DIY Sharpie "Tie Dye" Racer Back Tank

My fiance's mom gave my fiance him a plain white tee that was too small for him, but too big for me.  So, of course, I upcycled it into something I could wear.

First thing I did was draw a shape front and center on the tee with a permanent marker like a Sharpie or a Bic Mark It.  In this case, I drew a nautical star -- don't do that -- draw something abstract to start from because the sharp lines don't work well when the colors start to bleed.  Also -- I discovered later that the black permanent markers don't really bleed which is the goal so I wouldn't use black.  Once you color the entire tee, you're going to use rubbing alcohol to bleed the colors and make it look like it was tie dyed.

Then I started drawing straight lines out from the star in different colors to make a cool-looking effect.

Then I kept alternating colors...

And alternating more colors...

And continuing on...

And then I thought "Hey! If I cut the sleeves off now, I won't have to color them."  So I cut off the sleeves as well as the crew neck to make a scoop neck.

Then more coloring to wrap around to the back.

The next step is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT -- wherever you plan on spraying the shirt down with rubbing alcohol, make sure to lay down a tarp or a garbage bag or something to protect your floor, your table or your washer.  Also, put plastic bags or wax paper inside of the shirt so the colors from the front don't bleed to the back and vice versa.

Then pour rubbing alcohol -- I used 70% -- into a spray bottle.

Spray the rubbing alcohol all over the shirt -- front and back.

The colors will bleed together will create a tie-dye effect.

Let the shirt sit out overnight to dry.

If you don't cover your spraying/drying surface with plastic, this is what it will look like.  Personally, I think my washer looks better this way -- I just wish the whole thing were covered with color.

After it's dry, cut half moon shapes in the back to create a racer-back look and thinner, more tank top-like sleeves.

My shirt was still pretty loose and the front was a little too low cut for my tastes so I tied the straps together in the back to make them shorter.

On the back of your shirt, just fold the bottom of the straps at each side to make loops like bunny ears when you're learning to tie your shoes.  

Then tie the loops together and double-tie them to make sure it's secure.

Here's the front -- note that the star shape is still there and the black didn't bleed the way I wanted it to.

And here's the back which is my favorite part

My fiance said "you literally can't wear that anywhere" but I can wear it to work out and I can wear it to bed so :-P

It's super comfy and personally, I think it's super cute.

Garlic Bread Biscuits

A while ago, I went Up North and when we went out to breakfast, we had home made biscuits and they were delicious so I decided to make my own.  It was pretty simple so then I tried to make a copy cat of Red Lobster Cheddar Bay Biscuits.  It didn't work and the result tasted more like garlic bread but they were still delicious.  The recipe is below.

Ingredients:

 

• 2 cups of self-rising flour
• 1/4 cup of cold butter
• 2/3 cups of cold milk
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 2 tablespoons of garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon of Italian Seasoning

It's pretty simple.  Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.

Mix your flour and butter together using a fork until the butter is completely dispersed and you have small pea-sized balls of floury butter.

Add your seasonings and cheddar and mix those in.

Then add your milk and stir until everything is moistened -- don't over-stir.

Plop down about 1/3 cup of dough down on a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet.

Bake for 10-14 minutes until the bottoms are golden brown.

It makes about a dozen biscuits.

ENJOY! :)

Bridezilla: The Origin Story

In this blog, I talk a lot about how anal I am, but I'm actually a pretty laid back person.  I don't care if you like me, I don't care if you're drunk and I don't really care what anyone does as long as it's not hurting anyone.  I've worked in retail, customer service and HR all of my life so I know how to deal with people, I know how to talk to people and I can keep a pretty cool head in crazy situations.  That being said, I now understand why women get so crazy around their wedding.

Let me start out by saying that my bridesmaids, my mother and my sister who isn't in the wedding party have been great.  They've been very helpful and I really appreciate them.

Because I do like things a certain way, I've chosen to do most of the preparation myself.  Obviously this can be stressful along with a full time job, but I'd be more stressed out if I let someone else do the work and had to worry about whether it was being done.  The one thing I did let go was my bachelorette party, but beyond that, I've been a part of everything.

Because my fiance's parents are paying for the hall, we had to make concessions.  My fiance let them choose his entire side of the guest list.  We didn't want that big of a wedding so we can only have 150 people.  Of those people, they were allowed to invite 75, but they wanted to invite 150 all on their own.  We had to shut this down, obviously and it all ended up working out.  I do have a B list once I get some "no" RSVPs but at this point, I'm fine with who is invited and I don't really want to send out a second round of invitations.

