Two Years

Today's post is going to be a little different than normal, so if you have an aversion to mushy stuff, look away now! Brad and I have been married for two years today, and I have to say that they have been the best two years I could have asked for. Not only is he an amazing husband and friend, but he is also always willing to help me in whatever projects I cook up. I'm so thankful to have a husband who loves me enough to grab a paintbrush or pick up a hammer and join me in making our little roost feel like home. Brad is always happy to battle the Northern Va traffic for a day trip to IKEA. He will follow me into Pottery Barn and Crate and Barrel anytime. And maybe the most surprising thing (but very appreciated!) is that he will often vacuum the whole house just because he knows it will make me happy! Needless to say, I love this man very, very much!

Here are some of my favorite moments from the big day, as well as some of the more unconventional ways we chose to make our wedding special.

This was taken the moment I joined Brad on stage. I think you can tell how happy I am!

Our first kiss as husband and wife.

Leaving the church and feeling like a million bucks!

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Now, on to some of the ways we saved money and made our reception special.

After the ceremony, we moved all the flower arrangements from the church to the reception hall so they could still be enjoyed for the rest of the afternoon.

When we found out we couldn't dance at a church reception, most of the other wedding venues in town were already booked. My dad had the great idea to hold the reception at an elementary school a few blocks from the church. It was kind of fitting because Brad and I are both teachers. My whole family worked so hard to transform a school cafeteria into a garden party themed reception.

One of my good friends from high school donated her beautiful floral talents as a wedding present. The bouquets were simple, gorgeous, and perfect.

Another friend of the family gave us his incredibly creative catering skills as wedding present. When we told him we were planning a garden party theme, he came up with the idea of using sod on the buffet table. It was very, very cool.

We continued the theme by placing picket fences around the buffet and dance floor. My dad put these together for us because he is the best!

Our precious flower girl peeking over the fence.

First dance!

We also begged and borrowed garden benches and chairs from everyone we knew to provide additional seating.

My parents rented plants and palm trees from a local garden center to provide extra color.

One of my favorite parts of the reception was our Krispy Kreme "cake." Brad took me to a movie and Krispy Kreme on our first date and we knew early on that we had to have a doughnut cake at our wedding.

My mom scoured the Internet for the stand.

Yummy!

The hat thing didn't work out too well with my veil. . .

Our guests LOVED the doughnuts, and people still talk about how cool our cake was.

I'm so glad we decided to move the reception to a place where we could dance, because we spent most of the afternoon twirling on the dance floor.

Everyone had so much fun!

We escaped in a flurry of bubbles.

As you can see, our wedding was not the fanciest or the most traditional, but it represented who we are and what we value the most. We were able to invite all the friends and family we wanted and spend an afternoon celebrating with them. Our whole day was a team effort and would not have been possible without help from a lot of our friends and family. At one point I think every member of my family helped me cut, fold, and glue the handmade pocket fold invitations!

So, happy anniversary to my sweet, cute, precious husband, and many, many thanks to all the people who got our marriage off to a special and creative start!

<3

Hattie

wedding bells and wedding shoes

This weekend, Brad and I enjoyed a wonderful stay in Lynchburg, VA. Josh, one of our good friends from college, tied the knot in nearby Altavista, so we decided to make a weekend of it.
We drove down early on Saturday and met up with our friends Tracy and Tim in historic downtown Lynchburg. We spent the afternoon ducking in and out of antique stores full of dusty furniture with both great bones and great prices. Tracy captured our fun afternoon on her blog close to home. After a few hours trekking up and down Main Street, Brad and I were super grateful to check into our hotel for a little freshening up before the wedding. We stayed at the Craddock Terry, a shoe factory turned boutique hotel in the historic distract.

The shoe theme runs (ha ha) throughout the hotel and includes a mixed media mural in the lobby, an antique shoe shine station tucked underneath a stairwell, and a unique shoe sign on every guest room door.

As soon as we entered our room, we noticed another cool use of shoe paraphernalia.

Each guest room is equipped with an old fashioned shoe shine box used to serve breakfast. The night before you simply fill out a card with your breakfast preferences, put it in the box, and place the box outside your door. In the morning, your box is filled with yummy goodies. we enjoyed bagels, local blueberry muffins, organic yogurt, orange juice, and fruit.

