The Planning of Our Rustic Vow Renewel Ceremony

Since Adam and I did not have the opportunity to have a proper wedding we decided to wait until we were settled in California to plan a celebration. I came up with the theme "Rustic Victorian Peach Wedding".

I have been working on the invites the past week and I finally came up with a creative way to use the fabric scraps I had left over from the wedding napkins I'm also making. I designed everything in Gimp and found free font downloads on Pinterest, 10" paper doilies on Etsy and printed them at Staples on pearl card stock. My mom made the peach tags for me. The mason jar was a clipart image I had found on Pinterest as well but I have seen it in a rubber stamp form. Not sure where the real source is because it has been replicated so often.


Please forgive my photography skills. I am still practicing with my new Canon Rebel camera so hopefully in time my images will look more professional. 

The Final Touches on Invitations

I added a couple stems of dried lavender and a little pearl on the twine.. You can buy this by the bundle for $8.99 at save-on-crafts. The pearls are from Michael's in the scrap booking aisle It smells so pretty!!

Practicing the centerpieces

I ordered some dried lavender, wheat and preserved roses from www.save-on-crafts.com. I plan on using fresh roses for the decor but the preserved are for my bouquet.Very simple and inexpensive way to decorate. Re-use wine bottles and decorate with ribbon and lace. I made my own chiffon fabric flowers by cutting out clover shapes and using a flame to curl the edges and then sew layers together. They turned our gorgeous. I used an old button for the center (flea market find).

My handmade Napkins.

Embellishing my Wedding Bustier.

I fell in love with a couple of wedding dress designers in Israel and they have the most beautiful dresses I have ever seen. They are glamorous but with a vintage flare. I had a custom gown made for me that didn't turn out to be my dream dress so I steered towards a different direction and made a very ballsy decision to make my own. So I sought out a bustier and I actually found the exact same one on I fell in love with on Pinterest. 

Here is the picture I found on Pinterest that I was going to use for inspiration to make a reception dress.

So I plan to embellish it with vintage lace appliques that that I found on Etsy. Fabric flowers and lots of pearl beading. This is not a difficult project it's just time consuming sitting and hand sewing everything on.

So far I have the lace appliques on next is fabric flowers and beading.

I'm going to wear this with a high waisted lace and chiffon skirt I plan on making. I found an Edwardian style skirt pattern for $40. Then for the reception I will change into a shorter more casual skirt for dancing.

Skirt Pattern-- Design on left. Top of skirt will be lace and the ruffled bottom will be silk chiffon. The pattern is more of a loose fit in which I will make it more form fitted in the hips and ruching in the back will be very fitted to create a more cascading look to the chiffon. 

Check out the rest of my wedding dress on this post!

DIY Body Form

I will eventually own a professional seamstress body form but for now I needed one that was affordable and that actually replicates my true body shape. I looked at several different tutorials on the web and found the most simple one. Make sure you have a partner because you can't really tape yourself. Supplies can be found at Home Depot or Lowe's and Joann's.

Supplies:

• 2-3 Rolls of Heavy Duty duct tape (I did the last layer in white but you could use gold, pink, blue, pattern)
• Piece of card board
• 5-6 packages of stuffing
• wooden dowel
• bucket
• fast setting cement
• turtle neck, mini dress, skirt ( or any piece of old clothing you don't mind cutting)

I had my handy husband help me with this project. 

• He wrapped my entire body with duct tape using long and short strips starting at my hips and moving up. It is important to do at least two layers so it holds a shape. I am slightly claustrophobic so I had him do my neck last. Yes you will sweat so I encourage you drink a lot of water before and to do this in a well ventilated area (outside).
• Once you have covered your body with duct tape cut directly up the middle of your back. 
• Remove the form and tape back together securely.
• Begin stuffing your form without causing lumps. There maybe a little distortion when done but that is why it is important to stuff carefully and a little at a time.
• Next stick the wooden dowel through the middle of form until it goes through the top. Tape in place.
• Cut out an oval (measure length and width of opening) to fit the base opening of your dress form. Cut a hole in center of card board for the dowel.
• Tape card board securely.
• Mix up your cement and pour into bucket.
• Stick wooden dowel into cement and prop form against wall so it is straight as possible and won't fall over.
• Cement should set within a couple hours. 

And there you have it. An inexpensive body form. I plan to make another one when I have lost a few pounds and I will take better pictures of the process.

Aprons, Aprons, Aprons!!

I absolutely love Anthropologie. One day I stumbled into their store while touring Washington D.C. and I happened to walk by all the aprons on the way out. I stopped dead and said "O.M.G. Adam these aprons are soooooo adorable". Of course he didn't buy my ooohhhing and awwwwing over an overpriced cooking apron (his opinion, not mine). I immediately went home and looked up all the sewing patterns for aprons (Etsy & Ebay), bought a few, mixed and matched and viola here are a few designs of my own. The fabrics I used were all from Joann's.  (yes I'm there 1-354 times a week).

