what I've been up to lately

I know I know I know...I haven't blogged in a while and, I apologize for that.  I recently started a new job and was working on a little project that I want to share with you today!

As I have told you in past posts I LOVE Lauren over at Piccadilly Pictures.  She did my wedding as well as the weddings of my friends and family.  Go on over to her page and check out some of her work...you'll probably fall in love too!

Well, this past weekend we met up in Orlando to do a wedding inspiration shoot.  I wanted to share with you the outcome of the shoot as well as write a short series on how to make some of the details I've included in the shoot.

top it all off

Yesterday I showed you how I frosted the cupcakes for Leslie's bridal shower.  Today, I'm going to spill my secret for the toppers! 

I'm not even kidding you...this is the simplest thing EVER and we got so many compliments on them yet, I didn't feel the least bit guilty when it came time to throw them away! 

They were super inexpensive, too! SCORE!  We made about thirty of them in under twenty minutes.  DOUBLE SCORE!  We also had some supplies left over to use for the picture clips.  TRIPLE SCORE!  The total price of it all...under $7!  HOME RUN!!

What you need:
Toothpicks
Stickers, embellishments, scraps of paper
Scotch tape

icing on the (cup)cake

For Leslie's (my best friend) bridal shower I knew exactly what kind of cake we would have...cupcakes!  Want to get on Leslie's good side?  Bring her sunflowers, cupcakes and her fiance!

I decided that rather than buy the cupcakes (they NEVER taste very good anyways) I would make them!  Thank you Betty Crocker for your assistance both with the cake and the frosting.  If you have the time, energy or want-to to make cupcakes from scratch then more power to you...this girl wasn't about to make that kind of mess!

After I made the cupcakes I decided to frost them a wee bit fancier than I normally would...and I made toppers that were pretty much the cutest stinkin' thing ever.

blossoms above

Last summer, for my wedding I decided that I wanted to use tissue paper flowers as decorations.  I watched a tutorial online and whipped up about 20 or so with the help of my sister and mom.  They were SO easy to make and were so stinkin' cute when hung up!  I loved these simply and SO inexpensive decorations.  When it came time to plan my best friends bridal shower, I knew jut the thing for a fun POP of color!

set the table

For smaller scale parties (baby showers, bridal showers, anniversary parties) I always want to do something special...I mean, these aren't your everyday birthday party.  Though, as you know my goal is always to spend as little as possible without it looking like I did so!

When my bridesmaids and my mom threw my bridal shower last summer they invited me to help decorate the night before.  Some may see this as odd...I LOVED it.  Sitting at home knowing that they were decorating something and that I couldn't be a part of it would have KILLED me!!  They came up with an idea that I think is just absolutely genus!  I used this same idea in the decorating for my best friends bridal shower...trust me, you're going to LOVE it....and love the price tag!

Clipped On

My best friend, Leslie has a favorite flower...SUNFLOWERS!  However, I could not find any sunflowers that I liked enough to use as centerpieces.  I was quite stumped and honestly...panicked!  I knew that I needed something in the center of the tables, I just had no idea what.

Last summer, my bridesmaids (my older sister and Leslie) bought some glasses from Ikea that we used as vases for the centerpieces at both mine and my older sisters bridal showers.  I wanted to use the glasses but, once again could not find flowers to suit my fancy.  Then, about two days before the shower I had an idea...a great one, too!

I ran down to JoAnn's and picked up a package of 20 small dowel rods (wooden sticks) and a package of 24 mini clothes pins.  I stopped at Wal-Mart and got some super glue and black spray paint.  The total cost of my materials was under $10 and the outcome was quite dandy!

Showers of love

Finally!!  I can share with you all of the projects I've been working on for my best friends bridal shower!  My BFF is getting married in June and we threw her a sweet little shower today.  I just wanted to share with you some pictures from the party and give you a sneak peek at the projects I will be posting soon!  Enjoy!

a hair(y) situation

A childhood friend contacted me through Facebook and inquired about me creating some wedding hair accessories for her big day.  Of course, I was like "heck yes!"  She showed me a picture of one she had seen in David's Bridal for a whopping $50 a pop! What?  It absolutely irks me that businesses will hike up prices when they add 'wedding' or 'bridal' to a title knowing that people will pay the completely outrageous price because the sales people will sell them the line 'it's your special day, you deserve it'...you DO deserve it, but at a fair price!  Whew...got that little rant session over with...now onto the post!

