BLOGTOBER FEST 2013 DAY 31

Happy Halloween from my house to your house!

It's finally here...The last blog of Blogtoberfest! I'm glad it is coming to an end. I was beginning to feel pressured to write when I really didn't have anything to write about.Well, nothing of interest at least. Now I can continue on with writing when and what I feel like doing. But with the end of this  adventure comes the start of a new one. Everything is coming together at this point in time. 

Halloween, my favorite holiday is here with no one to celebrate it with but I have my calendar marked for next year to be up celebrating  with my daughter in Jacksonville.  

I have told the necessary people I am quiting Altered Minds as of now.  I have decided I will not be attending the November meeting since my daughter is going to be leaving the following day and I am pretty sure we will be busy having a nice last day spent together. The holiday party in December is nothing I feel I want to bother with this year. I may change my mind but doubt it. It seems like so many members can't find time to attend meetings but can always find time to come to the parties. It depresses and discourages me to see that happen so will not go this year and be better for having stayed away...

Enough of the down stuff, now for the good stuff.

My daughter will be arriving in Tampa tomorrow at about 4 in afternoon and we are going to have such a great time visiting and sightseeing the way tourist do. First comes the wedding of my grand daughter Stephanie and a day of putting together some finger food to go along with the catered meal. Then a couple of interesting towns to visit are on the agenda along with her swimming with the Manatees and a visit with my second cousin who lives nearby.  After that we will travel back to Jacksonville, stopping for some sightseeing and lunch/dinner in ST. Augustine where my daughter will meet us.  Then on to spend the weekend with my  daughter who has a whole new agenda planned out for us. We will spend  one day at the state park and beach with a picnic and hiking and just relaxing, Then a second day of spa treatments for the three of us. The guys are on their own then but we will meet up for dinner after.Then it is back to our town for last minute touristy things and then goodbye for another year.

I see my new bed is being shipped so it should arrive while I am in Tampa fetching my daughter. Everything is done and ready for the next couple of weeks of family fun. After that my life will slow down again and get back to what is normal for me. Days of doing art and sewing and exercising and planning an extended road trip for next year for ourselves. Something else to look forward to.

I am excited to be getting back into sewing on a regular basis. I have a lot of fabric I want to use for new clothes and try new ways of sewing. Learning more about couture sewing is one of my goals for 2014 along with the hand sewing techniques of Alabama Chanin. I already have my patterns and fabric for my first complete outfit for that project. The couture sewing will be part of every thing I sew from now on so it will be a " learning in progress." 

I also have a list of art projects for the yard I want to do this winter while the weather is cooler and many to do indoors when I feel the urge to break away from sewing. My sketch book should be filled by years end if I keep tangling each day. I do know one thing for sure. I will never have time to be bored.

BLOGTOBER FEST 2013 DAY 30

The Great Pumpkin

The Great Pumpkin sat on his throne of hay

waiting patiently to glow on his special day.

Goblins and things that bump in the night

flitted around giving children a fright.

Then out of the dark came a creature so bad.

A raving lunatic, a nightmare gone bad.

Come sit beside me he said to the child

We’ll have some fun and with that he smiled.

So innocent and pure the child came up close,

less afraid of him then the Halloween ghost.

Come sit down beside me he said once more 

I’ll show you how to make green gooey gore.

The child unafraid of the stranger who beckoned

came and sat beside him for just one second.

The nightmare came alive and gave such a howl

causing the scarecrow to fall off his perch on the dowel

and the crow to fly for cover  behind the hay stack

while the screech owl, like a duck, started to quack 

The stranger just sat with a smile on his face

knowing he was going to make Halloween a disgrace.

The innocent child sat quietly enthralled

and watched the monsters as they all brawled

and the ghost and the goblins and things of the night 

laughed and giggled and danced with delight.

The Great Pumpkin sitting on his throne of hay

waiting patiently to glow on his special day

deciding he had had quite enough for one eve

told all the trouble makers  it was time to leave.

Then the scarecrow stood upright with a sigh

and the crow returned to his perch up high.

After restoring a little order to the mess on the street

the Great Pumpkin sent the child away to 'trick or treat'.

The  ghost and goblins were allowed to save face

by  booing and scaring and keeping their place.

