I'm feeling bright

So I still haven't gotten around to backtracking, but I was so excited to post my first skirt! Only one mistake, where I got a piece of my skirt stuck at another part I was sewing, but otherwise it fits perfect with a little room to spare. I just used my favorite skirt as a rough, very rough, template. I hardly used it all since I had no idea how to trace it so I just cut and cut until I had something that resembled a skirt. I sewed on commercial breaks between the biggest loser finale, and this is what I came up with:

I plan to use the rest of the fabric to make a table cloth for my deck table.

DIY Wedding Projects

Look at me. I start a new blog, and keep telling myself "this time, you need to stick with it and keep it updated!" Time already got away from me, and I haven't posted a thing. Since the last 6 months were a blur of wedding planning, and I spent all my free time on DIY projects for it, I figured I might as well share them. At least it will fill up some space on my empty blog until I photograph all the other things that kept me busy in between the wedding things to help me keep my sanity.

First, the bouquets. I made mine from flowers I purchased online, site unseen, from afloral.com. I was worried they would look horrible since they were silk, but I was amazed at how much better they looked than the ones I almost got at Michaels, and would have paid double for! I wanted some flair, so I put some left over diamond confetti in the centers. I did the same on Drew's boutennierre (sp!) and added a little fake baby's breath around them.

The reception decor was all DIY except the table top linens. They were some kind of fake cloth that my stepmom found. They actually felt like a nice table cloth, but it was obviously fake if you felt underneath. I have no idea where she found them, but they were awesome. For decor I made the following:

Runners, which I got the ribbon edges down to a perfect science... after spending 2 hours straight trying to figure out and plan.

The little candle holders are baby food jars. I glued ribbon around the edges to make them look fancier. Well, as fancy as a baby food jar can look! One of my friends decided to take the idea and use it in her house. I wish I didn't tell them to throw them out after the wedding, because now I have so many ideas for them in the craft room! And the baby I got them from has moved on from baby food jars :(

The big candle holders I got from JCP on 75% off christmas clearance. Now I'm using them to decorate our dining room with.

The cake topper was made from real granny smith apples. Drew and I are losers, and met knowing one of the biggest things we had in common was our love for green apples. I was even chewing green apple gum when we met. He proposed to me at the granny smith apple section of the apple orchard in the mountains. He even conned me into setting up my camera in one of the apple trees and self timing him proposing to me. I had no idea, but I loved the story so much I made it a cake topper. I cut out a vest and bowtie from fabric to make the groom apple, and used leftover tulle from my Barbie's dress to make the veill and skirt on the bride apple. I also ordered a lot of Barbie shoes years ago to make a necklace out of, and found two matching pink ones to go with the hot pink shoes I wore the wedding day.

I sewed sheer fabric with a sheer pink ribbon together for the front of the cake table and food tables. The twinkling lights are christmas lights I strung behind it. It looked awesome in person, and some pictures caught the real life look.

My flower girl's dresses matched mine, and I got a bride Barbie for each of them to play with at the ceremony to keep them emtertained. But I went the extra mile and made a dress for my My Size Barbie to match us all as well. The girls had a ball dancing with her because she had a dress like ours. I'm proud of the dress because it was the first thing I sewed by myself, and without a pattern. It took me weeks, but once it was done I was ecstatic.

Because I don't care about being formal or classy and wanted to make the wedding decorated with spending as little money as possible... I used beer bottles as flower holders. I didn't even bother peeling off the labels. Once I put them in the windows, the green looked awesome in the sunlight. There's a reason our best man's speech included the line "these are the two most financially conservative individuals I know."

Also, I sewed my MOH and Bridesmaid a clutch as a gift. I used the runner fabric for the bottom and used some scrap pink fabric for the top. I used a tutorial to make the zipper, and failed several times to get it right. I also accidentally sewed too far over a couple times, so the seam ripper became my new BFF. But for the clutch I used someone's purse tutorial for the overall shape, cut it down a few inches smaller, added the top half and the zipper and walah, a clutch. Pictures? I forgot to get one of those :( I'm going to ask MOH to send me one to add later. It was an interesting experience, doing everything from scratch with no experience. But it got me started trying many more projects. Next up is a skirt and table cloth, but I still need to add the shirt I made and a couple other random crafts!

Hi!

First I'll introduce myself. My name is Samantha, I'm a newlywed, and I have 2 awesome cats. I drive a MINI Cooper S, and although that's where I originally got this name (and my old email address 4 years ago) I like everything small. I bought a house almost 2 years ago when I was 21 as an impulse. It's 864 sf, and used to be my grandparents. My grandmother died, and my grandfather quickly remarried and decided to put his first and only house of 56 years on the market. I was apartment shopping the week he made the announcement to sell, so I said SOLD! (of course, my mortgage is $200 less a month than rent, and even repairs haven't come close to costing as much as a 1 bedroom apartment!) A week later I was in a bad car accident, which I am told I may never recover from. My husband and I met on myspace after finding out we were in the same circle of friends. We started dating 4 months later, then moved in together several months after that, and I honestly can't imagine my life without him. We adopted our first cat, Cooper, a week before moving into our home, and our second cat Rupert came 7 months later. It's been a whirlwind of a few years! We're still only 23 and 22, finding out what the world has to offer, and are so blessed to be where we are, and together.

I got my first sewing machine this past Christmas. I also got my prized Kitchenaid mixer for my birthday (I have the most awesome bosses!), so I've been busy learning how to be domesticated :) Though, in reality, he's the one that cooks and cleans all the time. I'm just trying to make it fair. I've baked tons of treats, and made many projects that I never thought to document. So I'm going to try and backtrack and post ones I've already done and hopefully catch up and post current projects. First, I need to pay to be pro on flickr! I've been putting it off for years, and actually started a new flickr just so I could avoid paying. I'm obsessed with photography (ok, I've made 3 flickrs now, I'm bad) so keeping it under 200 photos is impossible.

Well, that's me in a nutshell. Hopefully you'll get to know me a lot better in the future posts. Thanks for stopping by!