I'm back!

Sorry it 's been so long! Like this little guy (from our backyard, last winter), I've been up to my eyeballs!

I've been:
-working on sewing and knitting projects.
- tasting cake and wine
- shopping with my lovely ladies
- organizing our crazy apartment
- and keeping up with everyone else's blog but mine!

Not to mention doing the work I actually get paid for.  But I'm back!

And pretty maids all in a row...

Thank you Martha... 

I mentioned before that I was planning on letting my bridesmaids choose their own dresses. This seems to be a new trend lately, but I can't think of why it hasn't been done before!  In my case I have four bridesmaids. All four of them have very different body types; two tall, two short, two skinny twigs, two of average build, one has chest, the other three, well... You get the idea. Very different bodies need very different dresses to look fabulous!

Taste also has to be considered. Even though we're all great friends and have a lot in common, our ideas of fashion are not all necessarily the same. Again, I want something that they love and would feel comfortable wearing for the night.

That brings up the concept of bridesmaids having to buy a dress that they will never w
ear again. It just doesn't seem fair! So, by letting them pick what they want, hopefully they will like it enough to reuse it!

So far , I've been out with two of my lovely ladies to pick out their dresses. First up was the lovely Jenny! We went to Classic Bridal in Buffalo (I wouldn't recommend them now) and Jenny tried on a wide variety of dresses. The poor girl probably tried on as many dresses as I tried on wedding dresses! But at last, there was a definite winner! It was super flattering on Jenny, comfortable and flowy and came in the right color!


The dress is made by B2 is chiffon and will be a color called "celadon". Jenny hasn't ordered it yet, but I can't wait to see her in it again!

Next up was bridesmaid Holly. Like all the rest of my lovely bridal brigade, her schedule is nutty, plus the fact that she lives on the other side of the state. This meant that our dress shopping spree was completed in the last 45 minutes before the shop (New York Bride) closed.  Like with Jenny, Holly tried on a number of dresses, including the one Jenny ended up with and it did not look good on her at all.  Still, Holly was successful and ended up ordering this dress from a bridal shop closer to her that night.

The dress is by Eden Bridals and is satin with a little chiffon poking out the bottom. Holly wasn't so hot about the flower at the bust line, but luckily its a pin so it can be taken off. We matched up a swatch of the color fabric that Jenny will be wearing and found out that Holly's dress color is called "green tea".

So far I think the two dresses will look really nice together, will fit in well with the style of the wedding and most importantly, look great and feel comfortable on the girls!

That leaves Corey and Jamie. We have plans to go shopping for their dresses in February. Check one more thing off the list!

Sewing Project: Pretty business card case

 Thanks to the lovely Pamela over at Dayton Time, I was suddenly in possession of 500 wonderful business cards. It makes it so much easier to share my fancy new google voice phone number and my work e-mail when its all on a handy dandy little card!  One teensy weensy little problem. For those of you who have been following the game here, my name is set to change in t-minus 205 days, so I had to get those babies out the door! My solution, make the cutest ever business card holder so I can convince people to take my card. So far, its gone something like this...

Me: Oh! Let me show you my latest sewing project that I completed in all the time that I have free.

Unsuspecting parent/teacher/specialist:Wow! That's super cute! But what could be inside? I must know!

Me: Why, I'm glad you asked. I have right here some handy dandy business cards so you have no excuse not to call me back my information easily accessible.

Unsuspecting parent/teacher/specialist: Oh! Wonderful! I'll take 5!

Or something along those lines....

Anyway, I found a great pattern which, as with the best projects, took about 30 minutes, including the time I spent rummaging though my crazy stash of random fabrics and clothes that will someday be awesome projects. The finial product was a combination of pretty print fabric left over from my days of making sorority shirts, some terry cloth remnants from baby bibs I made this past spring, a ribbon that was decoration on the package of some gift given to me, and a metal spare button that came with a piece of clothing I'm pretty sure I no longer own.  After gathering those things up, and a few cuts, pins and stitches, I ended up with this!

Even better, when I showed it to my cousin, she requested one for a Christmas gift. Wonderful! I love an excuse to make things for people, but its tough sometimes to know how they'll react to a homemade gift.

