Ashley's Wedding

I can't believe I did not blog about my niece's wedding.

We had a Victorian theme for Ashley's wedding. Her dress was lace, so swags with cheesecloth just made sense

The buffet table had yards of swagged chessecloth, with silver and glass for serving behind the food table was more cheesecloth to make a beautiful backdrop for photos. Above the buffet table was Chinese latterns with tiny mirrors to reflect the beautiful day. All the flower arrangements were made by Judy (my sister)

Wedding cake table

The drink area, we offered, fruit tea, punch and water.

Sister's Wedding

I can't blog about my nephew's wedding without blogging about my sister's wedding. It was a very busy weekend. Going to two weddings in one weekend, you are thinking that is doable. To have to decorate for two weddings in one weekend is another story. My sister got married on Sunday after my nephew on Saturday. The advantage is all the family that had to travel only had to come in one weekend. The disadvantage is it was hard work, and I was still recovering from the other wedding.

Bobbie Jo and Butch were married in his backyard. I will say his backyard is made for weddings. The beautiful white picket fence around the yard with a gazebo in one corner and a beautiful pool with a water feature in the other corner is what everyone wants for a backyard. They brought in white benches for the wedding party and white folding chairs for the guest. It was a very small wedding, family only, but it was beautiful. We decorated the patio area with cheesecloth for the bride to make her entry into wedding. Our dad escorted her down the aisle and gave her away. We used white toile on the gazebo with flowers around the top.

There were candles lining the walkway has she came down
the aisle, topiaries at the end of the path and flower arrangements placed entering the gazebo.

Toile was used around the garden, it was beautiful.

To me no wedding is complete without a picture of all the family.

Wedding Decorations

My last wedding to decorate for until my children get married. Yes, all my nieces and nephews are now married and ready to start their lives.

Here is a picture of the Sanctuary. We stayed very traditional with white and ivory flowers along with the large "A"s for Apple the groom.


The cake is staying with the theme with ribbons around each layer with rhinestone buckles in the middle. The table and the beautiful backdrop for the cake and pictures were created my Judy and myself. The table cloth was straight with 5-inch tabs placed around the table with rhinestones on each edge of the tabs and tiny mirrors randomly placed. The edge of the table had wide rows of rhinestones with ribbon and a rhinestone buckle at the top of each tab. We spent several weekends cutting, hemming and adding the rhinestones. It was so much fun working together during the prep time and then the days of decorating.

This was the buffet area. Judy created beautiful rose balls that hung over the buffet. Everything on the buffet table was mirrored from side to side. The buffet table had a flat table cloth with 5- inch tabs with rhinestones down each side of the tabs with ribbon and a rhinestone buckle at the top, rhinestone ribbon connecting each section.

Guest sitting area for the reception, the flower arrangements were all created by Judy.
Did you notice the green apples? Apples were part of the theme, can you guess the grooms last name, yes it is Apple. Green is the bride Mamie's favorite color.

Last is the area for the small thank you for each guest. We had apple jelly for each guest, to finish out the theme of the day. Judy created the labels and dressed up the jars.

Judy spent endless months working afternoons and weekends putting all the items together. My part was really the easy part a few weekends and the week of the wedding decorating. There is so much to do when preparing for a wedding. It took three days to decorate the church and then the fellowship hall. Some of the little details that have to be done never really show. With the help of family and friends, we created all the wonderful food. The food consisted of broccoli salad, pasta salad, cheese tray, ranch dip, fruit trays, fruit dip, vegetable trays, ham, chicken salad, pimento cheese, rolls, crackers, salsa, spinach dip, and chips.

SugarSync Cloud Storage

Have you ever wanted to view your photos that are on your home computer from your phone or ipad. With sugarsync you can do just that.

Click on this link and download the program to received your free 500MB of storage

Now you are asking why sugarsync and not one of the other programs out there, well that is what I asked also. Then when I found I could sync the items from one computer to the other I was sold.

Since I started using SugarSync, I began referring friends, family and clients, because SugarSync has such a great referral program to earn additional free space.

