Sewing project and thoughts at the beach

After spending the past 6 weekends at the renaissance faire (Great Lakes Medieval Faire, if you were curious!), my gypsy spirit has gotten restless again. I'm sure it doesn't help that I met a man there, either. He works for my friend's garb business, and he's....well.......interesting. He's a little crazy, and his life has certainly not been lived "within the lines," so to speak. He was a runaway and a homeless street kid for over a decade, and carries a lot of baggage as a result of that. But he speaks to that little bit of my soul that wants to run, be carefree, innocent and irresponsible and silly. Fitting back into my "real" life has really not been fun. I'm full of unanswerable questions, and DH can't help. For my married readers -- what do you do when you look at your husband, your life, and think, "how did I get HERE?" *sigh*

Friday night I went to the beach with my camera and my journal, hoping to think and write for a bit. It helped some.....and then I put my camera on an empty lifeguard chair, set the auto-timer, and just walked away. This was the result.

(There is a bigger version in my Flickr gallery.) For some reason, just looking at this shot makes me feel better, somehow. Although there is still a bit of me that wants to run...to be at the wheel of the Black Pearl, growling, "bring me that horizon..."

Anyway.

So, back to the stitching. Last night I got inspired to finish my Vermillion freebie into a faire bag. This one, purchased last year, was my inspiration:

And here's what I created:
My outer pocket came out a bit smaller than I would have liked...but all in all, not too bad! The green is a corduroy I had in my stash, and the brocade is scraps from the "Dress That Wasn't" for the renaissance wedding. Oh, and while I was merrily sewing along, with all that brocade and the heavy-duty needle on my machine...I managed to sew through my fingertip!! Ow!!! (Now all my sewing friends tell me I've been "initiated," though. hehehe) It really didn't hurt TOO much, thanks to years of testing my blood sugar, but now it is hard to stitch with the big gash in my fingertip. LOL

Lots and lots of pictures and apologies...

I'm sorry I've been absent for so long. Between the wedding, stitching, weekends at the medieval faire, my boss leaving unexpectedly....it has been rather hairy around here.

So I'll start with the wedding. It was a very loooooooooong trip (1800+ miles roundtrip, in 5 days), and while the wedding was lovely, it felt a bit....disorganized? I dunno. Maybe it is because at my wedding, I was constantly worried about making my guests happy. This wedding - not so much. There were no programs, and people just kind of milled around and waited to be told what to do/where to go/etc. Even the wedding party was a bit clueless - DH was a groomsman, and they had no rehearsal! Anyway. May the bride and groom enjoy a lifetime of wedding bliss and all that....here's the pictures!

DH and I outside the reception hall. (My dress is my green plaid Irish dress....it went over INCREDIBLY well, and I think I look fah-bu-lous in it!)

The wedding party.

Bridal smooches.
The ceremony was SUPPOSED to take place on the stage you see here, but it was pouring at the time....so the ceremony was held in the reception hall. It was rather dark in there, and I couldn't really get any decent pictures.

And now for my wedding gift, all framed. I didn't get it wrapped, but I figured that way it wouldn't get tossed in a box and possibly broken when the gifts were collected at the end of the evening.

Although I didn't do anything with it, I DID finish the Vermillion freebie that I'd planned to make into a bag. It is quite lovely, and I do have the remnants from the Dress That Wasn't that coordinate with it very nicely. Maybe later this year, when I'm not feeling quite such a time crunch, I'll get motivated to make something with it!

And finally (and completely UNstitchy or wedding-y), my present to myself. You see, 6 years ago I got my first tattoo - a Celtic knot design. For the past 5 years, I've wanted to add a dragon to it in some form, either around the knot, or make the knot part of the dragon, or something like that. And yesterday.....I did it. Wooo-hooo, I'm an ink junkie!! (He is on my upper left thigh, high enough to be hidden most of the time - unless I'm wearing a bathing suit, of course, or possibly an obscenely short skirt. hehehe From the top of his wings to the longest part of his tail, he's maybe 5 or 6 inches.)

Where HAVE I been?!?!?

Sheesh, it has been more than 2 weeks since my last post! I swear I've been around....but summers get a little crazy around here, especially once I start running away to the medieval faire every weekend. I've also got 2 or 3 stitching projects on the go with deadlines, so I feel a bit "under the gun" to stitch and not waste time blogging!

To start, I got the Barbara Baatz flower fairy framed and delivered to the little birthday girl at the faire. It was soooo wonderful...her eyes got huge, and I think I made her grandmother cry. Awww. Grandma has told me since that the little one wants to show her fairy to everyone who comes over to their house, and she loves to "pet" the frame!! I don't have a picture of the unwrapping or anything, and even if I did I probably shouldn't post it for privacy reasons...but here is a pic of the framed fairy.

(I'm so glad I have a digital camera....I could be sure I had a GOOD pic before I gave my work away forever!) The frame is an orangey-brown wood with a white paint effect in the grooves - it helped bring out the fairy's hair and skin, my framer and I decided. I went without mats, just so it will be more versatile for them to display as she gets older.

My work on the Celtic wedding piece has stalled a bit -- I dove into one more "little" project for my BIL's renaissance wedding. I decided the July Vermillion freebie - "Yellow Tulip Slip" - would be perfect as part of my own costume! So I'm going to make it into either a drawstring pouch for my camera or a shoulder bag. Haven't decided which yet.... I've actually got quite a bit more finished than this pic shows, too. The blues and yellows, on that brown Jazlyn, will be gorgeous against my blue brocade bodice and tan silk skirts!

But here is the Celtic wedding piece, too....would hate for it to feel left out....LOL. I DID make some good progress on it early in the month.