My internet pal Laura sent me a few seriously awesome gems to refashion a few weeks ago. This is the first of them. I love the stripes and the placket (Funny enough, Hello Holiday has something similar in stock). I also liked the mix of horizontal and vertical stripes.
They're not nearly as dizzying in person, FYI. Since the shirt was too big in the shoulders, I thought I would take it apart and use the Banksia pattern to make it fit me. It was an epic fail. I didn't follow the pattern like I should have and got a pretty wonky result.
I'm not sure if you can tell from here, but my darts are lopsided. WHAT? And they're really pointy. The neck hole is a bit too tight for me to button the placket up, too. I sort of halfway used a pattern and halfway winged it which makes for a disastrous end. It's not entirely unsalvageable, fortunately. I think I'll take out the darts and take in the waist. If all fails miserably, Penelope is pretty much just straight lines at this point and would look so adorable as a candy striper.
I've hit a bit of a rough patch recently with sewing and creativity. I keep telling myself: I'll only fail if I don't do anything creative.
I love the holidays, but I don't want to do a thing for them. I've got my BOO sign out front and some random gourds; and that's all I want to do.
I'm having a hard time mustering the motivation to do anything festive or productive today. I had planned to make us all Adventure Time characters for Halloween, but I think only Penelope will be dressed up at this point. And it's just because I just so happen to have a black cape so she can go as Marcelene. Maybe we'll pull this off, but I highly doubt it at this point. Maybe I'll get really ambitious and hang up my skeleton painting.
So who else is doing the bare minimum while gawking at brilliant, easy and ambitious Halloween projects on the interwebs? Just me?
While at the Sewing Summit Thrift hop, Carrie came across these adorable pants and suggested I get them for Penelope. It was a no brainer. Especially at a whopping $3.
They were about 3 sizes too big to keep as pants, so I made them into a skirt. And I did this in about 20 minutes from start to finish.
Aren't these little details just adorable? I love the paper bag detailing on the sides and those little pockets.
I love those little embroidered flowers.
It fits her just above the knee when it's at belly button height, which is really fortunate because I just eyeballed the length.
Doing this on your own takes very little time. Jen summed up the easy steps on her latest refashion swap tutorial. If the trousers are the right fit in the waist, it takes just one snip, two seams and a little bit of hemming. Seriously, you don't really need to know how to use a sewing machine for something like this. It's just straight lines.
I'm not sure if this is a Utah thing, or something that happens in other neighborhoods around the globe, but around Halloween time neighbors doorbell ditch one another with treats and a little ghost. It's sort of a pay-it-forward treat-giving thing that hopefully spreads to all the neighbors. There's usually a little ghost graphic and instructions on how to pay it forward (much like amish friendship bread, but anonymous).
Last night we "got BOOed". It sure makes me feel super loved to get treats delivered to my door. Really, we have fantastic neighbors. Unfortunately, the printed instructions tend to get muddled and pixellated after a few houses. So I redesigned ours. And added a QR code so friendly neighborhood ghosts can reprint without garbling up information.
Have you ever participated in something like this? You should do it. Your neighbors will love it.
This tutorial/freebie is free for personal use and should not be distributed/republished without the express consent of Melissa Esplin. I love getting shout outs from around the web, but please, link with love. You may publish 1 photo along with credit back to the original post. Never link directly to the download. If you would like to use this tutorial for commercial purposes, please email me. Thanks!
I'm over at Make and Takes today sharing this mindlessly easy tutorial on how to make a little chalkboard wreath/plaque for your door. Perfect for being festive fore every holiday.
So, Nikki left a chalkboard stand behind for us when they moved. I've had it on the front porch since we've moved in (sometimes the wind blows it over), but I like to put random phrases on it. When people in the neighborhood ask where I live, they usually get where when I say "the house with the chalkboard sign in front." It's fun to have random phrases on the front porch. What silly phrases or words would you display on your front porch if you had a similar sign?
So I serve at my church in the young adult program for girls 12-18. Over the weekend we had a special annual program focusing on the things that they have done to further their strength in core values and principles. To celebrate the women who have finished the value program, we as leaders gave them a couple of special gifts. I hand-lettered and framed "I can do hard things." and made them each magic braided bracelets.
I used the template I made for my magic braided bracelet tutorial, but lengthened the template times two. I used some blue leather I had on hand (also seen here) and button studs. I liked how they turned out so much I made an extra for me. I can't wait to break it in. Wanna know the best way to break in a new leather bracelet? Shower with it on!