I took one look at the picture and knew that it would be a piece of cake...wedding cake, maybe?!  Keep reading to see how I did it!

a little naughty but totally nice

Got your attention with that title didn't I?  Today, I wanted to share with you the cutest cookies I have ever made in my whole entire life.  I made them for a bridal lingerie shower and they were a HUGE hit.  A friend of mine had made these for her sisters bridal shower and posted the pics on Facebook, I saw them, loved them and recreated them myself!

You will need:
Small heart cookie cutter
Sugar cookie dough
Royal Icing (tinted to your desired colors)
Icing bag
Small Icing Tips and Cuplets (available at local craft stores, all I got for this cookie costs me less than $5)

Roll out the cookie dough.  Use the cookie cutter to make hearts, you will need two for each guests.  Cut the pointy tip off of half of the hearts with the rounded edge of the cookie cutter.  You will need one full heart and one cut heart for each guest.  Bake the cookies as directed and let cool.  Ice the cookies using the royal icing in an icing bag.  It is vitally important that you use only royal icing, it is the kind that hardens so that you can stack them.  For my sister I used teal and black tinted royal icing.  The consistency of  the royal icing really plays a part in how easy it is to pipe on.  The thicker it is, the harder it is to work with though, the thinner it is the quicker it is to spread.  I recommend having some extra cookies on hand to practice with!  Make different types of underwear on the cookies, give them each a unique look.
Once your icing has dried store the cookies in an air tight container.  Since we were using these as favors we got clear treat bags to put the cookies in.  We simply folded the bag over and taped it shut because we were in a time crunch and had no ribbon to tie it with!  I also recommend using a small piece of cardboard or card stock even to put behind the cookies in the bag to keep them in place and make them a little bit more sturdy.
Like I said, these were a huge success at the lingerie shower and so yummy too!  Now, this was not the easiest craft I have ever done but it sure is one of my favorite!  Get inspired, create something spectacular!

guest book not guest blahh

When it came time for me to think about a guest book for my wedding I had some serious opinions.  I did not want the typical guest book in which guests write their name on a line.  Then, you put the book away and never even look at it again.  Being the thrifty (a.k.a. cheap) gal I am, I needed something that would at least serve some kind of purpose.  Well, we had two sets of engagement pictures taken.  One by our friend here in Jacksonville, Jacob at One Bright Spot Photography.  They were awesome.  We recreated our first date, Moon River (local pizza temple...heavenly pizza), Starbucks (as mentioned, an addiction to my husband) and a nearby park.  We were SO impressed with these pics and wanted everyone to see them.  We also had engagement pictures taken by a friend of mine, Lauren Mason at Piccadilly Pictures based out of Orlando.  We found an 'airplane graveyard' in St. Augustine and then took some shots while walking around St. Augustine.  You can check out some of our pics on my snaps page.
We had a lot of pics and wanted to share as many as we could.  We displayed some of the pictures from both photographers at our Wedding and my Bridal Shower, but really wanted people to see ALL of them.  Plus, I wanted to be able to display the pictures in our house.
Then it hit me...a guest book that doubles as a photo album!  I went to my go-to photo project site...Shutterfly!  I made two 5x7 soft cover photo books, one for each set of photographs.  I used the layouts with a lot of space designated for text, I just didn't type any text in.  I was able to get the book in our wedding colors, brown and orange and I love it so much more than ANYTHING I saw in store.  My favorite thing about my guest books is that I do still use them.  They make great coffee table books.

unify your ideas

When planning our wedding we were once again outraged at the price of stuff.  Unity ceremony supplies were out of control expensive!  I knew that I could make something just as good for much cheaper (and, I did!).  We weren't doing your typical sand ceremony...no, my husband wanted to do gumballs!  So, we did gumballs!
My two smaller vases, I bought at Wal Mart in the floral isle for a buck each!  I then used double sided tape to attach a brown ribbon around it and covered he seam with an orange flower (that I got at Wal Mart).  I loved these small ones, they are so fun!  For the larger vase I bought a glass decanter, also from Wal Mart for $3 I believe.  I also used double sided tape to attach a ribbon to the neck and used some different flowers to jazz it up!  I loved how these looked when finished.  They are actually what I use to decorate my 'crate' idea shelves!

pillows and baskets, oh my!

