Tag Archives: wedding

Weekly Photo Challenge: Intricate

Wedding dress…

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https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_photo_challenge/intricate/


Building My Handmade Weddding; Step One: Admitting it’s Happening


A pretty picture of some wool because I don’t have anything else to share at the moment.

Last Tuesday, I woke up with a plan. I was going to whip the apartment into shape, make a schedule for the Christmas knitting, take photos of the hand knit goods I have for sale but not up on etsy yet, and finally finish my blog plans and business mapping that I always seems to be half-finished with. I was actually making good headway into getting there too. I sketched out a knitting schedule over my lunch break (that I have since misplaced and have not followed in the slightest), and my mind was working overtime on developing new projects and new promotions. I was going to take over the world with yarn.

Then I unexpectedly had to work Tuesday evening. By the time I left the Museum Tuesday night, I was sick. I had a raging headache, clogged sinuses, and that really horrible fuzzyhead that makes you stupid when you have a cold. It came out of nowhere and I was down. I could focus on nothing more strenuous than silly novels. (I am not complaining. The best part about being sick is that it is a perfect excuse to read as many silly novels as you can.) My plans for world-domination-with-yarn were washed away just as quickly as they had flooded in.

Sort of. I still have plans, and I have a lot I want to do, but I feel like I have been playing catch up for an entire week. I try to put an equal amount of time into Tiny Dino Studios as I do into my day job and last week that just didn’t happen. I am recovering my energy and mental clarity, and I have SO MUCH I want to talk to you guys about, but I’m about a week behind, so please bear with me if I bombard the blog a little bit over the next couple of days. For now, I will lay the ground work for something I have been dying to unburden.

Weddings…..blah
If you were paying attention a couple of posts ago, you probably noticed that I dropped a little announcement in at the bottom of a picture post. Now that it’s had a few days to simmer, I feel like addressing it more substantially.

I am getting married in August 2013. I am giddy about it. I can’t wait. I want to throw a big party for everybody and dance to Roxy Music (and maybe that song that Luke and Lorelai dance together to for the first time at the end of season 4–because I am a huge sap) and tell the world how much I love this man. Now, keeping all of this in mind, I have to confess that most aspects to weddings make me want to vomit in a Mr. Creosote from Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life sort of way.

Anything that says “Mr. and Mrs.” or has cartoon birds kissing or anything that otherwise boils two complicated people who are also part of a nuanced relationship down to little more than the symbols on the door of public restrooms I generally abhor. I can’t eat cake, so there’s no fun in looking at them and Bridal magazines make me want to withdraw from society when they proclaim “Dream Wedding on a Budget: Under $10,000″

I think I choked when I read that. $10,000?! You have got to be effing joking! I was thinking closer to $1000, not including rings. If I can make that include the rings, I will be happy. I am cheap and not ashamed of it.

Now, I am not putting down anyone who has spent $10,000 on their nuptials, nor anyone who had one of those Save the Date cards that had a Mr. and Mrs. banner. You did the wedding you wanted, your way (I hope). I just know that these things aren’t representative of who I am, or who Brock (I have the impulse to start calling him The Professor on the blog, just for the hell of it. That might start now) and I are as a couple.

We are simple, build it yourself kind of people with big dreams. Both a little shy sometimes, but we make each other laugh. And we dance together all jerky and uncoordinated like because it’s fun. He makes Mr. Darcy jokes, because he is the perfect man. We are not above being sappy and romantic.

So, here I am, thinking about how to plan this wedding, not being inspired by just about anything I see on websites or Etsy or at the craft store. I did start a board on Pinterest which basically just reinforces that I like yellow and flowers–something that we all already knew. But nothing has struck a chord in me just yet.

By now, if you are still reading, I am sure you are wondering where I am going with this little rant of mine. I’ll tell you.

I want a simple, pretty, handmade wedding.

Here’s what I’ve got so far:
The wedding will be at Brock’s The Professor’s family farm.
The wedding will take place in August, in Kansas, in the country. That means there should be *fingers crossed* no shortage of sunflowers.
I will make decorations and favors myself, as well as whatever necessary gifts will be given.
The affair will be fairly informal.

Now, here’s the fun part: I am taking you along with me on the journey of figuring out all the niggling little details of this great big party. And I need ideas. I will be searching out and sharing what I find over the next 8ish months on the way to making this thing a reality, because I have no idea where to begin. And if you have any tips or tricks, I would love to hear them.

Fairy Tale Weekend

Once upon a time, a beautiful princess and her handsome prince planned for like two years for their wedding...  Seriously, they worked really hard and saved every penny.


They thought and thought, and decided on many things that were important to them.  And their starlit wedding reflected all those things that made them very special.


And so Friday night, an honored group of us got to attend this beautiful wedding in a chapel among the trees.  Rita and Lawrence finally became man and wife.


And they were very happy.  

I had to show you her hand-knit veil made of some lovely silky yummy yarn.  Isn't it exquisite?  She made it herself.  We have been delighted to watch this fairy tale unfold over many years, as their relationship grew and matured.  Most good fairy tales take a long, long time to get to the happily ever after part.  Happy sigh...

But the weekend was young, and GrandmaTutu and I had to jump into the Extended Cab Chariot of Fun and head to Tyler, for the Wildflower Fiber retreat that very night.  We got to Tyler very late and checked into the Palace of Holiday Inn Express.  This is a huge departure from every other time I've been to this retreat, as I usually rough it in a cabin on a bunk bed.  But I decided to embrace my elder status and cushion the accommodations a bit.

For me, the most magical thing about this year's retreat was that I had very little responsibility, and I tried very hard to do some relaxing with my fiber peeps.  So in my sans souci state of mind, I did a crummy job of documenting all the wonder and awe of the whole thing.  I rested, and only got a few photos of our fun...


Tri-loom weaving was a big hit this time - here Lisa shows us how it's done.  Love those little looms.  We have a tri-loom class coming up here at the farm in a few weeks--would you like to learn how?


Dori needle-felted little sheep on the table decorations this year, highlighting the special breeds we would be learning more about: Shetlands and Jacobs.


Joyce Terrell spoke about her love of Shetland sheep, and told about how to best use their wool.  I got the opportunity to share about Jacobs, and we all got to play with some freshly washed fiber from the two breeds.  Midge talked about silk and we got some very nice samples of that fiber to play with, as well.



The atmosphere was very casual and laid back this year.  We enjoyed the usual great food, show and tell time, and a riotous evening of door prize giveaways, but the schedule was loose and flexible and allowed for lots of restful time in the vendor hall, or wandering outside among the pine trees in the fresh air.


The theme revolved around fairy tales and Renaissance-style spinning, so some folks worked on spinning linen yarn with custom-made distaffs, dressed with flax stricks.  (Don't you love the crazy spinning lingo?)  The finished yarns looked so beautiful...


Go Christine!  You can tell she's done this before.

We drove out of the pine forest, waving goodbye for another year, but the farewells are only temporary.  Heck, these are some of my favorite folks and I'm blessed to hang out with them lots!  The DFW Fiber Fest is just two weeks away, so there's lots more fiber fun in the offing, very soon.

Before you know it, we'll add our alpaca fiber to the harvest haul...  What amazing adventure will we have next?