Masquerade Ball

I don't know what's more fun: getting ready for a ball, partying at the ball, or going through pictures of the ball the next day. 

Jake was giving Jessica and me a by-the-minute-count-down til it was time to leave and commenting on how bad hair spray stinks. It's not fair that it takes him a grand total of 10 minutes to get ready when Jess can I had been preening ourselves for over an hour (only an hour?). ;) When we got there, Jake acted as the doorman, the musicians were setting up, tables were being set up for the seemingly endless supply of treats and goodies, and Jess and I got to work lighting many, many candles. It was such a gorgeous venue! and so many amazing masks and costumes! ^_^

'If Yoda went to Azgard [sic] wearing a light suit from Tron... This is what would result.' -DS

Robert, Laura and their daughter, Arianna. Our hosts for the evening.

Live music for the dances courtesy of The Whispering Roses

Take a guess at what we made Jessica's mask out of. 

Recognize the dress? Kinda sorta? I altered my rococo ball gown. I'll do a separate post about that.

Mandatory sibling picture for Mom. ;)

Then the personality shot. You give me bunny ears; I give you a feather beard. 

Pictures courtesy of yours truly, ECD Oregon and Daniel Sauble.

Farm Girl Got Geek: Lembas Bread

If you're a regular human being, September 22nd is the first day of fall. If you're a Lord of the Rings junkie, it's Bilbo's and Frodo's birthday, and it's Hobbit day to the fandom. Since it was a gully gusher of a day, I can't think of a better way to celebrate than with a Lord of the Rings role playing game and eating tons of food a-la-hobbit style. 

But, as good as regular food is, something about making your regular food go with the theme of the day. So I set out to make Elven lembas bread, the traveling food of the Elves of Middle Earth. Batch of cookies? Check. Mallorn leaves? Uh... That's something that needs doing. You can't have lembas without the mallorn. I found a leaf pattern, but they used foam to make the leaves. I didn't have foam handy, and I didn't feel that the foam would work very well for a method of aesthetic food delivery. I did have felt. A lot of felt. And in green too. How convenient! ;) Cut out the pattern and sew all the veins of the leaf. Voila'! Mallorn leaves. 

Just had to pass it by the critics - the brothers. One thought that it was the coolest thing ever. The other thought that all that all the extra leaf and string action was just hindering his cookie consumption.

Picnic at Pemberly - a Pride and Prejudice Ball

The day finally arrived. Time slows to a crawl once you've finished your dress for the ball (but speeds up exponentially if you procrastinate until the day of). We met up at a friend's house to get ready (ribbons, curls, and bobby pins oh my!) and headed off to the ball. 

I interrupt this story to suggest that you turn on the Pride and Prejudice soundtrack by Dario Marianelli. Finding the whole playlist would be even better. Okay, you can keep reading now.  

But wait! We need to stop at the store to pick up the lemonade!

We get to go shopping in our Regency dresses! xD We ended up going to two stores and buying them  out of lemonade.  

Responses to our get-ups? 

Besides the second glances, stare-downs, compliments, questions about our unusual garb, and a gal helping us carry lemonade to the car, we also caught snippets of funny conversations about us

Little girl: Mommy, why do those people have so much lemonade?

Mommy: Honey, I think they just really like lemonade.

And...

Dude to his friend: Don't worry, you're in Portland now. You're going to see some pretty weird stuff.

And...

Some dude sitting in his car whistled at us. 

It's not every day that you see a gaggle of giggly girls dressed up in 'unusual' clothing pushing a cart full of lemonade

So. After our little shopping trip adventure, we were :really: on our way to the ball! It was for real this time. ;) My guesstimates puts the guest total to 200 (just in case you were wondering while looking at the pictures).

The littlest dancers

I loved the location

Someone ditched their shoes. The poor lost soles...

Mari's Wedding with a double circle

One of my favorite moments of the evening? 

Gentleman #1 asks me to a dance. Okay, nothing weird there. Part of the dance involved doing an 'orbit' around the set. Still nothing new there either. It's when Gent #1 was 'traded' with Gent #2 (who was nonchalantly walking by) during the orbit. Come in for a two-hand turn, and it's not the person I was dancing with before. Haha! Okay, got me! They then proceeded to trade off during each of the 'orbits' for the rest of the dance. We all had a good laugh afterwards. What I don't know is if it was pre-planned or not. Hmm...

Update: They had plotted the whole thing. They had looked at the dance list to see if it would work with any of the dances, and then they looked for someone who would be able to take the joke. 