And the nightmare, a lunatic not really gone mad

Turned out to be the innocent child’s dad.

Now all is well on All Hallows' night

as the ghost and goblins go bump in the night

and the children dressed like little monsters so sweet

go from door to door just to trick or treat.

Without the Great Pumpkin and  scary things in the dark

Halloween would just be another day at the park.

Darlene Sperber

October 5, 2009

BLOGTOBER FEST 2013 DAY 29

We made great strides today in getting ready for company. Usually we do not have so much  to do when we get visitors but with the wedding things got out of control quickly and are just now getting sane again...or we are getting sane again. 

Bedrooms have been switched around and just need our new bed to arrive on time Friday. I am getting a bit nervous as we have not heard though it says it is on schedule. Keeping my fingers crossed.

one of the plantings

Flowers are planted and watered and look like they are thriving. Paper flowers are all finished and bride is thrilled with them and I am happy they are finished..

One small glitch is the shoes I bought the other day. I do not like the way they look with my dress so after shopping for food on Wednesday  I am going to try again to find some I like better. Otherwise will suffer through the wedding with them. 

Marshal's  "spa" treatment is Friday morning so he will be nice and clean and clipped for the month. He sheds terribly so this will help. 

Wedding clothes are all pressed and ready to go which means soon now we can have time soon to relax. Ruth ask how do we feel at this moment in time. I feel exhausted and ready for a vacation my self. But that is not in the works until next year. If we survive this one. 

BLOGTOBER FEST 2013 DAY 28

First rose we did

I thought I was finished with the flowers but my granddaughter Elizabeth (sister of the bride) came over today and together we made roses out of a road map atlas to put in the painted wine bottle vases on each table. 

We used road maps because they will match the pinwheel boutonnieres she made for the groom and his groomsmen...All turned out very nice. 

Add caption

Now all that is left to do for the wedding is bag up everything and send it up on Saturday with Liz so she and the other sisters can get everything ready for the big day .Here are pictures of the roses we made. 

BLOGTOBER FEST 2013 DAY 27

Our hosts; Son  Barry and his wife Tami

Cast and me in black (middle)

Us

Last night we went to our first Mystery Theatre evening..The storyline took place in Las Vegas and was complete with Elvis, showgirl, limo driver,casino dealer, pawn shop owner, car dealer and a has been card shark. .It was great fun and even though our table did not win the prize for figuring out who and why the murder took place, we spent a lot of time sleuthing from the clues given us. After all the clues were given out we were served our dinner giving us time to share ideas and thoughts  on who and why. There were 8 of us at the table and two couples were real pros at mystery theaters. They took notes constantly. Later I learned why. 

The meal consisted of salad, baked chicken with smashed potatoes and gravy and a veggie followed by dessert. It was not fancy but very good and we enjoyed it. It was a BYOB night so we enjoyed our wine along with dinner and the mystery.

After dinner and after a lot of questions asked by the audience and a lot of fun door prizes the mystery was solved by the table behind us. And no, the butler didn't do it.

Bob with his new best friends

Sneak shot of me with Showgirl Mitzi and Elvis

We will go again one day when the mystery returns to our town.

BLOGTOBER FEST 2013 DAY 26

Today seems to be a day of respite for me. No flowers to make, no tangle to finish and only the mundane chores to do. The ones that come with being a mom, grandmom and wife and artist. I had to re arrange my newly organized shelf in my sewing room. When I went to print out a document and discovered my printer was not plugged in where I had placed it and the only way to plug it in was to place the surge protector multiply outlet on top of my sewing machine...worked just fine for this printing job but knew I needed to make yet more changes...so...I reversed where everything was and now my books are on the other side and printer is on opposite side where the plug easily reaches down to my outlet...Problem solved.

My new king size sheets and pillows arrived with the mail today and now I need to wash the sheets before using. I never used to think about that and always liked using something brand new before washing it. Now that I am older and wiser (smiling) I imagine all the hands that touched it, all the floors it lay on while being made and all the bugs and vermin that are in all factories so now I wash first. Bob tells me I am becoming obsessed and maybe I am but that is the way it is.

