non-knitting bridal shower craftiness

I feel like I haven't been knitting as much lately. There are a variety of reasons, but basically things are just very busy for me right now, so I have a bunch of other things sucking up my knitting time. Since I don't have much knitting progress to post, I decided to break my self-imposed rule of only posting knitting content (I'm sure it's a slippery slope from here on out) and show you some of the bridal shower craftiness I've been working on!

One of my dearest friends is having a sweets-themed bridal shower and since I'm much less likely to do irreparable damage with a glue gun than with a cooking utensil, I quickly volunteered to do the centerpieces and favors. I was a little stumped at first with the theme, so thank goodness for Martha Stewart! Or rather, thank goodness for the minions who work in her design department. Either way, these projects came out so stinkin' cute I can hardly stand it! I got together with one of the other bridesmaids (another dear friend) and we had a girly, crafty evening, whipping up monogrammed cookies and candy topiaries. Both projects were very easy and kinda corny, but quite lovely, just the same.

The idea for the monogrammed cookies was stolen directly from Martha's website. Now, I'm no Betty Crocker, so we used premade sugar cookie dough and cut out the cookies with a flower shaped cookie cutter. I got a flat-tipped icing applicator thingy (see? NOT Betty Crocker!) to do the lettering with chocolate icing. I was glad the bride's new last name didn't begin with a more complicated letter! After the icing had set, I popped them into cellophane bags, used twist-ties to close the bags and attach the "Thank You" tags we stamped, and finished them off with bows. We made the cookies a couple weeks in advance, so they are currently residing in my freezer.

For the topiaries, I began by painting the dowels white, and painting the flower pots with geometric patterns, using white and off-white acrylic paint, accented with metallic gold. I jammed some florist's foam in the bottom (I had to trim it to fit with a serrated knife), stuck a 12" dowel into a 4" styrofoam ball, and then slapped the ball/dowel apparatus into the pot. Thinking that I wanted the centerpieces to be ultimately edible, I pinned the foil-wrapped candies into the styrofoam ball using straight pins, but in retrospect, I probably could have hot-glued them without corrupting the candy too much. I tied a wide ribbon and a narrower ribbon at the top of each dowel, and covered the florist's foam in the pot with the leftover candies. I used a lot more candy than I thought I would for the three topiaries. I actually made two trips to the grocery store to pick the pinks and reds out of the bins. I think it took about 4-6 pounds, total.

In the midst of all this I realized that I must have a penchant for corny, themed bridal showers. Last spring I threw a Mad Hatter Tea Party for my sister's shower (photos below). It was a lovely affair, complete with flamboyant homemade hats. I don't know that I'll ever top that soiree (it was a good one!) but I hope this bride enjoys her sweets shower!