Sewing Projects- The lunch box

 As I mentioned in my previous post, there hasn't been a whole lot of free time built in to my schedule. Somehow, I've managed to complete two sewing projects lately that I have been very happy about the results. Okay, so maybe I finished the first one in September and am just getting around to posting about it now... but you're still happy to see it, right?

It all started this summer when I finally opened my eyes to the fact that Mike was going though paper lunch bags, while I was happily using my nice fabric lunch bag. When they finally ran out, I offered to make him a fabric lunch bag of his very own and surprisingly, he accepted! (score for my big green purse!) Little did I know what I was getting myself into.

For those of you who don't know my dear Michael, he is both a Virgo and an engineer... which means very specific ideas about how some things must be. Because that's the only logical way they could be, right? Right. Mike's lunch box requirements were as follows:
1. Must not have corners, because food always gets stuck there and its gross.
2. Must close and have a handle.
3. Must not be feminine.
4. Must have a place for putting silverware.

So after drawing out several designs, I finally had the bright idea of looking to my sandwich wrapper. Its a large diamond shaped piece of fabric that folds into a square. By folding it a slightly different way, I could make a rectangle, just the shape of a typical lunch  box. It unfolds to lay flat, so no corners for yucky food!

After raiding my mom's fabric stash, I decided on heavy duty outdoor canvas, dark navy blue for the outside and navy, yellow and white striped for the inside.

I made a pattern first out of newspaper, then out of construction paper, carefully trying them out with Mike's typical lunch to make sure it would fit inside, measuring where to put the handle holes, etc. The hardest part of the whole process was sewing on the snaps to keep it closed. I had to estimate each time I put them on, and ended up ripping out and resewing most snaps at least twice. I also used bias tape around the handles holes, which I have never done before. It ended up being a bit of a process, but it worked out in the end.

The final result was a success! Mike is happy with it, and he's gotten compliments from several male co-workers, so it passes the manly-enough test. The only thing that may be changed is the snap that keeps the top flap closed. Its not quite strong enough to hold the weight of the lunch, so I may replace it with a heavier duty one.

Next up, my 500 business cards and the sewing project that will hopefully help me give them away before my last name changes...

Kitchen Genius, Via Aunt Gina

Mike and I really like fresh bagels from Wegmans. I try to avoid the prepackaged ones, because it just doesn't seem right that they're soft all the time. Plus, I fins the texture weird, too squishy. Real bagels get hard after a few days, which up til now has been a problem. We would only buy six at a time (missing the discount you get if you buy them by the dozen) and still couldn't eat them quite fast enough.

Luckily, we have been saved by Mike's Aunt Gina's genius.

She taught us this great idea to keep the bagels fresh. At first I thought that everyone knew this, but somehow Mike and I missed out on this day in school. I shared it with my mom, but she was amazed by it too! Aunt Gina lives in MD, so maybe this information hasn't spread this far north yet.

I have taken it upon myself to spread the word of bagel freshness!

Step 1: Buy a dozen bagels. Enjoy the discount!

Step 2: Slice bagels. Then stick them back together.

Step 3: Place sliced bagels in a gallon sized freezer bag.

Step 4: Toss joyously into the freezer, knowing you are going to have some amazing bagels next time you want them.

When ready to eat, simply remove one from the bag and put it in the toaster! It comes out like you just bought it and sliced it that day! Amazing!

Engagement pics.... Finally!

Sorry for the big time slacking, but I have an excuse, I promise! My three jobs (yeah, I know, everyone else thinks I'm crazy too) are really starting to pick up, and on top of that Mike and I are moved! Its just a hop, skip and a jump away from where we w before, but its saving me about 20 minutes on my daily commute. It's been pretty crazy around here!

On with the good stuff!

Dylan and his assistant Robin from Onion Studios did a great job with the pictures, and the best part was it was free with our wedding photo package! Yay! We got a CD of all the digital negatives to do with what we please. So, without further ado here's a sampling of our favorites. One of these lovelies made its way onto the 250 Thank you notes that we won, thanks to Pamela! Thanks!

Engagement Session at Knox Farm State Park

I was so excited today to find that our cd of enagement pictures arrived in the mail today! Here's a sneak peek... no fair showing all of you before Mike even gets to see them!