Na na na na na na na na …..Cole’s 1st birthday!

Lame title, I know.  Sometimes I get confused when I’m humming or singing a tune, and I want to write it.  So in case you couldn’t tell from the na na na’s, it was the Batman theme.  AND, if you haven’t been following along in my blogging journey and you’re not sure who Cole is, well he’s practically the cutest freakin’ kid in the world (but I may be bias).

Sooooooooo, I like to make things (or attempt making things), and this post is no different.  I feel like I haven’t had a diy post in a while, so buckle up my friends, we’re in for a bumpy ride!

Alright, so Cole’s first birthday was mid September, and since I had already made Abigail (another one of my friends’ ridiculously cute babies) a couple of AWESOME presents, I thought it was Cole’s turn.  What did I make him?  A Batmobile.  Obviously.

Step One: find a Cozy Coupe.  You know, one of those red and yellow toddler cars where they get in, and use their feet to move it.  Yep, they have an actual name, and it is infact called a Cozy Coupe.  Done.  I posted an ad on my School Board buy/sell website, and bingo, one for free.  Perfect.

Step Two: Buy some spray paint.  Done.  If you’re ever wondering what spray paint works best- I found that Home Depot name brand vs. Home Hardware name brand did a much better job, AND it was easier to use (you can spray it upside down which was convenient).  Wow, I just gave you an actual useable tip about something.  I feel so grown up!

Step Three: Actually start painting.  I was nervous about this.  I had never spray painted before.  I didn’t know how the paint would work on plastic.  There were so many variables.  The weather didn’t cooperate.  The wild cats that live in my backyard were very interested in the painting- I’m surprised one of them didn’t end up with a big yellow stripe down their back!

Just getting started

Almost done!

Anywho, if you ever want to attempt it, here is a word to the wise: allow ample time for coats to dry, and buy about 3 cans of spray paint (black).  I had no idea I would go through so much paint!

The bat symbol was by far the hardest part, and as this blog where I originally got the idea from suggested, it’s WAY easier to hand paint on the symbol than to cut out a stencil and try to tape/spray on top. (Which yes, in case you’re wondering I did attempt first)

Yay!

Now that the cold weather is coming, I’m not sure how much use Cole will get out of the Batmobile this year, but wow will he ever be the coolest little guy on his street next summer. 🙂

“I just like to smile, smiling’s my favourite.”

So apparently both Christmas and New Years have come and gone.  When did that happen?  The older I get, the more the holiday season seems to just fly by.  Boo to that.

Well, a couple things to update you on I guess. To start, I totally made a Christmas wreath this year.  Yay!  It was one of my not-completed things on last year’s list.  Turned out pretty well I think.

Steps to make the wreath. Plus showing you how distracting Parker can be!

Actually pretty simple, though VERY VERY time consuming.  I think it would have been easier had I found a styrofoamy wreath base that I wanted to use,but alas  none that were the right size were for sale at Michaels, so I used a flat one.  Which totally added more work.  The longest part of the wreath was definitely wrapping the yarn around and around the base until it was covered.   IT took forever!   Turned out ok though.  And now we have it forever! (Though I will probably attempt a better one next year.  haha)

Oh also, we (or I mean I) put out another annual Christmas card!  Sadly it was almost a no go, as a couple weeks before Christmas we were forced to put down Foster :(.  Definitely one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do, and I know Matt feels the same.  I won’t go into details, but he was in pain, and it was the right thing to do.  So RIP Foster.  We didn’t want to leave him out of the card so he made an angelic appearance.

I also completed (although barely) my 2nd boxing day 10 miler (That’s 16km)!  Eileen and I cut 10 minutes off our time from last year, which was our goal, so that was exciting.  One of my friends from University- Tom, ran by us while we were walking which was pretty hilarious.  AND I’m very proud to say that he came in like 51st place (or around there).  Go Tom!!! 🙂  (PS we came in at 2hrs 42 minutes….walking.  We were booting it!)

Ok that might be it for today.

Hope everyone had a great holiday! 🙂

❤ Erin

PS Is it wrong to still watch Christmas movies after Christmas?!

‘Twas a Year of Firsts….

So, I started this blog just over a year ago, and my goal was to blog about making things, or doing things I’ve never done before.  I think I’ve been somewhat successful non?

