Photo-a-Day Christmas Advent Calendar

This month we are challenging ourselves and our DIT&O friends to take a photo a day leading up to Christmas and post it to Instagram.  To remind us each day to take the photo, here is a diy paper chain you can make and hang in your home!   When you look back at your Instagram profile you will have 25 pictures to remind you of your festivities leading up to Christmas.   So we can easily see all of the photos shared in the challenge hashtag your photo with #DITOadvent! 

There are hundreds of ideas for advent calendars online.  We challenged ourselves to think of something a little different and new.  Instagram is such a good way to track your own history– the other day I went through all of my pictures and it reminded me of the past two years.  (My first picture was of Buzz).  I even came across the photo-a-day challenge I started in September but sadly never finished (it's hard to keep up!).   It's also interesting to see how your Instagram aesthetic changes over time, which filters you prefer from time to time, different apps you use (ie BeautifulMess, Afterlight, Frametastic, Pic Collage etc.).   

Download and print the 5 pages on alternating colors.  (Weight of paper is not really important, but I printed on cardstock)

Cut along the lines. 

Using washi tape, begin the chain starting at one.  Continue the chain, in order, looping the next strip through the previous loop.  

When your chain is completed loop ribbon or twine through the chain, to easily hang and display. 

Hang your advent chain!

Even better, everyday after you take each picture, tape the strip to the wall.  Each day, add each strip to the wall and build a tree.  I embellished with a star and gifts.

Don't forget to follow DIT&O on Instagram and hashtag your photos with #DITOadvent! 

The challenge begins on Sunday! Over Thanksgiving get prepared and make your advent chain! 

We hope you accept this challenge with us! It will be fun! 

DIT&O's Thanksgiving Playlist!

We're getting closer to Thanksgiving! I made a playlist for you all to enjoy this week & on the big day.

Hope you enjoy!

J & K Engagement Party Photos

Our engagement party was such a great night, and it left so much to look forward to.  We invited close family and the wedding party, that alone was 60 people.  It was hosted in our favorite backyard, my parents'.   It would not have been as amazing with out the help of all of our friends and family that contributed.    

food & drink 

John and I each had a signature cocktail.  La Dama, was a tequila cocktail, made with muddled cilantro and cucumber, and with lemon juice and a splash of lemonade.  El Catrin was a bourbon favorite: bourbon, ginger ale and a lime wedge.  Our friend Ian bartended and was great!   Our other beverages were canned Tecate and champagne for toasting. 

John's sister, Shannon made all of appetizers, inspired by John's favorite foods, in miniatures.  We had cocktail servers serving the mini size chicken and waffles, shrimp and chorizo quesadillas, and bbq, bacon & cheddar sliders.  It wouldn't be a party without cheese plates too.  

We had a dessert bar filled with Mexican candy and Mexican chocolate cake that Christina made.  

decorations & theme

I went pretty simple with a black and white theme cocktail party.  I kept it clean and simple with white lights and the "K" "J" marquee lights made with the help of this Oh Happy Day diy.  I also made tassles that were hung from big round balloons around the party, (no pictures snapped of them, sad).   I also made some food picks for the sliders that had little flags on them.  The bridesmaids helped to hang some black wheels, bought from Party City, from the patio.  

  

guest book & games 

We of course had a photo booth that all of our guests's enjoyed.  The guest book was a mad libs sheet, that I will provide as a printable.  We really enjoyed reading them the next day.

Our friend Chamberlain acted as MC for the night.  He started off by recognizing the couples that had been married the longest, shortest and the couple to be married next (our friends Efren & Miranda, married this past June) We played two truths-one lie and guess who's answer.  For "guess who's answer" Chamberlain asks the guests's to guess which one of us gave the response.  For example, he would say, "Who do you think said they're favorite cereal was Lucky Charms?" And the crowd would guess.  The games were so much fun everyone had a good time participating.  (Lucky Charms was John's answer) 

photosharing 

As I said in the set up post, Mike took the photos for us.  But we also wanted to have all of the cell phone pictures that friends took.  We used Tapshare, a photosharing app.  Guests join the album and upload their photos; anyone that joins the album can save the photos (unlike Instagram where you can only screen cap or having to text pictures to everyone)!  Our instagram hashtag #johnloveskarissa, that we will continue to use through the wedding, acts as a good way for us to see all of the pictures posted.    

