I'm in love with today's image - squeeeee !

Current Mood : Happily tired

 

Current Image Notes : Found this during a Halloween Image search. Isn't it adorable ?

 

Aside from drafting letters, which I can do later, I pretty much got everything done. Looked up local grocers' ads online, found a sale on Doritos, so Dearest is taking two bags for his party tomorrow. Nothing really at the thrifts, although I found a beanie-baby style Betty Boop doll - DFIL is a Boop fan, so I got her for him. Luckily, I had enough change in the car for her (she was only a buck) and my lunch-splurge. Bonus lucky - her price rubbed off the intact hang-tag without damaging it !

 

The local thrift had a couple of male dolls that were interesting, including one of the Flavas line. I may go back and get him, when time and funding are right. I wonder if I can scrub the tacky tattoos off his back...

 

The bathroom and our bedroom's a lot cleaner now. Still a lot of work to be done in both, but a bit more tidy is always better than a bit more wrecked ! One of us could actually take a tub-bath now, if we wanted to. I hate tub scrubbing, so it's been put off embarrassingly long, until today. It should get easier if I'm in there an hour a week - I hope ! There's maybe another half-hour of dishes to catch up, and then I can spend tomorrow cleaning off the dining room table, once again buried in Lego, junk mail, miscellaneous papers, and shopping bags. I find it really helps to get stuff done early - I forget that I've already done half the work when I go back to finish !

 

In late-breaking news, we've been invited to a Halloween party Friday. While Dearest is already well-costumed, Beloved Hubby and I are foraging for ours. Turns out he has pretty much all the makings of an Indiana Jones costume - including the hat - already. I wasn't quite sure what to do with me, until I was tidying up our bedroom. Where the Princess Leia hat-wig resides. Hmmm.... No real time for a long white dress, and I'd just feel silly in one anyway. But... what if I just go with the hat-wig, a white shirt, jeans, and my grey sweatshirt-jacket. Can always say I'm going as ‘Leia's day off'. Potential here. Skylarking a bit further, I thought it'd be fun to add the Rebel Alliance symbol to my jacket, since I'd been trying to decide what to put on my otherwise blank jacket for a long time anyway.

 

Unfortunately, Clone Wars is getting all the attention, so there was no ready-made Rebel Alliance ‘starbird' logo embroidery design. Plus, even if there was, I wouldn't have $20. for a licensed version, and I'd hate to spend $5. on a bootleg. Sounds like a challenge to me ! Thanks to Google Image Search, I soon had a good representation of it, and Stitch Era Universal digitized it in about ten minutes. I then did it again in the right size - I'd neglected to update the correct setting. (headbonk) Well, at least I have a one inch by one and a half inch doll-size version of the logo now. And, while messing around with stitch patterns, I figured out how to make an appliqué of it ! Awesome - I've been trying to figure that out for weeks ! It's just a click-button away.

 

So. I now have my perfect Rebel Alliance logo, correctly sized in a smooth pattern of stitches, ready to go. I'll probably test it out tomorrow, if I don't get to later tonight, and stitch it out soon after, if it's good. And later on, play with the appliqué one. You gotta love costuming an entire family for $40. (which is what we spent on Dearest's ‘Deluxe Anakin Skywalker') . And, as Beloved pointed out, we're even a theme - we're all Lucasfilm characters.

 

I never thought I'd finally get to be Leia on Halloween... I mean, when I wasn't in 1978, I didn't think I ever would ! 

 

Laundry and dishes... and there went my day !

 

Current Mood : A little rushed. 

Current Image Notes : Did this up yesterday, with some fabric Beloved Hubby's Grandmother gave me. I erased the original design's eyelashes, which went past her bangs before curling up ! 

 

Busy day, not a very artistic one. I've devised a prototype schedule for next month, and I'm sort of testing it out this week. Problem is, I'm so far behind, it takes two days to do what I have one scheduled for. Like the laundry. It's all done, all washed, dried, and put away, except for a half load of black clothes. Used every coat-hanger in the house to do it, and even raided the My Size Barbie and Baby Crissy closet for as many as I could liberate. Even then, I culled a few outgrowns from Dearest Son's closet and tucked two shirts into his weekend-with-Grandparents bag to make it work. It's a great glow of achievement, but I'm also dirt-tired, and my arms hurt.