The blue is so pretty, I'm looking forward to pairing it with my recent jewel-toned finds.
Yesterday I took it easy. We hung out together, ran errands and cuddled. These kids are my world and sometimes I forget that.
I made this little maxi skirt at Sewing Summit, and it thrills me to bits that Penelope loves to wear it. She's really coming into her own with her style and personality. She's a sweet little spitfire.
This expression on Felix's face cracks me up. He turned 20 months two days ago, My baby Felix is no longer a baby! I'm anxious to see him start walking and talking, but I'm making a point to enjoy where we are. I know the moment he starts walking, he'll be all over the place.
It's been a while since I've taken pictures with the kids, so we took 20 minutes and partied in the studio. Felix and Penelope loved taking turns with the remote.
Felix was quite the wiggle worm. He wouldn't sit still for me at all.
We got stickers in the mail yesterday. P stuck them all over her face. Then she stuck them all over my face.
I love being their mom.
It's been a while since I've done a style post. I miss these because they motivate me to get dressed in the morning, even when I have no place to go.
I've been digging mixing tribal with florral. Besides the fact they're both all the rage these days, I love the juxtaposition of masculine and feminine so to speak.
This outfit isn't outright tribal, but the western themes and the statement necklace make my mind go there.
Outfit details:
(I'm pretty sure this outfit falls in the under $20 category.)
Can we make this combo a meme together? Hashtag your tribal and floral outfits on instagram using #tribalandfloral. I will be.
This post is sponsored by Art.com. Find your art and love your space with art.com's prints and museum-grade framing.
Follow Art.com via Pinterest to discover new artists, beautiful artwork and exclusive news.
This month Art.com is focusing on Americana. Let's talk about that movement for a minute. Americana is one of those many-faceted movements that tends to get pigeon-holed into one very specific thing. When I was younger, Americana was to me a specific distressed style with stars, stripes, dusty blues and muddy reds, and Norman Rockwell front and center. It's more than just that. America is a melting pot of a million different cultures and histories, and its art movement is indicative of that. My favorite part of Americana showcases the history and culture of the West. It's my blood. I have Apache on my dad's side (the cheek bones are a giveaway, no?) and my great-great-great grandfather on my mom's side settled Salt Lake city.
You can see how vastly different each piece above is from one another. But each tells stories of my personal history, so they work together. Any one of these would look fantastic next to my leather piece, a tribute to the connection I have on both sides with the southwest and Native American cultures.
The Golden Nugget by J.R. Eyerman reminds me of fond memories of visiting family in Las Vegas. I hated the smoke-filled casinos, but I loved gawking at all the beautiful type and bright lights. It was also in Las Vegas that my Grandfather struck out on his own (at 15!), which was a huge turning point for him.
The skis by William Swartz represent my fond memories in Park City, Utah. My grandparents had a condo and it was SO seventies ridiculous. It was decorated to the brim with old ski posters, macrame and shag rugs. I remember getting snowed in one weekend where we spent an entire day trying to skis with equipment identical to the image above. It was impossible!
The aspens by William Hook remind me of driving and hiking in the canyons on Sunday evenings with my family.
Another facet of Americana is craftsmanship. Art.com wants to showcase their amazing framing craftsmanship this month as part of their Americana theme. Their framing craftsmanship is really amazing. You can see for yourself in Art.com's craftsmanship video. I got goosebumps the first time I watched it.
Do you have any Americana in your home? Would you like to make some with me? Follow the instructions below to make your own 2-d leather sculpture.
You can find leather at Tandy Leather or on Ebay. Use the above search terms to find the right kind. You don't have to use paint, you can use a sharpie instead. I felt like paint was more legit.
Cut out the template (link provided in supplies list) and tape to the underside of the leather. This will give you a smooth cut on the front side.
Cut out and tape the template to the front side and trace over the shapes or make your own.
Trace over the template with a fair amount of pressure. This will lightly emboss your pattern to the surface.
Paint.
Rim the edges with black ink for a really polished look.
With a folded piece of cardboard, cut out a stand (provided in the template). Or use a pretty upholstery tack to pin it to the wall.
Voila!
This tutorial/freebie is free for personal use and should not be distributed/republished without the express consent of Melissa Esplin. I love getting shout outs from around the web, but please, link with love. Do not copy this post, publish more than 2 photos or outright steal this idea for commercial publications. If you would like to use this tutorial for commercial purposes, please email me. Thanks!
