My heart overflows

This morning my heart is overflowing with joy. 

I am able to sit and linger in this knowing that come this afternoon I will be diving head first in to a week full of all nighters and plenty of break downs in preparation for my first ever art show. 

Last night Reed and I got to celebrate a sweet friends new life as Man and Wife.

It was so fun to enjoy the beauty of marriage and the joy that good friends and music creates. 

So this morning after a long night I got to sleep in.

(not real late and not with Reed but still it was so refreshing!)

Waking up with the birds chirping outside was fabulous. I know I need to be working on my projects and getting ready for the show but I just wanted to take a minute and make a list of things telling yall why life is so worth living and that we should linger in the joy as often as we can!

1. Sitting with my warm puppy on the sofa as I type. She still is always touching and just sitting leaning against my legs.

2. It is nice enough to leave all of the doors and windows open in the house. I love spring!

3. I'm working towards something that I love and can't wait to continue making. Art is great!

4. In less than a month I get to celebrate another milestone with my man. 

Graduating college on the same day is going to be long but perfect!

5. The quite ability to sit and praise the one who makes this all possible. 

If you know me at all, you probably are extremely surprised that 5 days until my show goes up and I'm sitting here blabbing on about how much I love life. I know I'm surprised and I can't believe how calm I am!! If I was myself right now I would be running around like a chicken with my head cut off. 

BUT I am not myself because the Lord tells us not to worry. 

that everything has its time and that he takes care of the birds of the air and the flowers of the field so just imagine how much more he will take care of us! 

Because I know these things in my heart, I can linger in the small moments of my life being fully confident that this is exactly what I am supposed to be doing :)

How we do "preppy"

So around our house we don't really do preppy. 

Its not that we don't like it, its just we are a little "different", my mom always described my style as classic with a twist. But a few weeks ago Reed and I went to the Carolina Cup. If you aren't from around here it is a horse race that has become an event that requires a certain southern dress code. The girls go traditional southern with bright colored sundresses (mostly Lilly Pulitzer) and large sun hats while the boys wear bow-ties, seersucker  and any other range of bright spring fashion. 

Of course Reed and I decided to be different and put our own swing on the Cup/Easter fashion. 

(This is a picture from the beginning of The Cup. Reed and I are on the right I'm in the crazy pants and Reed has on his homemade bow-tie). 

So, all that to say about a classically twisted style I thought I would share how we decided to dress Reed for the occasion. He doesn't own a bow-tie and we didn't want to go buy one because we didn't think he would ever wear it again. Obviously the only other solution was to make one :) 

First things first, I got some old bow-ties from my mom. And yes these are "not real" cause you don't actually tie them. But I took the bow off and used the strap to attach Reeds new bow. 

And here is the twist!

We didn't use fabric but decided to go with turkey feathers instead :)

So we laid them all out and found 6 that fit together relatively well and looked semi symmetrical. 

Then it was easy. We just hot glued three feathers together, one set for each side of the bow. 

And then hot glued them to the strap that was left over from the old bow ties. 

Then all that was left was to choose what to wrap around the center to make it look more finished. 

I was thinking that embroidery thread would be pretty to add a pop of color, or even twine to play with the rustic look. But we also saved the center from the old bow tie, which is what we ended up using. 

Here is my hansom man with his new completely custom bow tie! 

Its a little more old fashion than the others because of how straight it is but it totally fits him and he was so proud of himself. (PS. Reed made this one and I made the one below it)

This is the one I made wich was the same process just a little different in how I arranged the feathers. 

I also mixed feathers, Reed wasn't a fan he thought it should stay in the same bird family. But this one has turkey feathers that are fanned out a little more to make it a little wider and the light feathers in the center are duck feathers. I just thought the contrast was nice. 

Annnnnnnd finally I just wanted to share the family photo we took for Easter. 

First of all notice all the bow ties. It kills me, when did my family go preppy!! 

But I think we look fabulous and I'm glad that mom and I have stayed a little more "twisted" than the others :)

First EVER attempt at sewing :)

Goodness gracious its been almost 3 weeks from my last post!! 

Sorry it has taken me so long I've just been busy and decided that if I didn't have the "urge" to write then I wouldn't force myself. I have lots of things to share and I really can't wait to share them, I just didn't want to force myself to write cause then I never like how it ends up. 

So anyway, this is what I did last night.

usually on Thursday nights I go out with my girl friends but this week I missed my Reed and decided I wanted to just wait on him to get off work. And I was also itching to get in to these new kelly green pants :) 

A while back my mom Lydia and I spent the weekend in Charleston to prom dress shop. And we can't go to charleston with out hitting up the Goodwill on Johns Island. We always find the best stuff there, and I was looking for some bright high waisted pants to wear to the Carolina Cup.

I found these, they were wide leg and a little short but my mom said she could fix them. 

Like everything in life it got lost in the hustle, so I decided to try my hand at them this weekend. 

Not sure why I thought it was a good idea, I had to call my mom atleast 5 times just to figure out how to thread the machine... 

But I did it and I'm gonna share how!

First of all I tried on the pants, sorry for the bad pictures. Thats what I get for being lazy and Tepe not listening last night. I really liked how they fit at my waist but just wasn't crazy about the high water wide leg look that was going on.  

So I turned them inside out and place my favorite pair of skinny jeans on top. 

The jeans aren't high waisted so I just lined up the area between the legs instead of the waist. 

Then I took a pencil and trased the inside of the pants leg. 

(Tepe wasn't leaving me alone, she always has to be close which means she is often in the way) 

 Then I pinned along the line so that both sides of the pants didn't move while sewing. 

And then finally I stuck them in the machine and went to town!

I don't know any specifics about settings, I used the straight stich and then came back with the zigzag stich. I read that gave the pants more stretch?? Not really sure but I tried it!! 

And for those of you that know what you're doing.

This is my moms machine. Maybe you can see some of the settings and tell me if they are right or wrong :) I know its holding my pants together so at least its functioning! 

Here is a close up view. Not very straight but thats the two stitches I used. 

And here you can see how I did the entire leg. I tapered them towards the middle. 

Probably could have gone up a little further but I was worried about them getting to tight across the hips and pulling funny.

And then I would say to try them on to make sure they fit the way you like. I tried them on about a million times through out the entire process. And I took out stitches at least half of those times. 

BUT I learned a lot and I know they aren't perfect, but I can at least wear them today and be happy for spring!! 

Once you are happy with the fit you could trim the fabric down but leave enough so you can play with it again if the future if needed! Honestly,  haven't trimmed mine yet because I'm terrified I didn't do it right and if I cut them no one would be able to fix them :) 

But I'm wearing them today and they feel fine so far!! 

Heres the final outcome! 

Tepe and I hit the yard to enjoy the sunshine and she just couldn't help but jump in all of my pictures. I look pretty awkward so I guess thats why I'm not a model. And I learned that I should invest in a remote for my camera cause running with 10secs is hard to look natural in the photo. 

They are a little funky. 

But for $3 bucks and a night teaching myself to sew I say they look pretty decent. 

Little odd on the inside of the legs and kinda pucker around my tummy but they are comfy and just the right color for spring :)