Christmas dress 2011

 This past Friday was my work places' Christmas party. I've wanted to attend this particular party for 3 or so years. Needless to say I've been brain storming for awhile about what I want to wear. :) This year it was held at the Embassy Suites in large town near here. We were super excited about the chance to wear fancy-ish dresses. :P So this is what I came up with.

 I used this pattern many thanks to Aunt Kristi, who gave it to me for my birthday. :)

 The fabric is from my always enlarging collection. :S lol Michelle thought the color suited me okay and it kinda looks like the one on the pattern cover. :D Always a plus so I know what it will kinda look like when its done. ;)

Its was fairly simple to construct, but the neckline was quite difficult to get straight.

I also had alittle trouble getting the ruffle on the sleeve to lay down right, but a little or should I say a bunch of steam got it to behave correctly. :P

I had to add 2 inches of length to the skirt. It turned out the perfect length!!! :) YAY. ;)

I also sewed the neckline about an inch higher then it would normally be. That went really well. Which was a relief as I was sure how that was going to come out.

The belt "buckle" is actually a broach that my Grandma gave me on my birthday. :) Are we seeing a trend here? :P There's also matching earrings. Which I wore to the party. :)

And for the record. My 4 year old brother Matt gave me the flowers. :) He calls me his girlfriend. :) So the first flowers I've ever been given were from  my little brother. How cool is that? :D

Over all I couldn't be happier with it. I love it sooo much. I've already worn it several times and I plan on making much more good use out of it this season. :D





 On a side note. Amanda is have 2 awesome giveaway's on her lovely blog. The first is the stunning Shabby Apple dress 'Ski Bop' and secondly is Modest 4 Me high cut camisole. So go check them out. :)

Love,

Brooke

Danville Civil War reenactment 2011 Part 2

Moving on to the battle....

Some of the Calvary.

Go rebels!!!!!!

Union Commanders



 

In the heat of the battle.

These 2 horses didn't seem to get along to well. :P Never the less it makes for a great photo. ;)

Booo!!! Just kidding. I'm sure they did an awesome job. :D

Is that creepy looking or what?!!?! lol

It was great so see a pretty strong force of confederates. They tend to be pretty sparse....

Marching.....

As they start dropping like flies. :D lol

No matter how stressful the situation that cigar isn't movin'.

A wounded solider....

I love the dramatic pose on the right. ;)

The surrender!!!!!

These here soliders did alittle bayonet charge toward us. Unfortunately Michelle was to scared to take a picture when they were actually pointing them at us. lol

Some bows I want to make. So for anyone that's wonderful the main reason I have this is so I can remember what they look like.

Many thanks to the young gentleman that kindly took a photo of all of us.

Lauren in her new gown!

In line for dinner.

Chowin' down!

Tuckered out before dancing a single step? :P

The sky was outstanding that evening!

Leaving to ready for the dance.

This is only a small fraction of our things. :D

 Sadly, we don't have any pictures from the dance altho there's not much to have seen. The building was lovely and the band was terrific. But there was like no one dancing other then us. lol On average I'd say 4 gentlemen were dancing. And several other ladies. Need less to say we were quite put out. But we still had a jolly dancing with each other and looking back it was one of the funner times I've had dancing so I suppose one could say it all ended up well. :)

Now we move onto sunday morning.

Eating to get energy for our morning swim. haha

The morning workout. They couldn't figure out why they weren't burning any calories.... :S Even I am amazed by what some of us do...

Preparing to dive in. Okay so I slowly walked into it... What ever... lol

It was so nice to have Grandma join us in the water. :D

On the way home we ate at Cracker Barrel...Michelle enjoyed trying some of the masks they had there...

The south end of our table...

Our darling Grandma. We're all very thankfully to her for making this trip happen.

Rachel wanted to be in every picture. :D

Our driver, Emily. You did a wonderful job with all us wild girls in the back, my dear. :)

The darling Rachel. Or on this occasion known as Ray, since we struggle with duplicate names...

Megan

The ever onery Abigail. Okay...she's not that bad. ;P

Sarah...I think this portrays her personality well. And no, I am not always that impressed by her. lol

The photographer, Michelle.

She owns this store and she never even new it. lol

A quick overview of the event. The location was fantastic, far away from any modern inconveniences. There was actually quite a few reenactors(the most I've seen) which made the battle the best we'd seen. Also there seemed to be a pretty good sized crowd of spectators. It was nice to have the dance indoors. That always makes them so much nicer and it was raining while we danced so it actually made it possible in this case. :D

Sorry about the somewhat lame post. We're kind of in a hurry. :D

Love,

Brooke and Michelle