Life Moves Pretty Quickly

A very smart friend said to me one day, "as fast as kids arrive in your home, that's how fast they leave". I figure she knows what's she's talking about considering she have birth to 10 kids and was blessed to raise 9 to adulthood.  

When I started this blog I had one child living in New Caledonia, serving a mission for our church and the rest living at home.  Since then our oldest and only daughter has married and moved on, our missionary has returned home and after living with his grandparents for a year is finishing up his schooling at BYUi in Rexburg, Idaho, our middle son is now serving a mission in Xalapa, Mexico and my second to youngest will be leaving home next month for the MTC to learn French then he will be off to serve his mission in Paris, France. If you're keeping count, that leaves one child at home, a situation I experienced last in 1991.  I get asked (criticized) by people not of my faith quite a bit on how I can send my kids out on the world and not see them for 2 years. I tell them it's easy and truly it is.  I love The Lord, I believe in his gospel. I know that if you believe and have faith in Him then you will be blessed by following Him and sharing His gospel. My boys feel the same way and know that the 2 years they serve will bless our family and their lives in countless ways that will manifest throughout their lives. In the grand scheme of eternity, 2 years isn't even a blip. 

The best part about them serving a mission? I can't speak for others but this moment is pretty good,

this is all of them together again after 2 years, this is the day we picked Andrew up at the airport.  The extra kid in the back is Megan, I consider her one of mine too. 

Also it didn't bother me to trip over these well worn ugly sandals the next morning! 

All of this happened in June of 2012, it seems like yesterday, but the son I got back was the same yet different. For one thing he was no longer a boy, he was a man. He had been refined by the experiences he had living in a different culture than the one he was used to. He learned that even though we're not rich, he had it better than most. He learned to love the people he served, he learned to turn the other cheek, he learned how to catch, prepare, cook and eat a bat! He also came home with a thorough knowledge of French and can speak the island language of Bislama. These are experiences money can't buy.  

In October of 2013 our daughter Ashton married. I'll post more about her wedding later. 

My new son-in-law is geeky in a cool way. This was a day filled with love and laughter.  For example, the wedding selfie:

And the photo booth: 

But most importantly, family.

I can't stress the importance of family. I was telling my husband the other day that I was so grateful to a God in Heaven that is so much smarter than me and knew although I was happy with my two oldest kids, He knew I needed more in my life so He gave me as I called them for much too long, the little boys. Never mind that they all tower over me now. Without those three our lives would not be as joyous as they've been these last 20 years. 

Born in February of 1995 was Jordan, Jojo to the family. He is now serving a mission in Mexico and like his brother before him, went off a boy. He's had to learn a new language, then teach in that language, learn that plumbing isn't always reliable and that in Mexico they use more of the chicken than his mom does and corn tortillas come with every meal, every meal. The best part for me is knowing that when he returns he will be a better version of himself after all those experiences. Here he is just before baptizing this lovely lady, she's 101 years old, can you imagine the joy this brings? 

I look forward to his return eagerly, I can't wait to have him speak to the Mexican side of our family! Again this is something no amount of money can buy, these experiences are priceless! 

Then there's our second to youngest, Cameron, he's 19 months younger than Jojo. Cammy as I call him, has been called to serve in Paris, France. His mission encompasses the area that his grandmother is from the Alsace-Lorraine region. What are the chances that I would have 2 sons that serve French speaking missions? No chance at all because truly there is a God in Heaven that knows better than me. 

Cameron making a face because I insisted on photographing him:

So very soon, he will be off on his own adventure and he will have those experiences that will enhance and enrich his life in untold ways. And as for me, I will write him and his brother every week and look forward to Christmas and Mother's Day when I will get to skype with them. The house will be a little quieter and a little neater because only the youngest will be home. But soon, very soon Jordan will return and then Jonathan, Bubba to you and me, will graduate and be off and we will be empty-nesters. It happened in the blink of an eye. 

