Alligator Pinata

It was birthday time again and this year that called for an alligator pinata.

The candy went in an opening in the mouth.  The alligator is based on the one from Oh Happy Day.  If you'd like to see more photos look on my Instagram.

xoxo,

b

Blinging the Cube

Hola!  80's movie reference, anyone?  Christian Slater fans?  

Well, I've finished up on some jewelry and gem items, but I got distracted by beautifying my faux office, so we'll start there.  Cubicles, bleh; forty hour a week cages, but why not pretty and who says what's acceptable (upper management?)?

  I couldn't take anymore grey or polar vortex, so I had to brighten up the place and Target has some sort of siren song that calls out to me from aisles of items I simply don't need...  So I caved and found a reason to buy some very lovely wrapping paper and various items from the (not always a) dollar aisle.  It isn't quite done yet because with me, a little almost always turns into a lot, but here's what I've got so far:

The view as you walk into the area.

Yeah?  Nice?  Better than grey!  Cream and gold striped gift wrap from Target, $4 a roll, the plants I already had, and an "over sized" (aka engineer print) print from Staples.  The black and white 3' by 4' pints are about $7.  This is a photo of my daughter taken while we were getting ready for my wedding (photos by Sleeping Robot Productions).

DIY circus elephant planter.

New chair cushion with gold leather tag to match the decor.

I brought my elephant from home and made it's green bits gold.  Then I looked online for a fabulous chair cushion since that seemed to be a common element among office spaces that "have it goin' on", but my taste is expensive and this is a VERY wide open space.  Who want to put a $75 throw pillow on a park bench and see if it's still there later?  Um, not me.  I found the fabric that I had at home that would work best in this space and so, my cushion was free.

Other side!

Another over sized print, more existing plants, same file as before, new photos, and the same frames painted green.  I order a few Nutcracker photos every year that my daughter dances in it.  The 2013 photos just came in a week ago, perfect.  I wanted the picture frames to be a similar to the green of the plants; thank you Martha Stewart acrylic paints.

The frames at home after drying.

The mug my friend made is broken, but now it holds flowers from Mr. Husband.

Yep, that's Target again.  Threshold ceramic container, dollar aisle pens, and some gold clearance pencils.

I discovered the wonders of metallic Sharpies during this process.  Plastic, orange handle scissors?  Not a problem!  Now they're gold!  Yellow top on that ceramic canister?  Not with Sharpie!  And so on, and so on...

Recognize my tiny cake?

And a detail of my new photos in freshly painted frames.

I still need to apply paper to the front portion of wall and re-hang my mirror.  I also think a rug would be a nice finish and make this space amazing.  I encourage you to grab the Sharpies, acrylic paints, gift warp, and stapler and make some bright and crisp fabulousness of your own.

Wedding Brain

I have wedding brain.  It is absolutely a real thing and it is making it hard to concentrate or focus on anything (other than obsessing over a nearly finished to do list and second guessing any decisions already made).  I had no idea I would be this way.

I've been enjoying life as a unicorn.

I have piles for miles.

Seriously, I do.  This is a pile of miscellaneous wedding decorations that are now complete.

I've decided that weddings need unicorns and woodland creatures or at least masks representing said creatures.  So, I justified a few last minute purchases.  The masks weren't expensive, but I usually do well at talking myself out of these kinds of purchases (unless it's Halloween season).  See the tablecloth in the lower left corner of the photo above?  That's where I took my color palette from.  I still have a few tassels left so I'm planning to go ahead and string them up this weekend.  Other than that the only things left to do are bake meringues, buy a few food items for Future Husband's party (he is turning 32!) and get married.  

Completely off topic, has anyone heard of The Musical of the Living Dead?  I just bought tickets.  There's a splash zone.

xoxo,

B

Almost...

The wedding is 3 weeks from today and recently, I introduced myself to Bridezillas via Netflix.  That behavior can't be normal and why would you take on new projects 5 days before a big event?  Anyway, that isn't the point.  The thing that I have noticed is that the brides in the episodes I've seen find it very important for everyone to see them and want people focused on how they look.  That really isn't my goal.  I want to look nice and have nice pictures.  I want to be appealing to Future Husband, but what I want people to see is the decorations.  I want to create an environment and mood through a visually driven experience; add in the music and food and we can bring along the other senses.  I think of the wedding as an opportunity to create a large scale art installation.  I'm not sure if that's good, bad, or normal; it just is what it is.  It isn't my day to be a princess.  It's a day to celebrate everyone we know and mark Team Merry-Miller as going official.  There is no perfection and that is fine.  The amount of decorations will have no bearing on the wedding happening or not happening, but if there's an opportunity to make fun things, I'm going to take it.