 

I also squeezed in an hour's worth of dishes, which will have to continue tomorrow. But Wednesdays are sort of lightly planned anyway, so I should be able to catch up.

 

I've learned a couple important things so far - if I set the timer for a half-hour and bust butt on whatever housework I'm doing, I can get a lot done ! And the closer I get to finishing, the longer I wanna work, to get it done.  Bonus round - if I give myself something to look forward to, I'm happy to bust butt, and don't have that ‘guilt' for doing something special for m'self. In my mind, I've already ‘earned' it.

 

Beloved Hubby wrote our ‘introduction letter' to the local home-schooling Yahoo group tonight. I'd been meaning to, but got stymied when I read the invitation to a Halloween party. It requested that everyone bring an organic, gluten-free, sugar-free, peanut-free, milk/dairy-free treat to share. After reading that list, my first thought was, ‘I can bring plates or water - but they probably won't like the plastic bottles the water comes in, or non-compostable plates. Maybe I should go with air.'. Yes, I know I'm being snarky, but it started me worrying, and the end result was that I never wrote the intro. Now that he's done it, he's started looking around the messages, and I think he's starting to worry.

 

Anyway, while I'm out tomorrow, I'm gonna grab some chips for Dearest's last school party Thursday. While it's sooooo tempting to let someone else provide for once, I know how few parents actually participate.  Which always astounds me - when Brytiannney and Koele come home with two treat bags, three cupcakes, and a bag of Doritos, where do their parents think all those treats came from, especially when they didn't contribute ? Oh, well. His school will get the ‘we're homeschooling' notification letter Friday, and it'll cease to be a concern on 01 November 09.

 

I also have to draft that letter, and the ones to his bus driver and monitor. And fix Dearest's ‘Jedi' belt. It's a good thing I got a lot of work done today -  and some fun embroidery done yesterday - ‘cause I'm not sure how I'm gonna get all this done in a day !

School days, school days...coming to an end for Dearest Son days...

 

Current Mood : Slightly piqued. 

 

Finished both of these yesterday, about three hours apart. They went pretty well, stitching only took a bit over an hour for each, but they both had the same error - the bottom fender outline stitching doesn't quite meet the bottom fender. First one wasn't too bad, so I simply didn't wash out the UltraSolvy stabilizer. Second one was so bad, it ripped out the USolvy, so I glued it together. Had to keep from fussing with it all night, so I weighted it down. I'm the worst for fussing with a craft when it's supposed to be drying or somesuch.

 

But I learned a lot. Since I decided to stitch these with the overall orange color in the bobbin, and switch it over to black when the top thread switched to black, too, I discovered that I can fill up a bobbin in between colors without removing the embroidery deck. Before, I thought I had to, but I did it twice today -those bobbins emptied quickly ! Luckily for me, Brody's bobbin case is see-through if the fabric is, and a small flashlight helps keep track of darker thread usage.

 

And, in keeping with bobbins, I also discovered that I have to leave the needle up when winding ‘em. Or else, they don't wind right, and the thread bunches up in a pile at the bottom. The manual doesn't specify up or down, had to learn it the hard way.

 

Emptied my first spool of embroidery thread - a Mettler one of white - on this project. Couple months back, I emptied my first spool of bobbin thread. Pretty soon, those things will be more of an annoyance ("Blast it, now I gotta buy more - and there's no sales this week !") than an achievement. But for now, I'm enjoying having and using so many great supplies.

 

I also neglected to put my cutting mat back on my cutting table when I finally cleaned it off last week. So, when it came time to hoop up the UltraSolvy, I naturally went right for the cutting table. Hmf. A cutting table with the cutting mat removed and stored nearby is good for much more than just cutting fabric !

 

And finally, the ongoing fear of the Solvy or other water-soluble stabilizer tearing while it's being stitched on is often interpreted as excitement in machine embroidery. It's also a good creative thinking and problem-solving exercise when it does start to pull a bit. I came up with about 30 ways to try to fix the bus fender separation problem before I just decided to Gorilla Glue it. It may turn out that glue was a bad idea. But ya never know ‘til you try.

