Not-So-Haute Couture

Woo hoo! Dh said he's buying me a palm pilot for my birthday! His birthday is next month and I plan to buy him an X-box or a Play Station. Circuit City has an online Video game console showdown that looks like it will be helpful in deciding which gaming unit to get him.

"He is not here; he has risen, just as he said." Matthew 28:6 "He has risen!" Mark 16:6 “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen!" Luke 24:5, 6 He has risen, indeed!

Uh oh. I think I want a Viking Interlude 445 . A discussion on Sewing World made it sound like the best non-embroidery computerized sewing machine there is. I used to not want a computerized machine but I seem to spend quite a bit of time looking in my manual for the correct settings, then tweaking & turning dials into just the right combination on my older and definately not computerized Viking 6370. I am very interested in the 'buttonhole sensor'. But not interested enough to go try it out at my Viking dealer; there are other things that have a higher financial priority. I'll try when I'm ready to buy. (But I might do an ebay search for a Viking Lily, which was replaced by the Interlude). For reference, I'm reading on SW that the Interlude is much the same as the more expensiveViking Platinum line, and that the Viking Freesia does not sew as smoothly as the Interlude. Why am I 'sew' partial to Vikings, I wonder?

The projection equipment is back where it belongs. The digital tapes of the wedding have been delivered into the hands of the professionals at Videobrite for transferring onto dvd. I never did successfully negiotiate that learning curve. Plus I have neither a firewire port nor a firewire cable, which apparently are absolutely, positively required for getting digital tape images into my computer. And even if I did have that stuff, I don't have the time--the camera doesn't belong to us and its owners want it back. I've been downright woozy with post-wedding traumatic syndrome. I took the day off work and slept awhile, then I did some grocery shopping (peanut butter cups, frosted animal cookies, chocolate-covered preztels, diet pepsi, bread, tomatoes and a copy of People--I'm good for the week!) Got some laundry done & am slowly putting things back where they belong. My sink is truly shiny for the first time in at least 2 weeks. A shiny sink is a fresh start. Patternr...

The after-wedding cobwebs are starting to clear from my brain. Last night I attempted to transfer the video-recording of the wedding onto DVD, but I've never done that before and I couldn't make it over the learning curve. So we just watched it on our TV and it was nice. I'll try the dvd transfer again tonight. The projection equipment needs to be returned to its owners. We need groceries. I printed out my weekly menu-mailer and will probably go grocery shopping after dropping off the equipment. Maybe dh will go with me and take me out to dinner before we shop. Flylady says it's bedroom week. I'm going to take the first step in organizing my closet by listing all the things I need and how much they will cost.

The wedding went off without a hitch (no pun intended). The ceremony and reception took place at the Wedgewood Banquet Center at Foxtail Golf Club in Rohnert Park. I highly recommend this venue. Everthing was perfect and the Director was wonderful. We got the Crystal Wedding Package which is their lowest end afternoon deli buffet. They offer an outdoor rose garden wedding site which was plan A, but it rained (we knew that was a risk with a March wedding) so plan B (moving the wedding indoors) was put into place and it only made the ceremony that much more intimate. I have never seen my daughter so happy as she was on her wedding day. Both she and her groom were glowing. God is indeed good.

Lots of to-dos were crossed off the list today. Dh and dd worked hard on moving her furniture to the apartment, and she helped to ready the house for visitors. The baby's dress is finished. The bridesmaid's wraps were finished. Making the wraps (mere rectangles of white chiffon edged with a picot stitch on the serger) was the only sewing-related wedding project that actually went as easy and fast as I thought it would). The slideshow is finished and several copies have been burned to CD. All in all, I'm about where I hoped to be now. Mom, sis and the baby arrive tomorrow night! Whee!

Oh Kim, you're such a hoot! The purpose of this picture is to show off the ruffled rump of baby's dress.

Kim holding her niece Sonia's dress. Hmm....the bride-to-be looks ecstatic (she is!), but the dress looks awfully big for such a little baby.

This is my grandchild nestled comfortably inside its mama Amanda. The baby is 11 weeks old and is due mid-September.

Sonia Rose's dress is needing only 3 rows of lavender chiffon bum ruffles to be complete. I believe that the length will be just about right, but it may be too big around. I'll know for sure when she gets here in just 2 more days! Tomorrow I will be edging 5 white chiffon rectangles to be used as wraps by the bridesmaids. I found a great stitch on my serger--a 3-thread picot edge. It works great. I wished I'd seen that page in my serger workbook when I was hemming Kim's bridal veil. I've been working on a slideshow for the wedding reception--it also is almost complete. I'm waiting for a few more pictures to arrive. I've borrowed I-don't-want-to-know-how-many-thousands-of-dollars worth of projection equipment from a wonderful, generous and marvelously technically savvy couple from our church. I've had a rehearsal with it & it all seems to work fine. A full dress rehearsal including completed slideshow, laptop, projector, speakers and scree...

