American Idol Girl Picks 2012

Yeah, I'm too tired to mess with copying and pasting pictures, so here's a list of my girl picks:

Hallie Day, Hollie Cavanaugh, Elise Testone, Skylar Lane, Erika van Pelt, and Jen Hirsh.

That's 5 of America's choices plus one wild card - you know each judge gets a wild card, right? I think there will be more boy wild cards myself, but America never fails to surprise - and frequently, upset - me.

There was one girl who was WAY off-pitch and just terrible, but if I were her, I would be horrified to read about myself here, so I'll leave it at that.

Infinity Scarves - I Haven't a Clue

So I used the zebra sweater knit to make the infinity scarf Sheila made - the tutorial she links is great, but that chick looks much better in hers than I do. This one was 4" wide when finished, but I wish it was longer...


This one is the same length, but a lot wider. I haven't looped it yet. (Why do I do such stupid poses?)


Certainly better looped, but too donut-y for me. I need to work on draping.


I tried it with this jacket that I love but I never wear. (The dang camera is SITTING on the bathroom counter on top of a box and I STILL can't get a non-blurry picture.) I like it with the blue.


It's so wide I can pull it over my shoulders and wear it like a shawl!


So I don't see myself getting it together enough to ever pull this look off. This extra X gene is just lost on me. So Junior and Liba, which one would you like?! (Groans from my sister and SIL - they're thinking, oh no, she's pawning them off on us!) I would be delighted to gift these to you, just tell me which one you'd like. And if you'd really prefer neither, I'll gift them to my MIL, who is a dedicated scarf-wearer....though she prefers floral, come to think of it. Uh, Mom? Anyone?

My Boy Picks for 2012

Okay, you already know my top 2 favorites are Reed Grimm and Phillip Phillips.


Phillip changed up Phil Collins' In the Air Tonight so much it was crazy. I wanted it to go a little faster, but it was still Adam Lambert-like in its creativity.


Here's the rest of the list in no particular order....







These next 2 are at the bottom of my list, although Colton may stick in there.



And I forgot to get pictures of Heejun and De'Andre with the long frizzy hair - they're definitely going home...I think. Since they have to cut so many, all I can say is that Jermaine is definitely staying (3rd pic from top).

And can I say how fast fabric.com is? I got my fabrics TODAY and they're already washed and dried and ready to go! I'm thinking an infinity scarf with the zebra knit - it's really thin and pretty sheer. Sheila linked a great tutorial for making one. Haven't figured out the moss green one yet...

My Keen Powers of Observation

I ordered these 2 books after reading Victoria's post about fitting books. I'd hyperlink her blog, but that function's been squirrely, has anybody else noticed?



So I started reading the Singer book on the flight from Colorado, which is not too cool when you're sitting next to a man and there are all these pictures of women in underwear with measuring tapes around them. This book is from 1984 I think, and the pictures were cracking me up.

Now today I picked up the other one to start reading it because Gwen mentioned it on her blog (I am easily influenced by others, huh), and guess what...


they have some of the same pictures. I got a strong sense of deja vu when I hit that picture (smaller pic on bottom) because that Vogue pattern's so old and it's weird that it's in a book written in 2012. I went back to the Singer book and found it (larger pic on top).

Then imagine my surprise when the underwear and tape measure lady showed up again!


So does that strike anybody else as odd, or I am just being nit-picky? (I checked the photograph and illustration credits, and nobody overlaps between the 2 books.)

American Idol - the Early Predictions

Man, it stinks to come home sick from a vacation. I'll never complain about living in the armpit of America again. (See, if Florida is an arm, Mobile is the armpit. Or say Florida is a leg, then we're definitely the crotch. And both of those are hot and humid, wouldn't you agree?) Colorado is beautiful, but being high and dry for a whole week hurts! I think I only slept well one night out of 5. That last night my throat was so sore and my nose was so stuffy that I dragged a chair into the bathroom at 11:30 PM (we'd left a light on for the boys) and read a book for 3 1/2 hours. The book was 1Q84, for anybody who needs a 1,000-page Japanese mind-boggler.

But I digress. We got caught up on American Idol, and here are my favorites. First is Reed Grimm, who is insane.



And who is also a dead ringer for Edward Norton, whom I love.



Second favorite is Phil Phillips, who reminds me of Dave Matthews with his voice and freaky leg movements when playing the guitar.


