So long anticipated, so quickly over! The Pattern Review Philly weekend is over – insert sad face here!  It was such a great opportunity to reconnect with old friends and meet new ones.  My blogroll, which is 90% made up of sewing friends whom I have met in person, is overflowing! 
Highlights for the weekend for me included…
1.  Driving down with Geralyn.  We met  for the first time  on a lonely road in rural New York State, and talked non stop for about five hours!  I likely should have been a titch worried when she suddenly pulled out a pair of scissors, but they were a very thoughtful gift for me in return for driving her!  The scissors are made where she lives, so I will definitely be thinking of her every time I use them.
2.  I got to stay with Karen, who, since we met for the first time in 2006, has become a good friend.  We always start up our conversations right where we left off!  As an added bonus, she has a sweet boyfriend who thinks that I look like Kristen Wiig. 

Yup. Mario is now on my fave guy list!
 

3.  Amazing women.  Did I mention amazing women?  Wonderful, talented, friendly women?  Women with diverse backgrounds who come together for  a weekend of comaradarie, laughing, talking, learning and shopping?  Our Friday night dinner sounded like we were, as my husband often said of our daughters, sounding like “a gaggle of giggling girls”! 

4.  Kenneth King.  Irreverant, intellectual and immensely talented.  The workshop was oh so fun! My camera hated the lighting in this room.  Either that, or the fact that the first thing I did in Philly was drop my camera in the parking lot….

5.  The hand on eyes glued on, up close and personal, access to some vintage pieces was wonderful.  Even if one was not interested in vintage (I am though!),  seeing couture work was great.  It was interesting to see the construction details- some of them oh so simple.
 

6.  Meeting over 50 women with similar interests. Oh wait.  I said that!  Well, it needed saying again!

7.  Shopping, shopping, shopping.  Nuff said!  The customs guy at the border asked me what I did for a living when I told him how much fabric I bought!  My eyes were suffering from visual overload by the end of the day! 

8.  New inspiration and new ideas.  I am full of style and pattern ideas garnered from seeing what everyone else made.
 

9.  I finally realized that I am not nuts!  Now there’s a revelation.  Driving down Walnut (was it Walnut, Karen?) six of us were continually commenting on the clothing of tourists.  You know, this neckline, that hemline, that drape.  DeeDee commented that her daughter always said to her to stop staring so intently at people.  To a woman, we agreed that that had happened to us too!  We get so intent on looking at clothing details, that we don’t realize that we are staring.  So sue us!

10.  Reality shows!  At breakfast on Sunday, we decided that there should be a reality show based on us!  Call it Desperate HomeSewers.  Or American Sewers. or Sewers of Pattern Review.  Or something. 
…Picture this.  Women at airports, in cars, on trains.  Missed flights.  Falling asleep on the train and going to NYC by mistake.  Wrong turns. 
…..Fade to hotel shots.  Woman in the lobby frantically stitching a hem.  Women running up to one another-”I know you- that’s the Allyn dress”!  “You’ve got to be one of us- That’s BWOF Jan 09 #135, isn’t it?!”
….Cue to woman crying to camera…”I just knew her topstitching would be straighter than mine.  I can’t wear that jacket now” 
…Fade to two women giving sideways glances to try to figure out that origami collar. 
…Short clip of woman speed tracing a pattern in her hotel room, with envious eyes watching every move.    Serger fights.  Fabric store hair pulling over the last two metres – whoops=yards- on a bolt.  6 women in a lineup buying the same denim, determined to get those Jalie jeans as perfect  as “hers”.  We decided there would be no elimination though.  Additions yes, but only self eliminations.
Okay- it sounded hilarious on a Sunday morning after a long, fun weekend.  I won’t hold my breath on the networks calling though!

Yes it was a great weekend.  I met so many wonderful women, reconnected with old friends and padded my stash!  Thanks ladies, I had a blast!  To Karen, Lee, Annette, Andrea, Mimi and Elaine.  Pat yourselves on the back, and accept all the kudo’s coming your way.  They are very deserved!

I’m off for a road trip this weekend,  heading down to Philadelphia to meet and fabric  shop with  50 of my closest sewing friends.  At least that is what they will feel like after this weekend is over!  Some I have met before (and I’m super excited to see  them again!), some I have been wanting to meetinperson for a long time, and there are others who I will be hearing about for the very first time.  And Kenneth King.  I get to meet Kenneth King.

