This Is It!

Okay, I’m gonna start that dress today!  I have decided that the safest way to begin would be to make the bodice out of scrap fabric to get a good fit…………..

So……while taking a deep breath and deciding to take the plunge……

I’ve been doing a little rearranging.

I’ve rearranged the living room.

Brought the ottoman from the bedroom downstairs.

Brought this little table from the bedroom to the living room.

Made a new pillow for the sofa.

My new fav. project.  I painted an old trunk from my Mother’s white and stacked an old suitcase on top for a new side table.   I had the suitcase forever.  It was just hangin’ out waiting for the perfect place. 

I’m selling the table above.  There’s an awesome antique desk at my mother’s that I’ll be replacing it with.  This is an oblong dining table in my living room.  And it LOOKS like an oblong dining table in the living room!  So, as much as I love it, and I DO love it, it has to go.

It has wonderful crackle detailing.  I’m going to give it another protective coat on the top and then it will be ready.  If anyone is interested, it will be $225.00.  It’s in wonderful shape and beautiful.

Here are a couple more views of it.  If I don’t hear from anyone, it will be going to the Rink. 

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I almost forgot!  The wedding blog is up.  Not much on it right now, but it will grow as I proceed with my projects. You can find a pic. of the invitation there.  I did remove the local phone number from the bottom right hand side.  It just seemed a tad creepy to have it out there floating around blogland! 

Anywho……the button is on the upper right hand side of my side bar if you would like to visit our wedding blog! 

Have a wonderful day!

Denise

The Dress

Friday, Heather and I finalized shopping for her dress fabric.  Although everyone at the fabric store had been super helpful, we were fortunate enough to have someone with tons of knowledge assist us.  
This being said, it’s a good thing!  I would never have been able to figure the yardage correctly.
The gorgeous embellished lace that we were waiting to order  more of…….not to be had.  (Of course.)
We only had two yards.  Heather came up with the idea of using it on the back of the dress as a train of sorts.  PERFECT!

We just couldn’t find another lace this beautiful.  It had just the perfect amount of bling, yet the pearls gave it a kind of soft elegance.

The dress itself is a pale pale pink.  It took some looking, but we were finally able to find the perfect color that Heather wanted.  The lace trim that you see will finish the bottom of the lace train.

Here’s the ivory chiffon that will lay over the dress skirt.  Sounds like a good plan.  Now let’s just hope that Mom here can  pull it off!
So…..pale pink dress, chiffon overlay on skirt, beaded train on back trimmed out on bottom with scalloped lace.  Yep, sure sounds simple!
Actually, I am both terrified and excited.  I think it’s going to be gorgeous.  Yep, I’m absolutely SURE I can do this.  I really do think the excitement of seeing the finished dress is what will spur me toward victory!


Here’s a pic. of the sweet little flower girl dress.  Isn’t it just precious?  I actually found this at T.J. Maxx well before Easter.  It just looked like the perfect Spring afternoon.  I especially love the way that little bit of tulle petticoat peeks out from underneath.  If it’s a cool evening, a little white cardigan sweater would look cute over it too.
So…..we’re getting there.  I just need to work up the courage to cut into that fabric!
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Thought I would also take a minute to show you the two cute little stools that I finished over the weekend.
Heather painted them, I upholstered.


Love that turquoise color and cute gold detailing.

I think either one of these would be cute as either a vanity stool or as extra little seating tucked under a sofa table maybe.
You can find them both at the Rink.  $68.00 each.
Denise

Buzzzz Buzzzz….

Busy as bees here.  Lots of wedding invitation and wedding dress plans going on. 
I thought Miss Heather had made up her mind about the dress thing.  What was I thinkin’?  All of that anesthesia must have twisted her brain just a little. :) 
Now she’s decided that the second pattern is too INFORMAL and she was afraid that it would end up looking like a prom dress.  Sigh…..
So in the end, we were both confused.  Off we went to look at dresses.
For some odd reason, wedding salons seem to be less than thrilled when you show up 6 weeks before the wedding and without an appointment…….
We looked at dresses like these…….


