Here’s a sneak peak.

I promise Eric he could take the pictures of me modeling the outfit. By his reaction you’d think he had just won the lottery.

The Arg… Yippee!!! lists are filling up. I’m not sure it is super-productive, but am not yet ready to bail out. I generally quit things very prematurely.. Hrm..

Eric and I have been enjoying homemade lemonade lately. Sparkling water, powdered sugar, lemon juice and ice cubes. Feels like summer is just starting.

The photo of the Eiffel Tower is one of my aunt’s.

Peace,

^_^

Afternoon plans involve this beauty here and some lovely silk butterfly fabric.

Here’s the skirt. I finished it last week!

I am a bit larger than Maud (the dressform) so it is sagging a bit. It is cut in three pieces on the bias and has an elastic waist. The back has a little extra fabric, fish-tail like. It looks better with a little booty in it. Super-easy to sew. Looks super-cute on. I’ll show you when I get the top finished!

Here’s my plan for the top.

I like the middle drawing. But with sleeves. Stripes will be added down the front and back to avoid the coffin clothes look. I bought some serger thread to finish the edges–silk frays something awful. I’m not sure why I bought three spools, when I’ll probably do a two-thread rolled hem. Maybe so I have three in the future? I get a little crazy when spending gift-card money. Can you blame me?

Eric has ADHD. This ADD blog posting made me laugh. A very typical exchange between the two of us.

Peace,

Katy ^_^

I always seem to have these grand plans and when one tiny detail doesn’t work out I tend to just stop and walk away. I’m learning to go with the flow and even enjoy these little hiccups that are always coming at me, at people in general.

While in the city my mom and I shopped at Britex. It was quite fun and reminded me of NYC. I did find the sales people on the sale floor quite helpful, and they seemed to get snootier each floor down. I found a gorgeous cotton/linen mix and a pretty silk print that had colors so similar it was like they were made for each other. I figured I’d make pants or a skirt with the cotton/linen and a top like one I’ve made already.

Here’s a close up of the print. It has butterflies on it!

Before starting the sewing project, I thought I should finish my scrapbooking because it was sprawled out all over my workspace. The problem was I ran out of large 12″ by 12″ paper and with my mom here it didn’t look like we’d be heading to a store to get that. I tried to deal without the paper, then I bought a pack a Target with way more paper than I needed and more cost too.

Yesterday after taking mom to the airport I stopped at JoAnn’s. One day after my coupons had expired. I wasn’t feeling so well and wanted to hit the library too so I left just after I had spotted they had their paper on sale and thought about getting some, but decided I didn’t know when I’d get back to Target so I didn’t. We ended up at Target last night because or tv converter box coupon arrived in the mail. If you don’t have cable or satellite, I highly recommend getting the coupon/box. It is amazing. Every channel comes in crystal clear! I messed with the album a bit last night and just packed it all up because I wasn’t feeling it.

After that, I went through my pattern stash to see if I could work with anything I had. Well, my shirt pattern was gone. I “donated” it with an unfinished shirt to Goodwill. And I wasn’t too sure about a skirt pattern I had. So today, I went back to JoAnn’s. They didn’t have any of their patterns on sale and I looked through all of the books but nothing seemed to work with what I had in mind. The print is very sheer so I needed something I could wear a camisole under.

Here’s the shirt I was going to copy.

I thought the ruffle (which I am holding up in the photo) would help camouflage the butterflies a bit so it was a little less juvenile. So I settled on the skirt pattern and plan to draft a pattern using the shirt I have as a guide. I cut the skirt out without too much “help” from the cats and pulled my machine out. I haven’t used it since we moved.

This means I had the foot, but no cord to provide power to the machine. Oops! I think it is with Eric’s stuff in our back room, but we only have one key and it is with Eric. He has a meeting until 9 or so tonight. Looks like I can start drafting the shirt and maybe cutting it out then I can get to sewing tomorrow.

At least I can share a post with pretty and colorful photos, right? Lastly, here’s my new computer desk. I LOVE it!

Peace,

Katy ^_^

We decided to get our driver’s licenses today. When we left the house, the wait time was 17 minutes according to the DMV website. How does that explain that we spent three and a half hours there and walked out with one paper license (Eric didn’t have his passport with us) and a partial car registration? Whew. Busy, busy.

