Mission Accomplished

IT'S DONE!!!

What's done?

My regency dress! Whoohoo! I finished it last Monday but I keep forgetting to post about it. I would put some pictures of it on, but I haven't had the chance to have any pictures of it taken, so you'll have to forgive my forgettfulness and wait longer. :P

I have become much wiser in the way of making regency dresses since I first started this dress. For example; I learned that buttons would be a better choice than a drawstring and eye-hooks. Also, that skirt linings are very difficult to deal with. No more skirt linings for me, thank you very much!

Even though I haven't even had a chance to actually wear my dress, I'm already dreaming up other regency dresses for future projects. :P What can I say? I'm hooked on regency styles now. Maybe I shouldn't have watched all those Jane Austen movies. :P

~Megan

Life is a Highway

Being the true-blue photographer that she is; Emily was busy taking pictures while we were on Hwy. 18, on our way into town! She got some interesting shots....

~Caitlyn

Father, daughter photographers

Ah ha! The computer decided to be nice today and let me put pictures on! Hurray!

I just wanted to share some shots that Emily got of our tulips. She and dad had a fun evening together taking pictures and learning new techniques. Dad got some really neat ones but I don't know how to put those on here yet. :)

~Caitlyn

A glimpse of my fabric....

Someone is expecting kittens....Again

And she's due any day now....

Kittens anyone?

~Caitlyn

It's always when you want it most.

Yes, it's always when I really want to put pictures on my blog that the computer messes up and won't let me do it. Why it does that I will never know; to irritate me perhaps? Or maybe to teach me patience.... ;D

I have sooooo many pictures that I am dying to share with all my readers; I have clicked every button, pushed every knob and whatever else there was to try, and-- still--no--pictures. :(

So you will have to bear with me until I can get dad to help me later.


Changing the subject now.... ;)

Emily and I finished 'Sense and Sensibility', well, actually we've finished it and have watched it for a second time now. :) We tried both the HollyWood version with Emma Thompson, and the other newer version, we didn't like that one so I can't remember who it had in it or who it was by (oops). I think I can say that it is now my #1 top favorite movie. The actors did a great job, the costumes were great, and I cried watching it. ;) And just to make it a full "Jane Austen week" we also rented 'Emma' and 'Pride and Prejudice'. We watched Emma last night and while it was decent enough, I didn't like it as much as 'Sense and Sensibility'. I think tonight we might watch 'Pride and Prejudice'.


And I am getting closer to finishing my costume!! All that is left now is to sew the skirt to the bodice and then add the buttons. I was going to put a picture on here, showing my fabric colors, but alas and alack, the computer would not let me (grrrr). I've already planned my next regency dress too. :D My next one is going to be a short-sleeved brown dress with cream lace. It's to be a summer dress, nice enough to wear into town (yes, I will wear it in public!), but sturdy enough to withstand the rigours of country life, and light enough to where I won't be broiled alive. After that maybe a light blue one..... Yeah, I should probably finish my first one first. ;D

Until next time my readers!

~Caitlyn

Chicken Thieves

We finally found out who was responsible for raiding our chicken coop!! It was a very sneaky man with his crafty German Shepherd/Wolf dog.... See?

Dad's been having fun with his camera outside..... :D

~Caitlyn

Almost Done

Hi everyone! Caity here to let y'all know that I am almost done with my regency costume!! Hurray! :D

I don't have any really good pics of my costume yet, so you'll have to be patient with me for a little while longer.

In all, I have finished the bodice, the skirt and the sleeves; I can't sew them together yet as I need a few more things from Jo-Anne's.... But hopefully I can get those tomorrow. I was really suprised at how easy the whole thing was to do. I'm doing view A, and we had been warned that it was a little trickier than View B, but for once in my life, I actually understood the directions! It seemed almost a little too easy, and I wondered if I had done something wrong (which I didn't). ;D

About the sleeves.... I decided to go free style and do them without a pattern, going by some not-too-great pictures online. While the sleeves were simple to create, they were very time consuming, it took me two and a half days to finish them. But it was worth it!!!! Both sleeves turned out better than I expected and are beautiful. I admit it, I'm proud of them. ;) I really did try to get some pictures of the sleeves, but since they are not sewn on to the bodice yet, they don't hold their shape very well.


As a slight change of subject.... Emily and I got to watch half of 'Sense and Sensibility' last night (we get to finish it later tonight). And I think we are both now officially addicted to regency era dresses. ;) We got lots of dress ideas for future costumes (only with higher necklines!!) and with luck, I am going to try making a regency jacket soon. It looks easier than my sleeves!

