July-August-September Things

Melody let me know that I owed my blog a new post... Looking at the date of my most "recent" post, I can see why she said that.

My summer was absolutely crazy. I taught sewing classes for 9 weeks, with only 2 short weeks of breaks between.

The first week off I spent in Gettysburg at B. Manor :) A lovely week with wonderful friends! I took the Make-A-Dress Sew Camp with Carolann Schmitt of Genteel Arts Academy. I took three dresses to work on and needless to say (at least to any sewers out there) I did not finish one dress. :-P

The second week off I spent at OCNJ, "America's Greatest Year-Round Family Resort." One of my favorite places. :)
I finished teaching summer sewing camps on the last Thursday of August. I tore out of the house behind my students in order to make it to my hairdressers appt. which was scheduled for 1/2hr after camp ended. I made it just in time and in addition to getting my hair cut "short" (a little longer than my shoulders) I got "long bangs" and think they do something for my face, but they sure are annoying, lol!!!

The past two weeks I have enjoyed doing absolute nothing. Well, as much of nothing as possible. I did have to completely re-arrange the sewing room for fall classes, order award ribbons, update my website slightly, e-mail a thousand people, fill up said fall sewing classes, and other sundry work items that couldn't be fully avoided. But, I did manage to relax and finish one of the Civil War period dresses that I began in G'burg, finish my CW period bathing costume, make a couple of new things to wear to dance classes this year, a new cute fall skirt, almost make and finish a cute new fall shirt, and make a cushion and pillow for my cedar trunk which now resides in the sewing room holding a rack of ribbons.

First pictures of the CW bathing costume, followed by the other projects...







Tonight I've scheduled for me to sew for myself. But, my dad's 60's band is practicing in the other room and I might just sit and read while listening to them play "Rit A Maid," "Help Me Ronda," "Happy Together," and other classics of the 60s. :)

4 days 'till my 24th B.Day. :)

Go Phillies! (another unpublished post from weeks ago)

So dad calls home on Tuesday afternoon while I was teaching a fashion design class, and asks if Melody and I would like to go to a Phillies game on Wednesday, it's a fireworks game and all! And, do we have any friends who would like to go, because, someone at his work was giving away 6 tickets to whoever could use them. We took them, of course! Dad gave one ticket to a friend of his, and Melody called around to find a friend for the 5th ticket (we never did get a 6th person) What a fun evening! When we arrived at the stadium we found out that our seats were closer to the field than any of us had ever sat, lol!!! The Phillies beat the Cardinals 4:2, they got two home runs, and there were fireworks after the game. Here's some pictures of the fun night...

A Post I Wrote 3 Weeks Ago but Never Posted

Summer time just makes me want to read and read and read and read... and read. Besides all of the costuming history books I'm in the middle of, I'm reading The Story of Waitstill Baxter, by Kate Douglas Wiggin. I just love how K.D. Wiggin writes, and I'm so glad she wrote so much, so I have a long ways to go before I run out of "new" books to read. :)

In recent news, my first group of FashionIT Runway 1 students did a lovely job on their creations... see the FashionIT Sewing! blog for pictures. (I am unable to update my website because of computer problems, so I'm posting the pictures on the FIS blog for now.)

I've been listening to lots of Beatles music lately. Fun stuff. :)
Well, Melody and I made it to Gettysburg for the reenactment. Unfortunately, it rained most of the weekend, and always during the battles...so, I didn't get to see even 1 of the 5 battles! That was very disappointing. It was an interesting experience. I thought the whole thing would have been more "authentic" than it was. It was hard to picture fields and woods and soldiers marching when there were thousands of cars everywhere you looked, lol! Every suttler had the same stuff as the next with the exception of about 3 of the 30 or so suttlers. Melody and the other girl we were with for the weekend weren't too interested in sitting listening to the different speakers, most of whom were in first person for their character, so I didn't really learn much during the weekend. But, we had fun at the dance on Saturday night. :)

Now for pictures of the July 4th weekend...

