It's not easy being green.

I finally decided to post photos of projects I completed last year (October-ish?).

The first is a skirt, Simplicity 2656.

I made view A out of a heavy weight stretch twill in army green. I wasn't expecting the fabric to be SO army green when I ordered it online, but *shrug* oh well.






Here's what I look like when I'm being pensive.


The second is a dress, Vogue 1025, Anne Klein pattern. I made it in a green linen blend with a black lining. Here's the line drawing:


And here's me in the dress:

At any rate, I wear this dress with a sweater over it to solve any peek issues that may occur around the sleeve area.

Here's what it looks like on me when I'm leaning sideways. It looks a lot like it did when I was standing upright! Ha. Also, note my non-fisted hands. So not a fist!

What's out the window?




And here's a closeup of the pleats that I sewed into darts because I can't read instructions and hate ripping out stitches. I like them as darts. Also, the blue marks are from my cute little sewing marking pencil dealy. It washes right out.

The V neck on this one was ridiculously difficult. I got so frustrated that I almost settled for a kind of flat bottomed U neck. But TC assured me that I could do it, that I could find a way, so I ripped out some stitches, sewed it up again, then ripped out more seams, clipped here, trimmed there and voila! V neck. I'm just grateful I got through that one.

In other, more recent sewing news, I finished the pink ruffle top. It just needs a good wash (to take off all the blue pencil marks) and then I can wear it. Next up are the pleated neck dress in a fuzzy red knit,


an Oscar de la Renta suit (Vogue 2950),

(The skirt will be in a black twill and the jacket will be in a fuchsia medium weight twill with a bit of a sheen.)

and more ruffles (Simplicity 2497) in a navy blue taffeta that turned out to be kind of more plastic feeling than I wanted, so... we'll see how that turns out. Anywho, I'll be making the main view, but with the small sleeves in view A, and a little longer than knee length.

A Rotten Tomato and Strange Dreams

As I was preparing my lunch this morning, I noticed a rotten tomato in my little bunch of tomatoes. So I decided to pull it out by pulling on the stem, from a shelf that's just about eye level. The tomato came crashing five feet from that shelf to the floor, hitting the counter on the way down, splattering rotten tomato everywhere. It got on the stove, on the counter, on the cabinet doors, on my skirt and sweater, and all over the floor. *sigh* I wiped it off my skirt and sweater, cleaned the kitchen mess up, finished getting ready and made my way to work.

Then I got to work, took off my coat, looked down and saw this:

Can you see the splatters on the left side?

Here's a close up:


*double sigh*

Good news is that after some scrubbing I was able to get all the tomato junk off. Bad news is that I now have paper towel smears and a wet skirt.


Also, I had really strange dreams last night. Like about a talking cougar. This kind of cougar:


Not this kind:


He told me how he got tired of eating small animals, like house cats. But that he felt bad about eating humans, especially me. And I was grateful that he was so merciful.

Today should be interesting.

Muffin Side

I made blueberry muffins as a Super Bowl snack on Sunday. WW recipe (YAY!), but I ate like four (boo!). Anyway, when I pulled them out of the oven, I noticed one that had a little problem: it had muffin side.



The uncooked batter had tried to escape from the side.



It made me giggle.

Shirt dress as promised

Here it is, my friends. Not the best photo of me, but it shows the dress pretty well. The front has little pleats:

which are supposed to be repeated on the back side, but the pleats just made the fabric stick out awkwardly, making me look like I had blocks for a back side, so I made the pleats into a long dart, which I don't have a picture of because I'm not that kind of girl. :)

I tried to take photos of the fabric, but I have no idea what I'm doing. This is the best photo I got.

Hopefully it conveys how silky smooth, yet warm and fuzzy the fabric really is.


Update: Sept 2010, new photos of shirtdress.

In other news, I finished the houndstooth skirt.


It's just a simple a-line.


Here's the fabric close-up. It's a loosely woven wool so it's also warm and fuzzy.


I lined it, however the lining is ridiculously clingy due to static. It was tricky to wear it on Friday. So, I will tack the lining to the hem of the skirt and see if that does the trick. If it doesn't, I'll have to get creative I suppose.


I'm still working on the pink top (McCall's 5323 view B), but hope to have that pounded out in the next couple of days. I will likely cut out the pleated neck dress (Vogue 8593) tonight.

Here's the High Five...

we've been waiting for.

Video Courtesy of KSL.com

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=9580418

States of the Union

The other evening when it was late and TC and I were both procrastinating falling asleep we got silly. We came up with stupid state jokes. Like these:

Which state has the most carbonated drinks per capita?

Minne SODA. *groan*

Which state has the most toilets per capita?

