First Annual Delavan Civil War Reenactment

This past Saturday 6 of us girls attended Delavan's first ever civil war reenactment. Delavan is only about half an hour from here and Michelle and I used to drive thru there everyday on the way to work in fact. :) Its a gorgeous town and has some of the most beautiful Victorian houses! I've always said if I was to live in a small town I'd choose that one. :) The week prior was filled with much excitement and preparation! Food to make, stays to finish, a cage to construct, etc. We had a lot of big plans and many things to look forward to during the day, so you can imagine our excitement as Saturday dawned... :) Sarah and Rachel met up with us here and we all road up together. That always makes things more fun. To keep up with tradition I did a bit of necessary sewing on the way. lol I always like to say its not an event if I'm not finishing something in the car on the way. :P
 The park at which it was held is very pretty. Made for some nice pictures I must say. :D

We started the day off by being in the parade. That was alot fun. :D

Photo Credit; Tom G. Davison 

Dave and Duke getting ready for the parade.

Where we hung out most the day....some of the guys kindly asked if we wanted to sit with them. Which we're very greatful for as it was like 100 degrees or higher and the shade really helped. Plus they were just super fun to be around. lol

We all sewed on our scrap quilt. We got quite a bit done with so many hands. :) We're doing pretty small blocks so we have to have over 1000 and we're hand sewing the entire thing. So we take all the help we can get on it. lol

Mean while the guys had lunch...I love this picture...I think its one of my favorites from the day.

Michelle showed Chris how to sew some of the blocks together.

Chris hard at work.

Michelle wants me to tag this one as "A rose among thorns." But I said I didn't want to make them sound like thorns or me like a rose. So she said to say "A thorn among roses". I didn't like that one either so we'll just leave it like this and let y'all think what you want. :P lol

Miss Samantha! It was so wonderful to meet her at last. I've read her blog for a couple years so it was quite delightful to put a face to the name... :)

2 beautiful girls! Emily sewing and I think Rachel's probably hiding a jar of pickles. lol

Lining up for the battle.

This is like seriously one of the only pictures of the battle we got. It started pouring rain as soon as it started and did throughout most of it. I have to say that it made it more realistic and unique. It got really still and all the smoke all stayed low, it was kinda of eery and made for come cool shots for the spectators I'm sure. I think the battle itself was good. Especially considering the number of reenactors. They did the battle of "Little Crane Creek." They even did a little hand to hand which is always really sweet.

We had the pleasure of seeing our friend Tom there. He's always soooooooo much fun and definitely did not disappoint this time. lol Seeing him was totally one of the best parts of the day. Needless to say we had a few different photoshoots. :)

All of us together. :) From left to right: Michelle, Rachel, Sarah, Emily, me, Samantha, and Megan

Miss Sarah poses by one of the wagons.

Megan looking quite happy indeed.

My beautiful big sister Michelle.

Mrs. Baker pleased us all by making an appearance as well. :)

Rachel looking completely adorable! Love that girl!

And yours truly looking not so great in a white dress. I definitely think that was one of the last times I'll wear that gown....

Having some fun after the spectators were gone. :D

Photo Credit: Tom G. Davison

Larry and Tom with us girls. :) These 2 gentlemen are always such a joy to see and help make the events be a ton of fun.

Photo credit; Tom G. Davison

Michelle tried to capture some of the artillery pieces.

The 33rd Illinois Infantry Band played for the dance. They do such a good job and we always love dance to a brass band. :)Band

Me & Aaron, Sarah & Chris, and  Michelle & Paul scheming our bumper car waltz. lol That's was so fun... :D And in case your wondering what it involves...we'd run into each other really hard and then say "sorry, we're new". lol It was great.... :

Nate and Megan sashay during a vigorous Virginia Reel.

Michelle and Sarah doing the Virginia Reel as well. We all danced even when they had breaks so thus the reason for so many Virgina reels. lol We mainly did that and the Nine Pin. :)

Nate & Megan do the Spanish waltz with Chris & Rachel.

Me and Bryce during some sort of odd carousel dance/waltz thing I'd never done it before and don't care to again it was very odd and not all that energetic. lol Never the less Bryce did a phenomenal job and we were very glad he came to the dance. :) 

 I love how me and Aaron are doing the exact same thing in this picture. lol

This is probably my favorite picture of all time! I think it turned out so great.

