new name - new blog!

Well after the wedding, I changed my name so all my posts got transferred to ashlycassidy.com.

Just wanted to give everyone a heads up that I will no longer be posting here at ashlysimmons.blogspot.com.  Thanks!

quick dress to skirt refashion - take 2

I love this dress's color and material, but I hated the deep plunge. It had great potential for a maxi skirt. After consulting the Pinterest, I was convinced that I just needed to redo the waist by feeding elastic through a newly sewed waistline.  After cutting the top off haphazardly, I tried it on and realized it makes a great high waisted skirt by keeping the original elastic. 

before

after

Cost: Free
Time: 5 minutes
Needed:

• old dress
• cutting board
• rotary cutter

1.  Make your cut.  Hold the dress so you can cut one side at a time being careful to not damage the elastic.  

2.  Clean it up.  Now that the top is detached, take your rotary cutter and get a nice smooth and close cut to the elastic. Cotton material doesn't fray easy so I left it as is with raw ends exposed for a ruffly edge.

finished brooch bouquet

The wedding is now just about a month away, so here is my brooch bouquet I have been working on for the special day.  A lot of time and thought went into this project, but I think in the end it turned out perfectly for our vintage garden theme.  I ended up including jewelry other than brooches.  A pearl necklace is wrapped around the base, a few sets of earrings and rings are wired into place, and there are also some rhinestones glued in there as filler.  Now I have a wonderful keepsake that can be passed down.

Cost: $27 Time: 10 hours Needed: scissors (owned) hot glue gun (owned) lace bouquet funnel ($3) 1" dowel rod - 8-10" in length ($1) 3 brooches ($10) 5" foam sphere ($3) 24" satin ribbon for handle ($4) 10x10" fabric for the sphere (owned) 6x6" lace fabric (owned) fake flower arrangement leaves ($3) florist wire ($3) 50-70 bridal shower brooch/jewelry gifts (free) rhinestones (owned) 1.  Collect your brooches and jewelry.  I was lucky enough to collect many brooches and jewelry from my relatives and friends, so I contributed only three pieces.  You're going to want to get a variety of sizes and shapes so placing them will create almost a puzzle of bling on your bouquet.   2.  Core the sphere.  Cut off a third of your foam sphere.  Eye it and mark it with a sharpie, then take a large knife and slowly cut through your marking.  Find the center on the flat side and dig out a hole about 1" in diameter and 1.5" deep. 3.  Attach the sphere to the handle.  Make sure your dowel rod fits into the hole and then layer hot glue inside the hole.  Push an end of the rod into place trying to keep it perpendicular to the flat side of the foam. 4.  Pin fabric to sphere. Take your fabric and pin the middle of it to the top of the sphere.  Turn it upside down and start stretching and pinning the fabric underneath to smoothly cover the foam.  I found using a plastic container to prop it up helped a lot. 5.  Place your brooches and jewelry.  Pin your biggest pieces first to the fabric.  Keep pinning until you fill it up. This is the most tedious time consuming part.  Your fingers will be sore from pinning and rearranging to get the look you want. Use florist wire and hot glue to attach rings and earrings. Fill in bare spots by gluing rhinestones into place. 6.  Decorate your funnel.  I cut some leaves off of a flower arrangement to glue around the funnel and over the lace. You may recognize these leaves from my twig and leaf pens project. Take your lace material and cut a small hole in the middle to slide over the funnel opening and glue to the plastic underside of the funnel. Let dry. 7.  Slide on your funnel.  Carefully, slide your funnel onto the rod and layer hot glue into the spot the funnel will rest. Let dry. 8.  Decorate handle.  Take the satin ribbon and glue and cover the bottom of the rod, then continue to glue and wrap until you cover it. Glue the ribbon end well when you reach the funnel so it doesn't unravel.

