Davids Bridal Bridesmaid Dress Refashion

Last weekend I was in my cousins wedding and it was AWESOME! So beautiful, fun, and lots and lots of laughing :) She had her bridesmaids buy these beautiful mint chiffon dresses from Davids Bridal. They were perfect for her Gatsby theme and gave the bridal party that elegant edge we all needed. But, like most bridesmaids, I wasn't sure when I would wear this dress again and started thinking about how I could modify it to fit my personal, everyday, style a little better. 

I thought about cutting it short, doing the high low hem line, or even just cutting the lining short for a flirty look. But none of those styles changed my biggest issue with the dress. It didn't really fit. Yes it stayed up and that was all I needed it to do, but the sweetheart neck line kept folding over and it was a bit boxy around my waist. So I decided to chop off the top and attach a fun tank for a more casual maxi dress. 

To start I found an awesomely fun tank from Walmart that features a silver snakeskin screen print pattern all over for $3! I then tried on both pieces to see where I wanted to cut the dress and tank.
(You can kinda see in the above picture how boxy the top looked, not bad but not good enough for me to wanna wear it erryday).

Then I pinned the tank to the inside of the dress. Yes I know that usually you do this stuff inside out but I thought I would be able to just cut the top of the dress off and have a fun flirty fringe around the waist of the skirt. I also knew that I needed to keep the zipper intact. The tank was stretchy and could easily be pulled over but the skirt wouldn't fit over my shoulders or my hips with out the zipper. I got hung up on this part for a while but eventually made it through :) 

Once I got it sewed all the way around the waist band I cut the top of the dress off, being sure to leave the zipper. I then turned the dress inside out and cut the tank top leaving just a few inches for safe keeping. Then I sewed the exposed zipper to the tank top and then unzipped the zipper and cut the tank down the center. Making it look like the zipper went all the way up the dress. Sadly my zipper didn't reach the top of my tank so I had to add a hook and eye to close the top. 

TA DA! Thats all I needed to do! I did a bit of finishing around the edges but once the zipper issue was figured out my dress is now something I can wear on the reg! I really really like it and am surprised with my ability to refashion a bridesmaid dress in to something I may actually wear to another event. There are some issues like uneven stitches, uneven cuts, and yeahhh its a little crooked. But for a first time refashion project I think it looks pretty good! And if I need it to look real fancy and not so "handmade" I can just through on a belt and Wah La it looks professional :) 

Here are a few images that show how it fits now.

Do you have any dresses in your closet that need to be refashioned in to something a little more usable? I've got a couple other dresses I may try to play around with, this one has certainly given my confidence a boost :) 

Cotton Ball Bunting

Today I was sitting around trying to figure out how I can make some streamers/bunting for filler at a friends wedding. I was cruising the web and found some really beautiful felt ball buntings. They were all stunning and even had tutorials on how to make your own felt balls. You have to buy a lot of materials. And to be honest, I haven't even changed clothes today so driving 45minutes to the closest craft store wasn't sounding too appealing to me.
Luckily with 3 years as a sculpture student I learned how to use different materials to achieve the same look! Yep I walked around the house and looked for material that was similar in size and shape as the felt balls and came up with cotton balls!

So I got all the cotton balls we had, a spool of thread, needle and scissors.

So first I threaded the needle (duh! don't judge I needed some pictures).

Then I simply pulled the thread through 1 cotton ball at a time and tied a simple knot around it and went on to thread the next cotton ball. 

Simple enough right! 

 I didn't really have a specific distance, I wanted the bunting to be sporadic so I just slid each ball down until I thought it was in a good spot :)

Thought it was pretty sweet looking. I don't have a picture of all if them together like I'm planning to hang in the wedding. But I thought the simple, organic shape of the cotton balls really is precious and can easily add some whimsy to a room. It would be fun to get some colored thread and maybe ribbon to add to the bunting just to give it a little more color. 

Yep, my afternoon consisted of watching crime shows and threading cotton balls :) Now I've just gotta make a run to the store for more cotton balls and I can do it all again!! This may be the cheapest wedding decoration ever! 

