Kate + Ty Get Hitched

The Goodbar Wedding was a sight to see. Throughout my senior year at college, Katie (who I call Bean) was my roommate, snuggle buddy & best friend, along with 3 other wonderful girls in Athens. Conveniently, Ty was also a dear, dear friend & the roommate of my boyfriend at the time. So, of course, helping the Goodbars get ready for their wedding was something I really looked forward to. On the day of the wedding I joined hands with another good friend, Cinelle and battled the July heat for one of the most beautiful weddings I've ever attended.  Between arranging flowers & haystacks, we transformed Katie's old family barn into an enchanted evening. We covered all of the cakes in flowers & filled old bathtubs with ice for vintage coolers. In just a few hours the barn was strung with mason jar lanterns, white Christmas lights & colorful banners, the door hung with a handmade monogram wreath & the white tent out back packed with old family photographs. The night was absolutely beautiful. 

From Omish Dress to Easy Summer Shirt

Last week this top was a $1, floor length dress at the Thrift Store. Today it is one of my most comfortable summer shirts. I cut off the dress to the desired length and let the ends fray a little but... I'm starting to think it would be cute if I put elastic at the bottom instead. What do you think? 

On a summer morning when the heat is almost unbearable, this is exactly what I want to be putting on. Add some strappy sandels, a cute, long necklace & we're good to go!

Selah Rain's Pom Pom Necklace

She may be just a baby but one thing is for sure about my pup, she loves a little glamor. Today I made Rain this pom pom necklace for her photo shoot with one of our students, Trinity Stennfeld. Just a little pop of visual interest for the camera.... & all of the aww-ing onlookers across the University quad.

Holy Matrimony: Rachel's Veil

In the summer of 2010, right after I graduated from Georgia, I had the privilege of making this simple veil for one of my best friends in college, Rachel Ecke (now Lawley). Rachel & I lived together at 1631 Milledge Ave my senior year at UGA along with three other girls: Katie, Brittney & Summer. The year was a blast & Rachel's impeding wedding was not only the start of her marriage but also the official ending of our time living together. It had to be perfect for her big day, for our official farewell. The veil was not difficult to make but was quite tedious. She looked beautiful. The night was a success.

Roset Hair Flair

Finally Finished!

Add a few dollar store plates to the wall (all different sizes & textures), two old frames spray painted gold, & we're done! Notice also the maps hung on the wall: This week I bought an old Atlas ($3) and hung up pages of places I want to pray for/live in. 

Finally, it's all finished. Time to snuggle up with a good book! Thanks to Rachel Norris, I have three great ones sitting by my bedside.

Tying Up Loose Ends: Final Touches on the Bedroom

1. Pages from vintage children's book ($5), Frame from thrift store ($1), Green Mat ($1) 2. Peanut butter jar with modgepodge lyrics to old hymns & a stamp from a letter a dear friend wrote me ($0) 3. Ikea lamp hole punched with ribbon threaded. Use shade for lonely earrings missing mate or back until found ($5) 4. Vase I found after April 2011 Tornado. Next to bed because it reminds me that beauty rises from disaster (free). 5. Ladder found in trash. Painted white (free). 6. Found wreath on side of road. Cut up old skirt and used fabric for bow (free). 7. Bought bookshelf at favorite antique store, Anne's Tiques, & painted white ($20). 8. Bronze & crystal lamp from thrift store. Removed shade fabric & laced old fabric through skeleton ($5).

Confessions of a Dumpster Diving Diva

I think it's time I made a little confession: ...I pray for furniture. It's more than furniture, really. I pray for supplies. For paints. For inspiration. For bowls & hardware, fabric & trinkets. True story. It's embarrassing... but truth be told, it really works. Let me explain...

My absolute favorite thing about the Lord is His creativity. (Read more about this in my About Me) & so when I woke up this morning and realized I had no plans for my Saturday morning off, I hurried out the door, puppy in tow, ready to do what I do best: dumpster dive. I climbed in my little red Civic, drove & I prayed. 

It's kind of a date thing the Lord and I have going on. I delight in using the gifts He's given me and, quite frankly, I think He really enjoys seeing me light up. On these mornings I almost always drive without the radio. I pray aloud like a crazy person, telling Him the things I appreciate about His creation (interesting people walking down the street or ordinary aspects of creation that are really quite extraordinary) and, together, we brainstorm what we can build. He gives me ideas through different buildings, the way certain trees lean or even the lines on people's faces at stoplights. Oftentimes He'll put an idea in my head and we'll make a deal, "Lord, I'll build it if you just provide me the materials." And, more often than not (most all the time, actually)He does just that. It's not about the money. It's about the adventure. Today was no exception. 

Last week, while venturing through our old cobweb garage, I discovered a bunch of white antique doors with glass knobs (goldmine!). After a quick call to my landlord, I hosed one off and hauled it to my room. As I sat on the hardwood floor & stared at the door I decided it would be fun to build a desk. So this morning, the first Saturday morning I had free, I hopped in my car and began praying for two white, wooden shelves of equal height. These would be the base for the desk. An hour later I sat in front of my new desk, complete with two shelves I found in the trash across town from one another.... the exact same height! What are the chances!? 