And finally, Heejun Han, who has an okay voice, but is mostly hilarious in a totally deadpan way. His whole bit with the overbearing cowboy was over the top, and when their group made it, he apologized to the cowboy and said, "I talked a lot of craps about you [behind your back], and I apologize to your parents." Ryan was interviewing him about being nervous and said, "What are you sweating right now?" Heejun says, "Mostly water."


In sewing news, I was a bad girl and bought some sweater knits online while I was freezing in Colorado. (I know, it's like grocery shopping when you're hungry, right?)


What should I make with this zebra thing? I have no idea, but it looked fun.


And of course we left 3 degrees in Colorado to return to 58 degrees in the armpit, so I better sew something up quick with these, or I'll have to save them for next year.

Pure Joy

Yeah, a wind chill of -2 degrees and wind gusts of 30 mph makes for some painful skiing, as evidenced by this face.

Snow!

So from the wildness of Mardi Gras to the freezing cold of Colorado for skiing. This is Dean on the little single rider roller coaster which was a hoot and shot you through the trees. No skiing injuries yet, as expected with knee braces on both of my knees for protection! (And the headache, fatigue, dizziness, racing heartbeat, shortness of breath, and sleeplessness was totally to be expected, coming from sea level to 10,000 feet, so it's not even worth mentioning.)

In sewing news, Sandra Betzina is coming to Mobile April 19-20 for a sewing workshop (make one of her patterns with her help), and the 3-hour demo lecture thing on the 21st. Flights are cheaper early! She'll be at All About Sewing - sorry I can't do a link, but it's called Google - you may have heard of it.

Mardi Gras 2012

Alas, there were no Elvis spottings in the French Quarter this weekend - what is Mardi Gras coming to? The weather was horrible, so maybe that was their excuse. The best dancing this year was not at Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop, though I did break it down to my new favorite, Florence and the Machine's Shake It Out. The magical moment was actually in the cajun chicken joint across from the Old Absinthe House, where they play LOUD songs while you wait in line.

I can't remember what song hit my dance gene, but several patrons and the lady frying the chicken reveled in it with me. My friend snapped a pic but he was apparently dancing too. (I like the topstitching on her jeans!)


Last year I got a pic of the most interesting throw; this year it was the most interesting T-shirt.


Some people don't really dress up for Mardi Gras (they're in white bathrobes).


Some people do.






I think these were supposed to be Royal Canadian Mounted Police, but they sang. Is that what they really do?



And here's the grand finale - Endymion's Extravaganza in the Superdome with 14,000 of my closest friends.


Arrived at 8 PM, parade floats started coming in around 9 or 9:30 (you can see them in the mass of people), Maroon 5 started playing around midnight, beddy-bye at 3 AM. Goodnight!

The Shoes

Remember my quest for just the right shoe to wear with khaki pants or jeans? I wanted something loafer-ish, preferably pointy and modern, and interesting. All I could find was the brown leather pair I bought in Soho last year, but every single scratch showed on that leather and they looked terribly worn out.

Well I asked the lady at DSW, who was wearing skinny jeans herself, what she recommended. She said try some Skechers, which I did, but they were black with black laces and I looked like I was going to my job at McDonald's. (My sister wore shoes just like that when she worked at McDonald's, in fact.) Now they had a flyer at DSW with 4 shoes on it, and there was a great pair of blue suede saddle shoes like Ellen wears (DeGeneres, my style twin, I think). I asked the manager if they had that shoe; he said they did. Then he pointed me to the men's aisle. Hmm...challenge accepted.



The good news about buying men's shoes is that they run 2 sizes larger than ladies - so I bought an 8 instead of a 10 - woohoo! Now that's got me thinking about my problem with creeping undies. You never see a MAN pulling his underwear down in back...

I Am Not My Worst Critic...This Time

So I was interviewed for a morning TV show to address a pretty complicated health topic. They told me I had 2-4 minutes, so keep the answers short. I did as well as I could and my nurses said it was as concise as it could be (they were listening in the hall during the interview).

I recorded it and showed it to my loving children, for whom I have bought Valentine's chocolates to surprise them with after dinner.

The 9-yr-old turns to look at my face halfway through the segment. Apparently he never knew I had a mole until he saw it on TV. He says I should have asked them to "blur it out." He also thinks one of my answers was too silly. This would be when the interviewer says emphatically, "Thanks for having us!" I responded equally emphatically, "Thanks for coming by!"

