Wedding Invitations (all the details!)

Now that Diana's wedding is 19 DAYS away I figured I better post about the invites I made. Finally (in June), Diana's wedding invitations are complete and mailed out. I have gotten permission from the bride to give you all the details on making the invitations as I promised you here.

This was my wedding gift to Diana and Aaron. Since I like making cards I figured I would give them something that will make their special day that much more special. Diana even told me when they were all completed, "They're beautiful, and exactly what I wanted. Thank you so much for making them for us." Also, part of my gift are the place cards, table names, & programs. We will be finishing those up this weekend, and I'll post about those after the wedding (bride won't let me before).

We got an idea of what Diana wanted from looking on Pinterest and Split Coast Stampers. Then we took those ideas to my Stampin' Up! demonstrator, Julie, who's always got ideas. After a few trials we thought we had something great, but then the groom had an opinion too. So we made a few changes to make everyone happy. In the end we went with half white emboss, and half clear emboss. I used the Baroque Motifs stamp set with the black and red paper. I used white card stock from FedEx Office for the inside papers. For the embossing I wiped it with my embossing buddy, stamped in Versa Mark ink, and then sprinkled with embossing powder before using my heat tool (which can melt carpet I discovered...just FYI!).The belly bands are simply stamped in Versa Mark ink with the swirl pattern before cutting them into strips.

I think that's all the details I can remember. So go ahead and look at the pictures now. I do need to say a BIG thank you to Diana for helping with her own wedding gift! I wouldn't have been able to complete these 44 cards by myself without going insane without her. I love ya bestie!!

Here are all 44 finished invitations! We ended up with 24 white embossed, and 20 clear embossed.

This is the inside with the pocket to hold the RSVP & direction cards.

Outside of a clear embossed card.

Front of a white embossed card with the red belly band. Picture-wise I like these better than the clear now, but both turned out gorgeous.

Front of a clear embossed card with the red belly band. I notice now that the clear ones don't look as elegant in a picture as they do in person.

First Visit to Home Goods!

We finally have a Home Goods store!! After reading about this store on the Young House Love blog all the time I was excited to finally check it out in person. About a month or so ago the one in Lynnwood opened across from Alderwood mall, and I had been dreaming of my first visit ever since! I finally went with my Mom on Monday.

I did find a few things to buy for the upcoming bridal shower & bachelorette parties I'm co-hosting for Diana. Gotta love the clearance shelves through out the store!

I went with the thought that I would just window shop so here are some pics that I would love to buy someday (sorry, I still can't find my camera so these were taken using my iPod):

Love the bright colors of this bench!

Even at $130 it's still a bit pricey, but I have ideas running through my head to sew liners for the drawers so I can use it for yarn storage.

A purple pan...I want this for my kitchen SOO bad!

I love that this ottoman has storage inside.

A pretty lamp that I'm not sure where I would put it.

This painting just makes me wish I could be sitting in one of those chairs drinking a margarita.

I saw these cute note cards while waiting in line to check out...gave me an idea for a DIY gift!

 

I have determined that I LOVE Home Goods, and need to go back soon! It's like Cost Plus World Market meets Target which are two of my favorite stores so that's a major score on my part. :)

Margarita Cupcakes

Since we were having taco salad for my Grandma's birthday lunch we decided to stick with a Mexican theme for dessert. I found these margarita cupcakes on Pinterest. I used this Margarita cupcake recipe , but since I didn't have a box mix I make the cake mix from scratch. So this is the DIY white cake mix recipe I used, but in my opinion it needs a little tweaking because the cake itself was heavy instead of fluffy like a cupcake should be. The lime buttercream frosting was simple to make and delicious to boot! I added a few drops of green and yellow food coloring to give it a lime hue. I topped all of the frosted cupcakes off with a sprinkle of kosher salt which not only kept the true margarita flavor, but also was a nice touch of saltiness to accent the sweetness of the frosting and cake. Finally, what would a baking post be without a few pictures?!

This is the first dozen I frosted. You can kind of see the light green hue in the frosting. Disclaimer: I am certainly not a professional. Although, I'd love to take a cake decorating class at a bakery or craft store someday.

Here are the second dozen...the frosting job turned out a little better on these ones.

So there you have my latest baking adventure. Stay tuned in the next week or so for my detailed report on the wedding invitations. :)

June Garden Update

It's been since May & April when I last posted about my garden. Everything has grown a lot since then. Check out these pictures to see for yourself:

Big picture view of raised bed, raspberries, small bed, blueberries.

 Close up of the two new blueberry bushes I planted. Finally dug up the lemon balm, and added a few friends for my lonely blueberry bush.

Raised bed: 2 tomatoes, 3 bush beans, 2 corn, & chives. In front is carrots, swiss chard, & kale. I'll post about making kale chips later. :) Look at that raspberry patch! I picked the first 4 berries off it today, & they were SO yummy!!

Big picture of the left side of the garden. Look how tall those peas are...taller than my 5'1" that's for sure!

A better view not looking through the peas. It's hard to see, but in the middle is mystery squash (note the 4 garden labels). After the wind blew over my green house these are the squash that came up, & we'll see what they produce. This also gives a good picture of the soaker hoses I finally got out of the shed.

