Hearts for Japan

My friend Jenny over at Pearlswirl Journals has has a big heart. She's designed these sweet little Hearts for Japan necklaces

and all proceeds from the sale of these necklaces in her Etsy shop will be donated to aid in the relief efforts.  Even better, all proceeds from all sales made in her shop during the next month will be donated as well.  You can check out the details on her blog or at her Etsy site.

Creative Decorating

I know I've promised Christmas pictures, and that will still happen.  Eventually.  I'm just overwhelmed by the volume of pictures that I need to sift through.  So, I'm sharing this with you instead.

I'm decorating our guest bedroom in burgundy, gold and ivory.  I have a comforter set (thanks again, Rebekah!!), and I have quite a bit of smaller decor items to go with it, but not much of anything for the walls.  But, I also had this poster that my sister gave me for my birthday (or Christmas, or something) years ago, probably before I even moved out of my mom's house.  I've always loved the pictures in this poster; they appeal to my sense of fantasy and romance.  I've just never had a good place to put it.  Then I realized that the colors go really well with the other things I have going in the guest room, so I decided to finally do something with it. 

I pulled out my paper rotary cutter (I have a separate one for fabric) and mat, ripped the shrink wrap off of the poster, and cut out each of the 3 pictures.  Then I went looking for frames.  The pictures are a weird size, so I knew that while I might be able to use a standard frame size, I'd have to do the matting myself.  I managed to find three matching 11" x 14" frames on clearance at Garden Ridge, and I snatched them up.  Unfortunately, I wasn't able to make use of the matting that came with the frames (I tried and failed) so I had to do something else.  I ended up using art paper from Michael's, cut to 11" x 14".  I didn't even need to cut windows in my "mats"; each picture has a very narrow dark gray border, and I left a 1/4" white margin around that, so it looks like an inner mat.  I just taped my prints down on the art paper and threw them in the frames.  All totaled, I spent only about $25 and I now have a series of three framed pictures to hang above the bed in my guest room. 

Similiarly, I have an old 2007 fairy art wall calendar that Staria gave me while we were down in Florida.  She saved it for me so I could take it apart for the pictures, and that's exactly what I did.  So far, I've only used one of the pictures. 

My bathroom is done in mostly deep brown and ivory, and I switch between using a set of blue and a set of green towels. This particular picture was perfect, because it brought in all of those colors, and will look good regardless of which towels we happen to be using.  I found the frame for this one at Garden Ridge at the same time I found the others, and just like the others, it ended up being perfect.  It almost looks as if it were designed to go with my shower curtain.  I was able to modify the mat that came with the frame for this one, though it is more narrow than it should be.  (Yes, I do know that the mat should be at least as wide as the molding, but I was making do.)  I think it looks good anyway, and it looks fantastic in my bathroom.  The empty place above my towel rack is empty no more.

I have another couple of the pictures from that calendar flagged, but I'm not sure yet exactly what I'll do with them.  One of them might just end up on another wall of the guest room.  :)

The Latest Bride to be All Wound Up

Remember this preview of my latest bridal set?  Well, I just got my hands on some of the pictures from the wedding.  :)

 Carrie, one of my previous AWU brides, had the honor of helping her little sister put on her jewelry.

Beautiful bride! 

All 5 ladies looking lovely in their AWU pretties!

They had a sweet little outdoor ceremony. *sigh*  I so love weddings.  I keep asking Brandon when we can have another one.

Congratulations to Faith and David!  Best wishes and many joys to you both in your marriage!

I just want to brag a bit...

I'm working on my LO for our visit to Ritter Sport with Sara in August. At the time, I took this picture with a mind to cropping it down to use as a page element for the LO, and I still think it's a good idea.  But, because the angle of the photo is just a tiny bit off, simply cropping it wasn't working out so well. So, I decided to just make my own.

It turned out pretty well, huh??  Man I love Photoshop.  :)  I'll post the whole LO when it's done.

Faith's Bridal Jewelry

The plan was originally to order the supplies for this jewelry as soon as I got to Florida, but since I'm obviously not going to make it to Florida, or to anywhere in the States in time to make the jewelry there, I went ahead and ordered the stuff here and prayed that it would get here in time.  It got here Friday, October 1st, I'm shipping it Monday, October 4, and the wedding is on the 17th.  

Can we say panic?

Well, anyway, now it's finished, photographed, and packed, just waiting to be sent on to the blushing bride in Florida.  Now I have to pray that it reaches her in time.

This is her jewelry:

And this is what her bride's maids will be wearing:

Pottery

 I started painting this set of jungle figurines for Elora 2 years ago, while I was still pregnant.

I got the elephant and the giraffe finished, but the zebra has been sitting alone and half-done for 2 years.  Well, now that my move is pending and I officially ran out of time, I got him done.

The set is finally complete.

While I was at it, I painted a couple of the mini figurines.  One will be joining the jungle set, the other will find its way into a Christmas stocking this December.

I sponged them both a solid green, then painted on some of the details with the glaze, so that they're textured.  It wasn't quite the color I was expecting, but I still like the final result.

Voilà! Dresses of Voile

Brandon was kind enough to let me spend last evening at the shop, getting some more sewing done.  I actually crashed a party of quilters who had come for the long evening as well-- did you know they're open until 9 on Thursdays now?  They were terribly sweet in welcoming me to join them, and we had a good evening.  They all oohed and aahed over the little dresses I was working on, which of course pleased me to no end.  And while I sat shirring away, I got to watch them all working on Irish chain quilts, offering my opinion of color when asked.  I was grateful that while my project was just as tedious, it was far less complicated.

Oh goodness, and I nearly forgot the sideways-rain and umbrella-theft portion of my night.  I made a run to Subway to get dinner for myself and a few of the other ladies, hoping to make it there and back before the bottom dropped out of the sky.  I borrowed an umbrella from the office since it had already started to rain.  It worked well until I was about a third of the way there, when it started to come down in heavy, sideways-blowing torrents.  I was soaked from the knees down.  When I got there, I left the umbrella by the door to order the sandwiches, but when I went to leave, the umbrella was gone.

That's right, someone stole the umbrella.

Thankfully, the rain slowed to the merest drizzle while I walked back, before resuming its previous downpour.  I made it back no wetter than I was when I reached the Subway.  Kelly had already left, and Mary assured me that it was only an umbrella left behind by a customer at some point, but still.  Oh well, at least we got a good laugh out of it all.

I got the repairs done to that first little dress, and stitched the straps on the back.  (They're actually just tucked in to the front, in the picture.)  I put them in the wrong place, though, so I have since taken them off, to be put back on in the right place later.

And, I got the green one done, except for the straps.  I just left them off completely on this one, because I was pretty sure the blue ones were wrong.  Since Sara will be here this afternoon, I probably won't get them on until after she leaves.  But since summer has already pulled a peace out, I don't think it matters.  I just hope it's still warm in Florida (definitely) and Virginia (probably) when we get there. 

I'm so excited about Sara being here!  We have a lot of fun stuff planned, starting with a trip to Salzburg, and a stop at Neuswanstein en route, this weekend.  Plus, she's going to help me with some of the not-so-fun moving stuff, which is going to be awesome.  Bring it on!