DIY: Invitations

... and burlap & lace mason jar candle holders...

So this last weekend, I had a few of my bridesmaids over to help assembly our invitations. After many months of changing my invitation designs and ideas, I finally forced myself to have them printed so that we could get to work. I already posted about printing the outer envelopes and addressing them, and I had finished those a while back, so this weekend we worked on the pocket-fold portion.

One of my bridesmaids, Melanie, is particularly scrapbook savvy and she deserves full credit for setting up the assembly line and letting us know how inefficient our methods were. I'm not going to lie, I just sat back and drank beer (and fiddled with some wire on a mason jar for about 2 hours... but I'm not going to get into that).

 

While the invite girls were slicing and glue-ing and stuffing away, I sat up another bridesmaid working on spicing up some mason jars that I am going to use as candle holders. I bought a few yards of some burlap ribbon, as well as some cotton lace and she used a bit of hot glue to attach the ribbon to a few spare jars I had lying around!

Burlap & lace mason jar candle holder

So here are the final invites, complete with reception card, RSVP cards and envelopes and our registry slips... I also tied the pocket-folds off with some cute string .

 

 

And finally a summary of how much these darned things cost me...

75 Recycled Envelopes & 75 Recycled Pocket-fold invites = $73
(including tax, shipping and handling, from paperandmore.com)

Pack of floral scrapbook paper used as backing = $10
(on sale at Micheal's)

2 packs of gray/white string ($99/ea) = $2
(with coupon at Micheal's)

1 can spray adhesive = $7
(with coupon at Micheal's)

Having a friend in the printing business = Priceless
(but if I had to estimate home printing, I would say that costs of ink and the white card stock would come out around $30-$40)

Total costs = $93... or let's just round it up to $100

So, at 75 invitations (not including postage) I only spent about $1.30 per invitation!

NOT BAD!!

Insanity: Weeks 7, 8, 9?

So I haven't really been keeping up with posting my progress lately so I thought I would do an update. Technically I should be on my final week of Insanity but I'm not really going to call it that because Week 7 was a lazy week for me... I only like 3 days of workouts and I don't really want to count it. As of right now, I am doing either 4 or 5 days of the workouts and although many Insanity graduates would say that I'm not doing it 100%, it's working for me and I plan to continue with it after the 2 month mark.

Before Month 2 started, I was seriously worried about how hard it would be. Yes, it is very very hard but month 1 definitely does a good job in preparing you for the hardest workouts of your life (or mine, at least). Nowadays, I struggle the most with starting the workout, now that I don't have my workout partner, my motivation levels are lower and every single day their is a min battle in my head to get myself to workout. But once I start, I feel really good and I get better and better every day at doing the exercises correctly and efficiently.

Compared to Day 1, I feel so much stronger, especially in my upper body and core (the areas that were the weakest to begin with). I can hold a squat lower and for so much longer that before. I can now to a REAL push up, in fact I can almost do 10 in a row... no more girl push ups! (This has also allowed me to do more of the push-up based exercises accurately)

Looking in the mirror, my stomach feels and looks tighter and my #1 favorite thing is that my love handles are still shrinking! Overall though, I feel like the changes in my strength and endurance is still the nest outcome of this whole thing...

Moving forward, like I said, I plan to do a few more weeks of just Insanity and then start going back to the gym, and working with weight again. I also think I am going to mix in a few days of "Jillian Michael's 6 week 6 pack" for variety. Hopefully a combination of all of that will help break up the monotony of Insanity and encourage me to workout 5 days a week, every week!

As for my the whole "shedding for the wedding" aspect, my first dress fitting is on July 30th, so I basically have 7 weeks to loose a little more tummy... I plan on toning my arms a bit up too, but my strapless dress fitting wont affect that!

DIY: Wooden Road Sign (Part 1)

So after building the planters for my centerpieces we still had quite a bit of the old fence wood left over so I decided to use it for an old style road sign... inspiration below...

 

 

Here is my "mock up" I drew on CAD... I originally wanted to paint the wooden arrows with chalkboard paint so that the "signage" could be erased and changed, but after some common sense thinking, I realized the texture of the wood would most likely be horrible for chalkboard base. (DUH!)

 

I ended up changing most of the arrows "signage" as well...

