Pink Rose Princess Dress

The Pink Rose Princess Dress I made my Granddaughter.

For this Princess Dress I bought a clearance pink t-shirt, and from JoAnn Fabric I bought clearance rose fabric. This fabric is gorgeous, and I loved it so much I  also bought it in green and purple. With the fabric on sale, plus a 20% off my total purchase I was able to get 1/2 yard for around $5 dollars and the t-shirt for about $4.50. I also bought a roll of pink lace for $1 at JoAnn and a roll of rose ribbon at Hobby Lobby for 50% off which came to less than $2 a roll. The whole dress cost me about $11 to make.

The Carters t-shirt and rose fabric.

The lace and rose ribbon I bought for the Princess dress.

I prepared the skirt for this gown the same way I made the Minnie Mouse Princess Dress in my previous blog. I used the sewing machine to run a baste stitch along the top of the 1/2 yard rose fabric. I started the stitch about 1/2 inch from each edges so I could sew a back seam in the rose fabric. After sewing the back seam I pulled the baste stitch to gather the skirt to fit the width of the t-shirt.

I marked the t-shirt with Tailor's chalk all the way around the waist, and pinned the skirt at the chalk line. I then sewed the skirt to the t-shirt.

Next, I took the rose ribbon and pinned it all around the waist on top of the raw gathered edges of the top of the skirt. I hand sewed the ribbon in place.

The rose ribbon pinned at the waist.

The t-shirt had a strip of small flowers at the breast of the shirt. I took the rose ribbon and pinned it over the flowers and hand sewed it into place.

The rose ribbon sewn over the shirt's decorative flowers. 

I took the pink lace and pinned it over the cap sleeves and sewed it into place with the sewing machine.

Lace over the cap sleeves.

Because the rose fabric frays easily, I took some wide bias tape and sewed it to the raw bottom of the skirt. Then I turned the hem up about an inch or an inch and a half, and sewed the hem on the machine.

Not a pretty hem on the inside, but it will keep it from fraying.

My sweet Princess loves this new gown.

The front of my little Rose Princess. Her Princess Purse will be a future blog.

The back view of my Rose Princess.

Dear Pop,

Happy Birthday! It would have been your 95th Birthday today, and so much has changed in the seven years since you passed. What has not changed is how very much we all miss you. It is hard to pick one thing that I miss the most. There are so many, but here are a few.

I miss your laugh, one of my favorite memories of you laughing was when we were watching Johnny Carson on the Tonight Show when he had Buddy Hackett on as a guest. Buddy was artful at telling a story without using words that would have gotten him bleeped. As he is telling this joke, Dad, you started laughing. You went from the loud full belly laugh, to the silent shaking laugh, and finally the bent over high pitched laugh with tears. It was truly one of my favorite memories of you Pop.

I miss your gurgling belly. When I was a kid and I would sit next to you at home, or in church, and as a little girl you would put your arm around me.  I would lay my head against you and listen to your gurgling stomach. It was always, in a strange way, a comforting sound to me.

I miss you singing in church. When I was little you would sit in the pew with us, and with your tenor voice you would harmonize singing all the hymns. You had such a beautiful singing voice. As I got older you sang in the choir, and played guitar in the church music group. I still enjoyed listening to you sing in the choir and play your guitar, but the sound was never as sweet as when your were right next to me in the pew. That is a sound I will never forget.

I miss your warm chubby hands. As you got older and your hands got bigger your wedding band was embedded in your finger and your hands were as warm as your heart. When I was young and I would sit next to you with your arm around me, you would lay your hand on my arm, or hand, and they were always so warm and comforting. As I grew older and moved away, when I came home to visit you would sit next to me and take my hands in yours and always say, "How's Gigi?" Your hands covering mine in warmth. I always called them your heater hands. Oh, how I miss them.

I miss feeling the safety that a daughter can only feel with her Dad. The bear hug that enveloped me, the kiss on my head, and your voice saying "I love you". That is by far what I miss the most.

There are so many things that I miss now that you are gone, but I am bless that I still have such wonderful memories of you and Mom, and such wonderful siblings to share them with.

Happy Birthday Pop, and on this day my memory will be of you opening your presents with one of the bows on your head, and all of us laughing.

All my Love,
Gigi

The George W Bush Presidential Center, Part 3

My last blog in this series is on the special exhibit at the Bush Center. The Exhibit is called "Portraits of Courage".

When President Bush finished his second term of office he read Winston Churchill's essay, "Painting as a Pastime". Winston became a painter after he resigned from public office, and after reading his essay, and with the encouragement from Mrs Bush, President Bush decided to give painting a try.

"Even though I was active in the post-presidency,"President Bush says,"I was antsy. I figured if painting had sated Churchill's appetite for learning, I might benefit from it as well."

Gale Norfleet, a Dallas artist who has a Master of Fine Arts degree from MSU was hired by President Bush to be his first instructor. President Bush took lessons from Ms. Norfleet for two years. She taught him the basics of painting.

This is a painting by Gale Norfleet of the President painting.

