our precious journals!

After the previous post I wrote about our inaugural bitchcraft evening I got together with the girls and had a little photoshoot with all of our creations! I still can’t believe how different each of ours turned out. I LOVE THEM!

emily’s “love me tender” journal

alaina’s “sweet as sunshine” journal

A little break in the New Year’s To Do list to share an awesome new monthly ritual that I am starting: bitchcraft.

When you sit at a desk in front of a computer all day long you miss making things with your hands. One of the biggest reasons for starting this blog was to make myself step away from the screen, roll up my sleeves and remember how to be resourceful and creative without a mouse attached to my hand.

My friends and I talk about this a lot and decided to quit talking about it and do something about it! So we started bitchcraft evenings. Similar to the popular “stitch ‘n bitch” groups except we don’t know how to knit so we decided to craft instead!

Our first evening was a COMPLETE success. We made a wonderful frittata for dinner and then rocked some journal making. It was a blast to see how different everyone’s turned out!

Below are some pictures of my journal. Supplies: Foam sheets, Paper Samples, Old scraps of recycled paper, Binding thread

Can’t wait until next month!

What a beautiful flower I received from one of my piano students at our recital last Sunday! I just had to share.

A new year always brings resolutions; how are you going to make your live better this year, seriously this time. This new year brought a lonnnng to-do list for me. 2010 is already set to be a big year in this household; a long vacation in the spring, a wedding in the fall, a honeymoon in the winter, and TONS of planning in between! That being said, it was a big ol’ slap in the face when that ball dropped that I need to start organizing!!

My M.O. has always been that I never finish ANYTHING. I scheme up these grand ideas, start them, but then nothing ever gets done. Ever. My house has turned into a graveyard of my past ideas. Cut fabric, saved scraps of furniture, old paper, all waiting to be used to make something beautiful. I can’t throw them away because I know one day I’ll get around to them and when that complete project is revealed it will be my best masterpiece. Well, that day never comes and my house is still littered with these unfinished projects. There lies my resolution: FINISH. My goal is to finish every project I’ve ever started before I go out and start a new one. This has already been hard for me. I have a new project brewing in my brain as we speak and I’m having to consciously keep my excitment contained. So, as a little sneak-preview, below are a few of those unfinshed masterpieces that you’ll see FINISHED in the upcoming weeks (hopefully)…

Getting married next October means that I’m starting (very slowly) to plan our big celebration! One of the very first items on my checklist was to figure out a way to gather my 8 best friends (yes 8!) from their various homes across the country to come down to Raleigh to party, play, and pamper with me. I wanted to make a very special invitation for them since they are such important people in my life and almost automatically I remembered the most precious DIY invitations from one of my favorite wedding blogs, Once Wed. Using that as my guideline I put my own little twists on it and my sister and I had so much fun making them!

See more photos after the jump!

Didn’t even know, but my printer can print on envelopes! What a happy surprise!

I found these stamps a few months back on clearance and had to buy them because they were so cute! My fiance’s last name is Gull and my last name is Byrd so it was too irresistible not to use these stamps on something! (I put them above the return address on the back flap of the envelope!)

*To make a cheap envelope look fancy cut your favorite piece of paper the size of the inside, slide the paper in and glue stick it to the top flap! Viola!!

I wrote the names of all the girls on their sash across the doll as well as customized their hairstyle and color. The colors used in the whole package are going to be the color scheme of my wedding.

What a fun little project and such a great DIY find on Once Wed!!!

ps – the girls LOVED them!!