Glad I have sooo much else to do - I need the time now !

Current Mood : snotty

 

 

Spent on (glittery blue with stars) fabric : $3.17

Spent on mini-DPrincess coloring book : $1.08

 

Current Image Notes -  this time, the car is on the right shoulder !

 

Well, while I haven't officially been booted off the SiCK group forum, I've been accused of attacking the person who's really gotten a kick out of disagreeing with me on every post I've written, and I've let it slide... but they can't seem to just let me get away with doing the same thing once, so I'm done there. I was wasting too much time anyway. At least I took my say (I didn't ‘have' my say, I bloody well know I took it) and I explained myself well enough so that only an English major can possibly misunderstand. If she thinks that was an attack, I wish she could have read my first draft ! I spent over two hours writing and editing what I sent, gentling every word I could so as not to rile anyone up, but still have the verbal huevos to say that not everyone agrees here, or even has to. (sigh) Tired of yelling at a series of brick walls. They can all nod and agree with each other that their way is the One True Way from now on, I'm done. Last thing I need is evangelical fundamentalist fervor in embroidery.

 

It's just a shame, because I got several private notes applauding my little stand, messages from members who don't feel as though they can disagree with anyone without creating problems or getting banned. Which is exactly why I said what I did. I hate to leave ‘em without anyone to stand, but I had to learn to defend m'self, and I'm sure they'll get het up enough sooner or later to either leave or fight, too. My mind ain't big enough to give them the piece of it they might need. And my life's too crowded with stuff I wanna do with people I love to dedicate any more time to jerks who thinks Free Speech ends when they close their mouths or computers down.

 

Sayonara, SiCKies !

 

The whole business has made me mull over my past with groups, forums, chat rooms, etc. It always starts out the same, I feel lucky and happy to have found like-minded individuals I can learn from, share with, and maybe even help out. But a few months later, I can identify the ‘site stars', and I know who Those Who Must Never Be Challenged are. I start to get disillusioned, and I don't want to go, but I also don't feel warm and welcome there, either. I've enjoyed being ‘me' too long to subsume that for anyone.

 

Sooner or later, one of the Inner Circle says something that's just beyond outrageous to me, usually along the lines of ‘everyone here's just like me, and I think this way, and so does everyone !' and I usually mutter that I'm a different animal altogether, and it's stagnating to think everyone here is the same. Can't there be more than one opinion welcome here ? Next thing I know, I'm getting private notes saying how awesome I am for saying something, and I'm being publicly read the riot act for being such a meanie. I should know it's all just opinion - and I can keep my contrary one to myself. Not even gonna get into how despotic it is - one member can spray their opinion all over the board, but another can put up and shut up if they wanna stay - but it'd be dirt simple to. No matter how politely phrased it is, I'm the problem child, because I'm always outside the Circle. I either got there too late, don't have enough money/dolls/correct opinions, or don't do what everyone else does too often to ever be inside it. Happened on Prego, happened on Etiquette Hell, and a couple others.

 

Or, I keep my mouth shut and wander off, feeling unconnected to the world for a while, and useless  - and it isn't long before the group's down to the Circle and hangers-on and/or cronies. Beloved Hubby's calling this group ‘SiCKophants'. It's a shame I've let it happen more than once, and if I let it happen again, I'm dumber than this whole situation. If I take nothing more than this one thing away from the whole perishing mess, let it be this - if you gotta disagree with The Group, then just go away. Faster, easier, and less traumatizing on the ole self-esteem.

 

Anyway... I'm a bit behind on the ‘sew every day' thing. I actually spent last night's planned sewing time crafting my message to the group, which was dirt stupid. Hopefully I can catch up tomorrow. I got a couple more t-shirts on sale during the grocery run, and even found a nice blue one for Dearest Son's friend. Actually ended up getting three different shades of blue, since Dearest doesn't have much of that color embroidered - yet !  Just gotta run ‘em through the wash.

 

Can't wait to sew tomorrow !

I just can't stand intolerance...

Current Mood : On the slight buzz off one of my little crusades...

Current Image Notes : This car is on the shirt's lower left side. I like to mix it up a bit. Dearest Son'll wear yesterday's image on Aug. 24^th, and today's on the 25^th , and so on for that first week. And I'm still going !

