Flowers Flowers Everywhere

Alright. I didn't make these. BUT... I had to show off how beautiful I think they are. I finally got them today and I couldn't be more excited how they turned out. They are everything I wanted them to be! I found this lady after days, and weeks of searching for someone to make my bouquets. I'm crafty to a degree, and with this whole DIY wedding thing I've wanted to make alot of things. But, sadly, I do not have the patience, talent, or sanity to make the flower bouquets. As much as I'd love to make everything, I can't. Not to mention the flowers are so very important to me the last thing I wanted to do was mess them up!

Anyway, Kimberly over at Kimberly Renee Creations made these beautiful bouquets for me. If anyone is looking for silk flowers, go to her! She was absolutely GREAT to work with and I am very glad I chose to work with her. Her stuff is gorgeous, and her prices are soooo reasonable. This second picture of the stem she decorated isn't as great, my flash went kinda weird on me. It's still beautiful though.


So now, on to the flowers that I actually made. Here are the silk roses I found on ebay, a package of 30 for just under 8 dollars. Not bad at all. They all have greenery and some baby's breath attatched so they make for some very pretty boutonnieres. I used floral tape around the stems and then bought some lavender ribbon. Now my bow-making skills are not up to par and I'll probably get some help tweaking that. But all in all, after watching a handful of tutorial videos on "How to Make a Boutonniere" on YouTube (haha) I found myself ready to get started. I had some help from a newfound friend of mine here in town. She was my official "flower holder" and "ribbon cutter" since she is not in the least convinced of her craft skills. I'll give it to her though, that bit helped! Anyway, I think maybe the ribbon is a little too wide, I might go out for some smaller ribbon. I'm not too sure yet. I guess we will see.
Anyway. I guess this is why I should post more often than I have. My youngest had his 3rd birthday on Sunday. So we had a party/father's day celebration at the house that kept me really busy. Not to mention the oldest got out of school last week and it was my first official adventure into the joys of "summer vacation"... And to think she just got out of Kindergarten. What am I going to do for the next 11 years?!?! Big sigh. I guess I'll find out soon enough! Have a great night, I'm off to dream of butterflies, and weddings, and children who don't know how to say "I'm bored" :-)

The Woes of a Busty Woman and her Wedding Dress

So. Here is the dress. THE dress. I saw it, and fell in love. Typical wedding dress story I'm sure. Now... I live in the Richmond area. But when I use the term "area" I mean about an hour outside of Richmond, through back roads and no signal on my cell phone. I don't really live in the middle of nowhere, but the area between the two places, really is nothing but alot of farmland. Anyway, I digress. Being that I live the distance I do, the nearest bridal store is an hour away. So, with gas prices the crazy way they are now we decided it'd be cheaper to order online. I went through a few places and settled on David's Bridal. I love the dress. I do not however, love the designers of wedding dresses. It is your special day, and I am not sure whose great idea it was to make us women order a size, or two, or even three above what we normally wear to find the right sized dress. Why must you torture us? Especially for someone like me, who has lost about 70lbs in the past year, it's even MORE upsetting to feel like you've not really made that much progress at all. Anyway, I'm getting off topic again. Here's my dilemma. I ordered a dress 2 sizes bigger than my usual. And when you zip, it goes beautifully, if not a big too big, up to my back where my bra sits. And then.... NADA. It won't go up anymore. How frustrating that no matter how much weight I lose the knockers just won't go away! Ugh. And if I were to order a bigger dress to accomodate the "ladies" then the dress would be just too big everywhere else! What a pain. Thankfully though, my mom is going to help me with this dilemma. I think we are going to have to take the seams apart under the arm on the sides of the dress and sew some extra fabric to just make it bigger through the bust. Sorry if my terminology isn't that great, sewing, alterations, etc. are not things I know ANYthing about. I'm sure there is a more technical term for what she's going to do, I just don't know it.

Here is a close up of the dress. See that beautiful beading? Yep. It's probably going to have to be cut right open to fix the dress. Mom and I were discussing an option of making a sash that starts and the seam and goes around my back. Therefore the beading on the front is still seen and then the rest is covered where the alteration was made. I think that would work. I hope that it works! I know my mother isn't very thrilled about doing all this, dress alteration just isn't something she's done much of but then again, she always does such a great job with everything that I'm quite sure it's going to be fine. I have alot of faith in her ability to help me get this fixed. She's been a big help with everything.

All complaining aside, this is a beautiful dress and I can't wait to be wearing it on my special day. I should probably post more of things I've actually done, but, It's 100+ degrees here in the south today and I am too hot, and too grumpy to get anything else out. I can't wait for fall already!

THANK YOU!

