Christmas Dress Alteration Project

So for about the last 6 months I have been teaching myself how to sew. It is a frustrating yet rewarding hobby and I have learned A LOT since starting. I've sewn skirts, cloaks, capes, a photo backdrop and even done a couple of dress alterations. 

My latest project was doing some alterations on a Lauren Conrad dress my mom picked up for me. She found it on clearance at Kohl's and thought it was too good of a deal to pass up. Thanks mom!

Here is the dress...

Cute right? A fine dress on it's own but as the holidays were approaching I learned that my job (i work at a children's museum) was going to be having a big holiday party. It was going to be held at one of the nicest (and most beautiful) hotels in town, The Hotel Blackhawk. 

I immediately knew that this was the dress I was going to wear but I envisioned something more personalized, more ME. With that being said, this became another perfect opportunity to develop my sewing skills. 

My hair is red and pink so that became the inspiration behind the alterations. As vain as it sounds I must say that I am going through a hairstyle/haircolor golden age right now. I have never been so happy with my hair. I think that it why it became the inspiration for the dress. 

Here's my red/pink hair to give you an idea...

I wanted my hair and my dress to tie together into one cohesive, totally customized, one of a kind look. I wanted something unique to me and me alone. Ha, I sound like such a brat. Forgive me :-P 

Anyway, with the dress already being red I just needed to find a way to tie some pink into it. 

This is what I came up with

I added a permanent belt with rhinestone buckle, off the shoulder sleeves and some beautiful trim along the bottom. 

The sleeves I added so I would feel comfortable not wearing a shawl or cover-up. I don't usually wear sleeveless pieces alone so I thought this would be a good solution. 

To make the sleeves I used some reddish pink velvet my grandma (a seamstress herself) gave me when I visited her in Minnesota this past fall. Thanks Mimi!

The trim along the bottom I found at the craft store. Some of it was put on with permanent, fusible fabric tape and some of it was sewn on. The only thing I did not expect when doing this part was how much I was going to need of each type of trim I used. 

The skirt of this dress is done like a circle skirt with lots of twirl and flounce. I needed at least 15ft of each type of trim to make it all the way around the bottom of the dress! I had to make a 2nd trip to the craft store and buy out their supply of pink glitter ribbon. lol

It was well worth the effort though and I had it ready in just the nick of time for my work party. 

My husband saw me working so hard on the dress all week and knew how excited I was for us to dress up and go to a fancy party together.  Before we left for The Hotel Blackhawk that night he told me he would be happy to escort me to the party and presented me the most beautiful corsage made of red and pink roses. 

It was just the sweetest thing and I could tell he was just as pleased with himself as I was for coming up with such a thoughtful, romantic thing to do. Good job Honey! You made me melt. lol

I'm sure a lot of you are like "OH, BROTHER. Give me a break from all this CHEEEEESE!" and for that I cannot blame you. Really! For us though it was a big deal getting to dress up and go to this party. My theory is that because we never had a formal wedding with a fancy tux and gown these smaller things (like a holiday party) become a big to-do for us and we get really into it. 

For those who don't know we eloped in Vegas in your stereotypical, spur of the moment, Vegas marriage type of way. That is a story for another day though ;D

Anyway, I thought it would be pretty much amazing to wear fresh flowers in my hair so my husband pinned the corsage in my hair for me, we left for the party and had an amazing night.

 Perfection.

Here we are at the party.

And here we are with the family on Christmas Eve. After putting so much work into one dress you know I gotta squeeze as many wears in as possible!

I got a cute family, just throwin' it out there...

And here we are again hanging out during PRESENT OPENING TIME. YAY! And what glorious, chaotic time it was. Kids make it so fun and so crazy. Ha ha. 

That's all for now folks so thanks for reading! Hopefully I'll blog again here sooner rather than later ;)

Peace. <3 nbsp="nbsp" p="p">

Kitchen Entry Redesign

Here are some more pieces I spray painted yesterday. The cabinets in my kitchen are white so I wanted to paint some wood furniture to match so I could put it in my kitchen entryway.

A friend/co-worker of mine gave me this wooden mirror last week when not even The Goodwill would take it when she tried to donate it. It was in pretty rough shape but it still had hope so I told her I'd take it. I love the small shelf under the mirror and knew I wanted to line it with pretty stuff when I had it all finished.

Here are the before and after pics...

The next piece I did was a table I was going to place right under the mirror. Once again I was a noob and forgot to take a "before" pic.

Here it is mid-project and finished...

