Andy's Idea Factory

As wedding season approaches and my wedding industry friends begin to hustle and bustle, I thought to share some of the Idea Factory lightbulbs from our own wedding in 2006. This will be a multi-part series of four topics: Prep, Gifts, Decor, and Honeymoon. Today's topic, PREP, is to help you get organized. Wedding planning is a long process with many facets, and doing it all on your own is daunting, so enlisting a good team and organizing your process is vital. We didn't enlist a wedding planner, but these tips can help you help your wedding planner too if you get one. Aside from the heavy duty first decisions like size, venue, band, and dress, you're going to have some smaller decisions that are just as important. There aren't many tricks to buckling down and making these decisions, so helping get the little ones sorted first will ease your mind. Here are three ideas to start... 1. Once you decide a location, you should send out your Save-The-Dates. We struggled ...

Re-Gift: something that you've gotten as a gift but either don't like, doesn't fit, or you won't ever use and you either put it in the Salvation Army pile or you (gasp!) throw it out. This touchy subject brings up several notions of "white elephant" and "gag" presents and Etiquette 101 from grandma. But you either regift or you don't, and if you do, here are some helpful tips to making sure you're not faux-pas-ing yourself into the BadGirl corner where you may never receive any gifts ever again! (Perish the thought!) I learned about regifting when I was a very small girl. As an only child, my gifts piled up after each holiday, and my "oh-so-thoughtful" mother started a wonderful ritual for me that I always assumed everyone did... after a big loot-earning holiday we'd assess my toy box. At about 2'x4'x2', there wasn't much room in this storage bench for all the toys. So before putting the new toys in there,...

A few weeks back I added two posts for making your own face products. Along that same home-factory-idea line is the typical bath salt. I laugh when I see them in the store for $15, when it's often only $1 of Epsom or Sea Salt and a few drops of essential oil, plus $10 of preservatives you DON'T want on your body! I making salt baths more regularly after a car accident several years ago that left my back in a pretty poor state of health. I was taking a pain-bath about 3-4x a week and it helped immensely. Now I take them for all sorts of reasons: relaxation, menstral cramps, headaches, chest colds, aching muscles, and psoriasis flare-ups. The salt is the base to this so let's start there! SALT First, all salts are sea salts either mined as rock or evaporated from the saline solution. Sea salt is sodium chloride, and is used in cooking and cosmetics. "Dead Sea Salt" is proven to have the highest content of body-healing minerals it it, from the Dead Sea. Table s...

This Idea stemmed from the realization that most people don't have time to read their entire camera manual, especially when the device works just fine with Power, Autoflash, and the Automatic setting. But making the most of your technology is the only way to make the most of your memories.... So let's dive into a few tips for you Photography Newbies. When I worked in the service industry and people would ask me to take their picture I'd chuckle and give them (and their camera) the once-over before saying Yes. Not because I thought to say No, but because a select few were open for a lesson, and some weren't. Without being sexist, I'll stop there; but suffice it to say most people don't read their instruction manual and yet it's such a powerful tool. You're probably one of those people whose camera takes amazing pictures MOST of the time. But occasionally it just doesn't and you don't know why. You set the dial to that green "Automatic...

1st Disclaimer: This isn't my idea. But it's a great one for a baby gift in hard economic times nonetheless, that is if you've got the crafty DIY gene like I inherited from mom! The link above is to the initial pattern I found online for a baby sling from KarmaBaby, but I'm here to make that process a little more easy on you. I had to enlist SuperMom for translation, so I'll take the liberty in assuming you won't quite understand KarmaBaby's pattern either... Let's get crackin'! You'll need: two yards of fabric of a slightly stretchy/giving cotton blend (she suggests 90% cotton/10% lycra, but my all-cotton worked fine). sewing machine and thread, this pattern's so easy a hand-held sewer will work, but don't translate that to "sew this by hand", that won't be quick or easy. Handhelds are just that, a small version of a sewing machine you hold in your hand. measuring tape sharp scissors 2nd Disclaimer: My images are with wh...

Seeing this Segway today made me think about all the things we've done to save on gas; not just during this past year, we've been trying to lessen our dependence on oil for years. It's hard, but possible. Let me share our top ideas along with this awesome video to get your idea wheels turning... .... this guy's brilliant, complete with his briefcase, likely traveling downtown to home after work on the mountain, judging from his direction. Segways are so much fun - IF used for transportation instead of an excuse not to walk. Gas might be only $1.80/g right now, but you can bet we'll see another spike again this summer. So on to the ideas- simple, green, or downright crazy, take your pick! 1. When I first got my Toyota Tacoma, I was a little guilty about the gas mileage. Though published (as usual) at a 18-22 city-hwy m/g rating, the Tacoma actually only got 15-18 when I started tracking my "Mountain Girl". After several months (6-10) of data gathering,...

I've had an acute, yet persistent cough for a week, and even though Ricola lozenges taste good and help slightly, they never help as much as Halls, and those don't fit into my natural lifestyle. After doing a little research & concocting, I came up with a splendid, absurdly inexpensive substitute. Don't suppress your cough, encourage speedy and healthy lung expecting, healing, and recovery with your own homemade honey lozenges. There are many herbs for soothing the throat such as slippery elm, mullein, horehound & licorice. I went with what was in the house and it worked great too. Step 1: Herbal Decoction & Water Base First boil down about 2 cups of filtered or distilled water with 1 Tbs thyme (not powdered), 1 Tbs rosemary, and stick of cinnamon. Measure about that amount or more for whatever herbs you use, better if grown and dried yourself. Simmer on low for 15-20 minutes with lid, occasionally stirring. Strain. Step 2: Lozenge syrup Combine 1 cup decoction ...