I am very excited to carry this down the aisle with me soon.  It turned out great.  My family and friends really helped out and found mostly green brooches for the bouquet.  It's one of kind and it was fun to make.  If you start to get frustrated by this project with all the pinning, this is one you can walk away from and come back whenever you're ready again.  One other thing that you might want to consider is making labels of who gave you your pieces. I made clear labels and stuck them to the ones that had enough real estate to adhere.  My bouquet ended up weighing 3 pounds, so a sturdy glass vase displays your bouquet nicely until the big day. Good luck!

twig and leaf pens

With my wedding less than 3 months away, I thought it would be good to start my crafts that I had in mind.  One of the crafts I needed to complete was the guest table pens to sign our wedding tree.  I wanted them to have a leafy garden feel to them, so I made them into twigs standing in a mound of grass.  They are super simple to make and look adorable for our garden theme.

Cost: $18 Time: 1 hour Needed: felt tip pens ($4 - 3 pens) fake flower arrangement ($3) galvanized container ($3) fake wheat grass ($3 - 4x4 block) ribbon ($3) florist tape ($2) scissors (owned) hot glue gun (owned) masking tape (owned) 1.  Cut Grass.  Cut your grass to fit your container.  Attach to bottom of container with plenty of hot glue.   2.  Cut Leaves.  Cut your leaves off your arrangement or buy them loose cut.  Make sure you have at least an inch of stem. 3.  Attach Leaves.  Tape a little masking tape to secure the leaf stem on the non-writing end of the pen.  Another option is to remove the pen's end and hot glue the stem inside for a smoother surface.  Be sure to remove the pen cap clips. If your pen has flat edges, you can round them by hot gluing dots on the ends. 4.  Wrap Tape. Take a piece of florist tape and cover the end before wrapping to make sure it stays covered (i.e. last photo, middle pen).  Then take your florist tape and start wrapping near the leaf covering the shaft and stopping before the cap.  Dot hot glue at the beginning and end of a wrap.  Be sure to wrap the cap separately so it can still open.   5.  Decorate Container.  Tie a piece of ribbon into a bow around the container before inserting these cute pens into the grass.

piñatas

A few weeks ago I made some piñatas for a party around Cinco de Mayo.  They were actually a lot of fun to make.  A little bit of a time investment compared to most DIY projects, but after a few days I had some gorgeous piñatas.  Cost: $3 Time: 3 days Needed: 17" balloons ($1) newspaper (owned) flour (owned) scissors (owned) yarn or twine (owned) streamers ($2) bowl (owned) glue (owned) 1.  Blow up balloons.   2.  Make mixture.  Mix flour with enough water to make almost a pancake batter consistency.  You're going to need a lot of papier-mâché to coat a balloon, but it does not take much time to harden so make small batches at a time. 3.  Tear strips.  I made a variety of newspaper strips ranging 1-2 inches in width.  You'll need a lot of these for the multiple layers needed to coat the balloon(s). 4.  Coat balloons.  Lay your balloon in a bowl or sink to hold it steady and one side is accessible.  Dip a strip into the mixture and evenly spread it so the entire strip will adhere to the balloon.  Be sure to press the strip firmly against the balloon so it will dry smoothly.  Repeat and rotate the balloon until the it is covered.   5.  Dry overnight.  I would definitely let each layer dry for at least 12 hours.   6.  Repeat.  Two layers will definitely hold candy, but not too much.  If you're wanting to hold a whole large bag of candy, I would do 3 layers of papier-mâché. 7.  Cut it up.  Take a pen and draw a hatch door with three sides wide enough to stuff candy through it.  Draw two dots two inches below the sides of the hatch door for the yarn.  Cut carefully along the markings and open the hatch door to string the yarn through the two holes.  I doubled the yarn to reinforce it, but twine should be fine.  8.  Decorate.  I folded up streamers and cut slits along one side before gluing it along the balloon in straight lines.  Take care around the hatch not to glue the streamers over the door. 9.  Fill it up.  I split a large bag of candy between two piñatas and also put pieces of streamer inside. Just a word of warning before hanging one up and letting someone destroy it: you're going to be a little upset after investing time and effort into these just to watch them be demolished.  Try to enjoy them while you can :)

new wedding board page

Check out the wedding board link above or here.  With a little jQuery and Pinterest feed love, I can now see all my wedding inspiration in one place.  I have a feeling I'll be reusing this little experiment for other boards in the future. Enjoy! 

spray painted chandelier and bowl

I have a few items in my house that I wish all matched.  Thanks for a Pinterest find, I found a nice way to make that happen.  The Country Chic Cottage posted a nice tutorial on painting chandeliers.

