The Wedding

I guess it's now time to post the event of our year. Oldest daughter, Leslie-Anne's wedding to Scott Taylor. Rather than put photos up on this post, I may put a link to a slideshow. Much easier (although I will put some special photos).

First I must say that we truely lucked out with weather! We'd had a full week of over 95 degree weather the week before she got married.
I don't think I asked her if she had the usual... "Some old, something new, something borrowed, something blue", but I told her I had a gift for her.... This garter, was my grandmother's (Florence Jones Smith Moses) who gave it to my mom when she married her son (my dad). Mom gave it to me when I married Leslie's dad, and I gave it to her. My assumption if she has no children (I think that's the plan), she'll pass it on to someone else in the family (maybe her sister).

This is the photo of her after she got her dress on... this is when I cried. I had first cried when I was watching the girls get their makeup put on (I had mine done-waterproof, good thing). She looked radient!!

He dad got to walk her down the aisle, although one of the ladies I work with asked me if her grandfather walked her down... No, he's just 10 yrs older than me, so I guess he's just getting older. (A hard life can take a toll on someone).  She was so lucky to have him around to do that. I really had hoped she'd have asked both her dad and Lee (my husband) walk her, because Lee really brought her up, but her loyalty to her dad won out. That was fine.

The ceremony was lovely. Short but lovely...I was worried about how long we'd be in the sun (I've had skin cancer already, so I was concerned), but I was assured by the JP that it would be 14 mins. including the procession in and out. Not sure I wanted one SO short, but the hand ceremony and the words spoken, were just lovely.

" I now pronouce you husband and wife..."

 Mr & Mrs. Scott Taylor! Yaaaa-whooooo!!!!

 These were those lovely centerpieces that Janice and I worked on so many hours. They looked lovely on the tables.

 And all the foods (fruits and veggies) came from the owners garden on the premises!! Rasberries, blueberries, starwberries, green beans....(Lee even said that there were free-roaming chickens up in the back. I had chicken. -I hope it wasn't 'named'! You can't eat them if you name them, isn't that the rule?)

It was wonderful to see that the whoopie pies were made so nicely. Wicked Whoopie pies in Freeport did a great job!! (Besides, who wanted to be in the hot kitchen cooking, and wrapping and such.)

 I'll share a few photos of the family...here am I, my mom (she's going great for 83yrs old), nephew Nick and him mom, my sister, Janet. She took a lot of the great (in focus) photos that I'll have in the slideshow.

This is the moment that made me break down and really cry. Leslie and her sister, Julie. They aren't really all that close (she wasn't asked to be in the wedding party, but had a special wrist corsage made for her... thank you Leslie). They actually spoke nicely with each other. They are so different in oh, so many ways, but they don't realize how alike they are in others. Love you two!

 Janet's husband, Tom, is Leslie's FAVORITE uncle!! He is such a sweetie! They are really close.

Lee and I --I don't even think I finished that drink in my hand. I don't remember having much of anything to drink (alcohol-wise). And I really missed the champaigne tower...I saw the champaigne glasses, but never saw what was pouring out of the fountain. Too bad, I heard it was good.

This groomsmen, Billy Fritz is Leslie's best friend from high school... Love him!

 Here is Scott dancing with his mom. I think this was happening when I went up to see the garden, before Lee left (he went home with his daughter Amber just about when the dancing started, as her had to be at work the next morning at 7am). I think that was my only regret. I really wanted him to stay longer and go home with my daughter Julie and her beau, Chris, but he was concerned about how late they would stay. I wish I'd insisted. Oh well, no use feeling bad about it. I think it will bother me, if I see the parents dancing in the professional photos in our albums that we're getting.

 Don't they look wonderfully in love?

And let's not forget the wild dancing put on by Steve, Scott's dad. LOL....

What a great wedding One thing to note. They never threw the bouquet, nor the garter. And they ate cake with style. Thanks, Leslie and Scott. You two are definitely classy. I expected nothing less.

To see all the photos of the wedding, click on this link.

Quilting delayed by wedding plans

I do have a quilt in the works.... and it will get trimmed and 'bound'(?), but I'm not sure if I'll get to doing much about it until this weekend. Why, you ask? (And why isn't anything quilt related being posted in this blog lately???) Well, I'll tell you.

I have a wedding I'm attending. Soon. Actually, I'm more than attending. My daughter, Leslie-Anne is the bride! And the wedding is in less than two weeks! SO!... You can see my priorities are set for things other than quilting. I have the outfit (was to be a dress, but ended up being a top/jacket/long skirt), Just got the shoes (one for wedding, one for dancing if needed)... that was a trip and a half!... and I now have to look for earrings that I bought through Lia Sopia, but can't find them. A woman I work with loaned me a pair of diamond (probably zirconium), and I need to find a necklace for it (the top is scoop neck). I also would like to buy hubby a shirt/tie to match my top.Well, I'm thinking of how it will look in the photos.

I'm going up to MA (where the couple lives) to help with the favors (I'm buying them instead of making them--Whoopie pies), and writing out the place cards for her. I hope to go up on Wed and stay through til Thursday when Les has to pick up the pies, then I'll come home and get ready to go up to the hotel on Sat. The wedding is on Sunday, so we'll have a nice time Sat with the rehearsal and dinner (we'll have my mom with us in our hotel room), then have makeup done (I don't even have makeup on normally, so this should be interesting-it's even supposed to be waterproof, I suppose that's a good thing, since today was the humidist day I've been through in a long time.) Lee will be coming home after the wedding-- he has to be a work at 7am the next day) and I'm staying over with mom that night. I took the week before the wedding off and the day after the wedding off work, so I'm fine.

