Teaser Pic!



So I had a huge impulse buy a couple weeks ago at one of the local Goodwill stores. It was a couch for $40... sitting right next to it was this decorative trunk for $7. Since I needed a "coffee table" anyway, I saw it's potential (especially sitting next to my "new" couch) and snapped it up.

I saw it had a large crack in a circle on the top of one side but it was just barely noticeable... until my husband decided to go, "oh, there's a hole here...." and stick his fingers completely through it.  You can kinda see it in the "before" shot but I didn't want to focus on it too much.

Then, yesterday I found this great faux embossed suede at Hobby Lobby in the remnants bin for 60% off the original price (it had been an upholstery fabric and muy expensive). I also picked up a 18k gold leaf pen (I also have the actual sheets of gold leaf and adhesives and coats, etc but decided the pen would make things go MUCH quicker).

So last night, I spent a few hours on it and finished it up. Now it looks quite fabulous if I do say so myself... and way more expensive than $20 (trunk and supplies).

"Assembly" was very simple, unscrewed all the hardware and took the lid off. Measured and glued down fabric using E6000 and used books to weigh it down while it dried/cured for a few hours. And used the gold leaf pen to highlight the flowers and leaves on the embossed metal bit.

Here's the before:



And the much-better AFTER(s)!:

(without a flash but much closer to the true colors of the fabric)

[Any ideas as to what the BACK of her gown looks like?]

So... I got it into my head that I wanted to make this dress. It started with my husband purchasing a Jayne t-shirt (the yellow one he wears through most of Serenity) and then deciding that he wanted to go to the Browncoat's Ball this year (he said it was in Austin which isn't too far from where we live).

Since everyone and their gramma has done up Kaylee's dress and I'm not entirely sure I have the budget/sewing skills for Inara's beautiful gown, I thought Banning's was the next best thing.

For those unfamiliar it's the gold/green ruffled gown on the right in these screenshots:





I started to look around on the net for better pics (of which, there apparently aren't that many.... ) and discovered that the Browncoat's Ball is going to be in Portland this year (was in Austin last year). Ahh boo! 

But I still kinda want to make the dress. You get some shiny idea into my head and I just have to make it. Besides, I might actually get a job and be able to afford to go to the ball anyhow. 

But anyways, here's my question....

Any ideas as to what the BACK of her gown looks like? At first I thought it was a 2 piece (like Inara's) and the bodice/top portion was kind've like a doublet/corset/blouse mix. I notice there's 2 "flaps" of material on the bodice front to match the ones around the neckline and decorated with 3 buttons each. I originally thought this was mimicked all the way around.

But when I paid more attention to the episode (slowed it down and went through frame by frame) I realized the back is much much longer. There's 3 box pleats (or even double box pleats... it's kinda hard to tell) shown in a shot from the back and the fabric drapes down for at least 4 inches and out of the shot. This leads me to believe it goes down a LOT further than just the bodice and covers quite a bit of the back of the skirt even if you can't see any of it from the front. I can catch a glimpse of it as she turns away and flounces off screen after being insulted and it looks like it goes down at LEAST halfway to the floor.

At first I was thinking a bustle of some kind since a lot of the outfits at the ball are Victorian but after looking at some pics on the net, that doesn't seem *quite* right but maybe it's just a modified version of one.

Any ideas? Or patterns would be great too. I'm more of a medieval/renaissance gal, so this Victorian-esque stuff is just not my field.

So these are the 2nd and 3rd cakes I've ever bothered decorating (other than slapping on pre-made, store-bought icing. The first was one I took over to the in-laws for Christmas 2008 (unfortunately no pics of that one) and my MIL loved it so much that she asked me to make a cake for my nephew's first birthday party this Saturday. I can't go because I couldn't get out of work so hopefully my husband can transport it the 3 hour drive to their house without anything catastrophic happening. 

The bottom layer of both cakes are white cake and the top layers are Starwberry Supreme (my husband insisted) from box mixes. I used vanilla icing and marshmallow fondant that I made from scratch.

(Please ignore my hideous dining room table -- it was free and I have plans to paint/stain it so it looks much nicer).

Oh... and the colors are supposed to be a lighter teal blue, brown and copper. I think the copper ended up WAYYYY too pink so I'm really "blah" about that. Boo.













And the extra cake that I kinda decorated half-ass because "meh, they're not letting me off work so why make it all super awesome special? They're lucky they even get a cake."

Hey all,

My best friend decided that she's going to do up her little office room in an Alice in Wonderland theme so for a (very late) birthday gift, I decided to do some of the colored pencil embroidery stuff I've seen around here. I wanted some neat ways to frame them but can't spend a whole lot of money on custom framed things at the moment so I decided to work out my own.

Here's the sneak preview:



Materials are:
*3 frames
*3 mat boards
*scrapbooking paper
*stickers and other notions





I'm still not finished doing the embroidery on 2 of the 3 but I finished up the mats today and just had to share. I wish I could think of stuff like this to do in my own house... 

















Now all I need to do is finish up the backstitching on the tea party and garden scenes and I can finally get these out!! 

