It's been awhile

and I don't even know where to begin. In the past month and a half I have been through so many life changes. Just thinking about it is making my head spin. In June I got laid off again. I guess my boss was liking the fact that she didn't have to pay anyone during the summer months. Well, I couldn't handle that and unemployment is so bad, I couldn't live off of that either.

My buddy Karen called me up and asked if I wouldn't mind covering for vacations at her job for 2 weeks. I jumped at the chance. Mind you, knowing that I was only going to work for 2 weeks, I had it in my head that I would start looking for a new place of employment shortly thereafter. Well, 2 weeks turned in to 3, then 4 then, "We would like to offer you a permanent position". You know I jumped at the offer. When I sent the old boss my resignation letter, because I was suppose to go back to work this coming Monday, she promptly called me leaving me a message wishing me well. From her voicemail message, I got the impression that she expected me to work my new job and still work for her. To that, you know I didn't call her back. Anyway, I am enjoying my new job and learning something new everyday as I am now working in the legal field. That was my July. My official start at the job was the beginning of August.

I didn't get any sewing done at all except for starting the Butterick 5147 which is still not finished, but I'm halfway there. I got to hang out with Mr. D a little. He's on the night shift while I work during the day. It's a little hard, but we make it work. Every once and a while we get that morning drive by. We went hiking in Rickets Glen (I'm saving the pictures for another post. The place is gorgeous. I got to see about 20 waterfalls. The hike kicked my butt, but it was so worth it. Let's just say, I started doing Zumba shortly thereafter and have been going strong ever since. I'm going to work up to adding some yoga in this coming week and since it's starting to get cooler, I'll probably add some bike riding in also. I haven't noticed any weight loss yet, but I have started losing inches and body fat.

In shopping new, I know everyone knows about PR day in NYC. I had such a wonderful time. It was great too see some old familiar faces and to meet some new faces as well. I finally got a chance to meet Robin. She and I have been conversing for the last 4 years or so via blog and email. Girl, you are a delight in person. I'd have to say we had a wonderful time in NYC and I'm proud to say I didn't go overboard with the shopping.

I went with a plan for fall and winter garments, because that's just what's on my mind right now. At Metro Textiles I picked up 8 yards of double knit fabric for 3 dresses and 2 pairs of pants (not pictured) and a knit for a cocktail sheath dress. Some leather and a piece of lining purchased at Mood. Trim from Pacific for future project ideas I have in mind and a special purchase from Elliot Berman. The piece on the top is Dolce & Gabbana for a skirt and the other piece is a cotton fabric from Italy for a sheath dress. All in all it was a fabulous day.

Now, this past weekend I'd planned to get a whole lot of sewing done for me. It just didn't happen. Between running around and getting errands done, hanging with family and friends and sewing for other people, it just wasn't happening. On Saturday night I hung out with my girlfriend and did some alterations for her. I also designed and sewed a painting smock for my neighbor's son. He needed it for school and she couldn't find one anywhere. A trip to JoAnn's on Sunday night produced this baby. Please tell me why you can't find cool waterproof fabric for boys? I found plain blue outdoor windbreaker fabric that had a plastic coating on the inside in the discount area, but that was it. When I went to the cutting counter, there was only a little over a yard left, so I had no margin for mistakes or errors. You know I made a muslin first just to play it safe. Now, a 6 year old can not have a plain blue smock. Especially one that's into Ben 10 so I went over to the quilting section to see what I could find to jazz things up. When I spotted the flying saucers and noticed how it matched the blue fabric and orange bias tape I'd picked out, I knew I had a winner. I picked up some plastic for pockets on the front, embroidered he's name on it and we had a winner. To end the weekend out, I did manage to cut out 2 skirts for myself. Hopefully I'll have them sewn together soon. I have too many ideas in my head, and not enough time.

On a sad ending note, I had to put my best friend Byron(Mr. D calls him husband #1) down 2 weeks ago. He made it to the wonderful ripe old age of 18 and I am so proud and thankful to him for that. We had 17 1/2 years together and they were a lot of fun. He had a lot of character and everyone that knew him, thought he was something else. Let's just say he acted more like a person than a dog. Anyway, he will be greatly missed and things just aren't the same around here without him. Jackson, my other dog is missing him and it's an adjustment. He has taken to chewing my shoes up and his eating habits have gotten a little flaky, but we're working it out.

