Wedding Wednesday: Gifts For Bridesmaids

Last week I did a little post with gift ideas for groomsmen.  I received a lot of comments and notes of thanks for pulling ideas together into one place so I thought hey - why not pull ideas together for bridesmaids to share with you all this week!  

First, let me tell you, girls are way easier to buy for!! (Maybe it's because I'm a girl??) I could keep on buying for my bridesmaids but that would probably max out my wedding budget and I have a few big expenses left.  Here is a roundup of some of my favorite finds!

Hangers // Totes // Clutches // Monogram Necklaces // Robes

If you do some searching on etsy you can find some really great deals! What other ideas do you have?  Please share in the comments below!!

If you are interested in more Wedding Wednesday posts, filled with wedding planning ideas go here!

Wedding Wednesday - Gifts for Groomsmen

I am moving right along in this wedding planning process and getting into the details including the fun stuff like gifts for our wedding party.  Let me tell you what - there are way better awesome gift options for bridesmaids than there is for groomsmen.  Since we've been on the hunt for wedding party gifts I thought I would share a round up of gift ideas for groomsmen.

Tie Clips // Soapstone Drink Cubes // Money Clip // Flask // Golf Ball Marker // Bottle Opener Key Chain

I really like the monogram items that can, in a way, commemorate the day.  Then again I would like it to be something that is fun and useful. 

A few other ideas I came across were a membership to the Tie of the Month Club (None of the guys in our wedding party would ever join it.  I would probably be considered the worst bride ever) or a bottle (or case) of their preferred beverage.

What other ideas do you have?!  I would love to hear them! 

Shopping Bags to Gift bags (a DIY project!)

One week until Christmas and I am working on wrapping my gifts!  This year I'm not going overboard on my gift wrapping considering it just gets ripped off and thrown into a black garbage bag. (I know, I'm kinda being a scrooge about it, but I'm also trying to be practical) I did however get a little creative when I realized that I hadn't bought any gift bags or extra boxes to actually put the gifts in and came up with these DIY beauties for gift packaging! :)

I dug out some of my nicer shopping bags and Birchbox boxes and simply covered the store name with scrapbook paper.  I also used a couple of holiday stamps to add some extra holiday spunk!

Before

After

I must say, they look pretty nice under the Christmas tree! :)

Mother's Day Gift Ideas

Mother's Day is this weekend - YIKES!  Are you still trying to figure out what to get for your mom that is fun, funky, creative, sentimental or simply something she will love?!  Well, I've come up with a few gift ideas for Mother's Day to hopefully help you out if it comes down to the last minute.

This summer-y placemat and napkin set is from Target.  It is so bright and happy!  I think it also comes in shades of orange! Click here to get it.

Funky dessert plates and napkins are probably not something that mom is going to rush out and buy for herself (that's the beauty of gift-giving)!  So why not pick out something that is just a little bit different?!  I love these desert plates and double-sided napkins from Target.  Click here to get the plates and click here to get the napkins.

If you're mom is more the jewelry type I would suggest a statement piece like this watch from New York & Company.  I believe it comes in white, green, magenta and red too.  You can also find some cool pieces at from Lia Sophia - my favorite jewelry source!

Summer is just around the corner so what about getting her some hosting piece like this pitcher and blue tumblers!  There is no need for them to match, just make them fun outdoor pieces.  These are both from Target also.  (Can you tell I love to shop here?! But who doesn't!) Click here for the pitcher and click here for the tumblers.

Ok - so for those of you who are DIY-ers these next projects are for you!

Make and gift your own seasonings!  I think this is a clever idea for a lot of reasons and I can have a vision of them being beautifully packaged in mason jars with clever labels!

Check out Self Reliance by Jamie to get the recipes!

These DIY air fresheners are super cute and easy to make.  Check out this post from my blog last week!

If your mom likes wine - purchase a bottle from a local winery (if you have one nearby) and wrap it in a cloth napkin.  Pair it with a couple of classy wine glasses and encourage your mom to take a step back and relax.

There are my Mother's Day gift-giving ideas!  Hopefully you found them helpful!  

Mom - if you read this, your Mother's Day gift is shown in this post!  Can you guess which one it is?!

What is the best Mother's Day gift you've given - or received?!

{Gift DIY} Christmas Ornament

I love all of the ideas for what you can do with Christmas ornaments but this one might be my favorite!  I came across this neat idea for creating a wedding keepsake using an clear ornament on Pinterest and had to use it for Christmas this year.  Here's what you do.

Cut the wedding inviation into strips line by line so that the words and sentances are readable.

Then, wrap them around a pen so that they curl.  You may want to stretch out the curl a little bit so that they fill the ornament and are readable.

