Sort-through Sunday

 

Current Mood : Sleepy

Current Image Notes : Already have this one, but I wasn't quite sure when I saw it at Friday's yard sale. Any pattern that says ‘for Barbie and Dusty' on the back, I gotta have - just in case. What makes it more annoying is that I spent two weeks trying to duplicate ‘Leia's Flight Suit' from the pattern pieces shown on a collector's website a couple years ago - and here it is, ready to go ! Arrrghhh.

 

With the success of the crown on one of my old t-shirts last night, I knew I was ready to start Dearest Son's Back-to-School wardrobe embroidery. So I cleared a few designs off Brody, which left enough space for all five of that remote control car design set I wanted to stitch for him.

 

Unfortunately, I'd need to do a lot more cleaning before getting new designs installed. My desk was a disaster of patterns, receipts, plates, glassware, half-finished chip bags, tissues, and paper scraps. And along the sides of my desk were piles of more stuff - the craft tote I bought Friday, a kitchen towel, an overflowing Disney Princess trash can, Brody's embroidery hoop and printouts of designs, the manual for the new air conditioner... ah, what a mess. The rest of the living room, now that Dearest's home from his grandparents', wasn't in any better shape, but that didn't concern me much.

 

So I got busy. I could put all the new patterns away once I got ‘em scanned, so that got going. I could scan and sort through desk detritus at the same time. In between sits for resizing and saving, I got plates returned to the kitchen, trashed some fast-food misc., and shoved all the Lab stuff in the new-to-me tote, including the freshly-scanned pattern envelopes. That gave me an idea...

 

Y'see, all this new stuff's gotta go somewhere. And I wanted most of it near me. The shoebox I was using for doll patterns was at Critical Load last year, and all the new dollar-sale American Girl and clone patterns were stacked on top. If it weren't for the sewing desk cubby holding it tight, it would have split years ago. But what if... that new craft tote, minus the storage tray under the lid, could hold dozens of patterns. Possibly all the doll ones. And moving the patterns out of the desk would free up that cubby, which would be a much better place to store the sewing notions bin I had balanced on the ribbon box.

 

In the end and an hour later, I had pretty much completely redone the Lab's immediate sewing table area. I ditched dozens of not-doll patterns I finally admitted I'd never use to the Donations pile, redid the sewing notions craft tote, used up two small plastic storage boxes that've been lingering around - they used to be school boxes for Dearest - and redid the sewing notions bin using the storage tray from the new craft tote. Much better !

 

I found that I've had water-soluble stabilizer for years - it was in the notions tote. Carol, of Perestroika.ca , sent me some to use for sewing Barbie panties. It's in the stabilizer bag now. Discovered some onion-skin and tracing paper that Beloved Hubby can use in his hobby, and got all the sewing needles and hand-needles together and stored. In short, a buncha stuff that's been sitting around near where it belonged now is where it belongs. Not underfoot anymore. I have a lot more space around the sewing desk, and it's much easier to dig in the ribbon box now. I can actually flip through the doll patterns now, something I've not done in ages, for fear of destroying the storage box.  It's a lot less cluttered now, so it feels much less confining.

 

Yeah, I know - it seems like I'm cleaning the Lab every other weekend. But it gets a mess fast in there, and I'm quite lazy when it comes to ‘detail' cleaning. If the new buttons are in the general vicinity, I often don't put ‘em ‘all the way away', which leads to clutter. Plus, it's fun to putter and reacquaint m'self with all my treasures. Especially the ones crammed under or on top of something else that I don't see or sort very often. I'm also bad for bagging up new goodies and hanging the bag on the Lab doorknob, and leaving it there ‘til I need something out of it. So I got the current one emptied, then used it to line the DP trash can in there. Wheee !

 

Ironically, unless I do so right after finishing this, I never got the new designs installed on Brody, although my desk is nice and clean. Oh, well. Hope I can do it tomorrow !

More yard sale fun !

 

Current Mood : Daydreamy

Current Image Notes : Have this pattern already - but who can resist two ? Especially since it's for the 19" Supersize Barbie, and Tiffany Taylor !

 

Hit a couple yard sales, spent a big $4. Beloved Hubby gained a clock, stylish silver and black, with words like ‘dilly', ‘dally', ‘stall', and ‘dawdle' marking the hours. He thought it was hilarious, since he was playing hooky from work today. He also got an authentic Japanese teapot, and if I can find some nice orange/brown/cream silk geraniums or mums, it'll make a great decoration.

