Progress Report

Well, my goal of sewing those 8 items over the winter may actually come true. Well, it might if I can ever get out of my truly rotten habit of finishing everything but the handsewing on a project and then leaving it in my closet unfinished forever-ish.

Where I'm at:
Vogue 8594 Made the muslin (ie the lining) and it needs to be re-fitted- annoying.

Vogue 8685 This one is almost done- but it is tight!! I can let out the seams a little and hopefully that will do the trick. I love the fabric and everything except the skin-tightness.

Simplicity 2648 Just need to tack down the sleeve facings and hem.

Simplicity 2146 This is my favorite one- haven't started yet though.

Burda 7531 This one is almost done, just needs a hem.

Butterick 5249 This one is now off the list. I'll come back to it at a later date- it's cute.

Simplicity 3775 This one's almost done, just the handsewing left.

New Look 6909 I made this one before and love it, but I forgot that I shortened the side seams at the hips and didn't do it on the muslin (ie the lining). I have to let the sides out and also, the sleeves are tight!!! I have to figure something out for the long sleeves.

Vogue 8675, Simplicity 3775, Simplicity 2648

Lining/muslin Vogue 8594 and New Look 6909

Close-up of knit dress Simplicity 3775- my first knit!

Close-up of the knit fabric for Vogue 8685- love this fabric! Needs to be let out. :(

View from my sewing room window- you can see how lovely the water has looked this winter. (Ignore our fence-we're replacing it this spring!)

You might have noticed that all of my linings are the same. There are 3 linings made up in the pictures and 2 others that I made this fall. I bought 5 yards of the pink fabric on super sale at fabric.com and I think that it will make one or two more linings! Plus I have the added bonus of an exciting inside to all of my clothes.

Best of 2011

For a variety of reasons, I would probably qualify 2011 as the worst year of my life. However, I would like to try to focus on the positive and make a list of things about 2011 that were actually good rather than lament the many things that were truly terrible.

1. Hands down, my discovery of the BBC show Top Gear. I love cars and I love British humour. What could be better? I could (and do) watch this multiple times a week. I've also started watching Bones and Dr. Who. I get involved so easily!!!

Best show ever?

2. Trip to France with my cousins and grandmother. Whatever you love to do most in the world, that's traveling to France for me. Since I was 7 I've loved France and I've been lucky enough to get to Europe two years in a row.

Paris!

3. Enlarging my garden. Now that we have settled into our house, I finally had the time to really expand my garden this year. Next year my goal is to grow all the vegetables that we eat for the year. So part two is : Canning and preserving. With the expanded garden, I've taken my love of cooking/baking into preserving. Lots of roasted vegetables, canned vegetables and frozen vegetables. Sadly it's only January and we're practically out! I have a better handle on how much we need, so hopefully we won't run out until May.

In full bloom

4. New hobbies. Janda and I have been doing lots of new activities this year and hopefully we can expand on those and try some new ones this year.

Janda on my motorcycle

5. Jack-Jack. I hesitate to put him on a best of list because he is so darn annoying, but he is a very nice cat. If we didn't already have two cats when we got him, I would love him to bits. But... he is mean to my babies!

See, he is bad!

Even during the worst year ever, I can think of at least 5 items for my best of list. Not too bad. I'm hoping that 2012 will be much better. Maybe a Top Ten of 2012 next January?

Can I do it?

I have a lot of projects in my sewing queue- way too many really. It's time to start sewing them and instead of hoarding patterns and fabric. I'm hoping to get these 8 done over the winter.

Vogue 8685

I have a very pretty dark blue knit with pink, purple and aqua flowers for this one. I'm definitely making the short, straight skirt and then I'll see what sleeve length I can eek out.

Vogue 8594

This one's going to be a brown herringbone wool. I'll be making the short version (which will probably be long on me!) with the slit at the neck.

Simplicity 2648

Black stretch wool for this one, with short sleeves and a V-neck.

Simplicity 2146

I chose a taupe wool that will show off the pleating details for this dress. I love the short-sleeved, V-neck with the inset pleats.

Burda 7531

This skirt will be a khaki corduroy, good for work and weekend. I love a good box pleat.

Butterick 5249

I have a black and gray pinstripe waiting for this pattern. I'm leaning towards the straight skirt with flounces at the knee, but I'll have to see how the pinstripes work for that.

Simplicity 3775

This easy knit dress is going to be a super-soft dark turquoise. I'm planning on making the long-sleeved, V-neck version.

New Look 6909

I'm planning on making the long sleeved version of this dress in brown wool.

If I get these all done, my work wardrobe will be all set. I already have two dresses made, but not finished, so if I get all these pieces finished, I will be awash in stylish work dresses!

Lisa's Wedding!

Here are some pictures from my sister's big day.

The room, beautifully decorated.


The unity sand before

The unity sand after


The tables



The cake




Shoes

Getting ready

Ready and waiting

Lisa and Emma

Fiona the flower girl, Mom and Lisa

Lisa and Kevin taking a breather outside

Happy couple

Cutting the cake

Eating the cake

The dessert table

Me and J with Lisa

One more of Emma

What have we been up to?

Birthday cake

Picking a million tomatoes- what you see there is just the beginning

The Gloucester Tri

Giving 3rd place finisher Karen Smyers her award

Bad haircuts

Dinner from the garden

Yesterday I was trying to decide what to whip up for dinner after a long and busy day and this comment from the blog inspired me: "Don't you just love this time of year when you can walk out to the garden to rustle up some dinner?" -Chiot's Run.

So that's what I ended up doing. I grabbed some tomatoes and basil to go with my baguette and mozzarella and in 10 minutes, dinner was done- and delicious!

All the ingredients lined up and waiting

The finished product! My favorite summer dinner.

The Harvest Keeps Growing

The garden has gone crazy and I've been picking a lot of vegetables lately: green beans, purple green beans, sugar snap peas, cucumbers, zucchini, broccoli, pepperoncini, and for the first time on Tuesday- tomatoes!

So far we've tasted 3 of the 10 varieties that I planted and 4 more have almost ripe fruit on the vines! I've been practicing canning with the peppers and can't wait to try tomatoes. Once I have enough, I'll be going for it! There was a little carnage when the three times bigger than last year's tomatoes needed to be restaked, so I might try some pickled green tomatoes today.

Gardens gone wild!

Dill in bloom

Royal burgundy green beans.

Butternut squash

The zucchini are producing again after a few days rest.

Sugar snap peas are also putting out a second crop.

Marmande tomato just before I picked it.

Jaune flammée tomato- it's very orangey/yellow

Mr. Stripey tomato- not as stripey as I thought he'd be.

The harvest bowl before the second group of tomatoes and the green beans.