A Note on the Pinning of Things

*Disclaimer: Wherein I Bitch About A Wedding To Which I Wasn't Invited

To start - I love Pinterest. It's basically everything I always wanted the internets to be - a place to save ideas without having just a list of https://www.blah and/or confusing notes to myself. I like seeing what other people pin and getting those emails that 3201885 other people have repinned my pins (ok, only 3, but still.) I'm proud of my pins because I like to dig a little bit and not just repin the first and most popular pins I see. Same with wedding blogs - I'm not planning one of my own (yet) but I like to look at pretty pictures and read fun writing. The uniqueness is what I love about blogs like The Knotty Bride and The Charity Wedding. They don't just grab images from Pinterest that are adorable - they seek out the original and thoughtful, so people are inclined to be inspired and not just imitators.

My sweetie and I attended our 7th (or 8th, we've lost count) wedding of 2011 a few weeks ago. It was in an amazing space, Foundation Architectural Reclamation in Kansas City, Kansas. Long story short, the couple's original reception spot was declared condemned or something so this location was found last minute. Picture a huge old warehouse in an old part of the city, revamped speakeasy on the first floor and reclaimed furniture and architectural pieces on the second floor. I didn't know what decade I was in. Unfortunately, the older the building, the thinner the walls, and there was a seocnd wedding going on somewhere else in the building that had a live band rocking out, which kind of disturbed our friend's carefully picked slideshow music, but whatever. Not a big deal. It did not manage to disrupt their first dance to Meatloaf's "I Would Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That)", thank goodness. (Is there a better first dance song? Or longer? I don't think so.) Anyway, the music continued through the walls for a while, and when we decided to take our drinks outside to look around we found the entrance to that wedding. We just walked in, as it basically opened up into the street, and crashed our first wedding.

  

It looked Pinterest had barfed all over everything.

via Pinterest via The Farmer Family

The wedding we crashed had it all. Mason jars instead of glasses. A cake with one of those adorable little bunting/banners on it with something cute written on the tiny flags (you KNOW the cake I'm talking about. It's freaking everywhere. Is it an Italian thing or something?).

Via Pinterest via Belle The Magazine

 Actually, a whole table of adorable cakes and pies. Burlap tablerunners and seat decorations. Mismatched vases on every table with sparse-yet-whimsical flowers. Cowboy boots. A photobooth with hideous mustaches (lol! mustache!! I AM SO SICK OF MUSTACHES) and huge neon plastic sunglasses for props. The space itself already looked like an old barn, so add that to the list. If it's been on any DIY Wedding list in the last 6 months, this wedding had it. I half expected to see a sign saying "this wedding brought to you by every wedding blog, ever!"

via Intimate Weddings

Now, DON'T GET ME WRONG. I LOVE Mason jars and will be using them at my wedding because they're harder to break. I think burlap is great in small doses. I think cowboy boots are infinitely better for dancing than heels. Photobooths are the funnest thing ever. I'm not trying to bash this bride or the couple AT ALL. Hell, I'm the one who walked into someone else's wedding. For the record, everyone looked like they were having the best time ever and I totally would have gotten up there and danced to that band. I don't know the couple. Maybe all of those touches were specific to them.

I guess I just don't think it's a reflection of who you are as a couple when you do what everyone else in the world is doing and obviously get all of your ideas from the internet. A wedding isn't an expectation to live up to, it's a reflection of two people and what they care about most. What people are going to remember are the special moments and the tears and how good the cake was and how much their feet hurt from dancing and how much in love the couple is. (Well, that's what I remember. My first thoughts the morning after a wedding are: "holy geesuz I should have taken all that leftover cake home. Where can I get it?" and whether or not zappos will accept those heels if I return them because please god I still can't feel my toes.)

  Am I all alone on this? Do I spend too much time looking at pretty wedding pictures so every wedding from now on is going to be ruined for me? The thing is, I don't think so. Like I said, we've been to approximately 16 weddings in the 3 years David and I have been together and every single wedding was special in its own wonderful way.  I guess a part of me is still so stymied by the multi-thousand dollar extravaganza that is the modern wedding. All I have to build on is my parent's living room ceremony, and I don't think anything could get much better than that.

Meat. Loaf.

DIY Fashion Skirt

These skirts are everywhere.

The Man Repeller - Skirt by Rag and Bone, probably 100s of dollars

American Apparel $62

instyle-girl

I like the style.  I'm way more into long skirts than short ones.  I even kinda like the fanciness of the accordion pleats.  I think they're cute with any sort of top, and they're basically just really fun.  I looked at American Apparel a few weeks ago but I refuse to shell out $50+ for something like that.  It's just not going to happen.  But the other day I found the perfect skirt at the Salvation Army.  It's long, blush/nude colored, and has hundreds of tiny pleats.  Only problem:  it's attached to a dress.

$5.99! Fashion doesn't get much better than that.

As soon as I research the best way to cut polyester without destroying the skirt, Ima go to town on this baby. 

DIY, Kate edition

While working oh-so-hard the other day at my job, I happened across this adorable project from Cupcakes and Cashmere.  Here's her finished product:

{via Cupcakes and Cashmere}

Isn't it lovely?

