Bessie Art

My little boy's all grow'd up!

2012-01-31T13:04:00.000-08:00

Ol' Dean--what a fine gentleman!

I can't believe he used to look like this:

What a cutie, huh? Maybe the baby he and Irma made will be as cute...

Bessie

Something Lovely

2012-01-30T08:09:00.000-08:00

Davis and I found this wedding dress at an antique store during our holiday travels. I had to buy it.

The tag said, "1940's or earlier". Ha! This baby has 1950's written all over it!!

Still in wonderful condition, and came with a crown-style veil (which I do not have a good picture of at the moment). It is absolutely gorgeous!

(with flash, so you can see the sweetheart bust under the lace!)

(without flash, so you can see the awesome front pleating detail!)

Oh, and I also found a darling feed sack:

I have been collecting quite a few fabulous vintage dresses lately, and soon I will be putting them up in my Etsy shop (which is now called Bess Miller Vintage, btw). One of my goals this year is to actually DO SOMETHING with my shop. I'm going to be working on that!

Still no goat babies! Come on girls, go into labor already!!!

Bessie

Desmond

2012-01-29T04:36:00.000-08:00

Desmond doesn't like being photographed. Whenever he sees one of us with a camera he typically runs and hides.

Hehehe...I tricked him into looking!

Desmond is one of our LGDs (Livestock Guardian Dogs). He is a Great Pyrenees that we adopted from the Great Pyrenees Rescue of Atlanta in April of last year. His foster family had goats, so we figured he would be the perfect fit for us. He definitely has been.

I have never been a huge "dog person", but I'll make an exception for Desmond. He is a great guy. Sweet, docile, obedient (for the most part), and great with both humans and goats.

Our other Pyr, Rousseau, is a different matter. Not that she isn't a lovely and sweet dog, but she definitely still has a lot of puppy in her and is, let us say, a bit of an attention hog. For example, the other day I was feeding some grass through the fence to Dean and Rousseau shoved him out of the way and started eating the grass. Now there is no way that she could have really just wanted the grass--she just didn't want me showing anyone but her any attention! Sigh. I know she'll grow out of it. Hopefully...

So, I am taking another math class. Whoop-do-doo! This time I have actually been doing fairly well...until last night. Oh gosh. It was a rough night.

So I'm on the chapter about solving all sorts of linear and rational equations. I really don't know why it is so difficult for me! I just can't seem to get it right--I always make some simple, stupid mistake that throws off the whole equation. Davis has patiently and sweetly helped me with my homework, but I think both he and I are beginning to feel like this again:

Well, we can't all be good at everything, right?

Sigh.

I'll keep you posted on the goatees! May be babies today!

Bessie

Irma Louise Miller

2012-01-28T16:59:00.000-08:00

Isn't she lovely?

Irma is getting ready to give birth for the first time. She is due any day!

Buttercream is still holding out on me, but she seems to be getting closer. I noticed her acting a little funny today (strange stretching, soft talking, going away from the herd for a bit), and also that her udder has gotten bigger over the course of the day. Her back ligaments are softer as well. Perhaps we will have babies tomorrow?? :D

Someday that baby will come...

2012-01-25T06:51:00.000-08:00

But when?!

Buttercream doesn't seem to know either. Or maybe she does, and she is just stringing me along. Apparently that is quite common...

Lately she has been spending a lot of time with her front feet elevated on this rock. They say this is a common practice as the pregnancy progresses--the kid(s) are probably putting pressure on an uncomfortable area, and the doe is trying to alleviate the pain/discomfort.

Look at that huge tummy! Her butt looks funny because I shaved it. Yes, I shaved her butt. It is common practice in the world of goat keeping--helps you to be able to see any developments easily, and when labor comes, keeps her from getting yucky goo all over her fur.

This was right after the butt-cut, hence the hair all over the floor.

Her udder keeps getting bigger and bigger! It is filled out even more since I took this picture a couple days ago.

The other day I though Buttercream had gone into labor. So I gathered up my kidding supplies and waiting outside with her--to no avail! This is a picture of my kidding kit. Paper towels, colostrum supplement (just in case), warm water, soap, raisins (to give the momma after she kids), baby goat sweaters, plastic gloves, naval clamps, iodine tincture, scissors, and a few other things that I can't think of right now because it is morning and I am not fully awake. ;)

These are the baby goat sweaters that I made out of the sleeves of an old sweater. I'm not sure how many kids Buttercream will have, but I made two just in case. In the winter it is good to have these on hand to prevent babies from getting chilled.

So Buttercream is still holding! I do think she was bred before I got her, which means she was bred to Dean's father, Gumby. If that is the case, then the date of the breeding was probably around the beginning of September. Goats have a 150 day gestation period, so that means she could go anytime over the next week or so. Ah!

Little miss Irma is looking pretty preggers lately too! Her udder has gotten a lot bigger. Maybe she conceived the first time I put her with Dean? I'm such a newbie at this.

Thanks for your comments on my 1920's post! I love 20's fashion, too. It is interesting to me how, while trying to be more masculine in appearance, the clothing was still very soft and girly. One thing I have noticed is that a lot of dress patterns from the 90's emulate the same straight-waisted designs that are found in 20's fashion. This spring I am going to use a few 90's patterns as bases for some 20's inspired designs and see what happens!

Have a lovely day,

Bessie

Waiting, waiting, waiting!

2012-01-23T05:56:00.000-08:00

Oh goodness, this weekend has been interesting! One of my does, Buttercream, looks like she is going to be giving birth a lot sooner than I originally expected. Yesterday she was showing signs that labor was imminent, and so I waited and watched and sat with her all day...but no babies! I went out to check on her today, she is still baby-less. So I guess we'll see what happens! I am afraid to go to work--I don't want to miss the birth!

It has been so rainy lately. Everything is wet and muddy and gross. Usually I love the rain, but I am just about sick and tired of it right now. Wet, gloppy mud is not the greatest factor when you are feeding animals.

My sister Jenny reminded me about ModCloth the other day, and I have been drooling over a few of their adorable dresses. Makes me want to sew so badly! I am having more problems with my machine. Something is seriously wrong with my tension, and nothing I do seems to put it to rights. Berninas are not supposed to have tension issues! Plus, I just took it in for a tune-up a few months ago. This is ridiculous.

Well, if I ever get my machine up and running again, here is a little bit of what has been stirring my soul lately, fashion-wise:

Off to check on Buttercream! Hopefully I will have goat baby pictures to share very soon...

Bess

My New Friend

2011-12-27T07:17:00.001-08:00

Well folks, my wonderful husband bought me a new computer for my birthday, so I am back to blogging! Yay! I almost had a cow when my photos loaded quickly and without distortion onto blogger. Hallelujah.

So back in the fall of '11 (I know, it's been such a long time), I picked up this little baby at a local thrift store. Isn't she cute?

As you can see, she is missing the screw that holds the presser foot in place. Other than that, she runs great. Whoever owned this machine before took really good care of her.

This is one of those posts that I have been wanting to do for about 4 months. Better late than never, right?

In other news, the goats are getting closer to their due dates and I am getting a little bit nervous! My mother bought me an awesome kidding kit from Hoegger goat supply for Christmas, so if I do have to reach in there and pull a baby out, I'll be ready. At least materially, anyway...

See Irma's baby bump on the right? :)

One thing that I have really loved throughout this kidding experience has been this breeding/kidding spread sheet by Molly at Fias Co Farm. If you have goats and breed them, you should check this out! It is extremely helpful. I am also about to purchase an herbal pregnancy tonic for the girls from Molly's Herbals. Whoop!

I hope you all have had a lovely holiday! I'll be posting soon about some cool vintage finds my husband and I stumbled across while thrifting last week (ever heard of Alfred Shaheen?), so check back soon!

Bessie

The Plaid Dress

2011-12-11T07:37:00.001-08:00

A little somthin' somthin' I've been working on (s-l-o-w-l-y but surely):

Version 1 (in the foreground) w/short sleeves

I had a bunch of this cotton plaid left over from my wedding and thought, "Gee, that would make a cute dress!"

I was lazy and pinked the seams. :D I love pinking.

The sleeves turned out nicely. I haven't attached them yet.

An inside view of the bodice, pre-lining.

An inside view of the bodice, w/ lining pinned in place.

This is about as far as I have gotten. I've stitched the skirt together, but still need to attach the sleeves, attach the bodice to the skirt, and finish the lining.

I think it will be a cute one! :D

P.S. I'm pretty sure Irma is pregnant! AH! That means we'll have at least two baby goaties this spring...

Have a lovely December day,

~Bessie

Winter Doings

2011-12-10T13:04:00.001-08:00

I'm so sorry. I cannot tell you how many posts I have backed up in my brain that I have not been able to actually POST because my camera and our computer seem to be incompatible. ARGGHHH!!!

That said, I am going to try and upload a few pictures of what we've been up to at the Miller place this past month or so. My apologies in advance for any wacky photo distortions. Sigh.

Yep...Buttercream likes attention.

Buttercup carries our first Christmas tree!

I was finally able to use all those wonderful vintage ornaments I've been collecting for years!

Don't you just love that rubbed off, oxidized paint look? :D

I've been working on a very cute little dress...(view 1 w/short sleeves)

It is not very cold here in north Georgia, and doesn't really feel like winter yet. Ah well--we usually have late winters. Maybe it will snow again in January 2012. :)

Buttercream looks more and more pregnant every day. I'm pretty sure she will have multiples, as she has a history of twins and has given birth many times before. Irma on the other hand, if she is pregnant, will probably only have one kid. Angoras usually have 1-2 kids, and young/first time mothers usually only have 1. I guess we'll see come February!

I hope you are all enjoying a lovely December so far. Remember to sit back and enjoy the moments of your Christmas season this year.

Blessings,

Bessie

Garlic

2011-11-19T13:32:00.001-08:00

Today I planted garlic.

First I dug a 3" deep trench...

Then I pulled apart a couple heads of garlic...

Next I nestled the individual cloves into the trench, pointy side up, 6" apart.

And then I tucked the little guys in under 2" of soil for a nice, cozy winter sleep.

Hopefully they will wake up in the spring and grow nice and big for me!

~Bessie

My Favorite Photo From Our Wedding

2011-11-17T20:52:00.001-08:00

I going through wedding photos today, trying to pick the perfect set for our wedding photo book. It has been awhile since I looked through all of the pictures. I forgot how beautiful they all are. :)

Out of all the photos, though, I think this one is my favorite. Our friend Austin took this photo as we were headed to the "getaway" car after our reception. I remember that moment--that feeling of wow, we're married! All of the hooplah was over and done with, we were off to the North Carolina mountains for our honeymoon--off to begin our life together.

