JoAnne...I didn't forget you!!

I was browsing through my pictures this morning when I came across these pictures my sweet friend JoAnne took this summer.  I can't believe I did not post them!!

JoAnne is a good friend of mine that I met when Aaron and I were living in Kent, WA.  We met when we both had just 2 kids.  We hit it off as buddies.  She would call me almost everyday to tell me about great deals she had found, to chat about being moms to young children and life in general.  I don't think she knows it, but at that time in my life, I was really struggling with physical problems and was fighting depression.  Her phone calls ment so much to me and helped me cope with all that was happening.  JoAnn's humor is one to leave you in stiches.  She taught me some tight wad skills like, dumpster diving and using coupons with sale items.  We would have girl nights out and have dinner with our families.  I really enjoy being with her!

She now lives in a land far away (but not for long, they are moving to Utah!! WO WHO!) and comes to visit her parents who live in Utah once a year for a month at a time.  Her parents live 2 hours away from where I live so this past summer they invited us to come for a visit at her parents house.  Our kids had a great time, but I think JoAnn and I had a better time.  She took us to a cheese factory, to the park, we got away to go thrift shopping and hike and the kids had a fun time playing in the yard.

The following month she came back for Ed week at BYU.  I spent the last night with her in the dorms and went to a couple of classes.  Then she came to my house for a couple of nights and we went out on the town.  You can read more about it on her blog here.

She is an amazing photographer and I was lucky to have her take some beautiful pictures for us.  You can see more of her work here.

JoAnne and I

All of our kiddos

Slip and slide fun!

All worn out from the slip and slide and hanging out playing games.

At the park.

Beautiful Gwen

Eva's pretty Eyes.

Here are some pictures I took.  As you will see, her dad loves to garden and has an amazing yard.  I wish I had taken a few more pictures!

 

Her parents love to collect rocks and have quite a few.  Her dad let my kids pick on to polish in his shop.  They were so excited about this.

His wonderful vegtible garden.  I like how he used carpet for weed control.

It reminds me of a secret garden.  What a beautiful way to build a green house.

I like how he used old tires.  I didn't even notice at first that they were tires.  He turned them inside out and filled the stairs with concrete and the flower boxes with soil and some of the most beautiful flowers I have seen. 

We had a great time!

Aiden's Unit Study: Electricity

My kids are required to study a subject for a month and then report, at the begining of the folloing month, during  Family Home Evening. 

Aiden chose to study electricity this month.  This is his first experiment:

Mom: Aiden, what have you learned so far about electricity?

Aiden:  I don't know.  Just kidding!  It's really really really fun. We used what we had at home to conduct the hot dog experiment.  We only had to buy hot dogs and aligator clips.

Mom:  Would you like to add what you learned about electricity?

Aiden:  Electricity cooked the hot dog because the salt caused the electricity to run through the hot dog.  Salt is a conductor. 

Mom:  What else is a conductor?

Aiden: I have no idea.  Just kidding again!  Copper wire, tin foil, metal and water.

Mom: Any thing else?

Aiden: People, though that would hurt.

Mom: So what happens if you touch the hot dog while it is cooking?

Aiden: I haven't tried, buzzzzzz, woah. 

We found this definition on the internet of what a conductor of electricity is:

The substances which have free electrons(which move freely ) act as conductor while those whose electrons held tightly (which can not move freely) are insulator.

The Ball

Thanks to a few of my friends, I have some pictures to share from the Regency Romance Ball we attended for Valentine's day.  So with their permission, I share these pictures of our fabulous evening with elegant events and wonderful friends.

As each person arrived they had a man (dressed like he was about to preform an Italian opera, and whose voice added to his appearance) announce each couple by name and where they were from.  Some people were very creative with these details.

Here is our group shot made by adding all of our single shots together.  It was humorous to hear a few of them ask the picture editor to make us, "a little taller" or "a little shorter" than the rest.  It was fun to see the results.

