The Phillies won Game One of the Series last night so it’s a celebrating in our house for sure.  In the midst of the celebrating I’ve been stitching my fingers to the bone on this Hatter costume. 

And now, tonight is the night.  Night 1 of the various local taverns Best Costume contests.  It’s a good thing, the jacket needs a blind hem and three buttonholes,  The hat is done.  Stickpins done.  Price tag done.  Found some orange and black striped tights.  I have a lavender ultrasuede vest half sewn.  It’ll need 15 buttons/7 buttonholes really soon.  The wig is a Little Orphan Annie henna pulled and sprayed by the hairdressing daughter.  Makeup is lined up. 

Pictures tonight of the fully dressed Hatter!  Be sure to stop back.  The costume is RIDICULOUSLY amazing!

 

OK.  DD doesn’t need Glynda till Saturday so she’s on hold.  DS needs the Hatter for Thursday night, Friday night and Saturday night!  Both Thursday and Friday are cash prize nights for winners of the Best Costume Contest so we’re crossing our fingers, toes and any other appendages we can cross. 

It’s just as well that Glynda is on hold.  Sunday was a very frustrating Glynda day.  My Diamond, which liked aluminum and the pink Kingstar metallic thread was under no circumstances happy with silver.  Thus, the applique of stars on organza was a frustrating nightmare.   To make matters worse, by the time I got to the 7th or 8th star, I thought I had picked up a piece of Aqua Magic.  This star was the WORST to applique!  When I went to rinse out the stabilizer I discovered why.  I had grabbed soft, fusible interfacing from the table by mistake.  UGH. 

So for now, the hat is pretty much done and looks ridiculously fabulous if I do say so myself!  I need to stitch around the wire in the brim yet.  The crown of this hat is 10 inches tall and the crown is a 12 1/4″ circle.  My son is 6′4″ tall so he will look like a giant.  I’ve told him he will need to remove it for doorways, in cars etc.  And if he sets it down and it gets stolen or ruined I’m definitely hurting him!  

A new jacket has been cut out of some very heavy, very dark green denim I had on a tube hiding away in the closet for years.  It’s in process at the serger.  Spools of Metrosone thread arrived today for the  thread bandolier.  They’re about the size of Sulky rayon spools.  I think they’ll work well.  I also got in the fright wig I ordered (I don’t like the curly afro wigs for it. They’re too curly!) I’m hoping to find the time to do the vest…from purple metallic lame lined with the scarf fabric…and the dickey with leftover sparkly white crepe/satin from Glynda’s frock.  My clown white makeup and powder and white mascara also arrived today so we are definitely cooking with gas on this costume!     Back to my serger.   Pictures soon!

Glynda’s blouse needs only to be hemmed.  The skirt needs its waistband on and then hemmed.  I plan to do the waistband tonight yet.  I think the hemming will be done tomorrow.  Narrow rolled hems on the serger for the overskirt.  I’ll hand hem the satin.  I need to applique some stars on the overskirt….maybe I’ll just do the overskirt seaming and placket tonight, do the embroidery tomorrow and then the waistband and hemming.  Then the corset, crown and wand.  I was rather surprised by the pattern sizing.  My daughter is 5′10″.  Wears a 6-10 normally.  She is reed thin but shapely.  She measured up requiring a Simplicity 16!!!  I pinned it and cut it out thinking surely it would be falling off her.  Not so.  The fit is good.  I’m letting Glynda do her own crown and wand.  I have to move on to bigger and better.   The Mad Hatter awaits!

We went to Joann Fabrics today to pick up a bit more black lace for the Hatter.  We have not been pleased with the Salvo jacket so I took a little look/see at the patterns in the Simplicity costume book.  There I found the perfect Hatter jacket and hat pattern!  I think I’ll make a couple tweaks to both…shorten the jacket and if the vent is not open, open it.   I suspect the crown of the hat will definitely need to be higher.  But it’s an easy pattern.  Since his tie is a watery looking tie dyed sort of lavender and red/pink, I bought some purple lame.  Maybe I’ll have time to make the vest in the jacket as well as the dickey.  It’s a truly great pattern!  Check out Simplicity 4083.  While I was there I got a neat brown croc type neato fabric that I think will make a good base for the hat.  There was a bunch of lame on the clearance sale table.  A bolt of gold there the other day was gone…but there was teal and orange.  I picked that up to put it away for whenever.  At $2.50 yard I could not resist. 

