The Wedding...

Okay,

I am getting such mixed reactions about the wedding.  You know,  THE WEDDING????  I am SUPER excited.  I want to know what you are doing??  Having a party, watching in your pj's, nothing????  I am going to be watching by myself ( My family would rather sleep), but I will not be without some fresh baked English treats to keep me company.  I am making Earl Grey Tea served only in my fine china teacups, crumpets with butter, and baked egg cups.  That amount of food is probably way too heavy for me at 5am, but I want to be festive.  I used to be a floral designer and we would work really late on Friday nights preparing all the bouquets and floral arrangements for Saturday weddings.  I would always get really nervous on Friday nights thinking about that bride and what she was doing right then, what she was thinking.  I just think the night before your wedding, you know your life will be forever changed in less than 24 hours.  It really is a paralyzing thought, but most of us were young and naive to that fact on the eve of our weddings, or too hopelessly in love to worry about it either way.  I have my alarm set and my tea all ready to brew, but I cannot stop thinking about Kate.  Is she worried, anxious, ready to get on with it, stuffing her face with chocolate????  I once told my husband that since I was a floral designer that we would have to get married 4 different times at least, so that I would get to plan and design a summer, winter, spring, AND Fall wedding.  I went with the Fall because the timing worked out better, but the flowers that are available are SOOO much more beautiful in spring and summer. William and Kate picked a perfect wedding date for flowers.  I cannot wait to see what they chose.  I have a feeling people will be talking about it for a LONG time to come.  She seems to me to be all about understated elegance.  I love that about her.  One of my favorite celebrity weddings of all time was John F. Kennedy, Jr. and Caroline Bassette.  It was so Simple and Beautiful, and so romantic!  I don't think William and Kate would be able to get away with this kind of simplicity, but I think on a royal scale of past weddings, it will be toned down quite a bit.  I may be wrong...  We will just have to wait and see....6 hours and counting:)

Display Collections/ Shelf Idea

Hi there,  Have you got a wonderful collection of something that is safely packed away in a box somewhere?  Why not show it off with this very easy and inexpensive way to display an important collection.  This shelf was created to display a young girl's fossil and unique rock collection in her room.  We took old corbels and hung them on the brick wall, then took vintage shelving which originally looked like 70's style wood paneled shelving.  It was a yard sale find (Lot purchased around $1 a piece)  they are quite long, but we doubled them up to give a more impressive look against the corbels.  The corbels were purchased at an auction for about $12.50 per pair.  We glued the shelves together 2 per set.  We painted them charcoal grey, then allowed to dry completely.  Next, we painted two coats of a creamy white. We let those coats dry completely, then sanded until distressed to match the corbels.  Once the shelving was hung and sturdy, we assembled a nice assortment of glass jars, some with lids, some without.  We set up empty rough hewn wood frames purchased for around $5 a piece, and hung some arrowheads with fishing line inside the frames.  Inside the glass jars, we poured enough colored sand in the bottom to hold the fossils upright.  We typed up labels and descriptions of each of the fossils and inserted into each jar. This room has high ceilings and can easily support the size of this application.  If you have standard ceilings, you could modify the size and get the same look.  This entire look costs around $150.00 including all the glass jars and frames.  Chances are you already have some of these items like old frames, and assorted glass jars.  We actually used sand the little girl had saved from a trip out west.  These old corbels are usually found at architectural salvage stores if you don't have time to go auctioning.  I love creating storage and display this way, because it takes up no floor space:)  I think any time you can go vertically to create space, it is like finding money in old jeans...  It is a happy happy win win... 

Signing off for now...  
Until we meet again...
JD Higgins