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Frugal Bride – DIY Wedding Favors

October 9, 2013

DIY Wedding Favor Bags

Wedding favors can add up pretty quickly and sometimes the DIY route can seem overwhelming.  This easy option can help maintain your sanity during those busy weeks leading up to your wedding.


What you’ll need:
Muslin bags (I used 3×4 inch bags)
Stamps
Ink pad for fabric (like VersaCraft Ink Pad or Hobby Lobby’s Specialty Fabric Ink Pad)

I purchased these muslin bags online at $6.58 for 24, but you may be able to find better prices with some searching.  Keep in mind that buying the same bags stamped for you from a specialty bridal favor company will cost about $35.00 for 25.  

The “Fall in Love” stamp and date stamp were created using the Martha Stewart kit.  This kit is great for making custom stamps and is a good idea to get if you’ll be customizing other things like your invitations or other stationary.  You can even create a monogram stamp.  I used a fall leaf design for the center stamp with a dark brown ink pad.  Keep in mind, if you use anything other than fabric ink, the design will fade away in just a few days.

The muslin bags go well with my rustic fall theme.  You can really put anything in the bags.  We filled them with fall wrapped candy – Pumpkin Spice Hershey Kisses and other mini fall chocolates.
Wedding Favor Bag

Be sure to plan out your design before you start and practice a couple times on plain paper or practice fabric.  Instead of pressing the stamp into the ink pad, you’ll need to tap the stamp onto the pad until it is fully covered in ink.  The Martha Stewart stamps don’t stick out very much from the base, so you may need to wipe excess ink off of the surrounding areas around the stamp design so it doesn’t get on your fabric.  

You can heat set the bags if you want to preserve the design, but this is normally done if you’re going to be washing the fabric later.  I didn’t do this because of lack of time and I didn’t really mind if they lasted for years.  I may heat set one now for a keepsake.

So, there ya go!  Hope this helps you save some money on your wedding so you can put it towards other things!

Check out more from my Frugal Bride series!

 

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Filed Under: DIY, Events/Parties, Uncategorized Tagged: DIY, favor bags, wedding

Happy October!

October 7, 2013

Hope everyone had a great September!  You may have noticed, I took a whole month off from the blog to prepare for my wedding and have a nice honeymoon. Well, I’m all settled back at home, things are back to normal now and I’m ready to jump back into work in all my married bliss!

 There are a few things that I’m really excited about. First, I’ll be sharing all the fun ways I was able to save money on my wedding, including wedding DIY and other money-saving tips. Second, it’s Fall! This is my favorite time of year – and it’s no coincidence that my wedding date was the first day of Fall. Halloween decorating is in full swing at our house and I’m eager to try out fun projects and spooky recipes to really get into the Halloween spirit! And finally, my store-bought laundry detergent is getting low, so I get to try out a homemade laundry detergent recipe I’ve been waiting for. I’ll also share some of my favorite homemade household cleaners.  These are all safe for the environment, pets, and kids, and can save you money.

So, get ready – this is going to be a fun October!

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Filed Under: Uncategorized

Paleo Challenge {Week 4}

August 27, 2013


Well, the Paleo Challenge is officially over and I think I did pretty well considering my wedding dress stress.  Since I saw such great results with my skin, I’m continuing a good portion of this diet until my wedding day.  I’ll be strictly staying away from dairy and most sugars, pasta, and processed food.  I’ve started incorporating rice and beans back into my diet and just a tiny bit of whole grains.  Of course, my birthday weekend will be tough – tradition calls for chocolate swirl cheesecake.  I’ll have to limit myself to half a piece of cheesecake for the weekend to avoid any pre-wedding breakouts.  

So what helped me along the way?  It was a little tough coming up with good Paleo meals every week.  These cookbooks (which I checked out from the library) really helped with our weekly meal planning:


My favorite go-to Paleo meals would be spaghetti squash with meatballs and anything grilled: hamburgers, brats, ribs, salmon.  Add some veggies to the grill and you’ve got a great Paleo summer meal!  Also, having eggs on hand all the time helped.  Boiled eggs are a nice breakfast or snack to take to work when there are no other tasty options.  After the second week we were not missing bread or pasta.  Those two things will continue to be very rare in our diet moving forward.  

The past four weeks have not been easy, but it has been well worth the trouble.  I’m sure having to cook for children or a very picky adult would have made things much more complicated.  So, for those Paleo parents who are not cooking several different meals per day for your young ones; I applaud you and your kids.  This does take some getting used to, but it’s possible to do if you really put your mind to it.

Just joining and want to take a look back at my 4 Week Paleo Challenge?  Look below for the links to all my Paleo posts:

Prep Week
Prep Week: Why Paleo?
Prep Week: Meatloaf and Mashed Faux-tatoes
Prep Week: Introducing the Spaghetti Squash

Week 1 Daily Updates 
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4 (My Shopping List)
Day 5 (Paleo on a Budget)
Day 6
Day 7 (Week 1 Lessons)

Weekly Updates
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
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Filed Under: Meals, Uncategorized Tagged: diet, healty, meals, Paleo

5 New Uses for Cloth Diapers

August 17, 2013


It was when I was working at a small town car wash in college that I first discovered that cloth diapers are amazing.  No, not those fancy cloth diapers we’re seeing more and more to use for babies (although they do look pretty neat too).  I’m talking about the old white cloths with the thick middle strip – the old-fashioned pre-fold cloth diapers.  

