Weekend Away

First of all, please check out the crappy video I shot of my friend, Jill Quillin pitching her idea on the Shark Tank! She made a deal with them too - we are all proud of you Jilly Bean!! She invented contraption that allows you to mix two shades of lipstick and re-tube it back just like a brand new lipstick; isn't she SMART?

Next, I was too embarrassed to blog last week after promising to blog about a fun trip to NC. It ended up snowing out our plans, and I... was too ashamed to admit I didn't set foot outside the entire weekend. Not. Kidding. I holed up and read books and drank wine by the fire. Sometimes, we all need a break...

But no worries! I'm back in the saddle! Amanda and I postponed our trip a week and last Friday we headed out after work to Gastonia, NC.

Amanda is getting married on June 19th and I am her Maid of Honor YEA! I'm very honored to be asked and thought as a fun wedding gift to her I would offer to make her wedding dress. She took me up on the offer and now - GULP - I have to make her wedding dress. There's no place in Knoxville to buy nice fabric anymore (I'm looking at you, JoAnn's, with your dumb fleece all over the place) so we hit the road and decided to make a weekend out of it to find supplies for a wedding dress. We got to the hotel at about 9:30 Friday night, ran to the grocery store and had snacks for supper, see?

snupper

The next morning, up and at 'em! Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the Mecca of the Fabric Kingdom. Please prepare yourself for....

ha ha ha just kidding

mary jo's fabric. seriously, i dare you to come up with something you want in the way of fabric and go in there and not find it. it's incredible.

It's also a bit overwhelming too.

fabric as far as the eye can see

I came prepared with only necessities. Peeps, I didn't even bring in my PHONE. That's how serious I am about this place.

wallet, pen, paper, and water

Since I made Amanda the offer to make the dress a few months ago, I have on occasion asked what she had in mind in way of a design. She usually responded something like this: "plunging neckline, some kind of plunging back, and flow-ey skirt." And my mind would sort of do this: "plunging neckline (big boobs), some kind of plunging back (big boobs+two plunges+gravity=OY VEY), and flow-ey skirt (say whhhhaaaaa does that mean?)" so I was a bit nervous about finding a pattern that would fit the bill of "Amanda's Dream Wedding Dress" and "Follows the Rules of Physics" but I bravely assured her that we would find something perfect for her. (I totes was full of false assurance, BTW. I was really worried.)

So please imagine my relief when we found this after about half an hour of pattern-perusing:

the front

the back, view a on the right-hand page

the dress, view a

And it got even simpler when we talked and Amanda decided she liked the front AND the back of the original "back" pattern, so now I just have to put TWO patterns together, not three!

Next, we went looking for fabric. It took some searching (did you SEE how huge this place is?) but after about an hour or so of looking, Amanda found this. She carried it around for a bit and decided this bolt of fabric was the one for her.

me likey

Here we are watching the fabric get cut:

ten yards, please

Next we went to notions and bought trim. This lady would give a turtle a run for its money. I mean a slow, methodical, pains-taking-ly, excruciatingly long plod for its money. She was so slow that I was apologizing to people behind me.

back in 19-tickety-tick we didn't have scissors. we had to bang notions between two rocks to get it cut up.

It took us about two hours to get everything together for her dress, start to finish. After that, I told her to go sit down and read a book for an hour or so while I picked out some stuff for me. She said no, she'd stick with me. I apologized about three times but finally took her at her word and she became my assistant. She followed me around while I picked out material, helped me think thinks through out loud, helped me pick out colors and match them, and carried everything. It. Was. Awesome. No one who isn't into material has ever done that for me. She said it was cute watching me get excited about material and buttons. Oh, speaking of:

oooohhhh.... pretty....

Here is all our loot. $191 and five dresses (assembly required) later:

whee! i am set for projects for like a year.

good times! we survived the mary jo's expedition!

After all that work, we go treat ourselves to a nice night at a spa and hot springs in Hot Springs, NC, and a pleasant evening of fellowship at a bed and breakfast! On the way back to Hot Springs, we went through Asheville where it was VERY cold.

brrrr, but how pretty!

Here I am after getting an hour-long massage (sidebar: we got a couples' massage because it was cheaper, and in the middle of the massage my masseuse asked me what I did for a living. I thought it was odd to be talking in the middle of a massage, but answered her and then Amanda's masseuse started asking me about Lane Kiffin. Really? You want me to talk about work during a massage? Sigh.... It was very nice all in all though).

the robe, coat and fake ugg look works for me

walking to the hot spring tubs - yes, that's snow

us soaking in the tub! it was fun to watch the cold snow/rain and river while catching up on the day!

here is our cute b and b room, the magnolia room

here is my fancy dinner at the mountain magnolia inn; i had the quail and it was super yummy

amanda had the steak and it was super yummy too - highly recommend the mountain magnolia inn

After supper, we went exploring the Inn. We retired to the parlor for a post-supper toddy.

indubitably

And look!

a confederate 100 dollar bill! i had never seen one!

The next morning, Amanda was given this little cutie full of milk for her coffee:

amanda called it the reverse netti pot. when i asked her why, she said "stuff comes OUT of his nose." how appropriate.

We came home about noon on Sunday, and I became a woman on fire. I decided I would have enough time to make a dress for work on Monday before we went to a Super Bowl Party Sunday night. I worked my fingers to the bone and even got the machine work done in time to take it to the Hussar's and finish off my creation with the hand work. I got all the way to the hem when.... I decided to try it on.

It was like a damn sausage casing. Siiiigh. I can fix it, but that involves replacing every seam in it and the lining (that would be 12, count em', TWELVE seams to pick out and re-sew.) I gave up and will do it one weekend soon. Here I am pre-trying on:

oh boy! new dress for me to wear to work tomorrow! or not...

Fun weekend in spite of the dress disappointment!

This weekend... dare I say it? I go to... Mardi Gras. I know, I know, SHUT YO MOUTH... it's true. I do. I hope to document (and censor) many an exciting picture. Until then - have a good week!