It's Not Easy Being Green

This summer our good friends Paulina and Ross are having a reception to celebrate their marriage this last December. Both Mary and I stood up in beautiful winter wedding and now we get to celebrate the summer reception! Since we've already done the matching dress thing for the ceremony, Paulina took a page from Sex and the City and has decided that the bridesmaids should all dress in brightly colored dresses. We love this idea!

So, after "calling" green (apparently you're never too old to call dibs) I set out to find a summery green dress. I was hoping for something along the lines of these beautiful lily pads which I assumed was called kelly green. More on that later. 

I can't think of anything more summery and bright than a nice green. So how hard could it be to find a dress that color, right? Well, it's a lot harder than you'd think! Why is it that you see a color everywhere until you need it, then it's nowhere to be found. One of life's little mysteries, I guess!

I quickly decided that calling dibs on green was not my best move. Why didn't I go for pink or blue which seem to be more in season this year? But then I went to Target to pick up a few things and casually strolled through the clothing department as I often always do and I found this pretty lady

Maybe I should clarify, by "lady" I mean dress of course. Although I'm sure she's very pretty too. But this dress is great. It's a nice light linen and I love the detail by the shoulder. Here's an up close picture for you.

I'm sure you must be a little confused right now. The dress isn't green. Correction: the dress isn't green yet. Cue the fabric dye.

I've been seeing things about the brand iDye for a while now and have only heard good things. It's washing machine friendly and easy to use. I got a nice kelly green packet on Amazon for about $6. Not to shabby, right?

The process is really simple. Combine the dye packet with 1 cup of salt for 100% natural fabrics and enough hot water to dissolve it all. Then, pour it into the filling washing machine. Soak your fabric in water before putting it in the washer. If you put it in dry, the fabric won't be evenly dyed. Set the washer to run an extra rinse cycle and whala! Green dress.

Now I have to say I was expecting the green to come out a bit darker. But I suppose the color is pretty true to the picture on the front of the packet. While it's very pretty, I was envisioning something a little more rich in color. So I hopped back on Amazon and I have a packet of emerald green coming my way.

I've read that dyeing one color over another isn't a problem as long as you're going darker. Obviously it wouldn't work so well to try and take a dress from emerald to kelly green so I'm happy I made the mistake in the right order! I'll keep you posted on the dress progress as soon as I have access to another washing machine! Oh the joys of apartment living...

How's it hanging?

I love weddings. Blogs, photography, floral arrangements, dresses, you name it, I love it. This past month one of my best friends Meghan got married. It was an amazing celebration that I will never forget. I had the privilege of standing in the wedding, and not to mention helping along the way of the engagement. Last fall Meghan was browsing on Etsy, and found a wonderful handmade floral hanger for a wedding dress. Costing about $40.00, Meghan passed, and I took a mental note.

A few weeks later, the roomies and I went to check out an estate sale. Again, we are huge estate sale fans, remember when we got our dresser here? Luck was on our side, and amongst the ornaments, furniture, and silverware, there were these hangers. Fate, is that you?

Next step was fabric. I decided that cotton would be the easiest to manipulate, and create plenty of rose buds. Since this was a present, I could not ask what color Meghan wanted. I knew that she wanted a beachy-natural colored wedding, so I searched for a peachy yellow color. The subtle tone of the color wasn’t too much of a distraction from the dress, but didn’t blend with the dress either.

I cut the fabric into strips, then squares, then circles. Just think of making snowflakes in first grade: fold the square in half twice, then cut a rounded edge. Each circle had about a 3 inch diameter. Each rose bud was made out of four circles. The hanger in total had just under 40 rosebuds. Also, since I was working with cotton, the edges of the rose buds were fraying. I liked the look, but didn’t want the hanger to unravel completely. I used Fray Check to seal the edges:

And now the final product...

                                                                            

Ode to Spray Paint

As you can probably tell from this title, we're big fans of the can here at sawyer|three.

It's amazing what a coat of glossy paint can do to refresh an old piece or a thrift store find. Seriously, it's amazing. It also helps that holding that can makes me feel like an artist when in reality, anyone who has the dexterity to press the nozzle has the skill to spray paint an object. Not to crush your dreams of being an artist. You still had to choose the color and actually go buy it. So don your beret, twirl your mustache and do that thing where you stick your thumb in the air anyway. I do.

The great thing about spray paint is that it sticks to EVERYTHING; metal, wood, wicker, wrought iron, hard vinyl, plaster, ceramic, plastic, my hands when I get overzealous. Everything. Of course certain types of spray paint stick to certain surfaces better than others. But it's easy enough to see what sticks where by taking a gander at the label on the can. Easy enough, right?

Needless to say, we've used spray paint on multiple surfaces in our apartment. Multiple. Yeah, we're super artsy and talented like that.

In fact it was the paint of choice when we created our little frame collage slash sawyer|three logo. We used a can of glossy black pray paint on these bad boys a while back. We collected frames we liked at the thrift store intending to make some kind of art collage on our living room wall. It wasn't long till we realized the frames themselves could be the art. Since they're all different there's a lot of fun textures going on which we love.

I even used the remnants of a spray paint can to refresh an old pair of metal earrings. They were starting to rust but it was nothing a little hot pink spray paint couldn't handle. I wish I had a picture for you, but I must admit I forgot to take one. But trust me, the paint made a world of difference.

I also mentioned that I'm planning on taking a can to at least one of these guys. I'm still undecided on the color at this point. But I'm leaning toward a nice bright matte color. That's right, you can buy matte spray paint. Yet another reason to love it!

Have you used spray paint on anything around your house lately? We'd love to hear about it!

Christmas in July

More like a review of Christmas in July. This past winter, my friend Alex was raving about the aprons from Anthropologie, and how she wanted one. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE Anthropologie, and would shop-spree there anytime. Although a $50.00 apron seems a little silly to me, so I decided to take on this challenge, I’m sure Heidi and Michael would approve...

                                             

I began to search on Etsy so see if there was any fabrics that caught my eye. What an understatement. I came across this handsome design, and the decision was made for me...

Really, who could resist? Next I found black stretchy lace, and bright red ribbon for the band and tie. I pieced the apron together in four parts. The skirt, the top (two pieces), and the tie/band.

A close up of the graphics...

The top portion is lined with the black lace. The band is layered with the fabric, the black lace, and the bright red ribbon. This provided stability to the band so it was able to tie in the back.

And the proud owner, Alex. What better way to celebrate the fourth of July, than with this apron? Everyone loves a little Christmas in July!