It’s called ridiculous & useless, yet thoughtful & cute ask-your-bridesmaids gifts.

I knew for about a month who I was going to ask to be my bridesmaids, but I had to think of the perfect way to ask them. I saw these fun wine & champagne bottles and these very cute cookies, but when I saw this box, I knew I had to make my own version.

My last name is soon to be “Ball” and since it is so easy to rhyme with, I decided to make a little poem and attach a little something to each verse.

Here it goes:

As you know, I am tying the knot

And there are a few things I need that cannot be bought.

I need someone to keep me calm on this special day

And be a lifesaver if things go astray.

I need a buddy out on the dance floor

And a friend to remind me not to worry about the decor.

Last but not least and most of all

I need someone by my side as I become Mrs. Ball.

Will you be my bridesmaid?

If you are looking for a fun way to ask your bridesmaids, this one is fairly simple and is easy to personalize by changing up the poem. Just grab a box, print your poem, buy some silly items off amazon, add a little gift wrap and decoration, and give them to you future bridesmaids!

Thank goodness they all said “YES!”

Now comes the fun part. I knew there were a lot of details that go into a wedding, but honestly, I had no idea how many. At first, I was overwhelmed with the amount of things I had to do, but at this point, I have learned to break everything up into small doses. For example, this week I want to decide on my guest book for the wedding. So far, the wedding is anything but traditional, so why start with the guest book?

And the search for the unique guest book begins. My main three sources for finding inspiration photos are Pinterest, Google Images, and Etsy. Below are my Top 7 faves. The winner won’t be revealed until after the big day!

1. Have your guests sign a custom poster with a heart in the city you met or are having your wedding. This would look better if the heart was a little more north.

2. Guests can share a piece of wisdom on these “Keys to Success“. This would be easy to make yourself; just buy some skeleton keys and attach some gift tags!

3. Jenga! Who doesn’t love a good game of Jenga? Spice things up a bit and ask your guests to make it truth-or-dare themed!

4. Let your guests sign the 3D hearts and you instantly have artwork for your wall! I feel a DIY coming on…

5. How cool is this wish tree? Guests write their wishes for the bride and groom and hang them on the decorated tree. This doubles as a great entrance centerpiece.

6. Or you can go with a simpler tree, and have your guests put their thumbprint as leaves. Another great piece of artwork to put on your wall after the wedding!

7. Let your guests write on vintage postcards. You could even have a friend send them to you throughout your first year of marriage so you have snail mail to look forward to!

Any more great guest book ideas out there that I missed?

Bay Area sports are going off this year, so much so that my dad had to get a tattoo to commemorate it.

I’m not going to lie, my favorite part about sporting events is the social aspect, but I did go to my first NFL Niners game this year and learned a few more tidbits about the game.

• You must wear red and gold
• You must drink beer
• You must yell “Who’s got it better than us? NOBODY!”
• You must eat deliciously unhealthy food

In order to practice all of the above during the Superbowl, I am wearing my red and gold on my fingers.

And now I just have to buy some beer, start yelling, and make some potato skins for this holiday of gluttonous snacking.

GO NINERS!!!!

Now go make some mini cupcakes.

Frost ‘em.

Grab a foam cone and some toothpicks.

Stick cupcakes on foam cone.

Start threading your garland!

Add some chocolate covered fruit ornaments.

Add your cookie star to the top.

Lastly, make sure it’s 2 year old taste tester approved.

Some tips and tricks from the (now) pro:

-frost your cupcakes and let them set for about 30 minutes before putting them on the foam cone

-use the frosting recipe from last year! I tried a new recipe and it was an epic fail.

-make this when you are staying at home, because transit with a cupcake Christmas tree and San Francisco potholes are no fun.

Merry Christmas Eve to all!

It’s pretty hard to get a group of twenty motivated to get out of their seat, leave their conversation and appetizers behind to go play games, but the birthday girl was forceful so we did as we were told! I am glad she was because the games were pretty hysterical. We had a few rounds of flip cup, “minute to win it” type games, a water balloon toss, and a final beer drinking/running/jumping/throwing obstacle course. There was no awarded winner, but if there was, I think the gold would have gone to these little bacon, brat, and beer appetizers.

Bacon Wrapped Beer Brats

Recipe Adapted from Better Recipes

{print me!}

• 3 packages of bratwurst (or 15 links)
• 1 package of bacon (16 oz.)
• 4 twelve ounce beers (or 2 tall cans)
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon dry mustard or turmeric
• Any mustard of choice for dipping

Preheat oven to 425. Line your jelly roll with foil or parchment paper.

Piece each of your brats several times with a fork. In a large skillet, place half of the bratwursts and pour in 24 ounces of beer. Once the beer is close to boiling, turn it down to low and let the brats simmer for 15-20 minutes, turning after ten minutes. The brats are done with they are no longer pink on the inside.

In the meantime, cut your bacon in thirds. In a separate bowl mix the brown sugar, dry mustard, and cayenne pepper together.

