Mrs..... if you please!

photo by John Taylor

thats right folks! it's official! this gal is a MRS!!! and a week into marriage and I am still loving it/him, more than ever! I can't describe how fun and great the wedding was, but it was really magical. We were surrounded by family and friends all weekend, in a beautiful country setting, celebrating ...US (me and Ryan, that is) what could be better?!

so, now that it is all over and I've had some time to recover (honestly I just slept and slept when we got home) I am excited to share all of the hard work/ craftiness that went into the entire wedding extravaganza! ( I feel like I have all this free time now that I am not constantly stressing about wedding planning!)

photo by John Taylor

So, the thing that I am most excited to share with ya'll? why my wedding dress of course!

As I am a professional seamstress I was fairly adamant about not spending ridiculous amounts of $ (those things are like THOUSANDS of dollars) on labor that I could easily do myself. So, I knew that I wanted to make my own dress.... I lucked out when I found a vintage 1940's wedding dress at a local boutique that fit me perfectly....

the original dress! long/rotten lace sleeves and all!

but alas there were some problems with the old dress. First off the lace overlay was rotten, so I took it off!

stage 2

and I changed the hem length ( I added about a foot...yup, Im that tall!) and ....added a new lace overlay, which I patterned and sewed.

I bought 5 yards of this gorgeous lace!

WHEW! I, (of course) finished only the week before the big day... but I was very pleased with the result! I felt retro, and elegant and like the best version of me ever! it was a great dress and a great day!

the final result! photo by John Taylor

work patterns

some of you may know that I started a new job this summer at the Kansas City Ballet.  My official title is "assistant wardrobe designer" but what I do is work in the costume shop making and altering costumes for the ballet dancers.  Each day is different, some days I am dyeing fabric, some days I am altering costumes that have already been made, or making brand new pieces by draping and patterning; most days I do a little of everything... I am surrounded by fabric and costumes and I've been noticing lots of beautiful patterns that I wanted to share with you!

a fort and a fella.

okokok, so I'm just going to pretend like I haven't been completely absent from the world of blogging all 

summer and I'm just going to jump right in, kapiche?

this past weekend I had one of the most fun friday nights I've had in awhile.  I'd planned on

 just reading all night (currently reading "o Pioneers!" by Willa Cather), but when my boyfriend got off work early our plans changed and we had a fabulous night.  

On a whim the two of us transformed our living room into a giant fort.  Neither of us had built one since we were young kids and we realized that the three-foot tall forts draped from chairs and couches would not work for us (as both of us are quite tall).  So we attached some of the numerous textiles that I've acquired over the years to the ceiling and 

created a giant fort/tent filled with pillows and blankets.  We spent the evening eating blueberries, drinking margaritas and playing cards.

I found some other beautiful 

tents, proving that you are never too old to have fun with forts!