 

Beloved Hubby called in sick today - turned out for the best, the job wasn't ready for him, and if he hadn't called, he'd have driven 40 min. each way for nothing. So we kinda goofed around, paid a couple bills, ran some errands. Got to go to Dollar Tree, and scored six t-shirts. Five for Dearest Son, one for his friend's younger brother. I've decided to do name shirts for each of them, just as soon as I can. They didn't have red or blue in Friend's size, so I'll probably pick one up at Mal-Wart, when I do groceries tomorrow.

 

Got another container of ‘body butter', this one with green floral graphics on the jar sides. Not much on the ‘gardenia' scent - the pink ‘rose' one is nicer - but it fades fast enough. I like how soft it makes my skin, but really I want the container for doll furniture. Or notions storage. And since the last La Cross set of tweezers were so good, I got a second pair for the Lab. And another eyelash/eyebrow brush. It works great on the air conditioner's filter when it's time to clean it, so I got a fresh one for my dolls. Took a Sharpie to the handle of the old one, so I can tell ‘em apart. It wouldn't do to use the same one on the quickly-dirty filter and my lovely dolls !

 

Once home, I got two loads of laundry going - and found a spider in my bra. (shudddddder) I'm still mildly creeped out. It's a harmless bold jumping spider, but since it came out of the lingerie drawer and onto me, I'm a bit nervous about going back through that drawer again.

 

Opened up the ‘Blandness Girl' toy cell phone - inside is another Barbie sticker, this time with the ‘Benign Girl' legend in the Barbie font. It plays something that sounds like a dolphin, some sort of gibberish, a sped-up clip of Smile.dk's "I'm Your Little Butterfly", which sounds a lot like Aqua's ‘Barbie Girl', and a shrill ring. The three button-cell batteries fit in an easily opened compartment that's drilled for a safety screw, but there wasn't one. The permanently attached neck cord has no safety breakaway, either, and it won't fit around my melon head. Currently, it's an audio torture device for Beloved. But with some paint, a daub of glue, and an emptied thread spool, I could see it easily becoming Barbie's new bidet. Flipped open, it sort of has a toilet-like appearance.

 

Haven't been over to the SiCK site or forum in days. It's kind of funny - I felt so connected and even wanted and possibly needed over there, and now I feel shut out again. The ‘only use name brand products with your embroidery machine' contingent is still beating folks about the head and shoulders, spreading false rumors that using dryer sheets as stabilizer will void warrantees and sneering at anyone who dares say they do something different. One denizen even said, ‘If you have the money for an embroidery machine, then you have the money for decent supplies !'. Just like that.

 

And wouldn't you know it, it's the same person who always disagrees with me on other threads. You know, other threads where I mention that I use dryer sheets as stabilizer. So I calmed down, thought it over, and decided that this time, I'd engage rather than just slink off. Much the same happened with the About.com' s doll forum - I was happy there until one guy said how much he hated ‘big eye' 80s dolls. Most of the group agreed with him how terrible and awful and just sheer ugly those dolls always were and always would be, how could anyone even like such awfulness even a bit ? Too bad that, at the time and still today, those were among my favorites. There was a lot else going on with me at the time, but that was the straw that sank me. I slunk away without a word, withdrew from everyone there, and soon felt like there was no place for me even among the ‘weirdo adults who play with dolls' groups. It was months before I felt anything other than sub-human. Not the guy's fault, of course, but I never have trusted a group of anything since. It only takes one opinion, stated as fact, to change more than I'd ever expected.

 

And now it's the SiCK forum's turn. But I could at least be civil, and not turn this into a confrontation. Surely, I said, there was room for more than just one way to do things ! Declaring that ‘if you have money for A, you have money for B' rather presumes a lot - and you know what they say about assuming. Basically, I kinda spanked anyone who agreed that using X instead of Y was a bad idea without trying it first, and mentioned that no one should get looked down on for recycling instead of buying - because it's all up to the individual's choice, nothing more. I also encouraged ‘em to read their own bloody manuals instead of accepting ‘I heard blah, blah, bleh' as fact. We'll see how it goes. I'm rather proud of me for standing up for myself and not taking the veiled insults and leaving. Nope, they're welcome to keep them, I don't want ‘em and won't carry them. If that gets me run off the group, then I'm glad to be gone. Intolerance curdles my everything.

I guess it was inevitable...

Current Mood : A bit weird, really. 