I have faith that my new mattress will arrive on time Friday so I am washing the bed linens that will accompany the old bed into the guest room so they are nice and fresh for my company's arrival on Friday afternoon. In doing so I realized I need more 'stuff'. There's that word again..."Stuff"! The nemesis of my life. But I need a new mattress and pillow covers for the new bed,  a bed spread of some kind and a blanket that will fit the whole bed. I have a nice king size quilt I made for our bed but I do not like sleeping under it. It is too heavy so perhaps I will use it for the spread for now...Unless I find something tomorrow...and the sheets came with 4 king size pillowcases...it was the only set that came that way. King size pillows are too big so I bought queen/regular and now I just will sew the cases smaller...

Tomorrow we are taking the day off to gather up what we need at stores in another city. Our area has nothing to shop in unless you want to add to Walmart's coffers a little more. I don't and even though it is hard to find any decent merchandise made in our country we try. I will give Walmart credit...I do hear good things about them bringing in more "Made in the USA". So far our mattress and sheets are made in the USA so we will look for the remainder of what we need to be made here.

Bob is busy planting the remainder of our flowers and we know we will need flowers for 4 more pots but will wait for Monday to get them. We have a local mom and pop nursery here that we like and try to give all our business to.

And now to cap the day off we are attending a Mystery Dinner Theater with our son and his wife as a gift for our combined birthdays. I have always wanted to do this so it is going to be such fun. Especially since it is audience participation. I was told to dress casual and to be prepared to "lose my shirt."...I wonder what will happen if I wear a dress....Speaking of dress...I best get dressed or I won't have a shirt to lose...

BLOGTOBER FEST 2013 DAY 25

This month has flown by and my daughter will be here a week from today. I need to pick her up from the airport at 4 next Friday and then fit 2 years of visiting in a 2 week time frame that includes a wedding and a weekend at my other daughter's home so they can catch up and a day at my art group meeting so she can meet some of my  friends. It is going to be a wild couple of weeks. 


The good news is I have the flowers for the wedding  all finished but for adding some ribbons...need to get the right colors. I finished them by lunch time today so spent the remainder of this free time  doing some drawing...I am working on this page of tangles for a couple of nights and still need to work on it more...it is different then any I have done...looking at this photo I can see where I forgot part of a butterfly so will get that done asap...the remainder will need to wait for another free time frame..

What I have learned from working on this page is that shading with stippling is tedious...

BLOGTOBER FEST 2013 DAY 24

I am not sure how this month got away from me and I got behind in getting my task done but it did. Today I realized I have one week left to get all the flowers finished for the wedding on the 5th. My daughter arrives next Friday and I know I will need to be finished before she arrives. So today, instead of working on an art project I was all set to do I worked on making flowers. 

I made one more large tissue flower using all the colors of the bridesmaids and maid of honor first. It was the easiest and went together easily. This will be the bouquet the bride tosses to the waiting hopefuls. I don't think she will want to give up her giant rose and besides it might impale one of the girls with the long stem. The tissue one will work great.

After that I put together a small flower for the brides step mom but didn't like it so tomorrow will be a do over day for that one but...I did get another small rose done for the mother of the bride who died when she was a wee girl. The bride can use it like a 'missing man formation' by putting it on the guest of honor chair or she can carry it along with the giant one she is carrying  or she can leave it out completely. It is her choice. I just wanted her to have the option of having a choice. 

Bob and I shopped for flowers for the garden and the pots in the front of house. I choose he plants. That is the way it works around here. I do not like working in the garden other then the planing and admiring  part of it. I never have. There are only 4 pots planted and tomorrow is a work day for Bob so I think the remainder of the flowers will be done on Saturday unless Bob feels like doing them when he gets home from his volunteering job at the hospital. 

The only other accomplishment I got done today was to finish sewing up the blouse my daughter started, tried it on and decided it did not like me. I love the idea of the style but not the fabric she chose. This was a trial garment meant to be for fitting the pattern correctly but we thought if finished I could actually get some use from it. I won't but some lovely person at the homeless shelter will. And we shall try it again with different fabric.

