Baker Wedding, from Mock-Ups to Execution

It has been a while since the event, but I’m finally posting about the Baker wedding in June  I finally got the photos somewhat organized in order to post about it and include the photos.  Before the wedding, the bridal party got together in Billings…to look for dresses of course.  When we got together, I also did a few mock-ups for the centerpieces so the bride could make a final decision and items could be ordered.

She was trying to decide between square and round vases.  She was also trying to decide if she wanted to use the white linens and add a table runner, or if she wanted to rent blue linens.  She had decided on white flowers and lemons so I put together a few options.  Of course some imagination was required.

After she decided on the type of vases, votive holders, and table cloths, she had to decide on the type of flowers.  She knew she wanted white hydrangeas and yellow roses to match her bouquet and other flowers throughout her wedding.  She wasn’t positive on how she wanted them arranged or what else she wanted with them.  The bride had come up with some flowers she liked, so I went to the local florist to pick up the flowers and put some arrangements together for her to choose from.  Someone else had accidently sold the yellow roses I had put on hold while I waiting for the hydrangeas to come in, so she once again had to use her imagination.  Here are just a few examples of the options I gave her.

This one had 2 hydrangeas in the center, roses around the edge, and spider mums on the bottom.

This one had the roses in the center

She made her flower decision and all that was left was the set up.  We started with the paper lanterns so we could use the ladder and not worry about the tables being in the way.  Her venue had the twinkle lights up already, so it was fairly easy to line up the lanterns and center them with the point the lights came together.  She didn’t want a set pattern or anything, but just didn’t want the same color next to each other.  We laid them all out on the floor first to get an idea.  After having them laid out, we adjusted were adjusting was needed then hung them up.  Before we moved the tables in, we turned out the main lights and turned on the twinkle lights to make sure the bride was happy with the effect.

We put together the centerpieces in a cool room where we were keeping the flowers.  We arranged the flowers and wired the stems together in order to put them in the vases with lemons hiding them.  We found it easier to put the lemons in the vase, and then put the arrangement in.  She had decided on white linen with the blue table runner.  Ribbon accents were put around the vases and votive holders to more color and their monogram.

The bride and groom’s monogram was hung behind the head table with lights and tulle.  This helped bring more focus to the head table and make it the center of attention.  The decorations on the head table were slightly different, which also helped the head table get a little more attention.  Tulle and twinkle lights were hung behind the cake as well.  The bride’s dad built a Plexiglas stand for her cake, allowing her to fill it with lemons and pull the centerpiece design throughout the wedding décor.

At the church, tall vases were filled with lemons and the extra flowers were arranged in these vases.  She had received lanterns from party lite and added ribbon, and then placed them going down the aisle.  The tall vase arrangements varied slightly from the reception space because they were skinnier vases.  This made it so some lemons were cut in order to fit in the vase and hide the stems.  A few vases were left without lemons, using yellow roses only and having their stems go all the way to the bottom of the vase.

The wedding was beautiful and turned out fantastically.  It was the first wedding in which I helped coordinate as well as being in the wedding.  It was a little tough but with great support and lots of help, it went very well.  The bride was beautiful and I’m so glad I was able to be a part of her and her new hubby’s big day.

Summer Activities

Holy cow has time gone by.  I didn’t realize how long it had been since I posted any blogs.  I’ve been busy with Isaac, visiting family before winter, and overall just being exhausted.  Baby Yost #2 is expected in December, which means I said no more traveling after my Prosser trip in September.  Since that was the case, it seemed like we didn’t stay off the road long until then.  Both Eli and I decided that we needed to visit family once last time before we stopped traveling.

After building Isaac his sandbox, we got him a kiddie pool as well.  It was hot out and he is a fish! If there is water around, he will find it.  Needless to say, we started spending lots more time outside.  I ended up convincing Eli that I needed a lawn chair and small table to make things easier for me.  The benches on the sandbox are nice, but being pregnant I couldn’t sit that low for long and I needed the option of sitting in the shade for a bit.  It made things easier on me and allowed Isaac to stay outside longer, which he loved.

