Pictures to share...

I received pictures from Daughter #2's wedding. I know I've already written lots about it, but here are some beautiful pictures that our photographer Tashia took. I recommend her highly...for weddings, portraits, etc. Such talent! Check this out:

Beautiful Daughter #2. Jewelry: No, not Harry Winston, but Avon.

The cake topper made by my talented 17-year old Baby Boy for his sister. He sculpted it out of polymer clay. I love it.

Daughter #1 and her Sweetheart came all the way from Utah to attend. They were such a great help. Notice the decorations behind them we put together...remember it was a Miracle! Street lamps rented from Create-A-Party. Silk greenery borrowed from a friend. White sheer fabric borrowed from another friend. Lots of white lights throughout.

And don't forget the lights on the ceiling! Awesome.

Snowflakes from Michaels.

Hair and makeup by Daughter #2's best friend. Beautiful girls, don't you agree?

Centerpieces: black spray-painted Coca-cola bottles, mirrors, black satin cloth napkins, white table cloths, sparkly stuff from Michaels.

Food: We rented the In-N-Out trailer. They came and served burgers and soda. It's a self-contained trailer where they grilled the burgers and served them. This was hit of the reception, for sure! Everyone loved it!

Daughter #2 and her Sweetheart as they left the reception in their 'comfy' clothes. They took off the next day for a 12-day cruise in the southern Caribbean. As they left, guests threw Eco-fetti...it's a biodegradable, water soluable product that looked like snow. It was so pretty!

A beautiful, happy couple at the Newport Beach LDS temple. It was a wonderful day.

Thanks for letting me share this experience with you, my blogging friends. It has helped me to look back at that day and reflect on what wonderful friends and family we have. So many people helped us. And some of the hardest workers included Daughter #2's in-laws and family. And so many of our family traveled great distances to be with us. They were such a great help to us. We are so blessed.

Happy 2008!

Today I had a chance to sit and enjoy a quiet day. Ok...truth be told, I don't like to just sit. I don't even like to sit and do bindings! I'd rather be up and quilting on my longarm. So today I worked on fleece blankets for The Miracle Workers from Daughter #2's wedding. Here are a couple. Shhhh! Don't tell them I'm making them. (I don't think they read my blog anyway.) Here's one for my friend who did the flowers. She's a big UCLA fan.
And here's one for my friend who did the cake.

And of course, what would New Year's Day be without The Twilight Zone marathon on Sci-Fi channel. I am huge fan of the show. And I even enjoyed it in black and white...since that's what I grew up with. Black and white TV that you had to get up off your chair and go change the channel! Oh, those were the days. :)

Happy New Year's blogging friends!

Oh, That Dress!

Another Miracle Worker for Daughter #2's wedding...our seamstress. She is a wonderful, sweet woman who lives in Garden Grove, with amazing talent. She can take a wedding gown picture and make a dress...even without a pattern! Her work was amazing!

Daughter #2 couldn't find just the right dress. She found pictures from wedding magazines of dresses she liked, but not one with exactly the right look. One day, while working on the set of a Cartoon Network show (before the strike, of course!) a friend of my daughter's, who is a graduate of the Fashion Institute , and a fellow actor, took a look at my daughter's ideas and created a rendition of the dress. He was right on! It was beautiful!

So with this drawing, and an adventurous trip to the fabric district in Los Angeles, our seamstress was able to create The Dress.

You can't see them, but underneath, my daughter is wearing white Converse Chuck Taylor shoes that she decorated with leftover lace from the dress. They were so cute!

Isn't this dress beautiful? Our seamstress is amazing!

The First Day of Miracle Workers

As I get more pictures from the wedding, I'll post them. I did manage the snap a few shots Thurs. evening before the wedding. The first 'miracle worker' was my friend Derryl. I know him from Cranberry Quiltworks. He works with Gina Halladay and sets up the Gammill Quilting machines. I am lucky to have enlisted his help because he is usually on the road, picking up machines in Missouri or setting up and repairing the longarm quilting machines.

He put up the lights for Daughter #2's reception in the cultural hall of a church building in our area. I was so impressed. He had quite a system for doing this. I think you'll be impressed too! Check out these shots:

First we all check the strands of lights. Are they all working? Are any loose? We had family and friends help us with this process.