 I added the champagne-colored wingback chair a student gave me last fall &, with the extra time, made some pillows! All before lunch! There is even a great cubby where I can build Rain a little nook!

I know it's silly to pray for furniture but I feel like this is something important for you to know about me, or about the Lord, rather.  I believe that God is faithful in the big things & in the small. You see, I spend all day, every day teaching people about God's Big Picture: His master plan & His desire to redeem all nations to Himself. I study Scripture, all of history, cover to cover & fight relentlessly for students to serve rather than be served. But every once in a while, on our sweet little dates, it is really nice to feel individually pursued by the Creator. Whether or not my curbside requests are answered is pretty irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. But I do believe that, if everything is a gift from God, I should give Him credit for the dumpster diving treasures too. And you have to admit... it makes for a pretty neat desk...

If One is Great, Two is Better!

If climbing up into princess bed isn't great enough, imagine snuggling beneath not one, but two down comforters. For $2 at the thrift store I bought an unused mocha-colored fitted sheet and (for another $2) two flat sheets (a buck each). With these I sewed a duvet, a paisley Better Homes & Gardens sheet on one side, a charcoal gray on the other. For the second comforter I mended an old white Ikea duvet. Layered & fluffed, my bed is finally finished!

Headboard & Pillows

Now that my bed is secure and dressed with a new, pretty dustruffle, I've decided to keep working on dressing up my bedoom. Recently I decided I wanted a headboard. On a lazy Sunday afternoon, I drove around Holt  & discovered an abandoned cabinet factory. In the dumpster out back I found a headboard along with a few other treasures. I painted the wood blue with leftover paint from summer camp and set the ends of each side atop the side tables I refinished. Viola! Total cost : $0.00

The same day I decided to make a few pillows. Each oversized pillow was $8 & covered in fabric from Hancock ($7/yard, 3 yards). I then stripped old pillows and covered one in a place-mat I bought at Target ($3). For the second pillow, I cut the stuffing into a circle & covered it in fabric from an old skirt.  I used a hot glue gun to create a spiral with another fabric & then frayed the edges to make it a little more fun! This was a more expensive project than usual. Finally I found a white, lacy sham for a dollar at the thrift store. Total cost for 6 pillows: $49

High End Bedding

For the past several years I have slept in, what I believe, is the most comfortable bed I can imagine. Below is a photo of the bed I built several years ago. Now that I've moved into a new house, however, it's time to revamp!

First I constructed the bed. The image below is a side view of my current setup. This idea came about four years ago when I lived in an apartment. There was a granite desk built into my bedroom which took up a large portion of the room. So, in an effort to increase storage space & room to walk, I decided that I would lay my mattress atop the desk and put my dresser at the other end of the bed. A piece of plywood and some 2x4 boards provided support in the middle. Now, 4 years later, I have adapted the design and love the bed more than ever. Every year when I move & some sweet sweaty boy helps me construct it, they try to talk me out of it . But year after year she rises again (Thanks to Adam in 2008, Joe is 2009, Al in 2010, William in 2011 & Mac in 2012. Thanks ya'll! Hasn't collapsed yet!). Besides, it's usually pretty neat to tell visitors that I designed my bed! 
The dresser was given to me & plywood purchased at Home Depot on clearance ($10). The 2x4 boards came from a construction site. I made friends with the workers and so they gave me their leftover scraps and enough nails to complete the project.  Total cost to build bed: $10

Next, I made the dustruffle. I measured the height of the bed, floor to mattress and began to dig through my fabric box for a floor length skirt of equal height. (When at the thrift store, I often buy XXL dresses and floor length skirts with patterns I like so that I can reuse them for projects). After locating a skirt of perfect length & durable fabric, I made a single cut, waist to hem. The total length of the waist was a perfect fit for the bed. I then realized that the white sheets on my bed were somewhat discolored so I ripped them off the mattress and cut them up into strips. For the next several weeks, I worked tirelessly to make over 500 white, fabric flowers. Honestly, this project was a pain. I would NOT recommend doing it no matter how easy it looks. I hot glued each one to the skirt &, when one entire side was covered, nailed the fabric to the plywood board beneath my mattress. I had to buy one flat sheet from walmart for fabric to finish the flowers but, otherwise, everything used in this project was fabric I already had (old skirts, pillowcases, etc). Total cost of dustruffle: $3

Several years ago my mom gave me two junky end tables: one an old sewing table and the other a wooden piece with drawers (on its last leg, I might add). I painted both with leftover paint from the house I rent. On the first I used a scrapbook stencil & black paint pen to embellish with a quote. For the second, I kept a hawk eye for dumpster furniture throughout Tuscaloosa. I was thrilled to discover some beautiful hardware on cheap furniture outside of Alberta City. (This was a personal dumpster diver low, unscrewing hardware from furniture at a trailer park dumpster). I still need a cute knob for the top drawer but, otherwise, this entire project was free!