Sarah's Wedding Bouquet

My friend Sarah's wedding came around pretty quickly because her fiance (now husband) is getting deployed in the spring. The ceremony was only immediate family and a few friends so she didn't want to go all out this time since they are going to have a bigger reception when he's back from overseas. So flashback to my Eco-Friendly Bouquet post, and the issue of what flowers to get was solved.

Now I can honestly say that I understand why you might pay $300+ for someone else on Etsy to create one of these bouquets for you, because it was a ton of work - and I didn't even help her to the final product! The day we started the project we probably spent 5-6 hours on it and only go to this point:

Though I feel like half the reason it took so much time was because we were trying to recreate something from a photo, and there was a lot of trial and error. Here's what some of the struggles were:

• Trying to figure out what size squares to use to get a certain sized flower
• Cutting out all the squares of magazine paper - The wedding colors were white, black and red so we were trying to cut squares with only those colors on them. Also we didn't have a paper cutter so every one was by hand
• Figuring out what size Styrofoam ball to use as the center. The original one was way too big , but we lucked out because when we tried to carve down the big ball there were 2 smaller ones inside!
• Arranging the actual flowers, they kind popped up on the sticks so you had to keep on pushing them down

Sarah ended up finishing the project with her mom, gluing black rhinestones to the exposed skewer end and adding floral tape and ribbon. It came out slightly larger and rounder than expected, but I'm pretty sure that's due to the spherical center. They also made boutineers! Check it out:

I don't know what the final cost was, but I do know it's way under $300 if you're willing to do the work youself. Another good thing about these flowers is that you don't need to dry them to save them as a keepsake!

~emy

Eco-Friendly Bouquets

So I'm definitely into browsing Etsy.com when I get bored because I want to see what pretty or weird things all of those crafters out there are creating. Recently I found these awesome eco-friendly bouquets made out of origami flowers - done by Whether Paperworks. She actually uses antique books and magazines as one of her mediums. My personal favorite is this Tiffany's themed one:



It's really beautifully made, but being an arts-and-crafts kind if girl I had to figure out if I could potentially make one of these myself, or if it would be a hopeless endeavor (like me trying to knit). I pretty much had no idea where to start - but by browsing Etsy some more I discovered out the flowers are called kusudama and then found this tutorial from Folding Trees. And here's what I ended up with:




It's a little rough, but what do you expect with post-it notes and scotch tape? It was a lot easier than I thought it would be especially with the instructions - but I can still understand why people might charge do much for the final product because it can definitely take a lot of time cutting the paper and getting the folds crisp so it looks clean. But if you have the patience to do it yourself ( for a wedding to replace real flowers) you'll be saving the environment and money!

Also, on a side note, post-its are not perfectly square (what's with that?!?!) - that also made my kusudama messier.

~emy

Tech Time: Smoosh-able Batteries

So site that I've added to my Google Reader is Treehugger - and you might have gotten from the name but it's about being green, ecofriendly and so on. This is an older design they got from another site and posted recently and I thought it looked pretty cool. It's basically a battery that you can resize to fit any device that needs an AAA-D. The idea is that you don't need to keep all different kinds of batteries around, it's more all purpose and you won't be screwed when it's midnight your taxes are due the next day, you calculator is dead and you only have D batteries.

Thinking about it more it's not a super great:

1. You'd probably need to shove that thing into the battery spot before it expanded back, because memory foam doesn't keep its shape that long
2. It might pop out once you get it in
3. If it's a device where you "drop" the battery in, like a digital camera, you might never get that sucker out if it expands
4. Heat + Plastic Foam --> not so good things
5. It only has the power of an AA, so it probably wouldn't last long in a device needing D's
6. You would probably need a lot of them if you wanted to replace ALL the batteries in your house with them

It's definitely an interesting idea but not super realistic. Treehugger talks about a removeable foam sleeve- but that doesn't really solve the problem related to the heat the battery would endure. Maybe they just need to develop some kind of heat resistant eco-polymer to make a wrap out of? Or maybe we can just standardize battery size more...yea like that'll happen any time soon. Wishful thinking on my part

~emy

9th Post - Fast Food Boxes Saving the Environment

Once again I'm reading The Dieline and come across this cool new packaging idea for fast food.

What makes it awesome? Well I'll tell you:

1. It's made out of eco-friendly cardboard making it "green"
   
2. There are no adhesives that hold it together - it's just folded and hooked into itself
3. No leaks! A thin coat of polyethylene ensures this - unlike the non-coated containers or paper fast food is traditionally wrapped in
4. It's modular, so your dessert won't get mixed in with the main course
5. It's got a handle so you can tote it around

I believe this package is from a European design company, and I've actually seen something in London - except a lot simpler, meaning no handle, compartments or utensil holder. It would be really cool if it would catch on over here in the states, because it makes eating on public transportation easier. Instead of trying to juggle your wrapped up burger and fries in a bag, all the food is in this convenient tray.

The boxes remind of little purses too. I would if McDonald's etc could capitalize on the purse look and put the golden arches all over the box like how Louis Vuitton and Coach do with their bags. Food could be the next fashion accessory! I wouldn't mind that at all - YUM!

~emy