 

Confession time : I didn't embroider yesterday. Not sure why, it was a truly beyond lazy day, but I totally lacked any motivation to get in and stitch. So today, I did two smaller ones - a redwork (like an outline in one color) VW Beetle from the Chinese site and a pair of crossed racing flags. Not sure where those came from. The VW stitched up nicely, but the flags went off registry and needed quite a bit of touch-up with that ultra-fine Sharpie.

 

At least I'm back on track, and I really missed embroidering yesterday. Glad I took the break, though. I'm planning on doing the pirate one this week - but first, I need to find about eight more shirts. Guess I'm going to Dollar Tree tomorrow ! I've also figured out the best way to re-use all those stabilizer scrips and scraps, and get them to stay stable while I'm hooping ‘em. I actually tape ‘em to the shirt, loosely hoop ‘em from the wrong side, then turn the shirt right side out and adjust the hoop so it follows the grain. Since masking tape's holding the pieces down under a single fresh layer of stabilizer, I can move the hoop around ‘til it's right, then snug it together, and remove the tape. Makes me happy to get the most out of my already-used-once dryer sheets, when I can use ‘em ‘til they're gone !

 

I was watching an auction for a Modern Art in good shape, but it closed at $131., well over my limit. Oh, well. That just means I still have my cash for some other little indulgence ! It might take a while to find one, though, since I've barely had time to play with Gene. Took her hair down today, and it is so beautiful. I kept the little side pieces and tied them behind the rest of the fall, and she looks much softer.

 

Speaking of indulgences, we gave in and we'll have cable this time next week. Since it's from our internet provider, we got a bit of a discount, so it's not so much. We already spend about that on DVDs, rentals, and such every month, and we'll get a digital recorder in the deal. I'm looking forward to it, but I've gotten so weaned from television, I'm not sure I'll use it much. We also get digital radio channels, so I'm hoping the comedy and music will also be something nice to have. It'll almost be like having the satellite radio back. 

 

I guess it was inevitable that we'd have TV again. I'm kind of excited, kind of sad. I've gotten so used to the quiet, but I know I'll be addicted to the tube again, since there's about 80 more channels now than there were last time we had it. (sigh) Life changes in odd ways sometimes. 

Just wish I could get Gene to smile, just a little bit...

 

Current Mood : Still amazed, still very lazy.

Current Image Notes : Here's yesterday's haul - dolls, clothes and all ! I head-swapped the beautiful-makeup Jasmine head to my other Jasmine body, then found a replacement body for that Jasmine head. And found her a new home already. Lovely when things work out. 

(laugh) I almost gave my 'new' Jasmine a word balloon, reading 'Rock me, Amadeus !', because that was my first reaction to this Ken's clothes !

 

Well, we didn't go anywhere, but I still didn't get jack done. Brushed out Gene's hair, and found that the pink ribbon is still sewn in. I'm wondering if I remove the ribbon, will the front twists remain ?  Because I like those.

 

Shortly after I took the photo, one of the bead and sequin decorations on Gene's top fell off. Since the back was already missing a similar bead, and a snap-half had to be reattached, there was no time like the present to fix it. I found the sequin and bead, but the bead broke while I was reattaching it. Luckily for me, I have a ton of various crafting supplies from dozens of sale and second-hand sources. A few minutes of digging through the jewelry findings box, and I had similar glass replacements. I had to use a small bit of folded leftover interfacing to sew the snap back in - the lining of Gene's top had torn where the snap went. But it was soon all fixed and back on.

 

When we went shopping together yesterday, Beloved Hubby found a small star-shaped mirror for just a few bucks. I'm thinking of going back for it, and attaching it to Gene's trunk, or possibly the Star Wall.

 

I also perused some of my older doll magazines. When this particular Gene doll came out, in 1999, her issue price was $50. The Hi Fi outfit, dating to '98, was $35., and the 1997 Tango costume was $40. The only reference I could find for the trunk said it was $70. ! Wow. It's also kind of funny to me that the clothes are older than the doll !

 

Reason # 2 I keep going to that same flea market...

Current Mood : Jubilation !

Spent on dolls : $18.

Current Image Notes : Here's the 'Dorrie' from the Star Wars font I've had and the 'Star City' from the vector image - I used Stitch Era Universal to create both - wow. Joined a SEU group, and they told me the various ways I could improve my designs... and i seem to have lost interest. I'm sure it'll be back later, but between today's big find and the August Challenge, I've had my mind on other things ! 

