Dresses and Dog Food

Bridal Selection

Not the first time, I must admit
and so it just doesn't feel right
to meet my soul mate down the aisle
dressed in lacy and fluffy white

To the stores in search of color
I come across some things absurd
Yellow feathers at the bottom
Is this for women or Big Bird?

Bridal bouquets of dried roses
dark fabric swags and black lipstick
It may be known as a slimming shade
but I don't go for the gothic

Sleeveless, embroidery, two-piece
A-line or organza ahead
With plenty of styles to choose from
Stands for good luck, I won't wear red

Then I remember the saying
A bride who wears this remains true
It's simple in an evening gown
touch of white, mostly royal blue

Winter wedding our time for vows
Blessed with sweet friends and family
In front of the garden we grew
Dressed blue for love ~ foreverly

I wrote that poem after looking through wedding dresses! Really, sometimes fashion goes a bit on the extreme. But hey, to each their day!

Have you ever made candles? My Mom reminded me that we did this when I was little one time on vacation; it was the long tapered candles that we made with swirls of colors. Makes me want to do that again! But this time, I learned a new way to do candles, using soy wax!

Kim came over last Saturday and showed me how simple it is ~ sure a little time consuming, but a lot of fun! She had a great idea to decorate the tables, making them elegant by putting candles as part of the centerpiece. We used E-6000 to glue the Fleur de Lis on the square candleholders. (Have you realized why my blog is called "Fleur de Aleta?") To keep the wick in place, the kit included little double-sided stickems that you place in the middle of the holder.

The cool thing about soy wax is that you can melt it in the microwave, a little at a time, stirring with a wooden spoon. I wanted white candles, so we didn't add the color chips, but could have done so at this point. After color choice, you stir in the scent. We used (gotta love this) "Butt Naked" (smells like cinnamon). After hearing the scent name, Greg replied, "I don't know about you, but when I come out of the shower, I don't smell like that!" hehe... I love the way he smells!
... ok, mind back on track... after you pour the melted wax, you use straws or pencils to hold the wick in the center until it solidifies for 24 hours. I'm thinking these could make some great Christmas gifts!

I had my first dream about our wedding. It was a problem solving dream. Don't you love to think about your dreams and figure them out? I figure that if your mind is busy at work while you sleep, you at least owe the dream some attention while you're awake!

So, the dream ~ very simple ~ it was our wedding day, but instead of it being at our home, the wedding was being held in my mom's school's auditorium! In my dream, we were saying, "This is the perfect solution to the space that we need for everyone to sit at tables. They have the tables and chairs here, so we don't have to rent them. There are lots of parking places in the school lot. Plus it's during the Christmas and New Years holiday so nobody is in school right now to worry about." Yes, those were the questions and dilemmas of the day ~ space and parking and rentals. My dream had the answer, though it's not a viable or likely solution. I was even changing in my mom's classroom, getting ready for the wedding. How cute! Mom laughed when I shared the dream with her.

We went to visit my parents. I told Greg that it was my Dad's birthday on Sunday (this past one). Greg, knowing that (like his family), my family celebrates each birthday with a get together, asked, "What time?" I shot back, "All Day!" He chuckled and said I did a Gregism! Hehe.

My parents, as did Rob and later Rene (good friend of the family from Atlanta), came over. We barbecued and ate doberge cake (yum). It was great company, lots of laughs. Rene told Greg, "You have to pass a questionnaire before you can marry Aleta." I think Rene approved!

Of course, Greg had to share with the group about the other day. Greg came home and was working on replacing a part for the edger for the yard work. He asked me to start cooking the ground turkey that we had defrosted. He said to sauté some onions, put the turkey in and make it an open face sandwich. Ok, I can do that.... but when I went back out and said, "I don't think it's salvageable.." He told me to add the Rotel can of tomatoes.... I did, only... it said HOT on the can and man oh man, it could clear the worst of sinuses! We served it over bread and added some sliced cheese on top, which helped cut down on the spice.

I fed some to the dog. Pebbles ate the meat and then, the heat got her. She started licking her lips and wouldn't stop licking her lips for 5 minutes! With plenty of leftovers (cough, ahem), Greg said we should stir in some "cream of mushroom or cream of broccoli" and I added, "cream of ANYTHING".... we only had a can of cheddar cheese soup. Ummm, have you ever stirred in cheese soup with dark meat and saw what it looked like?

Greg compared it to, "the plastic throw up that you bought as a kid." Yeah, but it tasted good. We coined it an "eyes closed dish." The next morning, Greg is preparing the dog food and I walk in and see the regular dog food and two strange lumps on top of it. I exclaimed, "What did you put in the dog food!" He looked sheepishly at me and said slowly..."ummm, errhhhh.... Your cooking, honey..." I couldn't help but say, "That's disgusting!" We had a good laugh after that!

The night of Dad's birthday ending with Greg learning how to play Canasta the "hard way." Rene and Rob refused to tell him the rules or the manner of the game, but rather to learn as you go. Game of Hard knocks and they thrilled in winning. Just wait, Greg caught on quickly and he's competitive! (But poor guy had a horrible partner in the game - ME. I like the game, but it's a mind trip and I'm not good at it.)

Oh! And I finished another bracelet, two with similar styles. You can see the "beaded" bead. The black and white bracelet is made with odd count Peyote. Oh and Greg bought some bird feeders (Who typed the comment that Greg would most likely do that soon? * smiling *). He put them in the yard during the week and said, "Where are the birds?" I answered, "They don't come right away. You have to wait. When you see the squirrels eating, the birds will come soon." I promised him birds by the weekend and sure enough ~ first ones that we saw were on Saturday morning and they were Cardinals!