With the wedding less than a week away, it's all downhill from here. I just hope I don't find myself at the bottom in a jumbled heap, but rather coasting to a gentle stop. The bride and groom are hanging onto sanity by a thread. Things that have been said/done/experienced by him/her/them in the last 24 hours: Packing. Moving to a new apartment. Finding out other roommate is moving out too, so instead of having to just vacuum your old room you have to help clean the whole dang house. Getting overwhelmingly surprised by the kids and teachers at school with a totally unexpected-up on the stage in a throne-all eyes on you-this is great but I really am uncomfortable being the center of attention-wedding shower. Going to Dad's annual St. Patrick's Day dinner. Getting eyebrows waxed. Finding time to tan so you don't look like a ghost in your wedding gown. Geez, look at the time--I gotta get to work! Did you pick up the rings? Oh no! Uncle Biff didn't get a wedding ...

Things I'm going to do when the wedding's over and everyone has gone home: Clean and organize my closet. I want to remove the doors and replace them with easy-to-whoosh-wide-open curtains, clean it out, put some light in there, and get some of these for my folding things and some of these for my shoes. Plan my wardrobe Take Pilates classes at the Airport Health Club Pay off our credit cards Start using my menu-mailer

My latest project is a dress for my neice Sonia Rose to wear at the wedding. I'll be using Simplicity 5115 view A . Pretty simple. No collar because collars always turn up, although I'm considering a little neckline ruffle. This pattern includes an attached romper underneath instead of a diaper cover. There will definitely be ruffles on the romper rump. I also decided to self-line the yoke rather than binding it, and to add piping at waist seam and possibly the neck and sleeves. And it's going to be the same material as my suit! Won't that be just darling!

I can hardly believe I'm even thinking about long-term wardrobe planning this close to the wedding, but my mind knows no limits. The usual approach to wardrobe planning is to start by picking 2 neutrals and a print. I've decided that one of my neutral colors shall be (drumroll, please) grey . After reading, surfing and taking some online color quizzes, I have come to the conclusion that black is too stark for my coloring. I love the combination of grey and lavender, and also of grey and raspberry. I have a fuschia scoop-neck knit shirt that is very flattering--I'd love to find that color in fabric yardage. Black and grey with color accessories can be a great look, too. I would still have the option of using black for pants or skirts--always keep the darker color on the bottom is my motto. Also, black shoes would work with grey clothes really well. How great would it be to find some highest quality grey fabric and make a jacket, pants and skirt for a core wardrobe! I ...

An interesting shoe vendor: Auditionsshoes.com , linked from another interesting site: MyPersonalStyle (found on Rusty Bobbin's site--she's a wealth of information and good links)

I love to read. From Little House on the Prairie to Ann Rule's true crime stories. One genre I particularly enjoy is humor about women and home. Books by Jean Kerr, Teresa Bloomingdale, Erma Bombeck and Peg Bracken have their own shelf in my library. My physical library consists of 3 white melamine bookshelfs in my living room and hallway, but my virtual library is being planned. I'm adding a room to Chez Tamtay in which I will store my precious book memories. Until construction on my virtual library is complete I'm keeping some things in the sewing room. Here is one of them: Review of Merry Wives .

Done! Whew! Pressed and ready to wear--Mrs. Dinky is holding it for me. Detail of decorative sitching along the facing edge Every MoB needs a little matching purse in which to store her tissues because she will cry when her baby gets married.

DH is installing a garage door today for Home & Garden Television: Curb Appeal . So exciting! I checked the details on individual shows and there's a 'Resources' listing that lists who did what work, along with their phone #, website address, etc. I hope there's enough of a lag time before the show airs that I can finish his website. I wanted to take the day off work to go with him and take pictures and make sure the right people had the right information, etc. (basically I wanted to run the whole thing and act as publicist for Analy Door Systems). But it happened so fast...I didn't get a chance. Instead I left the house mad that we didn't have company shirts to show off the business name (he said he was going to get them but didn't--I couldn't 'cause I had wedding stuff to do), then got a flat tire on the way to work, cell phone battery dead, used all my change on pay phones so none left for parking meter 'cause employee's parking lot wa...

Another English bespoke site: Redmayne Suit Making Methods