My bags are packed, there is only 10 minutes of sewing left and I think that I know where I am going!  Don’t worry, I’ll be fine- roads and maps love me and vice versa.
I think that I have all my errands at home done- The guys know what needs to be done in the barn, I wished my son-in-law a happy burpday, the dishes are done..now if only that stupid IPOD GPS map app would hurry up and load.  Who ever heard of an app taking 35 hours to download?!
(Yes I caved and bought myself an Ipod Touch.  And the GPS cradle too)

Karen, if you are still up….get the wine ready cause the car is gassed and I am stoked for a great Philly weekend!

I’m just finishing up Vogue 1090 – A Michael Kors design that I really like.  I do think he is my ultimate fave designer, and even his perfume is my fragrance de choice.

The quandry today is what colour zipper to use.  The dress is navy and white, with the white being the contrast.  I have 4 choices- navy -centre application, white centre app, navy – invisible or white invisible.  I do suppose there is a fifth choice- a chunky outside applied zipper..

They were supposed to audition for a spot today, but we have been on the go all day, and it doesn’t look promising for tonight either.  My self imposed deadline is Wednesday night so that I can wear it in Philly, and I am fairly confident that will be possible.  I think I am leaning towards a white invisible- any thoughts from you?

On the breaking news front…

I felt very glamourous last night- we had a 50th birthday party for myself and MyMike with so many friends and family.  Our daughters surprised me by putting on a runway show for everyone, complete with a red carpet runway!  They modeled showed off items I have made over the last 30 some odd years!  How fun.  Our chairs flanked the runway just like in a real fashion show, and we had music, commentary and even paparazzi!  The girls went to so much work to make it a special and memorable evening- I love you girls!

No not a vacation- although I did juuussst get back from a very fun cruise with 50 or so friends and family members!
The Last Resort is the musical that has been taking over every spare and not so spare minute for the last three months.  Canadian playwright Norm Foster pulled out all his funnies for this one!  The music, while great, is going to be the death of me though. (dub in mysterious piano chords here!)  As well as being one of the actors, I seem to have been awarded the title of costume designer/mistress as well.  Not that I mind, seeing that I would have taken over anyways!
Here are a few shots of some of the costumes…Keep in mind that the “venue” for these photos is a “Brazillian party in a resort in Saskatchewan”  The Carmen Miranda hat was so fun to make!  Sewing and gluing fake fruit on to a base is interesting indeed! 

Tech run is tonight, and we perform for the next two weekends.  Break a leg, cast!

Picture this.

It’s wedding day morning at the Bontje household.  7:30 am

The hairstylist is here (Krista rocks!).  Micaela is trying on her dress one last time, as I wanted to check the fit at the back one last time before I handstitched the lining down.  The fit was pefect- then I saw it….

The zipper had separated!!  Ahh the horror. Aughh the look of fear and dismay on my face  when I mentally went through my invisible zipper stash in my head and realized that there was not an ivory or white invisible zipper to be had! 

Served me right really – using an generic brand, Fabricland zipper.

I was on tenterhooks till the fabric store opened at 9:30.  In fact, I was waiting in front of the door 10 minutes early, with my hair already in wedding state, in case they happened to see me there with my hand on the doorknob, ready to sprint to the zipper section.

There was one other woman waiting as well.  We struck up a conversation, compared family, sewing, and it was then that I found out that she owns a brick and mortar as well as an online fabric store!  One that I never knew existed- less than 20 minutes from my house. I promised her that I would visit her, and review her shop here and on PatternReview, threw opent the door of the store, grabbed 4 invisible zippers, and ran to the checkout.  My 18 minute drive home was consumed with reviewing all the steps I needed to do to quickly insert the zipper.

By 10:30 it was done!  Whew, disaster averted and the bride looked radiant.

Wedding Day story #2

We are ready to go to the church.  It just so happens that August 15 was also the day of our community’s townwide garage sale.  One we never missed until this year.  I jokingly suggested that since they had a few minutes to spare, they take some “bride goes garage sale-ing on her wedding day” photos.  The photographer was game so off we went. 

It was at their very first stop that a very humerous event occured.  This is so indicative of things that happen to our Micaela.  Every always turns out right in “Micaelaland”!

