Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Wedding Wednesday!! : Bridesmaid Box

I have officially been engaged for for over four and a half months and, up until last week, I hadn't OFFICIALLY asked all my bridesmaids to be in my wedding yet!

I knew I wanted to do something cute and the most popular/cute thing that I've come across is the growingly popular bridesmaid box/proposal of sorts. After taking a look at a handful via pinterest and instagram, I put together one of my own for my four girls.
Check out this adorable DIY Bridesmaid Proposal!

Check out this adorable DIY Bridesmaid Proposal!
First, I had planned on going to my local craft store and buying and painting cigar boxes but when I saw these cute boxes at Target (they were a Valentine's day item) (similar), I thought they were too cute to pass up!

Check out this adorable DIY Bridesmaid Proposal!
1. I stopped at my local home improvement store and picked up some paint swatches to show the girls the color scheme that I have dreamed up in my head. A pretty mix of peaches, mints and golds. (the gold glitter clothespin holding them all together was a Michael's find, their bargain bins are always a great place to find all sorts of goodies! Similar here and here.)
Check out this adorable DIY Bridesmaid Proposal!
2. At Michael's I also picked up a fun ribbon/twine/yarn collection, all in the family of colors of the wedding. I used them to tie up the adorable tote bags that I got them all. (See Below)
Check out this adorable DIY Bridesmaid Proposal!

Check out this adorable DIY Bridesmaid Proposal!
3. I got my craft on creating these gold glitter mini champagne bottles (and a mini Martinelli's for my pregnant bridesmaid-to-be). You can find a tutorial on how I did it here
Check out this adorable DIY Bridesmaid Proposal!
4. I put together a little informational packet for the girls explaining "Our Day", "Your Role", "My Girls" and "Your Dresses". I bound them all together with a little gold sparkle tape (Michael's). 
Check out this adorable DIY Bridesmaid Proposal!
5. I knew as soon as I saw these cards on etsy that I would be buying them. They were adorable and in JUST the right colors! (Both the tags and stickers used for the names were found in the Target dollar spot.) 
Check out this adorable DIY Bridesmaid Proposal!
 6. Because it's me, I had to include an emergency sewing kit (similar) in the box. (They were another Michael's bargain spot find.)
Check out this adorable DIY Bridesmaid Proposal!
 7. For jotting down any wedding related notes or doodles, I included a notepad (Target dollar spot) and gold glitter pencil (Michael's bargain section). 
Check out this adorable DIY Bridesmaid Proposal!
8. Even though I already gave them the notepads, these gold foil notebooks (that were also a Target dollar spot find) (similar) were a must-have!

I had so much fun putting these boxes together for my girls! I plan on taking every chance that I have to do something fun and craft every step of the way for this wedding and clearly, asking my girls was no exception!

With that said, let me introduce you to my bridesmaids!
Danica
Check out this adorable DIY Bridesmaid Proposal!
 Matron of Honor (but we don’t like the word matron so let’s just stick with maid). I’ve known Danica since middle school. We were always friends but I’d say we really got the closest after college when we moved in together. We’ve been through a lot together; the good, the bad and the ugly and I couldn’t imagine this special day without her. Danica has been a classmate, a co-worker, a roommate, a friend, but most of all, I consider her a sister.  
Stacy  
Check out this adorable DIY Bridesmaid Proposal!
Stacy is my oldest friend. I met her even before I could read and write. After switching schools, we lost touch until reconnecting again in middle school and it was like no time had passed. I still remember all those sleepovers where we would plan our future lives and say we were going to have daughters at the same time and they were going to be best friends. Well, she’s on boy number two, so there’s still a chance! Haha. Stacy is the most level headed person I know and I’m so lucky that I’ve gotten to call her my friend, even after all these years.
Stefana
Check out this adorable DIY Bridesmaid Proposal!
 It’s no secret, when I first met Stefana while working at Red Robin, I didn’t like her. But it’s only because she was so pretty and all the boys were drooling over her so really, my dislike for her was a compliment! Haha. In the almost ten years since knowing Stefana she has become one of my best friends. Stefana is a caring, nurturing, motherly type, but also the biggest kid I’ve ever known. I admire her wackiness and every so often, it rubs off on me.  
Haley
Check out this adorable DIY Bridesmaid Proposal!
Haley is my sorority sister and travel companion. She kept me sane during long recruitment meetings and the ever daunting Greek Week. We spent time as recruitment counselors together and even traveled down under! Haley and I always seem to be on the same wavelength with the same twisted sense of humor and love of nostalgic high school bands, we just get each other. I’m glad to have found a lifelong friend in a sorority sister.

I've known all of these girls for 10+ years now and I couldn't imagine saying I do without them. I'm so lucky that I get to share this journey with these wonderful women! 