Loo isiana

Which state has the most people with small bladders?

Wizz consin. (so several of our jokes have to do with going to the bathroom)

Which state has the most married women?

Mrs. Sippi

Which state has the highest debt to income ratio?

I owe a

Which state has the most inquisitive people?

Al ASK a.

Other inquisitive states:

WHY oming and Ha WHY ii

Lame jokes, right? But if you're in the right kind of mood (punchy) these can make a person crack up. At least it makes me crack up.

Thursdee

Welcome to this Thursdee morning. The sun is shining, the air is cool and refreshing (or bitter cold), the sky is blue... Yay for Thursday.

After dinner (which was yellow rice and black eyed peas, a WW recipe, and was really good, but the turmeric I put in the rice cooker to flavor the rice and make it all yellow stained my rice cooker dealie to heck), we watched Human Target, and then I sewed for about an hour and a half. And I got nearly all the way through the houndstooth skirt. I just have some hand stitching to do while The Huz and I watch Bones and Fringe tonight, and voila! The houndstooth will be ready to wear. So that's pretty exciting.

I know this is kind of cheesy, but this is what's in my heart, and this IS my personal journal (ha ha, just trying to sound like SSB), but I need to pay tribute to the man in my life: The Huz, The Compensator, The Family Doctor. The other day when I came home from work with a butt face and began to sob as soon as I started to tell him about it, he was the one who let me cry on his shoulder and get my mascara all over his shirt. He was the one who told me not to go in to work for the rest of the week (but just for the record, I have been at work all week). He was the one who made a phone call to a contact he had that could help the situation. I have a protector, an advocate, a BFF that for some reason loves me even when I'm snotting all over his neck. So even though some parts of my life massively stink, TC makes the rest of my life not stink. Thank you TC.

Good morning starshine!

Thank you for the support and sympathy. I'm happy to report that yesterday was a better day. And today will be even better.

What I find interesting is how much a difference people can make. The support from you, my dear readers, was sweet and wonderful. Yesterday I received an e-mail from someone who had been frustrated with my failures at work on Monday thanking me for what I do. A coworker bought me a delicious slice of cheesecake as a thank you for something I helped her with. I had lunch with BFF Kacy who was willing to listen to my every complaint. And she even got her coworkers in on the sympathy for me. Brianne was back to work for her last day and I got a lovely note from her, and a chance to talk to her. Support came from every direction. Look how many angels are in my life. I am truly blessed. Thank you! It's a great reminder that God knows even the smallest sparrow, and loves them.

Another point of interest for me is how despite all the frustration I felt on Monday I still felt hopeful for the future. Good things are on their way. I can feel it. It's a calm assurance from the Lord that although things are rough now, a change soon will come.

In the words of a broken heart...

emotions took me over yesterday evening. So I did not take photos of the shirt dress. Sorry. I know how many of you in the great internet void were wishing and hoping I would follow through with my promise. In short, yesterday sucked. And the suckery prevented me from following through. Sigh.

But today is a new day. And we're having paninis for dinner. And we got up early to exercise. And to distract myself from my emotions last night I worked on cutting out the pink shirt and the houndstooth skirt. I think cutting fabric is my least favorite part of sewing, right next to hemming, button holes, slip stitching, hand sewing of any sort, and ripping out seams. (As an aside, that list makes me wonder what it is about sewing that I actually like. Oh yeah, the creating part.)

Yay for new days! Yay for the sun rising again and giving all of us the opportunity to do better. YAY!

Have a great day.

Plotting and Scheming

I've been reading blogs like this one, and this one, and have felt inspired by their loveliness and ability to complete projects, and sewing ability. It makes me want to create and make and be lovely like these ladies, so I planned some sewing projects.

First off, I actually finished something over the weekend:

This dress, Vogue 8028 in a navy cotton sateen. I bought the fabric in September when Fabric.com had a lot of great fabric on sale for $1.95/yard. The fabric is soft and warm and hangs well. It's a dream. I'll have the Huz take photos of the dress tonight and post them.

Next up are these little doosies:

Vogue 8593 in a red sueded stretch knit that is on it's way and should arrive today (I love packages).

McCall's 5323 view B (the pink ruffly one) in a hot pink stretch cotton. I have loved this top from the moment I saw it. I'm so excited to sew it up. I'm hoping to start and finish this one this week.

Simplicity 9825 View F (A line, knee length) in a black and cream houndstooth wool with black lining.

So here's my pledge to you (and me):

1. I will finish these projects.
2. I will follow up with pictures.
3. I will not weenie out of this.

I have some more advanced and involved projects coming up, like this one, this one, and this one, but I need to build up my confidence before I delve into those.