This morning I embroidered Sonia’s butterflies for Glynda’s costume.  The Diamond behaved wonderfully.  I had trouble with them since I was using metallic and the only way I could do it successfully was to stand it upright in the rear 8 spool rack.  I know you need to with metallics but I have gotten away with the horizontal spool pin in the past.  Today it was just a fighting and a hassle till I stood that miniking up!  The big news of the day is that I’m not afraid of my serger any longer.   It’s about 10 years old.  It was used once for a class. Period.  Today I was determined.  I used the threading videos on the Viking site, made a couple mistakes till I got it right.  Tested and tested and tested again.  I really had to adjust the tensions!!  But I feel absolutely confident now and   could thread those loopers in my sleep.  It’s a good thing…

Watch for updates now…they should come in hot and heavy this weekend.  Glynda’s work has begun.  I hope to finish her totally this weekend.  Actually, I need to finish her this weekend.  The Depp Mad Hatter costume needs to get underway.   

Using Simplicity’s licensed Wizard of Oz pattern 2546 for Glynda in a short dress (you can see it here:   http://www.simplicity.com/p-1505-costumes.aspx ) I ordered up some fabric from Syfabrics at www.syfabrics.com   You know, I am always successful there and the prices are great.  Shipping is fast and I’m never aggravated as happens so often at the local Joann’s fabrics.  SO.  I got some pink bridal satin, pink crystal organza, sparkly white satin, some silver sequin stuff for the appliques and your basic lining taffeta.  All of it ravels very badly…so if you decide to go this route for anything plan on serging or overcasting your seams.  The pattern calls for star appliques on the poufy upper organza sleeves.  I was not digging that look.  I went to Terri’s site at Sew Terific  and found this wonderful set of stars!  http://www.stitcherymall.com/display1.cfm?set_id=331  There’s a 1/4″ filled star that was perfect.  I checked the Diamond hoops against the sleeve tops, figured the 260×200 would work best, opened it up in 4D Pro and placed a bunch of those teeny stars all over the hoop field.  I hooped the organza sleeve top with vilene, threaded up the machine with Kingstar silver thread and stitched them out.  PERFECT!     Teri’s star set also has an applique set and I think it will be much better for the skirt appliques than what the pattern called for.  I realize not everybody has the luxury of an embroidery machine, so the applique pattern and freehand machine appliquing is the way many will go.  I am definitely too sloppy for that so since I have an embroidery machine I figure I may as well use it.  I’ll still use the sequin fabric, but I’ll use Terri’s applique designs for them.     

Glynda’s costume has an applique butterfly at the shoulder and the waist and a flower at the bust.  I am not loving those appliques in the pattern.  So once again, my embroidery machine to the rescue.   Sonia Showalter has these GREAT butterflies that are 3 dimensional.  One looks like a rose, another is done on transparent organza.  I’ve gotten both of those and some pretty crystal white organza and I’m stitching them out tomorrow.  You can see them here  http://www.stitcherymall.com/display1.cfm?set_id=13395  and here  http://www.stitcherymall.com/display1.cfm?set_id=13313  Sonia’s is beautifully clear, mine will be sparkly opaque.  But it’ll work wonderfully!  I’ll be stitching these out tomorrow morning. 