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Tutorial Tuesday!

Soooo it's no surprise that I'm engaged! 
And... because of that I have been getting my craft on a lot lately. 
I have a special post I've got in the works for tomorrow but, until then, I wanted to share an easy tutorial for one of the items I did. 
It's no surprise, girls like sparkle and this PARTICULAR girl likes herself some champagne. Soooo I decided to give some champagne a little sparkle and here's how.. 
I bought a four pack of the mini Korbels (from BevMo, they have some at Target as well)
I also used some glitter (Michael's), Mod Podge (any craft story), a foam brush and two paper plates. 
I started by covering the area that I wanted to sparkle with a coat of Mod Podge using my foam brush. 
I poured a generous amount of glitter onto the plate and rolled the bottle in the glitter. 
I placed the bottle on a second plate and poured the glitter onto all of the areas that still needed glitter. 

The last step (not pictured) is really personal preference. You can let the bottle sit and dry and then cover the glitter with another layer of Mod Podge to keep the glitter in tact OR you can leave it as is. The only risk with leaving it is that the glitter is MUCH more likely to end up all over the place however, it actually does look better because the Mod Podge tends to dull the sparkle of the glitter. I opted to add the top coat of Mod Podge because I know how annoying it can be to have glitter all over you. In the words of Demetri Martin "The thing about glitter is, if you get it on you, be prepared to have it on you forever 'cause glitter is the herpes of craft supplies." 
And there you have it! A simple and fun way to dress up any ole plain bottle for a gift, a party, or any occasion!
"

Friday, February 7, 2014

Pupdate

Sooo... I started 2014 with a positive outlook. 2013 had been so crummy that I figured, things could only get better. Unfortunately, yet another hurdle was put in front of me. Around Christmastime I noticed my dog, Beamer, was acting unusual. I noticed he was eating and drinking a lot more and was a lot less active and borderline lethargic. Shortly after I noticed the change in behavior, I also noticed a bump on his belly so I took him in to see the vet.

When Lexie was sick, I was taking her in to have blood work run about once a month, sometimes more, sometimes less. So I wasn't looking forward to going back, but I needed to make sure nothing serious was wrong. The doctor told me some things I already knew, (that he has a faint heart murmur) and some things I didn't (that his teeth are in pretty bad shape and should probably be looked at). And, after evaluating the bump I had found, found that it was nothing to be concerned about. The excess eating and drinking seemed to be a none issue. So that wrapped up that appointment.

Fast forward to about two weeks later. It's the morning and I'm getting ready for work and every morning before I leave, I give Beamer a little piece of chicken as his "bye-bye treat". I reached down to hand him the chicken and he looked right past it and seemed to be sniffing around for it. My heart sank. He obviously couldn't see the chicken that was right in front of his face. I thought, "that can't be right, he must have something in his eye or something". After a couple days I realized, he's definitely not seeing things so I, again, took him to the vet. While there, they ran through some routine testing to check his vision. Afterward the vet told me "it appears he's pretty much 100% blind". WHAT?! He was JUST here... he was JUST fine. He's only eight years old! (Very young for his bread.) I had brought my mom to the appointment and we just turned to each other, baffled by what we were being told. The vet recommended we see a specialist and referred us.

I went home, devastated. What do you mean he's blind?? I just couldn't wrap my head about it. I, of course, immediately started researching. I found out about this thing called SARDS, or sudden acquired retinal degeneration syndrome, which, as it sounds basically leaves dogs blind in a matter of days or weeks. The symptoms seemed to line up perfectly with Beamers, even stating that it's most often found in dachshunds.

When we met with the specialist, I'm not going to lie, I wasn't real impressed with her but, she did in fact reference SARDS. I don't know why, but I was keeping hope alive that maybe a specialist would be able to tell me, don't worry, there's a procedure we can do to correct his vision, or even give him SOME vision back. But, no such luck.

Truth be told, I think I've taken the whole thing harder than Beamer has. He's been getting around pretty well, bumping into things here and there. It breaks my heart every time but, at this point, there's no sense being devastated over it, it's just the way things are now, another hurdle to jump over.

One day I'll be on the other side of all of this and I'll be a stronger person because of it but, for the time being, it has definitely been rough. Because of the excess eating, he has been putting on a lot of weight which, like in humans, is unhealthy and can lead to things like diabetes and heart disease. Because of the excess drinking he is also going to the bathroom ALL the time. I keep joking that I might as well have a baby soon because I'm already getting up several times a night to take him out to go to the bathroom.

If anyone reading this has any experience with SARDS or with blindness in a pet in general, I would love any sort of tips and advice. This has been quite a struggle but, luckily, I've had a good support system of people who care and are willing to help in any way they can and I am so thankful for that.  

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