Taken in February of 2014. Left to right: youngest to oldest, the last picture of them all together for 5 years. 

Is it worth it? You bet! 

Terri 

I've been sewing, how about you?

Here is a fun project I had the opportunity to work on last month. Meet Brianna, I've known her since she was 9. It blows my mind that she is old enough to get married but what can I say? Time flies. Brianna purchased this gown for her wedding and there was a little problem with it, it was strapless. Now to people who are not members of my church this isn't really a problem but to a Mormon bride this is a challenge. The 80's and early 90's were good to Mormon brides, finding a dress with sleeves that was modest was not a problem. Then sometime in the mid-90's everything changed. If you watch TLC's "Say Yes to the Dress" you know that Kleinfelds of New York sells mostly strapless dresses. Some of them are sheer corseted little numbers that run upwards of $20,000.00! From a design standpoint I find them wonderful, as a Latter Day Saint woman I find them good for business. But I digress, Brianna as a Latter Day Saint bride needs a gown that is modest. That's where I come in. I had to add sleeves to this dress and shorten it. Not an easy fix, I hung this dress in my work space and would work on other projects then turn and look at it, waiting for it to talk to me on how to add sleeves. Finally it spoke, hemming the dress turned out to be easier than I thought but the sleeves still posed a problem.




I've added a photo of the inside of the dress just in case you wanted to see what the inside of a designer gown looks like.

After a trip to downtown LA with a few friends, Brianna's mom and I found fabric to match the dress and I went to work. The gown had some asymmetrical pleating that was a bit organic so matching it was a little tricky plus the entire dress was cut on the bias. Most of the work I did was done by hand. I believe I stuck myself a total of 6 times. And yes I did get blood on the inside of the dress that I had to get out. Fun stuff. In the end, I was happy with the way it turned out and I believe the bride and her mom was too.

You decide, here is a picture of the lovely bride her reception. The next picture is her wedding cake, I don't know who made it but I love it! The detail on it is amazing!!! Well that's all for today, it's the Fourth of July and I have a party to get to.
Terri

Distracted by chickens, well feathers at least.

I warned you this might happen, I get distracted easily by life so it's been a while.  What has been going on?  Lots of stuff!  First General Conference for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, 2 days of inspirational talks given by the President and Prophet of the church and other leaders. In one of his talks President Monson mentioned Manaus Brazil and New Caledonia.  My friend Cheryl's son is serving in Manaus here is the blog they are keeping of his adventures.  And if you have been reading my blog you know that my son is serving in New Caledonia. What a little valentine to have them both mentioned!   More information about General Conference can be found here.  Next up, Dan and Lacey's wedding, the ceremony itself took place in the San Diego LDS Temple.  The reason for why Mormons build Temples can be found here

 

 Here are some photos of the wedding dress in progress:

The fabric: Duchess Satin, Silk Alencon Lace and  a Silk/Cotton Batiste to underline it.

The first cut is always the one I stress over!  I can sew for myself and not think twice about it but when I sew for others I usually have a nervous break down, then I can sew.  Yes, I made most of the pattern myself.

Here is the skirt, it's not easy to tell from the photo but it's a full + circle skirt with godet inserts.  The beauty of this is that it's full at the bottom but doesn't add any width to the waist! That is always a good thing.

Still not looking like much but it's coming along.  Sorry for the weird posting but my cursor seems to have disappeared.  I'm not sure what is going on with blogger!   

Starting the lace, it's shaped on the form then stitched together. It's very time consuming work.  I kept telling myself, "Don't screw up you only have a yard and a half and this stuff is Expensive."

I said a lot of prayers working on the lace.  A lot of prayers!

 

 

More photos of the lace being shaped. I did the same for the back.  Next came the sleeves.  I ended up sewing all the lace on the sleeves by hand.  I got very fast at it.

The back once I got the zipper done it wouldn't close on the dress form anymore but that's ok, by this time I knew it fit Lacey.  The hem was 8 yards around!

