Forever Flowers

I frequent wedding blogs quite often. Once Wed and Vintage Glam are two of my favs. A regular contributor, La La Laurie offers this lovely tutorial on making fabric flowers, specifically bouttonnieres, but I am sure you can do much more than that.






In fact, all of her tutorials are amazing, such as her tree stump pedestal cake stand in detail here on Etsy's Storque with tons of lovely featured picks!



or her bird and flower garland.



You can visit her blog, or even purchase some of her goods in her Etsy Shop!

Oh So Very Vintage Inspired

I truly adore Emily from The Black Apple.



Her artwork is lovely, her wardrobe and fashion sense are stunning, she is adorable (even her little nose and eyeliner skills are perfect), her stories are sweet, her macaroons are glorious (her recipe here) and now we can see that her living room is just as fabulous.



She shared some photos of it a little while back, so I thought I would show them to you here. Oh, those curtains!



I have been looking for a couch like hers for forever! This is an anthro couch... I figured it out from this post here at Life in the Fun Lane!



We had a little cement deer when I was young in our backyard that we would ride. I adored it.



Have you ever seen more glorious vintage pillows?



The quilt + The pillow + The green vase + Red roses = Love.



I can def see myself eating macaroons and sipping marshmallowy hot chocolate in a delicate gold trimmed teacup in that stunning chair.



Lovely, aren't they?

Bustle Shuffle

Welcome to my heart.


zimka

I Love bustles. I don't know if this comes from my love of all things romantic, victorian, edgy, and just a little bit of {wholesome} burlesque, but I love them.


artlab

Maybe it is because I have always loved dressing up and feeling pretty.


elliott elephant

Could be in part to having no fanny and loving that I could have one.


giaconceptions

Or maybe the thought of it balancing out my little childbearing gut is comforting. Not at all like situps, and sweating for said excersizes.


sisters rose and ruby

Or maybe because what's her name in The King and I didn't care (or know) that the children thought she was fat due to her gigantor skirt (how they missed her teeny waist is beyond me.)


gaudy couture

I think though, it is the tattered lace, the modest disguise of hiding a figure.


bustle

Feeling demure and a little bit saucy at the same time.


stacy leigh atelier

So, I decided to make a very very VERY watered down bustle skirt for everyday wear. Even though I do not machine sew, I did just a quick little stitching while I had foils (color) in my hair. (yes, I do foil my own hair late at night when the kids are sleeping so as not to frighten the sweet little beasts.)



I found this great tiered gyspy skirt (you all know the one) in a gorgeous nude color. It was about 10 sizes too big, but I couldn't pass it up. So, I took it home, gathered 2 folds in the very back and created a single back panel over the tag and pinned it.





Then, I simply hand stitched the waistband across the panel and about 3 inches down the back on each side of the fold.





Truly, it was so easy it took about 15 minutes. Now, I have a skirt that fits with a hint of a bustle on the back, but not too crazy like. You may not be able to even tell that a bustle exists.



But I can. And I like it.



If you try this project, you can get some matching tulle, snip the back panel at the top and insert pieces of tulle and lace into your slits in a descending fashion, all bustle like to really poof it out. (Just follow the inspirations of the gorgeous bustle pics I showed above!) I am actually considering doing this to my skirt, or maybe trying it on another one. I have no shame to walk into a grocery store with flip-fops, fitted tshirt and maxxed out bustle skirt.

What do you think, do I dare?

Oh So Lofty

I have always loved the idea of living in a loft. A footed tub behind a dressing screen. Gigantic wall spaces for large gaudy antique portraits, industrial cabling with grommet fastened canvas room divider slides, random columns and/or beams, cool concrete floors... so basically none of this would be practical with toddlers and a big dog in a suburb, but a girl can imagine, right? Loft images from Loft Life Magazine. Love it!

To and Fro

photo by bomobob

A couple of days ago, I took my boys to see Nim's Island. A movie I had never really considered seeing before but it was all that was available.


shipwreck gown by threadbare uk


Our movie theatre has a free kid movie every Tues/Wed in the morning. I, having a hard time leaving my home during the day, decided to face the challenge and take the boys on a rare outing. I felt I had a bit (though not as extreme) in common with Alexandra in the movie who is a raging agoraphobic. We all really enjoyed the message behind the movie. And Gerard Butler. But mostly the message (and scenery).


earrings by kathryn riechert

The message that we must face our fears head on in order to conquer them. That we cannot be stifled by ideals, technology or criticsm lest we should fail to thrive. That sometimes being alone is okay, but having a confidant is even better.


photo by ds brennan

That happiness does not need to come through large means. That not even an expanse of an ocean unexplored cannot keep you from reaching your destiny. (you just need a bit of a push and make an effort to do it).


pelican by sandra healy

So, this is to my staycation this summer, trying to find ways to stay afloat amidst those currents of doubt, fear, anxiety, health, financial struggles, personal limitations...


photo by h o g n e

To aid you in your waves of inspiration, is the lovely Seaside Beauties collage by Faerie Enchantment of the Faerie Zine.

