Etched Wine Glasses

So I mentioned in passing about the wedding present I made for my brother- and sister-in-law's wedding. And what was that present, you ask?
Wine glasses!

But not just any wine glasses: etched wine glasses.


I am nuts about glass etching, from multiple picture frames, to the coasters, to the baby jars. I also love anything monogramed, so I figured a nice minor present (to accompany the actual present -- I'm not nearly arrogant enough to think something I make would be good enough to be a stand alone present) would be wine glasses with their new set of initials etched onto the side.



Like my other etching projects, I whipped out my:
contact paper,
cutting board,
Scotch tape,
exacto knife, and
etching cream.

I also purchased 4 wine glasses: two to practice on; two to make as the gift.


First, the practice glasses. After cutting up a small rectangle of contact paper and taping it contact-paper-side up onto the cutting board, I sketched out (since, as we've already established, am not too keen on stencils) my first initial. Even though I hate stencils, I still needed some guidance. So I opened up Word and found a found I loved and used that as my inspiration.


The cutting portion was the most stressful. The weaving was fairly ornate, especially compared to the other designs I've cut from contact paper. On top of it, I had to save the center portions of the letters A (my first initial) and R (my second initial) -- which meant I couldn't mess up on cutting out the triangle that makes the center portion of A and the half-oval that makes the letter R.


Thank God my husband's name starts with the letter I.


Pasting the contact paper on was also stressful. Everything needed to be centered and straight. And I had to put the triangle/half-oval back in place (without those, I'd just have etched blocks that resemble letters). I found that the easiest way to get contact paper onto wine glasses is to start in the middle and work my way out. That meant I pressed down on the "R" portion of the contact paper and smoothed outwards, pressing down the contact paper so that no bubbles or ripples formed. And, once I got this done, I got to do it all over again with the second practice wine glass.


After the most stress-inducing part was done, I covered the rest of the wine glasses in contact paper. With all that work, the last thing I wanted to do was ruin the glasses by having the etching cream slide onto the back of the glass. On top of that, I sealed the border between the two pieces of contact paper with tape. I covered the base with contact paper as well, just to be safe.


I saved the partition that the wine glasses came with to hold the glasses in place while I slathered on the etching cream. By the time I finished the second glass, the cream from the first glass was already sliding downward, so I'm very happy I protected the entire glass.


I let those puppies stay in the bathroom for a good 30 minutes. Then an additional 5 minutes just to be sure. Afterward, I thoroughly cleaned off all the etching cream, peeled off the contact paper and tape, and ran the wine glasses through the dishwasher.


Now that I knew what I was doing, I felt secure making the wedding present now. I also knew how big I should make the letters and how far apart I should space them.


So, again, I typed out their initials in Word and sketched them out on contact paper.


Now, joy upon joys, my sister-in-law-in-law's first initial is B. That meant saving two half-ovals on top of the half-oval in R. Again: joy upon joys.


Somehow, I didn't mess up the cutting portion and was ready to etch. As an extra-precautionary measure, I wrapped tissue paper and contact wrapper around the stem.


I'm psyched with how they turned out. I was expecting the practice glasses to fail horribly, the actual glasses to fail almost as horribly, and me to admit defeat. I had been wanting to do a project like this since I got my etching cream, but felt too inept to do it.

And somehow I pulled it off. I think.


And since my sister-in-law loves Tiffany & Co, guess what color tissue paper I got.


By some beautiful miracle, this made it to Florida in one piece. It helped that I had it in my carry-on luggage and treated the luggage like it could detonate at any moment. One bit of information I very much kept to myself going through TSA.

Blog Update -- Also Known As My First Post, Post-NaNoWriMo

So, first things first: my brother-in-law's wedding was absolutely gorgeous. The dress was incredible, the groom looked great (although he didn't look as good in the dress as the bride ;)). It was the type of fanfare you usually only see in a movie or read about in a book. You can read all about it (as well as the crazy events that lead up to the wedding) at my now-sister-in-law's (sister-in-law-in-law's?) wedding blog Posh Purpose.


We split the week we spent in Florida pretty evenly between helping out with the wedding and enjoying the wonderful weather. My husband charmed his way into upgrading our rental car from a midsized sedan to a convertible at no charge, which we took full advantage of (I think I'm still brushing out the tangles from having the top down so much.)


I got to make friends with the local wildlife, including a tiny lizard that had no qualms about diving out of my hands and onto the road.


The villa we stayed at was honestly second to none. From a condo that was easily 1.5 - 2 times bigger (and infinitely nicer-looking) than my apartment, to a heated pool and hot tub…


…To a boat dock that I got to do a little morning yoga on. There was a huge sign that said, "NO TRESPASSING" -- but who pays attention to those things, anyway? Plus, as I noticed, there were three units in use that weren't being rented out by my extended family. The rest were empty. As I saw it, who was going to complain about some tall girl on her mat doing dancer's pose?


