Crafty Christmas – Part 2

Since my earlier post got a little unwieldy with all my crafty Christmas gift ideas, I’m sharing the non-edible part with you now!

Non-Edibles:

Mulling Spices + Wine

Last year, my parents went with Brian and I on a tour of three of NC’s wineries.  It was late fall and one of the places we stopped at had mulled wine to taste along with their other offerings.  We all really enjoyed it and this would be a fun gift to give along with a bottle of red wine or a jug of apple cider.

Candles

I know this picture doesn’t really show anything special or out of the ordinary about candles, but it’s from the genius blog that shows you how to use a crockpot (!) to make candles at home!  We were thinking of using this recipe, but instead of just clear glasses, go to our local antique mall and see if we can’t find some cooler containers (we’re thinking tea pots or aged silver cups or something).   You can add scents and colors to the candles, as well, to personalize the gift.

Cocoa in a Jar

I love this idea, plus it is its own cute packaging!  You could add a little fabric to the top (a la our wedding favors) to give it a softer feel…

Argyle Fleece Throw

While I’m not crazy about the goldenrod color, I think this would be such a fun gift.  It requires some basic sewing skills, which I do actually have since teaching me was the only way my mom could get me to stop talking while she was sewing when I was little.  And, unlike most quilts, it’s not overly complex or time-consuming.

Any other crafty Christmas ideas out there?  I’m excited to see how my projects turn out!

Crafty Christmas

I don’t know whether it’s the recession or whether magazines and bloggers have just started to feel old-timey, but there seem to be lots of  “make  your own [insert cool thing here]” ideas floating around lately.  This got me thinking, wouldn’t my mom rather have a candle that I made as opposed to one I bought?  Probably (as long as the one I made wasn’t akin to the ones I made at camp that involved wax cups and ice cubes).  With this in mind, Brian and I decided to give some of our nearest and dearest homemade gifts this Christmas.

Here are some of the ideas I have for cool gifts to make.  At this point I haven’t narrowed them down to what we’re actually going to make, but all the better – I can’t spoil the surprise that way!

Edibles:
As much as Brian doesn’t like sweets, I do (as do most people with taste buds) and these look scrumptious!

Cocoa Molasses Toffee

This recipe looks pretty simple and sounds amazing… if only I had a candy thermometer (probably better in the long run that I don’t, though!).

Chocolate Caramel Crack(ers)

This is a favorite recipe of mine and you can use either matzo or saltines – I actually prefer the matzo because I love the sea salt sprinkled on top (it’s too salty to have that with the saltines…).

Ginger Cinnamon Caramels

Don’t these look like they would just melt in your mouth?!  Plus they just sound Chistmas-y.

Chocolate Peppermint Sandwiches

I’ve never made anything like this before and they sound amazing… just like big, soft Oreos.  And speaking of Oreos…

Oreo Truffles

These would be so cute with red or green icing drizzled on them – though, that would probably be waaaay more likely to smear and look like a kindergartener made them than red or green sprinkles would. You could even add a little peppermint extract to the mix to really amp up the Christmas cheer.

Gingersnaps

Oh boy do I love me a good gingersnap – one that is a little crunchy on the edges and chewy in the middle… and it’s one of the few sweet things I don’t really think about any other time of they year.  I think they just taste better when there is a nip in the air.

Peppermint Patties

I absolutely love peppermint patties – my movie candy of choice is Junior Mint – so it would be fun to try to make them at home.

Ok, this has become a suuuuper long post (mostly because the more I think about the yummy things I could be making for gifts, the more pop into my mind!).  I’m going to do the non-edibles at a later date!

Christmas Stockings

Now that Brian, Chambers, and I are officially a little family and since we do have an actual mantle in our home, I’ve been thinking about Christmas stockings.  My great-grandmother knitted the one I used growing up (along with ones for each of my parents), so there is something in me that really wants to make stockings for us.  Maybe it’s because I’ve been sitting in my bed for the better part of two days sick, but it just sounds downright fun!

I found a free pattern for knitted socks here and here, though I’d have to adapt them both (one to be Christmas-colored and one to be much, much bigger), but in the end I would have something similar in structure to what Bombie made.  The beauty of these babies is that they stretch and can fit anything pretty much – books, notepads, pencils (or any other cool things that Staples offers).

{from Little Cotton Rabbits}

However, hers had our names and birthdates along with various Christmas-y things on it… so mine might be a huge let down once I’m finished and instead of hanging them, I’ll just end up wearing them… which I guess wouldn’t be all that bad… The other teesny problem here is that while Bombie did teach me how to knit and crochet, I haven’t done it in about 15 years.  Hmm.  Like riding a bicycle?

