SOTW #3: Arts & Crafts

SOTW #3: Arts & Crafts

Remember when you were a kid and every creation you brought to life with your hot little (ink stained, glue covered) hands was a masterpiece? I mean, really, every piece of crap purple tree or popsicle stick animal was a refrigerator work of art you could be proud of. Personally (I don’t mean to brag or anything) I was the best at drawing these flat-headed dogs that my mom just loved.

But for some reason, as I’ve gotten older, that bright light of creativity has dwindled away and in it’s place is an almost fear of trying. I swear, social media has given me a complex about attempting to do this thing I used to do happily, with abandon. Damn you Pinterest bitches!

Good thing I’m about to be related to the craftiest queen bee of them all. You may have pulled off the ultimate Housewives style kid’s birthday party but this chick made her own wedding dress. Beat that. And she absolutely LIVES for this stuff. So it’s no surprise she has great ideas about things like wedding favors. Wedding favors, are you kidding me? I was definitely not planning to go down that road, but she somehow twisted my arm. And, amazingly, the design part was all me – total lightbulb moment. Maybe there’s a tiny bit of that child artist left in me after all.

So here’s a sneak peek. If you’ve been paying attention you should know by now that I like wine. And I have a ton of used wine bottles and corks laying around. Turns out I also have this thing with ampersands…as in Mr. “&” Mrs., His “&” Hers, Husband “&” Wife. My dilemma was just how to tie the two together, and then DING, there it was, lightbulb!

Want to steal my idea? Ok, but only if your big day or other favor-worthy occasion is scheduled after May 27th, pinkie swear. All you need is a few corks, a sharp serrated knife for slicing the corks, a cute stamp, ink pad, wine charm rings, and some beads.

Now on to the SOTW…

2011 Pont Neuf “Les Rouges” (Syrah, Mourvedre, Grenache, Rousanne blend)

PontNeuf

Cost: Splurge! It’s $49.99 according the internet (darling fiancé- a.k.a. my “wine daddy”-gets it through his wine club membership though so that makes it way cheaper and totally justified in opening on a random Thursday, right?)

Smells/tastes like: Red flavors are always harder for me to pinpoint than white for some reason, and this one seems especially so, contradictory even. Dark and smoky, yet sweet and fruity all at the same time. Basically, yum.

Other fun facts: Pont Neuf also makes the most delicious Chardonnay I’ve ever tasted. Think Rombauer is as good as it gets? One sip of this stuff on a lovely summer night might make you question everything you ever thought you knew.

Best Occasion: It certainly wasn’t bad wedding favor making fuel but it would be better shared over a romantic dinner with your significant other. Valentine’s day anyone?

First Comes Love

First Comes Love

You know how it goes – then comes marriage, then comes a baby in a baby carriage. Just like that. The recipe for a perfect life…

and_they_lived_happily_ever_after_1

THE END.

Um, ‘scuze me, but I beg to differ!

Having spent my 20’s married to the wrong person, I was surprised to find my 30-year- old self figuring out how to reimagine that previously well-planned future. And lucky girl that I absolutely realize I am, it didn’t take long (two short stints on Match.com to be exact) before I stumbled across the person I should have been with all along. Cue the Lionel Richie…Hello?

So after doing everything that was expected of me and following all the rules up until that point, I got this real crazy, harebrained idea. It went something like this: I like you. You like me. We’re totally gonna get married someday but how ’bout we make a baby first since that’s the thing we both want more than anything else in the world? And, boom, done. Well, not exactly, but you get the gist – we were grown ups that knew what we wanted, when we wanted it, naysayers be damned.

“When you stop chasing the wrong things, you give the right things a chance to catch you.”

So longest story ever, getting to the real point of this post, I’m now a mom of a 10-month-old (totally adorable, love of my life tied with her dad) and planning a wedding. Yay, bring on the taffeta and flowers! Or, in my case, bring on as much DIY décor using free things like wine bottles and corks as I can get my hands on.

So, there you have it, a little TMI about my personal life and fair warning that you’ve just entered the wedding planning/DIY décor zone. Stay tuned…