 

OMG ! I still can't believe this morning, and it's almost tomorrow already !

 

Busy, busy day. Dearest Son's best friend's birthday party is today, a day he's normally with his grandparents. Since DFIL pulled a weekend shift today, if Dearest was going, I had to get him, stay at the party,  and take him either home or back to their house. An hour, round trip, both before and after the party. And I already had a full slate of stuff - back-to-school shopping to finish up, a return to TRU to do, and the usual Saturday stuff. Plus a shirt to embroider, to keep up with the August Challenge.

 

But his best friend's a good kid, and I promised to do my best so he could go. So, I hit the ground running this morning. Beloved Hubby was home today - Shop work - and he asked me to snag breakfast. Since I actually slept for about five hours last night (not in a row, but close enough), I figured it was doable. But first, the Flea Market !

 

Yeah, it seems dead silly to go every week. How much can possibly change when most of it is the same sellers, over and over ? Well, there's always new booths, and today, I really benefited. Scored a Prince Ken doll and a beautiful Jasmine face on a wrecked body for a buck each, and picked up a knockoff Wall-e wallet for Dearest.

 

I'm also the proud owner of a brand new ‘Blandness Girl' toy cell-phone. A quick bit of background. Ya'll know I love Chinese knockoffs. The fractured English alone is always good for a few giggles, and the products are often half-decent and dirt cheap. Couple years ago, several of us copyright violation fans found ‘Benign Girl' cell phones and toys. Clearly, they were Barbie knockoffs, even utilizing a Barbie font - and really, if you look fast or don't really understand English, in the right font, ‘Benign' can look like ‘Barbie', especially if there's an authentic Barbie doll sticker on it. I can only assume that someone knocking off today's find saw some of them, looked up ‘Benign' and extrapolated ‘Blandness' from that. According to the package, it's ‘Battery Operated Creative Various Music' and is a ‘Talking phone  / Different languages or melody for your choice / Real telephone sound'. I wanna take a few photos before I open it up and see what different languages lurk within. While it has generic princess graphics on the cardboard backing, the pink and white phone itself has a blonde, short-haired Barbie sticker on the front. The font this time is a Disney one.

 

But, amazing as it is, Blandness Girl is not the source of the repeated OMGs. Saw some doll hair and went to investigate a new seller... who had a lovely Simply Gene redhead doll and some clothes in a Gene trunk. I've been off-and-on interested in Gene since a year or two before Elphie joined us in Chez Insanity. I loved the 40s theme and the lovely clothes - if not the big-ticket prices and the ‘perfect princess angel' theme of her backstory. Clearly Mel Odom, is in love with his creation. I've been known to joke that the reason most of her shoes tie on to her feet is because if they didn't, she'd float out of them. No character as perfect as Gene trods the filthy earth with the rest of us mortals ! I also hated her eyelash to eyebrow blue makeup.

 

Still, this doll was lovely, and darn near perfect. I still had most of my $20. - it couldn't nearly be enough to get her, though. Could it ? So I asked. ‘Ten bucks okay ?' she replied. TEN BUCKS ! I couldn't get my wallet out quick enough. But still, I knew I'd feel guilty for paying so little - the doll was $40. to $50. new. The one dress I saw was at least $40., and the case was another $60. And it was all in great shape, too. So I found a Bettie Page sticker I thought Beloved would like and asked her if I could give her what was in my wallet. I thought I was gonna float out of my shoes as she handed me everything, case and all, and happily took the $16. I had. Wheee ! She'd been given the doll as a gift, but never liked her, and was glad to see her head off to an appreciative home. I just hope the giver never finds out what little I paid !

 

I paid for breakfast with my check card. Once home, I found that the trunk had all the Certificates of Authenticity, except for the case itself. The pink dress was called ‘Tango', and it had the net crinoline and hosiery. Lurking in a drawer was ‘Hi Fi', a lovely casual outfit I'd always wanted to try on Elphie. Gene herself still wore the bra and shorts she'd come in, and her hair remained in the factory set. Her stand was there, too, and while all the little props were AWOL and I had one left shoe to ‘Tango' and one right shoe to ‘Simply', they were different colors of pink, with different ribbons and arrangements, she was darn near perfect, and so was the case. Wow. Hopefully tomorrow, Elphie and Fiyero will get to meet the new girl moving in - today was too busy for much doll play. I still haven't brushed her hair ! But she's wearing ‘Hi Fi' now.

