DIY Wine Labels: Will you be my Bridesmaid?

You know how much I love a good DIY, right? 

When our parents threw our engagement party last month,

I figured it would be the perfect time to ask my girls. 

Ok, MOST of them knew darn well they were bridesmaids since they had been waiting

almost 8 years for this day to come.. 

I knew I wanted to do something cute but I have EIGHT bridesmaids.

Yes, eight. So sending a singing telegram wasn't an option. 

The solution? 

DIY Personalized Wine Bottle Labels! 

You will need: 

Bottles of wine- preferably one for yourself

A JPEG image

A printing team at Staples that simply adores you

Twine

I found a couple photos on Etsy for inspiration and got to work:

via

via

First I found a chevron background that I could easily

copy and paste and open in my Paint program.

I recommend Photoshop but any program will work.

Then I grabbed pictures of myself with my girls via the ol' Facebook

and popped em right in the chevron image.

Bryan is a "regular," I guess you could say, at our local Staples,

so when I walked in wanting some sticker labels printed they were suuuper helpful.

I emailed them the images and they played around with them for a bit

until they were the right size for the labels that they had there in the store. 

Once they were printed, the rest was easy peasy. 

I ripped the original labels off the wine bottles and used rubbing alcohol

to remove the remnants and stuck the photo label right on there.

Wrapped some twine around the top and VOILA!

Customized wine labels!

The "Will you be my Bridesmaid?" cards from Flair Design 

were a cute extra touch too. 

End result? Happy girls! 

6 of my 8 girls- missing the 2 Texans! :) 

Best Friends Beach Weekend & a Cute DIY

I am onnnnnly about 2 months late

on wishing all of you best friends out there a HAPPY NATIONAL BEST FRIEND DAY!

Didn't know that day existed?

Public Service Announcement:

June 8th is National Best Friends Day

No sooner than we found out did we book our little BFF weekend

at Mom & Dad's beach condo in Treasure Island.

I'm sure the poor people of that little town didn't know 

it was National Best Friend day either.. 

until we showed up with our big mouthes, matching monogrammed koozies

and set up my Canon to snap a gazillion pics of us sitting on a beach.

Friday night we had tickets to see Band Perry where

we screamed sang at the top of our lungs and danced around with Bud Light tall boys.

You're welcome, everyone sitting behind us.

The typical boot shot:

Then we started our Saturday off with a couple of these babies on the beach:

And made sure that we flagged down a random to photograph us:

And then these little gems, compliments of Etsy:

Pictured above is us at our best attempt of being a good sport.

I mean what's a girl to do when you're just sitting at a restaurant,

minding your own business with your oysters and your

key lime martini and BAM! a balloon-making clown walks up and

INSISTS on making you a flashing balloon hat. Sure why not. 

So here's the DIY!

Not that my 7th-grade-history-teachin' best friend doesn't get ENOUGH 

gifts from her students, student's parents, other random faculty members, etc.. 

I saw this little pin on the ol Pinterest and decided it was a necessity for our beach weekend. 

What you ladies are lookin' at above is one little ball of Summer excitement:
a monogrammed Chevron koozie
some SPF
Skittles, duh
a brand spankin' new Cosmo
and a cute little beach towel
all wrapped up and ready for zee beach! :)

Not to go all sappy blogger on you but I don't think I could
do a best friend post without bragging about how amazing MY best friend is.
You know how some people say getting married before 25 is like
leaving the party before 10PM?
If you have never heard that analogy before, just disregard and continue reading...
I think there is SOME truth in that statement but not necessarily
in terms of marriage but in terms of who you are as a person.
As a 24-year-old woman (yes, I will continue to refer to myself
as that for another 3 1/2 weeks until I am officially 25) I can agree
that everyone goes through changes. Someone who you
thought you may have known may have grown up to be someone different.
Point being:
I don't have pictures pinned on my refrigerator of
Aly and I in diapers as babies and she wasn't necessarily
glued to my side throughout high school but she is my best friend and
there is no doubt in my mind that 15 years from now when we're both
married with kids, we will still be drinking wine and laughing like sixteen year olds,
face timing to see what the other thinks of an outfit, SHUSHed at bars because
we are just way too loud together and that, my friends, is a fabulous friendship. :)

In 4 short months we will be residents again of the SAME DAMN TOWN
and in March she will stand by my side as my maid of honor as I marry Bryan.
Although she is still blog-less, I feel like she makes appearances around these parts
quite often so I thought she deserved a formal introduction. :)

..and with that being said I will leave you with this DARLINNGGG
little Pinterest find..

Love you Al!

Oh, October

Ohhhh October is right.

