweet tooth aching for a fix. Also? The pictures were so awesome that they were featured in a wedding blog called Sparkle & Hay. You can see that post by clicking here.  Their very talented photographer did an awesome job. If you want to see the post at Aubrey Joy Photography, you can click here.

Too Adorable!



My Best Friend's Wedding

Please excuse the delay, but I just wanted to take a moment to share a few pictures of my best friend K's beautiful 9.10.11 wedding. Watching K&J interact with one another that day made me totally fall in love with their love. I kept smacking John in the arm because K&J were so gosh darn cute together. We had a blast that night.

My favorite parts of the reception?
The bride & groom's first dance and when the groom asked the DJ to dedicate Color Me Badd's "I Wanna Sex You Up" to the bride.

Low point of the night?
I bombed my MOH speech. I got so nervous that I forgot to read what I wrote down! Pretty darn sure I made an ass of myself, but I'm hoping I didn't disappoint too much. (Sorry K.)

Personal highlight of the night?
I "caught" the bouquet. And when I say caught, I mean that it fell on the floor next to me. This is the 2nd time I've caught a bouquet -- the first time was at L&D's wedding a few years ago. Alas, it feels like I'm destined to be eternally a bridesmaid, and never a bride!

Here are a few faves from the night. Enjoy. :)

Since '88

Naughty Flowergirl

Noie w/ John. (The boys were at my sister's wedding in Napa. Pictures to come!)

The escort tags



The tables were named after locations in the Bay Area and Alaska.



Fourlittlelions Designs :)



The Wedding Party



Super Delish!

K&J



After I caught to bouquet. Friggin. Love. This. Girl.



Thank you, and good night!



I was going on very little sleep the week of 9.10.11. It was challenging to be a one-woman show because I had tons of wedding crafting that needed to be done. I learned a lot so I'm grateful for this experience. I'd like to note that I couldn't have done it without John's help. Even though he grumbled about it, he did a LOT of cub-sitting and sometimes even helped me with crafty stuff if I was desperate. But don't worry, I paid him in sexual favors so we're solid. (LOL! I kid! I kid!) I was utterly sleep deprived the night before the wedding, but it was worth it so long as the people I love were happy. I'll post pictures of my little sister's vintage wedding as soon as I get them. :) In the meantime, more posts are coming your way...for real.