Well, I'm off to have snack, bed down the animals outside and get ready to finish our movie, I'm so excited to see how it ends!

TTFN, Ta, Ta, For, Now my readers! :D

~Caitlyn

Regency Dress Update

So far so good. I think. :D I've finished the bodice and I'm presently labouring at the skirt. I've got the skirt and lining sewn together, but I'm experiencing some 'technical difficulty' with the gathers. Can anyone tell me if the back of the skirt where it's gathered is supposed to puff or not? :D I've had to rip the gathering seams out twice (or more crucially, have Emily rip the seams out). Grrr!

If I don't have to do anymore seam-ripping, my next step is the skirt placket. Mom says it's fairly easy to do, so I'm trusting her judgment. :D

Here's some more pics of my sewing venture. :P

An amorphus lump of fabric. Hard to believe it'll ever become a dress (that is, if it ever becomes a dress) :P

Threading the drawstring through the neckline casing. lookin' good... I hope. ;P

TA DA!! The finished product! I was so proud of myself! But, then again, Em also helped sew a large portion of it. So I guess I have to share some of the glory. :P

The back of the bodice. Ooops! That pic was taken before I had the drawstring threaded. Oh well! :PThat's all for now! :P

~Megan

I really am still alive....

I'm sure all my readers are probably gasping in horror and mortification that I didn't post about anything yesterday.... Or today for that matter. ;D

I really am still alive over here; I have just gotten very busy of the late.

I'm slowly but steadily working on my costume for the upcoming masquerade ball in May. At first I was planning on making a renaissance era costume, the kind with the loooooong sleeves, but, my grand total for all that fabric would have been around 40 or 50 dollars!! Ouch.

Plan B.

I am now making a regency style costume. If you scroll down to Megan's post about her dress, you'll be able to see the two different styles. Meg is doing view B (the green long-sleeved one), and I am working on view A. My color for the overlay (the white fabric in the pic) is an extremely pale green, that almost looks gold in some lights, made of a medium weight cotton. The underlay color is a light, cream, made of flannel backed satin. I know, I know, I am totally going to die with part of my costume having flannel on it, but, it was soooo pretty, and it went so nicely with my green fabric. ;D I told my sisters that at least I will die happy!

One thing that I am doing differently is the sleeves.... I've been skulking around countless blogs and websites, gleaning ideas for my costume. I found one fantastic idea for the sleeves; but I have nothing to go by except the pictures. Regardless of that, I bit the bullet and so far so good! When I finish the sleeves I'll post some pictures and show y'all.

In fact, I really should be sewing right now instead of typing away on here.... I am a procrastinator by nature and have a tendancy to leave things 'till the last minute (oops).... Okay, here I go. :)

Maybe I'll catch a chance to do some more posting tomorrow....

I really am going this time!!

~Caitlyn ;)

Our Noble Hound....

A Good Chuckle

Emily and mom went in to town today to do some shopping; Upon returning to the van after visiting Winco, they found a small piece of folded paper on the drivers seat.

:D We all had a good chuckle over the little note. Thanks guys!

~Caitlyn

Weekly One-Liners

11. If we aren't supposed to eat animals, why are they made with meat?

12. No one is listening until you make a mistake.

13. Give me ambiguity or give me something else.

14. We have enough youth. How about a fountain of "Smart"?

15. He who laughs last thinks slowest.

16. Campers: Natures way of feeding mosquitoes.

17. Always remember that you are unique; just like everyone else.

18. Conciousness: That annoying time between naps.

19. There are three kinds of people: Those who can count and those who can't.

20. Why is "abbreviation" such a long word?

~Megan

My first regency dress!

Yesterday I began my first regency dress. Whoohoo! I'm really excited about it. :D Several people I know have told me regency dresses are really quite easy to make, but I still had my doubts. I mean, the biggest thing I'd ever sewn was an a-frame skirt. So of course I was a little intimidated by all the bewildering pattern pieces and complex instructions.

Now I've changed my mind. I started actually sewing the dress today and, boy, it's like a walk in the park (okay, so that might be a little bit of an exaggeration) :P Here are some pics of the dress-making process.

This is the pattern I chose. The left is dress A and the right is dress B. I decided to do dress B, but with the short sleeves. (By the way, sorry about the bad pictures) :P

-Sighs- All those pesky little circles have to be penciled in on the fabric. Very tedious work, but those little circles sure are helpful!

