Bookcases, Futons, Glitter & Feathers (now with pictures!)

We've kept ourselves RIDICULOUSLY busy since Christmas. It has been wonderful to reconnect with friends, and I actually love to entertain, but ya'll, I am TIRED.

On the up side, having people over means cleaning up the house. All of this hosting means that our home looks better on a daily basis than it has in ages.

Oh, I want to show you my new stuff! Not in a brag-y, jerk-y way, but in a 'please be excited for me that my house is beginning to look like a grown-ups-live-here type of home' way :-)

SO! There's the new IKEA bookcase that holds toys, art supplies and crafting madness (do you like how I snuck in my Christmas tree?):

 The IKEA lazy Susan & IKEA impulse-buy candle (paper flowers are left from summer soirees):

The futon mattress that transforms the naked-and-unuseable-for-almost-a-year futon frame from eyesore to inviting seating (don't worry, Kittyn, the pillows are just for show - they'll be winging their way to you soon!):

And last but certainly not least, the hand-me-down toddler bed that we spray painted AND assembled just yesterday. It. is.awesome. My Lovely has been sleeping on her mattress on the FLOOR since the day that she flung herself out of her crib. It was fine, but this is better ;-) She even slept by herself aaaallllllll night long last night!:

Enough about furniture. On to the glitter of it all! My company holiday party is a Masquerade Ball this year. I was completely unaware of this since I am hardly ever there, but my June Bug keeps me informed of such goings on, and insisted that I join the fun. I then talked her into making masks instead of buying them. It was big fun! I had planned on showing you more of the process, but I got distracted - big surprise. Instead, here is a glimpse into my madness and a view of the finished product:

First, I ironed a golden dragon transfer onto a piece of chiffon - a process that I hope to never repeat. It was a gigantic pain in the patooty. Then Lily Ruth and I painted a blank mask red. After a short break for toddler crafting and clean up, it was time to stick the dragon onto the mask. Ya'll it was a MESS. After years and years of success using Mod Podge glue to decoupage various items to various surfaces, I dove in with complete (unwarranted) confidence. A loooong time later, I ended up securing tiny edges with Super Glue, using nail scissors to painstakingly clip 'blank' areas of the design and finally painting in pesky areas with more red paint. When it dried, I globbed on a ton of beautiful orange-y/red/gold super-fine glitter and stuck some feathers on the corner. I was completely disgusted with it at the time, but I really do love the finished product!

And here it is with Don's 'Bird of Prey' mask (inspired by some Venetian Masquerade images) and Lily Ruth's 'Pink Fiona' mask (she named it herself):

There's going to be a super-fine layer of super-fine glitter on every surface in my home forever. Oh, and here is the Lady herself modelling her mask:

LOVE IT!!! Oh, and there's more! I traced a Monarch butterfly image and used it as a pattern for wings that we glued onto June's mask - My Junie wanted to be a Monarch, so she will be :-) She may well swear off crafting forever after the minutiae of hand gluing 90 bazillion gems in place, but it was totally worth it. Here are my wings and the (almost) finished product: 

We made a mask for her Honey as well, but it's not as exciting as hers :-P

The party is tonight. I'll post pictures later. Gotta dash - these eyebrows aren't going to pluck themselves!

*** Update *** You know what dudes hate? Being asked to hold still for pictures. Even if their Lady never never hardly ever gets to doll herself up and feel like a queen. Most guys will still act like a grade schooler asked to kiss a girl if you try to get them to take one lousy photo of the two of you dressed up. As a result, I will have to beg the two people who managed to get a shot of us to e-mail said images to me so that I can include them here.

*** Update #2 *** pictures! Courtesy of June & Hubert :-)