I fell in love with the idea immediately, and decided to do my dining room chandelier and fruit bowl Rustoleum Hammered Brown.  It brought a brass chandelier and silver fruit bowl onto the same playing field.

I think it made my fiancé a little nervous at first since I painted the chandelier while hanging with just cardboard behind it as my spray shield.



To make sure you don't ruin anything if you take this route, you should wrap up anything you don't want to paint with plastic, only spray towards the shield, tarp the floor, and open the closest window.

It only took a few coats to get everything evenly covered.  I would wait about thirty minutes between coats to reapply and then a few hours to completely dry before removing any plastic.  Below are the before and after photos of both items.

freezer paper stencils

In 2010, I ran across a great tutorial for freezer paper stencils.  Since then, I have done a few stencil projects, and every time they turn out amazing.  Dana, tutorial queen from danamadeit.com, has amazing DIY walk-throughs and her posts in general are great reads as well.

Here are a few that I thought came out perfectly or just the ones I have photos of).  The first photo is fleece scarves. With fleece's ability to pill and shed, I was not expecting a fabulous outcome, but they came out great.  The key was ironing the edges well to make the adhesive firmly attach to the fabric.

The second photo is a group of onesies I made for my friend's little girl.  I wanted to make something that reflected her mother's personality, and there is also one for her dad (Hello Kitty zombie).  The black paint turned out the best since the high contrast catches your eye.

The last photo is a set Nick and I made for our friends' little boy.  They love The Big Lebowski, so it seemed fitting that their little dude should have onesies that showed it.  The manatee is an inside joke that did not turn out as well.  I found that sharp straight lines work better; the rounded edges loose their shape no matter how well you iron the stencil.

internet browser costumes

This year for Halloween there was a costume contest at my work.  My team agreed to do a joint effort costume... as internet browsers!  This must excite the inner geek in you, but if not it still turned out great and everyone loved the costumes.  They loved them so much that we ended up taking first prize in the contest.

What do you think? (left to right: IE, Safari, Opera, Firefox, Netscape, Chrome)

upcycled sweater hats

It is that time of year to start thinking about the cold mornings and ramping up your fall wardrobe.  When trying to figure out what sweaters are still good for the upcoming season, hold on to the old ratty/pilly/worn sweaters for this fun and quick project.   Cost: free Time: 30 mintues Needed: old sweater (owned) hat (owned) rotary cutter (owned) cutting board (owned) sewing machine (owned) fabric flower (optional) 1.  Cut it.  Take your sweater inside out and lay flat on a table.  Take your owned hat and line it up so the sweater's torso bottom ends and the hat's band are flush.  Trace and cut with your rotary cutter on your cutting board.  You should end up with two pseudo-half circle pieces.     2.  Stitch it.  With the exteriors of the two pieces lined up together, straight stitch  around the dome of the hat making sure to adjust your stitch/length appropriately for the thickness of the knit.  3.  Embellish it.  Turn your hat right-side out, and add your accessories if you would like.  I made some quick fabric flowers and stitched into place.  You could also use hot glue, or use a safety-pin for temporary embellishments.

painted entry table and mirror

A couple years ago, Nick and I moved into a new apartment and needed some furniture for the entryway.  We had a small budget since our savings was just blown away by the move from Indiana to Colorado.  After consulting with Craig's List, we found a petite console table that had seen better days, but they only wanted twenty bucks for it.

It was the perfect size and a nice DIY project sounded like fun.  After giving some attention to it and a silver mirror we already owned, our entryway was looking better and more functional.

To coordinate this furniture with our existing black coffee table, we went and bought matching hardware for both pieces.  It is such a quick and inexpensive way to update furniture either way.