BLOGTOBER FEST 2013 DAY 23

Today was just one of those days. It started out great with a cool morning almost requiring a sweater and only got better after that. I ventured into my garden yard to see how it looked after the hot summer. Had to run back and get my camera so I could get a picture of  a flower growing out of our palm tree.  We have these flowers growing nearby  so I guess a nice bird or industrious squirrel carried the necessary ingredients up to the palm to get it growing. Looks as good as any in the garden and is blooming even better. 







While out there with the camera I captured this Golden Orb spider trying to wrap a moth for future dining. I disturbed him and he went scurrying up his web. It amazes me at how fast they can travel when in a hurry to escape. Eventually I captured him coming back down to finish the job. We have several of these spiders in the foliage around the lanai and enjoy watching them spin their daily web of intrigue.
The best though, was a couple of years ago one made a web just outside our dining room window so we had a front row seat to his antics. That was fun to have a spider dine with us.

Along with perfect weather my inside activities also turned out pretty good. I was able to get all the odds and ends of the room switcheroo put in place with easy access to whatever I need with only one minor task needing to be completed. I need the extension ground fault to be attached to the wall so I can plug in my sewing machine and light. Then my sewing area will be ready to use again.

Right after lunch I called to make reservations for my daughter to swim with the manatees while visiting and was successful in finding a "Groupon" coupon for a 2.5 hour swim for only $20 dollars which is less than half price. And got the reservations on the exact day I needed them and with the company that had good customer reviews. Another small part of my good day. 

Then to cap the day off and because I love to shop via the internet I was able to get a good deal on sale priced top quality sheets and pillows for my new bed. They will arrive a few days before the bed and,  it was the last day of 'free shipping' at Belk's. 

Dinner is over now and I need to do some art before the day is over with. A little doodling is in order.  It has been a perfect day with perfect weather, no humidity to speak of allowing me to keep my doors and windows open all day. Soon it will be time to put a blanket on the bed but not yet. 

BLOGTOBER FEST 2013 DAY 22

Some of us are collectors and some of us are not. I can't even imagine what it would be like to be a minimalist, having only what is needed and nothing extra though there are many times I think it would be rather wonderful to not have so much 'stuff' clinging to my soul, taking up space, screaming to be used. But alas, by trying to leave a smaller footprint on our planet, by recycling and repurposing other's cast offs  I collect and therefore have way too much stuff...I rationalize my actions by saying to myself I am keeping it out of the landfill. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. 

Guest room waiting for the bed

Today was spent moving some of my 'stuff' from one place to another to make space for a guest room without having to give up my sewing studio. Did I ever say how hard it is for Bob and I to work together doing a job like this. It is...but we finally got it all done, the carpet is being cleaned as I write and tomorrow it will all be history.

Converted closet sewing space

I will have a sewing space and a guest room and Bob and I will have averted WW 3 yet again. 

In 1979 I bought myself a MGB convertible though not sure if it comes any other way. It was English racing green in color and I loved that car as did my youngest son Barry. In fact he may have had a greater love for it then I did. I kept it in the garage on carpet, drove it only from April through September and then stored it for the winter and cried when I sold it in 1995 after moving from Indiana to Washington state. I am writing about the car because...

In the process of doing all this moving around  I came across a keepsake I had forgotten about. Here is one of the things I have kept all these many years though it is not in the same class as "my stuff' it is never the less very precious to me. Barry bought this for me when I first purchased my MGB and it resided on my rear view mirror for the entire time I owned the car. It clips on if you pinch the front legs together. After selling the car my little bear has clipped on to various surfaces in the parts of my home I call "my space" as a reminder of the small but important things in my life. 

BLOGTOBER FEST 2013 DAY 21

Just Practice

Today I toted a cart load of materials and supplies over to the workshop with my sewing group. I showed them how to use the various materials I brought along (see previous blogs for details) to color their fabric designs. We are a small group of sewers but we had a great time and I learned a few tips and techniques from them which I will post about later after I have time to give them a try. So my giant rose is finished, my workshop is over and all I need to do now is put a stem on the 4 tissue flowers I made before and get my house and garden ready for my daughter's arrival from soon. 

