making a wedding

This past summer our daughter was married and, since someone asked me to share more about the wedding,

and, since some of you might have an interest in some of the details

as well,

I am sharing a bit about it here today.

All the beautiful photographs were taken by Lydia Maybee Photography.

Welcome sign hand-lettered and painted by the bride.

It was decided early on that this would be a very hands-on affair, as in the bride had a lot of ideas for decorating, etc. that we could make and do ourselves.

The setting was a beautiful old barn that is now a venue for weddings and receptions.  

Pom pom garlands were made with lots of help from the bridesmaids, friends, and family on both sides.  A good tutorial can be found here.

They made a lovely back-drop for the wedding ceremony.

The loft railing was decorated with a bunting I sewed using fabric scraps...

The bride and her attendants made all the bouquets and boutonnieres as well.

Flowers were sourced locally and many were ordered from Blooms By The Box.

I really loved watching all the girls as they carefully put together their bouquets the day before.

Some old sap buckets were painted, filled with roses and baby's breath, and placed at the end of the rows of chairs...

Of course this special Golden was part of the big day, bow-tie and all.

My large supply of canning jars came in handy for the table arrangements,

lace-wrapped and filled with flowers...

The father-of-the-bride cut log slices, which the bride numbered and glued together for the tables.

The Cake

Although I lost no small amount of sleep worrying about making this wedding cake, I am happy to say that I DID IT!!  

{Right after assembling the layers and receiving some much appreciated help with the decorating, I breathed a huge sigh of relief. Then I found out that, in my haste to get said cake layers to the venue, I had forgotten my bag packed with my dress and shoes to change into.  As guests were arriving, I was frantically driving home to change my clothes...}

At the bride's request, the bottom tier was chocolate and the top two tiers were vanilla--for the vanilla layers I used the Basic 3-Layer Yellow Cake recipe from Simple Bites; the chocolate cake recipe is from Alice Water's The Art of Simple Food.  Both these recipes are delicious, and I appreciated that they were simple to put together.  All the layers were filled with homemade chocolate ganache and raspberry filling.  Because the cake was to be under a tent on a sunny, 80-some-degrees day, I chose this Crusting No-Melt Vanilla Buttercream.  It uses a combination of butter and shortening--I never use shortening--but when I found some non-hydrogenated, organic all vegetable shortening at the store, I decided to give it a try.  I ended up very happy with this recipe, which held up perfectly.  

The world-traveling couple fittingly chose a globe for their guests to sign.

Succulent favors also served as table assignments for the guests.  I was able to order these on Etsy from SucculentPartyFavors.  Shipped all the way from California to the east coast, they arrived intact!  We wrapped them with kraft paper, tied with twine, and added flags that had each guest's name and table number typed on using my vintage typewriter.

The bride made a CARDS banner and used a decorated, vintage wicker hamper to hold wedding cards on the gift table...

I am so thankful to have been a small part of making their wedding day special.

an antique find and some hand crafting...

Note: This post contains an Amazon affiliate link.

For awhile, I have been looking for a piece to use as a vanity in the powder room of our soon-{I hope}-to-be-built new home...the basement of which has yet again been postponed due to excessive rains :(

Finally, on Craigslist, I found a walnut piece with the perfect measurements to fit the antique marble sink top.  It was about an hour and a half away, so we took a nice country drive to the antique shop, found it in good shape, and brought it home...

What I really like about it, is that what look like lower drawers, is actually a cabinet door.  The undermount sink will consume the top drawer, but the cabinet below will offer plenty of storage.

Oldest child asked recently if I would mind coming up with some baby things to go along with a shower gift.  I was happy to oblige, and since I had some white cotton chenille on hand and plenty of leftover fabrics, I made some burp cloths...

I used this tutorial.

I was also happy to have an excuse to knit some booties that look like little moccasins.

I'm close to being finished with the first one--the design details will be added after, using duplicate stitch.  The tutorial is from Purl Bee.

Having finally removed all of the old, Harvest Gold, nubby upholstery fabric from the Eastlake chair, I started with the reupholstering.  I'm using a moderately heavy linen and decided to keep it simple with upholstery nails and no gimp.  I don't think I have ever redone this style of armchair, so am referring to this book on my shelf, How to Repair, Reupholster, and Refinish Furniture, for guidance.