Let’s look back and see shall we?

• I created this blog. (Sweet!)
• All our wedding stuff was DIY’ed and boy am I glad that is over!  (Though secretly I loved it!) 😛
• I played on a dodgeball team! (AND am going to play again!!)
• Tried Sushi for the first time. (Sooooooooooo good!)
• Traveled to New Orleans and San Francisco.
• Tried a Chip Buddy.  (If you’ve never had it, look it up.  It’s quite tasty, and yet so simple!)
• Completed my first AQ for teaching.
• Created a heck of a lot of Monday Meals! (All were recipes I’ve never tried before!)
• Held an ugly sweater party! (Which I’ve ALWAYS wanted to do!) (Which got real hot real quick)
• Walked in a 10 mile “race“.  (Race is in quotations simply because it’s clear myself, Kathy, and Eileen were not racing.)
• Created my first hair piece for someone! (And I don’t even have pictures…)
• Ate a bug.  Gross.  Does not taste like nothing.  Tastes like gross.
• Drank beer out of a glass boot.
• Got married.  (Definitely something I’ve never done before! :P)
• Took a Bollywood class (then taught the dance to about a hundred kids!)
• Took a Belly dance class.
• Chose the colours for, and painted a whole room by myself.  Nope, never done this before.  Might not be 100% finished yet, but still painted none the less!
• Went to an NKOTB concert! Woot woot! (not to mention BSB too!)

Ummmmm….I feel like I’ve done more, or made more.  It’s actually quite hard to sum up your accomplishments/actions from a whole year.

Oh yes one more for sure…

• I entered and won a blogging contest!  For real!  I am now one of five “real serious bloggers” for this year’s Western Fair!

If you’ve never been, then what are you waiting for?!?

It’s super big, full of super fun rides, super awesome fair food to eat, super neat booths to see,  it’s just super period.  And I get to blog about it!

Needless to say I’m really excited- when I started this blog it was really just to share the fun and crazy things I get up to, or talk about getting up to.  But the more I do it, the more I realize I quite enjoy writing and really enjoy reading people’s reactions to them.  I love seeing that I have an email to tell me that someone has commented -It kind of makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside!

Wow that got kinda emosh.

Anywho, I’m super excited about the contest win, and VERY flattered to be chosen!

Here’s to another year of silly projects, new experiences, and hopefully entertained readers! 🙂

PS

For your viewing pleasure, here are some pics from the last year that you might enjoy!

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AAaaaaaaand, she’s back!

Heeeelllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllooooooooooo!?!??!

Heeeeeeeeeeeeeellllllllllllllllllllllo out there!

Do I still have any readers?  If so, you’re probably wondering where the  heck I’ve been for the last like 3 or 4 months!

Well I guess I’ve really been nowhere really.  I haven’t really felt the urge to blog.  It’s sad I know, but sometimes life happens.  I also haven’t really been keeping up with the list of blogs I follow either, which is also very sad.  Summer is usually the time to catch up on things, and to get those to do lists done, but I feel that this year I didn’t really do any of that.  Booo summer of 2011.  Maybe the fall will help me turn over a new leaf, and get down to business.  I certainly hope so!

I have kept myself busy though,  it’s not like I’ve been sitting around watching Peach Tree TV all day…. well at least not every day.  AND I did complete my first AQ (that’s teacher speak fyi, and it means additional qualifications), so I have officially obtained my ESL part 1.  So there!

AND I have pretty much perfected cake pops.  Yeppers, I’ve jumped on the cake pop train, and am just cruising down the track to perfection.  Woot woot!

Hmmmm, what else, what else….

OH- my brother got married which is super exciting, and it was also a diy wedding.   I took a couple pictures with my cellio, and will post them as soon as I get a computer that works with, and not against my phone.  Why can I not upload pictures to my computer like I so often did in the past?  Well my friends, because of robbers.  That’s right robbers.  In July, we had our house broken into while we were both at work, and a bunch of our stuff was taken.  Scary, yes.  Maddening, yes.  Also quite emotional.  I had a lot of trouble sleeping the first night, just thinking about how strangers had been walking around in our house, with our pets, touching our stuff.  Not ok.  Not cool.  Get your own damn stuff.  That (among other things) is what I would like to say to them…

On a good note though, we’re FINALLY getting our insurance settlement this week, so yay stuff back!  We were lucky they didn’t get a ton of stuff, but it was enough to leave us cursing them for sure.  Anywho, this is why there are no original pics on here today- our camera and computer were taken along with all our pics! 😦

Lesson learned though- back everything up!  EVERYTHING.  An external hard drive will also be purchased this week.  Fo sho.

