{country bumpkin to fabulous}

Generally I think my decorating style is fairly classic at least with larger pieces of furniture, but the accessories & tchochkes change like the wind. And I still had a couple pieces left over from my country-chic {if that's possible} days and with a quick sanding, matte black paint, glossy white & new hardware they are reborn.

{it's hard to tell but the candle holders & coasters are rockin' a 1995 crackle finish and are a dingy cream color. they were spray painted glossy white & once dry lightly sanded.}

{cookies}

I don't have much of a sweet tooth but I do really enjoying baking. {give me a nice french baguette, good cheese and a fabulous bottle of wine & I'm all set} This weekend I whipped up a couple batches of peanut butter cookies. And for a twist I melted some chocolate chips, mixed the chocolate into some of the cookie batter for some chocolate-peanut butter cookies.

{I love this old mason jar. It keeps the cookies fresh & looks pretty cool doing it too.}

{welcome back & a little inspiration}

Why hello! I am back, refreshed & ready to take on the world. The first point of attack - the back room at the studio. I would have taken before & after photos but the before would have been too embarrassing. We are talking serious disarray. I'm a fairly organized person, ask me for an item & I'll find- it just might take me a little while. And I do hate to throw things away, I'm not a hoarder like on that TLC show, I just know at some point that left over bit of fabric or old picture frame that's missing the glass will come in handy. {and more often than not they do}

After a good clean like this I'll be good for awhile, putting things away where they belong, very proud of myself and how orderly I am. But not too long from now piles will start to form. A pile of mail will appear on my desk, another of magazines & catalogs on the table in the back room and the never ending piles {there's always at least 2 or 3} of ideas & notes written on scraps of paper. Several lists will be made as to how to organize it all, but for now it's clean & orderly.

On a complete side note.....

.....while the studio was closed last week I took some time to read some blogs & sites I had bookmarked over the last month or so I'm not sure how I got to his site but I happened upon the site of Prague-based designer Pavel Fuksa who ambitiously designed 178 different matchbox designs for use in a new music video by Navigators. I love them just all laid out in one composition, {wouldn't that look great as a huge print?} but the music video {it's below} is pretty cool too.

{you gotta love free}

I love re-purposing......and re-purposing free items is even better. I was given a pair of bistro chairs that were in serious need of paint & new seat covers. This was going to be a quick project, I had spray paint but no staples for recovering the chairs but I did have glue sticks for the hot glue gun....and naturally the day I had a little time to finally work on them it was incredibly windy out so I needed to come up with an indoor alternative.

{A little sheet of plastic taped to the ceiling and voila a paint room is born}

{I know what you're thinking, I should have left the blue & white stripped fabric circa 1993 but I happened to have just enough black satin & sheer pink fabric in my pile of leftover material}

{I couldn't make my mind up between painting them black or white so I painted one of each. Which worked out well because I ran out of black spray paint just as I finished the first black chair.}

They turned out pretty cute huh? One of the best parts is the seats aren't attached, gotta love more options, and it only took me about 30 minutes to paint & recover both chairs. After having them sitting in my back room for months it feels great to complete a quick project.

{wedding gifts with a little love}

Pots & pans are nice but I wanted to give my sister something special to commemorate her wedding, something only a sister could give. We had always talked about using our mother's & grandmother's wedding dresses in some way for our weddings. And when Hol decided not to carry flowers down the aisle I came up with a perfect alternative, a handkerchief.

After getting the ok from Mom I cut a square out of her train and after soaking grandma's 60+ year old dress 3 or 4 times in oxyclean {that stuff is amazing!} I carefully removed the lace trim from around the bottom hem & train of her dress.

We never knew our Mother's Mother, she passed away before Hol was born-I was just one, so incorporating her dress into Hol's wedding was very meaningful. I used Grandma's lace to trim the handkerchief & to match the lace bolero Hol wore with her dress I sewed beads from Mom's dress sporadically along the lace. And so Hol wouldn't have to worry about dropping it, I added a string of pearls from Mom's dress as a ring.

It was her something old, new, borrowed & blue. {there's a hand sewn blue heart on the back side}.

It's not perfect and the stitches are no where near uniform or technically correct but it's my favorite gift I've ever given anyone.

{and I hope one of Hol's favorite gifts she's ever received}

While Nicole & I were talking one day she mentioned she was pretty sure she was going to be a complete wreak during her ceremony and at that moment I knew exactly what I wanted to give her.

For her handkerchief I used a square piece of ivory satin for the front & black satin for the back, trimmed both sides with black satin and I found some beads that matched her gown for the ring. Simple and classic for this chic and subtle bride.

{and it's complete with a hand sewn blue heart}

{sewing projects}

I recently gave my bathroom at home a little makeover. Target had these very simple cotton shower curtains in several colors at a great price and I jazzed mine up with some hand sewn flowers. I used raw white silk I had laying about for the flowers ............and yes I realize I clearly have a problem with using pink, white and gray whenever & where ever I can......but I'm very happy with the way it turned out and it only cost about $50.00 (plus a little of my time).

These are three shadow box frames that hang over 2 towel rods. I removed the glass, cut out 3 rectangles from a sheet of gray poster board and hot glued the flowers on.......I love that no 2 flowers are alike.

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And to continue the raw edge flower trend I thought I'd include the pillows I made quite awhile ago for my couch at the studio. I used an old shear window curtain and simply recovered 4 pillows I had. I used some of the left over curtain to make the hand sewn flowers. The chairs go with a round dinning room table I use for my desk. It was quite beat up when I got it, but a little paint & re-stuffing the chairs so they have the 'over stuffed look' brought it back to life........

love the way the pink pops with white............

{shoot sac}

Camera bags can be quite cumbersome, especially while trying to quietly & inconspicuously move around to get that perfect shot during a wedding ceremony. And who wants to leave their precious equipment sitting off to the side? I always picture it's the quietest moment during a ceremony and a guest just has to leave (there's always one!) and as they slowly make they're way out, almost out the doors, they trip over my bag/s with the loudest ruckus you've ever heard...... as you can imagine this would be bad- very, very bad. So in trying to keep this from happening as well as keep my nerves from unraveling I recently found out about & purchased a shoot sac. What is a shoot sac you might ask? Well, a very crafty photographer developed the shoot sac, it's more like a messenger bag that's padded to protect lens & etc but slim enough to be worn while shooting. They also sell covers to personalize the basic black bag and as I haven't had the time to be very crafty lately my fingers were just itching to sew something. So today I made my own cover from some satiny soft fabric I had laying around, as well as a couple of camera straps. I took the leather ends off of a couple of canon straps I had and used 2 hair scarfs for the straps. Ahhhhh, project complete and need to be crafty totally satiated!