Stream On

It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything about our wedding, and I promised here to share details on the DIY projects that made the day happen.  So, in order to not break promises, today I thought I’d spill the beans on the  big focal point of our reception – the streamer backdrop.

I was actually inspired to do this pretty late in the game, with only a few months left ’til the wedding.  But, this project seemed so simple and inexpensive that I simply couldn’t resist.  First, I’ve got to share my inspiration.

Rachel’s (of Heart of Light) inspirational backdrop. Click on the photo to be taken to the blog article at 100 Layer Cake featuring her amazing instructions.

How beautiful is that?!  When I stumbled upon this photo, I was smitten and knew such a simple decoration would fit right in with our backyard reception, while adding some drama.  Rachel created this backdrop herself and provided very helpful instructions.  Please visit the  source article to view those instructions.

Rachel also directs folks to Oh Happy Day, where she learned to make fringey streamers.  This tutorial was also so helpful.  I also found that I LOVED this blog and fell in love with a number of additional articles featured there.  I highly recommend stopping by.

So, with both tutorials at my fingertips, I got to work.  I purchased my crepe paper from crepepaperstore.com per Rachel’s suggestion.  The online store had great prices.  My husband (or fiance at the time) was tasked with buying wooden dowels from the hardware store. We bought four, 5′ dowels for a total of twenty feet of backdrop.  I also bought silver foil curtains from Amazon (it was the same price on Amazon as at Oriental Trading where Rachel made the purchase, but I got free shipping on Amazon).  And I already had hot glue gun supplies.

After my supplies were gathered, I arranged my crepe paper and prepped all of my streamers.  Then I arranged them by color to make it easier for me to see which colors I wanted to use while I was applying them to the dowels.

My crepe paper ready for dowel attachment.

I filled one dowel at a time.  I completed the first dowel at my home, attached the foil curtain to the back, wrapped it in a sheet and transported it to my sister’s house (the reception site) – all per Rachel’s instructions.  When I got to my sister’s, and we unrolled the streamers, we found that the foil backdrop had gotten extremely tangled and it took us quite a while to sort everything out.  I was so concerned because everything felt so delicate and I still had three more dowels to complete.  Then, my sister had a bright idea – why don’t I put everything together at her house.  Then we wouldn’t have to worry about transporting anything.  My sister – so smart!!

I spent the next couple of weekends at her house building the backdrop.  I think my favorite part about this project was getting the extra time with my four-year old nephew and ring bearer, Ricky.  He was very interested in what I was doing.  He was caught up in the excitement of the big event taking place at his house.  He assured me that he was going to have a wedding of his own and he was also rather interested in getting one of the streamer dowels installed in his bedroom.  But, of all of our conversations, I think my favorite went something like this:

Ricky: Auntie, you’re getting married.

Me: Yes, I know.  Are you excited for the wedding?

Ricky: Yes. And I’m going to look handsome and you’re going to be beautiful… Mommy said so.

I think my heart about burst out of my chest at that.

But, back to the streamer project.  We finished everything on time.  When deciding where to hang the dowels we discovered that the foil curtain continued to get tangled up whenever the slightest breeze blew, so I decided not to add anymore of it to the remaining three dowels.  My brother-in-law and his dad hung up the streamers the morning of the wedding and it was and is the hit of the party.

This backdrop helped create some of my favorite photos caught by our photographer.  It served as the backdrop for toasts and the dance floor and over all was the least expensive way to add drama, style, to our wedding celebration.

My favorite photo captured by our photographer. My husband and I dancing up a storm with the streamer backdrop catching a breeze behind us.

My beautiful sisters, and matrons of honor, making a toast in front of the streamer project.

What do you think?  Do you have any similar backdrops that you’ve created for parties or weddings?

A Homemade Valentine

Okay, I know this one is a bit late.  But, I didn’t want to post what I was working on until after I gave the gifts I created to their recipients.

Each year, I create little Valentine packages for our local nieces and nephews.  I will usually go to Target and pick-up a plastic bucket from the dollar aisle, add candy to it, et voila a completed valentine for the kiddos.  This year, the only thing I bought from Target was the candy.  I was determined to make my own receptacles for the goodies.

