Bouquet Christmas Ornaments

If you'll recall from a few posts back, Mr. C and I recently attended the wedding of some friends in South Carolina, and the bride gave me her bouquet at the end of the night. I was determined to do something nice with it, but hadn't decided between a couple of options.

Well, the groom is in town this week and won't be again before Christmas, so it was now or never. I decided to start with the ornament, and if I had extra petals I'd talk to the groom and see if the jewelry is something his bride would like.

I've been keeping my eyes open for awhile trying to find clear ornaments. Hah. You'd think with all of the shops putting Christmas things out before Halloween that it wouldn't be tough, but after visiting three local big boxes I ended up driving to the nearest Hobby Lobby. I picked up the ornaments (50% off!) and honestly that's really all I needed. Initially I was thinking of doing one big ornament, but once I got started I realized I had plenty to fill four pretty decent size ornaments. I am going to try to get some ribbon to tie to the hooks so they can hang them a little more festively, but all in all this is a relatively inexpensive craft.

One nearly completed ornament

Mr. C was off at his second to last grad school class of the semester tonight, so I took some time to put everything together. Really it was pretty simple. I'd put her bouquet into a vase to let the flowers dry after the wedding, so I carefully broke it down. There were two colors of roses, some lilies, some sort of dark berry, these little green globes, and a couple of different sizes of leaves. She also had little red crystals in the bouquet, so I put one of each of those in each ornament. It took me about half an episode of Once Upon a Time.

Strips of invitation and curled hearts

I also saved their invitation, and cut it into thin strips to make into little hearts. Each strip I folded into half, then wrapped around the skinniest part of a mechanical pencil. Initially I thought I'd hot glue the pieces of the heart together, but I think they are staying together well enough on their own.

The Moose really enjoyed helping clean up the spare paper

All in all, I am very very happy with how this turned out. We're meeting up with the groom on Wednesday, and I can't wait to give this to him. Originally I was going to wrap it in Christmas paper as a surprise, but I want to make sure he knows what it is so he packs it carefully for the trip back home.

The end result!

November: A Month of Challenges

So I've been planning awhile (and talked in this post) about participating in NaNoWriMo this month. I'm three days in and only at 2,160 words, but my parents and Mr. C's parents have been here, so there hasn't been much time for writing. The good news is, when I do sit down, I'm able to churn out quite a bit of content pretty quickly. So far, we're flowing pretty well.

Mom & Dad P seeing the sites

This November I've also decided to try "No Spend November." I have a bad habit of letting little purchases sneak up on me; Target and CVS are the worst. I'm in no way in trouble financially, but I think taking the month to see what I really need will help. Basically, I'm cutting out all of my impulse buys and reexamining what it is that I really need. Hopefully this will help the holidays hurt a little less. Yesterday morning I went out and got the things I know I'll have to restock anyway; shampoo, conditioner, and toothpaste. Toiletry and makeup wise, which is an area I tend to splurge a bit, I should be all set. Here's a list of what I'm going to avoid and how I'm going to try to mitigate the purchase:

• Clothing - I refreshed a couple of months ago, and right now my wardrobe is in a good place. I could use another pair of khaki's, but those can wait until December. 
• Household goodies - Ugh, this is a tough one. I love buying new candles and little things to set around. If there's something I really can't live without, I'll see if it is something I can DIY. 
• Gifts - This is another hard one. I love buying little things for Mr. C, plus the holidays are fast approaching. I already have a couple of gifts for certain individuals, and hopefully can look at things to make for those who are left. Plus, no more little bottles of Coke Zero for Mr. C magically appearing in the apartment. 
• Toiletries/makeup - Like I said, I should be set here, and actually have a return to make to CVS. 
• Dinner - This is probably the easiest trap to fall in. Luckily, with our folks being here, we've got TONS of leftovers from the dinners out we've had, and they've been buying. So we'll live on those for a few more days, then I'll get back into cooking again. I also need to be better about getting supplies for lunches, instead of depending on leftovers that don't always happen. 

So, that's the plan. I know I have some expenses that I can't avoid; student loan payments, co-pays for PT and my dermatologist visit next week, gas, things like that, but I'm going to try to manage everything else as best as I can. I'll try to remember to touch base and fill you in on how it goes!