Creeping Dark

In the last two weeks I have noticed the dark beginning to creep in. A few nights ago, after supper, I commented that it looked like we had rain coming in over the lake. The rain never came. The next morning while making a second cup of coffee I commented that it looked like another gray day was ahead.... then I realized I was wrong. Very wrong. The weather that day was forecast to be beautiful. It's dark outside because the seasons are changing. It's been such a long summer, I've forgotten what it is like to not have that beautiful morning light before 7am. Our local weatherman said last night that we will be loosing three minutes of light every evening between now and the winter solstice.

Those who know me, know I will not be mourning the end of summer. As a super fair skinned redhead, summer has never been a favorite. I love the early creeping dark in the evenings, the cool mornings, knowing a 'new year' will be starting again (6 years of college cements September as the start  of the year in your mind for a long time) and a great excuse to put pumpkin in anything.

Autumn will be a busy season here at The Red Homestead. As you may have guessed from this post, there is a wedding coming. By "coming" I mean in October.... of THIS year! From the wedding until Christmas marks Future Hubby's busy season at work. Additionally, I have a super exciting announcement next week that will show you how I will be spending most of my time starting next week (no... it's not a baby or anything that requires feeding). By exciting, I mean exciting for me, I imagine you could probably care less... but I need something to build anticipation here.

Baby gift for Future Hubby's boss, who is due the day of our wedding!

In the meantime, I'm working on my wedding dress. Full sewing of fancy fabric has commenced. After a sewing marathon yesterday, fortified by a big pot of hot black tea and homemade shortbread, all that is left to do is hems on 4 layers of skirt, some hand finishing on the lining and sewing on about 15 pearl shank buttons.... then the whole project is done!

 My beloved 1962 Kennmore, given to me by future FIL after his mother passed away.

I've also been knitting the most mindless things to keep my hands busy, to keep the stress from creeping in. Like a dozen white cotton wash cloths for face washing. From the Yarn Harlot's recipe, using just under a full cone of crochet cotton. I'm so excited to start using these! Such a simple luxury.

Started on August 10th and finished on September 15th, with a few distraction projects along the way.

Quilting has also been happening. My friend, Helen, showed me how to do a disappearing 9-patch at our craft guild night a few weeks ago and I've been in love. I've made multiple lap size blankets in this pattern this month. You can do a 9 block, lap sized blanket with 5 fat quarters and 1/2 yard of solid (the white in mine), plus sashing, binding and backing, which makes this a pretty cost friendly project. It works up amazingly quickly as well. These two things combined make it a great gift project. I'm planning a how-to post when I put my next one together.

The patterned fabric is from a fat quarter bundle I picked up at JoAnn's on sale. Yes, those are handknit socks, in case you were wondering. 

All that is missing from this week is a treat made from pumpkin and a big pot of tea. Thinking we might have to rectify that today.

Accountability

In the wedding planning process lots of people are there to keep you accountable.... most of those people want money.  Then, there are family members asking you if you have made phone calls and taken care of minor details that you are trying to pretend that if you ignore them long enough they will go away (the details, not the family members). In my case there is one more person, unexpectedly, that is keeping me on the ball on this project. Every Sunday Father Tom asks "How's your wedding dress going?" Yes, my priest is keeping me accountable for progressing on my wedding dress. Which is a good thing, because lately I've been pretty low motivation on just about everything in life, not just this dress.

Things with this dress have fallen into place and the muslin is done!

The next step is to pull out the $300 worth of lace and silk chiffon in my closet and start the REAL thing (stay tuned for more photo updates).

Thanks Father Tom, the dress is going better than I expected.

Thanks for keeping me accountable.

Things that make your neighbors go "hmmm......"

I had an awesome post planned for today about making your own flavored syrups for drinks and cocktails. However, this trumped it today. So, you can look forward to a post on summery drinks on Friday instead.

A few background notes that will help you understand the following photos. 

1. Future Hubby and I are getting married in October. 

2. I’m making my wedding dress. 

3. We live in a 900 sq ft townhouse, that has two floors and two bedrooms (read: our living room, the biggest room in our house, is SMALL). 

4. “My backyard” is shared with 15 other town houses with approximately 50 other residents, at least a few of whom were watching this even unfold, shaking their heads and going “the girl ain’t right, I tell ya.”

Working on the muslin rough draft of my wedding dress today while Future Hubby was at work, I dragged the dress dummy (a lovely gift from my Maid of Honor for my birthday a few years back. Love you, Heather!!) downstairs and got to work. I finished the skirt, slipped it on the dress dummy and immediately realized I did not have the room to continue.

 Found a quick fix for that! I can’t be the only woman in America to have worked on her wedding dress in the middle of her backyard. Right?

As you can see, it was pretty windy this morning. Naturally, I used silver wear to hold everything down to the ground while I pinned all the pleats into the back of the dress. Resourcefulness at it's best.