Now I present to you… Mr. and Mrs. Nerdy Geek.

I recently saw a post on Apartment Therapy about a couple’s video gamed themed wedding.  I loved all their little details, and it reminded me of all the little geeky details from our wedding.  As part of our first anniversary celebration, I’d love to share them.

My husband gifted the groomsmen with Star Wars themed cufflinks (and himself, wearing the Rebel Alliance symbol).  Adorably, he gave the Darth Vader set to MY dad.

For my “something blue” I had a temporary tattoo of the Jedi Order symbol on my upper right thigh, also partly in lieu of the more traditional garter.

On top of our cake (or rather, our cupcake tower… saved us a lot of time cutting cake slices, tell you what!) were the little Leia and Han peg dolls I hand painted.  I love you.  I know.

One of the most charming moments of the ceremony was our pastor starting his sermon by saying, “Ah…. nerds in love.”  The entire building erupted into laughter.

Our parents and the wedding party entered to the Final Fantasy Crystal Theme, a consistently beautiful piece of music.

I marched to “Dearly Beloved” from Kingdom Hearts.  This song had been in my heart as my bridal march since the first time I heard it.

Pre and post wedding ceremony, Nick was sure to constantly be in his Indiana Jones hat.

We and our closest friends appreciated the little details tucked carefully inside our beautifully handcrafted, unique wedding.  Nerdy enough to make us smile, traditional enough for everyone to enjoy!  It was the happiest day of my life, with so many more to come.

Our new house.

So the husband and I have been building a house in Reunion, Colorado for a few months now.  We should be ready about June for move-in, but we stopped by for the first time in two weeks this afternoon.  Somewhere magically over the course of two weeks it went from just concrete footers to an actual house with walls and a roof.

It's beautiful, you guys. It's amazing, and more perfect than I could have imagined. And all it really is right now is exterior walls and studs, but it's still a shape you can walk into and climb up the stairs and see the bedrooms and the views and... it's really, really incredible.

Flowers from old patterns!

I don’t know about you guys, but I hoard patterns like they’re going extinct.  I even love to find vintage treasures once in a while.  But I also love the PURGE, cleaning out patterns I don’t need to make room for new.  I could recycle those old patterns in the bin with the rest, but here’s something much more creative and lovely!

Materials and instructions on how to make DIY Paper Flowers

Sewing Patterns, Ruler, Scissors, 24-gauge floral wire, Skewers (optional)

1. Stack 10 sheets of sewing patterns cut to 10″ square
2. Fold 1-inch wide sections of the stack, working into an accordion fold
3. and 4. Pinch, loop, and secure a 12-inch length of wire around the middle of the folded pieces. Round the edges using sharp scissors
5. Carefully unfold the layers of paper, fanning into a round bloom
6. A few gentle scrunches of the bloom will create the round “hydrangea” look that you want
7. If you will be arranging the flowers in a big bouquet using floral foam, wrap the remaining wire around a skewer. You can wrap up to three blooms around one skewers

Ta-da! And there you have it, a bouquet of stunning paper flowers!

Check out the rest of the article and more gorgeous pictures over at Wedding Chicks!

The wedding crafts!

It’s been nearly five months that Nick and I have been married, and it’s been just lovely!  We had a marvelous summer, really enjoyed seeing our family and spending lots of time relaxing.

While looking through photos today, I realized that there was so much DIY at the wedding, and I would love to share them!  Please enjoy!

Our programs, created with just Microsoft Word!  I went with a ‘hotdog’ fold rather than a ‘hamburger’ fold for a different approach.	Our beautiful baby’s breath bouquets, lovingly made by my mother.  I was banned from working on these after messing up the first one.  =p
The men of the wedding party wore navy calla lilies wrapped in printed paper and copper wire.	The collection of vases, bottles, and votive holders that made up many of our table-toppers.  The large vases are actually just PVC pipe mod-podged with paper!
I’m particularly proud of our little Han and Leia cake toppers, painted by me!	Our welcome table with more accessories, our custom pencils, and our sign-in book from Shutterfly.
My handmade earrings, showing the touch of teal throughout the wedding.	Our own special Reistling, bottled by my parents especially for the event!  I made the label.

The war is on!

So, have you all been watching Craft Wars?  I thought it sounded a little silly at first, but it’s AMAZING.

Three crafters compete each week for $10,000 by making one small project in an hour that will eliminate one contestant, and one MASSIVE project as the final test, to be done in 5 hours.  They’ve done patios, playhouses, and even pet palaces!

I’ll be honest… this is the first reality show I’ve ever seen that I actually want to pursue being on.  I love the idea of the challenges, and I think my unconventional cosplay skills would give me a real edge on the floor.  And yeah, ten grand isn’t a bad deal either!

Check it out Tuesday evenings, or at TLC’s website!

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

But what if it is?  Can you fix it?  Is it worth the DiY?

This rocker was left outside another teacher’s room with a sign saying it was broken.  It looked in good condition, but after sitting in it (not necessarily recommended…  Please don’t risk injury, haha!), I noted that the only flaw was a loose right armrest due to a missing screw.  An extra screw and 30 seconds later, the chair was good as new and sitting in a place of honor in my classroom!  I’d been hoping to have a rocking chair for reading, and now I got it!