 

As for me, I found eight small frames that double as Christmas ornaments. Four gold square ones, four oval silver ones, with matching red and metallic ribbon threaded through the hangers. A simple cross-stitch or embroidered initial or monogram will make it a near-instant gift. If it weren't for the small snowflake designs embossed in the frames, they'd make great year-round gifts, but I'm sure I can find them new holiday homes. I also scored three new vases for a dime each. I inevitably lose two or three a year to teachers, and another couple for other events, so I like to stock up when I find ‘em cheap. Ya kind of hate to spend $5. on a vase for $5. worth of flowers, ya know ? I'd rather buy a $10. bouquet and use a nice clean ‘free' vase I have at home.

 

And waiting in the hamper for a wash is a kids' Barbie backpack - I think it came with a book series subscription. It's white with pink accents and the Barbie logo, with the legend, ‘Anything is Possible !' amid butterflies and flowers. Not sure what I'm gonna do with it, but I'm hoping it comes out clean and nice.

 

It'll be in the same load as the t-shirt I embroidered today. Not one of the new ones, not just yet, but I did put that two-tone crown you've seen before on one of my older ones. Used a nice medium green, with a dark grey shadow. It came out really nice, on-grain, good registry, and centered well. Just a bit low. Oh, well. There's always the next shirt ! And, hey, this one's wearable - or will be, once it's washed. There's chalk marks, hoop marks, and just plain handling all over it, so it'll be much nicer when it's clean.

 

Pattern Score !

 

Current Mood : Happy ! 

Spent on craft tote : $5.

Spent on 8 patterns : $1.

Spent on elegant cardstock : 50c

 

Dearest Son and I had some fun today ! Major thunderstorm last night meant that things were cooler this morning - and everyone got a good night's sleep last night. In fact, it was cool enough this morning to turn off the new air conditioner for a while. I'm impressed !

 

Had to head out to mail a package for Beloved Hubby - he sold some old hobby stuff on eBay he wasn't using anymore - and return our slightly overdue DVD and Wii rentals. On the way back, we hit several yard sales. Dearest cleaned up ! He bought two Pound Puppies and a Pound Kitty at one sale for 25c each - then scored three really nice stuffed dogs for the same price at the next one. What can I say, he's having such fun with the toy dogs (and cat), and they were so cheap... He now has his own Hotel for Dogs, with a cat wing, on the sofa. He's named them all, and created ‘rooms' for them, out of totes, toys, and cardboard boxes.

 

I scored pretty heavily, too. Found another plastic craft tote like the two I already have, for $5. The two I have hold Elphie's wardrobe and small props and general consumable notions under my sewing table. This new-to-me one's slightly smaller, but matches the other two, and I couldn't resist. The larger ones run about $20. each at Hobby Lobby, so I got a deal on this one.

 

And, of course, on seeing half a table of craft supplies, I had to go through it all, millimeter by millimeter. Found a cardboard pattern box, and I'd be possessed by aliens if I didn't flip through it. Wow ! 70s Simplicities ! And not just any Simplicity patterns - doll clothes Simplicity patterns ! I grabbed each one as I found it, then couldn't remember which ones I already had, or just wanted for years. Figured better safe than sorry, and bought all but the Cabbage Patch ones (I already have four of those, for Timey and Dottie, without a CP in sight).  I was so happy - turns out, I only duplicated two. Scored a tote bag pattern set, too, ‘cause it'll be fun to embroider my own. I think I know what photos you'll be seeing here for the next week ! I got the craft bag one, two large baby doll ones, and five Barbie patterns. Whoo-hoo !

 

It just amazes me, since I'd decided to quit buying patterns. Stop spending hours hunting for this one I don't have, or this one that looked like something my mother would have used to make doll clothes that one time. I mean, what could anyone possibly design for Barbie that I didn't already have, in some form or fashion ? Two arms, two legs, chest hasn't changed much in 50 years, one head.  I have over a thousand Barbie patterns alone - and about half of those patterns make five or more garments ! No, I needed to spend more time sewing and less time hunting and buying. Pretty much came to the same conclusion about patterns to make me clothes and accessories. About the time I got that established, Brody came along...(sigh) Things haven't really returned to normal since !

