I never loved or hated the idea of a garter. I knew that I didn’t want to do a garter toss, but I was never against the idea of wearing one for tradition’s sake. As the wedding approached I had no garter, no time to order something off of Etsy, and no take to make something extravagant. I also knew that the type of garter that I could buy at the craft store wasn’t for me. So, I went to Nordstrom and bought a simple lace headband.
I could’ve easily gone to the craft store and bought a bit of lace, but believe me, days before the wedding any amount of time that I could save seemed like a huge deal–and I already had to go to Nordstrom.
Because my thigh is not the size of my head, I took a needle and thread and tightly hand stitched the headband so that it would have a tighter fit.
My sewing was messy, but I was in a hurry and no one was going to examine the seam. On the day of the wedding it looked great. I added a couple of strips of fashion tape to ensure that it would stay put throughout the night and that was it.
Since we’re all so close, I’ll show you what it looked like.
I loved the simple and classic look. This would be great for a bride with a fitted dress who didn’t want the bulk of something more elaborate.
Did you wear a garter? What did it look like? Did you DIY or buy something you loved?
I spent most of Saturday night making these. My fingers are sore from hours of manipulating floral wire, but I’m pleased with the end result.
I’ll be back soon with a DIY breakdown. Hope everyone had a great weekend!
Well, sort of–okay not really. A couple weeks ago I did something that I’ve been wanting to do for a really long time. I attended a class at the Little Flower School. Coincidently, a reporter and photographer from the New York Times happened to be covering the class. So, last Thursday I was quoted and pictured in the home and garden section of the paper. It looked a little something like this.
See this awkward looking girl right here?
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That would be me. Surprisingly enough a couple of people actually found the article on their own and contacted me about it. I think the weirdest connection was a guy who I studied abroad with read the article while he was on a train in Tokyo and then facebook messaged me about it. Crazy! Anyway, you can read the article here. Below are my feelings about the class.
I’ve been longing to take one of these classes since they started popping up everywhere in the blogosphere, so you can imagine how excited I was when there was an opening in a class during the time that I was in Brooklyn. I was a bit terrified when I arrived because I really don’t have much experience when it comes to arranging flowers. In fact, usually when Peter buys me flowers I let him put them in the vase for me—wait, does that make me a terrible woman?
Anyway, I was immediately entranced by all of the beautiful flowers.
And despite my fear of doing horribly in the class, things turned out really well. I got a lot of hands on instruction and the teachers weren’t afraid to jump in and make suggestions. Everyone’s arrangements turned out beautifully and they were all very different. We each got lost in our own little worlds for a few hours and when we looked up the room was covered in discarded stems and wild looking little bits of art. It was amazing and worth every penny.
I can’t imagine having that many flowers at my disposal any time ever again. Two fabulous things came out of the class. First, I remembered how wonderfully satisfying it is to spend time away from the computer and create something tangible. Second, I realized that as fun as it is to make flower arrangements, doing one and getting it right takes quite a bit of time. Peter and I had originally thought about doing our own flowers for the wedding, but after having a little bit of hands on experience, I’m happy to outsource this task. Plus, Sarah recommended a florist who is just starting a business in Austin! How amazing is that?! Maybe I will recommend some of the really great flowers that we got to use like this scabiosa pod:
and this one:
and this black basil:
Okay, here’s one last picture of my arrangement from the Little Flower School website. I will venture to say that its a bit more advanced than my last stint with flower arranging.
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Gush! I’m envious of this beautiful world that Nicolette and Sarah get to work in.
We love rooms that utilize their space but it seems like when people want a room to look as big as possible they push all the furniture against the wall. These aren’t the types of rooms that we love. Sometimes in order to create space you have to take some away.
The dilemma started with our end tables. Each of the end tables held a lamp. We liked the lamps but hated how much space they occupied on our tables. During one of our trips to IKEA we noticed a sofa that had a shelf positioned behind it in one of the model rooms. We liked the idea but upon further inspection we noticed that the shelf was too narrow and merely particle board. We knew that a quick trip to Lowe’s could provide us with the materials that we needed to build our own.
After evaluating the ready-made shelving at Lowe’s (also particle board and also too small for our couch) we headed over to the lumber department and picked out a nice sturdy board.
When we got the board home we sanded it to remove any rough edges and then applied two coats of brown paint, followed by a gloss finish.
Peter and I were terrified of mounting the board in the drywall so we were insistent upon finding studs. There are a million ways to do this but I couldn’t help but feeling like I was picking out a melon in the grocery store–aimlessly knocking without really being able to tell a difference in one fruit (or studded area) from another. After a long while and a few minor freakouts (Peter was getting impatient and wanted to destroy the wall looking for a stud) we mounted our shelf.
Here is the final product:
We actually managed to refrain from buying anything to decorate it. The lamps are the same ones mentioned earlier in the post. What’s great is that now they give off an amazing light. When they sat on our end tables they only lit the floor but now we can read (or blog) with a sufficient amount of light!
The framed picture is a photo of Peter and me at Navy Pier in Chicago. The candles were a hand-me-down from my brother. (Can you believe he was going to throw them away?) And finally, the statuette is a beautiful little hand-carved engagement gift from my fabulous mother. Here is a close-up. I should’ve turned on the lamp when I was taking the picture but for some reason, I didn’t.
We love how the whole set-up frames our couch. What do you think? Does anyone else have a couch shelf?
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