My Homemade Valentine

Happy President’s Day everyone!  I hope you all have a lovely Valentine’s day yesterday!  We definitely did!  I know I’ve mentioned before that this month we’re on a “financial fast” which meant no gifts for V-day this year.  Frankly, for me, I find Valentine’s gifts to be overpriced and overrated.  So rather than spin our wheels and spend our money, we aimed for the small and thoughtful this year… and for me, that meant making dinner (spinach salad, flank steak pinwheels, wild mushroom risotto and fresh, lemony asparagus- my own creation!) and yes, it was a really, really good dinner! 

J. is a big lover of chocolate so I didn’t want to skip dessert.  But at the same time, I’m going through a particularly busy time at work (and an equally busy personal life) so I had to figure out something that wouldn’t take too long.  The solution came to me last week during my daily blog review when I was reminded of Bakerella’s recipe for cake balls!  Besides having a hilarious name, this recipe looked cute and simple so I decided to try my own spin on it- only I renamed them “cake truffles” so as to be taken slightly more seriously.

Bakerella’s recipe calls for red velvet cake and cream cheese frosting which I ADORE- but J. loves chocolate.  So I did a devil’s food cake with German chocolate icing (see Bakerella’s link above for instructions).  I broke my cardinal rule and used cake mix and store-bought icing, because I was short on time (bad Sarah, bad!)… but I do think you could easily do this completely homemade.  Then I melted a good-quality semi-sweet chocolate for the coating, and added some sprinkles in red, while and gold (a bridal shower gift).  The result?  See for yourself!

mmmmm, yummy chocolatey cake goodness

Now, I’m a big believer that presentation is EVERYTHING so of course I also had to at least attempt some sort of V-day appropriate packaging.  Since I didn’t want to spend any money, I ended up taking an old, standard gift box and turning it into a heart-shape.  To give you an idea of my approach, the below image shows (I hope) how I cut the box bottom.  I left the sides of the box intact and then shaped them to match the bottom, taping them into place when the new shape looked good to me.

Try to pretend this rectangle is a gift box.

Once my box was in the right shape I covered it with red and white papers.  Not being able to spend money, I downloaded these and these freebie printable papers, originally intended for dollhouses but perfect for my project.  I admit that it looks a little bit like a kindergartner did it, but I like to think it is kind of charming!

The box, pre-truffles

Once my box was ready, I decided to line it with waxed paper, to keep it nice for as long as possible.  I simply cut the waxed paper into a heart shape approximately 1 inch larger on all sides than the box, so the paper would line the sides of the box.  To get the paper to fit around the curves, I cut verticle slits into the paper’s edge.  Easy peasy.

Lined with wax paper

Next, I glued some red ribbon onto the bottom of the box, for tying later.  And yes, the ribbon was recycled, I didn’t buy that either.

With the ribbon...

And finally I filled the box with my creations.  Voila!

Just add truffles!

Before tying the bow, I added another layer of heart-shaped waxed paper, and then that was it!  A cute, homemade Valentine using groceries and freebies, something that still felt special despite the absence of big spending.  J. loved them!

A little more waxed paper, a bow, and we're in business!

I think this would make such a cute thank you gift for someone throwing a shower- or maybe even a groom’s gift.  As for me, I’ll be incorporating them into my traditional repertoire of holiday baking from now on!

How did you celebrate Valentine’s day?

Adorable Favor Alert: Preserves from Tea!

I am currently in the process of planning a baby shower for a good friend.  Well actually, I’ll clarify, I’m planning like 6 baby or bridal showers right now, but this one is the first of this year and will be a very small brunch shower, so I’m super excited about it.  The mother-to-be specifically asked us to keep things relaxed, so the six of us planners kept it light and divvied up just a few tasks: invitations (with one extra for mom’s keepsake), a floral centerpiece, something sweet for desert, and favors.  Favors was what I picked, because of couse I love them!

We also settled on a french country theme for the shower (mom appropriate!) in shades of robin’s egg blue, soft oranges and yellows, and sage green- which happen to also be the colors of the baby’s under-the-sea nursery theme (baby appropriate!)  In this way, we’re hoping a few of the keepsakes might be useable in baby’s room when he gets here!

