Just a few things...

...I've been working on recently.

I've been attempting to make this paletot for the last 4 years...I strongly dislike fitting things to myself so I think that's probably why I'm procrastinating so badly. lol Never the less I'm bound and determined to have it done in time for our last event..in mid October. 

Making an 1860's civilian shirt out of this for a friend...first time doing menswear so its been a new experience...

Also doing 2 cravats for him. The silk arrived from India a few days ago...one is perfect, but the other was much different than the picture. I'm not sure how he'll like it, but time will tell. ;)

 

And the things I don't have photos for...I'm currently trying to decide if I want/need to trim my wool gown. Ruching needs to be finished for Megan's new silk. And coming soon, long regency stays.

 

Will hopefully have some finished things to show soon. ;) School has been getting in the way of my progress a bit I'm afraid...

 

Love,

Brooke

Galesburg Heritage Days 2012

 On Sunday we went to one of our favorite events Galesburg Heritage Days. This was our 3rd year there! We hadn't been sure if we were going to be able to make it this year since we all had a wedding to attend that same weekend, but thankfully it worked out that we could go up on Sunday!!! Hurrah! Due to the busy-ness of the weekend...only 4 of us girls were able to attend, along with my parents and little brother.
 We got up at the crack of dawn and readied ourselves. We ended up arriving around 9:30.

We started the day off by giving the confederates forces some fabulous coffee cake Michelle had made for them. 

Here you see her serving it. And before y'all start speculating about her being among the guys without an escort...she had one. lol Plus me, Megan, and Sarah kept a close guard. ;)

We then watched them do a bunch of drilling and quickly exited the field when they fired an unexpected volley. I'm afraid it frightened poor, Sarah dear, quite alot... lol

Over looking his soldiers! 

(I really like how that picture turned out. :D)

Next we spent some time sewing and socializing with some of the folks. And I took some measurements on a client for a new project that I'm really excited about and can't wait to show you! ;)

Here I'm working on a pinafore that I started quite awhile back...okay like a LONG time ago. lol My goal: get it done this year. *blush*

Then it was time for a few photos...

Left to right:

Megan, me, Michelle, and Sarah. 

Megan got a new gown for the weekend. Its not finished yet, but once we get it done I'll be sure to share some pictures. :) It was our first time doing a silk 1860s dress so it was quite an experience. :) 

This has to be one of my favorite pictures from the entire day!  

The charming Sarah.

 Don't you just love her hair?!?! Her and Megan both got bobs this week...I was a bit concerned about pulling off period correct hairstyles, but they both did wonderful and looked *very* beautiful!

Me and my fabulous big sister!

We were trying to practice our pose for a future wet plate image. Still needs a bit of work, but we are getting there. ;) 

Yours truly.

I wore my hair up for the first time in like forever. I was quite pleased with how it held up. I wish I had a good picture of the back. It looked kinda cool if I may say so myself. ;p 

The 'twins' traditional photo.

Aren't they just the most gorgeous ladies ever?!

After that we visited with this lovely lady, Emily, whom we had meet last year at Minooka. It was such a wonderful surprise to see her there!

With her is her 15 month old son Liam. He was like the cutest little thing I'd ever seen!

Her husband was also portraying a confederate soldier that day. We really enjoyed talking with them and they are like the most darling little family of all times. Very sweet people and I hope we'll be able to spend more time with them this year. 

Michelle and Emily looking SUPER lady like.

While Megan, Sarah, and I were a bit more unruly and went off to watch the action..lol 

And now for a few shots of the battle...

I may be a bit biased, but I thought these gentlemen looked pretty great. :D 

A Federal artillery man. 

Megan did a GREAT job capturing this. Tho I have to admit I'm not really sure what's going on in this picture. I see Federals and Confederates in the same spot and the apparent canon fire coming from the federal side. lol Confusing, but none the less a pretty sweet picture. :) 

Michelle and Liam.

Can you tell she loves babies?!?! lol

It was a splendid day. One of the better times we've had... :) And nice way to put an end to our season for awhile. We probably won't be able to go to anymore reenactments till October. Which is really sad, but I'm hoping to revamp my wardrobe in the meantime... :) The rest of our pictures can be seen here.