 

Just for kicks, I bought the deep purple Beanie Baby bear with a white rose embroidered on it. It's my DMIL's favorite color, even though I know that she, like me, isn't much into bears, but it's always nice to know someone's thinking of you. And the elegant cards with the black-marble edge design were quite pretty. I may experiment with embroidering on those this weekend, if there's time.

 

By then, it was noon, and even Dearest's hunger for the hunt was waning in the rising humid heat and giving way to lunch-pangs. So we headed home. It was more fun than last year, going yard saling with him. Last year, he had to have something from every sale, no matter how silly or bizarre. And he'd invariably find some big expensive thing I just couldn't get for him, which would lead to upset all around. This year, he gladly went back to the car empty-handed if he didn't see anything, and even he admits he has plenty of cars and big toys. Just wish there'd been more sales this summer - but there's always August and September !

 

Tonight, Beloved and I had a quick taco dinner and went to Hastings. Didn't find anything to want. They must have three hundred crafts books, but never anything I'm interested in. At least 200 of that number's on scrapbooking or quilting. (sigh)

Frigidaire...I think I love you....

 

Current Mood : Relaxed and *cool*....

Spent on embroidery designs : $1.95 

 

Another swelter of a day. I couldn't sleep last night, between the heat and the simple fact that my body and my psyche hates me. Every time I'd begin to nod off after reading myself down, I either started to itch and sweat, or my mind would break in to visions of stuff I haven't done yet or did wrong years ago. I think I finally passed out around 3am.

 

Beloved Hubby slept restlessly, too. So today, he bought an air conditioner. I helped install it... and for the first time since June, it's cool in here. I turned off the increasingly useless central unit, and within an hour, it'd dropped two degrees inside. So nice...

 

Yeah, it was an expense we weren't really planning on. But you don't wanna know how high our power bill is already, and it's still 87 degrees in here at 3am. At this point, darn near anything is an improvement. My hair's finally totally dry in the back. I may actually restart my Wii Fit exercises, now that I don't feel like I'll pass out if I try.

 

Got some dishes done, and decided to use that scrap of sweatpants that's been underfoot in the Lab for the last few weeks. Looks like the design and Brody are fine, he didn't snarl once today. And if ya look closely, you'll see that I hooped it wrong - the ‘grain' is going horizontal, not vertical. I'm now wondering if it's the thread that was screwing up in the first crown trial, since the new brand and colors performed perfectly. And while I had the iron hot to apply the interfacing, I also attached it to the t-shirt I'm planning on sewing up for me tomorrow. Saturday, I gotta get going on Dearest's shirts for back-to-school, I'm already behind on those.

 

Oh, and I finally ‘spent' my birthday gift from Embroidery Library. Got three just-released designs on special for a buck each, and got the rest of the ‘Kitty Travelling' redwork designs I wanted. Minus my $10. gift, I only spent $1.95 on the lot. I'm gonna stitch out some of the kitties as notecards, maybe for Dearest Son's teacher this year. Start her on a collection of sorts. I wanna sew ‘em on the scrapbooking cardstock, then glue ‘em to the blank white cards I have. Just wanna practice ‘em first... so you'll see ‘em here soon !

 

Right now, though, I'm ready to sleep not soaked in sweat and itchy... it'll be like heaven...

Right now, I'm a big fan of fans...

 

Current Mood : gratitude for fans, slight anger at landlord

 

Pretty much same as yesterday. Got four loads of laundry washed, dried, and put away, but that's about it. It was 105 outside today, and it's 88 inside - at 9pm. Everyone is short tempered and a bit frazzled, and sleep is getting harder every night. We're probably going to buy an air conditioner later this week, and turn off the increasingly useless central air. I'll tell our landlord why we bought an AC, but we both still doubt she'll do much.

 

Sorry there's not much going on. I was thinking the other day of all the odd junk I used to eat in college. Sure, I had the ‘room and board' package, but I also worked three jobs with a full course load. At least two or three times a week, my available time and the dining hall's hours did not connect. Plus, since I was often visiting my parents on weekends, I chose the five-day meal plan, not the 7-day one. And the money I earned went to general living expenses and the interest on my loans, so I couldn't eat out much. Luckily, my hobbies weren't expensive, like dolls or embroidery. I didn't have time for any ! My chief hobby was sleep !

