Candy Buffet Favors

Ever since I heard of the idea of having a candy buffet for guests to pick out sweets of their choice and take home as favors, I thought it was a unique idea. Our candy buffet will be designed in our wedding colors: black, white, & tiffany blue, from the candy jar labels to the favor boxes (chinese take-out containers), to the candy itself. Also, we will have a sign on the candy buffet table which says, "Love is Sweet". So, I pulled some photos from various wedding websites, incl. http://theknot.com/ & http://projectwedding.com/, to help illustrate the idea.

Our favor containers are decorated with our monogram sticker and black ribbon: stickers purchased at http://labelsbythesheet.com/ and printed at home; chinese take-out containers purchased at http://efavormart.com/.

The candy jars were purchased at http://amazon.com/, Michael's, & Hobby Lobby. They are glass jars and containers of all different sizes and shapes. The jars will have labels on them with the name of the candy inside. They will look like this, only in our colors:

For candy you can purchase by color, a great site is http://candywarehouse.com/. The buffet itself will look a bit like these:

Finally, I purchased scoops for the buffet at http://scoops-scoops.com/.

Easy Drop Earrings to Give Bridesmaids

Fun & simple, I found these in The DIY Bride by Khris Cochran, a book chock full of fun projects for the big day. My bridesmaids are all gettting totes, personalized with fabric paint, filled with goodies. These easy drop earrings are going in the totes as well as some other stuff. Each earring set only costs about a dollar to make, too!

What you'll need:

-2 ear hooks (in your choice of metal)

-2 headpins (3-4" in length)

-2 pretty beads, medium to large-size

-2 metallic spacers (a bit smaller than the beads)

-2 faux pearls (also, a bit smaller than the beads)

-wire cutters

-round-nosed jewelry pliers

Super-easy instructions:

1.) Place one bead on the headpin, then the spacer, then the pearl.

2.) With the flat end of the headpin pointing down, hold the pin at the top of the pearl with your pliers as close to the pearl as possible.

3.) Use pliers to bend the pin to a 90 degree angle. Trim the end of the pin with wire cutters to about 8 mm or so.

4.) Repeat steps one and two for the second earring.

5.) With the end of the 8mm of the headpin squeezed between your pliers, tun the pliers half a turn to form a half-open loop.

6.) Insert the half-open loop through the circular connector piece of the ear hook, close the loop with the pliers...TADA!

I'll Miss You, Daddy

I've been on hiatus from blog-writing since my father got sick and then passed away on April 1st. He was a good, kind, generous man and he will be greatly missed! Here's the obituary:

Schmidt, Donald P.
April 6, 2010 Dr. Donald P. Schmidt 87, Indianapolis, died April 1, 2010. He was born February 16, 1923 to Harry H. and Carol R. (Combs) Schmidt in Tacoma, WA. He was raised in Seattle, "God's county", as he referred to it. He was WWII veteran of the U.S. Army. He served in the Pacific and received a bronze star. He was a clinical psychologist for over 40 years and enjoyed making a difference in people's lives in private practice and in community mental health centers throughout the U.S. He received the Diplomate in Clinical Psychology from the American Board of Clinical Psychology and taught psychology at the University of South Florida (1968-1971) and Illinois State University (1971-1978). He was a board member (1983-1989) and president (1987-1988) of the Grant Co. Mental Health Assoc., Marion, IN and founder and director of the Combat Veteran Treatment Program at the VA Hospital in Marion, IN. He also served as a consultant for DVA Vietnam Vets Outreach Center, Indianapolis (1989-1994). Don was preceded in death by his daughter, Carol Gravlin; and brother, Harry "Bud" Schmidt. He is survived by his wife, Wanda K. Schmidt; daughters, Sue Nolan, Beth Voigt, and Katie Schmidt; and son, Brian Schmidt; five grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. Services: 1 p.m. with calling at noon on Saturday, April 10 at Flanner and Buchanan Funeral Center- Washington Park East, Indianapolis. Memorial contributions may be made to the Alzheimer's Association at http:alz.org or VNS Hospice at http:vnsi.org.