Mother's Day Roundup

It's been a somewhat eventful month - we'll get to the crafting first. I finished the Alabama Chanin T-shirt embellished with daisies that I found on the internet (one daisy, and scattered them on the shirt).


Apparently I used an old pattern, or I gained weight since I haven't been running lately, or something, because this sucker is TIGHT!


I was hoping to wear it to work, despite both boys' opinions that it looks VERY homemade due to the neck and armhole stitching, and the outside knots at the center of each daisy, but for now it has to be home only.


I'm thinking of adding gussets on the sides, though, to widen it at the hips, since I have more of that T-shirt material left. I think I must've meant to use a pattern from the Craftsy Sewing with Knits class that fits nicely over the hips and that I've made 2 shirts from for work. Dangit! Don't you hate it when you're in love with something until the end and then it disappoints? Very depressing.


Here's a beautiful carved Indian elephant that a student gave me as a gift - one piece of wood and can you see the baby inside? Bet this guy wasn't depressed when he finished carving this!


And one night we came back home at night to find 3 HUGE owls sitting on a neighbors' mailbox. They took off right in front of us, then one sat glaring at us from a tree before flying away - very cool.


So here's our awesome Mother's Day weekend. We went to the beach and Drew's girlfriend joined us since she's gotten a summer job nearby. Lucas was truly thrilled to drive the boat - despite the face and non-chalant attitude.


Beautiful weather to head to Fort McRae!


Jake jumped in and out of the boat himself, despite this also being his 11th birthday, and had fun in the water.


When we got home, Drew cooked teriyaki salmon with vegetables for me.


Lucas gave me a first aid kit for my purse and a jewelry holder, but I don't have a pic of them - boo.


Jake was worn out, as expected, but apparently he also picked up something, because the next day he went out in the morning to pee and wouldn't come back in. He just lay on the porch and refused to get up all day, so I ran him up to the vet when I got home, and he had a temperature of 105! The hypothesis was near heatstroke due to arthritis flare from all the activity, but the x-rays and labs all showed he was perfectly healthy for his age. The poor baby wouldn't meet any of us at the door for a couple of days, and went about 5 days without eating his dog food. He did eat cheese wrapped around pain medicine, and is slowly getting back to normal, but it was pitiful to watch him avoid us and pant like he was running a marathon.

So he's more active today and actually ate his breakfast on his own - hooray! Now I'm off to rescue that shirt and figure out which pattern I should've used. Hope you're having a productive weekend!

Yummy Auburn Velvet Cake

I think she liked it!


It tasted good by all accounts, but the colors just didn't turn out as bright as I hoped.


Drew photobombed me.


Lucas apparently took my phone to snap a picture, because I didn't know this had happened. Wonder why the dog's ear is standing straight up - odd.


So for the upcoming Alabama Chanin airbrushing session, I'm kind of stuck. I was going to do white fabric with a gray stencil like Bianca's (reviewed here), but I'm afraid that would clash with the couched skirt if it's an all-over stencil....so maybe just one shoulder? Or I'll just wear a different shirt with the couched skirt - problem solved! And I want to use my actual AC blue fabric for something great, but I only have 2 yards and I didn't buy another fabric to make a second layer. So it could be a nice short tank dress, but won't be very embellished. Perhaps just stenciled? What color would you use if you weren't going to cut out shapes? I've worn out Pinterest and Craftsy looking at project ideas - even Googled "Alabama Chanin at work" to see if anybody else made stuff you could wear to work. Nope. Oh well, I have one week to get it together. What are you doing this weekend?

Rest of Spring Break 2015 *Graphic Pic Warning

(Do not scroll down if you are sitting in a busy waiting room or you have a weak stomach - you have been warned.) We came back from 50-degree weather in Wisconsin and headed for 70-degree weather at the beach. A little cool for swimming, but nice enough to take the dog for a paddle board.


I met my sewing buddy Robbie at a nice restaurant for lunch, and was planning to do a nice review of them, so I took a bunch of pictures. This is the cool fish tank with stingrays and all kinds of fish you can pet...I guess.


These were the cool light fixtures, and the food at lunch was GREAT!


Love the decor! Alas, I took the family back for dinner the next night, and was really let down, so no big review now. But if you're in a boat in Wolf Bay and want to dock at the Cayman Grill, definitely stop for lunch on the deck. If it's nighttime and you want well-cooked fish, keep on going! One funny story - the waitress, who seemed to be from another planet, took our drink orders, then brought the boys' Cokes in tiny kids' cups with bendy straws. Lucas, the 12-year-old, would've been offended if this happened just to him, but it also applied to 18-yr-old Drew, who's 6'2 with a buzz cut. We all cracked up and Drew immediately Snapchatted a pic to his friends. Then when she took our food order, she actually asked him if he wanted the adult pizza or the kid's pizza! The hilarity did not quite make up for the overcooked, unseasoned fish, sadly.


