Vintage Photo Friday -- MCCALL MAGAZINE COVER, GIRL IN RAIN

From the George Eastman House Collection.

We are dealing with some serious June gloom this week. I know that when it's 94 degrees in September, I will miss this misty morning stuff, but right now, I just want some summer!

Sorry for the break in posting, but I just can't get motivated to blog lately. I've been pretty crafty, though, and will hopefully post some progress over the weekend.

More of Vintage Photo Friday at Paper Dolls for Boys.

Vintage Photo Friday -- Prom Night

Oh, prom night. So many expectations that are so often dashed on the jagged rocks of reality.

But not mine. I got exactly what I came for.

A fun night with friends, a chance to dress up, and a slumber party. Can you get much better than that?

I went with my friend Peter (also known as "Tweety," a nickname that he hates to this day). Yes, he's wearing shorts. It was the early 90's. And to be fair, he told me in advance that he would wear shorts, and all I asked was that he bring the pants to wear in our "couple" photos (don't know what happened to those...)

My friends in high school were known as the White Mafia -- a name given to us by our chemistry teacher. My dad ordered a limo for us, and we headed out for an Italian dinner before heading to the big dance. After the prom, we headed over to Emily's (seated on the left) house where we had a slumber party and watched Fantasia.

I loved my dress. It was a black velvet Morticia-style gown that fit like a glove. I was hot, if I do say so myself. End of high school beginning of college was probably my best time, appearance-wise. Good thing I met Richard then!

Speaking of Richard, despite the fact that we met in college, we actually got to go to his high school prom together. He had gone to college a year early, so our freshman year of college was also technically his senior year of high school. We started dating in December 1993, our freshman year, so when prom night came around in May 1994, he decided to go back to his high school prom.

I felt so grown up, being a college girl going back to a high school prom. But we were so young!

I found my dress on sale at Ann Taylor and thought I was so sophisticated. The evening was a lot of fun, and at least this one did have the fairy tale ending, as 8 years later, we were married!

More Prom Night photos can be found at Woolanthropy. Thanks to Natalie for organizing this particular trip down memory lane!

Riding the wave

I have been on quite the sewing kick lately. My crafty tendencies seem to come in waves -- I'll do nothing but knit for weeks, and then, all of a sudden I have the uncontrollable urge to do something... else. I've got two sweaters under way that I have almost no desire to work on. In the last three weeks, the only knitting I've done is at my weekly SnB.

But sewing is another matter. In the last few weeks, I have been churning out projects right and left. I made the pink hat featured in my Hat Trick post, and last night made a blue version for Viv, complete with a red band and white/red flower (pics to come later).

Here's a top that I made Vivian a couple of days ago, using leftover fabrics from the quilt I'm making for when she graduates to a toddler bed.

A side note about how awesome my daughter is. She seems to understand what it means when I say I'm making something for her. Lately, she comes into my sewing room/closet when I am working and giggles, saying "loud!" She even dragged me to my sewing machine, saying "more loud? I like loud." It makes me feel warm & fuzzy inside when she really seems to enjoy the things I make her (like this top, which she refused to take off, even though I only put it on her to make sure it fit). OK, done with cheesy parent pride.

I'm also doing more quilting, and trying to put more care and precision into my work. Since I really don't work from patterns and instead just improvise, I'm not always careful with the little things that can make a big difference in the appearance of the quilt. These would be tasks like remeasuring all blocks after assembly to make sure they are all the same size (just because they were the same before final piecing doesn't mean they still are), trimming wonky edges, etc.

Here's my latest quilt/blanket that I improvised for Vivian. I originally bought the shaggy minky backing fabric to line Viv's winter coat, but it never gets cold enough to warrant a lined coat here. The fabric was languishing in a bag in my closet until Viv pulled it out. She loved the soft feeling so much she started dragging it around the house. That's when I knew I had to finally make something with it. The quilt does not have a true quilt "sandwich," there is no batting. It's just a pieced quilt top with the minky back. Because of the nap of the minky, I tied the quilt, rather than sewing. I took extra care to make sure the squares lined up and everything fit just so. I'm really happy with how it turned out!

She likes it! She really likes it!

Vintage Photo Monday - Happy (late) Mother's Day

My mom, Susan, circa 1982

Dear Mom,

Thank you.

Thank you for your patience. Thank you for not laughing at me (too much) when I insisted on buying hideous clothes or getting awful hair cuts. Thank you for attending the many dance recitals, speech competitions and school plays with nary a complaint. Most of all, thank you for being my mom, in good times and bad. It's only because of you that I'm able to be the mom that I am to Vivian.

Thank you.

Love,
Sara

More of Vintage Photo Friday at Paper Dolls for Boys.

Live Piecefully

Live Piecefully
Originally uploaded by Ripping Out Seams

I have joined my very first virtual quilting bee, Live Piecefully, organized by Kat from Ripping Out Seams. I'm very excited about this, as I always seem to find out about these things after sign ups have closed. I hope this will help me advance my piecing skills and push my creativity. I'm sure I'll be posting about my progress in the bee here over the next year.

Kat is looking for people to fill out Live Piecefully 2, so if you're interested, visit her blog: http://rippingoutseams.blogspot.com/.

Hat Trick

Hat2!
Originally uploaded by Handy Crafts

The trick being that
1) Vivian actually loves something that I made for her, and
2) The something is a hat, which is something she used to refuse to wear ever.

She never wants to take this off. Which is a good thing, given that we live in Southern California, where it is sunny about 300 days a year, and she has very fair skin. Anything I can do to help prevent sunburns is a good thing!

Vintage Photo Friday—Grandpa

I have been MIA here at the blog for the last couple of weeks, but I wanted to get back on the horse today with a Vintage Photo Friday post.

At Disneyland, circa 1980. That's me sitting on my Grandpa Reeve's shoulder, and my mom with the floppy hat. My overriding memory of him was of his great laugh—a little high and nasally, but joyous. My Grandpa's name was Bliss, which I never thought was odd until I was a teenager and realized it was a word and not exactly a common name. Vivian's middle name is Bliss, in his honor.

I'm not sure where the name Bliss came from. My grandfather's siblings had very normal names like Ruth and Laura. My great-grandfather was a very religious preacher, so maybe there was a heavenly connotation?

In the last few years of his life, he moved in with my dad. Because my grandpa was in the Navy fighting in the Pacific when my dad was born, he didn't see my dad until he was a year old. I always got the feeling that with six younger brothers, my dad never got the attention from his parents that he probably wanted as a kid. But the last couple of years that my dad had with my grandpa seemed to almost make up for that early lack.

More of Vintage Photo Friday at Paper Dolls for Boys.