 

It's been a day, and you can tell where the glue is on the second one. (sigh) I colored it in with Sharpies, but it still shows. I may add a bit to the other, so it doesn't look as bad. It's separated on the first one too, just not as badly.

 

I also played with some designs, including one I bought this weekend. The Barbie-like silhouette appliqué one had l-o-o-o-o-ng eyelashes. A bit too long for my taste. So I removed them, and now it really looks like Barbie -with bangs and a crown. I like it ! Maybe later, I'll see if I can remove the crown. And, since the owner/moderator of In The Pink is still ill, I tweaked it to include the site's name, and saved it as a separate version. After I do a test stitch-out, I'll make up a nice one for her, and mail it off. I wanted to modify my older Barbie silhouette for that, but I like this one better. Just wish I'd already had the design in time for the big group box going off this week, but that's life !

Gifts from Tiffany

 

Current Mood : Brain-strained. We're working on Dearest Son's upcoming home studies. 

 

Played a bit with Tiffany Taylor today. Showed Dearest Son how her hair worked, and he exclaimed, ‘Now she's blonde like me !'. I was glad to see he knew that part of himself, and was happy with it.

 

As it turned out, Tiffany gave me another huge gift. Late last night, I was doing some research on her, for fun. What can I say, I'm not just a nerd, I'm a doll geek. I ended up looking at other 70s and 80s dolls, which is always fun. So many toy companies,  sadly, most that don't exist anymore. Personally, I was kind of morose when I heard Ideal had gone under. I know a guy who was upset when Kenner went bye-bye, since he didn't think new owner Hasbro would do a decent job on his beloved Star Wars toys.

 

So I guess it wasn't a surprise that I ended up reading about Mego's Candi, a doll nearly the same size as Tiffany. I'd seen one once, a long time ago in an antique shop, with a ghostly faded face, even though she was still in her box. The sight actually made me shudder a bit. I'd long cherished the idea that if a doll was NRFB, she'd always remain perfect, yet here was definite proof that wasn't true. I'd heard a lot about the Tiffany and Tuesday Taylor dolls, but I'd only ever seen photos. It's funny how half the time, the first time I ever see a doll in person, I usually end up owning her.

 

Anyway, reading about Candi led me back to www.crissyandbeth.com - she's a big fan of all those Crissy-sized dolls. And that's where I saw it. I still can't believe that mystery is solved. It's been somewhere in my mind since '02 !

 

That's when I bought a nearly-new copy of Johana Gast Anderton's Sewing for 20^th Century Dolls, Vol. II. It had lots of Crissy patterns in it ! One was right on the cover, a pretty faux button-front sundress in a feminine, soft plaid. As is my nature, I hunted around for a great price - and free shipping ! - and pounced. I don't think I had the book in my hands for ten minutes before I'd traced out the bodice of that sundress onto a sheet of paper, and cut it out of scrap cotton fabric.

 

Um. I was new to sewing, truly, but I had no idea how this bodice was gonna fit Crissy. The cut piece didn't even go all the way around her chest, unless I didn't sew the darts, the faux-front placket, or the facings. But, with the utter faith that a newbie has for an experienced, renowned expert, I figured that, when it was done, surely, it would fit. Nope. I re-read the directions, and drew the pattern again, even going a bit big on the cutting. Still didn't fit. Even a photocopy of the pattern, measured to be an exact match to the book simply didn't fit. Unless it was made out of cotton-look Lycra (which doesn't exist, elastic fabrics always have a certain sheen to them), I didn't see how, but I still believed...

 

I tried off and on for two years, utterly clueless as to how it fit the Crissy on the cover, but didn't come close to fitting any of my Crissy dolls. I had to be doing something wrong, but for the eternal life of me, I couldn't figure out what. I did note that the book doll had her feet crammed into shoes that fit a smaller Crissy-family doll, and that Ms. Anderton said the dress she used to create the pattern was an original tagged fashion found on a red-haired Crissy. Um, they're all red-haired...if the doll is blonde or brunette, she has a different name. I re-read the directions, to make sure I wasn't supposed to enlarge the design, or something... but it was always the same as the first time.

