Cooler than You: Stupid Things I Say and Do

I'm late in posting, as well . . . I've got a handful of things to blather about.  Like the ending of summer, which turned (as usual) into an Indian Summer, the settling of fall, my beignot skirt that I've only worn once on account of that Indian Summer, another pencil, the new jeans I made, and other items.  Yet, work and life played games with me this past week, and then yesterday there was a passing.  Uncle Harry, technically a cousin, passed expectantly.  Yet, a passing is still a passing.  Grief and loss still creep up and embrace you like an unwanted in a snow storm who drinks your last beer and hogs the fire warmth.  In a day or so I'll release the post I had ready.  Right now . . . it just doesn't seem fitting.   So instead of talking about how layers of fabric hide the curves of my ass that shouldn't be there, I'm wrapped in a series of emotions.  Many of those emotions I am not entirely comfortable with them lurking around.  ...

Aside from the numerous other things I have going on in my life, and all of the writing I do professionally and for shits and giggles, I sew.  A lot.  As any of you know that read this blog. . . duh.  Well anywho, a slew of people have been messaging asking me how in the hell I can keep up the pace, make so much, and well . . . be on target for what I want to wear.  So, here's my secret: a list.  A detailed list. I should note my sister sent me the leather notebook for my Birthday.  I think it came in handy, as a list and repository for my sewing and other disasters.   Of course, I use it for detailed notes on patterns that I later blather to you about.   The swatch is on the back of that page . . . unlike below where there was enough room to put in on the front of the page.  Sometimes I stitch the swatches into the book.  Just depends on what hour of the day I finish something and how lazy I am.   See, a...

There are a few things about me that ponder and amuse my friends.  My being a Yankees fan, an adulterated one at that, is one such point.  Ions ago my Grandmother and her sister would watch Cubs games, as they lived in Hammond, IN.  Cubbies fans pretty much describes that side of the family.  None-the-less, back in the '80s the Yankees sucked and you didn't have the glory of the internet to make them easily accessible.  Then in college there was the 1996 World Series.  Any baseball fan knows the story of how the Yanks won the first title since 1978.  Those same fans know the story of Jorge, Pettitte, Mo, and Jeter.  I won't bore you with the history of the core four.  What I will tell you is that in many ways watching the four of them fade from the game in various stages of retirement makes me wrestle with my own memories. In 1996 I was a junior at Kentucky Wesleyan College.  Imagine being a Yankees fan in Kentucky? I was.  I ...

A pencil.  A pencil skirt.  Most women love a good one.  Why? They go from night to day, have a sleek design and look, invoke images of authority, maturity (without being ancient), professional, sleek, and even sexy.  A good pencil can go so many different ways. So today you have a study . . .a study of two pencils.  I had just bought the lovely By Hand London Charlotte pattern, and my Mom came out of her sewing room with a stack of patterns (I was visiting them on that trip a few weeks back).  I certainly wasn't going to tell her no, and even though I just ordered the Charlotte I'm all for trying out a couple of patterns before declaring unadulterated love for one. Simplicity 9084 vs. Charlotte. Simplicity 9084, printed in 1994 .  Sewed by me, from a houndtooth wool blend I got when my Mom and I invaded the Mood of the South, AKA Mary Jos . Ripple insisted on being in the side view.   Yes, I have no shoes on.  I'm i...