Wedding Signs and Table Numbers

To continue the ceremony motif through the cocktail hour and into the reception, I created signs and table numbers decorated with paper pinwheels.

Cookie Table Party Favors

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania has many of its own wedding traditions; there is the 'Money Dance' and then the very beloved 'Cookie Table'. Being born and raised in Pittsburgh and hosting a wedding there we had to acknowledge this tradition. As a wink to the cookie table, we created beautiful cookie favors for our reception. To thank our guests for coming, I handmade Thank You notes which we attached to each favor.

The Cookie 'Favor' Table.

Here is how we did it;

Bachelorette/Shower Party Favors

Hello! Just a quick little DYI today; favors for a bachelorette party or bridal shower.

Pinwheel Aisle Decorations

Inspired by a picture I found on theknot.com of pinwheels sold on Etsy, I decided to try to create my own pinwheel aisle decorations for my June wedding.

Initially I had trouble getting started, but each pinwheel I made got better and faster. I ended up making approximately 50 individual pin wheels which decorated the ends of 8 rows of aisles.

Here’s how I did it.

DIY: Wedding!

Recently I was lucky enough to get married. Being an avid craft-ster, a true do-it-youself-er, and a cheapskate I took on a lot of wedding projects myself. My inspiration started when I saw a photograph of pinwheel aisle decorations and a pinwheel cake.

A collage of some of the wedding details.

By the time I finished my crafting I had made; 12 bachelorette party favors, 6 signature drink signs, 15 table number signs, 300 cocktail stirs, 16 aisle decorations, 140 favor tags, one guest book, 45 shower favors, 2 custom quotation signs, and over 110 pinwheels.

Shortcut Chicken Satay

This week I made Chicken Satay. The recipe I used was from a co-worker whose husband I know to be a wonderful cook. I'm calling this 'shortcut' chicken satay because the recipe for the sauce was so easy and I already had all four of the ingredients. (Whereas another co-worker once gave me a chicken satay recipe with a nine ingredient marinade plus an eight ingredient sauce.)

The chicken turned out perfect! The sauce had just enough flavor to be really yummy without being over powerful or sweet.

DIY Cocktail Stirs

For my latest project I made cocktail stirs for a wedding happy hour. There are many similar stirs for sale on Etsy, but I needed 300 and it seemed cheaper to try to make them myself. I like the way they turned out, and they were even quicker to make than I expected.

Two of the completed stirs

DIY: Baby Shower Guest Book

A few months ago I was asked to help plan a baby shower. In planning the shower we wanted to find activities to entertain the guests and ways for each of the guests to leave their special mark on the shower. A perfect way to make everyone feel involved and give the parents to be great keepsake from the shower is by creating an advice filled baby shower guestbook. There are many many formats for this; words of wisdom for the baby as he/she grows up, advice for the parents to be, or just a normal guestbook.

My finished guestbook card

Here are the basic steps of how I designed, created, and produced my own (cost effective) guest book.

Christmas Lights, for a good cause

I wish I had discovered this earlier, but there's a house in Arlington County (East Falls Church) that puts on a great Christmas 'Dancing' Light show. Plus, its all to benefit The Animal Welfare League of Arlington.

Picture from Arlnow.com 

Chicken Pierre

I found this recipe for Chicken Pierre on allrecipes while looking for a new way to cook chicken breasts. It was a bit of a gamble for my household because we are not big tomato fanatics, but this recipe was sooo good it might just change our minds.

Chicken Pierre