It was a crazy weekend last week! I attended the second Sewing Summit. There were no nights between Wednesday and Saturday that I went to bed before 3 am. I was either working feverishly to prepare or having too much fun sewing and gabbing with new and old friends. It was definitely a weekend to go down in the journal.
This was part of our amazing group of thrifters on Thursday afternoon. We all scored some amazing finds! From left: Maria, Lisa, Heather, me, Katie, Veronica and Carrie. Photo by Katie.
I taught a design principles for bloggers lecture while I was there, sharing with fellow attendees my personal must and must nots of blog layouts. I had a great turn out (60+?), but several couldn't make it due to scheduling. So I thought I'd do a 'quick' 28 minute recap for so you can glean from that lecture as well. If you want a personal design consultation, I'm now offering them here.
Basic Design Tips for Bloggers from melissapher on Vimeo.
While at Sewing Summit I made a table cloth, a skirt from a top, a maxi skirt for Penelope, two maxi skirts for me, I refinished the insides of a few of my handmade items, I made a pillow with an invisible zipper and four perfectly pointed quilt squares. I stayed BUSY! I took a serger class (maxi skirts with Leanne Barlow) and took advantage of the precious serger time and finished a bunch of outstanding projects with the Babylock sergers. They were dreamy and now I lust after one. I'm not sure that purchase will be in the near future, but at least I'm not so afraid of them anymore. Or invisible zippers (thanks to Miranda).
I had some awesome roommates, Miranda, Mim and Rach (not pictured). I could totally bust out my inner 12 year old around these awesome women. I definitely looking forward to next year.
And in other news:
Babble posted my blog as one of the top 50 design blogs for moms. I'm pretty excited about my major award and being listed among some really top notch reads. I discovered quite a few new-to-me reads there as well. You should check it out.
Valerie from DIY Bride interviewed me as part of her real DIYers series. I feel honored to have participated.
I share my current reads and obsessions in Mom's Best Fall Mag (page 49).
I made this skirt a few weeks ago, and haven't really taken the chance to share it with you. It's a simple gathered lace skirt with an elastic waistband. I dyed the lace a bright red, gathered about 3x the width and sewed it right up. Simple.
I put in a little under-skirt so that you can't see her underwear peek out. This skirt didn't require any hemming on my part, which is a major bonus.
Penelope usually wears this skirt beneath her belly button, but for the sake of the photos she let me tuck in her shirt and hike it up. Gosh, those are the things my mother nagged me about growing up. I'm totally becoming my mom.
I love working on projects with Megan Nielsen. She asked me to make a design with "I Make Fashion" on it and keep with her branding. I did a mono line piece in lowercase with symmetrical flourishes.
In this piece, the words go up on the right while the flourishes go down on the right; sort of making a visual x-marks the calligraphy spot. I'm more than jazzed how it turned out. I plan on sporting this tote as often as possible.
I'm pretty stoked to have gotten it in the mail in time for sewing summit. Maybe all the other garment sewists will think I'm cool. That's my hope at least. You can purchase your own here.
I found this adorable linen jumper at a garage sale a while back. It was originally a boy's outfit, but I just added lace to the collar. It's a simple project that took me about 10 minutes to do.
How come it's so easy to girl-ify boy's clothes and impossible to boy-ify girl's clothes?
On the other hand I totally buy girl's jeans for Felix. Target and Walmart don't really carry skinny jeans for boys, but they do for girls!
I'm in full prep-mode for Sewing Summit this week. I've got a bunch of business cards I have to make (thankfully, they're pie to make and I can always make more at the conference). I've been stumped for something to hold them in. And it's not just my business cards I want to organize, I want to hold the ones I receive as well!
As it turns out, the case that held those cute little watercolor shadowboxes fits standard business cards side-by-side flawlessly. I built in a separator with silver polka dotted paper. One side fits my standard business card and the other has a little extra wiggle room for non-standard cards.
I'm excited to have this in my bag at Sewing Summit. I'll be far more organized with cards I receive than in conferences past.
I found some slick writing pens in my stash of crafting supplies so I decorated the outside as well. Will you be attending the conference? I'm so excited to teach the design class! I'll be teaching attendees the dos and don'ts of blog layouts and design.
I finished the dresser. It's been nearly a year and a half since I bought it with the intention of revamping it. I knew if I wanted to get it done, I had to do it before the cold set in and I'd only be motivated to cuddle in blankets and drink a cup of hot abuelita (I'm hooked thanks to Celeste).