 

But I could cook cheap. I'd fry up a pound of hamburger, and freeze it in quarter or sixth pound packages. After a quick microwave thaw, I'd mix it with minute rice and leftover soy sauce packets for a tasty, quick meal. I also added rice to Hormel chili. With a bit of shredded cheese, a can of chili and a cup or two of rice could feed several guests a late dinner. We called it ‘hash' in honor of my Army days. I could also get a week's worth of dinner out of rice or noodles and a Banquet frozen family entrée, like sliced turkey or Salisbury steak. Or, when the month was still going long after the money quit, a packet of ramen seasoning added to the water for rice gave it a nice taste. I'd learned that you could flavor two packs of ramen with one packet of seasoning, so I usually had spares. Any leftover ramen could be lightly fried, for a whole new taste. I ate a lot of rice back then. Not as much ramen as you'd think.

 

Yeah, none of that is really good for ya. Heavy on the sodium, and sometimes fat. But it was better than endless ramen and Mac & Cheese that some of my classmates lived on during weekends. I did figure out that I could add cooked hamburger to boxed Mac&Cheese for almost instant Hamburger Helper, though, and just a toss of shredded cheese or French-fried onions (the kind that goes on green bean casserole) made it more of a meal. I was just glad the Honors House I lived in had two full kitchens.

 

But this week, I had an odd yen for the rice and hamburger dish. I'd tried it after graduating, but I was buying even cheaper regular-cook generic rice in those days. You know things are tight when you don't buy generic Minute rice anymore - and there actually is a difference, as I discovered. Throws off the whole taste, especially with hash. So I haven't eaten any of that in years. Evidently, we're doing quite well, because Beloved Hubby prefers the Mal-Wart Minute rice, and it's well-stocked in our kitchen. So I held a bit of ‘burger back when I made meatloaf Monday, and I got to try it again today - no leftovers left !

 

Funny, how it tastes the same again. Only problem now is, I want some hash...

Free-motion on Brody's about the only moving I've done today...

 

Current Mood : Impatient and crabby

 

Another day wherein I'm bone exhausted, but didn't get much done. Of course, when it's 87 degrees in the house, and the air conditioning hasn't stopped running in days, you tend to not move around much.

 

I'm a little distracted now. On Saturday, I bought Beloved Hubby the second season of Pinky and the Brain, dirt-cheap from Big Lots. It's the series, not the original shorts from Animaniacs, and neither of us had seen them. Well, what works hilariously in six minutes suffers in 22. ‘Nuff said. Dearest Son, however, is completely enamored, and now says ‘Narf !' loudly and about every 38 seconds. After asking several times for him to knock it off, then telling him to, I just clipped on the MP3 headphones and cranked the player. He soon calmed down and backed off - no one likes being ignored.

 

Today, too, we discovered the second drawback to having my computer in the living room. The first one is losing about half my desk space, due to room constraints and everyone sitting this end of the sofa uses a desk edge for sodas, snacks, dishes, and remote controls. Today, we had someone send us a fax. There is no phone jack in the living room. The fax/scanner/printer is, of course, connected to my computer. And we sure didn't have a twenty or thirty foot phone cord lying around. So I disentangled the wires and moved the printer into Beloved's Salon, placing it on his chair and plugging it in there. Beloved advised me to buy a phone cord while I was out, but it just seemed ridiculous. This works much better, with no cord to keep up with, no expense. Of course, when we actually did get the fax, it was some multi-level marketing (i.e., pyramid) scheme. I've redone the cords so that next time, I can do it without so much shuffle.

 

We did groceries, and I'm mostly proud of Dearest. He decided, before we left, that he wanted to save his money and get a larger set next week, too. That'll be three weeks for him to save up - first time he'd ever done that ! Of course, he couldn't have bought anything today anyway. I stepped on Lego twice, and he's slowly learning that mean ole momma is standing by Sunday's edict that Lego underfoot = no new Lego. He had a bit of a breakdown as we were finishing up, but I talked to him rationally, reminding him of the set he wants and the Lego underfoot rules. He calmed himself down, and I said he could call me ‘mean mamma' if it helped, and he was soon happy and chatty again, especially after he got to pick the ice cream this week. That lasted until I made him carry in groceries while I put cold food away. He normally escapes that chore by scampering off to play as soon as we hit driveway, but I snagged him this time ! At least he only pouted until lunch. About fifteen minutes later.

