Christmas Projects

I've decided to make a lot of Christmas gifts this year mainly because I really enjoy sewing and creating so much that I thought it would give me a nice excuse to take a break from the busyness around me and work on them.  I've already started and almost completed 4 gifts because I knew if I waited that my plan of peacefully sewing would end up with me stressfully pulling my hair out and wondering why I had put myself through this :).  One of my favorite sites to check every day is Sew4Home.  A lot of my projects have come from their awesome tutorials, but they also showcase fabric every so often.  A couple of days ago I was checking their site and I was SO excited when I saw that they were showcasing this new fabric from Michael Miller:

I was mostly excited by these two fabrics in the Italian Alphabet Collection:

These fabrics are so perfect for Stephen's 93-year-old Noni.  They're perfect for her because she is a tiny little Sicilian lady who loves to bake biscotti and do things in the kitchen and this fabric is full of graphics with their Italian names next to them.  

I knew I had to buy both of them to make her a Christmas present.  As soon as I saw them, I immediately thought back to the reversible apron that I made for my sweet friend, Katie in August.  I was so frustrated when I couldn't seem to find the cream fabric anywhere but luckily I found someone on Etsy who was selling both for $7/yard which was perfect for me!  I'll have left over fabric from the apron, which I'm planning on making dish towels for Mom C.  I'm SO excited and hope that these fabulous ladies love their Italian inspired Christmas gifts as much as I'm excited to give them to them :).

DIY Wedding Fun - Part 6

Salt Covenant

Instead of lighting unity candles, Stephen and I did a salt covenant in our wedding.  Our friends, Matt and Mandy had done one in their wedding in 2002 and I loved it when I first saw it.  Instead of our mom's coming in and lighting a candle, they walked in carrying salt from their kitchens.  They set them next to the main salt container and then Stephen and I poured them into the container during the ceremony.  There are different ideas behind it: the Biblical idea that we're called to be the salt of the earth was a main idea that we wanted to encompass in our wedding and in our marriage.  Another idea was the symbol of our families joining together into a new family.  While all the grains were joining together, we would never be able to pull out "his grains" and mine - we were joined for forever.  The coolest thing about this is that we have this main salt container and it's sitting on our mantel.  We will have this container of salt from our wedding day forever to remind us of the covenant we made with each other before God for the rest of our lives.  While I didn't etch this container, I realize now that I could've easily done so.  This is a cheater "DIY Wedding Fun" post because I didn't actually make this container, but if you were interested in making one yourself, it could easily be done.  If you'd like to see a tutorial on how to etch a glass surface, just click here.

DIY Wedding Fun - Part 7

Yummy Desserts/Favors

The spring before our wedding, I had attended the wedding of a friend who had heart shaped, monogrammed cookies as favors.  I loved the idea of them but didn't love the idea of how costly this would probably be.  I quickly learned that their mom's had gotten together and made the cookies super cheaper than they would've paid for them had they bought them from a bakery.  I was ALL about this idea, although I know I stressed out my mother-in-law and my mom with this courageous effort!  

My mom got to work making the sugar cookie dough a few weeks out and freezing it until we were ready to work with it.  We got together (my mom, mother-in-law, sister, sister-in-law and best friend) a week before the wedding and baked the cookies in the desired leaf shapes (oak and maple).  This process took a good 2-3 days to completely roll, cut and bake all the cookies that we would need.  We then got together and iced the cookies using royal icing from a recipe I found online.  This process took a good 1-2 days as we had an assembly line going of piping and flooding and moving the cookies where they could dry.  Once this was all finished, I piped the "C" on each individual cookie and bagged them the Thursday before the wedding.  While I didn't get to taste any of the official cookies, I heard they were quite yummy!

Here is the "C" that I got from The Knot as our cake topper.  The only problem that I had with it was that it was silver and I really wanted it to be a soft shade of gold to match with our warm, natural colors in the wedding.  So, I spray painted it - simple enough!  

My husband has QUITE the sweet tooth...to him, sugar is in the bottom portion of his nutritious pyramid!  Because of this, we incorporated all the things that he loves into the wedding: the sugar cookies, the cake with 3 different flavors (Italian Wedding, Strawberry and White Chocolate) as well as homemade pumpkin pies (made by my incredibly sweet friend, Anessa!), candy corn AND a groom's cake (Cinnamon Swirl with EXTRA cinnamon per the groom's request).  Needless to say, our guests fell into a pile of granulated sugar as they left our reception!

The Roman Numerals on the side of the cake are all the different Super Bowls that the Steelers have won.  My husband's cousin, a devout Cleveland Browns, fan did not really care for this cake :).

The Groom's cake was a huge success with Stephen and his family!  Stephen was born a Steeler's fan as his whole family lives in Pittsburgh (and this is where he was born).  I was so happy to incorporate things that Stephen loves into our big day!

Magnificent Mondays: Magnificent Blogs 36

Emily is a stay at home mommy that loves to show the blog world that you don't have to be Martha to create beautiful, homemade things!

Did I ever tell you that I like fall?  Because of my love for fall and monograms, I really like this!

Do you have a sweet little girl in your life that needs a pretty headband for her hair?  If so, head here.

Here is a transformation of a very country tray to a very sophisticated and decorative tray to display in her home.

Run on over to Martha Shmartha and let me know how you've been inspired!

Happy Blogging!