Whew.   So let’s recap shall we?

1.  Erin is now a master at cake pops.

2.  Erin now has her ESL part 1.

3.  Erin does not like robbers.

4.  Back up everything on your computer.  For reals.

Alright, some what shortish post.  Will slowly make my transition back to the ole blog as soon as I possibly can.

(I checked my stats and apparently some of you actually check my blog daily.  That kind of made my heart feel fuzzy.  So thanks Bai and Sandra.  haha, and whoever else is checking!)

Wedding Wednesday- DIY Picture Frame Seating “Chart”

All of these photos are courtesy of Jayme Van Geest.

Hey y’all!

So, I realized that there were still a bunch of DIY projects that I didn’t blog about from the wedding!  Yay!  Soooooooo, this week I will be blogging about our guest seating “chart”.  Chart is in quotations because we didn’t really have a chart.  I knew I wanted something a little different (shocking!), so I really started going crazy googling ideas. 

I ended up at a Flea Market in search of window panes for Sandra’s wedding,  so I took that time to search around for stuff that I could use.  No such luck (though Sandra found her panes!).  That’s when Sandra gave me the idea for frames.  I was already using frames for menus (I had originally wanted chalk boards, but those were too expensive), so why not continue that frame theme for the seating chart?  Great idea.  I ran with it, and made it my own.

Here’s what I did- I got tons of  different colour, and different sized picture frames.  Some I had to purchase, some I took from our house.  (We have a large mismatched picture wall in our living room!)  I tried to stay in the purpley, greeny,  and neutral families.  If you take some time you can find cheap frames everywhere!  Bouclair, Ikea, the dollar store, Homesense….EVERYWHERE!

Anywho, so I have all these frames.

Next, I started typing out the list of guest tables.  I started using all one font, and all one colour, but that was too boring for me.  Soooooooooo I changed everything up!  I changed the font- every frame had a different font, and changed up the font colour- most frames had a different font colour too. 

If I do say so myself, they looked wicked. 

All sorts of frames and fonts.

 

And they weren’t just lined up all neat, and prim and proper.  Why would they be?!  Since they were all different sizes, some were standing up, some were laying down.  Some were in front, some were in back.  I was really impressed with how they turned out.  Sooooo easy, and pretty cheap.  You really just need some good quality paper, and frames.  Oh, a printer might be helpful! 🙂

Voila!  An awesomely unique seating “chart”.

Click here to see more of Jayme’s photos.

Wedding Sunday!

Hey everyone!

So as I mentioned in my last post, I was going through the pics on the camera, and came across a) pics that I don’t remember I took, and b) pics that Matt took of his project for the wedding.  YES!  Matt had a diy project that started out pretty slow, and had us thinking we were definitely going to buy our centrepieces!

Alright, I’ll refresh your memory….. our centrepieces were wheatgrass, with flowers stuck in them.  No we didn’t grow the flowers that seemed to be growing out of them, but Matt, and my mom (and Doug!) grew the wheat grass- 20 centrepieces each!  That may not seem like a lot, but it involved 20 pretty big tray things that they sat on, lots of soil, lots of wheatgrass seed, and lots of patience.

Here’s some of the pics Matt took!

the supplies

pretty proud of his project

3 of the 20 trays

the 20 centrepieces

So that was the start of the centrepieces.

How did they look while growing for over a month in our garage?  Pretty funny.  I mean it’s grass.  It started out all sparse, and we were really really scared we would have to fork out more money.  Matt did an awesome job, watering and looking in on them everyday.  It was cute.

Ohhhh, you meant show you the pictures of them during the month…..

We kind of forgot to take pictures of them. :S

We do however have a couple pics of how they looked during the wedding….quite awesome if I do say so myself!