August brought more heat and more trips.  We headed to Bozeman in order to go on a hike.  It had taken a while, but we finally were able to find a weekend that worked and would be easy for family to get together and hike up to Cottonwood Lake.  The trip was fueled by the desire and need to spread ashes.  In total it was an 11 mile hike.  Eli and I had packed a camelback that way when he was hauling Isaac, I could carry the pack…lucky for me my sister and brother-in-law had the same idea.  They are big hikers (amongst lots of other outdoor activities) and they packed one backpack between them as well.  They did this because my brother-in-law had the intention of hauling Isaac for the entire trip (he weighed about 23 pounds on his own).

In all, this meant that I didn’t have to carry anything!! Yay for me!! We took various breaks on the way up; it was a rough hike due to how steep some areas were.  With a growing belly, my center of balance was off a little and some of the steps I had to take were a little bigger than my tummy wanted to allow.  When we got to the top, wouldn’t you know it, Isaac found water.  He had fun playing in it and, after falling in the mud, having to have his arms and legs dipped in the lake so we could rinse him off.

September brought a trip to Eureka and the lake there.  We met up with family and friends, who had a boat.  Isaac has been on a boat once before, but he wasn’t even a year old and it was windy so we had to be wrapped up a bit.  This time he got to wear a life vest and even got to sit by himself.  He had fun playing in the lake and even took a nap after getting a boat ride to pick others up.

End of September brought our final trip.  We found out that Eli’s sister and her husband were going to be moving to Indiana in the new year.  This meant that Isaac and I would be making the trip to Prosser on our own.  Eli’s sister had invited him to an event the same weekend we had planned to head to Prosser.  It wasn’t an event that was Isaac friendly, nor one that I would really enjoy with it being not the best for Isaac.  Eli and I decided that Isaac and I would stick to the plan of going to Prosser and it was more important for him to spend the time with his sister, especially since my parents were planning on coming for Thanksgiving.

We got to meet my parents’ new puppies, Rascal and Tobey.  Isaac hasn’t been all that sure about dogs so far, but he warmed up to them.  He enjoyed attempting to play fetch (the dogs haven’t quite gotten the hang of it yet), liked laying in their bed, and thought it was hilarious when they licked his tummy.  By the time we got home, he was missing the playmates. 

 

In Prosser, it was Balloon Rally Weekend.  Isaac got to see a hot air balloon being blown up at the elementary school.  He also got to spend time with my mom’s Kindergarten class and got to take school pictures.  Unfortunately the weather wouldn’t allow the balloons to go up over the weekend, so he wasn’t able to see all the balloons in the air, but had fun just the same. 

That wraps up our end of summer activities, especially since it has been getting pretty chilly here.  As I get further into the pregnancy, I lose more sleep out of just being uncomfortable and can’t run around with Isaac as much.  He’s been adapting pretty well by playing on his own or coming up with games I can play with him (cars, his tunnel, or even Legos) if I need to lay down to take pressure off my back.  Now we just have to wait for Halloween to see how he does trick or treating.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Time to Play Catch Up

It has been a while since I have been able to post.  We have been going nonstop for about the last month and a half.  There is a lot to get caught up on, and not all of the topics that I am ready to post about have photos available yet....of course. 

Well, let's start with a general update on what has been going on at the Yost house and at For You, By Me Events.  My last post was related to Eli's sister's graduation in which I made towels for her as she was due to be married and would need some in her new kitchen.  Since then, Eli and I went on a date night in Great Falls to see Gabriel Iglesias, the Helena wedding's maid of honor and I threw a bridal shower in Eureka, the family spent Memorial Weekend with the in-laws, we attended the Childers' Family Reunion, Isaac and I went early to the Baker wedding to get it setup, we had the Roberts boys over for help with landscaping projects and to build the Cozy Coupe, Isaac and I attended a family wedding in Washington, and we attended and set up the Helena wedding (my sister-in-law's).  Long list I know, we have been busy. 

