Bridesmaid Hair!

As I mentioned  before, I'm attempting to do my own bridesmaid hair in my brother's wedding in a few weeks. Although this scares me, it also gives me a chance to try out different formal hairstyles I wouldn't usually be able to try.

Here's what I've done so far:

Braid Bun from longhairstylehowto

I tried a few different versions of this hairstyle, and it's definitely one of my top choices for the wedding.

The first time I tried this, I was doing it from memory.  I just did one long braid that went across the back of my head, then I twisted it into a bun.




I needed a lot of bobby pins, but once I got them in there correctly the hairstyle stayed up quite well! I loved it!

The second time I tried the bun, I actually followed the directions on the pin.

Not nearly as cute.  Unfortunately, my hair has layers so that bun didn't work out too well because the ends of my layers poked out everywhere. I played around with a few different options including a mini sock bun from a child's sock.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A Very Vintage Ponytail from indulgy

This was a very cute and flirty hairstyle.  It was pretty easy, but I couldn't get the necessary poof at the top.  It didn't hold up too well and the sides all fell out within an hour or so.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hot braid curls from allwomenstalk

This was an idea I saw on pinterest. It says to just do 5-10 loose braids in your hair, go over them with a hair straightener, hairspray, then let out.

I started with 10 braids (what do you think about this hairstyle for the wedding??):

And ended up with 1980's-style crimped hair:

I was actually so disappointed with this hairstyle that I showered it out in the 10 minutes I had before having to get to class.

Next I tried 5 braids and made them looser:

And ended up with slightly wavy, not-too-impressive hair:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Half-up / Half-down Fishtail from latest-hairstyles

I tried out this half-up half-down fishtail and fell in love. This might be a winner!

To do this hairstyle, take two side pieces of hair and twist into a half-up pony.  After I did this, I actually liked how this turned out, and would definitely use this as an everyday hairstyle!

Next, do a fishtail braid to the small pony and secure with an elastic.

Next, I decided to cut out the top elastic to see what would happen. It became very loose, and I didn't really like it as much.

Since I loved that style so much, I tried it again the next day but made it a little more formal.  I started by clipping up the two side pieces of hair and curling everything else with a 1" curler.

I then twisted & put an elastic in the two pieces in the back, just like the day before.

I then did a fishtail braid to the small pony and secured with another elastic.

I then added a sweet pink bow to the top.

Finally, I tucked away my bangs with a bobby pin because I knew I couldn't have them in my face all day.  This is the style from the front:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The next hairstyle I found is from this WONDERFUL website that has all sorts of hairstyles that are adorable.

Puff Braided Ponytail from Locks and Locks of Hairstyles

Although not exactly a wedding hairstyle, this is an easy style and a good twist on the regular braid. To do this, you just do a high pony, make a loose  braid, and puff out as you go along.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The last hairstyle I tried is a quick side-braid from the Beauty Department.

This braid was very easy, and a good way to get my bangs out of my face.

Not wedding material though.

Sunglasses Frame Holder (and Pinterest Fails)

Here are a few crafts that I've worked on this week:

I'll start with a picture of the Cookie Monster Bean Bag Toss I made.  Hop on over to my Teaching-365 blog to read about it!

I also completed this sunglasses frame holder from pullteeth.  I absolutely love it!! I'll have to contemplate adding it to my Top 10 Crafts list, I just love everything on that list!

To do this holder, I found a frame at goodwill that would fit inside my bathroom closet door.  

I took out the glass and the picture.

I then hot-glued ribbon to the back of the frame.  4-5" was enough between each ribbon.

To hang the frame on the door, I used command strips.

I've also had a few pinterest fails this week:

I saw that you could clean your grout by spraying Woolite carpet cleaner right on, waiting a few minutes, scrubbing, and wiping.  This did not work. FAIL.

I also tried to make these cute beaded flip flops. Not nearly as easy as it looks. FAIL.

Gnocchi, M&M Pudding Cookies, and Pancake Squares

 Now that it's summer, I'm back to being able to do at least one project per day, and I love it!

Here are the recipes I have tried so far this week:

Recipe #132: Easy Ricotta Gnocchi from Budget Bytes

I was so excited to make this gnocchi... once I learned how to pronounce it it became my favorite soup at Olive Garden!  This was a pretty easy recipe, it just took a few cheap ingredients and about 30 minutes.

Except... (here it comes)... I ran out of white flour.  So I substituted half of the flour with wheat flour, which I thought wouldn't be a big deal.

Well, it was. And they just tasted like mushy lumps of wheat. And I am NOT the biggest fan of wheat.

Because the gnocchi was so plain, I decided to do a taste test.  I set up five different bowls and covered the gnocchi with different things: 1. Parmesan cheese    2. Italian Dressing    3. Garlic Butter    4. Cheddar Cheese     5. Salt & Pepper 

This was the gnocchi with salt & pepper:

In the end, the Parmesan cheese was my favorite, though it still wasn't as good as I'd hoped. I might try again with all white flower.

Recipe #133: M&M Pudding Cookies from keyingredient 

These cookies were super easy! They were just a standard chocolate chip cookie recipe, but had a dash of vanilla pudding mix and m&ms.
They were devoured right away! Everyone loved them!

Recipe #134: Pancake Squares from bigredkitchen

These pancake squares are a much easier and delicious alternative to regular pancakes! Just whip together the simple ingredients (I had them all in my pantry), put in an 8x8" pan, and your pancakes are ready in 20 minutes with no flipping.  I always have the hardest time not burning my pancakes. These were so fluffy and delicious, especially with butter and syrup!

What To Do With All Those Bridal Magazines...