The other option, which I saw recently on the fabulous Apartment Therapy blog, is to make a stocking out of an old sweater:

These patterns are, not surprisingly, from a very talented Etsy artist and I think they are so unique and sweet – and green!  Plus, I could definitely make one with my basic sewing skills and an old red sweater I just stuffed in the goodwill bag.  I might just have to give this a try…

Wedding Day Surprise – The Generals!

I’m really bad at keeping secrets.  Well, wait, that’s not entirely true.  I’m really bad at keeping secrets that are mine that I’m really, really excited about.  There was one big one at the wedding that I wanted to tell everyone about because I was so excited, but I didn’t!  I kept telling myself that the guests would enjoy it that much more if they didn’t know it was coming…  What was the big surprise?  We asked the Generals, Davidson’s male a capella group, to sing at our wedding!

{Angela Stott}

In the initial planning stages, we really struggled with finding the musicians for our ceremony because nothing we came across felt right or like us… Then the idea of having the Generals came to us and I’m so glad they agreed to be a part of our wedding.  They could not have been more perfect.

So, what did they sing?   Well, for starters, they learned Ben Harper’s Forever to sing when I walked down the aisle with my dad…  This song is the closest thing Brian and I have to “a song” but we felt it was too slow to dance to as our first song – it was really special to have it sung as I walked towards him, though… They also sang Coldplay’s The Scientist (when the grandmother, mothers, and bridesmaids walked down the aisle) and Snow Patrol’s Chasing Cars (as we walked down the aisle as newlyweds!).

{Angela Stott}

They also preformed at the cocktail hour immediately following the ceremony, which was fun because they were pretty low-key at the ceremony (they didn’t want to be distracting), but they are known for being great performers!  They sang a bunch of the songs from their most recent album as well as some new ones and really got into it.  They did a great job and everyone (especially Brian and I!) loved them.

{Guest photo}

How cute are they?!

Thanks, guys – we really can’t express how much we loved having you at our wedding… we would not have had it any other way.

Wedding Favors

Since my wedding was really a destination wedding (I don’t know anyone that came that was actually from Cashiers, NC!) and most of the guests were staying at High Hampton, I decided to give each guest an in-room favor instead of favors at the actual ceremony.

When planning the favors, we decided we wanted everything to be consumable, so that guests could enjoy them throughout the wedding weekend.  After lots of ideas were thrown out we decided to include a jar of honey (fewer that three ounces to make sure people could take them on the plane!), biscuits, apples and a bottle of wine.  We felt this mixture had a Southern feel and was seasonally appropriate.

The next step was to slowly, but surely, start organizing the pieces.  First I reached out to The Bradford Store, which is a local gem that sells all sorts of local produce, baked goods, etc. to see if they sold honey in small jars.  The wonderful owner said she’d check with her honey man and get back to me.  She came back with good news and bad news.  The bad news was that her honey man didn’t have honey in small jars.  Boo.  But!  The good news was that if I could get jars that he could run through his machine, he’d fill them up for me!  Yea!  So, I found jars at Specialty Bottle (they had several options to choose from) and got them over to the honey man.  He filled them and got them back to me in no time, which just let the decorating part.  Brian and I made cute labels to put on the jars and decided to use the scrap fabric from the table runners my mom made (amazing, right?!) to tie (with extra baker’s twine from my invitation – more on those later!) onto the lids.

Here they are at the reception – we had extras, so we set them up in case anyone wanted more than one!

The biscuits, while sounding perfect in theory, ended up being not-so-perfect in reality since they only are really good right out of the oven (and maybe for a little while afterwards).  Since we were going to put the baskets together the day before most people got to the wedding, we wanted something that would be yummy for at least a day or two.  The genius chef at High Hampton suggested cornbread muffins, which were perfect and yummy all weekend long!

So, we put the honey, cornbread, and apples (also from the Bradford Store) into a gable box that we labeled with these amazing strips our stationer made for us for our invitations (but that we decided to use here instead!).

These were about 1″ high and 7″ long, with a bend at the dashed line above.  We put them so they folded around two sides of the box: the Natalie and Brian part on the short part of the box and the Lodge part on the long side of the box.

We put the box in the room with a bottle of wine (we made little tags that looked similar to the labels above to go around the neck of the wine bottles).  I wish I had a picture of the completed favor box, but I was too preoccupied putting them together to actually take one!

