Spring has Sprung!

I've been busy this past month.  Really busy.  Unfortunately, my busyness had little to do with crafting, hence the hiatus.  Dave and I both celebrated our birthdays, we took his mom to Chicago for a fun little trip, and I traveled a bit for work.  Plus, I kind of got on a book reading binge on some rainy April days, which really cut into crafting time.  Sorry, friends!

I did complete ONE small craft during the month of April, so let's get to it, shall we?  In my quest to be an organizational queen, I was working on my craft closet and found a few gems hidden in the back that were just waiting for me to work some craft magic.

My supplies?  Lots of fake flowers and greens, a plain grapevine wreath, and some flower/craft wire.  

Let's get down to business.  

I laid out all of the flowers and greens that I had, as I wasn't sure exactly what I wanted to use.  

Supplies. Check.

Next, I started laying out some of my greens on the wreath.  I stuck the ends in through the grapevines, and the used some floral wire to begin securing the stems around the wreath.  I wanted to make sure that the stems curved with the wreath, but also hung loose a bit so that it didn't look completely structured.

Looks pretty already!  Should we call it a day right here?

 I made my way around the wreath using various greens, as I wanted to create a base layer before adding some flowers.

That's enough.  I wasn't trying to choke the wreath with TOO many weeds.

I've got a really bad habit of getting halfway into a project and forgetting about taking pictures of my next steps.  Sorry.  Here's the finished wreath with some flowers added to it.  I did the same thing as with the greens- stuck the stems in between the grapevines, and secured parts of the stems with green floral wire.

Simple, yet beautiful.

I have a single nail sticking out of my front door, so I needed something to hang the wreath up with...floral wire to the rescue!  One snip of the wire strung through the back of the wreath and twisted securely into a loop, and I was good to go.

Happy Spring, everyone!!

This project took a total of 15 minutes, start to finish.  I've had the supplies for awhile, stashed away after buying during an End of Season Sale, so I don't know how much the project total was, but I guarantee you, it was much cheaper than buying a ready made spring wreath!

Now my front door is springy and inviting!  Except to door to door salesmen.  As far as they're concerned, this wreath is made out of poison ivy and means STAY AWAY.

Have a good week, everyone!! 

Pinterest didn't exist, Part II

Happy Anniversary to me (and Dave) today!  Let's jump right back into wedding DIY's, shall we?

Oh don't worry, this one is definitely framed in my living room.

This next DIY was actually used at the ceremony, and wasn't really so much of a DIY as a, "go ahead and do this for me because I don't feel like doing it myself."  Could I have done it?  Yes.  Did I feel like it? Nope.  All of my bridesmaids' dresses came with large shawls that we knew wouldn't be necessary in the middle of July.  My mom and I brainstormed what we could do with all of the fabric, because we obviously weren't going to let them go to waste. As I wasn't interested in spending thousands on flowers that we would look at in church for an hour and then leave there to wilt, we decided to use the fabric as pew decorations.  We gave the shawls to the seamstress who altered my dress, and had her cut them into quarters, run a cream ribbon down the middle, and attach a string to the top to secure them to the church pews.  Simple, beautiful, and it cost a fraction of what we would have paid for flowers or bows.  I even kept a few after the wedding, and I hang one on my front door during the spring months instead of an Easter wreath.  Every time I open the door, I get a happy reminder of a wonderful day.

Bonus!  You get to see my beautiful MIL in her gorgeous dress!

We also made a pocket square for Dave!

A few more from the church:  You have to do something with the front doors, right?  People need to know that something special is going to be happening!  We had two wreaths left over from my sister's wedding five years earlier, and all it took was a spool of cream ribbon, five minutes of my time, and DONE.

Sorry to steal your thunder, Mom.  I think you might have wrapped these.

Next up, church programs.  Most people do these themselves, as they are a quick DIY that most anyone can do.  Shoutout to my Aunt MB here for taking the reins and doing this for me.  Cream paper, orange writing, rolled and tied with ribbons.  Stick them in a basket with fabric, and you're good to go.  It's all in the presentation, my friends.

When my sister and I were little girls, we would always play in my mom's old room at my Nana and Papa's.  There were plenty of treasures there to keep us busy for hours.  One thing that sat in her closet for years that we didn't play with was her Just Married sign.  A dear friend had made the sign for her, and it definitely held sentimental value.  When my sister got married 10 years ago, I made a similar sign for her and my brother in law with updated colors to match their wedding.  When it came time for my own wedding, it was sign making time again.  I love that we will all have the special memory of having similar Just Married signs!  If you're artistic at all, paint a sign for someone you know.  They'll love you for it.

This is the only picture I have of all three signs- ignore the messy backdrop, please:)

Nowadays (meaning 5 years ago was forever ago in technological terms), most people create wedding websites that include important information for out of town guests.  I didn't make one.  Instead, I had these handmade packets ready for everyone who checked into the hotels in town.  Places of interest, directions to the hotel and reception site, and good eats were all included on my "treasure map" welcome.  You can make a wedding website and still do this if you want something to physically hand to out of town guests.  They won't refuse a pretty packet!

Enough already with the cream and orange, right?

It wasn't just my family and I that jumped on the DIY bandwagon for my wedding.  I had several "guests" that did as well.  I'll just let their picture speak for itself.

Yep.  Even wedding crashers know to wear orange.

Sigh.  What a great day my wedding was.  Full of great memories, and thankfully, great pictures.  I have to give a shoutout to my photographer Crystal Herry, too.  If you're getting married in the Central New York area, look her up...she did a fantastic job!!  

White men CAN jump.  Well, most of them, anyway.

One last picture to send you off with...

I really lucked out with this one.  The man, not the picture.