operation invitation

last saturday we had an appointment at a little store in the short north (the artsy-fartsy district of columbus, if you will) called On Paper. i'll be honest, its a little bit pretentious. i'd been in there multiple times to check out the paper and look around for inspiration, and i was more or less ignored even when i was the only person in there, until i went in with mr. z and it became apparent we were probably shopping for invites and therefore equaled dollar signs. but luckily the woman with whom we had our appointment was quite nice. she hardly mentioned anything about the fact that we intended to print and assemble our own invites and gave us a couple helpful hints about where and how to get things folded (though we decided against folded invites in the end) professionally and inexpensively, and where to find better (and probably cheaper) adhesive than what they sold there.

i had been in the store enough times and scoped out all their sample invites so we had a pretty good idea of what we wanted (and didn't want), so mainly what i was after was some help in calculating just how much of what i was going to need. and she was fabulous in that regard. and, happily, she didn't try to push anything on us. there was no trying to convince us that we needed envelopes for the reply cards (we went the postcard route) or coordinating menus and programs and seating cards. don't get me wrong, there were some absolutely gorgeous displays of weddings they had done where ALL the paper was coordinated but i shudder to think of the fraction of our budget that would eat up. so we came away with about $250 worth of paper, and the estimate that to have them printed there would cost us close to $700.

here's what we've got...


the left is the chocolate brown cardstock that will be the invitation base. the orange is actually a metallic copper that i am in love with and (along with some ribbon from joann's) has inspired a good deal of my color scheme. the cream is going to be the portion of the invitation with the text and the corners will have the leaf cutouts. i can't decide which of the two corner punches i like better so i may end up doing half of the invitations with one punch and the rest with the other. there will just be a tiny border of copper around the cream and then it will show through the leaf cutouts. the larger leaves are gold stickers from good ol' martha stewart. not exactly sure how we're going to work those in yet, but at the moment i'm thinking maybe at the top of the invite above the text. the picture is kind of dark so i don't know if you can tell, but the other brown thing is our envelope. its long and skinny, and it has a tie closure like those memo envelopes you have in offices. for some reason i just really liked that so i thought, what the hell. that's actually why the invite changed from square to tall and narrow.

i have a bunch of other crafty wedding pictures to post as well, but those can wait for another post.

Another year over... almost

And so the holiday season ends, more or less. New Year's is still lurking, but that one has never really been a big thrill for me. Don't get me wrong, I love a party as much as the next girl, but I've just never gotten that into the New Year's festivities. I'm more of a Thanksgiving kind of gal... I need a big meal with my holidays, snacking just doesn't cut it. Plus I have to work again on new year's day this year.

Christmas went well. We had a very nice time at Mr. Z's family Christmas, though admittedly I was a little sad since it's the first Christmas that I don't get to see my family at all. But my mood was substantially lightened today when we picked up our pair of tickets to the National Championship game. Those babies are going for a whole lot more than we paid for them...

I got lots of gift cards and a copy of Holiday Handknits. I've already picked out a few projects in there I would like to make next year. Including the Aran Tree Skirt for myself and some other projects as gifts. The Barnes and Noble gift card went towards some sewing books to help brush up on my skills with the sewing machine.

I took my nice camera in the hopes that we would get some lovely snow in NY and i could get some holiday-ish pictures, but no such luck. So the only picture I have to share from the trip is one I snapped of Brandi, Ken's parents' miniature poodle who thinks she owns the furniture. This seems to be one of her favorite spots.


Back in wedding craft mode, there has been much progress on the second wrap. And, while shopping, I picked up some pretty cream ribbon that was on sale for 70 cents a spool at JoAnns. It was in the holiday ribbon but it matches my colors so I bought a bunch. Its got the wire edges so it should be good for bows or something. And I hit the jackpot at Goodwill last week with Ashley! There were two baskets that were the perfect size for flower girl baskets. They weren't as dark as I would have liked, but at least they weren't white, which is apparently what all flower girl baskets generally are. One is just slightly smaller than the other but they are otherwise identical. I've been trying an assortment of treatments to make them more attractive, with little success thus far... Here is one pre-treatment.


