Memorial Day Weekend

Stephen and I headed off to Pittsburgh, PA which happens to be the American home of his people :).  His dad's cousin's daughter (did you get that?) got married this weekend in the 'burgh and we never miss a good opportunity to hang with family!  Thankfully, Stephen got a half-day off of work on Friday (and yet he still worked 7 hours - half day?  go figure) and we split town at noon.  Getting to Pittsburgh from Chicago is kinda tricky.  At first glance of a map, you can see that Pitt sits just east of Chi-town...however, at closer examination you will notice a huge body of water (a.k.a. Lake Michigan) that must be navigated around in order to get from point A. to point B.  The first time Stephen and I scooted to his homeland from our apt we took off on the National Turnpike.  We laughed carelessly in the wind until we arrived at our destination and added up all the money we had spent on tolls...$39 and some change...that's ONE WAY people!  Because we aren't heading to Pittsburgh and staying, we'd be paying somewhere in the ballpark of $80 (not to mention gas) just to get there on this pike.  So, we wised up (some may not see it that way) and we added a measly 30-45 min onto our trip each way to change our grand total spent to (wait for it...) $0 (of course gas is not included in that).  With that *new* navigation comes back roads, less traveled routes and great scenery - needless to say that that's our kind of travel!

Unfortunately I did what I do best and succeeded at taking very minimal pictures to document the fun that we had.  The only pictures I did take were of Stephen's parents tearing up the dance floor in the DJ provided hats to wear in accompaniment to the Village People's "YMCA".  I don't think they would appreciate me sharing those on my blog :).  My favorite part of the night was when Stephen and I were outside talking with some of his cousins when his mom throws open the door (hat still on, blow-up microphone in hand <--that was another prop given out) and says, "KARI!  Your song is on!  We need you on the dance floor - NOBODY knows what they're doing!!!"  For all my friends who have fallen victim to watching me "dance" to FloRida's Low, you will know exactly what she was referring to....

Leading up to the wedding, I was itching for a good project and I couldn't shake the fact that I had a perfectly good piece of wood from Hobby Lobby in our closet that I had picked up about 2 years ago in hopes to make a Fall sign for our apartment.  I snagged this sucker for 1/2 off $2.99 and my good intentions got left to the wayside...the sign was never made. I decided I was going to use it to make a personalized wedding gift for Stephen's cousin and her new husband.

I used the same technique that I had used to make our Count Your Blessings sign by printing off what I was wanting to put on my sign and then shading the back of it with pencil to trace it onto the piece of wood...I'll let the pictures do the talking:

Here's the wooden sign already spray painted with the same paint that I had bought and used for our Count Your Blessings sign...

I printed off my S and shaded the back

 I then traced the S onto the piece of wood...

Here's the painted S

I then did the same thing with their last name and painted in my tracings (sorry the picture is crooked - silly blogger!)

Here's the finished painted sign...

I then sanded the pants off of it for a vintage-y look....

2 steps that I do not have pictures for (you're not missing much) is when I took the sign and sprayed it with a clear, glossy spray paint to seal it off.

I then measured the back of it to find the middle of the wood and hammered in a hanging metal strip to the back of it so that they can hang it on their walls.

Total cost of this project:

Wood Sign: $1.50

Metal Hanging Strip: $1.99 for 2 (I only used 1 so that's $1)

I had all the paint...

that's right - I paid a whopping $2.50 for this personalized wedding gift :)

Have you finished any cool projects lately?  I'm always looking for inspiration!

I'm linking up to these parties this week (also: Between Naps on the Porch, Today's Creative Blog, Savvy Southern Style, The Thrifty Home).