{31 Days} Chalkboard Wine Glasses

Note:  Due to some unforeseen family illnesses, I am having to play catch-up on my 31 days challenge! Thank you for reading!

Day 13: Chalkboard Wine Glasses

Speaking of chalkboard, while I was working on my chalkboard coffee mugs, I decided to finally get around to another DIY pin of mine- chalkboard wine glasses!

When David and I registered for our wedding, we must have planned on having large dinner parties with lots of wine. We registered for two of the box sets of not expensive but still good wine glasses.  I decided to dress up our "extra" set with the chalkboard paint! I first tried the dip method but ran in to problems when I turned them upside down to dry. The paint was very thick and even after tapping and twisting, the excess paint ran down the stem of the glass. I was able to clean them up and decided that I would just sponge brush on a couple of thin layers of paint to eliminate this problem. I set the glasses upside down to dry.

I let the paint dry for a full 24 hours and then tested them out. The glasses are great but it seems my chalk might be a little tough to write with!!

I can't wait to have our next dinner party and use our new glasses! I just need to find a good piece of chalk!

13 down! 18 to go!!

{31 Days} Cork Spheres

Day 3: Cork Spheres

When one enjoys a glass of wine as much as I do, one is left with a collection of corks! David and I traveled to Philadelphia a couple of years ago and inspiration hit while we were shopping around in Anthropologie. The designers had created large cork spheres and had them hanging in the windows.

Since then, I have been wanting to make a much smaller sphere for our home. To start this project, I collected a lot of corks, a styrofoam ball, and hot glue. I painted the styrofoam light yellow thinking it would blend in with the corks. Not so much....  If I could do it again, I think I might use a dark brown.

I started by gluing a circle of corks around the sphere...

and then a second...

and then a third...

I then filled each quarter with corks. I noticed there were a couple of holes so I cut a few of my fake corks in half and filled in the gaps.

and there ya go! Cork Sphere!!

This project takes more corks than you would think! But I think it is a perfect accessory to sit on top of my wine bar!

Three Down! 28 to go!!

{Date Night} May

Here I am middle of June and just realized I never shared with y'all our May date from our Date Basket!

As you know, David and I have enjoyed visiting a few of the wineries on the Piney Woods Wine Trail. Every year in Mount Vernon, Texas, a wine festival is held around the town square where each winery sets up a booth and you can sample all the wines in one place. I thought this would be a great chance to try out all of the wineries on the trail and decide if they were worth a longer road trip to visit their vineyards.

In his envelope (which I forgot to take a picture of) I included the info sheet describing the date, maps on how to get to the downtown square and information on a few of the wineries I wanted to try.

15 wineries set up inside the square and about 20 vendors selling everything from pepper grills to carved wooden wine stops set up around the edge. We had a good time and tasted a lot of wine- most of which we didn't care for. We soon figured out the best winery is the one that's closest to us and we have visited a few times! So overall, this trip saved us some gas money and a few weekends!!

Be sure to check out our other dates- we have our June date coming up this weekend!

Pinterest Party Planning

How did anyone ever plan a party without Pinterest? I know that it can be done but with all the great ideas out there, it sure helps get the plan together faster!

For the Couple's Shower we hosted this past weekend, Pinterest was my best friend. We wanted a fun and colorful but still rustic theme for the shower. Something not too girly and a little touch of masculine so the guys would feel at home. We decided on a color scheme of turquoise, green and coral and a camping/picnic-y feel with the decor. Here are a few projects that I found on Pinterest to help pull our party together-

I saw Jenn's adorable scrappy garland and knew that I wanted to make one but didn't know where until planning the party. It was just the rustic pop of color we needed over the photo booth and around the s'mores table.

Jenn has a great tutorial that I followed. I got a little carried away at cutting fabric and had enough to make two! I used different shades of muslin, a plaid shirt and green t-shirt from the thrift store, and a coral dish towel to get the look I was going for.

To showcase some snapshots of the two of them, I created a picture collage frame (like Kirsten's) out of an old frame I picked up at a flea market.I painted the frame a pretty mint color and then strung twine around the nails that were already in place around the frame. We attached the photos with mini clothespins.

Fossil.Life.Style has a tutorial for these cute twiggy candle holders.

I first tried to do this project without reading the tutorial and used hot glue (because hot glue is supposed to work on everything, right?) to adhere the sticks to the glass candle holders. I would get half way around the holder and the sticks would all fall off- dried glue and all. Then I read the tutorial and found out that E6000 is the trick. It was a little bit of a pain because E6000 doesn't dry quickly and the sticks slid all over the place but now that it s dry- these sticks aren't going anywhere!!

For Emily's guest book, I found a large, unfinished, wooden "M" at Canton a month or so ago, and I painted each side with a flat white paint. We had her guests sign on the back with colorful sharpies. The front is left white and she can put it up in her house like this pin from the Handmade Home suggests.

The guests also added funny memories in to the buckets for "things Clint should know about Emily" and "things Emily should know about Clint". I found this pin and thought all of their friends would enjoy sharing a few secrets. Emily said they had a great time reading through all the slips of paper that night after the shower.

I knew from the beginning I wanted a ton of fresh flowers around the space. For a bright pop of color, I decided to use this inspiration and create paint-dipped mason jars. I mixed up a coral and mint color and swirled the bottoms of the jars in the paint. I made sure to get it somewhat thick so the paint would run after I turned it upside down to dry. These are so easy and inexpensive and really add a pop to what would normally just be a clear vase.

These jars have been on my Pinterest for forever! I love the floating candles and raffia. If you do this- be sure to buy the heart shaped floating candles from Hobby Lobby. The larger round ones I think are too big to fit through the jar.

My favorite project of the night- Wine Bottle Tiki Torches (I got this amazing idea here with this great tutorial). I have an huge supply of empty wine bottles and I now have a use for them! Everyone loved them and I plan on making a few more as gifts and for our lake house. The cost per bottle runs about $6 so not a bad investment if you are looking to get rid of a few pesky mosquitoes!

I'm happy to finally cross a few projects off my to-do Pinterest list! It feels good to get some things done!! do you have any fun summer projects on your to-do list?



Linking Up with: Link Up With Me, Liz Marie