And not to forget my acquisitions. My friend's mom died and she inherited her mom's yarn. Not being a knitter or crocheter she offered the yarn to the members who were at the workshop today. I said I would take whatever is left after the others took what they wanted. I have a friend who makes things for charity and because of her financial situation she takes donations. I did not look in the van with the yarn before holding my hand up and saying "me, me, me...pick me" Later, after everyone was finished we went out so we could load the bags of yarn into my car. I kid you not, I have a Ford Escape and I could  hardly close my doors after we finished.  In fact I needed to stop at the grocery store and pick up a couple of things and had to stash them under the dash on the passenger side. I told her what we needed to do was open a yarn shop. All my Bob could say when he came out to help me with the groceries was, "Oh no...now what did you bring home?" There is a large trash bag each of every color and a couple of bags of mixed colors. Mostly all 4 ply but some 2 ply. But the word will go out and I will be able to dispose of the skeins of yarn easily. It will all be put to good use.  

BLOGTOBER FEST 2013 DAY 20

Finally! I have my workshop materials and supplies gathered up and ready to go. I think I packed everything but the kitchen sink and with a little creative rearranging I could probably get it in there too...

In the rolling cart I have all the things we will need to do our workshop plus some extras in case we have time. 

In the bag, which is a sample, are more samples and more 'afterthoughts'. Some things I will take along just in case they are needed or wanted or just to show more ways of doing things such as how to texture on fabric. I have so many other ideas but time restraints requires me to leave some things out. Maybe at a later workshop we can cover some of them. 

Here on the table are some samples for the members to color using dye or ink. They are simple images outlined in Elmer's school glue. I had to make them up ahead of time and am now waiting for them to dry so I can pack them. Probably in the morning before I leave. I really should have done them sooner but got caught up in making the rose for several days. Right now with the humidity I have my fingers and toes crossed hoping they get dry in time. 

BLOGTOBER FEST 2013 DAY 19

I feel like I am drowning in flowers though I guess there are worse ways to drown but I need to get finished so I can move on. 

Yesterday, after getting the papers made I got "it" assembled per directions on Martha's tutorial but I was not happy with the outcome. I followed the directions exactly other than making my own paper which is pretty but difficult (stiff) to work with compared to crepe paper. But I folded and tweaked and played with it until it did what I wanted. 

I got up this morning, took one look and decide I don't like it. That means I need to disassemble it and remake which I did but then decided it was too big so I again disassembled it and made it smaller..Still not happy because of stability issues I then took it apart one more time. ...This time instead of florist tape (first and second time) or wire (third time was wire) I used a glue gun and wire...first gluing the petals in place then cinching them up with wire...I only burned myself a dozen times with hot glue but I think the petals are there to stay.

I finished wiring the leaves in place and covering the stem with florist tape used a  glue gun again to make sure leafs stay where I want them...After that covered the whole stem with green fabric.  Tomorrow I will touch up with paint and perhaps even paint the stem after using fabric stiffener on it making a better paintable surface. All this to create the right look...

Before doing that I need to decide on the length of the stem.Right now it is long perhaps 30 inches. That does not look too long for the size of the flower but I am wondering about carrying it down the aisle in her dress. I need to make a decision before I finish the stem. 

For the remainder of the weekend I will let it hang around my studio while I get the remainder of my Monday's workshop put together...Maybe by Tuesday when I am free again I will know what to do...

BLOGTOBER FEST 2013 DAY 18

Two sides of paper

Today I started making a giant paper rose from a Martha Stewart tutorial.  She called for double crepe paper sheets...I've spent several days driving around to every store in my county and some in the neighboring county looking for crepe paper in something other than streamers. Non existent other than on the internet and it requires a 10 day delivery date and 3 times what the cost of the paper was and didn't have the color I wanted...plain old ivory. Amazon has the best paper but not in the right color so...as is usual for me I improvised...I made my own paper using tissue in white and cream and deli wrap papers and good ole Elmers school glue in clear. Worked great...

15 sheet of finished paper

I spent the morning gluing first one side of deli wrap with cream tissue and then after it dried the other side with white tissue. I wanted a contrast and since the cream was too yellow the white bleached it out a bit and made a nice subtle contrast. 

