Our Wedding: Getting Crafty

This past weekend was Tim's Bachelor Party so while he was away I did a TON of cleaning (our apartment desperately needed it) and I also worked on some wedding crafts! My wedding to do list has gotten a bit smaller and there are certainly items that have to wait but there were a few things I could start crossing off. 

The first item I wanted to get started on was the centerpieces. I decided on super simple centerpieces with just sand and a white candle inside a vase. I simply just needed to assemble them! I ended up only getting a few done because I need to go buy some more sand but I am happy I at least got them started.

Like I said, super simple but the candles will be lit at each table and I am considering wrapping fairy lights on the table around the base of each vase. Any thoughts on that one?

I wrapped each one in bubble wrap so they won't get dusty and won't break.

I also started on my floor plan for the wedding.

The rotunda ballroom obviously isn't a a rectangular shape but I figured it would work for seeing how the room will be laid out. We are planning on having a sweetheart table on the opposite end of the dance floor from the DJ. Right now I am planning on having twenty tables- some will be tables of eight and some will be tables of ten. Until I have back all the RSVPs I can't finalize everything but I am working on it!

The last craft I worked on this weekend was our table numbers. I wanted to find a free printable but I couldn't find anything I loved so I ended up on Etsy. I found a simple design I loved and after printing all twenty numbers I stuck them in teal frames I purchased from Kohls.

I think they look really nice and definitely were an inexpensive option and I can use the frames in the future which is great. If you are interested in these prints you can find them here.

On Wednesday I'm going to share with you what's left on my to-do list for the wedding! Since today we are exactly TWO MONTHS out from the wedding we are in the final stages!

How To Make a Travel Pinboard

Today I'm sharing with you how I made our travel pinboard!

This is a fun DIY project I recently completed which has really completed our living room. There was one small wall I really felt was missing something and this is what it was! This was a very easy project to complete and can be very cost efficient if you don't splurge on a map like I did. I wanted mine to be a muted color and couldn't find a map I liked until I found one on Easy, but we'll get into that in a little bit.

Once I decided I wanted to do this project I took a trip to our local A.C. Moore.

I picked up a 24x36 poster frame that had a small piece of plastic as a cover on the front of it. I simply pulled the plastic off (despite the warnings not to) and was left with a simple black frame.  I ended up getting a 50% off deal on this frame and only paid $15 for it.

I also bought a roll of cork for just over $9 and used my hot glue gun to glue attach it to the backing of the frame.  I did try to flatten out the roll ahead of time but was slightly impatient and ended up gluing it before it was completely flat.

Once I was done gluing onto the cardboard backing I laid it all out on the floor and weighed down the edges while I went to bed. 

The next morning I was up bright and early to get to the post office to pick up my map! I checked on my new cork board and glued down the edges that were still a little loose but felt it had flattened out quite nicely.

I did spend some time just trimming the edges with scissors so the cork fit correctly on the cardboard. It had been a little over when I first glued everything down so I made sure everything looked even before the next step.

I had bought mod podge and a small brush (under $7 combined) in order to attach the poster to the cork and had heard that it was a bit difficult to get posters to stick to cork so I knew I was in for a challenge.

I used some random items to help flatten out the map for a bit and quickly got impatient and wanted to get started! The map itself was something I found on Etsy and was a bit pricer then I initially planned. I fell in love with the gray and loved that you could customize the title. If you are looking to purchase one you can find them here.

I chose "Our Travels" as our title since that is what I plan to keep track of on this map.

Now I've already mentioned my impatience twice in this post welllll I think it made my end result a little crinkly. Anddd if you look real close you can tell that in the mod podge there's a little dirt (which why did I think it was a good idea to do this project on a carpet?) however I love it. It's not perfect but neither are we and I think the crinkles give it a real life map quality.

I spent some time sticking my pins in the map before Tim got home from work. I purchased a container of map pins from Walmart and we discussed ahead of time what colors we would use. Tim's favorite color is green so any place he has visited on his own will have a green pin. My favorite color is blue so any place I visit on my own will be marked with a blue pin. We have decided on red pins for any place we have gone or will go together. As we have kids in the future we will add new pin colors to show where we go as a family.

Now for some details!

I loved sticking all my blue pins in Europe and remembering my trips to Spain, England and France.

Tim and I have been on a few adventures so far together including: our trip to New Jersey, our Disney World vacation, a trip to Vermont, visiting the Bronx Zoo, visiting my parents in Florida, and various trips around RI, CT and MA.

I traveled quite a bit growing up but we went to Disney World pretty much every other year and repeated quite a few locations more then once. I did visit Puerto Rico a few times and we took a Disney cruise to Nassau Bahamas and Castaway Cay but I still have dreams of visiting most of the Caribbean! Tim has been on a couple cruises through the Bahamas so his pins definitely dominate in that section of the map. Most of our pins remain on the east coast while only three of mine made their way to the west. I have visited Los Angeles, Anaheim and Laguna Beach in California but since I ran out of blue pins I have one representing Laguna Beach. I have also been to Las Vegas Nevada and Tijuana in Mexico but there is so much to explore on that coast!

We have dreams of visiting more states and countries in the future and now this map will inspire us and keep track as we make those dreams come true!

This entire project was done for $85 and more then half of that was on the map which you can definitely get for cheaper if you aren't picky about what your map looks like!

How do you keep track of your travels? Where do you dream of traveling to? Any future travel plans? Please share I'd love to hear!

Project Life

I have struggled with the decision of what to do about my scrapbooking hobby for quite some time now. I have gone back and forth because while I absolutely love the creativity of scrapbooking- the time it takes is something I have not been enjoying. As of January 1st I was officially two years behind with my scrapbooking- 2013 and 2014- two years of scrapbooking to do. I also at some point would like to scrapbook everything from 2008 and earlier that I have in simple photo albums. I also would like to be caught up and scrapbook as I go.