 

Picked up Dearest, and we headed to the party. Surprisingly, he was quite outgoing today, and wanted to skate - party was at the rink, 1pm. So I ended up strapping on some rental skates and leading him a bit. We played a few games, had cake and ice cream, and his friend enjoyed the gift we got him, a DVD of Wall-e. Since it was a joint celebration for his friend and his brother, I was happy they'd both get to enjoy it. In fact, his brother told me that their cousin had the movie, but never let them watch it. So he couldn't wait to tell him they had their own. The cake was delicious, too.

 

As we were getting ready to go, my cell rang. DFIL was off work, could he swing by the rink and pick up Dearest ? Oh, yes ! So that worked out great. It was a fun party, and I'm very glad everyone had a great time and that I got off my butt to get him there. I was gonna get back on my errands when Beloved called - the watercolors were sold out at Hobby Lobby, so I could save my time and a trip there. Since TRU was right by Michael's, where Beloved wanted to go, if I just came home, we could go together, and grab a late lunch/early dinner. Cool !

 

Once we were home again, we had about an hour before we had to pick up Beloved's friend from work - so I crashed on the sofa, waking up just in time to get dressed and grab my purse. Whew ! By the time that was done, and the Redbox movies were returned, it was 9pm. I frittered a bit, and got to embroidering. I save the quick-to-stitch designs for days like today. Came out nice, though. I think I'm gonna do the elaborate ‘Boy Pirate' design I bought from Embroidery Library tomorrow, since I don't think I'm going anywhere.

Sewing, not hunting...

Current Mood : Beyond tired and into snarly.

Current Image Notes : Here's the playline Wonder Woman doll I got last week at the Flea, wearing the Deluxe Quick Curl dress I can never refuse. Diana got a Glitter Hair body to replace her wrecked semi-bendy one, and I think she looks wonderful. Yesterday, you got to see my lovely Christie, bought at the same time. It's amazing what I find for a dollar sometimes...

 

I'm rather pleased with m'self that, for the first time since this whole ‘machine embroidery' obsession began, I've gone a week without needing to back up my designs. Seriously, I thought about what I wrote yesterday and looked it up - I haven't bought or even downloaded anything since my last backup on 07/31. True, there've been a few times when I didn't back up, but I should have, since I'd either purchased several or downloaded dozens free since the last save. But, nope. Nothing new.

 

Of course, that's because I'm too busy stitching out what I have to stay online all day looking. Still keeping up with the ‘embroidery every day' challenge - today one of Dearest Son's older t-shirts got a lovely ray-backed star, and for a freebie I didn't stitch out first, it looks fantastic. I used a nice golden yellow for the rays and a bright red for the star. Looks great on a black shirt - I'll have to use that on one of mine soon.

 

Luckily, I'm getting faster at hooping. Start to finish, today's design only took an hour. It helped that the sewing itself took only ten minutes ! But even with multiple hoop repositioning and angling the stabilizers, it still doesn't take nearly as long as it used to. I'm even reusing scrap bits of stabilizer, which I used to avoid employing, due to the slippage. Now I just tape the edges of the stuff to the back of the shirt, hoop it loosely, position it correctly (the big time sink of the whole endeavor), then remove the tape and snug up the hoop. Does it surprise you that, when I can, I reuse the tape, too ? (embarrassed grin)

 

I was really late starting it today, too. For some reason, my insomnia's raging, and I don't know why. I'm scaling down my soda after lunch, making sure to take my ‘scripts, haven't needed the inhaler in days, there's nothing (new) bothering me, nothing's hanging over my head, and my days are pretty much what I want them to be, but I keep waking up in the night. Seems like I barely get to sleep before I wake up again. Been going like that since Tuesday. Today, I was a real grouch, impatient and snarky and ill-tempered. Kind of like most days, really - but Beloved Hubby noticed. And put me down for a nap and got Dearest ready for his grandparents while I rested. Of course, now it's midnight and I'm wide awake thanks to my two-hour nap, but I'm not so witchy now. Well... maybe I should say my inherent witchiness is at standard levels, not steadily ramping up like they were all afternoon.

Frittering the day away...

