• payday wishlist

    i finished my taxes yesterday, so i’m feeling very very ready for the weekend. i’m assuming everyone else did theirs like… weeks and months ago?! well good work. we’re sttttill working on the wedding invitations and the website, so i’m going to try to spend as much time actually finishing those this weekend as i can. it is SO hard to design for yourself, but it’s especially hard when it’s your wedding and nothing feels perfect enough, for our vibe and personalities and all that we have to consider. but we did lock down how they’ll be printed! hope you have a lovely weekend!

    payday wishlist

    01. i was obsessed with birkenstocks when i was a kid. everyone at camp was replacing their adidas sandals with them, and i had to have some. so i subscribed to the catalog and would daydream about my own pair. i finally got some and never took them off. when birks started coming back a few years ago i was like “BLEGH” but i’ve now seen them on enough cute people that i want some again. this is how it works right? very easily brainwashed.
    02. denim + triangles. i mean. so naturally i want this throw blanket.
    03. the perfect beach / farmers market / summer / vacation bag ever.
    04. i want every hanging planter i see, but especially love the color blocked yarn accents on this one.
    05. who doesn’t need a pretty new notebook? well, probably me, but still i can want them.

  • wedding stuff : bridesmaids dresses under $100

    easy bridesmaids dresses under $100 | almost makes perfect

    01 / 02 / 03 (sold out online! sorry!) / 04 / 05 / 06

    i might be unlike most brides when i say firstly that i don’t want my bridesmaids to wear dresses that are bridesmaids dresses – they’re overpriced and i find most of them kinda stuffy. i definitely wanted the girls in a pale color, and have been scouring the every dress site on the internet with the terms “maxi / cream, beige, blush, tan” it’s way harder than i thought. i want something low-key but still dressy and i’m definitely not insisting they spend a couple hundred bucks on a bridesmaid dress. i’m just considerate like that!

    bridesmaids matching white

    i’m loving the matching on these super boho dresses, but i do have a hard time recognizing which one is the actual bride. (via style me pretty)

    bridesmaids mismatched

    i also love all the pale tones of these mismatched dresses working together, which i know can end up looking messy if you do it wrong. (via ruffled)

    but i ended up buying three of one of #3 (which is now unavailable online – but i had to include it since it might be the dress! it’s still available in stores) so we may have found our dress, i’m just still a little confused on whether or not i want the three of them all matching or mismatched. the bridesmaids say matching. i’m not 100% convinced! so i could return two of them and keep one girl wearing it… do you guys have thoughts? it feels surprisingly uncommon to see matching bridesmaids dresses lately — so maybe i’m just used to that trend?!

  • diy ombre leather coasters

    diy ombre leather coasters

    can you tell i’m not sick of hexagons yet?! also not sick of this white faux leather i have. ok i’m lying. i’m so so sick of it, but i accidentally bought a ton more than i thought i did (this is what happens when i buy supplies online) so i’m trying to use it all up. remember when i used it here? oh and how about here?

    rachel of the crafted life has been “barely” spray painting glass to create this gorgeous ombre effect, so inspired by her – i half spray painted these!

    diy ombre coastersdiy ombre leather coasters by almost makes perfect

    materials

    leather or faux leather
    printable template for stenciling
    rotary cutter
    pen
    spray paint in the color of your choice

    diy ombre leather coasters

    directions

    01. print out your hexagon. if you know what size you want and use photoshop, make yourself a template. if you want to use mine, click below to download. (these measure about 4″) cut it out.

    02. if you have faux leather like mine, the back might have a soft backside which is easily draw-on-able. if you’re using real leather or a leather without a backing, decide which side is prettier and trace on the other one around your hexagons.

    03. over a cutting surface, using your rotary cutter and a ruler, cut out your hexagons.

    04. once you have them all cut, take them outside and place on a piece of cardboard. spray paint them by spray painting your cardboard surface and slowly work your way from side to side to cover some of your coaster. in retrospect, i may have liked them with less spray paint than these have. try the less is more approach, and add more after taking a step back. let dry.

    diy ombre leather coasters | almost makes perfectdiy ombre leather coasters | almost makes perfect

  • ,

    wanting / home items

    wanting / home items

    i ALWAYS want new stuff for the house, i don’t think there will ever be a point in my life where i wouldn’t be totally willing to purge everything and have a shopping spree at west elm. but right now with the wedding looming, it seems wrong to buy anything new for the apartment. but i want to so badly. here’s everything that i think about pretty regularly.