So when thinking about favors for a group of NYC ladies, I wanted to make sure the favor wasn’t the usual diaper pin or plastic baby.  And nothing too chotchky- we all live in relatively small spaces and none of us need extra clutter.  Of course I hit Etsy looking for something good and I totally found it!  These tea-flavored preserves by homemadebyshari were just the ticket!  Shari let me order 7 different flavors (so everyone at the table can ooh, ahh and trade to get one they’ll like) and she even put pastel gingham fabrics on the lids to coordinate with the shower’s french country theme. 

Le sigh!

I think these would be such a great favor for bridal showers or even weddings too, and at $2 each they’re quite reasonable!  The flavors I ordered include honey vanilla chamomile, blueberry, cinnamon apple, country peach, lemon zinger, tangerine orange, and wild berry.  But there are many more options to chose from as well. 

As an aside, I decorated a little basket with gingham ribbon for each guest to put a baby book in, in lieu of a card, which will likewise coordinate with all the goodies.  I can’t wait to see everything come together!

Remembering Your Bachelor

Weddings are supposed to be all about the couple, but let’s keep it real: its mostly about the ladies.  So when my friend P. told me about this great little project she’s putting together for her groom’s bachelor party, I was so excited!  I don’t exactly know what to call it, so let’s just call it bachelor party care packages…

Here’s what she’s including:

Step 1: Custom T Shirts

P. went to Custom Ink and designed shirts:

Preview courtesy of custom ink!

She included the image of a car because the guys are driving to Atlantic City in vintage sports cars as a tribute to her car-loving guy.  She also went in blue and orange, which are classic Porsche racing colors.  Cute right?  I’m sure it would be easy to come up with a similar image to suit any bachelor party theme without much work.  You could easily do this for even less money by buying iron-on printable transfers and making them on your home printer.

Step 2: Custom Ribbon

PrintMyRibbon.com's version

P. is making special ribbon to wrap around each T shirt.  The ribbon will say “Please take care of [Fiance].”  Sure you could pay someone like PrintMyRibbon.com to do this and it would look good, but she’s going to use paint pens and regular old ribbon.  Genius right?

Step 3: Add Necessities

P. is tying Tums and Excedrin onto each bow to complete the care package.  Because we all know our men generally go out and do all kinds of crazy dumb things at bachelor parties (from what I hear, the poor bachlor usually is the best-behaved and it’s the groomsmen who go wild, but what do I know, I’m sure they’re all fibbing.  Ahem…)  In any event, I think they’ll appreciate the pain relief the next morning.

Tum tum tum tum...

Step 4: Fake Mustaches

Villainous Hairy Mustaches, $4.99 per dozen!

I don’t really think I need to explain why adding these is a great idea.  P. found hers on Oriental Trading and got 20% plus free shipping with a $20 purchase using an online coupon.  These will go in cello bags with the other “Necessities.”

Do you love this idea as much as I do?  What would you include?

DIY Matchbooks

If you are planning a wedding, you may have seen all those adorable, personalized bride and groom match books out there.  I know I loved them, and absolutely HAD to incorporate them somehow into our wedding.  But they’re kind of pricey when you think about what a small detail they are.  The solution?  Make them yourself!

I gave my matchbooks to J. with a box of cigars to pass out on the wedding day, but you could leave these near doors or on the bar, restaurant style, for guests to pick up as they mill about!

Here’s a quick overview of all the different ways I’ve seen brides do this (each image links to the source, with instructions for making your own!):

Mod Matchbooks

Simple Elegance

Paired with Sparklers

With Candles as a Favor

And so with this inspiration, here’s what I came up with!  All it took were some mailing labels, some scrapbook paper, and some penny matches purchased from the dollar store.  Cute, no?

With the fancy cigar box...

Up close and personal

Bridal Party Swag: The Bridesmaids!

Up next, the bridesmaids’ gifts!  I seriously, seriously had to stop myself from buying bridesmaids gifts on a regular basis.  It is a small miracle that I stopped here.  It seemed I was constantly running into amazing bargains for off-season goodies.  But thankfully I did stop eventually, because nothing else would have fit into the gift bags!  So here’s what the girls got:

(1) their big gift: monogrammed white cashmere scarves from Land’s End.  My only regret is that I didn’t get one for me!

Ok, I admit this isn't the exact scarf but you get the idea. Click image for source.

