Lovely Wedding.

We attending L's good friend's wedding this weekend in St. Louis. It was lovely! Absolutely stunning. The rehearsal dinner (L was in the wedding) was held at Sage Restaurant. We had the entire upper outdoor patio reserved, and the mother of the groom did such a wonderful job with the table decor. The wedding colors were a gorgeous robin's egg blue (almost turquoise), and a really pretty cherry red.






{us at the rehearsal - you can't tell, but we were somewhat miserable...it was just so hot!}

The wedding itself was held at Bee Tree Park, under a shady area that overlooked the Mississippi. The weather held out and provided us with a very enjoyable 85 degrees, instead of the miserable almost-100 degree heat that we had the previous day.

But the best part? The reception was held at Third Degree Glass Factory. How cool is that? Between the time of the bridal party taking pictures and their arrival to the reception (and thus being able to start the buffet line!), guests were given a glass-blowing demonstration to pass the time.

Torn.

I usually post about things that I find on the internet, or my crazy sewing projects, but this morning something happened that I just had to write about. I work downtown, and as I was walking through the alley to go into my office building, I came across a dog. A small-ish grey and black mottled thing, she was just standing in the street, gazing at me. I tried to coax her to me. Her tail was wagging, and she seemed curious. But she wouldn’t come to me. She’d start walking my way, then would think better of it and turn around. But she kept looking back at me. She was panting; it’s in the high 90’s today, and probably over 100 degrees including the heat index.

I ran into the office building and filled up a bowl of water. When I returned, she seemed interested, but she still wouldn’t come near me. I left the bowl on the sidewalk, and, as I walked away, I glanced back and saw that she was eagerly drinking the water.

I am notorious for rescuing stray dogs – ask my husband about the time I rescued a Rottweiler two days before we were supposed to leave for our wedding - so this tears at my heart when I can’t do any more. I needed to get to work; but my heart was telling me to say screw it, somehow get her into my car, and take her to my house where I could at least give her a bath and a meal.

Here’s the terrible part of this story: there was a homeless man sleeping on the sidewalk right across the street. And I felt more inclined to help, and more sympathetic towards, this dog.

What does that say about me, as a human? Does that make me terrible? I’ve seen this homeless man around the city lots of times. My first thought is, if I help him and give him money, he’ll just use it for drugs or alcohol. But I could have at least given him a bottle of water, right?

I feel awful. I ended up not helping either of these living creatures. And here I sit, in my air-conditioned office. What a terrible person I am.

Dresses and Disco.

My first attempt at sewing a dress was a semi-success. The dress (the Trapeze Sundress from Weekend Sewing) turned out very well - cute pockets, very nice wide straps. However, it is huge. I made it from the medium-sized pattern, and I just swim in it. Did anyone else have that problem? Do the patterns just generally run big?

And this weekend was fantastic. We threw a bachelorette party for a friend, and it involved lots of alcohol, yummy appetizers, and a brown bag party. If you don't know what that is, google it. I've been to several of these parties before, and it was a hit. Let's just say that the "peter" game was hilariously fun.

Of course, the party moved downtown to a local disco club. It was loads of fun, even though we were guilty of being super lame and getting there at 10:30 pm. Which meant we were the only ones on the dance floor. Forties, lots of dancing and disco lights = awesome time, + really fun pictures! (I've been instructed to NOT put these on facebook, so I'll show them off here. Nothing incriminating, promise!)







And because I can't post anything without showing off something that I found on Etsy, here is what I stumbled upon when I did a search for something related to "disco".


{lyptis}

Her clothing looks so comfortable, and very well made. Almost like American Apparel...but better, probably. It's funny to note that this dress (titled Electric Strawberry Ice Cream Dress) came up in my search because she tagged it "dance wear dancing disco club". Awesome. Here are some more of her shop offerings...


{pine dress}


{semi-wrap tunic}

Pincushions.

