Celebration

Posted on May 14, 2013 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

This past weekend, my extended family came together to celebrate my youngest sister’s wedding.

Another sister and another wedding mean another special dress. Given that my post about my bridesmaid dress for my middle sister’s wedding last year is still the most popular post on this blog, I of course have to write about the dress I sewed for this latest wedding.

This is Simplicy 2253. When it came time to choose bridesmaid dresses, my sister the bride said, “Whatever you want.” My other sister already had a dress that she liked, so I just had to find something that complemented her dress.

My Mom, who taught me to sew, also sewed her dress (Vogue 1182). If you want the details on my dress, here’s my review.

As fancy as we all look here, it was a construction themed evening, as my sister and her new husband are building a house together. The message of my Mom’s speech was how building a house is like building a marriage. Her take away quote: “When the mud gets deep, celebrate. Buy a great pair of rubber boots and celebrate that you have each other and you can handle whatever comes your way.”

The wedding was a great celebration for our family. Congratulations to Cynthia and Dave. I wish you a great marriage and minimal mud.

Fall fashion preview

Posted on August 16, 2012 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Accessorizing your house with Mother Nature is always in style. For this fall, it’s about accessorizing your hair with natural elements.

Bring on the burrs

Burrs have long lasting hold and can be arranged in a variety of artistic patterns. Just touch them to your hair, and they will be held firmly in place, no need for additional pins or spray.

Removal is a challenge, but with a lot of patience, a gentle brush and high pain tolerance, scissors can be avoided.

Watch for these natural fashion accessories to appear at farms and forests this fall.

Change of pace

Posted on July 22, 2012 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

This past weekend was a little different for Matt and me. We left the work clothes in their piles on the bedroom floor and the measuring tapes stayed in the toolbox. Instead, we got dolled up in our best duds and put on our dancing shoes.

What was the occasion for such finery? The celebration of my sister’s wedding.

You know I’m all about DIY, though, so for the past couple of months I’ve been taking a bit of time off from the basement renovation to work on this little number.

I’ve no plans to turn this into a sewing blog, but this was a special dress made with a special fabric for a very special occasion, so please bear with me as I break with our regular program of country living and home improvement to share a little bit about The Dress. For those that want the full project breakdown, see my review on Pattern Review.

This dress is the most challenging thing I’ve ever sewn, and it’s my first sewing project at the farm. The fact that my sewing room isn’t set up yet and has in fact become the holding room for most of the boxes we haven’t unpacked and a lot of the things that we don’t know what to do with yet complicated things slightly. Between a desk leftover by the past owners where I could set up my sewing machine, an ironing board in the dining room and a few square metres of clear floor space behind the living room couch, I made it work.

I probably would not recommend tackling a project like this concurrent with moving, renovating and caring for a large property, but despite a bit of stress about finding sewing time everything worked out very well in the end.

The fabric for this dress is actually courtesy of my sister, the bride. She bought it for me in Malaysia when she was visiting her fiancé’s family. Initially I wasn’t sure where I’d ever use such a fancy, brightly coloured fabric. But when my sister said that she wanted to be the white in the middle of a brightly coloured rainbow of her bridesmaids, I knew this was perfect.

A family wedding is a tremendously special occasion, and I was very happy to be part of my sister’s and her new husband’s special day. Congratulations, Jennifer and Jeremy. I wish you much love and happiness together.

Farm attire

Posted on March 23, 2012 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

I went to the feed mill after work today.

I was wearing my red dress, gold flats, dangly pearl earrings, navy trench complete with colourful silk scarf and carrying my sequined Coach purse. There may have even been panty hose involved.