The 15-yr-old says that I didn't explain the subject very well and he is still confused by it. He apparently doesn't understand that it's hard to cram 7 years of medical training about a subject into a 4-minute blurb.

Perhaps I will be the one eating those Valentine's chocolates after dinner....

Ulta, I'm Yours!

I needed some new mascara and powder (did you know Neutrogena powder foundation has an expiration date?) so I ran into our new makeup store, Ulta. Do you have one of these? They sell makeup, hair supplies, skin stuff, everything - it's the size of a Books-a-Million. They were having a free gift thing if you bought $17.50 of their brand of makeup, and I was in one of those moods. You know, that "just came off 9 days of call and finished putting together a big Grand Rounds lecture for tomorrow and you need to splurge on something you NEVER buy" mood - you know that one, right? So I bought $18 of Ulta stuff with my usual Neutrogena powder and look what I got:



This rang up as $88 for free, but they may have jacked the price just to make you think you were getting a great deal. But DUDE, I got a lipstick, 2 lip glosses, mascara, blush, 8 eyeshadows, 3 makeup brushes, 4 eye liner pencils...it's just mind-boggling! And you could choose from 3 shades, oh plus the little bag it all came in. I just finished washing out my makeup basket and throwing away the old stuff (it's been at least 3 years since I bought that Arbonne blush - how am I not dead of a skin infection yet?) so I could reload the new stuff. Deep cleansing breath....so much better.

Oh, one other thing, have you seen the commercial for the Flipstick that takes you from day to night? Gloria's been telling me to try it every night, so I wrote the name down and bought that sucker.


I LOVE it! I wore a little of the shimmer side to the Pack Meeting tonight and felt a little less like a man in my bulky Scout pants. (The Cubmaster asked me why my accent went from Hillbilly to Hispanic.)

A Riveting Tutorial

I know you people know how to put on rivets, but I forgot today and I lost my instructions, so this is for me in the future. I figured it out by looking at a picture from an old post where I just happened to catch the back of the riveting tool package. It was a little blurry, but good enough. Moooo!

Take a nail and push it through the spot where you want the rivet. The little black disc that comes with the tool is so you can hammer on it if you want to - put it under the spot where you're hammering. (I figured that out by the tiny nail holes I saw there!) Take the nail out and come back in the opposite direction to make a good hole - it's at the tip of my thumb (not IN it, surprisingly).


Load the rivet "tool." They supply a long cylinder to help you get it seated well - you don't really need it, but you feel more like a machine worker if you use it.


The tool is ready. Inside rivet part on the bottom, outside rivet part on the top.


I've pushed the rivet stem thing through the hole from the inside out - that's the hardest part because there are lots of fabric layers and this isn't sharp like the nail. See the silver bit sticking out near my thumb?


Now lower the top so it sits nicely over the bottom and bang away. It really only takes a couple of blows.


Remove the tool from the inside and outside - voila! One time the seat of the tool came off with the rivet, and when I removed it there was a huge black rubber thing where my rivet should've been. I nearly panicked, then I realized what happened and just pulled it off and stuck it back in the tool.


Oh Spaceman, I'm so sorry!

Skinny Jeans....Done.

I have a beautiful grosgrain ribbon to use inside a waistband on the next pair like Robbie suggested, but I didn't want to hide my spaceman on this pair so I took 6 tiny darts in the waistband.


You can barely see them on the outside, plus I don't tuck.


I practiced a buttonhole using topstitching thread on the right. Yeah, um, that didn't work. I changed to regular thread - it's bright orange but looks exactly the same.


Uh, okay. My Brother doesn't like doing buttonholes on denim layers - the plastic foot doesn't seem to have the pressure to move the fabric. I had to pull it through by hand pretty much. I'll try the Janome next time.


"Howdy! Can I getcha some tartar sauce to go with that fried catfish? Yeehaw!"


Tucking only to show construction details. Note right front pocket wrinkles - pocket bag indeed has too much fabric....nailed permanently in place by rivets.


Note the illusion of a contoured waistband...


which can actually stretch to accommodate a small child. Well...I exaggerate...maybe just an automatic weapon.


The end.



I'll tweak the pattern to get a better fit around the waist, and I'd like to work out that right leg wrinkle on the back, but that one's on every pair of RTW pants I have. I'm happy. Stay tuned for a rivet tutorial...