Long Weekend

I'm back, well I was back yesterday from Jim Thorpe, but we still had our friends staying with us.  It was a great long weekend with a lot of events.  Our first event was a student of mine's Birthday.  He was my student at the camp I worked at and lest summer he was old enough to come back and work on staff. 

I got to see some friends that I hadn't seen in awhile and catch up with another one of my old students who goes to school in Boston. We had dinner at Bucca di Beppo.  

We sat in the Pope room at the restaurant.  There was a bust of the pope on a lazy susan in the center of the table.  We played spin the pope a lot during dinner. 

Other than all the pope pictures the food was yummy and the company was great.  

Then on Saturday our friends from Boston came down for our friends wedding in Jim Thorpe.  It was great to see them and Simon and I were excited to spend time with them.  

The wedding was beautiful and the food was amazing.  It was from the catering company that uses all local produce and meat.  They had the best crab cakes I have ever eaten in  my life.  The reception is where I took most of the pictures.  

The bride's dress was beautiful and almost like a sculpture with all the draping and crinolines.  It was reminiscent of butter cream frosting.  (Oh, by the way the cake was amazing!)

This photo has a great story.  Our friend Josh was the DJ and he played raining men and all the guys we are friends with got up and danced on the small stage in the reception hall.  It was hilarious.  

It was a great party.  I was so caught up with all the fun I forgot to have Simon take a picture of my dress.  I will have to have a photo shoot or see if any of my friends have on of me wearing my dress.  (The dress came out perfect and it fit like a dream!)

Now I am looking forward to sitting around on in my living room, watching some netflix and knitting.  

Busy Weekend

Shot of Seneca Lake out of Watkins Glen.

Home Sweet Home, or more like home town.  This weekend Simon and I were in the Finger Lakes.  Well we drove there spent the night and then on Friday drove up to Rochester for my best friends wedding and then we spent Saturday with my grandparents for mine and my grandfather's Birthdays. 

The wedding was fun we drank, eat and danced the night away.  I also got to wear my newest dress, the fatina shift dress.

I'm short and the mantel was tall.

I finished hemming it Wednesday night.  This dress made me realize how short I am.  I had to hem about five inches off the dress for it to hit just above my knees.  It I hadn't cut off all the excess fabric and had hammed it where it asked to be hemmed I would have a dress that would hit me mid calf.  Which I find and unflattering hemline on such a fitted skirt.

I got to hand out with my family and see my two besties from back in my high school days.

We clean up really well.

We left on Sunday and no trip to the Finger Lakes would be complete with out a stop at my favorite yarn store! 

Finger Lakes Fibers, Watkins Glen NY

It was a great trip, but I think we are more exhusted after the trip than we were before.  We came home, unpacked, picked up some groceries, and the promptly ordered Mexican.  Then we slept.  

I've Been a Bad Blogger

I have been, I constantly forget to blog even when I post a little not above my computer that says blog or die. I always think I have a good excuse so your probably wondering what it is this time. My excuse for not blogging since the beginning of September is that I recently got married to my Aussie Boyfriend. We had a small wedding in my home town and a lot of the elements we made or did our selves. I sewed two dresses for our wedding party and made ties for the guys. I also made both bouquets (with help from Simon, he cut felt for me). We also made all the decorations our selves and set up the barn where we had the reception.

So I leave you with a pic of Simon and I with our wedding party out in the vineyard at the winery where we were married.

But now for some quick business, I have just ordered some new base yarn to dye its a worsted weight wool, alpaca, silk blend that will work wonderfully with the new pattern I have in the works.

End of Summer

I am back from my summer job. I miss it terribly, I met some great people this summer and had such a memorable summer because of them. It was bitter sweet seeing everyone leave, leaving myself, but coming back to the city and having Simon coming home from Oz (which by the way he is).
Now I am in super wedding planning mode 25 days till our wedding and there is so much to do. We did just receive our wedding rings from an amazing seller on Etsy, Sudlow. She makes beautiful stuff and was really easy to work with. We wanted our wedding rings engraved and she was so helpful and sent us photos of them and the engravings before listing them. The rings we picked out were her Silver Oak Wedding Ring Set. They match my engagement ring which Simon also purchase from Sudlow.

Photo by: Sudlow

I also love Sudlow's pea pod necklaces, they are so much fun and I really like their aesthetic. I think they would make great gifts for best friends or moms. I'm highly considering getting pea pod necklaces for both of these people in my life.

Offbeat Wedding Planing

I have been on super wedding planning mode all week. I'm trying to get as much done before the summer as I can. One of my favorite sites that I keep going back to for ideas from invite wording to DYI projects to Father daughter dance songs that aren't sappy is Offbeat Bride. It is possibly the best wedding blog I've seen. I read Ariel's book and loved all her advice about having a non-traditional wedding. (I also laughed out loud many times while reading.) Finding the blog while searching through all the crap I kept finding online was the best discovery I made in my wedding planning. Simon and I are a bit of an offbeat couple, and we don't want a traditional wedding by any means. Finding this site and book was like the light at the end of an awful white and baby pink taffeta tunnel.

When we started to plan our wedding I think my mother was worried that we were going to elope and then I think she was worried that we would get married in a field barefoot with Simon in board shorts and a t-shirt and me in a dress that I crocheted out of soysilk. This fear then moved to accepting the fact that all we wanted was for our wedding to really be us. Not some cookie cutter wedding of what everyone else does. For example Simon and I are not having flowers at our wedding. It's not our thing and why spend hundreds of dollars on something that is just going to die and get thrown out. Also We are not having a first dance, Simon and I both agree that awkwardly dancing together while everyone else stands around and watches you is weird. Instead we are going to preform a song together.

