Tent Preparations 1

Hello!

Well, now that the cat tent is out of the bag, I'll share some information about how and what we did to dress up a plain old off the shelf pop up tent.

 

First, we were lucky enough to find a 8x8 pop up canopy off the Craigslist. Thom and I drove to San Francisco and met a nice woman who was moving and didn't have room for her tent anymore. I believe we picked it up for only $50.00.

Tent inspiration 1

We researched many different tents and we decided we wanted to create something along the lines of the pic above. It was beautiful and romantic in many ways and seemed to fit the look we were going for.

Prepping strips of valance fabric

Second, pick some color and texture. Thom has a small horde of fabrics stashed away in his studio so we had plenty of textures and colors to choose from. The pic above is of strips of fabric that are getting ready to be sewn into our valances. This beautiful machine embroidered silk we found a the San Francisco Opera Costume Shop Sale back in 2009. I believe we picked up this roll for $1. As you can see we had to seam the fabric down the center. I had to cut and tack on the missing medallion in the center so it would look complete.

The valence waiting for it's jewels

Here's a pic of the valance in almost it's full glory. It's still missing the tiny jeweled pieces in the center of the medallions. The white scalloped portion of the valance Thom cut and trimmed in gold bias tape by hand. It was a pain, but necessary to have a clean finished edge. The tassels were ordered online at a discount and I added the gold and amber glass bead for some flair.

More later.

-HWC

The Morning After...

Phew - Yesterday was such a whirlwind.  We are still in recovery mode, but I wanted to give a sneak peek to our readers. We will be sure to post more photos once the weariness has worn off...

xox - KB-D

A Curvy Girl's Guide to Gatsby

Being a curvy girl, I shuddered at the thought of finding a suitable 1920's - 40's inspired day dress for the Gatsby Summer Afternoon.

The silhouettes of the day did nothing to flatter the more voluptuous.  I knew that finding a vintage frock was out of the question and being a new-ish Mom, sewing a dress was also not realistic.  My only choice was to search for a plus sized dress with a throwback silhouette that could pass with the proper accessories.  Enter - Nataya.

Holy smokes - this site was an oasis in a sea of meh. I ordered both of the below gowns in in ivory with the intent of dying them jade green.

I was quite pleased with their 1930's-inspired silhouettes, but the first look was more flattering on my body-type.

Costume guru, Thommy, dyed my dress & built me a gorgeous shawl cape that perfectly complimented it, while also giving me a more period-perfect look. Can not wait to debut the whole ensemble on Sunday!

xox - KB-D

UPDATE

Me & Thommy before I sweated out my hair & makeup during setup.  Next year - we set up plain-clothed & then get dressed.

Infant Wear - Part Deaux

My apologies for the lack of recent updates.  We have been hard at work behind the scenes putting the finishing touches on our outfits & picnic setup.  A couple months back, after much searching, I finally found an outfit for my infant son to wear to The Gatsby Summer Afternoon.  I was doing my normal Ebay & Etsy rounds trying to find a vintage romper like the ones below...

Everything was either too big, too small, the wrong color or too expensive.  I was about to give up the search, when I stumbled across Christening outfits!

Actual Listing Photo from Ebay

Not being Catholic, I had never heard of such a thing.  I was delighted to learn that they came in various throwback styles, including the sailor outfit!  The silhouette of the above romper was exactly what I had been looking for and since it was made of white silk, we were able to dye it to customize the look.  Costume guru, Thommy, dyed the pants & collar, changed out the buttons & added a darling silk tie.  The end result - perfection!  Can't wait to share pics post- picnic

xox - KB-D

UPDATE

Here is Beckett (passed out) in his Gatsby finery.  What a doll!

Cooking Day 1

Hello!

As you can see below, I got around to washing the glassware. Actually, Thom, fed up with my procrastination washed all the glassware. :) Now I have to start packing all this stuff for the journey.

In a post a couple of weeks ago I said we were going to have Beet Pickled Eggs. Since the eggs need to marinade in the brine for three days, we've started these.

Boiling two dozen eggs is actually a lot easier than Thom and I thought (thank you Google). Here's a pic of us shelling hard boiled eggs in the living room. Television is a must when shelling eggs. :)

And here's a pic of our eggs pickling in the beet/brine mixture! As you can see they will turn a lovely shade of red after three days and then the cutting and mixing of the yolks begins. The recipe we have for Beet Pickled Deviled Eggs is from an old Gourmet Magazine I had lying around work. You can find similar recipes on Epicurious or Food.com.


Till later.

-HWC

Have a Seat

Hello!

I'm taking a break from pressing all the linens to bring you this post. I found the beach chair below several months ago when we first decided to go the Gatsby Summer Picnic. I think it's actually the first thing I bought for the picnic.

I got a pair and I think I paid only $5.00. That's $2.50 each! I figured a little bit of Old English and a new canvas back will do it some good.

And here are the new backs (I just finished them tonight). The canvas/linen fabric is from a church rummage sale Thom and I went to two weekends ago. We thought it would be the perfect pattern for the picnic.

Till tomorrow.

-HWC

Silver, the Metal of Kings!

Hello!

Again, sorry for the lack of posts. Gatsby is only five days away and we've been busy with the finishing touches... on everything. Our outfits are finally finished! I won't give away the surprise, you'll just have to look for us at the picnic. As for the rest, check out the pic below.

All the silver has been polished and is ready to go! However, I'm on glassware duty and still have yet to wash it all. The tent is getting it's final snaps and sew on bits tonight. The rugs need to vacuumed one last time, the pillows need to be fluffed, tablecloths need to be ironed, napkins need to be pressed and it all needs to be packed up in the multitude of picnic baskets we've been accumulating since May! Whew!

I'll try my darndest to post in the next couple of days. I still need to upload my final post about the wooden travel bar. But Thom and I have a lot of cooking to do to fill up all this silver entertaining. I should really document the cooking and post as we go along. Hmmm....

-HWC