Category Archives: EB

tropical wedding shower at zombie hut

On June 30th I celebrated with some of my best friends and family at my tropical-themed wedding shower at a local Brooklyn tiki bar. Since we don’t have a wedding party, I knew that I would most likely be planning the whole thing on my own (which is fine by me). I know I could have asked my closest friends to take on this task, but who doesn’t love to plan a party? After scouring different venues and countless emails, I finally found our venue, Zombie Hut, which ended up being the perfect low-key location. And since it’s a tiki bar, it was perfect for me to honor the time Karl and I spent in Hawaii. We catered the food from a local place, Cobblestone Catering and everything turned out delicious!

While I did plan all the design elements for the shower, like having flowers in a pineapple vase, making paper leis for each guest, etc., some of my girlfriends planned some fun bridal shower games for us to do! I didn’t remember to bring a real camera, so thankfully my friend Vicki snapped most of these pictures. Thanks, Vicki!

In between chatting and playing games, most of the guests sipped the Zombe Hut’s signature drink, a Frozen Zombie. This cartoon pretty much sums up the place.

The morning of the shower I was worried about the weather holding up, as there was rain on the forecast. Just a little bit of rain moved the party inside, but luckily it was towards the end of the shower. Karl came back to the party, along with some of the guys and we continued to enjoy the day! I was very thankful that my sister-in-law Megan and my brother were able to come in to town for the weekend. (You should check out her blog some time). Really, I was just so happy to spend the day with my favorite people.

Although I was a little apprehensive about opening up my presents at the shower, I admit it wasn’t so bad. I guess after a couple of Frozen drinks, nothing is that bad. But really, I was so thankful for the thoughtful gifts that my friends made and bought me. This day really highlighted how crafty my friends are. I can’t wait to share with you what’s inside that cute box! (Thanks Carrie!)

Of course I was snapping away with my Instax camera. I just love having some polaroids to help remember the day.

I can’t wait to marry this guy!

I will share in another post the favors and paper goods I made for this special day. Thanks to all, near and far, for helping me kick off the wedding festivities!

DIY ombre watercolor cake bunting

This DIY ombre watercolor cake bunting was a fun and easy craft to do! After breaking in my watercolors, I was on a mission to paint whatever I could find. Since I had planned on baking a couple of cakes to celebrate the grand re-opening of Urban Angler, I figured why not make a cute bunting to go with it? Fisherman could appreciate a good project, right?

Supplies Needed: 2 food-safe Wooden dowels, paper (this was watercolor paper, but any paper will do just fine), watercolors, bakers twine and a paper punch. Instructions: Using your watercolors, paint an ombre design on your paper. (The waves were perfect for guys who love the water!) Cut your paper to desired width/length. Then attach your cake flag by punching holes at the top corners of the paper and string the twine through as shown. Tie the end of the string to the dowels. You can adjust the drape of your bunting by spreading out the paper and adjusting the tightness of the twine. Then all you have to do is pop it in the cake! An easy and fun way to dress up any occasion!

This quick little bunting makes me look forward to creating our wedding cake toppers (since we will have a couple of small cakes) and finding some other watercolor projects to do this summer! I have already been scouring Pinterest looking for more watercolor inspiration! Enjoy!

diy wrapping paper

I had a lot of fun creating this DIY wrapping paper. This past weekend I bought a Kid Made Modern watercolor set at Target. I had been wanting new watercolors for a while now and when I saw this colorful set for $10, I figured why not treat myself.

After buying my (almost) niece Quinn some cute summer dresses, I knew making some wrapping paper would be the perfect way to break in my paints! I used the lyrics to Bob Dylan’s “Quinn the Eskimo” and painted them in script with black ink on kraft wrapping paper.

This was a really fun and easy project and I’m excited to make some more custom wrapping paper in the future. Enjoy!

memorial day weekend in the redhouse

It’s been a tradition of ours that on every Memorial Day Weekend we go up to the Delaware River with the rest of the fly-fishing trout bums. This time, Karl booked a house he found on VRBO in Hancock, New York with our good friends!

In our fly-fishing adventures Karl has taken me to some pretty dingy places, so I must admit I had low expectations for this house. Luckily, I was quite impressed with our living arrangements for the weekend. It was definitely an upgrade from the KOA campground. The best part of the house was the rugs, as you can see from the many pictures of my feet in this post. I really wanted to take one home with me. You can tell this was designed to be the perfect retreat for a fisherman’s wife.

We didn’t have the best weather up in Hancock, so much of our time was spent inside relaxing, reading and drinking. I was so thankful I had Katie there with me. Only a fellow fisherman’s wife, knows what it is like to be a fisherman’s wife…always waiting for the boys to get off the river.

Katie and I went exploring in some nearby towns while the boys drifted in the river. We went into some cute thrift stores and I scored some vintage blue ball jars. Now I think I have enough for our wedding.

I finally finished The One and Only Ivan. I just love that gorilla.

Of course the best weather we had all weekend was the day we had to go home. Karl and I went down to the river to scout fishing spots, but we never actually fished. We decided to hit the road and avoid the traffic. Soon enough, I’ll get in the water. Best of all, the weekend gave me a glimpse into summer life. No classes. No papers to write. Just living and counting down to our wedding day. eeek!

Until next time, Red House! Hope you had a relaxing Memorial Day Weekend!

first weaving project

About a month ago, I posted a sneak peak of my first weaving project and I’m happy to say that I finally finished it. Considering it’s the size of a coaster, it’s not so much of an accomplishment, but nevertheless, it’s done. Whenever I get an idea in my head I usually need to act on it immediately and this first weaving project was no different. I had seen many woven rugs floating around blog-land, like Rachel’s of Smile & Wave and Elise Blaha Cripe…and I knew this would be a craft that I would love to tackle. With the help of my crafty husband-to-be, we created this ridiculously looking, but functional DIY loom. We used paint sticks, painters tape (since that’s all that we had on hand) and rulers. I knew that whatever I made would be rather small, but I didn’t care. I watched a few videos and read some information online to help get me started. If you’re just getting started with weaving, I highly recommend this video by Archie Brennan. Aside from being informative, they are just fun to watch (ok, it may get a little boring). But, it’s amazing what people can do with a loom!

Since the warps were only looped around the painters stick they were not stationary. This resulted in some very wonky ends.

The results? The perfect sized coaster for a cup of coffee!

Since I enjoyed weaving so much, Karl ended up ordering me a Beka kiddie loom. What a keeper! I’m excited to make something a little more substantial than a coaster! And, it will be a great project to start while I watch the new season of Arrested Development!