 

After a while, I gave up, but I always kept my eyes open. I went through every page of Beth Colvin's (formerly Gunter) Crissy site, looking for official Ideal outfits, or Sears ‘bonus' deals, or just plain knockoffs. I even checked McCalls and Simplicity patterns, and looked through Magic Hair Crissy's pages, too. Nothing. That dress seemed to exist only on the cover of Ms. Anderton's book. Once, in an eBay auction, I saw something similar, but the dress didn't seem much larger than the Barbie it was photographed next to.

 

So it was that, by getting Tiffany, I ended up exploring Candi - and that plaid sundress  turned out to be an official Mego dress for Candi, not Crissy's. And Candi, Magic Hair Crissy, and Tiffany all have much smaller torso figures than Crissy. It was never my fault the pattern didn't work ! Ms. Anderton evidently didn't notice that the ‘original tagged' dress read Candi, not Crissy. I still don't know how she got it to fit the Crissy on the cover, but at least now, I know.

 

I also learned a lot stitching up those two free-standing lace school buses today. But since this has already gone long, it'll keep ‘til tomorrow. Hope you had a great weekend !

Please meet 'Tiffany Taylor' !

 

Current Mood : Still happy ! Lucky, too !

Spent on embroidery designs : $3.59

Spent on doll environs : $2.

Spent on a doll : $1.

 

Since it's one of our legendary ‘poor' weekends, I stared things off by downloading ten new freebie embroidery designs, and four sewing patterns - two for dolls, one for Dearest Son, one for home decor. And after today, I only have the final letter to that appliqué alphabet. I wasn't eager to start collecting it, ‘cause there's a very good chance of missing a day, and I hate spending $5. for that one letter or a minimum purchase to get that one letter. But it's nearly over, and unless I miss the ‘Z' tomorrow, I got the whole thing. Actually, I don't think I'll cry much if don't get it, but I do like to have the flexibility of a whole set.

 

And then (embarrassed blush) I bought two designs. At least $3.59 was a cheap splurge ! Could actually count as three, since one design has two parts - a solid silhouette and a skin-tone one. It's very Barbie-like, sort of like a ‘Queen of the Prom' version. The other is a crystal ball / snowglobe, and those are so much fun ! Ordinarily, I'd have waited ‘til cash was flowing more towards us and less to others, but there was a 55% off sale, and I figured we could spare it.

 

Dearest Son really enjoyed Bricktopia - he made a super-cool blue and white Lego car and raced it with another kid. The other kid's went further, but Dearest's did a neat 180-degree spinout. We looked at Lego and Clone Wars, and he got an action figure of Anakin Skywalker on a dragonfly-alien. While it was on sale, we also got a game. ‘Trouble', with a pop-o-matic die. Man, I remember driving adults crazy with the constant ‘click-pop' noise. Last week, it was $16., this week, it was $10. Why, I have no idea - it's all plastic, no circuitry, no licensing.

 

On the way home, we stopped at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore's annual yard sale. I basically gave them everything in my wallet - a $5. bill and about $2. in change - for a boxload of goodies. We got a working ‘Advanced Mission Electronic Battleship' that Dearest requested for our next family game (but $45. this week wasn't flyin' !), a house-shaped stress squeezie, the chair and computer platform from ‘Talk With Me' Barbie, four books of Mad Libs, a knock-off ‘Fashion Plates' called ‘Pretty Girl Fashion Designer', and a dirty but not really damaged Tiffany Taylor doll. It all fit in a box of landscape pieces from ‘HeroScape' - could care less about the game, but the ‘land' pieces fit together to form hills, streams, and such. I could have some fun with those in doll photos ! What was funny was, when I went to lift the box, I found a few dozen pegs and the storage slider piece for the Electronic Battleship game under it !

 

Once home, Dearest unpacked his new Clone Wars set and ran out to play - it's almost springlike outside. I had a boxload of fun to go through ! Found the Pretty Girl Fashion Designer set nearly complete, with the plates inside a brand-new pencil case. All that's missing is the rubbing crayon and coloring pencils, but I already have lots of those. The HeroScape boxload included a multi-sided die, several game-specific standard dice, some sort of tiny checker-like pieces, two short walls, and game suggestions. I found that the ‘land' and blue ‘brook' pieces fit together much like a jigsaw puzzle, so you can make multi-levels, or one really large flat one.