Left to right:

Tim, Rachel, Aaron, me, Chris, Sarah, Paul, Michelle, Dave, Megan and Nate.

Photo Credit: Tom G. Davison

Over all it was pretty much the best event I've ever been to. I've never had so much fun and the dance was phenomenal! Totally the best dance of all times. :D Thanks so much to everyone that made it such a wonderful day. :)

And in case you'd like to see more pictures...here's the rest of Michelle's and Tom's. And there's even a news clip about it with some familiar faces in it here.... :)

 I'd totally recommend anyone to attend this event and I'm already looking forward to next year. For more information visit the website here.

Hope you enjoyed the post and be sure to check back soon. :)

Love,
Brooke

Happy Independence day!

Just wanted to pop in and wish y'all a very Happy Independence Day!!!

What are/did y'all do to celebrate? Not much going on here today. Spending most my time studying and sewing. :) Not sure if we'll go anywhere to see fireworks tonight or not. The show we'd been hoping to see is already over (we're had other plans that night :( )...

Anyhow I have some new posts coming soon so stay tuned. :)

Love,
Brooke

General Grierson days 2012

A week and half ago we, at last, had our first event of the year. We'd all been anticipating it quite alot! And were overjoyed that it was finally here. I don't think we would have survived the wait, had we not all been preoccupied the weekend before with my dear cousins wedding. (Not to worry a post about that lovely weekend will come as soon as I get my hands on satisfactory pictures. :)

This year things were a bit different. They had alittle train station or depot or whatever you'd like to call it set up in the battle field. You can just see the edge of it on the right of this picture.

This horse was so gorgeous and really caught our attention. It seemed like there was quite alot of calvary there this year. Which is fine by me. I so love being able to see horses. :)

We were in the fashion show again this year. Its becoming quite a tradition for us. I think I've been in this particular one 3 times so far. :D Its always really fun and usually quite successful. Tho this time I almost slipped on the stairs when coming off the stage. lol Thankfully I didn't cause a scene and I don't think anyone noticed. :D You have to give me some credit tho. I was wearing Robert Lands for the first time ever after all. :P

Next we had lunch. We had the brilliant idea of sitting in the gazebo...and its a very good thing we did. It started blowing and puring down rain. Thankfully it let up after a bit. And also very thankful for girls with hoop skirts to hide hats and other things that aren't supposed to get wet under. hehe

Here Sarah is trying to "shield" herself from the rain. I personally think she was just scared tho... lol

They had a Timeline side this year as well. It was quite fascinating! 

There was camps from WW I, WWII, and Korea.

I thought everything looked completely awesome and quite realistic!

And now I REALLY want to do WWII reenacting. :) Let the research begin! ;)

After a rather wild experience running across the extremely busy road with two other members of my party. We got back to the park just in time for the battle to start.

I have to say it wasn't the best battle I've seen, but that's probably just because the last one I saw was completely phenomenal and my expectations were high. :D Never the less it was still fun to watch and we had a good time.

Here's a picture of our party. Sadly our number is shrinking. Hopefully we'll find some new people to join us soon. :) From left to right: Sarah, Megan, Lauren, Michelle, Rachel, and yours truly. :)

Sarah and Michelle, the 'twins' looking as adorable as ever. :) Can't imagine my life without those girls.

Michelle's hair done up for the dance. It looks very pretty doesn't it? :)

The dance was held in a different building this year. It was slightly cramped, but we still had a ton of fun. Above Me and Rachel waltz. While Lauren and Larry try some new moves. :D

I got to waltz with Larry as well. It was one of my favorite dances of the evening. He's such a phenomenal dancer! We went so fast and were twirling and flying around the room non-stop. By the end I was quite out of breath. :P lol

And to end a wonderful evening, a photo with a wonderful couple, Larry and Shirley. Since this was Lauren's last reenactment before she gets married and moves away we all wanted to get picture together. They are such sweet people and we're very blessed to know them.

From left to right: Rachel, Sarah, Me, Shirley, Larry, Megan, Lauren, and Michelle.