Now that the brats are done, let them cool until you can handle them. Then cut the brats into thirds. Wrap a piece of bacon around the brat, roll them in your sugar mixture and place them on your baking sheet with the bacon flap side down. Bake them for about 20-25 minutes. Let them drain on paper towels before serving.

I decided to get a little crafty (what’s new?) so I made some toothpick flags for the brats. If you want to get a little crafty too, I’m making it easy for you! I found this beer Olympics image, pasted it into a word document a few times, and cut them into little flags. Then I pasted them onto the toothpicks. Want to try it? Printable here.

Add some mustard to your serving plate, and let them eat!

This recipe is actually doubled from the original because I used the second half for our fantasy football draft party the next day. These little meaty bites of deliciousness are so versatile! They go with every beer drinking event you can think of.

Enjoy the three B’s!

During my brother’s college years, I have reason to believe that Conor spent more time playing wiffle ball than studying for class. And every year at our Easter picnic, Conor manages to round up the troops for a rousing game of home run derby. Due to his random love of wiffleball, I decided that my (almost thirty but going on thirteen) brother needed a custom wiffle ball strike zone for his birthday.

Want to make one for your brother too? He might think you are the coolest sister ever.

How to Make a Wiffle Ball Strike Zone

Dimensions provided by this really cool twelve year old boy

Materials

• 4 PVC elbows
• 4 PVC T’s
• Sheet metal
• 10-15 Zip ties
• 2 lengths of PVC pipe
• Chalkboard spray Paint
• Spray paint, color of choice
• Metal Sheers
• Hack Saw
• PVC primer and glue

Dimensions

Top: 19 ¾ inch

Right and Left Sides: 22 ½ inches each

Bottom: 9 inch middle, two 2 ½ inch pieces to go between elbows and t’s

Legs: 11 inches each

Base: 4 pieces of leftover PVC pipe, keep equal but length is up to you

Sheet metal 22 ¼ by 19 ¼

To start, find a handy friend that has a rooftop deck meant for messy projects.

Cut the PVC pipe to the above lengths with the hack saw.

Cut the sheet metal to the aforementioned dimensions with your metal sheers. Puncture at least two holes on each edge of the metal, making sure to be VERY careful! This metal can easily slice you.

Piece your PVC pipes together with the elbows and T’s, as shown below.

Now that you have the frame as you want it, pull the pieces apart and put the PVC primer then glue on. Stick the pieces back together. The only pieces you should not glue together are the bottom T’s to the base legs, so you can detach for carrying purposes (they are not shown here for that reason).

Your base is glued together and flattened, so now spray paint whatever color you want. How about caution cone orange?

Spray paint that sheet metal while you are at it. Black chalkboard paint anyone?

Decorate the sheet metal as you wish. I printed out some letters and made stencils to paint on the metal. “Home Run Derby” on the front and “Score”on the back. That way you can keep track of you score on the chalkboard. Fancy, huh?

Time to put it all together! Slide your zip ties through the holes in the sheet metal and attach them to the sides of the frame. I added a little bit of hot glue to cover the sheet metal holes since they were still rather sharp.

Lookie what we got here? The SF Giants would be proud of my twenty nine year old, wiffle ball loving brother.

Noah might have one upped me on his birthday present to his dad. He went number two in the potty for the first time that day. That little guy…always stealing the show somehow.

Ready??

Play Ball!

Sand Crab Cupcakes

{print instructions!}

Inspired by The Seven Year Cottage

• Orange Slice Gummies
• Peach Gummies
• Edible Googly Eyes (sold here)
• 24 Cupcakes
• 1 cup Graham Cracker Crumbs
• Cream Cheese Frosting
• Toothpicks
• Frosting Tip

Bake your favorite flavor of cupcakes. Make some cream cheese frosting, or buy yourself a can. Smash some graham crackers to make “sand.”

Grab your peach gummies and your frosting tip. The frosting tip is useful for much more than just frosting! Use the wide part of the frosting tip to cut circles out of the peach gummies. With the leftover outer ring of the circle, take your knife and cut them into the shape of crab claws.

Take a sticky piece of the leftover gummy and place it on the back of your googly eye.  You could also use royal icing for this, but I opted to surpass this extra step since gummies are sticky enough!

Start sticking toothpicks into your orange slices. Push the eyes into the toothpicks. Split another toothpick in half to use for the crab claws.

Once you have made your crabs, start frosting your cupcakes. After they are frosted, dip them in graham cracker crumbs. Lastly, stick your crab cupcake toppers in the cupcakes.

And now you got yourself some crabby cupcakes!

I think I like the looks of these better than the real thing.

When the weekend finally arrived, travelers from Seattle, San Diego, Orange County, and San Francisco made their journey to a beautiful home outside of Palm Springs. Little did we know while planning the trip that it was going to be 115 degrees the whole weekend, but that wasn’t going to stop our fun. A combination of pool, sun, floaties, sangria, yummy food, catch phrase, and best friends meant we never had to leave the house.

So, this is what we did in the morning:

And we did some of this in the afternoon…

And surprisingly enough, we managed to get out of the pool to pose for a full group shot at night.

