wedding dress part 1

so...i think i have made the decision to make my wedding dress. i am glad jo ann's has patters at reasonable prices because so far im up to four. the one not pictured would be way too complicated so that is out of the running at least for this. i am going to make a 'muslin' of at least one variation of these and see if i can get to a good place with the construction and fit.


meet the new member of the family.. my body double. kevin helped me make a dress form out of duct tape (lot's of tutorials out there if you google it) to make the fitting of the wedding dress easier. it now needs to be stuffed and properly named i think. eliot started pointing to it and saying 'mama, mama'. maybe if kevin can make a proper head for it it wont be so hard on eliot when i leave for work in the morning.

i also discovered a great new to me website sew mama sew. great tutorials and ideas.

blue

while digging around in my mother's attic i came across some old pictures i had made while in college. these made by brushing emulsion onto paper and sandwiching a negative between the treated paper and a piece of glass. when the paper and negative are exposed to the sun you get these lovely blue images. they are very dreamy looking. the images are all 2.25 inches square.

we spent our memorial day at the beach. it was a little cool but gorgeous. this spring has been amazingly dry for us. although, right now i am trying to type quickly as i see massive dark clouds heading over the water towards us.

in more wedding news i am trying to decide if i am going to make my dress or not. i went dress shopping this weekend and didn't have much luck. granted, i am not looking for a really traditional wedding dress but there wasn't much to work with. everything was either way too fancy or heavily beaded. i am looking for a simple, tea length, a-line dress. i keep seeing what a i like in the flower girl section. maybe i need to stop looking at kids clothes for a while! any dress hunting/making/buying advice?

make

in the midst of wedding planning i have managed to get a few things accomplished. i finished the comforter cover i had talked about a while back. i had another sheet that i liked and coordinated well enough with the top. i am happy with the results although i will probably have to replace the ribbon ties with buttons before i wash it. it definitely brightens up the room.

i have been meaning to make a sewing machine cover for a while. we get a lot of dust coming off of the beams and through the window so it became a necessity. i was trying to decide what to make it out of when i spied an unused pillowcase i found at good will. perfect fit and no sewing required!

notice the teeth marks on the white one.

eliot and his favorite gal olive. good thing she doesn't mind his zealous hugs.

busy day

it has been so incredibly busy around here lately this little blog has really suffered. i think about it quite a bit actually and feel a little guilty about not posting. i tell you, wedding planning is hard work! we have pretty much everything all set... food, tent, times etc.. but the physical part of signing contracts and nailing down details is not easy with the few moments of peace during our days.

crafting has been a little slow but i want to start working on eliot's outfit for kevin's brother tim's wedding.

here are a few pictures to catch up, at least from this weekend:

this is how dinner has been going for me, at least on my solo nights.

we went to two lights today. eliot really enjoyed tossing rocks into this puddle.


learning how to blow dandelion seeds.

working hard in grandma's garden.

pause

that was a longer pause than i had intended. i havent taken a lot of photos lately or done much creatively. my new position at work has really been keeping me busy. i suppose on one hand it is good, i am getting a lot of extra hours and can do a lot of it from home or remotely. it has pretty much taken away all of my spare time at night and whenever eliot is sleeping. on the other hand, i chose to not have a lot of hours to be able to spend more time with eliot and kevin. it has put me in a 'what am i doing with my life' frame of mind. it is always a little dangerous to be in that space.

otherwise, new skills are being learned almost daily. eliot is starting to talk a lot! he is starting to put words together and really make himself understood. he also has learned to stomp his feet, great fun especially when looking in the mirror and practicing the whiney faces.

today i took him to the rocky beach at ft. williams. he had fun walking along and picking up treasures.
he would grasp the rocks so tightly in his hands, i didnt realize he had about four of them tucked under himself. he would save them until we got close to the water, toss them in and wave good bye sending them off to sea.