I have to say, the Diamond worked wonderfully.  I have one of the earlier ones and truth be told I’ve had some fraying, shredding and thread breakage.  Honestly, I was wondering if I had made a mistake in trading in my SE and going into debt for it.  In August I took it in to the Gallery for a cleaning/service while it was still in warranty and I haven’t used it since.  Frankly I was   dreading it.  The tech made some adjustments…and maybe put a new boot version on it since it’s a much newer date…and tonight it worked like a dream!  I definitely did not make a mistake in buying it.   I’m using the 936 serger for the first time in years and years to serge up these seams and I hope it will be as friendly for me this weekend as my Diamond was tonight.

Well, with Halloween just around the corner, we hit the local Salvo today to put together bits for my son’s costume.  He wants to be the Mad Hatter…sort of ala Johnny Depp.  My little sewing machine will be costume sewing this year!!  Glynda’s is well underway.  Cut, marked and awaiting the stitching.  I was a bit short on the crystal organza for the skirt overlay.  I didn’t realize that it would be necessary to add almost 6 inches to the length to get it  to mid thigh.  And thread!   I grabbed 9 minikings of Gutterman thread at Joanne.  4 white, 4 pink so I could serge.  When I got home I realized I paid $7.99 spool!  WOW!  I took them right back and ordered Maxilok from Atlanta Thread for $1.80 a cone.  Much more agreeable!  So as soon as thread arrives I’m in the stitching mode. 

I found a most fabulous felt hatter hat online.  For $112.97.  Uhhhh.   I don’t think so.  Thus, I’m making one from Tintex, foam board and fabric.  We got a great tweed wool sportcoat…I’ll doctor it with lace and such.  A rust colored silky shirt with a tall collar.  GREAT pants in a herringbone that looks solid, are too short…but will be shorter.  We’ve got odds and ends to get…a thimble, some cheap spools of thread, a wig, makeup…some lace.  It will be a cool costume.  He’s hoping he’lll win best costume at the local watering hole. 

While at the Salvo I saw the most fabulous and astonishing thing.  The most gorgeous of kimonos…authentic in every way.  Beautiful red silk of such a fine, fine hand.  Appliques in metallic gold lame.  GORGEOUS embroidery everywhere in silk thread.  Padded hem to weight it down.  It’ s missing its obi.  It’s in perfect condition.  Fits my size 8, 5′10″ kid.  It’s $150.  I must have it.  I MUST. Later this week it will be mine.  Pictures.  Pictures to follow then!

As per my usual 0:dark thirty routine, I went out of the house this morning to do my morning chauferring.  It was cold.  It was DAMP.  It began to rain.  My bones ached.  I got hot chocolate from Dunkin while I was out.  Tra-la-la, home I came and had an Advil chaser for the arthritis.  When I left for my afternoon chauferring it was  raining but the drops were visible.  Not transparent.  Opaque.  White even.  They splatted as they hit the windshield.  My bones really ached.  The rain got more opaque.  On the way home it became a snow shower instead of rain.  Now I ask you.  Did I wake up in the Rockies???  No.  I checked Mapquest on the iPhone.  I’m still in the Lehigh Valley.  It reminds me of being a kid bundled up in snowsuits to watch the Allentown Halloween Parade on Hamilton Street.   It’s a good thing my Boston ferns are wintering in the tropical side of my kitchen.  They don’t have snowsuits.