I was finishing up my dress last night (I'm sewing the sundress from Weekend Sewing), and I realized that I really need a pincushion. I tend to not put the pins back into their little container while I'm sewing, and I always inadvertantly knock them all over the place, scattering them across the table and onto our rug (our vacuum cleaner was growling and not very happy when I cleaned last week - I think it picked up at least ten pins!).

As is always the case when I need something, I go to Etsy. And Etsy, you never cease to amaze me. Look what I found! Pincushions are an art form all of their own.

Styles ranged from sweet (almost literally!)...

{prettyfickle}

To cute...

{feltmates}

To simple...

{madebyjackie}

To really pretty...

{namolino}

To downright sculptural!

{ginpins}

{all images property of their respective shops}

...So which one should I buy?

Recipes to try...plus a sewing project!

Ok, so this weekend was fabulous. Fabulous = no real plans, the house was clean, so we were free to play and just do whatever we wished. So on Friday, we grilled ribeyes and corn on the cob. Mainly because I had two recipes that I had found and was dying to try. The first was this recipe - shallot-thyme butter for the corn. Please, do everyone in your household a favor - and make this right now. Not only is it delicious (we had friends over the next night and I made another batch, and our friend mentioned that instead of any real food, he'd just like a big bowl of that butter, please), but it makes your kitchen smell heavenly. Please, go make it.

The second recipe was this one - roasted garlic and pepper guacamole. We slathered it on top of the steaks, and the creamy, smooth consistency was a wonderful contrast to the grilled meat.

And then! There's more. On Sunday, I made this recipe. Lordy, people - seriously, we took one bite of this and we couldn't believe how good it was. The marscapone is slightly sweet, and is a great contrast to the tangy-sweet of the strawberries, all on top of those soft and warm pepper biscuits. I am pretty sure I gained a few pounds this weekend, but we needed it. It was our first weekend in a long time where we didn't have any plans or any travel requirements, so I took full advantage of it.

And you know what that means...I also got in a little sewing time. I went to work converting a blouse that I had picked up at the local goodwill. It cost me all of 50 cents, but it was so interesting that I had to buy it. It's a French blouse, 100% wool, with super adorable buttons placed down one side, and at the top was a lovely secretary-type tie. However, it was quite boxy when I tried it on, and had several small holes near the collar.



So, inspired by this crafty gal and her tutorial, I made it into something a bit more wearable. Ta-da!



I'm glad I did this, although overall I probably won't wear this top too much...like I said, it's all wool, so it tends to feel a bit scratchy and heavy - not quite what you'd want in a summer top. But it was a great learning tool, and I've already got another shirt ready to convert...so stay tuned! Plus, I almost finished that dress I was yapping about last week, so I'll post about that when it's done.

Anyone else have a neat before and after tutorial? Please share!

Pinafore perfection!

{all images property of necessityisthemother}

Oh, lordy these are cute. All available here. And I totally want to be this girl's friend.

On a related (and probably much less successful than she!) note, I am going to sew a dress for myself this weekend. I know that there are tons of readers out there on the edge of your seats, just waiting to get an update on it. Don't worry! I'll show pictures of it when I'm finished. Ha.

Strawberry Picking. And Jam.

I promise myself every year that I'll go strawberry picking once the season hits, and then June rolls around and I realize that I've almost missed out on the peak time! However, I think I haven't missed it completely, so this weekend I am going here to pick my own strawberries. If you've never picked your own fruit, I highly recommend it. I also highly recommend making your own jam. And no, it's not hard. I use this recipe, and it's wonderful.

I've already made one batch this season and we've already used it up (it's delicious on homemade bread!). Since it was all gone I was forced to eat Smucker's jam on a piece of toast this week in a quick, desperate and hungry whirlwind before I had to rush out the door for work, and I pledged to never do that again. Sorry, Smuckers. But you're just not that good.



So once you've made your OWN strawberry jam, from the berries that you've picked YOURSELF, then go buy this awesome jam spoon. Isn't it the cutest thing? And so clever!