Enter Project Life.

If you haven't heard of Project Life it's a simplified version of scrapbooking where you slip photos and memories into slots (scrapbooking when you have time) and easy to maintain. So I went out on New Years Day to Michaels and purchased my supplies.

I purchased a Project Life Starter kit...

A Project Life Album..

And of course Project Life scrapbooking pages.


I have started using them a little bit- but I will be sharing my Project Life journey as I get used to this new scrapbooking system and keep you updated on how I feel about it. So far, I like it and it takes significantly less time then traditional scrapbooking. I also plan on sharing some scrapbooking layouts and showing you how I am using the system!

Do you use Project Life?

Cinnamon Holiday Ornaments

This past weekend Brittni and I spent some time making ornaments for our co-workers. This was a easy gift to hand out to our co-workers since neither of us were sure if people at work exchanged gifts or not. We thought that this would be a cute idea and ended up being relatively easy so I thought I would share what we did in case you are interested in making some ornaments this holiday season!

This is our finished product- don't they look cute?

Brittni had received adorable cookie cutters for her wedding shower- the shapes were perfect for winter. We used the following shapes: reindeer, penguin, fox, bear, owl, rabbit and bird. They were all so cute but the bears and penguins ended up turning out best since they are solid shapes and were easier to remove from the cookie cutters.

We had a little helper with Brittni's three year old niece. She was great at using the rolling pin!

We used one cup of applesauce with a little over a cup of cinnamon. We learned to be very generous with the cinnamon since it helped to keep the dough not as sticky. I dug my hands into the bowl with cinnamon and applesauce and mixed it by hand until is was doughy, Then we made small balls of dough and rolled them out on the table (adding cinnamon as needed) and used cookie cutters to create ornament shapes.

After we had all our ornaments cut out we placed them on parchment paper (which we draped on the cookie trays). We made sure to use a straw to make a hole in each ornaments so we would be able to loop ribbon through it.  Then we baked them in the oven for two hours on 200 degrees.

After two hours we simply pulled them out, looped ribbons through and voila!

Ornaments for everyone!

Have you ever made ornaments? There are so many fun ornament craft projects out there- I would love to make something different next year! =)

Have a great day!

Christmas Coasters!

My mom and I did a little project and finished it up yesterday so I thought I would share it here!

We made some adorable Christmas coasters, and it wasn't that difficult of a project. The materials we used were; small paper napkins, tiles, cork, hot glue/hot glue gun, mod podge, and clear glossy finish spray.

First we each took four coasters and laid them out on top of saran wrap- in order to keep the desk clean.

Next we picked out some Christmasy napkins. My mom chose holly leaf napkins, and I chose ones with snowmen on them.

Using the mod podge and a small brush we completely covered the tiles and then carefully smoothed out the napkin. They tend to get a little wrinkled, so it may be better to use something with more of a pattern and less of an actual picture.

My moms turned out really nice!

We let them dry out for a few days, and then sprayed them with a clear finishing spray outside….

Then after waiting for a few more days, it was time to add cork to the bottom!

We cut out small squares of cork and then used the hot glue gun to attach them to the bottom of the tiles.

Cute! I'm excited that now I know how to make these little coasters and wanted to share this because they would make an adorable gift for someone, no matter the occasion!

I hope you are all having a wonderful Christmas Eve and are spending time with family and friends!

By The Shore Treasures

This past weekend I helped my mom create her very first Etsy shop!

She has been making shell wreaths for quite awhile now and we have been trying to convince her that creating a shop on Etsy would be a great idea. She has been making wreath after wreath with no plan for them other than keeping them in her office closet, so now we have put them online.

Aren't they gorgeous?! She hand picks every shell off the beach in either Rhode Island or Florida, and man she finds some beautiful ones!

I would love for you to check out her shop on Etsy here . She is constantly making more all the time and each one is completely unique so you could buy one for everyone you know and each and every one would be completely different!

But I guess that's enough family-promotion for one day, you should just go check them out for yourself =)

Maid of Honor!

Well, it was an exciting weekend!

Saturday, after a looooong morning at work, I got to see one of my favorite co-workers, Kayla who is just about ready to give birth! She is going to have a little boy, who is due early July but I personally think he's going to arrive earlier! =)

 Then I drove to Connecticut to visit my best friend Rachel, but on the way I spilled all over myself!

I'm not sure why I bother wearing white! My iced coffee got all over my white shirt! =(

When I arrived at Rachel's, I was greeted with this at her front door....

Yes! She asked me to be her maid of honor!

and gave me the sweetest gift! =)

I am so excited to be her maid of honor!!!! She is planning a wedding for next summer and I am thrilled to be a part of it!

My first maid of honor duty was to help her make the bridesmaids gifts! She made some margaritas and we got started!

We worked for so long that we had to have some mac and cheese!

Just showing you that you can indeed see my signs on her door from the parking lot! So cute!

Then she took me to a local place where her fiancee Ant proposed to her! It was so nice to be able to see where it all went down!

I am so excited to get started in the planning process! Although I don't feel comfortable sharing EXACTLY what was in the box Rachel gave me, since it was her project and all-- I have linked a few projects below in case you are interested! The items she included were very cute and she even had a list with the reason for each one!

Bridesmaid Gift Boxes
How To Ask Your Bridesmaids
Cute Idea To Ask Bridesmaids

I think these are such cute ideas-but it's always nice to make it your own! I can't wait to help Rachel with more DIY wedding projects and will definitely share them with you along the way!