• SugarSync Works With Windows, Mac, iPhone, iPad, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, or Symbian device.

What really "Excites" me about Sugar Sync is the free referral program. It works like this, for every friend you refer to SugarSync, they give you BOTH (the referrer and the one who signs up) 500MB of bonus space for every free account (5GB). If your friend joins a paid plan, you each get 10GB storage for free! Basically that means that you can increase your storage by referring others to use their great service. There is no limit to how much space you can earn.

Drapery Install

I thought I would share what I did on my birthday. Here are pictures of some of the installation.

There was a little planning going on to figure a way to install the 241 inch long drapes beside the staircase where there was not enough room to put the ladder on the wall beside the window. We had to use a walk board, open the window, so we would not damage the window ledge. There was a ladder at the other end of the walk board with a very large C clamp to make sure it was secure when moving around. The second ladder for the other wall has extension legs that we had to use that worked perfect. Of course the cautious person I am I had Johnny attach a tie down strap to the center mullion of the window. The plan was if we fell we would take the window with us. Next issue was the grand piano, was it possible to install the Living Room drapes without moving the grand piano. With a 24 foot extension ladder, we could angle it to the wall and miss the piano by inches. We were set for the install all problems resolved.

Then after the main drapes were installed, I have to climb the ladder dress the drapes at the top and add the flag, they were embellished with 9 inch black bullion and another beaded trim on top, of course let's not forget the applique that was at the bottom of the flag. I do not like heights so you will notice I kept a hand on the ladder at all times.

The drapes with the flag really brought your eye up. The beautiful wrought iron at the top was just icing on the drape.

The Dining room curved bay was really a easy install, we had separate brackets for the iron work, we just had to walk it up the ladder and sit it in the brackets, and the drapes were ready to install and dress. After I dressed the drapes the designer put his touch on the design with a few embellishments.

The last room was the Master, and I only wish I could have taken a picture of this room completed. The headboard and bed were breath taking but still under construction so it was not photo worthy at the time. The drapes were a power blue with a 8 inch fur lead edge, with 3 rows of rhinestones 1.5 inches off the fur so it would not be lost in a pleat all hand sewn on of course. I really thought when making them how fancy they were and how they would stand out when installed. Little did I know that the bed would be the star of the room. When working with designers you really don't know what the final design concept is, I just love it when I can see the design come together when installing.

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Envision & Ingenuity Awards Competition

The Vision 11 Awards competition was exciting this year, it is the first year I have entered. I was so excited when they announced my name during the awards as a winner. While I was a second place winner, it was a honor to be able to accept the award. The competition was stiff this year so anyone that won an award came away with a huge smile and a real feel of a great accomplishment. When all the winners treatments were shared, all you could be is in awe. The designers and workrooms more than surpassed the past years in stepping up their creativity and quality. I entered the workroom side of the competition, the designer of my project was Phillip Suits of Landy Gardner Interiors, located in Nashville Tennessee. My client is also located in Nashville, she was thrilled to hear about the win.The velvet pelmets were all hand sewn, then a 1/4 cord was laid inside 1 inch from the edge following the shape of the the design. Just to add a little surprise for the client and a surprise for those that like to checkout the workmanship behind the scenes I did a fleur-de-lis out of the cord at the long point that only a few will see but a nice little touch. . We did workable drapes and Austrian shades to finish off the window. The clients room was beautiful, I was able to stop by just this last week and she has added a crystal chandelier that is breathtaking that finished off the room.

This was a hard treatment, but one I was very proud of once completed but most of all the client and designer loved the end product. Here is a close up view of the pelmet area.

I recently completed a job that had several top treatments and I wanted to share them with my readers.

Cornice Keeper with workable linen drapes.

Silk Treatment with workable drapes and austrian shade

Stationary drapes with workable roman

Slip Cover your Dining Room Chairs

Now that we are trapped inside. You are looking around all the Christmas decorations are gone, what to do to put some life back into you room.A simple slipcover just on the top section of your dining room chairs should do it. These chairs were very bulky looking but with a simple boxed slipcover with a D in the middle made the difference.