"I Can Make That."

I have a skirt that I recently rediscovered in my closet and it has become a favorite in my clothing rotation. I was looking at it recently and noticing how easy it looks to put together, so I got some cute fabric and gave it a shot. I'm not gonna lie, some serious seam ripping took place while trying to put in the zipper, but it actually turned out really well! A wearable item for sure! I have another couple of yards of some pretty fabric and will hopefully make another one soon. Me likey!




In other news, my sister had her baby! Bryn was born this morning weighing in at 7lbs 14oz and 22 inches long. She's quite the sight...can't wait to squeeze her! Congrats Dria and Johnny!

The Tournament

We had a Dr. Mario tournament on Saturday with our neighbors Stephanie and Paul. It was an absolute riot! Paul is pretty much the king of Dr. Mario, but the rest of us held our own.



We brought an extra TV downstairs to the living room and Paul and Stephanie brought over their NES and game. We set up two stations so that all four of us could be playing simultaneously. It was so much fun.








Once we had overdosed on Nintendo, we played a really fun card/word game called "Quiddle." It's a lot like Scrabble or Boggle, but you get cards with letters on them and need to make as many words with your hand as possible. Ted wanted me to be sure to get a picture of the score sheet for the blog since he was the big winner:



We were up until all hours of the morning talking and playing more Nintendo games. It was a blast and I hope we get to do it again soon.

Birthday Coming Up!

My sister is having her baby, a little girl they will name Bryn, on Wednesday! In preparation for her arrival I made this little onesie (my sister-in-law Mindy made an embroidered onesie for Bella back in the day and I thought it was such a cute idea) for her:



It's been wedding central over here this weekend as Ted and I work on crossing things off the "to-do" list. I'll spare you a photo of my office but Ted claims "it looks like a bomb went off in there." Imagine that in your mind and then double it. I really have blown it up in here. But there are a lot of black marks on my list, so we're making progress.

More RSVPs have rolled in the past couple of days which makes me excited beyond belief!

One last picture of what the cats have been up to while we busy ourselves with wedding projects:

57 Days!

We got our first RSVP in the mail today! I was wondering how long it would take before they started rolling in. My two Great Aunts are old school though, so it's no surprise theirs was first to arrive. I'm so glad they'll be attending!



What other wedding related things am I up to? I thought you'd never ask! (For those of you still hoping for house related news, better check back after 10/20. Perhaps then we'll have the time/money/energy to do something more with the house!)

Well, I decided about a week ago that I wanted to embroider a handkerchief for myself to carry with me in church. I'm a "crier" (to quote Wedding Crashers) and should probably have something to keep my tears and makeup in check. Ted has warned me not to cry because "you'll ruin your makeup..." and apparently he doesn't want to wed a crying fugly girl. However, I'm putting money on him welling up at least once too (the big softy) and I'm a girl who always likes to be prepared. At any rate, I decided I better learn to embroider if I want to embroider my initials into a hanky. So I got a sweet kit from Sublime Stitching and it rocks my world. I opened the kit when it arrived the other day and had this little tea towel embroidered in under 2 hours. They make it super easy to learn and hook you up with all sorts of cool iron on patterns that you can use. Easy as pie.



Those that know me well know that I'm a fairly impatient broad (perhaps even those that don't know me have sensed it?) and I tend to just want to get on with things already. So I decided to just do my hanky even though I hadn't done many letters yet. I didn't care for the letter stencils I had, so I drew my (soon to be!)initials and the little heart freehand and then embroidered them. It came out okay, though I could have centered it a little better. But it's hand made and exactly what I was looking for...a nice keepsake for generations to come (provided I don't slobber on it too much during the ceremony).



I'll leave you with a little teaser photo of something else we've been working on for the wedding:

The Weekend in Review:

I've spent quite a bit of time sewing since my new machine arrived. My latest creations are as follows:


A new shirt for myself that was a nightmare to make and therefore has a lot of wobbly lines and went through many seam rips. Ted's comment was "Well, you're still learning!" which really meant "Oi. Don't wear that in public." Oh well. E for effort.



Ethel checks out the new cat bed I made the kids



Morty settles right in


And a nightgown for Bella. Toddler clothes are fairly easy so she is getting spoiled with presents from Aunt Weazie as of late.

Saturday was spent cleaning the house while Ted did yard work. It's been hot as hell down here (as it's been pretty much everywhere else) and we haven't had rain in ages. Ted and I decided that trying to keep our lawn alive was wasting more water than we could stomach and our yard is basically burnt to a crisp. We probably could have done a bit of a better job with the bushes and trees, but even with watering they still are looking like this:





I've basically given up until the fall. So has everyone else down south. You need to have a boatload of time and money to try to keep a green lawn in this heat.

