It's getting real...

Holy cow, everyone. It's really feeling real now. Frank and I are getting married! :) We've officially visited 4 venues, after having done PLENTY of online research ahead of time to eliminate about 435,437,896,726 places from Phila to Lancaster (which for those of you who don't know the area, it's about an hour and a half drive from one to the other, and we were looking at everthing in between). We've narrowed it down to two. The Columbia Station in Phoenixville, PA (http://www.weddingcaterer.com/columbia_station.htm) . They are a catering business that transformed an old train station into an event venue. They even have an old caboose as their bridal suite! Sooo cute, and the woman that met with us was awesome! She went over every detail with us, from the moment we'd get there to the moment we'd leave. It sounded amazing. Here are a couple pics:


I didn't think we'd find a place we liked as much...that is, until we went to Meredith Manor in Pottstown, PA (http://www.chestercountywedding.com/photos.htm). They have everything I ever dreamed of...gorgeous outdoor ceremony site. Beautiful landscaping. AND!! A fantastic tented reception area! I love tents. :) Here are a couple pics of Meredith Manor:



More pics of each venue can be found on their websites.
I had secretly been hoping that we wouldn't like any other place so that making a decision would be easy. But now we like two! And it's going to be so hard to decide! Thankfully...Meredith Manor is having an open house next weekend, where we can taste food, see more of what it would look like on our actual wedding day (they were doing some renovations while we were there today). And Columbia Station does taste testings the first Wednesday of every month. So Frank and I plan to let our tastebuds do the choosing :) Because really...with great friends and family, the next most important thing is the food! We just missed April's tasting at the Columbia Station, so we'll have to wait till May. But hopefully then, we'll know where (and when!) our wedding will be! YAY!

And also...I just got these in the mail the other day. Aren't they so cute!? And so appropriate?! :P LOVE them! You can find them on Etsy here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/buttonempire

New Bedding Vote

Hey everyone! So as you may have read in one of my previous posts, Frank and I just bought and house and are moving in about a month. In doing so, we'll actually have a guest room! The plan is to use our current bedroom furniture in the guest room and get new stuff for us. Full size bed just isn't cutting it anymore :P

So far, we really like the look of white furniture. The bed is where Frank has really taken a stand. I wanted a four poster. Frank doesn't want any foot board at all. He says that he kicks it too often. Sooo no four poster for me :( But! No worries :) We went on Ikea.com to check out what they have to offer. Gotta love Ikea. Stylish yet affordable, which is precisely what we're looking for. After narrowing a few down on my own, and Frank nixing the rest, it was a pretty easy decision. This is what we decided on (on paper at least...we still want to check it out in person to be sure).

So now comes the decision of which bedding to choose! And my goodness there are SOOO many choices. I've been searching high and low and finally have it down to 2. The bedding we have now is black and white, and I really wanted to switch it up and go with something brighter. These are the two choices so far:

I think we're leaning towards the Michael Kors set, but I would still love to hear what you guys think! Do you have a vote?

2 posts in one day?!

It's a miracle! :P

I've been making jewelry here and there for years. It all started in high school when I took my first jewelry and metals class. Lucky for me, in my town, there's an adult night school that focuses a lot on hobbies and the arts. So of course I jumped on the chance to take another jewelry class and get myself reacquainted. That was about 3 years ago now, and I've been trying to make more jewelry lately. I've made a few as gifts for people. This particular necklace was one I made for my mom and my fiance's mother for Mother's Day last year (yeah...I know I'm just a tad behind on posts hehe). I liked the design so much that I made a few more for gifts for my sisters.

Anyway, the design is simple, and that's part of the reason why I like it. Here are two pics of the final product. Sorry...didn't take any while I was making them. And also sorry for my lack of photography skills.

To make this necklace, I used my handy dandy bead board that looks like this:

Bead boards are great. They're super cheap and actually are very helpful. I had a general idea of what I wanted from the start. I just had to work out the number of beads for each type of bead I used, which is where the bead board came in perfect hand. I usually make more symmetrical pieces, but I love the one flower accent on this one. I believe I just used some jewelry cord I found at my local craft store. I wanted to use a thicker cord, so beading with a needle was out of the picture (for me at least...if someone knows how to do that with a thick cord, please share! :)). My aunt told me a neat little trick she uses when stringing pearls. Use super glue or nail polish on the end of your cord or string to keep it stiff (making a needle-like end point) and to keep it from fraying. Best trick ever! Thanks, Aunt Ann! :P Once you get your design on the bead board, string it up and add your findings. For this necklace, I used store-bought findings again just from the local craft store.

OK, well, that's all I got. I'll try to do a better job of recording more pictures throughout the process going forward. As of now, I'm just sifting through pictures of jewelry, crafts, drawings, paintings, etc. to see what's blog-worthy.

Until next time!

I'm a slacker

OK, so I'm the worst blogger ever. My last post was...ohhh...9 months ago. My how time flies! But that isn't to say I haven't been busy crafting away. I have created more this year than I ever have before. I'm pretty proud of that :P

Anyway, this isn't much of a blog post for now, but it is a promise to update more regularly. I think my plans have changed a bit since my first post. I want to just show what I've made this year and how to make it. It won't be as focused on DIY versions of more expensive things, although those will get thrown in there for sure.

Exciting times these are. My boyfriend proposed to me on my birthday in February. :) SO uber excited. And now! We're buying a house! Settlement is April 29th, and we're planning to move April 30th - think we're psyched to move? :P

So with those two things in mind, I'll be quite busy DIY-ing things, updating things, maybe some renovations here and there. Only thing slightly holding me back a bit is that I need to have surgery on both my shoulders this summer. So for at least 10 wks this spring/summer, I'll have one arm or the other in a sling. Not exactly the best way to paint, craft, reno, etc. Which is why I'll probably focus on things I've done in the past for a couple months. Then once I'm healthy, I'll post about more current projects. Like the one that's currently topping my list: kitchen table and hutch. You can see in the picture below the set we're inheriting from the previous house owners. I actually love the set, but the table is in some serious need of resurfacing. Horribly scratched up :( But that just gives me motivation to do what we want with it! I want to kind of mix it up in there. Country meets modern. Here's the plan: paint the table and hutch white. The chairs and the back of the hutch will be painted a Robin's Egg Blue to match my mixer :P Yes, my paint choices are influenced by my appliances hehe. Lucky me...we have countertop-height stools in the same style as the table chairs. So they will also be painted blue. Once that's done, I'll move onto the kitchen cabinets. I'm hoping for white in there too. Eventually get a sleek black granite countertop (eventually is the key word there - who knew buying a house and planning a wedding were so expensive! :P). Knobs/pulls will be either a silver/pewter or robin's egg blue again. Haven't decided that. Kitchen walls...I'm thinking a nice, warm grey.

Anyway...those are my ideas. What do you guys think? More to come soon! And I mean it this time!