In other news...Michelle and I started GED prep classes at a community college today. That's a new experience for us. So we could definitely use some good wishes for us in that venture. ;) Hoping to graduate later on this year!

More soon!

Love,

Brooke

Muskets and Memories, Boscobel WI 2012

 It was a trip of firsts. First time going to a reenactment out of state, dancing with over 200 other dancers, being a 'refugee' in the Fredricksburg battle 'scenerio', having some darling readers of this blog come up and introduce their selves to me (it was wonderful to meet you ladies btw :), spending 5 hours in the car with a sick person, first time watching Sarah get an ice cream cone at a gas station and dump all the ice cream out on the side walk while trying to get the wrapper off. lol Things started off bit rocky with one of the members of our party getting sick on the way up. But once we got to the actual event...things began going a bit better. :)
 Oh and I just have to add...I got to watch the Olympics for the first time ever on Friday night when we stayed over at Emily and Bryce's... :D It was awesome. lol

Moving onto the few pictures we have...I requested Michelle keep her camera hidden most the day...thus the distressing lack of photos. Not to worry I have learned my lesson tho and won't be asking for something like that again. ;)

Megan, Sarah, and I with a gentleman - who I hear is called Igor. We decided to snap this while Bryce was getting some of his beloved cheese curds...it was right by a busy road and we had several people yelling out their windows at us...lol Oh and another reason I wanted to share this...to prove that we did at one point in the day look put together...hair still curly and no limp dresses. Thanks to the rain...that didn't last long.

My gorgeous big sister in her new gown that we made the week before. ;)

Thankfully the rain subsided after a few hours and they were still able to have the battle. As I mentioned above the battle they were doing was Fredricksburg so Michelle, Sarah, Megan, and I - along with a bunch of other civilians - portrayed refugees. That quite a bit of fun.

Some of the confederate forces.
They all did a spectacular job, I was quite impressed with them. Unfortunately I can't say the same for the Yanks. They didn't take many hits during the battle despite being the ones that were to end up losing...:p

We took a few more shots after getting ready for the dance.

Michelle and I.
Don't I have the most lovely big sister of all times?!?!

Me and my darling cousin, Sarah!

Michelle and Chris going for a spin at the dance.
The dance was, in and of itself a sight to see. There was hundreds of people dancing the entire night! It was quite fascinating for someone such as myself...I don't think I'd ever been to one with more then a 100 or so.

Despite a few set backs we had an awesome time. The event itself was phenomenal and I definitely hope to be back next year. The visit with Bryce's grandparents and the tour of their area was a blast as well! And the trip home was...well...SO MUCH  fun! And I have to document that also on the way home I went to an antique store for the first time *EVER*. It was like the coolest place ever! I found a few treasures and left way more then a few behind. lol
I feel very fortunate to have been able to attend! I'd heard about it for the past few years, but it had always been to far away. Many thanks to my dear cousins Emily and Bryce for being our guardians, putting up us for the weekend, and letting us stay at their grandparents.

To see the rest our pictures go here. :)

This week is proving to be very busy...one of my best friends is getting married on Saturday and Sunday we're planning to attend another reenactment. So I'll try to keep y'all updated as best I can. :)

Love,
Brooke

Bryce and Emily's wedding!

 Back in early June our family witnessed a very special day! My very dear cousin, Emily, was to be married! We'd all been looking forward to that day for quite some time. I have to say it was pretty much all Michelle and I talked about during their 3 month engagement. :D You see Emily was the first, out of all 17 of us cousins to get married! As you can imagine...we may or may not having been dreaming for years about who would be married first, what the lucky guy would be like, how their wedding would be...etc. Making it even more awesome, none of us could have chosen a better guy for her to be marrying! And to add even more to the excitement...6 of us had never been bridesmaids before and I know for sure the I was head over heels about that! ;) In short this was a pretty big deal for us. :D Sometimes I thought it would never come, but in the last few weeks there was a flurry of activity and much to be done. So the days seemed to fly by and before we knew it the day had arrived!
 Now a day such as this couldn't come about without a little prior preparation and planning! So I'll be showing you a few ( alot) of pictures from our fun times together. :)

First we'll observe the happy and gorgeous couple.

Bryce and Emily!

