molehill 4: kitchen wedding presents

Last year I blogged about all the fabric I brought with me when My Darling Husband and I married. Here and there I make progress on making things from the stash. I've also given away a bit of the fabric and sold some in a garage sale.

Here's a photo of my latest creation: part of a wedding present for the friends whose wedding we attended last Friday. A couple of years ago I bought some flour sack towels from the local farm store. Sometimes I am very nostalgic, and when I saw these towels, it reminded me of one of my grandmothers and how she has always dried her dishes with big white flour sack towels. I had to have some for my kitchen even though I air-dry my dishes! I bought enough for me and to make a few wedding presents for other people. I made one for this wedding present. First I embroidered a vintage design on one towel, then ripped out the seams of two towels, and sewed them together with a straight stitch. I used pinking shears to finish the edges.

Along with the tea towel, we gave the bride and groom a houseplant potted in the bride's favorite color, a set of blank recipe cards, a cheese grater off their wedding registry, and I crocheted a small granny square hot pad/potholder.

something blue

This evening My Darling Husband and I attended a friend's lakeside wedding. The evening temperature was a chilly 51 degrees Farenheit...unusual for Kansas in June, but perfect for keeping the mosquitoes away!
 

My Darling Husband went as a cowboy. Such attire is normal in southeast Kansas. After all, we are surrounded by farms, ranches and rodeos, and Oklahoma cowboy culture is a mere 45 minute drive. 

The itty bitty flower girl giggled whenever the fabric petals met the sidewalk.



My Darling Husband adding to his resume of decorating cars. I added the aluminum can.

The punch practically glowed like a neon sign in the dusk! A simple recipe: blue Hawaiian Punch and Sprite. 

and the flower wore white

This chrysanthemum was a table decoration at My Darling Husband's and my wedding reception. It's now in our front yard. Jack Frost sprinkled the flowers overnight.

Miss + Mister = Mr. & Mrs.

Happy 2nd Anniversary, Mr. H. I love you.

the sister got hitched

One week ago today My Darling Husband's sister was married on a bluff overlooking the Tennessee River in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
A Beautiful Southern Belle of a Bride.Please write on the picture frame. More practical than a guest book. (When My Darling Husband and I married, the guests signed a cloth, which I am embroidering and it is destined to become a quilt...very practical indeed.)The Georgian reception hall awaiting guests.These goldfish found their purpose in life: table decoration. Salmon was on the menu.We tried so hard to be secretive, but the bride and groom caught us decorating their getaway car! Apparently they were not blinded by love.

tidbits of the cake top

Happy First Anniversary, Darling Husband. You were worth the wait. So was the cake.

it was a fine china kind of day

Valentine's Day is a good reason (or excuse) to bake and decorate some pretty sugar cookies. Hearts, tulips and butterflies. The tulips must be red. My parents and grandparents always had red tulips in their gardens and yards, the kind with the yellow inner basins and black stamens. Of course now I believe that a tulip garden is incomplete without those specific red ones. Wish I knew the variety name. (If you think you know what tulip variety I'm referring to, would you be a dear & leave a comment saying so?) I'd love to plant some. Anyway, I baked and decorated some sugar cookies.

But grandma always said "the way to a man's heart is through his stomach".

Since My Darling Husband is a Meat Consumer of the First Order, I reused the small heart cookie cutter on the sausage. Heart pancakes and heart sausages baked with love for breakfast. The first use of our wedding china. My advice on the matter of love through body parts is thus--if you really truly want to reach his heart through his stomach, have breakfast ready prior to noon.

Then dinner at a historic hotel-turned apartment building/event space in This Small Town. A local school held the dinner as a fundraiser. We were impressed with how beautiful the evening was. The room's striking architectural features were highlighted by the school's frugal decorating: delicate pink balloons, red jelly beans in a glass hurricane to anchor a candle, vases of single red roses. The light dancing off the crystal was so pretty. All the servers, cooks and hosts were from the school: high school students, parents and staff. A couple of school personnel volunteered as entertainers by serenading with piano tunes all the evening long. Lovely.

here, sample this

Did you see Alicia's? Here's my sampler. I'm going to cross-stitch it. I mean, I'll add it to the list of crafty things I want to do. But I will stitch it...perhaps embroider it. Living in a small town means I'm close to the country so I can drive quickly to the rural areas for country inspiration, or walk through town for city inspiration for the sampler. Samplers are so easy to personalize. You can add your initials and date you completed the project, the names of the recipients or images from the life you know.

night lights

In The Big City and in The Small Town, Christmas lights are a sight not to be missed. After dinner, My Darling Husband and I drove around the countryside (Ah, peaceful serenity.)(A pretty country church, shining as a beacon in the dark.)(Something tells me Katy is getting a sparkly ring for Christmas and might need that church.)and The Small Town to see what our eyes would behold. This Small Town and the small town I grew up in both use the crossed wreaths to decorate the downtown. They're pretty. A lovely Victorian dwelling that I constantly admire from afar.