Married 30 years today!

What fun it was to travel down memory lane.  Doug is working out of town this week so we celebrated this past weekend.  On Saturday we cooked up live lobster and bbq steaks with salad for dinner.  Yesterday, we went on a date to the afternoon matinee of Toy Story 3.

Engagement photoshoot!  I was all for using the umbrella shot on the invitations!

 Back then confetti was used much to the chagrin of the church!

There were 255 guests at our wedding, we had a buffet dinner of roast beef, fried chicken with all the trimmings, an open bar (yes the booze was free) and a live band called Bad Blood!  Doug still refers to it as the best party of his life.

We had a very economical honeymoon camping in British Columbia, we even took our dog.

Doug took this photo, using the timer on the camera, the camera was beeping and Doug told me it was going to blow up!

He picked some flowers for me that I put in a coke can. I was 22 years old even if I look about 14!

Us in 2007...there will be 2010 photos at our son's wedding in September.  What a wonderful life we have shared.  Even after all these years Doug is still the love of life!

1940 Singer 15-91 - Pearl

This is Pearl, she is 70 years old and another rescue from the dump!  Unfortunately, this one needed lots of refurbishing. 

Instead of belt drive, she has a gear-driven motor, which makes her very unique in my collection.  Looking at the "after" photos now, "before" photos would have been good. As always, I cleaned, oiled, replaced the rubber bobbin winder tire and thought we were good to go.  The needle bar moved freely, the black finish was lovely, all the sticky residue was removed from the throat plate.

I ordered a marked throat plate, straight-stitch walking foot and deluxe darning foot for Pearl from Jenny at Sew-Classic.

What a beauty...I was smitten! So I took out the bobbin plugged her in and tried the foot pedal.  Pearl's gear-driven motor was worn out.  It would start off sewing but the longer I pressed the foot pedal the slower the machine sewed.  After about five minutes the motor would just hum and not turn the needle bar at all.  So I tried disassembling it, lubricating with singer grease.  This made no difference.  The Brandon Sewing Centre did not have a replacement motor and it is not possible to order a new motor.  I contacted Dominion Sewing in Sudbury, Ontario, they had six used gear driven motors in stock, only one was good.  I bought it and had it shipped to Brandon.  The Brandon Sewing Centre installed the new motor.  Next, the 70 year old electrical cords were worn and frayed.  So I took the plunge, bought a new electronic foot pedal, 16 feet of heat resistant appliance wire and a new plug.  On Tuesday, June 22, my husband rewired Pearl.

Now she not only looks beautiful, but sews fantastically.

This is Pearl wearing her new straight stitch walking foot.

The yellow straight stitch on white is the bottom side sewn with Pearl.

This is the top side.

Photo above is the bottom side.

This is a baby quilt for a little boy.  Happy sewing all!  For more vintage treasures, please visit Colorado Lady's blog.

Basement Project - Phase One

My darling husband Doug is the master carpenter of this project.  I have more of a supervisory/cleaning role.  I picked the laminate flooring it is called Kenyon Slate.  I also did most of the furniture moving and all of the cleaning.  The walls were dry-walled and painted by Doug as well.

This is my comfy chair where I sit to watch television or my fish.

I find it difficult to take good photos of tropical fish. 

Tammy's craft emporium is on the other side of the wall behind the ironing board.  This is my cutting/sewing/ironing overflow that no longer fits in the emporium.

There are four bright florescent lights in this area which is super for sewing.

The wall behind the bookshelf is new as Doug extended the existing wall by six feet to buffer the noise from upstairs.  This project was a ton of work for Doug, I am delighted with the results!

This is Doug posing with Shannon who is modeling the bridesmaid dress for Karyann and Jason's wedding.