I have to say, these took a lot of thought and time, but I really loved the end result!

Thanksgiving with my *NEW* in-laws!

While I’m waiting to get the professional pictures from the wedding, I thought I’d tell you a little about my first Thanksgiving as a Mrs.

First of all, it was the last part of my almost month-long vacation (which started with the wedding) and Brian and I spent it in his hometown with my new in-laws! While this was not my first Thanksgiving with his family, it was my first as an “official” member of the family.   Happily, it was just as wonderful as it has been in past years, with some fun little newlywed-related things sprinkled in…

His mom kept asking people if they’d met “her daughter” (i.e. me)

(This picture is of me and my then future mother-in-law right before it became official!)

It was the first time I was introduced to someone as Brian’s wife

(This is right after we were pronounced “husband and wife” – Brian’s parents are in the foreground with their backs to the camera.)

We played Trivial Pursuit for nearly 5 hours, which was full of (mostly) lighthearted teasing, silly guesses, and Brian’s brother kicking our butts.  It was great – like I was part of their family all along…

(Image is from Amazon.com)

Even though I’ve known Brian’s family for quite a while now, it was wonderful to spend the holiday with them and know that this is now my family, too.  Something to really be thankful for…

How did you guys spend your Thanksgiving?  I hope you had a good one!

Home Sweet Home

I’m back from my three week hiatus from my real life and I am intrigued to discover that despite my near-perfect wedding and blissful honeymoon, I am super happy to be home.

I missed my bed like you wouldn’t believe.

I missed Chambers tackling me when I come home for lunch.

I missed talking to my parents whenever I want to (I called my dad today to just ask him one question.  It was great.).

I missed all the office chatter (and being around girls, who actually want to hear me go on and on about my attempts to make chocolate chip cookies).

I missed sipping coffee while watching GMA in the morning.

I missed working out (I know.  I’m truly shocked about this one.).

I missed my enormous, really unattractive sweatpants.

I missed my cookbooks and using my kitchen.

I missed So You Think You Can Dance.

But the best part about missing all this is that I never once missed Brian because he was there with me at the near-perfect wedding, he was there for our blissful honeymoon, and he’s here with me now.

Sitting next to me typing on his own computer… it’s good to be home.

Sleepchasing

Brian and I just found this video, which I’m linking through his blog…

And I thought Chambers’ dreams were pretty active. Boy was I underestimating him (or dogs in general).

Take a look at this dog, clearly catching his prey… in his sleep.

 

Father Daughter Dance

It took me a while to come up with the perfect song to play when I danced with my father at my wedding… First I asked him for any suggestions he had: “Stairway to Heaven.  Obviously.”  Clearly this was not going to be the best way to go about finding the perfect song…

So, I did a bit of google searching, but continued to come up empty handed.  All the songs I found were love songs that “worked” as father/daughter songs, but none of them felt like the right ones for me and my dad… The Way You Look Tonight by Frank Sinatra and You Are the Sunshine of My Life by Stevie Wonder are two perfect examples…  Beautiful songs that would be sweet father/daughter songs, but I just couldn’t get over the fact that they really are love songs,  you know?

There was one on the radio during the time of my search that I really liked and that was actually about a father/daughter relationship: Darius Rucker’s It Won’t Be Like This For Long, cute even if it is technically a country song, right?  Now, don’t get me wrong, I love me a good country song, but there are people out there that aren’t fans, and while I know the father/daughter dance is really just for me and my dad, I wanted those around us to smile and enjoy it too.  Anyway, on top of the country-ness, it seemed kind of sad in a way since he’s talking about his daughter and how he knows he should savor the time he has with her when she’s young because one day she’ll get married and move away… I mean, I didn’t want my dad to be a sad mess on the dance floor!

Then I found it.  THE song.  It was perfect – fun, definitely about a father/daughter relationship, and so sweet: Daughter by Loudon Wainwright.  How cute is this song?  And totally me and my dad.

The best part of this whole story is that my dad was chatting me up the whole time we danced and he didn’t even hear the song! haha.  Well, my mom did and said it was one of the sweetest, most emotional parts of the whole day…

Well, daddy, here you go – take a listen and enjoys these pictures of us from the wedding…  I love you!  xx

Note: all of these pictures of from wedding guests – didn’t they do a great job?!

Married!

So, Brian and I have been married for one week now… wow! I have a husband!  We’re down in Huatulco, Mexico for our honeymoon, but I wanted show you a picture from the wedding – I can’t wait to share all the details with you when I return!

This picture was taken by my cousin – what a perfect shot!