My Favorite Apron patterns:

Butterick 5474
Butterick 6567
Butterick 4945
McCalls   6177

DIY Tiered Maxi Dress

During the summer months I wore maxi dresses all the time because not only are they comfortable they also hid some of my extra baby weight. I wanted to make my own so I went on a search to see how much fabric I would need. I came across a tutorial that re-purposed an old top and created tiers out of different fabrics. I went on a search to all my favorite consignment shops along the coast and found a pretty ivory top to chop apart (yes I hesitated). I hurried back to Joanns to grab the last yardage of this gorgeous peach fabric.

Tutorial here.

Baby!

When I was pregnant I became inspired to make all these baby items as well as my aprons (will share later) and so I thought I would share a few of these items. I used to have a little etsy shop but I decided to put that on the back burner due to time needed to plan our wedding this summer.

I fell in love with these little diaper clutches that are perfect for carrying on-the-go and fit at least 3-4 diapers, a wipes case and a changing pad. You could easily squeeze in rash cream and your cell phone ;)

Fabric is by Heather Bailey Fresh Cut Mums. Fat Quarters were perfect for this project. 

When Flora was about 5mths old she started to outgrow her fleece sleep sack that was given to us by my sister-in-law so I rummaged through my collection of fabrics and remembered I had bought this one for who knows what. I just loved the print especially for a baby. I Googled DIY tutorials for sleep sacks and came across a kimono style pattern. However I did not buy her pattern I just improvised but I do have to give LouLouJames credit for inspiration. Click here for pattern.

My creation. She wore this for a while until we realized she needed to move those little legs around and learn to stand. So sadly we packed it away.

Who doesn't love tiny baby shoes?!! Ummm seriously I could never get tired of making these. Her feet grew too fast! The denim pair are a pattern I made myself and the other's were free tutorials I found on Pinterest.

She wears the white ones the most. Mini Toms??!! I discovered that the elastic helps keep the shoe on. I have to make another pair of these but with slip free soles. I found the pattern at Sugar Bee Crafts.

My Own Dress Design for Marine Corps Ball.

I fell in love with a designer gown that I happened to come across on a Google image search worn by a famous celebrity. The previous year I had spent $370 on a ball gown (ouch). Well since we now have little one we obviously did not have the money to be extravagant. 

So I decided to make my own. What a challenge!!! I have never made a dress like this before so I had a few crying moments through this one. 

It turned out wonderful and I was pretty happy with the results with a few minor flaws that I was able to cover up with lace appliques. 

The most difficult part of this was the shirring on the bodice. Thanks to a couple youtube tutorials I managed to figure it out....sort of.

Past Projects that are too good NOT to share!

So I wanted to share some of the furniture projects that we started on when we first moved to California. Mind you we had moved across the country from Rhode Island when he was relocated. Thank the lord!!! 

Flora was 3 weeks when we moved which was a bit of an adventure for all of us. We stopped in AZ to pick up some of my items in storage and this coffee table was one of many items I had plans to transform. 

I painted it a light sage green and bought some thick foam from Joann's (make sure you have coupons ready). The fabric was a nice ikat upholstery material by Michelle Natchez that I found from Fabric.com  ..and it's on sale right now!!!. 

I had my husband cut a piece of plywood to fit on top.

Meanwhile, my husband was working on the dining room table. We found plans from Ana White....She is seriously amazing. We stained the wood with a mixture of vinegar and wool in a mason jar. The oxidation aged the wood and then finished with a coat of polyurathane.

Following the dining table was the bar table for the kitchen.

We found some old cupboard doors at a repurposed item shop. Pretty cool stuff here in San Diego.

Wanted to do something different for wall decor so I painted them white including an old pair of black frames I had. Flower pictures are from Ikea.

Next project was Flora's room. It took a few months to tackle that project. She was in our room for the first few months until we finally decided she needed her own space. I love the color peach and anything antique so I definitely went towards a shabby chic look. I had found an old oak dresser at a furniture store when I lived in MI years ago and I have carried it with me through many states. It's just one of my fav's.

We found the changing table on craigslist for $60...pretty sturdy and they had repainted it. I also made the changing pad cover out of a pretty rosebud fabric.

I found the decal on Etsy from seller JustTheFrosting and the idea for the mobile on pinterest using scrapbook paper and a circle paper punch. 

I wanted some bins to put on the table so I just used old Huggies boxes and some inexpensive canvas fabric plus muslin for the inserts. Very inexpensive and easy project.

Introducing Me!

Hello Everyone,

First I will start off by introducing myself. I am Stephanie a mother of a 10 month old tiny tot and wife of an Attorney for USMC. We currently reside in Southern California and we have lived her for almost a year now.

I am a stay at home mother so many of you may know how that goes. Well to keep myself busy I come up with fun and affordable projects to update our home. Many of things we own are thrift store makeovers, craigslist finds and handmade items. I was able to convince my husband to take on the hobby of furniture building. 

So far we have built a farm house dining table, a bar table for kitchen nook, patio benches, and kitchen shelves. So I plan to post pictures of our projects from the past and the ones coming up in the future.

This is the first time I have ever started a blog and recently I had a wonderful friend of mine tell me I should start a lifestyle blog for all my crafty ideas and projects. So I decided to retire from my former social network (not saying names) relationship and build a blog and see where it takes me.

Here are a few photos of my cute little family. They are my one and only's.

Meet Flora and Adam :)