I hope you enjoyed the post and check back soon, as I'm hoping to posting more regularly from here on in. Things have slowed down a bit and I'm hoping to start digging in to my list. Our next event is in 3 days and I have a billion things to get done. A hoop to resize, a dress to hem, things to iron, food to make, a stay to finish, choices to finalize about what were going to wear, a hat the need redecorated. Not to mention getting the house cleaned up for company on Sunday. :) Anyhow we're all super excited about this weekend and have alot of big plans. (BTW Sarah and Rachel can't wait to tell you about them. :D lol)

Until next time!

Love,

Brooke

Pinspiration

Recently I've been slowly, but surely exploring the joys of Pinterest! Its such an inspiring site! A priceless resource for storing all my ideas in their own categories. I have very broad interests so it suits me perfectly to find inspiration pertaining to so many different facets all in one places. I find everything from make up tutorials to wedding ideas (not that its anywhere in my near future, mind you :P) to fashion boards. My personal favorite, if you look at my boards, is definitely the fashion ideas... Not to mention the little bits of humor, uplifting words, recipes and house hold care tips. I could go on and on.. Needless to say I've passed more than a few hours on there. :D

Here's a few things I've found that I'd like to recreate.

The flounces on this are INSANE! In a wonderful way. :D

This skirt in black. Paired with a dainty 'vest' and an extremely fitted jacket. Oh yeah! 

Showin' my froofier side. ;) Which isn't very froofy. :s

Love this! Almost origami styled jacket!

I don't know why, but these ARE calling my name!!! I love em! The details around the waist are so perfect. :)

I think this is the cutest dress! Its so bright and cheery! And I love what they did with plaid on the bodice!

Which are your favorites?

If you'd like to check out the rest of my pins go here!!

Love,
Brooke

Modern blouse for Megan

I started this blouse last year for Megan's birthday. I got it part of the way done and wasn't pleased with how it was fitting. So I threw it into pile set it as side to finish some other time. The months slowly ticked by and Megan's birthday came and went again this past March. At the time I new I wanted to go a head and finish it for her, but between work and drivers ed. I didn't have any spare time. All that was left was constructing and setting the sleeves, buttons/buttonholes, and hemming the bottom. So, at last, I finished it!!

I used Simplicity 2501. Its a very straight forward pattern. Very simple to use and I understood the instructions perfectly. A nice accomplishment for someone such as myself. I usually just make up my own... :S :P I love the stand up collar and ties.

The only thing I don't really like about the pattern is the fact that it has bust darts (not sure what the technical name for them is? :-/). I can never seem to get them to lay right. The fabric is a plaid-like homespun that's been laying around for years. It was actually very nice to work with and is very soft, un-like some other homespuns. Thankfully I was able to find 9 matching buttons in our button collection. lol I was surprised to see how many we'd used since I last dug threw them.

As you can see it still doesn't fit to greatly, but maybe someday she'll grow into it. ;)

The back also has 2 darts, but they actually turned out pretty nicely so the don't really show. :)

I love the sleeves. There like cute little puff ones, but only have 2 box pleats on top and 1 on the bottom instead of a bunch of gathers.
Thanks so much for visiting. I've been spending alot of time in the sewing room and I'll have some things to show you soon. So don't be a stranger. ;)

Love,
Brooke

Abounding sun bonnets

Hello!!

 I am, at last, back after my lengthy hiatus! :) I'm now off my job for the summer months. And as of an hour ago we wrapped up the elephantine project of picking up and organizing (sorta) the sewing room! Which pretty much looked like a tornado had hit it. :S So now all the fabric is sorted by color and all the small peices for quilts are separated from the more useful lengths (which to my disappointment are rather limited in both size and quantity). Box after box of knits were hauled to the basement. In every form and color you can imagine. Single knits, double knits, tricots, and well the list goes on and on. I'm now accepting ideas on how to use this mountainous collection. I have to admitt I have very little patience when it comes to the horrible heap of poly esther. lol That type of fabric basically goes against my entire idea what I should be sewing. Never the less, I'd definately like to turn over abundance into advantage. Speak now or forever hold your peace when it throw it all away. :D lol Anyway enough about that... Now that I that I can sucessfully enter my cheery little space and not have to dig threw every one of the boxes to find something specific each time I get an order. I'll be producing more things to show y'all.

 To hold y'all over...here's a few of the bonnets I've made for some of my customers. They're definately the most popular item I sell. :)

                                      

                                     

Until next time,

Brooke