 

Tiffany is still getting cleaned up, but she's in fantastic shape. Her left breast was dented in a bit, but most Ideal all-vinyl dolls are not only very sturdy and last darn near forever, but they also have easily removeable arms. I simply popped her left arm off, pushed out the dent with the handle of a file, and screwed her arm back in. While she's a bit taller than Crissy, her clothes hang on Tiffany like bags. Lucky for me, I already have a couple of patterns for her size, thanks in part to www.crissyandbeth.com . Downloaded ‘em a while back, when I was kinda-sorta bidding for a My Size Barbie. I also have a couple from old doll magazines.

 

The real challenge for her is gonna be shoes. She has Barbie-like high-heel feet. I can easily make little flat slip-on shoes, but she's gonna have to sit or be propped up to stand. In today's photo, she's leaning on one of Beloved Hubby's discarded foam-core samples. I love her graceful hands, and her ‘Steffie'-like face.

 

Played a round of ‘Battleship' with Beloved - he won. I may have to apply a bit of tape to the speaker when we play it with Dearest, it's very loud, with no volume control. But I'm really happy to have found it. It's like getting the whole rest of the box for free !

 

Fall cleaning...

 

Current Mood : Lazy, but organized

 

Decided to stay home today, and ended up sleeping through most of it. Decided to tidy up the living room, and that took three hours. Good chunk of that was the video shelves - between the VHS tapes out of their boxes and the scramble of DVDs on every flat surface around the TV, it took a while to get everything back where it belonged. Need to have a bit of a chat with Beloved Hubby and Dearest Son about putting discs away in their boxes when they're done with ‘em.

 

Printed out the free-standing lace bus design's thread chart, and got the colors picked out. Since these are done on wash-away stabilizer, hooping ‘em shouldn't be difficult or time consuming, and I may get both done tomorrow, if the first one goes well. DFIL will drop Dearest off on his way to work tomorrow, and from there, I'll take him to Bricktober, and DFIL will pick him up to go back to their house ‘til Sunday morning. He's already over at their place now.

 

His room ate up the rest of the day. I can't believe he trashed it so quickly, after I spent so long cleaning it a couple months back. Capri-Sun pouches everywhere, old Mighty Kids' meals boxes under the bed, and you can imagine the abundance of Lego. (sigh) But, with breaks and an episode of Clone Wars, we got it done - and I trashed a bag of broken cars and real garbage. I'm thinking that a good room-clean will be part of Sunday evenings from now on...

 

Earlier this month, I'd intended to do a ‘Halloween' theme image every day. Didn't work out, but I found something really cool. And scary. You may wanna look at these on your own before letting a kid view over your shoulder - explaining why Jasmine is now a sand Kali, Cinderella's a scarecrow, Ariel is an amputee, and Aurora is a zombie with a lantern of fairies might not be how you want to spend part of your day. But they're awesome cool. Check out ‘ Twisted Princesses'  - http://jeftoonportfolio.blogspot.com/2009/02/twisted-princess.html

 

Dinner time ! Hope your Friday was fun !

I have a printer again !

 

Current Mood : Sleepy

 

Nice, quiet Thursday. Took Molly-car out to Office Max - closest office supply place that offered single-color inkjets for our Brother printer/fax/scanner. Our ‘cyan' (blue) was out, so the printer won't print anything, not even black text. Yellow is on fumes, but that could wait, I thought. And we're really gonna need a working printer for home-schooling next month.

 

Got to the store, and they had a special - buy two inkjets, get a free 2GB USB drive. Since the online and store price matched, I went ahead and got both. Which was good, since as soon as I installed the blue cart, it printed a machine embroidery thread chart from the cache, which used the last of the yellow. At least now I know how to dump the stored print jobs. Installed the yellow, and life is good. And the USB drive is cute. Plus, I get $3. credit for recycling the empties with them, which will probably fund the next black inkjet - I have eight empties right now. Was saving ‘em for a school fundraiser, ironically.

 

Dearest Son came home with the surprising news that he has next Friday, Oct. 30^th off. So he gets to wear his Anakin Skywalker costume to school Thursday. Friday's still a professional day, so we're still gonna have the ‘we're home-schooling' registered letter delivered then. I'll probably tell his bus driver Wednesday - and have the free-standing lace bus design I wanted to make for her and the monitor for Christmas stitched up during the weekend.

