Message in the Mirror Mondays

A favorite verse of mine that I really need this week.

"From the ends of the earth I call out to You, I call as my heart grows faint. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I."

 -Psalm 61:2-

This girl is hanging on that truth this week.

Check back tomorrow for May goals!

The Royal Wedding

Who else got up at 4am to stumble out of bed and watch the Wedding of the Century as I like to call it? If you did then you know it was worth it, and if not then I've got a re-cap for you. 

 This is what we were all waiting for people! What will she wear?? Well, here it is. A dress by Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen. I had a feeling it would be quite modest since she is normally, let alone at her wedding, the royal wedding. While it is nothing that I would wear, I think for the future Queen of England it was the right choice. She is young and so had a v-neck front and the bodice was cinched in very tightly to accentuate her tiny waist, yet she was nothing but elegant and not the tiniest bit ostentatious.

Personally, I dislike veils over the face of a bride. I refused to wear mine that way as much as my mom begged I wouldn't do it. However, when I watched Catherine get out of the Queen's Rolls Royce, and the wind blow her thin veil across her face so gracefully, it really took my breath away how beautiful she looked. This picture above is exactly what I'm talking about.

Here are Her Royal Majesty, the Queen of England, her husband, Prince Phillip, Charles, the Prince of Wales and his wife, Camilla the Duchess of Cornwall. I thought every one of them looked lovely and seemed to all be very genuinely happy for Will and Catherine's wedding.

 

There it is, that is the fairytale! This is what I screamed to my husband as they walked down the aisle....demure and royal, I know. I can't get over the trees inside Westminster Abbey, so genius! I love the natural beauty of it instead of gobbs of flower arrangements. Even her bouquet was uncomplicated.

 

THE KISS! The kiss that lasted .0021 seconds that is. Even my dear Mister turned to me and said, "That was it?! That wasn't a kiss, that was a peck!" True, I was disappointed I waited for 4 hours for that. But they quickly redeemed themselves when the crowd chanted for one more kiss and they kindly obliged. Did any of you see when those doors opened on the balcony of Buckingham Palace and Catherine said "Oh wow!" when she saw the sea of people gathered just to see her. If it were me, I would have said Oh wow, too!

As the Queen does for special occasions such as a wedding, she bestowed titles on the newly married couple and they are:

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge

The Earl and Countess of Strathearn

The Baron and Baroness of Carrickfergus

However, we will refer to them as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge instead of that whole long list. Apparently, once Prince Charles becomes King then we will officially refer to William and Catherine as Prince and Princess. All this monarchy formality stuff is quite interesting, don't you think? 

Now onto some fashion...can we say, heelllooo fascinators?! Now, honestly, some were downright beautiful, tasteful and stylish, but what in the world were Princesses Eugene and Beatrice thinking with these??!!

Yikes! Is all I have to say about that. Now, Catherine's little sister Phillipa or "Pippa" as she is called looked absolutely stunning!! Her dress, another Sarah Burton design would make a beautiful wedding dress itself. Not for a royal wedding, but for a simple commoner's wedding for sure. I loved the cowl-neck with lace trim, mermaid silhouette, cap sleeves and buttons up the back. The fit was perfectly altered to her tiny frame. That family has some good genes! 

The beautiful bride left with her Prince in a horse-drawn carriage and later changed into another dress by Sarah Burton after the luncheon given by the Queen. Other celebrations included a dinner by Prince Charles, an all-night party given by Prince Harry and Pippa which was to last until 6am. Finally, to wrap it all up Prince Harry hosted a "Survivors Breakfast" at 6am for anybody who wasn't too tired to make it.

Here are a few last pictures just for the fun of it. And boy, wasn't the excitement of it all just that...fun!! 

So, what did you all think of the Royal Wedding?

Wedding Fever!

Y'all!! The Royal Wedding will begin in almost 6 hours from now...wooohooo! Who's with me on this one? I will be getting up after sleeping for probably only 3 hours tonight to watch all the live coverage with a BIG cup of coffee.I don't know about y'all, but I am really excited about watching this wedding!

Thinking about it has made me think of my own wedding, the good, the bad, the ugly, and what I wish my wedding would be like if I could do it all over again-my way. Daniel and I have always said on our 10th anniversary we're going to renew our vows and have the wedding we always wanted. Well, that's in 5 more years so maybe a few of these things will still be in style or to my liking by then?