They also wanted a candy table.  I feel like candy tables are awesome for a child's birthday party or a baby shower but NOT a wedding.  But they saw it at a different wedding and the wedding was so much fun that they wanted it at ours so I let it go.  Whatever.   I was planning on having the wedding favors be small mason jars with M&Ms in them and each person's place setting on top, so I just made the place settings favor bags.  Problem solved.

Next there was an issue with the groomsmen getting fitted for their tuxes -- the issue being that they're lazy.  They received phone calls and Facebook message reminders, but it wasn't until I copied their wives and girlfriends in on a Facebook message that they all got fitted (a day before the deadline).  Well, all but one groomsmen who lives out in the country and nowhere near a tux shop.  Nevertheless.  He waited 5 months after the deadline to get fitted and it took my fiance basically telling him that he could do whatever he wanted -- if he got his tux, he could be in the wedding and if he showed up without one, then he couldn't.

People don't realize how hurtful it is to commit to something and then not be able to do two things: get fitted for a tux and show up at the right time in it.  If you don't want to be in the wedding party, say so.  I hate being a bridesmaid and I never want to do it again.  If someone asked, I'd probably tell them, "I'll help out where I can, but I would not like to be in the wedding party itself."

My sister has two small children.  My finance and I agreed that the wedding would be 21 and up.  This is better for everyone -- the children won't hear music that swears or be subject to drunk rowdy adults, the adults don't have to worry about children, the bartenders don't have to worry about serving someone underage and it helps us keep the headcount under 150 people.  At my bridal shower, my sister said to her 3 year old, "are you going to dance at the wedding?"  It was then that I realized that even though I gave no signals about her kids coming to the wedding, she assumed they were.  We're not close so I texted her letting her know the reception is 21 and up, but the kids could come to the ceremony.  This caused drama.  At 6AM the next morning, my mom texted me saying that there was confusion about whether or not kids were invited.  Were the bridal party members' kids invited?  Were my younger cousins invited?  NO THE RECEPTION IS 21 AND UP!  My cousin who recently graduated high school isn't invited.  All of the wedding party members' dates are over 21.

Then I went to my parents' house to pick up things I left after the bridal shower and my dad said, "There was a question over whether your sister's kids would be invited to the wedding."  It was at this point that I first transformed into Bridezilla on my poor father, "NO -- THERE IS NO QUESTION.  I TOLD HER FLAT OUT THAT THE RECEPTION IS 21 AND UP!"  This seemed to be the end of the discussion but it still frustrates me thinking about it.

The next issue has come with the ceremony.  We don't want a lot of people at the ceremony.  In order to make it simple and fair, the only people invited are the dates of the bridal party, immediate family and grandparents.  I find it really weird when people "I can't wait to see your ceremony."  I find it creepy and voyeuristic.  Why do you want to watch me kiss my fiance AND the ceremony is the most boring part.  It's a formality before the party. Separate invitations were sent out.  It's not unusual to do it.  Why would there be a problem, right?

We are having the ceremony in my fiance's parents' back yard and we told them many times before the invitations were even sent that the ceremony would be very small.  One day we were at their house and my fiance's father said "I don't care who shows up at the ceremony, if they show up, they show up."  Personally, I feel like if they show up on the day off unannounced, there's not much we can do about it, but we don't have to invite or encourage them before the fact.  We ended up having a bridal party and family meeting a couple of days later where we explained to everyone that we only rented 30 chairs for the ceremony and not to encourage anyone who isn't invited to the ceremony to come.  His mother made the comment that people just tend to show up at their house which is true.  People show up there unannounced all the time to hang out with them.  My assumption is that they'll all be getting ready for the reception and not have time to stop by so as long as we don't encourage them or tell them to come, they'll be too busy.

Apparently that wasn't good enough for my fiance's mother because a lot of the guests live a few hours away and she thinks it is rude to not invite them to the ceremony.  Quite frankly, I don't care and for all we know, they might not even realize they're not invited to the ceremony until they get to the reception and notice that the ceremony doesn't happen.

I also realized that I probably can't trust the groomsmen to set up the chairs, backdrop, aisle-way and anything else that may need to be set up for the ceremony due to the laziness they displayed with their tuxes so I asked my oldest sister to show up early and make sure that everything is set up correctly.  My fiance found this insulting as if he couldn't follow simple instructions to make sure everything was set up.  So that caused an argument.  Also my other sister who is in the wedding suggested that I have someone else go with my oldest sister so she doesn't feel awkward and alone which just added another layer of stress to my plans.