    01. as comfortable as our office chairs are, i really hate that they’re black for the most part. it was my bad. the office would look so much cleaner with white shell chairs (or these if i’m feeling nice to our butts). and when i say cleaner, i mean cleaner because there is crap everywhere.

    02. i reeeally want a new rug for the bedroom. right now we have a cowhide that doesn’t reach our feet, i’d love for the room to feel a little warmer with a big chunky simple rug.

    03. i’ve been saying we need lamps/sconces for a while now. still haven’t done it.  and every time these onefortythree sconces come back in stock, i debate it until they sell back out. maybe i need to just DIY, right?

    04. we have a docksta table, which i am ok with, but it barely fits four peoples plates. i’d love a big dining table for sprawling out my craft projects – because honestly that’s all i use the dining table for.

    05. i’ve always wanted a butterfly chair, and i’ve never gotten a butterfly chair. not sure why. just one of those things.

    06. you’ve seen our shelving unit, but you don’t know that it’s a pretty big eye sore at this point. i mean, i still like it, but i do kinda miss the bare walls. we want to move after the wedding, so it’s not worth taking down probably, although i mean, we’ll have to take it down at some point anyway, right? would be so nice to just see a simple cabinet with the tv at this point.

  • payday wishlist

    friday came fast for me this week, yesterday after our couples therapy (yep, we’re trying to be smart about getting married and going to couples therapy weekly) we were rear ended super hard while stopped at a light. so we’re taking it easy today to make sure our necks aren’t hurting too bad. it’s supposed to get warm this weekend, so we’re going to head down to the lake and take the pedal boats out! i’ve finally convinced the boy it will be fun. hope you have a great weekend!

    payday wishlist

    01. i’ve seen cheesy specialty keys i’ve wanted in hardware store, but i’ve never seen ones this rad.
    02. i am SO getting this little rug for the bathroom.
    03. a lovely little ceramic cup i want ten of.
    04. ever seen france, i’ve been wanting a pair of these. almost every woman i saw was wearing them.
    05. i saw this jungalow hanging planter yesterday at west elm (the local section) and it’s amazing.
    06. this claire vivier tote would be the perfect work bag.

  • i link you

    i link you

    such chic diy faux labradorite earrings (via fall for diy)

    how stoked would you be to receive an adorable little bouquet like this (via paper & stitch)

    shibori dyed easter eggs – maybe the best ever. (via tuts+)

    my friend called the other day to say watch louis ck’s monologue on snl immediately. so i did. now i’m sharing it with you. (via digg)

    would you be terrified if a turkey was chasing you? this woman is. so much. (via youtube / image via)

    salted. chocolate. diablo. cookie. ice cream. sandwiches. ridic. (via the artful desperado)

  • ,

    diy jewelry display wall hanging for design*sponge

    jewelry display wall hanging

    you always looking for a way to store your jewelry that isn’t wretched? then you can check out this diy copper + rope wall hanging i made for design*sponge. you could also use it for keys and outgoing mail at your front door — possibilities are just endless i tell you, endless!

    diy jewelry display wall hanging

    for more photos and the full tutorial – visit design*sponge.

  • diy dip dyed candlesticks

    diy dip dyed candlesticks | almost makes perfect

    i’ve got wedding on the brain so i’ve been brainstorming easy little projects that could work for it. i definitely want to incorporate a bunch of wood and watercolor elements — so here we are. it takes about 15 mins hands on to make these, and you’ll be happy you did — they add so much to the table. passover and easter are coming up soon, you’re welcome!

    diy dip dyed candlesticksdip dyed candle sticks how to

    materials

    whittling kit (available at any craft store)
    drill & drill paddle bit in whatever size you’d like. we tried a few but i liked the snug fit of the 3/4″
    dye (i used a combo of teal & royal blue)
    bucket

    dip dyed candle sticks how to

    01. measure the center of your wood blocks and drill about an inch and a half down. we clamped ours to the door. sand the edges.

    02. fill a non-food pan or bucket with warm water and your dye, and stir. i heavily saturated mine because i didn’t want to wait for very long. you can also add way less dye and have them marinade longer. i also decided i wanted the tallest block to have a higher dye, so i poured the remainder of dye into an empty tea can and dyed the tall one for about 7 more minutes. if you plan to do this too, think ahead unlike me and don’t dye it twice. i wasn’t planning on the dark ombre line.