Sigh!

Now that I have all of the wedding pics loaded on the computer, perhaps I will actually get to those posts about the process of our very DIY wedding. :D

The loveliest of weekends to you!

Bessie

Wool Washin'

2011-11-10T07:37:00.000-08:00

How to Wash A Fleece (using a washing machine)

Prep: Skirt your fleece and carry into the laundry room. Lay a towel down on top of the dryer (or counter, if you have one). You will place the fleece on this towel in-between washing/rinsing.

Step 1: Fill your washer with hot water. Oh yeah, hot n' steamy!

Step 2: Turn off the washer. Now add enough Dawn soap (or other detergent--I've read that Dawn is preferable) to make the water feel slippery (about 1 Cup). Use your hand (or a spoon, if you don't want to put your hands in the hot water) to gently incorporate the soap into the water. Don't make any suds!

Step 3: Gently place fleece into the hot, soapy water. It is very important NOT to agitate the fleece--resist the temptation to mix or swish it around! Agitation will cause the fibers of your fleece to weave together, making felt. We don't want felt right now, just clean wool. ;)

Step 4: Close the washer lid and let the fleece soak for 45 minutes.

Step 5: Set your washer on the spin cycle and turn it back on. Make sure that you don't put it on the rinse cycle or anything--JUST SPIN. When the spin cycle is through, your fleece will look like this:

Step 6: Now take the fleece out and set on the towel.

Step 7: Fill the washer with hot water again. This is the rinse, so don't add any soap. Gently place fleece back into the washer; let soak for 30 minutes. Spin.

Step 8: Remove fleece from washer and set on towel.

Look how clean it is!

This is my fleece after the first wash (above). Mohair (wool that comes from Angora goats) is very fine, and often needs more than one wash. I ended up washing/rinsing my fleece three times in all. :)

After the first wash, you can begin separating the pieces of wool that are clean enough to dry from the wool that needs another trip through the wash. Repeat the wash/rinse cycles as many times as needed for a lovely, clean fleece!

This is my fleece after the second wash. You can tell it is a little bit whiter. Believe it or not, Irma's fleece is a true white underneath all of that dirt!

Step 9: Add 1/2 Cup white vinegar to your last rinse. Spin.

Step 10: Lay wool out to dry on a clean towel or drying rack. Ta-da!

Next Step: Combing or Carding! This is a bit of Irma's mohair that has been carded. Isn't it beautiful? This is just so exciting. :)

So there you have it! My first foray into the wonderful world of wool washing. I think it went pretty well!

Many thanks to The Joy of Handspinning for their helpful directions and advice in all areas of the spinning process. :)

~Bessie

A-Skirtin'

2011-11-05T11:32:00.000-07:00

The result of a great thrifting trip--two Santa mugs, two lovely (and very old) silhouettes, and five boxes (only one pictured) of really adorable old fashioned Easter ornaments. :D Yay!

This is so idiotic. Will my computer and camera problems never cease?! So I can now upload pictures from my camera to my husband's computer, which is great, as long as the stupid computer doesn't distort the stupid pictures and make them stupidly rainbow-colored. This is extremely vexing.

I was not going to post at all until I figured out what the problem was, but then I thought it would be better to post something with slightly strange-looking pictures than to keep putting it off. I'm already so backed up on post ideas from early fall that I still need to write! So here is my post, and please excuse the camera issues.

Day before yesterday I began the long process of skirting Irma's wool. In case you are wondering, skirting does not have anything to do with a familiar article of women's clothing (except, I suppose, in a very distant, circle-of-life sort of way). To skirt wool is to pick all of the large pieces of dirt and debris from the fiber. It is important to do this prior to washing the fleece, as pieces of leaves and moss get a bit more difficult to remove once they've been washed in. :)

After skirting wool for at least an hour, I had only gotten about 50% of the job done. In fact, I still have only 50% of the job done. I decided to go ahead and wash the fleece that I had skirted, and then finish the rest later. My patience was waning--I really wanted to try my hand at wool washing!

After reading several different versions of "How to wash a fleece 101", I decided to go with the washing machine method. It seemed to me that this would be a bit easier to handle, and I like the idea of being able to extract water from the wool via the spin cycle rather than by hand squeezing (during which it is possible to agitate and felt the fleece). I will do a post on the washing process later. For now here are some pictures of the skirting process. Enjoy!

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This little strand of fleece is called a staple. Fleece that has a long staple is very desirable, as it is easier and smoother to spin. The fleece that grows around the neck and shoulders of an animal typically has the longest staple, and is therefore the most valuable.

See this little booger? This piece of moss is an example of the sort of thing that needs to be skirted. The smaller bits of dirt and dust will typically fall out during the combing process, so they don't matter as much.

I think this is the most distorted image, but you can still see the result of a small bit of skirting--lots of little leaves and twigs.

That's a lot of wool!

Did you know that one sheep's fleece can typically make about 3-4 sweaters?

Alright--I've got to go give my fleece its final rinse. Have a great weekend!

Bessie

YAY!!!

2011-11-03T08:42:00.000-07:00

I finally figured out how to load pictures from my camera onto my husband's mac. HALLELUJAH!

So...

Before

After

Isn't she adorable?

Alright, more to come!

Bessie

OMGosh

2011-10-26T06:56:00.000-07:00

Seriously, I am about to let the goats eat my computer. It has officially gone berserk, and won't even let me upload photos of Irma's first hair cut to share with you!!! ARG!

I finally got my beloved sewing machine back, and have been working on several sewing projects which I would like to share with you as well. As soon as I figure out how to load my photos onto my huband's mac I promise I will post.

Until then, imagine Irma with half of a hair cut. Oh, and imagine two lovely regency era dresses--one navy blue, and the other a beige-ish color with little pink flowers. Imagine me finishing my red corduroy coat (yay!), and helping my sister Susanna with her first sewing project--a camel coat of her own design. Fun stuff!

I hope you all are having a lovely October! Are the colors changing as vividly where you are as they are here in the Georgia mountains?

~Bessie

Knit A Dress A Day

2011-10-03T11:15:00.000-07:00

So fast it's truly incredible

Make a dress in only 6 hours

A complete wardrobe in a week!

Knit-A-Dress-A-Day was published in 1968, and was meant to be used with the "revelutionary" new Jumbo Jet needles, which look to be about an inch in diameter, judging by the photo in the introduction. It is quite a novel idea--who doesn't want a complete wardrobe of giant-knit mini dresses??? You could make one in every color!

Here are some of my favorite selections. Enjoy!

The Demure Miss

Military

Rich Boy Sweater

Miss Liberty

Short Sleeve Irish Fisherman

Triple Monique

Metallic A-Line (I really just like her hair)

Triple Treat

Between Seasons

Sugar and Spice

What do you think? Are you inspired? :)

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In other news, I harvested some sunflower seeds today for the first time!

Aaannnndddd, I made some bread yesterday that turned out quite well, if I do say so myself.

I do not have a mixer, so I kneaded the dough by hand. This usually results in a denser loaf of bread, so I was pleasantly surprised when mine came out relatively light and with a pretty nice crumb!

You can tell that the crumb is a bit denser on the bottom than at the top. Ah well, hopefully I can perfect this lovely art of hand-kneading. I would really love to get better at it so that I can make delicious, healthy bread on a regular basis. Plus, it'll probably buff-up my arms...

Well, that's all for now. Sewing machine should be up and running soon, so keep an eye out for fall sewing projects!

God bless,

Bessie

A New Old Song :)

2011-10-01T19:29:00.000-07:00

Today I picked up my ukulele and decided to record a song. :)

Check out my cover of the classic "Dream"!

http://www.myspace.com/bessiebmusic

Oh, and here is the original version (sung by the Pied Pipers):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLLEc-Xh068

~Bessie

Garments

2011-10-01T11:59:00.000-07:00

There are three things on my to-do list today:

1. Do dishes

2. Put away clothes

3. Organize pantry

I have gotten as far as number two. Well, actually, I think I have done the opposite of number two. I started going through my closet, pulling out summer dresses to put up in the attic for winter, when I noticed several garments I had either finished and never posted about, bought and never posted about, or had *almost* finished and never followed up on here at the blog. So I decided to take some pictures and share them with you. This entailed disemboweling my closet and piling the contents on my bed, so I suppose you could say that I have taken a step backwards in my daily cleaning. Oh well. :D

Please forgive the quality of the pictures--I had to use Photo Booth because my resident photographer is not in today. :( Alas!

Wedding Jacket

This is the jacket I made to go over my wedding gown. I used a pattern from the 1940's. The jacket is made of copper-colored velveteen and lined with a taupe satin. The hem is finished with taupe lace. My sister Sarah gave me the buttons as a gift several years ago--they are lovely antique German glass, white with lacy gold etching around the edges.

The best Goodwill find EVER

I bought this 1950's Carol Craig dress for $5 at a local Goodwill!!! Is that amazing or what? The dress is in fantastic shape, and just happens to fit me perfectly. I love the front detail and the ruched waist. I wish I had a party to wear this to...

The Virginia Mayo dress

This is a dress that has been sitting in the back of my closet for over a year waiting to be completed. It needs hemming, cuffs, and also taking-in at the waist (I guess I've lost a little weight since the first fitting...). This dress was inspired by a costume worn by Virginia Mayo in "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" (a great old Danny Kaye movie). You can see the inspiration here. See all of those buttons? Every single one of those buttonholes are bound. Yep. Took me FOR-EV-ER!

The Corduroy Coat

Gosh, I love this coat. Why haven't I finished it yet?

It is made of a bright red corduroy, and lined with some Amy Butler fabric (can't remember which line). Double-breasted, hand-worked buttonholes, and a cute sewn-in belt that buttons in the back. Pattern from the mid-1950's. All it needs is the sleeve lining. I really should finish it so that I can wear it this year...

The one thing I don't like about this coat is the largeness of the armholes. It makes for some difficult move-age, if you know what I mean. :)

So there you have it. Hold me accountable to getting some of these finished!

Hope you have a lovely weekend!

Bessie

I am not dead

2011-09-29T11:14:00.000-07:00

It's been awhile! I did not die, fall off of the end of the earth, or cease to care for my little blog. The reason I haven't written is simple (Steven, forgive me): I lost my camera again. Sure, I could have written, but there were so many things that I wanted to show you. For instance:

Our new goat (another one!) Buttercream. Her name may be changing to Frances--we are trying to decide. Buttercream was my beloved goat Jerry's mother. She is a lovely goat, and a proven breeder. Her coat was very matted when I brought her home, so I had to give her quite a hair cut (which she did not appreciate). Her winter coat will grow in soon, though, and she will regain her honor.

