In Which I Can’t Sew, So Here’s Something Else

You know that outdated medieval belief that if goodness is beautiful, beauty must reflect goodness?  I don’t give it much credence (not being beautiful myself) but on the other hand:

 

The miracle of penicillin.  It makes me happy. 

I guess those crazy medieval people were on to something with their moldy bread too.  I clearly don’t give enough credit to medieval people.

And while you’re here, check this out. 

It is, as AngieA. would say, “the DOG”. 

There are two things in this world I love:  really really really close-up photos of things and really really really far-away photos of things.  Of course, they’re the same thing when you come down to it.

Maybe those medieval nuts were right.  All the world is a beautiful place.  Or it could be the codeine talking.

Why Do People Keep Saying “White Christmas” Like It’s A Good Thing?

Seriously.  “Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow”?  Please stop singing that.

the view out our front door at 10 a.m. December 24, 2009

the view to the right of our front porch, 10 a.m. December 24, 2009

This is what it looked like when it started snowing.   It snowed until 5:00 p.m.

Now, it is true that I grew up in Minnesota and North Dakota and I have seen my fair share of snow.  But the thing is, when you live in Minnesota and North Dakota you own stuff.  Stuff like snow shovels and snow suits and winter-friggin’-boots.  When you live in Texas you own sandals.  (OK fine, we have other shoes besides sandals, but they are hardly any  more snow-appropriate and might as well be sandals for all they keep your feet snow-free.) 

It is so not fun to live in Texas when Mother Nature suddenly decides it would be hilariously funny to dump 10 inches (TEN INCHES) of snow on you.  Trust me.  Not fun.

Saying that, the girls did have fun playing in the snow…  in between the bouts of hysterically screaming “MY HANDS ARE FREEZING MY TOES ARE FREEZING MY LEGS ARE FREEZING WAAAHHH”.  They even managed to go out on Christmas Day and play. In a sort of loop of irony, because the girls have so few long pants we have definitely contributed to the greenhouse effect by drying and drying and drying loads of snow-soaked clothes.  We probably retroactively caused this snowstorm in the first place.   No really.  I firmly believe in that sort of circular time.  See, when I was high-school I devised this theory of time as being a sort of helix and… no wait.  Come back! Don’t leave!  (Actually, the real irony is that I off-the-cuff developed this theory to explain something or other that was totally stupid and then about ten years later read some article in a quasi-scientific magazine -because I don’t read real scientific magazines-  that some fancy-dancy physicist or other had hypothesized just this theory about time being a helix.  I really just don’t ever get the credit I deserve.)

So, the girls got to see their first “real” snow which made them extremely happy.  They also got “the best presents EVER!” from Santa (that Santa, he’s clever) so all-in-all their Christmas was pretty darn good. 

Mrs. Santa got several nice presents herself, especially when you consider that Grandma and Grandpa Claus are underwriting the Claus household next year while Santa goes back to nursing school, so Mrs. Claus was pleasantly surprised to receive the Threads “Every Edition Ever Created (until 2009)” DVD, which because she’s got the plague (again) she has not had a chance to crack open yet.  But still, neato!  She also got several books she’d put off buying (like Sarah Vowel’s “The Wordy Shipmates”) plus some iTunes and Amazon gift cards and several other nice things.  And to top it off, her sister-in-law (The Anti-Pam) supposedly bought her a '’gift card for fabric” and although this gift card hasn’t actually arrived yet (and Mrs. Claus does not count her chickens before they hatch), this does firmly put The Anti-Pam pretty high up on the Relatives We Like list.

 

I still think the constant singing of “White Christmas” and “Let It Snow” is annoying.  But then, I would.  I’m just like that.

Revelations and Resolutions… auf Deutsch, even!

So today several things came together for me, mentally speaking, in a culmination of... well, I suppose you could say of mental coming-togetherness.

See, lately I have made several resolutions that I haven't really been even trying to keep up with (barring the one I posted here last week about being nice to my kids so they live in a happy cheerful world of color and pixie dust yadda-yadda-yadda). 

Here, I'll break it down for you, my resolutions so far:

1) Loose some weight.  No really.  Some weight.  A pound.  Three ounces.  Something.

2) "Be cute everyday" (as mentioned recently, I took this from The Slapdash Sewist's lovely post of the same topic).

3) Use up some of my ridiculously, nay obnoxiously large fabric stash.

4) Stop buying patterns that I won't ever, no not ever, use... and that includes Burda World of Fashion (or whatever it's called now).  Use the patterns you already have, for Pete's sake!  Or at least don't buy a new pattern until two patterns have been used in the stash.

You're smart, gentle readers.  You can see where this is all heading.  Yes.  Clothes-making.

I haven't really made a garment for myself (that I wear) in almost two years.  I also haven't purchased any garments intended for the bottom half of my body in at least two years and probably more like three.  If you'll refer to Resolution #1 above, you'll also note that I am not what you would call a Slim Person.  Which makes wear-and-tear on my clothing an issue. To put it bluntly, the inner thighs on all my bottom-half clothes (because I really only own jeans) are completely worn to shreds.  In some cases literally shreds, as in there are now holes that show places to the general public that I don't really want to them to see.  Shreds.  Tatters. Rags.  I'd say I look like a homeless person, but actually that's kind of insulting to the homeless people I see around here (who obviously all make good use of the mission's used-clothing supply-- and good for them!).

I've been putting it off, for lots of reasons, but I really just can't go on much longer with the clothes I have.  Which means one of two things: I either buy some more clothes, which is depressing and difficult, or I make some more clothes which is depressing and difficult but in a different way.  Basically, I have to choose which depressing-and-difficult I want to endure.  That's where Resolution #3 and #4 come in.  If I make my own clothes at least I'll get rid of fabric that I already paid for and achieve one or two of my resolutions.  Which would be a first, let me tell you.

Ok, so that's the long and somewhat boring back story to my "today several things came together for me" revelation (see above).  Because today I was sort of shopping around on the new German-language BurdaStyle website, as the English-language one is all bajiggity.  If they ever get their acts together (see The Selfish Seamstress' nicely coherent rant on this subject here), I think the new English site will be nice too.  I like the updated slideshow feature that allows you to see all the photos, all the line drawings and all the model shots at once.  Neato!

Now I’ll be the first to tell you, I don't speak or read German well.  Unless the good people at BurdaStyle have decided to make a fashion section about Emil and his sick dog, I'm pretty much out of the loop.  (Word up to Big In Japan, whose mom taught me how to say way too much about Emil and his sick dog.  And that yellow pencil that seemed to get around an awful lot.)

So with a definite lack of sick dogs or yellow pencils to be found, I was able to navigate my way to the Plus Fashion section (by virtue of it being labeled "Plus Fashion").  And then I saw this.

Now, I know I just spent ten minutes boring you to tears regarding my inner-thigh issues.  But really, do they have to rub it in?

On the other hand, this would in fact be pretty practical for me, right?

-sigh-

I guess I have to get this issue too.  Or just start sewing weird thigh-rubbing-prevention patches on my clothes.  Apparently I can now say it’s “witty”.  Which is I’m sure what the BurdaStyle people will say.