Month: October 2021

Birthday Visitors 2021

Dear Sis,

We spent the weekend with Mom, her parents, Great and Pop, and mom’s new boyfriend Dave. They arrived in time to have a festive dinner with us Friday evening. 

This is a two tier round cake with the edges of the top tier rounded. I used Swiss Buttercream to frost the cake and Fondant to shape the facial features, hooves, and tail of the piggy. The tail is formed around a pipe cleaner cut in half, so that it would hold its shape without collapsing. 

On Saturday, we enjoyed a family lunch at Bob Evans, followed by a walk on one of the many trails at Rentschler Forest Park.

Charlotte is perfectly great grandparent paced:) 

After our walk, we visited Chisholm MetroPark and enjoyed the historic house, play ground, and a visit to the chickens. We retired to a few hours at the house so the kids and grandparents could have some downtime before our cookout at the bed and breakfast. Josh got off work and arrived just in time for dinner!

Great and Dave are on either side of William. He really enjoyed paling around with the boys with Gran and Great prepared dinner over the campfire. 

We enjoyed another two hours with our visitors Sunday morning, before they had to begin their long drive back home. Before they left, Dave was kind enough to help us get a nice family picture.

It was a nice visit!

Love,

b

The Silk Organza Dress

This was my very first time working with silk organza. I found some for about half the price on a facebook destash, and thought it was a good opportunity to give it a try. I wasn’t sure if I would like the color. Yellow and bright pink certainly make a statement. But, if it wasn’t love… I would sell the dress and buy organza I did like. Or, at least that is what I thought.

Truth be told, I’m not crazy about working with silk organza for a few reasons

  • It is hotter than you think. It should be a nice gauzy breathable fabric, and it sure looks the part. But, it doesn’t feel the part. My cotton sheer dress is cooler.
  • I don’t like the feel of the fabric. Silk taffeta is nice because it is smooth and crisp. This is crisp and crisp. It isn’t crazy itchy, but pleasant wouldn’t be a description for silk organza.
  • It is super sheer, and I discovered that I like the look of semi sheer better. 
  • I don’t really like sewing with it. It is crazy full and fluffy fabric. Getting it into the waist band, was a pain in the rear. I had to take a whole panel out of the skirt cause if fluffed and looked ridiculous. On the bonus side, that is a whole yard of fabric saved. But, still silk organza isn’t cheap, so it isn’t a dress to make if you are being thrifty anyway.

I just put it up for sale. Hopefully, it will be love for someone else!

 

Apple Picking with Friends

Dear Sis,

Today we enjoyed apple picking with Mama Jenn and family. Originally, we were hoping to go with the Chipmunk co-op but the mamas in the group declared they a break. We are grieving that disappointment a bit, but realize our perfect fit is still out there waiting for us to find it:)

Jenn snapped this picture shortly after we arrived.

We quickly picked a bushel of apples, a half bushel for each family! We learned the hard way that it is good to wait until you get home to eat the apples. Four of six kids were eating apples on site and every single one of them ended up getting stung in the hand, face, or mouth. The yellow jackets were innumerable, non-aggressive, but fruit crazed!

On the way home, we stopped at the Trenton Museum. It is open on the first Saturday of every month from 1-3 PM. Despite being members of the Trenton Historical Society, it took us nearly three years to meet the window successfully… lol. 

We finished our very full day by attending Trenton Community Day. We quickly did all the kids activities, then waited in the faceprinting line for a half hour.

The kids declared they were hungry and each got a slice of pizza at one of the food trucks. Then they just wanted to enjoy the live music. I have no idea what the band was called. They sounded great and played a combination of William’s two favorite genres… rock and country. We stayed until the live music ended and then went home for a well earned bedtime:)

Great Family Day!

Love,

b