MOVING

Today's the day we start our adventure! We are officially moving today! We have been extremely busy finishing the basement and last minute projects. I will have to post those once we get to Kansas! So, we're off and ready to start our new chapter! Wish us luck and safe travels!

Real Photos of Shannon’s Bridal Headpiece

THEY CAME, THEY CAME!! I feel like a kid that sent off for something out of a cereal box and is checking the mail everyday ‘til it comes! Shannon just emailed me the photos of the bridal headpiece with it’s debut in Maui and I am thrilled!! (My friend Shannon asked me to make her a bridal headpiece to compliment her dress for her wedding a few months ago.) You can check out how I made it here. First of all, doesn’t she look stunning!! (just had to say what we all were thinking!!) To make this beauty I started with some vintage bling from a local antique store. We chose a set of square earrings and a shell-shaped clip. They both complimented the bling on her dress!

This is the picture text I sent to Shannon. I was in a local antique store and noticed these beauties and texted her a picture about what I was liking for her bridal headpiece! She drove right over and brought her dress so we could match it perfectly!! She chose the middle “shell-shaped” vintage shoe clip. It reminded her about where she was getting married….in Maui on the beach!! Lucky girl!!

She has been so kind as to let me show you guys some of the “real” photo’s from her wedding! Isn’t she gorgeous!! You two make a cute couple! I felt so blessed to be able to make a small part of their day special. I was thrilled she loved the handmade bridal headpiece as much as I did!!

One of the vintage square earring was used to be the center of the gorgeous flower! That left one of the earrings……what to do, what to do….SO, I surprised her with making a matching garter out of the other earring. She loved that too! I was excited to surprise her with something extra…she’s that great!

Thanks Shannon for sharing these BEAUTIFUL photos of your special day! I am thrilled to have made something that will be an heirloom piece for you!!! It just tickles me pink to see someone love something that I have put my heart and soul into! I am so blessed to call you friend! (She just took my girls pictures for their shared birthday and posted them on her blog) Go check them out!! shannonelizabethphoto.com She’s amazing!!

Blooming Rose Dresser

This dresser is the last client project I took on(before we move). She is now my cute babysitter and I wanted this dresser to be perfectly suited for her. We decided on a gray dresser so that it would go with her room and new bedding. She chose some new cream/white/grey blue bedding. I had the dresser painted this grey color (French linen) and was ready to just sand it to make it look a little older but, something else needed to be done…

and I came up with this monochromatic graphic blooming rose. (more about that later)

The original dresser. Cream/gold fabulousness….okay not really but, it did have great bones to start with!

I knew her original lamp wasn’t going to work anymore and I had seen a bubble lamp would be just perfect. I hopped over to Target and bought this beautiful glass bubble lamp with a graphic shade. I debated about whether to do a white/ivory shade and go “safe” but, I decided I loved the blue/green/grey color and it would work great with her bedding. Go bold, I decided!

I had a vision of a globe roses (or carnations) and a small glass something to hold her necklaces.

I was walking to the register in Target with the lamp and saw this cute sugar bowl. I loved it’s size and shape and knew it was going to be more than just a sugar bowl. It could hold her jewelry. (plus it was around $3…bonus!). The white flowers in the silver pot are actually from the dollar store of all places. I was hoping to find a small pewter vase and found this ceramic one instead. It was a cobalt blue color so I used some left over aluminum spray paint and painted it silver. I cut all of the stems to the exact same length which, when put in a vase, gives this globe or half circle look to the flowers. They definitely don’t look like dollar store flowers now….they’ve been upgraded!

This is the dresser all done with the pillow sham sitting on top that she let me borrow so I could color match.

I got this fabric image from a blog I happen to have stumbled upon and she had used it as inspiration to paint a bright hot pink, purple, green rose on a baby nursery’s dresser. As soon as I saw it….I envisioned it, not in bright colors but, in a monochromatic taupe, grey and cream colors for my client’s dresser. I now needed a projector to finish the project. With my 40% off coupon in hand, Hobby Lobby had the projector I needed.

