The Elephant in the Room

It's well-documented that I will find just about any excuse to craft. My latest adventure comes courtesy of Mr. Goodlaff's sister, who brought a beautiful baby girl into the world this week, making me a very proud aunt on a crafty mission. Eventually I will make Baby H a baby blanket, but these things take time, and I wanted her to have a little something to tide her over until I can finish it.

Looking for a quick, easy-ish project, I consulted One Yard Wonders, a book filled with great projects needing one yard of fabric or less. After much back and forth with Mr. Goodlaff, we decided that Elodie the Elephant was the best choice. We chose fabric from among my stash and I got to work. I cut, I sewed, and I stuffed. I pinned her ears in place and was about ready to sew her shut when I stopped and took a second to admire my so-called handiwork.

And it was bad.

I Saw the Sign, Part II

Sign number two on my pre-wedding week to-do list was the photo booth sign. 

Once upon a wedding dream I had a vision of a detailed, scroll-y, old-fashioned, square picture frame painted in a bright, shocking color.  Something like this:

Source

I searched for months for a frame that I could spray paint into my vision, but these frame-sellers knew what they had was precious and priced it accordingly.  I was not going to spend $40 bucks on something I would be shellacking with yellow paint.

Eventually I found this:

It was not scrolled, nor was it square, but it was $3.99 and the most promising prospect I'd seen in a while.  So, I bought it. 

Then I sprayed it,

Fancy Tissues

We've established by now that I just can't help myself when it comes to projects, so naturally, during the week before the wedding, I decided to throw another one on my project list.

This time, it was fancy tissues.  Once upon a time I saw the fancy embroidered handkerchiefs that you can buy for parents as wedding gifts.  Something like this:

Source

Now, Mama Goodlaff is a sap.  Always has been, always will be.  She cries at commercials--really, she does.  Years ago we used to watch Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, and everytime the family came home to see the new house, she was in tears.  Knowing her as I do, I thought that she would be in need of a fancy handkerchief to blubber into on my wedding day, and I thought, "Hey, what the hell?  My embroidery skills are seriously lacking, but has incompetence or a lack of understanding of the scope of a project ever stopped me before?  No!"

Miracles Happen: Beaded Shoe Clips Tutorial

It's rare that my craft projects turn out right on the first try and without excessive swearing, so I'm thrilled to be able to say that the stars aligned, and from this crazy mess of beads and string came the perfect shoe adornments.  Trust me, if I can do this, anyone can. 

First necessary ingredient: patience.  Sewing these suckers made me feel really grateful that my job does not consist of hand-beading wedding dresses all day long.   Once (twice, actually) was enough for me.

Aside from a vast supply of patience, here's what I used for my clips:

Good Enough for the Front of the Refrigerator

What happens when you actually do succeed at something on your first try?  You squeal like a little girl who just found her first Barbie Dream House under the Christmas tree!


Remember those shoe clips I ran off and bought supplies for without knowing what I would really need to make them? 


I began with this:

And ended up with this: say hello to my homemade shoe clips!

Reckless Enthusiasm and a Craft Store: A Love Story

I've never been one of those people that does something halfway.  Never.  Whole hog, I throw myself into whatever the task of the moment is...I can't help it.  It's how I do.

When Mr. Goodlaff and I got engaged, for weeks I did nothing but research and plan and get us organized to tackle the monumental task of planning a wedding.  Post engagement, I was cruising Project Wedding and found this tutorial on how to make hair flowers.  Inspiration! To the craft store I went, sans list of needed supplies, came home with organza instead of chiffon, but made the flowers anyway.   Later, I went back to the store, bought chiffon and made them with the materials suggested (chiffon is ridiculously hard to cut--I prefer the organza for ease of use). Want to see? Chiffon to the left, organza to the right:

And here's what they should look like:

Feeling Book-ish

One of the first engagement presents we received was the holy grail of all wedding registries: the Kitchenaid mixer.  Mr. Goodlaff joked that if getting engaged was all it took for people to buy us awesome kitchen gadgets, he would have proposed a lot sooner.  I think he was mostly kidding...

Another early engagement gift that I received from his sister was two bridal books: The Green Bride Guide  by Kate L. Harrison and The Paper Bride by Esther K. Smith.

Personal Photo

The Green Bride Guide is full of information on how to plan and throw a green wedding.  From  Engagement to Reception to Honeymoon, it’s got great tips on green-ifying your wedding and ideas for every bride at every budget. There's also a great collection of links to a ton of green resources.  Very cool!