Isaac is currently in Washington with his grandparents and has been for almost a week.  I will be joining them over the weekend to prepare and set up for my only July wedding.  It has been a busy week without Isaac but also very relaxing.  Eli and I were able to finally finish Isaac's sandbox, I sorted out baby clothes, and I have been sleeping lots.

I have decided that I'll post about Isaac's new sandbox first.  I have the photos and it will be an easy post to get back into things.  With the upcoming July wedding, there will be another lull in the postings but hopefully by then, I'll have all the photos I need to update the website as well as write the posts.

For the little guy's sandbox, I searched on Pinterest for different ideas and plans.  I knew I would end up moderating them a bit to fit the space we had, as well as to fit in with what I really wanted.  I found 2 different sets of plans to reference.  One was pretty much what I wanted, but it was a true blog post (like what I do) in that it had a lot of fluff to it.  I knew Eli would want a more direct set of plans, so I found another set that was more to the point but not exactly what I wanted.  After reading the plans and figuring out what I wanted, I modified the plan and we got started.


 The first step was to choose our location and measure it.  After we measured it, I started cleaning out the area.

After I cleaned out the box and got it as level as I could, it was time to get started on the actual sandbox.  Well, life usually has different plans. 

The weather started to turn and each time we had the time to go get the lumber we needed, it would start to rain. Not what you want when transporting unprotected lumber.

Once the weather warmed up and it stopped raining, we suddenly didn't have time to build the sandbox anymore.  The weeds grew back...with vengeance.  Eli was able to go pick up the lumber mid-June and the week after (when Isaac and I were out of town), he was able to stain it.  The box still needed to be put together though.  With Isaac at grandma and grandpa's, it seemed like the perfect time.  After cleaning out the area again and spraying it with weed be gone, we got started.


First, we laid down weed barrier.  We wanted to prevent weeds from coming up the best we could. 
After that, we put together the box.  We made ours 6 feet by 6 feet and used 2x10s as the sides of the box. 

The first side, Eli attached the far board to the box first.  I would recommend attaching the 3 boards for the side of the lid together before attaching them to the box, it made attaching the hinges harder when the far board was attached first.  We used 2x12s for the top figuring that with the gaps for the hinges, 6 boards at 12 inches would end up hanging over the end a bit, but oh well.

After attaching that board, we attached the hinges to the top side so that it fold open and sits on top of the board that is attached to the box.  The center board gets attached with hinges on the underneath side so that it sits up and acts like a back for the seat.

 

The second side we attached all the hinges first, then attached the outer board to the box, it was much easier.  Once both sides were attached, it was time for the handles.  We couldn't find handles that matched the hinges and we kept wondering if there was a way to help prevent the handles from burning me when sitting in the sun.  Eli came up with the idea of rope handles, perfect!! 

He drilled holes in the inside board on each side, then put the rope through and tied each end.  After the handles were attached, the 2x4s were attached.  The 2x4s just help the back of the seat stand up rather than falling over.

Once it was built, we closed it...and discovered that 2x12s are really only 11 inches wide.  Oops.  We didn't want to attach a board to just one side so it looks funny when they are folding up, but the purpose of the lid is to keep cats and such out.  We decided that we'd leave it and see if animals get into or not, if they do, then we'll deal with it.  As for this winter, we'll cover it with a tarp to help keep as much snow out as possible.

We attached plastic to the inside of the box to help keep the sand in and then we filled it with sand.  Around the edges I put rocks to cover the weed barrier.

We may have put more sand in the box than we planned, but as Isaac plays in it, I'm sure some of it will disappear.

 

We are done!! Yay!!



