skirt to shirt

Hooray for Thursday! Since I've been on something of a fashion kick this week, it seemed fitting that my usual Thursday DIY post to be fashion related as well. Don't worry, I'll be back to more home related posts next week, but if you can't wait for some drool worthy projects, make sure to visit Kimba's DIY Day and Gina's Transformation Thursday. They never disappoint :-)

Confession, I committed the big blogging sin of forgetting to take before photos for this post. But never fear, I drew some truly awful 3rd grade style sketches instead.
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This project started when I spotted a beautiful (but several sizes too large) Ann Taylor Loft skirt at Goodwill a few months ago. The price was right and the fabric had me at hello, so I went ahead and bought it anyway. The skirt looked something like this:


Not really, but you get the idea: pleated circle style skirt with front pockets, and a deep hem around the top and bottom. My first plan was to turn this little lovely into an apron. This was a great plan until I realized I already had about 5 aprons in this style. Next, I considered using the fabric to cover a pillow. However, the gorgeous navy, purple, and green print really doesn't work well with my white, red, and beachy blue and green decor.
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Momentarily stumped with what to do with my find, I finally hit on the idea of turning the skirt into a shirt. I decided to try for something like this:


The deep hems at the top and bottom of the skirt were the perfect length to create nice tailored bands around the chest and hips, plus - no sewing!

I started by cutting the skirt at the side seams to create two identical pieces. The back of the skirt became the front of the shirt. I wrapped the piece around myself tube top style, and discovered that the bottom hem edges met perfectly in the back, like so:



So, I faced the wrong side of the fabric together and sewed the side edges of the bottom hem together. Next, I cut a large rectangleish piece of fabric out of the front side of the skirt and sewed it to each edge of the top hem, and kept going down each edge of the open triangle. If this sounds confusing, think of it this way: the triangle with the word "back" in the photo above was empty space, I simply sewed fabric behind this empty space to fill it up. This gave me a tube of fabric. All I had to do to finish the top was add straps cut from extra fabric. Here are the results:

Front

Back ( if you want to see the triangle piece I sewed in to fill up the back, click to enlarge the picture)

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If you want to try this, a good way to tackle the project is to think of it like all the slipcover tutorials out there in blog land. All you have to do is pin the fabric around you (like you would around a chair or sofa) and sew up all your pinned seams - just make sure you use safety pins not straight pins! It also helps to have a husband or friend around for the hard to pin places. Also, make sure to keep your shirt a little on the loose side so you can take it on and off without a zipper.

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If you want to see the top on a person instead of a hanger, check back tomorrow for Fresh Fashion Friday, starring - My new top!


<3

Hattie

beauty school dropout

I have always (since about 15) worn makeup, but I've never been a layers and layers of make up girl. I started eating a lot of organic and natural foods and using a lot of organic and natural products about two years ago. The more I learned, the more I wanted to use only "less messed around with" products. As soon as Physician's Formula came out with their Organic wear line of makeup, I switched on over.



Making the switch really lightened my makeup bag! These are the only products I use on a regular basis.


First, I use a little Mary Kay water proof concealer under my eyes and on any blemishes. I know this product is far from organic, so I'd love to switch to something else. Has anyone found a GOOD natural/organic concealer? I tried the Organic wear version, but it's very thick and greasy.



Next, I use my fluffy brush to apply a dusting of the Organic wear medium translucent powder.



I Love the Organic wear bronzer and blush combo because it saves money and room in my makeup bag. I use my brush to apply a (very) light layer of the bronzer, and a little blush from the apples of my cheeks upward. I also use my index finger to apply a smidge of bronzer to the corners of my eyelids.


I finish my eyes with a smidge of Rimmel shimmer eyeshadow. As soon as I finish this, I'm going to replace it with an Organic wear eyeshadow.


Finally, I put on a little Burt's Bees pomegranate lip balm. It has just a hint of pink.

For special occasions I use a little eyeliner and real lipstick. But for ordinary days, my little routine only takes about ten minutes.
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If you're thinking of trimming down your own beauty routine, I hope this post inspires you to try to a little less and see what happens. I for one am loving the saving in time, money, and room on my dresser! Oh yeah, and I have far less breakouts now that I use more natural products!

<3
Hattie

p.s. Physician's Formula didn't pay me anything to rave about them, I just happen to be a truly satisfied customer!

Prayer for a new school year

Millions of students are heading back to school, and as nearly two thousand enter my life today, my heart is full of high hopes and good wishes for each and every one of them. In a public school, I can't hug them and say, "I love you, God loves you, and you are so special!" As high schoolers, they probably wouldn't take that well even in a religous school! But, what I can do, is pray for them. I can keep them in my heart. I can be the person that has a smile for them, even when they're having the worst day. The band Sidewalk Prophets has a new song called The Words I Would Say. I think the message is so powerful, and I just wanted to share it with all of you at the start of a new school year. This is what I pray for every student to know deep in their heart!