We are oooficially into our second week in October and I'm not

feeling any less anxious :/ 

My girlfran Ash over at Life After the Aisle dedicated a post

to "countdowns," which I thought was cute so 

let's take a look at what is on my plate for October!

Yes, that says Lynyrd Skynyrd on the 26th.

Needless to say there's a ton going on here.

It's semi-exhausting just looking at it!

Also if you're curious as to why this blog is titled
"Corin Bakes"
because all I have been blogging about lately is Fall festivities
and weekend escapades- hang tight, friends!
I have been ripping my hair out super busy and
my time in the kitchen, or lack there of, has been slim.
*BUT*
look how much baking I will be doing over the course of October!
My breast cancer fundraiser event?? BAKING!
Work Pinterest party?? BAKING!
And I promise I will dedicate an entire post to Pumpkin Spice :)
So like I said- hang tight! I promise I will have more treats and recipes posts!

In the meannnn timmmeeee-
(is it annoying that I constantly drag out letters? I think so.)
it's time for the Weekend Update link up!

Friday we saw Taken 2, which was awesome.
I'm sorry but, Liam Neeson is a badass.
I wanted to see Frankenweenie :/
but Bryan refused. Saturday we headed back to Lake Weir
to watch the Gator game! We met up with my best friend
AND HER NEW BOYFRIEND- which just so happens
to be Bryan's bestfriend
at her brother's lake house. After cruising on the lake for a bit
we ended up at Ron Zook's lake house (long story..)
to watch the end of the game. Watching the Gators
win over LSU at Ron Zook's was a rather exciting story to tell, I would say!
Fun Fact: He drinks Natural Light.
Oh and horray for a SEMINOLE LOSS.
They have been overrated since Day One.
Gators are now ranked #4 BOOM.
Sunday Bry & Chris went fishin
so Tiffany & I went to brunch and shopped.
*Please note: Bryan does look like he's movin in for a smooch
in that last picture- but he is ACTUALLY trying to hide
his shaved face. 
He did that Friday afternoon and I don't want to talk about it.
I love a little facial hair and he went man-scaping crazy.
Ugghhhhh. :/

Anyway, gggoo link up & have a fab Monday! 

Fall Nostalgia :)) & My Best Friend the Seminole

Another throwwww backkk!

Recall me saying I was going to be posting about old events, etc
 to clean up my "Hostess" page ?

Well here's another. Last week marked the official start

of Fall- despite what Starbucks will tell you about the debut of Pumpkin Spice

being the official start. So I'm feeling a little nostalgic! 

Last year, my mom and I had the brilliant idea to host a massive,

rustic Thanksgiving dinner. 

Around mid-August to early September, random Fall decor

started to accrue in my parents' spare bedroom.

We had invited about 45 friends/family members over for Thanksgiving

so it's safe to say that, yes, Mom and I went a little over board. 

My mom wanted to have dinner outside (such a fab time of year) so she had

4 picnic tables made and we squeezed them all together in their 3-acre backyard.

I had a vision.

Burnt oranges, dark red, deep browns, decorative leaves, mason jars...

The end product?

I'd say we delivered on that.

Here is another side shot in case the first

does not it justice:

It was the sweetest thing- I literally felt like a pilgrim, even with my bottled bud light.

There's nothing like sitting down to Thanksgiving dinner

and being able to look left, look right and be able to

see the people that mean the most to you. 
hashtag happy :) 

Two of my girlfriends even drove back

home from Orlando with me (their families were out of state).

They obviously brought the necessities. 

Also note Haley bonding with Grandma

over her obnoxious Green Bay sweater... Wisconsin...

The girls stayed the weekend and we drove up

to Gainesville that Sat for the

Florida/Florida State game. 

(REALLY MISSING MY BLONDE HAIR IN THIS PIC WAAAAHHH)

If you haven't picked up on the fact that Bryan and I are Gator
fans, you're either a little on the blind side or you must have just joined us,
in which case welcome new friends. I am a Gator fan.
PRE-GAME PICTURE:

MID-GAME PICTURE:

What the hell, Florida?
Throw another pick why don't you.
The Gators lost last year but we still had a blast. 

ANNYWAAYYY- let me bring you back to present date!
Bry & I are getting ready to purchase our Florida/Florida State
tickets for this year's upcoming game.
We're making the trip to Tally that weekend and staying with
(Aly if you didn't know that, you do now) 
my best friend, right:

We've been trying to get up there for A WHILE NOW
but something keeps popping up every.stupid.weekend. 
LOVE YOU AL!  Kind of over September at this point... come onnn October & November! :):)

Where is my Bubble Bib necklace that I ordered
forever and a day ago? 

No, but seriously.

I was forced to purchase another statement necklace
from Francesca's to wear this Saturday for the UCF game!