Something New Tuesday

So in an effort to broaden my horizons I have dedicated Tuesday to be my “try something new” day. Anything I haven’t done, which is a lot. My bestie over at Through the Lens will also be doing it with me!

Yesterday I attempted to do a Pilates beginner video… I only got about half way through. I’m extremely unfit. So I tried a different one of her videos and I actually got through the whole thing. Granted I only could do certain moves so far and I definitely couldn’t to the rocking back and forth on my spine. I ended up just thunking down on the mat and not being able to get back up.

I encourage everyone to try this out, especially as a beginner!

TRY IT TRY IT TRY IT!

Here is uno helping me:

I have to give a shout out to Campfire Chic for motivating me to do more pilates.

 

Motivation Monday

This is a day late, I know! But I did want to share some of the blogs that keep me inspired and got me into following blogs and my renewed obsession with crafts, long before Pinterest! {I do have Pinterest board for all those deemed follow worthy so check it out for even more inspiration!}

All time favs:

1. Max California - http://www.max-california.com/ – So many adorable clothes for her son and her newborn daughter not to mention the things she’s made for herself! They are a great edgy family that doesn’t do “cookie cutter”.
2. A Beautiful Mess - http://www.abeautifulmess.com/ – Everything from giveaways to décor to running a blog and a small business to hair how tos to recipes! These two sisters are so inspiring on the way they live their life. Admittedly their style doesn’t work for me but that doesn’t mean I can’t use the techniques in a way that works for me.
3. A girl and a glue gun - http://www.agirlandagluegun.com/ – lots of glue gun crafts, as you can well imagine, as well as a lot of tutorials on things that I truly feel anybody can do. And I love how she keeps it real (no capitalization and a lot of … heehee)
4. Sugar Bee Crafts - http://www.sugarbeecrafts.com/ – From clothing to home décor, Mandy is always posting inspiration she has found and tutorials. I like her what I wore wednesday’s because its all reasonably priced clothes or diy clothes!
5. 52 Weeks Project - http://52weeksproject.com/tagged/project – Every week a new tutorial from around the net that doesn’t take much time. A great way to be crafty without it overtaking an entire weekend. You can also find a bunch of great blogs out there through links.

 

New favs: (Scrapbooking & etc blogs that I’ve added to keep me motivated to do Project Life)

1. Campfire Chic - http://campfirechic.com/ – Project life, yoga, and the great outdoors. I am in love with Kam and the way she keeps it real and how colorful her Project Life pages can be! Her blog motivated me to go to a Pilates class at my local community center and buy a yoga mat for at home. (More on that later!)
2. Harper Finch - http://imharperfinch.blogspot.com/ – Digital scrapbooking supplies and a ton of freebies. I love love love her colors! A lot of designers are more neutral, not Harper! She is sparkly and colorful! I have used her freebie shimmer papers to make a few prints for my friend Amber to have at her desk at her new job! I also plan on making some inspiring prints to hang in my kitchen!
3. Punk Projects - http://www.punkprojects.com/ – So many different types of things from Project Life to craft projects to photography tips!
4. One Velvet Morning - http://onevelvetmorning.wordpress.com/ – Lots of Project Life freebies and printables. The good stuff!
5. This Kalil Life - http://www.kimberlykalil.com/ – Project Life & Digital Scrapbooking along with freebies and layout inspirations!

I read all of the blogs I follow using Google Reader. I have a majority of them separated by Category (Non crafty, FAVS, Scrapbooking, Tumblr {Owls from last night, DLFLN, DGFLN, Target does it again, Disneybound}, Food, Friends, Nails). I try to keep up with them but sometimes it gets to be so overwhelming I just mark all as read and start fresh! I recently deleted about 20 that no longer posted or were no longer posting anything relevant to me (aka a lot of giveaways for things I don’t want or just sponsored posts) but then added about 10 new scrapbooking blogs by going through my Pinterest boards and seeing if I had pinned several things from the same blog.

 

Much love my friends! (also go follow these guys, or at least check out their blogs and or Pinterest pages!!!)

