One Week - Three Birthdays!

It's been a fun crazy week around here! We started out with Kacie's birthday last Monday which was a simple celebration of cake and ice cream at home with the family followed by a session of Rock Band.



Friday was Tom's 50th birthday which was celebrated with a golf themed party with friends and family.


Sunday we celebrated Joann's birthday with brats on the grill and cake and ice cream in the back yard then the kids had a fire on the patio and made smores.


Now I plan to take it easy for a couple of days before I have to prepare for our anniversary trip this coming weekend to Wisconsin and the Bristol Renaissance Fair.

Birthday Gift Albums

I've been a busy little scrapper this last week making gifts for a couple of upcoming birthdays. Next Friday is my honey's 50th birthday so I used the journaling prompts and design ideas from Bree's "It's the Little Things" class at ScrapFreak.com to create an all journaling chipboard album for him. (It's kind of mushy because it was originally intended as an anniversary gift. LOL)










Our "foster daughter's" birthday is two days later so I printed up a bunch of her prom and graduation photos and put together an album for her. This one is all photos with the only journaling inside the covers. I've left a small space on each page for her to add some journaling if she chooses.











(GEEZ-O-PETE! Three tries and the photos still uploaded all weird! I guess if yoiu really want to see this one you can look at my ScrapFreak gallery. :sigh: )

Our youngest daughter's birthday is tomorrow but she isn't getting a scrapbook album. She is getting Rockband for Wii because Mom wanted an excuse to buy it! :D

This Is Who We Are- the page

Yesterday's post finally gave me the kick in the pants to actually create the scrapbook page. I spent half the day fiddling around with my pics since none of them were all that great being that they were taken from quite a distance from the stage and all of them had distracting sound equipment that couldn't totally be cropped out. I finally decided on a small print of the man who spoke the words and a 5x7 group shot from the grand entrance that better displayed the color and variety of the clothing.

"This Is Who We Are"

I've been meaning to turn this into a scrapbook page since July 4th but, since I have yet to get around to it, I thought I would record it here so I don't forget. A few years ago our city's Independence Day festivities changed sponsors and organizers. One of the changes made to the celebration is that, in recognition of the fact that the place we hold our celebration is a place sacred the Anishenabe, some of the people of the Three Fires open the festivities with a drum circle and dancing. One of the men spoke about the clothing worn for the ceremonies and I found myself moved by his words: "This is not a costume. A costume is something you wear when you are trying to be something that you are not. These are our best clothes. THIS IS WHO WE ARE."

The JW Marriott

Kim won a 4th of July package from Centennial Wireless (the main sponsor of GR's Independence Day festivities) for an overnight at the new JW Marriott hotel downtown.
This pic is from directly across the river at the musuem.

This one is from later in the evening taken from Ab-ne-be-wan Park.

Kim, Kacie, Stephanie, and Jason standing at their window waiting for the fireworks to begin. (On the left second from the top. Jason has his arms in the air.)


The JW reflected in the tower of the Amway Grand.


The view from the 22nd floor was just fantastic. Unfortunately my pics aren't that great because of reflections in the glass and shooting toward the setting sun. :( They show the people filling the Pearl Street bridge and Ab-na-be-wan Park In front of the Ford Museum as well as the pedestrian bridge the fireworks are shot off from.

Here ya go...

Me in the new dress after the day at Silver Leaf and the long ride home.

The Medievalish Dress

Is finished! (Unless, of course, I decide that it needs further alterations. lol)Your going to have to wait until I wear it to Silver Leaf on Sunday for pics of me wearing it, though. I didn't take step-by-step photos for a proper dress diary but will try to summarize what was done.
I used Butterick 4827 (sz 14-20) and cut it from some red silk curtain panels lined in cotton that I had found on clearance. I cut the silk and cotton as one and treated it as one layer during construction. Since I have narrow shoulders and a large bust I cut the shoulders and neckline at a sz 14 and bust and flared skirt at sz 20 which allowed for no ease at the bust. Since I have thin arms and wrists I cut the sleeves from the sz 14 pattern. I did not use any interfacing nor did I use the lacing "plackets" called for in the instructions.
I made the dress up pretty much as directed except the I did the facings with just a layer of the silk and stitched my lacing eyelets through the dress, lining, and facing layers on either side of the back opening offset for spiral lacing. I fit the dress over a modern minimizer bra not being brave enough to try for self-supporting. The dress fit well across the bust point but gapped badly above and was loose below. I took in the princess seams going into the armseye about 4" total to eliminate the gapping and curved the seams from the bust to the waist in a bit more for a better fit. That part was relatively painless. I ran into trouble when I attempted to fit the sleeves into the armscyes. Even though taking in the bust had decreased the opening of the arm hole it was very difficult getting the sz 14 sleeves to fit the opening and they just didn't look right. I ended up cutting a second pair of sleeves in a sz 20 which were MUCH easier to sew in then tapered them quite a bit for my small wrists. The sleeves aren't anywhere near as fitted as I've seen in paintings or garb galleries but will wear them as is this weekend then decide if I want to take them in any further. I did include the small train on the back of the skirt but hemmed the front to just skim the ground rather than puddle. I just didn't want to keep lifting my skirts or trip on them as I walk on the uneven ground at faire. I finished the hand stitched eyelets today and tried the dress on over a linen smock and added a belt. In the photos I've seen it seems the ladies wear their belts slung low across the belly. When I tried that the dress bunched up a bit under the belt being that it flared from the waist. I took in the front seams a bit more to make the torso fitted to just above the hips and that helped the dress to lie smooth under the belt.
Now I am ready to move on the the headwear. I'm leaning toward a hairnet, barbette, and fillet but that might change before Sunday.