Finally, put the curled strips of paper into the glass ornament.  You can get a package of glass ornaments at Hobby Lobby pretty cheap since all of the Christmas decorations are 50% off.

Doesn't this look so pretty?

You can make these with baby announcements or write your own memories from the year on strips of paper.  I like how the ornament commemorates a big life event that happened over the year.  Christmas ornaments can tell such neat stories.

What ideas do you have for Christmas ornaments?

Have a great Tuesday...

Beth

{Gift DIY} Frosted Wine Glasses

Here is the second DIY gift idea - Frosted wine glasses.

This is such an easy DIY project.  All you need to do is put rubber bands around the wine glasses and spray with frosted glass spray paint.

Pair these glasses with a bottle of wine and your gift is complete!



The wine is from Santa Maria Winery, our local winery in Carroll.  If you ever travel through western Iowa, definetly make a stop!

Have a great Friday!
Beth

PS - If you like this DIY post about frosted wine glasses, click on the link to check out my DIY post for Painted Vases.

DIY Vanilla Extract

I am proud to say that I have officially started my Christmas gift-making for 2011!  This is way ahead of schedule for me, but in order to get this done and wrapped by Christmas I needed to start now.  A couple of weeks ago I came across a recipe for Homemade Vanilla Extract on one of the blogs I follow, Whipperberry.  It looked fun and easy to make so I thought I would give it a whirl!  I think this will make a great gift for our mom's, grandmas and the just-in-case I need a gift, gift.

All you need is vodka (anything cheap) and whole vanilla beans.  I took the recommendation from the Whipperberry blog and ordered my vanilla beans from Beanilla Trading Company. 

Who knew that vanilla extract was made out of vodka and vanilla beans?! Out of curiosity I checked the ingredients on the vanilla extract in my cupboard and sure enough - alcohol and vanilla beans and of course a few preservatives.
As for packaging, the mini wine bottles from either Barefoot or Sutter Home wine work great!

DIY Vanilla Extract

Directions:

1 cup of Vodka for 2 Vanilla Beans

Let it sit in a cool, dark place for 1 1/2 to 2 months, shaking it every couple of days

Remove the vanilla beans and strain the liquid thru cheese cloth

Package it up with a cute label! 

(Go to the Whipperberry Blog for packaging ideas- great ideas!)

So this weekend I picked up my supplies from our local HyVee grocery store so I could start my homemade vanilla extract project.  I didn't think of it until I left the grocery store but, I must have looked like an absolute "soak" when I was pushing my cart through the store.  I had a huge bottle of cheap vodka and eight mini bottles of Barefoot brand wine.... and a six-pack of Shocktop... Haha! 

I'm pretty excited for this DIY project!  I just need to empty out all of my mini wine bottles (1 down, 7 to go) so I can keep this project moving. Guess that means I will be drinking wine! :)

Let me know if you take on this project!

Have a great week and enjoy!

It's A Girl!

GOT YA!! For some of you, I bet you had to read this post because the title completely caught you by suprise and you had to figure out what was going on!  No, I did not and am not planning to have a baby.  Maybe someday, but not any time soon...

However, our good friends in northern Iowa just had their first baby, a girl, named Riley Jo.  And, because I love giving gifts you better believe we mailed them one right away.  I am pretty proud to say that I actually made the majority of their gift (if you count items and not $$ because we did give them a Target gift card.) Some of you might think I am crazy for spending time on this stuff because it is SO MUCH easier to go out and buy something but that's definitely not as fun when you want to give a unique or personalized gift.

Here is what I made.  It's not much (that's why they got a gift card) but it was fun! :)

I love making greeting cards!  I do a lot of rubber stamping and use a lot of Stampin' Up products.  Making cards is something I do to relax.  Not to mention it saves quite a bit of money when you consider buying $3.59 greeting cards these days - Ridiculous!  Even though I love making greeting cards my boyfriend, Adam, said I can't make a living do that...

I also do a little bit of sewing- mostly straight lines yet - so I made a burp cloth.   If you can thread a sewing machine you can make one of these.  Just pick out some cute material, sew the material right sides together and then turn it right side out and stitch up the opening.  Very Easy!

This was my favorite part of the gift!  I picked up a cute jar a Hobby Lobby, (usually 50% off every other week), tied a ribbon around it and used my rubber stamps to jazz it up.  You can't see it very well but I filled it with those cheap, plastic, little girl barrets that I found at Target.  It would be cute filled with diaper pins or candy if you wanted to give something simple as a birthday gift. 

Personalized gifts are fun and pretty easy as long as you are willing to put a little more time into them.  If you don't like taking the time to make gifts or don't feel very creative, let me know, I would be happy to make personalized gifts for you to give.

Happy Crafting!!