This dresser was originally going to be stained yellow like my rocking chair, but I kept feeling a nagging feeling that I'd be falling back on a crutch. I tend to fall into color ruts from time to time. In high school it was burgundy and navy. In college it was red and black. When I first got married, it was just black and tan. When we moved to Utah, it was yellow and black. Then it moved to yellow and orange.
Picking this color was a huge risk, because the guy behind the paint counter just mixed a bunch of colors and I went for it. There were no samples to go by (besides the paint stick he stained). I knew the wood on the dresser would take the stain differently because it's not pine. It's a veneered redwood or something warm like that. Maybe cherry?
I'm glad I went for the stain as opposed to an opaque paint, because the color and grain of the wood really shows trough to add a lot of dimension to this piece.
Also, I never consulted Chris on this color. I knew I was taking on a big risk by not asking him what he thought. While I was mid-job, he rolled in from work and I got more than a bit nervous for his reaction. Turns out he loves it! Bullet dodged. I do need to be better about communicating my home decor plans with him, though. He, too, bought this house.
Chris lets me use this dresser just for my clothes. He's really nice about that. Atop the dresser I have a little ikea runner I made (fabric I scored for $1 a yard at a garage sale) to protect the finish from my accessories. My accessories are stored in Spice of Life jars and on an old 1950s lunch tray.
I'm proud of how this dresser turned out. Now I need to get our bed situation figured out. It looks like we're going to buy a new bed for our room soon. And I want to make my first quilt for our room, too.
So have you ever stained wood a color before? I definitely think I'll be doing that again with any other wood rehab projects I work on in the future.
Chris got his first iPhone back in 2008 when the 3 came out. As soon as he brought it home we made him a case. Somehow I never posted about that case, but he's used it for the last 4 years. It even worked with his most recent 4 (which he's selling, btw). That leather case protected the phone so well! Looking at Chris's old iPhone 4, you can't see a single scratch on it. Serious.
So naturally we had to make Chris a new leather case for his iPhone 5. This time I'm going to share it with you, along with a pattern so you can DIY your own. I've made a few iPhone cases in my day. Chris's first one, iphone case 1.o, 2.0 and 3.0. Now this one. 4.0?
I gave the 3.0 case I made to my brother-in-law, and I think Chris was a bit jealous of the wallet functionality of Eric's case that he wanted it in the new one. We did it slightly different this time. The case has two compartments; one for the phone, one for the money. They're both the same size, but one has a lever mechanism to allow for the cards to easily go in and out of the case effortlessly. Pretty clever, right?
It's just a piece of riboon with a leather pull at the end.
So far Chris has had the case for a few days and it has its flaws. The pulley isn't working out as flawlessly as I had hoped, but Chris hasn't given up on it yet. Once we solidify something awesome, I'll share it here. Promise.
I'm doing another thrift/antique tour with Sewing Summit. Carrie and I have organized a route of top places to go downtown and thought I would share it here for Sewing Summit attendees and anyone else interested in knowing where I like to go.
click image to enlarge
If you're part of Sewing Summit in Salt Lake City, head over to the forum for the detailed schedule, times and for the sign up. If you're planning on going (or in the Salt Lake area and want to hit up these stores) here's a little bit of info on these hot spots:
Bruges has the best Belgian waffle and frites I've ever had. My favorite is the cinnamon liege waffle with crème fraîche, peaches and chocolate.
Deseret Industries is my favorite thrift stores. There's practically one on each street corner here in Utah.
Capital City Antique Mall has a ton of vendors in one roof, they have a lot of pyrex and milkglass.
Again, another DI. Can't miss.
Decades is amazing for fancy vintage duds. My sister-in-law found her wedding dress there for under $50.
MisC and Green Ant are my faves. Green Ant is a vintage and affordable DWR. MisC is perfectly curated clothing from nearly every era.
Retro Rose has a lot of fantastic home goods and tchotchkes. They organize their wares by color (BONUS!).
My cousin just got married. I'm so excited for her!
I don't do wedding invitations as part of a business, but I sure do love designing them for family and friends.
They wanted something simple, but with little touches of fanciness. I kept the invite themselves very traditional with a little touch of hand lettering with their names. The fact that the printers were all gawking over the "font" really boosted my ego. Made my week.
They have a rustic theme going on, so ripped edges would've been cool, but the thought of hand-ripping 450 invitations plus inserts made our heads spin. Instead they tied the invites together with brown and yellow baker's twine and sent them in brown envelopes.