Here we are the day after they're engagement. We stayed up long into the night, watching them begin the plans. :D

In early March, 12 of us ladies loaded up and headed to a large town near by to go shopping for the bridesmaids' gowns. We first visited David's Bridal. After trying on several dresses we found one we all agreed on. Upon further 'investagation' we discovered those particular dresses wouldn't be delivered till less than a week before the wedding day. Thus our search continued. In the end 6 of us ended up getting Evan Piccone` gowns at Bergners. 2 others got theirs at the Dress Barn (?) maybe...lol can't remember. And the last Michelle and I made to match the other 6. :)

In May some of us girls put on a Bridal Shower for Emily. It was our first time doing one so we were a bit nervous, but we had a wonderful turn out and everyone had a swell time.

In the mean time...we spent a very fun evening having a weeny roast, making centerpieces (over 50), bouquets, & boutonnieres, and listening to the songs they'd selected for the ceremony!

The weekend before the wedding we had a Bachlorette party. It was a total blast! It was really great to be able to get together for one final slumber party as all single girls. ;) lol

Thanks to Grandma's hard work and expertise we were able to get over 500 dinner rolls made for the reception!

On Thursday morning Michelle, Sarah, and I began frosting 8 sheet cakes and 100 cupcakes. It was a pretty cool experience! :) It was the start of a very full and busy 3 days, but I wouldn't have had it any other way. We had *SO* much fun and that weekend holds so many special memories now!

After that we decorated pictures frames to go with the centerpieces on each table!

                                                 Mean while Emily wrote her vows...

We then rushed home, got ready and sped to the rehearsal. lol Everything went quite well and we all had SO MUCH fun!! And I might add the dinner was phenomenal. :D

Bright and early Friday morning, abunch of people met up at the reception center and began the preparations there. Me, Sarah, and Cassie finished decorating the cakes which involved doing the rose buds/leaves on each piece and the upper and lower borders. Every one else worked one setting up tables for the guests, food, candy, etc. Lots of table clothes to be ironed, centerpieces to be set, etc. Michelle, Sarah, and I mixed up a huge amount of drinks...don't remember how many gallons, but that was kinda wild. lol We kept busy there a good portion of the day...

In the afternoon Michelle, Sarah, Megan, and I followed Emily and Bryce to the church where we did a few last minute preparations, such as signing the guest book before anyone else...lol Kidding, but it was one of the things we did. :P We then all went to our home to begin resting up for the next day. :D

On Saturday morning all the ladies from my house left around 6:30 a.m. for our appointment at the salon. This kinda shows how mine came out. I totally loved it. She did *such* an awesome job and with all 50 pins that were in it...it didn't budge all day. :D Anyhow we spent a couple hours there while everyone else was getting they're hair done. Then we headed to the church...

The bridesmaids, -3, waiting for the picture taking to begin!

Phillip (my cousin) and Nick (my brother).

2 of the ushers! They did a great job and I love that this was the first time they had ever worn ties! :D I might be a bit biased, but I think they look quite dashing. ;) 

And then 3 o'clock rolled around and it all began!!! YAY! :p I thought I'd share this picture to show that I successfully made it down the isle and onto the stage with out falling down the really steep sloop or passing out. Needless to say I don't think I've ever been so nervous, but once I got up there everything seemed okay. lol Other then trying not to cry, I guess... lol*Credit: Tami Paige

I love how this one turned out...might have to frame it sometime. :) I was surprised how much fun we had getting our pictures taken. lol  *Credit:Tami Paige

The moment we'd all been waiting for!!!!!

*Credit: Tami Paige

The moment they'd been waiting for! lol

*Credit: Tami Paige

The wedding party!

*Credit: Tami Paige

Me and Vaughn making our entrance at the reception. :)

The reception was an absolute blast! The food and cake was phenomenal. And we spent a couple hours dancing which is always fun as well. :)

*Credit: Tami Paige

All in all I don't think the day could have gone any smoother. We all had so much fun and it was such a blessing to be able to celebrate with everyone!

♥Mr. & Mrs. Baker!♥

*Credit: Tami Paige

 In an attempt to keep this post a decent length I had to really pick and choose thru the photos we have. But if you'd like to see more Michelle has two albums. Here and here. And the professional ones can all be viewed here.

 Oh and I hope y'all enjoy the little peek into my life...with no regard to history, sewing, etc. ;)

Love,
Brooke