When I first got engaged, my roommate made an adorable congratulatory basket with champagne and a notebook and bridal magazines... I was so excited! I leafed through every page, tearing out ones I loved and filing them away in a notebook.  Then another friend gave me another magazine, and I did the same... adoring every idea and shouting out to the household when I saw something new. 

Then we looked at venues... and it seemed like every venue we met with handed me another inch-thick bridal magazine.  Then came the bridal show, I started receiving them in the mail, and a neighboring teacher gave me a bag of at least 20 leftover from her daughter's wedding.

Not that I'm not appreciative... the magazines just started to all look a little alike and I was tearing out less and less pages in each one.

So what do I do with all those magazines?

Well... here's my solution.  Yesterday, I made that fun Kusudama ball for my future sister-in-law's bridal shower, and while I was doing it I was imagining all of the fun things I could make these flowers out of:

sheet music... books... maps...

So today, while trying to brainstorm a thank you gift for a friend who is helping us out BIG TIME with getting our venue, I thought back to all of those bridal magazines and the carambola flowers.

And an idea was born.  I decided to make:

Bridal Magazine Kusudama Balls

To do this, you need:

Various bridal magazines

Pearls/beads

Popsicle sticks

Ribbon

Vase/planter (optional)

Instructions:

Step 1: Decide how many flowers you want. For each flower, you'll need 5 squares cut from the magazines.  My squares were 5" by 5" and they yielded pretty big flowers.  I found pages with like coloring to make the different flowers (one flower was from white colors, another from pink, another from browns, then greens, then blues).  Below are my pages lined up by color. These have already been cut.

Step 2: Fold each petal and glue together the petals to make a flower.  To do this, follow the instructions at foldingtrees.  It's really a very easy process, and each flower takes about 5 minutes, so this bouquet took less than 1/2 hour.

Step 3: Glue a pearl/bead to the middle of each flower.  To do this, I just added hot glue around the outside of the bead and pressed it into the middle.

Step 4: Add a popsicle stick to the bottom. This was my/my roommate's solution to creating a stem that is strong enough to hold up the flower.  It's not as pretty as I would like it to be, but you can always hide it in a planter.  To add the popsicle stick, I just put a dab of glue on the end of a stick (on each side) and squished it into the bottom of the flower.  It usually fit right in between two folds.

Here are all 5 of my flowers before putting them together.

 Step 6: Attach all of the popsicle sticks together. To do this, I used a twistie tie, but you can also use a rubber band, or something more innovative if you choose.  When you have attached them, tie a ribbon over the top of what you used to hide it.

This is a view from the top.

Step 7: If you would like, you can put the flowers in a vase or a pot like this one.  I probably could have used a smaller pot, but I had this one lying around my house and it fit fine.

Since mine was really supposed to go as a gift card holder, I stuck some gift cards between each flower and secured them with tape.  Then I added a card to the  middle.

 That's just a quick tutorial, let me know if you have any questions or want to share your flowers!

Amy

Shades of Blue with a Touch of Beach

My brother's wedding is coming up, and the majority of our family will be arriving in Destin in 2 weeks to celebrate it.  My mom and I are hosting a bridal shower for his fiance the Thursday before the wedding.  My mom said she wanted some blues in there with maybe a little beach, which I translated to its official title:

Shades of Blue with a Touch of Beach.

I've been working on some decorations for the bridal shower and I've been having a blast!  Here's what I have so far.


Fan Decorations inspired by Sweet Paul

For these decorations, I purchased different shades and patterns of blue scrapbook paper, plus some cardstock.  For the bigger fans, I accordion-folded two square pieces of scrapbook paper, expanded them into a fan, and glued them together.  For the smaller fans, I accordion-folded a rectangle and glued the two ends together - no need for two pages here!
I attached some of the smaller fans to the larger ones and added a blue bottle cap (from Michael's) to center.  These are going to hang on the wall... somewhere.



Kusudama Ball with Carambola Flowers inspired by diyweddingbee, goorigami, and foldingtrees.

 

I've been dying to make these carambola flowers for the longest time, and I finally had time to try now that I'm done with work for the summer.  I started by trying to make the traditional Carambola flower by following the goorigami  video tutorial.  I literally watched this video 5 or 6 times.  I spent hours trying to figure out how to make these flowers and got SO frustrated! I couldn't get the last few steps down.  These were my attempts:

Finally, I found a different tutorial from foldingtrees.  In order to do each flower, you need 5 pieces of square paper (1 per petal).  The folding is actually really easy to follow and flowers were super simple to make!  It was a little labor intensive, but I was able to make a petal per minute, a flower in 5 minutes, and be done with the whole thing in an hour(ish). My problem came when I was trying to figure out how to attach the flowers together.  Eventually, I thought I solved my problem by gluing a bead/pearl to the top of a piece of floral wire, feeding it through the inside of the flower, and securing (gluing) the pearl to the inside of each flower.  Unfortunately, the flowers were far too heavy to be held up by floral wire (which I knew was going to happen) so I had to glue the flowers together in the end.  I twisted the floral wire together and covered it in green ribbon. 

This will probably be used for a centerpiece or just decoration for the shower.

Beachy Keen Love Letters inspired by oncewed

I saw these letters on pinterest and knew they were perfect for the 'touch of beach' in the shower.  To do these letters, I bought cardboard 3D letters from Joann's (they don't carry them at my Michael's), stole used the natural resources of the sand from St. Pete beach, and purchased a bag of shells from Michael's.  I know, I know... I would have loved to go to the beach and find my own shells, but there was no time for that and this bag came with so many varieties.  

First, I covered the letters with Mod Podge and covered them in sand.  When it had dried, I sprayed a layer of lacquer to try to reduce the stray sand pieces.  I then glued the shells to the letters, and that's it!

I look forward to showing you how the bridal shower turns out and all the fun stuff that goes with it!