Another Johnson Wedding!

It's been a while since I have posted!  We had two kids get married within 4 months of each other! Our son recently married his sweetheart in a beautiful outdoor ceremony.  Not quite as much planning on our part - as parents of the groom, but I made all the wedding desserts, and we threw a rehearsal dinner and did all the cooking and DIY decorating.

Here are some photos from our rehearsal dinner.  It was like having our own restaurant for the day! Daughter Kari made the beautiful cake.

Here are some photos of the dessert bar at the wedding:

The bride and groom decided to have pie at the wedding rather than cake (but we had to sneak one in on them at the rehearsal dinner!)  They cut a full-size pie to feed to each other, but I made 195 mini pies and crisps in jars, as well as 72 mini cheesecakes and over 100 shortbread cookies.  The pies in jars were a lot of fun, and really quite easy with a lot of prep ahead of time.

I bought 16 dozen 3 oz. jars and had them washed ahead of time.  A week prior to the wedding I made up the pie dough, and added a little sugar.  I bought a set of graduated circle cookie cutters with regular circles on one side, and the opposite side was fluted.  I used a smaller round cutter to cut out the bottoms of the pies, and poked them with a fork.  I cut out the top of the pies with the fluted circles in a little larger size, and used a tiny heart cutter to cut out the middle.  Then I sprinkled them with coarse sugar and baked the tops and bottoms like cookies.  I froze them all (with plenty extra). Two days before the wedding I thickened and sweetened the berries, and just assembled the mini pies, since the pastries were already baked.  The pie jars never went in the oven at all!  The crisps were just a little different.  I put the thickened berries in the jars and added the crumb topping to the top. Those went in the the microwave for a few minutes.

I had so much fun with wedding prep this year, that I opened another Etsy shop - LottieElizabeth - with our daughter Emily, featuring wedding and baby items.  You can check it out here.  Now it's time to step on it with primitive Christmas things for my fall shows that start in a little over three months.  Yikes!

Hope your summer is wonderful!

Primitive blessings,

~Laurie

Chalkboard signs

Like I mentioned in my last post, I found out how fun and easy it is to make some very-popular chalkboard signs.  First you'll need to "season" your chalkboard, which simply means that you rub it all over with chalk. Then wipe it off with a paper towel, leaving some of the white chalk residue behind.  Next I designed on the computer the words that I wanted.  Use some fun fonts.  I transferred this design onto my chalkboard, using white transfer paper, which I found at my local craft store. Then, just fill in the lettering with either a white chalk pen, such as the one shown here:

or if you'd rather it be more permanent, you may wish to use a white Sharpie marker.  Once done, rub it with chalk again. Simple!  Below are some examples of some chalkboard signs that I made for Emily's wedding.

(The sign shown above was based on a design I found online)

The fonts I used are Simon Script, Pea Ellie Bellie, and Janda Stylish Script.  (Each is available for free download by clicking on the font name, which will take you to a free download.)  Enjoy!

I also made some chalkboard props for our photo booth at the wedding. These I designed using a chalkboard background (see previous post) and the font Schalk in white.  

The top photo is with the bride - our daughter Emily - with our twins - Kari and Kaitlyn (two of the six bridesmaids), and her sweet little twin flower girls, who happen to have their 6th birthday today! Oh, by the way, I sewed the little flower girl dresses.  So much fun, and I really miss sewing cute little girl clothing!

The photo booth was a big hit at the wedding, and a wedding gift provided by some dear friends of ours.  The guests were provided with hard copies of their photos, as well as a business card with a link to all the photos online.

Primitive blessings,

Laurie

P.S.  We have 18 lambs now!

Springtime at Prindle Mountain!

It's been way too long since I've posted on my blog! A month ago we had the lovely wedding of our daughter and new son-in-law, and now we've moved on to lambing here on our farm.

Emily was our first child to marry, and throwing a wedding was time-consuming, but something that I thoroughly enjoyed!  In the next few posts, I will focus on some of the DIY projects we did for her wedding.

First, here are the invitations we designed.  Invitations have changed considerably since my husband and I were married 30 years ago.  No longer are they necessarily ordered from a company with 2 envelopes, the paper liner, and as formal as they used to be.  Many brides just use postcards or even wedding websites to correspond with their guests.  We designed these on my computer using various graphics and fonts, and ordered them from Overnight Prints.  I am crazy about this company and all of the products and great prices that they offer!  I used textured navy cardstock and made folders with a flap to hold the RSVP postcard, an info card, and an engagement photo of the couple. It was tied up with ribbon.

With shipping included, 125 5x7 invitations, 125 4 x 6 RSVP cards, 125 business card size details card, and half-size business card name plates for the front of the invitations was less than $75!

Other postcards we made and ordered from Overnight Prints include Emily's December Bridal Shower invitations.....

.....Wedding programs......

.....and thank you cards......

There is one other thing we ordered from Overnight Prints, which was a super good deal!  Emily and I loved the chalkboard look, and before I realized that it was possible and really fun to make chalkboards, I ordered a poster sized print of a chalkboard that I designed on PicMonkey.  It was super fun to make! 

PicMonkey is a great website for altering photos. To make this, I looked online for a chalkboard background and found one in a large resolution.  I trimmed it on PicMonkey to be the start size that Overnight Prints suggests for their posters.  (These posters were only $2.99 at the time I ordered - and that's a big 18" x 24" size!)  Next I downloaded fonts that I liked free on the internet.  Below are some great free fonts, and you can find out how to download them here.

Anyway, from PicMonkey, you can use their fonts or your own.  Arrange your chalkboard how you like using the fonts and graphics of your choosing.  Change them to white.  Once the poster arrived, I mounted it on some stained wood and rubbed over it with some chalk to make it look more like it was hand-lettered.

