diy ---- take one.

once upon a time, sarah learned about pintrest from her dear bridesmaid kara. as soon as she discovered the world of searching & pinning .... saying she was hooked would be an understatement. who knew that searching for "lace" would produce fabulous upon fabulous photos and ideas. and then she saw it ------ "do it yourself" doily lanterns. visions of these lanterns danced in her dreams. this is just what the oak ballroom needs! stunning doily lanterns! it couldn't be that hard, correct? for pete's sake --- the blog from which the pintrest photo was taken showed a CHILD doing this.

and so it began...the search for doilies. who knew they'd be such a pain, and such an expensive paint at that, to find. plan B, here we come. i have had marvelous help in tracking down lace...my darling bridesmaid hanson found lace tablecloths and curtains in fairbury, nebraska. roxanne & i have been goodwill & fabric store shopping for lace curtains & lace fabric. my mother has dug out some of grandma rosie's old lace valances & curtains. needless to say, this bride is swimming in lace. and couldn't be happier about it.

time to jump on the DIY bandwagon....it can't be THAT hard, right??

i brought out my bags of ultra fine & luxurious lace and considered my approach.

i know you can make string lanterns...and roxanne mentioned the idea of using strips of lace. so i spread out one of my curtain panels & began to cut. did i mention that i had some help?

i started with the smallest balloon since i thought it would most manageable. umm....let's just say it wasn't starting off so well..... this DEFINITELY is NOT what the easy peasy blog looked like.... i mean, what kind of freak of nature gifted child WAS that little girl?!!??

what is a bride to do? stress out & start over? nah --- i just wallpaper pasted the bejeezers out of that balloon & used thinner strips. it looked better at the end, but still not DIY-blog worthy.

mind you----that sucker took me about an hour. major HMPH to a nice & fun sunday evening arts & crafts project. ;)

okay...time to pull out the big balloon: one of those punch ball balloons i loved when i was a kid. for this round, i decided to cut small squares & circles from the various curtains that i had:

let me tell you, when you add a bunch of lace & a quart of wallpaper paste to a balloon, it isn't exactly light or manageable anymore! i'm not quite sure how they will dry, but hopefully (a) the lace won't stick to the balloon when it's popped or (b) collapse if i do manage to successfully remove the balloon when it all hardens.

so, at this moment, i call it a tie in the battle of the DIY doily lanterns versus the bride-to-be. we shall see what daylight brings!