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DIY

SAVE THE DATE

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Now that they’ve been sent out, I can finally share our save the dates! I’m especially proud because Dustin and I did them ourselves. We selected a photo from our engagement session, got it printed on fancy paper, cut down each image and got a stamp made from the local company Native Bear (same maker from this post) with our save the date information. We are both so happy with how it turned out!

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DIY’n isn’t always the easiest or cheapest but it’s definitely rewarding! We’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback from friends and family receiving them which makes it all seem very much worth it. Leela did such a great job on those itsy bitsy letters, anyone in need of a custom stamp, holler at this gal!

DRINK UP | ORANGE TEA

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In celebration of my 29th birthday, which is today (how crazy, almost 30!!!) here’s another cocktail recipe! Continuing the celebration, tonight we are going to Fleetwood Mac. This is one of those concerts I’ve been wanting to attend since jamming to their tunes with my dad when I was a young girl. We get that chance tonight, can’t wait!

Spiked orange tea concoction recipe below.
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Ingredients:

Whiskey
Black Tea
Simple Syrup
Orange
Rosemary
Fig Bitters
Nutmeg

In shaker smash up orange and rosemary, add 2 drops of bitters, dash of simple syrup, 1 jigger of tea, and 1.5 jiggers of whiskey. Shake and serve over ice ball. Garnish with something pretty.

DRINK UP | BLACKBERRY TEA COCKTAIL

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Ingredients:

Whiskey
Black tea
Simple syrup
Blackberries
Rosemary
Lemon
Raw sugar

In shaker, smash blackberries with finely chopped rosemary, add small squeeze of a lemon and shake with ice. Wet the rim of your glass with water, or rub with lemon juice, and press onto plate with thin layer of sugar. Garnish with lemon or blackberry kabob.

STAMPSHOP

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Leela of Native Bear held a stamp workshop on Sunday at her new studio space in Candler Park that she shares with the ladies of Indie Craft Experience.  The day was rainy and grey but since the front of the studio is all windows, there was still a good bit of natural light for photographing the event – while also participating.  My friend Amanda joined in on the class with me and since I actually know Leela personally it was like just hanging with friends being crafty!
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Leela shared her story about how she got started and grew her business and then gave a run down of how to safely carve and then we began sketching out our designs.  I had jotted down some ideas of what I wanted to carve but hadn’t actually sketched anything yet.  Amanda, who’s the in-house artist at Whole Foods came prepared with some drawn out ideas. We both liked the bird and sun sketch the most so she put some finishing touches on it and decided to go with that as her stamp.
16724424621_617dde69c6_k16699776686_07278343a5_kWe had the option of doing one big one or several littles and I went with doing a few small ones to later do patterns.  I drew, traced and carved out a teepee, cactus and wishbone.  16539550349_bb323938ab_k
For printing there was card stock, tea towels and canvas fabric. I first went to the tea towel station and made two towels for our kitchen using the teepee stamp and cactus stamp.
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Besides the folks I knew, the class as a whole was a really great group of people, which helps when you’re doing something creative!  Several ladies did their company’s logos and others went with carvings like mine to make patterns.  Everyone did such a good job, so much talent!
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I was so happy with how everything turned out!  We’ve been using the towels in the kitchen and I’m really liking the fabric and size. Thinking I’ll get some more and make gifts for friends because they are so much better than using paper towels.  I printed enough cards to have a complete set of stationary which is fun because I love snailmail.  Amanda did something really creative and combined two inks to make a fade in her design (lower left hand corner) that turned out really cool!

We all had so much fun learning, creating, laughing- I can’t say it enough how good of a job Leela did hosting this workshop! I love her work so much that she has made our save-the-date stamp and will soon be making our invite stamp for our wedding. I’ll share those with you after they’ve been sent out.

She hasn’t announced the next class but if you follow her on Instagram, @NATIVEBEARATL, you’ll be in the loop.  Big time recommend!

DIY | INDIGO NAPKINS

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Lately I’ve been bursting with creativity, from home projects to weaving.  Not sure what exactly has sparked this inspiration, maybe it’s the new house and ample space, whatever it is I’m taking full advantage!  Over the weekend I tried my hand at indigo dying which has been something I’ve wanted to try ever since I was hippie’d out wearing tye-dye and listening to jam bands. I’ve noticed that it’s become really popular and saw dinner napkins I really liked so I set out to attempt my own.  Figuring it’d be easiest to buy a kit, I looked to Amazon and found a very inexpensive kit that would fit my needs.  The exact one I bought is here and the napkins came from Hobby Lobby but I couldn’t locate them on their site to share but any 100% cotton ones will work.  Buying everything in one package was such a better idea than tracking down all the ingredients individually, I highly recommend this route!

Since the kit came with all the components, including instructions, I just followed those only altering the amount of chemicals. The kit says it’s “mini” but it actually dyes up 15 shirts so if you’re doing something small like napkins, just take the mixtures and divide accordingly.  This particular kit says to use 4 gallons of water but we used one gallon so we divided the mixes into fourths and it worked out perfectly.

Again, you can follow the directions in the kit just fine. I altered nothing about that but I do want to share some tips and things I’d change the next go around.16510183498_73c04765fb_k
The directions say to use a huge bucket but I used a stainless steel bowl and it worked fine for this small of a project.  When you first mix all the chemicals together it’ll look more yellow-green, give it the recommended time 15min or if you’re doing a small batch, it’ll be ready in less time.
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This is what the accordioned fabric and wood panels look like when assembled. The above rock was placed in the end of the napkin and tied off with rubber bands (below). This is what the directions said to do but really the rock made little difference in the end that I could tell since the tip was completely dyed blue minus a few specks.16696717542_fd0313f4b4_k
For the first round I did the wooden press, which ended up being my favorite pattern, and the long cinched pattern with the pebble.

Tips: Keep the wooden pressed in longer if you want more of a defined blue area, if you want more white with only skinny blue lines then take out sooner. I didn’t time it exactly but you can tell when it’s saturated.

For the second round I redid the wooden press and then did 5 ties with rubber bands for a circle affect. I took out the pressed wood one a little too soon (which is why I suggest above to leave in longer) but the 5-circle one turned out pretty great. My circles weren’t perfect so if you do this method, and want even circles, pay close attention to the tying off grabbing even fabric and tying carefully.
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There will be floating residue you can’t mix up, it’ll stay clumped but don’t worry, Just scoot it out of the way and if it gets stuck to your fabric, it’s ok too, it makes little speckles which looks neat.
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When you first take out it’ll be a weird green color, don’t worry, this is normal. When it hits air (oxygen) it’ll start to turn blue. Taking off the rubber bands with gloves on was pretty tough so I just cut them off with scissors.  After you take off the rubber bands, let them lay out and fully oxidize. Once they are a dark blue color, rinse with water.  I washed them with a little bit of Woolite before I ran through my washing machine so it didn’t make a huge mess. Originally I was dying inside but moved to the back yard. It’s not too messy but outdoors definitely felt safer.
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These patterns were in the directions of the kit but I’m sure you could play around and get some wacky designs!
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I’m really happy with the turn out! I had a blast playing chemist and once I saw the turn out, I searched the house for white linens to dye-even thought about upgrading all my socks-but decided to hold off for the next go around. Maybe a duvet or curtains?!