DIY party!!

Does anyone of my bloggin' peeps that like DIY projects want to attend this party tomorrow with me?

I am really excited to go, and want someone to attend with me! You should all go check out Mandi's site as well. She is so dang funny, and has so many creative ideas. I've been on my knees spray painting, sanding, glazing and thrift shopping (well I don't shop on my knees, but you get the idea) the last few months and a lot of the credit goes to Vintage Revivals. The girls is totes and dorbin' awesome!

http://vintagerevivals.blogspot.com/

Vent Sesh

Hello ladies and gents. I definitely need a good vent session. Sometimes everybody needs to get things off their chest and man oh man, doesn't it feel good when you finally feel free from your worries? I will try and keep this fast and painless, so that your eyes don't glaze over, and you don't have a pool of drool after you finish.

In not particular order of bugginess here it goes.

No 1. Wedding Vent Wedding planning with Jare Hound is so extremely EASY! We both agree on everything; the venue, the cake, the clothes, the food, the decor and errrything! We haven't had any real stress. Planning has been smooth as butter. Except for the wedding invitations. I had my friend who is an awesome illustrator Joe Esquibel design them, and my dad helped of course. I am so incredibly in love with the design, the colors, the size and EVERYTHING about them! For some GD reason printers cannot get them right. The first time they were folded extremely crooked, so I sent them back. The second time the double printed in the middle so the for instance... the word wedding says wedd dding okay so that is clearly messed up again - back to the printer. So as of yesterday, they are back at the printers for the 3RD time. I have had 2 different printers take a shot, and I'm trying to resolve everything within my power. It's really been an awful nightmare. Thank the heavens that we are ahead of schedule or this might frustrate me ;)

No. 2 I am HAVING a blast doing the decorations for the wedding. I am in love with ebay and amazon. I spend so little money and get so much bang for my buck! I have purchased books on DIY wedding, and am making all the boutonnieres, and so many other things. I love learning new things, and becoming more of an arteeest.

Now on a really happy note

I am excited to have Jared as part of my fabulous family.

Also. I am so thrilled to be a DeMann, and to finally have some more sista's and brotha's!

tuesday blues.

Today started out perfect. Right? The sun was shining. Shia was snoring. Life was good. Life is still good, except for one thing.

My invitations had a major or minor-ish glitch. I went to pick them up, and without going into much detail. Let's say I have to have them reprinted.

On the bright side. We definitely are enough ahead of schedule that it shouldn't cause any serious delays. Take a deep breath, in and out.

Here is my sweet baby Shia, to put you all in a good mood =)

Orton Films

Last night Jared and I FINALLY were able to do our video shoot. Since we've had to reschedule errrything due to this crazy weather. The shoot is for this awesome save the date video that I envisioned. I fell in love with a certain video that I came across on the internet, and we kind of mimicked it. Ours will definitely be different, and equally as awesome.

This is my inspiration:

Lex & Loren - Engagement/Save the date! from Brinton Films on Vimeo.

The man starring in the video is a videographer. He and his fiancé filmed this after they were engaged. I absolutely love the simplicity, and how they don't talk at all, but you know they are so IN LOVE! I am trying to create the same tone that this video has with ours.

We hired Brandon Orton from Orton films to do our video. He was so incredible to work with. The sun stayed out for most of the 5 hours we filmed last night, and we got some pretty awesome shots. It did rain for a little in the middle, of course, I love the rain so we also shot in the rain. Jared and I were slipping all over the hills, and I was pretty sure that those shots need to go on a bloopers video. Our video includes these things plus LOTS more:

I don't want to give too much away, but everyone had to have known that I would put all the puppies in this video. right?

This is also a video Brandon did for himself and his wife. I think it's sweet =)

LINK HERE

family.

