Horse Expo, 2013

Back in April, when we were still looking for a horse, we went to the Idaho Horse Expo, where breeders come from all over Idaho to sell their horses. Grandma Gayle was convinced that we would find a good horse for sale there, but Mom knew that the prices would be way too high.
We went anyway, just for fun. My absolute favorite part was the huge Drum horse; he looks just like Angus from Brave! He was 18 hands tall! And of course, the pot-bellied miniature really makes the picture.

Here are some other pictures; most of the horses were for sale:

The pony is so cute....the girl is even more so

Love this color!

Camille made a new friend!

This guy was very friendly

Makenna's Birthday Present

Our friend, Makenna, absolutely loves playing dress up and stuff like that. The colonial dress I made for Camille is her favorite, and she hates taking it off when it's time for her to go!
So we looked into how much it would cost to make a costume; it only takes about 4 1/2 yards for a dress. We decided that it would be worth the money for a present like this!
The dress went very smoothly, and it fits her great! It may be a bit large, (Note, it doesn't really fit Lucille, and shown in the pictures below; I had to stretch it a little to get in on, but not stretch it too much for permanent damage), but nothing unfixable.
One thing I want to take note of is that I did not do the yoke lining as in the instructions. I had a terrible time with it and just ripped it off and hemmed the neck edge. It turned out fine, and in my opinion, it's better, because the lining always folds up on the right side, where it is visible and quite ugly.

Civil War Dress

For the next reenactment, I really wanted to have my own dress. In the last reenactment, I was told that the dress that I'd made was not historically accurate. So for my birthday, Mom and Dad offered to pay for the making of my costume.
The first thing I learned was that historically accurate prints in fabric is very hard to find. Plaids are always good, but I really wanted a print. I joined the Sewing Sisters Facebook page so I could get there opinion on some prints that I found online. The first one I fell in love with they immediately said no; the background was a little splotchy. Also the flowers were too realistic. And there wasn't enough contrast.
So I was rather exasperated that the one that I loved wouldn't work. So I kept looking and found a pretty one that was sort of a rust color, with brown and white flowers. I really liked this one, but the Sewing Sisters said the flowers were too modern.
I was beginning to feel a little burned out with looking for fabric. I kept posting fabrics and getting turned down each time. I finally found a fabric that they said might be a possibility. It was almost a light faded red, with a lighter print with almost no contrast.
After thinking about it, I decided that it was too faded, and that if I lived in the 1860's, I definitely wouldn't buy fabric already faded.
So I was back to base one. Several ladies told me that the colors need to contrast; like pink with dark pink isn't really a contrast because they are the same color. The print can't be too small; the flowers can't be too realistic. The Sewing Sisters also told me that back then, geometric patterns were very popular.
A great website is Reproduction Fabrics; however, their prices are rather high. I got a good idea of what to look for; I realized that Joanns doesn't sell any fabric that would be even close.
Several ladies recommended a certain print that I really didn't like. But after looking at it later on, it started to grow on me. It was a dark red color, with goldish leaf/fern print and little blue dots. I didn't like the blue dots because on the computer, they popped out unattractively. However, at a distance, they didn't look so much like eyes.
I finally decided that I liked the fabric; we ordered 12 yards! Now that it's cut out, I see that I could have gone with maybe 9 yards.

Chickens!!!

Mom and Camille were dying to have chickens. Mom did a ton of research; I did none. Pretty much all I knew about chickens was that they laid eggs. We bought our chicks from D and B. I had picked out what kind of chick I wanted ahead of time; a barred rock.
We all named our chickens ahead of time (characters from our favorite books) and picked out what kind we wanted. From left to right: Chevrolet, Pigwidgeon, Fabrizia, and Madame Eanesco.

In this picture, we had had them for several weeks. Here is one of when we first got them:

They were just little balls of fluff! Here is the awesome chicken tractor Daddy made for them, complete with a chicken waterer:

Cross Stitch Bookmark

For Easter, I received a cross stitch bookmark kit; it contained lots of cross stitch fabric, tons of unsorted thread (yikes!), and instructions for 12 different flowers-of-the-month.  First, I had to sort all the thread; I counted over 40 colors! I started with April's flower, the Sweet Pea. My good friend, Emily, was in the hospital for some surgery. Her birthday was towards the end of month, so I thought I had plenty of time. It turns out, after working on the bookmark everyday and listening to terrible audios, it took three weeks! I still can not believe it took that long! Instead of stitching "April" across the top, I stitched Emily's name.

Hailey's Dress

For Hailey's birthday, I wanted to make her a dress for her doll. After finding some inspiration from a doll dress store on Ebay, I decided I wanted to make a party dress out of some sort of leftover silk. I used the navy silk that I used to my Regency ball dress and planned out how I wanted to do it. I reallly wanted to make it close fitting, but none of the patterns that we have are very good at making sure they fit just right. So with this dress, I tried it on the doll lots of times and pinned it together on her.
I got it to fit pretty well by making darts in the front, but it really makes the doll has a big bust. Definitely won't do it that way again....
By the time I was almost finished, I realized that I pulled in the front too much and didn't have room for velcro in the back; the back edges just touched. So I made a lace up back and hand-sewed all the eyelets. I also made a cute flower with the hot glue gun.

Chocolate Bar

Almost right after we got Barbie, we knew we needed to get another horse; the several pasture pals that we tried just weren't working out. We went back to J and K Farms and re-fell in love with Chocolate. Mom wanted to get Chocolate from the start, but I new that I couldn't afford her. Grandma Pat stepped in and said that she would pay for her if I could afford to keep another horse. By taking several more students, I figured that I could.
We really love Chocolate and her and Barbie get along perfectly without any problem. Chocolate was overweight, but is much better now after dieting and exercise.
When we got her, she hated lunging and tried very hard to get out of trotting. Now that she has lost weight, I think she actually likes it. She always comes right up and stands still while you put the halter on. She used to toss her head, but doesn't mind at all now. She also is way easier to handle when lunging, and doesn't refuse when you ask her to go faster.