(2) Christmas candles from Crabtree and Evelyn. (sorry, no photo for this one…)

(3) Amber bath oil and bath salts from the Body Shop. (I’m a bad blogger and didn’t get a photo of this one either)

(4) Flip flops that went with their bridesmaids dresses, in chocolate, for the reception (hey, cute shoes are generally painful shoes, so I made sure there was a plan B!)

Old navy flip flops- affordable, basic, perfect.

(5) “Bridesmaids Survival Kits” which were a combination of (a) handmade cosmetic bags in Amy Butler fabrics which I had custom made by Woodly Creations; (b) gingerbread lip gloss from Philosophy; (c) tiny “love” sewing kits, bandaids for feet, tylenol, safety pins, and shout wipes.  I was a girl scout after all- gotta “be prepared”!

As an added bonus, these matched the gowns so well that many of the maids used them as clutches on the wedding day!

(6) Vintage handkerchiefs, wrapped with a poem on the back about friendship (I’m a cheeseball, I know, but apparently my ladies are too because they loved them).

You can find great vintage hankies on ebay!

(7) Little scrapbook-thank you notes, which contain photos of me and each bridesmaid through the years, and have a little note from me at the end.  These were such a hit, and there are so many cost effective ways one could re-create this project.  I highly recommend it!

I loved how each scrapbook was different!

The finished gift!

And of course, a Christmas ornament. To top it off, I tied pretty bows on the gift bags- and followed Beyonce’s advice, since I like them, and put a ring on it!  (I had to buy a package of faux rings at the craft store for the ring bearer’s pillow, and I had some extras so I used them to bling things up).  To my surprise, these also turned out to be a hit- everyone was wearing them!

ba-ling!

I hope they liked them as much as I enjoyed making them!

Bridal Party Swag: The Groomsmen

Like most couples, J. and I wanted to give our bridal party members a little something to say “thank you” for being a part of our day.  And though I had created some cute Christmas ornaments for everyone, I couldn’t just stop there.  But the problem for us was that so many of our guy-friends are already married, and also our groomsmen are not all the same age (I have a 16 year old brother) so the traditional beer mugs or T shirts didn’t really fit- or had been done already.  So J. and I shopped around and found some other goodies for everyone.  Ultimately, we decided to give everyone a few fun things- things we thought everyone would like- instead of just one big gift.  And personally, I think they came out great.  Here’s the goods:

(1) Monogrammed silver cufflinks from Groom Stand to wear with their tuxes (J. once received these at a wedding and loved them, so we decided to gift them too).  The guys really loved them!

I love the art deco font on these.

(2) Shaving supplies from The Art of Shaving (This was hands down, the thing everyone was most excited about- to my pleasant surprise!  These little kits retail for $25, and inside is a $25 gift card for the store where the guys can go buy more!)

We went the fragrance-free route, just in case anyone has sensitive skin.

(3) A good book (this isn’t the exact book, but it’s close enough)

Perfect for hotel room reading.

(4) And socks for those tuxes.  Of course for the socks, I had to get some DIY action in, so I took basic black socks (check your dollar store for inexpensive ones) and put belly-bands on them.  I also added labels that say “In Case Anyone Gets Cold Feet…” which is not an original idea, but it did turn out cute!  Now, the groomsmen were maybe less excited about these than me, but they did wear them!

The stars of the show- special socks.

Detail shot!

Everything was wrapped in gold paper with green ribbon, and placed in white gift bags purchased at Paper Mart in bulk.  To dress up the bags and help us keep them straight, I wrote each person’s name on their bag using rub-on transfer letters in gold.  And some green tissue completed the look.

The whole gift!

What would you give your groomsmen?

Bridal Party Swag: Christmas Ornaments!

How on earth can one have a Christmas wedding without Christmas ornaments?  Not possible, I tell you.  So early in the planning process, I started the research to figure out how I’d make some for our bridal party gifts.  Initially I thought I would purchase and decorate plain ornaments but in April, they were somewhat difficult to find.  But you know what isn’t hard to find?  Christmas clearance at Crate and Barrel, and CB2!  Pottery Barn also had some cute sale ornaments, but CB2 definitely had the most affordable options- the only concern was making sure I purchased something with a vintage enough vibe.