Three in the morning,

And I'm still awake,

So I picked up a pen and a page,

And I started writing,

Just what I'd say,

If we were face to face,

I'd tell you just what you mean to me,

I'd tell you these simple truths,

Be strong in the LORD and,

Never give up hope,

You're going to do great things,

I already know,

God's got His hand on you so,

Don't live life in fear,

Forgive and forget,

But don't forget why you're here,

Take your time and pray,

These are the words I would say,

Last time we spoke,

You said you were hurting,

And I felt your pain in my heart,

I want to tell you,

That I keep on praying,

Love will find you where you are,

I know cause I've already been there,

So please hear these simple truths,

Be strong in the LORD and,

Never give up hope,

You're going to do great things,

I already know,

God's got His hand on you so,

Don't live life in fear,

Forgive and forget,

But don't forget why you're here,

Take your time and pray,

These are the words I would say,

From one simple life to another,

I will say,

Come find peace in the Father,

Be strong in the LORD and,

Never give up hope,

You're going to do great things,

I already know,

God's got His hand on you so,

Don't live life in fear,

Forgive and forget,

But don't forget why your here,

Take your time and pray,

Thank God for each day,

His love will find a way,

These are the words I would say

<3

Hattie

What a day for a daydream

Brad and I spent a lovely Saturday morning at Maymont Park. Our friends Tracy and Tim brought some of their friends to Richmond for a home town tour. We gladly joined them for some very Richmond-y fun. Maymont is a gorgeous park on the edge of the city. It was once the estate of the Dooley family, so the park is home to formal gardens, farm areas, and a very fancy mansion.


We started our visit in the herb garden.


I emerged smelling of Rosemary and bee balm, because I couldn't resist touching all the beautiful plants!


I love the lines of this fancy outbuilding. The stonework is very detailed in person.


The carriage house sported these great diamond windows. I love the deep red paint job.


The Dooley mansion


I think this archway is one of my favorite shots from the trip!


This cool faux twig bench provided a spot to rest while looking at the Raptor exhibit. The hawks were so regal.


I lost count of the number of little waterfalls!

The big waterfall in the Japanese gardens makes quite an impression!

The gardens were dotted with all these stone sculptures.

Brad and I climbed up close to the waterfall.

There was a seriously dreamy quality to the Japanese gardens.

I loved all the little details like this sweet stone edging.

You've got to click on these tree pictures to enlarge them. Couple have carved their names all over this tree. It was the coolest thing.

You can see the carvings a little better in this shot.

Even the paths through the woods had beautiful little details like these winding steps.

We ended our visit in the Italian gardens.

A picture of the three blogging girls.

Michelle blogs at The Daily Ramen, Tracy Blogs at Close to Home, and I of course, blog right here!

The Italian gardens were full of roses and other delicious smelling flowers.

Could this all be transplanted into my yard? Pretty please?

Many, many people have been married under this long pergola style colonnade.

I hope you enjoyed a little virtual trip to Maymont. If you're ever in Richmond, be sure to check out this free treasure. If any of these photos appeal to you, feel free to use them for whatever!

<3

Hattie

Fresh Fashion Friday - The Librarian

I'm a librarian all of the time, but when I wear this outfit I feel like I'm The Librarian - in a good way.

It's a little more dressy than what I usually go for (I do have a job that involves kneeling on the floor to find books, climbing on tables to hang displays, and daily furniture moving and copier repair - they do NOT tell you this stuff in library school.) but on Wednesday we had convocation, so I used that as an excuse to get a little classy.

And now, on to the outfit break down:

- pale pink 3/4 sleeve dress shirt from h&m
- black 3/4 sleeve V neck cardigan from Target
- black patented (faux) leather belt from h&m
- Pink and grey pin striped skirt from Old Navy
- black linen open toes kitten heels (not shown) from Wal-Mart

After days of yelling at my computer, going blurry-eyed from starring at lines of HTML, and fighting with css templates, I finally finished the library web page makeover on Wednesday afternoon. I totally think my super Librarian outfit had something to do with it!
<3
Hattie

bowled over

Are y'all ready for some super easy, super cheap, super fun fall decor? Well, ya better be, because it's Thursday, and that means I have a cute little DIY idea to share. For even more inspiration, be sure to head on over to Kimba's DIY Day and Gina's Transformation Thursday.

hmmm...

What is that lurking on the living room bookshelf?

Let's take a closer look,

I've been itching for a little more fall flavor, but I didn't want to go overboard with a full on explosion of orange, yellow, and red. So, when I remembered that I had two glass bowls in graduated sizes, I knew I could use them to keep fall love simple and classy.

The small bowl is filled with snapped twigs from the yard, and a bird on a wire photo I printed out.

The large bowl holds two black and white photos, one of a tree, and another of a leaf. I filled the bottom of the bowl with a few silk leaves for a little splash of color.

If you're interested in making these, feel free to use the pictures below, or use some of your own.

I found these photos on my favorite free-to-use photo site, morgue file.

Once I downloaded the files, I played around with some of the features in Picasa to give them a vintage look, I also uploaded the bird and leaf photos to this great old photo maker that I discovered through Julia's awesome blog. Once I liked the look of the photos, I printed them on photo paper, making sure that I sized them small enough to leave a white edge around each image. Once they were printed, I used wavy cut scissors to give the edges that old fashioned photo look. Finally, I randomly creased each photo a few times to give it a more worn look. This also helped them fit better in the bowls.

I love how they turned out! I also love that they were 100% free!

<3

Hattie

Hey Y'all!

Today I made my first attempt at creating a room using polyvore. If you click on the picture below, you can view the room in a size slightly larger than this tiny polly pocket version. This is the office side of an office/library. I'm thinking of using colors like this when we have our own library one day. Let me know what ya think, and if anyone has any tips on getting polyvore to appear larger in blogger, please let me know.

<3

Hattie