Irma's house, which has, unfortunately, become a favorite resting spot for our two big dogs and has consequently become a bit lop-sided and retarded-looking (excuse the expression). Oh well. It did look really adorable at one point in time...

The new goat house. Davis designed and built this fantastic house for the girls. It has a nice shelf on the inside for them to rest on, and a human-sized door on the side so that Davis and I can get in and out when we need to. There will also be a mounting board for the girl's feeding trough on the front porch, and a mineral feeder.

Rose Hips. I have waited very patiently for my rose hips to be ripe and ready to harvest. I am going to (hopefully!) start some roses by seed over the fall/winter. Apparently it is a very delicate and difficult task, so I may or may not be successful. I am excited to try, nonetheless! Did you know that roses grown from seed may or may not be like the parent plant? Isn't that strange?

My sewing machine is officially at the repair shop right now, so hopefully by next week I will be able to start working on the abundance of projects that have been buzzing around in my head this month. Hooray!!!

That's all for now! I have an interesting post for tomorrow--it's all about 60's bulky knitting. Pretty hilarious.

God bless!

Bess

More Pictures from Day 3

2011-09-05T06:10:00.000-07:00

Seagulls at Lake Superior

Mom and John walking out to the pier

...and they flew away

John and I--it was windy at the lake!

Potty break

A giant corksc ew!

Lettie had a very cozy ride :)

These are for you, Davis:

Home we go!

~Bessie

Wisconsin Update

2011-09-04T12:12:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we drove and drove and drove...and drove.....and drove....until we reached the beautiful little town of Tomahawk, WI. We happened upon a rustic lodge, where we were able to acquire a cozy room for only $72. Our room looked out upon the sprawling lake that the town was built around. It was really neat!

We woke up early-ish this morning and headed west for about 45 minutes and then north for the same and finally came to our destination: Mellen, WI. There we picked up Joshua's dear little puppy, Lettie, and visited with her family, the Beirls, for a little while.

Unlike hot, humid Georgia, Wisconsin is pretty dang chilly! I would guess the temperature is about 55F right now, and with the wind and the rain it feels quite wintery up here. I am loving it. September is one of my least-favorite months because in Georgia it seems to go miserably, humidly, on for-EVER. Here it actually feels like fall! Sigh.

We decided to drive north about 15 miles more to Ashland to see Lake Superior. That's where I am right now--sitting at a charming little coffee shop in Ashland sipping a tasty soy latte and uploading pictures from our trip! :D

And here they are--enjoy! :D

John drew a picture of the windmills in northern IL

Josh being goofy in our hotel room--dig the walls!

The view out of our window this morning

Hotel room

John and Josh skipping stones

Josh thought the butts bucket was real funny...

On our way to Mellen

Apples and a blue fence in Phillips, WI

Mellen, WI

John holding Lettie

John and a new litter of puppies--cute!

Lettie's litter mates really liked John

Lettie and her mom

Ashland

Lettie fell asleep in the car

Lake Superior

Tap Roots Coffee Shop

Isn't it cozy?

~Bessie

Back to Wisconsin!

2011-09-02T19:01:00.000-07:00

Remember last year when Mom, John and I adventured up north to pick up three puppies? Well, we're at it again! But this time are only picking up one puppy--and we have an extra passenger. :)

The puppy we are picking up this time is Lettie:

Joshua came along for the ride this time around, and we have been having a very fun time. Today's drive was long, but easy--it definitely didn't feel like the 10 hours that it was! We decided we would drive up to Champaign, IL and then stop for the night. We realized that we'd driven through Champaign about ten minutes after the fact--there were no signs, no gas stations, no hotels, nothing. It was then that Mom and I had a deja-vu. We had done exactly the same thing last year. Funny enough, we actually ended up stopping for the night in the same town, eating dinner at the same Red Wagon diner, and sleeping the the same motel! :D

Here are some pictures of our trip so far. Enjoy!

Josh and John at the first rest stop. Handsome fellas!

At the rest stop again--being goofy.

John drew a really cool picture on the way up...and then got car sick. :(

Chocolate pudding!

I kept occupied with some Sudoku puzzles.

Music for the ride!

The boys took a brief nap on the way up...

John and I. :)

...He just wouldn't hold still!

He told me he was trying to be funny. Sure did end up making me LOOK funny!

Have a happy and safe Labor Day weekend!

~Bessie

Irma

2011-08-26T22:41:00.000-07:00

Today my dear sister and I zoomed up to Cleveland and picked up little miss Irma, Davis and I's newest goat.

As I mentioned before, Irma is 75% angora. You can really tell, both in her fiber (long, luscious curls) and in her bone structure. She has brown eyes, is very friendly, and is a cutie-patootie!

Irma was a little nervous at first after an overly-friendly reception from the dogs. She decided to hang out indoors for a little while.

When we first brought her home, the boys were too busy eating to notice her. This was very surprising to me. I mean, I know how much goats love to eat, but I figured a lady goat would take precedent over an afternoon snack. I guess I was wrong!

Once the boys were finished munching, they realized there was somebody new in the pen. They both eagerly rushed inside (quite a change from the usual pushing and bribing back into the pen after grazing!), where they stood at a distance and observed their new friend for a while. The boys kept glancing at each other and nudging each other, and seemed a bit nervous about introducing themselves. Finally Truitt pulled himself together and came forward to meet her. Lots of sniffing and odd sounds ensued, and Irma didn't seem to like him very much. She expressed herself accordingly, and Truitt sulked off to eat leftover crumbs from the feeding trough.

Eventually Dean decided to have a go at it. He took his time, slowly inching toward Irma and sniffing shyly. She didn't seem to mind Dean quite as much--perhaps because he looked a little more familiar. She lived with several other fluffy white nigoras at her last home that looked a whole lot like Dean.

It seems that everyone is going to get along just fine. Right now we have Rousseau and Irma together in the new section of the pen, and the boys & Desmond on the other side. Davis built a lovely house for Irma, which I will have to post pictures of later, once I get it all set up in the pen. (As a side note, he constructed Irma's house for under $3 using cull wool from Home Depot. Go Davis!)

A very exciting day indeed!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. :)

~Bessie

Dividing Fence Progress (and this and that...)

2011-08-24T14:06:00.000-07:00

Look what my wonderful husband built for me!!!

I called him last night on my way home and asked what he had been up to that afternoon. "Nothing much." he said. The little jokester. What he had really been up to was putting together a beautiful gate for the new goat pen! We had sketched out some plans together over the weekend, and the finished product looks even better than I imagined it would.

We are going to build our own gates from now on. This gate cost about $25 to make, and it is super-sturdy. I think I paid $75-$100 for the metal gate I bought last year.

Now the only thing we have left to do is put up the actual fencing wire! We'll do that tomorrow, and on Friday we'll bring home the new girl!

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A couple other things of interest...

Isn't this a neat-o froggie? I thought he was so cool! Look at his light coloring. He was sitting on the fence down by our garage this morning.

We also encountered a HUGE garden spider. Unfortunately he was blocking our path, and we had to destroy his beautiful web. Sorry, spider friend.

Well, I must get going! Gotta go to work. :) Have a great day!

~Bessie

New Addition!

2011-08-21T16:26:00.000-07:00

Exciting times at the homestead--next week Dean and Truitt will be welcoming a little lady into the family! Davis and I have been working on a dividing fence for the pen for breeding purposes, and it is coming along nicely (albeit slowly!) so far. Well, except for the fact that we just finished digging several post holes and an unexpected rain storm filled them all up with water. Alas! We shall be siphoning tomorrow...

Davy

My post hole--I hit a reeaaallly big rock! There are lots of those up here.

The goats were curious about the strange holes we were digging...

Rousseau

Desmond

Here is a picture of the new girl:

Unfortunately she is not looking at the camera in this picture. However you can see her lovely coat! She is 75% angora--her mother was an angora, and her father was a nigora. I am excited to breed her to Truitt (who is purebred Nigerian dwarf) and see what happens!

In other news, my sunflowers are blooming beautifully, and my zinnias are finally starting to pop--well, the lilliput zinnias, anyway. The giants are just about ready--I can see the big buds nestled down at the top of each stem.

My sewing machine is officially out of commission, so I haven't done much sewing lately. Very sad! I need to take her in to the shop, but just haven't had time to do so. Ah well. Eventually, eventually.

Davis being a goober (post-post hole digging today)

Well, I must off and make dinner! Have a lovely week,

Bessie

Flowers and Pickles

2011-08-08T12:58:00.000-07:00

Ah, summer beauties. My zinnias and sunflowers are just beginning to blossom!

The first zinnia!

Lovely nasturtiums

And...

PICKLES!

Davis and I made our first batch of pickles in the canner. We have to wait until next week to try them--I'll let you know how they turn out!

~Bessie

Sewing for Buttercup

2011-08-01T14:33:00.000-07:00

My poor car, Buttercup the Volkswagen Beetle, is in sad shape right now. She is 10 years old, and her parts and pieces are either starting to show a lot of wear-and-tear, or falling completely apart. I plan to keep Buttercup until she dies, so I have decided to slowly fix up her innards. After all, it's what's on the inside that counts, right? ;)

Project no. 1: New Shift Boot!

I ordered the fabric for this project waaaaay back in the spring, and just got to it this past weekend. I definitely waited until the last bit of my summer break to get it done!

As you can see, Buttercup's shift boot was in a very dismal state. It had gotten so worn and stained over the years that I couldn't make it look good no matter how much I cleaned it.

Removing the shift boot from the shift knob was a bit trickier than I anticipated, but with a little help from Davy I was able to get everything taken apart.

The boot was stapled at the bottom to a rectangular piece of plastic. This is the piece that fits down into the plastic mid-section of the car (I know there is a name for that section, but I cannot for the life of me remember what it is) (8/8/11: The center console. Duh!). The staples were quite difficult to remove, and I ended up leaving a few of them in.

The next step was to rip the stitches and make a pattern from the old boot pieces. Pretty simple. :) (Don't those old pieces look gross? Blech!)

Unfortunately, my sewing machine is having a very bad week. It desperately needs a good cleaning and tune-up, and has refused to sew anything for me no matter how nicely I ask. Thus I was obliged to sew this baby together by hand, which was no small feat, considering the thickness of the fabric and the fact that my tendinitis has been acting up a lot lately.

I guess I was a little distracted and put out with my sewing machine, and forgot to take pictures of the actual construction of the boot. Alas! Here are some pictures of the finished product:

Isn't it cute???

I used a pretty pink buttonhole twist for the top-stitching. It's hard to see in these pictures, but take my word for it, it looks nice!

The most difficult part was stretching the fabric back onto the rectangular plastic piece. That took a while. Oh, and I definitely put it on backwards a few times and had to take it all apart and fix it. Ah well! I think it turned out pretty great.

