Costuming Madness in Newport

It's been forever I know! I've been a bit busy, and also probably avoiding an announcement of the end of my last relationship a couple months ago. See how I'm just skimming over that? But I'm back to post about my fun weekend! It's official. I'm obsessed with costuming. But you probably already figured that out, didn't you? So that's what I've mostly been doing in my free time from work, church and my social life. And here are the most recent results!

I also posted these photos on my costume blog so sorry if you read both!

So my costuming group, The New England Costumers, went to Newport Rhode Island this weekend to tour the mansions in Bustle Era dresses/fashion! It was a lot of fun and the weather could not have been better for us. We got lucky as it had been threatening to rain the day before, but the morning of, it was clear skies and not too warm! Well, 75, but it could have been worse! We had a very leisurely, unhurried day, and I think we all enjoyed ourselves immensely! We toured the Breakers and Marble House and we're already making plans to go back so we can see a Fashion exhibit at Rosecliff, which was closed this weekend because of a flower show.

These "cottages" were amazing! And we spent the day dreaming up our own versions of our ideal mansions. We also were stopped repeatedly with requests for pictures or to just know why we were dressed up! It was a fun day!




Overlooking the sea.


Jenni, Gloria, Zarabeth and me (and Mike behind the camera...)






In front of the Chinese Tea House


Diet Coke toast with Jenni!


And the ubiquitous shoe shot. :)

More of my pictures can be found here.

If you want to read more about my outfit and how I made it, check out my costume blog!

The summer is just getting started, so hopefully I'll have more to post soon! But yes, a lot of it is going to be costume related! :)

I love these gals!

Soon to be reunited again this weekend for Barbara's Bridal Shower!

So exciting!

(Pictures from Nicole's birthday dinner almost a year ago)

Time to play catch up!

Also titled:

Why I've been missing

I've been a little distracted for the past several weeks.

His name is Dan.

He makes me smile.

Unfortunately {or fortunately, for me, who lives in freezing cold Boston}

he lives in Arizona.

Which is where we took this picture.

Yep, it's true, this is not what Boston looks like in February.

We actually met at Christmas in Washington DC.

I was visiting my cousin and he was home to see his family.

He stopped me in church and we had our first date that night!

Since then he's been out to visit me,

and I've been out to visit him.

We've just been having a lot of fun!

Wow, I feel like I'm writing a poem or something. Sorry about that.

Anyway, here's a photo recap of the last few visits together.

This is actually what Boston looks like in January.
Dan braved the cold and came to visit me in Boston.

Here we are with John Harvard.

We also went to an indoor waterpark for my roommate Lisa's Birthday party which was a lot of fun! {OK, so maybe there are some places that are warm in New England in the winter!}

This was also in Boston, out in Lexington. Again, it was pretty cold!

Well, we're not in Boston anymore!

Last weekend we checked out Goldfield which is an old mining/ghost town. It was pretty touristy. But the weather is just great in AZ this time of year! It was beautiful and sunny!

The sun was really hurting my eyes. And I didn't really need the coat, but I guess I am more of a true Arizonian at heart, because 65 really is still kinda cold... :)

We went to see Mary Poppins at the Gammage Theater at ASU which was so much fun! If you can you have to see it, it's one of the best musicals I've ever seen {well, other than Wicked, but that's hard to top}!

Since Sunday was Valentine's Day we made a special meal:

Heart Shaped Turkey Meatloaf Patties with Herb Smashed Potatoes with Goat Cheese and Green Beans with Lemon Butter and Toasted Almonds.

It was delicious! Thanks Rachel Ray! :)

Here we are sitting down to our meal.

I forgot to get pictures of the desserts! We had Dan's family Peanut Butter Pie {which was so, so good!} and chocolate dipped strawberries.

It's nice to have a Valentine!

Happy February everyone! I promise I'll try to be better about posting!

Regency Tea Pictures

Finally, I have something to post about! This is a cross post from my costume blog, check it out:

Today's event was so much fun! Let's get right to it, shall we?

The whole group! Well, minus Mike, so....

Gloria and Mike, the perfect Regency couple!



Shoe shot! My pink suede flats matched perfectly.

And now for some shots at home:




The Muff in all it's glory!


Action shot from the back where you can see more details (and a mess in the background)


A side view of the bonnet.