I just wanted to take a minute tonight and thank EVERYONE who has been reading and commenting on my blog. It's been a great to see that people are reading it. Alot of thanks are due to my mom and my friend hunnybunny because most of you are finding me via their posts about my blog on their respective blogs. But I couldn't be more happy to see that my blog is being read! I've been trying to keep up with all the comments and make sure to visit everyone else's blogs, as well as add you to my list of favorites to read. I'm a little behind as of this weekend. I had a busy weekend with my honey, he and I went out for a much needed "night on the town" since a majority of his work has been out of town, in hotels for well over two months now. It's tiring but all at the same time, we need that work to get done so we can keep making strides towards getting this wedding done! I am going to play catch up this week and make sure to get back to everyone else, as well as put a bunch of other pictures and posts up with some more of the work that I've done. I'm also going to make sure to sit down and do something with my Ravelry page, since I have gotten it and have yet to actually start anything. It's overwhelming the things I've got to do!

I hope everyone else had a fantastic weekend :-)

Dollar Store Touches

You know, I started this blog because I was inspired by my mother, and a close friend of mine. They are so crafty and everything they post up on their blogs is beautiful. I have never really been the "crafty" sort until recently, I'd say the past 3 years or so, it all started right around the time I was pregnant with my youngest. I picked up scrapbooking first, looking for something to occupy my time during the long winters in Alaska, where I was living at the time. Alaska is also where I met my friend hunnybunny and I credit her for alot of my inspiration. She helped me get started with learning how to knit. Even though I grew up around knitting, quilting, and crocheting with my mother, I never really picked it up, I was always too impatient to learn anything. Shows how much you can change as you get older! Anyway, I am glad to have started this blog but sometimes I wonder, when the wedding is over, what am I going to post about? I don't really know much about knitting other than how to knit and purl. Yeah. My repitoir consists of hats, scarves, and washclothes. Ha. I guess this is the time to learn something new, right?!

I wanted to show off some of the dollar store finds I was able to snag. I found these butterfly wings for only $1 a piece, and then the ring bearer pillow was just $2.50. How great! Since the theme is butterflies my flower girls will be wearing these with their dress, and I think it's going to look adorable. As for the ring bearer, I plan on taking up the ribbon on the pillow and adding some more of my own that match the colors, and maybe even pin a butterfly or two onto the top with the rings.

The other things I just can't wait to show off are the gorgeous lavender rose petals I found on ebay. They were super cheap, and if you look, they are in the shape of... you guessed it... butterflies!

I think these are gonna look so cute. Partly uses as flower girl petals, but I'm also going to use them as decorations on the tables for the reception. It's another day closer, and I am getting so excited!

YAY!

I woke up this morning to an email from Ravelry. I finally got my invitation! Don't have anything on it yet but it won't take long, I plan on working on my page today. My username is "mamachanny" -- Look me up!

Invitations Galore

As I mentioned before, I am getting married this August. It is a new chapter in my previously turned-upside-down life that I am SO ready to get started. I am getting married at this adorable country setting chapel in the town where my parents live. This is a new experience for me. I have only been to one wedding before, and I think I was around 8 years old at the time. I barely remember it, and I am not sure how things work. But, I'm researching it, asking my friends lots of questions, and am doing a total DIY wedding. So far it's proven to be hectic, but it is very rewarding to see what I've been able to do. Only two things involved in the wedding I have no part in making, which are my flower bouquets and of course, my dress. But to start it all off, I thought I'd show off the invitations I've done.





To start I thought I would show the RSVP cards I made. We are having a butterfly-themed wedding. Purples, and Periwinkle. A perfect summer blend if I do say so myself. With some plain cardstock I managed to find a cute butterfly stamp at Michael's along with a few different color dyes. I stamped a butterfly on each one and then printed them off on my computer.

Here are the actual invitations. Once again, my friend Michael's and I went to work. I found plain cardstock that was pre-creased so all I needed to do was fold it in half. I tried to take a picture so you can see the butterflies on the front as well as a smidge of the font inside to see how they turned out. I think they look pretty good, considering I made them completely by hand at home with just some rubber stamps and my computer.

It's been quite alot of work at times, and lord knows a few of these puppies made their way to the trash can, after being balled up and tossed to the floor when I made a mistake. But a good majority of them survived and I am so stoked. Now I'm just waiting on those RSVP cards to start coming back to me!

I'll have tons more to post soon. Alot more is being made by me and my awesome mother who has been a ton of help.

Keep coming back!

Alright...

So here is my first post on my new blog. I have been encouraged by a couple of people to get one of these for myself so I am finally jumping on board and plan to start getting my feet wet. I am in the process of planning my wedding.... so I have TONS of things I could be posting on here, and I will start. Tomorrow. As if my procrastination hasn't gone on long enough...

But while you're here, check out my mom and hunnybunny, my yankee bestie. They have some great blogs and they're the ones who got me started.

Have a good night :-)