Just Married!

Here are some other items made for the wedding.  I didn't get any pictures of the bridesmaids skirts, I don't know what I was thinking.  The Mother of the Bride dress: 

I love how it turned out, it was made of yellow crepe back satin

 Next is the brooch bouquet.  I got the idea from a sight on Etsy.  They are just gorgeous and also run in the neighborhood of six hundred dollars so Cheryl and I decided to try making one.  Here is the final result, and I have to say it's much prettier in person! 

At the end of last month I was contacted by a lady who was given my name by my friend Helle.  Her daughter needed 2 prom dresses made.  One short with a feathered skirt and the other one was a Elie Saab design from his 2011 Spring Collection.  He is the designer that did the lavender dress that Mila Kunis wore to the Oscars.  In fact that lavender dress was straight off the runway, loved it!

 First up the short model :  

Now my version, by the way check out her shoes, more on that later!

Now the Elie Saab gown, they asked me to remove the sleeves and make it spaghetti straps:

Believe it or not I had to take both dresses in even more.  This girl was TINY!!!!  The picture does not do the fabric justice.  It was a flesh colored silk lining with a dusty pink beaded lace overlay! Stunning.

Other things worked on:  Prom dress make over, this was a fun project.  My friend Sara has a daughter who is attending 2 proms. She already has a dress for her prom but she also went to a cross town high school's prom and decided to wear her mom's old prom dress from the 80's.  Kudos to Sara for keeping it this long and in such good shape!  I removed the 80's style poufy sleeves, finished off the raw edges and made it tea length.  I think it looks very vintage-y  and what is better than breathing new life into an old outfit? 

 

Aren't they both gorgeous? 

Here is another project that I worked on for the same prom, Arielle and her mom Jenine ordered this gown online, very brave of them.  It fit great except it was about 5 inches too long and the sparkly strap was too long.  I removed the strap down the back, cut it and reattached it and the sparkly stuff that came off.  Then I hemmed the dress, all 4 layers.  I love the color, it looks very young Elizabeth Taylor! 

I still have 1 prom dress to work on, that's the one on the right you can barely see in the above photo and I have a dress draped in muslin on a dress form but no rush on that one.  I am so grateful for all the paid gigs I have had over the last month, it's way better to get money instead of grades for my sewing! ;) 

So other random stuff, I noticed a tree in my neighbor's backyard that looks like Batman standing on a roof. My kids agreed with me so I know I'm not crazy.  I have discovered that Choco Tacos are pretty darn awesome! And snails can actually stick to my car from driveway to junior high, across town to high school and back again!  How he got on the side of my car I have no idea.  John took care of him and removed him.  My Hero! 

So what do you think of Bat Tree?

MMMMMMM! ChocoTaco!

And finally my hitchhiking snail.

So about those shoes worn with the above prom dress.  I loved them!  They are a pale dusty pink with a sparkly platform.  Now if you know anything about me, you must know this: I LOVE shoes! And these little beauties made my heart go pitter-pat!  The day after I saw them I had a bad morning, so after running errands I headed over to Baker's Shoes and decided to just try them on.  It doesn't hurt to try them on.  So I searched the store and didn't see them.  I was bummed out and turned to leave when I saw a pair on the clearance rack!  The clearance rack!  I approached slowly so they wouldn't get startled and run away then I picked them up.  The sales girl was there before I turned and asked if she could bring me my size.  Why yes you may, I need a 7, thank you.  It took her a moment but when she returned there they were in their own little box.  She also brought me a pink pair of sparkly shoes that I will have to keep my eye on.  It was almost as if they were made for me.  They slipped on like a long lost friend, hugged my feet and whispered seductively,  "take me home"  I replied, "I can't I just came to try you on."  Then they said, "we're on clearance look at our price."  I turned them over and they were 50% off. The sales girl approached and asked if they fit, and said they were the last pair in the store, how lucky that they fit!  I took them home.  Very bad of me but what could I do?  All their friends had been sold to good homes, these shoes needed me!  The best part? I got another five dollars off because I had a Bakers customer loyalty card!  I love shoes even more when they are discounted.  Incidentally I tried to by some flats a few days later and my son Cameron stopped me telling me flats were for quitters, where does he get these ideas from?  I wonder?  Well that's a look into my mind, scary. 