So Buttercup feels a little better about herself now, and I feel a little better about her too.

~Bessie

Our First Normal-Sized Cucumbers

2011-07-30T13:01:00.000-07:00

Finally!

What I've been working on...

2011-07-29T12:44:00.000-07:00

July is almost over. I can hardly believe it! This has been a wonderful month for me. It is amazing how inspiring rest can be. I am practically overflowing with new ideas for garments, paintings, songs--you name it. I need to take time off more often! ;)

So here's a little peak at what I have been working on sewing-wise lately:

1. Transformed Muumuu

This muumuu was picked up at a local thrift store. There were several elements that I really liked about it--the cool zipper/zipper pull, the trimmed pockets, and of course the lovely fabric! I thought it would be a great candidate for transformation...and it was.

The sleeves are still unfinished because I cannot decide exactly what I want to do with them. I still have the original sleeves, but I am thinking I might just keep it cap-sleeved. Except cap-sleeves do not look very good on me. Ah well--we'll see what happens with that. I'll post more pics when it's all finished!

2. Tucked and Tied Blouse

I have just started work on this blouse. The fabric is a vintage silk print that I found at an antique shop in Alabama. It has the most beautiful drape and feel, not to mention a charming print! I have drafted the pattern using a vintage design as my inspiration (Simplicity 3401, version 1). I made the tucks a little smaller on the blouse front--more like pin tucks (about 1/4" wide), and have lengthened it a bit. It will have a side zip. I am very excited about this one, and will post more pics of the process as I have them.

So that's what I've been working on. :)

Have a fantastic day!

Bessie

Growth, Life, Summer.

2011-07-20T13:45:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted much this month because I have been working very hard to organize my art and sewing room. I am happy to say that it is *almost* finished! There are so many projects and ideas to post about, but for now, please enjoy a few pictures of summer at the Miller house. :)

Rose of Sharon

Rousseau

Desmond (who needs a bath!)

Yellow Beans (like green beans, only yellow)

One of my favorite flowers: Nasturtiums

Sunflowers and Zinnias (which are a LOT bigger now--they've grown about 10" in only a week!)

Baby Hollyhocks

My herb garden (Lemon mint, chives, and sage have been added since this picture was taken)

Baby Dahlias

Baby Cucumbers (maybe these won't be crazy-looking)

Rose of Sharon II

The Art Room...so far. Trust me, it's an organized mess. :)

~Bessie

Back Home.

2011-07-08T18:18:00.000-07:00

Home. Ah, how I love to be home. And oh, how I love having the summer off!

Davis and I had a wonderful time on our travels out west. We attended a dear friend's wedding in Arizona, visited the Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam, played the penny slots in Las Vegas (woo-hoo!), and spent time with Texas family that we love very much. All in all, we drove close to 5,000 miles and through 6 different states. It was quite an adventure!

One of my favorite little side-trips we made was to the Petrified Forest National Park. We passed by a sign for it on our way through Arizona, and I got very excited because I have an old Bette Davis/Leslie Howard movie called The Petrified Forest. The movie is very dramatic and romantic...I love it. I had no idea that the petrified forest actually existed!

As a side note, The Petrified Forest was Humphrey Bogart's first movie!

This movie was the inspiration behind the corduroy jumper I made last year. Bette's character wears a really cute little jumper in the movie (you can see a bit of it in this picture) The style that I made is a couple decades later than Bette's, but I really love how it turned out. ;)

Me on a petrified log!

Anywho, the Petrified Forest was really cool. Do you know what petrified wood is? I'm sure I learned about it sometime in the past, but definitely did not remember. In case you are interested, allow me to educate you.

A petrified tree (or wood) is an ancient tree that has been buried deeply in oxygen-free, mineral-rich sediment for a loooonnnngggg time. Over many (many) years, the silica (quartz) and other minerals crystallize within the cellular structure of the tree. The crystal gradually grows and takes the place of organic matter as it decays, turning the tree into solid stone. Petrified wood is made up of clear and smoky quartz, purple amethyst, and yellow citrine. (Info from nps.gov: http://www.nps.gov/pefo/naturescience/petrified-wood.htm)

The neatest thing to me is that there is an ancient forest of petrified trees--thousands of them--right smack in the middle of the dry, dusty Arizona desert! How amazing to think that the desert of Arizona was once a lush, tree-friendly place. It's really mind-boggling.

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So! Another highlight from our trip is an AMAZING Salvation Army find. Are you ready for this?

AHHH!!! (Pardon the funky face here--I really was excited about wearing this darling 1940's dress!)

And the back... (only missing one button back there)

Complete with peplum. Need I say I am happy with this find?

Many thanks to my second cousin Becky who took Davis and I around to the local thrift shops in TX!

There are so many things to say about our adventure--so many stories and memories and pictures. I won't try and relay them all here in anything but this:

It was a delight.

I hope you are all having an equally delightful summer so far!

Love,

Bessie

p.s. A.G.-- our cucumbers are still round and yellow--even the straight eights! *Sigh* I guess we won't be making any pickles this fall year...;)

Travels: TEXAS

2011-06-28T10:59:00.000-07:00

Davis and I have driven almost clear through Texas! We're in the panhandle right now. It has been a really fun trip so far.

Last night we stopped with my great Uncle Bob and Aunt Jean in Dallas. They were such gracious hosts--they woke up early and cooked us a delicious meal, and even sent us away with a bag of goodies for the trip! We will be staying with them for a few days on our way back to GA.

Here are some photos of our journey so far!

Great reading along the way!

This has been a fun element to the trip--a horrible case of chronic poison ivy! Seriously, I don't even know how I got it. Sigh.

Uncle Bob gave me a bunch of great magazines to read.

Texas Scenery

BTW, I listed a bunch of new patterns in my Etsy shop before we left. We have brought my little shop on the road with us, so be sure to check it out! If you place an order anytime over the next two weeks, it will probably be postmarked Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico or Texas. ;)

Have a great day!

Bessie

My Honeymoon Dress

2011-06-25T20:13:00.000-07:00

I never posted about this dress. I really meant to, but time got away from me and before I knew it it was the end of June and I the honeymoon dress was not in the front of my mind. Better now than never, right?

My honeymoon dress was made from the same pattern as this one, except I made a few changes to the design. The most significant alteration in the pattern was made due to lack of time, and ended up really making the dress look fantastic. I was down to the wire, and did not think I would have time to work buttonholes down the front of the dress before the wedding. As the dress is made of a nice, mold-able rayon blend, I was able to sew a couple ties and change the front to a wrap front instead of a button-up. Didn't that work out nicely? I love it!

The only other changes I made were in the length--I decided to go a little bit longer than I usually do, as it was still wintertime--and in the omission of pockets. I really do love pockets, but didn't feel that the patch-pockets would fit the style of this particular dress/fabric well.

I wore the dress over a lacy vintage black slip that used to belong to my grandmother. :) It was wonderful.

I wish I had more pictures of it from different angles, but alas! People were too busy blowing bubbles at us to take many photos!

Davis and I are about to embark on a summer journey out west. Posting may be a little scarce, but I'll try to update with pictures as I can. Until we return, have a fantastic July!

~Bessie

Skirt No. 2: Almost finished

2011-06-16T08:50:00.000-07:00

Skirt number 2, which I have not named yet, is coming along quite nicely! I am just in love with the fabric, Kaffe Fassett's "Collective Marquee Pastel". There is such a beachy feel about it. This one is also on sale right now at Fabric.com. Seems like all the fabric I bought at regular price a couple weeks ago is now on sale at Fabric.com. Funny how that works. The pattern dates back to the 80's--1987, I think.

I had to modify the pattern a little because of a calculating mistake on my part. The pattern listed the amount of fabric needed for both the top and skirt together, but not individually. So I made a guess...and guessed about 1/2 yard too little. The adjustments were easily made; I simply omitted the side sections and placed the pockets right on top of the side seams.

Almost ran out of fabric for the pockets! I had to dice it up a little bit and piece it back together to make it work. The result was a really fun look--sort of artsy. I like it. The pockets are absolutely HUGE.

All that's left to do now is hem it and sew hooks and eyes on the back of the skirt band.

When my husband gets back into town, I will have him take some pictures of me actually wearing these garments. :D Until then, here is another shoddy picture of me modeling the skirt from behind.

That's all for now!

Bessie

p.s. Have you ever watched All Creatures Great and Small? It is an old BBC television series based on the writings of James Herriot, country vet. GREAT show, especially for those inclined to like British humor and 1930's culture/fashion. I just found out that it streams on Netflix, and have been watching it all morning!

John Piper

2011-06-15T11:49:00.000-07:00

"Oh how we need to live in the light of our dying."

~John Piper

First 70's Skirt: Better Pics and A Weird Cucumber

2011-06-15T08:07:00.000-07:00

Here are some nicer pictures of the skirt. What do you think? :D

Skirt Front

Back

Pocket :)

Purple Zipper

\
Inside waistband finishing

Zig-zag hem

Inside details

We planted some special pickling cucumbers, and this one is looking very interesting...

Hm.

Have a great day!

~Bessie

70's Skirt No. 1: Complete!

2011-06-14T21:48:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned a few posts ago, my goal this summer is to create several summer skirts that are versatile, comfortable, and lovely. I bought fabric and chose patterns to make five skirts. The patterns I am using are mostly from the 70's and 80's, and are very farm-girl-esque in style.

My fabric came in the mail Friday, and last night I sat down and cut three of the five skirts out so that they would be ready to go when had a spare moment to sew. I like to cut out my projects ahead of time and place all of the pieces, along with the pattern, in a ziploc bag. I have a box-full of these soon-to-be projects, and any time I have a few minutes and am in the sewing mood I can simply grab a bag and whip something up without having to worry about cutting. It's nice. :)

Anyway, back to the skirt. I think I will name each skirt I make. This skirt simply must be named Clementine.

Clementine was made up using Butterick 5935 and this gorgeous fabric by Heather Bailey (which just happens to be on sale right now at Fabric.com):

(click for listing)

The skirt was very easy to make up. I did most of it this afternoon before work, and finished up the rest this evening when I got home. I was going to be lazy and just pink the seams, but decided to be good and do a turned and stitched seam instead. Glad I did, because it looks great! In case you haven't tried a turned and stitched seam before, Gertie has a great tutorial on her blog. It is very easy to do, and makes your garment look very professionally finished. :) Plus, you don't have to worry about yucky fraying edges and holes in your seams!

Seam allowance stitching process

Finished turned and stitched seam allowance

I did pink the pocket seams, though. They were not a good candidate for turned and stitched seams. French seams would have worked nicely, but I am happy with the pinking. It looks cute.