 

It's gonna be a busy weekend. TRU is hosting ‘Bricktober 500', an in-store promo for kids, on Saturday. They get to make and race a Lego car, and get a free Lego driver's license. Told Dearest about it this morning, and he's so excited. ‘Bricktober' sounds like fun, but he's more interested in looking at the Star Wars section while we're there. I admit, I'll peek at the dolls, but I can't think of a single doll or toy I want right now.

 

Same for embroidery designs. EmbLibrary's having another ‘Happy Hour' sale, get $10. worth of designs for $5., and you also get a package of five free designs of their choice, but there's nothing I want, really. There's always stuff I ‘wouldn't mind' having, but I've been so indulged already, I'd rather sew what I got. So, believe it or not, I'm skipping this sale.

 

I'm wondering if folks aren't buying designs like they used to anymore. I get a few dozen ‘buy one, get three' type deals in my e-mail every week. Even the ones I've unsubscribed from send out one last offer. Feh. I have more than I'll ever use. And I have dozens I want to make that aren't available for sale anywhere. As usual, I buy tons of stuff in summer, winnow it down a bit in fall, and use the remainder all winter long. Then, when spring happens, I'm ready for something new. Happens every year.

I'm getting sew-obsessed again !

 

Current Mood : Happily tired

Spent on doll stuff : $1.08

Current Image Notes : WWII-era guide to sewing. I'd love to have the actual item, but the image alone is pretty cool !

 

I'm kind of proud of me. By spacing out the ‘Gentleman Jack' design over two days, I was able to keep the mess at a minimum, and cleaning up didn't get put off, like usual. Normally I get the idea to embroider, then do it all in a day, so that, by the time it's done, I don't wanna look at it anymore. Not this time. I got most everything put away as I went, since I wasn't sure when I'd have time to complete it, and didn't wanna have it sitting around. It's all stored and tidy, from the chalk pen to the stitch-shield. There were only a few more little places that need tidying up, but I decided to do them later. Once they were done, the only things I can do to make the Lab cleaner is vacuum and dust. But let's not get too carried away, here...

 

In yet another example of Dearest's school's attention to timing, we got a consent form for flu shots in with his homework yesterday. When are the shots being given ? Why, today, of course ! And it's the first time I've heard about the shots, and the first year they've done ‘em at the school since we've been there. (sigh) I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

 

I had a bit of an adventure of my own last night - I couldn't return the RedBox DVDs we'd rented. First location put up a ‘machine full, please try another location' message, and the second one simply would not take them. I tried every possible way of inserting the box, seating the DVD inside, you name it. The kiosk then went to some sort of ‘self maintenance / diagnostic' mode, with a Windows-based menu system on the screen that had not a thing to do with ‘new titles for rent'. Ended up calling RedBox, and they could actually see that the one device was down, which was kind of interesting to learn. They asked us to return the DVDs tomorrow, we wouldn't be charged for tonight, since they knew we'd made a sincere, on-time effort.

 

So this morning, I figured I'd stop by Dollar Tree, get the last DP tea set I ‘needed', and drop ‘em off at a different McD's location nearby. I couldn't believe it - that one said it was full, too ! Luckily for me - and RedBox ! - the grocery store a couple blocks over had a kiosk, and it was more than happy to take those two crappy movies back. FYI, Soccer Dog has to be one of the worst movies I've ever sat through, and I watch Manos, the Hands of Fate for fun.

 

And I'm glad I went to DTree - of the eight pegs of tea sets they had Monday, there were only two today. Looks like the ‘teapot and two cups, saucers' is selling out first, or maybe they were shortpacked from the start. I have more than enough, so I'm happy.

 

Once home, I got the last of the ribbon put away, the ribbon tote re-organized, found a new place for the yet-to-be-embroidered Dearest t-shirts, and even cleaned off the cutting table, which has been cluttered with pattern bits, random dolls, small props, and loose papers for weeks. I literally can't wait until I have time to sew again !

 

I wonder how tomorrow will work for a bit of stitching...

Here's 'Gentleman Jack' !

 

Current Mood : Elated !