At home, I gathered my supplies:

• Scissors
• Colored paper (two shades of red, and a mint green for contrast)
• Letter stickers
• Tape
• Brown lunch bags (of which I have hundreds left over from the wedding)
• Cellophane bags (also wedding leftovers)

Then, I set to work.  I cut out multiple hearts in various sizes.  I would need enough for five bags (four for the nieces and nephews and one for my folks).

I arranged some hearts on a bag until I found the design I liked.  Then I taped them down.  I added letter stickers for the name of the recipient.  On a couple of the bags (for the older kids) I added a scrapbook sticker with a special quote.

An example of my first treat bag for our niece, Mary.

Each of the bags only took about five – ten minutes and were rather fun to create.  When they were done, I lined them up and started to divide the candy.  Some of the candy – like Jelly Beans and M&M’s – didn’t come in individual packaging.  So, those went into a cellophane bag.  I ended up adding some other colorful candy to the bag as shown below.

Valentine shades look sweet altogether.

I tied off each bag with a silver tie and added it to the brown bag.  The whole project could not have taken me more than an hour and as I said before was a lot of fun to work on.

Here are some shots of the final products.

Something special for Mary and Jacob.

Presents for my other Valentines, nephews Ryan, Ricky, and my folks.

So, what do you think?  Did you make any homemade Valentines?  What did you do?

 

A Quick Update

Last month I had an extra day off of work and decided to use it to get some things done around the house.  I’m pretty sure I was a domestic goddess.  In the midst of my cleaning, cooking, and laundry, I took notice of a bookshelf in our living room that just kept bothering me.  It simply looked a mess.  But, I wasn’t sure what I could do with it.  Books were neatly arranged on it, but every time my eye wandered over to it, everything just felt amiss.

I wish I had a “before” picture to show you.  Unfortunately, I still haven’t caught on to the need to take such photos.  So, I’ll just have to ask you to trust me on this one.  Anyway, while I was cleaning, I found myself standing in front of the bookshelf and wondering what to do.  And then it hit me.  I had already pinned some inspiration a while back.

I’ve actually got a pinterest board dedicated to my obsession for books – but that’s a post for a whole other day.

So, with my inspiration photo in mind, I got to work. I removed all the books from the shelf and grouped them by color.  I started with basic color groups like black, blue, green, red, yellow, white, etc.  I pretty much started with primary colors.

After I had these main groups organized, I pulled out sub-groups if any emerged.  For instance, in the yellow group, I felt like there were enough beiges and golds that were quite different from the yellow.  So, those colors got their own group.

Finally, I re-shelved the books, according to color, starting with the darkest colors on the bottom and worked my way up to the top.  What I have now, is a bookshelf organized by color but much more pleasing to view.  (This would be a really great moment for a “from this to this” photo.  Argh!)  Check it out:

The completed bookshelf. Much more pleasing to the eye.

A close-up of the shelf. Now, I’m looking for a great piece of art, dominated by light colors to hang on the wall just above it.

 

I think one of my favorite things about this is that during college I used to work at a bookstore.  On more that one occasion, a customer would come into the store and become infuriated with the staff when we couldn’t help them find a book based on its color. The conversation would go something like this:

Customer: “I’m looking for a book.”

Me: “Great!  What’s it called?”

Customer: “I don’t know, but it has a blue cover.”

Me: “Uh.  Okay.  Who is the author.”

Customer: “I don’t know, but it has a blue cover.”

Me: “Uh. Er. Um. Do you know what it’s about?”

Customer: “A girl. It has a blue cover.  Don’t you know the book?”

Me: “We don’t organize the books by color.”

Customer: “Is there a manager?”

 

If only that customer could see me now!

What do you think?  Any quick updates or quick fIxes you’ve made lately?

Music Friday: Heartthrob

Currently spinning

This week, I’ve had Tegan and Sara’s latest album, “Heartthrob” spinning out of control in my car, making my commute to and from work absolute heaven.  I’ve been a fan of these gals for some time (I’ve seen them live three times – yep, I might be bragging), but their latest contribution just might be my favorite.  Which, is saying something.

I was first turned on to the sisters when I purchased a soundtrack (I went through a huge soundtrack phase many years ago) and this song was featured:

A good friend of mine (shout out to Sandi) was already a big Tegan and Sara fan and proceeded to conduct my education.  I’ve got so many favorites and perhaps I’ll have to devote a Music Friday to sharing a top ten list (as impossible a task as that seems).