Even though I was tired after getting up at 4 this morning I was anxious to see how it would work so after dinner I marked and cut the petals, curled the edges with a pencil and started wrapping on an old flower stem I had saved. I save everything...I have all the petals on and secured with thin florist wire. Tomorrow I will work a bit more to make sure the petals stay where I want them by using a drop of glue strategically placed and after all that I will make leaves with left over paper and paint then when dry I will put the green parts on...I think it will look nice when finished though when looking at it now I think I will take it apart and reverse the order of the colors and put the cream on the inside so it shows rather then the white...Think I will sleep on that idea!

BLOGTOBER FEST 2013 DAY 17

My circle of life...

I have had one of those days where there is not enough time to start anything new and barely time to finish anything already started...During this time of messing around and gathering  stuff for a workshop coming up I started thinking about the cycles I have gone through with the things I love doing. I know myself well enough to know I do not stick with any one thing forever as some people do. 

I learned to sew when I was a wee girl about 8 years old and have loved sewing my whole life. I think it is probably the 'creating something wearable from a flat piece of fabric' part I like best. I sewed all of my own clothes since at least early high school. Then after becoming a mother I sewed my kids clothes priding myself on being able to make a quality garment from not much of anything money wise.I continued sewing on into my later years, dabbling at photography classes for a couple of years at Indiana University, until I discovered doll making in the mid 1990's

I still did a little sewing but became obsessed, as I frequently do, with a new discovery of cloth dolls that looked life like. I passed through that phase after a few years of doll making and into an art doll phase.I still play around a little with art dolls but not too much though the ones I made were fun to do. During my doll making phase I discovered a love of teaching so I started or helped start several different doll clubs where I taught cloth doll making...

Moving here to Florida I soon learned that  quilting was all the rage and was the only creative outlet in my area with access to quilt stores, quilt guilds and quilt clubs so I took up quilting along with my doll making and learned a new skill but not a satisfying skill. I am not one to follow the crowd and did not like making traditional quilts but loved the art quilts. No one here wanted anything to do with 'art' quilt so after making many dozen quilts of all sizes I gave it up and left myself with shelves full of many yards of pricey quilt fabric. But now I found a new outlet for my creative inclinations...

Cloth doll making led to clay doll heads and that eventually led me to sculpting  with air dry or baked clay. I made several types of sculptures and incorporated the clay into doll making but mostly into art projects other then dolls using a variety of mediums...I call it  'mixed media' art.

Through the doll making I met, a now good friend, Ellen. The two of us have explored so many different venues and types of art from assemblage to sculpting to recycled art. We have discovered new and exciting ways to use the ordinary to make an extraordinary piece of art.  We scavenge and recycle.and enjoy ourselves to no end. I still enjoy all of that but..

Now I am getting the urge to re connect to sewing. I have not done any to speak of in ages and what I did do in the last few years  was mostly quilts..no garment sewing. Not too long ago  I came across a designer, Alabama Chanin, who I have mentioned in the past and now I am working on hand sewing along with machine sewing of garments. Now again I will stick with sewing for a bit until the urge hits to move on to another medium but one thing I do know is I will always do some type of creating. Even if it is mud pies in my dotage...

.It will be interesting to see how my circle spins the second time around.

BLOGTOBER FEST 2013 DAY 16

Today my DAILY CREATIVE PRACTICE was not real creative but expensive. Our mattress is 19 years old and for a couple of years we have thought we should get a new one but we kept putting it off for one reason or another. Today  I spent a good amount of time researching mattresses so we could get a new one. Mission accomplished. Our new mattress and box springs will be delivered on the 1st between 2:00 and 5:00..Timing is awful. Our daughter and son-in-law arrive in Tampa at 4 in afternoon. Bob is suppose to work from 12:00 to 4:00 on Fridays at the hospital.  Our times all over lap leaving us to do some creative juggling. So.....

Bob will call off work and  wait for mattress to arrive. My grand daughter gets off at 2 so she and I will drive to Tampa to fetch our company at the airport. Then it is getting home and getting our new bed set up and the old one moved to the spare room for company. I have three grand daughters who all want the bed but for now it stays here. The spare room is my sewing studio and my company is mostly my artist friend, Ellen, who comes for an art retreat once in a while and sleeps on a blow up bed. 

After that  I decided to make a giant rose for my granddaughter to carry down the isle so did  some internet research on how to do it and where to get the double crepe paper to make it with. Seems Michaels sells it and after calling, since it is 35 miles away, to make sure they really do have it in stock I will be taking a ride to purchase some. Hopefully they will have a nice ivory color I can use.