 

Sorry if I've been a bit loopy lately. Beloved Hubby and I have been having those difficult discussions all couples need to have occasionally after Dearest Son has gone to bed, and I don't think we've hit the hay before  midnight since last Friday. And then I'm up at 5am, if I'm lucky and didn't wake up to use the inhaler at 3am, hear DC's rapid-fire yowling to go outside at 2, and just plain ‘react to yet another weird noise at 7-11' at 4am. In short, I'm seriously sleep-deprived, and even a two-hour nap after everyone's gone is just barely keeping me going. Lately, I've been wondering if there's caffeine in cappuccino, since after I slug a tasty Pumpkin Spice, I fall asleep.

 

Also, with everything going on, my mind has been lying in wait for me to relax and go blank so it can torture me into getting even less sleep when I do try to crash. I swear, my brain has it in for me. Last night, it launched into the six thousand reasons I probably won't do a good job home-schooling, often running a Yoda-voiced commentary, "This summer. Remember your failure at teaching this summer !'. It's almost funny, but when you're desperately in need of sleep and this keeps circling round, you end up with bizarre dreams or simply no sleep. I defeated it this time by utilizing the time-honored method of sticking my fingers in my mental ears and singing ‘la-la-la' in my thoughts, then picturing smoky make-out scenes described in various Han and Leia-centered Star Wars fanfics. Next thing I knew, it was time to swat the alarm for the first time this morning. Take that, mind !

 

But at least I'm getting off my butt. If I don't, I fall asleep ! Today, I pulled the biggest plain white t-shirt Dearest had and marked it, stabilized it, and hooped it up for a cool Halloween design - a freebie I got when I placed this weekend's order with Embroidery Library. Ironic, that I spent $10. on designs, but the first thing I actually sew is a free one. But hey, it's a cute holiday design, he can wear it over a sweatshirt or thermal, and I've been looking forward to stitching it ever since I saw it. If it takes a freebie to motivate me back into sewing, so be it.

 

But first... it's already motivated me to clean off my over-cluttered desk ! Had to clean off a space for Brody, so I can load the new design. I got a lot of stuff to scan, which I hope to get to tomorrow. Put most of the dolls back in the Lab, and I'll bring out new faces this evening. It's fun to have a doll or three available deskside.

 

Kinda-sorta helped Beloved move tools from one truck to another when I saw several foam-core boards. I asked him what they were for. Turned out, he did some paint and texture samples for a client on them, and they'd already picked their colors, so the boards were trash. Did I want ‘em ? Oh, score ! I got five boards, three with textured paint samples, two with two different colors, including several shades of green ! Awesome photo backdrops - and the other sides are blank ! Happy dance !!

 

And shortly after Dearest came home, I started to embroider. I was so nervous. According to my design print-outs, it's been two months and ten days since I last sat down at Brody and embroidered. I was nervous that he might have frozen up, or have problems, so I eliminated as many potential ones as possible before I started. Cleaned out the nearly spotless bobbin race, replaced the bobbin thread, installed a fresh ballpoint needle, and wiped down the thread spool pin, then I couldn't stall anymore. An hour and eight minutes later, "Gentleman Jack" was done, looked great, and was in the wash. I put a lot of chalk marks on a shirt when I'm hooping ! Anything I embroider needs at least a rinse-out before wearing.

 

Once he saw it, Dearest wanted to wear it tomorrow. It's in the dryer now, tumbling with towels and socks, and once it's out, I'll iron it and put stitch-shield on the reverse. Even though it'll probably always be a layered shirt - it's a Fall design on a short-sleeved tee - the stitch shield provides some extra support for the threads. And it only takes about five minutes, most of that is spent waiting for the iron to heat up !

 

Aaannnd...there he is ! All done, and ready for tomorrow's debut. I think he looks great. The green inset is a cut/paste from the stitch guide Embroidery Library provides. You can kinda tell where I didn't have the colors EL used - all the substitutes I went with are much brighter ! But I like it this way. Vivid. Dearest gets to wear it with black pants and an orange thermal undershirt. Hmm. I think I need to make Beloved and me something special...

 

But for now, I'm ready for bed !

 

Always remember what the sign says...

