The Best Day Ever

Just a little over seven months ago, the love of my life and I celebrated becoming husband and wife. Without a doubt, it was the happiest day of my life as of yet! I feel blessed being able to look back at these beautiful photos and even more grateful that I get to spend the rest of my life with the loveliest man. 

Yesterday, one of my go-to wedding blogs when we were planning the wedding, Ruffled, featured our rustic farm wedding! I thought I'd share some of our favourite shots that you may have not seen yet!

{This has to be one of my favourite shots. What a handsome fella.}

{Our wedding party sure knew how to make us laugh.}

{One of the many signs I calligraphed with paint.}

{Best looking groom & groomsmen!}

{Yup. That's my husband!}

{Garrett and I designed the patterns and sewed all of the polka-dotted bow ties!}

{The ceremony programs I designed also doubled as fans for the guests.}

{Hello lovely bridesmaids!}

{I've always loved Grace Kelly's dress from that scene in To Catch A Thief and knew that my wedding dress would be like it.}

{So much labour of love went into these paper flower bouquets! Garrett gets credit for adding the "crinkled" effect in each flower - so crafty!}

{The most amazing dinner. I wish we could have this every night!}

{The farm owner's pup was getting a little taste of the dinner too!}

{I feel like this would be one of those photos we'll try and recreate after 50 years of marriage!}

{The happiest ending to the day, but also so ecstatic to be living life together from that day on as husband and wife!}

For more photos, check out our feature on Ruffled blog! Thank you Sarah & Graeme for capturing our love! 

DIY | Wall hanging

 

Alright folks, let's talk about wall hangings. They're super trendy right now and I can see why! They're affordable and so easy to make! Today I'll be showing you how you can create your own wall hanging. Shall we?

You will need:

2x wooden dowels

roving yarn

wooden beads

embroidery floss

Instructions:

1. Snip off a long strip of yarn 

(depending on the length you want - I did roughly about 80" long) 

and make a loop around the first dowel.

2. Feed the yarn through the top loop.

3. Tie a knot for the next dowel.

(I did roughly 5" apart from the first dowel)

4. Slide the second dowel and tie another knot underneath.

5. Repeat these steps across.

(I did 15 of these across)

6. Start beading your wooden beads in your desired pattern.

7. Create another pattern towards the bottom of the yarn with more beads.

8. Trim off excess yarn in your desired pattern.

9. Hang it up with embroidery floss, and you're done!

*note*

When stringing the yarn through the dowels, try taping the wooden pieces down on a flat surface with painter's tape. It makes it easier to feed the yarn through without much movement between the two dowels! 

There are so many ways you can customize this project as well. Depending on your style, you could even paint the beads copper, gold or black! This is an excellent weekend project that you can look forward to doing with friends! 

Oh and happy first day of Spring! 

DIY | St. Patrick's Day Paper Wreath

To be fairly honest, I'm not one to celebrate St. Patty's Day really (even though my husband is part Irish). But today I have a super simple project for you that looks festive and makes for a nice addition in to your home!

Materials:

heart pattern

cardstock x3

wire

floral tape

glue gun

scissors

babies breath 

Step 1:

print out free printable pattern & cut out

Step 2:

crease each heart vertically

Step 3:

form a circular shape out of wire & cover with floral tape

Step 4:

start gluing creased hearts in random order with glue gun

Step 5:

tuck in babies breath in between the hearts

attach a small string to the back of wire & hang

Voila! I hope you guys enjoy making this project and maybe have some chocolate coins while you're at it!

DIY | Hanging Eucalyptus

eucaplyptus, wooden dowel, string, scissors and olive oil (optional)

1. treat wooden dowel with olive oil (like I did, however this step is optional)

2. trim eucalyptus to desired lengths

3. start tying knots evenly across the wooden dowel leaving extra room for knots

4. tie on eucalyptus in desired arrangement

5. trim the excess strings off

6. hang up your piece with another string and pin on to a wall

A pretty easy DIY for you guys that will add a touch of cozy in your place. I decided to hang mine in the bathroom above our towel rack. When the bathroom gets steamy from showering, it gives off a nice and relaxing aromatic scent so it's perfect! 

There are so many other options you could do with this project - I think I will be doing something like this with bright flowers soon, especially now that spring is around the corner!

Welcome Home Cake

My sweet husband came home last weekend from work/school and I wanted to do something nice for him. Naturally, I would've had some baked goods (like his favourite chocolate chip cookies). But this time, I wanted to step it up and decided to bake him a cake! I added a welcome home topper plus some babies breath because why not right? And he loved it, of course. 

We love surprising each other with little things like this especially after being apart for some time. It makes the reunion extra sweet!

I followed this recipe by Martha Stewart and then a buttercream icing recipe from here. 

DIY | Patterned Pocket Journals

What you'll need: 

Moleskine kraft paper pocket size journals (or any kraft paper journal will do) + white paint pen + a cuppa tea*

*optional but recommended

This is a really simple project. You only need some journals and a paint pen from your local art store. Whip up some patterns and voila, you're done! 

Did I already mention that I highly recommend having tea while doing this? Right. 

And why not throw in some good tunes too. Ah, yes. 

Now that ought to get you in the mood in making some fun patterns!

DIY | Valentine's Gift Idea

Valentine's day is only three weeks away, and that's enough of a reason to eat share conversation hearts with everybody! Also, because I needed another reason to use these gem hearts from the free wallpaper download in this post. Who knew it was even possible to make these candies so much cuter!

Materials

Conversation heart candies

Mini tupperwares

Tags - stay tuned next week for a printable!

Directions

01. Gather conversation hearts - try not to eat it all at once!

02. Fill mini tupperwares with candies

03. Top a cute little tag

The last and best step is to give them away! Have fun spreading the love and stay tuned for the printable next week!

DIY | Framed Mini Wreath

First DIY of 2014 - how exciting! I purchased this Rifle Paper Co. Secret Calendar to hang in our kitchen. It came with this page full of mini calendars. Typical me, I thought "This is too pretty to throw in the recycling!". So I decided to make a project out of it!

Materials

Rifle Paper Co.'s Secret Garden calendar sheet

X-acto knife

Pen

Scissors

Tape

Cardstock

IKEA Ribba frame

Directions

See photos for step-by-step instructions

This is an easy project that could also work great for weddings! Simply replace the welcome sign with table numbers (plus you'll have 12 wreaths to choose from)! I'd love to hear your thoughts and see what else you do with them!