A Horsey Nay Bridal Shower

This past weekend daughter and mother helped throw a wonderful bridal shower for a great friend. The gal is an accomplished horseback rider and animal lover in general. All her friends and bridesmaids thought a fun derby style shower with mint juleps included.....the "placecards were inexpensive plastic horses painted with black chalkboard  paint and the names hand written with white wet erase chalk marker. ( the mother used Pental Arts brand ) Each table had a vase filled with carnations and roses. Since the mother has a son who orders LOTS of flowers to be delivered to her house we have many, many clear glass vases. So the mother painted the INSIDES of each vase with Looking Glass spray paint ( paint the INSIDE only to get the silver look) and voila! Silver vases for each table! The daughter and the other went to a local throphy store and bargined for an old used trophy and paid a few bucks for the shop owner to place a horse on top. It was a horrible shade of blue but situation solved...spray painted the trophy CHROME except the "gold" horse.....chrome folks...get it at an auto supply place or wally world....chrome.....it's fab!

each horse had a guests' name hand written  on the side

horses waiting for  guests and notice the chocolate horse head lollipops in the little bin



here an old golf trophy used as a pretty vase

here is the painted silver trophy and another old golf trophy serving as a flower vase

 

Thought I'd Explain the Cute Picture Above

The Mom in this group is a widow. The daughter lost her Dad over six years ago when she was 19. He never got to walk her down the aisle but her cool bro did. Today is that daughter's birthday. Happy Birthday dear daughter. When tragedy struck our little family the mother's sister flew across the country to be by my side and help that daughter and nephew through the most horrible days of their lives. To say I am close to my sister is an understatement and probably aside from my daughter the only person I really put out for in a crafty way....so one day a year or so ago I made her a coiled rope bowl to corral her small quilting tools, a pincushion and a sewing  kit to hold a few needles, her special scissors a tape measure and her thimble. The coiled fabric covered rope is one of my specialties and  you can find the directions in many places...it's not hard to do and your first attempts will look it but they are the best ones!!! Then I fashioned a pincushion. Again nothing terribly special there you can get that tutorial anywhere on the net.  The fun part is making a sewing kit container from an old hard shell eyeglass case. I started saving them years ago thinking they must be good for something....well............all decorated and personalized, they can hold lots of things  so you can throw them in your handbag or knitting bag or quilting tote. This doesn't have to be a sewing kit...it can be a small travel jewelry case or a safe place to hold fragile things .....so here goes... grab an old hard shell eye glass case....you know... the one that snaps shut and if you're stupid enough to leave your finger in the way wow does THAT hurt!!!! If it has a "faux" leather covering or a fabric, carefully peel off that and try to preserve it one piece it makes a great pattern for the fabric you might use to re-cover the case. If there is not one you just need a scrap large enough to cover one side at a time. You can use lots little pieces and glue them on like a "collage". Whatever you have. BUT try to coordinate all the three projects  if you plan to give the set to someone. Now gather all your scraps and trims, needles,scissors, some white glue and some poly fill stuffing.  I have boxes of trims, buttons, old game pieces, ribbons, small artificial flowers, beads and old jewelry.  pull the inside linings out and again if you can preserve them for patterns that's always helpful.

Gather all your stuff (that's the fun part!!)

Remove the outer and inner covering and lining  and use as a pattern, glue the target fabric onto the top outside and the bottom outside

pretty

 I had some print felt and used a small piece to line the inside top half of the "sewing kit"

the felt is glued in the top half and

a contrast fabric is glued to the bottom ; make it really loose and before gluing the last side to the eye glass case stuff it tightly with poly fill to make a stationary pincushion or a place to store your hand sewing needles, straight pins and such. Glue the opening to the case.

decorate the outside

Here is the free standing pincushion with some cute
fabric leaves attached..

...and here is the coiled fabric covered rope bowl...notice the flower and the knotted handles.



The foloowing pictures show a few of the other bowls I have sewn. They are great seasonable gifts...Halloween, Christmas, summer......

Raid the jewelry box!!!!

When I was a little girl I would sit in wonderment at the sparkley pins and earrings my grandmother's would wear. Holidays brought out the best in each of them...gorgeous greens and bright golds, shimmering "diamonds" and pretty white pearls. I have a beautiful Christmas tree pin that I treasure and wear every year at Christmas time. Years ago when each of my grandmas had passed away I offered to take some of their jewels! Well that was YEARS ago and decided to try and up/re -cycle some of them....if you go to tag sales or yard sales keep your eyes peeled for these old beauties.....ask rellies if they have any they would like to get rid of....you can so do much with them....just removing the backings and gluing a magnet on can produce a pretty magnet for the kitchen or your daughter's room!

Remeber the enamel pins were all wore in high back in the 50's and 60's? Here's my treasured butterfly. My daughter played softball and I have about 100 softball pins which would look so cute glued onto a bangle bracelet....hummmmm Christmas is coming!

Old bracelets and rings that do'nt mean anything to anyone but me and now I can wear them all at once!

You can make the same bracelet using either a new cuff or an old one from your jewelry stash. Make sure it's clean and dust free. Take a wire cutter and carefully snip off all the findings (earring backs, ring base, brooch pins, anything that made the old jewelry useful!) I use 6000e glue...have to be careful not to get itonyour skin but it holds jewelry things together better... a hot glue gun doesn't work here...you could use 527 beading glue also...just hold the pieces in  place so they can dry. I kinda laid things out on the cuff before gluing and then set everything aside and glued things on the cuff one at a time and adjusting as I went along...once these glues dry it's not easy to remove and adjust so make your mind up and press head!

I combined silver look and gold look pieces. There are some copper looking pieces as well and it all looks wonderful together!

Wedding things ...lots of fun ideas...wish it could happen every weekend!

White Peonies, White Anemones and White Parrot Tulips and some special hand painted silk butterflies...

Bridesmaids' bouquet wrapped in madras

from  the same madras the guys pants were made from.... 

(sheikhshoes.com)

IF you can find a "plein air" artist in your area this ws the greatest feature during the wedding and reeption. The artist started painting as the ceremony as guest were finding their seats. She painted through most of the reception and added the couples dance title as they danced thier first dance!  The beautiful painting hangs in a place of honor in the couples home......an unforgetable evening forever preserved in such a special way.....

History in the Making.. Darius Rucker

 A wonderful picture of the happy couple was later used as the front of thank you notes...(vistaprint.com)

Every invitation needs a map of the local area!! (printed online at Office Max Empress  great folks!)

LOTS and LOTS of old license plates!!               SAVE THE DATE!!!!

( vistaprint.com   you can design it right on their site AND it is a huge magnet!)

A special frame using jewelry from the great grandmothers stashes....paint or stain a FLAT or mostly flat frame and using 6000e, clip off findings on the backs of the earrings and pins and glue onto frame in a pleasing fashion...a great keepsake! (Phew!!! only grandmas own this kinda stuff...what will we do when THEY are all gone!!)

This was a clear roof tent ... MADE  the event!