Homemade Streamers from Junk Mail

Hello Friends!

I think I mentioned before that we're having a talent show the night before our wedding.  We think this will be a great time for our family members to get to know each other, share laughter, and have fun.  We're having the talent show in the living room of the bed & breakfast we're getting married at, and we decided to decorate the room with fun streamers, twinkle lights, and a table of yummy candies and treats.  Mark and I are making our wedding as eco-friendly as possible, so I was thrilled when I saw Alisa Burke's tutorial about how to make bunting flags from junk mail.  I just LOVE Alisa's website, and I read it all the time.  I decided to modify her idea a bit to make streamers for our talent show.

First, I dug through our paper bin in the office (where we keep paper to be recycled) for sturdy paper.  Then, I spread them out in the living room, turned on some Netflix, and started painting!  I painted both sides of the paper.  Now, I think Alisa's version is so super cute and fun, and she cut hers into triangles.  Well, after I'd spent DAYS painting (which I loved, but it did take much longer than I thought it would), I loved all our artwork (I say "our" because Mark joined me for several hours) so much that I didn't want to cut any of it up.  I left the paintings in their original shapes (various sized rectangles), used a hole puncher to put holes along the top, and strung them on ribbon.  Alisa sewed hers together, which looks great, but Mark and I thought thick ribbon would hold up better.  Plus, we decided we would keep our streamers and use them at parties for years to come.  Here are the pics:

This is a small example of the 66 pieces we painted and strung.  We have SO many streamers now!  We'll take pics once we decorate for the talent show, and you'll be able to see them in all their glory.

Love,

Melanie

Handmade Thank You Cards

Hello Friends!

I have a new project to show you!  Mark and I are sending out lots of thank you cards lately (what a blessing!), and I was scrounging around looking to see what our stash looked like.  Slim pickins, lemme tell ya.  However, we did have a box of fortune cookie cards.  It sounds like a neat idea, but when I opened them up to look at the cards, I was not impressed.  Plus, Mark reminded me that I threw out all the fortunes long ago because I thought they were crappy.  Although this sounded like something I would do, I didn't remember this at all, so I looked on the box to see what the fortunes were.  There were two options.  The first read, "Those who have wealth attract love beyond measure."  The second read, "Those who have love have wealth beyond measure."  Yeah, I still think those are crappy fortunes.  I considered creating new fortunes for the cards, but I didn't care for the design anyway, so what did I do???  I spread out my paint supplies on the living room floor, turned on a fun movie, and went to town!  (As a side note, one of the reasons I may be subconsciously coming up with a lot of fun projects to do is because they create a great excuse to watch Netflix for hours).

Without further ado, here are the pics:

Before painting...

and after...

and painted envelopes too!

Wedding Update

Hello Friends!

It's getting so much closer --- 8 days until Mark and I get married!!!  We're both really looking forward to it (obviously), and we're still having so much fun in the planning process.  I finished painting my dress, and spent over 12 hours beading it last weekend on the way to and from Lubbock.  Mark and I decided to take a road trip to see his father's side of our family before the wedding, and it was the perfect opportunity to finish beading my dress.  We had such a wonderful time!  Mark and I listened to the first Harry Potter audio book while we were in the car - great choice by my honey!  We had a marvelous time in Lubbock, and Mark's aunt, Phyllis, gave us a beautiful card she made to congratulate us on our wedding.  It was so thoughtful and beautiful, I cried! I love handmade treasures.  I can feel the love that goes into them.  Thank you Phyllis!

Then, a few days ago I went shopping with my mommy.  We had such a great time!  We found my wedding shoes, had a wonderful lunch together (and a much needed pina colada - hehe), and spent hours lounging and watching Monarch of the Glen together on Netflix.  Monarch of the Glen is a BBC show that my mom used to watch when she was a teenager (she's British).  I asked if she ever thought then that someday she would be watching it with her daughter.  It was really nice to have the mother/daughter time.  I have the best mom.  We have always been best friends.

What other news???  Oh yeah, back to my dress.  So, today I am going to work on the bodice of my dress and sew a bra into it.  Everything else is done!  Well, except the hem.  Technically the hem is done now, but I think I'll have to shorten it a bit because my shoes are flats, and although it seems very princess-y to lift up my dress when I walk, it's not practical.  Plus, I'd probably end up with a plate of chocolate covered strawberries in one hand and a glass of champagne in the other, and then I'd trip on my hem and fall flat on my face.  Not so graceful.

I have to apologize for my writing.  I start writing a sentence, and then my thoughts just float away on something else, and finishing each sentence feels like trying to hammer a round peg in a square hole.  I've just got a lot on my mind.  That's why I haven't been blogging on any of my blogs much.  I haven't even done my monthly newsletter for My Magical Journey yet.  Doh!  I have the idea of what I'm going to write about, got great inspiration for it, but the actual writing bit is sludgy.  I would rather convey my ideas telepathically for the moment.  Sometimes when I get messages from my guides, it's like a gentle wave of information comes into my body.  I feel it and know the entire message all at once, rather than it being delivered in a stream of words, like writing.  What if you picked up a book in the library, and you instantly felt the entire story?  After this happens (the wave message - not the library book thing) sometimes my conscious, logical mind pauses and rewinds the message, then replays slowly, breaking it into frames of meaning and dissecting each frame.  Sometimes I wonder why the knowing isn't enough?  Why does it need to be dissected and inspected if the message has already seeped into every cell?  You know why?  Because then I usually have to put it in verbal form to communicate it to someone else.  I usually find that it's easier to do if I sit and feel the message, rather than think about it, before communicating verbally.  Anyhoo...

Okay, so what's next?  I'm going to write a blog right now about my handmade thank you cards!  I found a box of cards I didn't like in our cabinet, so instead of buying new ones, I painted over them!  Now they look great!  I've taken lots of photos, so I'll show you all of them and post it for tomorrow.

Also, Mark and I have spent days painting streamers to decorate for the talent show we're having the day before our wedding.  That's right, we've suckered all our family members into performing for us to kick off our wedding weekend.  It's going to be so much fun!  Anyhoo, I'll post photos of that project in a few days, too!  I'm going to use the handy dandy feature of blogger where I can write a bunch of posts one day and schedule them to go online several days later.  I love technology!

Thanks for reading!

Melanie

Painting

For about a week, I've been painting my wedding dress.  I'm planning on being finished painting today!  Yea!  It looks awesome!  And this time I'm keeping it a secret until I walk out on my wedding day to marry Mark.  I know I said that last time, but I'm serious this time!  No previews, and no peeking!

Okay, back to work...

Love,

Melanie