Simple lines.  Not too much frill.  None of them were what she wanted.  Sigh…..again…..
In the end……we ended up going back to the ORIGINAL pattern.

Went to a local fabric shop here that specializes in bridal and formal fabrics.  And found the PERFECT pale pink fabric.  Choose a lace overlay with tiny pearls and sequins.  They only had 2 yards!  Now we’re waiting to see if they can order more.  Jez…….
I swear, this is how we always work.  There seems to be something about that last minute rush that inspires us to be creative.  Unfortunately, it also inspires me to need a great big bottle of Pepcid!
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I designed the invitations today.  My first draft was a complete success.   Heather loved them.   
We’re using this photo……..

Our theme is “Country Boy/City Diva” 
I’ll post a copy of the entire invitation maybe next week.
I’ll have photos of some of the table decorations after Friday evening.  We’re going to work on our table decor and get everything finalized.
Heather is healing very very well!  She had her first post-op visit yesterday and things are looking GREAT!  Thank you God! 
And thank all of you for your prayers and well wishes.  It’s nothing but fun fun fun from here on out here! 
I’m starting a new blog where I will be posting all of the wedding details.  More on that later also!
Have a wonderful day!
Denise

April Showers……..

…….bring May flowers.  It has been raining here all weekend.  A nice, steady, soaking Spring rain.  You can almost see the earth coming to life.  The tulips are almost spent and it’s time for the early Summer perennials to emerge. 

Before the rain, I stopped by my Mother’s house (yes, we’re still trying to work our way through that mess) and wandered around her backyard.  She used to have such a wonderful garden.  And I thought that whom ever buys that house will have such a great start to a garden.  Even though it is so over grown now, you can see the “good bones” peeking through the vegetation.  I walked around to the side of the house and saw them……they took my breath away……big FAT peonies, in full full bloom!  Two gorgeous shrubs packed with blooms. 

I never realized that she had peony bushes.  I wondered why she never cut any and brought them in the house? 

I thought that a pretty bouquet would be perfect to take to Heather, since she can’t get out much right now.  I found the only thing that I could to put them in.  A turquoise plastic drinking pitcher.  And cut a pretty bouquet.  I was so proud of my silly self.  I took them in the house……so THAT’S why she never brought them in!

3 words……STINK STANK STUNK!!!

Yuk!  They smelled as bad as they were pretty!

So……out came the camera.   These photos are for YOU Heather. 

And for ALL of YOU in blogland. 
Pretty Spring Peonies!

 

Who knew that cheesy turquoise plastic would turn out to be the perfect container to photograph!  NOT ME!

Enjoy your week everyone!

Denise

Update

I can’t believe that it’s already Thursday evening.  This week has gone by soooo fast.  It’s been filled with sewing and picking up T-Man after school every day since his Mommy is still down from her surgery.  Heather’s simple hernia surgery turned into a 6 hour major major surgery.   She came very close to ending up in ICU  and was in the hospital for three days.  When the surgeon informed us of  the extent of what he had to do, I handled the stress in my usual fashion and broke out in hives.  :)    Thank goodness everything went well.  She is still in a whole whole lot of pain and has a longer than expected recovery ahead.  She better hurry though, we have a wedding to plan!!!!

I’ve had plenty to do this week.  SEWING!!

I finished this white slipcover for the chair in my tiny studio room.  White denim and I found a yummy gauzy linen blend for the ruffles.

Here’s the top back.

I love it!  I added extra fabric to the skirt to make it really full and fluffy!

So……if I’m not careful, I may ruffle the world.  I really do love the way that they look.  I just hope I’m still saying that next year at this time after all of the work I’m doing.

I started on the dining room chairs today.  It was either slipcover or paint.  The black chairs just didn’t look right with everything else that I have been doing.

