Wordless Wednesday

The Next Big Thing

I’m plugging right along on my 50 By 50 list! I’ve been checking small things off here and there after the first big check mark of restyling my wedding dress. And now Chris and I are honing in on the next big thing: Item #45 Do something fun and cool with Sophia.

Sophia is our oldest niece. She’s nearly ten years old, and lives in Jacksonville with her parents and grandparents. We’ve decided to sweep the girl away for a weekend of Medieval fun and festivities in Gainesville.

We plan to send Sophia a scroll from ‘the king’ about a week before the Hoggetowne Medieval Faire. This fancy note will tell her that she has been selected to travel back in time to visit the king and queen, accompanied by two experienced time travelers. She’ll be instructed to be ready at a certain time on February 4th, dressed in appropriate period attire (Chris’ mom, Sophia’s grandmother, has graciously agreed to construct a Ren Faire costume for Sophia on the sly.), with an overnight bag packed for the trip. Then Chris and I will appear on her doorstep at the quoted time dressed in our full regalia of puffy sleeves, clan tartan, and fancy bonnets to sweep her away to the Medieval towne of Gainesville!

2003 - Our first Hoggetowne Faire together

I took advantage of the recent JoAnn Fabrics’ pattern sale to stock up on Renaissance patterns for both me and Chris, and I’ve started a Pinterest board with inspirational costumes. Chris will wear his dress kilt (Totally not cannon, but it sure is sharp looking!) and I’ll make him a fancy waistcoat and short cape. I want to wear a huge dress with fur sleeves and of course I’ll need an entire set of underclothes as well. I better go get started. I’ve got a lot of sewing to do in the next ten weeks!

Wordless Wednesday

 

 

 

 

A Tisket, A Tasket

If you follow me on Twitter, you might know that I love my bicycle. It’s a men’s beach cruiser that I bought secondhand because I wasn’t sure if I’d use it much. Turns out I use it a more than I thought I would! Chris and I bike on the Hawthorne Trail once or twice a week when we are on a roll. A couple of friends often join us, and that makes it even more fun. I’m no racer, and I don’t usually average more than five miles, but I do enjoy getting out and getting some good, clean exercise. It helps that the trail is a beautiful area with lots of trees and the occasional deer or sandhill crane (Have you seen one of those on the ground? They are HUGE!).


As you can see, I’ve decked Neil (I name most every object that I own.) out pretty well with a fancy basket and a happy brass bell. But he just needed… more. Not really more bling, but something more happy. Something girly. He needed a basket liner!
I had some good ideas, but I wanted someone else’s perspective as well. I found a great tutorial at Ruffled Sunshine that I used as a template. Here’s a note if you want to make a basket liner: Make the liner in two pieces like Ruffled Sunshine does. I made one big trapezoid instead of two, and it doesn’t fit nearly as well as hers does. I added pockets all around one side of the liner, as well as little loops for my key fob, and two fabric-covered elastic bands to hold water bottles.


It turned out great! I love it! But then I realized my little basket needed even *more*. Just a little more. A flower? A string of pennants? A yo-yo! Miss Sews-It-All makes a yo-yo that fit the bill perfectly. I happened to have some coordinating fabric in my stash, and whipped up three adorable yo-yos on wire stems.



Then I wired them directly to the front of my bike basket. Cute as a button! I can’t wait to get my bike back on the trail and show it off!