A few years ago I made two versions of a Christmas card. One version was sent out to family, while the other was only sent out to select friends who would "get the joke". They're pretty simple and self-explanatory on construction and such. I don't have the cards anymore to take actual photographs of but I made copies of them before I mailed them all out. So here those are.

First, the family-friendly one (click to enlarge for detail).



It features a window cutout on the front with a single snowflake in it and the caption reads:

Front: May God's blessings float down like soft snowflakes...
Inside: ... settling lightly on every part of your world. Happy Holidays!

Pretty simplistic but necessary when your card list is well over 30 people and you're working on a budget.

Next up is the NSFW card I did. I should mention I made these during a particularly nasty public kerfluffle over the virtues of "Merry Christmas" vs. "Happy Holidays" so that's part of the joke. Let's see if you can see the inherent "wrongness" of the rest, shall we?


 
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Again, it features a window but this time with a single gummi bear in it. The captions read:

Front: Happy Holidays
Inside: Hope your season is as naughtily nice!! ... what? I said "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas". What do you mean you're offended?


...


If you peer closer you might've noticed that the gummi bears are arranged in the "snow" (quilt batting) in various sexual and orgiastic positions. I like to imagine the single one in the window is voyeuristically pleasuring himself.... 

Someone asked a few months ago (last year maybe?) on what to do with some old starbucks bottles and I explained and drew a picture of a hanging lantern I had seen at a store in Italy.



Basically, the bottom was cut off and sanded a bit while this metal piece was inserted up from the bottom and out the lip. It wouldn't be too hard to get thick craft wire and bend it into shape. They then used a twine-ish/hemp rope to create the net that draped over it and small chips of gems and shells for decoration.

At least that's what Aoisha tends to think.    I made this for him YEARS ago and he liked the stick end much better than the squiggly end I crocheted. Until my husband dug it out of a box and started playing with him. Now it's his favorite toy and he looks forward to playing with my husband when he gets home from work every day.







And then of course, some action shots!



Time for a bath. Vanquishing squid sticks is hard and dirty work:



Back to the fight!





    

Here's some pics of my new craft room:

First up for the teaser pic, my wonderful fabric bookcase.  



Top shelves have all my craft books, sewing patterns, and gear bag for some sewing stuff. Just below are my ribbons/trims and plastic bins with buttons and other bits and ends. Then of course, my precious fabrics. <3 (Not the whole stash, there's a bunch more in the closet which still needs organization so won't be pictured here) I have some knick knacks stashed on top too as well as different glasses.

Next up, my sewing corner and desk.











I got the paper lanterns at the Dollar General (woot for saving money!) and my grandpa built the pegboard frames while I sanded and painted them. Above the desk there's a corkboard I painted and the paintbrushes from painting the pegboards. I purposely left paint on the brush to dry out as an extra little decorative touch. Above them, the triptych I painted awhile ago. Yeah, I still need to get some sort of curtains....

Then, my heavy-duty metal shelving:



It still needs some organizing though.... Top shelf is scrapbooking stuff and memorabilia. Next down is my jewelry-making and bead stash. Then, my cross-stitch patterns and a few of them kitted up in binders. Below, there's my cross-stitch fabric stash and boxes of floss and silk. The bottom shelf is random stuff that needed a home for the time being.

To the other side of my shelving is a bookcase with some binders and my travel books:



And lastly, my wall of stuff with more pegboards!



A small shelving unit with some cross-stitch stuff. Journals and lots of extra floss. I'm eventually going to get some sort of chair to sit here next to it.



Right above that is my HDF and Carrie's Creations floss along with my bead stash.



Higher up is my scrapbooking pegboard.



Next to that one is my jewelry-making pegboard.



And finally, below that is the last of my cross-stitch and embroidery bits and bobs.



Sorry for the long post but I've been excited to share.    C&C welcome!

So, I got these candles from Hobby Lobby and they were being displayed in my living room very prettily until I realized that one of them had mysteriously cracked all around the middle. Still no clue how that happened... but anyway, I was going to take it back for an exchange until I decided to hide it and make them look more elegant.

I bought a piece of scrapbook paper and some tassels and here's the end result:



And what they looked like before (pretty, but kinda blah right?):

Well, previously I had my wedding bouquet hanging on the wall upside down... not very aesthetic.

Luckily (or rather unluckily) the movers packed it at the bottom of a box full of stuff which caused it to crumble a lot so I was forced to consider other ways to keep them on display like I wanted.

I settled on a shadow box frame with my favorite photo from our wedding that I photoshopped a bit, added some red cardstock (one of the wedding colors) as a photo mat and a few of the dried "buds" from my bouquet, some baby's breath and a leaf or two for some "color".

I originally wanted to put my wedding announcement in there but with my craft room still a mess I couldn't find the extras I had. I'm considering upgrading to a slightly larger shadow box since I still have half a bouquet or more sitting around (maybe 8" X 10") so maybe I'll keep the photo in there and add the announcement.

Anywho, here it is (clickable so you can see more detail):