My many wedding projects

With 1 month till the wedding... FINALLY! 2 1/2 years in the making we're finally getting down into the double digits....single digits! Awhile back we decided to plan a full on DIY wedding so I've been busting my butt the last couple months to get everything accomplished that I can. I wanted to share what has finally been checked off our list, and you just may get some inspiration for your own wedding.

Our Wedding: We will be celebrating our marriage on Saturday August 9th 2014 at 4:00 in the afternoon under our ceremony tree surrounded by family and very close friends. The ceremony is taking place in the backyard of Justin's grandparents property. I'm looking forward to seeing everything come together the weekend of our big day.

Everything from the ceremony music to the programs have been made by us! Pinterest has been a huge help through this process even though my husband sometimes gets tired of me being on it.
When we first started out on this wedding planning journey we had a guest list of 100+ for our outdoor ceremony and reception. As time went on and we got into planning the dollar signs started stacking up. We got an estimate for our caterer (at that time) who was practically our wedding planner for food, a large white tent, tables, chairs, linens, dessert, beverages for almost $5k... the stress quickly started getting to us. We couldn't justify spending almost $10k to plan a wedding that would last only a few hours so after many discussions Justin and I had decided to simplify things.

We said goodbye to our caterer and everything we had originally planned and started from scratching with a year out from the wedding. We now have a guest list of 40 which consist of family and very close friends. Everyone has been nothing but generous and supportive with our wedding. Our reception location has changed to a historic building turned restaurant downtown in our hometown. Working close with the owner the past couple months I'm realizing we made the right choice, and I know our bank accounts will continue to thank us years down the road ;) 

I'm pretty stingy when it comes to my money. I know every bride wants a big lavish wedding, but that just wasn't in the cards for us. Between being engaged and buying our first home our priorities quickly changed and trying to justify spending almost $10K on a wedding when we could put that money towards a nice honeymoon and fixing up and making our house a home it just made sense.

Pallet Table Projects

Who decides they want to build a pallet entryway/console table at 9PM? This gal!
Our upstairs hallway is pretty plain and boring, we've had a tall wood shelf sitting in the little nook since we moved in over a year ago and I guess yesterday I decided it was an eye sore. So off to pinterest I went, looking for ideas on how to make and design a small and skinny table to fit along the wall.

Here is our before cabinet which is now sitting in our office waiting to find a new home.

Justin my husband got the Best Husband award last night for helping make this rustic beauty, we finally finished it up around 11 PM. He's a keeper right? ;) The previous owners of our home had left behind 3 pallets in the basement which I've slowly been getting used up with projects around the house. Here is the sign I made for my mom for mothers day this year.

Now, back to that pallet table. Here it is all decorated with some primitive touches.
The table runner I made from scrap fabric I had left over from some throw pillows. Fabric was purchases at JoAnn's Fabric store. 

StitchedTeagan is back

After a pretty long hiatus ST is back in business with a fresh new look and all new jewelry.
This time around it's been very relaxing and I've enjoyed spending my evenings making new jewelry to list in the shop. As I've probably said before that Jewelry and I have a on again off again relationship... well we're back together right now ;)
The style for this "season" is wire inspired (kinda catchy huh?) I've been trying to incorporate more wire wrapping into my pieces and keeping the designs simple, but eye catching.
I'm really proud of the new shop banner and avatar I designed using a chalkboard style background; very classic.

Be sure to stop by and browse my selection, be in mind it's small at the moment but growing day by day!
Etsy Shop - StitchedTeagan

Window Shopping Wishes

I'm excited for spring. Bright happy colors. Warm sunny weather. 

Move over Pinterest, Hello Luvocracy

I really love websites that I can save my likes such as Pinterest. After browsing through beauty guru videos on youtube last night I came across a website called Luvocracy. Very similar to pinterest, but it's still pretty new to the world. The only difference is this sight is geared more towards products rather than recipes, projects, and so on.

Another good site I love to browse is Wanelo also very similar to Luvocracy, but nothing can beat Pinterest :)

You can follow me on all 3!
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/Jmarie8914/

Luvocracy: http://www.luvocracy.com/jeannam2008

Wanelo: http://wanelo.com/jeannam2008

Calligraphy and Typography

In my spare time (or when I'm bored) I really enjoy lettering. I just love the way it looks with a black marker on white paper. Here are some of the ones I've created so far!

14 days of love. Day 1,2, and 3

I decided this Valentines I wanted to do something sweet for my fiance each day leading up to the 14th. All these ideas I found from pinterest :)
Day 1: I made a sign using card stock to place next to my fiances cereal bowl

Day 2: I picked up some of his favorite muffins (Blueberry) and using the website Picmonkey I made the sign to place with the muffins

Day 3: I made strawberry cake batter cookies with vanilla cream frosting and sprinkles. The cake batter cookies I made awhile back were a huge hit with him and so were these!

Dreaming of a craft room.

