Barbie/Project Runway Finale "Fashion Week"

This is it...63 pieces of clothing or accessories and the challenge is OVER for me! Last week, the finalists were asked to come up with a 10 piece collection to show at Fashion Week. Tim Gunn visited each designer at his/her home to discuss the collection and the inspirations they had in designing these "looks."

As for my inspiration, it was a no-brainer. Of course, I HAD to design a wedding dress for Barbie and outfits for the entire wedding party. My dream as a young girl was to have a wedding dress for Barbie, but alas, all she ever wore was her striped black and white bathing suit. Plus, if I recall correctly, the wedding dress at that time cost a whopping $5.00. This amount was insurmountable for me, and no one else shared my enthusiasm for procuring an outfit for a

missile-breasted girl like Barbie in my household!

(Speaking of those two missiles, I am well aware of the issues surrounding her body image for young girls. I chose to treat her like a favorite toy, and leave her measurements out of the equation --- seriously, how could I ever have completed this Project Runway challenge with a doll such as Cabbage Patch or Polly Pocket?)

So here she is in her wedding finery. She did follow the traditional ritual of

Something Old,

Something New,

Something Borrowed,

Something Blue.

The old is the wedding dress fabric itself taken from a yellowed fabric lining remnant saved by a relative from her wedding in the 1950s.

The new is the dress itself.

The borrowed is the "tiara" piece on the veil which is part of a set of clip-on earrings that once belonged to my grandmother.

The blue is hidden away under her gown: panties. A true lady would never reveal these in a public place such as this blog.

Here's a close-up of the veil. The netting is from a remnant piece which was used to make Anne's wedding veil five years ago. This fit into my self-imposed rule of only using "stash" I had on hand here at home, clothing items found in thrift stores or anything from Dollar Tree.

Barbie's bouquet also fit into my rule. I found a small bundle of these ivory flowers at a thrift store for twenty five cents. When pulled apart, the flowers were enough in number to adorn the entire wedding party!

You might also notice the silver ribbon used to wrap all the flower stems was leftover from Anne and Jed's wedding invitations.

Next up: Ken. Malibu Vintage Ken. I had to buy him because I do not like the current Ken available in the stores - his hair looks like a very bad furry toupee to me. Underneath that jacket, a gray pleated cummerbund encircles Ken's waist. You might wish to note here that Ken is the sole male in this wedding party. That's fine by me: a tuxedo is a pain to sew when the fabric is so slippery. The bowtie in gray was fussy to sew as well.

And now we come to the other femme fatale in this wedding party: The Mother. Ken's mother or Barbie's Mother is up to you; she's a force to reckon with. I bought this Barbie at Tuesday Morning for a good price - she is a "Collector's Edition" from 1969. I love her dimensional eyelashes, her bobbed hair and her painted fingernails!

Her dress was made from a thrift store top, bangles included on the hem of the top. The silver shoes were spray painted.

For Mother, I made a wristlet corsage. Check out her manicured nails.

Bridesmaid #1 is Blonde Barbie.

Bridesmaid #2 is Midge. Still very much pregnant, and yes, this dress is from a previous challenge. I chopped up a gray silk shirt of mine for this, and with the remaining remnants, the rest of the bridal party outfits were constructed.

And now we get to Skipper. I apologize for the fuzziness of this photo. You can't very well tell that her hair has a blue streak in it. Again, modern times apparently mean that she has to have streaked hair to entice the buyer. That's me, and I apologize for the commercial succumbing I

fell into - I just had to have Skipper represented in this wedding party.

Of all the dresses that I sewed in this challenge, this is my favorite dress.

Little Chelsea is next in the wedding party line-up. She wears an ecru, dropped-waist dress accented with a silver-and-pearl embellishment. For this look, I took lace yardage and basted it flat to an interfacing lining, then gathered the lace to make the ruffle flounce at the bottom of the dress.

Finally, we get to "Little Cupcake" who is the tiniest member of the wedding party.

She wears a circular dress with flat lace yardage gathered in a circular pattern. She looks like she's edible, doesn't she?

She does double duty as the Ring Bearer. Check out her little pillow with the two lovebirds and ribbons tied around the rings.

Finally, the Wedding Party gathers to have a group-shot picture taken.

And with this photograph, the Project Runway contest is over for me. If you count the "looks" for this last challenge, you will note there are 8 looks, not 10 as requested. I just felt I was done. Done done. Barbie-d out I guess. It happens. Life happens.

I hope you have enjoyed reading this blog about the challenge I took on several weeks ago.

If you feel so inclined, I would enjoy hearing from you about which challenge you liked the best. Thanks for sticking with me and your words of encouragement along the way!

The Knot is Tied!

The siblings are reunited, The cousins are (mostly) gathered,

The bridesmaids are readied,

The church is beautified,

The singer and pianist are warmed up,

The cousins are anticipating,

The flower girls are petal-ing,

The couple is married!

Then, off to the reception.

The guests are seated,

The grandfather takes his granddaughter for a whirl

around the dance floor.

The wedding has happened; the Knot is tied.

Congratulations, Ryan and Emily!!

Snapshots of Celebration

Colorful gerbera daisies Clever seating chart

Groomsmen with the new Mrs.