I hope everyone is having a great weekend and enjoying the cooler weather. Have a great weekend.

I could walk a mile in these babies!!!

I finished the slippers I've been working on for my friend Saturday morning. I think I might have to make a pair for myself as they are so comfortable. I tried a new trick on them. I put puff paint on the bottom of the slippers in the hopes that it will act as a non-sliding agent. Soon enough I should find out if it works or not. Either way, it looks cute on the bottom.

Saturday afternoon, my wonderful husband and I hung out at the gym and we finished our workout with a swim. He's got me doing laps. Let me tell you right off, I am not a lap swimming girl. It's really hard. I swim really well, but my breathing technique is for the birds. Hopefully by the summer he'll have me going the distance since he swims like a fish.

Yesterday I started making headbands. I finished these 2 so far.This morning my neighbor let me borrow her daughter for these pictures. I owe her a yellow one to go with her Easter dress. Isn't she cute!

Now I really need to buckle down and get some major sewing done. There's a dress and jacket that needs to be seriously worked on.

Eliana I have forgotten about the award. And I just found out I won my first giveaway. Yippee!!

Getting Back to Nature

I have to admit that I got absolutely no sewing done this past weekend. On Saturday I did buy some Donna Karen fabric from Jomars. It's sad, I just can't seem to stick to my fabric diet. I went to the Norristown store to pick up one more button for my MIL's sweater that I was changing the buttons on. I couldn't resist. I got some blue fabric for a $1 a yard. I think it may be a shantung to work up a muslin of my Easter dress, by the way, for the dress portion of my outfit I'm going to go with Vogue 8491. Now, I'm having issues over fabric choices for my Easter outfit as I picked up this DK beauty for $2.00 a yard. The color in these 2 pictures is very off. The fabric is a mint green with chocolate brown. I also got this plaid fabric for $1.60 a yard for this jacket that I previously talked about. At Jomars they think it's either Nine West or DK. After that excursion I stopped at JoAnns and picked up a few patterns. I thought when I got home I could get some sewing done. I finished sewing the buttons on my MIL's sweater and then Mr. D kindly informed me that we were going on a winter hike as he needed to record some outdoor sounds for a project he was working on. We took a ride over to The Willows in Radnor and went for a walk in the woods. It was awesome trekking through the snow. I forgot my camera so I tried to capture a few of the scenes I saw with my iPhone.
I also got a picture of Mr. D wearing his new cable hat which I finished last week in time for his birthday.

On Sunday, we went skiing with friends at Spring Mountain. I've only been wearing berets of late and I needed a fitted hat to wear. What's a girl to do but crochet one up on the ride to the mountain. I used scraps leftover from recent projects. The next knitting project that I've been working on are bootie slippers for a friend. These pink ones belong to his wife. I think either her mother or grandmother made them and they are worn out on the bottom. Their anniversary is coming up and he wants to surprise her with a new pair. It's been great trying to recreate them as I don't have a pattern to work from. It's been a great learning experience. I'm working on the second one now and it's about halfway done. I hope she likes them.

Happy Valentines Day and Vogue 2980 and more t-shirts!!!

Happy Valentines Day Everyone!!!

It has been a while, but with all this snow, I've been a little incognito. Don't get me wrong, I love snow, but come on, I think enough is enough. This is what our place looked like when the storm was starting to calm down on Wednesday night. Can you even see Mr. D in the first picture? I think snow totals in my town of Ridley Park were around 79 inches. I'm thinking it should melt my the end of March, maybe. At this point we're all at a lose, and no one knows where to put it. The best part is that we're suppose to be getting more tomorrow. Anyway, I've been kind of lazy lately, so I haven't worked on much. I did finish a hat for one of my neighbors. I hope he likes it.

Last night my band played a Pre-Valentine dance at a club. We did this dance last year, and it was lots of fun. Last year we gave out roses to ladies in the crowd. It was a big hit. This year we did the same thing but you all know how I'm on the t-shirt stenciling, painting kick. Well, I have now added iron-ons to that list. Mr. D helped me with the graphics, as I am not a pro with photo shop yet. A little scanning, and maneuvering, and we got this. Which after a little trimming and cutting out becomes this.For the iron-ons I used this, which I purchased at Dick Blick.
We gave them out to some of our regulars as a thank you. They turned out to be very popular, I actually had a couple ladies come up and ask for one.

