A little different redo

If you follow our blog you'll see we've inherited a love for old furniture...either refinishing or something else to make it useful for everyday life. Well, we don't just do that for furniture - I do it for clothes too! Ok, maybe not as much as with furniture (because I can't see potential/ideas for clothes as easy!), but every once in awhile.

Take this 80s dress I found at the thrift store (at least I think it's from the 80s, maybe it's older!)

I wore it just like that (with a skinny or broad belt) for awhile, but I knew that I wanted to do something to make it feel more modern...knowing I'd wear it more if it felt less 80s.

So after frantic brainstorming emails with sister #3 I had a game plan. But it was still hard to make that first cut!!

I cut off the sleeves and made them more of a cap sleeve and shortened the skirt by 4". I'm trying to decide if I want to go another 1.5-2" shorter....

And here it is!

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Adding Machine Cake

What type of cake do you give a graduating accountant? Why an adding machine/printing calculator cake of course! A friend of mine text me asking me to make one for her husband's graduation party and I accepted the challenge! I was very nervous, as this was my first sculpted cake! The night before I started working on the cake I cut the keys out of fondant. Because I wanted to make it to scale, I used a photo of an actually printing calculator. And then used the algebra my momma taught me! :) The width of almost all of my keys is 5/8 of an inch. I then cut a 2" wide strip of gum paste approximately 6" long and laid it over a quart jar overnight to dry. The next day I started by making 2 9"x13" cakes and placing one on top of the other and shaping the top one (actually only using about 1/3 of it) to make the top of the calculator! I apologize I have no photos, this was a pre-blog cake. Then came butter cream in between the layers and covering the cake! I rolled o

Labor of Love (Part 1 of 3)

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Blind Man Stood on the Road and he

First, I need to say that every time I think of this song, I think of one man: Don Strunk. He shaped my middle school years and beyond by singing this song....alot :-) On my way to work yesterday I passed by the subway stop. Usually there is a man with a mohawk at this corner passing out free newspapers. I realized as I was crossing the street that it was a different man (also signaling that it was a different free paper). I also noticed the man had a cane, a cane like blind people normally walk with. As I got onto the sidewalk I was going to continue down the avenue (as opposed to into the train like most people would be doing) and the man asked me if I'd like a newspaper. I was pretty amazed that he heard me walking by in tennis shoes while big trucks zoomed past us. I'm lucky if I can hear the conversation that's meant for me to hear it in these situations.

Strikes my fancy

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