DIY Date Night Jar

I have a very sweet non wedding related DIY for you today! Since Jake and I have moved in together in January, we haven't really been on many date nights. So we decided that it would be good idea to have a jar of dates! :) When we want to go on a date, we just pick one and off we go!

I bought some multi coloured jumbo lollipop sticks off eBay for around £1, grabbed a Sharpie and a big cookie jar (stolen from my mom) and off I went!

I decided to colour code the "dates" into cost so we didn't end up picking out an expensive date of we didn't have a lot of spare cash. I used green as free, blue as £20, yellow as £40, orange as £60 and purple as £60+. The idea is that you can't spend any more than that colour allows.

                               

I sat down with my Sharpie and carefully (otherwise the ink would bleed) wrote on my ideas for each budget. The great thing about this DIY is that it's completely tailored to you as a couple. I put on things like, go dancing, go for a walk, road trip etc, but you might decide to put something like "go bungee jumping" which you wouldn't catch me doing if you paid me! It's completely up to you!

I had 2 things which I put for every colour. These were "bucket list" and "groupon". I have an app on my phone called '111 things' which is a bucket list, so if that gets pulled out we would just pick an item off the bucket list that falls within that budget. If we pull out "groupon" we would find a Groupon that is within the budget and do that! They offer a bit more surprise and variety than my imagination could :')

Hope you have fun doing this and let me know what dates you write down!

 

80s Make Up!

On a completely unweddingy topic, I went to an 80s themed birthday party last night. It took me a ridiculous amount of time to do my hair and make up but I absolutely loved it! I got up to get a drink half way through and when I came back I looked in the mirror and thought "you know what? I would totally wear this make up on a normal night!"

 

I wore false lashes which I never do! I am utterly hopeless at putting them on but luck was on my side last night and it only took 10 minutes ;)

 

I tried my best to get a picture which captured the proper colours but it doesn't really show just how bright they were :( The picture also doesn't show just how much blusher I'm wearing!

 

I originally put on a bright red lipstick but it looked a little bit odd so I switched it for more of a plummy one as I don't own a bright pink lipstick. I will have to add one to my collection!

Time for a trim!

So I finally decided it was about time to take some "serious" length off my hair. I have not had my hair cut by a professional for around 18 months! The horror! Haha, I am more than happy to trim my hair myself as my very first job was a Saturday girl in a hair dressers which made me relatively confident about the things I could get away with on my hair.

I trim my hair (and by trim I mean less than half an inch) once every 3-4 months or so but since I experimented with ombre I have noticed that my ends aren't in as good condition as before. So when I say "serious" I actually mean I only took around an inch off.

Let me tell you, to someone who is desperately trying to grow their hair to a deadline, this is A LOT! It killed me. But I had to tell myself it was for the best. After I cut it, I put some argon oil treatment in and whacked it up in a bun all ready for bed :) The argon oil left my hair a little greasy so I washed it and dried it and was very impressed with my straight cutting skills!

My hair now looks a lot thicker and I managed to get rid of pretty much all the split ends! I keep spotting a little one every now and then but I just snip it off with the nearest pair of scissors. Since I don't use too much heat on my hair I'm hoping to get away with 2 or 3 months till I next feel the need to trim it. I do want me hair to be in as good condition as possible until May to help it grow so I will be keeping a very close eye on it and giving it a lot more love and attention than I normally do!

Here is a pic showing my hair journey from when I got engaged (second picture) up until June this year :)

Weight Loss Check In

My weight loss journey started in May and so far I've lost 10lbs!

I want to lose another 11lbs for the wedding but since I have already bought my dress and it's at home, I will keep trying it on at regular intervals to make sure it still fits. If it looks like it will start to become too big for me then I will have to stop my weight loss. 

The biggest thing I have to credit for my weightloss is an app called MyFitnessPal.

I haven't necessarily been 'dieting' but MFP has made me more aware of how much I was eating and the number of calories in things! Did you know there are 405 calories in a tesco chocolate muffin!? I sure as hell didn''t!

I still have quite a lot of naughty things like Subway, McDonalds and takeaways but I have them less often and make better choices when I do.

It's also good to add friends on there as it's really encouraging when you've had a bad day and logging in to see peoples positive comments. If any would like to add me my username is: stacybee92

Here are a few motivational quotes for today :)

 

Blushing Budget Bride

So here's a quick update on the wedding so far. 

Me and Jake are getting married on the 30th May 2015. 

I have already got my dress, veil, shoes, chair covers and sashes, transport for me and the bridesmaids, church, reception venue, paid the honeymoon deposit, DJ, photographer, sent my save the dates and got a few bits and bobs for me to attempt some DIYs. How much have we spent so far? £1690.30! 

I want to bust the myth that a wedding has to cost a fortune. We have a modest budget (£5000 preferably including the honeymoon) but I don't want my wedding to feel in any way cheap or that it was done on such a small budget. 

Things we still have to sort? Food, drinks, invitations, bridesmaids dresses, shoes and accessories, groomsmen outfits, shoes and accessories, flowers, church and reception decorations, table centres, seating plans, hen and stag do and various other things I can't think of off the top of my head. 

One way we're trying to keep costs down is by DIYing as much as we can. 

Here is my first attempt at a DIY table centre:

I painted some glass bottles we had leftover and this is what I came up with! We have mirrored plates for them to stand on and miniature candles to be scattered around them but for a first attempt I think this came out brilliantly. Unfortunately, the flowers don't do this justice but they were the only ones I had lying around :')

I also have around 60 glass jars to do something with so I may very well end up going with those as centrepieces rather than the bottles as I think they will look more romantic. What do you think?

Pinterest is my absolute best friend at the moment as well as YouTube, Google and eBay!

I have my shoes and I have also bought some flatbacked pearls and craft glue. I will be attempting a DIY pearl shoe with (potentially) a jewelled 'I do' on the bottom :)

There'll be a post up soon on them as I have nearly finished pearling them so stay tuned!

 

Nice to meet you!

Well hello there! It's Stacy, by the way :)

I'm getting married in May 2015 and really loved the idea of documenting the entire process to give me some lovely memories a few years down the line. I am hoping to DIY as much as I can to help keep the cost down and make the day just that bit more personal. If I happen to help anybody else in the process then that's a bonus!

I will be posting all about my wedding - DIY's, budgeting tips, diet tips, hen night etc as well as the odd nail pic (I love doing my own nails!) and anything that may crop up.

Please feel free to leave me comments and any suggestions and I'll see what I can do!




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