Accomplishing things

It's nice to accomplish something in the sewing room even if it's only mending.  The Snoopy flying his doghouse as the Starship Enterprise shirt was a bit snug.  I added wedges of shiny red and also trimmed the sleeves.

This shirt got wedges too.  The neck was too high as well so I cut it down and hemmed the edge with the coverstitch machine.

Jeans were also hemmed and holes repaired in shirts.  After lunch we all settled down for a Sunday afternoon snooze. They are all sound asleep and apparently comfortable. 😴

This afternoon I reviewed my DVD lessons on making ballroom dresses and got on with the first step.  Drafting the pattern for the leotard.  It made my brain tired!  The instructor absolutely

knows what he is talking about, but he has a strong Italian accent and I'm not sure he's the best at teaching in video format.  It's hard to find patterns and instruction without spending buckets of money so I appreciate his expertise and will press on.  

First draft of the front pinned on Betsy.  I think it may fit me!  How about that!!  😃

Time

Trying to find time to blog.  And what did I do?  I spent an inordinate amount of time trying to sort out the layout of the blog.  I wanted to add the Chookshed stitchers and also update the status of our dogs in the sidebars.  Grrrrrr.  I figured it out finally.  😏

Quilting:  Nada, nope, nothing.

Sewing:  Six more diaper covers for Piglet are done.  We were going through them too fast between laundry days.  They are pretty boring to sew, so it was fabulous to have the Chookshed Stitchers to chat with on Zoom while I got the job done.

Piglet sleeping soundly in her old age.

This is the diapering station by the back door.  Diaper covers, baby wipes, incontinence pads, scissors to cut the pads in half, and tape to close up the cut end.  Outside on the deck is a small trash can for the used pads.  It's a process.  

Family :  The local grandson has been tracked out of school for a few weeks and we have filled our time together with lunches out, lots of Minecraft on the computer, a visit to the Life and Science Museum in Durham, as well as the pool and the lake.

We particularly enjoyed the butterfly house at the museum.

Lots of life sized dinosaurs too!

Smashing day at Jordan Lake.

And our last lunch before he goes back to school on Monday.  New grade, new class!

We also had a few lunches with my mom.  I fixed this stuffed elephant for her and made "Ellie Phant" a pretty vest to surprise her.

Dance:  Still going to ballroom dance lessons regularly.  We enjoy it immensly!

With three of our instructors at the Tropicana party.

 

All of the partiers.  (Is that a word?)

 

We have "intensive" group classes a couple of times a month.  Kind of like aerobics with ballroom dance moves.  It certainly works up a sweat!

 

The Gatsby party.  It looks more like Halloween with the interesting lighting!

It's a good excuse to practice with the makeup and hair.  Especially the false eyelashes!

The Carolina Classic is coming up in October.  I've signed up for 14 heats. Two each of hustle, salsa, cha-cha, rumba, east coast swing, waltz, and foxtrot.  😳  Shoot me now. 😁

                                                 

With that in mind I've purchased a dressform and a six DVD set of lessons on making ballroom dresses.  I've expanded and padded out Betsy to resemble my shape (always a humbling experience) and I'm going to take a crack at making at least one of my dresses for October.  I need a smooth competition dress, latin competition dress, nightclub competition dress (don't know the theme yet), and something for a fancy dress dinner.  Yikes!

      

I also gave My Sandbox a good sort and clean!

More Sewing:  I'm still playing with garment sewing.  Some things work out better than others.  I'd had my eye on this pretty striped fabric for a while and finally ordered it from Olga's Closet to make Ellie and Mac's Oversize Tee pattern.  Nice and simple.  But nooooo, the fabric was so wonky I was tearing my hair out lining up the stripes.  It took me at least an hour to pull and shove and beg and pin it all into alignment.  😱

But I did it!!  The side seams are almost invisible.  😃

And I treated myself to some glittery sewing clips....because I could.  😊

Dogs:  The old ladies, Piglet and Maisy, are still hanging in.  They have their issues, but they and we deal with it ok.  June has been with us a year now, as of today actually!  I love her dearly, but she really needed a companion of her own ilk, and age.  Bowling over the older dogs trying to play with them was not going well.  So in came Holly.  The two of them are very much bulls in a china shop, but Holly is settling in fine and they really enjoy each other's company.  Unless they are trying to shove each other off the sofa trying to be the closest one snuggled up to The Tramp.  😄

I've sewn up two fleece sofa covers I can change and wash every week.  Holly and June are very good and only climb on this one piece of furniture.