For this tropical getaway (and for other summer adventures), I decided to make myself a new beach wrap. It was so easy, cheap, and cute that I have to share with you so you can make one for yourself! Thankfully, my friend Jess was nice enough to model the cover-up for me.

DIY Swimsuit Cover-up

Inspired by La Vie en Rose

Supplies:

• 1.5 – 2 yards of jersey knit fabric (you should be able to wrap it around your body almost twice)
• Colored fabric scraps
• Needle
• Thread
• Scissors
• Tank top (optional- for use as a pattern)

Once you finish braiding, pin the end to hold it together.

Take your first strap and pin both ends to each side of the arm holes you previously cut. Thread your needle with thread, and sew the strap to both ends.

Take another small scrap, wrap it around the sewn part, and sew that together to hide all of the loose ends.

Now repeat on the other side!

Now that you have done the hard part, try it on (Jess shows us how below!). Trim the bottom of the dress to the length you desire.

And that’s it! A fun, new beach wrap that’ll only cost ya $5 and twenty minutes time.

Now off to plan the next girl’s weekend…

 

 

 

As a seasoned daily deal consumer, I thought I would get you up to speed on when to buy a deal and when to just say NO!

Restaurants

Buy: Restaurants that you have been to and liked, restaurants in your neighborhood that you want to try, restaurants that you have been dying to go to but are too expensive to go otherwise.

Resist Temptation: Restaurants that you have never heard of, restaurants that are not in your neighborhood, restaurants that are offering coupons in many different forms (this means business is hurting and there is usually a reason why…).

Gyms/Exercise Classes

Buy: If the class or gym is in your neighborhood and you are trying to find “your” exercise class. Surprisingly, this one actually worked for me.

Resist: Classes and gyms that are not close to home or work, classes or gym memberships that you would never buy without a coupon (because if you like it, you can’t afford it in real life, or if it didn’t interest you before, you will never even use the groupon in the first place-trust me on this one).

Gift Certificates for Shops/Goods

Buy: Places where you currently shop (i.e Amazon or Whole Foods)

Resist: EVERYWHERE ELSE! If you go into that store with a gift certificate to spend, you are likely going to spend more money than you wanted to in the first place. Buying a groupon will not “save” you money… you are buying something you wouldn’t have bought without a coupon. In turn, you are spending more money by purchasing the coupon in the first place and putting yourself in a position where you will have to try to resist even more temptation once you walk into the store.

Activities

Buy: Activities that you buy with friends, or if it’s something you have been dying to try but it is too pricey (ie cooking classes or skydiving).

Resist: Activities that require friends who didn’t also purchase the groupon, obscure activities that you probably never wanted to do in the first place (ie pole dancing).

Enough of my groupon rant- now onto what brought me to this topic in the first place! My friend and I bought a Living Social deal to this event called Wine and Canvas. This broke some of my rules since it is not something I had desired to do beforehand, but I bought it with a friend and it was a good excuse for us to get together. It was $17 for a normally $35 class.

The event was at the downtown Chevy’s in the back room. I got there a little late, but was immediately thrown off when there was no wine waiting for me! A deal called “wine & canvas” sure sounds like it should include at least a small glass of wine. Fortunately, I was quickly distracted by the free fresh chips and salsa and completely forgot about the wine.

They had an easel, canvas, and paints already set out for us, ready to start our masterpiece! They had an example of the painting we were going to make that night, and they walked us through how to make it, step by step.

The instructor made each step so small that it seemed so easy, and by the end, we actually had some decent looking paintings!

These might even be wall-worthy…

Overall, this deal was a steal. You get some good deals, you get some bad ones, but no matter what, daily deals will get you out of your apartment and make you experience something. Just don’t be naive like I was and think you are actually “saving money!”

Thanks to my constant blog perusing, I found inspiration for my driftwood project over at lovely indeed a few months ago. Then a few weeks ago, daily buzz style asked for submissions of your best jewelry organizer. This gave me the extra little push I needed to finally work on my project.

And let’s start crafting!

Driftwood Jewelry Display Supplies:

• Driftwood
• Rope
• Nails
• Screw in hooks
• Paint
• Hammer
• Glue gun

Take your rope and tie it on both ends of your driftwood. Secure the rope by putting a little glue from the glue gun between the wood and rope.

Now paint your nails (not your fingernails silly, the ones you hammer!) I painted mine seafoam green to go with the beachy theme.

Hammer your nails into the wood (or find your nearest handy man to help). I staggered them along the front, but place  them wherever you feel looks best.

Lastly, screw in your hooks along the bottom of the wood. If you are having a hard time screwing them in, hammer a small nail where you want the hooks, take it out, then it should be easier to get the hooks in place.

And that’s it! Easy, right?

I kept mine pretty simple in order to keep the driftwood and jewelry as the center of attention, but painting the wood is a fun option as well.

Next time you are on a thrill seeking adventure upstream, find yourself a piece of driftwood and you can make this jewelry display too!