 

My dad cut the angles into the wood for me and we will eventually nail them to a post and cement the post into a galvanized bucket, so that I can place it anywhere at the wedding venue. (no need to worry about finding a spot to hammer the post into the ground) We also cut a few more board for a few other wooden signs I needed...

pieces for the arrow sign, our "directions" sign and a sign for the guestbook table

For the most part, I free handed the  words with plain 'ole white acrylic paint... I did print out the cursive words so that I could refer to the font that I am using throughout the wedding (and on our invitations)...

 

Overall, the arrows themselves turned out cuter than I expected so I am really excited to see what it all looks like standing up on the post!

 

These pieces will be on a shorter post up at the top of the road, near the entrance to the winery to let people know where to turn in...

It's hard to tell, but this one is about 12" by 6" and will sit at the table where our guestbook will be, maybe leaning up against a flower arrangement or something...

DIY: Adding Succulents to the Centerpieces

Finally, I have another wedding project to post about... this weekend we decided to buy the succulents to fill our centerpieces with! I wanted to be able to let the plants fill out a bit and what better time to get them started than in a week that started with rain and is supposed to end in 106 degree weather! So we made our way down to Lowes Garden Center and lo and behold they had a special section just for succulents and cacti and had mini four packs of a HUGE variety of different types of succulents! I spend about 30 minutes picking out a variety of succulents in the right colors… I tried to vary them by not only color, but height as well. In the end we left with 15 four packs (enough to do 4 plants in 15 planters) and a big bag of cactus soil.

At $3.98 a four pack, plus a $4 bag of soil, the bill came out under $70. At about $4 a centerpiece (considering the planters we built were basically free) I consider this DIY project a success! They may not be the cheapest, but we plan to reuse/replant ever single succulent in our backyard after the wedding… and may I point out that succulents will eternally pay you back because you can always start a new plant off of a single leaf of an existing plant… in fact, we have 4 teeny tiny babies growing right now!

So here is the outcome… and keep in mind that they will fill out a lot more by September. (Also, before the wedding, I intend to use Spanish moss to fill in between the plants to hide the dirt) Sidenote: this morning, when I left the house for work I swear it looked like the plants had already had a growth spurt!

Insanity: Week 6

So week 6 wasn't exactly the "kickstart" of a week that I hoped it had been. We missed a few days but mostly I feel like our diet skills have been slacking (and I contribute this to the warm weather and our desire need for cold beer). We missed Tuesday to help my mom move, so I don't feel guilty about that... and Saturday James went to a dirt bike race while I stayed home, did a ton house work, cleaned out our garage (a grueling, 3 hour task) and walked my dogs... so, yeah, I didn't do Insanity, but I definitely didn't slack on burning the calories! And, I was super proud of myself on Wednesday and Friday when my workout partner wasn't around and I still did my workout for the day... it was really hard to get up off the couch and do it alone! So even though it wasn't a picture perfect Insanity workout week, I feel good about it and I look forward to this week.

As for our diet, we have still been pretty good during the work week. Our weakest points are still the weekends and doing the whole "5 small meals" thing. And although James has made his peace with the fact that alcohol sometimes accounts for half of his calories in a day, I'm still struggling... it's muscles vs. Miller 64.

James has lost almost 12 pounds (I think) and looks much thinner overall but he is still hating the workouts, I don't think he will ever get used to them. I, personally, haven't lost any weight but have still noticed many positive physical changes, specifically a major shrinkage in my love handles and the formation of teeny tiny abs trying to come to the surface (I just need to burn more stomach fat to let them show through more!)

Until next week, we are just trying to continue truckin' along... month 2 is rough, but we are surviving!

Insanity: Week 4 and 5 "Recovery Week"

Okay, so a double update on my Insanity journey! I didn't do an update after week 4 because it was basically just a repeat of week 3... as usual we were just trying to keep up! "Recovery" week consisted of a lighter workout that was supposed to be easy on us after a month of craziness, but let me tell you, Insanity's idea of a "light" workout is still harder than most other workout videos. So... the our first failure in this whole experience, we only ended up doing about half the days of the recovery week. I had started having severe knee pain toward the end of week 4 and that was definitely slowing me down, then, about half way through recovery week I slept weird on my neck and couldn't move my head at all for like 2 days straight. This all happened, conveniently, about the same time where James and I decided to take recovery week a little more literally... as in, we didn't workout for like 4 days.

