Our family whirlwind of parties keeps on going! This past Saturday, we celebrated the second of our two family brides. This time around the shower was for my cousin Kara, who will be marrying Rich in January. The whole family (minus a few key members, such as our grandmother who couldn’t make it up from Virginia for the event) gathered together, along with some of Kara’s closest friends, to celebrate the upcoming wedding. The shower was held in Westchester, at […]

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“The only way we will survive is by being kind. The only way we can get by in this world is through the help we receive from others. No one can do it alone, no matter how great the machines are.” I’ve always thought Amy Poehler was hilarious, but after reading her new book Yes, Please, I am convinced that she is somehow my big sister. Or at the very least a long lost cousin. But clearly we’re related. Not […]

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Next up for the family celebrations was my niece/goddaughter’s baptism. This was the day after the bridal shower for Colette and so it was a big weekend of family fun. The day began with me heading over to mom’s to help watch the baby while everyone cleaned up and got set up for the party. I was on baby duty and so it was my job to make sure the Pickle was entertained and happy while everyone was busy. I […]

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This year, my usual Halloween partner was sadly not available, but I wasn’t going to let that come between me and my defending my Most Creative Costume award! I am the winner two years running (aside from the year that we didn’t do the Halloween thing, though I am positive I would’ve won that one too!). At first, I wasn’t going to do anything – but this was mostly because I genuinely had no idea what I wanted to do […]

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Over the next three months, my family is celebrating a number of special events – from weddings to baptisms to anniversaries. This means a lot of time together at various events leading up to and including the main ones. The festivities kicked off this weekend with the bridal shower for Colette, who will soon be officially joining the family when she marries my cousin Jordan in December. On Saturday, October 25, we all headed upstate to eat, drink, open gifts […]

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This weekend, my mom, sister, brother-in-law, niece and I headed out to New Jersey to go apple and pumpkin picking. This is something we talk about every single fall, and very rarely actually do. However, this year was different. My still relatively brand new niece is now a factor, and my brother-in-law’s family lives out near the apple orchard/pumpkin patch. And so we planned a day of it with the in-laws. Waking up Saturday morning, it was pouring rain here […]

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Somehow, over the weekend at the baby shower (not for me – just thought I’d throw that in there as a disclaimer in case people thought I’d been keeping a huge secret), I managed to take pictures of all the food we had spent the week prepping and the games the guests played, but none of the people! Thus this post is more “Tips for Throwing a Baby Shower” rather than “Here’s What Happened at the Baby Shower.” Food The […]

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In part two we take a look at the dresses for Hodel and Chava for the wedding scene.  I decided that these dresses would be plain, with some small details that made them special.  After all, the family IS poor, but they would wear their best for the wedding.  So for Hodel and Chava, I made the same exact style, but in different colors.  This was also kind of to signify a “bridesmaid” kind of deal, even though that’s not […]

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This year, our annual musical is Fiddler on the Roof, and I’m in the full throes of designing and making the costumes. My approach here is a little more pioneer than it is 1905 Russian peasant, but so far I think it’s working. Tzeitel’s Wedding Dress I started off with the wedding dress for Tzeitel. I used Folkwear Pattern’s Edwardian wedding gown, and made a simple version of it. The main goal here was to make it look like the […]

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