What's most important to the girl? The Dress! 

Monique Lhuillier 

I love this dress! I'm a sucker for a very natural, lacy, romantic dress that just drapes the body.

 Vera Wang

Vera never dissapoints.I would wear this dress in a fancy city ballroom wedding. It is so chic that it needs a venue to suit it.

 

 Romona Keveza

I know, y'all think I went bonkers over here-or blind-but I L.O.V.E. a black wedding dress. Throw the whole theory out the window about it having to be white...nobody wears a true white dress anymore anyways. They're all cream, blush, beige, ivory-an array of colors to suit our skin color. So why aren't more women wearing the all flattering black that us women love? I don't quite know, but I do have to say that I am just dying over the second black dress and this one above...I just wish I could see the whole dress because that sculptural detailed tulle shoulder is genius! I would definitely rock a black wedding dress, how about you?

Vera Wang

The flower appliques on this dress are beautiful and romantic and whatever is happening at the end of this mermaid silhouette is stunning. Go Vera, go Vera! 

Even though I love all these dresses, I highly doubt Kate Middleton aka our future Queen of England is going to be wearing anything close to these dresses. I imagine her dress tomorrow being tightly fitted to her tiny little body then flowing out in dramatic fashion into a very full skirt and long train-but nowhere near as long as Princess Diana's! However, being the future queen and all, and getting married in Westminster Abbey, I do think if her dress is strapless or a little revealing up top that she will wear some sort of shrug to the ceremony that can later be removed. I'm so excited to see what she will wear!!

Here are a few more pictures of some lovely wedding things:

Wedding by Color

So, this sweet gal above is Nancy Ray. A childhood friend of mine that I grew up with who is now a very successful wedding photographer. Listen people, I am VERY picky about photography and what looks good artistically vs. something that is just cute or run of the mill kitschy {art school did this to me}. So when I say this girl is good, I mean it! Her photography is the most beautiful I have ever seen. Her blog is a must read of mine just because the photographs are so beautiful they inspire me creatively! If you click here then you will see what I think is the most beautiful wedding I have ever seen on her blog. 

 

Every detail is SO us {Daniel and I that is}. The romantic southern backdrop, a rustic barn that's dressed up with french signs, fleur de lis, delicious food, and heartfelt personal touches....it is everything Daniel and I want when we renew our vows someday. And when that day comes, then the adorable Nancy will be photographing it. Take a few minutes to look at the wedding I just described, it will take your breath away!

 

Well, it's past midnight, I had better get a little sleep so I can watch the wedding of the century! Haha, I know, I am being sooo dramatic, but I just love weddings and I'm happy to be watching this one in particular! 

 

{Fun Time: So, if you have a guess as to what Kate will wear then leave it in the comments below. Tomorrow I'll do a royal wedding wrap-up post and I would love to see who guessed right on the dress! Enjoy!}

 

 

 

Make your own designer eggs!

So, some of you may know I have a slight {heh} bird obsession. I love bird figurines, prints, nests and eggs. I wanted to decorate with some eggs and the only place I found them was at Pottery Barn. No offense, PB, I love you dearly but you do not always agree with my budget. And I just could not justify buying 8 eggs with brown speckles for $16. I mean, really, two bucks per egg? C'mon people, we can do better than that! So I did :) I made 16 eggs for under $5...ssaaawweeeettt!!!

I didn't do a step-by-step tutorial because I don't have two extra arms to take the pictures of me in the act of doing these things, so I'll just kind of explain along the way. First, gather all supplies: eggs, paintbrushes, pins, paint, newspaper, big empty bowl {for egg insides}, a small bowl with water and a syringe or one of those baby snot sucker things {classy, I know}. 

Ready to go. Now, I punched a hole in one end of the eggs with my pin. It had to be slowly chipped away, but doing it that way I found kept the shell from cracking and stayed smooth. I made it large enough so that the syringe fit just inside the egg then started drawing out the yolk and whites and put them in the large bowl. If it starts getting difficult or to wash it out a the end I squirted some water in the egg, plugged the hole and shook it a little then drew the rest of it out.

Then sit the eggs with the open end pointing down {I just put them back in the egg crates} so any extra can drain out. 

Next comes the fun part!! Pick your paint!

