Rehearsal Dinner Dress- Simplicity 2648

So it has been quite some time. I have a perfectly good excuse, I swear. Since I last saw you, I got married, I graduated with my masters, I got a job, I bought a house, and I got a dog. Wow, looking at it all written down like that is a little overwhelming. I am finally starting to settle into this new life, and I have plenty of projects that I have been working on to share with you.

The first one I want to share is the dress that I made for my rehearsal dinner back in May. I used Simplicity Pattern 2648. This pattern is part of the Amazing Fit patterns. It's the only one I have used from this series but I love it. I have since bought a few more of these patterns and can't wait to try them out. They let you select between different fit options, such as slim, regular, and curvy.

I used a purple satin that I bought during a trip to Mary Jo's. It was definitely the most luxurious fabric I had ever used at that point. It was amazing the difference the quality of fabric has when you are sewing. Everything just seemed to go so much smoother.

Since the rehearsal dinner, I wear this dress all the time. I wear it to other weddings, I wear it out to dinner, and I wear it to work, a lot.

Happy St. Patrick's Day Dress

Happy St. Patrick's Day to everyone and happy 31st anniversary to my parents. I celebrated my bachelorette party this past weekend and part of the festivies was the St. Patrick's day festival in town. For the celebrations I made myself a new green dress. I used McCall's pattern M6024. It was the most complicated pattern I have made thus far, but I love the way it turned out. I am wearing it again today and snapped a few pics to share.

Update

What a whirlwind the past couple of weeks have been. I am so grateful that in the past two weeks my Etsy shop has really taken off. Sales have increased greatly as well as exposure. I have been featured in two lovely blogs in addition to being featured on Etsy Item of the Day not too long ago as well. Be Merry, Kate featured on of my green headbands in their post about St. Patrick's day. Mama Felice featured on of my yellow headbands in a very beautiful collection of items. I also have items featured in two treasuries right now. I am trying to figure out how to fit the entire thing into a screen shot so I can post pictures here.

Saturday was my birthday and I spent the day traveling to Gastonia, NC with my family and Kenton to visit Mary Jo's Fabric store. This place was amazing, yet also overwhelming. I have never been in a fabric store quite this large and comprehensive. I had a hard time figuring out where to start. I did find some great fabrics though and I can't wait to use them.

Right now I am staying at my parent's house with all 6 kitties, while Kenton enjoys his Bachelor Party.

Yummy Etsy Find

I love buying things for myself that are small/inexpensive and therefore don't come with the guilt. Yesterday I treated myself to three lip butters from Etsy seller Soapopotomus. They arrived already (very fast shipping). And I am in love! I am usually addicted to my Burt's Bees, but I may be switching permanently to these. They are so silky and light. The flavors I got were the Worm, Itailian Sausage, and Harlot. I think the Worm is my favorite so far, but they are all yummy. I would recommend checking them out and at only $3 a piece and $1.20 flat shipping, it's not much more than you would pay for lip balm at the store.

OWOH Winner.

Sadly the OWOH event has come to an end. But now we get to announce winners!
The winner of my giveaway is Ellen from Shimmer & Tulle and the Etsy shop About A Bride. Ellen's blog is absolutely lovely. I loved reading her Valentine's day love story.
Congratulations Ellen!

Birthday Wish List

So it always happens around gift giving holidays, that I completely forget about all of the great things that I really want. So since my birthday is coming up in a little over a month, I am starting to make a record of some of the things on my wish list.

First up are these adorable peep toe heels from Forever21

Next is this very versatile sash from American Apparel


Next up is this cuff wallet that allows you to go out without having to carry a purse. How fabulous is that?! This cuff is from Etsy seller ToviCorrie.
Ok, I better get back to my homework that is due in an hour.

One World One Heart Giveaway

I am so excited that is the time of year again for the One World, One Heart event. This is a special event to connect people through the blog world. And the best part is that it involves a giveaway (actually hundreds of giveaways) click the picture above to go find all of the blogs that are participating!

The winner of my giveaway will receive their choice of one headband from my Etsy store. Here are some of the headbands that are in my shop right now:







Entering is easy. All you have to do is to leave a comment on this blog post (and this blog post only). Please only enter once. Make sure that you leave your email or some way to contact you if you win. Entries must be received before midnight EST on Feb. 15th. Winner will be announced during the day on Feb 15th.

Consignment at Sid and Nancy

I am excited to announce that you can now buy Safiya Alyse accessories at Sid and Nancy in Five Points. I am looking forward to seeing how this works out. I think Sid and Nancy will be a good fit for my accessories.

I also had my first sale in two weeks last night. That was a relief, I was starting to get discouraged.

In an attempt to help get my shop off the ground I attempting to "brand" my shop. I am not really sure what this means, but I am starting with coordinating banner, business cards, labels, etc. It started when I ordered some adorable business cards through Vista Print. I bought some printable fabric last night, and am going to attempt making labels that I can sew onto my products. Here is the banner I created to match everything:

tools4etsy.com

I would like to thank tools4etsy.com for their opportunity for free advertising. I got a free advertising spot on their today and I couldn't be happier. They also have so many great tools for the Etsian. If you haven't checked them out yet, you really should. I am spending my downtime between classes playing around with all of the tools.

Inspire Me

I am a grad student living off of a very small stipend. This is one of the reasons I do a lot of "window shopping" for inspiration. Some of my favorite places to window shop is J. Crew, ModCloth, and Anthropologie. I adore their clothes and jewelry, but there is just simply no way I can afford any of it. I spent some time perusing the virtual shelves of Anthropologie today. Here's some things that struck my fancy and may serve as inspiration for some upcoming pieces.

(P)Leather Sequin Project

So I finished my first leather sequin project. Ok, it's really pleather, work with what I'm given.
It's a necklace in case it wasn't obvious from the picture. I am absolutely in love with the way this turned out. So much so that I stayed up till 4 in the morning cutting out even more circles so I could make myself a shirt. Picked up a black Hanes women's fitted shirt at AC Moore today with my 40% off coupon. I will post pictures as it progresses.

I'm going to go ahead and plug the blog where I found this idea again. I have spent way too much time looking at Outsapop and finding so much inspiration.

Lucky day

My brother called me and asked if I wanted to stop by and look through a pile of clothes that he had outgrown/worn out to see if there was anything I wanted for material. In the pile happened to be this terrible pleather trench that he used to wear all the time in middle school. I took it thinking it had potential for some project. When I got home and was searching through some new DIY blogs I've recently found I found this post on Outsapop. Leather Sequins! How fun! Now I just have to decide on scarf or clutch. And I also need to brainstorm a way to cut the circles out perfectly and without going insane.

2010... the Year I get to married!

I am so excited it's finally 2010, the year of our wedding! So much left to do.
New Year's outfit was a a success, didn't take any pictures of it on though. I'll take some later and post them.

I finally posted this white statement necklace a made a couple of weeks ago. I love this one.