 Micaela had decided she didn’t want a veil.  She had an adorable headband and her hair was up and looking gorgeous.  Someone happened to see a veil hanging up and she decided to try it on for a funny photo.  It was a beautiful veil!  “Mommy, will you buy it for me?” Micaela questioned.  Now how can you say no to a one dollar purchase!  We gave the guy a five, waved off the change and charged back to the cars eagerly looking forward to the rest of a perfect day!  Oh by the way, it also happened to be the very same place where we bought twinkle lights to decorate the tent with at the previous years garage sale!  We left the female owner of the house with tears of joy in her eyes.

So.  I leave you with 2 questions.

1. Which brand of zipper do you trust your life- not to mention your Wedding Dress- on?

2.  Do you have any Wedding Day humerous stories to share?

By the way, the rest of the day was magical!  I will share more when I get photographers photos back.  And now it is time to be excited for me as this is the first time in 2 years that I have not been in Wedding Mode!  It was all so worth it.  Baby Mode is looming on the horizon!

Some photo’s….
Review of the yellow dress to come. any guesses as to which current Vogue pattern it is?

Have you ever read a book that hit you so hard, it almost became a part of you?  You read it, laugh, cry, question..then you read it again and again, recommend it to others, force your bookclub to read it,  write in the margins….
I have such a book in my life.

I fell in love with The Time Traveler’s Wife when it first came out  in 2003 and have read it at least once a year since.  I don’t know what draws me to it.  Perhaps the idea that love can cross time, space , and even thought.  It is an interesting mix between science fiction and romance, delves into love and loss, and, for the author, served as a metaphor for her own failed romances.  It is nostalgic, and a bit wistful.  You almost need a playbook to figure out at what point in their lives each  character is in each chapter.
It comes out in movie form next week.  I won’t be able to stand in line on opening night.  Something about a wedding happening!  Sunday night though, I will be sitting in my seat at Silver City, fearful that the movie- like most movies that I see after reading the book- will not hold a candle to the movie version of the book that plays in my mind.

Some quotes from the book

“Don’t you think it’s better to be extremely happy for a short while, even if you lose it, than to be just okay for your whole life?”

“We laugh and laugh, and nothing can ever be sad, no one can be lost, or dead, or far away: right now we are here, and nothing can mar our perfection, or steal the joy of this perfect moment.”

“But you know: you know that if I could have stayed, if I could have gone on, that I would have clutched every second: whatever it was, this death, you know that it came and took me, like a child carried away by goblins.”

What follows is digression taken to the nth degree….

That last quote reminds me so much of a “death memorial” that I have had on my fridge for at least 5 years. 

I never read memorials.  Well, almost never, apparently!  This one struck me as written by someone in love for all of her life.  I happened to see it one day, and cut it out.  The next year I saw it again- eerie no?   Remember, I don’t read memorials.  I guess someone wanted me to see it and keep it.  I don’t know who the author(?) submitter(?) is.  It was signed “lovingly and respectfully Madeline“  It is too long to copy here, but my favourite line is..

“You were the treasure in my heart, you were the one who always stood beside me, so unaware I foolishly believed that you would always be there, then there came a day when I closed my eyes and you slipped away… t

I don’t see any regret in it,  just love, and longing to feel the past once again.      I like to think I will feel like that someday- holding the love that I have in my heart with a desire to remember and relive the joy of the past.

I don’t know if the movie will meet my expectations.  Somehow I expect it won’t give me that thrill I get when I reread the book and and  the shiver of sharing the love that  that little piece of paper on my fridge gives me.    I’ll be sure to let you know though. 

So, Sunday night at the movies- I know Erica, Kate, Leah and Lauren are excited to come along.  If you are in too, let me know- the more the merrier!

How about you?  Are you looking forward to “The Time Traveler’s Wife”?  Are you usually pleased or disappointed with movies made from books you have read? 

There seems to be a superfluous amount of accoynms floating around these days.  PR (Project Runway OR Pattern Review), ANTM, SYTYCD to name but a few sewing and fashion related ones.  ( to me- that last one is allll about fashion as well as dance!)   May I introduce to you another one?!

A T W

OR

After The Wedding.

