Tuesday, January 18, 2011

No sewing this week

Continuing education. Computer problems. EEK. Chiropractor visit.

Want to sew. Will figure it out soon!

Sunday, January 16, 2011

First Tee Shirt done

Okay. I had a very productive day, and although I would have rather had three or four done, one is good. I haven't had time to sew for a long time, and running back and forth finding things that got put away for Christmas takes more time than anticipated.
So this is my first shirt of the year 2011. More on the drawing board, so watch for them!
My SWAP for 2011 is blues, browns, greys, and black. So this shirt is perfect as it will go with everything!
Good day!



Hmmm, not the best picture ever, but Dale was sitting down. Oh, well. First project done and ready to wear this week!

Two weeks into the new year

So, I've been working on things. Lots of things. Unfortunately, I have to do 56 hours of continuing education every four years for my license renewal. Need to send in renewal in the next two months, and SURPRISE! I realize that I have a total of 11 hours completed. So guess what I'm going to be doing the next couple of months! LOL

I started my first online class and am about half way through with the 5 hour class. Most of my CE will be online, but I'm doing a live class in San Rafael this week on Wednesday. I will leave home around 10:00 am and get back around 9:00 pm... long day! I think Dale will be in Stockton, so I'm going to have to get the girls to come by and feed the dogs and let them out, etc. on Wednesday. The rest will be fit in around work and sewing time.

I decided to give myself two weeks to get things together before I started on my new year. It was needed and it helped a lot. I did get thrown another sidestep this week though. We have everything ready to go on buying our house except one letter I need to write. Call NACA to schedule our appointment, and WHAM! They have lost all of their mortgage consultants except one, have a 400 loan backup, and won't even put us on a waiting list to meet with someone. The woman who answered the phone said call back in April... I almost started to cry, but then figured there's a reason for everything. I guess I will need a little more time to get ready for the move. Hope the house I have my eye on is still there... I am visualizing getting the house I want for the price I want to pay... It works! I saw an article on a woman who won the Lotto doing exactly that... so my visualization is smaller than hers, so doable! LOL

Got the serger back on Monday, but didn't have time to do anything with it. Dale was home all week with no work, so it takes me a lot longer to get anything done. I did get my jacket sewn together and realized it must have been cut out before September because it will mostly fit my 25 pounds ago body, not the one I have now. So yesterday I spent the day re-drafting for version 2, adding to the body and the sleeve width, and shortening the sleeves A LOT! I know my arms are about 1" shorter than would be average for my height, but I had to shorten the sleeves a total of about 3 1/2"! Any tall people, look to Simplicity... the sleeves should fit without alterations...

I needed some instant gratification sewing this weekend also. So last night after doing the jacket draft, I pulled out my favorite tee shirt pattern, Pamela's Perfect Tee, and redrafted it to current measurements. This morning got it cut out and have the first one just about half done already. Maybe will do two or three today before I tackle the jacket again.

I always have issues about making things for the current body, and want to "save" all my fabulous fabrics for the body I want instead of the one I have. Luckily, last night I was wandering around the sewing blogs, and found a woman who has it all together. Her blog is called Diary of a Sewing Fanatic. She's a large woman who makes what looks like an outfit a week and loves her clothes, and herself because she always looks great. She inspired me! I'm moving forward with my clothes for now...

Along that line, I've moved closer to my goal. I'm 2/3 of the way there, which is fabulous! THANK YOU GINGER for helping me decide how to succeed. To that end, I've been more conscious of what's going into my mouth, I'm doing more cooking of great tasting low cal foods, and enjoying my dinner for a change. That's all good. Anyone interested, Cooking Light this month has twenty five low cal chicken recipes that mostly sound fabulous!

Pictures to come of the new tees.

Sunday, January 9, 2011

As the Psyche turns

Well, it's a new year. The beginning was a little dicey, but I'm starting to move through it. Mom passed on December 28 with a memorial service on New Year's Day. Odd start to the year in some ways, but in others very timely and significant.

In the Tarot the Death Card means new beginnings. Yes, the Death card can signal a death in the right circumstances but the Death card is far more likely to signal transformation, passage, change.

The Death card speaks of a major conclusion in an area of our lives. Often when this card shows up in a reading it means the querent has had, or will have a change that is monumental - an ending of circumstances that were dragging on for far too long and the only way to make a clean break is to have a sharp ending. The key point to remember here is that where there is an ending, there is also a beginning.

The Death card also exposes us to all of the serendipity in our lives. Everyone has heard the old adage "the only thing you can count on is death and taxes." The quote left out one other inevitable occurrence: Change. We can always count on change. Life is in constant motion and this is the irony of the Death card. Death is never the end - it is simply a motion in a different direction.

So as I end my 63rd year on this planet, I am thinking about change, beginnings of my new life, and the ending of an old one. With mourning my mother, my ADHD has kicked in mightily and I find that over the last few weeks, I have been moving from one thing to another without really accomplishing much. With recognition and acknowledgement of this, I decided yesterday to stop that and start my new life.

With age may come wisdom! ROFLOL I have vowed not to make resolutions to be broken but to set goals that I can work towards and that will evolve with my life circumstances.

Goal #1 ~ I want to update my look and my clothes.

I have a friend at American Sewing Guild who makes a resolution every year to make a new outfit for every monthly meeting. At the current time, I have taken her challenge and will work towards that goal. I completed a nice pair of tropical weight trousers and am looking around for the balance of the outfit. Due to this month's other challenges, it will probably be a tee shirt or two. Although my serger is in the shop getting a much needed tune up so that will have to be done later in the week. I can get the patterns drafted and cut out so it will be a matter of an hour or so to finish.

Then I have a muslin for a jacket cut out that has been sitting around for months while I went in other directions. I think I cut it out back in September, but with work and my textiles class, there just wasn't really any time for sewing except emergency items. I have started putting the muslin together, and anticipate that will be ready for fitting pretty soon. Hopefully by tomorrow, but I do have lots of other things to get done today. I'm hoping to use it for a basic block once I get it put together because it's a very good standard pattern.



Goal #2 is to get healthy. I love Ginger's idea of her goal being to lose 3 pounds by such and such a date. Nothing further, just a readily reachable goal that will be easily achieved, keep you motivated and can be met and then move forward. It’s amazing, liberating, motivating, and when after a few days you see you've already achieved half your goal, what a rush! The goal is to walk every day and meditate every day. Not quite as readily achievable but we're doing pretty well.

Goal #3 is to clean and purge the house. I figure I've got about 120 days until we move to our new retirement home in Rio Vista. So if I work on the house an hour a day between now and then, cleaning, purging all the things we don't want and/or need, and get things packed and organized and labeled as I go, it will be an easy move for a change with no frustration about not having things done. Such a deal!
Because no one knows where Rio Vista is, here's a map.



If you can see the little #1 in about the center of the map, that's Rio Vista. We'll start our process pretty soon and anticipate being in our new house by the end of April or so. We're excited. Everywhere in town is within about 5 miles of a boat dock, so we can have the boat in the yard and be in the water quickly. Retirement is looking better and better even though it's a few years out. :P}}

We have concluded that Rio Vista is about the best place for retirement we can find right now. Should get me out of ALLERGY capital of the world Sonoma County, so maybe I can breathe better. We'll be able to get a decent sized house for an amount we can afford, and it's very central, almost equidistant from Sacramento, San Francisco, and Santa Rosa, plus pretty close to Stockton where Dale has been working the last few years. That will mean he gets to come home at night instead of staying in a Motel in Stockton and eating his meals at Dennys. Should be a win-win situation!

I think that's all for today. I've got to get going on my task list for the day!