My name is Megan. I'm from Omaha Nebraska. I grew up in the city, but was raised with country upbringing. I have expensive taste but I know you have to work hard to get the good stuff. I love getting a manicure but I'm not above getting a little dirt under my nails. I clean up nice in a dress and heels, but spend every day in my favorite jeans and t-shirt. You get the idea :)
So it's been awhile since I've posted anything. The summer has been filled with wedding planning and summer training for work so it's been busy.
I seem to find new crafts or projects that I want to just "try" out and more often than not, I end up being pretty decent at it on accident.
My newest happy accident is brooch bouquets.
For my wedding, I wanted to present my maid of honor and my bridesmaid with a pretty vintage brooch to wear on their dresses, and to then keep forever. Sunday, while lying awake, I thought it would be cute to make little mini bouquets, similar to the large brooch bouquets that are currently trending. It would be a cute way to give it to them, and they could keep both the pin and flowers forever as a memento of my special day.
Yesterday as I was making these "mini" bouquets, with the help of Darin, I ended up with two very lovely arrangements. All it took were two bouquet starters from Hobby Lobby, artificial flowers, floral pins, floral tape, ribbon, and a dollop or two of hot glue. It wouldn't have been possible with out an extra pair of hands, moral support, and my live in sounding board, all courtesy of Darin Kuehler.
Now my dilemma is, do I call my florist and tell her to only make one bouquet, for me? Or, do I keep the real bouquets and just give these as gifts? Brides have all the tough choices ;)
I haven't posted in a little while, I've been busy working a 2nd job and with everything else life has been (quite literally) throwing at me.
I did a couple new light up blocks, one for Valentine's day and one for St. Patricks day. Both I did something new with; I tried staining the glass. Normally I stuff colored tinsel in with the lights to give it some color and sparkle, but I have this great stain that I've mentioned before and it never occured to me to use it on my light blocks. (In October I posted my poison vials I made for Halloween, that was the first time I'd used it for glass.)
Also new, on the Valentine's block, instead of purchasing a pre-made and packaged vinyl cling, Darin and I made our own, using my Cricut. Cricut makes sticky vinyl intended to make your own wall clings for your house, but since it's the same material we thought it'd make a great and unique cling for the lights. Since the design is rather elaborate, trying to the get the small cut outs off of the backing and out of the design without tearing it proved to be a challenge. But I think it was worth it!! We ended up with a one of a kind light. :)
For the St. Patricks day block, I did use a pre-made cling, bought from Mangelsen's. I also made a flower vase out of a Guinness bottle for added festiveness. I've been doing that with wine bottles. All you do is pick out the color flowers you want, stick them in, and maybe add some matching ribbon. I chose Irish colors to tie around the beer bottle. These are of the block and bottle next to each other, one with flash, one without.
So I have a baby shower coming up for my friend, Brittany, who is expecting a girl in February.
I knew I had to make her a block for the baby's room, but when she told me the room theme would be owls, I was a little nervous I wouldn't find owl things to make it with.
Fortunately for me, that is a popular theme recently so I was able to find A LOT of cute owl motifs.
Just like the other blocks, I made this one with a large block, tinsel, and battery operated rice lights.
I used mod podge to adhere the forest animals. I used my new Cricut machine to make the branch, since none of the scrapbooking packs I had picked up had one big enough for 3 little owls.
(Cricut courtesy of Santa this Christmas....Santa meaning Darin, ha!)
I found the cute ribbon at a local store and just hot glued the corners to keep it secured.
Hi there! More crafty things. I keep eye-ing these wooden letters from Mangelsen's here in Omaha, and I couldn't decide what to make with them. I recently made a new friend this summer and wanted to get her something for Christmas and bought one to make for her. I liked it so much, that I made several more :) They are just painted with acrylic paint and embellished with matching ribbon, jewels, and flowers. A little paint, hot glue, and glitter goes a long way. Darin even sealed them for me!
It dawned me after looking at my cousin Amanda's blog, I forgot to post my tree skirt that I also made! Now it's under Darin and mine first Christmas tree together :)
It's been awhile, my apologies. Between a naughty kitty, early Christmas shopping, Thanksgiving festivities, and being busy in general, I haven't had the time, material, or motivation to post anything!