It looks so pretty right now with only a couple pairs of my shoes on it. I promise you though that by the end of tonite it will be covered in tons of shoes. Mine, my husband's and my brother's. At least I got the before pic this time!

Here is the entire project completed. My new backdoor/kitchen entryway! Boo YAH!

Maybe I'll do more with the entryway later. I could add some framed pictures or maybe even embellish around the mirror a bit. That is for another blog entry though so until next time folks ;D

Spray paint my life

 It's early spring here in Iowa and I decided to use my time off in the beautiful weather wisely. On Monday I used my dad's truck (thanks dad!) to pick up a dresser from the Salvation Army. I've needed a decent size dresser for a couple years but could never find the right one (aka the right price) to refurbish. Yep, sometimes even the used dressers at The Salvation Army are outta my league. But on Monday I found a $40 beauty that would work perfect.

Once I got into the rhythm of spray painting the dresser though I kept finding more and more things to spray paint. 

 

 Here is my dresser mid-project. I was being a noob and forgot to take a "before" pic. I'll work on that.

And here is the finished product. 

I wasn't planning on painting the hardware initially but remembered a can of salmon pink paint I bought on clearance awhile back at the craft store.

Perfect combo.

 I'll post the results of the rest of my spray paint endeavors a bit later :)

Seriously, I want to make these

 Rice Krispies, Swedish fish, Fruit Rollups.

Simply awesome. Just the way I like it. I need to figure out what my excuse will be to make these things now. 

 And saving a little powdered donut action for the end ;) hehe

Going to a movie shoot this morning

It's been awhile since I last posted on here but after taking some photos this morning I figured I would make a post. My husband and I woke up at 4:30 this morning to go help some friends who are in the process of wrapping up shooting for a film they are making. I don't want to go into what the film is about because it is kind of complicated and I don't want to say too much or give anything away. For the shoot this morning filming took place at the bar inside The Hotel Blackhawk. My friend John and sole actor in this film works at the coffee shop inside the hotel so he was able to get permission to film there. The Hotel Blackhawk is a pretty classy establishment and so the bar area was something to behold. Part of movie making seems to involve a lot of sitting around and waiting. I guess it was especially so today since there was no equipment or shots for me to assist with really. Our main reason for coming to the shoot was so my husband could play the bartender in some of the shots.  Here are some pics I took while I was waiting for them to finish up shooting.

We'll start with this pic I took of my new shoes while I was chillin' out on the couches. Pretty fly huh? Haven't had a pair of Sketchers since I was a kid. Welcome to my shoe family little guys. It's a really big family by the way. lol

Pretty sure I took this shot right in the middle of a take. I was taking the pics on my husband's new HTC Thunderbolt and playing with all the effects. This shot has the added vignette.

Isn't it a beautiful bar area though?

 

I loved the black and white couches with leather and polka dots. So chic! There was an even larger sitting area behind me

 

And here is my husband and I at about 5:30 in the morning. I had John take this one for me. Don't let this picture fool you though. We were SLEEPY and I was still in my ratty bedtime sweatshirt. I just love going to classy bars in bedtime clothes! lol.

 

  On a side note though I did actually go out to the bars once in my pajamas but that's another story ;)

Last Summer, This Summer

So yesterday I went through my computer and organized all of my folders and pictures. Usually the files on my computer are in disarray but I decided to create some level of organization because I have too many pictures! When I came across pictures from last summer though it felt like there were butterflies in my stomach just looking at them. It has been kind of a rough winter but when I look at these photos I swear I can almost feel the hot summer sun on my skin again.

Here are some of the pics I ran across from last summer that show just what I miss about the beloved season really:

Riding my bike. I love cruising around the QC on my bike. We have lots of great paths along the river but really I love exploring around downtown Davenport and Rock Island. You never know what you're going to find or who you're going to find. It makes me feel like a little kid going out on an adventure again

Starting to garden again...

I miss all the beauty in my yard and just getting to spend time out in it with my dogs and Collison. I think I'm going to grow some food too this summer. Tomatoes, jalapenos, green peppers... Mmmm

Oh, and Marley! I can't wait to hang out with him outside again. I'll sit at my patio table sippin' on a beer, listening to tunes and enjoying the fresh air with my happy little conure

I miss the outdoor events. This was at the skate park in Davenport last year.

and the concerts...

and parties/concerts :P

And don't even get me started on grilling, swimming, camping and the list goes on and on...

Please come soon summer. We're all waiting for you!

Happy Tuesday :)

I collect fortunes from fortune cookies. This one popped up the other day at an appropriate moment and I took a picture. Happy Tuesday everybody :)