AND might I add, that my mom (and Doug!)’s looked way better than ours…. I mean Matt did an awesome job, but my mom’s were clearly the winner!  Hers were the ones on most of the tables, and in places where pics might be taken! 😛

there's another good view!

thinking of doing your own wheatgrass centrepieces?  here’s a couple things we (Matt and my mom (and Doug!)) learned:

• squirrels like wheatgrass seeds
• squirrels like to mess stuff up for the fun of it
• squirrels are the devil
• it is very VERY hard to transport these centrepieces- my mom managed to get tons of banana boxes from No Frills, which made it much easier, but you still need a really REALLY large car/truck to get these suckers wherever you want them!

All we did afterwards was buy the flowers to stick in the wheatgrass to make it look like they were growing out of the grass.

Oh- tip for that…get light flowers that are pretty hardy… like online it said to use gerbera daisies, but I will tell you this- they didn’t work.  The actual flower was too heavy, which made the grass and flower droop.  The ones I thought looked and worked the best were carnations!  CARNATIONS!  They’re not just for cheesy bouquets and prom corsages people….they’re cute. I’m trying to bring carnations back a la Carrie Bradshaw.  (I love them!  I also used them as one of our bridesmaid bouquets, and the girls were arguing over who got it!)

Ok, that’s it for now….

I did get a teaser pic from the photographer today.  I’ll share with you all-

photo by Jayme Van Geest * http://www.jvgphotography.com

Can’t wait for the rest!  I’ll post them as soon as I get them!!!!!!!

erin.

PS if you like our pics, check out our photographer!  Super awesome!

our (extremely long, super fun, tiring, eventful, expensive) big day!

it’s over.

all the planning, all the work, diy-ing, trips to michaels, daily wedding blog checking, constant money being handed out, wedding magazines being bought, frantic emails to bridesmaids and family for help with last-minute details…. it’s finished.  centerpieces were grown, menus were written, 150 airplanes folded, labelled, bagged, then set up…. all the prep and work has come to an end!  people came, they watched us pledge our love to each other, they ate, they drank, danced, ate again, and left.  it almost seems silly to think about how much work goes into one day.  i actually am ok with everything being done.  i have however, come to the realization that i love making things.  and from what i’ve been told, i guess i’m pretty good at it 🙂 so that was exciting.  it’s nice to see that all the effort was worth it!

Soooooooooo, you are all aware that i did create, or help create almost all the decor that we used for the wedding.  well here my friends are those little details!  I’ll go into detail about them all in their own posts.

the centrepieces were grown by Matt and my mom & doug!

the flower on my dress was handmade by moi!

menu! it's just pencil crayon on cardstock...the other side has a stamp on it (see picture #1)

one of 150+ planes that were hand folded by myself and the bridesmaids!

plane + centrepiece shot...

i also ended up putting the ceremony program on a chalkboard which was framed….it however didn’t make it to the ceremony site until 5 minutes before the wedding.  so apparently there are no pictures of it!  we also put together the bridesmaids bouquets…and when i say we, i mean mostly kathryn johnston.  so yay kathryn! 🙂

i did end up putting pom poms on all of the bridesmaid bouquets!  AND i also ended up creating another banner…which only a select few have seen….doesn’t make sense you say?  stay tuned!!!

sigh.  so although it’s all over, we’re almost overwhelmed with going through our old “stuff” and finding place for our brand new stuff.  along with thank you card writing (still from the showers! :S), and house cleaning in general (as it was sorely skipped in the last weeks leading up to the big day!). 

there will still be a couple of wedding posts explaining how i did things, or how matt did things!  and when we get through all that… don’t fret, there’ll be stuff to blog about!  you can’t get rid of me that easily!!!!! 

that extra dessert may have to be posted on the weekend.  teaching and retail have me keeping busy over the next couple days.

until then, 

don’t be a fool, stay in school.

sincerely,

eflatt.

sandra and derek’s diy wedding! :)

alright, here is the long awaited wedding i’ve been talking about for like 2 months….. i was too busy getting pictures taken, and doing bridesmaid duties to take photos of the fabulous little details that sandra did, so i waited until lots of pics were posted on facebook….and then i stole them.

hey- what else is facebook good for? 😀

Candy buffet!

mmmm!

table assignments were written on window panes!

which kind of looked like this when set up!

signs like these lined the way to the ceremony

🙂

sandra also printed her own programs which were really pretty, AND did little bags up for the candy buffet which were stamped with a matching flower from her invites!  super cute!  those my friends, i do not have pictures of, but if you’re lucky i will look for them this weekend, and try to scan and post next week!