Add on to all of this random drama that our savings is dwindling from buying centerpieces, renting a tux, buying a wedding dress, buying and mailing invitations and numerous other things.  This added stress about money is causing more arguments.

And this, this, my friends is how a perfectly laid back woman starts to lose it and turn into Bridezilla.  Weddings are stressful no matter how calm of a person you are, no matter how much time you have and no matter how much money you have.  If I were to do it all again, I would have eloped to Vegas and gotten married by Elvis which was my original plan for many years.

*Sigh*  One more month til it's all over and Bridezilla is laid to rest.

How to Redo your Coffee Table for $3

When registering for my wedding, I decided to register for a new coffee table.  I've had my current coffee table for over 5 years.  It's moved with me twice and been through two boyfriends.  I've dated smokers all of my life and people were allowed to smoke at my old house.  We also didn't have coasters at one time.  So you have a combination of water damage, cigarette ash and just general wear and tear.  I think the final straw was when I was wiping down the table and got a splinter through a Pledge wipe.

This is what my coffee table looked like

Unfortunately, I did not receive the coffee table I registered for at my Bridal Shower and I highly doubt anyone is going to buy it for me as a wedding gift.  I don't want to buy a coffee table for myself so I had to figure out some other way to fix the top of my coffee table.  The obvious way to fix it would be to sand it down and refinish it, but that just sounds like a lot of work -- a lot of work that I don't want to do.  I'd seen someone use marbled contact paper on an old kitchen table to refinish it so I tried it with my coffee table and I'm very happy with the results.

What you'll need: scissors and wood grain contact paper from the dollar store that is a similar shade as your coffee table.  I bought three rolls but ended up only using two.

First- clean off your coffee table.

Second- unroll the contact paper and lay it across your coffee table.  You'll want the first sections that you cut to be the exact same length as the coffee table.

I have no clue why this picture is at such a weird angle -- I think I was standing on my couch.

Third- make a small cut on the contact paper at the length at which you'll need to cut it.  Flip the contact paper over and you'll see that it has very convenient grid lines for cutting.

Fourth- cut the contact paper at your desired length

Fifth- cut the contact paper in half lengthwise (hot dog style).  You're going to use these pieces to cover the edges of the coffee table to the old wood finish doesn't show on the sides.

Sixth- place one of the pieces of contact paper at one side of the coffee table with about 4 inches hanging over the edge of the table.

Seventh- remove one edge of the contact paper and stick the contact paper on the edge of the coffee table.  Then slowly peel the backing off of the contact paper and use your hand to smooth the contact paper onto the table.  I didn't have a very big problem with air bubbles, but we'll discuss how to remove them later.

Eighth- repeat this step on the other side of the table.

It will then look like this

Ninth- cut a piece of contact paper that is long enough to cover the left and right edges on either side of the coffee table.

Tenth- line up the piece of contact paper with the bottom edge of the coffee table, remove part of the backing and cover the table in the same manner as above.

Eleventh- at this point, the entire top of my coffee table was covered.  If you want, you can do step 10 again on the top half of the coffee table in order to completely cover the coffee table.  OR you could cheat like I did.

A small section of the edge of your coffee table is exposed on either side:

Just cut a a small piece of contact paper the size of the exposed wood and cover the edge with it.  It's as simple as that.

When you're done, it should look like this.

Yet again -- I must have been standing on the couch for this one.

If you experience air bubbles, just take a pin and poke the bubble gently then rub it out with your finger.

Another awesome part about this is that now the table is water proof and you don't even need coasters! :)

It's time to get organized!

I've said it before but I'll say it again.  I'm pretty anal about things.  Everything in my house has a place and I hate clutter.  The thing is that if it's in a drawer, it's out of sight/ out of mind and I don't care what the drawers in my house look like.

This frame of mind leads to situations like this:

 This is supposed to be our menu drawer.  The problem is every time I get a pay stub or a water bill, I just throw it in the drawer.  At its worst, I couldn't find any menus and when I shut the drawer, the overflow of paperwork would fall out of the back of the drawer and end up on top of my pots and pans in the cupboard below.

Eventually, I reached my breaking point.  I wanted a small filing cabinet because we don't have a lot of space in our house but even a cheap one is like $40 for like one little cube unit.  We are not made of money -- we're paying for a wedding but we really needed to get everything organized.

 I found a crate made for hanging folders at Staples and then bought a pack of hanging file folders.  All together it cost around $14 which is way more affordable.



