C'ville part 1, the wedding

This weekend, J and I had the pleasure of attending the wedding of friends of ours. C (not sure she would want me to use her name) and I met when I joined her Bible study while J and I lived in an apartment (the one right before we bought a house). J, C, and I became friends through walking around and grabbing local dinners and such. We then met T (C's husband) when he moved to the area after law school. Anyway, about half of my old Bible study was able to attend the wedding, which was a blast! Let me start out by saying that the day started yesterday (the day of the wedding) with thunderstorms and rain. As someone who endured a rainy wedding day, I was praying for a nice day for C. And boy did she get it. The hot and humid weather was completely gone, and it was downright pleasant. Their venue was a winery outside of Charlottesville.

And it was gorgeous! I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

J and I

I loved the flowers in the mason jars along the aisle.

The bridesmaid dresses were from J. Crew. So classy.

C and her dad.

The flower girls were so adorable. Very few of the petals made it on the ground, but they were so sweet.

It was windy. Which caused this problem throughout the ceremony and ended with the veil flying off after the ceremony.

The homily was so beautiful: funny and serious, and giving the glory to God. The entire wedding was Christ-centered and absolutely wonderful.

Bible study/church girls.

I snapped this photo with my telescopic lens while the bride and groom were off taking photos. It is probably my favorite.

The reception was so classy and the food and wine (seriously, the Chardonnay was sooo good) were delicious!

I also adore this photo. Just both of them so happy. :) Also, their first dance was money. They pulled out some great moves.

I teared up over the father-daughter dance. I always do. Also, C's dad and T's dad gave some excellent speeches.

The whole wedding was just tons of fun and so well-thought out. It was a great start to our wedding season (we have quite a few this year).

Many congrats to C and T!

(I was also going to cover our touristy activities in Charlottesville as well, but I am going to opt to cover that in another post just so this doesn't get too long).

Spring Flowers

Spring has finally come around! This past weekend was super nice, and we finally got around to doing some gardening. Our yard was looking like this prior to our work. The mums from last year were all dried up, we had weeds, and it was just looking rather blah.

We picked up some pansies from Home Depot, cut back the mums (I'm hoping they'll rebloom in the fall), and planted some tulips that my parents had brought down over Easter. J also filled in the yard with topsoil. I had been noticing some erosion in places, so it was nice to get that filled in.

We still need to mulch, but the front is looking much prettier. I'm actually kind of worried that the summer-like weather we've been getting over the past few days might melt the pansies. It snowed two weeks ago and it is now 90 degrees? Not really loving this climate change stuff. I'm hoping that it will cool down a little bit so we get some true Spring weather. 

We also had a chance to visit with my friend, Jen, and her boyfriend up in Baltimore. We had a really fun time watching the final four. Anyway, Jen and I had gone to a glass-making workshop about a month ago and she had picked up my work for me (see below). I had to laugh when I saw it. It truly is a pretty ugly plate. The fun part is asking people what they think it is. I've gotten mountains and a turtle. I personally think it looks like a mountain that is excited to see me. I was actually trying to make the state of Virginia. Fail. :) Oh well. We still had a fun time. 

And don't worry. I will cover more topics of failure in my next post (just wait for it).

Making a bench cushion

I ordered some fabric from the Online Fabric Store in order to make a cushion for my new hutch. It went okay, but not all my stitching was all that straight. I think I need to pick up a few sewing materials if I decide to sew more (like materials to cut straight lines and make markings on fabric). My mom gave me her old sewing machine (circa 1968 or so) when I moved to Atlanta. It's been with me ever since, but I haven't really used it until recently. I learned to sew when I was young from my mother, but my skills are a bit rusty. I expect I will improve over time.

I bought 2 inch foam for the inside material.
My cuts:
2 rectangles 1 inch larger than the foam on all sides.
4 skinny rectangles for the width of the foam (again 1 inch larger on all sides)

I used straight stitches for attaching the skinny rectangles to the larger one. I did it in a way that made sense to me, but most of this is just working out the correct placement of the sides. Make sure to stitch the right side of the fabric together. I made a few mistakes and had to rip out my stitches and start over.

This is about halfway done. The two larger rectangles are attached via a skinny rectangle.

I ended with one side open so I could insert the foam, which I had cut to size using an exacto knife.

I carefully hand stitched the last side (taking care to hide my stitches as best I could. I opted to not make it removable and just spot clean when needed.

The finished product. As you can see, I also scored some baskets from Pottery Barn for the top cubbies.

It's not perfect, but I think it looks pretty good for a first attempt at making my own cushion. I can always recover it if a get tired of the pattern.

So, now, I can officially call our foyer done! Time to get some gardening done. :)

The bathroom with the dragon artwork

I feel like I haven't been posting as much as I have in the past. I do sincerely apologize, but I don't want to post when I haven't really been doing too much around the house. My folks were in town this past weekend. It was finally nice on Saturday (for once), so we went on a short hike nearby. Sunday, of course, was Easter (He is risen!). We had a nice Easter, but it felt super early this year. I guess it was, but having a cold and rainy Easter just didn't feel right to me. I am really looking forward to some nicer weather. I have plans for our front flower bed that can't be put into action until it's not so chilly.

Anyway, I was recently going through old cards and keepsakes, and I found this paper dragon. My dance professor's wife hand made it, and he gave it to me during my last performance in college. It's make out of thin tissue paper and has all these intricate cuts in it (my professor and his wife are from China). Anyway, I decided it was too cool to keep hidden away, so I decided to frame it. I had picked up a plain white frame from West Elm last time I was in the mall. I mounted it on some card stock using a very thin layer of mod podge.

I debated where to put it, but decided on the guest bathroom. The one wall was looking rather bare, and I thought it would make a good addition.

And you can even see it when you wash your hands!

I also added a new spring-time centerpiece. I picked up the egg, grass, and twig filler from Target and thought it would be nice for spring.

That's all for now. I need to get moving on some new projects. I have stuff ordered and am waiting for it to arrive. :) I hope you all had a wonderful Easter!