 

Checked Brody out a bit. His bobbin race is clean and clear, I even took the bobbin case out and checked for lint or whatever there. Maybe it wasn't seated correctly before. Just for kicks, I took off his embroidery platform and did a bit of free-motion embroidery with him, using yer everyday straight stitch. I'd done that a few times with KJ, when I first got him in ‘04 - it's quite fun, but without the free-motion foot, needle breakage is just too easy. I'd always meant to buy a free-motion foot for KJ, but I could never find one for less than $30., and when I had $30., I always spent it on a ton of small stuff. Now that I have Brody, he has the foot, and it fits KJ, too, if I ever decide to do that on him sometime. I'd been meaning to play with Brody's regular stitches, too - so that got done today. Thought all my noodling around, the thread didn't catch or snarl, so I may be OK with trying to embroider on that shirt. I'll do a simple on-board design first, though, to be sure.

 

Other than that, I'm not sure where the day went. It's 87 degrees inside, with the air on all day. If it weren't for the fan, I'd probably melt. And I completely blew off Wii Fit. At no point of the day was it cool enough to even do yoga without dripping.

Been meaning to update this...

 

Current Mood : Lazy

Wii Fit : 35 minutes

 

Since I skipped the Fit yesterday, it took twice as much effort to motivate my big butt onto the platform today. And some of the exercises that went exceptionally well Friday were real challenges this time. I guess all those motivation messages of ‘keep it up every day' really mean something after all.

 

For today's ‘been meaning to do that', I did something silly and completely selfish. A huge lace score at an end-of-season yard sale last year rendered all the lace too plentiful to fit in the ‘Lace and Ribbon Tote' box in the Lab. Ended up shoving the lace into an unused drawer, where all the plastic bags slip and slide. Most of the lace pieces are in sandwich-size baggies, since I rarely buy the snack-size. What can I say, I'm cheap. If I'm gonna get the same number of bags for the same price, I'm gonna get the bigger ones ! But it does mean that the occasional six-inch strip is in a baggie much too big for it.

 

Few weeks ago, I scored a large box of snack-size baggies, dirt cheap. So today, I pulled out all the lace and rebagged the ones that needed it. Surprisingly, this took well over an hour. I was careful to squeeze air out of the baggies, and I got a good look at everything, which was nice. However, once it was time to put it all back, I could swear the pile got bigger, not smaller. Go figure. Recycled most of the sandwich baggies to the kitchen, and some to the Lab. It feels good to get that done, but also kind of silly, and I'm sure there were better uses of time, but what the heck.

 

Beloved Hubby was home early, so I got to stick to the menu - meatloaf and mashed potatoes. Kind of a heavy meal when it's 102 degrees outside, but we were taking it easy in the evening anyway. I've learned that simply planning dinner out a week ahead of time makes it a lot easier - no 8pm decisions on what anyone feels like eating, and I can make sure we have all the ingredients. Since Beloved is a man who'll pretty much eat what I put in front of him and Dearest will whine about whatever's served, it's easier on me, too.

 

While elements cooked, I had enough time to begin plotting my next embroidery. Figured I'd jazz up one of my old white t-shirts - the new ones are still in the hamper, waiting for a wash cycle. I already had the crown I bought a month or two ago in Brody's temp memory, so I grabbed some knit fabric and did a stitch-out first. So glad I did. I'm still not sure why, but the thread broke several times, and snarled, too. Guess I get to do another stitch-out before going for the shirt, darn it. Gonna make sure it's fixed before I wreck wearable clothing. Right now, though, it's late, and I do have a mostly-successful stitch out, so I'm gonna crash. And leftover mashed potatoes for breakfast !

 

Sometimes remaking something is just more fun !

 

Current Mood : Overheating

Current Image Notes : I wasn't much on the thick clear vinyl fairy test stitch as a window ornament, so I cut the ribbon and trimmed the edges with scrapbooking shaped scissors. Mostly to hide the Sharpie marks from where I drew the oval to cut it out earlier. It's a lot nicer as a bookmark !

 

The closest thing I did to anything all day was making a couple meals and chewing out Dearest Son. (sigh) I hate to do it, but...

