Super Size the Pom Love

Image via Rocky Villa

Back when I first began searching for inspiration photos for our wedding I found myself swooning over initial wreaths like the one above. I love the simple symmetry of the wreathe and they seemed like such a simple DIY project that would pack a lot of visual punch.

The only downside was that the inspiration picks I was coming across all had more a rustic elegant feel that doesn’t really gel well with the overall handmade modern theme of our wedding, that is until I found this wonderfully fluffy and colorful one from Blue Bird Vintage.

Image Via Blue Bird Vintage

Since we want our wreath to take center stage at our ceremony we’ve had to beef up the size to about 3 feet. Yup our wreath will be big enough to hula hoop in, and it’s going to be fabulous. Well at least I hope it’ll be fabulous because so far this is all I have done.

Mr CC and I have been tag teaming our wreath this week and we have a big bin full of poms with a mountain of yarn waiting to be spun into fluffy balls. It’s been slow going but its pretty easy work to do sitting in front of the TV.

The only problem now is trying to figure out what to put in the middle, any ideas? I’m thinking some sparkly initials like these from BHLDN but I’m not completely sold…

The Bridal Cherry on Top Part 2

Thank you Hive for all your wonderful comments and opinions on this post! After going back and forth between my top two favorite veils and polling every person who listens to my rambling on about veils I finally bit the bullet and ordered this beauty!

Photo via weddingchicks.com Veil by Tessa Kim

Oh she’s lovely and she’ll be heading my way in just a few short weeks. While I wait for my new piece of bridal flair to reach our home I’ve been busy at work putting the final touches on my equally as lovely hair comb.

When I purchased my dress a couple weeks ago I knew that I wanted a hair piece that would complement the crystal applique on the bodice of the dress. Something kind of like this was high on my list of possible combs.

Image via Etsy Designed by Twigs & Honey

Since I refused to pay over 200 bucks for an accessory I would only wear once I decided to get creative and recreate the look on my own. After some brain storming I came up with a pretty simple process and headed down to Michael Levine in Downtown were I picked theses pretties for 11 bucks each.

I later picked up some gold tulle, fusible interfacing, nylon thread and silver hair comb at Joann’s. After about 2 nights of stitching, cutting and gluing I had my very own sparkly hair comb all for about 30 bucks!

The process was pretty simple I started by played around with the appliques until I came up with an arrangement that I liked and then using my clear nylon thread to stitch both pieces together to create one large applique.

I then took my tulle with the interfacing already fused on and stitched the applique on with my clear thread.

Once applied to the comb the tulle and light weight fusing added just enough support to the applique to help it hold its shape. I read a tutorial online that instructed you to apply decoupage glue directly onto the applique to make it ridged but I really wanted the back of my comb to look neat and I didn’t want to risk ruining my appliques with glue.

Once completely stitched I trimmed the excess tulle from the applique and using some E-6000 glue I attached it directly onto the comb. Since I’m paranoid, I reinforced the glue by stitching the comb onto the applique with some embroidery floss making sure to only go as far as the tulle and not catch the actual applique

And that’s it! Easy peasy hair comb that looks like it cost twice the price of your supplies!

Anyone else making their own hair accessories?

Put a Pin on It

A couple weeks ago I had the pleasure of sitting down with BM S and SD to discuss all things bridal shower. The girls pretty much had all the details handled but there was one element that I volunteered to take the lead on and that was the favors. Like the lovely Mrs Socks lately I’ve found myself swooning over fabric flower pins like these from Emerson Made.

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I knew the style and feel of these playful pins didn’t quit jive with the overall look and feel of our wedding but our shower now that’s another story.

I know it’s a little odd for the bride to be creating her own shower favors but with all the other tasks the girls are taking on I didn’t want to burden them with another project and to be honest the crafty girl in me was itching to take a crack at creating some of these little beauties of my own.

Since I absolutely hate hand work (I blame my Sample Making I teacher) I had to come up with a way to create the look of a flower with little to no sewing which is how I came up with these-

All you need to make these little guys are a small or medium pom pom maker, chiffon and jersey fabric scraps, and some thread. They come together super quick and If you want to make them into pins like mine all you need to add is some felt scraps a pin back and hot glue.

Once you have all your supplies together prep your fabric by cutting it into long thin strips. I highly recommend you stay away from any quilter cotton fabric as it doesn’t really shape well in pom maker and just looks like a mess once you’re done.

With your fabric strips ready simply wrap them around the pom maker until both sides are full. Once completely wrapped snip the fabric along the ditch and tie together with embroidery thread.

Remove from the maker and give it a quick fluff between your hands and you’re done! If you want to add a pin back all you need to do is take a scrap piece of felt and cut a circle large enough to glue your pin back to. Take your glue gun and add a small bead of glue and gently press onto your felt circle.

