Butterick Teepee - Done!

Well I finished B4251 yesterday afternoon - hooray!



Forgive me for not matching my stripes on the front.



Do you like sewing straight seams for hours at a time? These panels are about 6 feet long, and there are 5 of them not counting the front door. That's why the child can stand up inside - they're very LONG panels. Do you have 10-12 yards of unwanted fabric sitting around? I had this giant roll from a church sale - $5 for the whole roll, and I still have some left if you're interested!



Dean drilled holes in the PVC pipes, so a special shout-out to him.



But it was all worth it for the happiness it brought (Jake enjoys the teepee as well), and my child gave me 2 extra hugs with thank-you's, plus he slept in it last night (did I mention it was really big?).

Now wasn't I supposed to be working on a fleece jacket?

Animal Fun

Well, I'm still cutting out jacket pattern pieces, and Lucas's teepee is underway but I have nothing to show yet. So, enjoy these 2 videos in the meantime. If you haven't seen OK Go's White Knuckles video, go do it now - especially if you're a doglover. Jake loved it and wants to be in the video, too!



And these little guys are just fun to watch. Not very smart, though - they think that wheel is for standing on and trying to jump out. They've never actually run on it. But they do love a good toilet paper roll!

Taking a Second for Blogging...

Okay, so I'm 2 lectures down and 3 to go, but they're spread out over the next couple of weeks so I can take a breather. And I'm one den meeting down and a pack meeting to go, but there's always planning that next den meeting. I'm also taking an exercise break. (I don't think walking on the treadmill two weeks in a row qualifies as a habit I'm taking a "break" from, but I'm sticking with my terminology.)

So instead of exercising while Lucas was at karate, I hit Hancock's giant 53% off sale to finally commit to some fleece for that Kwik Sew jacket. The fleece WAS $9.99/yard and up, but I got this red stuff for $4/yard!



And I finally committed to a waterproof overlay, so we'll see how this charcoal-ish stuff goes with the red (it was $4/yard too). I'm considering this my muslin and will send it to my sister for comments. If she likes it, she keeps it and I'll make myself another one. If she no-likey, she no-keepy and can send it back to me without guilt so I can make whatever adjustments are needed. I really can't picture how this will look, so I may be ripping the overlay off and just wearing a plain jacket - we'll see.



We did manage to get in a bit of this last weekend - that's Lucas standing up on the tube and not flying off.



And this is Lucas on Drew's back, but Drew never got up on all 4's for the picture I was planning.



What I was aiming for was something worthy of Cypress Gardens (thanks to RoadsideAmerica.com for the pic), but you can only do so much on a tube.



And doesn't this make you wonder if there were any deaths at Cypress Gardens training camp? How could you fall from this pyramid and not be killed instantly? I guess if you fell backwards. Random morbid thoughts...

New Oyster-Eating Champion

This is from an article by Dan Murtaugh in the Mobile Press Register today, about the new oyster champ at Wintzell's. The deal is if you eat 403 oysters in one hour and keep them down you break the 7-year-old record and win $25. I did not make this up and transcribed it straight from the paper. Enjoy:

"Half an hour gone, Orndoff stuck Nos. 398 and 399 on his fork and swallowed. He speared No. 400. The crowd bubbled with excitement.

That's when Orndoff vomited.

It started slow at first, just a tiny stream coming through his fingers. But he couldn't hold it in, retching a violent gray-brown river into a trash can next to his feet.

He cursed, slapped the trash can. The crowd groaned.

"So close!" one woman shouted.

Then Orndoff pointed to the trash can, looked at a shucker and asked: "If I eat these in here, can I keep going?"

Donlon nodded her head.

Orndoff filled his cup with what had once filled his belly, and guzzled the regurgitated bivalves.

He quit after another 22 fresh ones, ending at 421 oysters.

Orndoff kissed his wife [ewww!], accepted the $25 check, then pondered the moment.

"I'm full," he said. "I've never been this full. I actually want to go throw up again."

Accessory Makeover and $.89 Patterns!

Yesterday I was supposed to meet with some mighty important people from out of town, and this was all I could find to wear.



I had to work so I didn't want to wear a skirt, and my Jalie pants are now too short to wear with fashionable shoes (they're fine with flats, but then I look dumpy). It was also too hot to wear my nice Jalie top that I think is so cute. So I asked Dean if his first thought was "she looks tall and skinny" (because of the low-riding pants and tall heels) or "she looks like a man." He said I looked like a tall, skinny man. Then he asked if I was wearing his belt.

