Sending Out Packages: Typography Fun!

It was my nephew's birthday, and we sent him a package in the mail! Don't you just miss getting real mail? I figured I'd have some fun with typography, and make it a package that an 11 year-old would be excited to receive!

Cherries and Christmas Drinks!

I know it's August, and still a little too early to be thinking about Christmas but sometimes you just have to plan ahead! It's toward the end of cherry season, so I stocked up on a couple of pounds and made my Grandma Shirley's "Christmas Drink."

I removed the stems and rinsed the cherries (they have one of the highest percentages of pesticides and chemicals on them). I had about 7 pounds. 2 large (about a gallon each) containers held 3ish pounds each, then one half gallon to hold the rest.

Once divided up into their respective containers, I covered the cherries with 2 cups of white granulated sugar (1 cup for the smaller jug). I could eat them all just like this....

Then.....fill up with a liquor of your choice! I chose brandy because the sweetness of it will lend well to the drink. Stir to dissolve sugar and seal it up!

And now......we wait.......about 3 months or so. I continually stir the mixture to make sure the sugar is dissolved. My Grandma called it her "Christmas Drink" because that's when it was ready to be enjoyed!!

Love is in the air

'Tis the season for weddings! And we got to enjoy ourselves at a friend's last weekend in Lake Geneva. Beautiful weather (minus a few scattered raindrops) and great dancing with friends. Perhaps a little too fun? Ha ha

Clearly, a lot of fun....helped along with alcohol...

Wedding Dress Success! Simplicity 1775 & Simplicity 1876 Part One

So, as I've said in a previous post, I made my wedding dress. The fact was that I couldn't find what I wanted in my price range (under $500). I know I had a very small budget for the dress, but I figured it was a Vegas wedding- I didn't need to go balls to the wall!

 I started with finding my inspiration. I scoured Etsy and eBay for vintage dresses. Too bad I don't have a size 2 rib cage...... But I did fall in love with Leann Marshall's design.

I did some more research and realized she has a line of patterns with Simplicity, and I could probably finagle something out of those!

    I used the bodice from 1876 and then made 3 different skirt bottoms, because, well,  I couldn't make up my mind. I did 2 skirts from 4070 and the one skirt from 1755 (which I've made before and loved)

What a goonie face...

The first one has no pleats, just cut on the bias. It's a very flattering cut, but just wasn't enough of a statement for a wedding dress. Dress 2 has some pleats.  I liked the volume it added, but still not enough. Dress 3 has millions (ok, not millions) of knife pleats, giving the skirt tons of volume.

Step one: Done!

Out in the garden

 There is something so satisfying about having a garden. Hard work is involved; hoeing, tilling, weeding, digging, planing, mulching, watering. Repeat. But the results are bountiful. The obvious vegetables and flowers, yes. But something so much more rewarding when a day's work is done, to sit back with ice water and admire your work. To be outside and feel the sun on your skin, the dirt in your nails, the sweat even! I sleep so much sounder after the days in the garden.

I love the fresh air, being outside and doing something. I feel like it's my form of meditation. My moment to feel and observe. I find myself lost in watching birds play in the water, squirrels chase each other, and hearing the children play outside at the daycare near by. I could spend all day outside.

 Small, but wonderful

Wedding Invitations

As noted before, the Man and I are into the retro scene and with that comes tattoos! Right away, I knew our wedding invitations to reflect our style, and I knew I was going to design them. So here's a little sneak-peek of the process of our tattoo styled wedding invitations.

 

 I, then, painted in the image with a mixture of watercolor and gouache and then cleaned up the outlines again with the India ink. 

 

I uploaded the finished painting into Photoshop and cleaned up with image and added little details to make it look reminiscent of a playing card. Overall, I'm quite happy with how they turned out. And-it was economical! We had 250 invitations printed and it cost us around $200.

Sewing Room & New Look A6094

A view from my mess sewing room. I'm working on a quick project, since I'm always for wont of dresses!