At the moment my tiny little craft space is sharing the smaller bedroom with our office. Hopefully when we finish off our basement I'll be able to make that dream come true of having my own craft oasis. Until then I'll keep on dreaming, and keep on pinning :)

I love the look of white, it's so clean and then paired with pops of color; so fun!

A super easy desk to make which I've seen on pinterest is taking 2 small bookshelves and a simple piece of wood to make the table top.  Unfortunately our "office" room is took small for a big table like this right now. 

Adding that pop of color using the desk chair. If you can't find a cute one at a reasonable price a good idea would always be to hit up the antique malls and get a cheapy and repaint it your desired color.

Guest Bedroom color palette

Guest bedroom color palette.
An idea of what I'm trying to go for, for our extra bedroom which right now is the guest bedroom but will one day (hopefully within the next 2 years) be a nursery. At that point I'd still like to stick with this similar theme, something that is gender neutral.

As of right now this is our guest bedroom. Hoping to get rid of the day bed once we find a nice twin sized bed frame. I'd really like to find a nice antique spindle bed.

Here are some color schemes I really love! Just something about this bright cheerful colors.

Half bath makeover

Our downstairs half bath was a spontaneous project I threw on myself this morning at 6 AM! Yepp, you read right, what else is there to do when you can't sleep? We had extra paint left over from painting the master bedroom so I decided to tackle the beachy blues! When we moved into our first home about a year ago I tried to work with what we had. The baby blue walls, and sandy colored hardwoods floors left only one theme to go with; BEACH! So I acquired some light house photo frames, nautical decor, and got to it. The more I looked at it the more I hated it. Our entire first floor is primitive decor so I wanted to stick with that theme. 

When we first moved in we installed a toilet paper hold which this bathroom didn't have, along with replacing the light switch plate which was a light house and did a dark wood plate.

Valspar - Aired Plaines is the color we used in both our master bedroom and the downstairs half bath.

To decorate I used what I had around the home. Dollar Store carnations put in a Ball mason jar with lace around the brim. I had plenty of extra fabric left over from making pillow covers for the living room so I measured and cut a piece to drape over the toilet. The photo frames are 4x6 from Walmart and the quotes are ones I just searched for on Pinterest. 

I have to give myself a pat on the back for this, I don't usually take on painting projects alone, but I feel very accomplished and happy with the results! 

Baking: Reese's Rice Krispie Treats

Reese Krispies

Ingredients:- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup corn syrup
- 1 1/3 cup peanut butter

- 4 1/2 cups rice krispies
- A pinch of salt
- 4 Reese's peanut butter cups (chopped)
- Handful of chocolate chips (about 1/2 cup)

In a large pan over medium heat, melt sugar, corn syrup, and peanut butter. Must be smooth and combined.
Remove from heat and quickly add rice krispies and salt. Combine together, then add chocolate chips. Stir.
Wait about a minute and then add the Reese's cups, folding into the mixture.
Line a baking sheet with tin foil or parchment paper. Drop by spoonfuls onto sheet, and let cool.

* DO NOT PUT IN THE FRIDGE! They will harden into a solid rock*

Repurposed Pallet Projects

Have some extra pallet's laying around? We had about 4 in our basement when we moved into our home, and I'd hate to just throw them out, so I did a search for some great ways to repurpose those pallets.

My favorite one I've found is making a sign for our wedding ceremony that says "Pick a seat not a side" I plan to make using one of our pallets and just painting it white.
I'm also really into wall decor` here lately so I'm loving the pallet art that's been shown across pinterest, especially the last photo I've listed.

Have any of you repurposed a pallet? What did you make? Share with us!

Cooking: Crock Pot Salsa Chicken

This easy slow cooker recipe is my fiance's favorite.

Ingredients:
- 4 boneless, skinless chicken breast
- 1 cup salsa
- 1 can cream of chicken soup
- 1 packet taco seasoning
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- flour tortillas










Place chicken in crock pot (if it's still frozen that's fine) Sprinkle with taco seasoning.
In a bowl combine cream of chicken soup and salsa. Pour over chicken.
Cook on high for 4 hours.
Shred chicken with 2 forks, stir in sour cream, serve on tortillas.

Baking: Cake batter cookies

Cake Batter Cookies:
For my first batch I used yellow cake mix

Ingredients:
- 1 box of cake mix
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- sprinkles (opt.)








Preheat oven to 350
In a large bowl, mix together cake mix and baking powder.
In a small bowl, mix together eggs, vanilla, and oil.
Add egg mixture to cake mixture. Stir until combined.
Drop spoonful sized batter onto a greased baking sheet.

Bake 10 minutes, let cool for 5 minutes.

I also tried making these using the Pillsbury funfetti cake mix, but they weren't as tasty and good as the yellow cake mix. I've also gotten a strawberry cake mix to try.
Cake batter cookies are softer their your normal cookie batter, they last longer and you don't need to place a slice of bread in with the cookies to keep them soft.