 

Current Mood : Preoccupied, slightly worried

Spent on DP stuff (mostly for dolls) : $4.32

Spent on belts for future purse project : $2.16

Current Image Notes : This is an actual sign, installed in Lyons, France, during an arts expo.

 

Shortly after waking up this morning, Dearest Son was in tears. He didn't want to go back to school. I've been on pins and needles all day, hoping he doesn't come home upset and self-injured, which he only does at school. Not sure how he'll react when we tell him we're going to home-school - I just hope he knows it's because he's so worth the work...

 

Went ahead and picked up the books I had waiting for me at the Library, and looked around a bit. There are lots of home-schooling books - often two and three of the same book. Makes me wonder.

 

Ended up at Dollar Tree for a few minutes, where I squandered $12. I got one of Dearest's dolls a new outfit - the one she came in is a mess ! - and the tape he needed for his dispenser. I even remembered the foam mounting squares Beloved Hubby needs to re-apply his Diesel-truck's logos, and for once, they were in stock. Also a couple more cans of air freshener, since we all like to use the stuff.  All the rest was pretty much toys for me !

 

After seeing the Threadbanger demo on how to make a classic 80s roll bag, I've renewed my interest in making one for my next handbag. I even have a pattern, a McCall's I think, that's been sitting around for a while. To that end, I bought two kids' nylon web belts, to use for straps. May only use one, but for a buck, I'd as soon have it and not need it - and I actually kind of like the color and design. I also scored a small flashlight, to use for doll photo illumination and power outages. It'll be kept in the top desk drawer.

 

The rest was Disney Princess stuff. I got a pack of stickers and three pink plastic tea sets that are just about perfect for the LDP dolls. I have to go back, though, and get one more set, because I forgot about LP Dorrie and LDP Tiana, not to mention the guy dolls, who might enjoy a tea party if the cookies are good. I got two sets of four cups and saucers, and one with a teapot and two cups and saucers. They all have DP stickers on ‘em, but only for five characters - Cinderella, Belle, Snow White, Ariel, and Aurora. So I'll take ‘em all off. Not sure if I'll put on new stickers or just leave ‘em blank.

 

Lest you think I've already forgotten all of yesterday's wrestling and digging to store the stuff I already have, I had a plan for this stuff before I left the store. One of the smaller cases I have hanging up is a yard-sale DP soft-side lunchbox. Right now, it stores empty thread spools, but I can move those over to a nearby empty Barbie case, and store the tea sets in the lunchbox. In fact, that's already done. No way am I giving up my de-cluttered lab so easily !

 

It was kind of bizarre at the checkout. Two ladies were in front of me, but the conveyor was empty, so I started loading my selections. The young woman just in front snatches up one of the belts, exclaiming, ‘Are these suspenders ? Are they for a costume ? That's so cute !' at about 50 decibels. When I explained that they were sold as belts, but they'd become purse straps, she muttered, ‘It would have been cool if they were suspenders', and tossed the one she had back down. I've made a conscious effort to not make odd comments about others' purchases - they don't wanna hear it, and it is rather rude - but I'd have never grabbed someone else's stuff for a closer look ! Weird. Besides, I got the last two ‘purple webbing with multicolored stars and yellow moons' belts the store had ! (grin)

 

I also had a few minutes to take care of one of the ickiest jobs in the Lab - cleaning off the windowsill. It's fulla windblown dirt, cobwebs, and desiccated dead flies. And to do that, I have to clean all the miniature dress forms and sewing machines on it. Which are also trailing cobwebs and deceased insects. But I couldn't put up the newest dress form, from ‘Pink Shopping Barbie', until I cleaned the space first. Didn't take long, and I had some fun rearranging everything. I really should do that every time I change the calendar...

 

Ran out of time today, but tonight, I got the thread ready for my next embroidery project - a grinning, top-hat Jack-o-Lantern for one of Dearest's shirts. As usual, I have four of the seven colors, the rest I estimated out of what else I have. Our usually exemplary printer is sort of on strike. One color is out, so it won't even print in black until the blue cart's replaced. So I put the stitch guide on a USB drive and used Dearest's laptop and printer. Hoping to snag some ink next time I go shopping.

 

Dearest came home, in a much better mood than he left in. Hope your Monday went well !