Don't forget to pack the...

Out for a Sunday morning drive. Where are we going?

To take scenic pictures!

Very Cute. :)

Off to the reenactment!Fun with friends. :)And handsome gentlemen!



"...Sisters..."

Longwood Gardens

Yesterday afternoon Mellie and I went to Longwood Gardens to see one of her friends in a dance performance. We spent about an hour before the performance walking around and taking some pictures...



After the performance, we headed indoors to the conservatory because pretty much everything was dark outside...not much lighting outdoors except around the conservatory. Actually, we were going to watch the fountains display, but they had technical difficulties and although the music played and the fountains splashed there wasn't any lights lighting up the display!

So, indoors we went...
And my computer is about to run about of batteries, and I don't have my power cord here where my high-speed internet source is, so I'll have to end this post here!
~ Angie

sheesh

Yesterday morning when I went out to a Mac class near by, the gas station near us priced their Unleaded Gas at $3.99/gallon. When I returned home two hours later it was $4.07. *sigh*

Other than the unbelief of the gas prices and the wish to move into a town, I spent a pleasant afternoon with Melody shopping. In fact, we spent over 5 and a 1/2 hours at KOP Mall. :) I tried on a bazillion things, and got a couple of good bargains (though not as many as Melody).

On Friday, I traded in 4 more of our Bernettes for 4 Bernina machines for summer sewing camps (not only did I trade in, but I paid them a lot of $$$$$ too, lol!) Actually, mom and I spent almost two and a half hours deciding between the Bernina Activa 210 and the Babylock Quilter's Choice. The Babylock had lots of fun stitches, whereas the Bernina didn't have any, but after hours of debating and trying out both machines, we decided that the Bernina's were more user-friendly and would be easier for us to teach on over the summer. The kids who want to do some fun embroidery will just have to trade off with the kids using our 2 Activa 220s during the camps.

And now, I'd better get ready or I'll be late for church!

Tidbits

About 6 weeks ago mom and I did some "antiquing" at a few shops between here and Gettysburg, after purchasing my material for my bathing costume in Gettysburg. I was so excited when I came across these books, as several of the stories are "new" to me. When I brought them up to the check-out I was so horribly disappointed to find out that three other books from this set had been sold shortly before I came to a book dealer. Aaaaagggggggg!!!!!! Of course, I looked up the missing books when I got home and they are nowhere for sale, and they have stories I haven't read, humph. Well, someday I'll "fill in the blanks," but I'm having fun reading "Penelope's Scottish Experiences" for now.

Here I am with two of my cute sewing students after the Mother's Day sewing class. The other three girls left before I could get a picture. K. on the left made a "candle doily" and tissue back for her mom, and H. on the right made an apron for her mom. I'm wearing the sample apron, which is now mine ;) and holding my "candle doily."

When driving to Gettysburg last weekend for Pt. 2 of the Bathing Costume class, I encountered a group of people sending off this hot-air balloon! Too cool. :)

I was sooooo close to seeing it take off from the ground, oh, and this was at 6:10am ;)

I made this dress last week to use for rentals. Lots of school kids ask to borrow or rent outfits for school programs/presentations. Mom suggested I make a pretty gown based on some of my recent research, as more people would probably like to rent that rather than the ugly local rural PA outfit I've rented out in the past. :-P

Here's the set of undergarments, shift, petticoat, pockets, and I do have a cap and straw hat to complete the set. :)

Here's pic of the mess mom and I made this afternoon when trying to clean up a couple of shelves and drawers. We had no clue there was so much stuff in two sets of small drawers, and a couple of shelves, lol!

Last tidbit of the evening... my unfinished bathing costume is in the top left corner of the picture above, the Turkish trousers are thrown over the top, and you can just see a bit of them over the red plaid dress. Pictures of that fun project coming soon!

Now, for anyone in the not-know, the first part of Cranford airs this Sunday evening on most PBS stations! I can't wait!!!

~Angela