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mexico, it is
well, after our HUGE list of places we wanted to go for our honeymoon, we finally decided on the yucutan peninsula in mexico. it turns out october is a really challenging month for travel : southeast asia has monsoon season, europe just isn’t warm enough for us, a lot of places in the caribbean are closed for their hurricane season, costa rica is in rainy season… et cetera. we tried for south america for a good couple of weeks but couldn’t find the right trip for us. oh and remember i said i want to go to fiji? yeah that shit is ‘spensive.
so while my mom suggested we just postpone on the honeymoon for a couple of months, we’ve decided going to mexico will be not only amazing and something we’ve been wanting to do — but it’ll be easy, good weather and low key. we don’t have to plan a whole itinerary before we get there which is the last thing we want to worry about doing right now. and since everyone and their mother is going to tulum right now, it must be for a reason right?
BUT – we are trying to figure out hotels and portioning out the trip. right now we’re thinking for a 11 day trip, we’d stay in riviera maya for half the time and tulum the other half. we’re not sure about what hotel in tulum, there are so many cute ones, but we definitely want one that includes breakfast. (we love be tulum, but they’re having a wedding the same week… ahau is so pretty but they don’t include breakfast, the beach hotel does, papaya playa sounds like it’s a little too rustic, i know coqui coqui is supposed to be unreal but i might prefer just a spa day there)
we also want to do a lot of activities and excursions : xcaret, the cenotes, the monkey sanctuary, maybe some boating/snorkeling trips. we also want to eat lots of good food and i am so buying a hammock.
so if anyone has stayed in both, or just one, or anything — we’re desperately trying to figure out what’s more convenient and if we should stay in one place longer than the other?! or if anyone has any great tips in general — please share, i would love to hear!
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printable father’s day gift wrap
with father’s day next week – i made some handwriting patterned printable gift wrap to spice up your gift for him! simply print the gift wrap onto standard 8.5 x 11″ paper (you can scale to fit or not) and wrap it up.
and stay tuned for a really easy DIY gift for dad!
printable gift wrap is for personal use only, and NOT for redistribution.
if you’d like to post a link sharing them, you may not directly post the downloadable files.
please credit and link back to this post for downloading. -
diy modern pet bowl stand
strangely enough, this is my first DIY for the cats ever. i guess i’m NOT that obsessed with them — AM I, DAD!? my cats have a tendency of knocking all their food onto the floor and spilling the water everywhere, so i was determined to try to get that to stop a little by raising their bowls up higher. and let’s be real, i also wanted something a little more chic… so we built this stand for their food bowls!
bodhi seems to be ok with it.
now our stand is built specifically for our cat bowls, which are actually small dog bowls. if you have different sized bowls or different sized pets, you can easily just remeasure for your bowls. (and duh, you could make a two bowl version if you have a lone pet)
materials
food bowls
square wooden dowels cut down to :
— four 5″ pieces (length)
— four 18.75″ pieces (height)
— six 5.25″ pieces (depth)
2 packs of 1″ #3 wood screws
wood glue
clamps
sandpaper
a drill
now it was pretty hard to capture the actual process of this in photos, so instead i did something i’ve never done — make a guide. not sure if it helps or is just crazy confusing.
directions
— once you have your pieces cut down at your hardware store (or you can do it yourself if you really want to), sand the edges to all be as even as possible. it never ceases to upset me when the cuts done aren’t robot perfect.
01 | build out your top and bottom first. attach one length piece to a depth piece, by gluing and clamping and letting dry. once dry, drill a hole.
02 | once all of the depth pieces are attached and secure, clamp, glue and screw your opposite end on.
03 + 04 | do the same on the bottom.
05 | once both the top and bottom are completed, attach your height pieces.
now let your cats or dogs HAVE AT IT and make it all gross right away like mine did. i mean right away.
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netflix gems ⋅ part 3
it’s been a looong while since i last did a post on what’s streaming on netflix. this is because netflix never adds good movies lately. they’ve always had a crap ton of indie movies that i’ve never heard of – but it’s been hard to find any decent ones at all on there. have you noticed? but don’t worry — there’s still some stuff on there that you should watch if you haven’t. here are my favorites right now :
mortified nation a documentary about a live stage show where adults read their most embarrassing teenage journal entries on stage. i found this super heartwarming and highly recommend.
supporting characters i just watched this because i saw ray from girls was in it. i was pleasantly surprised when i really liked it.
bad milo if you like horror movies, i recommend it. it’s a ridiculous plot, but we thought it was really good. not sure if many others agree.
don’t trust the bitch in apt 23 we randomly turned this on once, and next thing you know we were on season 2. next thing you know i’m depressed it was cancelled so soon. all of the episodes are on netflix and it’s a really funny show. i swear. i had no interest in it either initially.
big trouble in little china i’m sure you’ve seen it, but if you haven’t — do that right now. i’ve watched it four times since it came on netflix. so what.
seems like old times i looooved this movie as a kid and i still do. goldie hawn & chevy chase & charles grodin? well duh.
