Easter Decor

Psst... wanna see what I made with the below items? You know you want to.

I ended up with this.



And this.



Here is a little bit more.



Ahh, finally, the whole thing.

Pretty, no? And it was SUPER EASY. When all the stores started putting put Easter decor I noticed I kept eying all the egg wreaths but didn't love any of them 100%, so I decided to make one myself. After looking on Etsy and walking the aisles at Hobby Lobby I came home with the first mentioned items (I later had to go back for the cream paint since the green paint I bought was too close to the green on the yarn.).

Here are the steps if you want to make your own!

Supplies

• Wreath - I used a straw wreath because it was cheaper than a styrofoam one
• 1 skein of yarn - I used super soft fuzzy kind, but any texture should work
• Paper mache eggs - I used 16 (TIP: Go buy the ones in the paper mache section, not the ones in the seasonal craft section, they are cheaper.)
• Paint - I used 4 different colors
• Sandpaper
  
• Hot glue gun and glue sticks
• Mod Podge
• Wreath Hanger - My hanger was too small for my wreath that is why I wrapped the raffia around the wreath and then tied it to the hanger

Get the wreath ready

1. Find an end of your yard and hot glue it onto your wreath.
2. Wrap the yarn all the way around the wreath, be sure to cover all of the wreath frame you don't want styrofoam showing! I think mine was covered after two layes, but I decided to go on and use the whole skein to get that super soft fluffy look. This takes some time so I recommend sitting on the couch, catching up on some tv while doing this!
3. Once that is done, hot glue the other end to the BACK of the wreath.

Get the eggs ready

1. Paint all your eggs, only use one coat and don't worry if it's not perfect you are going to sand them for that rustic look anyways! (TIP: Paint half of the egg at a time, let dry, then paint the other half. That way you don't get paint all over you.)
2. Once the eggs are dry start sanding! I used a fine grit sandpaper to start with, about a 120 or so but that was taking too long (even though I like the look, what can I say? I am not patient!) so I switched to an 80 and then went back over them quickly with the 120. If you sand too hard, like I did, in places, don't worry! Just remember to hot glue that side down later.
3. Seal with Mod Podge, I used the matte finish.

Putting it all together

1. Figure out how you want your eggs on the wreath. You could do it like I did, you could lay them end to end all the way around the wreath or any way you come up with!
2. Start gluing! I tried my best to not glue any of the eggs together, I hate it when you can see the hot glue. If the eggs seem loose wedge the glue gun under them and get some more glue on the bottom side.

Hang it up and admire your handy work!

This Texas Wedding: Gifts to Each Other

During the whole getting time ready Robert and I sent gifts to each other. I really wanted to do something super special for Robert, after all he got me a beautiful ring to begin with! I knew that the traditional wedding gift from the bride to the groom is a watch, but Robert is not really a Rolex type of guy, ha, like I could even afford a Rolex anyways! For as long as I have known him he has worn a thick leather type watch so I decided I wanted to get him a new nice leather watch.

Quite a few months before the wedding I stumbled across the Etsy shop of Leather Made Nice and ordered Robert this wristband:

Authentic Hair-On Brown/White Cowhide Wristband

They make belts, luggage tags, bracelets, key chains, all sorts of things. So, I sent a message to one of the owners of the shop, Anne, and told her what I wanted and asked if she thought it was something they could do. She responded to me that she did think it was and that her husband already had a leather template for a watch band all I would have to do is find the watch face. After much searching, I finally found the one I wanted on The Virtual Touch. I ordered it and had it shipped to Anne. And a few weeks later, after going back and forth on some details, my watch was ready!

It's great, right?

It was sooo hard to not give this to Robert as soon as it came in. The outside has leather lacing up the side and our wedding swirl design on it. (I promise, I will explain how we came to settle on this design for the wedding in another post!)

The inside has the first line from the Dante Alighieri reading we had my aunt read at the wedding (again, I promise I will share the whole reading, it will make you tear up!), our initials and wedding date.

"Remember tonight for it is the beginning of always. R+M 10•17•09"

I also ordered some cuff-links for his gift.

Lone Star Beer Cuff-Links

Here are a few pictures of him opening the gifts...

Notice his OU shirt too!

Melanie took these pictures and told me that when he pulled it out he said "hey! it has our wedding logo on it!" Made me laugh.

Then it was my turn! Please excuse these pictures, I was in the middle of getting my hair pouffed!