To further his knowledge and skills, and to become a better painter President Bush hired an artist who was the Professor Emeritus of Art at Texas Christian University in Forth Worth, TX. His new instructor's name is Jim Woodson. Mr Woodson taught Mr. Bush a technique known as "impasto". This is a technique where the paint is put on the canvas very thickly making the painting almost look three dimensional. He also encouraged Mr. Bush to use bigger canvases and bigger brushes.

Jim Woodson's portrait of President Bush.

President Bush's latest instructor, Sedrick Huckaby, is a young painter who was honored in the National Portrait Gallery's Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition. Sedrick was the instructor that advised the President to "Paint people you know, but others don't". That advise led him to

undertake "Portraits of Courage".

Sedrick Huckaby's painting of President Bush and his paintings.

President Bush started out painting animals, landscapes, fruit and world leaders that were in office at the time he was our President. He also did some self portraits and even painted Jay Leno and gave him the painting on the Tonight Show.

President Bush started painting animals, fruit and landscapes.

The first portraits he painted were of fellow World Leaders.

President Bush painted a portrait of Jay Leno and presented to him on the "Tonight Show".

Portraits of Courage is a "labor of love" from our Commander and Chief to the service men and women he was "honored to salute".  The George W Bush Presidential Center also houses the George W Bush Institute's Military Service Initiative that helps post 9/11 veterans and their families. The MSI  helps veterans make a successful transition from service life to civilian life, including the wellness of the veterans that are recovering from post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and traumatic brain injury. These are the Veterans featured in the "Portraits of Courage".

Below are a few examples of President George W Bush's paintings in the exhibit titled "Portraits in Courage".

Sergeant David A. Wright, U.S. Marine Corps, 2000-2004

Captain Kevin L Rosenblum, U.S. Army, 2004-2009

Sergeant Saul Martinez, U.S. Army 2006-2010

Sergeant Leslie Zimmerman, U.S Army, 2001-2004

It seems so amazing to me that someone that had no inclination to be an artist their whole life ends up painting everyday, and produces such beautiful artworks. You can see how his style and technique changes as his instructors changed. This was such a unique and wonderful way to honor the men and women who served this country so honorably. If you ever get a chance to see this exhibit, do not pass up the opportunity.

The George W Bush Presidential Center, Part 2

The most solemn exhibit in the Bush Center Museum is the exhibit on 9/11. As you walk into the 9/11 exhibit you first see the 22 ft high, 1.85 tons pulverized twin steel beams from the World Trade Center. The piece of the towers is know as a C-11 panel and is believed to be from one of the upper floors of one of the towers. The piece of the tower is not an artifact, but a memorial, so visitors can touch it if they so choose. As I was watching the visitors walk by the towering piece of mangled metal, some would touch it, and look as if they needed to touch it to make it all real to them. Other visitors looked as if they couldn't touch it, like it was a sacred piece of history they needed to let rest.

The Mangled Twin Tower Beams. In Presidents Bush's address to the nation he said, "These acts shattered steel, but they cannot dent the steel of American resolve."

The beams are surrounded by the names of all the victims, of all three attack locations, engraved on the walls, also surrounding the beams are six video screens that show real footage of the attack as the events were happening. There are videos of "The Today Show" from that morning as the reporters were seeing what the nation was seeing in real time. They also show the footage of the plane going into the Pentagon from security camera footage taken from across the street.

Behind the beams you see visitors watching the videos or reading the victims names.

Next in the exhibit is a section where you can sit and watch video of the 10 days after 9/11. These videos include the speech at Ground Zero by President Bush on a bullhorn (the actual bullhorn is also on display), and the joint secession of Congress. You can see the video of the President getting the news of the attack while visiting a school in Sarasota, Florida. The video is very somber and riveting. You may need tissues, I know I did.

This was the section of the video when President Bush addressed the nation on Sept 11, 2001. In the video he is finishing his address saying, " This is a day when all Americans from every walk of life unite in our resolve for justice and peace. America has stood down enemies before, and we will do so this time. None of us will ever forget this day. Yet, we go forward to defend freedom and all that is good and just in our world.  Thank you. Good night, and God bless America."

There is a display of letters of condolences from world leaders, and from school children throughout the world. Displayed are the handwritten notes that President Bush took on a white legal pad at the school in Florida.  Also included is the fleece jacket the President wore when he threw out the first pitch at Game 3 of the World Series.

A note of condolences from the, Ambassador of the Peoples Republic of China to the Kingdom of Thailand.

One of the most touching items on display is the badge of the killed Port Authority Officer George Howard. This badge was given to President Bush by Officer Howard's mother, and President Bush carried the badge with him throughout his presidency.

This is the badge of Port Authority Officer George Howard.

No one can ever fully understand how this day affected President Bush, he was sworn into office on January 20, 2001 and just 8 months into his Presidency he was faced with the worst terrorist attack our country has ever experienced. In my personal opinion in the days immediately following the attack he was strong when he needed to be, and comforting not only to the victims of this tragedy, but to all Americans that were scared and suffering. Being the President of this country is a hard enough job without having to deal with such a life altering event. The 9/11 attacks were game changers for all of us in this country. All of our lives changed, and in effect so did the lives of many people across the world.

Look for Part 3 of this series coming soon.