Toilet sign _ DIY

Hi!

Today I had this idea for a toilet sign and thought I'd make a prototype. These two rotated exclamation marks resemble the boy and the girl. I made these easily and quickly out of Forex, which already has a red plastic film on one side. I decided to let the girl have a red dress and a white head and the boy a white body and a red head. I don't know if its been done before but I thought it was quite clever. Cute, aren't they? I wish we had better looking doors at home and this would look even better.

DIY _ Recycled paper mache lamp

I really love creating things to have in my home. Design my own clothes, furniture and other objects. If I'm able to make them by myself, all the better. I actually had no idea if this would actually work, but I decided to give it a go anyway.
This paper mache lamp is a great way to use old newspaper you have that would just be thrown out anyway. Paper mache is an easy technique that even children can learn how to do. In fact, making this lamp isn't very different from making a paper mache pinata!
The main difference is that the pieces of paper are cut up in small pieces rather than put on with strips. I wanted the lamp to have a rough "cement" like feeling. I wanted there to be a lot of texture and I also wanted the bottom opening of the lamp to be very uneven, almost like an egg shell.
Follow these steps in order to make a lamp of your own.
You will need:
- a ball or balloon (I used a yoga ball that has a diameter of 55cm)
- newspaper (it's hard to say exactly how much, but i filled a 15L bowl with torn up pieces
- 750g of white paper glue
- water
- Paint if you want it to be a certain colour.

Time required is approximately 4 hours plus waiting time (4 -5 days. Be patient, it needs to be really dry before painting it or you'll have to wait even longer). 

Newspaper in all colours, etc.

After the paper had soaked overnight I ripped the paper even more, making the pieces almost invisible, just a big mush.

I squeezed out most of the water before mixing the glue in. You need approximately 1/3 water and 2/3 white glue. 

The mush with the glue mixed into it.

I prepared my home with some plastic bags underneath so that the glue and water wouldn't drip straight down onto the floor. I also placed the ball on a bucket so that it would be more stable. If you're using a balloon you can hang it up. Remember that it gets rather heavy as you put more of the wet paper onto it, so make sure you tie it up well and that the balloon is strong enough.
I made one layer with paper strips in order to give it a slight base to put the paper mush onto. I will be painting the inside.

This is what it looked like when I started putting the newspaper mush onto the ball. It isn't as thick as it looks here, about 0,5-1cm.

Here it is before drying on the balcony. I added some keywords afterwards: Arte, Libri, teatro, architettura, cultura, ballare, etc.

A close up of the lamp. Note that I wanted it to look quite rough. You can easily smooth it all out as much as you want creating a very smooth surface. It's completely up to you.

I painted the inside turquoise (it seems darker than it is because the paint was still wet here). I LOVE the result!

Check it out! So cool! I'll put up photos soon when it is up. I have to get an electrician (neighbor) here to help me adjusting the light. We have a roof lamp now so the bulb is literally attached to the ceiling and I need it too hang down a bit in order to get the lamp at the right height. Yay. Can't wait!

Wedding dinner location _ Ristorante Al Forte _ Pastrengo

 We had our lovely wedding reception at Ristorante Al Forte in Pastrengo (VR). It's situated between Verona and the Garda Lake with views overlooking both. The restaurant is in an ancient fort from the 1850s. The internal rooms have beautiful brick arcs that give a warm and exclusive feeling. The external garden has a covered area allowing for dinners outdoors.
Our buffè was held in the outdoor garden which included a wide variety of cheeses, pies, hams, and other snacks as well as champagne to drink.
For the main courses we chose an indoor room that seats about 100 people. The room had direct and private access to the outdoor area. We had a lovely 3 course dinner inside and then we moved back outdoors for a cheese-buffe, lemon sorbet, cake and an open bar. The food was absolutely amazing! Everyone was asking for seconds despite the already generous portions.
The staff was extremely professional and you can tell that they're used to handling weddings. They have a brochure that lists all the things that they can offer, from personalized cakes, fireworks, a baby-sitter, dj, etc.
Despite I had many requirements (being the bridezilla that I was) they always did their best to fulfill them. I wanted everything to be the way I had invisioned when it came to decorations, flowers, cake design, etc.
I can highly recommend this location for your wedding in the area. Al Forte is a high quality restaurant that has everything you need. 

Wedding inspiration board

Inspiration boards are a good way of organizing your thoughts during the planning of your wedding. There are so many things out there to inspire you and one can imagine having the wedding in many ways. It's hard to actually narrow it all down and stick to a certain style. In fact in the beginning of my wedding planning my ideas were all over the place! In the end, I started realizing that there were certain elements that I had really fallen for and a specific style started to emerge.
The first thing we chose for the wedding was the wedding location, and after that we could start thinking of a specific vision that we wanted. The location for our civil wedding was the lovely Scaliger Castle in Malcesine on Lake Garda. Absolutely stunning, right on the lake, with a 180* view of the water and mountains.
I wanted a eco-friendly look, with many DIY elements. I hand-drew the invitation card together with one of Marco's best men, made all the table decorations myself, sew the flower girl dress(tutorial and result), made the ring pillow, made wedding program fans, a road sign with distances to where our guests had travelled to be there,  rice and lavender cones, designed my own wedding dress and had it made, had a song written for us by a good friend. So it was very personal!
To have a look at the final results of the decorations click here.  And for the wedding pictures as a whole (although not the official photos) check them out here.

This is the newer inspiration board that was made about 3-4 months before the wedding. Several things were still changed from this board but it is pretty similar to the final result.

This was the first inspiration board that I made before Marco even officially proposed! We had started talking about the wedding and this is what I envisioned. Not many of these details were actually used though. The skirt of the dress and the flowers remained the same, a location on the water (the country is different though), are the same.

The bridesmaids inspiration board can be seen here.