Check out where I par-tay click the party tab on the side bar >>>>

PS I have a giveaway running right now and would love you to come enter! Check it out HERE

Bridal Shower Mad-Lib

Last weekend my mom and I got to throw a bridal shower for my oldest and dearest friend. We kept it simple and traditional but I wanted to share with you some of the little details that made it fun :) 

First of all we did the "around the clock" theme and gave each guest a time to purchase a gift in relation to. Not everyone was so comfortable with their times but it made the shower fun and more than just measuring cups and mixing bowls!

Here is the invitation that I created for it. I was pretty pleased with it :) I was hoping that it would look more personal by adding my own hand writing on each invitation, but man did it get tiring after a few! 

I didn't take very good pictures of the shower. I wasn't using my normal camera and just couldn't get it to work right. So sorry no fun pictures of the decorations :/

But this is what I wanted to share with y'all most. We had a few games we wanted to play but ended up landing on this one, hoping that the bride could keep the end product as a keepsake! 

What we did was take the idea of a Mad-Lib and made it personal {Mad-Lib is a word game where the player is prompted to fill in a list of words, like nouns, verbs, adjectives ect. and then later fills in the blanks of a story with the earlier list of words.} Growing up we played Mad-libs all the time and I thought it would be fun way to break the ice. 

So to make this one personal we got the bride to send a quick write up of her proposal story before the shower.
This is the original unaltered proposal story as told by the bride herself. 

I then went through and edited it, choosing which words to take out and which to leave in. This part was actually pretty hard, and I think if I ever do it again it will be a little better. But hey it worked and everyone had fun even when the tense wasn't right!
Traditionally in Mad-Lib games you ask another person for the words to fill in the blanks. But we chose to just put a list on the back side of the story and have each guest fill the list out as they entered the party.

These are the finished edited proposal stories.


After everyone had mingled a little while and had time to finish their list and fill in the blanks of the story we all sat around reading our version of the happy couples engagement. This was a sweet moment and created so many laughs. It was really a fun way to break the ice and help everyone get talking at the beginning and I think it kept the attention on the bride with out making her do anything too ridiculous and embarrassing:)

Bridal/wedding showers can be so fun and creative, sometimes I wish I could just do parties like that for no reason :) 

Wine Barrel Inspired Tray

So I was gone again, but this time I had a good excuse other than just being "busy". I was blessed with the chance to go to Chicago for a friends wedding! I drove up with some sweet friends on a Tuesday and stayed until Sunday. Not only did we get to enjoy all of the fun wedding festivities but we also go to go in to the city for a day or two. Chicago is a beautiful place and I hope that I can go back some time soon and see everything else it has to offer!

When I was coming up with gifts for the wedding I was trying to be cost efficient while also making something for the couple that would be unique to just them. The girls and I went in together and did a wine basket gift so I thought a tray inspired by a wine barrel would be just perfect!

So I went down to Lowes and picked up a round wood panel and used some of my stain from my wood weathering project to create the "barrel" look. 

To keep with the theme I got some cast iron cabinet pulls to use as handles. I think they mimic the metal rings of an antique barrel nicely :) 

Then I added the special touch for the couple by adding their name and wedding date with their "home town". 

I was really surprised by how big of a hit it was at the shower. I wasn't so sure about how "wine barrel" esque it was but regardless people really liked it! It was so fun and easy to make too. 

I've got some other projects that I've started before my trip to Chicago and now I'm starting to finish them up so hopefully some time next week I will be able to share them with you! The guest room /studio is almost finished which is going to 1. be an awesome post and 2. make it so much easier for me to work on other projects! 

Long time no see!

Hey friends!

Sorry I have been off the grid for a week or two. 

Things have just gotten so busy and whatever free time I've had between school and other projects I just wanted to spend cuddling with the Tepster and Reed :) 

I have so much to catch up on for you guys. 

Lots of school projects that I think you'll like and even a few tangents of my own thoughts. 

But I've gotta take small steps to getting caught up cause I don't wanna miss anything! 

First I figured I would go back to the week of Valentines day. 

I did a few projects for customers of my Etsy shop that week and never had the chance to share. 

First was for some good friends and returning customers :) 

I have done 3 or 4 things for them in the past and so I was able to have a little more fun than normal with this piece. I was working on it for a while but I am so happy with how it turned out. 

Lots of fun trying to figure out a way to do the typical "house divided USC vs. Clemson" sign with a little more artistic flare. 

