That Wedding was BANANAS!

    I know every family has one of those "wacky" relatives, but in my husband's family there are several.  (Un)fortunately, my husband is the wacky ringleader, with his brother following closely behind.  I could tell "Marvin" stories all day, but his most recent shenanigans take the (wedding) cake!

   Our niece recently got married on the same beach where Marvin and I married; it has a big historic fort and is usually pretty quiet.  As you can probably tell, in our family "niece" and "nephew" doesn't necessarily mean child even though I am not-quite-thirty! Our niece grew up more like a cousin to Marvin and they have a very dynamic relationship!

     During the ceremony, several Japanese Destroyers cruised pass, as well as some military helicopters making us question if we were being invaded.  We weren't, haha.
                                                                               
Marvin and his brother also felt it was very important to document the male lifeguard working on the beach.     Because that's the thing everyone wants to remember, right?

                         







     Marvin came prepared to the wedding- not only was the card he picked unusual (it was a get well card that had a scantily clad man who shared the same name as the groom and a very old man), but he brought his banana suit.  Not every woman has a husband who randomly dresses in costume, but I was blessed with such a wonderful man!

     Marvin proceeded to run out to the beach, to tackle the bride who was relaxing (the best part of a beach wedding is the beach reception, right?).  Actually, he skipped part of the way.  Yes, if you were at the beach the other day, my husband was the 7-foot-tall banana with a beard!   Somehow, my husband managed to pull tendons/ligaments in both heels doing this, and ended up unable to walk later that evening.  He couldn't bear any weight on either foot.

    So my husband (who never calls out) stayed home from work.  The reason he had to call out?  He hurt both of his feet dressing up like a banana and tackling the bride on the beach!

Eyebrows of Oz

   My mom and I are very close, and both have an unusual sense of humor.  I went over to her house because they were working on the water main in my neighborhood.

Mom- "Do you pluck your eyebrows?"
Me- "Some, like the stray ones underneath, but I have to use brow powder because they are pretty sparse and I have a bunch of blonde hairs."
Mom- "Well, Dr. Phil says if you put a pencil on your eye, and your eyebrows don't touch, then you have thyroid disease."
Me- "Ok, so you want me to see my doctor and tell her Dr. Phil says it looks like my eyebrows have thyroid disease?"
Mom- "Yeah, sure."
Me- "I don't think Dr. Phil is even a real doctor; I know he's not a medical doctor."
Mom- "Dr. Oz is a real doctor!"
Me- "What does Dr. Oz have to do with Dr. Phil?"
Mom- "Did I say Dr. Phil?"


Later I called her- "Mom, I looked at my eyebrows, they have fine blonde hairs.  So you can tell Dr. Phil that the Wizard of Oz says my eyebrows don't have thyroid disease!"

We both laughed, and I know this story probably won't be funny to anyone except mom and me.

I love you, mom!

Just Rosey

    Another skirt made from mom's fabric (from the width of the material I would guess it was at one time a bed sheet).  It is pretty much a circle skirt modified from a "Retro Butterick" pattern, but due to the layout I cut the skirt as a circle, and split it to add the zipper.  Hemming it took forever but I am so pleased with it.

      This skirt would be a perfect "swing" skirt, if Marvin knew how to swing dance.  I think the idea scares him- I have too many stories of getting "dropped" while dancing!  My favorite story to get him nervous was: one time in high school, I was in musical theatre* practice for Grease, and I was paired with a guy on our high-school football team (he's now in the military, so he's a strong guy).  I was supposed to roll across his back while he was leaning forward, but he lost his balance, so I did a back-flip over his shoulder, landing squarely on my right knee.  It swelled up and turned blue immediately.
 ( I do think that some of the problem may have been I was
 favoring the foot that had an undiagnosed benign tumor in it due to a seashell being stuck inside of it!)

Well, now that I have wandered off on a completely random tangent....I hope you enjoy these poorly exposed photos!

