Prom Dress Make-Over!

If you're the Mom of a daughter who is going to Prom this year, you may have noticed that there are practically ~NO~ dresses out there that are modest. They are either strapless or have spaghetti straps.

Finding a modest dress is pretty much impossible unless you order it from an online store or search for one on Ebay. Most of the online stores that Jillian and I had found were over-priced, so that left Ebay. Still not much to choose from that she liked.

Having limited funds, we decided to shop for a dress that was immodest and then give it a make-over.

In the past, she has gone to 2 formal Christmas dances. We found a dress both times that needed altering. Luckily she chose dresses that were either black or had black on it. So we were able to just buy a black shrug to cover her up. I sewed it onto her dresses. Both still looked adorable. See?
Anyway, for Prom, she wanted something other than black. We found an adorable bright pink dress at JC Penney that was, get this.....over HALF off! We only paid $39.99 vs. over a hundred dollars for a dress from other stores in the mall.

So this dress had a spaghetti strap that went around her neck. Not modest at all.
Because it was so pretty, sparkley and *cheap*, we decided to snag it and deal with the immodesty somehow.

We didn't know what we could do with a bright pink dress. No shrug was going to match perfectly. Cripes, I couldn't even find a pink shrug anyway. We also didn't think that a black or white shrug would look as nice as something that was the same color of the dress. So I searched online for alternate ideas. Boy, I love the Internet. How did we ever live without it many moons ago?!!

I found a website, ModestProm.com. They had several ideas to alter a Prom dress. The pattern I chose to use is here.

So easy! Or so I thought. No, actually, it was easy, but I'm not much of a seamstress, so I lacked confidence thinking I might not be able to pull it off.

With help from my Mother-in-law, who sewed the edges all the way around the 2 pieces (thank you again for that Mom!), and a few tears of my own because I thought I might not get it done in time, I was able to accomplish the task.

Here are some before and after photos. Please excuse the immodest looking one that is just for demonstration purposes.



Presto change-o.
Though the sleeves weren't perfect, I believe it actually made the dress look better. Plus, I'm really proud of Jillian for making the choice to be modest in the first place. She gave me no arguments (even 2 years ago she didn't) and ended up looking beautiful. Of course I had to make a digital layout based on her "choose the right" choice. :)

I suppose I better give a shout out to our friend Sharon (who just had a beautiful baby girl last Thursday!) for doing Jillian's hair. She did an excellent job and must have been tired that night because she did 2 different girls hair for Proms in one day. All while standing for hours when she was 9 months pregnant! Sharon rocks! Here's a photo of the back of Jillian's hair.

Cute huh?

Now if dress makers could only raise that bust-line a bit! -sigh-

Trash Ties

I found a cutie pie product! Trash Ties are awesome! What a cool concept! We all know what a trash tie is. Wire and plastic that seals the bag for us. Bread ties work the same. How about putting one or two in your hair?!


Ok, ok. You wouldn't really want to put a plastic trash tie in your hair. But these little cuties work on the same concept, but are made with fabric and bendable (wire?). They come in several colors and 2 lengths. How cool would it be to use it as a headband? To tie up your pony tail? Check out the website for a gallery of gorgeous hair-dos using the Trash Tie.


I can just see some of the YW in my Ward using these in their up-do's. Can't you picture it in your darling daughter's hair? So easy to twist it instead of a elastic band snapping you. Check it out! I'll be putting my order in soon!


I hope the lady who invented them doesn't mind me taking her pictures for my advertising plug. When I see a cute or unique product, I always feel like I have to share it...and these are awesome!

Molly's Moment

I keep posting photo layouts etc of Ava and not enough of my other kiddos. I really do love them all equally, so here is one of Miss Molly! She had a 5th grade choir concert on Tuesday at RPI.

JC curled her hair and we put a splash of lipgloss & blush on. They all had to wear white tops and black pants so they would match. She had been practicing her Christmas carols for the longest time. Weeks! She did a wonderful job singing with her group. It was hard to take pics of her actually up there singing (tall people in front of me....note to self: get there earlier next year for a better spot!), so we took one of her afterwards. Molly has a great singing voice and I can frequently find her writing her own songs. She also likes to scrapbook and draw like her Mamma :)

It's her birthday!

I haven't seen my friend Tami in soooo long...but she is still the best friend I could ever ask for! I have to pay homage to her on her 29th (hee hee) birthday!

We had some good times growing up and there were tons of pictures to choose from, but I went with the ones from the photo booths. There were several taken at different times, so I guess we really liked these crazy booths!

These 2 photos were labeled August, 1985 at the Eastbrook Mall. I don't think they call it that any more. Is it even a mall now?





This one had no label, but I think it might have been taken at Cedar Point in 1985 or 1986.

This last one was probably in 1985 also. I don't think I've ever had hair as short in my whole life as I did back then. It was a temporary "try it" for me. I prefer long hair, but Tami always looked good in short. Maybe I was trying to copy her since I looked up to her so much :) Or maybe I got talked into doing it by some person who now lives in Georgia!!!! Yeah, that was it....haha



Anyway.....
I doubt Tami will ever see this post because she doesn't get online much, but I've been thinking about her lately & wish her fun and relaxation today with a splash of chocolate :)
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TAMI!

Try it Tuesday

John Frieda Luminous Color Glaze

Another non-food post!
Recently, I tried John Frieda's Luminous Color Glaze brilliant brunette. The only reason that I tried it was because it was discounted big time and I thought I'd do something a little different with my look. :)

The bottle says it's a 'color glosser' and 'shine booster'. I really like my hair color (nice and dark) and using this product just affirmed that fact. It did lighten it with a brown/reddish hue. It's nice, but I'll stick to my natural dark hair color thank you very much.

The product is meant to be used in the shower after using the same brand shampoo and conditioner. Of course I used my own brand that I like. What a rebel I am.
When I first tried the product, I thought I had put too much on. It said to leave it on for about 3 minutes and use it a minimum of 3 times a week. The 3-minute timing wasn't the problem, it must have been the amount that I used. It wasn't too much color-wise, but for the shine part, it was too much. It left my hair limp and unmanageable. The next time I tried it, I used less thinking this would clear it up. Nope. Still limp. So basically I decided to use a very tiny amount and only smear it over parts of my hair that I wanted lighter color on. Instant highlights is what I was going for. It didn't work out too well because I just couldn't get past making my hair lighter! But I bet it would work for someone else.

All in all, I bet the glaze is a great product for those who want their hair lighter, but not for me. Also, I accidentally dropped some of the glaze in the corner of my shower not noticing it. It will stain a fiberglass shower. Be careful. But it's not meant to last forever, so the stain is gone now. The same can be said for your hands when you use the product. But a little soap and scrubbing takes care of that.

I say buy it if you want! I'm not sure how the other shades would work (red and blonde), but the 'brilliant brunette' was ok for me :)

Funky Fun

My 10 & 11 year old girls gave Ava a bath and decided to have fun with her hair. People are always commenting on how much hair she has and how dark it is. The girls thought giving her this 'do would funki-fy her!