Simple String Heart

I am happy to say that even though we are under the 100 day mark, I am feeling better and better about the wedding plans. Things seem to be coming together, just like I had hoped. I even finished a new project!

Tada, here it is!

When I originally saw this project on Green Wedding Shoes (which I may or may not check regularly these days) I was just in love with the simplicity, hence the name. I may be a project thief (hey now, I credited the source) but this was too easy and cute not to share. If I could do it, you definitely can.

To make this  project, you will need:

A piece of wood - size of your choice
A box of small nails

String or yarn. I chose blue but was also considering twine

A hammer, for hammering

I started out with a piece of fake wood particle board, a piece from the same falling apart wardrobe that I got the wood for my homemade chalkboard. Gotta love a free base for my project.

Next I drew a heart on a piece of old newspaper. Being a former teenage girl, I am good a drawing hearts but if you did not doodle on your binders as much as I did, I suggest drawing half, folding your paper and trace it on the other half of the paper. This will ensure the heart is even.

Next I put in nails at the top and bottom of the heart to secure it to the piece of wood.

Next I measured and marked spaces to ensure that there would be an equal distance between the nails. I had a thimble handy so I used that. You can use whatever you want but make sure you work from the middle of the heart down the side to the bottom and then start back at the middle down the other side. This way, if there is an uneven space for the nails at the end, it will be on the bottom instead of noticably on the top of one side.

Marking out all the spaces will also make it easy for you to count how many nails you will need if you are going to buy a small box. I bought a small box and still had enough left over if I wanted to make another one, which I may. I believe I needed 70 nails.

Of course this is the point where I stopped taking pictures, because I needed both hands. You start by tying end of the string around the head of one of the nails. I tied it around the bottom nail for an easy start and ending point.

You then wrap the string around from one nails to the next, zigging and zagging and making it look random. The more it looks chaotic, the better. To end the heart, when you feel you've filled it enough, just tie the end of the string and cut it. I just tucked the end up and it disappeared. [side note, I suggest leaving the string attached until the end. If you cut it before you're done, you might come up short at the end]

And again, Tada! I LOVE it and I am thinking of making one in the shape of an S, the first letter of both my current and soon-to-be married name.

The final cost of this ended up being only $3! The small box of nails was $.99 and the string was 1.99. I already had the hammer and the board, which inspired me to do a project in the first place.

Have you made any simple projects lately? Or have ambitions to? I suggest this one!

100 Days!

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I'm sure you have no idea what could be taking place in exactly 100 days from today. For any of you just tuning in, I am getting married in just 100 short days. And I do mean short because the days have just been flying by. So in about 2,400 hours from now, I will be a married woman. I can hardly wait!! On one side, I cannot believe that it is already May but also, there are so many things I need to do still. I just need to keep taking deep breaths.

On a different note, a note more filled with dread and fear, I am getting my wisdom teeth out tomorrow morning. If you can't tell, I am not excited for this long weekend. I do not suggest Googling the rate of death from wisdom teeth removal surgery because I am officially freaked out but I have no choice but to get it over with. I scheduled it for first thing in the morning so I won't be thinking about it all day. Mostly, I cannot wait to be rid of the horrible headaches that these stupid teeth have been causing.

Since I will be out of commission this weekend, aka swollen and being spoiled, I have big plans to work on invitations. I ordered it from paperandmore.com yesterday and the order status was shipped by the end of the day! I have a feeling it will be here this weekend or early next week at least. They are so quick over there, I love them.I think I am on schedule with plans for the wedding, with things getting checked off my to-do list every day!

I also have big plans to catch up on some of my shows. I have been so busy this year that I haven't watched any prime time shows this season. With us not having cable, I truly have no idea what is going on in them (haven't seen any commericals to ruin it) so I am going to try to watch the whole season of Greys Anatomy this weekend and maybe catch up on Revenge. I have always been good at multi-tasking and I'm sure I will get a lot done while watching TV this weekend. I've decided I'm going to sign up for Hulu Plus (the free trial, of course) so it will be easy to catch up on all the episodes in one place.

I am eagerly accepting advice (or pity) from anyone who has gotten their wisdom teeth out in the hopes I can heal quickly and get back on my feet in no time. I have heard that biting down on tea bags will help with clotting and that the meds they will give me should knock out the pain. Besides that, I am just going to sit back and relax. Hopefully it will be like a mini vacation with a side of happy pills.

Fill in the Blank Friday!

I am linking up with Lauren at The Little Things We Do! 

1. Today is a good day because it is Friday so it is Jeans Day at work! Yay for not having to dress up. And someone brought apple coffee cake to work, which was delicious.



2. The best thing I did all week was almost finish our wedding website and realize that we are not as far behind as I always fear. I love spending time wedding planning with my boy. We work well together :) Oh, and I brought my dress for my future sister-in-law's wedding.


3. The current weather is sunny, for the first time all week and it makes me feel happy and hopeful for a nice weekend.


4. The best thing about spring is the warm weather coming and the plants growing! I can't wait to start my garden outside, instead of on my windowsills.


5. A fashion trend that I'm dying to try out for spring is colored denim, even though it may just look terrible on me .


6. A person who made me smile this week was my fiance! He just says the sweetest things sometimes and it makes me smile.


7. The most delicious thing I ate all week was so many things. Spinach and articoke dip, which I am munching right now, pulled pork, salmon, chocolate, cupcakes . . . wow I sound like a fatty. But it was worth it. Exercise plan starts, um, next week.

What's up?

Oh nothing, just the beginning of new life :)

I love Spring!

My Little Green Thumb

With the unseasonably nice weather we've been having and my upcoming DIY nuptials, I decided it was time to try my hand at gardening. I had plans to start one last year but that didn't go past the planning stage so now is the time! And since I live in Western New York and we are bound to get at least one more frost this year, I had to take my gardening indoors.

and of course, adding wine makes everything better

I spent a little time on my enclosed porch moving soil from one neglected plant into an empty egg carton.

I only had two seed packets on hand )and yes I do love being able to say that I just had a couple seed packets laying around) so I decided to plan some Zinnias.

I am not a great gardener, as you can tell by the neglected plant situation, but I really want to have a great garden this year so I can use the flowers in August. Yup, I'm a DIY bride all the way. Hopefully it will work out as planned.

One of the best parts of crafting on the porch is hanging out with these cute guys, my guard dogs.

Have you been having crazy awesome weather too? What have you been doing to make the most of it?