One day I'll remember to take pictures when it is all done.

 

Luckily other people got pictures of the spread at the vigil.  I made peach bourbon thumbprints from a jam a friend had given me which I think worked very well, but I should have smushed the balls down farther to get more jam in them.  The Andes mint chocolate cookies were phenomenal! Especially straight out of the oven, extra gooey.  Snickerdoodles were from a kit, but still worth it.  Espresso buttons, because of course.  And some peanutbutter chocolate chip balls in the sewing kit. So, so many cookies. I'm kinda sad now I didn't take any home.  I can transcribe the recipes later from the cookbook if anybody wants them.

Cheese, also, is my love language, and I got several goudas in Sint Maarten on my cruise.  Garlic, green pesto, red pesto, black pepper, red pepper, limoncello, and coffee.  So freaking good.

I also pickled eggs like the madwoman I am.  I started pickling six of the recipes before I left, but had to make the soy brined ones the week before so that they didn't disintegrate.  I was in such a fugue state last week that I didn't realize I was hardboiling two dozen instead of just one, needing the second dozen eggs for all the cookies >.> So back to the store I went.  Caleb sent me this recipe for hard boiled egg chocolate chip cookies last week that I definitely need to try some day! 

Next, I made a banner (imagine it with scowling eyes and solid yellow fleur de lis).  I made a point of bringing my sewing machine so that I could hem it once I'd gotten the stand from Patrick, so of course I packed the wrong pedal.  Technically I packed exactly the pedal I was intending to pack, but grabbed the wrong machine instead.  In the end, Steph and AJ came in clutch and helped me baste it on to the pole.

My biggest source of anxiety was adding the pleated collar to the partlet (and then beading it, but that was the easy part).  I started to pleat on the boat but was doing the folds too small and had to redo them once I was stateside again.  I think it took me about ten hours to do the two or so yards?  I used my hair straightener with great success last Sunday.  It then took about two hours to roll the hem, and maybe an hour to tack it on on both sides of the pleats.  There was a very lovely laurel chain that I started to add, but it was too busy and we removed it Friday night.  Last change was to barely wet the inside blade of the pleats so they wouldn't be so scratchy up against the neck.

Was it my best work? Not really, but I completed all of the tasks at hand and nobody will criticize my work as strongly as I do.  I wasn't expecting to have my mother stay at my house for three days after our cruise, crucial time I had originally scheduled for crafting all of this.  Alas.  In the end, I am happy with what I was able to achieve, and that I didn't have a breakdown until Sunday at 2am was also a great accomplishment.