As in

After The Wedding I am going to finish those 2 jackets.
After The Wedding I will run or bike every day (interestingly enough, I first typed “rum”! Do I need some perhaps!
After The Wedding  I will get the new golf shirts done
After The Wedding  we can shingle the roof
After The Wedding I will sew some maternity clothes for Kate
After The Wedding I will be  a more faithful blogger
After The Wedding I will sit on the front porch and read
After The Wedding I will take Sundays off for family and friends
After The Wedding I will I will I will IwillIwillIwill

It’s funny.  It is not like this wedding is sucking my life away.  I do a little bit of work every day- make pew bows, hem a dress, make some direction signs,  do random gluing and pasting, writing a weddingday newsletter, make a hair/nail appointment.  I do work full time of course.  The bride daughter is laid back- aside from our ongoing Facebook saga entitled (randomly)  “chandeliers“, she has made no demands on my skill or time that I have not offered freely.  I don’t want to put any pressure on Micaela to think that this is anything but my own little dilemma.  I want her and Kentie Boy to have a glorious, stress free start to their exciting married adventures.

So why the feeling of aaauugghh?  I have no idea!  I just feel as though my life is “on hold” until the wedding is over.  Stressed?  no not really, although some people might tell you differently!  It isn’t even my day!  For goodness sake, if I was a wedding planner *hey wait- that is what I have been for the past 2 years/3 weddings!*- then this would be my normal life!   

The wedding gown is this weekends work- final fitting, agonizing and last minute alterations will take the place of attending a drag race on Sat and a rodeo on Sunday. 

Some photos for you to get an idea of life in my disarray… not that I mind disarray!

Sewing complete or near complete

Decorating mishmash! 

Sooonn to be transferred to the beautiful yard that is my parent’s farm!  The tent will seat the 180 guests, have an abundance of flowers hanging from the ceiling, candles in the trees and croquet and bocce ball on the lawn We would love to have the wedding here at home, but livestock + food = not so pretty an atmosphere!

I really do love all of the planning, organizing and sewing related to weddings and am looking forward to what looks to be a glorous day! 

Boy I bet you are so tired of my years of wedding related posts!  Soon, back to regularly scheduled progamming.

And who is at fault?  No one but ME!  Our family- that is 3 of the fiveblondes, My Mike, 2 of my sister in laws, and my dad had all planned to go today to see Miss Lauren compete in her University Cheerleading Competition.  Since she goes to school a six hour drive away, we don’t get to see her often.  Her team is amazing, and won this National Comp last year. 

We were all prepared to leave by 10 am.  At nine I came in from the barn, and thought I should check my email for just a second…..only to find out that I have a Murder Mystery this afternoon. (excuse this but I have to say it) SHIT. Shit. DOUBLE SHIT!  I do a bit of acting for a friend in some local murder mysteries and usually do have fun.   It is generally a VERY BAD THING if the actors don’t show!  I honestly don’t remember saying I would do this show, but obviously I did. 

Lauren baby, I cried when they all left, I was so mad at myself!
So now I am making the most of my day at home- alone.  The house is going to be immaculate, that is if I don’t get sidetracked!  

Good luck baby girl!

Today’s Postscript…

Miss Erica has changed her mind on the jacket for her wedding dress.  I am now making a prototype of what she is desiring.  I am, apparently, only the conduit to the granting of her desires!  The good thing is that there will be a flower making tutorial coming out of it!  Too bad all my cameras went to Toronto today!

What a great name for a fashion show! ”Unbound”  

Last Thursday,  the graduating class from the Fashion Design Program at our local college – Fanshawe College in London, Ont- held their end of year fashion show. It was a chance for them to show off the skills they had honed after 3 years of schooling.   My daughter and I attended a couple of years ago, and enjoyed it so  much that we wanted to go again, and make it a “Couturesmith and the “FiveBlondes” evening out.  Alas, I discovered that the tickets were $60 each (!) so I invited a well heeled friend instead!  Sorry girls!

We had a hoot.  The gala was held at Museum London, and almost everyone in attendance, about 300 of us, were dressed to kill.  With complimentary cocktails in hand,  my friend- who knows everybody- kept telling people “this is my friend Connie.  She loves fashion and look – she even sewed her own handbag“.  By the end of the night I had a job offer at the College, and had been told by one of the judges that I (and every other talented person out there) needed to share our talent with the masses.

In the lobby there were 4 body painted models posed wearing skin and very little else…..not sure what they were doing there, but that part was um – interesting!  We were also able to peruse the creations of the students who did not make the cut from the afternoon show with 30 participants, to the evening show, which had only 18 students showing. 

Filing into the gallery where the runway show was to be held, we were thrilled to see that it looked just like a fashion show in Paris or NYC would look….and then not so thrilled to find out that we didn’t rate those coveted seats, but were relegated to the “peanut gallery”.  My friend says that next year we are going to say “We’re with Couturesmith” and score ringside seating complete with gift bags!  By the way, the programs we recieved were almost worth the price of admission themselves, chock full of wonderful photographs of  each students designs.

