A New Duvet Cover!

Another non-wedding craft post -

This was my weekend off of wedding prep (kinda) Sometimes a break is nice

Well, the back story on this one is interesting... when my dog Callie was a little puppy she decided that the down in the comforter would be nicer outside of the blanket - so she ripped a little hole in the corner. I repaired the corner of the comforter and continued to use it, but when she reopened the hole I said enough was enough and put the blanket in the closet until I could afford to purchase a duvet cover (have you seen the price tag on those?!) Friday night, ten months later, I cleaned out my closet and found the coverless blanket waiting on me to use it again. Saturday afternoon I decided I did in fact want to use the blanket again and made a duvet cover for myself. No more waiting! I used two sheets, ties, and buttons- all of which I had at the house.

I had bought a two pack sheet set at Marc's for $15 previously and never used the patterned flat sheet; I liked using the patterned fitted sheet with the solid colored flat sheet on my bed. I also had another white cotton flat sheet in box that I picked up on discount to use for fashion sewing (white cotton sheets are great for making into blouses and tank tops - you can easily dye the white cotton to whatever color you want and you can't beat the volume of material at that cost) Anyways, I paired up the sheets and sewed the edges on either side and the top (right sides together - didn't have to worry about using french seams as the edges on both sheets were already finished). In each corner I added two ties (just two finished 8 inch by 1/2 inch strands of fabric- need 8 total of these). The bottom edge I flipped the patterned sheet over the edge to create a nice folded "hem". I sewed 12 button holes and added 12 medium sized buttons.

bottom edge of the cover - patterned sheet folds over and buttons to stay in place

Voila! There you have it, a nice new duvet cover

Boot Socks

Okay, so this isn't wedding related but I figured I would put it up because it was a fun project.
Last weekend on the way back from the ranch we stopped at Tracker Supply Co. and I picked up a pair of rain/muck boots. I love these boots; however, they aren't the warmest in the wintery slush. So, on Friday I made fleece and flannel boot socks for my muck/rain boots so that I could wear them in all seasons (I'm pretty excited about these!)

I used a patten I found on Sew, Mama, Sew! blog - it is a PDF so it was super easy to print off and use right away (link will take you right to the blog and the pattern I used)
http://sewmamasew.com/blog2/2011/04/fleece-boot-socks-free-pdf-pattern-from-studio-cherie/

This only took 2 hours max - this includes pattern printing, cutting, and sewing time. Great project for Friday night when there isn't much time left in the day after work.
I don't have a serger, so I used a reinforced zigzag on the edge which worked just the same. For the foot and leg portion of the sock I used anti-pill brown fleece and for the cuff I used the same fleece on the underside and patterned flannel for the top. Pretty cute, right?



Thifting

After giving some thought to reception decor, I decided simple and vintage might be fun. I had been mulling around the idea of the paper flowers in vases on the tables but clear vases (which is all we had at home to test this out with) gave away the wire stems and took from the overall attractiveness of the flowers leading me to that decision in the first place. My next thought was to put candles out to set a relaxed, romantic mood but then I thought pillar candles would be too blocky looking on the tables by themselves. After my initial ideas (notably my favorite ideas to date) were written down and crossed off of the list of potential decor, I added another dozen drawings of things to design and construct for the tables- which unfortunately were also crossed out.
I ended up coming across candle making supplies while looking at the free section on craigslist - And that is how craigslist started the solution to my problems. The post included molds and dishes to pour the wax into (why hadn't I thought of that?). With that thought, my best girlfriend and I headed to Michael's Craft Supply Store to pick up some wicks

Roughly $25 for a roll of wick that should be enough to make about 45 candles

as well as the metal clips that hold that wick in the bottom of a mold/containter

Following the craft store, since we were successful and on a roll, we headed to the closest thrift store and found the solution to the vase issue - Colored glass

/

There were so many beautiful vases in blue, white, green, and brown.

