Filling the Pots

I'd never made lip balm before, so I gathered all the ingredients.  I used a recipe from Amanda Soule's blog, Soule Mama.  I even bought a stick of natural lipstick, lipstick is something I never buy, but I did want some color.  When completely cooled, the lip balm was harder than I thought it would be--perhaps I used too much beeswax?, as it was hard for me to tell if I was using 3 tablespoons since it was in one solid chunk.  It does work though and it made up more than I had pots for!   

More Lip Balm Pots

I like these little pots the best--they're made from eucalyptus seed pods that I cut not entirely in half--cut the lids from bamboo forks--drilled a few holes for the hemp sting and the closing bead--rubbed them over with sour grass blossoms for the yellow color.  These did take awhile to make--the seed pods are tough! 

Lip Balm Pots

I've been working on making little pots for lip balm.  I know I can order tins or little glass pots, but I've been looking around the house just knowing there's something that I can use to make these little containers--I'm not sure how they'll work.  I used the screw on openings to soy milk containers, but these won't hold too much lip balm.  I made one from duck tape with foil inside, but that one took too long to make many more.  Next is to make the lip balm and fill them up...

Gifts From a Fairy Queen

A Queen Fairy has been writing and leaving gifts--today two bundles!!

My granddaughter requested some pine sap with directions on how to melt it...

The fairy also gave her some Ceanothus blossoms, or fairy soap.

You have to keep scrubbing to create lather, but for a fairy, I guess you don't need much.

Exploring a Beach

The wind was blowing sand that stung her legs----it seemed like we would never reach the end of the beach!







We found shelter from the wind and a wonderland of rocks.

Photo Booth Fun at the Wedding!

These could very well be the best pictures of all the wedding shots--by far, the most fun!
The pictures from...the photo booth!

My daughter-in-law asked my daughter and her husband to put together a photo booth--a daunting project when you think of all the technicalities! Many ideas were juggled and dropped along the way--this set up, at the side of the stage, proved a good spot. Two sets of curtains were hung, one for the entrance and another ribbon curtain (made by the best man's mom), was hung for the back drop.

I love this--my daughter designed this great little wooden box, with a slot to slide her phone into and a little geometric hole that allows for the pressing of the start button. She installed a photo-booth AP on her phone and timed it to take 4 pictures with 10 sec. in between for changing poses or costumes. I love that she created the box to look like an "old fashion" 35mm camera. A big thanks to her husband who cut it all out with a jig saw.

Lots of great props right outside the booth to choose from...


The booth was full the whole night long--here are just a few more photo strips--the wedding guests can choose either color or B&W:

The creator of the booth, my daughter, with her niece, (my granddaughter)...
I love the shots with lots of people crunched in that tiny space...
Patience and her mom...
I was so excited that my family flew out to the wedding, here's my sister and granddaughter...
The bride and groom, my daughter, Patience and another sister of mine...
My two brothers and their wives--I couldn't wait to post about this--it was such a great idea--fun to do with fun results--there was even a moon shot thrown in!--(no names and no pictures of that, thank you very much!)

The Wedding

I took many pictures at my son and my daughter-in-law's wedding--here's just a few. People stopped to watch from the Cayucos pier. The bride's aunt did a wonderful job officiating the ceremony. After the posed pictures, we were served some delicious food which included sausage made from elk meat straight from New Mexico, thanks to the bride's family who hunted, packed and shipped the meat to the caterer, a deep water fish, Mong Chong was caught off the coast of Hawaii, which was deeply frozen and shipped overnight by a friend of the groom's family, an outstanding wedding chocolate mousse cake and a fruit topped cheese cake made by friends that drove nine hours with both desserts. Guests traveled from all over, some drove, some flew and some were lucky to live close by. We all danced into the night. It was a grand party!
Up next, I want to post about the photo booth!

March 3rd, 2012

Two good friends did all the flower arrangements...

Her grandmother made this dress for her mother's wedding. When she brought the dress over to ask if I could alter it...well, I was hesitant. I agreed to do it. I didn't take pictures of my process, I wish I had, but at one point I had it all apart! And then I did a lot of basting--I could hear my grandmother's advice on how things should be basted first, advice I refused to listen to when I was younger, but it came in handy for this project!


We had such great weather, warm in the sun. My son made the driftwood arch, my daughter-in-law decorated it; it takes many hands to put a wedding together!

Rehearsal

A rehearsal on the beach and then a great dinner at the Hofbrau in Morro Bay.
I realize now that I should have started these wedding pictures with the end of the wedding and worked back up to the pre-wedding pictures, so that when scrolling down, the wedding would progress in its rightful order, whoops!

More Pre-Wedding Photos

My new daughter-in-law thought up this very simple and yet very effective decoration. She punched out lots of paper circles to be sewn together. These strands were draped over windows and around doorways. I noticed the circles caught the changing colorful lights that were directed on the walls all around the hall. A very clever and simple decoration!


My son planted all the centerpieces for the tables, using these large globes and many succulents. Some have large pieces of jade that he found on a near by beach, some have sand dollars and a few left over little dragons from my granddaughter's birthday.


Benches to sit on for a beach wedding and rounds of wood for the globes to sit on,




Final things to make the day before the wedding.