My DIY attitude extended well into my wedding planning.  I started looking for ring bearer and flower girl baskets and was absolutely shocked at the outrageous prices I saw.  They were wanting twenty bucks for just a basket...on clearance!  YEAH RIGHT!  So needless to say, I decided to make my own!
First I went to my local Goodwill.  There I bought a small basket and a small pillow for a total of $2.  The basket was dusty and not so attractive, the pillow was some needlepoint teddy bear on a ship or something...I'm not so sure.  I was only using the stuffing from the pillow, so I got one that was very firm.
Next I hit up the Wal Mart fabric department.  I chose a simple fabric in a light orange and some ivory tulle.  I chose a light orange, because my at the time fiance and I liked how it looked better layered with the ivory tulle.  I suggest if you are buying fabric from different stores, or you are combining more than one fabric, try them out together.  Surprises aren't always a good thing one something like this!
I bought a half a yard of both fabrics, because I got them from Wal Mart (not a specialty store) I only paid about $4 for all the fabric.  While there, I picked up a spool of brown ribbon for about $1.
When at home, I unfolded the orange fabric and put the basket on it.  I cut a square out of the fabric big enough to fold up around the base of the basket and still have a decent amount inside the basket.  I used a hot glue gun to glue the fabric in place starting from inside the basket.  I then cut a long rectangular piece of orange fabric to cover the handle with.  I also used the glue gun to keep the fabric in place.  I repeated these steps with the tulle.  I then decorated with the brown ribbon.
I wasn't quite satisfied with the result.  I felt that it needed a little something more.  I decided flowers.  I found some flowers that I liked and weren't too big or too bright or too ugly at A.C. Moore.  The flower I chose had a good few blooms on a stem, so I only needed one.  I got the flowers when the store was having a sale, they cost me about $3.  I removed the blooms from the stem and placed them on the basket in a few different places before I decided on the arrangment I liked best.  Now, the basket was done, onto the pillow. 
This one, I was confident about.  I cut two orange squares of the same size, slightly bigger than the size I wanted the finished pillow to be.  I cut one square of tulle slightly larger than the size of one of the orange squares.  I made small folds in the ivory and pinned it to one of the orange squares so that they seemed to be the same size. (I twisted the tulle from the middle to give it texture, this is why I need the extra material).  I then layered the pieces of fabric with the tulle between the two orange pieces. (Remember, you sew the pillow inside out so that the stitching does not show).  I pinned the pieces together so that it would be easier for me on my sewing machine to keep the layers together.  If you do not have a sewing machine, you can always simply stitch it by hand.  The pillow is only used for a short while and does not necessarily need to stand up to the tests of a washing machine or anything!!
Sew three sides of the pillow completely shut, on the last side leave about three or four inches unsewn (preferably in the middle of the side rather than close to a corner of the pillow).  Turn the pillow right side out and stuff the new pillow with the stuffing from the thrift store pillow.  Stuff it as firm or as soft as you would like.
For my finishing touch, I twisted the tulle from the center of the pillow.  I then used a dab of hot glue to keep the twist in place.  I did a sot of tufting on my pillow by sewing a small button on the back of the pillow, pulling the thread ALL the way through the pillow.  I then used the brown ribbon on the pillow and the rest of the flowers I bought to decorate the pillow.  This project took me about an hour and a half.  I did it over 2 days, though. 
Hope this helps someone out, or at least inspires someone to create something original for their special day!