Once cooled take your pin and felt circle and apply a generous amount of glue to the back and press onto the back of your flower and you’re done!

Easy peasy flower pom pins with no sewing!

Oh and if you’re a bride trying to green up her wedding these poms can easily be made by slicing up some old t-shirts. The black pom above was actually made using the sleeves of one of Mr. CCandy old t-shirts!

Losing my Whoopie Cherry!

Now that we’ve decided to DIY a portion of our dessert buffet I’ve made it my mission to find simple and tasty recipes that even a non-baker like me could whip up. My first attempt came in the form of these tasty morsels-

bakerella.com

Now I know whoopie pies aren’t new on the wedding scene but after whipping up a batch of my own I can honestly say that I understand the hype! These damn things are tasty and super simple to whip up even for a kitchen klutz like me!

My foray into the world of whoopee pies began with the book Whoopie Pies by Sara Billingsley and Amy Treadwell and these so adorable it hurts heart shaped whoopie pie pan from Wilton’s.

After looking over all the recipes in the book I decided to keep it old school and go with the classic chocolate cake with a butter cream filling. I was really pleased with how quickly the recipe came together and even more pleased with the tasty results.

According to the book the whoopie’s can be made up to a month in advance if frozen properly. Since we’ll be incorporating several small bite desserts into our buffet I’m estimating we’ll only need about 3 batches or a total of 48 pies, which shouldn’t be too hard to whip up the week before the wedding.

If you’re interested in baking up some pies of your own there’s a couple handy tips I picked up during my experimentation-

• The book specifically refers to mixing your ingredients with a standing mixer with a paddle attachment but if you’re like me with little to no fancy kitchen equipment a basic hand mixer with standard attachments will do.
• I definitely recommend investing in a pastry bag and tips if you’re looking to get perfectly stacked pies with a plump cushion of filling. The pastry bag is super simple to use and the results are top notch.
• When the book says 10 minute cook time it means 10 minutes! I accidentally left a batch in for 11 minutes and my cakes came out super dry on the other hand when I tried to take them out a minute early the cakes ended crumbly and refused to hold their shape.
• You don’t need a special whoopee pie pan to make whoopies but if you choose to invest in one I recommend spraying your pan with cooking spray before loading it up with mix and using a tooth pick to remove your cooled cakes after baking.

So tell me friends do you plan to bake/cook anything up for your wedding or do you think I’m crazy for planning to DIY part of our dessert buffet?

DIY Photoshot on the Coast

A couple of weeks ago the misters and I decided to getaway for the weekend to Santa Barbara to see one of our favorite bands and to get away from all thing wedding.

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But even the dreamy sounds of my man Paul Banks couldnt keep my mind 100% off wedding. The beautiful beaches of Santa Barbara screamed take a picture of me and we decided to take advantage and stage a DIY photo shot in hopes of getting some quality images for our wedding website.

Armed with a tripod our Cannon 30D and couple of inspiration pics we headed off to find the perfect location. Our first stop was a park off of Cabrillo Blvd were we tried to recreate this picture.

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Yea that was a total fail.

We quickly decided to leave this shot to the professionals and moved on to the vintage carousel.

Much better, We originally wanted to get shots of us riding the carousel but unfortunately there was a 2 dollar charge per person to ride and we only had 2 bucks cash on us. At this point we noticed our camera battery was running out of juice and we decided to head down the coast to get some shots by the beach and possibly some Pictures like this with the our little roundie.

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We were lucky and found a deserted scenic turn off right off the 101 freeway with spectacular views of the ocean and the beach. It was here that we got some of my favorite pictures of the day.

I’m so happy with the images we were able to capture in the short amount of time we were shooting. They are by no means professional photos but compared to our previous eyeball only pics they are a 100% improvement.

If you’re interested in staging your own DIY photo shot there’s a couple of things to keep in mind before you head out

· Clear off a couple of hours on your calendar to dedicate to your shoot. Setting up each shot with the tripod can suck up a lot of your time so you want to make sure you have enough time dedicated to your shoot.

· Do your homework. Scout out possible locations prior to heading out for your shoot and research potential possess. Heading into your photo shot with a good game plan will help you maximize your time while you’re out on location.

· Don’t get to ambitions. Focus on perfecting a few shots rather than getting a lot of mediocre shots. We focused on nailing a few image and ended up with about 7 workable images out of the over 30 pictures we took.

· Your equipment doesn’t need to be high tech all you need is a simple point and shoot with a delayed timer; a tripod and a good working knowledge of your camera and you will be able to get a quality image.

And above everything else have fun! If you’re having fun it’ll show in your images and no amount of posing or expensive equipment can duplicate that.