Today, though, I want to spend more time on Heartthrob.  It seems rare these days that I get a new CD where there isn’t at least one song I feel like skipping.  But, every song on this album is amazing.  The lyrics (which the girls have always been rather adept at writing) are so powerful.  A couple of the “break-up” tracks, like “How Come  You Don’t Want Me,” and “Now I’m All Messed Up” are heartbreakingly awesome.  They’re songs you can really sink your teeth into.

Though it’s difficult for me to pick a favorite, “Drove Me Wild” continues to drive me wild (Ha ha – cheesy, I know).  But seriously, this song has been sticking with me.  Check out this video of the girls talking about the song (they actually did one of these for each of the tracks on the album), then go here to stream the entire track:

Any other Tegan and Sara fans out there?  What are your favorite songs?

 

Help Those Kids!

Two gifts I would love to have – to be able to write music and jokes.  New Zealand’s Flight of the Conchords have got both of those, in spades.  These guys crack me up and I desperately miss their HBO show.  Last year, the pair produced a charity song for  Red Nose Day featuring a gaggle of New Zealand’s biggest stars.

There are many things I love about this song.  For instance, it’s hilarious and catchy and the money raised supports charity.  However, I think my favorite thing about it is that the guys incorporated children’s ideas in the song.  I love how innocently creative these kids are and maybe I’m naive, but I feel like there’s a bit of earnestness amidst the fun FOTC had in making the song.

Check out the video below and then visit iTunes to purchase the song and support Cure Kids.

Easy Come

With the passing of the holidays, it was time to take down my Christmas wreath and change it over to something new.  And that something new would be a Valentine’s Day wreath.  Unfortunately, I didn’t have anything on hand to aid the transformation.  A trip to the craft store was in order (oh, darn).  While there, I was also able to plan ahead for March and April.

For a quick reminder, here’s how the wreath last looked for Christmas.

The Christmas Wreath

Pretty simple.  For Valentine’s Day, I went a bit further and purchased some big fake flowers and red ribbon to create this monstrosity:

Valentine Wreath

I’m quite proud of it.  I tried to take pictures of my process for you, but the lighting where I was working wasn’t too great and let’s be honest, I was snapping pictures with my phone.  The good news is, I don’t think it took me more than 30 minutes from start to finish and most of that time was engaged in trial and error.  If you’re interested, you can check out my steps below.

Step 1: I wrapped the wreath in tulle (which I had leftover from the wedding).  The tulle provided various folds through which I slid the flower stems.  Remember that my goal is to add decoration to the burlap-wrapped base without using glue.

Step 1

Step 2: Securing the Flowers

After I arranged the flowers to my liking, I noticed some of them felt a little loose (see figure 1).  So, I devised a plan to secure them using an extra strip of tulle. Starting at one end of the flowers, I tied the tulle around the wreath base to secure it.  Then, I began to wrap the tulle around the wreath and through the flowers.  As I brought the tulle around to the backside of the wreath, I was careful to secure the flower stem beneath the tulle (see figure 2).  The flowers in the front are voluminous enough that this extra piece of tulle cannot be seen.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Step 3: Adding the Ribbon

I completed the wreath by wrapping a spool of Valentine ribbon around the wreath and tying it off in a bow at the bottom.  And the final product again:

Valentine Wreath

So, what do you think?  What do you hang on your door?

Music Fridays: The Killers’ Christmas

The Husband and I originally bonded over a shared love obsession of music.  So, when I created our wedding website, I developed a special music page where I posted occasional updates on concerts we’d seen or music we planned to incorporate into the wedding.  It was a fun way to share part of our relationship with our friends/family/wedding guests.

What I found, however, was that I loved making these posts.  So, while I’ll be phasing out our wedding site, I’ll be phasing in music posts to Merging Lanes Love.  I’ll relegate such posts to Fridays for a bit o’ weekend fun.

To kick-off this new tradition, I’m sharing the latest installment of The Killers Christmas single, “I Feel It In My Bones.”  Each year, The Killers (incidentally, my favorite band) produce a Christmas song benefitting the (RED) Campaign, working to prevent the spread of AIDS and HIV in Africa.

