lots of photos on this dreamy, drizzly monday.

It's a dreary autumn Monday, the perfect day for a sweater and some soup for lunch.  It's also a pretty dreamy day for me, as I ease back into real life after a perfect birthday weekend.  On Friday I turned 30, and Nate went all out to make my day special.  He took the day off and spoiled me from the minute I woke up, fixing special meals, transporting the kids to and from school, and planning a surprise dinner/bonfire/sleepover with friends.  On top of all that, we attended a beautiful wedding on Saturday with many of our Chicago friends.  The boys came too, since it was a casual affair at a local farm.  They had a blast.  We had another lovely day on Sunday consisting of breakfast with friends and plenty of fresh air with the boys.  I'm still floating.  It's a little hard to get back to reality and responsibilities after a weekend like that.

Anyway, today's post will be a smattering of pictures, old and new.

Over Labor Day weekend Nate and I got to travel to Washington DC for our friends' wedding.  It was my first time in the nation's capital and we had a great time wandering around all the monuments and art museums (well, one in particular).  We had about 24 hours to ourselves, which was like the longest, best date ever.  Then our friends arrived in town and we spent more time site seeing with them.  Such a great trip.  A couple days of pure relaxation and fun followed by a beautiful wedding.  I'm so glad we were able to go.

Nate, at the base of the Lincoln Monument.

Here I am, admiring Lincoln.

The greater Peoria area no longer has my favorite ice cream.  But Washington DC does!

This is the gift I made for Kevin and Jennie.  Embroidered pillow cases!
You can find this free pattern here, or buy the transfer here.  Thank you, Lazy May!

I also added their initials and wedding date in the back corners.

On our way to the wedding.  Fake lashes for the win.

A couple pictures of me.  I had a notion to chop my hair before my birthday, as a sort of 30th birthday transformation.  But in the end I couldn't give up on the length I've been working on.  I'm going to give this long hair thing an honest attempt this time.  Maybe a dramatic chop on my 40th birthday?

I've been itching to chop my hair lately but then I stop myself because I can finally do things like this with my hair.  I'm going to let it keep growing and see what happens.  (I suspect it will get even longer.)

I'm 30!  Here I am ready to go to my party.  Got my hair did, wearing my locket from Nate, treated myself to the new shirt and boots.  I feel good.

I took a handful of pictures at the wedding but wish I had taken more.  Same for my party, where I took approximately 3 blurry shots.  Oh well, the memories will have to hold me.  This was such a sweet little occasion.  The sun shone down right as there ceremony took place, and then the sunset over the golden fields was magnificent.  We usually try to avoid taking the boys to weddings, but this one was so fun for them.  Many happy wishes to the newlyweds.

Here are my men, waiting for the ceremony to begin.

Congratulations, Libby and Josef!  What a gorgeous event.

I made pillow cases for Josef and Libby (Elisabeth) too.  Ran out of time to take a picture of the fronts, but they are the same as Kevin and Jennie's gift.

Look closely; you can see the boys sprinting around the pond after the wedding.

Serious faces for a seriously awesome wedding.

Aren't these boys looking grown up?  I sure do like them.

Thanks for looking at all my pictures. Be back next week.  xoxoxo

Mbmbam Live! and embroidery.

Nate and I are big fans of a podcast called My Brother, My Brother, and Me. On Sunday we had a chance to see them record a live episode at Second City in Chicago. Tickets were cheap, the calendar was clear... we jumped at the chance. I also immediately had the urge to make them something. "Kiss Your Dad Square on the Lips" is their signing-off catch phrase. I don't know what it means. I think it's a reference to one of the earliest shows, before I was listening.

While I was working on this piece, I wished I had time to make one for each brother, each with different text. One would say "What's Up You Cool Baby?" The other would say, "Pack Your Bags and Move Away." Or maybe just list some cat warrior names.... "Bramblepelt, Nightshade, Shadowskin, Lilypad, Troutleap." For about 24 hours I obsessed over how to accomplish this feat of stitching. Finally I realized that I would have to forgo eating and sleeping for a week to get them all done, and I had to settle for one gift. One gift for three brothers. Bummer. But it was the best I could do.