Now Isaac has a place to play and I can sit and watch.  As the summer goes on, I'll keep in eye out for patio umbrellas on sale to set it up so that we can have some shade out there.  Next big thing for Isaac with be a kiddie pool but luckily I can just go buy one of those.

Towel Gift: Great for Graduations or Weddings

The last few weeks have gone flying by and I'm in for some busy weeks ahead.  I was trying to decide what I should write about when I realized that one of my options I forgot to take a few of the photos I needed before giving the gift.  Oops.

I've decided that I'll give the details and a description of what I did, but you'll sadly be missing out on a few photos. 

I started by folding the fabric over and ironing it.  Having it ironed, created a seam that was easier to pin on and sew down. 








Then I pinned it down.  I started with the top and bottom, leaving the ends open.  I decided that it would be easier this way.  I left some room at the end of the  top and bottom to have room to turn the ends in.  I added fabric to both end of the towels.

 

Like I had mentioned, I forgot to take photos of the finished products.  I chose 2 fabrics and two hand towels.  The other hand towels were red with white lines (opposite of what is shown) and the fabric that I chose to attach to those is pictured above and is the from Eric Carle's book "The Grouchy Ladybug."  In case you didn't pick up on it, my sister-in-law likes ladybugs. :)

This is a great idea if you're looking for a kitchen related gift and just can't find what you need.

 

I thought of combining this with a post about Isaac's big boy bed, but decided that it would be a post that would be just too long.  In the upcoming weeks I have a big date night (yay!), 2 bridal showers, a family weekend, a family reunion, a high school graduation, and a wedding.  There were a few other events but sadly my schedule wouldn't allow them...sad.  Hopefully I'll be able to post about some of the events...or I'll be posting a lot once I get some down time.



So Busy, Better Back Track

These past few weeks have been super busy.  I went out of town for about a week to see family and have a girls weekend.  Isaac has been getting pickier about what he eats and has been testing his limits even more.   He still won't use a spoon to feed himself and has decided he doesn't like chunks of chicken...the little turkey.  Hopefully we'll be able to change that attitude soon, before all the travel starts.

I was looking through projects I have done, some pre-blog, and realized I should back up and go over some of those.  I don't have tons of pictures for them since it was pre-blog and I wasn't thinking about the possibility of needing any pictures.  Today we'll look at the "butterfly feet" project.  We did this one last year for our mom's on Mother's Day.  I thought sharing it might help inspire me to figure out what we should do this year.


This was the inspiration behind the idea. I found it on Pinterest and thought it would be a good idea to do while Isaac was still little.

Now, for this project I went and bought 2 canvas squares and Crayola Finger paint.  I thought that would be the easiest to clean off our 4 month old. I had Eli start, we did one foot at a time and did both pieces at the same time.  I let him choose his colors, then we chose Isaac's, and I chose mine accordingly.  Since we had the top and bottom different colors, I painted it on his foot.  A few tips, paint everywhere, even if you have high arches.  Try not to paint the entire toe is you want there to be differentiation between the foot and the toes (so that it actually looks like a foot).

Eli doing his feet. The paint doesn't really drip, but be sure to put down a drop cloth in case you accidentally step or lose your balance.  Then you won't be mad at yourself for getting paint on the carpet.

Isaac got to hang out in the laundry basket.  I put a blanket in so he was more comfortable and propped him up in the corner.  We did the project just before bath time and put him in a sleeper sack.  It was the easiest way to disrobe him when it was his turn, and we only had to rinse his feet before his bath.

I did my feet before we did Isaac's to make sure that mine would fit.  His were little and could go anywhere.  We got a little too much paint on his toes, oops.  It does take two because he wanted to pull his feet up so it took one of us to hold him, and the other to help him make a foot print.