Then to add to the confusion my second granddaughter who is a bridesmaid brought her dress over to see if I could alter it for her.  I could but it would be a major job for me and with the wedding a few weeks away we do not have time to fix any mistakes I might make. So instead I am going to see if a friend of mine can do it for her. She is a seamstress and will know exactly how to do it.That will make my life that much less hectic. 

WIP

Finally!
After all that I  and before I had to stop to make dinner I sat and relaxed over a Zentangle.

 I didn't get it finished but will post it with this blog as a WIP and finish it later tonight when all my emails are answered.

BLOGTOBER FEST 2013 DAY 15

Today is my 75th birthday and I love it. I am at the age where everything is falling into place. I have no real obligations to babies and kiddies other than to love them  unconditionally, I have more then I need of most things and can usually do whatever touches my fancy. Life is good

Giant tissue paper  flowers

My granddaughter is having a DIY wedding for the most part so along with celebrating my birthday I spent the day, or at least part of it, working on some giant tissue flowers for my grand daughter's maids of honor  I have 4 almost finished and should be able to finish them off tomorrow. Then I will make one for her. The same but a little different. It was a lot of fun making them and when finished I will be working on the corsages for moms etc...These flowers are about 16 inches across so the corsages will be considerable smaller...

The flowers are easy and there was a tutorial online for several different versions but she liked this one. The hardest part was finding the tissue paper in the right colors. I will add a stem and a couple of leaves to these and call them finished. 

BLOGTOBER FEST 2013 DAY 14

I have had a busy 4 days and it is almost time to post and didn't want to miss a day so here is a picture essay of Columbus Day at my daughter's.

While Deb and I sewed all day, Bob pulled all the weeds from her little garden bordering her pool and  my son in law cooked us the most wonderful dinner. This is the end of the day celebration of all 3 of our birthdays combined. Joining us was my grandson and granddaughter and their significant others. 

Even though we worked  our butts off  the last four days have been wonderful. The wedding dress is coming along  nicely and will be finished a few days sooner than anticipated because of what we accomplished over the last few days. 

Celebration

The Meal

Cheeseless Risotto

Green beans

Braised Duck Breast in Grape Sauce

The Chef

Stan

Wine tasting

Educating the young guest

The host and hostess

Deb, (daughter) & Stan (son-in-law)

The Guest


Grandson Jason & Krista, his fiancee


Soon to be
Bride and Groom

Grand daughter, Stephanie & Fiance Soner

Last but not least

Bob, enjoying it all!

BLOGTOBER FEST 2013 DAY 13

Wow, we are almost half way through the month and I have not missed a day yet...

Today was another busy day in the sewing room working on the wedding dress. We have the bodice ready to steam the rouching in before attaching the skirt tomorrow. The steaming will be done this evening after dinner and while my granddaughter is here for a fitting so it can dry overnight. 


With all the sewing and visiting we both did we still had time for coffee in the late morning....








and I had time to finish this top Deb started for me a while back before she got busy with the wedding dress..All I had to do was set in the sleeves and when I get home I will serge the seams to give them a finished look...




Then to finish the day off before company arrives for dinner of Seared Duck Breast with Grape sauce...we had a glass of wine..

A fine finish to a fine day!

BLOGTOBER FEST 2013 DAY 12

Deb and Stephane

Today is my daughter's birthday and we had planned on spending a nice weekend kayaking, facials at the spa and  dinner cooked by our favorite chef, her husband Stan  but...sometimes life gets in the way of real life plans so instead we spent it working on my grand daughter's wedding gown. Debbie works a full time job but wanted to make her niece, Stephanie's gown for her so I am here to help how ever I can and give moral support. 

Lacing

Loops

..... but today I am helping her with some tedious parts of the sewing... Spaghetti straps for the lacing and the loops to do the lacing in..The dress will laceed up the back when finished.

Stan kissing Deb goodbye

Soon we will be going out for a dinner at one of Deb's favorite restaurants, Enza's Ristorante'
Stan is still going to cook our special birthday dinner tomorrow night....but first he needs to go shopping for duck.
..Yummy!