I survived the weekend! Bachelorette party round 2

I am a survivor!! And happy to report that I was able to keep up and go toe to toe with the 25 year olds this weekend! I'm sure it was out of sheer stubbornness on my part, after all if I was spending a weekend downtown with the girls I was not missing out on one second of the fun.



There was a core group of us that stayed the entire weekend in a hotel suit in Wrigleyville. With others joining in on various activities.

My daughter, the Bride to be, and I headed downtown with our suitcases on Friday afternoon. My daughter only knew which hotel we were staying at everything else was a surprise for her.

The hotel room was a suite that slept 6. KellyAnn, the party planner, and friends were waiting with a room all decorated for a bachelorette weekend party.

Friday started with a hotel room party with lots of snacks and goodies, a special champagne cocktail for all, games and of course lingerie. The lingerie gifts were fun because no one had names on the gifts and Mel had to guess who gave her what. Followed by an adult version of pin the tail on the donkey.... Pin the cock on the Polack! ( my future son-in-law is polish)


We headed out for a late dinner of Mexican food, margaritas and of course tequila shots! Good Times!!! We were fairly well behaved and back in the hotel in our PJ's by midnight.
Having a fully packed Saturday planned we all wanted to have a good nights sleep.















Day 2 started with a lunch wine tasting at Bin 36. Mmmmm starting the day with some very good wine and a delicious lobster sandwich.






Next up we headed to a dance studio for a private Chair Dance lesson for our group. After all, we needed to make sure Mel had some good moves to go with all the beautiful new lingerie she received! It was so much fun and a very good workout!!









After our dance lesson we had a couple of hours to relax, nap, shower and get all dressed up! We had snacks and drinks at the hotel and several other girls met up with us for the evenings activities.








The evening started out with dinner at Dick's Last Resort. A great place to get the party started! At Dick's you really have to have a sense of humor!






After Dick's we headed to John Barleycorn in Wrigleyville! We didn't leave there until after 2 am and I don't think I sat down for more than 10 mins! We danced our booties off for hours!!!



We had a very entertaining BIMBO bingo game to play during the evening! Click on the picture below to see it larger. (You can actually do that with any picture)


I think I finally fell into bed around 3:30am after a nice late night snack at a local diner. I don't think I have stayed up that late on purpose in a very, very long time! The girls sure did enjoy having 'Mom' with them and made sure everyone knew it :)

This morning we were all moving a bit slow!!! Thankfully KellyAnn had a little Hangover Helper bag for us all with Advil, face wipes, gum, band aids and a cute hair tie for all of us. After a late breakfast at Ann Sathers (can you say OMG!!! the Cinnamon rolls were amazing!!!) we all sleepily parted ways and headed home. What a great weekend for us all!

I must admit that the first thing I did when I got home was take a 2 1/2 hour nap. Somehow I think I may take slightly longer to recover from the weekend than the youngsters!




- Posted by Steph from my iPad

Location:Chicago, IL

Between the raindrops

The weather here in Chicagoland has been full of thunderstorms the past couple of days. Thunderstorms, rainbows, bouts of sun and incredibly high humidity.




I am lucky enough to not have any work travel this week which means that I have been getting some quality evening time in my sewing studio. Last night I took a comprehensive set of measurements of my daughter. I am making her dress for the wedding reception being held in here in Chicago 2 weeks after the actual wedding. She decided that she wanted more of a cocktail dress instead of wearing here actual wedding dress. Other than that the details shall remain under wrap until party time.
I can officially check off one more item on the "Wedding: sewing to-do list", only a couple more items left to complete. We are less than 2 months to the big day!




I finished up the last of the bridal party gifts. Here is a sneak peek, I can't wait to show these off!




I started with 10 yards of fabric and all I have left after the Travel Sets and this last project is this small pile of scraps.
Until then, enjoy the beautiful views from my yard!




The little water garden in the old wishing well, home to several happy little fishes.




Beautiful weeds behind the garden gate.




Bolted broccoli, between the crazy rain and super high temps the broccoli went to seed. Oh well, I'll try again for the fall.




Little Holly, the only one of the dogs enjoying the humidity and heat. She would stay outside all day if she could!




- Posted by Steph from Siouxzeegirl Designs

Location:Lisle, IL

Vogue 8634 Top with Embroidered Cowl

Woot, woot!!! Finally a project for me :)

Vogue 8634 very easy top.

The pattern and the fabric were both from my stash! So that's like a free shirt... Right?????



I put my own twist on this top by using my embroidery machine to embroider a design all over the cowl. I used an Anita Goodesign Free Motion Quilting design and just lined it up as I moved along the piece of fabric. I cut the cowl out with an extra 4" on all sides so I would have plenty of fabric to hoop. After I finished the embroidery I then payed the pattern piece back over and cut the finished size. I used a light tan rayon embroidery thread. Unfortunately in the pictures it is hard to see.... But,if you look carefully you will see the swirly shapes.









The fabric is a stretch velvet dance type fabric that I purchased on super sale at JoAnn's off the remnant table. I ended up using a light weight woven interfacing in the cowl because the weight of the fabric really dragged it down. With the light weight interfacing it gives it some dimension which I think is fun!






100% of the construction was done on my serger and I had the body and sleeves done while I was embroidering the cowl. The fit is very nice. I choose view B but with short sleeves. the only alteration I made was to lengthen the sleeves by 2". I hate when sleeves stop at the fastest part of my arm. Ick. Now it is much better.






I wore this today and received several nice comments on it. I definitely will be making this pattern again.


I hope everyone enjoys their weekend! And Happy Memorial Day to all my USA friends.


- Posted by Steph from Siouxzeegirl Designs

Location:Lisle, IL