SHOES!!!!!!!

Now we just have to get Cameron over his contact dermatitis, we suspect poison oak from a hike, get the kids to Youth Conference tomorrow and head out to VLV 14! I can't wait. 

Here is a link from last year's vintage fashion show.  The model at the very end is Johnnie Mae, you can follow her on Facebook.  She modeled for me last year at a school fashion show and one of the other students tried to highjack her from me. 

That's April in couture, Take care!

Wow, it feels good to take off my shoes...

Yesterday I mentioned that I was headed to LA to check out the costumes at FIDM and to find some fabric for a future Renaissance Faire costume both goals were accomplished.  It was an absolutely gorgeous day, the weather was perfect as you can tell from this photo of the Eastern Building on Ninth Street.  The Eastern was recently converted into lofts, pricey and in the heart of downtown but I'm happy the old building is seeing some life again. 
 

The movie costumes were amazing, one of the things that always fascinates me is how tiny they are.  Ellen Page is super small!  I love the detail work that I saw in the Academy Award winning costumes from Alice in Wonderland.  I was hoping to see the costumes from Black Swan but no such luck.  They did however have on display the costumes from Clash of the Titans, Inception, Burlesque, King's Speech and Last Airbender which I'm told were much better than the movie itself.

After the Costume Gallery we headed over to the FIDM Scholarship Store, I scored 3 yards of black and white polka dot fabric for $3.00! I will add it to my stash and use it when I think of something to do with it.  While in the store Cheryl, Lacey and I found some vintage-y looking brooches and rings we plan on making a brooch/silk flower bouquet. If you haven't seen these you must check them out, try  here  These things are super gorgeous.  We wandered down the street from FIDM to the garment district and found ribbon, more jewelry and diet coke.  We met up with Lacey's fiance, his dad and brother to outfit them with new suits.  I like the idea of purchasing a suit that can be worn again instead of renting a tux, considering the deals on suits from my man Tebbi at Sina Suits how can you go wrong?  He even has a tailor on site that will do the work in about an hour.

So after all the shopping we ended up at Phillipe's the Original for french dip sandwiches.  I am a second generation patron of this fine establishment.  They have been in business since 1908.  My dad loved the place and passed it on to me.  I have in turn passed this tradition on to my kids.  My hubby is also a second generation patron.  His dad grew up in LA and loves the place.  I know that LA has some great restaurants but given the opportunity, Phillipe's lunch counter is where I will end up.  I love every thing about the place, the ceiling fans, the sawdust on the floor, the lemonade, the candy counter, the long tables that guarantee you will sit by a total stranger who may be homeless and was able to pay $.09 for coffee or Francis Ford Coppola you never know, but most of all, the sandwiches with their special homemade mustard.  HEAVEN! 

Today we attended church.  Due to responsibilities my husband and I have for the last 2 Sundays I've had to stay in my Sunday wear.  I have different classifications for my shoes, some are wear anytime all day long like my favorite summer flip flops or my Uggs, some are every few days is fine but not everyday, some are 3 hour shoes (the length of time I am at church), some are 3 hour but I better be sitting down for 2 hours and others are what in the world was I thinking?!?  Last weeks shoes were 3 hour shoes ( I was in them for 8), today's were more the fine every few days but I believe I will be barefoot the rest of the day. I love Sunday afternoons, I usually try to get a nap in somewhere, I am a true believer in the siesta being of Mexican descent.  The other reason Sunday is awesome?  I get emails from my Missionary son.  He is 19 hours ahead of us so for him it's Monday.  He gets 1 day a week called P day (preparation) to write family, do laundry, go shopping or whatever he needs to do to get ready for the coming week.  Today he emailed me this:

I want you to know I've been thinking a lot about you. I had a conversation with Sister Mautz before she left about having children serving missions. She said that it was a little sad because she felt like she never really got her children back. I thought to myself that you'd never "get me back either" but that's only because you can't get back what you've never lost. 