The pattern and the fabric for Glynda’s costume arrived today.  It’s gorgeous fabric, thank you very much Syfabrics!  Can’t wait to get started on it.  Alas, the kid quit at the local country club which is where the Halloween Party is where she was to wear it.  She’ll wear it out to a party since it will be a great costume…the quality of the fabric was beyond my expectations!  But I’m sad over her country club experience.  I worked there as a kid in college and afterward if I needed a good buck when the kiddo was an infant.  Easy work, good working conditions and great money.  I suggested she work there while she is back in college and when she saw an ad she applied and was hired.   Now let me say, this is a kid (woman really) who worked as a Director of Sales for a small, private chain of high end retail stores and the Manager of the Flagship store.  She was successful and is smart.  Great people, organizational, and sales skills.  A good manager.  She needed to leave her job to move home with the kids bc she could not manage from so far away as a single mom.    As she has worked at the country club I’ve listened and frankly, scratched my head.  This did not seem to be the place it was once for sure!  Today was the final straw.  She said FINI.  Waittress jobs are a dime a dozen…even in this economy.  The members of the club were wonderful as they have always been.  The management is, however…well…shall we say lacking.  Abysmally unprofessional.  The things that occured today were astonishing and had they happened in the real, corporate work world would have been seriously sanctioned.  The lack of professionalism and favoritism has been building up…but today was the living end.  WOW.  I feel sorry for the employees there since it is just so devoid of any apparent decent management.  But I feel sorry for the members as well.  Their dues are astronomical…they deserve better than this management is likely to deliver!  WOW.  Well…all’s well that ends well.  She’s already picked up something new at another well heeled establishment.  Maybe they’ll dress up for Halloween at her new job and the costume won’t be totally for naught.  Still, I was disappointed that she had such an ugly experience at what was once a lovely place to work!   I can only say the kind of stuff I’ve observed third hand while she was there would never have happened on Bernie’s watch!  Wow.  I’m almost speechless.   Given what I’ve seen I can’t see why anybody would want to work there any more…and can understand why they have a hard time keeping employees.

Ahhhh….we’re almost to Halloween and the Autumn is flying by for me.  I’ve not written in weeks and weeks.  I can’t even blame school.  I’ve been pursuing loads of other things to keep me busy and I’ve just not taken time to write.  Doesn’t seem like stuff anybody would be interested in really. 

First things first.  Food.  YUM.  I was checking out Wolfgang Puck’s website recipes and found one for potato soup.  My son traditionally whines about mine and while I love it, I grew up on depression kind of food.  Well let me tell you.  Wolfgang has a potato soup recipe that is To-Die-For.  Tastes just like a loaded baked potato.  Now yes, it’s probably a heart attack in a bowl soup.  But SO yummy.  Had it with home made herbed bread and brownies with columbian coffee/chunk ice cream.  Yum.  YUM.  Even the chefly son was happy.  Didn’t moan a bit about my process.  Guess I learned how to sweat the veggies right finally.   Then I watched Marley and Me with the boys.  Well.  I’m a dog person.  And a hopeless sentimentalist.  I was SOBBING already when his muzzle started to turn grey because I knew he was going to be dying.  What a touching movie…all about giving and receiving love. 

And while we’re speaking of Puck…you know he does a bunch of countertop appliances for HSN right?  And I’m a sucker for all things kitchen right?  Well, I got his bistro breadmaker and it’s quite a nice breadmaker!  So I just got his pizza and convection countertop oven.  I don’t EVER have enough oven at holidays and with two coming up I’m needy.  We’ve also been eating loads of pizza with the kids in the house and delivered pizza is getting pricier and pricier so we’re doing frozens…the pizza drawer will come in handy.   I can hear the moaning now from the Big Guy when he gets home but I’ve been threatening to make reservations for Thanksgiving since there’s not enough place to cook all the goodies so I reckon I can justify it by saying I’ll be cooking at home now…which I actually planned all along.  I just like to see him sweat a bit and make sure he appreciates my long suffering in the kitchen on his behalf.  Well.  I also ordered this Let’s Celebrate with Debra Murray cookbook at the same time and it came as well.  Beeyootiful photography of food that looks DEE-LISH!   I can see I’m going to be trying some of these really soon! 

SO.  We cut back the perennials the other day.  I normally leave them up all winter for the birds to enjoy the seeds and the cover.  This year they were way too big and flopping over so I said KAPUT!  4 wheelbarrow loads to the woods later, the strip garden was empty.  The fall decorations are out (finally) but I need to get some pumpkins and mums yet.  I brought the ferns in…just in time too.  We had frost last night and I had to scrape the windshield this morning.  Brrr.  Anyway.  Boston Ferns don’t do well in the cold.  I’m struggling over these ferns.  They are way expensive to replace year after year…about $80….but don’t do well in the house over the winter.  The pellet stove in the basement will make it too dry.  So my solution was the space between dining table and living room doorway.  Uuuuhhh….when did these ferns get so big?  I’m 5′10″ tall.  The fronds come up to my chest.  They are wider than the 40″ doorway.  My family is telling me they cannot possibly stay there all winter and have asked what I was thinking.  They’re wondering how many spiders, wasps, stink bugs and mice I brought in with the pots that will warm up and get real active now that they’re inside.  Well.  This SEEMED like a good idea at the time.  I’m looking for a foster home for them as we speak…. 