This video is a great follow-up to a previous Christmas single (and quite possibly my favorite) produced by The Killers for (RED) in 2007.

The Killers’ Christmas songs can be purchased from iTunes with all proceeds benefiting (RED).

Enjoy!

Switcheroo

I guess I really caught the craft bug from all the projects we did for the wedding, cause I’ve still been creating.  Sometimes to more successful outcomes than others.

A recent quick and easy project was creating a fall wreath for our front door.  I bought a foam ring from Michael’s for less than a few dollars and gathered the rest of the supplies at home.

First, I cut burlap (left over from the wedding) into long strips while my glue gun warmed up.  Then, I wrapped the burlap around the ring, stopping to glue it down every few inches.  The only tricky part I encountered was finishing the last strip.  If I had it to do all over again, I would have purchased some tacks or pins to tack down the end of the last strip.  Instead, I went a little glue-happy and ended up with quite a blob of glue.  I just have to be cautious that the blob is at the bottom of the wreath (something I didn’t do at first – you’ll see in the pictures).  When my husband first saw the wreath he said, “That’s nice.  Is there supposed to be so much glue?”  Thanks, babe.

Three fall pom-poms.

A bundle of wheat to accent the wreath.

After the base of the wreath was prepped and drying, I got to work on the decorative items.  I selected three fall shades of yarn and made pom-poms.  I also wrapped some wheat stalks in excess burlap.  Finally, I used bobby pins to attach the decorative items to the folds in the wreath.  I found that the bobby pins actually held everything securely in place.

The final product.

Once Thanksgiving was over, it was time for a Christmas wreath.  Instead of creating a whole new wreath (I just don’t have the storage space for that) I decided to update the fall wreath.  So, I removed the decorative items and replaced them with new ones.  Once again, I dug through items at home to see what was available.

Securing the ornaments with bobby pins.

First, I found a beautiful silver bow in our gift-wrapping pile.  I think this was recycled from my bridal shower.  Then, I selected a few Christmas tree ornaments that complimented the bow.  I once again used bobby pins to secure these items to the wreath.

The Christmas Wreath

I’m so happy with how versatile this wreath is turning out to be!  I’ve even gotten a compliment from a neighbor.  I’m already starting to contemplate what I’ll do once Christmas is over.

What do you think?  Do you have any recent quick and easy projects you want to share?

Birds of a Feather

According to theknot.com, the average wedding now costs $27,800, but this includes those “lucky brides and grooms who get $40,000-and-up weddings thrown for them” so it brings up the average.  Holy schnikies, that’s a lot of dough!  Having just paid for our own modest wedding, I can’t imagine what the brides and grooms in the $20K and up range are spending their money on.  As stated before, I was a frugal bride and in order to practice such frugality, Darrin and I did a lot of the work for our wedding ourselves.

One way we cut major expenses was on flowers.  Also according to theknot.com, a bride and groom can expect to spend 8-10% of their budget on flowers.  So for those of you keeping track, that’s roughly $2,200 – $2,800 (rounding to the nearest hundred) on flowers for the “average” wedding.  Yowzers!  We decided that 8 – 10% of our limited budget was too much to spend on an item that we felt was a luxury.

While flowers are exceptionally beautiful and add a lot to the decor, we felt we could create the same ambience with less expensive items.  For instance, we used a number of candles for centerpieces at the reception and placed throughout the chapel.

One area, however, where a florist really comes in handy is creating boutonnieres and corsages for wedding attendants and other guests of honor.  This is where I decided to get really crafty and I DIY-ed these items using artificial products so that I could reduce stress by making them well in advance of the wedding.

The Boutonnieres

I had pinned a number of inspiration photos such as this one, this one, and this one and had those on my iPad next to my workstation for easy viewing.  I purchased my supplies from Joanne’s including feathers, seashells, corsage pins, floral wire and spray paint in silver and blue.  At home I already had ribbon, wheat, floral tape and stems, electricians tape, and hot glue.

First, I prepped the wheat and seashells by spray painting them blue and silver, respectively.  The shells came out more of a muted gray which worked out just as well.  I left these items out to cure in the sun for at least 24 hours.  I then hot glued each shell onto a floral stem.

