Fieri in the French Quarter?

Yeah, no....this was another of my posse (yeah, you like the way I say "my" posse - I was lucky they let me join "their" posse!) who is actually bald, but doesn't he rock the Guy Fieri hair!

And that's actually the homemade shirt I was referring to - not the white collared one, Robbie. I'm saving that for Betzina in May.

Also note I'm drinking water - gotta keep your wits about you with all the unsavory characters around. I had a picture with a guy dressed as an Indian, but the expression on his face was too disgusting to publish. I actually think it was divine intervention that my Internet went down as I was uploading photos - made me rethink that one.

One pic at a time

Okay, the internet at home was down, so I'm sending photos from Dean's phone. Because I already uploaded my photos and erased them from my phone. I have learned my lesson! So each photo comes separately, and we'll start with a photo of my posse - these are the hoodlums I was hanging with. So there's an environmental engineer, a financial person, a teacher, and 2 TJ Maxx executives - who thought my homemade shirt was some designer - I forgot the name.

And the flyswatter I'm holding was combined with nine others (total of 10) to whack me on the bum. Yes, some dude walked up and slapped with me with ten of these in one hand, then let me pick one to keep. Mardi Gras in the French Quarter is not for the faint of heart, or bum!

More photos to follow...

Patriots in the French Quarter

See, it's not all about skin in the Quarter - these ladies were quite modest. At least I think they're ladies...

Giveaway Winner and a Question for the Sewists

Okay, you can stop checking the blog every 5 minutes to see if you won. I'm awarding the Lady Gaga song to Amy from Louisiana, whose husband is a very special man. (I bet he would go with her to that concert!) My husband has now backed out of the concert since a friend from Pensacola said she would love to go with me. Dean told me to make a girls' weekend of it, but I bet that's because he's planning a guys' weekend with my friend's husband. (Of course, they'll have all the kids, so I'm a little nervous now.)

I've been trying to finish up some pants, but I'm not happy with the bagginess in front and it's not worth tweaking since there are no pockets. So, I wanted some instant gratification sewing and I decided to try a top with the blue striped material I bought last week. Now it's not really instant, because I'm trying a new Vogue pattern (8558) from the stash. We'll see how it turns out.



Oh, but it won't turn out for a while because it's party time in New Orleans! So this is the action shot from the trial run of the dress a couple of weeks ago - stay tuned for action shots of New Orleans Mardi Gras! I've decided to paint my nails purple to match the dress - gotta get a little wild, you know. Hopefully will get those posted late Sunday.



Oh, but I did have a serious question to pose. I have this $100 gift card to Hancock and I want to buy something I wouldn't normally buy, like fabric, so what is your favorite tool in your sewing room? I've heard about bias tape makers and special sewing feet - what would you buy if you had a $100 spending spree? Thanks for your tips, and have a great weekend!

A Giveaway? At Living La Vida Loca?

Two exciting things happened today....



I got my $100 gift card from Hancock Fabrics in the mail with a congratulations letter for getting first place in the local fleece contest, and I got a free song download because I purchased tickets to Lady Gaga's concert in New Orleans! (Look, she's even excited for me.)



So I figured I can have a giveaway like all you sewing ladies do to celebrate! Except it's not my gift card...or awesome fabric...or vintage patterns....it's a new song called Vanity by Lady Gaga....because they gave me 2 downloads and I can email one to a friend. Except none of my friends like Lady Gaga, and Dean's only going with me so I don't have to drive by myself at night. When I told my mother LG was coming to New Orleans, she said, "Well, WHOOP-TE-DOO!" in a tone that sounded just like my grandmother (who was prone to saying things like, "She thinks she's Miss Asterbutt!" and "Just tell 'em to step to hell!" and "He's nutty as a fruitcake!")

So, what are the rules of this thing? I've seen others where you're randomly drawn from a hat, or you're assigned a number and dice are thrown, but I'm thinking that if you just really like Lady Gaga then I'll give it to you. (Because I'm not thinking that sewing chicks are really into her music, but I could be wrong.) I don't see a whole lot of takers on this, but let's give it till Friday. I'll email you with the link to the website where you type in the code and it takes 1.5 minutes to download the song to your very own computer! (And no, it's not very good, but there's no cursing or sexual innuendo in it, so that's a plus, right?)

