Craftyminx

My Daddy

I don't have any other pictures of my dad on my computer so this one will have to do. That's my cousin's baby he's holding. I kind of love this picture, because my dad rarely smiles in pictures. 

I've never really been a big daddy's girl, but I'm realizing more and more that I probably would have been if he would have been home more. He's a really hard worker and was always doing something to support us while I was growing up. He's owned his own business as long as I can remember, so he's always had to work harder than anyone with a 9-5.

Here's a few things about my dad that remind me how alike we are:

He has a soft spot for antiques and collections and he holds on to everything because he never knows when he might need something. 

He loves animals. My mom used to say that he would bring home every stray he came across if she would have let him.

He can make anything. Really... my dad is a secret genius. He can learn anything from a book and make it happen.

My dad lives his dream. Like I said, he's owned his own business for forever. This business has changed so many times throughout my life that I can't remember everything he's done. It has morphed from semi-detailing, buying, sellling and trading vehicles, owning a donut shop/diner, fixing cars, to doing ironwork and welding. He bought a ranch when I was in college and has made that their home. 

My dad's hobbies change as fast as mine do. He's gone through whittling, leather work, photography, painting, wanting to learn how to play piano, and most recently blacksmithing.

I love you daddy, You're the greatest!

Wedding Wednesday - The guestbook

I got my morning Martha Stewart Weddings email yesterday and thought these books were ingenious!

However, the notebooks they used were $14 each and I doubt guests would use up all of the pages in each book (there are 12 prompts and books in all). I'm all about not wasting anything at the wedding so I want to come up with something using this idea without wasting money on books and paper no one will use.

I would like to make 1/4 page notepads with a different prompt on the top of each page that people can fill out with their name at the bottom. Then, they can rip off their comment and put it in a mail box or something that will keep them away from the Oklahoma wind that will inevitably be sweeping down the plain on our wedding day.

Thank you Martha (or should I say people of Martha) for this wonderful idea :)

We'll probably have a more traditional guestbook too at a table by the ceremony, but I want something fun for the reception.

Weekend Finds

While participating in Sunday Funday with my friends Patrick and Levi, we happened on a great little antique store that I had never been in, which is like 5 blocks from my house. Sad I know. We also went to a thrift store close by that I had yet to venture into.

We walked into the antique store about 20 minutes before closing. It was a huge place! There was a whole wing of it that I didn't even get to see. But here are a few of the things I found there...

I didn't buy any of the above because I'm saving up my pennies for an iphone, but you can bet I'll be going back to check up on those vintage kitchen toys. They are sooo awesome, but a tad pricey. :( They would be great for my future Blythe, even if they are a little to big  (I think).

I did buy this great super gay paper doll. They boys insisted that I buy it and make it into magnets for their fridges. I had too. It's just too ridiculous, look at that stance...

I also found some treasures at the thrift store...

That plant stand is definitely my find of the month. It's pretty awesome. I kind of wish we had a screened in porch area for it. I'll probably just use it as a display at shows.

Wedding Wednesday - Thursday Edition

Sheldon so lovingly told me that I forgot about Wedding Wednesday last night. Oops. I'm working on a special project and have been a mad woman lately. You'll get to know what the project is next week, and it is pretty fun news. But because of this special project, I haven't been doing much with the wedding lately.

Did I mention that I'm working on making a photobooth for the wedding?

Source

This has been the most daunting task so far. I can make technical stuff work when I want to, but don't usually try my luck, so figuring out how to make a photobooth could be a hair beyond my reach.

I bought a wireless remote recently. I'm still awaiting its delivery.

I've been playing around with hooking the camera up to the computer to shoot and what not.

Oh and I bought one of these:

source

yeah... I'm excited. :)

And I have big plans for some mustaches on a stick because they are silly and fun. Even if I said the following last month: "I swear if I see another wedding photography shoot of bridal parties with mustacheson sticks I will kill myself." While I still get annoyed by the professional shoots using these, I can't help but love them in a photobooth.

