Beautiful

So, I am having the most frustrating day. I woke up and I STILL have this damn cold thing, and I have 0 energy, and I am going slowly and it is so annoying doing so. GRRRR!!!! I am not a person who likes to be slowed down. And now my kids both seem to have the cold, so they coughing and rubbing their snotty noses on everything (including me-mom, the walking tissue), and they are cranky and stir-crazy, and fighting, and it's raining out, and ugh!!

However, I figure I could be a little productive and work on my daughter's Halloween costume (she wants to be a fairy), because it doesn't require that much energy. Sitting, cutting, sewing, no big deal. So I get all the fabric and the pattern, sit on the floor, cut out the pattern, pin it to the fabric, cut out the fabric, go up to my studio, look at the directions....

and proceed not to know what the heck they are talking about.

not at all

no clue

I don't even know what this says

Is it in English?

Well, yes, it is in English. And I understand how to construct the BOTTOM part of the costume--the skirt. No problem. So if she wants to walk around with a turtleneck and a fairy skirt, I have got her covered. I'll just elasticize the waist, and off she goes. But no self-respecting fairy wears turtlenecks, so that's just not going to fly. Try imagining wings on a striped shirt......em, no. Ok, So I have to figure this out. I break it down by word. Casing....got it, I know what that is. Hem... got it, know what that is. Stitch.....ok, no problem, can do that. I am also ok with the words is, sew, pin, and, the, sleeve, bodice, with, and elastic. So I've got all the words down. But then I put them together, and I STILL don't know what the heck this pattern is saying to me. They want me to sew the sleeve together, but then not sew it all the way, and attach it to the bodice, but leave an opening???????? WHA?????

I know I'm in trouble when I know all the words, but when I read them, they look like gibberish. So I put the thing down and look at it a couple of hours later. It still makes no sense. So I give up. Maybe a skirt with a turtleneck will be ok? The smart fairy's wardrobe for fall? No? I break down and call my mom, who sews rings around me when it comes to clothing. That's my dirty secret for today. I can sew anything--anything--except clothing. I do not understand the patterns and I don't know why. I think it's a mental block for some reason, and because I don't understand the patterns, I don't like making clothes. So I almost never do. Halloween is the exception. I always feel like I want to make the kids costumes at Halloween. And I always regret it, because of those dang patterns. Bleh.

So anyway, mom laughs (very helpful) because she KNOWS she can sew any piece of clothing with her eyes closed, and promises to help me next time I see her. So that'll have to be soon, 'cause Halloween's next week. I thank her profusely, hang up, and proceed to try to prove to myself that I am not a complete dummy and actually CAN figure out the pattern on my own, so I pick it up, read it again and still....

I don't know what they are talking about

not a clue

not at all

am I SURE this is English???

Well, yes, it still is, and no I still can't do it, so I put it aside and look out the window, and the mail is here, so I figure I'll go and get it and look what was in there!!

Wowee, huh?? I had placed a order 2 weeks ago with Needle in a Haystack, my new favorite online needlework store. I seem to live in a place with no local needlework store (very unlike the last place I lived that also had no local needlework store), so I have to shop online. I don't remember how I found Needle, but I love it. They are great with communications about orders, and quick to ship. I am a big fan. Anyway, I had wanted to "stock up" a bit on some nice linens and threads to do a bunch of monochromes for the wall in the living room, so I ordered. What you see above is Dirty Linen (on the bottom), Light Mocha Linen (middle), and Flax Linen (top), with my absolute favorite silk thread of all time--Soie Paris, made by Au Ver A Soie. If you like silk thread, you have GOT to try this stuff. I discovered it while looking for a shiny silk thread. It's actually shiny. Most silks are not. But this stuff is, and it's beautiful. It doesn't come in too many colors, so that would be it's drawback, but otherwise, oh, it's just gorgeous. I am so thrilled. And I'm even more thrilled with the colors, because finding a color chart is near impossible for this stuff, and the snippets they show you online are tiny, so it's so hard to see what the color actually is. But these colors are gorgeous, so much better than online. And they are perfect for what I wanted them for. So I am happy. I think I will need to try some out tonight.

.....as for my daughter's costume, well, I still have a week, right? And mom promised to help. It'll get done. And if not, I think the fall forcast for fairies is turtlenecks. They are all the rage.