Who can get closer to The Tramp?? 

Yes, Holly has her own laundry basket.  😁  We've also discovered, smooth and short coated though she is, the shedding is epic.  Thankfully she loves to be brushed, but I've had to put the Roomba vacs on double-time!  

Birds:  I'm thrilled to say the hummingbirds finally showed up and now I have to fill the feeder almost every second day.  We only have Ruby-throated hummers here.  The photo is a female and the short video is a male.

Misc:  Eldest Daughter, the Tramp, and I took the opportunity to go to an open house day at the Juniper Level Botanic Garden.  I hadn't been there before.  It was awfully hot and humid, but we are glad we went to see what it's all about.  Doesn't she make me look short!  😊

I'm still having fun with temporary hair color and sometimes it gets interesting.  I thought I'd try pink and blue.  I took one look at myself and thought OMG!  I look like a pink and blue skunk!  

So that's it.  I'm still fighting the fight with Blogger.  It hates me.  Many things technology related have been difficult lately.  We aren't in Mercury Retrograde so I have nothing to blame it on.  Oh well.  First world problem.  I need to get over myself.  😇😉

Wow. Posting again!

Today is a nice day…despite the clouds, and some surprise rain between the sunny bits.  The mail brought two items from Etsy I’ve been waiting for.   Hardware from Emmaline Bags so I can make a new duffle bag for my dance shoes.

And wool blend felt from EpicureanBoutique.  I bought several bundles of felt from her in March at our quilt show.  However two bundles weren’t enough for my project so I had to order a third.

My intention was to sew up Wilhelmina the Wood Mouse while on the Zoom party with Chooky Blue and friends last Friday.  Winnie was going to be one arm short, hence the third bundle of felt.  It’s all good though, I’ll have plenty of felt for some of the other creatures in the series.

So instead I started another Luna.  White this time.  I had luckily just picked up a remanent of wool felt at JoAnn’s. 😊

Other sewing for this week includes a pair of white jeans.  I’ve made many pairs of blue or black, but how boring is that!  So white it is.  

I’ve also been making some very simple lightweight shirts to wear to dance classes.  A nice quick sew.  Today I wore the purple one.  Aren’t my instructors young and handsome!  One of their talents (this goes for all the instructors) is making their students look good on the dance floor.  I’m not sure they make me feel young, but they sure don’t make me feel old.  

And a black shirt.  (Photo grabbed from a video of the Tuesday group class)

Most mornings are taken up by long walks with June.  An hour or more anyway.  I dress to be seen.  We don’t have sidewalks everywhere so neon colors are a way to keep safe.  My “utility belt” holds treats for June, poop bags, bags of poop, and my phone.  I have to slide the pouch with the poop around to my back to keep the smell behind me.  😁

Yesterday was lovely, but a little hot when the clouds parted.

Some sidewalks are more accessible than others.  We opted to walk in the street at this location.  Not only was I going to have to duck, but poison ivy is rampant and I try to steer June away from anything that looks like it! 😳

This looks like a lovely country lane, but there are busy roads at both ends.  

This is the busy and loud road at one end of that road.  This part is fine, with a barrier between me and the cars and trucks whizzing by.

This part of the sidewalk is a little scarier.  

Today I took more notice of these trees in several places in the median.  They have interesting shapes and my thought when they caught my eye is they look a bit like an art installation.  Click on the pictures to make them larger and you will see what I mean. 

Another nice quiet street….unless you are being followed by a noisy recycling/garbage truck.  😏

Besides keeping June out of the poison ivy, we have to avoid the fire ant mounds.  There are lots of them on this street.  Yuck!

And I leave you with a short video of June.  She likes to stand under this little Japanese maple in the back yard.  Sometimes I see her walking very slowly back and forth underneath it, placing each foot very carefully.  I guess she likes the feel of the branches on her back.  One of these days I hope to sneak a better video.