The Dress

In anticipation of Carly's 8th Birthday and Baptism on December 27th, Amanda asked me in June or July if I would make the dress for the baptism. She picked out a Girl's Regency Dress Pattern from Sense and Sensibility Patterns.


I decided it would be a good idea to make a practice dress to check the fit before I made the baptism dress in the dupioni silk Amanda picked out. Even though I had the fabric and pattern months before the baptism, I procrastinated until the last minute! The practice dress was fairly easy and I managed to get it to Amanda for a fitting about a week before Christmas. We only needed to increase the length and make the cuffs on the sleeves a little bigger.

The white is the silk and the green print is the practice dress.


I learned that Santa was bringing Carly an American Girl doll for Christmas. So of course the doll needed a matching dress. Since the silk frayed so easily, I opted for the green fabric for the doll dress.


The dress was finished in time for the baptism and "Sweet Caroline" wore both dresses to have her Birthday portraits taken today.

Amy Butler Functional Art

Emily loves Amy Butler fabrics! So I decided to make her some decoupage plates and matching napkins with some Amy Butler coordinating prints. After searching the net for "how to" make the plates, I found a description on Kaboose.com. The instructions had a difficulty rating of "Very Easy". Let's hope so! I learned quickly that our local fabric shops don't carry her designs. After trekking all the way to Ashland, I could only find one print. So I tried the internet again and found quite a few options on the Hancocks of Paducah website. Here are the prints I selected:



The first coat of glue is drying... that modge podge is smelly stuff!



After several coats of glue, I trimmed and sanded around the edges of each plate. The fabric really didn't want to stick so I added even more glue just under the edge with a Qtip. Then followed up with three coats of spray acrylic sealer (also very stinky stuff).



Here's the finished product with matching napkins! The plates are not water proof, but could be used for sandwiches or snacks. I bought some plate hangers so she could display the plates as kitchen art when she isn't using them.



A few lessons learned from this project:

Use lightweight and tighter woven fabrics, they tend to stick better to the plate.
You might want to tackle this project in warmer weather. Gluing and spraying outdoors to avoid getting a headache from the smelly fumes!
Waiting until the last minute to start creates stess!

Carol of the Bells

For the past three years in December, I have been going to visit this house on Marion Lane in Grants Pass. The lights are synched to music which you can hear on your FM radio when you are within a couple of blocks of the house. Two of my favorite songs have been by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra . Christmas Cannon and this one called Christmas/Sarajevo 12/24, which is their version of Carol of the Bells. If you will be in Grants Pass between now and New Years Day, I recommend you go check it out in person. Enjoy!

Whooooosh!

Thanksgiving has come and gone. Christmas is almost here. Only two more work days before my two week Winter Break. The living room and dining room are piled with presents, projects, and shipping boxes from my on-line shopping spree. I think I need a little help from Santa's elves to get it all together in time. Still to go: one baptism dress, two photo projects, and some decoupaged functional art. I have a busy week ahead!

I did manage to set up my mini Christmas tree this year. :-)

Fall Colors

I have been enjoying the fall colors so much this year. Here are few photos from my neighborhood.


Downtown Grants Pass - 5th & G Streets



Looking up A Street




My House!

Art Along the Rogue

Every year Grants Pass host a chalk artist event. Art Along the Rogue was moved from downtown Grants Pass to Riverside Park this year, which created opportunity for other types of artisans to share their art. I love the chalk art and despite the rainy weather, the artists created some beautiful images.

Harvest

I've been reflecting on the merits of having a garden. It sure has been a lot of work for a little bit of produce. Besides the fact that I planted some of my veggies a little late, I am thinking that I just don't have enough sun in my back yard. At least not in the areas where I built my raised beds. I did get some pretty plants and a whole lot of cherry tomatoes from my Topsy Turvey hanging planters. I will try again next year!






Charley the Garden Cat