Just Married!

Well...almost! We just passed our one month anniversary as Mr. And Mrs. Root!!

I feel like I am slowly coming back to life. It's been quite crazy even though the stress levels during the planning and wedding were relatively low, I tried to shove a whole lot of action in to a small window of time.  My first niece was born o October 19. She is perfect and spoiled and I love her very much. She has already been the center of many creations in our family and I foresee many more to come. The following week I accepted a new job, put in my 2 week notice and then started a new job on November 4...3 weeks before the wedding. Crazy right? We also purchased our first home in November. Luckily, we had been renting so no moving was necessary.

The wedding came and went so incredibly fast. It was a beautiful event overflowing with friends and family. I have to start walking through some of the delicious details, but as a little teaser I thought I would share our favors. My new last name is Root. A while back I had the idea to have "Mr and Mrs Root Beer." It is one of the only ideas that is entirely authentic and not Pinterest or website inspired, so I am pretty proud of it.  I purchased cases of IBC root beer from Sam's club (24 bottles for about $10). I designed a new label/tag for the bottles. The bottles do not have a label but they have embossed glass so I couldn't use a sticky label. Instead, I printed the label, cut the shape out on my silhouette, and used foam tape to adhere to the glass without crumpling the tag. Here they are. I love them!

Not Quinn...Hayley!!

I am so excited to meet my niece! And hopeful that her parents have landed on a name that'll stick. Hayley Quinn seems to be the winner!

The baby shower was just last weekend and my family made some special presents for the little princess-to-be.

When my sister-in-law called me to ask if I would make the favors, I quickly accepted the challenge. The shower was a Miss Molly's Tea House. I had never been, but I quickly decided that something Tea related would be appropriate. I created a tag that read "Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice"to attach to a clear bag. Then, I made some scones! How pretty do they look?!?

 

I made these ahead of time so that I wasn't scrambling to do it the week of the shower. I cut them and put them in the freezer. A little closer to the shower, I took them out, stuffed the bags and added a bag of tea to them (Twinings English Breakfast Tea, for those Fifty Shades Fans...) Stapled one the tags and...Voila!

My mom was in charge of the cake, but I wanted to make something to take along as well. Cassandra wanted a cassata cake, so I figured I would make this fun cake sans the strawberries, in case someone couldn't have strawberries. Here's the pic: http://pinterest.com/pin/12736811419425408/

Here's the trial run photo:

 

And here's the shower day cake:

The lines on the trial run are much cuter...but the day before the shower, patience were running low. My biggest piece of advice should you choose to make this is do not skimp on the amount of batter you put on your design/chevrons. The batter doesn't really run anywhere,  but if it's not substantial enough the design easily peels apart from the rest of the cake. Super cute and impresses the crowds for sure!!

Another baby shower funsie - was the guest book onesie! The original pin was a little bit different. I was pressed for time, so I just used some stencils and fabric paint to put the word "loved" on the onesie. At the shower, guests signed it with a Sharpie. Pointer: instruct your guests to hold the fabric taught and sign lightly. Perhaps a finer tip would have been better as well. Some guests had a hard time signing and being able to read it after. the plan is to take her picture wearing it and then maybe frame it to hang in the nursery.

For one of her gifts from Auntie Annie, I made a wall decal with a quote that her mama had picked out. Using my Silhouette Cameo and some white adhesive vinyl, I cut the quote out. We hung it out her nursery wall yesterday. The upside to doing Wall Decals yourself is that I didn't have to pay much to do it. The downside, I didn't have any type of transfer paper, so I had to put each individual piece on by itself. And then when the men came in to taunt me about how straight it was or wasn't, I just had to settle with the fact that imperfect is perfect, right?!? After the quote was on the wall, we used some of the flowers to add some flair!

I wanted to make a name piece to hang in the Nursery, but I didn't want to do individual letters, mostly because hanging them straight is a pain! So, instead I bought a 36" x 12" Poster frame and had the future husband spray paint it white. Using my Cameo again, I cut out "HAYLEY" from white poster board. I had extra fabric pieces left over from the bedding my mom made her and intended to put them behind the white poster board. Unfortunately, the white wasn't enough contrast with the fabrics. So, back the Cameo I went. I cut the letters out of a melon colored paper. MUCH better. With the white frame, pink letters, and starched and ironed fabric it's just about perfect. (I'll save you the details that I think aren't perfect!)

 

The last thing to share, was not from my hands. It was, however, my mother's work. Cassandra picked the fabric and my mother designed and created the bedding. How precious!!

Oh! And how could I forget these ADORABLE handmade dresses from Grandma!

As you can tell, we are all very excited for the first little grandchild/niece in our family. It's been a fun adventure so far making fun things and getting ready for her arrival. Now, we just have to wait! and finish planning a wedding. No big deal!

Quinn!

I am going to be an AUNTIE!!! A real one this time :) I have some VERY special little people in my life that fascinate me in ways that I never thought possible, but this time I will earn the official title of Aunt!

My brother and sister-in-law are having a baby, which I have known for what seems like forever now because they knew so early. However, this week the best birthday present I could get was finding out that I am going to have a little niece to love on! She is due in October, so she will be about 4 or 5 weeks old at my wedding. I can't wait to take a picture with her and she'll be the only niece or nephew that got to go to Auntie Annie's wedding. TOTALLY pinterestable moment there, right?!?

So, when I found out that it was a girl on Tuesday I immediately went shopping and surfing the web for a little dress for her to wear in that picture. Then I headed right home to make her first headband. It's nothing fancy, but it will match my wedding flowers. I don't have a little baby to model it on, but I wanted to share it since it is such a happy thing for me. Here's to 5 months until I meet Quinn and 6 months until the wedding!! (That last part is a little scary, but it'll be great!)