 

Current Mood : Lazy

 

Kind of a boring, quiet day. I sort of frittered around most of the day, looked at dolls and stuff online. Got the last of the ‘remote control car' shirts stitched today for Dearest Son - now I just have to decide what to stitch up for him between tomorrow and Aug. 20^th. I'll probably stitch some crossed racing flags on the front of today's shirt, since I put the design on the back. Brody has a simple version built-in. Or I can go for a more complex one, since I have about four different versions stored on the hard drive.

 

It feels quite good to actually use some of the thousands of designs I've amassed. Honestly, I've spent more time stitching than hunting, which is a good thing. When you look, you find, especially when you're hunting for stuff to buy. I don't need to spend any more money on designs, and that's the truth. But what's funny is, I haven't been looking for freebies, either. Just not that interested. And it is a lot more fun to chain m'self to Brody instead of the computer. I don't think I've downloaded anything in days now. Not even a single free design. Wonder how long I can keep that up...? Well, at least until someone, some company, shows me something irresistible. And cheap !

Dolls that can't sit - the ultimate fashion victims !

 

Current Mood : Improved

Spent on dolls : $5.38

 

I got to watch Barbie in A Christmas Carol on YouTube.com this morning. It was actually kind of cute. And surprising, because, while Barbie is Modern Barbie, complete with a Barbie pink Christmas tree in a Mattel-designed bedroom, she's also mean ole Eden. It's a Mattel production, and they hate portraying their golden girl in any sort of bad light. Guess that's why they have two separate voice actresses for Barbie and Eden.

 

As far as the animation... well, there's Pixar CGI, and Dreamworks CGI, and there's ‘toy ad CGI'. This is quite nice toy ad CGI, but it's still a toy ad. So hair doesn't move, physics are out the window, and everyone's a barely-animated two-by-four. And it's the familiar, yearly trod Christmas Carol, just tweaked for a Victorian diva set in a spotless London. The kind of London that, while it's snowing, people still throw open their windows, if they're not already open. I would have bought Christmas Present and Christmas Future dolls, if they'd been available. Christmas Past is pretty much every Malibu or Skipper doll you've ever owned. Especially the giggly ones.

 

Dearest Son back-to-school Shirt #4 got embroidered just before a huge, window-rattling thunderstorm opened up. Lucky ! We only lost power for a second, it came right back up. But I'm glad I had Brody turned off and unplugged. Who knows what those kinds of power surges could do to him ? I posted photos of my stitch-outs using Stitch Era Universal in three places now, and have yet to get any feedback from anyone. So it must be really bad. I rather liked it, and didn't think I did that awful a job...Oh, well. Other people's opinions are not really any of my business, unless I choose to make them so.

 

Took Dearest Son out to Target - and I completely forgot to buy my monthly supply of rice crackers ! Maybe next time. We found his new backpack for school, and looked around a lot. All he needs now are shoes, the reviled Prang watercolors, and maybe a haircut, and he's ready. I found a markdown ‘Camp Rock' guy doll - for $5., I got his outfit and a director's chair. Goss, I love director's chairs. I'd about decided on a Ken ensemble, but this was more for less. True, the pants are rather tight on a Ken, but I can always resew the inseam, and powder his legs. Most Kens don't need to sit down anyway. Heck, the pants don't even allow the ‘Camp Rock' doll to sit, either.

 

This weekend's gonna be busy. Got Dearest's friend's birthday party, two shirts to embroider, the flea market, a run to TRU, a trip to Hobby Lobby, and I have got to start mucking out Dearest's room. May as well enjoy the week, since the weekend's spoken for !

I'm a mean, selfish old witch, and my already narrow philanthopy well is dry right now !

 

Current Mood : Bitter. And nursing it. 

Current Image Notes : The front of Dearest's Wall-e shirt. Ya get the back tomorrow - yaaay. 

 

So tired. For whatever reason, I didn't sleep well last night, so was draggin' all day. Had to pre-register Dearest Son for school, and I promised his friend's grandmother I'd pick them up for that, too - she's legally blind and can't drive. It wasn't until I got there that I realized I'd have to fill out the forms for both Dearest's friend and his sibling, for her - she couldn't read them. By the time I got to Dearest's forms, she'd already turned both hers in and was tapping the table a bit impatiently. (sigh) I also had to take them to a fast food restaurant on the way back to their place (no playdate today, sorry Dearest) even though we were going home for lunch. So I'm in a bit of a witchy mood, sorry. I'm glad I got to help someone today, but it took a quarter tank of gas in a car with no air conditioning in 101 degree weather, so I'm still in a mood.