I traced the image of a rose onto the dresser with a pencil. Then it was like my kids painting books of “paint by numbers”.

I painted the cream, then the grey inside color and lastly I used a darker brown/grey color for the middle of the rose. I added some of the annie sloan chalk paint to the hardware to keep them monochromatic with the dresser.

and this is how it turned out….two nap times and a lot of steady hand painting later! A beautiful Blooming Rose!

Finally the dresser was waxed in a clear annie sloan wax to protect this beauty!

My client came and picked up the Blooming Rose Dresser yesterday and it was priceless seeing her face. I felt like Santa Claus on Christmas. She absolutely loved it and it is perfect for her. She exudes the simple elegance that I hoped to portray in her dresser! Isn’t it pretty?

Maps, Suitcases…you would think I was ready for a trip…

No, I am not going anywhere yet, although a vacation is sounding pretty nice but, we aren’t yet…..at least not until next month( for those of you just joining us, my husband got into graduate school in the midwest and we will be moving there next month, so it’s really busy around here trying to get everything done and getting ready to go) Here is my buy of one of three vintage maps from a “LOT OF 3 Maps”. I found this set on public surplus and won the bid for a dollar!! I know…with the 10% charge or minimum of a $1…the lot of three cost me $2 total. Killer deal! The only problem was that the maps were in a town three hours away…Oops! The guy happened to be coming up my way two weeks later and we met up to get me the maps. So glad there are such nice people! Now….I just need to get them to my sister…another three hours away. Geez….it’s a good thing my brother will be swinging by this way and can take them to her this weekend! I guess…good things come to those who wait! Ha Ha The maps are totally worth it!

This is my sister’s aviator dresser. You can read about how I did this dresser here. Once this dresser was finished, I knew it would look awesome with a vintage map above it with a bright red plane. My sister bought a metal plane at Hobby Lobby last time she was out here and I went to Hobby Lobby yesterday in search of a projector (my next project) and saw that all metal was 50% off so, she had me buy her a yellow and a green one to go with her red plane. Perfection!

Now, other things that I have been up to…….I blogged about my girls birthday party and never posted a few of the projects I did to make their birthday a success! I found this vintage suitcase for $5 and just needed to change the color. It needed to be a happy yellow!

I just taped off the silver hardware so that it would still be it’s original metal color.

I love the yellow! It still makes me giddy looking at this party. It could also be that…. it was SUCH a fun party! We really enjoyed having our close family and friends over! Memorable party!

The other little project that I threw together is their yellow and aqua birthday banner. I used two Prima(that’s the brand) scrapbook albums that came with two white canvas, two pink canvas and two plexiglass pages, all with the edges already punched for a book. I used a polka dot to cover the pink and then used paint on one of the pink canvas’ because I wanted the girls names to be on the banner below and I was short one white canvas. I used supplies that I already had and if something was the wrong color well….I just used a little acrylic craft paint to add the right color I needed. It turned out beautiful and I have since used it in their birthday pictures in an orchard with a lace tent (now that’s a post for another day!).

During the day, the plexiglass really “popped” the letters. The happy yellow and aqua colors….I just LOVE!

So, I have been really busy lately…we are putting in a couple rooms in the basement so we can rent out our house while we are gone to graduate school and I’ve been working on my antique box cabinet(building it from scratch, which got glued/nailed last night…Yippee!) and working on a dresser for one of my clients! I am trying to keep caught up but, it seems to be harder than thought!

April Showers bring……Birthday Sisters

Both of my beautiful girls’ were born on the same day! They share their special day but also share a very special bond! Being that their birthday’s are in April, we….WE…ha ha, I should say I….my husband liked EVERY idea I came up…no help…so I choose the April Showers Theme. While brainstorming a title with my sister(on the phone…thanks Nichole) we came up with….April showers bring……May Flowers Birthday Sisters! Perfect for my two beautiful spring babies!