 

You can see it after we all had our turn.  We decided there wasn't enough room between our feet, so we put Isaac's in the middle above.  Below is a closer picture.  In case you didn't notice, Isaac's colors are those created by mixing Eli's and mine.  I choose green on top to make Isaac's a darker green when mixed with blue because Eli and I didn't want to have the same color and we didn't want one of Isaac's to be purple.

I took a sharpie and drew in the bodies.  The size and shape were determined by the amount of space between our feet and the way out feet were shaped.  After I wrote "Happy Mother's Day 2012" and signed it. Sorry, didn't get a picture of that.  This project was easy enough, but I just don't have any ideas for this year.  Isaac is old enough to resist to make these projects more difficult, but not quite old enough to understand directions to participate.  I might think of doing a paint project with him if it was warm enough outside, but we got snow this morning so that probably won't work.

 

I'd gladly listen to suggestions and feel free to use this idea! Next week (with luck) will be another back up project before I get too busy.  Once travel hits, posts will be scarce but I should have some great pictures to share after at least a few weddings!

Stretching Shoes Part 2

So, I said I was going to post about an alternate way of stretching out those tall, cute shoes.  Well, I had planned on doing that last week and guess what?! I was busy getting ready for Easter and Eli and I got the flu...at different times.  Isaac hasn't gotten it yet, so I'm hoping he doesn't catch it.  It only lasted a few days for Eli, and about 4 for me.  Isaac is the only one of us that got a flu shot, hopefully that will be a good thing.
Anyways, this way of stretching really is better if you only need to stretch it out a little.  I used it after I had let my shoes sit for a few days and they shrunk a bit.  It is handy because if something does happen, you can do it again.  You will need a pair of socks, your shoes, and a hair dryer.  I used regular socks because I didn't need to stretch them too much, but thicker socks can be used.

You will wear your socks and use the blow dryer to heat the area that needs to be stretched out.

 

Below I point out the area that I concentrated on (and Isaac helps :)).  I mainly needed to work on the toe area, so that is where I concentrated.  I know from experience that the heels tend to stretch out more and fairly easily on there own, so I didn't want to focus on them too much.  You will heat them until the fabric is pretty warm, in order to help loosen the fibers.

 



 

You will want to wear them around with the socks on until the fabric has cooled down.  I sat for a portion of the time since I was playing with Isaac, but I just made sure to wiggle my toes every once in a while.  The fibers will be loosened slightly from the heat and the socks will help stretch them with a little extra room.  Don't they look gorgeous with socks?

 

 

You can see that the top part of the shoe ended up being a little too loose.  It hadn't been too much of an issue but it was also too close to the area I was concentrating on to avoid heating it.  Since this area was too loose, it allowed my foot to slide down in the shoe slightly.  This, of course, then caused my heel to be loose.  

I added an insole that only fits under the ball of my foot.  In my experience this works better than the full foot insole because it fits in the shoe better.  The full shoe insoles I have had in the past, haven't fit in the shoe where they should have nor where I needed them.

 

You can see the insole I used, and the approximate placement.  Since it is clear, I know it is difficult to see where exactly it is.  These I have used before, so the sticky backs weren't sticky any longer.  I plan on just using a little bit of double stick tape to solve that problem.

You can see that once I added the insole, my shoes were no longer loose.  My feet do get hot walking around in these shoes, thus slipping and causing issues.  I plan on just using baby powder to combat that.  Every once in a while it feels as though my heel slips a bit, I'll test to see if just using the baby powder to keep my feet dry and slip free will work.  If this doesn't work, I will test another theory.

 

Theory: If a heel is loose, wrapping a rubber band around it to pull it closer together and using the

hair dryer to heat it.  I'm thinking that since the heat loosens the fibers to be stretched out, it should loosen the fibers and the rubber band should pull them in tighter.  If you have any loose heels and test this theory, let me know how it goes.

 

Well, that is all for now...I'm hoping to post about our trip to Helena, and a one of my long over-due topics next week.  Starting in May, we'll be pretty busy so posts will get scattered.