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The guest rooms have a wonderful urban meets traditional feel. Each room has a beautiful exposed brick wall

The floor to ceiling window let in the afternoon light.

Most of the furniture is handmade by local artisans.

I fell in love with this gorgeous sage velvet sofa.

But I fell even more in love with the bathroom.

soooo nice!

I also loved that all the bath products were organic. We really enjoyed our stay and would recommend this hotel for any future romantic getaways!

Saturday evening we ventured down the road to Altavista for Josh and Becky's wedding. The couple exchanged vows in an outdoor ceremony at the Avoca Muesuem. The historic home was the perfect backdrop for their simple ceremony.

The new Mr. & Mrs.

Brad and I think the happy couple chose a pretty special June weekend, because we were married on the same weekend two years ago.

Tracy and Tim think so too, because they were married on the same weekend four years ago!

Smiling for the camera. . .

Although, this is a much more realistic shot of the two of us!

What a fun weekend! Congratulations to the Bride and Groom!

a little birdie told me

As of today, I'm officially enjoying almost two months of summer vacation! This hopefully means I will be able to post more often! Today's post is a two-in-one deal. Part one: another present wrapping idea. Part two: a little paper or cloth birdie tutorial.

When I showed y'all how I wrapped my sister's graduation present, My dear friend Tracy's mom brought up a super common wrapping dilemma:

"Tracy's mom said...
Your presentation is beautiful and I know Hannah will appreciate it. Seems like every time I have a gift to wrap, it never fits into a convenient shaped anything and I agree that unwrapping something is so much more exciting, but I always end up using a bag. :( Any suggestions?"

Why, yes! Suggestion number one: if possible, try to fit the gift in a more normal shaped container. It never hurts to have a few shoe or shirt boxes on hand for this purpose. This is also a great way to foil present guessers. If you don't have a box on hand, or your gift just won't fit in a box shape, you can always try suggestion number two: the good old gather and tie.

Yup, this idea also relies on my good friend, half priced Christmas tissue paper. I used this method for the adorable little birdies I bought as end of the year, "thank you for being amazing" gifts for my library co -workers.

I found these cuties at Hallmark. Obviously, they are awkwardly shaped. To avoid the ubiquitous gift bag, I wrapped each one in tissue until they took on a pear-like blob shape. Next, I centered my blob on three sheets of stacked tissue, grabbed the edges, gathered them together, and tied the whole shebang off with some pretty ribbon.

Now on to part two: how to make the sweet little birdie on the gift tag! You can make your birdie out of paper to use as an embellishment on gift tags and cards (very precious with messages like: "a little birdie told me it's your birthday." or "a love note for the love birds.") You could also frame your birdie for some cheap-o art. I've also made several of these birdies out of fabric. The are very cute hanging from pegs, or from a tree branch in a vase.

First you will need a pattern of some sort, here is the one I use. You can see that I have several size and shape options that I have tried. If you don't want to use or modify this bird shape, there are tons of clip art birds available that might inspire you.

Next, choose three different paper or fabric patterns - one for each bird part. If you don't have patterned paper on hand, magazines and Pottery Barn catalogues usually have pictures with lots of texture and pattern that are great to use.

Arrange your birdie bits to taste (OK - that sounds like gross cooking instructions, but you get what I mean!) and glue or sew in place.

If sewing, you can vary your stitches for added interest. I like to alternate between the blanket stitch and a running stitch . If you're making the paper version, you might want to draw some stitches to give your birdie a little more interest.

Here are my little fabric friends hanging in the entryway. I might make some more in summery colors.

A little close up love.

These are crazy easy to make, so if you are as enamoured with birdie decor as I am, go and sew and/or glue a whole flock for your nest!

<3

Hattie

Something Duct Taped

One of my good friends from college is getting married this Saturday, and in an effort not to look exactly the same as I do in pictures from the last college wedding, I found a new dress to wear.



I love this pewter grey number! Polka dots + a swirly skirt = dress heaven.

Of course the unusual color makes matching accessories a little interesting. I gave up on finding new shoes (I know those dots look white, but they are really a creamy tan color) and plan to wear my plain black kitten heels because they go with just about everything. However, I had a little trick up my sleeve when it came to a matching purse.

