Wedding Preparation and summer fun!

I have only one sibling, my sister Laura, who is seven years younger than me and living so far away in Colorado I felt out of the loop in helping my family to prepare for the festivities. I was eager to get to my parents to help out, and even more eager to figure out what we were going to do about dress disaster I was experiencing with my maid of honor dress. It didn’t quite fit in the, *ahem* top area, and was much too low cut for the wedding in a Catholic Church.

We arrived at my parents house early that morning and were greeted with hugs and then a ‘to do’ list for Josh while the ladies went into town to the seamstress and to run errands. Fortunately, after an unspeakable amount to the crazy seamstress on the fly in Jackson, we were able to get the dress finished and much more appropriate for the nuptials.

When we finally made it home, we were able to begin celebrating my father’s birthday with some beers and a boat ride. Josh and I put our bathing suits on for the boat ride and dove off the boat into the deep and warm lake water for a quick swim. This is a luxury I grew up with and do not have in Colorado, so I enjoy the swimming every chance I get! After the boat ride we went out to dinner at my absolute favorite restaurant The Beach Bar in Brooklyn Michigan. The dinner celebration turned into a big party when my sister’s fiancee and his out of town guests joined us for dinner and drinks. My dad had a great birthday, he turned “30” which he exclaimed several times as we cheered “happy birthday.”

It has been years since I have been home for his birthday or anyone’s for that matter, and it was so much fun to join in the celebration.  He fell asleep shortly after we got home, and I snapped a few shots of the birthday boy; I particularly like the cases of beer behind him :)

Friday was the day I was looking forward to most, getting a manicure and pedicure before the wedding, I rarely treat myself to such a luxury, but the wedding was special, and I was even more thankful when my sister treated me as a wedding gift. Some of the other bridesmaids joined us at the mall for a quick mani-pedi before going home to change and then drive back into town for the rehearsal.

The rehearsal at the church was a lot of fun and I loved seeing my sister and Cody so excited about their wedding day. I was very nervous for everyone in their family to be in attendance for the nuptials because just before my wedding day, my grandmother broke her back and my grandparents missed my wedding. This is something which still brings me to tears when I think about it, and I found out the news at my rehearsal dinner, which is clouded in my memory with the sadness of my most treasured family not in attendance. Cody’s brother, Kevin and his wife live in Kentucky, she was not able to come due to being 9 months pregnant, but Kevin nearly missed the day because of some complications, fortunately, he drove in for the rehearsal dinner and made it just in time for the wedding!

After the rehearsal my mother created a slide show of my sister and Cody, photos from young through old for both of them and it brought me to tears. I am turning into a sap in my ‘old age.’ Then the bride and groom gave their wedding gifts to the bridal party, which included 6 necklaces made by me for all of the girls including myself. My sister had asked me to do this and I was honored to be asked; everyone loved the jewelry even more than I had hoped and I was sooo pleased with all of the compliments that they and I received. The jewelry even lead to several necklace sales while I was home to family and friends, and I can thank my sister for that.  

Because the wedding was at 1pm the next morning, and our hair and makeup appointments began at 9am, we left the party around 10:30 to catch some shut eye before the big wedding day!


 
 

Road Trip to Michigan for my sister's wedding, Part 1

Since my sister and my new brother in law picked their wedding date last fall, we have been planning a road trip back to Michigan for the wedding. Both our families live in Michigan, just a half an hour from each other, so when we visit home, we see both families, which is convenient but busy! I was excited to come home during the summer for a family gathering because not only were we able to see all of our family because of the wedding, but we were visiting Michigan during the summertime, which means swimming, kayaking, boat rides and fireworks over the water! It has been a few years since we were back in Michigan during the summer season, as we tend to only go home once per year at Christmas time, and we were both excited for the trip.
The one thing we were not excited for was the drive; it’s 1,190 miles from Golden to Hillsdale, Michigan and we have never done the drive without stopping to sleep during the middle of the night, it usually takes us 20+ hours.  This trip took us 23 long hours, including several stops for road construction through Nebraska and Iowa and traffic in Chicago, we slept in a few rest stops along the way which added several hours to the drive.
It was nice to drive through Iowa, with the green rolling hills and lush river valleys, one of my favorite things about Iowa are the large windmills used for generating power. There are more and more each drive, though not as many compared to Minnesota we found out, on our scenic road trip home from Michigan.

We arrived at Josh’s mother’s house in Hillsdale Michigan at 6:30pm Wednesday night June 30th. The family was very excited to see us, Josh’s oldest brother Phil and his family were also visiting from California. We were able to spend the evening hanging with their family before getting some rest and then heading to my parents in the morning for wedding preparation!

The Farmers Market Opening for Hip-Threads, and finding balance

Last weekend was the opening of Hip-Threads at the Highlands Farmers Market in Denver.  I was pretty nervous and have spent countless hours working toward getting my items finished and booth ready to display in the months before the market.  In fact, I have spent so much time on the farmers market that I have neglected some other things, like keeping my website updated, blogging, and hiking.  Which has really forced me to think about finding balance with such a busy lifestyle.  How do you keep up with work + all the aspects of a business, plus blogging, hiking, cooking, cleaning, gardening...there just isn't enough time in the day!   I would love to hear some of your ideas and suggestions?!

As for the market, Hip-Threads did pretty well, not as great as I had hoped, but certainly not bad either.  I did get asked about children's clothing, which I did not have much of; so I hope to find some time to make some skirts and pants before the next market.  Now that the market is over for the month, I am working on all the things that I let slide, and getting prepared for our two week trip back to Michigan next week.  My sister is getting married and we leave to go home next week!   Below are some photos of my display; I'd love to hear any comments or suggestions on how I can improve my booth! 