Then began the tedious task of going through every piece of mail and paperwork.  For this, I suggest using a large table or even the floor because I didn't realize how many different categories of paperwork I had: car insurance, medical insurance, cable bill, water bill gas bill, wedding stuff, student loans and various other forms of paperwork.  Now, I've changed a lot of my stuff over to just getting paperless billing, but I still have a ton of paperwork.

This is all of the envelopes and useless papers that were in the drawer, but didn't need to be:

FYI -- I did look at all of this paperwork to make sure that there was nothing on it that could be used to steal my identity before I took the position.

After everything was sorted out, I started labeling my folders accordingly and putting all of the paperwork in there.  Now my life is much simpler.  Any time I get a bill or a piece of paperwork, I just put slip it in the folder just like I do at work.

And now I can find the menus that I'm looking for

Bridal Shower Part 3: Fun and Games

So you're planning a bridal shower.  You've got your venue, you've got your food, your drinks, your decorations and your favors.  Obviously you're going to eat and open presents but how are you going to keep your guests amused for the rest of the time.  Also, at this point, shower guests expect something -- some kind of activity, contest or drawing.  

Personally, I'm not a fan of traditional shower games.  This is probably the main reason why I planned my own shower.  When I go to showers, I don't want to make wedding dresses out of toilet paper, I don't want to have to think and do a word scramble and I definitely don't want to do math to figure out how many minutes there are until the wedding.  That being said, I wanted to make sure that my shower games were relaxed and simple.

As you recall from my last post, there were white envelopes and pens on the tables.  The envelopes were from the Thank You cards that I would soon be writing.  (Since it was such a hot and sticky day, some of the envelopes became stuck shut and I had to steam them open to put the thank you card in).  Each person at the shower wrote their mailing address on the envelope and then put it in a basket.  During cake, I drew three envelopes.  The first two winners got small collage frames with $20 Shutterfly gift cards.  The gift cards came with dress orders from David's Bridal and I ordered a couple of collage frames from Amazon.com.  

The third winner received a Movie Night Popcorn Bucket filled with popcorn, candy and three DVDs.  I picked Jane Austen classics: Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park and Emma.  I was going to add a bottle of wine, but I had that bucked packed with snacks.  There were red vines, snow caps, bunch a crunch and more.  Most of the items I picked up at the Dollar Tree except for the movies.

My bench filled with all the goodies as well as a notebook for writing down who gave what gifts and the baskets to put things in.

The last set of prizes were scented hand soaps from Kohl's.  They were mainly purchased with coupons and $10 Kohl's Cash so that they were essentially free.  The little lady bug in the basket with the soaps is an egg timer.  As my fiance and I opened presents, we'd set the egg timer and whoever's present we were on when the timer went off would get a soap.  A good amount a time to set the timer is about 1 minute and 30 seconds to 2 minutes, but it really depends on how many gifts/ people you have.  I bought 12 hand soaps for 35 people.  The egg timer was cute but it wasn't working.  At a certain point, we had to use the timer on a phone because the timer wouldn't go off.  So I suggest just using someone's phone to begin with.

In between lunch and opening presents, we had an activity for the shower guests to do if they so chose.  We cut 8" quilt squares out of three different colors of fabric (we also bought coordinating fabric for the back of the quilt).  Then we paper clipped wax paper to the back of  the quilt squares so that the fabric paint or markers would not bleed through onto the table.  We bought paint markers and puff paint as well as rubber stamps and stencils for those who weren't artistically inclined and placed them all in baskets on a table where everyone could decorate them.  We also included, paper plates, small sponge brushes and Lysol wipes to make things easier on them.

Everyone seemed to have a good time decorating although, if you choose to do this activity, be sure to tell your shower guest to leave at least a 1/4" seam allowance.  Once of my bridesmaids who couldn't make it to the shower and her wife are going to assemble the squares for me.  I also saved a 16"x16" square in one of the colors to put my new last initial on.  It will be the center of the quilt.

 They take a few days to dry and anything in paint marker needs to be set with an iron after it dries.  Also, not everyone wants to decorate a square so my artistically inclined sister decorated some additional ones so we'd have a good amount on the quilt.

You may be wondering about the potted plants we used as centerpieces that I talked about in last week's post.  We used those as prizes as well.  There was one at each table so whoever had been in the longest relationship at each table got to take the centerpiece home.  Any leftover plants went to whoever wanted them.

And that was the end of the shower.  I kept the tablecloths and whatever was left of the plates and napkins to use for my rehearsal dinner.  Despite the hot stickiness and the rain, it was a good day and we had a lot of fun.  I hope these post help you with your shower ideas.