DIY Wedding Flowers-Take 1

I think I always knew I was going to have a DIY wedding. Its who I am...not only do I love to craft...I tend to micromanage so at the end of the day, I'd rather just do it the way I want.

My wedding flowers are no exception, not only do I love arranging flowers, but I knew I wanted real flowers, and so I did some research and found a local flower farm that sells mixed blooms by the bucket. So, to see what sort of blooms they would have in season, what sort of colors and mixtures we could come up with and most importantly, what sort of tools and time we needed, I drove to Elida, picked up a bucket and got to play.

Here are some shots of the flower adventure.

Bucket-o-blooms

Our bouquet attempts: I really wanted to focus on the brightest flowers in pinks and oranges.

So the two examples above I took zinnas and dahlias and combined them with this really pretty filler flower for little accents (which of course I don't know the name of) and we were pretty happy with the results.

My major recommendation is get good tools, I had a good pair of gardening shears which were great, but I think I'm going to invest in a stem stripper before the big day, and do not...I mean it DO NOT, use floral tape from the Dollar Store, seriously that stuff stuck all over me and NOT on the flowers.

We also tried our hand at a few boutonniere designs to see if it was difficult or if we needed to call in the experts...please not my fiance wrinkled his nose at basically all of these. Please note my mom's non-existent lapel for scale.

My fiance didn't like the ones that "looked like thistle" so we'll probably end up with something more simple and natural like this (with orange flowers of course).

So my biggest notes for DIY flowers, try before you commit, Mom and I took apart and rearranged the above bouquet and these boutineeres 5-6 times in the span of just two hours, so I think I'm going to be doing some "fun" downtime flower arrangements the next few months just for practice.

Buy what's in season, you get the cheapest flowers this way, I love peonies but there is no way I'm going to be able to get them in September, accept this and move on, your flowers will be beautiful and everyone is looking at you (the bride) anyway.

Remember that flowers are natural, that means they're not perfect. The flowers are NOT going to match the exact shade you picked out for your bridesmaids and they're not going to be perfectly round or full. In this case, they might also come with bugs (we found a huge stinkbug in one) cause they're organic...so be prepared.

Admit it if its too much, for example, I know I'm not going to end up doing all these flowers myself, I'm going to accept some help, which means that some of them aren't going to be QUITE as perfect as mine...and that's ok too. People want to help because they love you and they're excited to share your day with you....so smile, nod, and pop the champagne!

Odd Pets

Every once in a while I click the "Marketplace" application on my Facebook page (in case someone is giving away a free bed that I could use). Upon doing so yesterday I saw a pet Wallaby for sale for $1,200.
I want one.
However, the question is...can I have one? Are wallabys...or is it wallabies...or maybe walleye...no that's definitely not it...you know what I mean...but are they legal in this state?
Well let's start with what we know is legal: cats and dogs (unless your landlord says no then you'll be out on the street), most lizards, but those are basic pets. Here's a little snippet into the unusual (and expensive) pets.
World's most expensive pets:
Green Monkey: $16 million Missy: $1.2 million Capuchin Monkey: $10,000 That's right. I said LEGAL! There are neither bans nor requirements on monkey ownership in Ohio so go for it! Buy your monkey!
Need a less feminine monkey? Try these guys!
De Brazza's Monkey: $7,000-$10,000

Squirrel Monkey: $…

Gen Y Gives Thanks

I apologize a thousand times for the lack of updates and for putting this up so late. Large amounts of technical difficulties have inhibited my blogging, email checking, social networking, etc. However, now that I have a moment's internet access I would like to give you the link to this brilliant idea that Sharalyn Hartwell has cooked up. She writes for the Gen Y Examiner and to combat the stereotype that Gen Y is a bunch of ungrateful brats she asked members of Gen Y to write what they're grateful for and has been posting them in series.

Here's the link. She's posted a few each day so keep reading these articles of course I'm partial to mine which can be read here.

DIY Wood Stencil Sign

I purchased these cute blank signs from Target--here's what the original item looked like. Then I created a stencil using 631-this is removable vinyl. I chose removable vinyl mostly because I had ordered a large number of a color I didn't intend to use again and had extra, also it works great for things like ceramics where you're worried 651 permanent vinyl won't remove easily. The key for me was USE TRANSFER TAPE. In the past a majority of my bleeding has been from the centers of the letters because I was individually placing them by hand and they weren't sealing properly. Transfer tape not only removes me individually placing letter centers, but it also gives you a better seal. Just take an old credit card and burnish your transfer tape FOREVER.

I mean, burnish until you think there can't possibly be any bubbles under that piece of vinyl...and then do it some more! Then peel up your transfer tape...and voila!

This is the paint I decided to use. It'…

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