Then there was this little table, sturdy and in good condition, but the top was a mess.  Even after cleaning, it was patchy and stained.  My solution?  Paint that tabletop!  Now it’s a great extra addition for the classroom, useful for students to use as a group learning area (also it fits neatly under one of the other tables, storage win!).

What DiY projects have really paid off for you?

Technorati Tags: crafting,creativity,decorating,DiY,frugality,teaching,school

Two weeks later…

I’ve been steadily working on my classroom, and I’ve just about got it where I want to start out.  Furniture is in place, number and alphabet lines are up, library is.. well, halfway sorted.  Now all I need is kids!

   

 

 

 

 

A lot of the walls are still bare as we’ll be creating charts with students.  I love the bunting, and I’m planning on having the kids create more for the rest of the room.  I’m so excited!  Just two weeks until school starts!  Wow!

Technorati Tags: crafting,creativity,decorating,organization,DiY,teaching,school

Alpha-bunting!

I’ve been at it all week decorating my classroom and have come across a need for an alphabet line.  My students will mostly know their letters, but an alphabet line is useful for creating alphabetized lists.  I decided to keep on with the bunting idea!  I went ahead and created both upper and lower case letters in a PDF file that I will printout on colored paper and trim to the right size.  It’s easy to do on your own, just make sure your top margin is as small as possible!

Need an easier idea?  Try the bunting printable with these cute patterns over at Ruffled!  It’s so cute!

What make and takes have you found additional uses for?

Technorati Tags: crafting,creativity,decorating,teaching,school

Here it is!

OMG you guys, I can’t even contain myself.  THIS IS MY CLASSROOM.

It’s a great 30’x26’ space, and I’m expecting about 27 kids for my very first class!  I’m mapping out my arrangement of the room, but I’ve got a great blank slate to work with!  What should I do?  Throw your ideas out, I’d love to hear them!

Technorati Tags: creativity,decorating,DiY,teaching,school

Back to School?

Holy cow, is it really that time?  Sure is!  Most schools will be starting in just a few weeks, about halfway through August, and we sure are close to that!  In celebration, here are some fun projects to prepare for the big return.

Rhonda of Dollar Store Crafts developed this adorable pencil cuff!  Great for teachers and kids alike, it’s a way to show off one of our favorite classic writing utensils.  Think of all the things you can do with pencils, wow!

This adorable burlap pencil case is printed with a little foam and some paint to create a block print.  Super cute and of course functional!  Thanks, Factory Direct Craft!

Finally, our own speech bubble chalk boards take nothing more than foamcore, a knife, and some chalkboard paint.  Make any shape you want!  Fun first day photos, anyone?

What are some of your great projects for back to school?

Technorati Tags: creativity,crafting,crafts,DiY,fashion,frugality,teaching,school,sewing

A calm blue ocean…

Blue is one of my favorite colors for decorating.  From a pale blue-green like antique glass to a warm tiffany blue, they all make exciting statements!

Blue is generally considered to be soothing and calming, but other blues can be exciting and impulsive!  Check out these examples!

I love this bold teal.  It makes a great statement in a room filled with mostly other greys.

This royal blue accompanies the warm gold and wood tones of the vignette in this room very well, balancing and bringing interest!

This pretty pastel looks especially nice highlighted by the white trim and details.

What’s your favorite blue room?

Technorati Tags: decor,decorating,painting,color,creativity

The HGTV Green Home!

[Sorry, this didn’t seem to have posted last week, so here it is a little late!]

Last night the winner of the HGTV Green Home was surprised at her home!  I’m a little disappointed that it wasn’t me (or Nick!), but delighted that the home is going to a fellow educator.

Nick and I were in luck because the Green Home this year was built in the nearby community of Stapleton in Denver.  Because of it’s closeness, we had the delight of visiting and having a tour of the place!  It was really incredibly gorgeous and inspiring to view this spectacular home in person.

One of my personal favorites was the “Do” Room, an evolved craft room that also doubles as laundry.

Both comfortable and functional, the room has places for all your crafting, but also the potential to hide it and create a serene space for just about anything!

Did you know the Green Home also has an unfinished basement?  All that gorgeous space, and then some you can customize!

Congrats to the winner, and enjoy!

Technorati Tags: creativity,decorating,organization,homes

Hooked on papering!

A recent thrift store find had me excited about making a new project.  This simple wooden hook hanger was a plain rust-color when I picked it up, but I’d had this great bird printable on hand, and decided to use it to embellish the accessory!

I started with the hook, a small mirror, the printed sheet, scissors, and a little glue.

I folded the paper around the edges of the block to figure out where the corners would be.  Then I snipped them a little so there wouldn’t need to be any corner folds.

Paper will of course tend to wrinkle because of the moisture in the glue, so I used a small paint bottle to roll out the bubbles and wrinkles.

I added the mirror on with a little more glue once the base dried!  Exciting!

Not wanting the bare edges of the mirror to show, I picked out a few pheasant feathers to glue around the edges.  I carefully overlapped the tips over the quills so they wouldn’t show.

And the finished product!

What finds have inspired you lately?

Technorati Tags: crafting,crafts,creativity,decor,decorating,DiY,frugality