Leaving on a Jet Plane

I am headed to Scotland on the 7th along with our daughter, my aunt and a friend. Once we arrive we meet up with another friend and head off to the Hebrides and the Northern coast of Scotland. It will be a drastic change from our dry, hot Yuma weather. I am very busy finishing up a class sample for JoAnns as well as some personal sewing on items needed for my trip. It won't be all fun and games on the trip though since I am taking my trusty Ipad and plan on working up some curricula for up coming classes. Standby for some great photos!

A Blast from the past

Since my sewing area has been shrinking I decided to  pull out everything and try to organize it. Does anyone ever have an organized sewing room? I have sewing/knitting/dyeing stuff, then I have office stuff for FFC ( the projects i worked overseas with), left over real estate stuff including some boxes with miscellaneous supplies, and the files that i need to keep for 2 more years. My room is about 18 by 9. I have counters and work space around but they are filled!  I did decide to use my scanner to get rid of the paper clutter which is helping with fresh things but I do need to go back and scan old files to  get rid of the hard copies. Unfortunately this ranks about the same as getting a tooth pulled, after all why do this when you can sew? :)  I also have several boxes of old photos- the one craft I am not into is scrap-booking.  A friend of mine who is not a collector and has a serene minimalist home suggested that I get rid of it all and when I sew just buy enough for the project and when it is done toss any left over fabric. Are you kidding me? those are valuable scraps. Anyhow during my sewing I came across this old letter from Erma Bombeck to me. How cool is that?

well the Baby outfit is finished- now to find the Baby!

Just kidding! We already have the baby in mind for the gift, he will be born in a few weeks which will make the outfit just the right size when our weather is cool enough to wear it. The pants were a challenge since I had no pattern to work from, just measurements from a 6 month old and  some guidelines from the internet.   

Happy New Year!!!

I don't really make New Year's resolutions but I do sit down and look at last years goals to see how many I made and if i didn't make them why not- did circumstances change or did the goal no longer seem so reasonable?  Then I make new goals. Among this year's goals are a total revamping of my Etsy storefront. I am not sure what the changes will be but hopefully i will figure it really soon!

Beginning this month i will be teaching some  classes at our local JoAnns- that will be a new adventure for me. i am looking forward to it and have a couple of people that I know waiting to sign up for one of my March classes already.

2012 was a year of change for us- Brad retired after 34 years with USDA, we cut back on some of our volunteer hours with several local organizations for various reasons and I left my part time work for the Humane society. So here's to 2013- may it be happy and healthy.

First Sunday in Advent

Traditionally that is when we get our Christmas stuff up. I also put away our everyday table linens and put out the Christmas stuff. Now that one leads to a little controversy in my home: first there is the issue of the Advent wreath it self- just try finding one purple candle let one 3, the pink on is usually not so hard, THEN try finding a white pillar candle that doesn't smell.  This year the local Catholic store had some sets in stock but the white pillar came from Wal-Mart. AFTER loads of sniffing and sneezing I chose one that is called clean laundry and has a fairly mellow scent (not what what my generic detergent smells like!)

Now we move onto the dishes- I put away my everyday dishes and move into a Christmas set. They too can be hard to find- I like a traditional pattern, unfortunately my first set was a pretty pattern of red cardinals, holly leaves and berries with a gold trim. I bought it from the dollar store. The complaints from the males in the family were immediate and heartfelt" we can't put these in the microwave" ( don't even ask how they found out- I heard it in great detail, I am just lucky I have a microwave and a house still!) and B: the bowls were shallow with a brim so somehow the cereal didn't taste right. Okay, I promised that I would look for a new set that was also affordable, had no metallic trim and did have traditional cereal bowls. Not so easy in that I am not a fan of Frosty, or elves etc. the Christmas tree designs were okay but kind of plain and ugly to me- except for the ones that we couldn't afford. Finally I have a set found in the thrift shop- the bowls are not as good but they can live with them! Heather on the other hand understands that the beauty of a nice dish should trump all other considerations, but since she is away at college I am outnumbered.

Buttonholes

Talking with some fellow sewists lately- they hated doing zippers and preferred buttons! Honestly I don't know why- a zipper is so easy- a few pins two rows of stitching and DONE. In my experience no matter how often you practice a buttonhole on a scrap of fabric to exactly duplicate your garment it will come out perfectly on the practice piece but once you switch to your actual garment at least one of those suckers is going to act up and become a tangled mess that is so hard to fix and at that point the outfit is finished so not at at place that you can even do much about it easily. One of my friends sort agreed- only she hates all non quilt related sewing so avoids buttons or zippers entirely.

I envy organized people!

My sewing room is out of control AGAIN.- So even though i have two sewing projects for clients and two for myself, that's not even counting my "Projects in  planning "list, I need to take some time to clean and corral wayward material and notions and yarn. I think I am a "Maxine" but really aspire to "Martha Stewart". Fellow Maxines tell me that we are more creative than the Martha's of the world- but i doubt it when one spends time looking for the buttons that I know I saw last week- when they weren't needed!