Royal Wedding Day

After months of waiting it finally was time. Royal Wedding Day! We got to see a normal girl become a princess (more accurately the Duchess of Cambridge). And we finally got to see the dress!

I was one of the people that woke up at 4am (EDT) to watch the events live. I saw the Beckhams arrive as well as Elton John and David Furnish. I saw Wills and Harry leave Clarence House and Kate get into her car. I dozed off during the sermon, but other than that watched the whole thing. It was so cool to see it. My mom told me she was up with me to watch Charles & Diana's wedding, but I was a baby, so I don't remember it. It was great to see the pomp and circumstance, but the touches that Will and Kate made to make this day their own.

Now onto the dress. I thought it was gorgeous. Not at all what I expected of Alexander McQueen's design house, but it suited Kate. The lace kept it romantic, but it was still a modern take on it. I also loved the understated Cartier tiara borrowed from the Queen. And her bouquet was so pretty. I loved that it was small. I have a feeling this is gonna be a huge bridal trend now.

My mom mentioned to me that Kate's dress looked like her wedding dress. And after looking at them I have to agree. Trends definitely are cyclical. My mom's dress was handmade by her mom and grandmother. It was also hand beaded with lace appliques. It had a sweetheart neckline with lace overlay, lace appliques around the bottom of the skirt and even lace around the veil. My dad even noticed the similarities! (And yes that's him pimpin' in his white tux.)

Now wedding day didn't stop there, I put on my HumbleBumbleB fascinator and took my other hats and fascinators to work. Most of the hats where handmade by me. The girls in my department and I wore our hats, royal wedding style! They all loved the hats and fascinators and couldn't get over how cute they were. We also had cake and chocolates to celebrate. I got a lot of double takes when people passed by my desk, but I do love wearing my hat, and the other girls did too.

By the end of the day I was tired from my very very early morning, but I was so happy I got to see the wedding. Cheers and all of the happiness in the world to William and Kate! Did you do anything special for royal wedding day?

A DIY Easter

Happy Easter everyone! It was a nice lazy day at home for me (finally!). But I was able to get a project done.

After helping with some yard work, I was able to make the top I had been planning to make forever. I bought the fabric months. I got inspired by a top I saw on ModCloth, which, of course, is now no longer available, so I can't show you my inspiration. I wanted a top that wasn't knit (since most of the tops I have now are). So I bought this pretty sheer fabric at JoAnn's. I also bought some pongee lining, which is pretty much the same weight. I made Simplicity 2892 view E. It was labeled 6 made easy, and it was for the most part.

This top is only a few pieces: front, back, front yoke, back yoke, and two pieces of lining for the front and back of the yoke. I cut it out and putting it together was going pretty smooth, until I had to gather the yoke. I stitched around the edge with my largest machine stitch and started gathering. It was a huge mess of gathers and I almost gave up on it. After showing my aunt and grandmother, they said it looked great, so I left the gathers in. The part that took me the longest was hand-stitching the yoke lining, but in the end it was worth it. This is a super cute and comfy tunic tank that I hope to wear to work soon.

In the middle of my top making, I stopped my work to make the macaroni and cheese I was making for dinner. I use this super simple recipe. I've tried a few baked mac & cheese's that use a bechamel sauce as they base and they never seem to be cheesey enough for me. But this one is perfect, cheesey and so simple. I add some crumbled crackers to the top after I uncover it to give it a crispy topping. I used saltines this time (cause it's what was in the pantry), but I've used Ritz crackers before and that is super yummy.

I hope you all had a great Easter and got to work on some crafty projects this weekend too. I'm so happy with my top, that I have to stary planning my next clothing project.

p.s. I'll post a pic of the top in another post ;)

Churchy Crafting

It's a week before Easter and when I got to my Mom's house this Sunday morning, she had her palms from church (since this Sunday was Palm Sunday).

I asked her if she was going to do anything with them, and she told me she would of course be making them into crosses before they got too dry. So I asked her to make them while I was there so I could take some pics.

These are made with a single palm frond. You just whip them around and do some palm origami and voila in no time you can have a cross or anything else you can make. Some people get more complicated or have to use two fronds to make a cross, but you can do it with one.