And I surprised everyone around me by drinking my weight in sweet tea (twice I had someone say, verbatim, "A yank likes sweet tea?").



I was worried that the trip would completely, well, trip me up for the last week of NaNoWriMo. Turns out I was completely wrong. Between a nice, nonstop flight, and my propensity to wake up early when I don't have blackout curtains (turning the bedroom into a modern-day cave), I had plenty of time to write. I actually reached 50k a day before November 30th. I know it's a technicality, because I wrote 7000 words beforehand, but, given that my goal was to reach 37,000 words by the end of November, I'm pretty proud of myself. I took something that I decided to do on whim -- almost giving up before I started, since I had so much else on my plate -- and surpassed all my expectations.


I decided to challenge myself a little more and attempt 57,000 words (so 50k + the 7k I had already written) by December 2nd. This meant that I needed to keep up my writing pace, even on the wedding day (and somehow I got my 1000 words in the morning of!), and write like a fiend on the plane.


Which I did.


I'm now at around 60,000 words (and around 250 pages), and I refuse to let up on the 1000 words/day pace. I'm so ridiculously close to finishing this book that I can't let up. I just don't have it in me to put this back on the back burner and focus on other endeavors like before. Maybe it's just this book's time to come. It will be nice to say that I'm the author of two books (not including my bastard child that will never see the light of day without a proper gutting).


But I must admit: I can't wait until my book is finished and I can go back to the other things that take up my precious free time! For instance: my crafts. I finally found a great tutorial for making a quilt out of random fabric, and I've been dying to try it out.


Another thing I am now itching to try out actually came as a result of a little wedding SNAFU. My sister-in-law had ordered these great little cufflinks for her ring bearers, only to have them not arrive and the seller avoid all contact with her. This lead to a manhunt around town to find a suitable alternative. Long story short, I superglued from Star Wars mini figurines to cufflinks. My sister-in-law joked that I should start a business.


Many moons ago, I did, on whim, set up an Etsy account, on the off chance I'd ever make something worthy of being bought. And, given my extremely impulsive self, I've already purchased a bunch of cufflinks and some flat Lego pieces wholesale. (Considering everything was $30 total, I'm not too worried if this doesn't come to fruition. I've definitely impulse bought clothing that I ended up not liking for more than $30).


So stay tuned and potentially tell your friends: Trial & Error Creativity might be setting up shop soon, selling little boys'/novelty cufflinks! And maybe -- time and God willing -- whatever else I can make (or find at an antique shop) that other people could use!


As a craft update: my travel project has officially hit critical mass. Once I got my rhythm in printing out maps, there was no stopping me. This project had such a calming effect that I ended up leaving a stack of maps to backstitch, saved for days where I was really stressed out. They hang out in a corner of our bedroom right now, but, as I've said before, I can't wait to hang them up in a den or an office.


Now, I have never endorsed items before (frankly because I really saw no need to), but I need to tell you how wonderful this hair curler is. I have the straightest of straight hair -- and it holds no curl. Absolutely no curl. My friends have all tried. Hair stylists have all tried. I've had my hair so tightly and hotly curled that I had Shirley Temple ringlets, only to have them fall flat within minutes. But the Sultra Bombshell Cone Rod is incredible. I borrowed it on whim from my first sister-in-law (my brother's sister) and I was amazed.


I took this picture after a long day of picture taking, dancing outside in the humidity, and changing clothing. And my hair still has some body to it. This never happens. The curling iron can run you up about $130 but it's worth the investment!


So now that things have calmed down (somewhat), hopefully my blog can return back to its regularly scheduling broadcasting. I have a ridiculous backlog of crafts that I did over the past 4 or so months (and then just took forever to do write-ups for :)) that I can't wait to share with everyone -- including what I did for one of the wedding presents, but that's for a future post.

First Autumn Leaf Framing

Last September, my husband came up with the cutest idea: collect leaves that had fallen from the tree and seal them in wax paper, commemorating our first autumn together.


It was sweet, it was sentimental, it made me swoon and remind me why I hysterically repeated, "Yes!" before he could finish his proposal speech.


One thing I wasn't planning on? The utter cheapness of our wax paper. We tried and we tried. Iron for a little bit; iron for a lot. Essentially seer the edges. NOTHING worked. The wax paper kept falling apart. Although dejected, I told my husband how much I adored, at the very least, leaves from our first autumn, and placed the failed wax paper experiment on a shelf in my crafts room.