Exhibit A:

 
Just remembered we took these at Renegade. I need to post a better picture.

Now I just need to figure out what kind of lens to use. I have a Canon Rebel XSi if anyone has any suggestions. I'll have to rent something of course, but I haven't used any other lens besides the kit lens since I bought it. Maybe it's time for an upgrade anyway.

Restocking

Now that I am out of school,for  forever! I can focus on things that I like to do. Like making stuff for my wedding and making stuff for other people! So I'm sending some new things to DNA Galleries this week. Have a looksie at what you can find there...

Lots of baby stuff! But I'm working on some more adult lovies for a restock next week or so. I'm a machine! :)

Wedding Wednesday - Invitations

Let me just say... if I would have known how much stress invitations were going to be, I would have gladly handed them over to someone else, most likely Kathleen because she is awesome. But no, I have to be the controlling DIY freak of nature I am and do it myself. Also, we're on a budget and awesome invitations cost... a lot! I'm pretty sure I've hyperventilated a few times from sticker shock while browsing around the web. In a perfect world we would have beautiful letterpress invites with bold design, but we're in the real world and full on Dana kitsch is what we're getting. :)

Our Save the dates have been the proverbial nail in my coffin. They were super cute and everyone loved them. So of course, the invitations not only have to go with the save the dates, but they have to be even more awesome. So I've been sketching ideas, stitching up samples and ordering paper like a crazy woman for a couple of months. I'm not a graphic designer and I am reminded of this more and more as the days pass. With that said, I'm fairly proud of the progress that I have made.

Excuse the darkness of these pictures, I remembered at about 10:00 pm last night that today was Wedding Wednesday and I didn't have anything to share. They were taken by lamplight with a really bad yellow background choice. I wasn't using my head.

I've picked out paper from paperandmore.com and have decided that I like this layered look the most.

I normally wouldn't have wanted to give myself this much work to do with the layering and all, but I really fell in love with that aqua mod printed paper.

OK so scratch all of that. Now as I'm looking at it in photo form. I don't like it. It is just too busy. You'll see what I mean when I show you what's going on the darn things. And really who in their right mind would want to glue 150 invitations together?! Not me, damn the cute printed paper. Ok I think I'm back in my right state of being. Linen card stock with the Aqua envelope it will be! I'm so glad you all helped me with this decision ;) 

Here's the layout for the invite I have been playing around with.

I've already changed "Merriment to Follow" to "Dinner and merriment to follow." I want everyone to know they will get to eat. I love using "merriment", I think it is much better than "booze fest" which would be another great description for our reception.

I also stitched up this graphic for the direction cards:

 
I'm going to use some of the flowers from the invite on the rsvp cards as well. Here's where I really need guidance. The RSVP...

Like I've said before, we're really trying to keep from having a lot of waste associated with the wedding so we're forgoing traditional RSVP mailing cards. I know, the horror! But really, people always forget to mail those back so they end up being more of a waste of resources and postage than anything. So I would like the RSVPs to ask our guests to RSVP via our wedding website, email, or phone instead. I'm adding phone because we have family that live in the land of no interwebs.

I'm just having issues with this wording. Do I let people know that we're not being cheap, just waste conscious? Or should I say the hell with it and go ahead and get the traditional cards? I would like to believe that humanity has evolved to a state where technology is more accepted, but eh, I do live in Oklahoma where there are people that still can't even get internet service faster than dial up. I've seen a lot of cards that are traditional but give the option at the bottom to respond on the wedding website, but why would you give that option if you've already bought postage and a second envelope? This gives me headaches and I would love any thoughts you might want to share.

Sorry this post had so much inner monologue, apparently I have not completely made up my mind on any of this. I told you these things were making me lose sleep.

Oops I almost forgot to show you something else I made. This is totally for Sheldon, and I'm pretty sure we'll use them for the Thank You cards instead of the invitations.

 
  Can you tell how much I love him?