Cost: $80 Time: 2 days Needed: console table ($20) mirror (owned) hand sander with sandpaper ($40) 32 oz black paint + primer ($15) paint brushes ($5) tarp (owned) 1.  Clean it.  Take a dry towel and wipe away any spider webs or dirt.  You may have drawer liner to rip out too.    2.  Sand it.  Place your tarp under your furniture. The sanding is usually the hardest and most exhausting step, especially if you have ornate furniture.  You will need to start with a coarse sandpaper to really get the existing stain or paint scraped off.  Be sure to get into the nooks.  The next pass you will want to swap the coarse sandpaper for a finer grain of sandpaper to basically make the wood smooth.  Go over each piece until you feel you have a good smooth foundation for your paint. 3.  Paint it.  Be sure to change into some old clothes for this part.  Tape off anything that does not need paint like the glass mirror.  Get out your brushes and wet them at the ends.  Shake up your paint before dipping into it.  Start painting away trying to keep your brush strokes going in one direction.  Cover each piece completely. 4.  Dry it.  Overnight drying is recommended, but depending on what type of paint you have you might be able to do another layer after a few hours. 5.  Repeat.  Give the furniture another coat and be sure to cover the bottom of the feet if you can.  After the drying is done, rip off any taped parts, move the pieces to their spots and add your decorative items.

meet pinterest, my wedding planner

Hi, my name is Ashly.  I have a pinterest addiction.

No, seriously, our wedding board has taken over my leisurely web surfing time.

I am a planner, but now pinterest has upped the level of planning.  I would estimate I spend at least two hours a day scouring the internet for dresses, decorations, and hairstyles all for one day.  It seems excessive, especially since the wedding is still thirteen months away.  I'm just hoping that this effort will help decision making go smoothly and provide a visualization for those who are assisting me with shopping and crafting.

I'm dubbing the look and feel 'vintage garden' for the time being.  If it is a shade of green and has a earthly feel to it, I want it on this board.   This screenshot is also a time-stamp for the board to show where I was thirteen months out.  This board will probably grow exponentially as I plan other aspects of the ceremony and reception... so stay tuned!

brooch bouquet

I have been researching wedding DIY stuff like it is my job lately.  One idea that I am fully committed to doing now is a brooch bouquet.  What a fantastic idea! It never dies, it can be passed down, it holds treasures from love ones, and it is full on bling!  Flowers are lovely, but this idea is a great new tradition I would love to start in my lineage.

While visiting my mother in Texas last week, I shared this with her.  She in turn shared with me my grandmother's odds and ends jewelry.  Most of the items are gold, but she assured me that if I wanted to paint them up to coordinate no one would mind.

It is a great start to the collection for the bouquet.  My plan is to have those attending the bridal shower to bring one item to include in the brooch bouquet.  If you're not sure what I am referencing, check out Pinterest's brooch bouquets.

lace empire shirt

Do you ever get those free panties from Victoria Secret?  The ones that are one size fits all? The ones that don't fit at all, but have a handful of gorgeous lace?  Good, you're going to need those and a fitted shirt to complete this project.

Basically I hated seeing that lace go to waste... therefore I made it go to waist... line.  We all have a fitted top that could use a little embellishment.  The amount and width of lace from those panties are the perfect amount to wrap around for an empire waistline.  If there is not enough you can always just wrap lace in the front to get the same effect.

Cost: Free Time: 20 minutes Needed: old fitted shirt (owned) lace waistline panties (owned) scissors (owned) sewing machine (owned) sewing pins (owned) 1.  Cut it.  Cut the lace along the seams and remove the crotch area of the panties.  Hopefully you get one piece or two pieces of lace this way.  2.  Sew it.  With either one or two lengths of lace, sew the ends together by hand with matching thread to create a circle of lace. 3.  Pin it.  Put on your shirt and place the lace in the empire waistline position (just below your ladies and inches above your natural waistline).  Mark a place for your pins after taking your shirt off or if you're really slick, pin it into place with the shirt on.   4.  Sew it again.  Line up the seams of the lace and shirt before machine sewing the lace to the shirt.  Complete the other side as well.  You will want to then take some of the matching thread and secure a spot in the middle front and middle back so the lace does not shift too much.

ie voodoo doll

There comes a day when you realize not all browsers are created equal.  Most developers discover this early on, but most users do not.  Therefore, developers must support many versions of browsers that they wish would just crawl in a hole and disappear.

