diy - rifle paper co. inspired spring wreath

It's Thursday night & I can already tell you that the highlight of my week was Rifle Paper Co. iPhone cases making their big, long awaited debut via Cup of Jo's blog. Anna Rifle Bond & her designs can do no wrong - It's all solid gold!

Amelia & I decided to tackle a Rifle Paper Co. inspired wreath to help welcome spring to our homes. We followed the same idea as my Valentine's Day wreath... Keeping it simple with felt! With Amelia as my hand model & creative director, we documented our process. Step-by-step directions can be found at the bottom!

 

 

 

supplies:

felt

hot glue gun

multi-purpose wire

wire cutters

scissors

pencil (for tracing)

1. Pick out your favorite illustration - We LOVE the Spring Citrus Floral Print!

2. Once you have your inspiration piece picked, you can purchase your felt colors based on the print's elements.

3. Pick out the wreath elements that you want to feature from the Rifle Paper Co. design & label the felt per element. This helped us streamline our efforts & kept us from getting confused about which color was going where!

4. Measure your wire, shape & twist! We used approximately 3 ft. of wire. & picked an oval shape.

5. Start with your base element - Our base element was the large green leaf. Cut out your shape & make sure you have enough to cover the entire wire frame. 

6. To complete our large leaves & fruits, we used two colors to mimic the inspiration print. Consider this as you plan your felt colors & wreath elements!

7. Repeat this process for the other objects on the wreath! We freehanded the floral & fruit designs, cut them out & used the glue gun to assemble each piece.

8. Use your base elements to create any bunches featured in the photo - The wire we used is also pliable enough that you could attach separate pieces to create dimension. 

9. Assemble your wreath from the base up!

10. We used the back of the wreath to attach some of the bunches of buds.

11. Clean up those icky hot glue strings... Then step back & enjoy your Rifle Paper Co. inspired wreath for this beautiful spring!

This was certainly a little bit more involved than cutting out hearts, so we'd recommend breaking up the process over a few nights of Arrested Development on Netflix (because it's time to refresh before the new season/movie debut!). If you make a wreath, please post a picture on instagram or leave a link in the comments - We'd LOVE to see!

Thanks for being our inspiration, Rifle Paper Co.!

a day in d.c.

This is perhaps the saddest gathering of photos to ever attempt to represent a day-cation. EVER. It's true - I left our camera in the suitcase while we wandered around our nation's beautiful capitol, & the only thing making me feel better about that? The cherry blossoms hadn't bloomed yet. In fact, they bloomed the day after we left. Sooo...

Lack of cherry blossoms aside, it was a really perfect 24 hours of D.C. & my man, all to myself. I had given him tickets to see Noah Gundersen (one of his very favorites) at Jammin' Java in Vienna, so we made a little trip of it. We drove up on Easter Sunday & spent the night in the city... But not before listening to a seriously impressive amount of Broadway musicals while sitting in traffic on the way there.

Monday morning left us plenty of time for exploring the city, which I hadn't really spent much time in since I left George Mason & moved back home five years ago. But OH, how we love that place! It was so wonderful to be back. Except I never want to leave.

 ^ There's also like, zero pictures of Jared. But it's because I was too busy staring into his eyes. Seriously.  ^

 

 

 ^ We spent the morning wandering a meager 40 something blocks to Georgetown 

& had brunch at Baked & Wired ^

 ^ & of course, had to stop in at Anthropologie, 

right after tracking down the restaurant we ate at the night we got engaged. ^

 

 ^ Obligatory stop at Sprinkles. Le duh. ^

 ^ & then we took these pictures from the car, as we realized on the way to take pictures of the cherry blossoms at the Washington Monument that there was 1. not a cherry blossom in sight & 2. a LOT of spring break traffic. ONWARD, HO! ^

 ^ We got to stop by Manassas & caught up with Amelia, Andrew & Logan. But it's sort of not a trip to Northern VA without a stop to Tony's Pizza, a college favorite. (Favorite is an understatement.) ^

^ I mean, seriously. So. Freaking. Good. IT HAD BEEN TOO LONG, MY PINEAPPLED FRIEND. ^

 ^ & then we all spent the evening listening to the sweet music of Denison Whitmer & Noah Gundersen. ^

It was a seriously exhausting, seriously wonderful day. You can't beat uninterrupted time with the man you love in the city where you fell in love. Add in some sweet friends, bangin' pizza & perfect tunes? Let's go back. Seriously, let's go back. We kinda want to stay there forever. Maaaaybe a little more than kinda.

