Christmas Ornaments

Tonight I was wistfully looking at my beautiful Christmas tree, dreading the coming days when I would be taking it down, when I had a fabulous idea: Why not write a blog about my ornaments! So, while not much writing is going to happen, here are some pictures!











and finally, a larger photo to see the big picture:





I hope you enjoyed these photos as much as I've enjoyed my tree.

Much Love,

Ri

My Bedroom

I really. really. don't want to have to make my own upholstered headboard. Ashlie, you make it sound easy. It's NOT! I've been searching online for about three hours now, trying to find the perfect headboard for my bedroom. I haven't found one yet.

All this was brought on by me buying the lamps for my bedroom. Let me make this clear, I hate lamp buying. I'm not good at it. I work in a lighting industry but it is not by any means helpful in this manner. At work, I light for the camera, meaning, depending on ISO, Shutter Speed, White Balance, etc. the lighting will be different. If you have a slow shutter speed you need less light, so on, so forth. I'm not used to lighting for the human eye.

I have been putting this off for quite some time, and I finally made the plunge yesterday evening. My Grandfather Hahn gave me some money for Christmas (Thank you!) so I bought the lamps I was FOR SURE I would hate. I really have never cared for this glass look (even though it is everywhere in my wedding), it always seemed too manly for me. But, paired with the lamp shades shown, I like it. The lamps follow my whole bedroom. Masculine lines with a feminine feel. Mostly that means masculine lines with feminine texture, but these lamps have both masculine (base) and feminine (shade) lines. It worked out well.

My next big purchase is a headboard. The room looks really cheap without the headboard. I'm looking for the upholstered look, white fabric. I think the fabric will give the room a luxurious look. Right now it's headed for a plain, masculine look. I'm trying to put enough shabby chic into the room so that I'm happy, but still have enough masculinity in the room so that Barry can sleep at night. :)

My biggest problem is that if the item isn't labeled "Shabby Chic" I can't tell the difference between junk, and high decor junk. But, today I found The Beekeeper's Cottage and it has been an enormous help in finding shabby chic items. I will never buy something from this website ($97 for a neck roll pillow? Be serious, go buy one at walmart for three dollars and learn to sew.)
but it has been supremely helpful as far as inspiration. By the way, the Iron Crown Wall Hook? Four dollars at Hobby Lobby and you don't have to pay shipping.


Back to the headboard. I really like the curvature of this headboard but it is just too plain. I really want the headboard and bedding to add an element of luxuriousness to the bedroom. I want the bed to be the main attraction in the bedroom. When I walk in, I want my first reaction to be "I really want to roll around in the big fluffy comforter and the pile of pillows!" This would be a great reaction because I don't go into my bedroom all that often, so the only time I would really feel the urge to lay down would be at night.




So really I want the curvature of the above headboard mixed with the button (?) things on this headboard. That isn't too much is it!!




Much Love,
Ri

Wedding Cake

I am so desperate to get married it is ridiculous lol. Poor Barry, he has had to listen to me for the past two days. I would say poor Ashlie but she loves it. :)

So, as Barry has not yet popped the question I've decided to write a mini-(and I do mean MINI)blog on my wedding cake.

My wedding cake has been the source of great frustration for me. I had a cake in mind, but I just don't think that it will work. It was a mosaic piece, very beautiful but since it is mosaic it has a lot of hard lines and for my flow-y wedding, hard lines are a no-no.

So here it is: My Wedding Cake.




It will not be yellow, as much as I love the color. It will be a pale pale mint green, almost white. I really do like it and it has taken me a while to find it. I was really lucky that this was on the first two pages of TheKnot. Otherwise, I would have been totally overwhelmed and would have quit the search almost immediately. I hate it when I think I've found something perfect and it doesn't work out. I never want to look after that, it is like I found it, took it off my to-do list and it's done. To-Dones do not go back on the to-do list. It goes against physics...or something.

REGARDLESS, I actually skipped this twice. Notice: Twice, that's cause I went back to look at it. That should have been the "uh hello!" moment, but you know me. So I went back a third time and decided that I loved it. I love the almost fragile coloring. It's not overpowering but it does add a little pizzazz. I also like that the whole cake isn't one color.

I also love that it is not short and squatty. I'M short and squatty, I don't want my cake to be. So, it's a tall cake and thin, but not lanky lol. It's also well designed, without being overpowering. There is just enough creativity in it so that it doesn't look like we went to Kroger, but it's not so overpowering that it looks like a "statement" cake.

All in all, I really like it.

-Ri

Le Sigh.

I've been a horrible blogger. It's been a month and I haven't posted anything. It's not because I'm busy, it's just that this last month I haven't wanted to DO anything. Barry and I are in the same rut we were in last year and it sucks I tell you!

Yesterday I went to Hall Elementary's First Annual Teacher Nutcracker Market. I was worried sick that I wouldn't have enough product, or that my prices were too high etc. Angie (Barry's cousin who planned the whole thing) gave me a good talking to and now I feel pretty good about the knitting company. I still only sold one item. My first item though! I can now officially say that I've sold something! The market was a really good learning experience though. I learned that I need business cards and sheets that tell you how to care for your scarf.

Barry told me that the biggest reason I didn't sell more was simply that there were not enough people there. The market was not open to the public and it's a small school to start with. There was around thirty booths, and I can fairly say that we maybe had that many teachers at the fair.

March 27th there is a Spring Fair at the same school but it's open to the public so maybe that will help. Unfortunately, by March all the cold weather is gone so people wont be thinking about buying winter clothing so I've decided to make aprons. They are really easy to make and I can get wild and crazy with them! That's my plan.

To top it all off, my camera was stolen out of our truck last night. Yeah. Thanks.

But, it's snowing today and while that means my arthritis is acting up, IT'S STILL FREAKING SNOWING! That never happens in Houston!

I'm going to go make a cup of tea and begin planning Dolce's doggie jacket!

-Ri