Venue - Summerfield Farms in Salem, OR

Pictures are from ECD Oregon, Noah Holte, and yours truly

Historical Sewing - 1860's Blue Day Dress

Several years ago, a friend and I embarked on a sewing project together - we were going to sew Civil War dresses. Neither of us had sewn something like that before (Regency dresses and medieval gowns are pretty straight forward all things considered), and we wanted the challenge of a mid-1800's gown. We both studied up on the dress construction, blah blah blah... and jumped in. 

Step 1: find pattern. We landed on Simplicity 3727. It looked straight forward enough.

Step 2: procure fabric. Nothing at Joann's was going to cut it, so we ventured to the biggest fabric store in the area. There's an acre of fabric. Slightly overwhelming. But we found a reproduction fabric section which helped a lot. ;)

Step 3: Create the correct silhouette. Yes, there are petticoats, hoops and a corset keeping everything where it's supposed to be. 

Step 4: Make dress. My friend got her dress all finished in time for the reenactment all those years ago. Mine? It was done. But uh, well... my oops was that I made the bodice to my non-corseted measurements. In other words, it was too big. ;) So in the to-do-later pile the bodice went to be overlooked by more new and exciting sewing projects (don't worry, that blue bodice had lots of friends that pile).

Emily, looking gorgeous in her 1860's ensemble

And I farbed around in what I could make-do with the time and skills that I had. And yes, I wore flip flops under all those layers. ;)

Well, after finishing my brother's coat, I got this excited giddiness about finishing the unfinished. Time for procrastination to be pushed to the back seat. Let's get stuff done. I pulled the bodice out of the bag and assessed where I had left things:

- The fringe. It looked like it was being eaten alive by golden fringe. I guess using interior decorating trims has its downside. So the lion's mane was trimmed 3 inches shorter. Proportionally, it looks much better now. 

- There was that silly sizing issue. Do you know how hard it is to get your measurements of yourself by yourself when you're wearing a corset? ;) Brought in the areas that needed it, and it fits like a glove now. No more bagginess making me feel like a giant lumpy blueberry. 

- The under sleeves needed tacking on and the cuff links needed to be made. That's pretty much self-explanatory. 

- The collar. The pattern included instructions for making your own to attach to the dress. I made it, but it didn't look... right. But I left it there. One day, my sisters and I decided to stop in an antique shop that we hadn't checked out yet. Guess what I found. Yep, a gorgeous, much more elaborate collar than I could ever make. But it didn't have a price tag. It's bartering time. I got it for $4. ^_^ And it fit the dress perfectly.

Then I took a step back. It was done. All those years of just sitting in the cupboard, and it didn't need that much work done on it. I could have been wearing it all this time! Now I just need to come up with an excuse to wear it. 

And that gap in the front? It's not there when I wear it. It's fitted for a different silhouette than what my dress form is. ;)

Random end note: In looking at those pictures from all those years ago (okay, maybe it was only 2 years ago, it feels so much longer than that), it's weird to see how much Emily and I have 'grown up.'  

Country Chic Bridal Shower

Has it been a week since Sonia's bridal shower already? Wow, time is flying. I think I need to get started on my bridesmaid dress because the wedding is coming up quick. ;) 

So. Want the lo-down on party details? (you're supposed to nod your head 'yes' at this point) I don't blame you. 

And in case you're wondering, much of the inspiration for the decorating and whatnot came from pinterest. It's pretty simple to get the gist of what the bride wants when she has a board for wedding plans ;) 

Emily H. made up these gorgeous biscotti! We dipped our double-baked goods into chocolate, let it solidify, them piped on the words and doodles. :) Super easy, super cute.

And how can you have a country chic shower without a chalkboard, boots and a pitchfork?

A close up of the centerpieces

And mason jars. Can't forget the mason jars.

The bride isn't huge on everyone staring at her while she opens the presents, so we recruited the guests' help for assembling the wedding favors while she unwrapped the gifts

For an activity, guests created a country song for the bride and groom via 'mad-lib' style.

These paper lanterns get used in just about every party now. Lol!

And when the bride has food restrictions, you make sure that she has something to eat at her own shower. ;)

A better view of the centerpieces

The devotion was a time of prayer led by a good friend of the bride

Favor making

And now for pictures of everyone's smiling faces. :)

This picture makes me laugh. A lot. 

She has that glow about her. :)

This also makes me laugh.

Can't you tell that they're sisters? :D

Flower toss!

All pictures courtesy of Christi