Ah yes, gathering the bodice. I'm no expert at gathering seams, as I always break the strings, so I get my little sister, Emily, to do it. :P

Sewing steadily away. -sings- "Cinderelly, Cinderelly! We can help our Cinderelly! We'll make her dress so pretty! There's nothing to it really!"

And then when your sewing machine breaks down from too much use, ya' have to call a mechanic. I've found this guy to be the most reliable.

"Hmmm. Your problem seems to be starting with the spool of thread. Let me just take that off and have a look at it." Or maybe there was a more sinister plot behind all his helpfulness. :P

Thats all for now! I'll try to keep you updated!

~Megan

A honey fanatic for a new neighbor

We have new neighbors! And they love bees and honey just as much as me! Well, they probably like honey waaay more than me.

And who are these neighbors you ask?

Bears!!!

Yup, apparently there is a grumpy mama bear with two cubs prowling around our neck of the woods. We got a call from a friend warning us about her (the mama bear) and it seems that she has decided to stay for a spell and asks us to please not mind if she helps herself to our livestock! :-/

We haven't seen her yet, but we've heard her!!! Yesterday, while I was working in the kitchen, I heard the strangest noise, close by, in the 98 acres. It sounded like a low growling rumble. I didn't know about the bear yet so I assumed that somebody's cow must have gotten loose and went back to my work.

Last night when dad came home, he said he heard the same growl coming from really close by. It didn't click with him as to what the noise was until he got to the front door and heard the growl again.

Mom and dad have asked us kids to keep Copper (our Golden Retriever) with us when we go out at night until we here any further news about the bear. And of course, Emily is trying to remember to keep her camera close at hand.... just in case. :D

Gotta love country life!

~Caitlyn

The Day Before April

The day before April
Alone, Alone,
I walked in the woods
And Sat on a stone.

I sat on a broad stone
And Sang to the birds.
The tune was God's making
But I made the words.

Tea and Crumpets

I love overcast days..... Days where the weather changes from overcast, to sunny and back to overcast in the blink of an eye....

They put me in the mood for an English tea!

I recently found a recipe for crumpets.

Intrigued, I tried it yesterday.

My efforts were not wasted.

The whole family adored them and asked me to make them again today.

So I did!

What better way to spend a cloudy day, then to sip Bromley tea while munching on crumpets?
Maybe next time I'll read a Charles Dickens book while having tea..... I believe that would make everything perfect. :)

Cheerio my readers!

~Caitlyn

Weekly One-Liners

Our church has a small stack of tracts that have 101 hilarious one-liners. I thought that I might share ten with my readers every saturday. I wanted to post these on Saturday, but I was too busy sewing, so I shall start today!

1. Ninety-nine percent of lawyers give the rest a bad name.

2. Borrow money from a pessimist- they don't expect it back.

3. Time is what keeps things from happening all at once.

4. Lottery: A tax on people who are bad at math.

5. I didn't fight my way to the top of the food chain to be a vegetarian.

6. Never answer an anonymous letter.

7. It's lonely at the top; but you do eat better.

8. I don't suffer from insanity; I enjoy every minute of it.

9. Always go to other people's funerals, or they won't go to yours.

10. Few women admit their age; few men act it.


Tune in next week for the "Weekly One-Liners"!!

~Caitlyn

A Sad Happening

Alas and Alack, my most favorite book finally broke into pieces.



This one's title was 'The Herbal Handbook for Farm and Stable' by my favorite author Juliette De Bairacli Levi. Juliette is a famous herbalist who has traveled all over the world collecting herbal wisdom from the gypsies and peasants.

Her books have no-nonsense knowledge about herbs, their uses and how to treat humans and animals with them. I've had this particular book for about four years now, and just one look at it could tell you that it was a favorite. Numerous pages were dog eared, the cover was curled in half, some of the pages were falling out, and then finally, it split straight down the spine.

For a long time I kept it in my hope chest where it would be safe from harm, but now I'm working on ripping all the pages out, punching holes in them and putting them in a small three ringed binder. Slow work, but it will be worth it.

~Caitlyn

The end results

Here is where I give a great big sigh, in gratefulness that we managed to get everything finished in time for Easter. :)



Okay, remember the picture that looked like a hurricane hit our table? (the one below) Well, I will now reveal just what we were doing.