Above are pictures of my dining room table.  It hardly ever sees food, but it does get a lot of traffic from cutting mats and glue guns.  There are 160 tassels now and I am closing in on my goal of 200.  Pre-fluffed and trimmed tassels on the table and finished pieces on dowel rods.  The fifth pinata is silver, white and grey and most importantly, close to completion.  I am working to control my "just one more" impulse when it comes to DIY's.  If I would quit doing that, this would be it for projects (except that i decided to make three chalkboards and cut some fabric).  I'll work it out.

I will have so many tutorial posts starting at the end of the summer.  I hope you enjoy the photos until then.

XOXO,

b

Instagramification

A few pictures from tassel craft night.

Last weekend was very busy.  I volunteered at the Indiana Handiecraft Exchange, went to 2 farmer's markets, had over night guests, and had a wedding craft night.  This week, school ended and ballet started.  I restocked my supplies yesterday and fringed up some more pinata paper.  The paper party continues on tonight!

xoxo,

B

Friday!

I found the sweet potato based meringue recipe.  You can check it out here.  It just didn't work for me.

Army of M's.

I finished the M bases last night.  There's a naked pinata table in my dining room.  I am so excited to start dressing them this weekend.  I'm liking this two-tone pinata from Fabric Paper Glue.  Find the original inspiration here.

Happy Friday,

xoxo,

B

Oddly Practical

I promised an update and I know there are 2 of you who might care...

 I added to my NYE decorations for my birthday party and I focused on the living room/dining room area.  I capped it off by setting up hot food and dishes in the kitchen and having a very clean house.  I felt that "Happy New Year" still applied since it was a new year of life.  This was sort of a trial run of what I'm doing for our wedding.  I got to see how space my streamers actually covered, how much tape it takes to hang things, and how long the helium in those balloons really lasts.  My friends refer to me as "oddly practical"; I think that was the word they paired with practical.  I'm not practical apparently because I spent a solid week of long hours on DIY decorations, but I'm not impractical because I used things from around the house.  I was told that straight up practical would be inviting your friends over.  Oddly practical is creating interactive experience out of items in the recycling bin and inviting your friends over.  I'm good with it.

Four types of cake; cookie, bundt, vegan, and cheese.

I lit those sparklers and I made some fabulous vegan red velvet cupcakes and my best vegan icing so far.

I also had party hats and pizza box numbers.  I did a lot of waiting for people to show up and then I sent them texted profanity.

There's a secret about this though...  something that I don't think my party goers considered...  and it doesn't mean that I love them any less, but...

The party was an excuse for the decorations.  I had a party because I wanted a reason to turn my house (at least a portion of it) into some sort of paper crafted experience, but then ya' know, I had to have someone to show it to.  I did learn a lot for my wedding installation and this experience did help me to further develop and refine some ideas.  I also had a great time.

Best Room Ever?

This might be one of the best rooms I've ever seen and it appears to be the same for quite a few other people.  I'm making a miniature version of this paper display in my daughter's 'big girl' bedroom.  Is it over due to be updated?  She'll be 10 in six point five months.  I believe she thinks she's older though.  I made sure that we did something that would work with the existing furniture, bedding, and curtains.  The bedding isn't very old, but it seems like bedding wears out quickly for how expensive it is or maybe it just seems like it hasn't been that long...

This is one corner of her room.  There's a similar arrangement in the opposite corner.  I also have some paper lanterns to add.  I got my lanterns from Just Artifacts.  I ordered them late Friday night and got them on Monday; fast, cheap, and pretty!

We got a new free table too.

Paper Party at My House

So many paper decorations...  I'm on a kick or just obsessed lately.  Paper party decorations just make everything seem so happy and they activate space so well.  Since moving in, I have knocked out 3 paper garlands, 2 fabric garlands, and 6 tissue paper pom-poms.  I have stacks of fabric for the next rounds of bunting and plans to purchase a couple more punches this weekend (reapeatedly cutting the same shape from paper is tedious, punching it is not so much so).  Most of my recent efforts have gone into Athena's room.  What do you do with an empty corner?  Go through all that stored tissue paper of course and fold it into fluff balls worthy of hanging.  I think if I can do 2 more garlands (paper or felt?)  I'll be done with them for her room.

Paper sphere garland (16 pieces each) as seen here.

My fabric version of Loopy-loo garland.  Tutorial (for the paper version) at ISLY.

I also decided that I simply must have a pajaki.  The pajaki creates a need to invest in a floral paper punch.  I guess I would put it on my tea party (the good kind with cakes, not the kind with political radicals) worthy front porch?

Bean's room will be finished soon.  Pictures to follow.
xoxo

Beads

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