Now after 13 years of Catholic school, I've made my fair share of palm crosses. You always struggle to remember how to start at first, but then it all comes back to you, every Palm Sunday. Now it's a little known fact that this craft is always done better while in church. The palms are always freshest and most pliable when you first get them, so if you want to make anything from them the earlier the better.

Now I'm off to see if I can hijack my Mom's DVD of Jesus Christ Superstar, so I can watch it before Easter. Cause nothing says Easter like a rock opera. :)

Odd Duck Bazaar 2011

Now that my internet is back, I can finally tell you about the great show I did last weekend. It was the second annual Odd Duck Bazaar hosted by the Hollywood Craft Mafia. This was a great show that I attended last year, and am so happy to have been a vendor this year.

Odd Duck was held in the Old Davie School. It's a historic building in Davie, Florida (near Ft. Lauderale) and it was a great location. There were three shopping areas, the upstairs area, a downstairs area, and outside under the tent. And then the tiki hut was where the food and DIY area was. All of the spaces had great vendors. I was in the upstairs area and had some great neighbors, Sherry from Annie's Cupboards and Tiffany from Pumpkin Pye Boutique. The upstairs room was nice and bright with all of its large windows, but best of all was air-conditioned. I really appreciated it in the South Florida springtime.

With my trusty assistant, Mom, we set up the booth. I got some new stuff for my booth set up, to go along with my new banner with the new logo on it. We hung up all the aprons and before you knew it the customers started pouring in. The line was pretty long full of customers waiting to get in. And they didn't stop coming in all afternoon!

I got a chance to walk around the show a bit to go around and see all of my crafty friends. It was so nice to see so many of them in person instead of on Facebook. As I walked around I got compliments on my hair. I did it up in some big victory rolls to get that 40s look. And even with all that humidity, my hair held up pretty well.

I do have to say that one of my favorite customers of the day was my friend Vanessa's little girl, Sophia. Sophie loved her apron and spent lots of time checking herself out in the mirror, twirling around. She was so cute! And she looked adorable in her apron, that even matched the headband she was wearing.

It was a great show and I have to give a huge thank you once again to the Hollywood Craft Mafia for putting on such a great show. I had a great time, hung out with some great people and met some great new ones too. I can't wait til next year's Odd Duck! If you are in the South Florida area, sign up to the Odd Duck newsletter to find out when next year's show will be!

The Mini ManApron

For a while now, I've been wanting to make this for my shop. An apron for the little boys out there. I have one for the big guys, and now the little guys can have cool aprons to cook and play in too!

I made my first Mini ManApron for my nephew. He rocked his apron doing crafts and making cupcakes. I made a few adjustments, and now have a great little apron for everyone!

The Mini ManApron is just that, a mini size of my ManApron. It has the super long waist ties, so you can tie up front or in the back, and a kid-sized pocket, in case your little chef needs to keep some tools handy. Most aprons I'd seen were solid colors and so boring. So just like the rest of the designed by Diana aprons, I made them in cool prints. This first one has trees on it. But keep checking the store to see what other prints are coming soon.

Though it's called the Mini ManApron, this little butcher style apron would work well for girls too. And any size kid can wear this apron, since both the neck and waist ties give plenty of room for it to fit any kid.

I'm so happy to finally have aprons for the entire family! So what do you think of the new Mini ManApron?

Slacking off and an interview

I'm a slacker. This blogger has been slacking big time, but I do have a valid list of excuses.

1. I like to include pics in my posts and just haven't gotten around to taking pics these days.
2. I was getting ready for Odd Duck Bazaar this past weekend.
3. Managing Handmade Miami stuff is taking a bit longer than I thought.
4. Really, I'm just a slacker.

But now onto some fun stuff. In addition to being team captain for the Handmade Miami Etsy Team, I'm also a member of the Retro Handmade Etsy Team. They interviewed me last week for their blog. You can see my interview here at the Retro Handmade Team Blog!

And onto some great news, for only $7 at Radio Shack, I was able to replace the missing cable from my bias tape maker. So there were a few new Retro D Aprons to show off at Odd Duck this weekend.

I will have an Odd Duck post coming up tomorrow and I'll also be showing off some new goodies I have made for the shop. So check back soon, I vow to be a better blogger, I promise!