A Plug for Jessica

I helped out at a friend's wedding by making bouttonieres for the groomsmen and a corsage for the mother of the bride.  You may recall the wedding where I did the bouquets a few years ago in this blog (key word "weddings").  The groom at this wedding was the brother of the bride at that wedding and when he got engaged, he told me he was counting on me doing the flowers.  This was right before my surgery, so I told him he'd better find someone else.  As it turned out, though, I was able to a little bit with the corsages (photos below).

But what was really adorable at this wedding were the program place cards at each place on the dinner tables.  Unfortunately, my cell phone photo cannot do it justice.  I found out they were done by Jessica Marcotte, an absolutely fabulous designer for parties and such who works out of the bay area.  You can find her blog here.  Check it out!

Father of the Bride

Mother of the Bride

Groomsman

Warm You Up Winter Swap Blog Question #5

The question is what pattern would you make again and again?

In all honesty, I can't say there is one pattern I enjoy that much.  My attention is always on the next project and the next and the next and the next.  I often think "This is a good pattern to make again for so-and-so," but I never get a round tuit.

If it ever did happen, among the running would be:

• some gorgeous glass cozies made from thread that I don't even have a picture of to show you;
• the Love Knot dress for babies (I'll add the photo later if I can find it....);
• cotton shopping bags;
• zombie Amigurumi;
• the bridal purse (search "weddings" herein); and
• baby shoes

Now, to celebrate spring, here is what my Christmas cactus looked like this morning.  Its second blossom to come to full term is showing, plus another one aborning:

Warm You Up Winter Swap Blog Question #4

What are your plans for Valentine’s Day this year?

Valentine's Day is a sore subject around this place.

See, DH and I sort of eloped on Valentine's Day.  Or at least we decided to elope on Valentine's Day but by the time we got ourselves to Las Vegas and got the requisite marriage license and found an open chapel, we were actually married on February 15th.

We had a wedding all planned for June and we went ahead with it anyway, for the family's sake, but it was our little secret that we were already married.

We have friends who were married in three different ceremonies and we actually planned on having three ourselves because it sounded like fun, but it took so long to get our respective households combined and somewhat organized (in fact, that project isn't completed to my satisfaction even today....), we never did do the third one in San Francisco.

DH is not very creative when it comes to holidays. He gives cards. Only cards. From all I can fathom, that's all his family ever did for any occasion was give cards. He is quite pleased with himself when he hands me a card, and I have given up on trying to augment his ways to include even poorly thought out gifts.

All that aside, our first year, I didn't get a blessed thing on Valentine's Day.  Then on the 15th, I got an anniversary card.  I wasn't happy.

Carefully, I tried to explain to DH that just because our anniversary was on the 15th, that did not exempt him from his Valentine's Day obligations.

Not only that, but the February wedding was not my favorite occasion to remember.  The chapel minister was a dirty minded man who made a comment about what DH must have been thinking simply because he offered me the wrong finger to put the ring on.  (I mean, some people count the thumb so when you tell them "your third finger," they just might get it mixed up, right?)

Anyway, between my mixed feelings about celebrating the anniversary in the first place and its proximity to Valentine's Day, DH just can't get it right, poor guy.  Not his fault.

So I try not to think about Valentine's Day at all.  DH and I are going to a seminar on how to survive a recession, not a bad way to strengthen a marriage, eh?

If I happen to get a card or a flower for either occasion, that'll be a bonus.

Overdue Wedding Flower Photos

Here are some photos when I played Martha Stewart for a good friend's son and his bride.  (See "What Is It About Weddings?").

Here I am with the bride, pointing out the crystal heart bead I put into her bouquet that corresponded to one in the groom's boutonniere.  Her bouquet was made with hydrangeas, roses, peonies, stefanotis and lemon leaves.

I made the groom, best man and family of the bride and groom's boutonnieres from roses and gave the groomsmen thistles, which perfectly matched the color scheme.  I decided on the thistles hurriedly as I went through the flower market the day before and the mother of the bride -- who wanted final approval on all decisions -- sounded a little doubtful when I told her about them on the telephone.  By that time, there was no time to change our minds, so I assured her she was going to love the look.

