Side trip: Midwestern wedding...a year late

Last weekend we went to the final sibling wedding for our big family and as I sifted through pictures and thought about a blog post I realized that this post has been sitting in my draft folder for just about an entire year.  So first thing's first...happy (almost) anniversary, Sara and Mike!

Last fall we went home for my sister's wedding.  My parents live in the country and it's proven to be the perfect venue for gatherings like this.  If you're planning a big event and you have access to a big house with lots of open space, why wouldn't you use it?

We are a family that chips in for these things.  A few years ago when my youngest sister got married, we all came together to contribute what we could. This wedding had all of the same elements that made for a great party - country setting, music and lights, mason jars full of cake and mason jar lights, handcrafted beer and a large gathering of family and friends. 

Photo by Hally Crangle

I made my sister's engagement ring and she asked me to create something with the same kind of turquoise for the groom to wear at the wedding.  We settled on a tie bar with the wedding date stamped on the back.

The bride and groom made the beer (and the signs - just painted plywood to hang up!) for the event and my brother made a large scale Jenga game that people played all evening long.  Another sister took fantastic pictures and everyone helped out with set up, food service and clean up. 

Side trip: zombie voodoo dolls

I planned to make some voodoo dolls to include in stress reduction kits I was putting together and thought: you can't make voodoo dolls that look like actual people...if they are for fun, they should be sort of cute and cartoonish. Since we are headed toward Halloween, what could be better than a voodoo doll that looks like a cartoon zombie?

These are really fast and easy to make and don't require measuring or perfect shapes, which makes me an immediate fan.

Here are the materials I used:

• Gingerbread man cookie cutter
• Felt - one square for each doll (plus scraps of other colors for embellishments)
• Yarn or embroidery floss and a needle to hand sew with
• Batting to stuff the dolls
• Buttons
• Push pins

I traced around a gingerbread man cookie cutter for the general shape and used that for a template.  I cut out two gingerbread felt shapes for each zombie and then added the felt heart, button eye, and thread embellishments. 

I hand sewed around the edges, stuffing the doll once I got almost all the way around and then closed it up.  I added a few push pins to the heart on each doll to finish them up.