We love ya, DC.

DIY - marble-ous easter eggs

I have what some would probably call a childlike obsession with dyeing eggs at Easter. I remain unashamed, because there aren't very many "crafts" that are this easy, colorful, & delicious. We took a marbled approach this year, & it was basically as easy as all the Pinterest links said it would be... Shocking, right? (You can see our dip-dyed eggs from last year here.)

  

>> We started with a base color, using this blending guide. >> With five bowls of color (orange, pink, yellow, grass green, lime green), we split the eggs up into five groups. >> Placing one egg in each color, we left our first batch in for nearly 12 minutes to get a deep color. Keep checking that first batch to make sure your shells aren't eroding! >> From there, we reduced the length of time that the eggs spent in the dye by 2 minutes...ish (12, 8, 6, 4, & 1 minute). Doing this created a nice, even gradient of colors. >> Once all the colors are done (& you've taken pictures, obvi), add about a 1/2 cup of oil to the bowls of dye. We used olive oil, because to me, it seemed to be the densest oil. But that's just my opinion & I have zero scientific fact to back that up. >> Drop one egg at a time into the dye bowl. We learned that if you just drop it in, you obviously are going to get more dye coverage. If you use a fork to whisk up the oil a bit, it will spread the oil out, creating a more intricate pattern. >> We waited until this step to create a blue & a purple dye, which I would highly recommend. It's just a game of creativity from there. Marble one egg in multiple colors! Add more dye for more vibrant colors! Get cahhh-razzzy! >> But, also be willing to think in reverse - To keep a pastel egg light, whisk your dye A LOT before dropping it in. >> When you pull the eggs out, there will be oil. Lots of oil. Let them dry before you wipe them off! >> & voila! You have beautiful marbled eggs! Now take more pictures, then crack 'em open & get them deviled up! Yummm. 

easter sunday!

Well, hey there, ya'll! Last week somehow became an avoid-eye-contact-with-the-blogger-bookmark kind of week. It's funny how those sneak up. & speaking of sneaking up, Easter popped up really quickly! It was a jam packed weekend, & I have lots (LOTS) of pictures to make up for the blog silence. 

My family takes our Easter Sunday photos pretty seriously. For the last few years, it's been the family photo-op, & the color scheme planning has gotten ser-i-ous. It was downpouring aaaaall morning this Easter, so my parents' back patio replaced the typical outdoor scenery. Even with the added humidity from the rain, it was actually a perfect backdrop. So, without further ado... The Essmann Family Photo Sesh, 2013. (With some Sunday Best hiding out in the middle.)

^ Yeah, my parents are adorable. But let's talk about mom's SHOES. Blim-blam. ^

 

 ^ Voted best picture, 2013 - The Golden Doodle Photo Bomb ^

 

^ I ask her to be my light test & she does this. OH, OKAY. ^

 

 ^ Added a baby to this year's picture of The Girls ^

 ^ This dog loves having her picture taken. Like, she's smiling. ^

HIS

jacket - moss // shirt - j. crew // chambray bowtie - tie bar // pocket sqare - h&m // pants - uo // loafers - thrifted

HERS

shirt - h&m // skirt - t.j. maxx // heels - old navy // barrette - h&m + hot glue + ribbon

^ This part is so sad after all the work that goes into egg dye-ing ^

 ^ But then you make Sour Cream + Bacon Deviled Eggs & it's not so sad anymore ^

^ Then you get cocky & make Roasted Garlic + Chive Deviled Eggs & you're like, "What is sad?"

 ^ Mama's pretty table. ^

& we'll talk some more about those dyed eggs tomorrow. I'd also like to disclaimer that my hair is not actually THAT red, although it turns copper every single freaking time I try to go even the slightest bit darker. But gray skies & reflected light & blahhh blah blahhhh.

Gosh, this post is a little all over the place. It's a lot all over the place. But I'm watching a Cardinals game (HEYYYY BASEBALL SEASON!!!) over the top of my laptop, & then focusing the rest of my attention on not stealing cheese off of Jared's snack plate. #willpower #yearofthebridesmaid #butaaaallIwaaaaantischeeeeeeeeese