Keeping Things Fair

Well, I have been in a creative frenzy all afternoon and FINALLY just finished my project. The pics are going to have to wait, though, because I have not even eaten dinner yet. (That's typical of me in a frenzy. Come to think of it...given my many frenzies, I should be thinner!) So I'm just popping in with a few pics of a previous frenzy to hold you over.

You may remember this post about how I turned our kitchen into a "faux Terrible Towel" factory, because our older son wanted his guests to wave the towels as he and his new bride exited the church. Our younger son is equally rabid when it comes to the Steelers but when he and his fiancee' were planning their wedding...well, the Terrible Towel thing had already been done. No Terrible Towels to make. I just couldn't rest. I HAD to make something 'handcrafted' for him and his bride-to-be. You know, just to keep things "fair". (If you have more than one child, I'm sure you are familiar with THAT concept!)

So I was pretty darn excited (and honored!) when his fiancee' said it would mean a lot to her to have a handmade wedding veil!! That sparked a frenzy that probably has not seen its equal...tons of research online and a lot of emails flying between me and the bride-to-be to make sure that the mental picture I had matched the one she had. I ran all over the place to find the PERFECT crystal beads in two sizes...ordered 3 shades of white tulle online (so she could choose the color that matched her wedding gown the best), bought 3 types of ribbons because I was not sure which would work...and then the real work began. I hand-beaded. And hand-beaded. And when I was done with that, I hand-beaded some more, LOL. Anyway, without further ado, here are the pictures I promised (and bear in mind that I'm too pooped to 'go on a Picnik' tonight to fix up these pics, so you're going to have to trust me when I tell you the colors are off).

The comb:

The beading on the top of the comb, which was straighter than it looks. These particular beads were itty bitty iridescent things:

The veil itself. The color in this picture is horrible...I included the blurry pic under it so you could see the actual color of the tulle:
At least this one is the right color. My hands must have been shaking from too much hand-beading when I took this picture.

Here's a picture of the two sizes of beads: tiny and ridiculously tiny, with pins in the picture so you can get a feel for the size: Trust me when I tell you there are HUNDREDS of them on that veil! (And down in the crevices of my sofa...I'm still finding those beads!) And finally, some of the detail of the beading at the bottom of the veil:

I wish you could tell in the pictures how that veil sparkled on the big day.
So, was it all worth it???
Yes.

Oh YES.