Here Comes the Bride....not yet

July 30, 2011-The bridal shower commenced. It was planned for the outdoors at my parent's beautiful landscaped yard but due to the oppressive heat and humidity we moved it indoors to the rec room.










Vet Girl had a blast. Games were planned by the Maid Of Honor and of course the TP wedding dress game was the finale.
Here she is (l to r) with her junior bridesmaid, Chem Girl (her sister) and a very dear friend Bio Girl.









It's very important to photograph the backs of the designer dresses :).












This pic clearly shows her excitement through the party.
The bridesmaids kicked in gear serving lemonade/ice tea, keeping food plentiful and presenting the gifts.
She received many useful gifts and appreciated all of them. Pics to come later.










Chem girl turned the bows into the traditional rehearsal bouquet.

Everyone had a good time. There was plenty of good food (although your's truly forgot to get pictures) so you'll have to take my word for it.

It's only a month till the Big Day and we're gearing up for the Celebration.

Mish mash

Chem girl decided she wanted to be a designer seamstress for a day. A trip to the local fabric store and she came home with fabric ready to cut and design. She doesn't like patterns and prefers to 'wing it' (like her mama ;).

She saw a shirt similar to this in a magazine for $50 and there's no way she was paying that price.

The back had a very wide elastic band on the purchased top. However our local fabric store doesn't carry anything wider than 2" elastic. In spite of that she made it work.

She saw this piece in the remnant stack and fell in love with it. Her finish work is quite impressive. It's a flimsy knit and those of you who sew know exactly what I'm talking about. Very fine sewing machine needle and a fabric that slips all over the place. She did a great job. Think it's time to have her sew for me ;).

*sigh*....while we were gone Mr. Bettis apparently needed to create his own entertainment so he dug out the placemats. They're housed on our baker's rack in the kitchen.

This is the third (or is it the fourth?) time he's dug these out. Guess I need to find another place for the mats. See the flip flops in the left hand corner? I'm shocked he didn't chew those all over the floor. Guess if we were gone just a wee bit longer they would have become this week's trash.
Tomorrow is our eldest daughter's (Vet girl)bridal shower and we're wrapping up the final touches. Sunday is the youngest daughter's (Chem girl) birthday celebration. Pictures and details to come later. It's a busy weekend.

What's on your weekend agenda?

Persevere

Persevere and get it done. George Allen, Sr.

It's finished! It's done! I stuck with it and I can't believe it's finished. Still needs a good blocking but I can't wait for my daughter to open it this Saturday at the shower.








Bridal shower favors in color. Twenty-five little candle cakes have been completed and boxed in little favor boxes. If you're on Ravelry check out the Tea Cake Light pattern. They are crocheted and only take 15 minutes from start to finish. I posted pattern changes on my Ravelry project page so check it out.

The shower and wedding are/have consumed a lot of my time here of late and I'm behind on a few birthdays. I'll catch up eventually ;)

Oh where, Oh where has this blogger been?

Saturday morning at 6:30 am we transported the Piccolo Pirate to her school. The band was leaving for a 5 day trip to Philadelphia PA and NYC.

Her first big trip to the Big Apple.

Kids (including mine) looked as if they had just crawled out of bed. But there was excitement in the air.




I managed to get a few of her friends to stand still long enough for a group pic.

7:20am (20 minutes later than the scheduled departure) and they were off.

The DH and I ran home to get ready to leave in the opposite direction for a bridal shower. We were running 1/2 late. The DH was driving and I was knitting. Approximately 10 miles from the house a little voice told me to ask the DH if he picked up the gift. And I think we all know the answer to that question.

We turned around and backtracked. Now we were 55 minutes late. Unfortunately along the way we were held up in traffic due to an accident. That put us 1 1/2 hours later then intended.

1:00 pm:
The shower was for my soon-to-be new DIL. She is marrying #2 Son in May.

Her favorite cake is carrot cake and it was decorated to match the shower invitations.

The spread of food was awesome and there was even champagne punch. No, I wasn't hanging out at the punch bowl the entire time although with the ex husband's snooty wife in attendance, it was a thought........LOL




I wanted to give her something special and I've racked my brain for weeks. Finally the lightbulb flickered. I am known as the "cookie mom". My kitchen was the home for the kids' friends to hang out over the years and they always raided the fridge for milk and the cookie jar for cookies.

So I put together a gift basket of necessary items to bake cookies.

A cookie scoop, stainless steel mixing bowl, chocolate chips, nuts, 2 knitted dishcloths, Pampered Chef measuring cup (love that thing for measuring shortening, butter etc), crocheted El Cheapo Scrubby, dish detergent (to clean up the mess), handsewn apron and a cookie scented candle in case the cookies flop and she can light the candle and serve Oreos to #2 Son instead.

Red ribbon and a handsewn apron ornament were the finishing touches.

Of course my sense of humor and I just had to make the apron a fun garment. I found this fabric and whipped up an apron just for the New DIL- to -be.
I also found a pair of #2 Son's jeans in a box and before I gave away the box I cut out a pocket from a pair of his jeans to be sewn on the apron. Just a little personal touch:) The ties are ribbon tape measure ties.
She loved it!











Here she is modeling the pin-up guy apron.



















To be safe and so her new husband wouldn't get offended (lol) by her pin-up guy apron, I made the pin-up gal dish detergent apron so he has something to look at while doing dishes.
I raised those boys to help in the kitchen:).















We played games and the toilet paper wedding dress game was fun.
The girl second from the left won for the best "gown".
Another girl and I "designed" this dress so we were quite honored. I think the bow in the headpiece was the deciding factor:).
We put bows on the shoes, bustle on the backside and tied a knot with a piece of the toilet paper on her finger to signify she "tied the knot". It's all about details, folks. LOL
The Bride-to-be received a lot of beautiful and useful gifts and I think she is very happy.

Unfortunately on the way home I recieved a phone call from the Piccolo Pirate & her friends sobbing on the phone. mmmmm...........I wonder if the band director is aware that I have pointy sticks and I'm really not afraid to use them. (eyes-raising here)