    03. take them out when you’re happy with them, let dry for a day.

    dip dyed candle sticks how todiy dip dyed candlesticks

    and that’s it. these would also be super fun in an array of colors, which if i do them for the wedding — i will most likely try some peaches and greys too.

    diy dip dyed candlesticks

  • ,

    honeymooning — i need help!

    where the f do we honeymoon // almost makes perfect

    when’s a better time to do a wanderlust post than a monday!? we’re just starting to focus on just choosing a honeymoon destination and i seriously need advice. it’s just too hard to decide.

    greece and paris were my top bucket list destinations and i luckily got to check them off the list with gideon, and while if i were honeymooning by myself, i’d go somewhere obvious like spain or italy. but the boy wants to do a “barefoot luxury” trip, where we don’t do a whole bunch of sightseeing and mostly focus on relaxing, swimming and eating. at first i said ugh, but then i decided i liked the idea — because we’ve done a lot of sightseeing, and we always spend all day out, and by nighttime i’m exhausted and we barely get… romantic. so i guess we should do a honeymoon where we have sex. right?

    we’d love to find an amazing all-inclusive or a hotel with multiple restaurants, so we don’t have to worry about leaving and i can pig out the whole time. but we’re also pretty picky when it comes to hotels, we always prefer well designed boutique ones. finding both seems hard. we also talked about doing a week of relaxing somewhere like italy and then sightseeing for a week — but realized it’ll be a little cold for us in october.

    click on the location for the image source.

    bora bora // we would LOVE to stay on an overwater hut. doesn’t get more romantic than that — but it seems like all-inclusives don’t exist and prices are pretty high in tahiti

    bali // while it looks amazing, i’ve spoken to two people who have spent time there and we’re not sure we want to deal with all the cons that come with traveling there – bugs, the water… have you heard of bali belly? is it worth dealing with all that?

    fiji // dreams of going here bring up the memories of when i was a kid and i thought fiji water was the greatest thing on earth and i would tell my dad i was going to fiji someday. what a dork. it does seem like a more affordable version of bora bora, but we’ve had a hard time finding hotels that are actually affordable (we’ve been seeing prices like 2k/night!!) and also — they have sharks there i think. and i am afraid of sharks unfortunately. i don’t go in the ocean for the most part because of this but i wanted to on the honeymoon.

    leeward islands // i’ve heard these are actually the most beautiful islands, but underrated compared to tahiti and fiji. anguilla looks amazing. anyone been!?

    mexico // i’ve been to mexico a lot, so at first was against it. but it does seem like you get a lot more for your money. and we love mexican food.

    costa rica // the only active things we’ve talked about doing are rafting, ziplining and snorkeling. we could do those so hard in costa rica.

    thailand // of all the places we’ve chosen, thailand (and also vietnam) seem like the ones i’d be the most into sightseeing so i feel a tiny bit adamant that it would make a better trip later on. when i can GO HARD. but it does look spectacular and super romantic. i need advice on this one.

    belize // i love the caves and the idea of rafting here, but have heard a lot less about it than the islands. they do have the over the water huts i love.

    so, where did you honeymoon? or where did you travel that was the best ever? or which of these places sounds the best?!

    we want to make a decision so we can check it off the list (just like everything else) so please advise! i’d love all the tips i can get.

    (and sorry for the super long post – it seems i have a lot to say)

  • payday wishlist

    did you know it’s friday?! i have about nothing planned for this weekend. it’s pretty nice when i don’t have to do 100 errands. hope yours is good!

    payday wishlist

    01. i HATE the amount of space a bedside lamp takes up. i would much rather fill it with empty glasses of water and controllers. get sconces you say? well, i haven’t. but this faceted wood bulb lamp seems pretty teeny tiny. and also amazing.
    02. i just talked about only filling my closet with essentials, and that means a nice pair of nude flats.
    03. i tried registering for this super lovely wood flatware set, gid say no go. GUH. pretty.
    04. ez of creature comforts is selling this new pineapple print. also comes as an iphone case. almost put both on here.
    05. guest towels is one of those things i always want a newer prettier version of.
    06. my sunglasses hurt my head when i’m in traffic too long. seriously need a new pair.