I was amazed at how far dance photography has come since the awkward school dance photos of the late 80's and early 90's.  No more balloons with a splattered paint canvas back drop and a Polaroid camera my friends.  These were done with a green screen. I felt like I was in Hollywood!  Once taken you could choose from three shots BEFORE they were printed.  I even got to choose the background.  Yes photography has come a long way

 

Aren't they handsome?

Some of us ladies.

The night started with some dancing...

then some delicious food.

The dinning was delectable.  Before hand they asked if we had a special diet to please let them know.  So I emailed my long list with the side note of "if it's too much work, please let me know so I can eat before hand".  I did not have high expectations due to past experiences.  To my surprise I received a response that they would indeed cater to my long list of food restrictions.  The food was amazing because I did not have to prepare it or clean it up! The best part, I did not feel sick the next day.  The table settings were beautiful and complete with real silver.  Can you find us toward the end of our group?  That's what you get when you arrive fashionably late.

After dinner, to my enjoyment, there was more dancing.

Here are some finalist in the costume contest.  Our very own Andrea Flynn is on the far right.  She did a wonderful job with the assembly of her dress and bonnet.  The fabric she choose, the ruffled collar, and the embellishments she added to her hat made a very elegant ensemble.  She also made a vest for her husband to match.  I'm not too sure why they second one in made it as a finalist for the "Regency" portion of the costume contest.  They did have a contest for other time periods.  The lady on the far left won.  Her costume was amazing.  She probably thought I was crazy because I kept walking by her trying to see details on her dress. She told me that her sister made it for her.  The fabric was a pale blue paisley brocade (which I saw here, a wonderful place to buy high quality fabric.  Watch for the deal of the day and you can get great fabric for cheaper than Joann's.  I'll be watching myself to purchase fabric for next year. Thank you Liz for telling me about them!) trimmed with a gold trim.  The outer jacket had a ruffle collar and was made out of cream pin tucked silk, trimmed with a bridal beaded trim.  When Betsy noticed her, she said to me "Tina!  It's Jane Bennet!".  Yes, I said, she is! If my cameras battery hadn't died, I'm sure I would have made an awkward scene.

The night was grand.  This will make a Valentine tradition we both enjoy and can afford.  In the past Valentine's Day for us has been a little like this:

(taken from here)

But alas!  Now our Valentine's Day can be a little more like this:

Sewing frenzy

Just after Christmas time I was asked to join some friends in attending a Jane Austen Romance Ball.  Aaron did not refuse the invitation to join me so I quickly started a frenzy of costume study, fabric shopping and sewing.  I started out with these patterns:

I don't think I will use this Burda 2767 pattern again.  The jacket was difficult to follow (I'm pretty sure this was translated from another language and I believe some of the directions were "lost in translation") and there was a piece missing from the pattern that I had to draft myself.  Some of the pieces did not line up.  Maybe if I had sewn a suit jacket before it might have made more sense.  Although the jacket didn't turn out the way I wanted, the pants worked quite nicely.

The corset pattern from Mantua Maker was very easy to follow.  If you choose to try this pattern, make sure to read through the pattern BEFORE you buy your supplies.  The supply list forgot to mention that you need fabric for interlining and later in the pattern it discusses what type and how much boning you will need for your body type.  When cutting out the pattern the only pattern pieces that you need to cut 4 of are the gussets.  You don't need 4 strap pieces or 4 center back pieces as the pattern pieces recommend.  The other thing that this pattern failed to mention was how to close the back seams.  All I did to solve this problem was cut a 4 inch strip of the outer fabric that was the same length as the back seam, sewed it right sides together through all layers and ironed it to the inside BEFORE I added the bias tape.  (see picture below).

This pattern from Period Impressions was the easiest to follow during my sewing frenzy.  As you will see, I changed the sleeves and had to re-draft the bodice pieces resume modesty.  The only thing I would do differently was choose a size larger and hem it a little shorter.  Dancing in a floor length dress was a little challenging or maybe it was wearing a corset...