The second project was for a new friend and customer that saw one of my pallet paintings and wanted one for her boyfriend. She chose a quote that he knew well and let me kind of illustrate it as I saw fit. 

It took a while to do the script but we are both really happy with how it turned out. 

Finally. I've shared these pictures before but wanted to make more of a comment on them.

The weekend after Valentines day I did the photography for a friends small intimate wedding. 

( I'm still working on editing. I don't know how professional photographers do it!) 

But not only did I have the chance to try my hand at photography but I also got to do some of my favorite crafts :) 

This was the main decoration for the wedding and was seen as soon as you walked in the door. 

The theme for the wedding was "Love Is" going off of the verse  1 Corinthians 13:4-8. 

Instead of writing out the entire verse I went through and picked out some of the more predominant words/ phrases and wrote them on the pallet in different fonts. 

Once I finished this project I didn't want to send it away! 

I love it so much!

But it fit better on their mantel than it would have anywhere in our itsy bitsy house. 

Another kind of last minute contribution to the wedding was their "guest book". 

Lindsey & Rhett wanted something they cold keep in their house and asked me to come up with something they could frame later on. 

I've seen many of these thumb print guest trees and decided to go with that and just personalize it. 

Going with the theme "love is" I wrote out the verse, date, and their names beneath the tree that their closest friends and family would fill out with their thumb prints. 

It was so fun to be apart of a wedding and getting a chance to just make pretty things. 

And it was even better because it was for a family that I love. 

Now that I've caught yall up on my "fun" projects I can say I've checked one thing off my  list!

Now I've gotta catch you up on the Thankful Project, 5 week Review, New York, school and a fabulous dinner that Reed made me :) 

Love Is.

This weekend I had the chance to photograph an old friends wedding. 

I've never done any kind of photography before (other than my 2 classes at school) but I've been involved in lots of weddings and worked with a few photographers in the past. I'm not saying that made me confident or qualified AT ALL but I thought it would at least give me the ability to be generous to a family that has always been extremely generous towards my family and I. 

This family has always been a huge part in my life and Reeds. 

So when I heard the oldest was getting married in a small intimate ceremony I volunteered my limited talents to hopefully capture their exciting day with out having to empty their wallet. 

Rhett (the groom) worked with me for my wedding this past August. 

He helped me plan out the music for the ceremony and did an amazing job on our big day.

Rhetts dad is a Pastor and was the one to marry Reed and I. 

I just wanted Rhett to have the perfect day, his family did so much for my day that taking pictures was the least I could do in return. 

Rhett and Lindsey are so obviously in love. 

While preparing for the wedding day I helped with a few of the decorations, and each time I talked to Lindsey she mentioned the bible verse 1 Corinthians 13: 4-8. 

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

⁸ Love never fails.

After going over this verse many times and hearing Lindsey talk about it I thought the perfect "theme" for their wedding would be 

Love Is.

So with out further adieu

Love Is... 

Rhett & Lindsey 

These are just a few of the pictures I took. 

I am working on creating a link to share all of them. 

Like I said, I am in no way a photographer, but I hope that my limited talent and knowledge was enough to helpt these beautiful memories last :)

Congratulations Mr. & Mrs. Frank Rhett Sanders III

Wedding Album by Shurtterfly

I know the wedding was a while ago, and you would think I was done talking about it. 

BUT it was amazing! The pictures are perfect, done by The Mondays. 

I ordered some books for my parents and in-laws from Shutterfly.com

They are FABULOUS! 

I wasn't going to share but I loved them so much so I ordered a larger version for our coffee table

and it just came today!! 

 I thought I would share it with you all, boast a little bit about The Mondays and about Shutterfly:)

First of all, this came in SO FAST! 

But the best part is how easy it was to make! 

Shutterfly has plenty of options for layouts and you can even make your own. 

I loved all the little add ons they supplied for almost every occasion. 

I was even able to add a page for just our Vows. 

These are just some close up shots of some of my favorite pages. 

 These two pages where great templates!

I loved being able to share so many photographs with out adding any extra pages. 

And the back cover! 

I love this book and will probably show it to everyone who comes over. 

So obviously, I would TOTALLY recommend anything from Shutterfly. 

The company is so easy to work with and there are so many options to personalize your photos.

The quality is great and I will be ordering one of these for all of our special occasions!