Thursday 17 March 2016

DIY Wedding Details

I love making things. There is something incredibly relaxing about making something, whether it's food, a piece of art or a gift for someone.

It's been 9 months since I got married.......and I realized that I had quite a few DIYs for my wedding that I wanted to share with you!

First up- flowers and bouttinieres.

I knew that I didn't want to go with anything traditional for the wedding and my biggest DIY surprise for myself was that I made my flowers from crepe paper! Once I knew what I was going to do for flowers it just made complete sense for me-I'd get to customize the sizes, colours and even the quantity.

Using this blog post from Studio DIY, a couple of my bridesmaids and I were able to put together all of  flowers over the course of a couple of evenings. One evening was spent cutting out everything, the other was spent making them.




Gorgeous flowers for my gorgeous gals!













 Just look at how vibrant those colours are









I hired Wildfell Florals to make some simple herb bouttinieres for the men. For my groom's bout, I added a special touch- a succulent that I had kept growing from my Feb 2015 photoshoot with Arynn Photography. While this may not count as a complete DIY, as someone with a notorious black thumb  I'm extremely proud of myself for keeping the succulent alive.
 

The succulent is still alive and well, and I've managed to propogate two more baby plants from its leaves


Wedding Favours- Tea Sachets

This is the DIY that took up the most of my time...but was the most fun to do! I looooove tea. It's my go-to beverage, with coffee being a close second. These bags were my pride and joy, but took a lot of effort to make. I'd say they took about two evenings of work but were well worth it.

I had five types of tea hidden amongst all the sachets.
  1. Chai
  2. Earl Grey
  3. Pomegranate Green
  4. Genmaicha
  5. Tropical Black Tea



First off- those tags took an entire evening of taping (there's a washi tape strip on the other side for colour) writing and threading. I put 2-3 servings of tea into teabags to seal up so they didn't lose their flavour, then put them into the little burlap bags.

It was a fun couple of nights to hangout with bridesmaids and put them to work...but when you've got 250 to make it was awesome to be able to split up the work.


Have you tackled any DIYs lately, wedding or day-to-day life?

Tuesday 16 February 2016

#BioreBakingSoda Influenster Box

I came home from a long day of teaching to find a bright green box waiting or me at the post office. Turns out...my Influenster VoxBox had arrived!

I knew that the box was a skincare line and when I received it, the brand was on the outside- it was a Biore VoxBox

products were received complimentary of Infuenster so I could test 'em out 

I was excited because the last couple weeks (okay...last full month) had been fairly stressful with some personal issues, and a ton of of supply work-which led to breakouts galore! I was hoping that whatever Influenster sent me would be a natural product, but was happy to try this. 


I'll start with the Pore Cleanser. It ha a thicker consistency, but managed to get right down to my pores. My skin felt squeaky clean when I was done! It also didn't smell weird or overly chemical, unlike a lot of facial lines I've used in the past. 

The scrub reminded me of the Dermalogica one, except this I wouldn't use everyday. To use it, you put a bit into your hand, and mix with water to get a paste of whatever consistency you choose. If you want a more exfoliating effect, use less water. If you want a gentle cleanser, use more water. 

As someone who's been using purely natural products for the past little while, these products were a bit rougher on my skin than I expected, but my skin grew to adapt to them. Depending on how my sin reacts (which could take a couple weeks) I may or may not stick to this product. 

I think these products would best be suited for normal to oilier skin tones. Sensitive skin- stay away! 

Sunday 3 January 2016

New Year. New Beginnings

I always felt a bit odd when New Years' Eve comes around.

Maybe it's because as a teacher my personal New Year has always been in September when I started classes or teaching piano. Growing up, I was quite confused that we started a new year in the middle of the year. I knew calendars started with January and ended with December, but it just didn't make any sense to me.

Another thing that never made sense to me was New Years' resolutions. Goals that were set, that many tried to keep and ultimately failed at doing.

New Years' eve this year was relaxing, spent with my in-laws and a family from church. We got fireworks going, played board games, and watched movies until midnight. It's a stark contrast from the many New Years eve parties that were advertised on Facebook, the radio and TV...but it was perfect. No crazy big countdown, no heels- just my husband (!! I am still not over calling him that and it's been 6 months), sweatpants, my in-laws. a good cup of tea and a movie. Dec 31st quietly turned into Jan 1st.

This past year has been a year of changes, the biggest one being that I got married!



I also went from working 3 part-time jobs to none to 2 part-time jobs (one of which I am self-employed), moving from a suburb to a small town and living 7 hours away from my parents.
All of these changes were monumental changes for me, and in the span of 6 months since I've been married they've led me to meeting great people, working great jobs and feeling much more content than I had been in years!

2016 is just a number, a year. I'm hoping this year will follow the greatness of last. I haven't set any resolutions for myself.....mostly because I know I won't keep them. I have vague goals I want to work towards but they're goals that have been in motion since I decided my career path.

Readers, tell me- have you set any resolutions?

Happy New Year!

xo