I used a purple zipper from my stash for the back zip. Love how that turned out!

I took a bunch of pictures of Clementine on my dress form, but the lighting is so bad that I don't want to post them. I'll take some better pictures tomorrow when there is daylight outside and post them up for you to see. Until then, here is a pretty bad picture of me wearing the skirt, pre-hemming. At least it will give you some sort of idea of how the finished product looks! The hem is 3", and finished with a zig-zag stitch on the outside of the garment.

Yay!

~Bessie

Le Jardin

2011-06-13T13:05:00.000-07:00

For the past several years, I have had this hankering to plant a garden. I've started to a few times--but never stuck with it long enough to actually grow much. The main reason is that my sister Skylar was always the resident gardener (she has the greenest thumb I have ever beheld!), and was naturally in charge of anything garden-y that our family attempted. I'm sure she would have had no problem letting me tinker around a bit, but I always thought I'd just get in her way. The second reason is that I have stayed SO BUSY over the years, I just haven't had the time to put into a garden to really make it beautiful. So, the only thing I have to show for my dabbling in the gardening arts is one potted Oregano plant that I have taken special care of for about five years.

Enter new house, new husband, three acres of my own land to do what I want with, and a lot more free time. It was time to start that garden!

Starting small, I planted herbs in some stair-step beds that were overgrown with a really stubborn vine when we moved in. Nasturtium seeds were planted along the edges of each bed, for a splash of color. The herbs did wonderfully, and are thriving now. How nifty to walk out your kitchen door and have any herb you need for cooking at your fingertips!

And then came the veggie garden. About a month ago, Davis came home with about 15 locally grown vegetable plants--okra, zucchini, yellow squash, banana peppers, and two different types of cucumbers (for pickling, of course!). Mrs. Green-thumb (aka Skylar) gave us three lovely tomato plants that she had grown from seed to add to our little plot. We made up a simple bed in the back yard, right outside the kitchen (convenient!), and planted those babies in the soil.

Since then, our garden has grown--a lot. We have added a row of yellow beans and lima beans, carrots, cotton and corn--all started from seed. We have also started a bevy of flowers from seed--dahlias, zinnias, columbines, sunflowers, hollyhocks, forget-me-nots, poppies, and something else which is escaping me right now. ;) Let me tell you, once you start planting from seed, it is hard to stop. The process is so rewarding! And so amazing! You stick a little seed in the dirt, and in a few weeks you have a living, thriving (hopefully) plant. It is one thing to buy ready-grown plants from a nursery, but when you grow your own plants on your back porch (or in your greenhouse) you begin to feel a deeper connection to, and understanding of, the earth and its Creator. At least I do.

If you have never grown something before, let me encourage you to give it a try. Buy yourself a package of seeds and some potting soil, and watch something beautiful happen when you mix the two together. It is thoroughly enlivening.

~Bessie

The Eighties

2011-06-10T09:15:00.000-07:00

While I was waiting on my bounty of skirt cottons (which came yesterday--whoop!), I decided to make a blouse. It's been awhile since I've made a top, and I found a pattern that was particularly inspiring...

Yeah, yeah. I know. It looks pretty ugly. But check this out:

The design sketch on the back (without the purple fabric and the skirt that looks like it is attached) looks surprisingly modern and cute! Whadda ya know?

I had several yards of a feedsack print rayon that fit the bill. Once it was all cut and marked and ready to go, I took it to my parents house to sew it up. Why? Alas, my sewing machine is in desperate need of a tune-up and the feed dogs are not holding on to anything lighter weight than cotton. Erg. So I had to steal my sisters machine for the day. Thanks, Skylar!

The blouse turned out GREAT, if I do say so myself! I just love it. It makes me happy.

The only change I made to the pattern was the omission of the shoulder pads. Other than that, I stuck straight to the pattern. Didn't need to make adjustments for size/fit, as the blouse is very loose and baggy. :)

I think it will look really cute with jeans in the fall/winter as well. Wouldn't a black version of this blouse be nice? And what one made up in jersey or silk? Ah! Ideas!

Well, I must off and officially change my last name. The best of weekends to all!

~Bessie

Skirts!

2011-06-06T19:22:00.000-07:00

The past few summers my sewing focus has been primarily on dresses. Every year around March I start feeling the dress making fever creeping in again, and I end up with a bevy of very cute retro frocks by the end of August. Dresses--ah how I love them. :) However a glance through my summer-dress-packed closet has convinced me to focus on sewing some other article of clothing for the 2011 summer season. What is that garment going to be? Skirts!

My wardrobe is sorely lacking in summer skirts. I think I have two. I need more options to pair with T-shirts and blouses for the summer season.

So this year I have been super inspired by Anthropologie's summer skirt collection. Check these out:

I have also been inspired by a big batch of 70's and 80's skirt patterns that I have acquired. Especially the patterns from the 70's. They are super-cute, and a lot of them are wrap-around, which is nifty. Here's a sample:

Maybe not the pants or shorts, but this skirt is pretty cute!

LOVE this one. My mother had one just like this in the 70's

Cute wrap skirt with big pockets

Littel 80's pencil skirt

Another wrap skirt from the 70's

This one is a very 50's-esque circle skirt. Fancy a twirl, anyone?

This pattern really appeals to me. It's just...cute. :)

I just ordered fabric to make 5 skirts with this summer from fabric.com (click on swatches to go directly to the listing):

What do you think?

All of this skirt planning is what inspired me to to a Summer Skirt Sale at my Etsy shop this month. I'm in the process of listing skirt sale patterns on Etsy as I write this, so be sure to check it out! Remember, each and every skirt pattern in the sale section is only $2.99. Whoop!

My best wishes for a lovely summer afternoon,

~Bessie

A Neat Surprise

2011-06-06T12:45:00.000-07:00

As I was counting pattern pieces the other day I came across something pretty cool...

The lady that I bought the patterns from (they were her grandmother's) said that her grandma used to make clothes for lots of people back in the day. This Boy Scouts membership card dates back to 1955, and probably belonged to one of her young clients!

One thing I love about vintage patterns is what you can find inside of them!

Have a great day,

Bessie

Winners!

2011-06-04T07:14:00.000-07:00

Sorry folks, I'm running a little behind this morning. Had a little kafoffle in the kitchen that involved a scorpion and the Fedex guy coming to the door as I was yelling at the scorpion to "DIE!" Slightly embarrassing. Ah well--humility, right?

On to the WINNERS of my New Beginnings Giveaway! Drum roll, please!

The winner of the ever-popular Prize no. 1 is: Schmuckstück

The winner of the lovely Prize no. 2 is: KittyMeow

And the winner of the darling Prize no. 3 is: sorbetsurprise

Congratulations to the winners, and thank you again to everyone who participated! :) If you are a winner, please shoot me an e-mail (via the link on my profile) with your mailing address so that I can send you your prize!

Have a fantastic weekend,

Bessie

I Can Can!

2011-06-03T16:32:00.000-07:00

Today was a very exciting day, as Davis and I learned how to do something we've been wanting to do for a long time:

We learned how to can!

Me with our crushed tomatoes!

I signed up for the canning class (held by a local extension office) several weeks ago. At the time, my husband was going to be out of town this weekend, so I didn't sign him up. Well, his plans changed last-minute, and thankfully there just happened to be one extra spot in the class for him today! I'm so glad there was--it was a really neat thing to do together, and he has been chomping at the bit just as much as I have to learn how to can.

In the class we learned all about boiling water canners and pressure canners, and what you can and can't can in each, and how to make sure that your canned food is safe to eat and not full of harmful bacteria. We canned some crushed tomatoes, and made strawberry jam (probably my favorite part). We also began making a really yummy (and really spicy) hot pepper relish, but did not have time to actually can it. It was bottled up, and is sitting in our refrigerator waiting to be enjoyed.

I can't wait to try out some recipes in our own kitchen with the fresh produce from our garden. What a satisfying feeling. Self-sufficiency is wonderful. :)

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So! Tomorrow is the big day! I will announce the winners of the pattern giveaway tomorrow morning at 10:00 am EST. Be sure to check in!

Thank you all so much for participating. I am very excited about the giveaway, and about the re-opening of Cozy Green House Artworks on Etsy.

Oh, by the way, I have dozens and dozens more patterns on their way to be listed. I'm in the picture-taking, piece counting, listing writing phase right now, but should have more up this coming week. I will also be starting a June Summer Skirt Special at the shop starting next weekend (June 10, 2011). There will be a special section in the shop full of lovely summer skirt patterns--all for $2.99 each!

Well, I must off and tickle a few ivories. Have a lovely afternoon and a peaceful weekend!

~Bessie

New Acquisitions and...An Etsy Re-opening Giveaway!

2011-05-31T07:29:00.000-07:00

For those of you who have checked out the shop, thanks! I only have 21 patterns up so far, mainly because this weekend has turned out to be a bit on the busy side. Alas! However I am in the process of listing a LOT more. A little each day. :)

I recently acquired a nice load of old sewing patterns from the 40's to the 70's, most of which will be going up in the shop soon! Here is a little sample...

Woo-hoo!

SO! To celebrate the re-opening of Cozy Green House Artworks on Etsy, I am going to do a vintage pattern giveaway here on my blog. There will be three different prizes you can win...

Prize no. 1: Simplicity 1668

This pattern dates back to 1946. The scalloped edges in view 1 are absolutely to die for! The pattern is complete, excepting the waistline stay piece, which can be easily replicated. Size 18/B36.

Prize no. 2: McCall 7221

This lovely day dress pattern dates back to 1948. Size 12/B30

Prize no.3: McCall's 7573

Ok, I'm pretty sure most of you will not be into the strange jumpsuit/overalls on the left. The play suit on the right, however...pretty darn cute! This pattern is from the early 90's, I believe.

RULES: You don't have to do anything fancy to enter--you simply must be a follower of this blog, and leave a comment on this post noting which pattern you would like to win and why! I will pick a winner at random for each prize on Saturday, June 4th. Be sure to tune in on the day of the drawing--I will have instructions on how to claim your prize if you won!

Have a fantastic week! Revel in the springtime!

~Bessie

Etsy: Status Update!

2011-05-26T14:03:00.000-07:00

With the wedding and the moving and etc., my poor Etsy shop was forced to temporarily close down over the past several months. However...

We are open again!

With hundreds of new patterns in the stock house, I might add. I am going to be adding new listings weekly, so check in often. Also, I will be staring a special Summer Skirt promotion starting in early June that I am very excited about! I'll keep you updated...

Have a fantastic day!