Next day when I pinned a thistle on the first groomsman he was kind of steeling himself to wear a flower.  You would have thought that he was going to be giving blood instead of getting a boutonniere pinned on him.  When he opened his eyes and saw the "flower," he looked surprised and said, "Hey, what's that?"  I told him it was a thistle, and he puffed up like a rooster and strutted away, all proud of his boutonniere.

Then, when I pinned the roses on the brothers and best man, they asked why they got roses instead of thistles and I explained it was because they were family (and did not explain that it was what the mother of the bride insisted on).  They seemed to feel like they'd been shortchanged rather than honored. 

Note to self:  make boutonnieres out of the manliest "flower" you can find!

The bridesmaids carried bouquets of hydrangeas with a deep purple calla lily in the center.  This allowed me to tie the bouquets into the bride's bouquet and still make them different and less elaborate than the bride's bouquet.  We were really lucky with the hydrangeas.  I'd had the bouquets in the refrigerator overnight, but I took them out and put them into flower vases with a little water in the bottom to wait for the wedding party.  As in all weddings, there were some glitches and the wedding party was over an hour late.  Hydrangeas won't last for much over three hours.  I am happy to report that these lasted through the wedding and until the last photo was shot.  By the time the bridesmaids made it to the reception, their bouquets were very droopy and even spritzing them with water didn't help much.

I made wrist corsages for both the mothers.

The bride also wanted me to decorate the top of the cake with flowers, sight unseen.  She ordered it plain but I only had a description of what it would look like.

The mother of the bride insisted that she wanted hydrangeas on the cake to match the bride's bouquet.  I had to explain to her firmly that there would be no hydrangeas on the cake because hydrangeas are highly toxic and we wouldn't want the wedding day to turn tragic.  We opted for silk hydrangeas with roses.

Unfortunately, with little funds and no time to experiment, I followed a tip I found online to freeze fresh flowers the night before if they were to go onto the cake.  By the time the white roses thawed, they had begun to brown.  No one noticed but me, it seems, but I will never freeze roses for a cake again without testing the result the week before.

The photographer was a friend of the couple's and she did a fantastic job on the photos.  I have her to thank for allowing me permission to use the photos on my blog.  (Thanks, J!)

What Is It About Weddings?

I am a sucker for weddings. It's not that I want to go to the wedding so much -- although I do like to attend them. I want to be part of creating the wedding.

So when I recently got a swap partner in the Ravelry Swap on a Budget Swap who said she was getting married in November, I had to jump in with my two (or more) cents. I stalked her all over the Internet and contacted her friends and family until I found out what her colors were and then I started to crochet a bridal purse.

I hadn't worked with thread in over 25 years, and even then I had only made one project, a pillow for my grandmother.  This one turned out to be quite a challenge, but once the first side was finished, I'd gotten into the rhythm of it.

It took about 40 hours total.  In fact, I had to take some vacation time to finish it on time to send.

I am so happy she was pleased with it and she really does plan on using it at her wedding.

The final product:

So now not only do I have another FO to be proud of, I have a new-found passion for working with crochet thread.  Today, mock Irish crochet.  Tomorrow Bruges lace!

In Other Crafting News

I spent the weekend creating bouquets, boutonnieres and corsages for a very elegant wedding (for less than wealthy people).



It is my second favorite craft to crocheting.  At least today it is.



When I have received the promised digital photos from the photographer, I will post more details.  Meanwhile, all I have are these two inadequate shots of the bride's bouquet that I took with my cell phone.



Note the entwined crystal heart beads if you can find them.  They were my favorite creative touch.  I included a matched pair in the groom's boutonniere.  He smiled when I told him.

Well, the first wedding pics are in and I'm adding one of them below.  You can just make out the amethyst hearts in both the bride's bouquet and the groom's boutonniere.