Oh happy day

Yay, I'm about 99% recovered from the gunky ickiness and I'm starting to get things back in order. I'm extremely pleased with the weather, something people take for granted when it's nice like this, I suppose, but thanks be to God, for the month of May! I love the pink flowering trees and green foliage. K planted sugar snap peas, L sowed pink and purple flower seeds and a few lettuces from last year's that went to seed have come up in just the right spot in our garden this week. I finished the first of several summer sun dresses for a new client and she was ecstatic to see how well it fit and felt on her. I'm making at least two more for her!

Tomorrow, mom and I will visit the BSO symphony show house. It's been an annual tradition for us since about 1990, I think. I may post my reactions or inspirations on that later. This weekend is also the big annual Sheep and Wool Festival. I'll be missing it this year, but I've got friends going who will surely tell me all about it and let me pet the gorgeous yarns they purchase there.

Oh, and girlfriends, thanks for the long chats this week it helped a lot. (You know who you are.)

5-17-2007 A word about the showhouse.

This year's showhouse was the most cohesive of all the ones I remember having gone to. There were several rooms using a black and white color scheme, Asian influences, and soothing palette . I would say my most favorite room was The Master Bedroom, flooded with sunlight from it's many windows and decorated in colors of celedon, chocolate and accents of red, which was unexpected yet just right for this room. A close second was the Family Game Room. It was filled with so many fun ideas, I can't begin to list them here. My least favorite was the "Out of Africa" office for her. It lacked pizazz and the designer was in there defending her design and "color" choices to all who entered and would listen. There were some interesting aspects to the design but overall I found it dull and uninspired.

Every year I come away with a few practical ideas that may or may not be incorporated into my life. Sometimes it takes me years to actually carry out an inspiration. For instance, several years ago I saw a table treatment I liked and it gave me an idea for one I could use on my outside table with an umbrella. I cut out the fabric, but didn't sew it up until a week ago. This year's innovative idea that I liked, but probably won't use, was wood panel covered with faux embossed leather leaned against the walls of a covered porch. Beautiful wall sconces were then installed to the panels which hid the cords and wires. A great lighting solution for a temporary living arrangement or for those who don't want to mess with wiring inside the walls.

Winter's Last Hurrah

It would figure that the day after I planted pansies, we would get lambasted by a wintery mix of weather. Last night after some consideration, I decided to venture out into the storm to get a movie. Four wheel drive? No, two foot walk. It took me about an hour and a half to walk a little over a mile, select a movie, and trudge back home. Considering that I've spent close to 45 minutes contemplating movie choices in the past, it wasn't so bad. This time I knew what I was after: Project Runway. MK recommended it, I watched disc one of season one last week and was hoping to get disc two, but Blockbuster wasn't carrying season one so I skipped on to disc one of season two. I had a jump hem on a jacket to do by hand while I watched and ooh, it was good. I think I'm hooked. Although I can't help sympathizing with the anxiety some of the designers face. It reminds me very much of college, bizarre, open ended projects to do with unusual criteria. I find watching Project Runway inspiring though. I especially like watching the processes the designers go through. I'm also a little intimidated by what these people can do... I'm mostly self-taught, and I'm not sure why I didn't pursue fashion in college. I think it's a bit too cut-throat for my personality. I'm not a competitive person, but now I see what kind of skills these designers have and I wish I had taken classes when I had the chance. One more thing to add to the to do list: take design classes.

Black Current L.L. Bean Comfort boots: $39.95
Two videos at Blockbuster: $8.38
Watching the snow fall against the black night sky while my feet stayed not only dry (after sloshing through several deep puddles of slush) but warm: Priceless

Ta Da!

The dress that had been consuming all my free time and creative energies (hence no new posts) is finished and much to my great satisfaction, also was an apparent hit at the Christmas party. Merci bien! MK, for letting me put these up! You rook mahvelous!



Okay, so about the dress. MK was inspired to have one similar to one she saw at Anthropologie. I developed a pattern, made a mock-up and once I established a good fit, we decided to raise the waistline a bit in front and remove the skirt gathers at center front to make it more flattering. The fashion fabric is a white taffeta flocked with black velveteen and the sash is black cotton velveteen cut on the bias and hand stitched in place. I underlined the fashion fabric of the bodice with white silk organza to give it more structure and less transparency in the white areas. The bodice is also supported with boning along all the seam lines except center back where there is an "invisible" black zipper. The dress is fully lined in white to maintain the "whiteness" of the taffeta. Because I was working with a limited amount of fabric that MK had purchased prior to the designing of the dress, I chose to add a black point d'esprit petticoat layer to give the dress a little more length and oomph. I'm especially proud of the motif matching I was able to achieve considering the limited yardage and a few fabric flaws I had to work around.
MK purchased the shrug and then doctored it up a bit with her crochet genius. She also made her beautiful choker and handbag! I expect this won't be the last time we combine our creative talents...