This is one reason I dealt with my frustration for Internet Explorer by upcycling a blue sweater into Iggy the IE voodoo doll.  Each time an IE bug is found, Iggy gets a pin. You can also make a voodoo doll.  It does not have to be for a browser you loathe.

Cost: Free Time: 1 hour Needed: old sweater (owned) scissors (owned) cutting board (owned) sewing machine (owned) stuffing (owned - old throw pillow) white fabric paint (owned) sewing pins (owned) 1.  Draw it.  Sketch a doll outline.  Don't skimp out, the fatter you can go - the better.   2.  Cut it.  Cut out your amazing sketch and trace it onto your inside-out sweater.  Cut the front and back torso panels at the same time if you can to keep the two pieces identical.     3.  Sew it.  Keep your pieces inside-out and start sewing near the inside of one knee.  Continue sewing around his outline stopping at the other inside knee joint. 4.  Stuff it.  Push the fabric through to turn him right-side-out. Stuff him trying to fill the outer extremities first (head, hands, feet).  Keep going until he is plump and full, then hand stitch up the last section. 5.  Polish it.  Fabric paint a dead expression on his face.  Keep pins close at hand. If you're really up to it, you should make a cake to celebrate making your voodoo doll.

top ten: pinterest projects

Too many pins, not enough time.  My goal before the end of July is to conquer at least one Pinterest inspired project.   There are just too many creative ideas out there now, and so my current top ten are below (not necessarily in order).  Feel free to chime in if I did not include one of your favorites.

1. resin jewelry
   I'm especially looking into the items with major glitter since the resin can contain the herpes of the craft world.
2. lace top
   Busy patterns seem to be the way to go since they can hide your trimming and hemming mistakes.
3. stamped jewelry
   Wedding motive here - amazing as bridesmaid gifts and I also may want this for myself.
4. recycling bins
   It is time.  Nick and I have lived in Colorado for over two years. It is time to start recycling at home.
5. lace cut offs
   Partly cute/partly white-trash, but I think if executed correctly they could be the go-to item for the rest of the summer.
6. fabric transfer
   Who doesn't want to use their fave photo in some memorable way? Pillows, shirts, curtains, etc.
7. bleach t shirt (try, try again)
   Yes, the first spin with this project did not go so well.  I am hoping with a better plan and supplies that I can do a one-eighty on this.
8. contrast pockets
   Just too damn cute.
9. elbow patches
   Ditto.
10. book pages gift bag
    I admit I have wedding motives behind this project as well.  They could work great as wedding favor bags.

bead earrings

Well, I took a first step towards planning my wedding.  Nick and I decided on our colors: sage green with a dodger blue.  So what was my next step? I made some beaded earrings for my bridesmaids.  They are fairly simple in design once you have your beads picked out.

Cost: $10  Time: 15 minutes Needed: blue beads ($3) crystal beads ($3) head pins ($2) earring hooks ($2) pearl beads (owned) flat nose pliers (owned) round nose pliers (owned) diagonal cutters (owned) 1.  Stack it.  Take a headpin and start stacking your beads in an arrangement you like.   2.  Trim it.  Cut your headpin about a quarter above your beads.   3.  Loop it.  Use your round nose pliers to start bending the tip towards the beads.  You many have to reposition the pliers to get a good round loop. 4.  Hook it.  Open your earring hook's loop with your flat nose pliers.  Pop your headpin's loop in there and close it back up. Even though it costs ten bucks to get started, you'll find that you can make many sets of earrings with your supplies.  I recommend getting strands of beads with different colors and shapes to give you plenty of options.  And yes, I did lay out my supplies in a smiley face.