Hoopla

Happy Long Weekend!

Shannon — Fri, 18 May 2012 13:52:12 +0000

Hope your weekends are filled with a lot of this:

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And this:

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And maybe a little of this too:

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Unfortunately, Robin and I won’t be partaking in any of that…

Between getting birds removed from our laundry room vents (yes, you heard that right – little baby birds squawking and pooping in our our house) and Robin’s wedding DIYs (3 weeks left – AHHHHHHH!), we are up to our eyeballs in to-do’s.

Regardless of what we are doing, at least we aren’t working on Monday…HELLS YA!

Hope all your long weekends are fab!

-Shannon

What To Expect When You’re Expecting…

Shannon — Thu, 17 May 2012 17:39:44 +0000

No, not the tried, tested and true manual for all soon-to-be parents, the movie!!

I was lucky enough to be invited to a pre-screening of What To Expect When You’re Expecting last night and it was A-MAZING! I brought my sistas, Caitie and Allie, and we laughed (and cried) throughout the whole thing.

Have you seen the trailer? (I wanted to embed the photo in this post, but apparently that option has been disabled for every trailer! Silly YouTube!)

First Response (you know, the pregnancy planning products) sponsored the event, so there were lots of baby-making paraphernalia (not that I need them!) to be found before heading into movie.

These cookies didn’t last long

Elizabeth Banks’ character was easily the funniest pregnancy story of the bunch!

And the guest of honour, Dr. Dave Greenberg, who you may recognize from CityLine and The Mom Show!

Anywho, it was a grand old time. The movie opens officially on Friday and we all give it two thumbs up! Thanks First Response for the invite!

-Shannon

Mexican-Inspired Florals

Shannon — Wed, 16 May 2012 16:56:02 +0000

Once again, I am drawn to bright and colourful florals.

I found these ones this week on Ruffled. I’m going to let them speak for themselves…

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Damn my boring, purple, wedding colour palette!

Just joking, I loved you…but I am REALLY loving this!

Let’s all say a collective “HOORAY” because it’s mid-week – HOORAY!

-Shannon

Wish upon a tree!

Robin — Tue, 15 May 2012 15:39:05 +0000

The wish tree tradition has been around for centuries and it is celebrated in many different cultures. The most wonderful thing about these trees is that you can use them in any celebratory setting! Who doesn’t love and believe in wishes!

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Yoko Ono a couple years ago had done a few art installations of her interpretation of wish trees. She had created these pieces of art in a couple of different locations.

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When Jesse and I were in Japan a year and a half ago, we were lucky enough to have experienced many of the Japanese New Year’s traditions. One of the most memorable part of my trip was to receive my fortune for the year. I tied it tight onto a contraption with millions of others in hopes that it came true!! My fortune definitely had some interesting things to say.

It read “Just like flowers bloom on old branches, something happy will come. Your wishes will be realized. A sick person will recover. the lost article will be found. The person you are waiting for will come. building a new house and removal are good. Marriage and employment are all good.”

That year Jesse and I got engaged, we bought our first house and Shannon and I started Hoopla. Coincidence?

Wish trees are popping up all over the wedding scene lately. I really can’t think of anything nicer than the bride and groom going home with their hands full of wonderful well wishes and great fortune from everyone they love. Makes me all warm and fuzzy inside!

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With my wedding coming up I definitely have my interpretation of a wish tree. You will just have to wait and see what it’s going to look like!

25 more days……. So much to do, yet so little time!!

Happy Hoopla Tuesday.

-Robin

DIY Shower Invitations

Shannon — Mon, 14 May 2012 14:26:50 +0000

Hope everyone had a nice weekend and that all the Mommies were spoiled. I know I was, but I’ll get to that later!

In the meantime, I have been dying to share with you the invites I created for my sister, Caitie’s, upcoming wedding shower. I wanted to make sure everyone got them in the mail before I blogged about them.

So, the theme for the shower is “sparkly, gold and pink”, which is right up Caitie’s alley! I have some awesome ideas up my sleeve for the decor, but I really wanted to set the stage with the invites.

If you follow us on Facebook or Instragram, you may have noticed some pics of me in the beginning stages.

To meet the “sparkly gold” quota, I bought some sparkly gold paper at Michael’s, as well as a heart-shaped whole punch and went to town.

Next, I needed to inject some pink up in here!

Using Rit dye, I first dipped each invitation (60 of them!) into a light pink dye and let them dry.

Then, I dipped them again into a darker pink dye, but only about half way or so, so there was a bit of an ombre effect. I also tried to make sure the dip wasn’t in a straight line.

I created the copy, picked the font (Old Newspaper Types), printed them on my printer at home and stuck on the gold, sparkly heart with a hot glue gun.

Aren’t they pretty??

Wondering what the ‘hens and chicks’ reference is? Well, we are also incorporating succulents into the decor and a grouping of succulents are called ‘hens and chicks‘…plus, we thought it would be fun to refer to the guests as that

I’m super happy with them and even though they took a while, I would so make my own invites again!

Oh and remember I told you I was spoiled this weekend? Well, Aidan surprised me on Sunday morning with a painted nursery! He had done it the day before with his brother while I was out with my fam. I actually felt super bad because I had been giving him a hard time last week about how he didn’t care about the nursery because he refused to tell me when he was going to paint it…and low and behold, he had been planning this for weeks. Oopsies! It’s in a disaster state right now, but is in a lovely shade of Cloud White:

More updates coming soon!!

-Shannon

Saw & Loved This Week

Shannon — Fri, 11 May 2012 13:13:52 +0000

Roses, roses everywhere! How perfect for Mother’s Day!

#1 – We are loving this roses backdrop that we saw on A Fabulous Fete. Maybe we could do this one day at one of our shin-digs??

#2 – Roses draped off of chairs at a wedding? Gorg!

#3 – In the latest Reverie Magazine, we spotted these interesting centerpieces filled with, you guessed it, roses!

#4 – I can’t find the original web site for this photo, but it’s a “Bout Bar” (Boutonniere Bar) with paper roses for the boys at a wedding – how clever!

#5 – And last, but not least, I want to be invited to a party where I can be surrounded by beautiful florals and dance on the table in cute leggings and high heels! Haha!

What’s on tap for this weekend for Robin and I? Well, we are at the 1 month countdown for the wedding, so there’s LOTS of crafting to do. Plus, it’s Mother’s Day on Sunday. The fam and I are headed down to Trinity Bellwoods Park for a nice stroll and picnic!

Hope you have a wonderful weekend and to all you mothers out there, have a fantastic day all about you!

-Shannon