Wedding Workshop Wednesday

Today on Wedding Workshop Wednesday I’d like to share the specific items that I found (through blogs and mostly Pinterest) that we will DIY for our wedding! {People doing the DIY projects include: all of my bridesmaids, a couple of awesome friends, and my mom}

First up the flowers:

I found this awesome tutorial on paper flowers over at ellinee. I saw a bouquet on etsy that was made from books and went searching for how to make my own book page roses and the best one I found was hers. Others have you cutting out each and every petal separately. Ain’t nobody got time for that! I will say for ours the center I did 3 petals instead of 2 and I also added another 4 petal set to the stack. It takes 3 pages to make 2 flowers, we used both paperback size (the larger size not the little ones) and hardback size. I picked up a couple Harry Potter books at flea markets and my maid of honor was nice enough to donate her old paperbacks that had been a little worn out by her kiddo.

Our version:

This is the inspiration for the guys boutineers(I constantly misspell that word so please just ignore it if I do it again).

I have a tub of old comics I’ve picked up here and there for a couple bucks. Time to make them useful! I might even let each groomsman pick out which comic they want…

Next up: Décor. You have to have something to put the flowers in right? I have two milk crates full of bud light platinum bottles, such a pretty blue color. And this is what I plan to do with them:

Right now all I have done is the labels off of about half. The best and easiest way to get the label off the platinum bottles is with a razorblade and just scraping small pieces at a time.

 

I’ll be back with more Wedding Workshops in 2 weeks!

 

Much Love

Wedding Wednesday

You may not know, if you don’t know me, but I got engaged on Christmas and I am in full wedding planning mode. We have actually been planning the wedding since last spring (you have to book stuff way way way in advance here, it’s crazy!)
I thought I would share with the blog-o-sphere what I am doing, where I found inspiration or tutorials and the true cost of things and doing them the DIY way.
Lets start with my wedding mood board: (click picture to see my Pinterest board)

*The red framed chalkboard became my inspiration for color scheme. Red, Black, Blue & White. And I mean Cherry-fire engine-candy apple red and cobalt blue.
*The alter I found via Pinterest is just what I had in mind. We wanted something that would block the view behind us, have personality, and be something we could DIY.
*I have never been one for flowers, so when trying to figure out what to do for flowers and budget… I came across the paper flower bouquets made from books and comic books… I fell in love with them instantly… bonus: WAY CHEAPER.
*I am personally partial to all things red so when I was trying to find some more blue to bring in I saw the beer bottles that had been glittered/spraypainted/ modge podged and thought about the new Bud Light Platinum bottles that are a really pretty cobalt blue. With the help of my Maid of Honor and one of her friends they drank enough (over several weekends) to get me almost 50 bottles! I will say tho that these are the HARDEST to get the labels off! More on that later
*I definitely want a photobooth. We are still working out logistics on having one setup since my camera doesn’t have a remote. My MoH will def be making the “Grab a Prop & Strike a Pose” sign, she has such pretty handwritting.
*I was looking for venues in our area and kept getting sticker shock for how expensive some places were and the restrictions they had on types of food and drinks. I was talking with my Mom one day and I was in the process of telling her about the prices and she asked where my friend Jexica was getting married (She deserves her own post for all the DIYs we did for her wedding, look for that in the future) and she was getting married outside at her grandpa’s pasture… So my mom just said.. “what about Memaw & Papaw’s?” It hadn’t even dawned on me that we could get married there and save literally thousands of dollars! They have 3 acres out in Lonoke that backs up to a nice big field (occasionally there will be horses or cows out there but rarely). Plenty of room for parking, 3 bathrooms for guests, a nice big deck to put the food on… This is the best idea my mom’s had for the wedding!
** You might notice a lot of I instead of We… in true manly fashion… Scott is letting me do what I want, within reason of course. But I still show him all my ideas and he just keeps saying “whatever you want baby” I will say tho that it was his idea for us to make our own cake… yes you read that right, we are making our own wedding cake. I’ll have a special post for all the tips I found online and our trial run we do to test the batter amounts and things like that.
On the next Wedding Wednesday: Paper flowers. Look for it in two weeks!