let me tell you people; speaking from experience, if you are doing it yourself for wedding projects,  michaels and the dollar store will become your new favourite stores.  sandra’s candy buffet pots were from the dollar store…for reals.  and most of the rest of them were from michaels.  i actually looked forward to getting emailed 40% off coupons from michaels every thursday… if you are getting married sign up- they will help you!   i went there so much i’m actually kind of going through michaels’ withdrawl!  i need a new project- perhaps that’s why i’ve started doing home renos!

but that my friends will be another blog entry!

that’s it for now yo.

see y’all on the flip side.  Monday meals for real on Monday.  promise!

wedding wednesday #4

ah martha stewart.  how have i not tried making one of your wedding ideas yet?  well my friends, the wait is over.  i erin flattery have attempted a martha stewart diy project.

i have wanted to try tissue paper pom poms since i first started creeping wedding blogs.  they’re just so cute!  i’m not sure how you couldn’t like them!  i didn’t really prepare for the craft.  let’s be honest, when am i ever really prepared for stuff?  i have been to michaels 2x this week, and it’s only wednesday!  the only thing i really did make sure i had was tissue paper.  if any of you are trying this at home, make sure you have wire, or whatever it is that is supposed to hold the pom pom together.  i ended up wrapping an elastic band around the middle, and it didn’t work so well.

ok, on with the craft.

first, you take 8 sheets of tissue paper, and you stack them on top of each other.  done.

step 2 and 3

next, you start folding the tissue paper into about an inch sections accordion style.  if you think about it, you’ll get it.

then, when it’s all folded, you can cut the ends into shapes.  ie- i just rounded my edges a la martha stewart’s example.  but i think you could probably cut some neat edges into it which would look pretty great.

next, oh, ok you have to make sure the centre of your tissue paper is already wrapped or secured with wire, ribbon or whatever you’re using.  ok.  now you start pulling each layer up and apart from the middle.  now be careful people!  we are working with friggen tissue paper!  did i rip some pieces off you ask?  yes.  yes i did.  well they didn’t so much rip off, as rip strips into the pom pom, but you know what i mean.

last, attach fishing line, or whatever to hang the pom pom wherever your heart desires!  i did not infact have anything to hang it with, so i just kind of  held it up with my hand.  none the less, i was quite pleased with myself!  i ended up getting lazy, and just used the whole pack of tissue paper (12 sheets) instead of using the 8 like they suggest.  this seems like it wouldn’t make a difference right?  wrong.  i think it would be easier to pull apart with 8.  i think i might also try a small pom pom.  they’re just so pretty!

ta da!

if anyone has a birthday, or special occasion coming up you can bet your bottom dollar there’s going to be a pom pom attached! 🙂

wedding diy project?  not sure yet.  cute?  definitely.

last week i mentioned my friend’s wedding full of diy projects!  i haven’t forgotten about it- they will be posted next wednesday!

wedding wednesday #3

45 days and couting until the big day!

while we’re waiting for it to arrive, i’ve got lots to do.  for starters, i’m in a wedding this weekend, which i am so excited for!  my friend sandra also did lots of diy touches, so i’ll be sure to add pics from her day on here next week.

we’ve also got meetings galore with our vendors to finalize all the little details.  on top of those things, i’ve got all the little diy projects i’ve imagined in my head, but haven’t started. sigh.

i can tell you that we do have 97% of the materials we need to do our centre pieces, which is pretty exciting!  the only thing i am not 100% that we have is soil.  we have the containers, the wheat seed, and that’s it.  and Alisa did start a test plot, so we kind of know what to expect- which is great! 🙂

so that’s exciting!  and that WAS mission #1 if i’m not mistaken, so mission #1 is well on it’s way.  on monday when we’re back in the l.dot we’ll plant a couple to make sure all goes without a hitch.

well folks, it’s 11:03 pm, my head is pounding, and my eyes are straining.  so sadly, this wedding wednesday has come to a close.  hopefully i’ll have a couple big posts next week for y’all.

have a great weekend, and we’ll chat soon!  (well, i’ll chat, and you’ll listen (hopefully!) haha).

good night, and have a pleasant tomorrow!