DIY Bride

This week’s wedding awesomeness comes from The Wedding Planner’s Blog and Paper Orchid.

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It’s project day!

Vintage crafts and craft techniques are rocking my holiday gift-giving world this year. I’ve been having fun resurrecting things I made as a not-so-crafty kid and giving them a modern update.

Just in time for holiday gift-giving I rediscovered baking bread in a glass jar and thought that it’d make an awesomely fun wedding favor. The DIY Bride version replaces bread with the ever-popular cupcake.

We’re going to bake cupcakes in glass jars! It’s perfectly safe and the jar serves double duty as a baking vessel and ultra-cool packaging.

And if you’re looking for a neat edible gift for the holidays, this is a winner.

There are lots of notes for this project so be sure to read all the way to the bottom before you attempt.

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I am all about craft swaps this season, so I was particularly delighted when Liene from Blue Orchid Designs posted about Brooklyn Bride’s Holiday Card Swap. What a cool way to connect crafters and brides.

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Public Service Announcement

I’ve been receiving a lot of emails over the last few weeks that encourage sending Xmas/holiday cards to “Any Soldier” at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Please don’t do this! Walter Reed will NOT deliver mail addressed to anonymous or “any soldier”. [cite Snopes and Walter Reed]

The good news is that you can still get cards to wounded soldiers. Walter Reed has a list of organizations you may contact. I recommend Operation: Quiet Comfort which is operated by some wonderful people in the crafting community. They deliver cards and care packages to over 40 combat hospitals.

That is all. Carry on.

Fab Finds Friday is a new feature that starts today. Each week I will showcase some of the awesome resources available to the wedding community.

I’m kicking it off with 2 fab companies this week: Albert Zoll and Dial Dir-ect-ions.

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While I personally love creating small treat boxes I don’t post many here because I know that, for most couples, cutting out and assembling 100+ boxes can be a real drag. In most cases it’s just easier to buy pre-assembled boxes.

When I can share treat packaging that requires little cutting and easy assembly, I’m all over it. To the blog I go! And, well, here I am with this easy treat basket. Ok, it’s not a box but it’s a great way to present Jelly Bellys, chocolates or other small munchies. It takes about 3 minutes to cut and assemble and you can get 4 baskets per 1 sheet of 12″ x 12″ scrapbook paper.

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Support independent artists this holiday season by pledging to buy handmade goods. Just head over to BuyHandmade.org and add your name to the growing list of rockin’ people who have made the pledge.

I did it and you can, too!

5.6 earthquake

Did the earth move for you, baby? It sure did for me last night. A quiet evening of watching DVDs was rudely interrupted by an earthquake of a magnitude I haven’t felt in all my years in the SF Bay Area. 5.6 on the Richter scale is pretty scary.

My husband and I are located about 15 miles or so away from the epicenter. No damage to report at Casa de DIY Bride and all near and dear to us are ok.

Exactly one year ago I was in NYC shooting the completed projects for the 1st half of my book. We shot part of them in Central Park and the rest in the photographer’s studio. A few months later, I was back in NYC to finish up the photography for the remaining projects. Right after that, the manuscript was done. (Then, a little while later, the edits were complete.)

There were times when I was so.utterly.sick of this thing that I could (and did) scream. There were times when I doubted I could really do it. There were times when I completely bugged out over deadlines, stress, and overwhelm.

It was totally worth it.

Here’s why:

Today I received the book. The finished book. The beautiful, glorious, darling, fun, wonderful book. My book.

Today is Blog Action Day, an event designed to raise awareness about environmental causes that affect us all. Solidarity is a great thing, especially when used as a force of good and positive change.

A lot of buzz has been surrounding the eco-friendly weddings movement in 2007 - something I’m delighted to see and promote here at DIY Bride. Earlier this year I published a few “going green” articles and resources that I’m recycling in honor of today.

• Going Green? Get Your Photographer For Free
• 10 Ways to Have a Green Wedding
• The Best Green Wedding Products, Pt 1
• The Best Green Wedding Products, Pt 2

I’ve been tagged a few times with the “green” tag challenge is “to provide 3 ways in which you are trying to minimizing your impact on the environment.” I’m really, really bag at being tagged, guys. The pressure! So, here are my answers… if you want to “tag” yourself, please do! Link back and I’ll make sure you get a shout out.

1. The biggest thing for me is reducing the amount of gasoline I use. I plan my shopping/errand excursions ahead of time to be more efficient where I go while I’m out. I don’t do a lot of driving per week, but it still adds up pretty quickly. I’d love to get a newer, fuel efficient vehicle. That’s not in the financial plan at the mo’. <sigh> I have new car lust.

2. Reducing the amount of shopping bags I use and recycling the ones I get. I bring a small wicker basket with me to the grocery store now to put my veggies in (instead of using the thin, clear plastic ones) and I’m using canvas shopping bags for groceries. I love it.

3. Buying locally. I’m trying to support local businesses as much as I can to reducing the amount of shipping/importing that an item has to go through. (Saves in fuel consumption and helps boost local artisans and other business peeps.)