I picked up New Look's A6094 pattern a while back because I was, well, bored. New Look are, how you say... economical patterns and I think I got this one for under $3. And, frankly, it works like a cheap pattern. The total ease in this particular pattern is 2 1/2", so in my (limited) experience, there will be a lot of fitting to make the dress look nice.

 I've already had to modify the bodice, but that didn't come as a surprise to me, since I usually have to do that with every pattern. My "problem" is that I have a smaller bust, but a larger waist. So I generally cut the pattern to fit my waist, then alter accordingly (my boobs just ain't that big!) The sleeves of this are going to be frustrating:

The pattern doesn't have the sleeve go all the way around, leaving a large unfinished gap by the armpit. The solution that they provide is using bias tape...I'm not too thrilled with this.

The fabric that I'm working with is a vintage full-sized bed sheet that I picked up for like maybe $4 at St. Vincent De Paul's. Sheets are one of my favorite 'secret' resources for fabric. They are a decent amount of fabric (enough to make a dress with a full skirt), you can find some pretty cool and interesting patterns and THEY ARE CHEAP!

Never enough projects.......never enough dresses......

Food Porn

Just a quick post about some yummy mushrooms I made the other day. The Man had to work on his car all day in 40 degree weather. So, I thought I would treat him to a steak dinner.

Delicious Rib Eye steaks. Pat dry, rub with olive oil and a small sprinkling of spices. Allow to get to room temperature.

I found some baby portobello mushrooms, rinsed them and de-stemmed them....(I'm sure that's a technical term) I set the stems aside.

 Butter, garlic and white onions. The perfect trio of flavor!

The smell of this combination makes the house smell so good! People will walk into your kitchen asking "what are you making??!!" Random people.

Melt the butter, then sauteed the onions and garlic until fragrant.

 

Then, added the mushrooms and sauteed them along with the onions and garlic. Tossed them around.

Then....I forgot I was documenting this process.......

I removed the mushrooms from the pan. I had some bell peppers on hand, so I sliced some of them up along with the stems of the mushrooms. Then sauteed that bunch with the left-over butter/onion/garlic still in the pan.

I stuffed the mushrooms with some garden vegetable cream cheese I found in the fridge, then piled the whole lot into a pyrex dish.

Everybody in the pool!

 I put them in the oven so the cream cheese would get nice a gooey and warm, then topped with toasted panko crumbs!

TUESDAY TRIVIA!

A new weekly post, TUESDAY TRIVIA (that I end up posting later in the week :/). The Man and I host trivia at the bar he bartends/manages at. We write the questions ourselves, with there being 5 categories 10 questions in each category. Then there is a Final Question which the teams then bid their points (much like Final Jeopardy).

 It's a blast! We've been doing it for a little over 6 months and we have some very loyal teams.

Here's this weeks questions:
 

Wow......I've Really Been Slacking.....

Where have I been?? What have I been doing?? Well, nothing and everything, I suppose. I've been feeling very uninspired to post, and I've been busy with my wedding and our day to day lives.

We jumped on a plane and got married in the mediocre (more on this later) city of Las Vegas!

I did make my wedding dress, and plan to do a separate post about it.

Yes, we got married by the King!

We accomplished what we set out to do: Get married. However, we overstayed our welcome-or perhaps Vegas overstayed its welcome with us. We were there for 8 day-far too long for people who don't really gamble. It was a far more expensive trip than we had previously thought it was going to be, and there were bumps along the way that didn't help our financial situation. BUT! the weather was perfect, and the days that we did find ourselves beside the pool were the best.

AND THEN WE GOT SICK! now we don't know if it was food poisoning or a stomach bug, but 10 or so of the people who came out with us also got sick. Nothing like spending the first days as a married couple miserable in your hotel bed taking turns for the bathroom. :/ We laugh about it, because honestly, that's our luck. In sickness and in health, right?! and isn't the point of a good vacation yearning for home by the end nears? I was seriously happy to be home with my husband and our kitties, it was a wonderful feeling of family and togetherness that started off our marriage.