~Bessie

p.s. We are having some technical difficulties with the logo on Etsy. Bear with us! It looks really dumb right now, but it will look pretty snazzy once it is finished. :)

Really bad day = New Percolator

2011-05-24T11:17:00.000-07:00

So a couple weeks ago I had a really bad day. It was comprised of several elements of frustration:

a) Goat escaped from pen

b) Can't catch goat

c) Chase goat for 1.5 hours with no success

d) Let other goat out in hopes that goat A would follow goat B (who is more obedient) back into pen.

e) Both goats out. Refuse food bribes into pen.

f) Husband out of town

g) Finally get goat A back in pen, dog escapes

h) Chase dog for close to three miles. Give up when dog jumps into a deep creek and swims into the cow farm close by (yes, he swam away)

i) Give up, go home, cry, pull myself together, do some dishes

j) While doing dishes, accidentally break my beloved coffee percolator from the 1960's

k) Lay on sofa and sob

Thankfully, my dear husband arrived home about 20 minutes after I broke my percolator. He hugged me and let me cry a little longer, then we both hopped in the car and went after the dog. Eventually we found him, and brought him back home. Thank goodness.

But alas! My percolator was completely out of commission. I had bumped it with the scrub brush and made a huge crack in the side/bottom. Sigh. So I pulled up Etsy and found myself a new one...

This has to be about the coolest percolator ever. I love it. Loooovvveee it.

So something good did come out of it all. A nice to percolator...and a nice big serving of humble pie. ;)

Have a great day!

Bessie

Weddings and Wool

2011-05-19T06:52:00.000-07:00

My dear sister is now a Mrs! What an exciting day we had on Saturday. The wedding was beautiful, and the bride and groom were absolutely glowing. Now they are off on their honeymoon, having a marvelous time, and those of us back home are slowly getting things back to normal. Or the new normal, anyway. :)

Aside from the paper flowers, I was assigned two projects for the wedding: the ring bearer pillow, and Sarah's honeymoon dress. Both turned out pretty cute, if I do say so myself!

For the ring bearer pillow I used a simple quilt square pattern. The button in the middle is a vintage one from my huge jar o' buttons. It's difficult to see in this photo, but the button has a little floral design in the center. Cute!

Ring bearer Pillow

Sarah's dress turned out exactly as planned, and looked darling on her! She wore it with a brown leather belt, which I thought looked very cute. The fit was perfect. Doesn't she look adorable?

That's all the wedding info for now. On to the wool!

My Nigora goat, Dean, is moulting his wool right now. That's one thing I really like about Nigoras--you do not have to shear them. During moulting season (late spring), you can easily pull the wool right off of the goat, with no pain on their part. So the other day, I distracted Dean with some food and was able to get about half of his wool before he noticed that what I was doing and started playing hard-to-get.

Dean's Wool

Dean looked pretty humorous with half of his wool pulled out...

This is the first time I have been able to harvest wool from Dean, as last year he was just a baby and didn't produce much. I did my research and washed the wool the other day. It was an interesting process that took a few hours, but the wool came out shiny and clean and smelling pretty!

The one thing I did wrong was I forgot to skirt the wool before I washed it. Skirting is when you pick out all of the large, noticeable pieces of dirt and debris from the wool. So I still need to do that, and I might have made it harder on myself by washing it first. Ah well--live and learn! I just can't wait to see how this fiber spins up!

Well, off to start the day!

~Bessie

Paper Flowers

2011-05-11T11:37:00.000-07:00

Oh. My. Gosh.

Sarah is getting married this weekend, and we have been working on completing all the decorations and such. True to Sarah form, she decided to go a bit untraditional in the flower arrangements...and make them entirely out of crepe paper. I stopped by the house today to help with wedding prep and saw the completed flowers/bouquets today for the first time. I was absolutely floored. They are GORGEOUS!

I believe Sarah derived her inspiration from Martha Steward Weddings, which has some great ideas and templates for making your own crepe paper flowers. Good old Martha Stewart. :)

Here are some pictures of the flowers she has made thus far (she crafted her own wedding bouquet and all of the buttoniers), plus some pics of my own attempts (I was assigned the peonies that will go at the end of each row of chairs). Enjoy!

Buttoniers :

Sarah's Bouquet (AH!):

Extras for decorating tables:

Flowers in progress:

Roses and Tulips

Peonies

My finished peonies:

Mom's finished rose:

The crepe paper is so fun to work with. It reminds me a bit of fabric--pliable and mold-able. In order to make the flowers look more realistic, you actually stretch and shape the petals. Isn't that cool?

This picture has nothing to do with flowers, but I think it is pretty great. Thanks Fifi!

Have a fantastic day!

~Bessie

Sarah's Dress

2011-05-10T10:13:00.000-07:00

I found it! I finally found my camera! And just in the nick of time, too--Sarah's dress is on its way to being finished and delivered to the bride-to-be.

Sarah and I went through hundreds of patterns to get an idea of what she wanted. We came up with a sketch for a sun dress with a sweetheart neckline, a bit of a scoop neck in the back, and a simple A-line skirt. During the fitting process, we decided to tweak our design a little bit by adding a midriff section (with some piping for definition) and putting some fine gathers underneath the bust instead if darts.

I used the bodice from this pattern as the foundation for my design:

Sarah selected a beautiful Michael Miller cotton print for her dress called Meadowstreet Poppy Parade. So pretty! There is some left over, which I am planning to make a skirt out of for myself! :D

Here is a picture with bad lighting but a good idea of how the dress will look on (skirt has not yet been attached here):

And here is a picture with good lighting, but the dress on a hanger (much truer to the colors of the fabric):

I am currently working on the lining. After that, I'll install the zipper, hem the dress, and all shall be finished!

Btw, check out what Davis and I found a thrift store the other day...

What do you think of THAT?

~Bessie

Oh no!

2011-05-09T07:53:00.000-07:00

I have so many things I want to post about...

~Bought a few hundred vintage patterns the other day from a lady on a farm in south Georgia
~Making a honeymoon dress for my sister -- very cute!
~Our two new dogs, Desmond and Rousseau (yes, we love Lost!)
~My temporary sewing room
~Growing herbs

...and much more. Unfortunately, I have lost my camera. AH!

Sigh. Alas. Certainly I will find it soon...

~Bessie

Another Great Barn-Sale Find!

2011-04-26T12:02:00.000-07:00

This will be handy!

I've been wanting one of these for awhile. I love that it was still in its original box!

Thanks, barn sale. :)

~Bessie

Percolatin'

2011-04-21T15:35:00.000-07:00

Have you ever made coffee in a percolator? I must confess, I am something of a coffee snob (yes, I worked at Starbucks for awhile and have a thing for French presses). In my humble opinion, coffee is at its best when It is smooth and black and bursting with flavor—no cream or sugar to lighten things up for me. For awhile my preferred method of brewing was the French press, but now I use my percolator almost exclusively. Why? Well…

First of all, I love the way an old-fashioned percolator looks. Mine is from the 60’s, as is apparent from its design. My mom laughed when I first made her coffee in it--she told me her mother had one just like it and used it to make coffee every morning. J

Secondly, a percolator—in my experience—makes excellent coffee. Quite possibly the best coffee I’ve ever tasted. Oh goodness, it’s yummy! Don’t get me wrong—I still enjoy and appreciate a nice French press. But coffee in a percolator is a little lighter--no quick so thick and heavy.

After doing some research on percolating, I realized that most coffee experts and snobs (remember, I am a coffee snob too) very much disagree with my high estimation of the percolator (see here and here for example). I can understand the reasoning behind this—the water gets hotter than is desirable (when brewing coffee, the water should not get hot enough to boil), which causes it to extract too much acidity from the grounds. This creates a coffee that is bitter and unpleasant to drink. Or at least that’s what they say. However, like I mentioned above, I have had only good experiences with my percolator and intend to go right on enjoying it. J

What's your favorite method of brewing coffee?

~Bessie

Treasure

2011-04-15T12:35:00.000-07:00

Davis and I went to see our friend at the barn sale last weekend. We scrounged around a bit, and found some sturdy old tools and an awesome old galvanized steel washtub. I asked the owner if he ever comes across sewing patterns, and he told me that he does from time to time, but that his sister (who quilts and sews) usually snatches them up. He said he'd call me next time he found any.

We looked for a little while longer, and I happened to spy a dusty brown shoe box sitting on one of the tool shelves that was tied up with a brittle strip of cloth. This was intriguing--I walked over and untied it, eager to see what was inside. The box was filled with rolls of antique newspaper, tied up with antique strips of cloth similar to the one that tied the box shut. The cloth ties were all different prints -- much older than feedsack. The newspaper clippings, I noticed at first glance, looked to be from the early twentieth century. I didn't need to know anything else--I bought the box for something like $3, excited as can be. Old newspapers are so fascinating.

Once we loaded up our booty and got in the car to leave, I opened up my treasure box and untied one of the newspaper bundles. What was this? The first piece I unrolled was cut into the shape of...a sewing pattern piece! A collar or facing, to be exact. Oh my goodness -- this was a box full of patterns! You can imagine my joy. :D

Below are some pictures of one of the best finds I have ever found. Enjoy!

This is the only bundle that dates back to the '40's. Check out this girl's playing card bathing suit!

More to come soon about wedding/house! :D

~Bessie

Whew

2011-03-29T15:50:00.000-07:00

It's been a little over a month since the wedding, and things are just now beginning to seem a bit calmer. My husband and I just bought a darling house up in the mountains, and have been very busy stripping wall paper, painting, changing faucets, and building a big fence for the goaties. Needless to say, I haven't had much time to blog!

The wedding was beautiful--everything I hoped and imagined it would be. Once we get all settled in, I will be doing a series of posts on the wedding and how we did most things by hand, maintaining both a low budget and a lovely, homespun atmosphere. I'll also be posting here-and-there about our new house and the make-over process going on there right now. :)

For right now, though, I am going to be busy busy busy making our new house into a home!

Much love,

Bessie

Wedding Update: One More Week!

2011-02-21T13:44:00.000-08:00

Less than one week. Wow. When we first became engaged, the wedding felt so far away. Now we are here--staring it right in the face! It is unbelievable, especially since not even a year ago I was pretty sure I would end up an old maid living up in the mountains with her goats.

I am a blessed woman.

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So I was finally able to upload some pictures of the veil, and also of a few other projects we have been working on. Here they are (along with notes and comments from myself) for your enjoyment. :)

VEIL

The veil was very easy to make, and pretty inexpensive as well. I ordered the Russian veiling from Judith M. Millinery Supplies, and purchased the hair combs and the flowers at Michaels.