 

But I got two more of his back-to-school shirts embroidered - one late Monday night, one this afternoon. Three down, two to go. I'm learning that bright colored shirts make for brighter embroidery, too. I'm getting better and faster at hooping them, and that's the point of the August Challenge. Just gotta find the ‘happy'. Tomorrow I do the very cute ‘racing in mud' car design, so that's fun to look forward to.

 

Oh, and check your Target, especially if you like the dress fabric used for the ‘Generations of Dreams' Barbie, but don't want the doll or her price tag. Target.com is showing it out of stock, but maybe it's in your store - an umbrella with the same ‘patchwork' print ! I'm hoping to hit ours this weekend, since I'll be in the area. Barbiecollector.com also shows it as a silk scarf, for $29. At 10" by 60", you could design your own ‘Dreams' Barbie dress !

 

There's also pink silhouette rain boots for $24. on the Target.com site. I'd include links, but they're darn near endless. Those never cut/paste well, and I'm too lazy for TinyUrl.com right now.

 

At least tomorrow, I just have housework and embroidery. No volunteer work. At least, not until Thursday, when I have to drive Beloved Hubby's friend to work again. (sigh) I'm just glad I get to rest a day first !

I love Kitty in Paris !

Current Mood : Okay. 

Spent on fabric remnants : $1.64

 

Finally got the grocery shopping done - on time and under budget. Dearest Son found that the Lego Star Wars set he's been pining for is on markdown at Mal-Wart, and he's hoping even harder now. Can't say I blame him, he gets that sales-hunt gene from me, after all. It's just funny to me that he may have trouble making change, but he understands a $17. price reduction means it takes fewer weeks to ‘save' up for it !

 

I found two great remnants - a purple star print and a tiny ‘vine' one in a sort of mulberry pink. And I had to restrain m'self from buying the very large $5. Hello Kitty coloring book. It was nearly two inches thick ! Mostly wanted it for embroidery design experiments, but I can find plenty online for free, really. I sometimes, though, just like coloring books...

 

School supply lists were finally out. All he needs now are new shoes, a new backpack (last two years' are barely serviceable for trips to his grandparents'), and those blasted Prang watercolors. Last year, I peeked ahead and saw that they didn't need ‘em in third grade, and I was so happy... oh, well. Maybe next year. And it's an excuse to go to Hobby Lobby, there's even a 40% off coupon this week. I just have no idea why the teachers keep requesting Prang when all the ‘regular' stores (Mal-Wart, Target, etc.) never have that brand. I'm still half-convinced it's some sort of ‘whose parent's gonna bust butt to find this obscure thing' test from the teachers...

 

It was kinda late when I finally got to sew. I'd been thinking earlier today (and the universe trembled in fear) that Dearest has no end of blank t-shirts. I'd pulled the larger ones from his closet for embroidery, so they wouldn't be outgrown a week or three after I sewed ‘em, but... I could use the practice. Hooping shirts, especially smaller ones, is a skill that's still a pain for me. So, what if, just for giggles, I embroidered a t-shirt a day for Dearest, from Aug. 01 ‘til school starts on the 20^th ? Since it'd be mostly for practice, it wouldn't matter if he outgrew ‘em quickly, and it's far better than stitching scraps and rags for the experience.

 

And going on from there, why not embroider something every day in August ? If I could keep the " ‘til school starts " challenge, it'd only be a few more days. And by the end of the month, I'd be darn near adept at embroidery on t-shirts. Or cards, or wood, or anything. I'd use some of the thousands of designs I've stored and backed up numerous times, and develop the skill ‘til I could do it with my eyes closed, almost.

 

Only one problem. It's already August 3^rd. Well, if I counted the Wall-e shirt as Saturday's, and the first remote control car shirt as Sunday's, I'd be up to date once I sewed today's. Yes ! So, here's the August Challenge - embroider a t-shirt a day for Dearest Son, starting on Aug 01 and ending Aug 20^th, and then finish out the month with ‘anything goes embroidery', something new stitched out every day. This is gonna be fun ! According to my design printouts, I tend to sew something every three days or so.

 

I know me, though. By the end of August, I'm gonna be dyin' to sew some bags, some clothes, some doll clothes - anything but embroidery for a while !