My weekly thrift store finds

The Denver Farmers Market starts next weekend and I have been in need of supplies to display my items. This week, while looking for a display for my earrings, I found a huge bag of great vintage fabrics for just $2.99.

Many of the fabrics are really unique and like none I have ever seen before; there is a blue fabric with mermaids; several vintage black and white fabrics with people playing on them; lots of cotton fabrics in shades of red, which I need, and several yards of a vintage fruit and patchwork fabric shown in photo below. This is quite a good find, and I have already used several of the fabrics in my wall hangings. I did find an earring display; a bamboo tray (in photo above) that Josh added twisting back legs to it, so I can put the earrings on either the front or back of the tray. I just need a couple more things to make the table 3D and a little more unique.

Next Saturday is the market and I still have so many things to do, I am starting to wonder if I will get everything done in time. And worry if it will all be worth all the hard work. I sure hope so! I can only think of the last market I sold at, several years ago which turned into a huge disaster. But I am trying to think good thoughts and maybe the best will happen! This weekend it rained the entire weekend, so hopefully next weekend it will be nice and people will be ready to get outside and shop after a weekend inside. :)

My weekly thrift store finds

The Denver Farmers Market starts next weekend and I have been in need of supplies to display my items.  This week, while looking for a display for my earrings, I found a huge bag of great vintage fabrics for just $2.99.

Many of the fabrics are really unique and like none I have ever seen before; there is a blue fabric with mermaids; several vintage black and white fabrics with people playing on them; lots of cotton fabrics in shades of red, which I need, and several yards of a vintage fruit and patchwork fabric shown in photo below.  This is quite a good find, and I have already used several of the fabrics in my wall hangings.  I did find an earring display; a bamboo tray (in photo above) that Josh added twisting back legs to it, so I can put the earrings on either the front or back of the tray.  I just need a couple more things to make the table 3D and a little more unique. 

Next Saturday is the market and I still have so many things to do, I am starting to wonder if I will get everything done in time.  And worry if it will all be worth all the hard work.  I sure hope so!  I can only think of the last market I sold at, several years ago which turned into a huge disaster.  But I am trying to think good thoughts and maybe the best will happen!  This weekend it rained the entire weekend, so hopefully next weekend it will be nice and people will be ready to get outside and shop after a weekend inside.  :)

How does your garden grow?

This year I had high hopes of having a huge garden, bigger than all other years, because I am not working at a full time office job anymore, I thought I might have more time to tend to it. Boy was I wrong! We barely got two raised beds in and planted in time, and already my peas are looking hot and wilty, a product of the hot sun in Colorado and late planting. Other than my peas, the rest of my garden looks pretty good, I can already harvest salad and radishes are starting to come up! My spinach is not doing good, however, I am not sure what's wrong with it, but this is my first year planting spinach, so I wasn't sure what to expect.

In my second planter, I planted things that needed to grow after all danger of frost or snow, and as we know here in Colorado, snow can come in June. I planted these about 2 weekends ago and the onion bulbs are coming up, so are some green beans and one squash plant. I hope the raised beds help me contain the weeds a little better.

Unfortunately, when I went to check the plants today, I noticed the lettuce and radish are already being eaten by some bug! I never know what is doing this because I never see them, this is the earliest in the season we have had bugs and I am not too happy about it. I see some little flies around the plants and also teeny white wormy things in the soil, but I am not sure what either of these are.

Here is a photo of the leaves, if you have any suggestions.

I am going to go pick some lettuce and try some of the bug killer around the outside of the garden, hopefully that will get rid of some of the bugs without putting pesticide in our vegetables. But I guess it probably gets into the water and soil. *sigh* Isn't there a better way? The soapy water never works for me.

Hopefully your garden pests are staying away this summer season!

My second planter box in the photo below, I just planted about 2 weekends ago. The green beans are just sprouting out of the ground, as are the onions and squash. None of my chives or green onion came up, thus continuing my bad luck with herbs. I am going to try to replant something in those rows after camping this weekend and hopefully I can harvest something there before the summer ends.

How does your garden grow?

This year I had high hopes of having a huge garden, bigger than all other years, because I am not working at a full time office job anymore, I thought I might have more time to tend to it.  Boy was I wrong!  We barely got two raised beds in and planted in time, and already my peas are looking hot and wilty, a product of the hot sun in Colorado and late planting.  Other than my peas, the rest of my garden looks pretty good, I can already harvest salad and radishes are starting to come up!  My spinach is not doing good, however, I am not sure what's wrong with it, but this is my first year planting spinach, so I wasn't sure what to expect. 

In my second planter, I planted things that needed to grow after all danger of frost or snow, and as we know here in Colorado, snow can come in June.  I planted these about 2 weekends ago and the onion bulbs are coming up, so are some green beans and one squash plant.  I hope the raised beds help me contain the weeds a little better. 
Unfortunately, when I went to check the plants today, I noticed the lettuce and radish are already being eaten by some bug!  I never know what is doing this because I never see them, this is the earliest in the season we have had bugs and I am not too happy about it.  I see some little flies around the plants and also teeny white wormy things in the soil, but I am not sure what either of these are. 

Here is a photo of the leaves, if you have any suggestions. 

I am going to go pick some lettuce and try some of the bug killer around the outside of the garden, hopefully that will get rid of some of the bugs without putting pesticide in our vegetables.  But I guess it probably gets into the water and soil.  *sigh*  Isn't there a better way?  The soapy water never works for me.
Hopefully your garden pests are staying away this summer season! 


My second planter box in the photo below, I just planted about 2 weekends ago.  The green beans are just sprouting out of the ground, as are the onions and squash.  None of my chives or green onion came up, thus continuing my bad luck with herbs.  I am going to try to replant something in those rows after camping this weekend and hopefully I can harvest something there before the summer ends.