I had pictures of beautiful robin's egg blue eggs and some brown speckled ones like quail eggs {and like the overpriced ones at Pottery Barn....just sayin}. I just experimented here and this is the part where you need to either 1. not care if you get paint all over your hands and nails or 2. wear gloves. 

For the blue eggs I started by painting two with a paintbrush and it was streaky, so I went with the technique of rolling and dunking the eggs in the paint. That was smoother, thicker and prettier but it was SO messy, you had to hold it forever so most of the excess would run off back into the paint cup and then they took forever to dry! I can be a little impatient which is why I tried dunking the eggs, but as much as I get impatient sometimes, my perfectionism will always override it. So, I just did two coats for those first two streaky eggs and I think if I did them all that way then it would be less time than the dunking method. Just a handy tip I found out.

See the two streaky ones and then the pretty glossy ones? Beauty can be deceiving people.

Now for the speckled eggs. Easy, I just loaded the brush with the brown paint and then flicked my finger across it so it would splatter. Make sure you choose a stiffer brush so that there's a lot of tension for good paint-flinging....yes, that is an official term.

Here's all my pretty little eggs drying {before the second coat for the streaky ones, mind you}. A little speckling landed on my blue ones but I've learned to not sweat the small stuff. Besides, bird eggs are never perfect anyways, I think it adds character.

The best part yet....I added them to my spring time displays in all my apothecary jars, hurricanes and cloches around the house!! Yippee!!!

 The top of my bookshelf kind of evolved into a little birdie vignette by accident. The vase did hold a daisy but I replaced it with peacock feathers. The green bird was a gift from the ever generous, second mom, Carol. Then I added the egg in the cloche when I finished this project and realized what I had done...and was super stoked about it!

My little apothecary jars already had the moss, twigs and birds {99 cent candles at Michael's} and then I added my little eggs to complete the look on our entertainment center.

 I know the picture below is kind of blurry but I just included it so you could see the placement of everything from every angle. This is important because we don't view our home just from one spot, we see it from every angle as we move and live in it and that is something to remember when we decorate.

I know, we are very uncool with our old TV set. But I'll tell you what's cooler than a flat screen....debt free!

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed the little tour around my home to see my spring decorations on the cheap! This is something fun you can do with your kids outside one afternoon, making memories and house decorations at the same time! 

**The day after I made these I saw an official egg-decorating dude on TV and he used a wooden skewer to punch straight through the egg from top through the bottom and slid it up and down to push the yolk out but the holes were really obvious and I saw some cracking on the video. I haven't tried this technique yet, but if I do I'll let you know what I think.**

Did any of you decorate for spring with eggs or birds?

Message in the Mirror Mondays

Fact: I was on spring break all last week and only posted on Monday.
Fact: I stayed super busy with everything last week and some of that everything were some great projects that I completed, photographed and will be posting this week! 
Fact: THE ROYAL WEDDING IS IN 4 DAYS!!!! I'm so excited about it you would think I'm British. Yes, I will be awake at 4am watching the wedding of the century!

Moving on...I hope everyone had a great Easter yesterday. After church my parents and my two brothers came to our house from Raleigh and we had a honey-glazed ham, rolls, rosemary and lemon potatoes, apple cheddar salad, green bean casserole and cherry pie. It was a joint effort from mom and I. Sounds lovely right? Well, then life kicks in {this next part is for your reading pleasure} and makes it all interesting.

Our A/C wouldn't cut on yesterday. It was 90 degrees. The whole family came and filled up the house. The oven ran for 4 hours straight. Daniel had to go to church and borrow a fan from our youth room. And that's all folks!

Really, I'm not upset about it, the whole thing is comical and I really enjoy having all the windows open. Too bad we don't have screens on our windows so we could have them open all the time without the bugs. It was a great day.


So, the message a put on my mirror today is a quote that for years has given me a lot of hope and encouragement when things are really hard. The awesome Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said this in a speech and I love hearing it from his voice because he says it almost as a command. He has such certainty and strength in his voice that you really believe it.

I have found in hindsight that this statement is true. Check back soon to find out what this busy bee has been up to the past week!

Um, is anyone else so-excited-you-can-barely-stand-it about the Royal Wedding? Who's getting up early for it???

Message in the Mirror Mondays

Amen!