Friday, August 24, 2007

Officially insane

Every bride and brides mommy need a stole to wear to church correct!
With that in mind I found this Vogue Pattern and decided that a "mink stole" would be in order.

I have the faux mink- and I can easily do that at the last minute if I find the time. If not - there will be other weddings!

I am not sure if "Stag and Does" are the vogue in other areas of the country. Wikipedia says that- A stag and doe party, also known as a hen and stag party, is the equivalent of a combined bachelor and bachelorette party. This is gaining popularity among wedding parties that have an overwhelming majority of attendants who are in relationships, where there are not enough single people to steer their half of the group to a strip club, or to convincingly blame afterwards.

In Canada, a stag and doe, or buck and doe, is a wedding tradition popular in rural Southern Ontario.[1] The event is held by a bride and groom before they are married, similar to a combined bachelor party and bachelorette party, but acting as a fundraiser for the wedding. Guests purchase entrance tickets and are entertained, typically, with games, food, and alcohol, all of which usually also cost money. Door prizes and raffles are also common events at a stag and doe.


It sounds pretty shady said like that, but they are almost mandatory in our part of the country- and I stress country. The kids have a large circle of friends, most of whom we cannot accomodate at the actual wedding. This way they all get to celebrate anyways. Kate and Scott were going to hold it in a friends barn converted to a party place, but an illness in their family caused them to ask us to find an alternate venue. We decided this was an opportune time to clean out the driveshed! The shed is clean, the fatted pig is ready to barbeque and the band is booked- imagine having a band for the party and a DJ for the wedding! I hope I survive!

Saturday, August 18, 2007

Mother of the Bride! Times TWO!

I am now the proud mother of two brides to be! Erica and Denis became engaged last weekend- Congratulations my darlings! How sweet that it happened for your 25th birthday,and at one of our most romantic locations - Niagara Falls. Here they are (on the right) along with daughter number2 Micaela.
Give me some time to breathe after Kate and Scott's though!

On to the current wedding and my mother of the bride dress. I have always loved this dress, and am making the view on the right hand side.
It is OOP but I managed to get it from a fellow PatternReview member in California. I got some luscious brown - more of a mocha than deep chocolate- silk charmeuse with a bit of stretch(LA Fabrics in Toronto) and am lining it with some brown bridal fabric also with some stretch (from Fabricland). For the upper bodice with ruching I am going to head back to Toronto. I am picturing a copper or brown lace. I know I saw some when I was last there, but I was not ready to commit. I am now! We (me, hopefully my friend Deb, husband Mike and his friend Bob(a great fabric shopper btw for a straight married 25 years farmer guy!)) are heading down to a Blue Jays game in Toronto and the Rogers Centre just happens to be a couple of blocks from the fashion district.
I cut back a titch on the train of the dress- but the grooms mother and I decided we rate at least a bit of a train! She is great -as his her son! - we used to play baseball together back when the to-be-weds were kids. She is wearing a "mother of the groom beige" (her label not mine!) with lots of bling. But i digress.
Well this post was perculating in blogland, and since then I was able to watch the forementioned Jay's LOSE against the Oakland A's from our front row, 1st baseline seats. I dragged the wonderful friends around the various fabric shops of Queen Street and came home with this EXPENSIVE beautiful lace. The photos are simply awful- late nights are getting to me!
Mom - don't even ask what it cost a metre- just be thankful you do not have to do any embellishing!

I cut it out tonight and it looks gorgeous! ANDDDD it matches these totally fantabulous shoes to a tee!
I have never had shoes that came with their own shoe bag! And I probably never will.
The other things that are occupying my time now are our new barn, our local fall fair- of which I am Homecraft President and realllllyyyy need to get to work on, and a Murder Mystery that I agreed to act in. arrggh I need more hours in a day.

Monday, August 06, 2007

Monday, Monday

No sewing accomplishments to report - I'm afraid that Round Tuit hasn't helped much yet! I have realized however that those of you who stumble across this blog - and you are out there!- do not really know much about me the person.

So, for your reading pleasure, here is what I did yesterday, Sunday August whatever it was!

I was up around 7ish- early for many people on a lovely, HOT Sunday morning, but I had things to do. Made a fruit salad and a few other brunch type foods, and headed to the barn to make sure the pigs were happy. *sigh* there is just no pretty looking polite way to say I am a pig farmer. Picture a teacher or a nurse or a corporate laywer and you all picture tidy, confident, CLEAN! Say you are a pig farmer and all people think of is filth and smell. Just to let you know it ain't so! Okay, I could rant about this all day, but I won't. Suffice to say the sows were wanting a cigarette after I was done with them.
Back to the house, a shower and a pretty dress, and Mike and I were off to church. I have played guitar in the choir since I was 12, and still enjoy doing that every week.
After church we rushed home as we were having brunch guests. Old friends Deb and Ken, new friends Pam and John, our daughters Mic and Lauren, Mike and myself. We didn't linger long over coffee as the daughters were offf to their jobs, and the rest of had to meet 2 other friends on the golf course. Deb, Pam and I golf together on Tuesdays at the course that our family owns - The Fox and we thought it would be nice to try a different course. Cobble Hills Golf Course is where I generally spend my winters as a Ski Patroller- I know what you are thinking- a golf course that is also a ski hill??? We take what we can get in Southwestern Ontario! We met up with Bob- a lonnnnnggg time friend and Norma - another long time great friend, and golfed 18. Norma actually met up with us on hole number 4 as she was finishing up playing 18 for the club championship! We laughed a lot, duffed a lot - but I managed to birdie #9- yah I know - me and Tiger! It drizzled a bit, but we need it badly so no one was complaining.
I bet you think our day was done! Not so, not so. We drove into London to meet up with Norma's husband Jim, and Bob's wife Cathy who had cycled into London. They are golf holdouts, and Cathy had never cycled into London before. Jim has his bike permanently attached to his butt! We were going to eat at Ribfest-a local fundraiser, but it was raining too hard by that time, and Ribfest is an outdoor event. We plunked ourselves down at a local restaurant and spent even more wonderful, hilarious times with some great friends, good food and liquid refreshments!

Now you know what I do for fun! I promise I will get back to regularly scheduled programming tomorrow!

Friday, August 03, 2007

Around to it


Okay I finally got a round toit - now to get AROUND TO IT!!!!

I'm feeling HOT HOT HOT

Sizzling! That is the only word for the weather here this week. I believe it hit 37 degrees celcius yesterday- and for those of us without airconditioning - that is almost unbearable. I had wonderful intentions of cutting out and sewing two of these blouses yesterday.
I even had the fabric all ready to go- a lovely white cotton with minor ruffling. The heat however, coupled with a dickens of a head cold-"Connie it must be allergies" said my darling, albiet nonsensical husband- "I (insert haughty italics there), do not have allergies"! ANYWAYS, I ended up doing nothing but reading and watching some dumb TV movie that I do not even know the name of! So much for good intentions.
I do hope that one of these days I get sewing ambitions again. Everything seems to be so much work - even though I know it really isn't. Maybe once this heat wave breaks I will feel differently.
What I really should do is a SWAP - Most of my sewing projects are whims. I crave this pattern, or that fabric one day, then a different pattern and totally different fabric the next. I see lovely things in stores, and my creative juices ran rampant. And of course I can MAKE them so much cheaper, and better quality. But do I get a round to it? NO! So now here I am with nothing that goes with anything, and Me- with a closet full of clothes and fabric enough to cloth a large army- I have nothing to wear.