Here's a better view of the spinach, & leaf lettuce that were in the shade of the last picture. They look a little thin because I picked some for salad. :) Might I add that it was delicious salad!

This is the "small" garden off to the side of the raspberry patch. Sadly my radishes have all bolted. :( On the other hand that one cabbage is doing great!

The flower bed by the house is looking a lot better since the April post. Mostly due to the fact that I've been working on weeding it. My dahlias are coming up! The fenced in plant has decided to grow super tall this year. :/ Like the peas it's taller than my 5'1", and continues to grow!

Thanks for taking a peek at my growing garden! Sorry that the pictures are not the best quality since I took them with my iPod touch (I have seemed to misplace my regular camera).

Versatile Blogger Award

Looking at my blog traffic sources the other day I found a blog address among the usual Pinterest and Google searches. So I clicked on it and it took me here.


Turns out she was nominated for the Versatile Blogger Award, and listed my blog as one that she nominates for the award. Thank you Stitchknit for the nomination!! Up until now I never knew there were awards for blogs. Like her I can knit & crochet better than doing things on my laptop so bear with me if not all the links work properly since I just learned how to use the link feature. There are a few rules that go along with being nominated:

• Thank the person that nominated you...check
• Link back to their blog...check
• Tell that person 7 things about yourself
• List 15 blogs you follow & nominate for the award

Here are 7 things about me:

1. Living in Seattle, Starbucks coffee is a necessary part of life. I'm a proud Gold card holder! My favorites are the Salted Caramel Mocha in the fall/winter, and either the Mocha Cookie Crumble Frappuccino or the Green Tea Frappuccino in the spring/summer.
2. As I've written about on my blog, I love to garden! I find that pulling weeds is a great way to decompress after I get home from work.
3. I love creating! Anything really it doesn't matter if it's knitting, crochet, sewing, card making, scrapbooking, or making sample crafts for my pre-k class.
4. I like to travel, but wish I had more time and money to do so (who doesn't?). My favorite trip so far was to Hana, HI on Maui.
5. Also previously seen on my blog, I have two adorable rabbits. Although I admit Teacup is in the spotlight more often since she's only a year old, and is very curious. Pumpkin is older, blind, and is content to snuggle (which I don't mind).
6. I love to cook and bake! Experimenting in the kitchen is one of my favorite things to do. I admit that not all of my adventures have turned out like I thought (for example the chocolate peanut butter pillows I found on Pinterest), and I admit sometime there are tears. It doesn't stop me though.
7. Lastly, I'm addicted to Pinterest! I know I've mentioned it here before, but it's true and I'm not ashamed to say it.

Now for 15 blogs I follow and nominate:

1. Decorating with Lola! 
2. Moore Babies 
3. Thrifty Decor Chick 
4. Skinnytaste 
5. Longing for Home 
6. Julie's Stamping Station 
7. Happy Dog Buttons 
8. The Dainty Daisy 
9. The Purl Bee 
10. Never Not Knitting 
11. Speckled Owl Studio 
12. Make It and Love It 
13. On the Refrigerator Door 
14. House of Smith's 
15. A Friend to Knit With 

 Okay, I think all the links will work. A note to the nominees: you're not obligated to accept, but I highly recommend that you do since I've have fun doing writing this post. :)

A Sneek Peek

Last night for girls' night Diana and I finished her wedding invitations! FINALLY!! Well, technically they're not 100% complete yet since I still need to cut a few more belly bands, score them, and glue them. The big thing is that all of the embossing is done, and now I know that embossing 44 cards is not an easy task. Also, all the printing for inside cards is done, and Diana enjoyed cutting those apart and putting them in the pockets. :) Since the invites haven't been sent yet I'm not allowed to post all the details until the end of June, but I was allowed to take a preview picture to show my embossing accomplishment.

This is after I edited it a little in Instagram. I love, love, love that swirl pattern stamp! I can't wait to share all the details with you later this month.

Delicious Rhubarb (and a garden update)

This post is slightly past due since it was actually two weeks ago, but it's still worth writing about. It's rhubarb for goodness sake, and who doesn't like a good rhubarb pie? I know I certainly will choose rhubarb pie over cake any day!


Any ways, two weeks ago I went back to water the garden and everything had seemed to sort of explode growing-wise (weeds included to my displeasure). The best part is that both rhubarb plants were ready to harvest for the first time this spring!

Here are my freshly picked and cut rhubarb stalks. :) Eight isn't so bad for the first harvest! And what do we make with rhubarb...

  

...a rhubarb crisp of course!! Since rhubarb is quite tart I like to add extra sugar to sweeten it up a little. Also, since rhubarb is watery when cooked down I stick it under the broiler at the end of cooking time to crisp up the topping. :) I'll try to take pics while I'm making it next time for a post about rhubarb crisp.

Since I  haven't posted much lately I also have a general garden update for you.

I planted my starts in my little greenhouse a few weeks ago. Much to my frustration a windstorm a week ago knocked it over, and I had to replant ALL of them! I was not happy about that. :/

This little beauty was a surprise daffodil in the front flower beds. Still need to weed those...

These are the gorgeous daffodils that come up year after year in the front corner flower bed.

So that's it for my brief garden update. Hopefully I'll post soon about whatever gardening and/or crafting I do this weekend with the wonderful warm weather we're supposed to get here in Seattle.