Love is in the Air

There's been a distinct lack of project posts here lately. I promise I've been working on things, just not for me! I have been helping out with a lot of wedding related projects. I'll have to get some pics and post them soon, but it's been all go!

In the meantime, here's a run down.

Wedding 1:
Amanda is my sister (not to be confused with Amanda my friend mentioned in other posts). When she and Shawen were married 10 years ago, they had a lot going on in their lives and were struggling financially. They were married in their living room by a friend with only immediate family in attendance. We had donuts and coffee for the "reception!"

I have to say, this remains one of my favorite weddings. It was small, intimate and no fuss. It was all about the two of them getting married and sharing the day with the people they were closest to. Her husband remains like a brother to me and I couldn't have been any happier to see them get married.

Now, it's 10 years later and they have come such a long way. To celebrate their anniversary, they want to give themselves the wedding day they didn't have before. As much as I loved their wedding, I'm equally excited about this vow renewal! I won't go into the details of their lives, but you can take my word for it that they deserve this.

In the ceremony, I will be playing the role of Matron of Honor. Last night, I got my dress!

This little number came from David's Bridal. I'm thinking about wearing it with red shoes and making some little, red organza flowers to wear at the waist.

So, projects! Because of a debacle involving horrendous customer service (there will be a whole other post about that), my ever helpful friends and I had an emergency invitation making session. I'll also be making purses for the bridesmaids and putting together all of the bouquets.

Here's a couple ideas for flowers:

Wedding 2:
Sara and Brandon have known each other since they were kids and they really couldn't be any cuter together. We all worked at the same place previously, so while I knew them, I didn't know them well. It wasn't until we all happened to move the Chicago to work at the same place that I started to spend more time with them and now they've become two of my favorite people in the world! (I would be remiss if I didn't thank Kenney for bridging the gap.)

Sara is the consummate crafter (Brandon isn't shabby either) and has taken on many DIY projects to personalize their wedding. So far, I've helped with making bunting, linen table numbers and sandwich board signs. I'll be painting little wooden people for the cake toppers, which I'm super excited about!

I realize this is all a little flat without more pictures, so I'll work on getting more documentation this weekend.

Speaking of weekend, have an awesome Labor Day!

A Craft That's for the Birds

Wow, no post since Sofa Drama. I'll quickly provide an update and then move on to the good stuff. We bought a sofa and chaise from Ikea and we're exceedingly happy with it! Plenty of room for all five of us to lounge. (Two humans, two cats and a dog.) My plan is to post some pictures of the living room once I get a few projects done, so you'll see it then.

Speaking of projects, the living room is sorely in need of some color on the walls. Because we're renting, I don't want to paint, so I've initiated a couple projects to dress up the space. Enter the bird tiles...

These bird tiles are from Crate and Barrel's outdoor collection and I love them. At $50, the price is reasonable, but it's still more than I wanted to pay. In addition, they're the wrong color. I decided that, with the help of some paint, I could recreate something I'd be happy with.

With that, it was time for a trip to Michael's for 1'x1' canvases. Because they were running a sale, I ended up with 4 11"x14" canvases for $10 or so. The square canvases would have cost 4x as much! I have a bunch of paint left over from another project, so we were good to go.

The first thing I did was paint the canvases with the same turquoise/teal color I used for the coffee table. What coffee table, you ask? That's for another post!

While the paint was drying, I went bird hunting. Because of the purse appliques I make, I have a ton of silhouettes saved and waiting to go. I picked out 5 birds from a collection of clipart so they would match. (I didn't want a cartoony bird next to a realistic bird.) A google search for "bird silhouette" will give you tons of options. Using Microsoft Paint, I resized the birds, then pasted them into Word so I could print them all on one sheet of paper. Cardstock, to be more precise.

The print on the left was to make sure I had the right size (the birds are about 3" tall) before printing on cardstock. I also adjusted the color intensity to conserve ink. Then, I cut out the birds.

Here are my cut out birds atop a print of the original Crate and Barrel tiles. I would be using the picture in the next step... Drawing the trees!

Because we apparently don't own a pencil, I used a metallic gel pen, which worked out well. It stood out on the blue, but disappeared under the next layer of paint. Referencing the picture of the C&B tiles, I drew tree branches onto the canvases. I wasn't going for an exact match, but it did take some of the guesswork out of the composition.

Next, I traced on the birds. I chose to make my birds legless, by the way.

With the birds in place, it was time to paint the branches. I decided to go with white for a nice, clean look. I also figured it would show up nicely against the blue. While painting the branches, I was careful to paint around the birds.

I wrapped the branches onto the edges of the canvas to make it look more finished. You can also see in the next picture that I decided to add some curls to the branches.

Now it was time to paint the birds! Again, I already had paint from my big box of craft paints. I decided to make the birds orange and black. As you can see below, the birds required two coats of paint. By the time I was done painting the second orange bird, the first one was dry enough to paint again.

And here's the finished product!

And from a slightly different angle...

So! For a grand total of $10 and some stuff I already had at home, we now have some colorful birdies to adorn our wall!

I'm updating this post with some new pics and a link to the CSI Project! The theme this week is Frames, Art and Wall Decor. Go check out the awesomeness!

You Don't Know Me

I received feeback for the custom kitteh purse. She says,

"Amazing quality and craftsmanship. Couldn't be any happier!"

Here's my latest song obsession. You Don't Know Me by Ben Folds, featuring Regina Spektor. I find the video mildly disturbing, so you may want to close your eyes or skip ahead.




I just placed an order with Fabric.com that I'm super excited about. It was hard not to get carried away. Handbags with love birds, owls and woodland creatures are coming soon! Here's a preview...

Btw, if you've thought about ordering from Joann online, I'd think twice about it. I ordered some stuff just before the holidays for Christmas presents and was disappointed.

For starters, they sent partial items. For example, they ran out of some fabrics and sent 1 yard instead of the 2 yards I ordered. When you're talking about fabric, this can render the item useless. Such was the case for my projects. Secondly, you can't return or exchange in store. Granted, I should have read the return policy before I ordered, but seriously?

So now I have a bunch of fabric that I can't use and have to make a trip to the post office to return. (Does anyone else hear the world's smallist violin?) I ended up with enough fabric to complete 1 of the 5 projects that I ordered for.

I emailed Joann and got a canned response about how they're forwarding my concerns on to the proper authorities. I doubt that anything will come of it, but sometimes you need to vent. Multiple times, it seems. At the end of the day, I'll still shop at Joann because I've never had a problem in store. However, I won't be ordering online again and that's disappointing.

Here's a pic of a bracelet I forgot to post. This one's a gift, so it's not available for sale. I found these handpainted glass beads at the International Gem and Jewelry Show, which is what sparked the new jewelry making obsession. I wish I had picked up more of them now because I absolutely love them.

Threadbangers!

How am I just now discovering this site?! Threadbangers is chocked full of fantastic fashion and decor DIY projects, with a focus on reusing and recycling. They have tons of video tutorials.

Below is an instructional video on how to fuse plastic bags to make a laptop bag. What a fantastic idea! I'm not an avid recycler by any means, but I do hate being wasteful and this is like getting free fabric! I can't wait to try it out and see what I can make.