Hello there,
I'm Christine.
I’m so excited to share a new item we have in our shop! (A large portion of that excitement is probably due to a caffeine overdose this morning.) BUT the other portion is from the fact that we finished a design for custom Save the Dates, which is now on sale at the shop. Check them out if you’re planning on sending some out or if you just want to take a peek.
It’s a bit late, but I’ve finally gotten around to posting about our trip to Alaska:
For the past three years, we’ve spent Christmas and New Years with my mom in Alaska. Having been there three times before during the winter, you’d think I would have seen snow fall…a ton, however, that wasn’t the case. I had only seen snow fall once - it was very light and it was right as I was leaving for the airport to go back home. It’s a very depressing story, I know.
This year, however, when we stepped out of the Ted Stevens International Airport our nose hairs immediately started freezing and it was snowing! I was so giddy.
When we got home from the airport, my mom and I ran around in the snow. As you can probably tell, I was very excited. 
Christmas Day:
I got my brother and Ian snoflings as a stocking stuffer. These things allow you to make snowballs and throw them really far without ever touching the snow. I was trying to encourage the classic snow ball fight that usually occurs between Ian and my brother every year. I ended up playing with it more than them. 
We ate lunch at my mom’s restaurant, Wasabi Garden, and went to church for Christmas service.
We also made some delicious eggnog from scratch. It was taking way too long to cool in the fridge (37ºF), so we ended up leaving it outside (1ºF) because it was 36 degrees cooler. Crazy!
The next day, my siblings, Ian and I went snowshoeing at the Eagle River Nature Center in Chugach State Park with our rented snowshoes from REI. It was a beautiful yet painful hike because of the cold 0ºF weather that we hadn’t yet acclimated to.
It was so cold, that our hair and eyelashes were freezing - making it difficult to blink. 
For our ceremony backdrop, we had seafoam, gray and pale red fabric streamers.
For the fabric, I used an old white bedsheet and bought a few white flat sheets from IKEA for only $3.99 each - way cheaper than buying fabric.
I used Jacquared iDye in Silver Grey to dye one of the sheets gray by following the simple instructions for the washing machine.
The seafoam and pale red dye were a bit tougher, because I wasn’t able to find specific dyes for these colors. So, I bought a small bottle of liquid dye called Jacquard Dye-na-Flow in Emerald Green (seafoam) and Salmon (pale red). For each of the colors, I filled a 5 gallon bucket with a couple tablespoons of the dye, added water and tested the dye with a small strip of the bedsheet. I added more water and/or dye until I got the color I desired and dunked the whole sheet inside the bucket and swished it around until the it was an even color.
I took them out of the bucket, wrung the sheets and hung them to dry. The pale red came out more pink then red, but by that time it was over 90˙F out and I was too hot and lazy to fix it.
After the sheets were dry, I ironed them and cut them up into strips about 3 inches wide (this step was the most painstaking part of the project).
Lastly, I tied them in random order to some thick jute I found at a craft store and then we stapled the ends to the bark of the trees. 
(last photo by Stone Crandall Photography)
Now, back to the wedding…
For our second round of engagement pictures (first one is here), we went to Ames Bookstore in Grass Valley, CA. This bookstore is absolutely amazing. If you ever find yourself in the area - you need to go here.
They have tons and tons of used books in every genre imaginable. 
I got my vintage ~1950s dress on Etsy. 
Carol here, guest posting on one of the DIYs we did for the New Year’s Eve party.
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With the new year and all the January organization and shelving sales, I was determined to organize the office loft in my apartment. I received a shelving unit the week before our party and the best part, besides being able to organize my closet, was the large cardboard box it came in.
When Christine arrived the morning of the party, we stared at the box, wondering how we could reuse it to create an amazing piece of decor.
Materials:
1. Lay your cardboard box out and tape to create a rectangle. 
2. Using double-sided tape, tape the gold fringe to the cardboard, starting at the bottom and moving up. Instead of doing straight rows (which could end up looking like thatching for a tiki-themed party), we laid out the fringe in diagonals and overlapped short and long pieces to create texture and dimension.
4. We ended up using three picture frame hooks which we just punched into the top of the cardboard and used fishing line to hang from nails on the patio roof.
The end result:
This DIY is kind of a no-brainer - but I’m going to explain it anyways. 
DIY Gold Mason Jar
Materials:
1. Place the mason jar upside down on some newspaper or packing paper and spray paint the jar in a back and forth fashion about 10 inches away (follow directions on your spray paint). 
2. Let dry.
3. Fill with utensils, flowers, or make swizzle sticks…
DIY Gold Swizzle Sticks
Materials:
1. Glue a poof to the top of the stick. Done!
Materials:
1. Lay newspapers/recycled packing paper on the ground in your work area and place all the bases onto the paper. 
2. Spray paint one base at a time in a back and forth fashion and immediately sprinkle the base with glitter so it sticks without having to use spray adhesive. It’d be easier to do this with a friend. 
3. Let them dry for a couple hours.
4. Shake off the excess glitter. 
5. Fill with your drink of choice and add a swizzle stick (DIY coming up).
For our small New Year’s shebang, I made a gold belt to go with my simple navy dress to give it some pizazz. 
Here’s a quick tutorial:
Materials:
1. Cut a 5.5” piece of ribbon.
2. Fold the sides inward so it measures about 2.5”. Sew the ends to the middle of the bow so you have two loops.
3. Cut two 1.75” pieces of ribbon. At the end of each piece, cut a small triangle shape. Sew the two pieces to the back of the ribbon you made in Step 2 (see picture).
4. Cut a 1.25” piece of ribbon and wrap it around the middle of the bow to hide the stitching in the front. Sew it to itself in the back to close it off. 
5. Cut a piece of ribbon long enough to go around your waist + 2” extra. Sew the bow to the piece of ribbon where you want the bow to be along your waist - keeping in mind that the two ends of the ribbon will meet in the back. 
It took about 20 minutes to make. I wrapped it around my waist and closed it off with a safety pin in the back.
Since we spent the holidays in Alaska, our 2011 NYE festivities were a bit less glamourous than usual. We had already planned a trip to LA to visit family, so my sister and I decided to add a small New Year’s bash to the agenda.
We flew in last Saturday morning and made plans to have the party that same evening. Amazingly, we made the decor and the food in less than 8 hours. It turned out to be a smash and we spent less than $30 on the decorations. DIY posts coming up!
The menu consisted of small bites and holiday punch by Mrs. Lilien. 
I’m excited to announce that we’ve changed the name to Wood & Grain and the site has been completely redesigned…it’s about time! And it’s all thanks to husband and his mad skills. Get ready for some more crafty goodness and bits and pieces of our lives.