It actually doesn't look too bad there, but its a little more yellowish than this shows. I tried a coffee staining I found online... it didn't really make any difference. So I tried staining them today. I had slightly more success with the smaller of the two because it seems to lack the sort of coating that the larger one has. It may come down to some straight up painting in the next few days if they continue to look heinous. Maybe some ribbon can spruce them up a little, I don't know. I guess if they end up getting ruined, I only paid 59 cents apiece for them.

wedding crafting

this christmas break has actually been fairly productive in terms of craftiness. i've managed to knock out a few of the wedding crafts that have been on my to do list. not that there was any huge rush, the planning is coming along well and we have more than ten months yet. but i am sure as the time draws nearer, i will be more thankful for everything i got done in advance. here is some of what i have done so far.

isn't this the cutest little detail?? i love it.

this is the chest for holding cards at the reception. we were going to try to find a way to get a slot in the top to drop them in, but i felt like that would ruin it. this was 20$ for the unfinished trunk at JoAnns. the rest was pretty much a scavenger project. i used some stain and polyurethane i had sitting around from another old project. the lining and ribbon were just some random stuff my grandma and mom had given me but i think it worked out perfectly. the fabric even has a leaf pattern on it, which is fitting for the 'theme.'


these are the corn sacs. they are going to be part of the bridesmaids' gift baskets. if you have never used a corn sac, they are the most wonderful heating pads ever. just pop them in the microwave for a few minutes and they stay warm forever. these are really pretty brown flannel with an orange paisley pattern that seems perfectly fallish. i kind of wish i had enough fabric to make one for myself. they are approximately 8 inches square and i just poured the corn in until they felt about right.

i also started yet another knitting project. inspired by dr. d's koolhaas hat, i have started one for my own mr. z. i found some Reynold's Whiskey at the Yarn Shop and i'm using that held double. at the point i have just finished the ribbing around the bottom. i figure i can probably finish it on the drive home to ny tomorrow and then get back to work on the wrap and pinwheel sweater.

and on a completely unrelated note, i had quite a good run yesterday. i managed to go for about 43 minutes and felt good the whole time. mr. z is trying to encourage me back into my running routine by promising a leg massage if i run today. maybe this afternoon. but first i have an outing with ashley to check out Wholly Craft, which sounds far more entertaining than running. supposedly its like an etsy store... but in a real store. should be fun.

the future Mr. and Mrs. Z

there has been much crafting in the z household recently, mostly wedding related. the second bridesmaid wrap is almost a foot long, the corn sacs are completed, and the card chest is stained, lined, and looking pretty sweet. i have pictures to share but will save those for later, mainly because the cord to hook my camera up to my computer is alllllllll the way upstairs.

so instead i will share some photos that i did not take, but am thrilled with nonetheless. we finally got the engagement photos a couple weeks ago and i just now got them uploaded. i can't say enough good things about our photographer, Kristina. she's tiny, she's crazy, and she's really good!

i think this one is my favorite. it was originally black and white, but i have a thing for sepia so i dusted off the ol' photoshop and colored it.


this is the one we've sent out to family and the newspaper announcements. not as artistic as some of the others, but she managed to get a picture where neither of us looks retarded so we're happy.


and another favorite, though my mom "doesn't understand why that circle thing is there." i tried to explain lens flare but i don't think she got it. the rest of the good ones are here.

fresh start

welcome to my shiny, new blog. i decided i am going to give blogger a try and see how i like it. in theory it will be a knitting blog, but its likely that other crafts, wedding stuff, and real life will creep in as well. but we'll give it a shot and see how it goes. i won't promise to post everyday because i know how crazy my life is, but my resolution is to have at least one photo in every post. hopefully that will rekindle some of my photography skills as well...