The other "moms" from the library

Table Seven

Awaiting the wedding party at the reception

MOB and FOB making an unconventional entrance

to the reception

FOB reading an essay the bride wrote in elementary school about love. The first observation:

"Love is...disgusting." (Guess you changed your mind, huh, Liz?)

The speeches and toasts - clink!

Dinner menu

Custom pasta bar

And a cake that was 0h-so-delicious!

Congratulations to the new Mr. and Mrs. J! All the best to you as you begin your married life journey!

Walking Tour Surprise

A few weeks before our anniversary, we were given a Save the Date card by our kids telling us to keep the morning of June 4th open and wear walking shoes. It was so much fun to wonder what was going to happen!

Once we had all gathered (Anne, Jed, Ellie, John and Kari) we were handed this sweet little flip-top album with a map of where we'd walk and "Reflective Questions" we'd discuss as we were walking. I think I might have screamed with excitement as one who loves this sort of adventure! We ended up walking to the North Park University campus where Wes and I began our courtship and love story. We saw our dorms, the Hanson Hall classroom where we met in Music 101, the Carlson Tower outdoor patio where we shared our first kiss, remembered the old library where we met to study (and my GPA was elevated because Wes was a serious student and if I wanted to see him, I had to go there myself) and remembered times spent on the mid-campus "Hump."

Then, we left the campus to walk to North Park Covenant Church where we were married. The building was unlocked and we had the sanctuary to ourselves as we relived the walk down and back the aisle. Photos were taken with the former bride and groom looking every bit as happy as on that day 35 years ago.

We ended up our walking tour by going past Wes' old house on Sawyer and our first apartment right across the street from his boyhood home. Memories were shared with the kids about my shoe heel breaking as we snuck our way up the back staircase following the wedding and our landlord coming out to see what the commotion was and finding us in our wedding attire - he was quite surprised!

Back together at our City Nest, we were treated to a delicious lunch and gifts. Even Ellie made a card for us:

Another part of our surprise was getting a stack of index cards listing events that occurred each year of our married life with pictures on the back of the cards. Not only was the stack thicker than one would expect, but also physical evidence of the beauty and blessings we have shared in all these years together.

To our kids - you completely blew us away with your thoughtfulness. We thank you for everything from the bottom of our hearts!!!! Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!

Unknown and Known

When we started out our married journey 35 years ago on 5/29/76, we certainly didn't know what was ahead. We didn't know where our careers would take us - and how we would manage to pay the rent and bills. We didn't know the size our family would grow to be and how the joys of parenthood would far surpass our expectations. We would know heartbreak in getting our family started as well.

We didn't know we would be able to travel the world as much as we have, yet find the most satisfaction in having "home" be wherever we could be together.

We didn't know my father would pass away before our kids really got to know him. We were blessed to get to see my mother live until the age of 86, and see her grandchildren reach adulthood. We have been able to see Wes' parents continue their life journey to this day. We didn't know how the lives of our siblings would turn out - the marriages (and unfortunately the divorces) and nieces and nephews we would welcome.

We didn't know that, in addition to Anne and John, we would add Jed and Kari to our family.

And Ellie!

We did know at the time of our wedding that we were surrounded in love by family and friends.

Dear to us, you are, and we thank you for being on this journey with us!

M & M Get Married in Michigan (Pink Suitcase Chronicles #37)

Ah, wedding season is upon us! And I love it. Why? Simply because weddings celebrate love, family ties, friendships, young and

old(er) people together, pretty females in special dresses, handsome males in suits and ties - and happiness bubbles over like no other time in life aside from the birth of a child. I am a huge fan of happy!

Our family (minus little Miss E.) celebrated the wedding of Mike G. and his beautiful bride, Meghan N. together in Michigan this past weekend. Mike is John's long, long time friend from elementary school and Anne has been like a pseudo big sister to Mike; Wes and I consider Mike to be a part of our family, too.

How I remember the antics (and mischief) these two could get into together in the past - the volcano "explosions" in the kitchen while I was busy ironing upstairs, the time I looked out the window to see both boys standing on top of our shed, the forts they built from curbside refuge, the sleepovers where I feared to see the "morning after" effects. Many years later, it was Mike that made John tell us about John's blind date with Kari and their budding romance. These memories came flooding back to us as we watched Mike making his vows to Meghan, and both of us were rather teary and choked up. We love this guy.

It wasn't all that long ago that Mike gave the toast at John and Kari's wedding and that teared us up as well. We know we have been blessed to have Mike in our lives, and now Meghan will be blessed as well to have him as her husband.

I loved the colors - and style - of the bridesmaids dresses. Perfect for a spring wedding.

May is a special month for wedding memories for us, too. Soon we'll celebrate our 35th wedding anniversary. Once we got to the reception venue (let's talk about charming here, it was in an old classic theatre ballroom) the eating and celebrating continued. After Meghan danced a bit with her father, all fathers were invited to share in the dance with their daughters.

Meaning that after Mike danced with his mother, Penny, all mother's were invited to dance with their sons. Here we are.

Seeing my four dance together certainly warranted yet another camera pull-out!

Though, I am not quite sure that one in this picture was excited to see the camera pulled out yet again --- I apologize.

Wishing you a very long and happy marriage, Meghan and Mike. Thanks for including us in your special day!