A few months ago one of my fellow teachers brought me the cutest little cardboard gift bag/purse from a shop called Kate's Paperie. I totally forgot to take a before shot of the bag, but just picture the final product in cardboard brown with hunter green woven cords for straps.

I covered the whole thing in duct tape, added a stripe of cream colored ribbon across the front, and used the same ribbon for new straps.



I think it turned out cute! It's not the exact same color as the dress, so it's not too matchy-matchy.



Yay, for weddings and any excuse to duct tape something!

<3
Hattie

White Paper Packages Tied up with String

Today, my little sister graduates from high school. It is sort of unbelievable to me that she is almost 18 and a graduate! Brad and I picked out something special for her gift and I wrapped it using one of my favorite methods.



I like to give things that go together and can be wrapped up in threes, stacked, and tied. I think there is something so exciting about receiving a gift all wrapped up and tied with real ribbon. Gift bags are not nearly as fun to open! For Hannah's gift, I used about five sheets of plain white tissue paper per item as the wrapping paper. Butcher paper would work just as well, I just happen to always have a lot of white tissue on hand because I like to buy a ton of it when it goes half price the day after Christmas.




I picked out ribbon that matches her bedroom, because I know she'll want to save it to use in some crafty project. For the ribbon that holds everything together, I used a sturdy orange grosgrain, layered with lime green crochet thread. To keep the ribbon from slipping around, I used a piece of clear tape to secure it to the bottom of the stack. I dug up some dainty hot pink ribbon to use as a fluffy bow on top. To make this sort of bow, just accordion fold about two feet of ribbon, pinch in the middle, and tie with another short piece of ribbon. Fluff the bow a little, and tie it to the ribbon already on the package.



plain tissue and leftover ribbon really do make for beautiful, simple, and inexpensive wrapping.

What's your favorite way to wrap a special present?

<3
Hattie

Art for your heart

As promised, here is the nearly free (yet priceless!) art project I've been working on for our bedroom.

I really like the look of vinyl or painted quotes, but I don't want to use them in the roost - 1. because we are renting and 2. because the vinyl letters get a little pricey. So, last summer I bought four document frames at the Dollar Tree, painted them, and used them to frame one of my favorite phrases.




While I love the sentiment, the outcome was not as great as I had hoped. My spacing was off, and the overall look lacked polish.

I've been meaning to redo this project for a long time, and this weekend I finally got around to it.
I started by taking the four words, "Peace" "Be" "with" "you" and finding verses that included each word. Then I opened up Word, created a text box with a pretty border, inserted the featured word in a large font, then inserted the verse in a smaller font around the word. It took some playing with text boxes to get everything to look the way I wanted, but if you have the 2007 version, there is a function built in for doing this sort of thing. Next, I printed out each text box, cut it out, glued it to a sheet of heavy weight cream colored paper and stuck it in one of the frames. Here is the final result:





You can click on the picture to enlarge it.

The verses I chose have special meaning to me, and I'm going to love being reminded of them every day. In case you are interested, I used the following verses:

"PEACE I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid." John 14:27

"Have I not commanded you? BE strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go." Joshua 1:9

"And surely I am WITH you always to the very end of the age." Matthew 28:20

"YOU a r e God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for you to do." Ephesians 2:10



I'm very pleased with the results. I love that four bucks an an hour or so of work can result in a beautiful reminder of God's promises.

Do you have any word's of wisdom in your home?

<3

Hattie

When I'm giving students research pointers at school, I always like to direct them to the awesome resources available through the Library of Congress. This site contains not only valuable historical documents and records, but also some pretty great examples of American art and photographs. It's a good place to gather some inspiration, and you can even order print reproductions of your favorite pieces.

The WPA poster collection is one of my favorite places on the website.

These are just a few of my favorites. There are hundreds on the site in nearly every art style from art deco to modern and they represent a huge range of subjects from theater to farming. Aren't they awesome!

The LOC has gotten so hip, that they have even put some of their collections on flickr.

They have a great set of photochrome travel pics, as well as some of the most iconic pictures from the 20's and 30's.

What's even better, is that most of these photos are copyright free! So, have fun searching for some fun and free art for your home. Can't you just imagine a grid of these black and white photos in a hallway or going up a staircase?

I've been working on another easy and cheap art project, this time for our bedroom. So, stay tuned, I plan to get everything finished and post pictures over the weekend.

<3

Hattie

All photos from the Library of Congress.