18 of the designers were chosen to present in the evening gala, with 5 of those being chosen to show at l”Oreal Fashion Week in Toronto next month.  Fanshawe College is the only school in Canada that shows at Fashion Week, so being chosen to participate is a huge honour and opportunity for them.  The young man sitting next to us looked so uncomfortable and out of place that Norma had to ask what brought him to the show.  It turned out his girlfriend was one of the designers.  He told us about how hard she had worked.  We adored her designs and were glad that she was one of the 5 students whose designs were chosen.  From the ovation she recieved when her name was called, I think she was indeed a popular choice.

 The collections ranged from what I call “Flashback to Flashdance” complete with neon tights and layers of lycra, to safari wear, to Japanese influenced babydoll wear, to corsetry.  Why is there alway someone who has  a corset fetish at these events?   Let me tell you there were some talented young people out there, including a few students from India who completed 1 1/2 years of their training at the college. 

I was silly enough to bring along my small camera instead of my digital SLR, so the photos are less than stellar.  The credit for the following photo’s goes to Morris Lamont of the London Free Press.

Before you read today’s post- (this is to explain the first two, strange comments that are way too funny to delete- so read those comments before you read the rest of the post ’cause they are sooo indicitive of daughters the world over!)  I am fairly much of a blogging neopyte idiot.  That is, I embrace technology, but HTML is not my first language… or my second… or even in the top ten!  So in this post, I had a few technical difficulties.  But I learned new things too.  Like a carriage return is not just “enter” it is “shift enter”.  Like I can load pictures right from my computer, and not have to should not go through Picasa.  I am getting smarter every day. See, you can teach an old dog new tricks!

Now on to our regularly unscheduled programming….

Niagara on the Lake was gorgeous. The weather was perfect, the cycling wonderful, the company couldn’t be beat – superlatives all the way around!

We cycled about 60km the first day and 40km the second. The roads in the Niagara region are good for bicycles and not too horribly busy – except for some “woah, that’s a busy highway” moments!

Cycling took us through wine growing county..

And along the Welland Canal…

…where we were lucky enough to see 2 ships pass through Lock # 3. See the ship entering the canal?

 
In the first photo it is about 30 feet lower then in the second.

The whole process of the ship entering the lock, the raising(or lowering) of the water level, and the ship leaving the lock, takes only about 10 minutes!

And we visited a couple of wineries – of course. And what do you do at a winery- you sample the various vintages of course.  Just remember not to sample so much that you have to weave your way back along the bike paths!

Niagara on the Lake was crazy busy. We didn’t see any shows at The Shaw Festival- we have seen sooo many plays and orchestra productions in the last month, that we were content to laze around in the evening. Oh yes, I promised to show you the Floral Clock. Since 1950, I’ll bet 92 million people have had that exact picture taken of them!

When we got home, it was time to say a sad farewell to Leah- Bontje Baby # 4. She is off for a year or so of post-university adventure in Calgary. We had a few going away parties. I won’t bore you with all the details- suffice it to say that a lot of memories were shares, baseball played and entire herds of cattle were sacrificed so that we could feast on steak and burgers. The first photo is of all our baby girls and their respective men.

My God that is a disgusting amount of offspring! It honestly doesn’t feel like that many in person! Don’t we have a lot to be proud of though?!! And one last shot of the girls and their mommy.

My Mike had a Council meeting so missed the photo ops here.

So which one is Leah you ask? THIS ONE! with her boyfiend (whoops was that a slip or did I really mean FIEND and not BoyFRIEND!)  Nah – we love him dearly, and we will definitely miss them both.

By the way- Lindsay T wanted to be on the list of “Connie wants to fabric shop and have coffee with you” Sorry Lindsay, but any trip that includes My Mike will not include New York City! Here is the story- A few years ago while driving home from a vacation through the Mid-western States, The family was discussing what the next vacation would include. The girls all wanted to go to New York City, and I quized them.

“What do you want to do when you get to NewYork City?”, I asked.

The answers poured out…

“see the Statue of Liberty”

“see Central Park”

Mike’s answer?…….

“What do I want to do when I get to New York City? GO HOME!” We decided that when the family goes to NYC- Mike won’t be invited! But Lindsay – I will meet you for coffee anytime!