Black Hills Gold

I'm back!
We had so much fun on our vacation and the wedding was perfect. I don't think I've ever seen so many beautiful views all packed into one place.
As for wedding craftiness, the bride bought all of the flowers and we assembled the bouquets, boutonnières and corsages using succulents, orchids, and a mix of yellow, white and purple flowers. Of course, in all of the wedding excitement, I didn't take a good picture of all of the completed pieces together! But since you've all been so kind as to indulge my wedding fever, I wanted to quickly share a couple of pics of me and my bouquet:

And a shot of the wedding, so you can see what an idyllic setting it was on a mountain lake in the beautiful Black Hills.

I have to edit and upload all of my pictures and promise to share some here whenever that project gets completed :/

We also had a super, super exciting thing happen: Huck lost his two bottom teeth! I have a couple of really fun Tooth Fairy ideas to share with you on The Southern Institute in the next couple of weeks or so :)


My Wonderful Sponsors!
Miranda R. Mueller Original art for children and their rooms
DIRT Cosmetics Made from earth
Hearts & Home A vintage inspired life




If you can spare a few seconds, I would really appreciate your vote for Hideous! Dreadful! Stinky! in the Babble Top 50 Craft Mom Blogs. No sign-ups, just one click. (Currently ranked between 30-40) Thanks!

Orchid Shoe Clips

I mentioned before that I'm going to be in a wedding in a couple of weeks. I found a great steal at Kohl's for a pair of super pointy black heels, but the black combined with the pointiness felt a little severe with my dress. So I decided to make some shoe clips to brighten them up a bit:

I used 100% polyester fabric so that I could burn the edges of the flowers and ruffles. The flowers for the wedding are supposed to be orchids (if any can be found!), and the bride is wearing an orchid fascinator in her hair.

I spent a little time on Etsy and Pinterest looking at a lot of shoe clips. I decided to make them as a complementary rather than a matching set.

They attach to the shoe using paperclips, of all things! I tried a variety of clips, but everything I tried hurt the tops of my toes! The paper clips hold well and are pretty unobtrusive. I may put a small dot of UGlu tape (as seen on TV!) to make sure they stay put.

I love the way these turned out, and since Steve and the boys will all be in sport coats, I'm gong to make each of them a boutonnière to match me!


Here is the dress I'll be wearing:

My Wonderful Sponsors!
Miranda R. Mueller Original art for children and their rooms
DIRT Cosmetics Made from earth




If you can spare a few seconds, I would really appreciate your vote for Hideous! Dreadful! Stinky! in the Babble Top 50 Craft Mom Blogs. No sign-ups, just one click. (Currently ranked between 20-30) Thanks!

Happy Halloween!

What's that? Did I just wish you a Happy Halloween? On the 4th of July? Well, yes, as a matter or fact, yes I did! That's because I'm already thinking about this October and The First Annual Hideous! Dreadful! Stinky! Handmade Halloween Costume Contest!

The title needs work.

But the idea is a good one! Throughout the month of October I will have Guest Bloggers presenting content about handmade costumes for kids and adults. The posts can be sewing tutorials, round-ups, pattern reviews, no-sew costumes or costume elements (i.e. how to make wings, antlers, tails, etc.). I want to cover all kinds of techniques including sewing, papier-mâché, felting, knitting, etc. to inspire you guys to create your own costumes for yourselves and your families.
Then, for week or so after Halloween, I will open up Flickr pools where readers can submit their handmade costumes. Winners will be chosen by popular vote as well as by a panel of judges. And prizes. OH! The fabulous prizes in store for you!

I am still very early in the planning stages, but I would love to have you join in the fun. If you are interested in participating, email me at sadsilver@gmail.com. You don't have to have a solid idea yet, but do let me know a little about yourself, what you're good at, and provide links to your blog and any relevant posts (and/or shop if you're interested in being a sponsor).

Thanks and have a spooooooooky Independence Day!








My Wonderful Sponsors!
Miranda R. Mueller Original art for children and their rooms
DIRT Cosmetics Made from earth




If you can spare a few seconds, I would really appreciate your vote for Hideous! Dreadful! Stinky! in the Babble Top 50 Craft Mom Blogs. No sign-ups, just one click. (Currently ranked between 30-40) Thanks!

Be a Winner!

Alright, alight! I've got a couple of Big Winners for you!
For the DIRT Cosmetics giveaway, congratulations to Lucky No. 7, Elizabeth of Simply Made Creations.

And for the PlanetGear.com and PACT underwear, congrats to Sara Jensen!

I will be contacting both of you ladies soon to work out the details of your sending out your prizes.

Thanks to everybody who participated!


My Wonderful Sponsors!
Miranda R. Mueller Original art for children and their rooms
DIRT Cosmetics Made from earth




If you can spare a few seconds, I would really appreciate your vote for Hideous! Dreadful! Stinky! in the Babble Top 50 Craft Mom Blogs. No sign-ups, just one click. (Currently ranked between 30-40) Thanks!