Feather Art

I don't recall at all how I came up with the idea for this but I made it forever ago (forever ago as in before my wedding... which was in October so probably about a year ago).  If you search online I'm sure lots of other similar feather art will come up though.

Originally I had put the feathers between 2 pieces of glass but the feathers were to thick and broke one of the pieces of glass (you can see that in the below photo)

In the end I took out the back piece of glass and put a piece of cardboard behind them.  Definitely not quite as nice as being able to see through but maybe if I painted the cardboard a nicer colour it would look better.

Anywho, super simple and inexpensive artwork for your home!

The Perfect Homemade Wedding Shower Gift

That's right I said perfect.

Perfect for the couple that likes to eat.

Perfect for the couple that likes to spend time outdoors.

Perfect for the couple that likes picnics

It's... A... PICNIC BASKET!

I don't recall how I came up with the idea for a picnic basket.  I think I went searching for a shower gift at Winners and saw picnic stuff but thought I could find something better than what they were offering.  It turned out I could find something better than what they were offering and the price tag for better was indeed quite a bit more.  So I travelled down the interwebs hole of picnic baskets and eventually found a DIY one that I thought was perfect on Lovely Indeed!

Her instructions went flawlessly for me.  

BUT for the love of everything... make sure you get your basket of choice from Michaels and make sure you use at the very least a 40% off coupon.  I was lucky and went when there was a 50% off coupon because baskets are expensive!

Once I had the basket all put together I searched stores for the perfect dishes.  To be honest I think Superstore had better ones but I wanted to fill my basket with so many wonderful things that I went to Dollar Tree instead (Dollarama was more expensive).  The cutlery was the cheapest set from Ikea (it's picnicing people not dinner with the queen!)

Inside my basket I included:

4 bowls

4 plates

4 knives

4 spoons

4 forks

4 plastic wine glasses

napkins

reusable ice cube things

fancy juice

I considered also including some kind of platter, table cloth or picnic blanket, a snack, and I meant to add in some kind of game (like a frisbee)... I just forgot to pick one up.

I wasn't sure whether to include stuff for 4 people or 2 but went with the larger number in case stuff breaks or goes missing or they want to invite a couple of friends out for a picnic.  But I only made space in the lid for stuff for 2 people... 4 just wouldn't have fit.

I asked my friend the other day how it was all holding up and apparently everything is still intact so the glue that is recommended is absolutely the right glue for the job!  I'm mostly surprised about the button on the outside not coming off... apparently I did a better sewing job of that then I thought.  

Sidenote:  That button was a hard choice... was I getting the right kind, I wanted white but not glossy white so we painted it but the paint wasn't sticking... really though... who would have thought the hardest part of making your own picnic basket would be the button choice!

Oh, and I added the lovely flower on top because I wasn't wrapping it and thought it needed a little something extra.  You can make your own flower... just search "tissue paper flower" and I'm sure no less than 50 Youtube videos will come up.

Bachelorette Party

Despite what many people may think about a bachelorette party needing to be wild and crazy mine was not.

(and nor does it have to be)

What did I do?

I found a fantastic person that was willing to come to any location (I chose my sister's house because she had the space) and teach myself and 14 others (yes 14!) how to paint a beautiful painting.

You'll find the artist, Amber, at Painting on the Prairies and I highly recommend that if you are from around these parts and wanting to do some painting you contact her.

Why?  

First off, she told me that since I booked my party far enough in advance she could do a custom painting just for me!  What!?!  I felt so special that if I didn't see anything in her selection that I loved she would do something different for me (I went with the custom painting - which is apparently a huge hit now!)

I may be marrying outside of the Mennonite heritage but you can't take the Mennonite out of me.  I needed the best deal for a private party.  I didn't want my party at a bar of any kind and didn't want to have to find a community center to rent out.  With Painting on the Prairies all you need is 10 people and it costs $350 (of course you can have more... any additional people are $35).  If you have under 10 people the cost is still $350 which makes sense.. you gotta pay the artist for her time!  And she'll gladly attend your party at your house.

Amber was so easy to work with!  The plan was to possibly paint outside (weather permitting) but the weather did not permit for this.  So instead we painted in 3 different rooms.  All the rooms were on the same floor but still separated enough that Amber had to show the same thing 3 times.  And she did a fantastic job working all 3 rooms.

Clean up was also super easy... to be honest I didn't even realize it happened.  

Anywho, I'm beginning to sound like Painting on the Prairies sponsored this post and I'm just not that popular for that to happen... I'm just letting you all know that you should consider it! 

All in all it was a fantastic afternoon and evening and I feel incredibly blessed that so many people wanted to come out and spend time with me and bless me with my upcoming wedding.  

I couldn't have imagined anything better!

Bonsai Beauty

3 MORE DAYS!