Cooler than You: Stupid Things I Say and Do

137.  137 is the number of items I made this year. I know. Want to know the real number? 177.  I know! 137 is the base number, 177 includes, well, baby pants, a handful of plaintain tees (as in the ones of cotton and not my wool knit on that I love), panties (the "test" run ones and the patterns that work oh so well), those Mabels of summer and fall that got a wee bit smaller as the swimming and running laps toned me, a few run of the mill renfrews, and many briars. Dude. Let's just say I knew that number was up there, but when I went through my notebooks and made the final tally (pawing through the pages three times to make sure I wasn't over counting) my mouth fell open.  Yea, I know. Though, I ran my fifth half marathon this year, went to five countries, finished three articles, taught an unholy amount of courses . . . just so many, presented about six conference papers (which two more are being converted to articles and book chapters these days), wro...

In circa 1974, long before I was conceived  my Mom bought some mauve meets lavender crepe silk.  Well, we think it was '74, as it was before she met and married my Dad (in a whirlwind of 1975), and I came along a year later (so, yes, I was planned).  So, 1974 it is.   The silk, with the floral sidekick and two spools of matching thread, sat on my Momma's shelf for years.  As a kid I would see that white plastic bag, peek inside, hear her scream "Don't touch that!," and I'd always say "When you gonna make that?" In the summer of 2013 she asked me to help her organize a fraction of her sewing abyss.  In doing that, among the scraps of fabric that I use for muslins, the fabric neither of us know where it came from (or why someone would make or buy it) that is also muslin central for me, she relinquished and gave me her 30+ year old silk.   I greedily grinned and promptly ducked it in my suitcase, so she couldn't take it back.  I the...

Because summer left before it really came, and now fall is here . . . Back in May I made a knit dress, from viscose and donned it nearly all summer. May, from May Me Made in my NYC park.  That Moneta is what I still call my Parisian Dreamer.  A nary month later I made a maxi version on a smaller pattern.  Yup.   I was very excited to get my bourbon tee, can't ya tell? June . . . in Louisville.   That bourbon trail: you can get a passport at the visitor's center or (and AND) use the app on your phone.  The passport is stamped, and it is pretty nifty.  You know you want one . . .   Le sigh, of all the travels this year me and my Parisian Dreamer did not make it to Paris.  In two years I turn 40.  I'm going to India that year, and on the way back I think I will stop in Paris for a few days  . . . Perhaps.  India when I am 40, for certain though.   Another one . . . I wore this one s...