Bring out the Artist Within

This past weekend we had the pleasure of a real get-away, with no agenda!

We escaped to a little town in New Jersey called Frenchtown. A B&B seemed just the thing, so off to the Widow McCree house, a charming 1800's home with many modern but well done updates.

Hunterdon County (NJ) and Buck's County (PA) are separated by the Delaware River, they are truly a weekend getaway delight.

Two of our BFFs met us there, so we were off to a weekend of fine dining, fun, shopping, and viewing of artists galleries. Which brings me to the meat of my story.

In one of the chichi galleries, there was a framed ribbon weaving in the tumbling block style. Although well done, I was dismayed the artist didn't use prettier ribbon. To top it all off, it was was mounted on a fabric covered box but the fabric was badly wrinkled.

I was curious to know how much one could charge for a piece I knew I could create better. It was a mere $400.00.

And so my fellow ribbon lovers; Google "ribbon weaving-tumbling block pattern", and you too can become an artist.

My personal favorite is Elaine Schmidt's book The Complete Guide to Ribbon Craft available on Amazon.

Send pictures, and keep on playing with ribbon.

Alice aka The Ribbon Lady

Put on Your Old Grey Bonnet with The Blue Ribbons On It!

 My web savvy audience might not remember the song that I named this blog after.  It’s over 100 years old and reminds me of one of our favorite customers, Timely Tresses.  I have relationships with many of our customers and their lives and stories are so interesting that I decided to share with you.

Danielle Perry and Mandy Foster of Timely Tresses are located in Oxford, North Carolina. They make historic and authentic millinery from the regency to the civil war period. Each style is carefully researched and designed to faithfully represent historic fashion. When you love what you do, it shows. That’s why Timely Tresses was chosen to design bonnets for the Jane Austin Festival for the Royal Opera Company in London.

I love getting orders from Timely Tresses since they order ribbon that we are proud of; beautiful and luxurious ribbons such as our Swiss double faced satins and velvets that represent the attention to detail that Timely Tresses is known for. 

Whether you are a re-enactor, or you love history and reflect it in your decorating, Danielle, and Mandy are the women to contact.

View Danielle and Mandy’s work at Timely Tresses, or visit them on Facebook.

Until next blog,

Alice

Over the Moon Ribbons

Over the Moon in Honduras

Two years ago I joined a mission group and visited a little mountain place in San Buena Ventura, Honduras. It is a children’s home of 68 kids rescued from the streets to a home of love, food, shelter and hope!  The name of this special place is the Lamb Institute.

During that trip, members of the group were presented with an opportunity to sponsor a child. My husband and I decided it was the least we could do for these little angels, and we chose a little boy named Alexander.

This year I decided to take Over the Moon to Honduras, and packed one large suitcase full of Over the Moon Ribbons.

WOW, I never expected the response I received all the girls ended up with 2-3 hair bows, as well as creating belts for themselves with ribbon and beads-----even the boys wanted them for their “tutors (house mothers) It did seem strange to me that they were claiming to have  3 to 4 tutors when I knew there was only one, but I let them think they could pull one over on me because they were having so much fun doing it!

Then came the big day----One of the young ladies of Lamb Institute was getting married and could not afford a wedding until one of the members of our visiting group, I will call him ST, paid for her to have a wedding in the magnificent chapel.  

There were two wedding specialists along including me.  We engaged the children and set to work using the few resources we had brought along.  Most of the items had been purchased ahead in Honduras, thanks to ST. 

We wanted it to be a wedding that they loved, and not one we imposed on them.

The wedding was Over the Moon, nothing to do with ribbons, only to do with a rag-tag bunch of nine volunteers who truly cared about making this world a better place to live.

Thank You to the Charleston Mission Group for your southern hospitality to this Yankee!

If you would like to know more about our adventure, and how you can help, contact me at ribbonlady.