Found…

S found our long lost kitty, Cosmos, yesterday – broke him up really bad. He was 20 feet back from our property. It looks like there was no foul play. For the last 10 months, I’ve been secretly blaming our neighbors two doors down.  I thought they harmed him to get back at me for threatening to call the cops on them. They were shooting BB guns off their deck at targets. I thought it was just a coincidence that Cosmos went missing two days later, and have held a grudge ever since.

I want to bury him like he needs to be buried. I can’t do it with the kiddo around. She doesn’t need the pain of losing him all over again – he was her favorite.  Once we get back from our trip and she’s in school, S and I will take care of it properly.

Looking for advice on making a slip…

I’m making a cotton slip for Glitter Glue Princess and want it to be full at the bottom. She needs it for her dress to wear to the daddy daughter dance next month, and if I get it done in time, for Disney as well… Here is her dress – I just love this style on her, and I have to push what I like because I know very soon I won’t have ANY influence.

Is it better to add tulle or to put horsehair braid on the slip? Anyone have any advice?

I’m going to make it tiered – after the disney sewing, I’m obviously an expert at that. But… I want it to fit for awhile, so I’m going to play with buttonhole elastic at the top – a new thing for me. The only dilemma I have is how to make it poufy enough – tulle is so dang itchy, which is why I thought of horsehair. Open to suggestions here….

They finally realized why I’ve been so happy…

I’ve been an unusually good mood at work lately – no wonder – I’ll be out from the 1st to the 9th. Duh. I won’t be picking up calls either. They just noticed that I’ve been much happier than usual.

Is it – 1-because I now have the help I need to lead productive days where I can multitask appropriately and still get lab samples done? or is it – 2-because after Friday, I won’t have to be there till the 10th? A little of both I think… If there were only a way to clone myself and get the sewing done too.

Started working on finding a decent hotel for the princess and S’s trip to DC for this summer. I’ve been trying to find an alternate to blowing all of my holiday inn points, but you know, hotels are just soooo expensive in DC if you want to be downtown and near a metro stop. I may just have to blow all my points on them for this trip, though I’d be terribly jealous, especially since I can’t go. I just wonder if the hotels are going to have any better deals for the end of june/july, since there won’t be any congress. Anyone know? Right now the dates are leaving around June 28 or 29, returning July 3-ish…

Hehehe (massaging the box with a devious tone) – a good mail day…

I got a cd in the mail today.. From Marcy Tilton.. On how to make t-shirts… Now if I only had time before the trip to make one *sigh*. Haven’t had time to fully check it out, as the GGP has been DYING to play the Game of Life ever since I got home. I’m a sucker for all things t-shirt (took the class at pattern review….. twice), and all the David Page Coffin (have his pants video too).

This will take some time for indulgence – bought it after S said he HAD to go to England for something Pink Floyd/Syd Barrett/Roger Waters related – I so deserved a gift for that whole thing – trolling through all the travel sites for three hours and talking him down from the $5700 ticket for one night to a saturday night stay with a $600 ticket. Yeah, and he still owes me a new embroidery machine for that – this or this – whichever comes up on ebay from someone who might be trustworthy to sell the thing….. Anyone got one they’d like to sell?

Marcy Tilton’s Where Did You Get That T-Shirt?

Great – another good store driven out of business…

I went to Hancocks yesterday to pick up some more fairy fabric with the intention of making some pajama pants for Glitter Glue Princess, only to see the place lacquered with “going out of business” signs! Wha?!?! Those weren’t there 3 saturdays ago!?!?! I couldn’t believe it. The place was packed. Women were fighting over rotary cutters on one wall. People were buying things up like mad.

My favorite “little old lady” at the cutting counter told me they sprang it on them a couple of fridays before and the liquidator signs were up the next day. All Michigan stores are going out of business. Poor gal can’t keep up with the pace of this sale. She was sweet and let me have only one panel when she was supposed to sell a minimum of 2 on everything. I think she has cut my fabric every time I’ve ever been in there.

I have to confess – I bought organic cotton lycra in black and white (they are basics and will be needed somewhere – right?), as well as three different pieces of Disney fairy fabric. One of them is a wallhanging. The moment she saw it, she clutched it and insisted that we make it to hang in her room. Got around the fighting ladies to buy the last pack of small rotary cutter blades – the regular size ones were already sold out.

I knew all of this stuff would be gone the next time I went, especially the disney stuff. Geez folks, it’s only 20% off now. The bargains are still better down the road at Field’s.

If everyone else jumped off the cliff….?

I see so many of my friends showing their work on a blog roll, so I thought “I guess it is time for me to do the same…..”

I’ve been sewing up a storm of princess gear for our pending trip to visit the Mouse. Glitter Glue Princess requested outfits for all of the character dinners we plan to attend, and the sum of them has occupied my spare time this month.

So here goes:

Outfit 1 – for one of our dinners with Minnie Mouse. It is a redondo swirl skirt out of Minnie Mouse dot with black cotton swirl.

I learned a bit with this one – with the redondo skirt, you should add length at the top of the swirl piece, not the bottom. Also, I learned that I stink at applique, so I went to ebay and purchased the design for the embroidery machine.

Outfit 2 – a princess ensemble, entirely spec’d by the glitter glue princess, for having our hair done at the Bibbity Bobbity Boutique and for dinner at 1800 Park Faire with Cinderella. This outfit was from Ottobre Design, issue 2/2004, #’s 22 & 25. The entire thing is made of cotton from Equilter.

Outfit #3 – another Minnie Mouse ensemble, using the Sasha Wave skirt pattern and same fabrics as before.

You can see the top wave better in this photo:

Outfit #4 (this one has no particular event for wear, just for fun) – A tiered skirt from Disney fairy cotton, and a tee from Ottobre 1/2007 that I embroidered. I put an edge on the skirt of the knit from the shirt.

Learned a few things here too – when trimming a woven with a knit, add a bit of ease to the top of the knit, else it will pucker when pressed. Also, when gathering with elastic in your bobbin, make sure it fits your kid’s arm BEFORE you sew it down.

Here is a bit of the skirt fabric, since it is not readily viewable from her stance:

The last few things need to get done – I’m going to make her a normal slip without tulle, because I’m betting that she will HATE that on her legs.  Also, I want to make a few skirts for me as well…