My genealogy work has been moving right along.  I’ve downloaded my file from Ancestry to FTM2010 to clean it up.  I found a GREAT place to put a family tree online and make it viewable by your family.  It’s password protected or not, your choice…and best of all, it’s FREE.  Check out www.tribalpages.com   My file is almost cleaned up with my Pa Dutch ancestors…I think I’ve finally straightened out all the garbled information and made some discoveries other researchers seem to skip over.  I’m going to upload the clean file soon…over the winter I’m going to go and see if I can get birth and immigration and deed info as well as wills.  I know there are about 175 pages of wills available…the deeds and births are hard to find though since it was 1725-1800 that I am looking for.     I’ve “stalked” a few more distant relatives, some of whom I recently met for lunch when they came this way on a visit to family.  It’s really neat to be able to find these folks and know they share a distant piece of history with you! 

So what am I doing now?   Fixing to make counter room for the pizza oven…and stitching on a Halloween costume for my eldest daughter.  She’s a server at the local Country Club and they dress up for the kids party.  She’s going as Glynda the Good Witch.  Pictures upon completion.  Stay tuned.

So here we are.  Labor Day’s over, school is in full swing (today we explore the mysteries of dividing decimals and decimals least to greatest…again), the soybean fields are turning yellow and I’m anxious for that crisp fall air and Halloween.   My girlfriend volunteered to take my (really large) Boston Ferns from my front porch to her house to keep in her lit basement over the winter.  I don’t have room so I buy new every year….a pricey deal I can tell you!  I think another couple weeks and I’m going to take them over to her and come home with giant mums for the porch.  I so love Autumn!

I’ve got a wicked bout of sciatica right now.  Nothing in comparison to the sciatica type pains one experiences during pregnancy.  Nope.  These are drop you to your knees, cry your  eyes out, burning, numbing pains shooting from your butt to your toes.  Sitting is positively out of the question.  Driving the car?  Forget it.  We’ ve been schooling the last couple days with the teacher in the prone position.  I’ve tried Flexeril.  Other than a long sleep it isn’t helping.  Advil is probably doing the most good.  And thank God for the hot tub…the only time I have relief is when I am prone on the chaise in it.  And that’s every evening lately.  Now what, you ask, is this from?  Well.  Herniated disks of which I know I have none.  Or a sports injury.  Let’s be clear.  Unless the sport of laptop lifting can cause a pain in your arse, it’s definitely not a sports injury.  So what’s left?  (Like I needed to hear this lecture again right?)  Inactivity.  It’s cause by the periformis muscle in your butt compressing the sciatic nerve from sitting on it too much, too long, too often.  Great.  Well.  This hurts enough I need no further reminders or nagging to get back into shape and off the couch.  I don’t ever want this back.  I prayed for divine intervention and help with my dieting and fitness since I seem powerless to effect change on my own.  Guess I got it.  Lesson learned Lord.  Thank you for showing me the way.  Once it’s cleared up I’m going to be a regular Energizer Bunny! 

Back to the decimals!