Priced at $0.99-$2.99 meant picking out a bunch wouldn't leave me with buyers remorse :)

 We also picked up some tea cups and saucers - a steal at only $0.59 a piece

Got everything here and more for under $40 - Cups to mke into candles,

vases to hold flowers,

and a kettle to pour the wax (since the wax melting pot was a bit pricey at the craft store)

I will be posting about the candle making process when it happens, but for now I am happy to have everything lined up and ready to go. Total cost was roughly $60 since I didn't have to worry about wax since we already had unused white soy candles that I plan to melt down - nothing like recycling!

Location, location, location...

I am not sure we could have picked a more beautiful place to get married.

White Horse Ranch has the best sunsets around

and in the summer God takes care of decorating the place for us

Satellite view of the ranch -

to the far left, the back of the ranch, there is a big old tree that

we will meet under to say our vows.

The half mile track surrounds the center horse turn out, the field directly behind that is

the perfect set up for the reception

Catching Up & First Project

To get everybody caught up, I'm going to do a quick back story on the engagement so far and share the first wedding project...New Years Eve, just a few days + one year ago, my husband-to-be, Scott, asked me to marry him - where I am pretty sure I said yes about 3 times before he ever got to the "will you marry me" part of his speech. It was a quiet evening, we stayed in because he had been feeling a bit under the weather and I was knitting a pair of mittens - for those of you who know us best, this kind of evening is pretty typical - I was doing something crafty and Scott was coming up with something impromptu.
We immediately began thinking and planning the wedding which changed about 18246876129712 million times as far as location, colors and theme goes; all until we came to the decision that the wedding was for us - we are getting married because we can't imagine growing old without our best friend by our side, we needed a wedding that suited who we are. With that being said we chose to do a thrifty, crafty, outdoor ceremony followed by a family style picnic-based reception to follow. I've decided to make most everything that will be at the wedding and that is where this blog comes into play - I want to be able to share ideas and progress, as well as tell our story as we grow closer to the big day.

My first project began about a week out from the engagement when I found out how much flowers cost (it seriously knocked my socks off when I began to add up costs of bouquets)
I found a DIY flower template and began to cut, wrap, tape and paint. I ended up with beautiful paper roses in an assortment of colors that fit the theme as well as my personality wonderfully.

Here is the original site that I took the template from, I made a few alterations but this is a good base for anybody looking to try it out:   Paper Roses
Going from coffee filters to flowers is easier than you think if you put a little patience and time together. I painted my paper flowers with water color paints, I mixed up my colors myself since I didn't find exactly what I wanted at the store, but you could simply buy a tube of watercolor from a craft store to put a little life into your flowers.
I found that the best part is being able to revive the flowers after they sit around for awhile. It is super simple - you just turn them over (stem straight up in the air) and lightly apply water with finger tips on the petals. They perk right up, it is like ironing out the wrinkles, which allows for flower making far in advance of the event.
So far I have made about 5-6 dozen roses in dusty pink, variations of yellow, and hues of orange. Being 7 months out from the wedding I already have 5 of 7 bouquets finished - What a relief!

These are all the pieces for a rose and

one completed flower before paint and turning

I found that cutting the pieces for a dozen roses is more time efficient - I put all the pieces in sandwich bags, put them together systematically (all stems get piece 1, followed by all stems being taped with piece 2, etc...), then paint a dozen or two. This works well with my ten minutes here and there that I have for making them.

One completed, turned out, and painted flower

On the left is my unwrapped bouquet.

To the right are left over flowers from the first 5 bouquets

I cannot express how relieved I am to have 5 done already!

Blogging Hello

Well, here I am... making a blog (NEVER thought that this would happen); but I guess I just got tired of looking at other people's blogs about how they do cool stuff without contributing anything.
My goal here is to blog along with the next 7 months of wedding preparations to share with everybody - I hate to feel like I might be leaving anybody out of the loop as I create the thrifty and creative wedding of my dreams (for all of the friends and relatives out of town).
And, if this goes well I might continue blogging as my husband to be and I travel and make a home and life together. A life of bliss is nothing if you don't have anybody to share it with, right? :)