So, fast-forward to one hour before the meeting and I'm done with work, so I drive over to Dillard's because they have the best shoe department in my opinion. I whiz through and at the very last moment find the perfect pair of shoes I've been dreaming about - kitten-heeled (doesn't that just SOUND feminine?), pointy (which is always sexy, isn't it?), and shiny leopard-printed (RRRRRRRow!). I stuff my socks and shoes in the bag and tell the saleswoman I'm wearing these suckers outta here.

Now to the belt department - at the last minute I find a gold chain belt - gasp! I rip off my old brown one and ask the saleswoman how exactly one wears a belt like this (being so new to feminine womanhood, you know). I came in as a man, and I go out as a sexy hot momma...or, you know, looking more like a woman. I felt like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman, seriously, except without the whole prostitution thing. I guess this is the opposite of that. Never mind.



And the Buttericks were on sale for 4 days - hooray! I spent a grand total of $3.85 on these. I have no idea why I bought this Retro 6582...well, yes I do. I usually buy patterns because a pretty blond woman is wearing something sexy, and I assume I'll look like her if I make this outfit. Does anybody else do that?



Obviously this is not a pretty blond woman, and the orange shirt was very off-putting to me, but the 5391 will be another attempt to get some decent pants to wear to work every day.



Here's 5542 which I'm considering for a Mardi Gras dress.



And thanks to Butterick for including one craft (4251)that a boy might want to make!

I'm Not Dead...in case you were wondering...

Shout-out to my man Richard B - follower #35! He's my sister's brother-in-law or my brother-in-law's brother, so what does that make him to me...my brother-in-law-in-law? My brother-in-law once removed? I have no idea, but welcome Richard! It's not all sewing - if you skim through the sewing stuff you'll find the comedy (in some cases, the sewing IS the comedy).

So I've been too busy to sew lately. There was Labor Day weekend...count the kids on this dock:



Did you count 5? Now multiply that by sharp hooks, a crazy dog who wants to eat everything ON a sharp hook, and too much caffeine - are you getting nervous yet? (We haven't even discussed margaritas for the adults.) But look at the smile on this face!



And this face...(hmmm, is that a smile?)



Then I came back to reality and faced an impending (really, doesn't "upcoming" sound more positive and less full of doom?) Cub Scout meeting as Assistant Den Leader and Popcorn Kernel, plus 3 lectures with their attendant paperwork and preparation, and you see why I haven't had time to catch up on my blog-reading and writing. Oh, and then THIS came in the mail! I've got some reading to do tonight!

So, I will eventually get back to it, but I'll leave you with this spectacular crash. This is Drew doing what he loves best, but just close your eyes till the last 10 seconds of the clip, or else you'll be seasick and get a migraine. Why don't you just go ahead and fast-forward to the very end, then you can run it back in slo-mo and marvel that he only complained of stomach pain and not 2 broken arms. And the stomach pain resolved after 5 minutes, so we've ruled out internal bleeding...I'm pretty sure.

Much Better!

This feels much better - I don't feel like Grandma...or a matron of the Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women in Montgomery (because of the stripes, you know).



This is Butterick 4399 but apparently it's discontinued, because I couldn't find a picture or link online. It doesn't have a waistband but fits very nicely I think. (You non-sewers quit your gagging and scroll on down.)



And there's the center back zipper.



I made this a year ago but only wore it once for some reason (maybe because it wrinkles horribly). Then when the fiasco happened with the wrap dress, I decided to pull this out, wore it to the school's open house, and loved it. Dean gave it the stamp of approval - he walked in and stated, "You're wearing a skirt. Did you wear that to WORK?" (Ever hopeful that his wife who normally dresses like a man might have turned over a new leaf.) So I think I'll make some more of these in different lengths and fabrics. We're not all made for dresses.

In other news, Lucas is fired up about building a cart he saw in his Cub Scout handbook. It's like a small go-cart without the motor. He's asked every day if we can go to "a junkyard" to look for a motor, though. Drew spied 2 motors in the classifieds for $50 each and mentioned this to Lucas at dinner. Lucas immediately went slack-jawed and bug-eyed and asked what were "classifieds" and where could he find them. Dean rolled his eyes.

And that reminds me of a conversation my brother and I had. He's teaching his 10-year-old daughter to shoot the rifle she got for Christmas, and I'm teaching my son to use the sewing machine he got for his birthday. Raising the next generation of gender-confused children, I guess. (Well-rounded is more like it.)