Happy Father’s Day

To my Dad, one of the greatest men I know.

To my husband, a great man and a great dad

Here’s the entire family for my husband on Father’s Day (pictures back from wedding photographer)


Then this one has nothing to do with Father’s Day but you can see my dress and it is a good picture of me!



Enjoy the day.  We will be celebrating with a bbq and homemade ice cream later.

Simplicity 2467–Flower Girl Dresses

Here is the pattern Erin selected for the flower girl dresses.  I used the same size for both girls (sisters and cousins of the groom) and just lengthened it for the older girl.

Pattern Description: Child's and girl's dress sewing pattern with neckline and trim variations and jacket.
Sizing: 3 to 14
Instructions: They were easy to follow, with nice diagrams and hints throughout.
Changes:  I added a lining to the dress and an eyelet ruffle on the lining.

Also, on the lining I used my lettering on my machine and embroidered the girl’s name onto the lining.  I thought since they were so similar in size and for sisters, this would help the mom know the owner of each dress.
I also added ribbon for a sash, just something a little extra and I thought the big bow in the back would look cute when the flower girls walked down the aisle.
Fabric:  A Michael Miller quilting cotton from Fabric.com (Erin ordered it last summer  so not sure if still available)
Conclusion:  A great pattern, with several seams to help in fitting.  It is easy to construct and looks very cute on the girls.  I was very pleased with my dot matching on this dress in the front bodice.  The first time the dots looked horrible, so very mismatched.  I had enough fabric to recut the center front section.  The other dress is not this good but looks fine for the wedding, plus I had no extra fabric.


Erin and I delivered the dresses to their aunt along with their decorated headbands, which you can see here:

Some Wedding Sewing

Erin's wedding is in 44 days, according to the Macy's registry.  Okay, wow, that is closer than I thought, happy I went ahead and did most of the sewing last week.  Two flower girls for the wedding and last week was a fitting with the muslins I made of the pattern.  Now more confident in their sizes, I made the dresses the last 2 days.  I am planning on lining them but will wait until another fitting on April 20th.   My plan is to line them, add an orange sash, then probably some eyelet ruffle to the lining and let it peak out from the dress. 

The pattern is princess seams, with center front and back seams, lots of seams to break up the polka dots but great for fitting.  Fitted bodice with a nice flare to dress, great for twirling, as the girls demonstrated in the muslins. 

In the background of the picture is the ring bearer pillow and in the pitcher, 2 headbands for the flower girls.  Meredith made those this weekend and they are darling.



Another Wedding

Dauther #2, Erin, is engaged, very exciting and happy news.

I might be making the flower girl dresses in the early talk of wedding ideas.  The planning has begun and it is so fun.

Last Wedding Post.... I Promise

Okay, last post on the wedding. Here are the new Mr. and Mrs. with their first dance. She is 5'4" and he is 6'6".

Father- Daughter dance. They have the same expression, trying not to cry. Yes, I did.

Meredith's hair:

Kaitlyn's hair

the bride arranging vases for the reception.

All the vases waiting for the big day. The flowers are dendrobium orchids, they still are beautiful

and took the heat well.



Off to work on bathing suits. Thought I was going to have all afternoon to sew but the twins got call to play a softball doubleheader. I need to pack lots of water- heat index over 100 today. One girl is a catcher, too, she will be very hot.

Thanks all for the wonderful comments on my blog, I appreciate each and everyone. It was such a wonderful and special day for my family. Still hard to believe how quickly time goes, it really seems like yesterday she was crawling around the house. The photographer took over 900 images, not sure how I am going to even look at all those, yet alone decide.

Sewing for the Wedding

Two posts in one day, I know, sorry, but this one is about sewing! Teri commented about the sewing for the wedding. Well, not much at all but I made this dress for the rehearsal, it is a BWOF and I will get you the issue later. I really like it better with the white knot at the side. I will review it later.




Then I made these pew bows, 53 in all. I used my rotary cutter so it counts as some sewing, right? Here is the bride, making them pretty.

Oh, a note on the cooking. I did not cook the meat, we had that part done for us. They cooked it and sliced it for us and talk about delicious! Doing the meal this way, saved me tons of money!

The Tent

We rented a tent for the event, just in case it rained, which it did at 2 p.m. See the side which is open? We left that up because of the tulle for the entrance. I guess when I decorated that on Saturday morning, it prevented the sides from coming down. At 2 during the downpour, rain and wind came in the opening. The results? Vases tipped over, about half of the 170 napkins were on the ground. Hubby and his 2 brothers ran out to get the side down. Hubby said, I just broke that tulle so I could get the side down. I said fine, thank you very much. Lucky for us 3 college girls were arriving to help with the meal. They took care of cleaning it up and did a tremendous job. In fact, many of these pictures are ones I asked them to take. I wanted some pictures of the inside of the tent when it was fully decorated and the girls took around 20 photos.