 

Found Dearest Son's $$$ camera and several $$ Wii games on the floor, in the middle of the path from the front door through the living room, after numerous admonitions to never leave them there. I confess, I lost patience. He got a very long lecture about being responsible for his possessions and ours, and this time I laid it on the line. If he can't respect what he already has, and take care of it, or at least keep it from being damaged, he's certainly not getting more any time soon. In fact, until the day comes that I don't step on a piece of Lego, we weren't buying any more.

 

He cried, but I had to stand firm. He is waaay too old for his seeming belief that robot maids pick up all this stuff for him. We clean up nearly every night before bedtime, but he gets more and more slack about it, and when it's been an hour, I have to admit, I'm not eager to go crawlin' the carpet looking for more plastic. It's past time to put the responsibility for that where it belongs - on him.

 

His therapist suggested confiscating the left-out pieces, a long time ago. We tried that, of and on, for a while. I've had a box going for a month now, and he doesn't even miss what I've collected. Oh, he wants it when he sees it, but that only works for a day or two. Once he gets the box back for good cleanup behavior, it's only hours before we're back to Robot Maid status.

 

On the plus side, Embroidery Library sent me a slightly-belated birthday gift - my choice of either $10. off any design purchase, or 50% off any sets or designs. I think you know my plans... finding about $12. worth of whatever I want, then using the $10. coupon ! It'll probably take me a few days to decide... I love looking at everything when I have magic money to spend !

Sassafrassin' cheap Mal-wart crap !

Current Mood : Pretty happy !

Current Image Notes : Here's the good trial, the one I did with UltraSolvy. I have no idea what the difference is - same tension, same thread, same design, same machine. Only the stabilizer is different, and most others use it with no problems at all. Oh, well. Can always use the junk on towels and such. 

Spent on fabric : $1.93

Spent on dolls : 75c

Spent on embroidery organization : $2.16

Spent on embroidery experiments : $1.01

 

Since the Wii goes with Dearest Son to Granny and Granddad's lately, I get to skip doing the Fit on Saturdays. Which I think is good this week, I kind of needed the break. My back is fine sitting or driving, but standing for a long time - like during today's shopping spree - requires frequent stretches and involves occasional pain. Guess my body's adjusting still. If the Wii is here, though, my brain nags at me to hop on the board and get my workout for the day until I do it. A mind is a terrible thing when it nags.

 

I had lots of fun today. Returned the shirt to Mal-Wart (see if I allow anything labeled ‘Contour Fit' in the same zip code as me again !) and stopped at Game Stop. After the Wall-e debacle, I'd promised to get Dearest Son a new game. He was interested in the Petz Dogs one - kind of a pet sim game - but I read reviews this morning, and it didn't seem as though he'd enjoy it as much as we thought. But I was willing to try, and since renting it for a week is $8., ya may as well buy the thing. At Game Stop, it was $20. new, $18. used. (sigh)  Is it just me, or does it seem as though there should be a greater divide between new and used...?

 

Beloved handed me two of ‘his' games that he never plays, and that neither Dearest nor I play either, and asked me to see if Game Stop was buying. They were. I got $15. for the two of them... and found ‘Hotel for Dogs : The Game' in the Used section - $18. ! No new ones. So I got it almost free, and can't wait for him to see it when he comes home tomorrow. And I ditched the Wall-e game. I am sooo glad we didn't buy that one, new or used.

 

Hit the flea market, but it wasn't much. My favorite cheap doll seller wasn't there, but the car set lady - Brenda - was, so we chatted a bit. Kind of a washout this week. Hardly any vendors. They filled less than half the usual space. Spent a big 75c - on a bag of misc. doll clothes, a perfume or bubble six-inch Disney Princess Snow White, and a tiny Dawn dress. I've always wondered if Dawn clothes would fit the Musical Princess line. They do - like they were made for them. You'll get photos soon, promise !

 

From there, I stopped in at Big Lots, since I hadn't been there in months. Scored some leftover July 4^th tacky bead necklaces, but I'm a sucker for stars. And at least they were half-price. Found a pretty green binder with sliding - not snapping - binder rings inside. Since the design print out binder I was using had only one flaw, a gap in the middle of the center ring, it made sense to buy this one, guaranteed not to gap or catch. Plus, it was green and two bucks. And I found a TV series on DVD that Beloved likes for just $6. - a whole season ! - so I snagged that for him. He nodded off on the sofa watching it.