In other news. Since I’m realizing that I do not have as much time as I originally thought, I will have to cut back on the goal. Only doing one of my book plans or scrapping the books and coming up with my own plan. I’m not sure what I’ll do yet but will keep you posted.

Eric has had kidney stones for 5 or 6 weeks now. He called the doctor to get in again and see if they can be removed. The doctor’s first appointment isn’t until September 29th!! He left a message with the nurse (it was lunchtime) so we are hoping that they can squeeze him in somehow. Poor guy.

In other news, I went to the Long Beach Quilt Show at the end of July with Eric’s aunt and grandma. We did one of the crafty sessions and I won! Here’s a link on another blog about it. You have to scroll all the way down it was 70s Style Surviving the Runway. My idea was the spinning record. She says second in the blog, but really I got first. Fun times!

So. I spent the better part of the afternoon reading and asking myself hard questions. I’m feeling a lot better and not so serious. Still planning on my goals, though. When I returned to the computer, I had a potential employer in San Francisco asking me to an interview. Yippee.

Here’s what I’ve been sewing lately. It is going to a friend that just moved back to St. Louis. She’s pregnant, hence the stuffing in the middle.

Peace,
Katy^_^

There you have it. If you knew how much time and thought and shopping went into that table you’d probably be a lot more excited like I am. Let’s just say we’ve easily spent 5 or 6 hours in the last two days, and 3 separate trips to the store.

Things I love about it. The table is counter height so I can work standing up or sitting down. There are two chairs so Eric can work there with me, if I’m not using the entire table, that is.

I have two ideas of things to make. Which means drafting a pattern and sewing. A pleated shirt and a strapless dress to wear like a jumper over a crisp white button-up. Problem is I don’t have a block for my size and I’m kind of hard to fit. Thank goodness for trial-round muslins.

After seeing it all together, I am already figuring out changes. I think that I need to put some things on the walls. I have a big cork board and want to do something fun and girly like painting alphabet letters or something. Seems like a task to be done when my mom visits in September.

Also, I’m thinking it may be time to purge some things. Or at least use up my stash. I seem to love fabric shopping, but then it hides in a plastic tub. I’m sure the fabrics would much rather be styling on my bod. Another purge would be my rickety old first dress form. It was one of my last pre-marriage splurges, so it is definitely more sentimental than anything. I will definitely sleep on it.

In job news, I finished my application. Eric helped with my IT question–seems they didn’t support the web browser I was using. I have a meet and greet with a representative for a master’s program tomorrow. At any given time, there are 5 or 6 master’s programs I am interested in, so seeing as this is the only one I’ve asked for a tour on I think it is at the top of my list.

Peace,
^_^ Katy

Happy May 5. I can’t believe it is already the 5th, that means less than 2 weeks until the big tri! I’m feeling the tug to do two a day workouts. I still haven’t decided for today–I may go swimming later. We did a time trial at the pool yesterday–if I can maintain the pace in open water that I had in the pool, the swim with take 33 minutes! Considering I couldn’t swim when I started this whole thing, I’m completely flabbergasted that I swim that fast now! The coaches have certainly worked their magic. I did swim in the lake on Saturday, but it was choppy and cold, so we went a bit shorter distance than we originally planned. It was in the 50s or 60s and the water was just about the same temp. I am learning to love my wetsuit!!

We find out if Eric is the speaker at the pasta party this week. Also, I made it $1000 over my fundraising minimum. Holy moly!! You can still donate if you want, everything at this point goes straight to the society!!

There are so many projects I want to start on and books to read, but I feel like everything is on hold with the tri and move. So sorry if the blog is a bit dull with my tri reports. I am definitely more nervous about this event–mainly the bike–than I was about the marathon. Who knows if I’ll ever do a century ride. A TnTism is the triple crown. You have to complete a tri, half or full marathon, and century ride to complete the “triple crown”. We’ll see what happens.

Apparently where we are headed in California is a huge biking community so I plan on getting over this unmerited biking fear. I’ve fallen so many times with my clips now it doesn’t even phase me, so I’m not sure what is causing the fear.

Peace,

Katy ^_^