So when I stumbled upon these blown glass cuties at CB2 for $.50 apiece, I immediately snapped up 30 of them.  And to my surprise, the arrived individually packaged in perfect square boxes!  So I got to work getting them gift-ready.  I ordered green paint pens and coordinating ribbon from JoAnne , and then I wrote our names and the dates on each piece, adding a heart later after deciding it needed a heart.  It was not as easy as it looks to use paint pens on ornaments… but the great thing about paint pens is that you can use a wet paper towel to wipe off paint and then re-do it if you have to.  And so 5 nights and two cramped hands later, we had these!

I love how cute the scrolled decoration is!

While the ornaments had originally come wrapped in plastic, I decided to re-wrap them in coordinating green tissue, and then I placed them back in their boxes.  But that wasn’t good enough for me.  Oh no, it was April and I was not yet oversaturated with “wedding” so I kept going.  I wrapped the boxes in gold paper (from the Christmas Tree shop, where I bought 10 rolls for $1.99 apiece!) and used green ribbon (purchased on clearance from Michael’s for $1 per roll), and sealed the ribbon using a white embossed sticker with our monogram.

Ta-Da!

So the total cost for this project, even with shipping costs and gift wrap, came in at about $30 for 30 ornaments.  Which was perfect, since we still wanted to give other goodies to our bridal party.  Stay tuned to see what they got!!

Welcoming Guests from Out of Town

I can’t believe the wedding is almost here!  One of the final details we recently finished up was making our welcome boxes for out of town (”OOT”) guests who will be staying at the hotel.  We put a lot of thought and time into these, because we really wanted our guests to know how much we appreciated that they traveled to be there for us, especially during this very busy time of year!

Each guest will receive a box, and an envelope.  The boxes are gable boxes with a green toile print, and an embossed foil sticker with our wedding monogram.  I tied each box closed with gold or white ribbon.  I think they look adorable!

The finished OOT boxes, with their embossed foil seals!

Inside the bags are two bottles of water, with labels I made on our home computer.  We purchased Halloween candy on sale on November 1, and wrapped up a selection of our favorites for each bag in cello.  We also made cello bags containing hand creme (a winter essential!), hand sanitizer (possibly even MORE essential!), tums and tylenol packets (for the morning after the wedding).  Also enclosed were pita chips and apple chips, which I found in bulk on Amazon at very reasonable prices.

And the contents! Pita chips, apple chips, chocolate, bottled water, tylenol and sample goodies!

Continue reading »

Sale at Wedding Chicks!

Attention attention!  If you follow the Wedding Chicks, you’re going to love this.. a monster sale on their super cute tanks and tees for your wedding- or maybe for your friend!  Oh and did I mention free shipping?  I swear they aren’t paying me, I just think their stuff is adorable, and I may or may not have just scored super cute tops for myself and my sister on the big day.  Click here to see more!  (images from Wedding Chicks)

Groomsmen Gift Idea: Pens

If you’re like me, you find the typical groomsmen gifts kind of lame.  Well, ok, not exactly lame, but it seems that the whole world assumes that groomsmen are primarily interested in drinking, hence the prevalence of personalized beer mug options for gift giving.  Not that there is anything wrong with giving beer mugs- they can be fun and personal in the right context, and J. and I love putting his in the freezer for cold drinks- but what if your groomsmen are no longer in their 20’s or aren’t necessarily enthralled with the glory of drinking anymore?  Or what if you have so many friends who are already married, that the beer mugs have already been done?  And of course, one’s next options are typically golf related (again, not a bad idea if appropriate, but not everyone loves golf).

So when my friend B. told me about his groomsmens’ gifts, I totally loved them!  B.’s groomsmen are, much like ours, mostly professionals out there in the “real world” who live in NYC and don’t have room for much clutter.  And so I thought these pens were a terriffic idea for a gift!

The Roller Pen from the Cross Townsend Collection

B. Purchased these at Joon New York and he received a considerable discount just by talking to them about his plan.  Using his finely tuned Fordham negotiation skills (which anyone can use), he basically said he would either be buying five pens or zero, depending on whether the price was right.  Needless to say, the store worked with B. and he got these great pens to give as gifts.  He’s planning to have them engraved with each groomsman’s name and job title, where applicable.

I have to say, I think this is a stellar gift idea.  I myself have received some good pens as gifts, and I even wrote my bar exam essays with such a gift (a gorgeous pen gifted for graduation from a family I used to babysit for- I used it for good luck, and I think it worked).  People always forget about pens, but I think even bridesmaids might like to receive one!

Free beer mug image courtesy of FreeFoto.com