Blue umbrella’s were hung above each table while dripping jewel raindrops. It was raining happiness indoors for the perfect aqua and yellow birthday party!

A raining umbrella was the top of each table! The jewels sparkled just like water!

So pretty!

The apothecary jars were filled with everything delicious! Lemon drops, robin blue malt eggs, yellow and aqua sixlets, lemon heads, rock candy suckers and edible blue grass adorned with yellow peeps!

The clearance Easter aisle was perfect because I picked this edible blue grass and yellow chicks up, the day before the party for a quarter each! Score! They look spring in this vignette and not so much Easter!

We did two birthday cakes! Each daughter is special and had to have her own cake with her own number of candles! We definitely needed two cakes this year since the 1 year old would need a cake to smash! Every one year old needs their own cake to eat!

Everyone was so gracious to bring a topping for the Hawaiian Haystacks! I did the chicken sauce, some rice and the pineapple and every family brought two specific toppings! Grandma was awesome and brought the two salads! Thanks everyone for making this a wonderful meal!

The dangling jewels sparkled from cake plates, the umbrellas (of course) and the candy jars! It was beautiful eye candy!

The drink for the party was lemonade (easy choice since it’s deliciously yellow). And what better to go with a yellow drink but, aqua blue striped straws set in mason jars! Refreshing!

The strawberry shortcake bites were put on skewers with a whipped topping dipping sauce on the side!

There wasn’t any one wall that I could set up a tablescape so I had to decorate more than one table. I put the yellow/aqua candy table on the long farm table and the cakes(high up from little fingers) with the dinner items on the kitchen island.

Delicious food with two ruffled cakes placed as the centerpiece on a vintage yellow suitcase (painted for the occasion, of course).

Each table was dripping with a raining umbrella.

During the party, the umbrella’s created a fun, lively atmosphere. Happiness raining indoors!The apothecary jars filled with lemon drops, robin egg malt balls, rock candy, yellow/aqua sixlets, lemon heads and edible blue Easter grass with yellow peeps made for fun treats for the few who stayed after the party as the kids would come and decide which delicious treat to take outside to savor. It was bliss!

Sister Birthday Girls!! Sisters by chance….Friends by choice!! (My older daughter gives a kiss to her younger sister everyday when she gets in the car after school. She actually misses her while she is at school. Ahhh, LOVE those two!)

Yellow/Aqua colored Chocolate strawberries, Angel Food cake skewers with whipped cream dipping sauce. Donut holes (cheater way of making cake balls) with yellow and aqua drizzled chocolate.

My 1 year old LOVED eating her cake!!! She took the first taste of it with her finger and then it was ALL MOUTH! A huge bite of icing! So fun to watch her eat her cake! (Don’t worry, we didn’t let her eat that whole huge cake….just enough to make a mess and eat some yummy cake.

The birthday banner made from two scrapbook albums. You can see the extra holes across the top because that is supposed to be the edge that binds the album together. I used two albums and made a super cute banner in the colors of the party. Each album came with 2 white canvas pages, 2 plexi-glass pages, and then two pink canvas. I covered three of them in paper(the polka dot) and then painted one white to use with my daughter’s name! It worked perfectly and then I used supplies I had to decorate the banner!
I also made lemon poppy-seed bread in mini bundt pans so it would be a cute shape for the table. The lemony bread went perfect with the Hawaiian haystack’s we ate for dinner. So fresh!

Having my daughter’s birthday’s on the same day has been so fun! I can’t believe that I went into labor with both of them on my own, on the same day just six years apart. (I’ll have to remind them when they are older that they CHOSE it, ha ha) They just adore each other and share a very special bond! I was a truly magical birthday party…..and I will always remember how April Showers bring….May Flowers Birthday Sisters!!