Finishing Touches

Well, tonight we put the finishing touches on Alli's wedding dress...I stitched a little loop to pull up her train for the reception and snipped all the extra threads, tightened a few beads. I think that she is ready to go...even after the dress came back from the professional pressing, it still had a few wrinkles in it, and they hadn't tightened any of the beads. They had the dress for 4 weeks, and did not even begin the pressing until late afternoon of the day it was to be picked up. Alli was quite disgusted with the bridal shop and wanted to go wring some necks. I even had to wash a spot out of the front of the dress. Even with all that, she is going to be a gorgeous bride. I went to the store and bought a steamer so that we can do the last minute wrinkles. It's all happening so quickly now.

Saturday Afternoon Bridal Shower

We had a wonderful time this afternoon at Allison's Bridal Shower. It started out as a cool cloudy day, with rain in the forecast, but by noon the sun was shining and it became quite warm. There were about 20 people that attended, and Alli received so many nice things, including about 7 nighties...enough for a different one each day of the week!!! Only two more weeks until the wedding! Here is a picture of Alli, her new mother in law to be, Pattie, sitting next to her, Pattie's mom (Grandma Judy) next to Lizzie, (in the middle) and my Mom (Grandma Marge) and myself in the back. Amy had not arrived yet when we took the picture, so here is one of the three girls together. It was a very fun day!

adjusting

What I miss most about not working part time any longer is that I no longer have the space or time to be reflective, to pray, to study and learn, to process, and come to terms with what is going on in my life. I am finding Monday through Friday is a constant whirl of activity, with hardly a chance to breath. I hope that after the wedding that things will quiet down enough to connect with the inner me again. I am so much happier and at peace when I can take the time for "me". So it is off to work.

Sunday afternoon

I am feeling quite proud of myself today. I signed up for and was approved to be part of the Stitching Bloggers ring. That fact authorizes a person to put a little link on your blog page, linking to the ring. Well, that "little link" is about 7 full lines of code that needs to be inserted in to the template page with all the other code! After much trial and error, I figured out how to insert this code. Wow, it worked, except there were alot of extra characters on either side of the words, and it wasn't exactly where I wanted it on the page. Much more trial and error, with absolutely no instructions, and I figured out where in the template to put it to have it show up on my blog in the correct position, AND how to get rid of the extra characters!!! Major accomplishment as I have NEVER done this before. So I got really brave and decided to modify the code I had and insert a link to my pictures web page. It took a lot of fiddling, but I did it!!!! And then I found a book on the web on how to do a blog page on blogger.com. Of course I had to order it, this is getting to be lots of fun!!!

We went to the ocean yesterday, and I spent a glorious 3 hours on the beach...what a beautiful day. Lizzie swam with a friend....but I didn't even wade this time, the water was hurtfully cold...usually in August I can at least wade. Still, it was a great afternoon, I was sorry to see it end.

Life changes

I had the oddest experience last night, my mother gave me a book on what it is to be a grandparent. Reading parenting books is something I have done before, but never this. I remember thinking, this is sooooo strange. Amy is at 25 weeks today, and my granddaughter seems to be quite healthy and active. I got to feel her kicking for the first time this week. We are all so excited for her to be born!!!

The countdown has begun!!!

The wedding is only three weeks away! AND I started working full time this week. I am feeling overwhelmed by the demands on my time....thank goodness I can unwind with some stitching! I even had a 15 minute chair massage at the office today...wish it had been longer!

I had picked up the pattern for Toccata by The Drawn Thread while on vacation last month, and so last weekend decided to get started on it. I did not care for the colors in the pattern, so I went through my stash and chose colors that suited me. It is working up nicely and is a nice feeling of accomplishment when I can get a section done in just the tiny bit of time I have to sit down these days. This is my first pattern (other than my own designs) that I have worked on lately that hasn't been from The Victoria Sampler...Sorry Thea, but I almost feel like a traitor!!!!