 

And since Hobby Lobby was across the street, and I'd printed out a 40% off coupon, I decided to go. Got the first all-black t-shirt I've ever owned, to embroider on. Seriously. I have a selection of black pants and jeans, but I never wear black shirts. I never liked black as a kid, and I'm only coming to peace with it now as an adult. I'm thinking of embroidering that crown design I got as a freebie from EmbroideryDesigns.com, and adding a lace collar. On me, black near my face just makes me look grey and tired, so a bit of white near my face should help.

 

Also grabbed a cotton tiny-flowers remnant, and a bit of balsa to embroider. The remnant's flowers are small enough to use even on the Snow White doll I bought today, and the balsa wood... OK, I admit it, I read a tutorial on UrbanThreads.com about stitching designs on thin balsa, and I wanna try it. Only problem is, I got the stuff that's too thick, so I'll have to go back for the right size. When I do, I'll have another coupon, and I'll probably keep snagging white shirts in my size to stitch on, ‘til I run out of cash, coupons, or clothes to buy. I'm planning on a very festive and colorful year.

 

Got home, soaked with sweat and weary with heat, and unpacked the goodies. Snow White is adorable, and the baggie of Barbie clothes was mostly Kelly outfits. That was fine - since the blouses and skirts made for Kelly fit Snow pretty well, too ! A baby bonnet for a larger doll became a dress for Snow - I just need to alter it permanently - and I had fun dressing her in Kelly's skirts and shirts. There was a weird fur rug in the baggie, a blouse for a larger doll, a Perfect Pets bandanna, evidently for a toy dog, and some mismatched My Scene feet and odd plastic pets of some sort, but I got my quarter out of that bag, for sure ! Wrapped and taped the bandanna around the ‘Hotel for Dogs' game, and it's propped up waiting for Dearest to come home. And the Dawn doll dress fits Snow as though it were made for her. So I'll have to try that scan of Dawn designs I have. I'm sure my collection would like something besides gowns to wear !

 

That all lead to an extended eBay visit, where the don't-have-one Ariel doll in that size is still about $20. or so, the similar-size dolls (Starr Modeling Agency, Dawn, Pippa, Family Corners, Rock Flowers, etc.) are about the same price, and the clothes and especially shoes, are still too expensive. So I printed out a page of Dawn patterns I've had for a while, and studied them a bit. You may be seeing a few soon...

 

Sometimes, I like it when things are too pricey for me, or the price is about what it always is, I just don't wanna pay it. It engages my creative gears !

Getting stuff done's not always fun...but at least it is done !

 

Current Mood : All snitty at the WSS

Current Image Notes : You can see where the 'lace' doesn't quite meet the edges. Not good. The blue inset is the way it's supposed to look, image stolen from the place I bought the design from. 

Wii Fit : 32 minutes

 

Well, the new water-soluble stabilizer ranks. It just does. Keeping the tension and everything the same since last night's successful UltraSolvy test did not help the Mal-Wart stuff at all. Had to stop about mid-way through, same place as Trial #2, since it was too far off registry to complete. Again. It would have been a waste of thread and time to continue. Raised the tension and tried one more time on another cut of the crap. It looked better, but was still screwed up. Just crapped out further along in the design this time. (sigh) I can always use it as a ‘topping' when I sew towels, but otherwise, as far as I'm concerned, it's pretty useless.

 

I may snag some no-slip shelf liner next time I go to Dollar Tree, and wrap a narrow strip of it along the sides of the hoop, see if that helps. But if it doesn't, it's scrap. Tired of wasting thread and effort on it.

 

Finally got Beloved Hubby's coat fixed. It'd developed a tear along the pocket, and the lining was sewn down. So I used a ‘football' stitch - weave back and forth along the inside, trying not to catch the visible side, then once it's done, pull it tight - and it mostly worked. At least it's not a gaping hole anymore.

 

I've been meaning to fix that jacket since, oh, January or so. It got stashed in his truck, then brought in with the other sweatshirts and such a few weeks ago. Surfaced again when I finally got close to the bottom of the huge pile of dirty laundry. I would have put it off some more, but I know me too well. I stuffed it in a laundry basket and put the basket just inside the Lab door. Every time I went in or out, I had to squeeze past it. It's too easy to put stuff off when it's not in your way ! So I put it in my way, on purpose. And it's done now.

 

Chinese delivery for dinner ! It feels like a reward...