On Saturday, I got up at 6:30 AM to run a 5K - go me! Unfortunately, I came down the stairs in my sock feet, which is a big no-no for someone with Mad Cow disease, as you can see from previous posts. So one foot flew off the step and I fell straight back onto my derriere and right hip, which were clothed in slippery running shorts, so I proceeded to bump down 10 steps as if on the lubed-up sled from Christmas Vacation. My forearm banging on each step didn't even stop me, but THIS time (yes, this was the second time I did this) I didn't bruise the arm up, at least. So I was trying to dress and leave the house quietly, but Dean did jump up to come check on me. I walked around and didn't seem to have broken anything, so I went on and ran the 5K - booyah! Even shaved 3 minutes off my time (33:46), but this was because there were only about 25 people running, and I didn't want to be the last one. Now hold the phone, because I just checked the results, and would you believe that I came in 3rd in my age group?! I'm going back to count - I bet there were only 3 of us.


Okay, back to my Mad Cow. I came home, ate a nice breakfast Dean made for me, loaded up with ibuprofen for the hip pain to come, got in the bed, and proceeded to have that hysterical laughing then crying thing I do after falling - it was just delayed a little because of the 5K. It seems to be a combination of happiness that I haven't broken anything when I fall, and sadness at the inevitability of a broken hip in my future. Whatever...here's that graphic pic I warned you about. It's quite educational in what happens to your leg when you fall down and you're on aspirin. I'm hoping gangrene doesn't set in....and that Giovanni Ribisi doesn't show up and declare my leg "south of cheese."


There was another large bruise perfectly outlining my coccyx down to the 3 spinous tubercles, but I'll leave that one to your imagination. Here's the anatomical diagram. (Yes, if you Google-image that, somebody posted their actual bruise.)


Let's leave you with something more appetizing - this is how Dean fixed Cuban sandwiches for us when we had to come back to the real world of school and work. The man is a whiz with cast iron pans!


Now what are you doing this weekend?

Jake Does Pilates

This was around Christmas, but Lucas just shared it with me. I was doing a Pilates video on Comcast when Jake came and plopped down. He usually does this move of scratching his back in the yard....or maybe he really was trying to do some Pilates!



No other news to report, other than the fact that I finally accepted yarn defeat and restarted the Stella pullover, with Lucas's help to be sure I didn't twist the yarn at my join. Oh yeah, and I ran 3.25 miles the other day with Dean in preparation for the AZALEA TRAIL RUN!!!! Yes, I'm running a 10K - you know once you get a 5K under your belt, you just keep climbing that ladder. I imagine a half-marathon will be in the works in a couple of months - ha! (And no, I didn't just run 3.25 miles and call 'er done - I've been running 3-4 times a week, plus yoga.) Okay, you go have an ACTIVE fun day!

Flowers and Jake

Just some pretty pictures I took with my phone...


of some flowers in the backyard...


forgive the dog leg...


and one on a walk around the neighborhood.


And Jake got brave enough to jump up in the bow of the boat a couple of weeks ago, but he was a little scared...


then he realized he would live through it...


then he decided he was King of the World...except his ears and his tail tell a different story.


Happy 4th of July!

Florabama Weekend and Dress Update

The boys went on a Boy Scout campout this past weekend, so Dean and I had our first weekend alone in a long time. We spent a significant portion of it at the Florabama Yacht Club and the actual Florabama. We ate there for lunch on Saturday, and I was delighted to find that they had toys outside in the sand for little kids to play with...like this Barbie, who was buried up to her neck - cute!


Then I stumbled on the Barbie massacre - this is only a portion of the poor Barbies scattered over the beach, many missing their cute outfits. (Have you seen what some bloggers are doing with Barbie clothes lately?!) This left me disturbed and I had to stop taking pictures.


This is "scotched mac eggs," and I have no idea what that name means. They're boiled eggs wrapped in pork sausage and fried, then served with horseradish sauce. Tasty, but a little dry. (Note to self: don't take family to Florabama Yacht Club for dinner - it's okay for lunch, though.)


We headed across the street to listen to a band play after lunch. You may have to enlarge the picture, but do you see the things hanging from the ceiling under the beer banners? They're bras, stretched across the ceiling, and they were in several of the bars. Alrighty!


Sunday, we took Jakey over to a dog-friendly restaurant for his first lunch out with the public. This was the only time he stayed under the table, but he didn't bite anybody, and he only barked once when surrounded by 4 really old people. Apparently, old people make him nervous.