I don’t know what’s going on with my hummingbirds but they have been unbelievably active lately and there are so many I can hardly believe it!  I think there is a pair nesting in the tangle of sweet autumn clematis and trumpet vine that climbs (takes) over the arbor on the side.  I keep seeing two of them fly into there together…and out.  They have been hitting my front feeder a lot and they do it together.  This is unusual because hummers are pretty territorial by nature.  I got to see this first hand today when one came to the feeder and another flew from around the corner of the house and chased him away.  It’s not like they are in danger of missing a meal…there are plenty of nectar plants in my yard for them and tons of tiny bugs.  And the feeder holds about 5 gallons of nectar.  Well.  Not five gallons.  About 10 or 12 ounces IF I fill it all the way but compared to a hummer that’s like 5 gallons.  I’m glad they’ve come to the front feeder this year.  I can really look out the front window and see them from anywhere in the living room as they feed and then dart over to the   hawthorne tree in the island. 

Speaking of the island, the Blue Muffin viburnum all got a tremendous crop of berries this year.  I noticed on the house side, where it’s rather protected, the berries were disappearing fast and furious when they were first formed and green.  On the street side of the island the birds were not as brave.  They must be very ripe and attractive right now.  I watched vast numbers of birds flock in there today, diving into the bushes depths….and then you could only tell they were in there by watching the bush shake as they yanked berries from the branches.  I can’t wait till the viburnum in the back are big enough to fruit and provide enough for flocks of birds!  Unfortunately, the only birds out front were kind of scrub birds.  Sparrows (I didn’t realize they did fruit!), cowbirds, starlings etc.  I want cedar waxwings back as I got one year to the crabapple tree…I looked out the kitchen window and saw a huge flock of birds swoop into the trees and take turns blanketing the crabapple.  I got out the binoculars and sure enough.  Migrating Cedar Waxwings!  Alas, they’ve not been back since. Maybe when my Eastern Red Cedars are bigger.  They fruit now at about 4 feet tall, but I suspect they are too low to the ground to be trusty enough cover. 

Meanwhile, the coneflower has gone to seed and is drying as are some of the black eyed susies.  The Goldfinches just love those seeds and I can count on pair after pair of them landing right on the stems to feast away.  I really must get outside to take some photos.  Now that the housecleaning is done I might just have to do that!  Time to record the fruits of the planting labors…and it looks like the goals for the garden have been accomplished.

OK.  My trusty laptop is giving me fits.  Actually, it’s having fits.  Forget the silly incidentals like the 6 missing keys or the fact that it regularly overheats if you try to watch streaming video.  I turned it on yesterday and it didn’t turn on right away…then asked if I wanted to do disk repair.  Ouch.  And now today it’s telling me I am out of space on the hard drive.  No surprise.  But when I want to uninstall programs I realize only 18.5 gb is Program.  The other 81.5 gb is files and I don’t rightly know what they all are.  Embroidery designs, true.  Photographs.  There’s the biggie I guess.  And I’m unnaturally affixed to keeping them all. 

I know.  The experts all say throw away any and all that aren’t indicative of what is truly good.  I don’t give a rip if they’re truly good or not.  I think I need them all because there is some memory attached to them all.  And let’s face it…since I am by no means Ansell Adams none of them are really good so if that is the yardstick I’d have no photographic memories of the family…and what would the marketing staff at Kodak think of that??  Future generations of our family would find it odd that there was no memorabilia to capture the happy and sad moments in our lives…kind of like Goldie Hawn in Overboard trying to find pictures of them as a family… 

What’s a girl to do??

I guess I better start by buying an external hard drive.  There’s a pretty nice WD 1tb one…WD is usually pretty reliable.  I could keep all the designs and photos on the external drive.  I suppose I could comb through the photos and get rid of the truly stupid ones….and the copies that have inadvertently gotten saved.  I have a new laptop sitting in the wings ready to be brought into action.  But the keyboard is not as comfortable as this old familiar one…and when I transfer all this junk to it, it will be near to maxxed out likewise!  I want a 1tb laptop.  I want it now.  Is there one out there?  Why not.  It’s necessary….necessary I tell you!!!

Maybe I’ll reserve this one for embroidery functions…and the new laptop for photography functions.  Keep them both in commission.   Put this one in the shop for a new keyboard. 

Now I ask you.  What would FlyLady have to say about all this disk clutter.   Something tells me I don’t want to know.  It would be categorized under “Epic Fail”…