The gravel in front of the tent is our driveway for large trucks and cattle equipment (we are in the cattle business), the cars drove right up the the arbor. At this point, the guests would get out and three young men would there to valet park. It turned out to be a great plan, still a bit of drizzle at 5 p.m. when guest were arriving. The sun did come out and at the time of the meal, it was a bit warm, humid and close in the tent, fortunately, this lasted only 30 minutes. Friends brought by an industrial fan, this was located on one end, pulling air through the tent.

Belinda, the lighter green foilage is the summer phlox. You weren't too off on predicting their bloom date. Not quite the day after but they were starting to bloom yesterday (23rd).




From the garden side, this from my back deck. The long tents in front were 10 x 20 each. The tent on the left, held a drink station (tea, lemonade and water) on the far end. A bar was set up on the end closest to the garden. We found a business, which would come to the event and handle the bar business. The long tent on the left was the buffet. At the beginning of the reception, it held a few appetizers for guests. Paige did not want Jesse to see her before the wedding, so those pictures were taken after the ceremony.





Inside the tent, you can see the dance floor in the forefront. It was a well used dance floor, hubby joked with the businessman from the rental company and told him the dance floor would be sunk into the ground 6 inches from all the dancing.

Another view, the head table is on the right

A bit blurry picture, but here is the head table. The bridesmaids bouquets were put in vases and used for decorations on this table.

Main entrance into the tent.

A night picture. Rope lighting was strung around the perimeter of the tent. Also, uplights were used to light the top of the tent and the rental company uses a color to coordinate with the wedding colors. So blue was sent up to this area. It was so pretty. Not many guests inside the tent, many people were walking around looking at the flowers or had their chairs just on the outskirts of the tent. I think it was a bit cooler and easier to visit away from the music.




I left off from the last post, what Erin contributed to the wedding. She was our official runner and purchaser. I would call her and say I need a couple of large plastic bowls for the wedding, she would go get them and bring them home. She was a fantastic help and saved me many trips to the next largest town, this is where she lives and attends college.

Someone asked about the dinner, well here is that information:

The dinner, I did most of the cooking of this and we planned for 167, approximately 150 attended. The menu: roast beef, ham, red potatoes (cut into 1" chunks, seasoned with butter, parsley and garlic salt), green beans, rolls and a salad (romaine lettuce, spinach with strawberries, bacon, croutons, almond slivers and a bit of poppy seed dressing). The meal was delicious. Thanks to many friends, on Friday night we cut 100 pounds of potatoes into the 1" chunks.

A friend, who owns a restaurant, came over to supervise the finishing touches and help to get it in the buffet servers.

We did have quite a few leftovers, so on Sunday, many friends and family came over for leftovers, swimming and visiting. It was such a relaxed event, especially for me. I told the guests the leftover wedding cake was a Father's Day cake for the day! The cake was finished up that afternoon, yea, no leftovers for me to eat all week.

Wedding Preparations

I thought I would first begin with some photos of the wedding preparation. All three of Paige's sisters helped with this big event, each in their own way.



Paige and I saw this idea at a wedding show and we knew Kaitlyn the baker, would be just the person to help with this project.

So we began the process of baking 400+ cookies. With the help of several friends and family we iced these 1-1/2"cookies with white icing. Kaitlyn then iced half of the cookies with a J (groom's first initial) and the other half with a P (bride's first initial). I helped a bit with the yellow, but Kailtyn really had to help me do a good job.

Here is a few of the P cookies

The J cookies:

Last fall, I asked for help locating favor boxes and thanks to you, I was able to get 200 of these blue boxes from Michaels. So after folding and assembling the boxes. We wrapped 2 cookies, one J and one P, in saran wrap, added a bow and then inserted them into a favor box. Adding the blue bow and the special tag, which states"Our wedding day wouldn't have been the same without you here." These were purchased at the knot.

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Here are all the boxes assembled and waiting to be placed at each place setting.

Here they are on the tables:

Now Meredith, the scrapbooker, she was in charge of the table numbers and helped Paige with the place cards.

Here are the table numbers


One nephew at age 7, took charge of eating the cookies from the boxes not opened. Last count he ate 27 cookies and loved taking many pictures with the disposable cameras.

Tomorrow I will post on the flowers and the tent.

I hope you don't get sick of hearing about the wedding. I don't think I will be sewing for a few days, hubby and I were up very late on Saturday or should I say Sunday morning, cleaning up and getting ready for Sunday for our friends and family to eat wedding leftovers and visit. I am so happy I took today off work, too!!

It was Amazing

Just a quick post, I will have more pictures and details later but here are a few pictures.
First a shot of our very happy family on this wonderful day.






The dress...



And since I don't like too many pictures of me, here is one that I do like



I am exhausted so more later.

A Garden Party

Kimba at A Soft Place to Land is having a Garden Party. I thought I would participate since we have been working so hard in the yard for the reception.

Here is the shaded part of the yard. It is more in my hubby's machine shed, cattle hauling area. We will be parking the cars in this area. Each year I add a few more hostas with the future plans to be a spot full of hostas of all shades and sizes.



Front of your home, might be using some of the yellow day lilies in the reception flowers.



View from my back door.






the flowers are starting to bloom. I really want the garden phlox to bloom. I keep telling it each time I pass, "bloom, phlox, bloom!" I don't think it is listening. This is the flower we were planning to use quite a bit in all the arrangements, it is so pretty and has a beautiful scent.


