Get Excited For Crafting...

It's been forever since I've posted on here and I have no one but myself to blame.  Of course I'm not doing that, so I'm going to say that it's all Chowder's fault.  Mostly because she can't defend herself.


I've decided to do some fancy crafting for my wedding and today's post is going to be about kissing balls.  If you haven't heard of these things I'll explain:  basically they're weird balls with stuff on them.  Why they're called kissing balls I'll never know, but the mental image that term brings to mind cracks me up.  The ones I decided to make have ruffles all over them and are amaaaazing.


All you need to have handy is fabric, scissors, a hot glue gun, a styrofoam ball, and netflix on your wii.  That last part is optional, but I'm not sure how I could have finished this without Season 5 of Weeds to keep me company.

You're a life saver, Ms. Botwin.

Anyway, as a heads up my camera isn't the best so bear with me on these shots.  First just grab some fabric (I used felt, but that's just me... I adore felt for some crazy reason).  Cut them into a bunch of circles.

See?  They don't even have to be perfect!

Then you fold a circle in half... 

and place a dot of hot glue in the center...

and then you fold it in half again.  The fun never stops.

Now make a TON of them.

Start by gluing them onto the styrofoam ball and keep going until it's covered.

I chose to put a cream colored ribbon onto the top, but you could do any combo you'd like.  Remember that my camera is crappy so these look MUCH better in real life.  I actually love them.  A lot. :)

Soooo... You Wanna?

I was looking through this blog the other day. All three posts of it. When I realized that I never put on here how Matty proposed to me. It started when my Grandma called me months and months ago to ask if I wanted to use her engagement ring when he finally proposed. I'm not 100% sure, but I think the conversation went something like this:


After she initially asked I said, "Weeellll, what does it look like?" In the back of my mind I was picturing the worst case scenario... gold (I have almost zero gold jewelry) with a bunch crazy tiny diamonds. What if it was extremely unattractive? How do you even tell your Grandma that her engagement ring's a big fat stinker? Before I go any further and you think that I'm a horrible person for talking to my Grandma like I'm about to, I want to say that she's a sparkplug.

(Obviously)

Back to the story...  My Grandma pauses and says, "It's white gold and I loved it when your Grandpa gave it to me... the only thing is that it doesn't have any diamonds in it."

"What's that Grandma? You say you're giving me a cleaned out wedding ring? Is it made of gum wrappers, too?"

"Maybe... you'll have to wait and see."

"You're crafty, Grandma, but I'd love to see it. We'll talk after you prove it's not something you bought at Dollar General." - side note: I was being serious... she LIVES for that place

"Done."

Now,  if you're still thinking I was rude to my Grandma let me take a little detour and tell you a story about her.  I once asked her to knit me a white scarf because she kept going on and on about how good she was getting at knitting.  She agreed and a month or two later she gave me an adorable white scarf.  I wore it so proudly, telling all my friends that she had made it and blah blah blah.  She later confessed that she bought it at a flea market and lied to me about making it. 

(This is what she looks like when she's NOT fibbing about gifts...)

So the next time I was able to go to Missouri she showed it to me and I loved it. I gave it to Matty and he put diamonds in it. And then I waited. And waited. And waited. I got the ring in the early fall / late summer and I didn't get it until he proposed on New Years Day. Here's how it happened...

I guess before Thanksgiving Matty went to a park in town called Swanson Park that we like to take Chowder to (when we want to brave her crazy anti-other dog behavior) and walked to this pretty wooden bridge that I've always loved.

He had carved "Ashlee will you marry me" in a spot under the rail and waited.  And waited.  And waited.  Come to find out, he really wanted my parents to be in town for it so he was totally ready on Thanksgiving.  They couldn't make it.  I couldn't figure out why he was so upset about it at the time.  I mean, I love my parents but he was super sad.  Fast forward to New Years Day and he said he wanted to take Chowder to the park since it was such a nice day.

After Chowder walked in the woods for awhile, we got back to the bridge and he said, "What's that say there?" Since we like to read the carvings I thought it was just some other random thing so I bent down to look and I said, "I have no idea what that says... Jerry... Jeffrey? Oooohhh" and about the time I figured it out I looked over and he was down on one knee with the ring out.

Adorable, right?  He's amazing.  If you ever want to see for yourself you can go check it out... it's on the post that says "Foxy Lady" on it.  Perfection.

You've Got To Have A Pretty Lure To Get The Best Fish...

Today I thought I’d spice it up and talk about something other than food for a post. Because you know for a fact that the majority of my posts will be about food. Just stating the facts. I think this post is going to be about my invites. I love them like crazy and I have my friend Mrs. Gerstenschlager to thank for the base of my ideas. I know what you’re thinking and yes I agree that her last name is amazing. It must take her a full 20 minutes to sign her checks. Anyway, here are a few invites I loved but just couldn’t settle on.  Again, if these are yours let me know and I'll give you the credit.  The first was one sent to me by Mrs. G because my fiance proposed to me by carving "Ashlee, will you marry me?" into a wooden bridge.  I know... he's fantastic.

I think it's so adorable and it really kind of ties in his proposal, but it wasn't exactly what I was looking for. I could just see my grandparents getting the invite and wondering just what in the hell it was. Or using it as a coaster. Either one.  Onto another super cute idea...

or

True these are technically Save the Date cards, but I figured I could tweak it a bit and have a pretty kickin' invite. It's simple. It's adorable. I love it, but it really doesn't mesh with the rest of my wedding planning. Unless I want a carnival themed wedding. Which would be amazing. I have tons of pictures for that saved on my computer, but I thought it might be a little TOO weird. Maybe I'll post those next time. The suspense must be KILLING you guys. Right. Now onto where my final invite got inspiration. I found this one somewhere on the internet and for the life of me I have no clue where it was. So sad. At any rate it's so fantastic. I love the colors and I love how simple it is.

Amazing... I know.  We're planning of having our dance outside under the stars with lights strung up everywhere, so this invite would have been perfect for that.  I almost ordered it and had pretty much decided that we would use this one (if I could ever find it back) when my amazing Mrs. G sent me this one...

Because Matty carved my proposal into wood this was almost perfect for an invite. I love how the tree is just an outline and the sweet carvings on its trunk. We aren't having RSVP cards *another gasp* because we pretty much know who's going to make it and who might not. We've decided to set up an e-mail address instead and print it on the invite. Who knows if it's going to work. It could be fantastic or it could be a massive disaster. I'll let you know which one! Back to the invites, I ended up sketching out this beauty for our final choice...

Now, I realize this isn't the best picture, but it's good enough to give you a general idea.  I combined the amazing tree with some of the lights from the other invite and if you look to the left of the trunk you can see a small figure that, I'm not going to lie, is Chowder our dog... with her tennis ball.  She was there when he proposed and she's the coolest dog ever so it was only right to put her on there.  I couldn't be happier with this invite if I tried.  I even love the wavy lines on the side.  When it comes to the writing, the rest of the invite will be similar to the other tree invite.  I think it's such a simple and sweet invitation and I love how it fits both the proposal and the wedding.  Now if I could just find some place to print them off...