Category Archives: how to

wedding wednesday: DIY moss stone place cards

Why yes, I do still have several wedding DIY’s that I’ve seemed to let slip through the cracks. We received so many compliments on our moss stone place cards, and they were so easy to make and super duper inexpensive so I just had to share them with you. I wanted something special and unique for our guests to find at their seat that still worked with our ceramic animals sitting in paper flower wreath centerpieces. Moss stones are my favorite filler when adding the finishing touches to a space, and I liked the whole astroturf-y garden vibe they brought to the table (literally). So I knew they were just the ticket! I picked up 25 bags each for $1 (hoorah!) at Dollar Tree. The bags each had an arrangement of five different sized stones which I really liked, it seemed more natural to me. And I had grabbed a few extra in case some of the stones were damaged (they are just styrofoam you know) and in case I messed up. Better safe than sorry right?

After sorting through my stones and choosing all of the best candidates I used these Avery business cards to print out each of our guests names on a card. I used a simple and modern typeface (Futura Std) because I liked how clean each of them looked. After printing them out I arranged them by table (because I’m OCD like that).

Using an xacto knife I cut a slit along the longest side of the top of each stone. Because they were just styrofoam I carefully spread apart the opening to place the card inside and then let go. With these stones the styrofoam was tight enough to hold each card in place so I didn’t need any glue, but you might need some if you use another type of stone.

Afterward I organized each grouping of stones (by table) and placed them in clear boxes with the table’s animal labeled on it so that my House Party would know where each grouping went. Easy peasy!

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Aren’t they so cute? We still have ours sitting on a shelf, and several of our guests ended up taking theirs home which is exactly what we had hoped for. In the end each place card cost us about .35 cents. I’d say that’s a win!

quick and easy blanket for your cherub

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This tutorial is kind of dumb. Because if you’ve ever made a baby blanket or made a stadium blanket for a football game, you know how to make this already and in that case can just go ahead and watch this video instead. But for those of you that didn’t live through Friday Night Lights (or know any babies requiring blankets) you should stay tuned.

I wanted Geoffrey to be comfortable in his crate (while we potty train) and since he’s part Chihuahua (and Chihuahuas LOVE being covered up) I decided to make him a little blanket. That way it would be soft and snuggly, and smell like him and make him feel at home. I dragged Derek to Joann’s (wife of the year right?) and together we decided on a fun fleece print that suited his personality. So naturally we went with bicycles. So that he could be just like his daddy.

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I bought 1 yard of the fleece which would create about a 2′x2′ blanket for him, so if you have a bigger dog buy more fleece (it’s fleece math really).

I folded my yard in half to create a nice square and then trimmed the edges a bit to keep everything straight. Then I made 2″ cuts (about 1/2″ apart) all around the perimeter of the folded piece, which creates a nice little fringe.

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Then with my cherub snoozing on my lap, and Glee on the tube (go ahead judge me) I tied the two layers together with each piece of fringe. as in the two pieces that are paired up together get tied. All around the perimeter. This part is kind of annoying especially if you have a large blanket, but it’s kind of mind numbing and nice at the same time.

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And that’s it! No sewing required and you have a nice snuggly little blanket for your fur baby (or real baby) in about 30 minutes!

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Clearly he’s a fan. What’s great about this is that you can also throw it in the wash whenever you want (cold water, tumble dry low) and it won’t come apart. See? I told you it was kind of dumb. But hey! It was quick and easy, which I love.

how to arrange grocery store flowers

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I’m in between projects right now and I can’t wait to share my most recent one with you guys, but for now I’ll share a little floral arranging trick. Last night Derek surprised me with a beautiful bundle of flowers he picked up on the way home from class. They were all different types, heights, and sizes so I did what I usually do with flower bunches and dissected it. I wanted to make a shorter, fuller arrangement so I grabbed a low crystal vase and cut all of my flowers down to about 6-8″. An easy way to keep your flowers in place in a shorter vase is to made a grid pattern with some scotch tape like so..

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That way you can place each of your stems wherever you want without having to worry about them toppling over.

