My Inner Martha & L-O-V-E

In November of last year, one of my dearest and most fabulous friends got married. It was a wonderful celebration, full of tricky weather, and some of the most witty & creative people I've ever met. We had a ridiculous amount of fun, and I'm hoping that the bride & groom have a wedding party reunion every year (I suppose this is called an "anniversary") so we can recreate the magical fun that was had by all. (Did you catch that part, Alicia?) Before I continue, have a look at the darling, radiant couple, dancing a very saucy little tango at their reception. Also, you can't so much see this in the photo, but the beautiful bride literally had crystals dangling down her back. She really thought of everything, even back decor:

This was a very special wedding for both Dan & I. Not only did we get to leave The Kidlets behind with grandparents (our first weekend "away" in......oh gosh, years), but also Dan had the honor of performing the marriage ceremony, and I had the honor of being the Matron. Of honor. There was a lot of honoring going on.

Of course I wanted to gift them something special, but as the day got closer, I began to panic. Why hadn't I planned better, and thought of making them super unique, like a quilt (because I'm totally a quilter, remember?) months before? The registry items were rapidly dwindling, and nothing was exactly grabbing my attention. And then I came across an idea on Amy Butler's website. Well hello, gorgeous WALL ART!!! And then the crafting voices spoke to me. I will channel my inner Martha Stewart and craft them a wedding gift!

For those of you who just got uncomfortable with the thought of me crafting, I'll come right out and tell you (spoiler alert!) that it actually turned out fantastic! I could tell just by reading the pattern that not only could I actually pull this off, but I could also do so in a couple of days. And that's exactly how much time I had before it was time to hit the road for wedding weekend extravaganza. One of my charms is my ability to thrive on impending deadlines.

The first step was choosing the various fabrics I was going to use. Moment of truth: this step took me longer than all of the steps combined. Is there a medical diagnosis for people who cannot make decisions, especially in fabric stores? I walked around and pulled fabric bolts off the shelves and then walked away, around in a circle, back to pull off more bolts, then back to study the pattern for hours. It's really difficult to make such important decisions when in the presence of so much beauty. Sue me.

Ultimately I decided that almost half of my fabric choices would come from my own fabric stash at home, because they're the ones I liked best. Go figure!

Here, I've made a verbal and monetary commitment to the following fabrics, and thus began the unfolding of the Amy Butler "LOVE" wall art wedding gift. I love how happy each of the fabric choices are, and while they're a far cry from "match-y-match-y", they all go together so nicely:

Next it was time to print & cut out my pattern, tape it together, and assign fabric to each of the 4 "LOVE" letters. This was also one of those steps that took way longer than the entire project. Who knew cutting out letters was such a time commitment?:

Next, I cut out my letters and laid them out to make sure I was still in L-O-V-E with them. I was. Can you blame me? Have you ever seen such beauty in the form of letters?

Once I was able to finalize my letters, it was time to build the frame for the stretched canvas that would lay underneath the fabric background. I won't lie; this was one of those moments that a man sure comes in handy. And when I say "man", what I really mean is "man plus 2 kiddos", as this quickly became a family project. The family that crafts together, stays together! (right?!)

Any time Daddy pulls out the hammer, the kids flock to him.

 The look on Ben's face says it all: Isn't Daddy the greatest frame builder you've ever seen? And Ella's like, "This is more fun then I know what to do with, so I'll just sit here with my darling tummy and look cute."

The next step involved some tricky canvas stretching + stapling + background fabric stretching & stapling. But I didn't take pictures of that step, so just imagine me stressing out and trying to make my staples even and getting nervous that I was going to somehow break the beautiful frame that my husband had just assembled. Silly me- not even My Inner Martha could break that frame. Here's the finished product:

Up close & personal:

Cute, right? The Bride (who lives many hours & hours away) claims it now hangs in their bedroom, and this warms my heart a million times over. I hope it serves as a reminder to L-O-V-E each other every morning they wake up together.

Feel like making your own pretty wall art? Here's the free Amy Butler pattern for your creative crafting pleasure. Have fun-- and seriously, if I can do this, really a-n-y-o-n-e can. For reals.