Wedding Invitations

As noted before, the Man and I are into the retro scene and with that comes tattoos! Right away, I knew our wedding invitations to reflect our style, and I knew I was going to design them. So here's a little sneak-peek of the process of our tattoo styled wedding invitations.

 

 I, then, painted in the image with a mixture of watercolor and gouache and then cleaned up the outlines again with the India ink. 

 

I uploaded the finished painting into Photoshop and cleaned up with image and added little details to make it look reminiscent of a playing card. Overall, I'm quite happy with how they turned out. And-it was economical! We had 250 invitations printed and it cost us around $200.

My Music Monday

When the Man and I were on our adventure down south this summer, we were introduced to the sound that is Hillbilly Casino. We stumbled upon them at the Blues City Bar in Memphis, TN. They had amazing stage presence, a great sound, and all around fun guys. After the show, the Man went to purchase a shirt and in the process 'stole' some pomade from the lead singer Nick Roulette. I wish I had a picture of the two of them combing their pompadours!

They invited us to hang out with them for the rest of the night around the corner at a quiet little bar.  It didn't take long to realize how much we all had in common, and that next month they were playing in Racine! Literally, the next town over from us. Quickly, 4 a.m. came upon us, and we unwillingly had to peel ourselves away. We had to check out of our hotel room by 11 a.m. and still had to go to Graceland and drive hours north!!

The video is from their show in Racine. It was a blast, with ample opportunity for the Man and I to dance! They played last night up in Milwaukee, and I was pretty bummed that we couldn't make it.

My Music Monday

I was introduced to JD McPherson last summer by the Man, and instantly became a fan. His music is just so rich, and truly harkens back to Ray Charles and Jackie Wilson. It's not rockabilly music but more soul/rock 'n 'roll. We've been lucky enough to see him live, twice, at the High Noon Saloon in Madison. It's a smaller, more intimate venue-perfect for running into the performers before or after their set (we had a shot and a chat with JD at the bar before the show-and there were probably only a handful of people in the building). Each time made for a perfect evening of good tunes and LOTS of dancing. The second time we saw him, in April for the Man's birthday, was got "noticed" by some people in the crowd as the "couple who could dance!" from the last time. As flattered as we both were by that statement, we both knew that our moves need some serious work, haha. We just cared that we had fun!

"Firebug" is my favorite, though it really is hard to choose. The music is perfect for cruising around on a hot summer night with the top down!

I Feel Pretty....Oh So Pretty

Not much going on around here, so I thought I'd hone up on my camera skills. I decided to take advantage of the sunlight.

My 1920's vanity, along with vintage jewelry.

There he is again....

I'm so happy I found this vanity for a steal! It makes me feel so glamorous, even if I am only getting ready for work.

Oops, I forgot I'm almost 30.....

....and I shouldn't be delusional enough to think that I can still drink like I'm 21.  This hangover business is BUNK! BUNK I SAY! I was innocently looking to have a relaxed good time with the Man and now I am punished with a 2 day hangover! All because I'm getting older....boo.

Dry rolled my hair last night, so this is what I was sporting while knocking back the gin & tonics.

My 1990 Sturgis t-shirt that he hates and I love

Anyway, we tried to be productive today. Run to the bank, look for a tux/suit, get food into our bellies. Here's a pathetic OOTD and shot of my hair:

We're getting married in Vegas in 8 or so months and beginning to look for our attire. There's a place in town, Mike Bjorn's, that has vintage and all around wacky suits, jackets and tuxes, so we figured to head there first.

Lots of taxidermy :/. And suits if you were to be in a do-wop band. All very stage-worthy, but not wedding material. (pun intended)

I need to go back to bed.

Quick Project

 As usual on my Saturday shift break, I decided to go-a-thrifting. I normally don't go looking for anything in particular. Rather, I just try to look at everything and bide by time. Holy-Moley! I got lucky and came away with a big haul. I found a 1950's Zenith tabletop radio, a set of gold bar glasses and THIS beauty. As you can tell, it doesn't look pretty. I imagined that some grandmother tried to "refashinon" it to make it cool for their grandchild, and it ended up in the thrift store :(  The top cushion was covered with blue knitting and the rest was unlovingly doused in baby blue spray paint.

First things first, I cut off the web of yarn, and found a white pleather/vinyl material. It's not in the best condition. It's stained by age and/or smoke that left a yellow tinge behind. Around the buttons, it has begun to tear. All I ended up doing is scrubbing it with bleach.

Now to the nitty gritty: CHEMICALS! The Man and I went to the local hardware store and picked up an aerosol chemical paint stripper. I generally like chemical strippers because it does a lot of the elbow work for you. My only beef with this one is the way it sprayed. The nozzle only has one setting and it sprays in a stream, making it slightly more difficult to be precise. I also felt like a lot of product was wasted because of that. That being said, it helped removing the paint with minimal effort on my part. I scraped it off with a plastic noodle measurer (sorry, honey :/ ) but I would recommend an actual tool,  or an old credit/debit/I.D. card. Then attacked it all with 000 (very fine) steel wool. What didn't come off then, got a second coating of the stripper.

Under the baby blue spray paint, the legs had a thick ugly varnish. Although that would have been the original finish, I prefer to see wood grain. I think it's pretty. The brass tips needed very little TLC, I just stripped the paint and polished with the steel wool. I stained the wood legs with 2 coats of Minwax Polyshade in Olde Maple Satin.

 

I should say that I tore this thing apart. Any piece that could be unscrewed or just plain ol' pulled off like an animal was. After the brass binding was separated, I treated it just like the tips-just a polishing with steel wool. Then, I spray painted the top with one of my favorite colors: Krylon Indoor Outdoor in Satin Pistachio. I, personally, think that it compliments the brass fittings and the natural wood quite well. With the Rust-Oleum American Accents Bright Metallics in Gold, I painted the mounting plates and the "handles." They were rather tarnished.

Overall, I'm rather happy with the results. I may, eventually, do something with the cushion, but for under $25, I can't complain.

Footstool/Bench: $5.00

Paint Stripper: $9.00

Pistachio Paint: $3.75

Steel Wool: In Inventory

Gold Paint: In Inventory

Stain: In Inventory

It's Beginning to Come Together

Please ignore the ugly A/C unit and the gnarly wires

I love thrifting and I love Craigslist! And yesterday it paid off in full! We had spied this table and chair set months ago, but couldn't justify the price. To be honest, they were asking a very fair price from the beginning, yet we just didn't have it in the budget.

I couldn't let it go. I constantly checked to see if it had sold, and after a couple of weeks they had lowered the price.....but not enough. *whimper* We tried to justify it. We couldn't. I had to accept that it wouldn't be ours.

swoon

Yet, persistence paid off. Yesterday, I noticed that the price had been reduced yet again....and within our budget!! I begged the Man to get on the phone, as I have a phobia of talking on the phone. In a half an hour we were there packing it up into Goldie (the loving name giving to his gold convertible). The old Italian (?) man got a kick out of that, and waved us off with a cigarette in hand.

There are no marks or tags, and I am hesitant to say exactly what era it's from. It works for us, though. We are so happy that it's black and white, which means it can go with any color that we paint the kitchen. All we need now is a chrome napkin dispenser, or a table top jukebox!