I just have a quick post. I usually don't post twice in one day, but I just had a feeling of such love overwhelm me. I wanted to shout out to the cyber world, and tell all of you how much I love my family. Im joining a wonderful family this year, the demanns. As I start fresh with this family I realized how much I've been through, and adore my own family. Im so proud to say im a spitting image of my beautiful mom. I have a personality mimiking my dad, and my brothers I see everyday and know everything about them. We are a small family, and we are very close.

Secondly I have a few friends who've stayed in my life for years. Those few have become family to me. I know they'll be in my life forever. We've been through so much; gifts, family problems, divorces, marriages, babies and so many good times that cancel out that bad.

All in all im a very thankful person. I love my fam.

The newest girly I've added to my lioness club. Ms. Mary Bess. I love this girl so much, and have no idea what I'd do without her. She lets me rant to her all the time. When my feelings get hurt, she's right there to sympathize. I know she truly cares about me. Love is an understatement when it comes to Mary.

My long time BFF Ellen. We've gone through thick and thin together. I don't imagine one time in my life when ellen won't be there with me. She knows me very well no matter if we do or don't hang out everyday. I know she's one who will always be with me.

My other long time sweetheart, Kjerstin. I can remember the day we met, and we never looked back. I will always need kjerstin in my life. She is a long distance friend for the past 4 years, and that hasn't weakened our friendship at all. I think it may have strengthened it. I am so glad to call her mine.

My loving parents, dressed as dog and beth. What hotties.

My soon to be niece, Elsie Bess. I love her and her momma dearly.

My dad with a head of hair. Lucky to have him =)

My sweet momma and I with my papa as a creep.

My sweet little brother that always says Im his little sister, since he's been taller than me since forever practically.

And my older broha, Brennon. We've been called twins, but turns out we're very different. However we know the most about each other than anyone in the family. He's the best big brother a girl could have.

My Tuesday.

Sometimes it will be the middle of the day, and I just get these creative urges. Usually I revamp my blog. Which is why the design, text, and buttons change about 20 times a month. I was definitely born into a do-it-yourself family, and I think I have creative genes in my body. Sometimes they just like to hide.

Our wedding is all a DIY wedding. We are making as much of it as possible. It definitely saves money, but the biggest reason is because I wanted to be a HUGE part of my own wedding. There are too many couples who are okay with hiring a planner, and hiring vendors to do it all, and putting the trust 100% in them. Most of these wedding turn out absolutely gorgeous, but I wanted mine to be shout our names as you walk in. These are our colors to explain some of my decorating =)

Jared and I have been scavenging for months trying to find decor. We've collected bunches of picture frames (so has our family) and last night I went nuts! After work I went to Hobby Lobby and bought tons of paint, and primer. My frame night started at 6pm and ended at about 10:45. I had such a good time, and learned a lot.

A few things I learned:

1. Yellow is a really translucent color, and it's hard to paint with.
2. Old frame backings are extremely difficult to get off.
3. Not to leave ANY glass pieces around (3 broke!)
4. Shia (my pup) has to be quarantined.

This was my mess about an hour into the project.

Here are a few before and afters, please enjoy.

This one was a challenge, because the Canvas, had to be removed, and it had paper backing stapled on the back, I had to soak the paper in warm water, and slowly peel it off.

For some reason my spray painted brain decided to take a picture of these two together for the final after. So the larger (top picture with indian girl) is the white frame and the smaller brown one with the Blue matte, I did Navy Blue.

These frames were also victims of the paper backing. It made them hard to work with, and they took the most time. The transparent yellow worked well with this paint, because it had a cracked finish, and kept the rugged look I am going for.

I had a hard time with this one, because the gold was still showing through a little with the yellow paint, and since it had so many ridges it took forever to dry.

This last one was my personal favorite. What do you think? I really like that light blue color.

Here is the whole crowd in before and after photos.

Just a side note: The 2 on the far right in the yellow box were from a previous day I wrote about them here.

Before:

After:

I bought all the frames at the DI (thrift store) for a total of $10. Doing it yourself is a nice way to save some money, and to get the product you envision.

Here's my rant.

