Dessert Table Label

{...say that five times real fast}

As an experiment in testing out new areas of interest, I am helping an old boss with her wedding this June. I've gotten a chance to dabble in a little bit of the last minute decor items she needed help with. In the simplest of simples, she was looking for a cute way to identify flavors at her dessert table. Her wedding has a classy rustic feel, with neutral hues of wood, burlap, lace, and baby’s breath, accented by a pop of navy blue.

Her reception is at a local winery, so I dug deep down into my stash of wine corks, snagged some seriously cheap unfinished wood squares from Hobby Lobby, and armed myself with my chalkboard paint {this really shouldn't even surprise you}.

I chalk painted both sides of the bare wood forms and let them dry. Then, I picked out as many different brands of wine corks as I could find, and hot glued one to the front and back base of the wood form.

{love}

Towel Cake gone wrong

My super sweet friend, Holly, and I decided to get creative for our friend Betsy's bridal shower gift a few weeks ago.

FAIL. {ish}

We envisioned a tiered towel cake complete with fun kitchen utensils to encourage Betsy in the kitchen as she starts making dinners for her new husband next month. We headed to target and picked up an assortment of brightly colored items.

Our base was a silver serving platter from Target's Threshold line that we found on CLEARANCE!? {diamond in the rough, and Betsy, you're lucky there weren't 2 more, or we'd all have matching serving platters!}

Brightly colored mixing bowls were to serve as the "bones" of our towel cake, which we had planned to wrap with several stark white, bold green, &  orange tea towels. We found fun utensils in coordinating colors, spatulas with kitschy sayings and patterns, modern recipe cards with simple graphics, etc.

{Look at Holly practicing her best "if I cant see you, you can't see me" for the camera!}

It took all of 5 minutes to discover that either A) Holly and I are NOT faux cake makers, and/or B) Unless we wanted to gift our friend Betsy with approximately 40 tea towels, this was going to be a sinking ship.

We quickly revised out plan, which included 2 rolls of toilet paper (just try to find them! I bet you can't!), and we were thankful at our failure. It lead us to a much better place.

We each stole 2 recipe cards out of the stacks we bought, to write down a few of our own easy favorites. Meal planning is hard! We're here to offer all the support we can! :P

Betsy, Holly and I hope that these crazy-silly utensils help keep you in the kitchen trying out new things!

The Summer Three

Sometimes it's important to capture random iPhone memories, and there were three photos I stumbled upon in my recent photo album browsing that had me thinking: What great summer memories!!

1. Mr. A's first mow of the season got our Herky extremely excited. He did so many laps around dad while he was mowing, that he grass-stained himself!!

2. Mr. A and I planted our first TREE. Ever! Tensions where high. So were nerves. Would we mess it up? we didn't even own a shovel! But, thankfully, after a morning of studying instructions and bothering everyone at Home Depot, we have ourselves our very first tree. It's a variety of Cherry Blossom that my Grandparents-in-law got my for my birthday! I can't wait to see it grow!

 3. SNOW IN MAY. What!? Just as the grass got the greenest I'd seen it so far this year, and the flowering tree in our front yard got loaded with blooms, we had a substantial snow-storm. First snow in May since 1907. WOW. It definitely looked like season confusion driving down our street lined with flowering trees and heavy white snow. It was interesting, and okay, even a little pretty.

Chalkboard Love

I have a serious love of chalkboard art....as such, I have had the extreme privilege to be an intimate part of one of my best friends' pregnancies through the art of chalk.

You may remember a post in mid-2012 where I talked about the chalkboard I'd be doing for my friend, Holly's pregnancy. I found a $6.00 oil painting at Salvation Army, painted the frame, chalked over the painting, and went to work. Every single week of my friends pregnancy, we worked together to create a fun chalk-board themed drawing. Not all of the weeks were "blow your mind", but we kept reminding ourselves that "They can't all be awesome!" LOL. As crazy as it seems, we're coming up on one year ago this May when we started this crazy chalkboard journey together. I started to reflect on this tonight....It squished Holly & I together each week for that 9 months-ish...it didn't matter how busy, tired, un-showered, sick, hungry, or sad we were, we made sure that each week, we met up to work on the board. Holly would inspire, and I'd draw and erase a hundred times, and we'd finally come up with something good for that week of pregnancy. As I'd draw, we'd share funny stories, giggle, sing along to old '90's favorites, talk about pregnancy "firsts", cry about frustrating life circumstances, challenge each other spiritually, ect. I will never forget the time we got to share together weekly, and how a simple chalkboard allowed me to spend one of the most important times in my friend's life with her.

Ms. Emma is 4 months old this month, and Im so thankful that we've gotten to continue our "board-bonding". Ive continued to make chalkboards, now monthly, as Emma grows each month of this first year. I have to admit, it will be bittersweet when Emma turns one and the board gets retired. Either way, I am eternally grateful for the special bond formed with Holly and now Emma throughout this last year, and it will be an experience I never forget! 

"HI FRIEND!"

Photo Courtesy Sara Nebel Photography

Preview of month 4:



Interesting in purchasing your own chalk-board prints? Message me for details! I'd love to work with you! chellejo@gmail.com 



Happy Mother's Day!

This Mother's day was extra special because it was also Mr. A & I's 1 year wedding anniversary. Holy Cow!

For Mothers gifts I tried my hand at the popular "sharpie mugs" that have been popping up every few days in my Pinterest feed. I decided to go with a tea theme, and each mug was different.

First, I picked up some tea cups. These are from Target's Threshold line. Swoon.

Next, I armed myself with some metallic gold and black sharpies and went to work:

The backs were all embellished with a sharpie-drawn tea-tag:

Then, what would a hand-drawn tea cup be if not accompanied by a home-baked treat!

I found this idea for tea-bag shaped shortbread cookies on www.ediblecrafts.craftgossip.com

I used Ina Garten's shortbread cookie recipe. 3 STICKS OF BUTTER!? {Sorry fam!}

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/shortbread-cookies-recipe/index.html

They were super simple to make, and surprisingly great! (Ive never met a cookie I didn't ruin in the oven)