Let Us Be Men

I just read the story of Carol Decker for the first time today. You can read updates at their blog.

Almost one year ago today, Carol had an emergency ceasarian section to deliver her second baby, Safiya. Due to severe complications from hypertension from septic pneumonia, arteries to both her legs, one arm and her eyes blocked her circulation that forced amputations. Carol had both her leg's below the knees amputated, her left arm below the elbow amputated, her right ring finger amputated; and is now blind. All of that is due to ischemia from vasopressive drugs used to keep her blood pressure high enough to survive.



Carol now struggles with multiple surgeries, prosthetics complications, blindness, pain, learning to move again and being a young mother to two young little girls. She has a supportive husband who blogs about their progress, helps her function and even does her make-up. Now the Deckers are faced with medical expenses over the 2 million dollar mark and any help or words of love is always appreciated. Please see the this video from KOMO news, it is an amazing story.

I hope we all today, can be a little more thankful for what we do have in this world. That we can share a little bit of hope, prayer and service to those in need.

Carol's story and her supportive husband reminded me of this video about being a "real man". Elder D. Todd Christofferson, shares a touching personal experience and exhorts men to live by the attributes of true, Christlike manhood in this segment entitled "Let Us Be Men".



I hope you find yourselves uplifted today.

A Shabby Weekend

By shabby, I mean, shabby good and shabby bad.



We went to Granbury, the home of a tiny historic down square, bed and breakfasts galore, a theatre stage and opera house, antiquing and homemade fudge and salsa, a drive in theatre, we even went to Granbury on our honey moon. But, so much has changed in the past 6 years. Half of the wonderful shops are gone. My favorite, The Glass Knob, is now Babe's Chicken. Every window used to have a gorgeous display, only a few remain.



The other half of the stores sell turquoise chunk jewelry and imported handbags, tourist bobbles mixed in with the shabby chic and antique treasures in the back. What happened to this quaint romantic square untouched by mass produced junk? (CUTE mass produced junk, but mass produced, none-the-less).



Only about 4 stores remained true to the roots. The quilt shop where we got our honey moon quilt was still there.



Lots of candy for the pickens.



Even though I don't sew, I love fabric and I love patterns and I love wishing I could sew.



Though it was about 100 degrees, my husband trudged along happily because we found some amazing homegrown salsa (D.L. Jardine's Cilantro Green Olive). He goes to craft fairs and antique malls just for the pleasure of finding his homemade salsa.



Later we went to The Brazo's Drive In (which is FOR SALE) to see Star Trek (awesome) and Night at the Mueseum 2 (awful). The website said gates open at 7pm. So we are in line when a massive thunderstorm starts rolling in. B/c we have connections, we were able to stay up to date on the weather and we high tailed it out of there. We drove several miles on empty country road till we found a safe pocket and hunkered down for the storm to hit. We did this about three times, trying to outrun the storm. At one point, the sky turned green and we saw cloudy rotations. We talked about how I would grab Caleb and David would grab Isaac and we would lay in a muddy impression of the ground as flat as possible on top of our boys should a tornado hit.

We did this for a couple of hours (honestly we felt like gung-ho storm chasers) and sat tight as the practically torrential rains rolled over us in thunderous, black waves. About 2 hours later, the rains stopped an we drove back to the Drive-In.



It was a good thing we left, since the field was spotted with quite damaging chunks of hail! The storm took out the drive in sound system, so the movies didn't start till almost midnight. The movie started and it was good, but the boys were out by this time. Thanks to the boredom of passing the time (and some crushed melatonin tablets we fed them by small degrees).



Aye... we were a tired bunch of souls on our drive back home, I constantly feel asleep and jolted myself awake to keep talking to David so he would remain awake as well. Though we wished we had left after Star Trek and not stayed for the second movie, it was still a fun and memorable experience. So, what did you do this weekend?