I feel so blessed to have a son who is so willing to lose himself serving the Lord.  I'm grateful that our family is so close and we enjoy each other, are we perfect?  Definitely not!  But I am indeed grateful that my kids know where home is and that they love to be here.

This was a good weekend,
Terri

Family, you gotta love them.

 I decided that I would introduce you to my family, The family photo was taken at Church on Easter Sunday in 2009.  It's probably the last good photo that was taken of my family.  My friend Cheryl took this photo for us.  Of course with 5 kids the chances of one giving us a funny pose is always a possibility. I can usually get them to cooperate if I let them give me a goofy pose after we get the good one.  The funny thing is my favorite picture usually turns out to be the funny one.  So let me introduce you to my family.  From the left: oldest child and only girl, (how's that for placement?) Ashton,who also happens to be the oldest grandchild on both sides of the family and was the only granddaughter until she was15! Next is #1 son, Andrew, currently serving a Mission in New Caledonia. Next up, my hubby John, he is the best husband and father I could have asked for. Yours truly, then #2 son, Jordan, just turned 16 is almost as tall as dad now and can't wait to get his license. Next we have #3 son, Cameron, I'm not saying that Cam is the most handsome of my boys but he is the most charming.  In our Church, kids are encouraged not to date until they are 16, Cameron has had girlfriends since the age of 2! I've lost track of the number of girls who have told me they are going to marry him! When I'm annoyed with Cam I usually tell him he took my pretty, and that's why I'm not as cute as I once was.  Finally we come to #4 son front and center, Jonathan, since this photo was taken he passed me in height.  Did I mention I'm only five foot?  I'm wearing 5 inch heels in this photo.  Jonathan has been my buddy since he was born.  Of all my kids, he was the most mine. Let me explain, all of my kids loved me as babies but once I had fed them, they pretty much preferred other people, for Ashton it was Grandma, Andrew was Grandpa's boy, Jordan liked hanging with Dad, and Cam liked kicking it with Ashton. So understandably I decided this last child would be mine, and he was.  He wouldn't let anybody hold him but me, he was mine until I had to let him go to school. I think that was more painful for me than him.  So that's the family.

This photo is of my son Andrew and a family he met in New Caledonia.  Andrew updates us weekly on what he is doing and how much he loves serving the Lord.  My friend Sara just dropped her son off at the Missionary Training Center in Utah this week so that he could begin his mission, she said something very profound about the feeling you get sending your 19 year old son into the world.   She said that her heart was full but broken at the same time. And that is a perfect description of what it's like.  More about Andrew can be found here: http://elderajam.blogspot.com/
The joy that comes through when Andrew writes us is evident and I'm happy that he loves what he is doing.  I try not to miss our classic movie nights too much.  For more about my beliefs and information about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints go here: http://lds.org/?lang=eng.  I am by no means an expert so if you would like to know more I say go to the source.

Well I think that's good for now, I have to get ready to go to the garment district in Los Angeles. I'm going to stop by the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (FIDM) to take a gander at the Academy Award nominated costumes then look for fabric for a new Renaissance Faire costume. (yay!) My friend Cheryl will be coming along, her daughter Lacey is getting married in April and her fiance and father will be meeting us in LA so that they can purchase new suits for the upcoming nuptials.  Did I mention I'm making the wedding dress?  It's coming together very well and I'm honored that I was asked.  I will post pics after the wedding, including photos of the construction.  
So I'm off,
Terri