My inspiration for this veil came from one of my favorite Etsy shops, thehoneycomb (this listing in particular). It took me two tries with the veiling--the first time I cut a piece that was the same width on both the top and bottom, and that didn't work out well--the part that wrapped around my face was reeaalllly tight, and the top poofed up in an awkward manner. Thankfully I had plenty of veiling left for another try. The second time I tapered the sides of the veiling so that the bottom of the veil was a few inches wider than the top. Then I gathered and hot-glued the sides of the veiling to each hair comb and covered the glue with a pretty piece of ribbon. After that I put together the flowers and attached them to the right-side comb. Voila!

DISHES!

Davis and I were able to procure all the dishes that we needed from thrift stores. We bought 115 total, and paid something close to $15 for all of them. They are all washed and packed in boxes for the reception right now. Yay!

WEDDING FAVORS!

Our wedding ceremony will be held outside in the mountains, and so we planned for things to be a bit chilly. Of course now it has been in the 60's all weekend, and the weather report says to expect a high of 68F on Saturday. That's Georgia weather for you! Anyway, I am kind-of hoping that it will be cold, because we made some really cute glove favors for our guests! They are simple white gloves that we bought at Wal-Mart (2 for $1), tied with ribbon and a handmade tag that says "Keep Warm" (in my little sister Esme's handwriting). Cute, huh?

As a nod to my Italian heritage, we will give each guest at our reception a small tulle-tied bag of Jordan almonds. My mother gave these as favors at her wedding almost 27 years ago, as her great-grandmother (Bis Nona) bade her to, and suggested I do the same. ;)

THE JACKET

This is a horrible picture, but I figured it was better than nothing! The jacket is finished, and looks absolutely perfect. I love it. I'll get some better pics up soon.

All right, I think that is about all for now! Have a fantastic day!

~Bessie

Veil

2011-02-15T11:36:00.000-08:00

More to come!

What we've been up to...

2011-02-08T23:38:00.000-08:00

1. Scarves for the bridal party to wear

We couldn't find any ready-made scarves (it's February! Out with the winter-wear and in with the bathing suits!), so we ended up making our own out of flannel. They were really easy to whip up...well, except for fraying the ends. Fraying is a bit tedious. It's worth it though. ;)

2. Bridesmaid's Gifts

I cannot disclose what the bridesmaid's gifts are on my blog, because I haven't given them yet. ;) However I have wrapped them up. I used plain brown gift bags from Michaels, and instead of tissue paper, recycled some old sewing patterns that were too ugly to use (mostly from the 80's and 90's, if you know what I mean). I love wrapping with pattern tissue--it looks so different and lovely!

3. Jacket

I sewed in the lining today, and it looks fantastic. Now all I need to do is pick out some buttons and sew them on. Whoop! Hopefully the buttons will conceal my absolutely horrific and embarrassing buttonhole job.

Yes, I goofed on the buttonholes! Sigh. I'm going to blame it on the velvet.

The first one turned out beautiful.

The second one...not so much.

Third one, even worse.

Fourth one..eh. A little better than the second and third, but still not ideal.

Yes, they are all slightly different sizes. I am mortified. Ah well--'tis life!

4. Wine Glasses

So Davis and I decided that rather than purchasing plastic wine glasses for our wedding, we would thrift wine glasses. We bought 62 glasses for a little over $10! Oh yeah. They cleaned up beautifully, and are all different shapes and sizes, which looks super cool.

We found that the glasses stored perfectly in old empty wine boxes from Trader Joe's.

We are going to thrift plates for the reception as well. Yesterday we bought 30 plates for 20 cents each. We are hoping to gather about 70 more tomorrow, and for around the same price. :)

I really want to post about my veil, but this computer is having issues and will not let me upload my pictures. :( So sad! I put it together tonight, and it turned out so pretty. Alas--the veil will get its own post later, I suppose.

Well, I must get off the computer and sleep. Haven't been getting a whole lot of that lately. ;) But that's OK--I've been spending time with my best friend and preparing for our marriage and our life together. I am full of joy.

~Bessie

Bernard, my new friend (and some wedding stuff, too)

2011-01-23T09:30:00.000-08:00

I love that the man I am going to marry is creative. Look what he made for me:

He was watching me work on my jacket muslin, and decided to start a project on his own. He took a piece of scrap fabric, drew a face, ears, and paws on it, and then cut them out. Next, he found some contrasting fabric, pinned it behind, and hand-stitched around each shape. Once he had finished that, he sewed a back on, stuffed it, and voila! We have Bernard the Bear. I was impressed.

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So, on to wedding stuff! Table decorations, to be exact.

I love old glass jars, and have GOBS of antique white buttons (like jars full), so I decided to combine the two--with votive candles--to make decorations for the tables at the reception.

There is an old man named Clyde who has an old barn full of cool old stuff near where I live. You can go to his barn and buy stuff for really cheap. Example: my friends bought a solid pine round table for their kitchen for $40 last year. Yeah.

Clyde has a butt-load of old glass jars (most of them full of old tools, screws, light bulbs, etc. from his workshop), and sells them for 25 cents a piece. Perfect place to get my glass jars! My fiancée had never been to the barn before, so we went together to pick out he jars and look around. I had a feeling he would like it--he loves thrift stores and such. We ended up purchasing 16 glass jars, all sorts of cool shapes. We also purchased a kitchen table and four chairs from the 30's or 40's, a cool yellow upholstered chair, two twin solid wood sleigh bed frames, and two pretty side tables from the 50's for $200. Oh, plus Clyde threw in a really awesome phonograph/radio cabinet from the 60's for free. Whoop! I love the barn sale.

Here are some before/after pictures of the glasses I purchased, plus some up-close pics of my favorites. We are going to fill each one part-way with the old white buttons, place a votive inside, and set them up on the reception table amongst other decorations.

Before...

And after!

Some of my favorites:

This one is really old. It didn't come all the way clean, but I'm going to keep working on it.

I love this old Skippy jar. It has measurements on the side! How cool is that?

The buttons are so beautiful. All different shades of white and off-white, and a mixture of plastic, bakelite, shell, glass, and mother-of-pearl. They look especially pretty with a candle set on top.

Alright, that's all for today! I'm going to go work on bound buttonholes for my jacket...

~Bessie

Poor neglected blog!

2011-01-21T06:07:00.000-08:00

Hello! It's been so long since I last posted, that I hope I still have a few readers out there.

Why have I neglected my blog so as of late? Because I am getting married. Whoop! That's a good reason, right? We are planning the wedding ourselves, and only have about five more weeks until the big day, so needless to say we have been very busy. I am going to be doing a lot of the wedding prep by hand, and I thought it might be a good idea to share our progress on various projects with you here on the blog.

There are a lot of projects I could post today, but I will start off with the main project (and the one I think you will all be most interested in): The Dress. Now my fiancee will not let me post any pictures of my dress, because he likes to read my blog and doesn't want to see it until the wedding day. ;) That's fine, because I don't really need to do anything with it. It is a vintage dress from the 70's that I purchased last year from an antique store for $40. Now you might be thinking tacky polyester 70's--that is not the case with this dress. It is absolutely gorgeous, with lots of delicate lace, chiffon butterfly sleeves (ok, that's definitely 70's), and buttons all up the back. I love it. What I will be posting about is the jacket I am making to wear over my dress at the wedding.

The Jacket. Oh yeah.

We are doing an outside ceremony at the end of February, up in the mountains, so we are planning on it being a little chilly. Thus I pulled out a pattern I have been wanting to use for a long time and started sketching out some ideas. I decided to sew it up in a rust velveteen, to go with our wedding colors. It's going to be really pretty. :) My fiancee helped me make a muslin for it, and got to experience the fitting process. I'm pretty sure he enjoyed himself!

He sewed together one of the sleeves, and did a fantastic job.

Me trying on the muslin. I think I had just gotten it to fit perfectly.

The Muslin (minus one sleeve)

The new front and back pieces.

I got the fabric in early this week and cut it out yesterday. I also began the building process (interfacing, grosgrain ribbon, etc.) and sewed together the shoulder and side seams. It is coming along nicely, and I really love how the fabric looks.

I'll try to post more pics as I have them. I'll also be doing some posts on wedding favors and centerpieces soon.

Have a fantastic day!

~Bessie

A House for the Goaties!

2010-12-15T21:36:00.000-08:00

The dear, wonderful love of my life came over the other day and helped me build a house for Dean and Truitt!

Truitt and Dean wondering why I am taking a picture and not feeding them. Goat house w/ temporary roof in the rear.

Actually, he did most of the work. He designed the house, did all of the cutting and most of the drilling. Most of the materials that we used were scavenged from my house or his--his dad gave us a whole bunch of nice cedar planks to use for the framework, and we found some old two-by-fours laying near my garage that we utilized for the base. A friend gave us an old rubber apron that we used to make a door flap (kinda like a cat door). The only material we had to purchase was the plywood--and the money I used to purchase it was money that Davis had donated anonymously when Jerry died for the purchase of a new goat. I'm telling you what, I have got myself one heck of a great guy.

One of the coolest design features of this house is it's removable floor. The floor slides out the back, causing the droppings, hay, etc. to fall to the ground underneath for easy cleaning. The roof will also be removable, in case I need to get in topwise for any reason.

Gracious wanted to be in the picture too.

The base.

The base with cedar planks for support. Sorry it's sideways.

The house was built just in time--we have had some crazy weather going on here in Georgia right now. It has been snowing and icing all over the place, and hasn't really gotten about 35F this week. I'm glad the goats have a warmer, more sturdy place to sleep and get out of the wind!

This is about all the work I did--just held thing in place! ;)

We (aka Davis) worked pretty late into the night to get as much finished as possible.

Attaching the front piece.

The product of a days work!

It is almost complete--right now it has a temporary roof, and the most recent picture I'm posting here (the one at the top) does not show the cool door flap. Dean and Truitt really like it! I love seeing them poke their heads out and bray when I come outside. Cuties.

Thank you, mon cheri. You are wonderful. Dean and Jerry will love you forever--and so will their crazy, goat-loving, accordion playing, old movie watching owner.

~Bessie

Some Poetry

2010-11-27T23:06:00.000-08:00

A little something I wrote a while back. Enjoy, and happy Sunday!

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A Woman's Heart

The heart of a woman

Is like a tender rosebud

Whose delicate petals

Are tightly shut

How she longs to blossom!

And she will, in time

With a little patience

With a little care

Slowly her heart will open

And blessed is he

Whose fortune it is to inhale her scent

And behold her beauty

For it has been saved

Especially for him

~Bessie

Jenny's Dress, Cute Siblings, and Goaties

2010-11-22T13:53:00.000-08:00

So I am almost finished with poor Jenny's dress. I was able to complete most of the construction before leaving to record last weekend, and now only need to make a couple fit adjustments and hem it. Hooray!