I, personally, needed the break though... my body (especially my legs) just felt racked. At first I felt like a lame ass not finishing out the week, but now, in the aftermath of the break, I am glad we did it. My knees feel completely recovered and yesterday (our first day of month 2!) I had a lot of energy, contrary to how I thought I would feel.

Going into month 2, there are a lot of changes. I am really focusing on controlling my moves and landing softly... I can already see a difference in the stress on the knees just by paying more attention to them. I have also added glucosamine and zinc to my daily pill poppin' and I'm looking forward to seeing if the glucosamine helps with my joint pain.

Like I said, the first day of month 2 is in the books... look for the update on cuh-raaaazy month 2 in about a week!

A Thanks to the Swedish (IKEA)

So yesterday we made out with a fat haul from IKEA!

I have been searching the web for the best prices on a ton of items for the wedding and so far, I haven't had any luck with any one store or site in particular. Lunabazaar.com has great deals on paper lanterns and Quickcandles.com definitely has the cheapest votive candles... but no one place has been able to satisfy all of my needs. I mean, shopping online is the way to go if you want to save money but the more places you shop from the more shipping fees you are paying! So anyway, I stumbled upon an IKEA ad somewhere and saw these adorable galvanized looking lanterns... then, after perusing the website for a while, I realized they had a TON of stuff I could use (and we all know IKEA is super affordable)!

So I made the trek to IKEA since they don't really ship small items online and I took the fiance with me (IKEA can be intimidating alone and for some reason, his manly sense of direction helps me out... I would literally get lost in that place without him). And here's the haul...

Candles, the large ones were $2 each, the small were $4 for 4, it's hard to tell in this picture, but the small ones aren't votives, they are larger... and the larger ones are for inside the lanterns...

Lanterns. We got 2 at $8 each (they are about a foot tall) Even Marshalls and Ross didn't have lanterns this cheap, plus these ones are way cuter...I'm not 100% sure what we will be using these for but I am thinking some sort of arrangement on the guest book table and maybe the dessert table? How cute will these look with some moss around the bottom of the candle?

Napkins. I just had to snag these, 100 jumbo napkins for $2! I think these will be great for the bar and the dessert table!

A 3 tier serving tray for the dessert table...cupcakes maybe? This was $20 and the best part is that I will totally be using this puppy all of the time (not just for my wedding)

Just one more cake stand, I had to get this one because it was really short (the stand is only about 2 inches high) I needed some varying heights in my cake stands... this came in at $15

A few more flat serving platters for the dessert table, the large white one was about $5 I think and the small one was $3...

These cute little serving dishes were about $2 each, I thought they would be perfect for some after dinner mints or something?? Who knows... but they were $2 so I swiped 'em!

 So my total IKEA haul was somewhere around $90 which isn't bad for how much stuff we got! But I want to take this opportunity to also show off a few other sweet finds that have found their way into my wedding pile...

So... a tiny back story... I found these really awesome women at the bridal show I went to and basically what they do for a living is rent out adorable vintage wedding decor to brides. They have everything from furniture to mason jars that you can rent. Well I was super excited to use them, but after I got a quote, their prices just weren't in my budget. But then I realized that a lot of their stuff, although more valuable because of the "vintage" aspect , I could probably just buy (and own) for the same price (or cheaper)... so here are a few of my finds...

Lace tablecloths, they don't look so cute in the packaging, but they are pretty and they are a pretty good size. The vintage rental place charged $15 each to rent, I found all 3 for under $28

Found this 17 gallon galvanized bucket for $23, and although the rental gals only charged $20, once again, I get to keep this puppy... I am going to use this as an ice chest for water bottles during our ceremony... and THEN for beers at our many future barbeque's!

I needed a few larger chalkboard for a few of my ideas and although the rental gals' chalkboards were cuter (more intricate frames), these were way cheaper. I got the 23"x35" for $19.99 and the 17"x23" for $11.99, the vintage rental place wanted $30 each for smaller boards... so I saved almost $30 and I can keep these chalkboards for some non-wedding projects I have in mind!

So that is it for now, I just had to share my good deals, because for the most part when it comes to weddings, even a good deal is ridiculously expensive... and plus, it's nice when I can spend my money knowing that I am buying something that I can use for a long time and not just one day!