DIY Wedding Deets

Here are a few things Derrick and I did for our wedding!

I made a sign for Miles to carry down the aisle before me that said "Here Comes the Bride."  Here is a little bit of my process.  Derrick cut me a piece of wood.  I painted it grey.  I cut out a design on the silhouette, and painted that. 

 Then I also cut letters on the silhouette.  They were fine, but the glossy paint I used was horrific!!  When I tried to peel the vinyl off, it pulled up part of the paint.  Note to self:  Never use glossy paint!  it seriously is the worst invention ever!

 So that was disappointing!!  I had to start all the way over.  Worst thing ever.  Ask Derrick.  I cried.  Literally.  I had to paint over what I had done, and I used the other side to do the new one.  Same process: grey, white vinyl design, letters (which I changed), and thankfully it turned out.  Derrick drilled a couple holes in the top, and we strung it with tulle from Quinn's tutu for him to hold. It was the most adorable thing, but unfortunately our photographer didn't snap a picture of it.  We kept telling Miles that he had a really important job.  He was to take the sign all the way down the aisle and give it to Uncle Derrick.  He did such a good job! 

Also in this picture, we made our own programs.  Here is a picture of our programs before we had tied the ribbon on the top.  I saw the idea on Pinterest, and I think they turned our great!

 Here is Quinn's tutu that I made for her. 

She looked adorable!  And I think she had fun walking/playing down the aisle too!  I don't think she'll have a problem with stage fright! :)

For the groomsmen & usher gifts, we bought them mugs, and I etched their name and a picture on them.   It's hard to tell what's on them in these pictures.

 Here is Derrick's.  I etched a Vikings' head on his and his name.

We also decided to have cupcakes instead of a giant cake for our wedding.  So Derrick and I got busy makeing a cupcake stand.  Let's say we made it work, but it definitely wasn't our best work!  And it certainly wasn't a fun project...ask Derrick!  We bought a sheet of 1/2" wood, cut it ourselves, cut the PVC pipe, painted it, and put it all together.  This project definitely took us a few months to complete.



 But in the end, I think it looked nice at our wedding! :)

I think that concludes this post of our DIY wedding details.  I would love to see your DIY projects too!

Ant Infestation

This is disgusting, so I apologize in advance. We had a little bit of an ant infestation in my office over the summer. Apparently our windows aren't sealed very well, and they were hiding in the walls by the window. Yuck! I have no idea how long it had been there either because where they were hiding out is behind two of my stoarage containers by my desk.

This is what I noticed first, just a few (20) ants crawling around on the part of the windowsill that I could see.

Then I look behind my storage container to find a rotting wall with a zillion ants.  Ewwww!! It still gives me the heebie jeebies!   

I didn't take a picture of it, but there were ants coming out of the actual sill too and going down our wall to the floor.  And after I moved my storage container, this is what I saw.  I mean do you even want to guess how many ants that is?!??!  Yes, a spider happened to join this crew too. 

I got out our wonderful home bug killer spray and sprayed the s*&! out of those ants!  Then cleaning them up was the fun part...NOT!  I literally cleaned ants for two hours while Derrick was at work.  After I thought I was done cleaning/vacuuming them up, more were running out of the wall and windowsill.  I mean it seriously was like a horror movie around here.  So I sad with my vacuum hose and sucked them out of the wall and sill for another 30 minutes.  And after that, I hotglued those ants in the wall! :)  At least until the exterminator could come. 

That concludes my horrific ant story.  I have never had hate towards ants, but this may have just sealed the deal.  Disgusting.

Household Tip

We added this to our laundry room door a while ago, and we love it.  It's so much easier to find what we need than digging below the kitchen sink!  And we now have more cupboard room under the kitchen sink! :)  It's just a hanging shoe container.  The only bad thing about it is that it slams against the door every time you close this door unless you're really slow.  It's a small price to pay, though, so we don't mind.

NetiPot

So when I was 18, I found out I had allergies.  I went through a few spurts where I did daily inhalers, which always helped but not enough for me for justify forking out the money they cost!  For a while I wasn't doing anything and had crazy symptoms.  Then I started taking just a daily pill like Zyrtec, but the offbrand one.  Which, on a side note, if anyone else takes that stuff, you should get it at Sam's Club.  I was paying $15 for 30 tablets at CVS and at Wal-Mart I think it was $11.  At Sam's Club I got 450 tablets for the same price!

Anyways, the tablets really helped better than anything else, but I was still having some symptoms, and my allergies were still driving me crazy!  Insert NetiPot here...

I had heard of the NetiPot years ago but thought it was crazy to pour it up your nose.  Once I saw Dr. Oz say how it could really help with allergies, I was sold.  Derrick and I went out and bought one right away, and I love it!  I do it 2-3 times a week or when I'm feeling stuffy in the shower and all my allergy symptoms have mostly gone away.  They flair up every once in a while, but it's WAY better than before. 

Caution:  I use distilled water when I do it and just heat it up for 20 seconds before mixing it with the solution and using it.  Apparently two people died from using it because they used tap water, and the tap water contained a brain-eating bacteria. 

Don't let that or the whole pouring it up your nose thing discourage you :)  It's amazing!

Oh, and I really thing it helps keep me from getting sick!  Let me know if you decide to try it!

Embarrassing!

It is rather embarrassing how long it has been since I've posted on here.  A lot has changed around here since June.  I mean, I have a new last name and everything! I have a ton to post, so bear with me as it will be painfully out of order.  Here is a nice little list I have been keeping since June of things to blog about.  At least you'll know what's coming :) 

Some of the highlights since June:  Derrick and I got married!  That's the best news since then :)  We have attended two friends' weddings too.  I did my second triathlon.  We took a trip to Chicago with the McCords.  I am a NetiPot user and think it's the best thing ever.  Kaylan and I are doing lots of crafting for some craft shows.  I passed my National RPR test.  We had an ant infestation. I have pictures of our DIY wedding decorations.  Derrick got a new job.

Whew! I hope you're ready to get caught up! And hopefully you're at least interested in a few of those topics so you'll keep checking back! :) I'll leave you today with this fun picture from the zoo! :)