As Requested, Mother of the Bride (Princess Anne) Images

Thank you for all your kind comments about the latest Royal Wedding post. This image of the happy couple was just released by the Queen. It is lovely.

Several of you emailed and wondered why I didn’t include a mother of the bride (Princess Anne) image. So here you are. Remember to behave like ladies. With that in mind, coral red is an excellent color for Princess Anne, shown with the groom’s father, Phil Tindall. Mr. Tindall sadly suffers from Parkinson’s disease so Princess Anne gets massive points for being kind.

Princess Anne at Friday’s reception cocktail. I adore the sweet seahorse broach.

Forgive me for also not including an image of Sophie, the Countess of Wessex, shown with her husband, Prince Edward, who looks quite dashing.

Let’s finish with just one more image of the dear Duchess. Very nice.

Now remember, kindness counts.

Laura

The Queen’s Granddaughter, Zara Phillips, Marries Her Rugby Player

Princess Anne’s daughter, Zara Phillips, has married her longtime love, Mike Tindall.

The weekend festivities began on Friday evening with a private cocktail reception held on Royal Yacht Britannia, which was docked in Edinburgh.

Princess Eugenie looked great in red, while her sister, Princess Beatrice, was lovely in purple. Leading the dazzling processional was Sophie, Countess of Wessex.

Catherine the Great once again wore a DVF dress she had debuted on her North America trip last month.

The ceremony was held on Saturday afternoon, July 27th at Canongate Kirk, a small Church of Scotland where the Queen worships when she stays in Edinburgh. The church dates back to 1688.

The bride wore an off the shoulder ivory silk faille and duchess satin gown by Stewart Parvin who is the personal couturier to the Queen. Her cream pumps were by Jimmy Choo.

She arrived to the church on the arm of her father, Capt. Mark Phillips, the first husband of Princess Anne.

Her silk veil was held in place by the Meander Tiara, the bride’s “Something Borrowed”. The Greek Key tiara was loaned by her mother, Princess Anne.

Here is a close up of the bridal bouquet of calla lilies which was created by Paul Thomas.

The back of the gown featured silk tulle straps that gathered into a “V” shape. This topped a row of covered buttons and simple pleating at the waist.

The groom wore a morning suit which featured a grey vest, black coat tails and light grey striped trousers.

The 45 minute ceremony featured the Gordonstoun Chamber Choir. The student chorus was from the same Scottish private school which the bride attended as a youth. They performed 'Gaelic Blessing' and 'Amazing Grace' at the signing of the register. Upon exciting the church the happy couple gave one another a sweet kiss much to the delight of the crowd of well wishers.

Here you can see the corseted bodice which featured silk tulle gathered at the shoulders. The chevron pleating on the bodice ended with inverted pleats on the dropped waist which created a bell shaped silhouette. The full skirt was enhanced by a wide hem.

The best man was the groom’s teammate, Iain Balshaw, who appeared to have had a rough time at a previous rugby match, although it was actually a result of a moped accident in France.

Maid of Honour was the brides friend, Dolly Maude.

The flower girls were quite sweet in white with pale china blue sashes.

Wedding guests included the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. You may remember that the Queen bestowed three titles upon the pair at their wedding. The title of Duke and Duchess of Cambridge represents England. Since the wedding was held in Scotland they went by their Scottish title, The Earl and Countess of Strathearn.

The Duchess, ever a class act, did not want to upstage the bride and opted to recycle an embroidered, champagne-colored coat by Jane Troughton. She first wore the coat way back in 2006 to the nuptials of Laura Parker Bowles' (Camilla’s daughter) and Harry Lopes. But the hat was new and I adored the diamond earrings.

A peach of a Queen!

Princess Beatrice will hopefully fare better in the fashion magazines for this ensemble than she did for what she wore to the last Royal wedding. I do like Princess Eugenie’s hat.

 

I always strive to be kind on DTA so I will say that I really liked The Duchess of Cornwall’s (Camilla) necklace.

The reception was held at the Palace of Holyroodhouse, a residence of the Queen. Dinner included lobster and crayfish cocktail, Scottish venison with dauphinois potatoes and a chocolate fondant with strawberries.

Best wishes to the happy couple!

Laura

Pockets Full of Posies

Recently I have seen several excellent tutorials for fabric wallets and clutches throughout blogland. I thought of my small stash of 1940’s fabric scraps, but alas I didn’t have enough yardage to make a large clutch or wallet, so I thought “Why not make something even smaller?”

