which way is up?

I am completely burnt out from the past few weeks. My cumulative to-do list is completely full of things I was supposed to do last week and didn't, and not only do I have more to add this week, I have made plans for every night until Friday already. Sigh.

Yesterday on the drive home from Cville, Brandon and i noticed the following license plates within a 10 minite stretch on Rt. 29N:

Virginia
DC
Maryland
West Virginia
Ohio
Pennsylvania
Delaware
California
South Carolina
Arkansas
North Carolina

Seems to be a hotbed of travel on a Sunday afternoon. After getting home after one intense weekend, we had one of the best relaxing evenings in a while - ordered Chinese takeout (and yes I got the steamed chicken with veggies because I am still on a diet, but I also treated myself to some steamed dumplings bc they are the best), sat on the sofa, and enjoyed watching The King's Speech. I definitely needed that to take on this week.

Here we go...

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DIY: Centerpieces (sortof) or why I love thrift stores

Ha!  The sofa isn't finished in this photo, thats how long ago it was taken.

Many of you have seen these already.  But.  I proudly present, the longest running project of my wedding crafting so far:  the centerpieces.  Not the actual centerpieces yet mind you, just the vessels that will hold the flowers when I finally get there.

Remember when I said I like to bit off more than I can chew?  Well, I wanted to do my own flowers, to save a ton of cash.  But when I looked into buying the vases online, I felt like the cost of the vases meant I wouldn't be saving so much money anymore*.

I didn't paint all of these.  My most recent aquisitions.

This is my attempt at Blue Willow.

So I decided I would go to thrift stores and collect blue and white painted ceramics.  They're all over the place, right?  And even the low quality ones look nice, right?

After about 3 trips to the thrift store, collecting 2 or 3 vases tops, I got impatient.  And decided I would just...paint my own.

The fish and the dragon....probably two of my faves.

And I think (fingers crossed)  I probably have enough now.  Particularly given the fact that I keep adding things to the tables, like candles and lanterns....

No these urns do not contain the ashes of someone in my family, this is just a me going through my urn  phase.  And then I placed them around the photo of my family, because it seemed like a nice pseudo-mantle....

So what do you think?


* I completely acknowledge I have probably invested an equal amount in this plethora of vases.  I know.

Peonies for Mother's Day

Fresh from the garden, with the ants rinsed off.  Love these amazing blooms!

DIY: Shower Invites

So my mom, sister, and one of my bridesmaids are throwing me a bridal shower, and my one request was that I be allowed to make the invitations (and also that we serve booze.)

So here they are, and I am pretty happy with them.

The invites are printed on the same cotton paper used for the wedding invitations, and the design is based on an early idea I had for the wedding.  I eventually rejected it because the cherry blossoms seemed awfully spring for a fall wedding, and I didn't like how the birds made the invitations so graphic.  But I still get to use all my hard work in the end, so it worked out I think.

The backs of the invitations are printed directly onto the paper using a variety of Japanese yuzen paper patterns.  I love the way printing the design directly onto the paper makes them so clean, but yet is so vibrant that so far no one believed me when I tried to convince them I hadn't glued the real thing onto the back.  I wanted to use a variety of patterns to really showcase the designs, and because I definitely couldn't pick just one.  I know no one will really see more than one invitation each (and some people may not look at the back at all), but I will know.  And sometimes thats whats important.

And also, I love the navy envelopes which I picked up from PaperSource - they really make the labels pop, and gave me a chance for another design facet.

So excited for the point after the wedding where I open up an Etsy shop or something, to hopefully do this more often!

DIY: Bathroom Decor

For my mom's birthday, we decided we would treat her to a spa-like bathroom decoration, in her new bathroom in Charlottesville.  We ended up only taking one after picture, which doesn't showcase all the new accessories we added, but you'll have to imagine it was I describe it.

Here is the before:  nice little bathroom, little chandelier sconce on either side of the mirror (which both my parents have commented is awesome for shaving/makeup application.  Walls are painted a pleasant grey-green colour, which we kept.

Here is the after, or at least as much as I could get into the picture:

We put up those class shelves, and bought her nice little crackled glass accessories.  Then we bought new grey and white towels, which you can see on the shelf, and the hand towel next to the sink.  We finished it off with a grey fuzzy bathmat and a nice clean white fabric shower curtain with a grey grosgrain ribbon panel detail.  We also bought wicker storage baskets that fit in the shelf unit you can't see, opposite the toilet.

A closeup of the shelves and accessories.

I really like how it turned out - clean, modern, and a little luxurious.  And Mom likes it, so really thats all that matters.