Tuesday, April 27, 2010

It's Raining Brides! :)


In continuing in my wedding chaos I co-hosted a shower for a dear friend @ work. I was in charge of decor and invitations.

I used paint chips and photoshop to make the invitations. The chips would feed directly through my printer, but the ink wouldn't dry- it would still smear after 24 hours. I bought a digital ground, which I should have been able to paint a coat on and then print, but it still didn't work. So I ended up running the words off on transparencies and then using a zig-zag stitch to attach the words to the paint chip. I had to make them for the whole school, so I made them in 4 colors. Her wedding colors and accent colors.....

This is Casey, her cake, and the "art" that I taped to the white board. Her cozy says "I'm the Bride, that's Why!" :) I made 2 more paint chip wreaths. One for next the door of the classroom where we held the shower and one we hung over a small "guest book" table. She got to take that one home. They turned out well.

I made some signs that hung down similar to the invitations, but these I chain stitched so they hung down. Best Wishes! Congratulations John and Casey!I folded a bunch of paper medallions in coordinating colors too and hung them using twine.
I also chain pieced, circles punched from paint chips. They turned out well. I made some with 2.5" circles and some with 1" circles. I prefer the larger ones.





It was fun and I love any opportunity to celebrate with the people I love! :)

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Recovering. :) YAY for Love!


I am hopeful that I will survive wedding season this year :) Between showers, brunches, rehearsal dinners, bachelorette parties, brunches, etc. I am already wearing down. The fun started with our friends Melanie and Ryan's 4 day wedding extravaganza. It ended up lining up with the end of Spring Break so that helped a little. Here is the happy couple, our friends Starr and Steven in from DC and us @ the rehearsal dinner. Yay for the old spaghetti factory.

It was a lot of fun but definitely wore me out.

They had a photobooth at the reception, which ended up being SOOOO much fun! They are all halarious or sweet!



Yay for wonderful and happy friends!!! :)

In the week and a half since this wedding, I have hosted a shower and been in another wedding :) More posts about all that fun soon.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Spring






I haven't fallen off the planet :) just kept busy. I LOVE paint chips, I think its the visual part of me- all that organization and color. YAY! Anyways... over spring break I made a new set of cards using a zig zag stitch and paint chips. They are so fun and I have already used a bunch of them, so more are probably in the works.

I gave in and made the bunnies from Purl Soho- SO FUN! (Congratulations on their new location!) Brooke loved them.


She even took them for show and tell. :) Scott got a new Percy Jackson shirt for Easter. (following this stencil) He and I had read the books, so he was quite happy.


I have a few more posts with pics already so I'll try to get them written and posted. Everyone is getting married though and so I am a busy person :)

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Thanksgiving!!!

Obviously it is now March, but I still have lots to be thankful for :) I was really excited about my thanksgiving signs/bunting. They say- gather, family, and thankful. I found some "fall" fabric and sew the rectangles, then turned them and added freezer paper stencils to paint the letters. I used a bronze paint which was a little subtle but I really liked.

I hosted our "friends Thanksgiving" this year. Most of these boys(and Melanie) have been friends since about 6 grade, the rest of us have married in (or are in the process) :)
I went to Columbus, OH to hang out with my Mammaw. My cousin Shannon and I took over her living room and raided her fabric. We got a bag of designer scraps from here, and went to town. We are quite proud of our bracelet cuffs and headbands.


This is my cousin Joel, when everyone was over for family dinner.
I found these canvases for $2 each @ Michaels, I stapled them together and covered them with fabric, then used left over scraps/hot glue, I used a tutorial, but I can't find it, for my thanksgiving wreath.






Hope you still have many things to be thankful for in March :) I do!

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Catching up- Colorado!

I have a LOT of things from the fall that I am going to try to slowly catch up on. :) First I am going to share some of my favorite parts of being in Colorado for New Years!