I cut out two pieces of fabric that measured 5 1/2” x  7 1/2”. Next, I cut one piece of double faced fusible interfacing the same size and placed it between the two fabrics and joined the pieces together with an hot iron. A simple stitch around the perimeter and a button for embellishment completed the task.

A pretty custom gift card holder is inevitably cuter than a plain paper envelope.

I then couldn’t help myself and went even smaller to create a coin purse size.

Although it is large enough to hold two movie tickets.

Of course the possibilities are endless with what you could fill the pockets with.

I filled the sweet pockets in my Etsy shop with paper punches, buttons, vintage embellishments and posies of course!

I am thinking that this would make a fun swap.

Laura

Wayfaring Wednesday ~ Cool Cozumel

I am trying to think cool thoughts while the thermometer explodes. Given that I still have my hands full while Sweet Boy recovers from his recent surgery I decided to repost this oldie but goodie. It originally was featured in March of 2008 where it was viewed by a whopping 1 person. :)

Mr. Décor and I had not had an ALONE vacation in over 10 years. For our 10th anniversary we went on a cruise. Our second port stop was the island of Cozumel (Mexico). You know it is going to be a good day when you are greeted by such happy drinks.

We hired a taxi to take us around the island. There were several private and public beaches, the lighthouse, and the Maya ruins of San Gervasio, where we spent the most time. San Gervasio was once a hot spot of worship. I mean that literally, as in human sacrifices (female virgins of course) were made to the fertility goddess Ix Chel. This was El Arco (the arch) built in the post classic period (1200-1650 A.D.). It was the main entrance to the Plaza Central. It is just amazing given the tools and resources they had at the time.

Manita Structure (little hands) was built during the classic period (1000-1200 A.D.). It was given its name by the red colored handprints that appear on the interior walls. It was once home to the overlord.

This is a main road leading to the Plaza Central. Can you imagine what it took to create this?

Iguana are now the largest inhabitants of the ruins. I took this photo for my cousin T. who owned an iguana, Sebastian, for many years. "Meaty" would have loved to have sunned himself here.

Now for the cool part of this post. Have you ever seen such beautiful water?

I can’t wait to see where you’ve been and yes, old posts are ok!

Laura

I Hate My Toaster or Oh So Cozy

Sometimes a girl just doesn’t know what to title her post!!!

Our toaster gets used everyday, so it is always out. I have a love/hate relationship with my toaster. I love that it works. I hate that no matter how hard I try, parts of it won’t come clean.

Every so often I cheat on my toaster by perusing the Dualit web page.

 

 

I think I have mentioned Sweet Boy is getting braces, the Fashionista is in college and she needs a new car. So a $200+ toaster is not exactly possible at this point in my life. Sigh. So what’s a girl to do? The thought came upon me like a vintage dream. I needed a toaster cozy. A 1950’s housewife’s kitchen always had one.

I took a peek at Etsy and Ebay and couldn’t find anything I liked. Then an idea took shape as they often do. I was at an estate sale and there was an entire bedroom dedicated to old textiles. I spied a plastic bag of antique lace and trims from the doorway. My heart began to beat faster. There were two other women in the room  and my heart sank as one grabbed the ziploc bag. She then said, “Who would pay $10.00 for this bag of ratty ribbon?” Her friend concurred and they left the room. Yippee!! It was ALL mine. I only had to wash it 3 times before it came clean.

Then of course several of the pieces required that I carefully separate it from the old pieces of clothing, etc. that they were attached to. Yes, it took HOURS. But this was the good stuff and worthy of my time.

Some of the terrific trims were only 12 or 14 inches long. I had no idea what I would do with such little scraps.

I also  continued to work on my toaster cozy. I know, it drives some of you bonkers, but I worked without a pattern. I used a measure, pin and sew method. 

Hmmmm. What about if I covered my entire toaster cozy in lace?

I loved the row of fleur de lis on the back of the cozy the best.

The front of the cozy featured a repurposed antimacassar piece of lacework and some antique mother of pearl buttons.

My toaster no longer has to hang its coils in shame. A few extra are available in my Etsy Shop if your toaster also needs to cozy up.

This gem features vintage linen and a lovely antique piece of eyelet. Simple perfection. 

I also went the ruffled route. While it is oh so cute, let me just say that it will definitely be a one of a kind design.

I don’t own a ruffle foot attachment for my sewing machine so it was old school all the way. To get the rows even alot of seam ripping and re~sewing went on. After 4 + hours a bit of under the breath mumbling might also have occurred. :)

Love this French Country cutie!

The vintage fabric received a bit of embellishment in the form of some lovely vintage velvet and a button.

I am now eyeing the blender.

Laura