This takes me back to my wedding. I sure did love my wedding, even though Pinterest wasn't a thing back then. Now that I think about it, I probably would've been even more stressed as a bride because I would've wanted to DIY everything. I've never really shared details of my wedding before. . . It was rad.
The pants Carrie made for me arrived on Saturday. I have to admit, the elastic cuffed pants sorta scared me a bit, but I'm always willing to give something new a try.
The fit around my waist is perfect. even through the thighs. I think I might take them in a bit around the knees and ankles for more of a skinny effect, but they're just fine as-is. Carrie did a fantastic job thinking outside the box for me. Make yourself a pair using Carrie's refashion tutorial. Thanks for making me something awesome, Carrie!!
As it turns out, the skirt I made for jen has not arrived yet! I can't wait to see how they fit on her, though. Below are all the ladies participating, see how their refashions fit:
Seriously, last night I made up one of the tastiest dinners we've had in some time. Like mouth-watering tasty. I couldn't get enough of this good stuff in my belly fast enough. In my head it seemed like it would taste good. And it did.
I made roasted red pepper hummus open-faced sandwiches. And we polished them off in a matter of minutes. Here's how to make them in under 15 minutes.
Roasted Red Pepper Hummus
1 15 oz. can chickpeas (garbanzo beans)
1/4 c. tahini sauce
1/4 c. olive oil
1 t. minced garlic (or 1-2 cloves of garlic)
1/2 bunch flat parsley
1 roasted red pepper
1/2 t. mrs. dash chipotle seasoning
salt & pepper, to taste
Heat up a pan super hot (I used the panini press). Flay your red pepper(s) and blacken. Drop all of the above ingredients into a food processor. Blend until smooth. Makes about 2 1/2 cups of hummus.
For the tasty sandwiches above, heat up a panini press and grill shredded parmesan onto bread. Top the cheese bread with hummus, avocado and roasted chicken.
You'll want to make one of these babies asap. Trust me.
They're not nearly as dizzying in person, FYI. Since the shirt was too big in the shoulders, I thought I would take it apart and use the Banksia pattern to make it fit me. It was an epic fail. I didn't follow the pattern like I should have and got a pretty wonky result.
I'm not sure if you can tell from here, but my darts are lopsided. WHAT? And they're really pointy. The neck hole is a bit too tight for me to button the placket up, too. I sort of halfway used a pattern and halfway winged it which makes for a disastrous end. It's not entirely unsalvageable, fortunately. I think I'll take out the darts and take in the waist. If all fails miserably, Penelope is pretty much just straight lines at this point and would look so adorable as a candy striper.
I've hit a bit of a rough patch recently with sewing and creativity. I keep telling myself: I'll only fail if I don't do anything creative.
I'm having a hard time mustering the motivation to do anything festive or productive today. I had planned to make us all 
They were about 3 sizes too big to keep as pants, so I made them into a skirt. And I did this in about 20 minutes from start to finish.
Aren't these little details just adorable? I love the paper bag detailing on the sides and those little pockets.
I love those little embroidered flowers.
It fits her just above the knee when it's at belly button height, which is really fortunate because I just eyeballed the length.
Doing this on your own takes very little time. Jen summed up the easy steps on her 
Last night we "got BOOed". It sure makes me feel super loved to get treats delivered to my door. Really, we have fantastic neighbors. Unfortunately, the printed instructions tend to get muddled and pixellated after a few houses. So I redesigned ours. And added a QR code so friendly neighborhood ghosts can reprint without garbling up information.
Have you ever participated in something like this? You should do it. Your neighbors will love it.
So, Nikki left a chalkboard stand behind for us when they moved. I've had it on the front porch since we've moved in (sometimes the wind blows it over), but I like to put random phrases on it. When people in the neighborhood ask where I live, they usually get where when I say "the house with the chalkboard sign in front." It's fun to have random phrases on the front porch. What silly phrases or words would you display on your front porch if you had a similar sign?
I used the template I made for my 
The blue is so pretty, I'm looking forward to pairing it with my recent jewel-toned finds.
I made this little maxi skirt at Sewing Summit, and it thrills me to bits that Penelope loves to wear it. She's really coming into her own with her style and personality. She's a sweet little spitfire.
This expression on Felix's face cracks me up. He turned 20 months two days ago, My baby Felix is no longer a baby! I'm anxious to see him start walking and talking, but I'm making a point to enjoy where we are. I know the moment he starts walking, he'll be all over the place.