Another thing on "our list"was snowboarding. I had been a few times before, but my sisters had never been. I was finally decent enough that I wasn't miserable. Kristy really liked it. I think Kelly and I will stick to skiing from now on.-We'll see. :)
I I typically get my hair cut when I am in Colorado, one of my most bestest friends grew up their with me and usually cuts my hair. Unfortunately she wasn't home this time. Fortunately another friend from home is almost done with school and she chopped it for me :) I finally got the guts to go really short! So here is the before and after. I am still really loving it and it is still really easy.

Another thing on our list was the Stanley/Shining. We did both! Estes Park was beautiful!



There was a slight appearance of snow flurrys- my first for the Winter. (Kelly is always that excited about snow) So we were thrilled!
We went snowshoeing up near Allenspark with some family friends. My fam has gone a lot but this was my first time. It was really fun. I LOVE that Colorado has so many sunny days!


Mount Meeker (Longs Peaks Twin)
The Karpenske's- aren't we so cute!

I had a wonderful time- I giggle more with my sisters than anyone. My family is awesome!

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Happy Valentine's Day/ Snow Days!!!



This is some of my Valentine garland :) This is some we hung up @ the house where I nanny. Its all over my living room too, but it took a while to get up since I got it all tangled... oops oh well. I also had another "interruption" while hanging my garland, I found out a good friend went into the hospital. She went to the ER with an awful headache on February 3, they found 2 masses in her brain and she's been in the hospital since. She had surgery last Tuesday and we are still awaiting the results of the biopsy. Her name is Johanne, she is doing well, but still in ICU. She and her husband John would appreciate your prayers.

Meanwhile... Louisville has had 4 snowdays in the last 2 weeks!! :) As a CO girl I believe that winter should either be a)snowy or b) sunny. We have had quite a bit of both this year and I am thrilled! Brooke and I built this snow girl. We were out of carrots and improvised with broccoli. She continuted to evolve, which was fun to watch. She turned into a snow bear with cute little ears and then a lot more arms were added, and I called it a snow octopus.



With extra time on my hands I was semi-productive :) I finally got around to creating curtains for my kitchen. They are a little long, but I am too lazy to fix that now. They work and they make the window look bigger :)
I also patched my favorite pairs of jeans using this tutorial (actually I used a similar one I can't find) . So glad! It feels great to more pairs of jeans again, especially super comfy ones!


Finally, Britton and I went to a Valentines banquet/ball/fundraiser for Hopeful Hearts. They providing medical and nutritional aid along with basic living necessities for orphan children. They supply orphanages in Ukraine and India, built a school in Afghanistan, and run transition homes for teenage orphans in Ukraine, and are about to work with orphans in Haiti. It was really encouraging to hear about people specifically making a difference.
This is my favorite ridiculous picture of us... kinda normal for us :)
I got to take home a centerpiece- I took it apart and it turned into 5 awesome bouquets!!! (one is in the kitchen and I was too lazy to go get it for this picture.) LOVE it!! Hope your Valentines was as wonderful as mine!! :)

Monday, February 1, 2010

February

I am already quite in the Valentiney mood. As previously mentioned I got roses last week. Technically I got roses twice last week! These are 1/2 of the ones that got sent to work. :)
I finally finished my Valentine's wreath the middle of January, I refused to take Christmas down until I had Valentine's done- real life motivation :) I had seen this tutorial. I used dollar wrapping paper from the one spot @ Target- I love Target. They took FOREVER to finish... not really once I figured it out, but quite a while to figure it out while watching the youtube video over and over :)
My wreath is more diamond shaped because I wanted it larger. It turned out OK but I am not thrilled. It will only live here until March.
These, however, turned out awesome. :) Britton says between them and the Valentine garland he feels like he lives in a classroom... oh well :) I'm festive- deal with it. I love how they look with the sunlight coming through them!


I'll post my Valentine garland soon, I haven't hung it @ home, only at the house where I nanny. Happy Groundhogs Day! I am not really anxious for Winter to end.... I am sure it will come quickly anyways, but I am flexible :)