One tip in the book I found helpful, was to use a strip of cardboard placed in the fold of the fabric to get a nice straight edge.  The curves were just free-handed and a bit more of a challenge...

Hoping today to get the top front done...

Deb

a weekend in June...

It was a perfect weekend--a garden show and dinner overlooking the Niagara River on Saturday, some kayaking and time spent with the kids on Father's Day, and even a little time in between to work on a couple projects. 

It helped us forget, for a while, the fact that we were not able to break ground on the new house, Monday, as planned...the driveway was put in last week, and then the excavator dug a test hole for the basement, which quickly filled up with water {those June showers!!}.  The recommendation is to wait a couple weeks and see if the water table has receded. I have to keep telling myself, patience.....

Last year I started stripping the old upholstery from this Eastlake chair, which had belonged to my aunt.  Last week I carried it up from the basement, deciding to get it finished.  Several layers of fabric and many upholstery tacks later, I am finally down to the padding, much of which will need to be replaced.  It has apparently been recovered several times, and the wood is riddled with so many nail holes that I hope I will be able to successfully attach new fabric.  Hoping this goes well...

I found this little lamp for a few dollars at a yard sale last year.  The covering on the shade was not salvageable, so I have been looking for a replacement.  Nowhere though, have I come up with something just the right size.  Recently I was at an antique shop and saw a shade that someone had wrapped vertically with a narrow strip of fabric, so I figured I could come up with something and just get by with this shade for now.  In a drawer I had some of this vintage, wide cotton tape.  I attached the end with some hot glue and started wrapping, trying to figure out how to make it look somewhat decent.  One continuous length of tape would be the ideal, but since I have four lengths, I am gluing the ends together with some Aleene's OK to Wash-It 4oz glue*.  I hide the join on the inside, and so far it seems to be holding just fine. Halfway there...

Working on any project lately?...I would love to hear about them,

Deb


*affiliate link

Where Women Create Magazine Giveway

My sincerest apologies for not being back here the end of last week with a giveaway, as promised.  I kept meaning to fit it in, but instead I got carried away working on journals, launching a new shop website, mowing and trimming trees, shrubs, and blackberries on our property, and enjoying a Memorial Day picnic and flea market.  It was a great weekend, but now that life has settled back to normal I am happy to announce the giveway ~ an issue of the latest Where Women Create magazine.  Jo Packham, Creator & Editor-in-Chief, has kindly sent me a copy to give to one of you.  

It is an honor for me to be included in this May/June/July issue.  Jo Packham, besides a creative genius, is an absolute pleasure to work with, going out of her way to be kind and helpful.   The current issue features the work spaces of Bethany Kramer, Anne Freund, Beckah Krahula, Betz White and more.  As always, it is full of inspiring photographs and stories.

If you would like to enter to win a copy, please leave your comment below.    

• This is open to all readers, even if you are outside the US.
• Only one comment accepted per person
• Comments will be accepted until end of day Sunday, May 31, 2015
• Winner will be chosen by random drawing and announced on Monday, June 1, 2015

Thank you dear readers and customers for all your support,

Deb

a finished baby quilt, a new basket, and some totes

The baby quilt is finished!...just in time for the shower this past weekend.  The hand quilting with perle cotton went fairly quick, but still took me some time just working on it a little each day.  I decided to use black & white gingham for the binding and intended to finish it with hand stitching, but was out of time.  I ended up using this Fast Machine Quilt Binding tutorial, and it worked wonderfully.  The quilt was then popped in the washer and dryer which gave it that nice puffy look.  Already I'm considering what the next quilting project will be--maybe that Amish quilt top that I started repairing long ago...

Because I can't seem to work on one project for too long, I took some time out one day to make a cotton cord basket.  The dogs' toys need to be contained, and I thought this would work well.  I'm very happy with the basket, which was so easy to stitch up...but, no sooner is my back turned, and Fluffy has every toy dumped out, the basket in her mouth and proceeds to shake the living daylights out of it.  The basket has now been put away for its own safety.

Despite some snow last week, it seems Spring has finally arrived.  Some daffodils and forsythia have appeared around the old garage.

Some new bags have made it into the Shop, and I'm now working on some vintage book cover journals.

There's been a reader request for a peek at the Parsonage kitchen, so if you are interested, stop back later this week and we'll take a little tour.
Thanks for visiting,

Deb