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our engagement photos
we weren’t super into the idea of engagement photos initially, partly because my mom convinced me they were a waste of money, and partly because they are cheeeeeesy. but our photographer, color me rad, said they’re a really good way to get comfortable having our photo taken for the big day and getting more comfortable with the actual photographer. she was right, and i’m so happy to have finally good photos of us and we feel way better about working with her on the wedding day.
we took the first half of our photos at the ace in palm springs, and the second half at the windmills.
click through to see the rest if you’re not going to make fun of us!
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diy watercolor table numbers
with the shower invites yesterday and this today, i decided it’s going to be wedding week on the blog! now that’s its summer, i need to buckle down and start checking DIYs off my list for the wedding in four months. so i started with something i’d thought of a few months ago and decided to make some prototypes. we have a lot of watercolor and ombre elements in the wedding, so i wanted to incorporate that into the tables. i originally was going to make these with wood blocks, but decided that glass water bottles can serve as functional as well.
these are so easy to make, but the best part is the rewarding feeling of removing the sticker.
materials
glass water bottles (the cheapest i found were ikea)
vinyl number stickers (mine measure at 4″)
spray paint
directions
01 | after removing stickers and cleaning your bottles, dry them thoroughly. place a number onto the bottle as straight as you can. burnish it with your fingernail.
02 | in order to hang my bottle upside down to spray, i cut a hole into a cardboard box and placed the bottle in at an angle.
03 | lightly spray paint in a small spraying motions from far away, stop and check every few seconds to make sure you don’t overspray. i stayed at the bottom mostly and did just enough of the center to surround the number
04 | once dry, carefully and slowly remove the sticker.
i am so excited to have something done now! although after the RSVPs are returned, i’ll actually know how many tables we’ll have and will be creating a factory to make the remaining bottles. i’m also going to get some additional spray paint colors, and decide if i want to stick with multiple colors or just do one.
and lastly, 143.
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bridal shower invites
hope you had a great long weekend! we sent out the shower invites last week — which means i can now share them! for some reason, i had a REALLY hard time with these, maybe even harder than the actual wedding invites. but at a certain point i was like ok i’ll just go with one of these designs and be done with it now that the shower is only a month away.
we decided to have the shower on the earlier side because i wanted to try to keep events spread out, so that each month i could have something to look forward to between planning and making. so june is the shower, july is our birthdays (they’re three days apart), and august is our bachelor + bachelorettes. oh and then the wedding thing is in september. oh wow. just typing that freaks me out that it’s basically here.
while i’m trying not to design my own shower, my bridesmaid and i tag teamed picking out the decorations – and they aren’t as pink and girly as the invite suggests. now as for the invites, i made a simple design that i planned on being cheap to print by keeping it one color. gideon drew the little cacti with party lights for the bottom.
i got the kraft envelopes on amazon and LOVE them because they have a peel adhesive instead of having to lick. i also printed the guests names directly onto them which was what i will do now forever and ever. and those vintage seed stamps? omg. they’re too pretty.
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long weekend wish list
happy friday and happy memorial day weekend! i don’t have many plans this weekend, since i kinda just realized it was a long one. but i have next week off from work so we decided to go on a little two day getaway to get away from all the stress that is wedding planning! i hope you have a great long weekend!
since everyone spends this weekend BBQing and swimming, today’s wish list is all things summer.
01 | these plates scream outdoor entertaining to me. i can just picture the grilled salmon & corn.
02 | in love with this wild fern clutch, i never use clutches because i find them… fussy. but i’d make an exception.
03 | what better way to visualize than summer to like… literally visualize it. such a cute print by julia kostreva.
04 | every may we attempt to start planting a little, it’s almost june and we haven’t – but hey look how cute this plant holder is.
05 | the perfect pair of sunglasses will get you in the summer mood, it works for me.
06 | and there is no better motivation to go outside than to know you can lay down when you get there. (yes i’m a hermit.) -
diy copper bar earrings
i loooove those modern bar earrings i feel like i’m seeing everywhere lately — so decided to make my own using some super tiny copper pipe i’ve had sitting around for a while. just like last week, this is another DIY that takes only a few minutes!
materials
super super tiny piping : this comes in all metallics at my hardware store
earring posts and closures
needle nose pliers
scissors
super glue
directions
01 | cut down your earring posts to be as tiny as possible, do this by holding onto one with your pliers and snipping.
02 | cut down your pipe to whatever size you want, i just eyeballed it!
03 | glue together! let dry overnight.
04 | if you’re making as a gift, to make a paper backing for your earrings, just cut out a piece of card stock and poke holes with your studs. i prettied mine up by sloppily stamping before cutting!
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freeloader // 8
we can all agree that not only is shibori and indigo super trendy right now, but it’s also soooo pretty. so i decided to use my love of shibori patterns for a new iphone wallpaper! these wallpapers were digitally painted by my talented husband to be, gideon. he might be the first boy painting shibori ever?
shibori on shibori. mind blower. thanks again to gideon — and everyone else, download and enjoy!
this wallpaper is for personal use only, and NOT for re-distribution.
if you’d like to post a link sharing them, you may not directly post the downloadable files.
please credit and link back to this post for downloading the wallpaper.
