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What a great weekend for our family! For once, we were all in one place, of one mind, and having fun. It's a good thing! As promised, the weather was gorgeous. No humidity and in the low to mid 80s. Fantastic for South Carolina!
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This is how our weekend began: A lakeside wedding at sunset. Isn't this a pretty wedding scape? This young bride planned the wedding herself, and nothing could have been more perfect. Her grandparents have a lovely place on the lake designed to handle crowds, and everything went so smoothly.
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Here is the pirate-themed garter on the bride, and my girl caught the bouquet -- but we are saving her wedding date for hopefully at least a good five years away, not that there are any beaus on the horizon at the moment.
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The sweet couple. At the top of the post is the sun setting low after the ceremony, and then the fireworks kicked off at dark.
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And then we had a marvelous Fourth of July afternoon and evening at another family friends' spread. Along with a big BBQ, the couple brought in a local chamber orchestra to play for us (like we were at the Boston Pops!) and then choreographed a private fantastic fireworks show! It was just lovely!
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Camille and I fit in blueberry picking on Friday. The blueberries taste wonderful and have been washed, dried, frozen, and baked in two different desserts: The crazy blueberry breakfast cake we love and a blueberry-studded lemon meringue pie. Going back for more later this week!
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On a cherry-berry note, a cherry-embroidered tea towel was ordered this week by a favoite blog friend. This was my sampler towel to test out the colors in the design and is now in the shop. Looks Scrumptious!
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Gosh, I'm head over heels for linen! I've been picking up linen-mix pieces over time and using it for monogrammed pillow covers and aprons. However, this week I bought 100% natural linen. The heft and the silky feel at the same time is so lovely. As with all my fabric, I ran it right through the laundry, dried, and ironed it to get the shrinking done with. It took a while to get the hang of mitered corners, and I don't quite have an exact 90-degree angle, but who cares?? I now have lovely linen towels hanging in the kitchen. A little twill across the top corner makes the hanging handy.
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The Mouse at a Tea Party embroidery design is so darling. The design worked out on the grayish-creamy fabric just called for aqua and red.
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I have a few unembellished linen towels as well. These are just right for someone who wants to hand-embroider a design herself or the towels can be embellished or personalized by me as desired. I'm thinking monograms for that vintage, used linen look (without the antique linen to worry about) or a cool sleek font for the modern kitchen. Napkins next, I think, and maybe some pillowcases.
Hey! I just noted Blogger added back the spell check! Thank you, Blogger!
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Wedding garters! Making these is like scrapbooking. Once you get started arranging and stacking embellishments, it's hard to stop. Plus, all the stuff was out and I was supposed to be working on PAID orders, so, obviously, I was creating something else! The chocolate brown satin and organza embellishments are so lush together.
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And this one ... Black, White, And ... Glitz or Kitsch? Just in case someone is in the market for a piratey garter with the jolly roger button like I made yesterday, I've got another one ready. However, I wasn't going to add that embellishment permanently yet. There is an option here to go Glam with a black ribbon, satin yo-yo, and rhinestone button. Talk about dressing up or dressing down!
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This week I've been working on a young friend's bridal finery. She is having an outdoor wedding Saturday. Thank goodness a big rain is wiping out the humidity as I write, and I understand we should have some lovely summer days through the 4th! Here's hoping; this is South Carolina, so it can be quite muggy. The bride is young and cute and forgot that the rest of us might not hold up to lovliness for the duration of the wedding in the heat and humidity. That and mosquitos! I think I'll be wearing one of those new clip-on bug inhibitors. Maybe if it's embellished, no one will notice.
Back to the bride: My creative help involved embellishing the veil by handsewing floral lace with little pearls all around the edge and then a coordinating string of rhinestone flowers across the edge of the comb. Very simple and so sweet. The bride is a little thing with a mop of red curly hair. She doesn't need much embellishment herself!
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The wedding decor is lovely in teals and white, but for the groom, all things pirate are in order. So, here and there will be little details of the piratey sort. Thus, the garter. Isn't it great? I had just discovered this little jolly roger embroidery when the bride told me her idea. How perfect!
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Big doings at our place this week. First, a little bartering and DIY with a contractor friend brought us this fantastic tiled backsplash! I'm thrilled with it. I've waited so long. Following the plan for my INSPIRATION KITCHEN, the cabinets will go cottage-white next. When that will happen, I'm not sure, but I'm forging ahead the best I can.
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Maybe a new router for the workshop along with a swank pink toolbelt, and I'll be cutting out new cabinet doors! We'll see. I'm loving the dark gray tiled floor in the inspiration kitchen link above.
Mary Engelbreit's Fan Fare Cookbook arrived with my recipe inside (page 144)! The publisher sent two signed copies, and I immediately sent one to my friend, Lynda, who originally shared the recipe with me. At the top of the post is a closeup of the mosaic backsplash and a view of the cherry cheese danishes I made from a recipe in the book. Very yummy!
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Also, they chose to include my little story and description of the recipe, so "my words" are out there in the world. We also have M.E.'s artwork included on "our" pages. It's so sweet that the drawing is of a dark-haired girl, as Lynda's oldest two kids were adopted from Korea. When Lily was little, I used to send Lynda the paper dolls M.E. put in the back of her magazines, one of which was an Asian girl. So, this is quite the special surprise!
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One of my favorite blogs to land on is Ravenhill, and Emily is having a lovely little giveaway party of luscious twine in cool, summery colors as well as one (or several?) of her little pieces of art, scrappy embroidered hearts.
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You'll have to stop by and comment on the giveaway post for a chance to win, but then go back and scroll through her blog and read and see the beautiful descriptions of her area of Norway.
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Where in the world might you find some calicodaisy? In about a week or so, in Dordogne, France! Fabulously French stopped by calicodaisy handmade and ordered a custom embroidered numbered pillow for her little inn called Maison No. 20. Well, if I can't get there myself, at least something from my hands can! You'll have to check out her blog and site to see what lovely company of linens this pillow cover will join.
Eymet, France:
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Did I mention my son is moving to Germany next year for his junior year of college? We plan to visit, and I'm thinking a little train trip to SW France will be in order where we might stop by a sweet little inn, look into one of the rooms, and say, "Hello! I know that pillow cover!" Who knows? And if you get there before me, please tell her I sent you and take a picture for me!
