More DIY wedding goodies

Well, I am up to my eyebrows right now in wedding things. It is amazing how much time and work goes into even the simple home ceremony that we are having. We are having cheesecake (gluten free) instead of a traditional wedding cake because we love it and half my family has to eat gluten free. I found a couple of recipes that freeze well and will bake those ahead of time. I am making a simple A-line dress, but adding a crocheted shrug from the summer issue of Interweave Crochet (with slight modifications--different yarn) and fingerless wedding gloves from Crochetnmore. I am also working on a design for a beaded and crocheted hair froo-froo--I'll post more on that later.

We found a wonderful service here--a wedding officiate and ordained minister who is also a professional photographer. Layne Holland, at Ruidoso Wedding, has a great idea--helping people have simple, memorable weddings that don't cost an arm and a leg. Our ceremony will include a sand unity ceremony and Layne had some wonderful suggestions on how to include our family and friends in the ceremony as participants rather than as just onlookers. The albums he had put together for other couples were just beautiful and he had some stunning pictures of happy couples with majestic mountain scenery in the background. If you are looking for a destination wedding in the mountains or unique intimate ceremony, I highly recommend Layne.

Here are more DIY wedding goodies:

DIY Wedding Decor Roundup from Threadbangers

Do It Yourself Weddings

DIY Network Wedding Planning Tips

DIY Bride-Crafty Wedding Goodies

Collecting inspiration--making a "glue book"

This is an idea I came across on the Think Crafts Blog--a glue book. I am always coming across ideas in magazines that I like--decorating, landscaping, hair styles, doggie couture, whatever. Often times, it is not something I want to reproduce exactly, but it inspires some kind of design idea or an idea for a gift for a particular person, an organizing problem that needed a unique fix, a quote that would be great for starting a lesson, planning a special event, ideas for writing an article--that kind of thing. At one time I tried tearing out pages and saving them in an idea file, but that stacked up way too much paper way to fast and I usually never went back to it. A glue book would be an easy way to keep ideas, pictures, poems, quotes--anything you come across that you don't want to send out to the recycling bin, but really don't have a place to store. Plus, when you just need a quiet moment to recharge your batteries, you can get a cuppa your favorite beverage, kick your feet up, and thumb through all your favorite and very personal inspirations in one little book. What a great idea!

Breaking the Hard Copy Habit

I am a lover of hard-copy books, despite my geekiness. But one of my goals for living more sustainably is to buy less paper and use more digital. I did a little research on how to do that and wrote an article that is posted on Helium. I hope you will take time to read it and visit me on Helium.

My favorite "cook book"

Living sustainably goes beyond "green living", at least for me. After seventeen years as professional staff in a major research university, I was looking for a change. My job was taking up more and more of my time and energy, particularly as I got more and more into grant writing, and yet it was less and less fulfilling. To change that, I have two simple rules--simplify life and spend more time doing things I enjoy.

When my kids were living at home, I cooked all the time and on Saturday nights, we often chose a country and cooked dishes from that country. In the process, I taught my boys how to cook. After they fledged and left the nest, I cooked less and less and spent more of my time doing work related tasks--reading journal articles, editing grant proposals, etc. and just snacking for meals or eating TV dinners. Now I have started cooking again and am enjoying it more than ever.

One of my favorite "cook books" is AllRecipes.com. It allows you to rate recipes, add recipes to share with others, search out recipes and see how others have rated them and, my favorite feature, have a recipe box where you can save recipes that you like. You can search by country, which is what my boys and I often did, or you can search by ingredient or any other key word. My youngest son, my mom and I must stay on a gluten-free diet, so today I am trying a recipe for Tres Leches for my wedding to see how I can modify the recipe with gluten-free flour that I get from Bob's Red Mill. I usually have really good luck with their gluten free flour mix and we are looking forward to trying out this cake recipe. I will let you know how it turns out!!

I will write more later on the other projects I am working on for the wedding--my dress with crocheted accessories, the ceremony, the food--all done in an effort to keep the day simple, beautiful and memorable.