long time, no blog.

so i've been a tad bit preoccupied the last few weeks with cynthia's wedding festivities and getting ready for June first friday, which left me no time to write something!!

so this will be a quick catch-up post of what i've been up to recently! i'll apologize in advance for all the pictures...it's kinda how i keep track of things!

a wedding shower for cynthia at church:



i made this top somewhere along the way...




a fro-yo and movie date with my best friend and my sis: (we saw Bridesmaids and it was HYSTERICAL.)



i made this strawberry skirt, which i wore to a pounding at our house for cynthia:





we had a lingerie shower for cynthia at Cupcake & Co....i highly recommend having parties there!! it was a blast!! then we had a bachelorette dinner afterwards at Rosie's. yum!



oh! and i made this camera skirt that i'm wearing!!





i made a quilted tote bag for my sis to take to work. it was my first quilting project and i was pretty pleased with how it turned out!!





my sweet mom hosted a bridesmaid's luncheon for us at our house the day before the wedding:












the day of the wedding we went out and shot guns with our boy cousins (which is a pretty normal occurrence actually)...i really do love being a southern girl!!



aaaand one quick pic from the wedding!

i heart reading vol. 2: vampy edition

I love love LOVE this series. Charlaine Harris always manages to mix humor and suspense with just the right touch. This is the 10th book in the series and it was just as good as the rest, in my opinion. I enjoyed it and read it pretty quickly! The 11th book just came out last week and I have it waiting in my stack of books to read!





This is what I'm currently reading, since the 11th Sookie Stackhouse book wasn't out yet when I finished the 10th a couple of weeks ago, so I picked this up in the meantime. I decided to keep with the vampy theme and read this Meg Cabot book that came out last year. For those of you that aren't familiar with her, she writes teen and adult fiction. This is her latest adult fiction book and it's sequel comes out later this summer. I'm thoroughly enjoying this book and am torn between wanting to read it all the time because it's so good and wanting to savor it and read it slowly!




This would be the 11th Sookie Stackhouse book!! Can't wait to get to it next!!



I mentioned that I had started this in the last i heart reading post, and I've since finished it...hands down one of the BEST books I've ever read. Jen Hatmaker is hilarious and encouraging and inspiring. If you've ever read (or heard of) Captivating by John and Stasi Eldredge, it's along the same lines, but EVEN BETTER. I highly recommend it!!

May First Friday

My mother and I have been busy little bees getting ready for May First Friday, which is this Friday!!

Our booth is in front of Armosa Studios if you are in the area and care to stop by and say hi!!! Oh, and this month we'll be giving away free cupcakes from Cupcake & Co. to our first six customers!!

I'm making up a lot of these little pretties, in lots of different prints, some with matching earrings and even a couple of cardigan clips!!



Longer post later after the buzz settles down!!

Easter and excitement.

This past weekend was BUSY!!!! I worked at Thread all weekend, and we were hopping pretty much all weekend. Which is FANTASTIC, but means that I didn't get to finish my Easter dress. No big deal though...I had a backup! And then Saturday and Sunday were full of Jesus, family and fun!! Here's a few instagram pics from the weekend:









and a few pics Cynthia took with her camera:

chirrens huntin' "aeggs":



me, my sis Emily and our mommy:



me, Emily and Cynthia:


me and Matt, Cynthia's fiance: (we love him!! she picked good!!)


this week i am ALL about trying to get sneak peeks from my two favorite designer's new fabric lines, Tula Pink and Anna Maria Horner. they both have new lines debuting next month and i am beyond excited about getting it into my grubby little paws.

Tula (who is always by far my #1 fav) has released pics of all of hers and i am dying over it!!!!!! It's called Prince Charming and she is having VOILEs for the first time!!!!!!!!! There are 4 colorways but i my fav two to show you: (borrowed from Tula's blog at www.tulapink.com)

Coral



Indigo



and the VOILE!!!!!!



