Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Craft Week Part 2

Last night I decided to begin making the table runners I've been meaning to start on for the last two months.  My sister April of A. Liz Adventures made her own table runners for her reception last year, which I thought was great.  It saved her a lot of money, plus she was able to get custom runners that matched her decor perfectly.  I found two fabrics online that I liked and ordered what I needed to cover our twelve tables.  Later that week FORTY POUNDS of fabric arrived at our front door.

 You should have seen the look on Mr. T's face.  

So last night I got home from work, poured myself a hefty glass of rosé, and started cutting.  Lulu the cat even helped, too.



I've finished two runners so far, and have ten more to go.  That should amuse me for the next couple of weeks.  Here's the finished product.  I laid the runner over our table to see how it looked.  The colors I chose for the bottles coordinate perfectly, too!  All it's missing are some votives and flowers. 



I didn't even realize it until now, but the runner matches exactly with the plaid chars that you can see in the background.  After our wedding, this runner may have a new home!  Hope  y'all have a happy hump day!

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Craft Week Part 1

As I approach the two month mark until our wedding,  I'm starting to realize there are quite a few DIY projects that I've told myself I would do, but still haven't gotten around to doing.  Mr. T's three day  out-of-town work trip couldn't have come at a better time.  I've decided to delve into those projects this week while he's away.  That way I can mess up the apartment as much as I want to without feeling guilty about not cleaning up after myself.  Craft week began yesterday with making faux colored milk glass bottles.  The picture below was my inspiration.

I found this picture on Pinterest, but there was no link to step by step instructions.  After searching a little bit more I found this tutorial from House of Earnest. I stopped by a second-hand store on my lunch break yesterday and picked up 6 vases for a total of $6.00.  Then went to the craft store for some cheap acrylic paint and picked up six different shades.  All you do is pour the paint into the vases, roll them around until they are fully coated.  Let them dry up-side-down in a Solo cup. If you're having trouble having the paint fully coat the vase, just add one or two drops of water to the paint.  Here's the final product.


I've got a lot more of these to make, but I'm thrilled with how they turned out!  A cheap way to add unique hand-made decor to our reception.

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Makin' Butta

As my sister April of A. Liz Adventures spent her weekend watching the Miss USA pageant, working out, and making low-cal salads, I spent mine making butter.  Yes, I made my own butter.  It actually isn't as hard as you think it may be. No need for one of those wooden barrels with the sticks that they used to churn butter in the olden days.  All you need is a mason jar and heavy cream.  Here's how you do it.

Fill the mason jar half way with cold heavy cream. Fasten the lid tightly and shake shake shake. Shake until your arms get tired, then continue shaking until they want to fall off, and then shake some more.  About 25 minutes total.  After about 7 minutes of shaking you'll notice that the cream starts to thickly coat the outside of the jar, and after about 15 minutes you'll see the buttermilk start to separate from the butter. 


Once the butter is completely separated from the buttermilk, you can pour the contents of the jar through a strainer to get all of the buttermilk out.  The butter will be extremely soft at this point, but will harden up once you put it in the fridge.


I just love the color of this butter, a very faint yellow as opposed to the fake bright yellow you find in most grocery store butters.  You can add a little bit of salt at this point to the butter if you prefer the salted variety, but I just kept it as is.


And this is what you end up with.  I used a pint of creme and ended up with 1 cup of butter milk, and 1 cup of butter.  Buttermilk can easily  be frozen and used at a later date.  While I haven't calculated if this is a cost effective way get butter, it sure was fun!  And honestly, who can sit down at lunch with their work friends and say "guess what I did this weekend, made butter".  Not many!  Hope y'all have a great week!
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...