Sadly, the download is only available to US residents per website rules - sorry nice visitors from Slovakia, France, Croatia, Czech Republic, Norway, Brazil, New Zealand, Australia, Italy, and my Canadian/UK peeps! And if, by some odd coincidence, there is more than one of you who really does like LG, then I'll come up with a random way to decide.

Let the commenting begin!....You can go ahead and comment now....The phone lines are open....Can somebody check the connection, it doesn't seem to be working - I was sure I'd get some comments.

Mardi Gras on the Water....Sort of

Well, we caught a disappointing parade in Mobile Friday night where the boys and their friends caught about 4 beads each, along with a Moonpie or two. Saturday we went to the beach to view the Pirates of the Lost Treasure parade. They have a flotilla all decked out and they go to a couple of ports to throw beads before proceeding down to the Flora-bama. (This would be the bar where my mother took me when I was a medical student and she was in town attending a meeting - her work friends decided to go here and I was dragged along. This would also be where she got slapped on the rear by some drunk redneck and I did not. Nothing will hurt your self-esteem more than that, let me tell ya'.) We thought the boats might pass by close enough to throw beads, but not so. Plus a fog rolled in, so the pictures were terrible.



And I branched out some this weekend and attempted to refinish a table. Now I know NOTHING about refinishing furniture, but I mastered the electric grinder/sander thing enough to take some paint off.



What I'd like to do now is commence to spraypainting, but I'm sure there are some tedious steps before that happens, like fine sanding by hand, and probably applying several coats of something or other, so I'll let you know how it turns out in a year or two.



I DID read about 3/4th's of the first volume of the Power Sewing Toolbox. The chapter on seam finishes and embellishing seams is my favorite so far, and I'm hoping there's a good index so I can go back and find some of this stuff later. I think the jacket chapter is phenomenal, but I've never made one so it's all over my head about "roll lines" and such. And my goodness, I haven't even looked at the DVD that comes with it! One nice extra touch is there's an elastic band to hold your place attached to each book - that came in handy when I was on the dock with the wind whipping so I didn't have to fight the pages.

What did y'all do this weekend? I better get to blog-hopping and find out!

Christmas Came Early

Oh, look what was on my doorstep yesterday when I got home! I ran around the house yelling, "The new sewing books are here! The new sewing books are here!" like Steve Martin with his phone books in The Jerk.



There was a Valentine's special at her website where you get a free shirt DVD if you order the Power Sewing Toolbox, so I had to do it. I'll study up before she comes in May for the Shirt Sit 'n' Sew, so maybe I can actually FINISH it, instead of just finishing a stupid POCKET, like I did with the jeans. (I do sew much faster now, so there's hope.) I've read the first 2 pages, which start with general tips. Number one was to take the phone off the hook (they're not ALL high-tech tips about linings). Another one was to set up a sewing day with a friend, get up early so you can pick up some pastries and coffee on the way, and enjoy some conversation before you bring in your machine. I like these warm and fuzzy tips! (Robbie, we should do this sometime...when our husbands/kids won't mind if we take over the kitchen and den for a day.)

And I stopped at Daphne Fabric and Lace on the way home from work Wednesday and picked this up for $2.00 a yard.



The color is off, but this is a green/blue striped knit and a rose something or other. The tag said something about crepe, and it feels like a medium polyesterish fabric, and the guy said he thought something like gabardine maybe, but we're no experts. It's very nice and drapey and I was just going to buy a yard or two for a shirt, but it screamed "Dress" at me, so I got 4 yards. (At these prices, you waste the guy's time hauling the bolt out if you don't buy a bunch, in my opinion. There's also the risk of a rat bite, given the looks of the place, so let's make it count!) Now the only issue is that I washed and dried it, and it feels a little coarser now with a little less drape. Hopefully this wasn't something that should be dry-cleaned only...I better consult my Betzina fabric dictionary for gabardine and crepe.

And to wrap up the week, my favorite Idol contestant made it to the final 24 last night, but when I was looking for his picture (thanks, TMZ!), it said he was in the hospital for a blood transfusion! He supposedly may be allowed to show up for taping - otherwise he has to drop out...can this be true? I'll be devastated.



So who else has the PS Toolbox books, and who are you rooting for on Idol? And isn't Steven Tyler a hoot when he closes his eyes while the contestants are singing? I like this season a WHOLE lot better than last year.