Thanks for reading! Have a happy Memorial Day!!! 

Whip it good!

If you read this blog at all, you are probably tired of my frames with changing graphics...but I have another one. I'm sorry, my fiancée and I don't really have too many photos of people to show off in our house, so we show off my crafts.

For Valentine's day he got me a new Silhouette Cameo. I am replacing my Cricut and preparing for wedding creations that will soon need to get underway (and by soon I mean I need to pick a date and venue and final theme - so soon after that all happens). My first project was new cut outs for my frames. They are SVGs that I would share by request and I just think they're fun. Here they are....enjoy!

Whip it good!
*Andrea*

Please don't take my Sunshine away!

I TRY not to complain about the weather too much. Sometimes I feel like I get caught in a hamster wheel of complaints like that - as soon as the weather changes it's "too" something. But I love Sunshine. In Northeast Ohio, it is very easy to have a winter full of gray days that leave you wishing for My. Sun to come out and play. We have been fortunate this year that the gray hasn't been so bad. On day of sunshine inspired me to make this new craft!

Currently, I am digging the chevron fad, but my house (what is decorated of it) isn't really hip enough for that. So, I decided I would decorate the hallway with a pop of sunshine, color and pattern.

I used some canvases that I had bought for a project this Christmas. I painted them both light yellow. To make the Chevron, I cut some vinyl on my Cricut and spaced it out and stuck it down then painted the darker yellow. When it was all dry I made the flower out of felt. It was the first time I have done something like that, so it's not the best, but I cut the petals and hot glued them to the canvas. Pretty good for a first try. With the larger You are my sunshine canvas I used masking tape to make the different stripe sizes before painting the bright yellow. I free handed the wording. If I did it again, I would probably use a stencil of some sort.

I'm really diggin' it and love that it's just a POP of sun in a darker spot of the house. I am thinking about trying the "Fake Canvas Photo" Technique on some smaller 4x6 or 5x7 pictures to put around/rearrange with these fun additions. Here's the pin that inspired me to try the fake canvas project: http://pinterest.com/pin/427701295831889724/

What have you done lately to put a little sunshine in your life?

*Andrea*

Gobble On

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, so I feel guilty that I don't have many Thanksgiving/Fall decorations. I was having some friends over for a little get together (more on that later) and I felt the need to have SOMETHING Thanksgiving up. 

I had seen a pin for a printable that was super cute. I really liked it, but I have issues with printables though because I didn't have any color ink, sometimes it doesn't print nicely, and if I print them at the store sometimes they stick to the glass. Unless of course I order the Matte version which I have to wait 3 days for and I CLEARLY did not have time for that. http://pinterest.com/pin/285063851384614960/

When in doubt, figure out how to Cricut it, right? So I threw the image in Inkscape. Altered the letters so they were die-cutter friendly. Saved it as an SVG. Opened SCAL. Loaded my paper. Cut. Repeat. 

Now I have these cute Thanksgiving themed Cricut creations hanging in my kitchen. I love them. I wish I would have done them earlier, so I could enjoy them more :) (Sorry for the glare)

 I have the SVG/SCAL file. If you would like, let me know!

Merry (Belated) Christmas!

Admittedly, I am not the greatest at routine. I have vitamins sitting on my desk at work right in front of my face for 8 HOURS a day and I still forget to take them. Most people can remember to put lotion on every day when they get out of the shower - not this chick. Don't get me wrong I still remember to brush my teeth and feed myself regularly, it just seems that one of my major faults in not being able to remember to do the NON VITAL things in my life. This is probably why I am not the best blogger ever since it's an extra-curricular activity for me and I just FORGET to do it sometimes.

That being said - since my last post I have been busy with the Holidays, recovering from the Holidays, and OH....getting ENGAGED! So, I am sure you will forgive me for my absence, right?!

Here's a quick pick of my fiancée and I the day we got engaged (good thing I don't think he reads this, because I'm sure he'd be less than thrilled with the picture)

And here's a picture of the Castle we were at when he proposed. It's a charming castle in the Mohican area in Ohio called Landoll's Castle. I have wanted to go there for a really long time. Now I think we will have to visit more regularly :)

Since all of this happened, I didn't get to post all of the things I made for Christmas. I am going to do that now even after multiple Holidays have passed since. Maybe it will inspire you for next year. I didn't do step by steps on these, but I still wanted to share. 

I should explain that the house I currently live in is rented, so we haven't done a TON to the house to make it our own. Now, since the engagement, we are going to begin the process of buying a home, which I will put more effort in to. For now, it's the little temporary things that will have to do. One of my favorite things now is my set of picture frames that I can print/cut new decorations for. I posted my Gobble On for Thanksgiving/ For Christmas I made these:

These are such a fun and SIMPLE way to change out seasonal decorations. They are in my very drab kitchen, but provide a much needed lift in spirit when I see them! This time I got FANCY and put a piece of Christmas themed scrapbook paper behind the cut out to spruce them up. I love them :)

The next thing I have to share is my Noel for my living room. This was a pinterest inspired project, obviously. See the original here! I didn't go looking for different mediums for the letters, but I bought letters from the craft store and a candle wreath. I covered the letters with scrapbook paper and modge podged them on. Here's the finished product! 

I was just setting it on a shelf, so I didn't put any hanging elements on it. I could easily see this attached to a ribbon hanging vertical on a small wall space. 

That's all I have to share for now. I apparently didn't take any pictures of my entire living room decorated, which makes me sad. Did any of you make anything special to celebrate Christmas this year (or any holiday since?!)

Have a great day!

Andrea