We also put our wedding invitations in the mail on Saturday! I wanted to do a crazy photo shoot with a veil on and such, but Ted wouldn't participate. He did come to the post office with me to drop them off though, so at least we did it together. Even if I didn't get to wear a veil. :)

We had a BBQ Saturday night with a few friends and had an absolute riot. It cooled down enough in the evening to sit in the back yard and we chatted away for some time. Our friend Justin marinaded some awesome chicken and watermelon was consumed in large quantities. It was a great time.

Today was spent lounging around, though we did actually shower and go out to dinner and the bookstore, so that's not bad for a lazy Sunday.

And now for the obligatory self portraits:



Trying to get T-Bone to smile. It worked!

Hope y'all had a great weekend too...

Back in Action.

I had wonderful plans for my sewing machine and I this past weekend, but it bit the big one early on Saturday. I took it to a local sewing machine shop and it would cost about what I paid for it to get it fixed (bought it refurbished from overstock.com last summer when I was just starting out). I decided I'd rather just get a new and slightly better machine...which is easier said than done. The guy at the shop was trying to wheel and deal me and put me into a $700 computerized machine. When I told him we are saving for a wedding and I'm not looking to spend that much he told me he would look in the back and see if he could find me a deal. They get in machines here and there from companies to test out and see if they want to carry them in the store. "I'll cut you a deal on one of those," he says. I'm thinking "Sweet! Lucky me!" until he returned with another computerized one. My "deal" would knock $100 off the $700 tag. Ummm, no. I'm not quite sure what about "I don't want to spend a lot of money" he didn't understand, but clearly we were not on the same wavelength.

I must admit that the machines were really nice. They seemed to run circles around my poor defunked Brother machine that I brought in for repair. But I had no idea how much these machines should cost and Ted and I have learned the hard way not to just make a quick purchase because we think we're getting a deal. History has shown that we are actually getting ripped off. Badly.

So I came home and did some research online. Apparently buying a sewing machine is harder than buying a car. Everyone has them listed on their websites but you have to "call for pricing." And there's only one person in the company that can give you a price apparently. After being transferred around at one company, a raspy old man's voice picked up.

"Yeah, what are you looking for?" he asked abruptly.

"I'm looking at the Janome 521S."

"Yeah, what do you want to know about it?"

"The price."

Pause.

"Well...tell me what the lowest price is that you've found and I'll beat it."

What?

"A dollar."

Kidding. I wish I had thought of that answer soon enough (Ted would have...he's good like that). Instead I was just getting annoyed because all I wanted to know was how much a damn sewing machine costs! Could someone please just tell me the price? Gah!

After reading some reviews and getting one or two quotes, it seems that the dude at the shop was going to charge me about $100 more than I could get it elsewhere. That irritated me. I was going to print out my findings and head down there to haggle with him (I'd get 3 years free repair if I bought from him and also free lessons on how to use the machine) but there just wasn't enough concrete evidence for me to make a case as to why he should knock $100 off the prices he quoted. So I hopped on Ebay and found a nice machine for a decent price. Reviews of the Janome brand machines were really good from what I read, so I was stoked when I found a nice computerized one that wouldn't overwhelm me that was in my price range.

Though I had to forgo sewing over the weekend, my new machine arrived today and I've been at it since I walked in the door. I'm pleased with my new friend and I think we will make many wonderful things together.



Starting with an adorable dress for Bella! If you don't count my labor, this little ditty cost 4 bucks to make. Sweet. I think Ted is secretly jealous. Not of the dress, but of the fabric. Perhaps if he behaves himself I'll make him a pair of scrub bottoms...

The Programs

I've been obsessed with perusing the wedding magazines ever since we got engaged. Of course, the best magazine for getting great DIY ideas is Martha Stewart Weddings. I came across the following program idea a couple of months ago and Ted and I fell in love with it. Though the letterpress example in the magazine is gorgeous, we knew we could make something ourselves without having to get a print shop involved.


After doing some research and pricing things out, we got some "Poppy" colored cards from The Paper Source and I designed a cover in photoshop. Just finished printing them and they look great! Once we figure out a few more details about the ceremony Ted is going to do the layout of the inside and we'll have it printed on 11x17 paper. Then the tedious part of folding the paper and gluing it to the cards will begin. I think the end result will be awesome and a bit unique though.


Names have been deleted to protect the innocent...

Only 70 days left! Invites go in the mail next week!

The Countdown Is On!

We had a wonderful time at our wedding shower this weekend...thanks to all that attended! Looking forward to October!


Ted and Eilis

Eilis and Bridesmaids