For my purse, I made this from a pattern from Australian Smocking Magazine issue #80 called Velvet truffle.  It came together nicely, but I would have added two extra rows to the smocking or sewed a larger seam allowance on the bottom end.  It did not quite cover the bottom of the bag.

Results:

Not a very good picture.  I wish I would have thought to recharge the battery before the party.

Here is Aaron's "Joseph Smith" shirt.  I made the vest out of a very soft deep red velvet.  The scarf is out of the same silk my dress was made from.  Our secret to the scarf tack, an earring. :)

Here are the pants.  I'm not too sure what the flap was used for.  It reminds me of a diaper, but I won't let the gentlemen know my thoughts.

Here is the jacket that took me 3 weeks to make.  Not my finest work, but it still looked good

Here I am.  I thought it turned out handsomely.  The only thing I would do differently is make it a little shorter for ease of dancing.

It's an interesting dress.  It is a puzzle of sorts.  There are no zippers or buttons, no gussets with ribbon.  The arms and back are one piece with a long tie that wraps around to the front.  The front is a bib with another tie that wraps behind and also ties in the front hence the bow.  The bib stays up with straight pins, but I  choose to be a little more modern and use safety pins for the safety of my husband.

The purse



I made this necklace/choker with a little silk left over from the sash and a pendent from a necklace my mom sent me a couple of years ago.

I was worried that my hair ribbon would fall out of my hair.  For a solution I hot glue gunned the ribbon to a head band...

added some embellishments... 

and another ribbon to tie it to my head.  Gwen makes a beautiful model, don't you think?

Some of my friends wanted to know what my... ahem... "underthings" looked like.  If you wish NOT to know what they were like please go no further.  Otherwise, here you go.

Here is the corset I made with the shift (slip that you wear under the corset).  I used a cream colored denim for the inter lining and a cotton sateen for the outer fabric.  I made my own bias tape out of a white cotton fabric I had laying around.  I ordered the busk and boning from http://www.corsetmaking.com/CMSpages/CMShome.html.  It was reasonably priced and arrived quickly.

I took a little time to do a little quilting on the front which adds extra support.

This is the corset turned inside out so you can see where I had to make an addition to the back seams.  As you can see I added an extra strip of fabric.  I believe I cut about a 4 inch strip for either side.  In the end, it adds more support for the grommets.  I ordered the lacing from the same place as the boning.  It's like a very long shoe lace.



This is a pair of pantaloons that I made for a 1850's pioneer costume a while back.  They are very comfortable.  I added a few tucks, some lace at the bottom and a little bit of insert to make them pretty of course.

This is the last "underthings" that goes on over the corset.  I call it a slip.  It fastens with a button on the side.  I added some ribbon, a tuck and lace trim for beauty.

So to get dressed this is the order that proceeded.  Shift, pantaloons, stocking (this is important to do before the corset because I leaned that a corset makes it hard to bend over), corset, slip, dress, hair accessories and last but not least, shoes.  So I felt very tucked in and tight, but feeling beautiful for the ball.

The whole way to the ball I talked to Aaron about how amazed I was that ladies actually wore all this everyday.  I can't imagine doing housework in all that.  Phew, I have great respect for those who came before us!

She did it again!

Here is a picture of Emma back in 2007, the first time she broke her right arm.  She was trying to use her bunk bed, as you would, a set of monkey bars.  Emma found out very quickly that bunk beds do not work as well as monkey bars and ended up breaking off a piece of her elbow.  Her arm had to be set and the poor girl had to wear a cast for 3 weeks.

I've decided that Emma's right arm doesn't like to be used to catch her entire body.  Right before Christmas Emma was trying to keep up with some friends and tried to run down some icy stairs, but ended up landing on her right arm at the bottom of the stairs nicely landing on a rock slab.  She put a crack through the bottom of her humerus, again on her right side.  Three weeks of itchy torture is enough to make a whole family nuts, but alas, we all survived and Emma's arm is again back to normal.