nifty little sacks, i think

Yesterday I shared my delicious candy buffet experience with all who care, and then realized I didn't even tell you what the guests took their goodies home in!  Crazy, I know!  I really wanted a handmade look to as much as my decorations as possible, we were going for a vintage, garden feel.  I knew I needed something for the guests to fill up on their own that would also let them know this was their favor.  I had the idea for brown paper bags.  Now, not the normal lunch size ones...I didn't buy THAT much candy!  I looked online and searched for prices and calculated shipping then decided to go see what my local Sam's Club had to offer.  Perfect, they had little bags, a size 2 I believe they were in brown Kraft paper (the alternative was white and I didn't want that).  There were 500 in the package for less than $5.  Honestly, I'm not sure what I will use the left over 325 bags for, but I am sure I will come up with something wonderful, just give me time!  This price was by far, the best I has found and the shipping was free (because I bought them in store).
I of course, had to add a wee bit of style to these little baggies.  I went on search for the most perfect rubber stamp I could find.  I set out to find one that said 'Thanks'.  No such luck, I found a lot of different stamps but they were so expensive and never seemed to go on sale.  Then, something all together beautiful caught my eye while standing in my local A.C. Moore, clear stamps.  I thought 'huh? wonder how these work', then read the back.  All I needed was one acrylic block (available for purchase at under $5) and these little clear letters, I could place them anyway I like and make any word I like them stamp on, reposition and stamp again!  I fell in love.  I bought a set of alphabet as well as a pack of different flowers.  Now, the packages of stamps were $10 each, but I figured it a good deal since I could make practically countless combinations with them unlike the one design I could make with a $8 rubber stamp.  Oh yeah, then I bought an orange and a brown ink pad.
I took my new found goodies home and dive right into crafting.  I arranged three different flowers into a pattern I decided was adequate and arranged my letters into my word 'thanks'.  I then began to stamp away.   The ink began to run out, I just added a tiny bit of water to it and kept on trucking!  I made 175 bags and it took a few days (not WHOLE days, I did few hour sessions while watching t.v.).  I stamped in stages, the flowers first then the word then flowers again, it was easier than switching between ink pads and stamps.  I was (and still am) quite happy with the end result.   I wound up placing a bag with one rock candy and a bookmark in it at each place setting to add to the table decor.

a thrifty sugar addicts dream

Photo by Lauren Mason, Piccadilly pictur

I have been married for little over two months, my older sister will be getting married in less than two weeks and my best friend is getting married in less than a year (on my on year anniversary, actually).  So, you will have to excuse me if I have wedding on the brain!  Not to mention I have a grand dream of becoming a wedding planner (see Simply Unique Weddings and Events).  The project I thought I would share is a candy buffet, which was in full swing at my wedding.  My sweet tooth was completely fulfilled and the budget was kept to...what a beautiful accomplishment!  First, I  decided on the candy I HAD to have.  I knew this would probably be the pricey part, so I braced myself.  My wedding colors were orange and brown and the candies I wanted so dearly were rock candy, circus peanuts, orange slices and tootsie rolls.  Now, I had more than that, those were just the ones that I couldn't budge on...my sweet tooth would not allow it.In the photos I found online I saw gorgeous apothecary jars (the ones that look like they used in old-time pharmacy stores) with a not as pretty price tag.  The jars were upwards of $30 a pop!  Uh, no thanks! Don't get me wrong, they were so pretty and shiny and it was hard to be so cruel to such pretty decor but, I stood my ground.  I knew I wanted glass containers so that the colors of the candy would show through, a light bulb went off (well, technically turned on...but anyways) glass vases!  My husband and I are quite the lovers of a good thrift store, we visit them often.  I began searching at every one I came to for the perfect vases and canisters.  I looked for vases with a wide opening, that didn't taper in very much so that my guest could dig into the delicious treats!  SCORE!  I actually found more jars than I had candy ideas so duh, I added more candies to the mix!  I even had my mom searching for glass containers.  All in all, we spent a total of about $40 on the jars for the candy buffet! What? That's right...40 big ones for ALL of them.  As you can tell in the picture, we added some pizazz with different size ribbons (held on with double sided Scotch tape) and labels printed on card stock.

Now, the canisters were cheap so that we could spend more on the candy...and boy did we ever.  We still shopped around and bought in bulk to save some money though, we spent about $200 on the candy.  I had about 120 guests at my wedding and there was candy left over (that was gone soon after).  I now use vases in my home as decoration and also have used them to decorate for my sisters bridal shower.  Her wedding has a beach theme so I put some sand in the vast with shells, sea grass and a starfish as decoration on the cake table.  You can see pictures of that project at www.wix.com/mrspeluyera/unique-wed, I think they turned out great, but I am a wee bit partial!