Yesterday, I worked on Vogue 2980. I think everyone and their mother has done this top. If you haven't tried it yet? Put it on your list. The top is 4 pieces. Aside from figuring out which size to make for yourself, some minor pleating on the bolero part of the top, it's very easy and it makes for a nice staple in your wardrobe.

I originally was going to use stashed fabric that I had for another dress, but at the last minute I ran to JoAnns Friday night and picked up some Sew Classic Knit. I think that's was it's called. Sheila please correct me if I'm wrong, cause right now I'm drawing a blank. This fabric looks great at first sight, but be careful if you use it. I used the polyester rayon blend. The one you can put in the washing machine and dryer. Well, as you start sewing, sometimes the fabric likes to have runners, like the ones you get in pantie hose when you catch them on something. The other problem, is don't rub up against too many objects or things either, the fabric pulls. Aside from that, it's great. Here are preliminary shots as I forgot my camera last night, but I'm suppose to get a pic by email sometime today. I sewed up a pencil skirt to go with it to give the illusion of a dress.

Rhinebeck!!!

Last Saturday morning I got the chance to headed up to Rhinebeck, NY for the Sheep and Wool Festival with my yarn buddy Rachel. Driving up the weather was lousy due to the scheduled Nor'easter. When we hit exit 16 on the Jersey Turnpike it started to clear up a bit. The weather held out in Rhinebeck, so that alone was worth the drive. The scenery was beautiful.


I pretty much behaved myself when I got there. I needed to check out Brooks farms for some more Acero yarn. I needed one more hank of the green (Some lady told another lady that I knocked her down to get the green hank of yarn. That to me was pretty strange, as she was standing looking at the blue yarn next to it. I walked up, picked up the green yarn, and as I walked away she gave me a look. I didn't even touch her. I guess she decided she wanted the yarn when I picked it up. Too bad, I think I needed more than her.) for my Coraline sweater to be safe and I picked up 4 hanks in red to play with possibly for a future design.

I lucked out at Misty Mountain Farms. They are the folks that my then boyfriend, now husband purchased my spinning wheel from. I got 2 large hanks of black alpaca 665 yards a hank for $23.00 each. Sorry about the picture, because the color's off .


I'm saving it for either a skirt or a sweater. I'm not sure yet.

I found one new vendor(The Sheep Shed @ Mountain View Farm) I really like and I will be ordering from them in the future. I purchased 3 hanks of roving each 2 ozs for $6.00 a hank. It's wool and tencel. Ive never spun that combination before so I was eager to try it out. Which I did a little on Sunday. I LOVE IT. I'm hoping I have enough for a hat and either a mittens or hand warmers. We'll see.

At the festival they had wine and cheese tasting which I liked very much. I purchased goat cheese with a layer of burnt ash on the top and sheep cheese. They are both very tasty. Here's a picture of some of the sheep cheese which I had with some cranberry wine Sunday night. The wine was very good also.

One of the booths that caught my eye had 2 beautiful felted paintings in it by Leslie Samson of Brantford, Ontario. Each of these paintings took about 100 hours a piece to do. She told me that she felts her canvas first, washes it, then she needle felts on top of the canvas and washes it again. The second painting is of the Elora Gorge in Elora Ontario.

Overall I had a really nice day and great company. Rhinebeck is a beautiful place to visit. The festival is nice and it had a little bit of everything for everyone, even if you weren't a knitter/crocheter/weaver/spinner. The festival was more spread out than Maryland, and you could purchase more handmade items.

In knitting news I finished my project for Knit Picks. I only have to weave in the ends, so you know I'm happy. Yesterday I started on this blanket. Since it's a holiday gift and I'm afraid I won't finish it in time, I figure I'm going to crochet and knit this project. This is what I have so far.

On Sunday I spent the afternoon doing laundry and cleaning. I finally figured out how to transfer my downloaded audio books from my public library (they have a website with downloadable books) to my iPhone. Let's just say, I'm a very happy camper now. I'm reading the Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger.

I also started to FINALLY cut out my trenchcoat pattern. I'm clicking my heels 3 times. Hopefully by this weekend, I'll have a muslin cut out and worked up.