He got me the Open Heart necklace and earrings. I had been wearing the same necklace for about 7 years and had mentioned on and off how I wanted a new necklace but could never decide on anything. Needless to say, I love it and I wear it every day.

Necklace

Earrings

Dog Collar Giveaway Over on "Living Life Looman"

Kelly, over at Living Life Looman is hosting a dog collar giveaway! The collars are from the All Modern Pet store of Lola & Foxy.

I looked over the selection and everything is soo cute. All the designs seem a little girly to me, but there are a few that I think would fit my big boys nicely!

The Camo Martingale Dog Collar
For Hudson


The Blueberry Truffle Martingale Dog Collar
For Wade

Go check it out!

This Texas Wedding: Boys Get Ready

The burning question, for me, while getting ready was, what are the boys doing?

Well, there was

Sitting around watching tv.

Figuring out how to tie a tie.

It's a group effort, I guess.




Hair doing.

Singing, pretty sure this was something along the lines of "had it up to here" lyrics.

Figuring out cuff-links too.

Good ol sibling teasing.

And of course a smidgen of beer drinking!

This post brought to you by the colors black and white. See that amazing wallpaper in the bathroom? Yeah, imagine it in color, it's awful. So, I figured I would save all our eyes and make all the pictures black and white!

This Texas Wedding: Putting the White Dress on!

When I left off in the updates we were all made up and hair did and my maids were dressed. Now it was time for me to get that white, on in my case, cream, dress on!

A few gratuitous shots of the dress...

I know the straps look all short, but the dress has a portrait neckline.

Oh! I have to show off my garter. We did not do a garter toss, so I only wore one garter, but the set I ordered came with two.

The toss garter.

The real garter!

Have you noticed how I am sporting the OU jersey in all these day off pictures? Remember, that big game was going on! I had to show my support for my soon-to-be-hubby's team of choice! I decided to also show that support through my garter. When he did see the garter later on, he loved it.

On to getting into the dress...

This is my "I can't believe y'all just laced the dress up the wrong way, I am getting sweaty here" face, nice, right?

Finally lacing it the right way!

I really like this picture, minus the super messy bed!

More lipstick!

Garter from the Esty shop of Garters by Kristi. (I had her make mine with cream organza instead of black.)

Up next, lets check on those boys!

Quick Update

Can you believe it's March already? It's crazy how fast the year is going.

This weekend Robert and I are heading to Houston, we are going to go see my family and pick up my brother. He is going to come spend his spring break with us. Robert is excited about the free labor! I am excited about hanging out with my bother. It's kind of weird having a brother who is 10 years younger than me. I mean, what do you talk to a 16 year-old about! It's crazy. Robert likes to say that my brother and I are only children, because of the age gap. I can see what he means. Especially for me, I was the only child for 10 years and the only grandchild for 9 years. That a lot of years just to me!

Have I mentioned that we are going to start raising chickens?? I don't think I have. I am excited and nervous about it. I am going to go order them today during lunch. I will post more on this little endeavor soon.

Our six-monthiversary is a little more than a month away so I hope to have all the wedding recap posts finished by then. I am proud of myself for doing these. Even if they are boring for the 1.5 people who read my blog, I think it will be neat to be able to go back and read through them later on. Plus, it will be nice to have them all stored somewhere so later on when we have kids and they want to know about their mom's and dad's wedding.

Symon Sundays: Take Four

This week for Symon Sundays tomato soup and a fennel salad were the dishes! More specific a spicy bleu cheese tomato soup. I was very impressed with my local grocery store, it had everything for the tomato soup! Even the specific type of canned tomatoes! Sadly they were out of the hot sauce the recipe called for. But since I am not a spicy person anyways, I figured it would be for the better. After making a giant mess in my kitchen (I didn't have the lid on the blender well and I was not holding it down well either!) I was excited to sit down and try this soup to see if it was worth the mess! It was pretty good!! The you could really taste the bleu cheese, it was almost too much, but maybe the hot sauce would of helped to offset that. I think I would prefer it to be a little more tomato-y next time, maybe add some tomato paste? More canned tomatoes? I am not sure, any suggestions? All in all it was a good dish! I skipped on the fennel salad since I had some spinach going to waste in my fridge and I served a grilled cheese with it all, what's better than tomato soup and grilled cheese??


Check out Tasha and The Brick Kitchen for the full recipe! And Ashlee at A Year in the Kitchen for her recap!