This piece is definitely not perfect. There were some flaws on the fabric... spots I thought would iron out but didn't. I also wasn't very pleased with the framing job. Because of these imperfections I was less than thrilled with the final product. I thought about abandoning my plan to give it to the Brothers. Nate convinced me it looked fine and that they would love it. I'm glad he did.

The live show was super fun. I had never been to Second City, so that was kind of exciting. The McElroy brothers were guests for another podcast, Jordan, Jesse, Go!. Nate is a fan, but I hadn't heard it before. Very funny. I laughed my head off. After the show I saw the McElroys walking out from backstage and caught Griffin's attention. I gave him the embroidery and told him I only had one, and didn't know how they would decide who would keep it. Maybe they'd have to fight over it. It happened to be Griffin's birthday, though, so he said he would keep it himself. Someone snapped a picture of us. What a fun date with my guy. Big thanks to Megan and Marty for babysitting the boys so we could hit the town!

wedding embroidery for paul and andrea.

wedding embroidery for paul and andrea.
Originally uploaded by Laura Hartrich

I finally finished this wedding gift. I didn't make the first natural deadline, which was their wedding in September. I was still working on it, slowly making progress, when I found out the newlyweds would be making the trip down to Morton this weekend, to celebrate Nate's 30th birthday with us. I made this my new deadline, and I was really pushing myself to get it done. After many, many hours of work, this is the end result.
I have mixed feelings about this piece. I really like the design, which is based on an amazing photograph of them. I like the words over the image and the many concentric borders around the image. I like how colorful they are. I think their faces came out pretty well and are a good likeness to the photo, which was not easy to achieve. It's hard to describe my reservations about this piece, but I think they are all related to the very loud, busy fabric I chose to use as a background. In a way, I owe the fabric a debt of inspiration. I drew the colors for the stitching straight from the fabric, and I like them. But in my mind's eye, there wasn't going to be so much of the fabric showing. I thought more of it would end up being covered by either stitching or the mat. As it turned out, I'm afraid the fabric overpowers the stitching. The image doesn't stand out as much as I would like. So I'm a little disappointed about that. I guess that wasn't so hard to describe. Because I spent so very much time on this piece, I'm trying hard to love it. In some ways I do, but I think it fell just a little short of its amazing potential. Anyway, it's finished now, I think Paul and Andrea liked it. I am glad.

We had a wonderful weekend celebrating Nate's birthday with friends. Thank you to those of you who were able to travel down. A great, relaxing way to usher in a new decade.

The week leading up to Nate's birthday was insane. I was trying to get too much done. Painting and decorating the boys' bathroom, cleaning the house top to bottom for our guests, finishing and framing this embroidered gift. I feel so relieved now that it's over. I need to start another wedding gift, but this one can be done at a more relaxed pace. This week I want to spend a lot of time outside. Last week was so gorgeous, and I missed it, holed up inside trying to get my projects done. I want to soak up this beautiful fall before it's over.

this mouse and i, we've been hanging out a lot.

despereaux.
Originally uploaded by Laura Hartrich

But soon our time together will come to an end. I'll deliver him to the friend who ordered him on Tuesday. The picture I was given was very detailed, very sketchy, and also a little blurred. It wasn't easy to translate into fabric, but I'm pleased with how it turned out. This is the first time I've done any applique, and it was fun. Cutting out the gold felt was tricky. My tiny sharp embroidery scissors came in very handy. I like how the felt adds some interesting texture to the piece, like another dimension. Anyway, this is Despereaux. He's pretty cute. Have you read the book? I enjoyed it.

(Here is the image on which I based the embroidery.
I should have made his nose a little more pointy.
Other than that I am happy with this piece.)