A Kate Middleton Easter DIY

Dear friends,
sorry it's been so long. Chalk it up to winter, unemployment, laziness, lack of laziness, whatever you will. It's hard to get on and blog! Props to the many fantastic blogs out there who never let us down.
Anyway, perhaps it was a reunion of the JEM girls or the extra hour of sunshine in the afternoons, but I was just ITCHING for a DIY. Turns out, I had the perfect excuse to crack out the glue gun AND to purchase tacky, dusty silk flowers. Ladies and gentleman, I give you: The Easter Hat.
When my boyfriend's grandmother saw our Ugly Xmas sweaters on December 24th, she flipped. She couldn't get over the creativity, the hilarity of it all (clearly, she's not online). Only two of us had made ugly sweaters for the occasion, opting to surprise my in-laws rather than get them in on the fun, but everyone was eyeing our warm, cozy sweaters with eggnog-fueled jealousy. And then, Mrs. P came up with a brilliant idea: Easter hats.
The Easter hat is the ugly Christmas sweater of spring. Go for bows, bunny ears, grass/moss, flowers, flowers and MORE FLOWERS. You cannot lose.

from roaylwedding.hellomagazine.com

My original sketch was for a very dramatic bonnet inspired by Kate Middleton and the royal family's elaborate fascinators, but considering I got the flowers for $2 and the hat for free, I couldn't justify spending $4 on the tulle or lace for the veil I envisioned. Yes, I am poor. And YES, I am cheap. (Since being unemployed, I've even taken to cutting my own hair. And it doesn't even look bad!)

from lifeloveandlouis.blogspot.com

So if you want to surprise (or full-on stun) your relatives this re-birthday (death-day?) of Mr. (?) Christ, follow this step-by-step guide to a DIY Easter bonnet.
1. Assemble cheap materials. Get a free sunhat, strawhat, bowler hat or whatever you can scrounge up for free. I got extra lucky in that my free hat is light green, perfect for my springtime theme. You'll also need fake flowers (see Value Village), bunny ears, yellow chicks, plaster eggs and whatever other dollar store crap you want to throw on there. Also, hot glue. Loads and loads of hot glue.

 2. If necessary, cut back the flowers so that they are a workable size. Whatever you do, don't get cocky with the scissors and slice your left index as I did. I almost not blood on my hat!
3. Play around with the design; place things randomly until they look good. I tried my hat on once or twice during the process to see where I needed to add stuff.

4. Mostly, just cover up unsightly stems and go for fullness and depth. A lot of the leaves came in convenient branches of three, but I cut some of these into individual pieces to get a more unique, garden-like look.

5. Use every bit. I had some smaller buds leftover which I glue to bobby pins. Now when I'm feeling spring-ish I can wear those!

6. Go hog wild. Like Ugly Christmas Sweaters, I imagine Easter hats should be vivacious and loud, not subdued or stylish. I was going for a girly, garden theme, but I encourage you to make, salvage or up-cycle bunny ears, faux-chocolate rabbits, birds' nests, robins' eggs, straw, butterflies, book pages, bows, ribbons, burlap... the sky's the limit. I feel like my hat could use something more, but for now, this is my finished product:

All in all, it took about 20 minutes and half a pint of blood (haha). Definitely will add some fun to our holiday weekend. And now, I'm back to my mug of mint tea and Brian Jacques' Redwall. 

Gotta book it!

xoxo

JEM

The Least Lame List of Affordable Valentines Day Ideas Ever Written

You can tell how romantic I am based on the title of this blog. I’m sick of all the articles about “rekindling the romance” and the ideas are like rent a tandem bicycle or eat strawberries dipped in chocolate. No one does that shit. Plus, it's like -40 in Canada so no one really wants to do anything let alone fall off a two person bicycle into a snowbank. Like many recently graduated twenty-somethings we're on a bit of a budget this valentines day but refuse to miss out on any of the spontaneity or romance of the day.

If you can afford this you're in the wrong place
Source: We Heart It

Although we don't stand for this bullshit either
Source: We Heart It

Here at WTD we've decided to find the perfect combination of thoughtful and affordable, cute and creative: we decided to have a date night on a dime brainstorming session for our own benefit as much as yours this Valentines Day. I’m sure some of these ideas will be lame but in my opinion it’s almost impossible to write about Valentine’s Day without being lame. The consensus here at WTD is that Valentine’s Day isn’t about buying marked up chocolate and Hallmark cards however if you have someone you love you should probably do something this v-day because NOT making an effort says a lot more than making one does… if you catch my drift. Ladies and gents take note: we all agree  a simple love letter would have us swooning this Friday. So remember, cute trumps corny and a little gesture can go a long way. Feel free to weigh in on our free and low budget V-Day ideas in the comments or on twitter @jemcolborne.

Sentimental Gifts 

• a framed photo of the two of you
• print the photos from a trip - no one makes photo albums anymore
• a scrapbook
• a love letter
• a poem/song/short story
• a copy of their favourite book with an inscription from you inside

DIY & Crafty Gifts 

•  make a set of homemade mugs with quotes from his/her favourite book/movie/song 
•  make a cookbook (paper in a simple binder works) with all of your fave recipes
• a jar full of pieces of paper, each with a reason why you love them or a memory and they can pick one out of the jar every day or whenever they need it
• a jar full of popsicle sticks, each one with a different date idea on them for future dates:
  i. white popsicle sticks = inexpensive date nights (i.e. rom-com night, hot chocolate date night, dance to our fave album in the kitchen date night)
  ii. pink popsicle sticks = moderately expensive date nights (go out for dessert, go to a local hockey game etc)
  iii. red sticks = expensive dates (go to fancy restaurant, river cruise, museum etc) 
• buy that movie they've been dying to see that isn't on netflix yet and watch it at home!     

Food Gifts

• a jar of his/her favourite candy corn or homemade chex mex
• can you say Valentines Day baking: cookies, cupcakes, cake, squares…. mmmm
• a "spluge" food item from a gourmet shop
• despite the fact that I made a dig at it, you can never go wrong with chocolate (good chocolate, that is) try to pick out your s/o's favourite kind

 Out & About Gifts

• if you can't afford to go out for dinner this year go out for a drink before heading home for dinner; you'll get the enjoyment of going "out" without the bill at the end of the night
•  go for a nighttime walk (if you can - I know, the snowbanks are high) there's nothing more romantic than unfiltered conversation under a starry winter sky
• find a public skating rink. I realize this verges into "tandem bike" territory but skating is fun and wintry and oftentimes free!
• go into a store of your choice together and set a price limit. Buy each other the best gift you can "under pressure": it might end up perfectly or hilariously but either way no one overspends.
• go for coffee at a nice coffee shop (skip Timmies on v-day)

Oh and if you don't get what you want, or you're single? We have absolutely nothing against:

Source: We Heart It