And then, around the same time I bought Mod Podge for the Save the
Date Flower Pot, I came up with my own cutest idea:


Why not use the decoupage glue and frame a few of those leaves?


For this, I needed: a 12 x 12 frame with an 8 x 8 matte, white cardstock, Mod Podge, a paintbrush, a sharpie or paint marker, and, of course, the leaves.


First, collect leaves with your new husband-to-be. Press/dry the leaves with wax paper with the "slick" side facing out (or, just buy really, really cheap wax paper). If you are doing this sans failed wax paper, I suggest pressing the leaves. The simplest way is to simply slip them under a large stack of books and leave them alone for a few days. At least, that's the simplest way for pressing flower petals. Let me know if that doesn't work for leaves.


I marked the inside corners of the matte on the cardstock, so I would know where to put the leaves. Just to double check, I would (gently!) place the matte over the leaves after arranging them on the cardstock.


Again, I reiterate: GENTLY! Remember that you are working with dried up leaves. Move them at your own risk.


Once everything was in place, I went to town with my Mod Podge. I put a solid layer of the glue on the cardstock, placed the leaves into place, and covered them with two layers of Mod Podge. The leaves were a bit temperamental, so I kept them in place that (gently!) pressing the paintbrush into the leaf until the glue started to dry, keeping the leaf in place.


I know I've talked about this before, but, honestly, where was decoupage glue when I was a Girl Scout? I would get berated for neurotically gluing my crafts, using way too much and smearing a solid layer of Elmer's glue on top of everything just to insure that everything would stay in place.


While the glue dried, I wrote "Our First Autumn…" on the matte with my paint marker(but, really, a Sharpie will do great as well) -- but not until I did a few trial runs of the phrase.


After everything was dried, it was all a matter of taping the cardstock to the back of the matte, and putting all the pieces of the frame together, and finding a place to hang it up.


My husband saw my project and immediately replied, "Another frame craft? Abby, this is an intervention." And, like the mature, educated woman I am, I replied with, "Well, you started it!"

That's what he gets for being sappy!

"Save the Date" Mod Podge Pots

I had promised myself I wouldn't touch my extra wedding stuff ever again. I mean, I had a mini meltdown over cutting up RSVP cards. But, given that I had stacks and stacks of old Save the Dates, I felt I was in the clear.


For this, I needed: Mod Podge, paintbrush, a flower pot, and enough Save the Dates/Registry Business Cards to choke a termite.


I first cut and tore as many Save the Dates/Registry Business Cards as I felt was necessary. Some cuts were random; others were more intentional (like cutting out the border on our Save the Dates, which I was saving for the top border of the pot). It was all about what designs I'd like to see on the pot (like the swirls from the business cards, or my husband's and my name).


And then -- I Mod-Podged! Using Mod Podge is incredibly simple. Remember those years in grade school when your teacher yelled at you for using too much glue on your projects? Mod Podge is the universe's apology. Paint a layer of the glue on a section of the pot, place the pieces down, and paint over the pieces of a layer or two of this wonderful decoupage glue.


Since the cards and Save the Dates were made of fairly thick cardstock (and were being glued onto a curved surface), I had to hold the pieces in place until the glue dried a little bit. This usually only took 10-15 seconds at the outside.


In the end, I did about two layers of decoupage, making sure every nook and cranny of the pot was covered.


As a bit of a centerpiece, I cut out one of the "Save the Date" diamonds and glued it to the center of the pot.


After gluing the first section of the pot, I focused on the border. This took a little more time as I was dealing with a narrow section and uneven pieces.


Since the decoupage didn't, in actuality, cover every nook and cranny, I got out a small paintbrush and painted the edges (as well as the top portion of the inside) of the pot white.


This was a great success. I wasn't teary-eyed over cutting up anything, and the results were terrific. I picked up a nice Hyacinth potted plant at Trader Joe's and adorned our window with the final result. Now the question is: how long until my cats knock it down?

"Box of Us" Anniversary Present

My anniversary trip was wonderful. Our very first trip together was a roadtrip to Niagara Falls and Toronto, so it was fitting that we went there to celebrate our first wedding anniversary. The best was that we were able to do things that we weren't able to do on our first trip (for example, the Hockey Hall of Fame and the top observation deck of the CN Tower were closed when we were in Toronto the first time around.) as well as some repeats of the stuff we loved the most (we went on Maid of the Mist twice this time around, just because).

So, as you can imagine, my gift for my husband was not as expensive or elaborate as my husband's, but it was just as sentimental.

After purchasing a grand total of two separate gifts that I decided were better off as birthday or Christmas presents, I decided to go full-out sentimental and create a memory box of our life together before we got engaged.