Like I said, "before I realized that it was possible and really fun to make chalkboards.....", in my next post I will show you and tell you how I learned how fun it is, (and how easy too!) to make some cool looking chalkboard art.

Oh yes....I mentioned it is lambing time here on the farm.  We have currently 9 little lambs (5 born in the last 2 hours!)  Here is a photo of Emily with a lamb this evening. (While she is married now, and lives in an apartment in town, you can't take the farmgirl out of the farm, and she's back for her farm fix lots....much to our great happiness!)

Primitive blessings,

Laurie

Weddings.....weddings!

My daughters and I at Emily's Bridal Shower in December

Happy New Year!  This will be a very special year for our family!  We have two weddings!  First, our daughter Emily will marry her childhood sweetheart on March 7th!  We are so excited!  Lots of planning going on, and that is the primary reason I have been lacking in any new activity in the pattern department!  I got through all my Christmas shows, and dug in big-time with wedding planning!  Not to fear, after March 7th I will start cranking out some new designs! :)

The next wedding to follow will be when our son Lukas marries his lovely fiancee on July 20th. While there is less for us to do for that wedding, we are planning a fun wedding rehearsal dinner, and I will be baking all of the wedding mason jar pies and cheesecakes!  Yum! :)

Don't forget that my patterns are always available on my website, as well as Etsy, and PatterMart. You can also follow me on Pinterest. Have a warm and safe winter, and I'll see you soon!

Primitive blessings,

~Laurie

It's almost show time!

I have been very, very busy the past 6 weeks sewing away in my craft room getting ready for my shows! The first one starts in just 3 days!  Eek!  How could it be holiday season already!?!?

Here are some things I've made recently:

My Wool Upcycled Sweater Mittens

Frosty Snowfriends

(The pattern for these is available on my website, and also an instant download on Etsy here.

Penguin Gourds

Lots and lots of new samplers this year!

Unnamed snowman!

This little fella is new this year, and will be a pattern, when I have a chance to make a pattern up.  What do you suppose I should call him?!?  

Hope if you are in the Southwest Washington area, you'll look me up!  My schedule is as follows:

November 7 & 8 - Crafts Unlimited Holiday Boutique

November 14 & 15 - Washougal High School Holiday Marketplace AND New Hope Bazaar

November 21 & 22 - Artisan Fair and Bazaar

November 29 - Prairie High School Bazaar

I've been watching lots of Christmas movies while I sew, and I am in the holiday spirit, already!  Let me be the first to wish you Merry Christmas!

Holiday blessings,

Laurie

Apartment decorating

Summer flew by, and fall is here again!  As usual, I keep way too busy in the summer to keep up with my blog!  This summer, in addition to our usual week at the fair, we had a road trip to California, three road trips to Eastern Washington, our daughter Emily got engaged (!), and I worked on decorating and furnishing our twin daughter's college apartment.

The girls were given some furniture that was very much in need of a makeover if they were going to use it! I wish I would've taken "before" pictures, but I honestly thought some of these things were not salvageable and would end up going to the dump, so I didn't bother!

This cute couch came to us as an ugly, ugly metal futon!  With a couple of canvas drop cloths from Home Depot, we were able to turn it into something adorable!  My inspiration came from here). 

I recovered some pillows with some upholstery fabric from Hobby Lobby and Walmart, and made a red burlap pillow and stenciled a "K" on it.  

The girls made the coffee table and end table, and were so proud of themselves!  My girls are farm girls through and through, and the most difficult thing about being away from home is missing all the critters! I needle-felted a sheep from some wool from one of their favorite ewes.  

Above the couch hangs a photo taken at their last fair as 4-Hers this summer, showing off the big belt buckles they both earned!  I printed the photo through Shutterfly and mounted it on a canvas picked up at Hobby Lobby.

This grouping was made from canvases we covered.  The sheep was cut from black wool and mounted on red burlap.  The "farmgirls forever" photo was taken in our fields, printed on canvas (see instructions here), and then mounted on an artist's canvas.

We got this discarded table free, painted it up with chalk paint (see recipe here), and added a couple of chairs from Goodwill ($7.99 each).  I made the table runner from some fabric leftover from an apron.

One of the girls was given this nightstand and matching dresser and it didn't really go with the hot pink quilt she had her first year of college in the dorm!  We decided to purchase this cute comforter from Target, and pull the room together with some throw pillows we stitched, a new lamp shade (also from Target) and a home made banner.  This was created in less than an hour using some jute and 8 sheets of 12 x 12 heavy scrapbook paper!

For our other daughter's room, I painted up an ugly, beat up, yucky stained dresser with the same chalk paint I used on the table.  I also sprayed the brass knobs black.  This horrid dresser I was embarrassed to even be seen purchasing at Goodwill for $29 now looks great!

I found a nightstand with a similar style for $10 and painted it to match.  Above the bed hangs a photo mounted on an artist's canvas of Kari's cow and calf.  A matching pillow sets off the bed.

We had a lot of fun working on these projects for their new apartment over the last month.  I am home now and missing them like crazy though! :(

Bazaar season looms ahead in too short of time, so I am going to be spending lots of time in my craft room over the next several weeks! Watch for new stuff on my Etsy soon!

Primitive autumn blessings,

Laurie

Happy 4th!

Summertime is in full swing here on Prindle Mountain!  We just got done shearing our sheep, and ready to start cutting, baling, and hauling tons of hay. First though, we're taking time out to enjoy this Independence Day, and celebrate this awesome country that we are blessed to live in! Happy 4th of July!