AMH's new line is called Loulouthi and it looks GORGEOUS!! Lots of sumptous, rich, bright summer colors and it looks like it's going to be very Greek-infulenced which I LOVE. I plan on doing a designer spotlight on her once her new line debuts! Here's a *tiny* sneak peek, also taken from her blog, www.annamariahorner.blogspot.com):



I can't WAIT to get to sewing up some lovely things with new stuff from these two talented ladies' collections!!

short little skirt post.

just a quick little post to show the skirt i made this past weekend! i started it at work at Thread on friday since it was SO stormy and very slow.

it was pretty quick and simple to sew up!!




i used this pattern from butterfly kisses:



and these tula pink fabrics! (both of which are from the parisville collection, which we have at Thead!!)

french lace in dusk:



and eye drops in mist:



and that's all for now!! :)
next i'll be working on my Easter dress...

i heart reading.

i can vividly remember BEGGING people to read to me when i was 3 or 4. i usually didn't have to beg that much. i remember being in kindergarten and sitting on the kitchen floor on the phone with my dad while he was on night shift reading to him over the phone because i was so excited about my new words i had learned to read. or sitting on the couch with him or my mom taking turns reading pages out of Ida Early or Babysitters Club. i stayed with my grandmother, who was a teacher, during the summers and we always took a weekly trip to the library...more than once if i was lucky and bugged her enough. i loved checking out as many books as i possibly could...ameila bedila, berenstein bears and dr. seuss were all-time favorites. ever since then, i've loved books and reading.

i mainly read for fun and entertainment. i've never really been one to get all into deep, thought provoking reading. i like mind fluff. and i AM a smart girl. and before you judge me, haha, let me just tell you that my cousin's wife, who is a computer engineering GENIUS reads exactly the same books as me. we swap books a lot. so there.

so i thought i would start a new series (maybe once a month) called i heart reading, where i talk about what i'm reading or what i've recently read.

i just finished reading Swept Off Her Feet by Hester Browne, one of my favorite authors.



this book was just as cute, darling and funny as all her other books. i highly recommend her if you've never read anything by her. you should totally start with this:



right now i am reading the secret lives of dresses by erin mckean. never read anything by her, but i am enjoying it so far!! it's about a 20-something girl who has to take over her grandmother's vintage shop, where she begins to learn the secret stories behind the dresses in the shop.



also i am reading ms. understood by jen hatmaker, christan author and speaker. this is a great read so far, informative and hilarious, as it follows 5 women throughout the bible and discusses becoming the woman God wants you to be!



another book i am using right now (see, i told you i loved books) is sewing bits and pieces by sandi henderson, who is a pattern and fabric designer. this book has lots of great little projects in it for using up your fabric scraps and lots of easy things to make for a beginner sewer like me!! i plan on using it this weekend!



i guess that's enough for now!! i'm already looking forward to next month's i heart reading post!!

weekend update.

This weekend was, sadly, NOT a long weekend. But I did get a good bit accomplished!! I made my first dress!!!! EEEEEKK!!

My grandparents stayed the night at our house Thursday night and so I enlisted my Grandmother's help in cutting out my dress pattern. She's totally a pro. I kept her up til 11:30 and she wound up sleeping in til 9:30 the next day!!! Party animal.

I used some gorgeous jade solid-colored fabric, which I got on the cheap at Thread...can't really beat $5.50 a yd for that kind of quality. I sewed on it most of the day on Friday and most of Saturday evening. I had to have my mother's help with some of it, but I finished and was able to wear it to church on Sunday!!

I wore it with my fav leopard print cardi and even made some earrings and a ring to match it out of my left over fabric.

So without further ado, here's my dress!!





front up close:




back up close:




This weekend I also finished embroidering a shirt for my sis, Emily. She chose a lovely pinup girl from Sew Lovely that turned out just beautiful. I love, love, LOVE their patterns!!



In related crafty news, on Thursday, I received this yummy goodness in the mail, Tula Pink Plume fabrics:



This weekend I hope to be working on some stuff for the next First Friday (May 6!) and possibly a skirt!!