Next, Derryl climbs up the scaffolding to put up the center piece. And there he starts hanging all the strands. Notice we are all on the ground where it is safe. Derryl has done this many times before.

At one point, Nathan climbs up with Derryl to lend a hand. This boy is a rock climber, former gymnast, and is on the track and field team at Cal State Fullerton. It was no big deal for my new son-in-law to go up there and help Derryl. And notice I am still on the ground where it is safe? There's no way I was volunteering to go up there! Yes, even the groom had to help set up his own wedding reception. Remember, this was a do-it-yourself project.

Look, it's almost done! It's looking good.

While up on the scaffolding, Nathan (my son-in-law) and his friend, covered the basketball backboard with some black fabric. As a joke, they wrote "Skankey Love" up there in duct tape. Yes, it was a "Skankey Love" affair. My daughter traded her last name Love, for Skankey. Stacy (the bride) took a look at this sign and laughed. Then she said, "Let's keep it!" She was a good sport. So this was another part of our do-it-yourself decorations.

And here is the mother of the groom putting up the finishing touches on the canopy we used for the wedding cake. I got the canopy at Ikea and we added twinkly lights. It came out nice.

And here is the only picture I took of the ceiling during the reception. I think we had 300+ people there. I know our professional photographer got some better shots. Believe me when I tell you that it really turned out beautifully! Thanks to Derryl, one of the miracle workers.

To be continued...

Yes, It Was All Worth It!

I can barely write. I can hardly keep my eyes open. I don't remember being so exhausted in all my life. I just wanted to post a picture or two and let you know I've survived Daughter #2's wedding. This picture shows how we all felt when it was over.

And here are the happy couple as they leave the LDS Temple in Newport Beach. It was awesome!

The next few days...after I catch up on some sleep and clean up my house a bit, I'll tell you all about how some Miracle Workers came to my rescue. I have wonderful, caring friends! I am so blessed.

For now, I have to get some rest. It was a wonderful weekend...all of it!

To be continued...

Wanted: Miracle Workers

It was Monday night, just 5 days before Daughter #2's wedding. Because of differences in taste, opinion, colors, lighting, etc. etc., the woman who was helping us on decorating for the reception has resigned! No kidding. She and my daughter could never agree on anything. So the woman felt the best thing to do would be to resign. Being the screenwriter that she is, Daughter #2 says that when you diagram a screenplay this would be the 9th step of 11 steps in the story. It's when everything is going wrong!

Now, lets pull ourselves together and brainstorm!

Last night Daughter #2 and my DH and I searched the internet for quick, simple ideas to pull this off. We came up with a plan and I think we can do it. We will be Miracle Workers! We will also be enlisting the help of Daughter #2's Sweetheart and his family too. We can do this!

Everything will be ok. I told my daugther, "This will be one of those things you'll look back on in years to come and laugh about it." She said, with a faint smile on her face, "I sure hope so."

This is the place Daughter #2 and her Sweetheart will be married. I'm so proud of them. I know it's the most important part of the whole weekend to come. In a screenplay, the 10th of the 11 steps would be the climax. In this case, that will be the actual wedding ceremony on Sat. morning in Newport Beach in the LDS Temple. The reception on Sat. night will be the 11th step: the end resolution and conclusion.

I know it will!

Oh, yes, and I'm still trying to quilt....

The Purse Dog is our biggest cheerleader in all this.

"You can do it!" she says.

The Illusionist

I am an illusionist these days. I portray myself as a calm, cool, and collected Mother-of-the-Bride. But now we're down to the final countdown here. I still have so much to do. Last night as my DH and I had dinner out with Daughter #2, I looked at the clock and said to her, "Look it's 7:30. Do you realize that one week from now at 7:30, you'll be tossing your bouquet?"

Here is another way I am an illusionist...

My DH and I went to a Christmas party the other night. The hostess asked all the wives to bring a plate of cookies. Instead I brought an assortment of cakes. This is what it looked liked. I tried to make it look pretty. I wanted guests to think these were all made from scratch. They think I'm Martha Stewart. Shhh! Don't tell.






Here's the truth...










People still ate them anyway. The bakery at Stater Bros. did a great job! Yummy!