I thought about it all day long and decided I had to make one.  If there's one thing in plenty at my parent's house, it's old lumber and mason jars. 

First, a few things you should know about me:

1.  I worked in a hardware store for almost 5 years.  I did not get hired due to my construction skills.  I mean, I know which end of a hammer to use and how to insert a drill bit and lots of other things, but it's not exactly second nature to me.

2.  I hate planning projects.  All the instructional blogs I read say "here are the tools you'll need" and have them all laid out neatly on a tray:

{For example, a Little Green Notebook re-upholstery tutorial}

3.  I don't live at home anymore, and to add to the un-familiarity that comes with being out of there for a few years, my parents are remodeling and everything that used to be on the first floor is now in the basement, so I don't know where anything is times two.

Whatevs, I still wanted a floating vase.

 I wandered around our old shed for a while looking for the materials I would need, which consisted of 1. a piece of wood 2.  wire  and 3.  mason jar.  2 and 3 presented themselves quickly, but the lumber was harder to come by.  Finally I found a piece that was weathered just enough to make it pretty, but was still strong and not entirely crumbly.  After sawing off a piece with a pruning saw (NOT THE SAME THING AS A REGULAR SAW.  I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN THEN HOW THE REST OF MY PROJECT WAS GOING TO GO) I took it inside and went to the basement to find my tools.


When she wasn't following me to the top of the basement stairs to make sure I was okay, she was lying here. See how worried she looks?

I came back up with a set of hex keys, a ball pein hammer, wire cutters, and pliers.  My plan was to make the holes by hammering in a nail, and then pulling the nail out.

Proximity of hammer (not ball-pein) to clean glassware.

Proximity of clean glassware to my workspace.

@#%!*! screw.  See the two nails there?

Here's the part where I called my brother and asked him if he knew were mom keeps her drill.  He said "I think it's under the back deck." Really? After another few confusing minutes I realized he thought I was asking where she kept the grill.  So not helpful.

 Eventually the two nails and screw did the trick.  Sorta. 



The left side hole still was not all the way through the board.

Last ditch effort.  Hex key for the victory.

Light!

Almost there!  Time to pick the flowers.

Have you ever seen a prettier, more perfect zinnia?

Didn't pick this, but it's gawjus.

In my mind, zinnias are the perfect summer flower.
They're hearty and bright and beautiful, and you can play the "he loves me, he loves me not" game
forever.

A friend of mine got attacked by a crazy cat when we were younger and she had to get shots in her butt for a long time.  But I guess that was rabies, not tetanus.  But still.

Finished product!  I haven't added the wire at the top to hang it, but I'm really happy with how it turned out.  

Can you see the slightly worried look in my eyes where I'm thinking "maybe I'll get tetanus!"

Silk

Years ago I was rummaging around through my grandma's sewing room. It never ceased to amaze me that after two decades of exploring her house I could always find new treasures. Of course, as I grew older, different items gained new meaning. Old football programs from when my grandfather played at KU were that much cooler when I became a tuition-paying Jayhawk myself. (The average size of players in those days was 5'8", 180 lbs. So almost exactly me size!) One of the neatest finds of all time happened in her sewing room. I pulled open a drawer and found a small, white, drawstring cotton bag. A tiny post-it note was pinned to it that said "WWII parachute silk" in my grandma's pretty, tiny handwriting. Inside was a bundle of ripped and cut up pieces of beautiful old silk. I think I must have asked her where it came from and what she did with it, but for the life of me I can't remember her explanation. She was a nurse stationed in North Africa and then Italy during the war, so I'd say it's a pretty safe guess that she got the material from the source. Maybe she picked it up off a battlefield. Maybe a young soldier kept it with him after a jump and was brought into the Red Cross tent and while she treated him he gave it to her because he fell in love with the kind nurse. Maybe he was a farm boy from Minnesota and he felt at home talking to her. Maybe it was a gift from a date. Maybe she got it at a garage sale when she got back Stateside and moved to Wichita to marry my grandfather. Who knows, but it's special to me and for years I've tried to imagine ways to incorporate it into something I can use and keep near me.

From svpply.com

A year or so ago I started seeing cute little cloth braided bracelets around, but making one seems daunting when considering the clasp. There's a reason people buy most of their jewelry. I love the way this leather is sewn at the ends of the braid and I think it could be a nice contract to the delicate, white silk.

Juicy Couture
braided cloth bracelet

This one is a little closer to what I've imagined. I have various bits of other material that I collected from Grandma's house after she moved the nursing home that might be fun to include with the parachute silk. Again, contrasting lighter materials by including leather or a chain into the braid would be a nice touch.



tie the knot sash



Then just today I found this next silk braid, which immediately made me remember the silk and which inspired me to write this post. It's from Ivy and Aster , a New York bridal shop. How precious is this belt? I would love to find a strand of rhinestones or "diamonds" and make something like this. If it were long it could almost work as a necklace or hairpiece or big bracelet.



Bailey and the parachute silk

Whatever I end up doing with it, I'll love having a little piece of my grandma that much closer to me.