Fun Friday: Fairy Flowers

Two in the Shade

Hi, all! Yesterday I found a great couple of flowers and grabbed our Sparkle Girlz Little Fairy for a quick photo shoot. Enjoy!

Here she is finding the flowers.

She helped the second one lift its head.

Which is your favorite photo?

No post on Monday. Will be posting next week though. 

So glad you stopped! Come again soon!

Two is Better Than One

What's Red and White and Blue...and White?

Flea Market Couture

Grace, Kirsten, Xyra, 2 or more

Hey, Kirsten! What are you doing?
Watching The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society on Netflix. Why? (pauses movie) What do you have?

Two new dresses! Here help me with them.

Oooo, they're maxi dresses!
Yeah.
Let's put them on the bed.

I love the blue one!
(giggles) I thought you would. Shall we try them on?

I'll try the red...
Oh, no, you won't! I have dibs on that one. You already said you liked the blue one.
(giggles) Just kidding!
That looks nice. (grunts)

Do you need help with the shrug?
Nah. I got it, just couldn't find the arm hole....There.

Beautiful!
Very comfy, despite the high neckline.
You both look great! Pose please! Say cheese.

Cheeeese.
Kirsten are you coming to along to church with Lady Dartia?
Oh! I almost forgot! At least I'm dressed for it. (giggles) See you later, Grace!
Have fun! Tell Lady Dartia I said hi!
Will do!

Church in the Park

Usually we go to church in a different town and the cluster service for my group was back on August 19. Lady Dartia was in visiting her family and asked if we wanted to go along with her and her family to the local cluster service in the park. The park is 5 minutes from our house, of course we went!
The Red Hill band played a lot of the service music.

While collecting offering was kind of hectic, communion was easy peasy.

The morning was cool enough to go out and the service was comfortable, but we could feel the temperature and humidity rising as time passed.

Dress Notes

• Both dresses were purchased from a vendor in the flea market at Rough and Tumble.
• I believe the seamstress was Amish or maybe Plain Mennonite. I can't remember her apron or bonnet color. Either way, skilled with a needle.
• It was hard to choose. There were so many adorable dresses; even a few in the Amish style. It came down to colors we do not have a lot of in the wardrobe.
• Both were reasonably priced, maybe a bit on the high side give the lack of accessories, but I thought of the time taken to hand sew $10 and $12 seemed fair to me.
• I chose Kirsten and Grace to model so you could see they fit both the older and newer AG body types nicely. (A relief since her models were all Springfield.)
• One nit picky thing...she used the super picky Velcro.
  
  I would prefer snaps or even hook and eye closures. (I might mention that next year.)

Which is your favorite dress?

Thank you for stopping. See you later!

Giveaway Alert: Doll World

Giveaway at Doll World

Do you have a dancer or skater or fancy girl among your 18" vinyl people?
Then check out Doll World!
Kara has a great giveaway going.
The winner will be chosen September 22.
That's 2018, so if you read this post in the future... (giggles)
Anyway! Right now September 22 is still the future so head over to Doll World and check out all the details.
Entering Kara's giveaway is easy.
This is so cute!

~Photo by Kara of Doll World

Note: Doll NOT included in the giveaway!

Good luck to all who enter!

Extra Mini Adventure #2

Olivia and the Big Machines

Hi! Olivia here! I stowed away on a trip to the 70th Annual Threshermen's Reunion at Rough and Tumble in Kinzer's PA. There were some challenges, but overall I had a great time being around all the wonderful and historic engineering.

This is my view of the Big Engines building. So many engines were running. You know, we wouldn't have the technology we love today if not for this technology from the past.

This is a 9 horsepower engine. Franz ran this each day.

It's a Brantford Oil Engine. It is a Hvid style engine from Canada.

Antique engines usually have a tag like this with all the builder's specs. You know, like the tag on your TV or computer showing the brand, serial number, model number, and service tag information. No service tag on the engine though. (giggles)

This engine is getting closer to my size, but is still a giant! It's actually a model of a 1915 Olds.

You don't like engines? How about tractors? Oliver tractors were featured this year. But there is also a large contingent of International Harvester, Cletrac, and John Deere.

As we meandered around I found this great antique display...

Of a butter churn!

Oh, I better move on; I don't want kitty to chase me!

CSI: Rough and Tumble

Note: No stuffies or plush were harmed in the making of this post.

[Title montage music]
What's the sitch?

(partner off camera) Not sure. some say foul play, others think he jumped.
Hmmm, why are people, um, riders still on the Ferris wheel?
We thought it the easiest way to keep them here for questioning.

Good idea.
[Imagine montage with music and interviews of Ferris wheel riders being interviewed]

Okay! I have it! Here's what happened.

This was a tragic accident. Mr. Bear was trying to get on with his two friends but the roustabout started the wheel before he could get in. He tried to jump, missed catching the chair, and the next chair caught him from behind. There is blunt trauma to the back of his head. Very sad.
[Closing credits music]

Fireworks!

One of the neat attractions happened Friday night. They call it "sparks fly."

A couple of the steam tractors add sawdust to the fire box and let it all go. Pretty cool display!

Saturday night I found an engine completely my size, but wasn't able to take a photo. NEXT YEAR! It was sooooo cool! Zobo would love it too.

You can see more official photos (not taken by us) of the event by clicking these links:
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
People Mill Machines
Parade

Best wishes,

Rough and Tumble

70th Annual Threshermen's Reunion

Rough and Tumble Engineers Historical Society

Hi! Last week was special. 

This is the first time Xyra and Franz went out to Kinzer's for more than two days! Considering you basically started sweating just standing up, my sisters and I opted to stay home in the air conditioning. (giggles) Although, I really would have liked to go. Rough and Tumble has turned into a kind of Coolspring East because many of the volunteers and exhibitors also help at Coolspring. So we could have visited with a lot of our friends like Professor M.

Anyway, just because we didn't go doesn't mean we didn't send a representative.

Olivia our resident Heartlake Friends STEM aficionado will report back. Look for her adventures tomorrow.

Oh, hey! If you look at the links and the photos on the Rough and Tumble website you'll see Kinzer's PA is located in Lancaster County. Unlike last week, the people in the photos are not wearing costumes. Many Amish and plain Mennonite families as well as modern Mennonite and other "English" people visit the Threshermen's Reunion and other events. 

Best wishes, 

Note from Xyra

Remain Calm, All is Well!

Hello all! I can not believe we are practically half way through August already! Memorial Day feels like it was yesterday and Labor Day is just around the corner with fall starting soon after. Yes, I'm one of those people who embraces the seasons to their true start and finish...the first day of fall this year is September 23. 

The weather has been wacky this summer and here in Southeastern PA between heatwaves and rain it has been hard to get anything done as both types of weather do absolutely nothing for motivation. Outside commitments have also eaten up time otherwise used for blogging. You're probably very familiar with these issues in your own life. We are also thinking a lot about our friends known and unknown near fires and floods and structure collapses. Praying all is well or that help is available. 

If you have a blog, you may have noticed I haven't commented lately (or maybe not). My inbox is filled with things I need to read and hope to catch up in the very near future! So you're going to get notices about comments on really old posts...okay not really old, but from early July to present. 😲

One cool thing to be implemented recently is a true blogging planner. I started August 1 and it already has had changes to it. 😄 I hope to add several trips to the new American Girl Outlet in Hershey, PA. That's about 1 1/2 hours from us. I've had invitations from several people who will go with me. Yay! Maybe a meet up can be arranged too.

Some photos from the summer so far. 😊

Best wishes to all in the blogging community! Keep up the good work!