I'm getting excited!

Decisions made and quilting

Whoopie pies...
Decision is made and the choice is..."Moody's Diner" (of Walderboro, ME). Daughter Leslie, decided to go with the whoopie pies I made using their recipe. Actually, that's fine, I just have to have the details of how they are being packaged prior to the wedding (these are the favors).

Wedding outfit...

Decision is the blue one (Leslie's choice- that is, until she realizes that it's glitter). Her only concern is that it may be too warm for July. I don't think so...

Quilting...
Okay... I got the quilting (two for PbPQ) done, and the binding and label on one (Geisha's Fanfare), the binding half-sewn on the 'Peachy Cream' lap-quilt and will give to my mom, but more important, I got the baby quilt almost finished!!!!!! I even have the binding all cut/sewn and ironed for the quilt.All I have to do is a little fancy 'tweaking' on the panel that has the large monsters on it. I'll ty those two sections so that the strands of embroidery threads act like the hair on the monsters head. I'll post photos when I'm done.

Whoopie Pies and Dresses

I think my posts are getting weirder and weirder.... at least the titles are.

I told my oldest daughter that I'd love to make the favors for her upcoming wedding, so she said.... 'ok.... can you make mini whoopie pies?'

Sure, I said.... I grew up on them. However, I thought because MY whoopie pies are NOT like the Maine ones, I better have a backup recipe for them in case they don't like MY recipe (actually, my mom's). So I found a recipe online (Moody's Diners = Waldaboro, ME). I would make 2 batches of batter (I made 3), and 2 batches of filling (2.5). Here were the test results...

Batch 1: was a half recipe of my mom's (mixed it by hand), but I used crisco sticks instead of soft shortening. (I think the sticks were kinda old- didn't like the musty smell, but it didn't have a date on it, so I used it.-- I'm sure I won't like it, but we'll try it). They came out REALLY flat! I don't remember my mom's being flat, so that could be due to the 'off' shortening.

Filling A & B: My mom's was filling A (it never makes much, so I made a whole recipe of filling), and I made half of Moody's filling for B (I mixed it all together at once- just seemed like a lot of filling).

Filled half of pies with each filling and marked the saran wrap 1A and 1B.

Batch 2: Made full recipe of mom's batter (mixed it by hand), but used something new this time. There is a mixture in a jar called Lighter Bake by Sunsweet. It's made from puree of dried plums and dried apples. Supposed to be non-fat (use instead of shortening). Smelled okay, but the (still) flat pie tasted a little like prunes. And they were 'stickier/tackier' on the top of the pie... it didn't seem like they dried. But, hey, this is no-fat!! Isn't that a plus? Okay, these get frozen for a week, then I'll deliver them for the taste tests.

I'm also conscious of the fact that Leslie wants them about 2"... see, I'm measuring to get a feel for them.(These are the flat ones).

Anyway, the third batch was made strictly by Moody's. Their batter and their filling. Only this time, I made them according to THEIR directions... as in, use an electric beater!! Okay, yes, ... that DID make a difference. The batter was stiffer and fluffier (think mousse), and the filling was stiffer and fluffier...I figured how much was made (about 60 complete pies from a full recipe). I still had some filling from Moody's from the batches 1 & 2, so I used that, then considered the 'whipped' filling B-C. I'm sure these will be the ones they pick.

Okay.... now, onto dresses for the wedding.

You must understand... I HATE CLOTHES/SHOE SHOPPING!!!!!!

REALLY!!!!

Okay, now that I got that out of my system, I DID make an attempt to 'look' for a dress, because my daughter-in-law, Diana, was appalled that I hadn't by now. (Mind you, I wasn't appalled. Just her. But it made me feel guilty). I went into two stores (NOT bridal stores!! because they are too matronly-- mother of the bride looking and I'm not like that. I'm funkier).

This one was a possiblility, but I just tried it on, I didn't buy it. Pros: I liked the colors. Cons: Too low cut, and too casual. (Notice the jeans, still around my ankles?? Doesn't that tell you how much I'm into trying this one?)

Then I went to MA to deliver the whoopie pies and visit with my daughter's future mother-in-;aw (who I really like!) While talking about looking for an outfit, I told her my mom had good luck at a place called Chico's. She googled to see what she could find and she found one in her town at the mall. "Let's GO!". While we were looking in all the stores there, we got hysterical over this one, since these ARE the wedding colors, Pink and orange (the bridesmaids are wearing navy, but carrying orange and pink gerber daisies). We got so silly in the dressing rooms, asking other patrons if they'd take our photos...lol. We just wanted to send this to my daughter, saying "We've found our dresses!!" (it's a joke, guys)

 But then.... I actually found a skirt (not my original plan-- hoping for a tea length dress), that was flow-y... and had three tiers to the length (although I could hike up the waist and make it tea length). And this top is probably what I'll wear since it IS funky (black tear drop beads around the bottom of the jacket and cuffs). And it has sequins all over it. The shell under it is sleeveless and while I don't think I'll take it off (I have arms that 'wave'), I could if it gets too hot (July wedding).

However, I really like this one better. The problem? It's glittery!! and my future son-in-law HATES (Did I say HATE strong enough??????) GLITTER!!!! What's the worse that could happen? I could bring both of them and switch all day, depending on if I've had enough hugs from him. LOL..... We'll see. I've sent them to Leslie, to see what she thinks. At least I'm done with it. Need to find shoes, but that isn't so bad. I can handle it. Poor Janice, still needs to find hers, but at least she knows what I have found.