I have an angry three-year-old who doesn't want to take her nap!




*My computer feels I have misspelled theatre, but this is my preferred spelling!

Candy Striped Skirt

    This skirt was nowhere near the headache the last skirt I finished was!  Actually, while the other was sitting in time-out for not cooperating, I finished this skirt with few problems...other than cutting it too short!  But that's what lace trim is for!


I had a friend ask me about the pattern for this one, but I didn't use one.  I used a method similar to this one at MADE.  I am not high-tech enough to do tutorials, yet.  Or maybe I am just not patient enough to take the time and photograph the steps!

I did use exposed elastic on this skirt (and the other one that made me curse like a sailor), because I have a great big roll of red elastic, and I think it looks like a belt, kinda/sorta. But it's so much more comfy than a cinch belt!

These shoes just so happened to go perfectly with this skirt  (I forgot about them when I had Punky take my photo), but they are much more casual of a feel than my wedges.  I love that I have options with this skirt, too!

The Salty Skirt

This project should have been simple. I had a couple yards of striped tube jersey from my mom, and was planning on throwing an elastic band on it and calling it a skirt. Hey, I'd even get a nautical inspired white/red/blue/ black one and a simpler black/white one- two skirts for the price of gas to my parent's house 5 miles away. Heck, you don't even need to hem jersey- easy, peasy, right?

However, the first problem I noticed was that where the tube was joined, it was weak, and the stripes didn't line up right. So I decided to give the skirt a back seam, no big deal. When I cut the fabric, it rolled, badly. It also didn't This made pinning, sewing and lining up stripes difficult. It also mean I had to hem the skirt. Then he hem rolled forward!!!! Much frustration ensued, as well as some salty, nautical inspired language. I threw it down and left it for a week.

Then inspiration hit: I would attach a edge of wide grograin ribbon to the base. I went to the store, and the skies opened up with a torrential thunderstorm, and of course I had the girls with me. By the time we floated home, I pinned the ribbon and started sewing. It seems the ribbon shrunk by several inches, so I had to take the width in, but I got a remnant of fabric out of it to make a headband! I had to topstich the ribbon down to help with the rolling, too.



Then something went wonky with my thread and it kept untwisting while I was sewing, leaving a microfilament holding the fabric together. I've never seen anything like it!


I finally finished the skirt, but I'm not fully happy with it. It lays strangely, it's a weird in-between width, and the ribbon touches my legs whe I walk. I don't know about you, but things touching me unexpectedly are not enjoyable! I am wearing it today to see if it grows on me (emotionally, not physically. A parasitic skirt would be worse than a leg groping one!)

Punky (who just turned 7, remember) took the pictures again. Maybe I need to learn to use my camera's timer?





(This is my pirate pose, because the skirt made me swear like a sailor. I wouldn't last long as a pirate, would I?)

Feeling crafty?

I've been feeling super crafty lately.  I don't know if it's the scorching hot, want to stay inside weather, or the fact that my mom gave me an extraordinarily large amount of craft materials and fabric.  I would guess it it both, but I think the latter effects it more so.  However, this craftiness has brought out this whole retro/ thrift store vibe and I have been finding goodies at thrift stores lately.  My fav finds lately?  A couple vintage dresses, wing-tip pumps, and new lamps!  Ok, so they aren't "new," but they have big, pale blue drum shades that match the end tables downstairs and are taller and put off more light!  Fabulous, right?  I forget where I was going with this, so I will end with a picture of a dress I made with mom's fabric.  I am wearing shoes, and they are cute white flats with teal, orange, and blue pin flowers.  I guess the picture is a little over-exposed.  I need to get my husband up-to-speed with the camera!


Oh yes, see the building behind the lake? One of My husband's best friends and his awesome fiance are moving in (It's great to have a "couple friend" so close)!  We are totally taking the kayak to their place sometime!