Have you ever heard that saying "well maybe it was a blessing in disguise"? I usually can see the positive in everything, because I was definitely raised that way. Also, Jared has certainly perfected the art of never being negative. You can't make Jared be negative if you gave him a million dollars and a new guitar. In his mind everything happens for a reason. I have a harder time accepting that truth, but I try to see the silver lining in everything.

This past few weeks has definitely tested my patience. I tried so hard to schedule everything out to the exact matter for our wedding planning, so that I could control all the elements. I read so many [probably too many, because I feel like I could be a qualified wedding planner] articles, blogs, and websites all about planning your perfect wedding. I have checklists, calendars and a binder full of every single vendor we are using plus the items we are using from them, and an example from their portfolio. Turns out I am OCD? Who would have known. . ;)

We had to reschedule our engagements pictures twice so we were almost a month behind on my invitation schedule. On top of our engagements photos, I wanted to shoot a cute little video as our "save the date". That our guests will see before they actually have their invitations. We have tried to make this weather cooperate, and lord knows it will not! Once again today we were rescheduled (ooh how I hate that word!) Now at best we are hoping that we can shoot next week. Due to the fact that today was suppose to be the best of bad weathered days this week. I can only hope that this is a blessing in disguise.

Maybe next week I will look super hot, and Jared will have time to trim his face. Which would be more than we could say for today.

Anyway I hope that the rest of you are having a fabulous day! Keep your chins up and carry on. Everything happens for a reason, we can only hope.

Awful Tragedy

June 1 2011, Justin Yates was killed in a plane crash in Wendover Utah. Justin and his sweet family lived next door to my parents. He left behind his 3 beautiful children all of which are under the age of 12, and his gorgeous wife, Sally. (news story here)

The most awful thing is that Justin's life insurance policy lapsed last week! Sally and her family now have no income, and will be receiving nothing from their insurance. There are a few pledges set up to help them in this time of need. Anything will be greatly appreciate. Please, $5 would help more than you'd ever be able to know.

This is the donation account my mom set up, it's easy and takes less than 2 minutes.

my first time.

For the first time in my life I have decided to be completely daring (okay maybe this is like the third time). Over the last week or so I went on a decorating binge. I swept through every craft store and thrift store from here to Milwaukee. I found quite a few things I fell for. Every piece I found were things to decorate for my vintage whimsically old school unique Big Fishy wedding. Last night I dared to try painting and glazing. I have been told to start small so you can get a feel for how it all works. So I did. I went to the DI, and bought two really gold frames for a whopping $1.00!

I then bought some Krylon Gray primer, and Catalina Mist spray paint at Michaels arts and crafts.

I then went to Lowe's, which wasn't as up too par as usual. You know when you talk to sales rep. that just hates their job and you can tell, because they don't want to help you at all. That is how this feller was. I felt bad, and didn't want to waste his time, plus I actually needed someone who would help me since this was my first time. I cruised on over to Home Depot in my sweet 95' toyota corolla, Vern.

oh yes, Vern is hawt.

I let him stay in the parking lot, and ran in. This nice buddy-man helped me. I bought a quart of Behr Glaze, and a black paint sample (glaze comes clear, and you have to tint it if you want it to show up).

My rep was younger, cuter, and probably not a PRO. . . but I liked the quote. Way to go PRO sales associate!

Then you mix the glaze and paint sample like so ^^

I actually had to clean out a cottage cheesing old milk carton for like half an hour (almost barfed a few times), and then make my own funnel and I put the glaze and paint in the milk carton and shook it all up.

like so: bam bing bong shaka shook la shhhhake it. repeat.

End of the story practically.

Easy as 123.

1. I primed a few times.
2. I spray painted a few coats.
3. I glazed those picture frames till they were SEXY or old or whatever.

This is the before picture (kind of, I didn't take any so I googled gold frame)

These are the finished babies.

I used this tutorial: http://www.allthingsthrifty.com/2010/03/glazing-furniture-101.html