But the last few days I have been in the crafting mood and have made a few holiday creations.
My cousin has been making these beautiful ribbon trees, and I felt compelled to attempt a ribbon wreath, with my abundance of holiday ribbon.
I bought a foam wreath from Michael's, wrapped the wreath in ribbon to mask the foam, and just used floral pins to pin down strips of ribbon, each about 4 in long. I had left over flowers and snowflakes, so I pinned those down with it.
I also made a brick, something I do for most every holiday or celebration. It'll be up winter long, and I apologize for the blurry picture. iPhone doesn't get it right all the time, ha! The lights inside are batter operated, I normally use plug in lights, but as long as the length is on the shorter side, it doesn't matter. The star lights change color, which is a lot of fun, so I posted a video of that too!
The following pictures after that are of my newest creation. I have all these little candle holders left over from actual candles. The ones that I used are left over from Bath & Body Works, Slatkin & Co. candles. I used mini plastic ones, that are about as big around as a dollar coin, about an inch tall, and then the small glass jars, that are about 2.5 inches in diameter, and about 3 in tall.
I took a tip from Darin's mom, who freezes left over wax. I froze them all, waited for the wax to start to crack, and then it all chipped right out; I used a butter knife to chip it out. It came out in big chunks, SUPER easy!
In addition to the left over candles, I used the following:
Some had a good amount of wax in them, so through the winter I will burn them still, but the others were set up perfect for the battery votives.
First I covered the desired amount of jar in glitter glue. I used Martha Stewart's glitter glue, that has a brush cap; I'm sure any glue will do, or even double sided tape. Then I sprinkled on the desired color of glitter. I mixed colors instead of using just one straight color. I let them each dry.
After they were dry, I cut coordinating ribbon, and hot glued it around the jar. Then I picked a matching or contrasting color to tie around it in a bow or knot.
After I put the ribbon on, I smeared some hot glue in the bottom of the inside of the jar, and gently pushed in some of the tinsel snow, to make a sparkling inside. (the reason I did this is because I could not take out the left over wick without breaking the mini candles. So this is an easy cover up, and makes it easier to fish out the votive candles to turn them on and off)
Then I placed all the candles. Done! I made all 8 of those in about an 90 minutes. I plan on giving some as gifts and maybe keeping a couple myself. :)
Yesterday Darin and I went to church. There has been pamphlets handed out about how the Catholic church is going to be changing the verbiage in the way service is held, and has been being held for 40 years. Our new celebrant dragged on and on about what words were changing, why, when, and where. I couldn't help but think it was a waste of our Sunday. I thought we were supposed to come to church to get the good word, some advice, some inspiration, SOMETHING! But I didnt think it was to sit through a 3rd week of the explanation of something I can read in a pamphlet myself.
After zoning out we finally made it to communion. We were the only one's in our pew, seated behind a mostly empty pew with an elderly man and couple. We got up, did our thing, and as we returned to our seats, the old man had misplaced his hat, and couldn't figure out that his pew was the one in front of us, and started to wander up and down the pews. I was seated on the inside of Darin, and we both noticed, so I whispered, "I think he's lost." Darin got up, brought the man's hat back to him, and ushered him back to his seat, through a line of people. The man smiled at us and sat down.
Of all the years I've known Darin, I knew he was sweet and caring, selfless and kind. But yesterday, and what he did for that old man, was the sweetest, kindest thing I've ever seen him do. He didn't do it for me, a co-worker, or a family member; he did it for a complete stranger. He didn't have to get up, he could've let the man wander to the back of the church, but he didn't. And other than myself and God, I'm not sure anyone else really noticed him doing it. I guess that's all that matters, is that God did see it, and he knows Darin is a good egg. And I realized that was the reason we were supposed to go to church yesterday. Granted we didn't get a great message, but hopefully what Darin did sent a message to the old man, and others.
Just another reason I am forever amazed at how wonderful my fiance is. Nice guys really do finish first and I'm thankful and glad I have one in my life.
So it's been awhile since I've posted anything. The summer has been filled with wedding planning and summer training for work so it's been busy.