And here's another way I am an illusionist:

Lately I've been quilting lots of fleece blankets. (yes, I'm still trying to keep up with my quilting business...trying to earn money for the wedding.) These fleece blankets make great Christmas gifts. One woman ordered 15! She's giving them to all her children, grandchildren, her gardener, her cleaning lady, her manicurist, and her massage therapist!

She thinks I'm such an artist. Shhh! Don't tell. On this one I just quilted the flowers that were printed on the fleece fabric.










Now this illusionist has to get back to work!

It's a Good Thing

"It's a Good Thing." --Martha Stewart

Yes, it is!

Good Thing #1

Daughter #2's wedding gown is all finished. It is awesome! We picked it up last night from the seamstress. A friend of mine gave me the name of a woman in Garden Grove who can make a wedding gown from any picture! And even without a pattern! You see, my daughter couldn't find just the exact one she liked, so we bought our own fabric and had it made by this amazing, talented seamstress. I will post pictures of it after Dec. 15th. Remember...just in case my future son-in-law looks at this blog, I can't post any pictures yet! That would not be a good thing!

But here is the Purse Dog, modeling some of the lace fabric for you.

Good Thing #2

A fun package arrived in the mail.

Look what I found on Etsy.com. Check out this seller who is selling quilty things! I am so excited to put these vintage blocks together into a quilt...in my spare time. What is spare time?

And lastly, Good Thing #3

Yeah Vivian!

I got a phone call the other day from one of my customers to inform me that a quilt we did was accepted to the Road To California quilt show. Wow! Such an honor just to have a quilt accepted by the jury and displayed in that show! It's the largest quilt show in Southern California. Quilts are entered from all over the world. Wow! Here's a hint of the quilt for you to see. This is actually a view of the back where you can really see my quilting.

Do These People Look Like Criminals?

Daughter #2 and her cute fiance are trying to save money. You see, two weddings in our family was not in our budget this year. So anywhere you can pinch a penny is good. They made their own invites and included a homemade DVD inside. In order to save on postage they hand-delivered many of the invites to our friends and neighbors. Well, after a while they got kinda tired running from door to door, so they decided to put the invites in mailboxes.

One lady, (no names will be menitoned!) called and said, "Vivian, I just wanted to let you know that your daughter and her boyfriend can be put in jail for putting those invitations in mailboxes. It's a federal offense, you know! Do those two want to go to jail???"

I couldn't believe it. Yes, yes, I know. I'm sure it's a federal offense, but they were just trying to pinch a penny!

And BTW, Daughter #2 is certainly affected by the WGA strike. For two reasons...one, she is an aspiring screenwriter and this kinda puts things on hold. Her screenwriting professor at the college told her to get out there and picket. But carrying a picket sign doesn't pay the bills. And two, she is a member of the Screen Actors Guild and they are not working, in support of the WGA. It's a bad predicament for her to be in...especially when she's trying to put a wedding on!

So what to do? What to do?

Go on a road trip with your friends to Utah. Daughter #1 and her husband bought their first home and move in this weekend. Daughter #2 will help her get all settled in.

No, this isn't Daughter #1 with her husband in Utah, but it could be! "City girl moves to the country." Oh, how will she survive?

Some Show-and-Tell

Here's a little video clip for your viewing enjoyment of Daughter #2 and her fiance. They included the 'extended' version of this with all the invites. I think they are a darling couple. Just click on it an enjoy. (let me know if it doesn't work.) It's called Skankey-Love. Yes, my daughter is going from the surname Love to Skankey. I think I will send in the newspaper announcement to Jay Leno. He'd get a kick out of it, I think.

Also here are some quilts with an 'Asian' flare. The first is for a lady who's son loves Sushi. I love all the cute fabrics she used in this quilt. Anyway, I don't use pantograph patterns anymore with my longarm ...just freemotion designs, or stuff out of my head. But on this quilt, I altered a pattern called Sydney by an artist named Kimbery Darwin. I followed her pattern but made it more angular. I don't know if that makes sense. Maybe you can understand by checking out the pictures.

The second one is another quilt with a beautiful collection of 'Asian' fabrics. I just love this one. A gorgeous collection of fabrics. The quilting I did was all freehand. I tell ya, every morning I get up and look forward to my work. (back in the days when I did accounting...I never felt like that.) Thanks for allowing me to show and tell!