With all that fabric, lace, thread, scissors and paper, we made table decorations for Easter. Observe:

I made one dozen 12"x12" handmade, cloth napkins with the colorful fabrics (the pic doesn't show them all). While they were simple to make, they were very tedious and it took me two days to finish them all.

Together, Emily and I made a white, linen, 12'x6', tablecloth. She cut the linen to size and hemmed two sides, while I hemmed the other sides, then added the lace. It took me forever to finish that tablecloth, but to help pass the time, I put my headphones in and listened to music while I sewed. I've learned that I enjoy sewing, if I have music going...


Then there is our traditional Daffodil gathering. :D Every year at Easter time, Meg, Emily and I go up into the 98 acres and pick a huge basket full of flowers. We got more flowers this year than ever before, and we were able to make a large bouquet for our table centerpiece. (the white things in the vase are hard-boiled eggs for extra interest)

Meg and I had fun playing around with the napkins, trying to decide which shape we should do...

Perhaps a rose?

Or maybe a Bishop's Mitre?

In the end we decide on the "ice cream cone" shape. Then we had to attach the namecards to them. Emily labored endlessly to get these finished; and they turned out beautifully. :D

The end result for all our work was a beautifully set table. (sorry about the dark picture) Oh, and Megan also made some cute little nests out of spanish moss, which we put chocolate eggs and a scripture verse into.

The meal was fantastic as always, and when the day was over, and the little ones were in bed, we ended our Easter Sunday watching 'Faith Like Potatoes' which is a powerful christian movie. I would recommend keeping a lot of kleenexes handy if you watch it though. ;D I somehow managed to not cry during it, although I felt like bawling. I can't say the same for a couple of other people watching it though....

It was a good day. :)

~Caitlyn

Wordless Weekend: Preparation for Easter Sunday

~Caitlyn

The Dashing White Sergeant

Here's one more clip of the Celtic Ball for y'all. :D This is my second favorite dance: The Dashing White Sergeant. Normally we do it to a CD and the dance is faster, but the musicians played it a little bit slower; which turned out fine because they played it a lot longer than the CD version!

~Caitlyn

A birthday at the beach

My big brother Chris turned 18 last Friday. I can't believe I have an 18 year old brother! Even scarier is that in a couple more months I'm going to be 17!! Very scary. ;D

Since it was "the big 18" Mom and dad let Chris choose a nice restaurant to go to for birthday dinner. After some thought he decided on Kyllo's, which is a really nice seafood restaurant in Lincoln City. Now, getting to go to any restaruant besides Wendy's is exciting for us because we never get to eat anywhere else since we are such a big family, and getting to eat at Kyllo's was even better!! As always, the food was great and naturally we had to embarrass him a little by singing Happy Birthday in the restaurant. :D LOL.

After dinner, we walked along the beach; enjoying the perfect weather and the glorious sunset. And, big suprise (;D), Emily was everywhere taking pictures! Here is a glimpse of our evening at the coast....

~Caitlyn

Of Work and Play

What beautiful, spring weather! I hope everyone else is having as fair weather and warm sunshine as we are. I'm going to take a wild guess and say it's about sixty or seventy degrees outside right now. Perfect for being outside whether working or playing. Here are some pics of what our clan has been up to on this fine day.

Here's Jake dragging fallen branches from the willow tree down to the stick pile, the place where all unwanted branches go.

After a while he got tired and decided to take one stick at a time. Just joking! Some of the branches had poky thorns on them so he's being really careful. What a good helper he is!

Here's dear sister Cait wandering around with her herb basket, collecting who knows what to store away for her doctoring tinctures and teas. Yes, I know what she uses that stuff for. I'm one of the poor victims she practices on. LOL! (just joking, Cait).

"What? You want to take my picture? Oh, fine!" Yes, she actually let me take her picture! Amazing, I know. She looks very reluctant to have her picture taken, doesn't she? :D

Here's Dad toying and tinkering with the lawn mower, trying to get working again. Jake looks on in awe, in a respectful silence. :D Dad's efforts were not in vain, though. He got the mower up and running and I do believe he's out there mowing as we speak, er, write. :D

Ah, here's Emily labouring industriously at those pesky weeds. Go girl!

Is she glaring at me!? "Megan, did you just take my picture? You did!? Aaaarrrrgh!"

Little Carver out looking to do good. Or is he? Out of his way! Baby on a mission here!

"Here ya' go Emmy!"

"Ya' gotta' put your back into it! Heave ho!"

That's all for now!

~Megan