Wedding Projects: Chalk Board Signs and Easel

My brother's wedding is this coming Saturday and it feels like time is moving like a fast moving train towards it's destination. Aside from cleaning the house from all of the family coming to stay we still have a tons of projects to work on including these chalk board signs and easels. 

The chalk board motif is following a design that matches the wedding invitations. This sign is going to be outside of the church. 

My dad made the easel by getting firing strips and cutting them to length. He then lightly sanded and painted them black with enamel paint. 

The chalk board was one that my Mom already had. My brother's fiance had found the quote already on Pinterest. I've linked the original picture here. 


My Mom made the "Just Married" sign for the back of the getaway car, which is going to be my parents' convertible Volkswagen Beetle. She decorated the side of chalk board's bare edge with a black patterned Washi Tape. 

I hope you like these ideas. If you have any questions about how we did these or want to make a comment please feel free :) I love to hear from any readers!

~Jilly

An Eggcellent Easter

Happy Easter everyone! 

One of my favorite things about Easter is of course dying eggs! We used to spread out the newspaper on the kitchen table and dye our colorful eggs with the vinegar and color tablets. This year my Mom and I decided to try something a little different. I kept seeing thing on Pinterest and the Blogosphere for dying eggs using shaving cream...

Say what again?

The white foamy stuff that your dad uses to shave his face? Absolutely. 

We just took a cookie sheet and sprayed it with the shaving cream. All we had was a can of gel shaving cream. I was a little weary of it at first but it turns into the foam when you mix it around with your finger a bit and the color in the gel doesn't dye the egg or effect the dyes. 

We had left over egg dye from before and just dripped dye into different areas of the shaving cream. 

We pretty much swirled the eggs around the dyed shaving cream. It was fun and a little messy. I think this would be more fun for little kids and Mom's who aren't as worried about making messes. 

I thought my Mom had the clever idea of using a meat turner to help swirl eggs without getting the dye everywhere. 

One website I read was to keep the eggs in the shaving creams for at least 4 minutes but they weren't all that bright and colorful so we left them covered in the shaving cream for about a half hour to forty five minutes. 

Afterwards we wiped off the shaving cream off with a paper towel. If you were looking for a way to have really bright and vibrant Easter eggs than this is probably not the way for you to go. However, if you want something fun to do with your kids then this could be a fun way to try out. 

Happy Easter!

A Woman's Consent

I read a fascinating and thought provoking blog post today by a woman who is a 9th grade teacher in Georgia. 

Accidental Devotional "The Day I Taught How Not To Rape"

Given the recent events in Ohio over the last week involving the rape of a teenage girl by two high school boys, I thought that this was a very heart breaking look into the minds of adolescents who grow up in a society that will sometimes flaunt sex and violence but then condemn it at the same time. 

I think she is brave for standing up and telling these children what they need to know. Also I feel that we shouldn't be afraid to stand up and say this is right and this is wrong. This is absolutely a must read for any parents, teachers, counselors, men and women. 

Let's Kick This Cold In The Butt! Part 2

Yesterday, I wrote a blog post about dealing with the common cold and trying a mixture of honey and cinnamon to spur it along. I am happy to say that I think my cold is finally going away. Today was the first morning that when I woke up that I actually felt like myself again. I still have a cough and the sniffles but I think that it's just the gunk that needs to leave my body. I'm not feeling the achy, freezing cold, fog that I'm in when I'm sick. 

Now, I don't want to say that the honey and cinnamon mixture was 100% effective in taking care of this. I was still doing my best to take cold medicine regularly, give my body plenty of rest and drink fluids. So, I think it was a combination of all things. 

Read my previous blog post below if you would like to find more information. 

Also, if you've tried this let me know how you think it worked for you. I'm interested to know. If you also have an home remedies for the common cold pass them along. Knowledge is power!

Let's Kick This Cold In The Butt!!

I've had a head cold the last couple of days with all of your basic symptoms, sore scratchy throat, watery eyes, dripping nose, uncontrollable cough and exhaustion. At first I thought it was just going to be a couple of sniffles and I'd be able to go right through my day... not the case necessarily. I feel like I've been hit by a semi truck.. apologizes to people who have actually been struck by semi trucks. 

I've been loading up on cold medicine, herbal teas, water and chicken soup.... and I still feel like crap. Even hibernating like a bear in the winter isn't making me feel all bright eyed and rosy. Instead I feel like a slug, a fat lazy slug. 

Ew.

Instead I'd like to be feeling like this...

So now I go to my first resource for information... Pinterest. I found this link and I found this link to Health, Home & Happiness for their honey and cinnamon cold recipe. I've been hearing a lot about the antibacterial and antiseptic properties and it's pretty interesting. I always thought it just tasted good in hot teas. 

What the heck... let's give it a shot. 

What You Need:

1 TSP of honey 

1/4 TSP of Cinnamon 

Verdict.. not sure but we'll see. I tried this about an hour ago. I'm not completely cured but I didn't expect to be. Health, Home and Happiness said to take this a couple of times a day. So I'll try again in a couple of hours. Of course this is NOT a substitution for any medicine. I still will be taking plenty of cold medicine, drinking hot tea, and keeping hydrated with water. 

I'll try this again in a couple of hours and check back with an update. 

May I Have Your Attention Please?

Right when I'm trying to make a serious effort and write a weekly blog my computer is completely on the fritz. I got a new AC adapter for my MacBook two weeks ago and everything was working splendidly. Then this week I tried to start my laptop up in the morning and nothing. It was fully charged but dead as a door nail  Last night I took it over to the guys who fixed it previously and I was told that my motherboard was most likely fried. Not necessarily from anything I had done but just the life of a laptop I suppose. 

The guy was really nice and said he would look into seeing if there's something he can do. 

I want to cry, I've had that laptop for four years now but we had a good run. 

I haven't completely abandoned this project. I still have two projects that I'm working on. Right now I'm using my Dad's laptop for the time being so I'm not completely cut off. So I may be able to continue writing just not a regular as I would like. 

Until then, 

Jilly

For all you American Downton Abbey Fans.. (Possible Spoilers)

I doubt that work would let me call in tomorrow to process and deal with this... I'll be wearing black because I'm in mourning now. Mama says I can go into mauves and purples in the fall.

Please comment and maybe we can all get through this together.