And here's where I am on the dress. The slowness of the tiny bitty needle has been offset by Bianca's revelation that she can continuously backstitch with beads, instead of the stab and stitch method I was using. Using a shorter needle has some advantages, so I'm almost finished with this panel...


Now only 3 more to go!

Dress Progress and Some Nice Memories of 2013

Well I'm right on schedule with the back "bodice" totally beaded and I'm about halfway through the right front. I'm just itching to sew the center back seam together, though - whaddaya think? Good idea? Bad idea? My only hesitation is that it would be a little more cumbersome to bead, but it's already too large to carry around. I have to sit at the kitchen table to do it. Anyway, here's how it's looking just roughly pinned together.


I think it's going to be gorgeous! What should I do with that little blank area at the waist where my stenciling skills lagged? Maybe I should just see how weird it looks when it's fully beaded - you may not notice it so much.


So that's all the sewing, but I wanted to keep a couple of pictures up for when I look back. (Do you ever go back and read your old stuff? Very Clark-Griswold-in-the-attic-watching-home-movies, if you know what I mean..sniff.) Jake starts the night with Lucas, standing by his bed for some reason till he falls asleep, then he sneaks out and goes to Drew's room to sleep under the bed or next to the closet. This morning, though, he was IN the bed, which was a surprise. Poor Drew had to sleep diagonally all night.


And then Jake wouldn't leave. Lucas went back in with my phone while Drew was in the shower, and Jake looks kind of PO'd and guilty about the whole thing. ("Lucas, you snap one more picture of me and I'll bite your hand off...")


And how great (or sad, depending on your weather preferences) is it that in the middle of December, the kid can lay barefooted on the dock without a coat and fly a kite? The Gulf Coast really is a paradise...when there are no hurricanes around.


This one came out blurry, but I was trying to capture the pink sky reflecting off the water, and the phone color-adjusted if I focused too long, so I snapped it really quick. I love pink skies!


I totally forgot to get a picture of the Christmas tree - guess that'll wait till tomorrow. Lucas decided the lights were so pretty that he didn't want to cover them up with ornaments, and Dean pointed out that means less clean-up later, so we went with it. Luckily it's a pretty tree, so she don't need no bling! If I don't see you tomorrow, you have a Blessed and Merry Christmas!

GCGSW Recap

Well, it was a great weekend at the 1st Annual Gulf Coast Girls' Sewing Weekend. The weather was perfect for sewing at the beach...meaning that it rained nearly the entire time. We may have sat on the porch drinking wine and talking more than we actually sewed, but everybody accomplished what they came for, I believe. Please allow me to do some shout-outs now. Becky brought me this awesome HANDMADE sewing bag that she sewed up herself and painted, then filled with goodies.


And this is a hemming tool that you actually iron on, so I won't have to futz around with my tape measure constantly, like I usually do.


This is the awesome fabric Robbie brought me. I had coveted the outfit she wore at our last lunch together, so she brought me the fabric to make myself a matching set - we'll be twins!! (I can't wait to see the hostess's face next time we eat at Ruby Tuesdays, Robbie!)


And Katrina, i.e. Susie Homemaker, MD, brought the most delicious pina coladas I've ever tasted, which I plan to re-create next weekend with the mix and coconut rum she gave me. Here's a link to her recipe - you're welcome!


So here's what I made - another scoop-neck T-shirt from my Meg McElwee Sewing with Knits class at Craftsy, and this is muslin #2. It was super helpful to have these ladies around to work out my fitting issues with the shoulder and sleeves. My next version should be perfect.


And here was my favorite sewing thing - I got to use Becky's Brother Cover Stitch to try my hand at hemming and collar-ing. How cool is this?


But it DOES take practice and a steady hand - oops!

And now to just a couple of tips I picked up this weekend. I never thought to serge the raw edges of new fabric before washing it for the first time. Now that I know that, no more pics of ravelled fabric from my laundry room before I even cut it. And look at this perfectly good zipper on an old pillow case package. I save these things and never use them, but Becky unpicks the zippers while she's watching TV - voila, free zipper.


And one last tip was to put my new stretch denim that reeks of chemicals despite being washed multiple times in the trunk of my car. The heat gets rid of the odor! Who knew?! Well, the engineers did. It turns out that we had 2 doctors and 2 engineers (chemical and mechanical) sewing all weekend. (Now, Pam, we need you to come next year so we can say we have a lawyer, too.)

Lastly, I'll leave you with Jake, who treats every bone like it's a snake getting ready to strike. Have a great week!