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In the end this took me about 10 minutes, and I used my remaining flowers to make an ombre arrangement that for some reason I forgot to photograph. It will probably pop up on instagram later today. Yay spring!

wedding wednesday: DIY cake topper

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I have to admit, our cake topper was pretty adorable. We had a hard time deciding what to use for our cake topper. I originally wanted to use these, but Derek thought they were kind of boring.. and he doesn’t have a mustache. Then I found these while shopping with my mom, which would commemorate our love of polar bears, but I just couldn’t justify the price. Our dear friend Fresh even bought us this, but Legos are really more of a Derek thing so I felt kind of left out. While looking around the house for ideas I was looking at our Vitra collection of miniature designer furniture that we had been collecting over the years. When a George Nelson exhibit came to the McNay we had picked up a few of the Eames Elephant stool miniatures in the gift shop for about $15. So when I saw our little collection just sitting on the shelf, I knew they were perfect.

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I wanted to dress them up a little so I cut a small piece of tulle into an oval to make a tiny veil for the girl elephant.

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I folded it in half (hamburger style) and then acordian folded the folded side to create a nice bunching affect. Just like a real veil!

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Then with a needle and some white thread I quickly stitched a few simple loops to keep everything in place.

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Then using some Tacky glue, I dabbed a bit on the sewn part of the veil and attached it to the top of the elephants head so that it would be hidden by the fluffier part of the veil like so..

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I kind of love how ridiculously over-exaggerated it turned out. That elephant is getting married. Period.

Then for the boy elephant I cut some black construction paper into a 1″ x 6″ strip to form the top hat.

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I rolled it around a sharpie to create about a 1/2″ diameter opening on each end, and glued it in place.

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Then for the bottom part of the top hat I used my 1″ circle punch to form the brim of the hat, and glued it to one end of my rolled paper.

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And for the top part of the hat I measured a 1/2″ diameter circle and free handed it (as you can see). Then I glued it to the opposite end of the rolled piece.

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The glue looked a little sloppy at first, but once it dried I just filled it in with a black sharpie, and no one was the wiser.

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Things were looking pretty cute!

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I thought just having the elephants alone would be a little too simple (and kind of small) so I wanted to build a little party above them. I used a piece of gold glitter scrapbooking paper I picked up at Hobby Lobby for .50cents and cut small triangles for the bunting.

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I used two wooden skewers (found at the grocery store for about $1 per bag) and spaced them out to start playing with the arrangement of my triangles.

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Then using some black and white striped bakers twine I glued one side of each triangle to the twine (with about 1 foot of twine left on each end (before and after the triangles) so that I would have enough to tie to my skewers.

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Once one side of the twine had all of it’s triangles in place I added another set of triangles onto the backs of the already glued ones. This way my bunting wouldn’t have a front or back, it would be glittery on both sides.

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I placed a stack of books over my triangles and let them dry overnight.

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Once they were dry, I wrapped my leftover twine ends around each side of the skewers and tied them off. I packed them up in a cute little box with my elephant couple, and sent them off to my cake baker to place on the finished cake the morning of our wedding.

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Not sure why the bow is off center, but what can you do?

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I just love how they turned out. So cute! They had such a special meaning to us (being design nerds who drool over Charles and Ray Eames) and they are definitely unique :)

why yes, that was a different sheepskin stool

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As some of you pointed out after yesterday’s bathroom reveal, my Mongolian sheepskin stool of yore has had a little facelift.

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I wasn’t loving the shape of my former side table turned stool, so when I found this guy for a measly $15 at the thrift shop down the road (literally) it was meant to be. With all of the brassy gold accents I was adding to the bathroom, I knew this guy would definitely pull everything together. The frame is a metal bamboo, and I just love the little backrest. So cute!

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Let’s just take a little closer look at this fabric. WHAT. IS. HAPPENING.

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Viva la San Antonio?

Clearly I had bigger and better plans for this stool’s potential that didn’t involve cacti, sombreros, or bare shoulders. So I flipped it over to see how complicated it was going to be to remove it and reattach it, and it was a piece of cake. The bottom of the seat was only attached with three small metal brackets which I easily unscrewed and then the seat was ready for a little flip.

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I left the existing fabric on the seat and simply stapled four layer of batting over it to add a little cush.

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Then using this same method, I wrapped the batting-covered seat with my faux sheepskin pillow cover I snagged at Target for $14.

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And voila! A whole new chair.

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I definitely prefer the look of this frame paired with the faux sheepskin. It has a little bit more of an elegant look, and I can’t get over how perfectly it matches the new vanity hardware.