Here It Is! and the sauce winner!

I've never really written on my blog much about my love of fashion and fashion design.

I have designed many things from shoes and purses to dresses and clothing for tiny tots and big tots...girls and boys alike and wedding gowns and miscellaneous and sundry items for every other imaginable purpose, but in this posting I will focus on formal wear.

Every summer or fall during wedding season, I usually alter at least one wedding gown and usually several bridesmaids or other dresses. It is a small thing I do to help a bride achieve the dress and wedding of her dreams.

Many times she has purchased it from the "rack" for a great price, but something about it is just not right.

My husband and a very good friend have told me repeatedly that I need to take pictures and document the transformation process, because the finished creation is usually nothing like it was when I started.

My most challenging project was when I ENLARGED a dress by 8 inches! She found the perfect dress, but alas it was just too small! But back to the picture thing, I guess I'm so focused on pleasing the bride that I am designing for, that I don't allow time for what is important to me.

The photo above is the fabric and lace overlay that a friend brought to me. She also had a picture and said she wanted her wedding dress to look like "this". Could I do that? Yes, a picture was enough, so I got out my scissors and some fabric that I had on hand and started cutting and shaping the prototype for her first fitting. After about 2 1/2 weeks we had the finished product and a very happy bride.

Her wedding was small and elegantly beautiful. She and her groom seemed very happy with their special day which was this past Saturday. On our way to deliver the wedding dress and bridesmaid's dresses and ties that I had shortened, as Mr. Romantic pulled from our drive with me in the passenger seat, he said, "Did you get all of your pictures made?"

Well, I'm sorry to admit that once again, I failed in the photography department, but the bride sure was happy. And I heard her daughter tell her that the dress was cute! I thought that was a darling comment coming from a teenager.

The ivory knee length dress had a fitted bodice and a scoop neckline with taupe Chantilly lace overlay. Sheer Chantilly lace made the sleeves. The waist was fitted and supported a knee length removable bustle in the back. A narrow belt accented the waist and was accessorized with a bow. The belt, bow and bustle were fashioned from the ivory fabric only. The contrast between the fabric and the lace overlay doesn't show in this photo, but I really loved the illusion that it created.

And in spite of all my good intentions at having really great photos for you, the one above was taken with my phone as I draped over the end of the pew in the little chapel. Not to mention that the professional photographer with her "3 foot camera lens" (slightly exaggerated!) was squatting in the aisle right beside me...just snapping away. Inwardly I was chuckling and wondering if she was looking at MY attempts at photography. The bride told me she would give me some "real pictures" though, so I'll see how those turn out.

*Sigh*...I guess I really can't do it all!

So that is one of the things I've done in my "spare" time in the last 3 weeks.

Now for the sauce!!!

I wanted to tell you that I had used a random number generator to select 2 winners from my 5,456 comment entries, but instead I thought it would be so much sweeter and romantical (pretending romantical is a word) and special and cozy in keeping with the special wedding this past weekend and all of that, if we just had little princess choose 2 numbers between 1 and 30.(actually that was the comment amount) She immediately chose #7 and #10 because she said those are her favorite numbers (I didn't know we had favorite numbers) and just for kicks she also told me that her new favorite color is orange! (Well that is news to me!)And the news I have for you that I'm so happy to announce is that comment #7 is from Sandi at My Yellow Door. You will love getting to know Sandi. And comment #10 is from Francis Moore a sweet friend who doesn't have a blog but she tells me that she reads my blog every day. So ladies, we'll get your email address sent to the rep at "County Bob's" and soon you'll have 2 bottles of their delicious sauce!

If you've hung with me all the way to the end of this long long posting, I thank you. AND if you left a comment and participated in the "Country Bob's" sauce give away, I thank you all over again! I've tried to zip my happy little self all around to thank you personally, but just in case I left someone out, I want you to know how much I appreciate it...you're comments made it all worth while! And I really mean that!

Happy wedding dress sauciness or something like that!

Love, Rachel