hooray

I've been waiting all week to tell you about one of last weekend's more exciting moments: I won something!  More importantly, I won something that we needed!  Boutonnieres for my man and his brothers/groomsmen!  Just when I was starting to think about making some, I entered this contest that Mouse was hosting over at Souris Mariage.  And then I won!  How great is that?

It's pretty great.  I wasn't feeling very inspired about boutonnieres, and my big plan was to put the project off until the last possible moment, just in case a good idea finally occurred to me.  I was thinking of using fabric.  Or maybe paper.  To be honest, I wasn't thinking very hard about anything at all.  I just couldn't figure out what we should have.

My partner-in-crime, however, was pretty sure he knew what we needed.  A sheriff's badge for him and deputy badges for his two brothers.  I thought it was a fine plan, but finding the right badges turned out to be harder than we thought it would be.  Ebay and Etsy were both full of either extremely expensive collectibles or cheap plastic junk made for a seven year-old's birthday party.

And then there was the fact that my man's desire for a sheriff's badge led to the desire for cap guns.  And for our officiant--my hero of a brother--to wear a big black hat with a wide flat brim.  "Like the preacher on Little House of the Prairie," said my husband-to-be.  To which I said, among other things, "no."

But now, we have one less thing to worry about.  Lovely, handmade boutonnieres that will hold up well in the late-June heat.  They even have buttons on them!  My man and I both agree that these will do just fine.  Big thanks to Mouse and to the good folks at Eventcetera!  We're truly grateful.

on fire

I was wandering around on 100 Layer Cake the other day, and a post from this week's guest blogger there caught my eye.  First, it had my attention because it was written by Lanie, the owner of NYC's new bridal boutique Lovely.  Lovely is carrying the work of my favorite dress designer, Elizabeth Dye.  So there's that.

The other thing that got me, though, was that Lanie's post is a how-to for DIY fabric flowers, something I've been thinking about dabbling with for awhile now.  The best part is that her step-by-step involves polyester fabric and open flames.  My pyromaniac inner child couldn't say no.

I'm not going to re-hash the how-to.  You can read Lanie's original post for that.  Mostly, I just wanted to tell you that I think deliberately melting plastic in a poorly-ventilated apartment might not be a great idea.  Oh, and I wanted to show off what I managed in spite of the fact that my brain cells were probably expiring, one by one.

I made a flower in turquoise first.

 I backed it with a little circle of felt and added some glass beads to the center, just for fun.

And after I finished the blue one, I really, really wanted a yellow one, too.  I don't know why.  It was probably the fumes.

I like the color of the yellow better, but I'm not sure lighter fabrics work well for this project.  If you squint a little, you can see the little burn marks along the edges of the yellow petals.  They don't show up nearly as much on the blue one.

These are fun to make, and they go fast.  I'm going to have to give some thought, though, as to whether or not I'd feel safe making thirty or forty of them.  Along with the burning plastic concern, there's also the matter of the cat, who has no understanding of personal space.  Or of the dangers of an open flame.

If you'd like to see more of Lanie and her work, you can see photos from her recent wedding featured on Style Me Pretty.

Happy weekend, everyone!  I'll be back on Monday with more action and excitement to share.