May the 4th be with You!!

(pic from: Marine's are kind of like Jedi)

^^Which, is a good blog post, btw!

-- A Victorian Cowgirl

Head to FB..

And LIKE Shabby Apple for me PLEASE!!! I never win any contest's, but I would really appreciate your help in this one... I have LOVED Shabby Apple's dresses for a few years now, but have never been able to afford one, and now I have a chance to win one! The Giveaway is TWO of their dresses, and if I win I will have a giveaway for the second dress on my blog if enough of you gals out there want one too.... or maybe you guys want to surprise your gal with one?!?!?


PLEASE help me out... If you've LIKED their page for me, please leave a comment below so I can send in my entry. Thank y'all SOOOOOOOOOOOOO much! I hope I win!

-- A Victorian Cowgirl

On this day in History...

HRH Prince William took as his bride, Katherine Middleton. Like a lot of Americans who follow/keep up with the Royal Families happenings in Britain, I woke up at 3 am one cold April morning and watched as a Most Beautiful Katherine Middleton walked down the isle to her LITERAL Prince Charming, and became the future Queen of England...

The Most Beautiful Bride...

  

And her very Dashing Groom.

 A Loving Look... 

The Rings... 

 

 So sweet to see their smiles, love, and laughter as they kiss...

 

 Such a Sweet moment... I can't wait until my own wedding day! 

 

Leaving the Church..

Isn't it just wonderful?!!? <3 (sigh) I love weddings...

The Nervous Couple say their vows:

Happy 1st Anniversary to their Royal Highness's, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

-- A Victorian Cowgirl

DIY Graphics Tutorial

Here is how I made my Necklace graphic (post coming this weekend) using Graphics Fairy, Picmonkey, and Paint. I also kept Thomas Edison's "I didn't fail 1000 times, I did not fail once. I simply found 1000 ways how NOT to make a light bulb." in mind when doing this graphic. I will share my "ways not to make a cute graphic" as well as my final success!

 Here is my Final Graphic... I thought I would start with the finished one, 

so the others wouldn't seem too awful!

 

 Here I grabbed a crown graphic from Graphics Fairy's "Objects" board 

in her search engine. You could use a graphic like either of the crowns below, 

I preferred the larger one and so used it.
(But I will use the smaller one for the convenience of editing while posting... lol)

I used the "lip tint" option under Touch Ups on Picmonkey to change the color 

of the crowns from black to red, re-sized it to what you see in the finalized graphic (about 150x110), saved it to my desktop and then opened Paint.

Once in Paint, I took the Crown Graphic from above and
added a white space at the bottom to make it centered in the final pic...

 

However, this wasn't centered just yet, so
 I flipped the graphic 180 degrees and added space to the other end, thus finally centering it.
 

Ta-da!

And flipped it 180 again to make it right-side-up again.

Crop as necessary in Picmonkey to get the exact size you wanted...

I used this Union Jack graphic that I found via a Google Image Search as my 

"choose your own" overlay in Picmonkey.

(the little symbol at the bottom of the left sidebar that look like a lattice pie-crust...)

I also overlayed the first option in the "paint" overlays and faded it until it was just right. 

But you can do whatever works for you... you may have to try a few different edits 

before you find just what works... 

 I may have tweaked it just a smidge more, but I can't remember for sure. 

That's basically it! It really isn't all that hard once you find the things you like. 

And everyone is sure to have a few mishaps, like me, along the way 

so PLEASE don't get discouraged! 

Be like the Little Engine That Could and just tell yourself, 

" I think I can... I think I can... " until you 

"know you can... I know I can... " 

<3

  And here's some of my examples of how NOT to edit a graphic...

 My original attempt. It's alright, but it isn't big enough I think...

Too much and not the right size. 

Here I did the second option under the paint tab, 

but didn't fade it at all... 

 Here I tried to do the "create your own" in the Stickers tab. 

It doesn't work quiet so well as the overlay does... lol.

And there you go! 

-- A Victorian Cowgirl

God's Tree Branch to my Earring Holder

And perhaps a few other things... I'm very prone to rambling! lol.

I saw an interesting post, on one of the blogs I follow, while blog-surfing through my sidebar last night. Kate, of The Small Things blog, bought a Manzita tree branch at TJ Maxx earlier this month and it looks gorgeous with all of her earrings hanging from it!

 (From "the Small Things blog" - Kate's Jewelry Branch)

I thought of how cool it would be to have a "Jewelry Branch" of  my own sitting right there on my dresser. I already have a miniature 5 pine-cone branch that I found on one of my walks sitting on my nightstand! Then, I also thought of how much I couldn't afford to buy one... as much as I love TJ Maxx, I just can't afford things right now. (sigh)

BUT! Thankfully, I am blessed with having the Croatan Forest all around me, even in my backyard, and plenty of Clear Coat spray-paint here at home. So I am off to hunt for a tree branch! I know that God made the perfect one and it's out there just waiting for me to pick it up and bring it home...

I will reveal everything when the re-decorating of my room is complete, and the photo-shoot is finished! I only have a few more items on my list:

 - A mirror for the wall above my dresser (I've been searching for two years for the perfect one)
 - Paint on my walls (not going to happen yet unfortunately because we're moving soon and it'd be a waste of good paint because I'd have to repaint over it before leaving...)
 - The correct curtains on my windows (I have them, they just aren't up yet)
 - The extra furniture being stored in my room for momma OUT (at least temporarily for the photo-shoot. The extra desk table in my room looks a little silly with everything else I have in there... lol)
 - Furniture properly arranged and room de-cluttered of my sewing projects temporarily (mostly finished here, just a few odds and ends to pick up)
 
What things have you re-created recently through DIY for your own home?