We’ve been trying to get away from using paper towels so much in our house and are even thinking of switching to cloth napkins.  For now, we’re starting with cleaning and cooking without using paper towels.  Cloth diapers have been a great substitute for us so far.  Here are some new uses I’ve found for cloth diapers.

1. Cleaning windows and mirrors.  I must be challenged or something, but every time I’ve used microfiber cloths to clean my windows and mirrors I get streaks.  At first I thought it was the fibers rubbing off on the glass, but when I looked closer, I could see hundreds of tiny streaks.  This is when I had my car wash flashback!  The cloths are soft and absorbent enough to leave a hassle-free, streak-free shine every time!


2. Drying herbs and veggies.  I recently bought a really nice salad spinner because I was tired of having to hand dab wet lettuce on the counter.  However, it doesn’t work for everything and I really hate using paper towels because it seems like such a waste.  So, I grabbed on of my unused cloth diapers (I think I will keep two separate piles) and layed it next to my sink to dry my herbs and veggies.  That middle absorbent strip is perfect for laying down stalks of cilantro on top of. 


3. Dish towels.  This one I guess is a no-brainer.  The diapers are the perfect size and you can even put your own embellishments on them if you want to.  Iron-on or embroidered monogram would be a cute finishing touch.


4. Dusting wood furniture.  Since the diapers are so soft, they’re perfect for dusting and oiling your wood furniture.  I remember having to do this every week at my parent’s house since most of their furniture was wood.  Have ornate furniture?  Use Q-tips for spots you just can’t get with a cloth.


5. Cleaning up wet messes.  The diapers were made for wet messes, right? Use that extra absorbent cloth to wipe up spills around your house.

If you like to keep your cloths separated by purpose, you make a couple of quick stitches in different colors for each one.  Or better yet, do a little free-hand embroidery and label each diaper in the corner so you know what it’s used for.  Happy cleaning!



Linking up with:
Sunday Funday @ The Foley Fam

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Filed Under: Uncategorized

Paleo Challenge {Week 3}

August 15, 2013

I am very much in favor of the Paleo Diet to get healthy and lose weight.  If it is possible for the diet to work too well, then that is exactly what happened in my situation.  My goal going into this challenge was to clear up my acne from the inside out – with a better diet.  This adult acne issue came up out of nowhere just two summers back.  I have been using two different creams for the past two years and I was still not seeing the results I wanted.  My dermatologist then prescribed a pill in addition to these creams.  The first time I took it, I became nauseous for over an hour.  There was not a second time.  I knew I had to think of another solution quickly because my wedding was approaching.  With a strapless gown, I knew anything other than smooth skin just wouldn’t work. Oh yes, I’m talking about the dreaded back-ne.  I tried decreasing my dairy and sugar intake, and I did start to see results.  I still wasn’t satisfied; I wanted more drastic results.  I could not have any new breakouts and my scarring had to be gone in just under two months.  The answer: Paleo!

Paleo really was the answer and it worked in just a few weeks.  My scarring is almost completely gone and I have not had any new breakouts.  However, I did have a side effect that I was not anticipating-rapid weight loss.  I figured a couple pounds would not hurt.  With the huge amount of meat I was eating, how could I possibly lose more than that in a month?  I did not weigh myself before the diet, but I kept seeing my pants getting baggier and baggier.  My bridal gown seamstress also noticed.  From prep week to the end of Week 2, I lost about 4 inches from my hips and an inch from around my ribs.  Luckily, the shape of my dress allows for some freedom at the hips.  Any more off the rib area, though, and I would risk losing my dress during our vows! 
So, I’ve decided to start incorporating legumes and some whole grain back into my diet.  I’m really just grasping at straws here, hoping to halt the weight loss.  After the wedding I’ll be able to experiment a little and find a good balance.  I worked pretty hard to get up to my ideal weight, but if I’m not healthy on the inside, it really doesn’t matter what I look like on the outside.  

Just joining and want to take a look back at my 4 Week Paleo Challenge?  Look below for the links to all my Paleo posts:

Prep Week
Prep Week: Why Paleo?
Prep Week: Meatloaf and Mashed Faux-tatoes
Prep Week: Introducing the Spaghetti Squash

Week 1 Daily Updates 
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4 (My Shopping List)
Day 5 (Paleo on a Budget)
Day 6
Day 7 (Week 1 Lessons)

Weekly Updates
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
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Filed Under: Meals, Uncategorized Tagged: diet, healty, meals, Paleo

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Hi there!

Hello and welcome! I’m Jen, a proposal writer by day, blogger by night, happy wife and mommy. I live in SW Virginia with my husband, Jacob and our sweet girls, Julia and Jocelyn.

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