DIY Party Bunting/Garland

I made a couple easy DIY decorations for the pre-wedding parties and I thought I'd share them.  For the bachelorette party, I made the pom garland and tissue scrap streamer.  For the shower, I made the photo bunting.  I forgot to take pictures when I was finished, so these are just some quick phone pictures.

POM GARLAND

These are pretty common.  I knew how to do the larger tissue poms, so I just made them smaller poms.

1. stack four sheets of tissue paper

2. cut to rectangles (about 6"x9")

3. start folding the shorter length accordion style

4. cut the ends to points and little grooves in the middle

5. use wire (I used twisty ties for some) or ribbon around the middle groove

6. tie to longer ribbon

7. 'fluff out' the pom

TISSUE PAPER STREAMER

This is super easy and pretty quick.  I don't recall seeing these anywhere before, but I've seen similar things for sewing paper together for table runners.

1. cut tissue paper into squares

2. messily stack 2-3 squares and start sewing

3. feed tissue paper into the machine making sure to mix up the colors

PHOTO BUNTING

I wanted to display old wedding photos of the parents and grandparents of the bride and groom so I thought this would be easy and cost effective.

1. turn photos black and white (I used iPhoto, but would have preferred Photoshop)

2. crop a far and close version of each

3. print of 4"x6" prints

4. cut off the ends of the photo to make a point (I just eyeballed it)

5. sew to ribbon 

I just eyeballed adding the photos to the ribbon.  I also folded the ribbon in half when sewing.  If I was making this again, I would just use a thinner ribbon and not fold over.

Life with Cora :: 4 months

It seems like Cora has grown the most in the last month.  She is getting so big and is really interacting with us and always reaching out to touch us or for cuddles.  We heard her hysterically laugh for the first time this month.  She sounds more old and wheezing, but it is beautiful.

She is 95th percentile in height and weight and our doctor says she is 'perfect'.... something we already knew.  She is so happy and content all of the time.

Cora always wants to be where the action is.  She never wants to nap if there is something going on and is always observing and taking in her environment.

Labor Day Weekend

It was a great three day weekend.  Friday evening was spent having dinner with my sister, her fiance, our cousin, and my little family.  Cora had fun playing with her second cousin.

Ben's brother was in town so he got to meet Cora and she loves him!  Ben got to spend a lot of time hanging out with his brother and family... and I got to enjoy some alone time.  This is probably the first time since the baby was born that I got to have a chunk of time alone at the apartment and have some me time.

I spent a lot of time watching Netflix.  I spent some time painting (can't share yet) while watching Netflix.  I also got to work some more on the baby quilt I'm making for Cora.  I started it probably 6-9 months ago and have been putting it off.  So. close. to. finishing!

On Monday, I finally joined the smart phone world foreal.  I've had a smart phones and no data plan, then a data plan and a kind of smart phone, but now I finally have a data plan and a smart phone.  I finally got to join my friends on Instagram (follow me here) and Snapchat.

Cora also turned four months old this weekend.  I'll share a couple photos later this week.