So unfortunately I didn't have time to put the buttons on the sides of the jacket, but other than that it all came together with literally half an hour for me to get ready, which was really cutting it short! But I got there! And the tea was lovely, the food was great {there was clotted cream! my favorite!}, I had so much fun meeting everyone and the tour was really amazing too! So so fun and it got me so excited for even more events! I've found my people! :)

If you want to see more details about getting the whole look together, you can see more posts over here!

MoreSightings of Famous People

Ok, so I didn't get to meet them
per se
but Ben Affleck was filming right around the corner from my work yesterday.

That's Ben Affleck and John Hamm getting ready to shoot the scene.

So I couldn't resist walking by on my lunch.
And then I had to snap pictures.
Because really, how many times do you get to see movie stars in real life?
{Sorry they're not better, I just snapped them with my phone, so that means no zooming in...}
I was having lunch in the Au Bon Pain, which conveniently had a window looking right out on the action.

That's John Hamm in an FBI jacket.

Other people were gawking, which made me a little uncomfortable joining in, but hey, maybe they're used to that? That's Ben under the black tent thing...

And it was pretty cool to see how movies work for a bit.
They were setting up the scene
getting directions from Ben (he's the director)
and setting up the cameras.

I didn't realize till I walked by today, but the electrical box on the wall was placed there by the crew. It's not there in "real life". Crazy huh?

Have any of you met a movie star?
Who would you die to see?

Meeting Shannon Hale

She was hilarious.
She signed my books, even the dust jacket
{although she seemed a little confused, "You really want me to sign right across the front here?"}
She petted our heads.

Here's proof:
That's why Karen and I are cracking up.

I don't know how it's possible but I think I like her even more now!
{Oh, and that's my Sgt. Pepper jacket there... you can't see it but it's pretty cute}

A Fair Day for the Faire

So we went to the Renaissance Faire this weekend!
Wow, what an experience.
It was surprisingly crowded and not everyone was in costume
{unfortunately including ourselves - we decided to go for warmth rather than "authenticity"}
but I think I can still say we were some of the most normal people there
{and attractive, if we do say so ourselves}.



The cool thing was that it was basically set in a forest as you can see in the pictures.
I felt like I had walked into a Robin Hood movie or something.
The whole thing was a little village and there were stages with performers scattered throughout.

They accept all thy cards of credit:
Master Card, Lady Visa, New World Express and Lord Discover


Trying on wreaths at one of the shops



We mostly just walked around looking in the shops and staring at all the people.
There were some people who really went all out with their costumes
like this Troll
{this woman actually asked him to pretend like he was cutting off her head... yeah}

And this living Gargoyle which was also pretty cool.

My favorite guy was this performer who, while wearing a kilt, rode a unicycle and played "Star Wars" on the bagpipe.
It was pretty funny. And he was pretty cute.

Which led to the question:
Would you ever date someone you met at a Renaissance Fair?
And if you would, would you admit to how you met?

I think I would, even though it's a little quirky,
cause I'm kind of a nerd myself in some ways.
Plus I think it'd be a hilarious story to tell.

What about the rest of you, married or not?
Would you date someone you met at a Ren Fair,
or would you admit it if that's where you'd met your loved one?

Flashback Friday

I've been thinking a lot lately about how I've been in Boston for almost 4 years.
That is just crazy to me!
I seriously feel like time has almost stood still since I moved here.
{which hopefully means that I can still claim to be 26, right?}

Boston is a great city and I'd always wanted to live here,
but before I moved out it was kind of an emotional time saying goodbye to everyone.
Especially my family.


It's a miracle you can't tell in this photo but I had been crying my eyes out.
This is the last time I was together with my brothers and sisters {the ones in Ut anyway} before moving out to Boston.

My life is so much better in so many ways than it was before:
I have an awesome job {my dream job really}
I've made some incredible friends
I've been able to visit so many new places
I've been able to take classes at Harvard{!}
I've really just been so blessed.

The only thing that's been difficult
{other than the non-existent dating life}
has been being so far away from my family!

They are truly my best friends in this world and there's no one I'd rather hang out with. Which is why I'm so glad my parents are coming out to visit me in just two weeks!
My Mom's been out before
but this will be my Dad's first trip.
I'm really excited!
It's going to be fun times!

A Weekend at the Lake

My 4th ward campout was a success.

New friendships were formed,
bonfires were enjoyed,
moonlit dancing occured,
stars were gazed
{facilitated by Edwina of course},
the lake was canoed,
diet coke runs were made,
like I said, complete success!

We had Ward Olympics.
It's the only time I broke out my camera.
As a warm up a few people built a pyramid.

Check out our spirit!