 

I haven’t pressed this one yet.  I wanted to get a couple of pics. in with this post.  Which accounts for the lousy quality!

Side view.

I probably shouldn’t have done the same ruffle on the top as the other chair, but I think it looks pretty cute in the chocolate brown.  Which, by the way, came from a linen dust ruffle that I was no longer using.  The fabric for these chairs was $5.99 a yard.  So it’s costing under $10.00 a chair for the dining room.  Pretty thrifty!  I’ll show a complete room before and after when I’m done.  Just don’t hold your breath.  It may be awhile!

Have a nice rest of the week!

Denise

One More Time

I’ve been a bit off my game this week.  I was just sure that I would be posting almost every day and here it is Thursday. 

Worry takes a toll on you though.  Heather is having ANOTHER hernia surgery tomorrow morning.  This is the third hernia surgery and the EIGTH abdominal surgery that she has had.  She WISHES that she could say that one of them was at least something like a tummy tuck!  Not so.  This surgeon said that this hernia surgery will be the LAST one.  That’s what she was told last time!  This hernia came up between the upper and lower mesh from the other surgeries.  Poor thing!   She was hoping that she could wait until after the wedding but it just wasn’t to be.   At least she’ll get it out of the way and then on with the fun stuff!

So……I’ll give you one giant loooong post today because I’m sure that I will be out of pocket for several days.

Speaking of the wedding……..

We have been looking for inexpensive but cute little gifts for the wedding guests.  Heather found these at Target in the dollar bin!

 

These cute bags of garden seeds in burlap-like bags!

I was surprised at how many seeds were folded up inside of that little bag!

So…I’m going to remove the little tag and tuck it inside so that everyone knows what their seed packets are and then……

Finish them off like this……

There’s that scrim again!  I am beyond thrilled with these!  They go with our theme, they’re cute, and they were inexpensive! 

Don’t bother looking for any of these in the dollar bins around OKC, I think Heather bought all they had at every store!  Don’t you know those clerks had to be wondering what was going on when she was checking out!  :)

 

I am bound and determined to teach myself to slipcover.  That being said…..I attempted my first chair this week!  What a learning experience.  I didn’t take a pic., I was too embarrassed.  Who wants such a poor sewing job displayed in blogland forever!  I learned a lot though, and am ready for my next project.  I will NOT give up!  It’s hard though!  (insert whine here)

I have completed a couple of easy projects.

i finished the slipcover on my bedroom ottoman.  Now I wish I had shortened the skirt so the legs would show.  There’s always next time though.

And then there’s my closet……

First, let me tell you about my closet.  I did  a major, major clean out about two years ago, and it’s been one of the best things I have ever done for myself.  (Hubby has his own closet.)  I have really stuck with my rule that if something goes in then something else has to come out.  And I’m mostly jeans and tees anyway, so I’m not a big clothes hog like I used to be.  Anywho…….I have had tons of fun decorating my little closet.

Here’s the ottoman that I slip covered.  That black and white material used to be the valance in the kitchen!

While I was there I took a few more crazy pics. for you.

Storage boxes.  Sooooo much better than all of that clutter sitting everywhere.  I hung the gold 80’s shoes over one of them just for fun!

Love this thing for small bags and such.

Too much?  Nah!

More cuteness.  Huumm, I need to paint that little jewelry box.

Organized my costume jewelry.

I found this cute chandelier which hubby hung for me to replace the ugly bare bulb that was in the closet.

And……okay, I admit this is over the top.  But I didn’t have any other place  to put these sheers, and I really really loved them.

That’s looking at the door from the inside of the closet.  All of my scarves hang on a little over-the-door rack on the inside of the door.

So this is my bright and colorful little closet.  Or the “inner sanctum” as T-man and Hubby call it!

Enjoy the eye candy and have a nice weekend.  No news is good news from me!

Denise