The items you'll personally need will vary greatly, as no two relationships are exactly alike, but one thing you will need is a big-ass box. Thankfully, we had a stack of collapsed moving boxes under our bed. You'll also need an entire roll of wrapping paper, ribbons, and tissue paper.

I first lined the bottom of the box with red tissue paper (as you can imagine, I continued my sentimental color coordination with our wedding colors).

Back when we lived in Boston, my husband and I loved going to the Stone Zoo. We'd get year passes and stop by on a weekly basis just to look at the river otters. So I "adopted" the Stone Zoo river Otter in my husband's name. Most zoos have a program where you can donate a certain amount of money to the zoo that will go to the upkeep and caregiving of a specific animal. The "adoption" pack came with a certificate, passes to the zoo, and a little stuffed otter.

One of the most endearing things my husband did when we first started dating was, when I mentioned on our second or third date that I loved the House series (which, back then, was only in its second or third season), my husband went and burned copies of the first two seasons onto his computer so we could watch the show together. As we got older, we acquired TV seasons through more legitimate ways, but we never purchased the first two seasons of House. What a better way to add to our collection, as well as my memory box?

We watched The Princess Bride on our very first date. It instantly became our movie of choice if we were undecided on what movie to watch. My husband hadn't read the book yet, so…

Our love of Shakespeare is another thing that brought us together. We'd go to Free Shakespeare on the Common every summer and attend any Shakespeare performance. I found this used book, which included our two favorite comedies to watch, as well as my husband's absolute favorite play (The Tempest).

As I mentioned before, road trips to New Hampshire defined our relationship for years. We always ended up stopping at a chocolate shop in essentially the middle of no where. This chocolatier also provided the favors for my wedding. And, much to my delight, you can order assortments online.

Long before I got engaged, I remember thinking to myself, "I kind of have no choice but to marry this guy. I'll never have a better 'how we met' story." Why? Because we met at a midnight showing of the Rocky Horror Picture Show. It was pure luck that there was an empty seat next to me, and my husband's group of friends were one more than the number of seats in a row. And, like the House seasons, we had a copy of the movie on my husband's computer, but no DVD in hand.

My husband and I adopted quite a few animals in our time together. I got two stuffed cats for our two cats Salem and Milo...

...As well as a slew of mouse cat toys to represent all the mice we've owned during a 4-year stint where we were all about rodents as pets (unfortunately, mice have a lifespan of about a year, which lead to the high number of total mice owned and the inevitable "let's not adopt animals that die right as you develop a bond with them" decision).

I also got gift cards to our favorite restaurants. These are also restaurants that hold incredible sentimental value (Fire & Ice was our second date/first "real date"). We have a wonderful history with Lanna Thai, and they actually hosted our rehearsal dinner. And you haven't lived until you see the antics that ensue when my husband and his family go to Olive Garden.

The back of these cards are the best place to write down any inside jokes.

I also found (genuine) old-fashioned postcards from all the trips we took before we got engaged.

My favorite is that I was able to get the same style for three of these. There was no old-school "Greetings from Toronto!" but a postcard from the 70s works just as well.

After arranging everything in the box (heaviest stuff first, followed by layers of tissue paper), I painted a little "Box of Us" sign on top of the box. I'm not exactly a master artist, but it at least got the point across (lest he opens the box and goes, "Eh…what?")

My final touch for the gift itself was the wrapping. Our favors (from Ava Marie Chocolates) was wrapped in an off-white box and blue/ruby ribbons with our names and dates.

After wrapping the box and tying the ribbon, I got out my paint marker and scrapbooking tape. I first taped the flat portion of the ribbon down to the box and carefully wrote our names and wedding date on the ribbon.

I hid the box in our second bedroom/library/crafts room, since he almost never ventures into there (especially with his nook and the advent of e-books), covered with a blanket.

I topped off the present with a homemade card. Personal, homemade cards are actually insanely easy to create. All you need is a 5 x 7 photo (or, really, any size photo), cardstock, and scrapbooking tape.

I taped the picture in one corner of the cardstock (with the bottom of the photo touching the edge of the cardstock) and trimmed the paper down vertically. I carefully folded the cardstock until the fold came to about a centimeter away from the photo and trimmed the paper horizontally.

Then, all that was left was to write something inside of it.

Instead of making an envelope, I looped a ribbon around a paper clip and one of the gift's ribbons. I clipped a corner of the card onto the paper clip and called it a day.

The only drawback is that my husband and I both agree that we have no idea how to top ourselves for our second anniversary. I told him that I'll buy him a tricked out gamer laptop and we'll go on a trip to Barbados. Sounds perfectly reasonable, right?