Then we crammed 14 people onto a homemade raft of blow up swimming pools, tubes and floaties.
I was not one of those people.


A few other events took place.
In the end our efforts were not enough to secure the gold,
but I think we could still consider ourselves champions.

I thought the highlight of the weekend was the Campfire Cabaret.
Seriously hilarious. And an impressive show of talent!

So all in all, good times can be had in New Hampshire!
{Especially if you get to sleep in a cabin...}

New Hamp-shire!

{Said in Bill Murray's voice from "What About Bob"}



So I'm heading up to NH this weekend for our annual ward campout.
Hoping to get a cabin...
otherwise I'm sharing a tent with my friend Trent.
{hey that rhymes}


Last year they tried to make me sleep in a spider infested boy scout tent.
There is no way.
Hopefully the cabins are spider free!
I hear the showers aren't.
Guess I won't be showering tomorrow!

Ready to "Flea"!

Sorry sorry for not posting sooner when I said I would!! For some reason I've been really busy, but hopefully my life will be settling down now. I had my last Jane Austen class last night. I'll have to do a little recap of it sometime. Overall it was fun, but not quite what I thought it was going to be. Anyway, another time. Also, letterpress is over for the summer, also a bummer, but that means more time for sewing and blogging, right? I just wanted to post and let you know that I'm still planning something fun so come back soon (hopefully by this weekend), plus I'm so excited because tomorrow I'm going to...

The Brimfield Antique Show!

Brimfield photo from rizzolo's flickr photostream

It's the largest Flea Market in the world! I'm seriously so excited. It's my first Flea Market trip ever, so it might be a little daunting to start with the biggest one ever, but I think it will be seriously fun!

Things I'll be keeping my eye out for:
*big type drawer
*wood type
*cake stand
*old dress form
*an old globe (like the ones above)
*bedside table
*an old quilt (if I can find a sweet deal)
*old glass jars and tea cups
*paintings and frames

The weather is supposed to be perfect (*keeping my fingers crossed*) so it should be a lovely time! My friend Barbara is going with me. I'll be sure to take lots of pictures and post all my exciting finds when I get back! I have a feeling I'm going to be tired tomorrow night!

Stay tuned!

A Weekend Downtown

I feel like I spent most of the weekend downtown, which is never a bad thing!  It's been a beautiful weekend, Friday was warm and Saturday was almost hot!  It got up to around 60 during the day, which makes me think Spring just might be on the way (despite the fact that it snowed today)!

On Friday after work, I met up with my roommate, Lisa, and her friend, Beth, to eat some yummy food and skate at the Frog Pond in the Boston Commons.

We ended up eating at a Vietnamese Restaurant, Pho Pasture, that I love, and I was adventurous and tried something new from the menu!  After our delicious meal, we went ice skating at the Frog Pond, which is almost as iconic as skating at Rockefeller Plaza in NY!  Luckily my hip held up.  It was a beautiful night and I did get some pictures, though they're not the best since they were taken by Edwin (once again, he's so handy).

In the heart of Downtown Boston

Lisa and I

Lisa and Beth

You can see the gold dome of the State House a bit in the background

Then on Saturday night, I found myself back at the Boston Commons to see Coraline in 3D at the movie theater there.  I loved the movie, and was just blow away by the fact that it was stop-animation.  Tim Burton is very talented!

Also this weekend, I've been working on getting my quilts going again.  I finished this quilt top over 3 years ago and I still haven't actually quilted it!  So I was finally all raring to go to just do it this weekend.  I'd bought some solid brown cotton for the backing, some batting and even some pre-made bias tape to bind it with, but I guess my measurements were off because I don't seem to have enough material for the backing!  

So even though I told myself I couldn't start piecing the new quilt (with beautiful Amy Butler fabrics from her Midwest Modern prints) until I finished the old one, I just had to do some sewing, so I went ahead with it anyway.  I figure some quilting is better than none, right?  I'm still not 100% sure exactly how I'm going to do this one, but I guess I'm kinda winging it.

Aren't they just beautiful colors?

Since I have to get more fabric before I can finish the Charm quilt (which is also Amy Butler fabrics) and since I've been doing some research about the actual quilting part, I found out it's better to use a patterned fabric for the back so it hides any mistakes.  So now I'm thinking I'm going to get some different fabric to use, but we'll see.  It's hard to get to fabric stores without a car around here... so who knows when they'll get done.  Hopefully it won't take another 3 years!

Hope you all had a good weekend too!

{ Crafting More Adventures }