Another view - had to brighten it quite a bit.

Hollyhocks and bee balm, then that uncooperative phlox on the right.

View of the backyard, the tent will be to the right of the arbor.

Different angle

Wore my Skirt to Church

Okay, here is my skirt on me. I need a new white blouse, this one is the shortest blouse ever, it will not stay tucked in for anything. I really like my skirt and it was fun to wear something new to church. My photographer took several photos but this is the only one I would put up on the blog. Half of my head is better than squinting eyes, goofy smile, etc.

Notice our cat is always around.

Today's wedding to-do list:

Powerwash concrete around pool

weed flowers

make a grocery list (I am cooking the meal for the sit-down dinner, with lots of help from friends, thank God for good friends)

Finish my rehearsel dress

Get Meredith to finish the table numbers. They will look a bit like this, with white cardstock, yellow flowers and aqua numbers, which are smaller, that is the size diecuts we have. Cute idea.

Meredith's Present

Meredith made this bag - Lila Tueller fabric, Jelly Roll purse pattern. She is giving it as a gift. A wonderful young couple are youth leaders in our church and they are expecting their first child, a daughter. It is a beautiful bag and perfect for a baby girl.

I worked on a dress for the rehearsal, needs to be hemmed and something is off with the neckline, so I need to work on that. Now Meredith and I are going to eat popcorn and watch TV.

Where is Kaitlyn? At a tractor pull with her dad. Yes, we live in the country!

Cookies for the Wedding

We are making some cookies for the wedding, I will show the official pictures and what they are for after the wedding. Tonight we did a test run, to see how many cookies we could get out of roll of Pillsbury sugar cookie refrigerator dough (yes, taking the easy way out). Also, Kaitlyn wanted to try several different designs and decorating tips. I took pictures and emailed them to the bride.

Now, here are some silly pictures:


A cookie sandwich (I just ate that one!)




The bride's first initial is P and the groom's is J, well, last weekend the 3 sisters decided the couple should name their firstborn with a name beginning with the letter B. Why? There was a show on Disney called PB & J. Oh, the sisters thought they were so funny.

So cookies in honor of that little funny! Yes, I emailed that one to the bride.


Sewing, well, I pulled out some fabric to make a dress for the rehersal. I hope I can get it made. Tomorrow, hair color and cut. Need to mow the yard, too.

The skirt

Thanks to the tutorial at Fashion Incubator I was able to make the 3 welt pockets on my skirt. Actually, I made 4. Why? The pattern onlyt calls for 3. Well, when you make one one the wrong side of and you have two left fronts, you gotta do it again!!

Anyone read the instructions for this pattern? Confusing to say the least, that may be why it has a 2.5 dot rating. It looks like a wrap skirt but there is an invisible zipper. With the invisible zipper, you would think the buttonholes would be faux. No, BWOF has you make buttonholes. I tell you this is making my brain work on each step. I keep telling myself one step at a time. Hopefully, a bit more sewing tomorrow. We will see, hubby wants to paint some fence on the farm before the reception. Yes, that is 12 days away. It shouldn't take too long with 4 of us painting.

June Burda

I ordered the June issue from Needle Nook Fabric and it arrived today. I traced and cut out #104 from a red and white seersucker in my stash.




I am anxious to start this but I will practice the welt pockets several times first.

Other things today

• DD had one more bridal shower, it was so enjoyable and she is glowing with happiness
• Altered some garments
• One was this this blouse, the sleeves have always felt funny. So I cut them off to short sleeves, much better
• Khaki pants too short for Meredith, cut them off to Bermuda shorts
• Added rick-rack to a top I made for Meredith.
• Went shopping at Home Goods on the way home from the shower, wanted to buy many, many things but resisted and came home with only three items. Really wanted to go to Hancock's but I knew the other 4 people in my car would not think that was fun.
• Package (mentioned above) came from Needle Nook - full of wonderful fabrics for me, 2 swimsuit patterns for the twins and fabric for these suits.

Answering a question:

mlefholz said...
Since my daughter is getting married in August, I'm curious to know which song brought a smile?

First one was "I Loved Her First", that was the tears to my eyes. I think she is going with "My Wish" by Rascal Flatts. I will smile because it is what I want for her but probably will make me cry but not near as much as the first.

Thank you all for all the well wishes for the wedding. I can't believe this time in 2 weeks it will be almost over, where does time go? It seems like yesterday I was bringing her home from the hospital.

19 Days and Counting

Sewing? A little bit, working on a knit shirt but mainly working on wedding stuff.

Tulle Bows for the church pews. 30 finished....15 to go, maybe more, I went rotary cutting crazy and cut lots of tulle!!

Curly Willow:

is going to be used in the arrangements for the reception tables (which we are doing). A kind soul pruned their curly willow tree and gave us 3 bundles. Tonight I stripped the leaves and cut lengths of the curly willow.

The bride-to-be just called... help me pick the father-daughter dance song. One brought tears to my eyes right away, the other a smile to my face. I picked the smile song!