Jenny and I are the same size, so I decided to model the unfinished dress for you. Forgive the crazy angles and hat--it was early, and I was having a bad hair day. ;)

The front: still needs some buttons and is pinned in a few places. I really love the pockets and front pleat on this dress.

The back: sorry for the twisty-ness! The back skirt has three panels, in case you cannot tell from this pic.

Ok, you can't really see the dress in this one, but I like how it turned out. ;)

This dress definitely needs a belt. Without it is a bit, um, enlarging. With the belt, it looks super classy.

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So on to the siblings and goats!

Yesterday Cael, Josh, Esme and I hung out with Dean and Truitt for awhile. We had such a great time--especially Cael. See how happy he was?

Beautiful Esme.

Cael wanted to sit in the hay.

Flint really wanted to join the party, but I was afraid that he would not be polite to the goats. So he watched us play rather sadly from the other side of the fence. If I were a dog person, I would probably feel bad for him. However, seeing as I am not, and seeing as he and Claude decided to rip open a fly trap that was hanging in the yard yesterday and eat the nasty, death-smelling innards and get it all over their fur and smell up the whole back of the house, I do not feel particularly sympathetic.

Esme, Truitt, Dino

Cael got something in his shoe!

Goats are so wiggly--I don't know how anyone ever manages to get a good picture of one. This is the best face-on pic I could get of little Truitt. Cutie.

Kind-of a weird pose, but I thought this showed off Dean's lovely coat nicely. I cannot wait to shear him in the spring and see what kind of yarn comes of that beautiful fiber!

That is it for today. Gotta work on some pillows tonight, and then get ready for Thanksgiving! Sky and I are in charge of the cooking, so we have a lot of prep to do over the next couple days. I can't wait. :)

Have a fantastic day!

Bessie

Being Home

2010-11-06T10:41:00.000-07:00

I love being at home. :)

Today John and I decided to do a still life. He picked out four pretty little apples and placed them in a line on the kitchen table. John was so good as to share his colored pencils with me. :)

John and I talked about how shadows worked. He did a great job on his first shadow attempt, and was very excited to learn something new about drawing.

My finished product--I like it. :)

John's almost finished product. Note the crinkles--he didn't like the way the third apple turned out (it was too "wownd")

Instead of beginning another apple drawing, John made a really cool picture of a wiener dog.

Ok, off to work on Jenny's dress! Have a great weekend!

~Bessie

Music music music!

2010-11-04T11:11:00.000-07:00

Davis and I are going to see the amazing Sufjan Stevens this weekend. I'm so excited I can hardly stand it.

Hooray for good music, right? :)

Speaking of music, Davis and I are also getting ready to go record our first album of songs next weekend at Iron Wing Recording Studios. The studio is owned by some good friends of ours, and we are super excited to visit and record with them. We are hoping to have CDs available sometime in the spring. Yay! Another exciting aspect of our recording project is that we will be donating 100% of our profit from CD sales to a local organization called Calvary Children's Home. As neither one of us is looking to make money from our music, one of our main goals is to use our musical gifts to bless others--both aesthetically and monetarily. Davis and I are both very fond of children and children's ministry; Calvary Children's Home seemed like a perfect fit. :)

So I think that about sums it up for now! I have vowed to finish Jennifer's dress THIS WEEKEND. Poor Jenny--she is so patient and wonderful with her disorganized big sister! I'll post pics as soon as it is finished.

Have a fantastic day!

~Bessie

Da Capo

2010-10-28T11:39:00.000-07:00

I've been perusing some old journals lately and came across a quote by W.M. Thackeray I had written down several years ago. I like it. :)

"There may be nothing new under (and including) the sun; but it looks fresh every morning, and we rise with it to toil, hope, scheme, laugh, struggle, love, suffer, until the night comes and quiet. And then we will wake Morrow and the eyes that look on it; and so 'da capo'."

~W.M. Thackeray, The Newcomes

Have a lovely day!

~Bessie

The Man Shirt

2010-10-15T21:04:00.000-07:00

My First Man Shirt

Pattern Used:

The fabric I used was a nice, thick, soft flannel plaid. It washed really well, and is super warm! Here are pics of the front and back:

The buttonholes (which I realize you cannot see here) are hand-worked, and the buttons are vintage.

I made a tag for the inside. I've always wanted to do this, but keep forgetting until it is too late in the construction stage to add it! For this one I embroidered a bit of linen, edged it with some brown piping, and sewed it onto the yoke facing before stitching everything together.

The cuff buttons might just be my favorite thing about this man-shirt. They are antique copper buttons, with a touch of oxidation here and there. I found a whole bunch of these in my huge jar of estate sale buttons. Doesn't the copper contrast nicely with the blues in the plaid?

As per the pattern instructions, I used flat-felled seams for the sides and underarms of the shirt. I think they turned out nicely! This was the first time that I had tried flat-felled seams--I usually do French seams on blouses (which can be over-doing things a bit, depending on the fabric, but I like the way they look).

So there you have it! I really enjoyed this sewing project, partly because it was fun sewing something boxy and plaid (I think working with plaids is the bomb), and partly because I was making it for someone that I care about.

Have a fantastic Saturday--and pray for me...math finals this weekend!

~Bessie

Just because

2010-10-15T20:28:00.000-07:00

1. He's so darn cute

2. I feel blessed today. Well, I am blessed. :)

3. Bessie

Music in Marietta

2010-10-11T08:34:00.000-07:00

Davis and I went to the Marietta square and played music yesterday with some of our friends. It was super fun! My sister Skylar took some great pictures; I'll share one with you here, as I am wearing one of my favorite vintage creations. More pics should be up on our band page soon!

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In other news, I've been working on the bodice of Jenny's dress, and it is coming along nicely! Sorry about the funky coloration in these photos:

Hopefully I'll be able to finish the bodice and begin work on the skirt this week. :)

Have a great day!
~Bessie

The Apple Festival

2010-10-09T17:33:00.000-07:00

I am supposed to be doing math homework, but I keep remembering other things I "need" to do and getting distracted. Like I really needed to post about my trip to the mountains today--like right now. I also needed to package a few patterns to ship, go through the mail, fiddle around with the camera, and watch a few videos on YouTube.

Yes, I am putting off my homework and I own it. That's right, I own it. One more week to go, Bessie.

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SO! Today my dear friend Stephanie and I went to a humongous apple festival in the mountains. It was very fun, and there were TONS of people there. However, there were two problems:

1. It was about 90 degrees outside. It is supposed to be cold in the mountains in October, so Stephanie and I wore jeans and sneakers. We should have worn summer dresses or shorts and tank tops. But it seemed so wrong, neither one of us could bring ourselves to do it.

2. They didn't have any caramel apples!!! What?! Well, I take that back. They had sliced caramel-covered apples in a bowl (which were tasty, but not the same). But no apples on a stick! What is this world coming to, anyway?

So that was a tad disappointing. However we did get to see a couple camels, and that definitely made up for the disappointment. Yes, there were camels in the mountains of Georgia today. Stephanie wanted me to ride one, but I was chicken.

Here are a few pics of our day! :D

The crazily large crowds

Wow. Can you feel the excitement? Do you feel the urge to push my hair out of my face (I do)?

Camels!

We ate some very interesting and slightly questionable food.

So we had a fun time. :D My favorite part of the day was spending time with Stephanie. We always have a blast, whatever we end up doing. I feel blessed to have her in my life!

"The great need is not to do things, but to believe things. The Redemption of Christ is not formed an experience, it is the great act of God which he has performed through Christ, and I have to build my faith upon it. If I construct my faith on my experience, I produce that most unscriptural type, an isolated life, my eyes fixed on my own whiteness." Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest. 10/9.

~Bess

Coasters: A Tutorial (because I am obsessed)

2010-10-08T21:34:00.000-07:00

I had so much fun re-purposing those old coasters a couple weeks ago, I decided to look online and see if I could find any more. Much to my surprise, I found a TON! Apparently these Japanese dead-butterfly coasters were very common back in the day. The ones I found online were in much better condition than the ones that I found at the barn sale, and actually look quite pretty in their original form.

Anywho, I bought about a dozen more and decided to chronicle the process I used to re-purpose them in case anyone else is interested in doing the same. :) Enjoy!

Vintage Coaster Make-over Tutorial--Whoop!

Step 1: Find coasters. Try going to Etsy or eBay and typing in "vintage butterfly coaster." Here are some links to current listings: eBay 1, eBay 2, Etsy 1, Etsy 2. Some listings are super-expensive, and some are very reasonable. I hate that the shipping is so high, but I think it's worth it. :D

Step 2: Disassemble coasters. Unfortunately I got a little too excited about my new coasters and didn't think about taking pictures of the process until after I had disassembled all of them. Whoops. It's pretty easy to explain though. :) All you have to do is gently press on the glass/plastic from the front of the coaster. This should pop off the wooden ring in the back and enable you to remove the insert. Once you do this, slide (or peel, if necessary) the old dead butterfly and tissue paper off of the glass.

Step 3: Wash and dry glass and plastic inserts and backing pieces.

I like to fill my sink up with hot soapy water and let them soak, as they usually have a little glue residue around the edges (and sometimes in the middle). A few of the plastic backings here had a lot of residue and discoloration.

This is a plastic backing piece that has cleaned up very nicely.

This is a plastic backing piece that has NOT cleaned up nicely. We will put this behind a darker-colored fabric...:p

Step 4: Cut out fabric circles. Using a back insert piece as your guide, trace circles onto your fabric of choice. You can use a coaster (empty of glass) as a sort of frame to help you choose aesthetically-pleasing sections of fabric. :D Here are my circles:

(Some of these photos are w/ flash and some are w/o flash. This one is with.)

Step 5: Apply Glue. Using an old paintbrush or q-tip (or your fingers, if you like), cover the back insert with lightly with glue. Elmer's glue worked great for me.

Just a very light coating of glue will do.

Step 6: Apply fabric circle to back insert. Using a bit of pressure, smooth the fabric circle over the glue on the back insert. After smoothing it with your fingers, you may also wish to turn it over and rub it on your work surface, just to make sure there are no air bubbles.

Step 7: Put it all together. Turn a coaster upside-down on your work surface. First insert a glass/plastic piece, then place a fabric-covered back insert on top. Put a small amount of glue around the edges of a wooden ring piece (the part that fits into the back of the coaster and holds everything together) and press into place on top of the back insert. Press firmly, but not too hard.

Step 8: Let it dry. You may wish to set a glass or mug down on top of your coaster as it dries, just to help it stick better.

Ta-da! That's it! It is such a fun project. Don't you just love the end result?

Have a fantastic weekend,

Bessie