-- A Victorian Cowgirl

Happy Birthday to Her Majesty

I would just like to say Happy Birthday to Her Majesty the Queen, Queen Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, Queen of the United Kingdom and Her Other Realms and Territories. She was born April 21, 1926, and will be 86 this year. Happy Birthday, Your Majesty!!

-- A Victorian Cowgirl

The Nightstand Project

Nightstand - Before

Drawers primed. 

Diamonds measured & drawn as perfectly as I could make them.

Taped off and spray painted Cream

Pulling the tape off the diamonds...

Re-taping the outline so I can hand paint the detail...

All done... Well... Almost!

Antique Gold vs. Gold

 Time to re-tape for more detailing...

And you actually thought I was going to let you see the after already!?
 I have to keep some surprises for the final Bedroom reveal!

-- A Victorian Cowgirl

The Pages of Inspiration...

Here's a sneak peak of my nightstand inspiration. 

 

(Have to find the magazine...)

I am searching my thumb drive for the rest of this project's photos

and will post as soon as I find them all!!

 (House of Turquoise)

 Dresser inspiration, furniture and art layout inspiration...

Thank you again Jennifer for my beautiful blue dresser.

It's all I could have ever asked for and more!!

(Photo from Pinterest)

  (Have to find the magazine... AGAIN...)

Color Scheme: Cream, Irish Coffee, with Turquoise & Purple/Magenta accents

-- A Victorian Cowgirl

Creamy, Glitzy, Deliciousness!!

I bought several new hats while I was staying in Colorado, and this one has become part of the inspiration for the redesign of my bedroom.

I absolutely LOVE the feathers on this hat! My father calls it my Robin Hood cap. lol. I'm thinking my walls are screaming PAINT ME! What do you think?

-- A Victorian Cowgirl

PS: Much thanks to Jennifer Creviston of The Creviston Nest for her guest post on my dresser, and for all the hard work she put into it!!! It's amazing what beautiful people you meet in life, and a line from one of my favorite movies comes to mind, "Good trade!" - Dances With Wolves

Guest Post: Victoria's Dresser

Hi,

I am Jennifer of The Creviston Nest.

I have been lucky enough to be able to meet some of the best people in the world doing what I love; faux finishing furniture!

I was able to meet Victoria though her wonderful Mom, Sallie. I have faux finished several pieces for Sallie. Recently while she was dropping off a dresser, I was able to meet Victoria!

Victoria is just one of the most amazing people I have ever met. It has really been a blessing getting to know her and her wonderful family.

Victoria asked me some advice on refinishing a dresser she had purchased. While giving her advice on what seemed may be a difficult refinish, we came up with a plan. Victoria would do some sewing I needed done (yes, I can sew but not much more then a line it may not even be straight) in exchange for me faux finishing her dresser!

Before

This is the dresser Victoria brought over, a very CUTE solid wood antique dresser. It had a lot of potential, hiding under that terrible, TERRIBLE paint job. White, with a dry brush of green... and the infamous red knobs.

Victoria sent me several inspiration pictures of what she was looking for. After my process of sanding, primer, paint (Benjamin Moore), glaze and sealing it... here is the finished product.

Before and After

Thank you for reading my blog post and thank you Victoria for allowing me to do my very first guest post!

-- Jennifer Creviston

Up-cycled Napkins

In June I did a tutorial on up-cycling a vintage/antique linen into the pincushion on a Mason Jar sewing kit... but I never said what I did with the beautiful lace cornered scraps from the linen.

 

Well, I turned them into pretty little napkins! When I made the sewing kit, all I did was cut the "P" out of an antique monogrammed linen. When I was finished, I had a near-perfect condition linen - with a 4x4 square cut out of its center - left over... and beautiful lace trim on it's corners!

To make the napkins, all I had to do now was to cut off the excess center strip (an act I didn't feel bad about because it was slightly damaged with moth holes anyways), roll and pin the hem...

... and stitch them on just ONE side. It only took me about 30 minutes to trim, pin, and hem both scraps.

It was SOOOOOOOOOOOO simple, and I got beautiful napkins without wasting a thing!

What have you up-cycled lately?

-- A Victorian Cowgirl <3

Time for a (Bedroom) Make-over!!

I came home from 3 months spent with my Oma and Opa in Colorado to find my room bare of all artistic life. I forgot that I had taken down most things before leaving. And though my little brother was told that he could take over my room while I was gone, that never happened because my dad said he didn't want my room to smell like "boys" when I came back home...lol. 

At any rate, I didn't want my things to get broken... so just in case, I packed most of my stuff away in my closet. I didn't really think much about it until Mary, whom I love dearly and is my cousin Joshua's wife, walked in to my room and said "WOW! This is not what I would have expected YOUR room to look like!" Mary is an artsy girl just like me so I knew I better hop on turning my room into something that yells VICTORIA LIVES HERE!! as soon as they see it...

So I took out my sketch pad and started drawing and this is what I came up with:

It's in the works as we speak, and though my ideas (and rooms) have changed since I originally sketched this, I'll be sure to keep you posted about the Decor snags and successes along the way.

-- A Victorian Cowgirl