Again there are some traditions we are keeping like I am wearing a white dress and we are planing on having lots of dancing at our reception. Our ceremony is secular, but we are having readings and an exchange of rings just no god stuff and not in a church. (Neither of us is religous so this makes sense to us.)

There are a few exceptions I have made for my family. I have given my mother full rein on the rehersal dinner. This way she can have it at her country club if she wants or at the house or down at the bar I'm not worried about it, because it is not my priority. I will also dance with my father, but not to butterfly kisses or anything of the like, that is my only request.

It's all about balance. Balancing your wants and your families expectations, explaining why you are doing it the way your doing it. I really think Offbeat Bride champions this. It's a wedding not your marriage it's one day in a lifetime of days. I do want to have fun, I do want it to be meaningful, and I do want to through a great party for all my friends, Simon and I just want to do it our way.

So thank you Offbeat Bride! Thank you for all the advice, great posts, tutorials, and wedding porn! Thank you for not making us Offbeat couples feel like total freaks when we do something out of the norm!

P.S. We may not be getting married in a field, but we are having our reception in a barn!

Target

Yesterday Simon and I had our last date day and what better place to spend it than in state where we met and began our relationship, New Jersey.

We went out to brunch at the dinner where we had our first date, and then off to one of my favorite places Target. I don't know why, but I really love target. We had a mission while we were there, create our wedding registry. This process was simple and easy and a hell of a lot of fun. We could have stayed home and done it all online, but it was much more fun going to the store and using the price scanner gun. Simon wasn't thrilled about making a list of things we wanted people to buy us and while I'm not one to place a lot of importance on thing like a wedding registry it was fun, and people have already been asking about where we were registered.

Our list didn't end up being very big, and I will probably go online and tweek the list a bit. One of my favorite things that is on our registry is a large wall clock, of Simon's choosing.

Home Sweet Home

Simon and i are back in Philly. We returned after a long drive last night and unlike him I am still off for a few more days. This means I am doing what I love the most, eating brunch with one of my best friends and knitting as well as test dying. That was also something very exciting, when we returned my yarn I had ordered was waiting for me on our door mat.

Visiting home was nice, my Aunt Colleen came over for thanksgiving from long island with her husband Eric. It was good to see them. My mom, Aunt and step grandmother took me wedding dress shopping while I was home. I wasn't expecting to find anything but just to have fun trying on tons of pretty dresses all way over my price limit. But it happened I found the dress, It's beautiful and not overly expensive. (It was even on sale which we didn't know till we went up to order it.)

I know Simon snoops so I can't post a pic nor can I really describe it. It is nothing like what I thought I would wear, but it is beautiful.

Well that is all for today, I must go and turn on the dye pot to start some experimenting.

White Wedding

First off I've read "Offbeat Bride" and not only have I read "The Anti Bride Guide" but I own the Anti Bride wedding planner, as well as loving color and deciding on a fall wedding in upstate NY, I feel compelled if by some wedding demon to have a white dress for my wedding day. My mother has already made some comments about my want of wearing white. I find them odd as I'm sure no one who is coming to our wedding is really going to be offended that Simon and I have been "living in sin" for over a year and i am wearing white. So in honor of the white wedding dress I've been scouring Etsy for inspiration and here it is. A white wedding day collection of hand made and vintage dresses.

Bamboo and silk WEDDING DRESS in ivory

By econica

Fairest of Them All - Silk Taffeta Wedding Dress Made To Order

By hollystalder

1970's Vintage Mignon Designer Gown

By TimelessVixenVintage

French Ruffle Tea Dress

By clairelafaye Pleated Butterfly Dress By amandaarcher INGENUE simply pretty By MaisyBrownReproRetro

Corner of the Web

We are now past our first week of second session and I am finding myself with a little more free time than I had the last four weeks. This is hopfully going to continue as I miss my little corner of the inter web.

In my free time I am currently reading "Offbeat Bride" by Ariel Meadow Stallings, and I love it! Simon and I are hoping to plan our own off beat, personal, DIY wedding. As of right now there are no plans, we are going to enjoy the rest of the summer and then roll up our sleeves and get planning. We are quite content to teach, and Surf on our days off, only talking about our nuptuals in specific generalities. Others are not content to do the same, but they will have to wait.

On Tuesday we are going surfing, I can't wait. For it being summer the waves here on lake Atlantic have been substantial, and Simon hasn't complained once about the shore. Beacuse things have been decent this season the surf beach seems more and more crowded. I am all for learning to surf and beginners getting out their to learn, but if you are a beginner on a 9' Long board taking on that unbroken chest high wave is probably not the best idea. Especially when 4 of you decide to paddle for it. I always worry about beginners on long boards out the back as they never seem to watch what's behind them or infront of them.

Maybe Simon and I should get married on a tandum surf board....my mother would flip!

LBD

I have a wedding to go to tonight and since it's at 5:30 tonight and in the middle of december i'm wearing my LBD. But i do have some awesome accesories to wear with it.
The gray wrap I crocheted out of a wool and silk blend. It's about 6 feet in length and all pinapple lace. It's from the book vintage crochet. I love all the patterns in that book.