An Anniversary and Wedding Veil Sale

A year ago I was getting ready for our wedding. We didn't have enough money for a small wedding, let alone one of those huge hurrah's you see today. Everything from giving your guests gifts to food to decorations costs bundles these days. Half of it isn't even necessary. We had to keep it simple.


My husband and I got married at the courthouse. They had a nice wedding room that was very pretty and our parents came to witness it. My grandmother made my gown and my mom made the cake.


We had two receptions. The first was in Maryland, with his immediate family and my side, right after we got married. We had a nice reception in a private room of a great restaurant. We didn't hire a photographer or have a wedding party or any of that. Our second reception was in Wisconsin four weeks later with my immediate family and his side, again in a nice restaurant and similar setting. Each reception had about 40 guests, including those who came to both receptions. It was nice and simple. Just about all of it we did ourselves. We just wanted to get married. The frills were just frills and didn't add or take away anything from our marriage.


That started my path to making wedding veils, jewelry and accessories. I needed a veil so I made one. I sewed Swarovski crystals to the veil with invisible thread and sewed crackle glass to the comb. This past July I made a veil for a friend and I started thinking of making these for brides on a budget. While my veils didn't sell right away, my jewelry has done well. I guess it doesn't help that most weddings are in spring and summer and I started selling veils closer to the fall. Anyway, I made my first veil, my wedding veil, a year ago and so I'm putting my veils on sale. Each pre-made veil is now between $30 and $39 and I've lowered the shipping cost. I also have my butterfly comb at clearance price! You can find my veils here and my accessories here including hairpins, hair bands and combs.

For Aunt Belva

On Thursday I got an email from my dad saying that my great Aunt Belva had passed away. I got in my car and drove to Indiana that day and drove the rest of the way to Maryland the next day, went to the funeral, stayed through Sunday, drove back to Indiana on Monday and made it home to Wisconsin on Tuesday. I didn't know Aunt Belva too well, at least compared to her children and grandchildren, but she still made an impact on me. I couldn't explain it, but when I heard that she had passed I knew I just had to come back to Maryland to the funeral. I just had to say "goodbye" to her. I'm glad I did. I remember at the family reunions that she would always smile at me and have delicious treats for us kids. For a little girl, family reunions were fun but it was a bit daunting walking around among the adults. I had cousins and siblings to play with but of course the older family members wanted to talk to us and say how much we'd grown. Aunt Belva was just always kind to me. Sure, we all have our flaws and I personally don't like it when people say you can't speak a bad word about the dead. Not that we want to drag their name through the dirt... I suppose my dad said it best. He was truthful. Aunt Belva was like her parents. They had a hard life. They worked hard and could be gruff but they also had a lot of love to give to their family. Aunt Belva, like her mother, loved flowers. So, for her, I'm posting a picture of some flowers that just popped out in our front yard last spring. No promotion today.

Vivian Makes Things Too!

A few things have changed since November. I recently started selling my sister Vivian's creations. She is too young to have her own shop but she makes some great stuff. Check out this great lily pad pin cushion!

Pink Flowers

These pink flower hairpins are made with Swarovski crystals with a clear Czech glass center.

Hairpins

I've recently discovered how much fun it is to make hairpins. I've always been a fan of flowers so here we have blue daisy flower hairpins. You can find this here.

The Melissa Joy Collection

I have a friend who just adores pink. She is the biggest pink fanatic I've ever met! I made these earrings this week and after I made them I thought, "they remind me so much of Melissa". So here is the first item in the Melissa Joy Collection: Pink Garden Earrings. These pink beauties are made using solid pink glass beads and feature glass beads with pink flowers and a thin ribbon of gold. They are simply lovely and perfect for the pink lover. Each earring measure two inches from the top of the earring hook to the bottom of the earring. If you would like to substitute sterling silver earring hooks please contact me. As always, you can check out more about these earrings here.