It's been a while since I've taken pictures with the kids, so we took 20 minutes and partied in the studio. Felix and Penelope loved taking turns with the remote.
Felix was quite the wiggle worm. He wouldn't sit still for me at all.
We got stickers in the mail yesterday. P stuck them all over her face. Then she stuck them all over my face.
I love being their mom.
I've been digging mixing tribal with florral. Besides the fact they're both all the rage these days, I love the juxtaposition of masculine and feminine so to speak.
This outfit isn't outright tribal, but the western themes and the statement necklace make my mind go there.
Outfit details:
(I'm pretty sure this outfit falls in the under $20 category.)
Can we make this combo a meme together? Hashtag your tribal and floral outfits on instagram using #tribalandfloral. I will be.
This post is sponsored by 
You can see how vastly different each piece above is from one another. But each tells stories of my personal history, so they work together. Any one of these would look fantastic next to my leather piece, a tribute to the connection I have on both sides with the southwest and Native American cultures.
Supplies:
Cut out the template (link provided in supplies list) and tape to the underside of the leather. This will give you a smooth cut on the front side.
Cut out and tape the template to the front side and trace over the shapes or make your own.
Trace over the template with a fair amount of pressure. This will lightly emboss your pattern to the surface.
Paint.
Rim the edges with black ink for a really polished look.
With a folded piece of cardboard, cut out a stand (provided in the template). Or use a pretty upholstery tack to pin it to the wall.
This was part of our amazing group of thrifters on Thursday afternoon. We all scored some amazing finds! From left: Maria, 
I had some awesome roommates, 
I put in a little under-skirt so that you can't see her underwear peek out. This skirt didn't require any hemming on my part, which is a major bonus.
Penelope usually wears this skirt beneath her belly button, but for the sake of the photos she let me tuck in her shirt and hike it up. Gosh, those are the things my mother nagged me about growing up. I'm totally becoming my mom.
In this piece, the words go up on the right while the flourishes go down on the right; sort of making a visual x-marks the calligraphy spot. I'm more than jazzed how it turned out. I plan on sporting this tote as often as possible.
I'm pretty stoked to have gotten it in the mail in time for sewing summit. Maybe all the other garment sewists will think I'm cool. That's my hope at least. You can 
How come it's so easy to girl-ify boy's clothes and impossible to boy-ify girl's clothes?
On the other hand I totally buy girl's jeans for Felix. Target and Walmart don't really carry skinny jeans for boys, but they do for girls!
As it turns out, the case that held those cute little 
I'm excited to have this in my bag at Sewing Summit. I'll be far more organized with cards I receive than in conferences past.
I found some slick writing pens in my stash of crafting supplies so I decorated the outside as well. Will you be attending the conference? I'm so excited to teach the design class! I'll be teaching attendees the dos and don'ts of blog layouts and design.
I gave the 3.0 case I made to my brother-in-law, and I think Chris was a bit jealous of the wallet functionality of Eric's case that he wanted it in the new one. We did it slightly different this time. The case has two compartments; one for the phone, one for the money. They're both the same size, but one has a lever mechanism to allow for the cards to easily go in and out of the case effortlessly. Pretty clever, right?
It's just a piece of riboon with a leather pull at the end.
So far Chris has had the case for a few days and it has its flaws. The pulley isn't working out as flawlessly as I had hoped, but Chris hasn't given up on it yet. Once we solidify something awesome, I'll share it here. Promise.
I don't do wedding invitations as part of a business, but I sure do love designing them for family and friends.
They wanted something simple, but with little touches of fanciness. I kept the invite themselves very traditional with a little touch of hand lettering with their names. The fact that the printers were all gawking over the "font" really boosted my ego. Made my week.
They have a rustic theme going on, so ripped edges would've been cool, but the thought of hand-ripping 450 invitations plus inserts made our heads spin. Instead they tied the invites together with brown and yellow baker's twine and sent them in brown envelopes.
This takes me back to my wedding. I sure did love my wedding, even though Pinterest wasn't a thing back then. Now that I think about it, I probably would've been even more stressed as a bride because I would've wanted to DIY everything. I've never really shared details of my wedding before. . . It was rad.
The pants 
The fit around my waist is perfect. even through the thighs. I think I might take them in a bit around the knees and ankles for more of a skinny effect, but they're just fine as-is. Carrie did a fantastic job thinking outside the box for me. Make yourself a pair using 
I made roasted red pepper hummus open-faced sandwiches. And we polished them off in a matter of minutes. Here's how to make them in under 15 minutes.