Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Summer Delays

Why is it that the fun things to do get relegated to the bottom of the priority list? For the last two weeks, since we first had that blast of summer weather (currently preempted by rain showers) I've been wanting to sew that Burda summer dress and it's taking forever!

That, and it's almost done and looks horrible.

A dress that should have taken about a day for me has taken much longer than that because it keeps getting pushed aside for "more important" stuff. Meanwhile, I'm not entirely certain what is wrong with it. It poofs funny on one side. I think I'm going to take the bodice off the skirt and sew it in again. We'll see.

I'm hoping that by the time summer is back to its regularly scheduled program that the dress is done and ready to wear.

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Left Behind With The Girl I Left Behind Me

We belong to the neighborhood pool in the summers and my kids love to swim. I would prefer not to swim in chlorinated water, so I'm always relieved when my husband takes the kids so don't have to go. Yesterday when he took them, I practiced my violin. 

I'm working on the G-major scale and a tune called Girl I Left Behind Me. It's fun and I've made it more difficult by not writing in the fingerings. I'm trying to learn to sight-read better and it's been painful to muddle through tunes that I don't know. (My teacher is a saint!)

Somehow, I made a breakthrough while everyone was out of the house. I was so proud of myself and I got through the whole tune. It's funny how the little things buoy you up quite a bit.

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Sew Hot

It's been hot. Finally. We had rain and cool weather leading into June and as soon as the kids got out of school for summer it seemed as though it finally was summer.

I love summer. It's my favorite season. I love the way the brightness of the sun lifts my spirits and the way the heat wraps around me like a hug. I complain about these same things as summer wears on, but they make me very happy right now.

As a skinny kid, I never would have predicted that I'd be battling weight the way I have been for the last ten-years. I blame my children, of course. If I didn't have to carry them and their cravings for doughnuts around with me, I never would have gotten this inner-tube around my waist. And upper thighs. It makes shorts feel as though in order to go outside, I need to put my worst foot forward.

On Monday, after dropping the kids off at camp, I was still wearing my jeans and I was as hot as ever. I decided that the antidote to wearing the dreaded shorts was to wear sundresses. I went to JoAnn's and bought a couple of yards each of two patterned cottons and a pattern for a dress. It's my first Burda pattern and it's supposed to be facile. Two out of four boxes checked next to easy means? What? It's sort of easy? We'll see. I'm going to make version D.

Burda 8071

I am planning on making a muslin of the bodice to make sure it can hold all of my bosoms. But I'm anxious to get this done because I want to wear it now.

While I was waiting for my fabric to come out of the dryer, I pulled out an unfinished shirt I had started about six-months ago. I put in a sleeve and it was surprisingly easy. Unfortunately, these last ten-pounds must have joined me during that time because the shirt was quite tight. It's so frustrating! I just want to magically have my old body back and make cute little clothes to wear.

In the meantime, I joined Weight Watchers to help me get there. So far so good. I'm going to be optimistic and start by sewing muumuus.

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Fetch or The Dramatic Loss of a Beloved Plastic Covered Pen

After today's Brownie meeting, my daughter realized she had forgotten something so we had to go back and get it. When I got in the car, I had forgotten the dog was outside still. I saw him up the street (because we have no fence still) and thought, "Wow, that's a good looking dog. Hey! That's my dog!" We opened the car door and he came for a ride.

Another version of the same story would go something like this:

I was leading a circle of 13 girls at our Brownie troop meeting when I looked down into my hands to find a pen covered in plastic. I have no recollection whatsoever how it got there and started asking the girls if it belonged to any of them. I was very tempted to take the plastic off, but didn't know if I should, since I didn't know if the owner of the pen would want to do it herself.

I held the pen for a while, finally putting it down on a table in the classroom. I came to the conclusion that I had simply picked the pen up off the floor from the force of habit and therefore should put it up. I never did find out who the pen belonged to and left it in the classroom when we locked up at the end of our meeting.

Upon arrival back at our house, my youngest daughter asked me for her pen back. "What pen?" I asked. "The one with the plastic on it." "That was yours?"

After she screamed and cried and blamed me for losing the pen, I had the brilliant inspiration to return to the school to see if we could get in. That, of course, after learning an email to the teacher and picking it up tomorrow would be the worst decision I've ever made.

Lo and behold! The teacher was there and we got the pen from the classroom. Sure enough, the girl to whom the pen belonged wanted to get the plastic off by herself after all.