I still have to share the invitation that I mailed and the mad libs printable!  

p.s. I loved my dress! I found it at Crossroads in West Hollywood and it was $15! 

Free Thanksgiving Printable

Hi Everyone!

Thanksgiving is just a week away, can you believe it?! Karissa & I have been brainstorming some DIT&Odetails to add to our holiday & today I'd like to share a printable with you. To be completely honest, my family does not really participate in the, "let's all discuss what we are thankful for." & I think it's time to change that! So I created this printable where you cut out the little rectangles & write down what you are thankful for. I suggest printing them on card stock and placing on the plate of each place setting. Hope you enjoy!

download here.

Tea & Social Craft Table

For our Tea & Social, we wanted to have a couple of simple DIYs for our guests to do.  Upon sign in, each guest received a list itinerary, name tag, and a 10 page plain notebook. Along with providing a basket full of washi tape for the journals (we handmade) we provided some stamps. This is the designlovefest make it project that we referenced. The second was painting bobby pins with nail polish.  

Our guests loved them both!  

photos by Dee Dee Richmond 

Vegan Mexican Chocolate Cake

I have been giving this cake recipe a lot hype throughout the blog, but it really deserves it! When I mentioned it in this post, Andrea expressed her interest in having for her birthday. Of course any reason is a great reason to make this cake. Not only is it delicious, but it's really easy to make. Apple sauce is used as the binding agent, instead of eggs, and I used almond milk instead of dairy milk. Sometimes vegan baking can seem like a very daunting task & sometimes the ingredients are strange. Some see strange ingredients as an enjoyable challenge & others don't want anything to do with it. I understand, I've been there! But thankfully this cake recipe is really simple with common ingredients! I've made this cake 4 times this year & will probably make it again next month!

 Please head over to Laika Magazine's blog & check it out!

Holiday Craftravaganza Details!

Hi Everyone!

Here's all of the info for our next event, our Holiday Crafravaganza! This beautiful postcard was created by Angel DeLoach. Thank you, Angel for doing such an amazing job.

If you have any questions about our upcoming event, feel free to leave a comment below! 

Love,

J & K Engagement Party Set-Up

On Saturday, December 15, 2012, John and I got engaged.   This month we will celebrate our 9 year anniversary together and next year, we will celebrate our 10 year anniversary with our friends and family on our wedding day. 

 I will be cataloging our adventure to the wedding date here on DIT&O with Christina because she is my Maid of Honor! 

Because we opted for a long engagement, and we wanted to celebrate, my parent's hosted an engagement party this past April.  It was a team effort with help from my parent's, John's parent's, my amazing, future sisters-in-law, their husbands, and the bridesmaids.  

In this post I share some photos of the set up, captured by Mike, my future brother-in-law who is married to John's sister Arlana.  

There is so much more to share and I'm looking forward to it.  

–Karissa 

A view of the guest book, with Mad Lib sheets

The marquee letters I made

My parents' backyard 

Christina made that Mexican chocolate cake with a "KJ" made with hot tamales. 

Shannon working on the appetizers. 

A candid of my mom and I. 

The Brothers-in-law, Mike and Robert 

I kept asking John to shower & get ready, I got this look

Cat's Meow Designs & Ashley Lynn Richards Photography

When deciding on what I wanted to do for my graduation announcements back in May, I initially went to Zazzle.com. I decided on what I wanted to order & was about to place my order but before I took the plunge I got some advice from Keith's mom. She expressed to me that companies overcharge for things that can be easily made yourself. That got the ball rolling.

I spoke with my dear friend & graphic designer, Caitlin, about designing my announcement and she was more than happy to help. I sent her my inspiration, from Pinterest of course & she designed exactly what I wanted! I printed them on card stock & had them cut.

I also spoke to my sister, Ashley about senior photos. She's a photographer by trade so I knew they would be great. The photos look as if they were taken in a studio, but in fact they were taken in front of my garage! We taped some wrapping paper to the garage door and the natural light was perfect. It was completely Ashley's idea to make the photos into a photo booth strip. I loved the unique spin on senior photos. 

I will never regret having my announcements designed by Caitlin and photos taken by Ashley. Their outlook on this project really made it special. If you ever need any design work done you can find Caitlin at her website http://catsmeowdesigns.blogspot.com/ Ashely's online portfolio can be found here http://ashleylynnrichards.tumblr.com/ where she specializes in portrait photography. 

Thank you so much for your help ladies!

- Christina

@city_loveee