After all items were prepped, I gathered up the rest of my supplies and started to experiment.  I quickly decided that I did not like the look of the wheat – fail #1.  I also found that the floral tape did not play nicely with the feathers.  The glue from the tape left a sticky residue on my fingers that transferred to the feathers and severely disturbed their shape and design – fail #2.

I gave up working with the floral tape and hunted around for an alternative.  I needed something dark that would camouflage behind the color of the ribbons and blend in with the feathers.  Aha!  Electricians tape.  I had it on hand and plenty of it.

Then I experimented with the different elements at hand.  I chose a feather or two, arranged it with a sea shell, wrapped tape around all of the items and finished it by wrapping it in a ribbon and tying it off in a bow.  I then attached each boutonniere to a card with the corsage pins.

The finished product: the groom’s boutonniere, as well as his brother’s and nephew’s.

A father-son combination.

A cool feature with the shells was that I was able to vary them while playing a match game amongst family members.  For instance, both Darrin’s and my nephews were in the wedding along with their fathers.  So, the seashells in the young boys’ boutonnieres matched those belonging to their dads’.

Boutonnieres in action! It’s hard to overlook the adorable ring bearers in this photo, but if you try, you can see two of the boutonnieres in action…not too shabby.

The Corsages

For the corsages, I learned to make fabric flowers by following the tutorial found here.  I had leftover fabric from another wedding project (more on that later).  I also went through my jewelry and selected a couple of old necklaces to scavenge for beads.  I stitched three beads to the center of each flower to create a stamen.

The father of the bride and mother of the bride lapel-wear.

I stitched floral wire to the back of each flower making sure to line-up the center of the wire with the center of the flower.  I bent the wire in half and twisted it to create a stem.  I also reinforced the wire by  wrapping electricians tape (my new favorite tool) around it.  There is probably a more effective way to create a stem for a fabric flower, but I didn’t realize I needed a stem until after I made the flowers, so I had to get creative.

I selected a feather and seashell to arrange with each flower to create a corsage that complimented the boutonnieres.  After all the items were arranged as I wanted them, I secured them in electricians tape and wrapped that in a ribbon which I tied off in a bow.

Like the boutonniere, I attached the corsage to a card with pins.

All of the corsages.

All in all, I spent a solid day working on this project but I saved a ton of cash.  Below is a list of my supplies and expenses.

• Feathers – 7.99
• Seashells – 3.99
• Spray paint (2 cans) – 15.98*
• Fabric for corsages – already owned
• Ribbon – already owned
• Hot glue – already owned
• Electricians tape – already owned
• Corsage pins – 4.99
• Cards for display – already owned
• Floral wire – 1.99
• Floral stems – already owned
• Total: 34.94 (+2.78 tax) = 37.72 for 11 boutonnieres and 4 corsages = 2.51 per item
• *Total w/ only one can of paint, since I only used one color = 26.95 (+2.14 tax) = $29.09 or $1.94 per item

I found estimates ranging from $5 – $15 for fresh flower boutonnieres and corsages through google searches.  So, I feel pretty good about the savings we generated (even with my mistakes) and I even created some souvenirs for our wedding attendants and special guests.

What do you think?  Have you ever saved big bucks by getting creative?  Did things turn out as you expected?

Celebrity Names

Darrin and I made the decision to hyphenate our last names and became the Jessen-Hiser family.  This was a big decision for the both of us, especially since it is not so common for the man to change his name.  One welcome consequence of this decision is that Darrin and I are going through the whole process of changing our names on everything (from social security to drivers license) together.  It’s always easier when you have someone to commiserate with.

The very best outcome of this decision is probably that combined our last names create a super awesome sounding last name (if I don’t say so myself).  The name also happens to sound like a great beer (which is great since we both long to brew our own beer some day).  But, most importantly, we’ve essentially created a new name for our new family and that feels so good to us!

The day I returned to work following a two week hiatus for the wedding and honeymoon, I opened the door to my office to find it had been decorated by my students.  They came up with a combined name of their own for Darrin and me.  Our celebrity name: Mellissa + Darrin = MeDarrin.  Nice!

 

They also approved of our new last name.

Their decoration job definitely made me feel appreciated and happy to return to work.  How lucky am I?

 

What about you?  What is your/would be your celebrity name?