Mail Call!

So look what I got in the mail a few days ago:

It’s an assortment of off-cuts from Japan, courtesy of Big In Japan.  Some are rayon, some are cotton, some are silk.  There are dragons and mums and cranes and just all sorts of traditional motifs.  The Evil Monkeys and I are going to plan a wall hanging using most of these, some small purses (or similar) using the others and then the Evil Monkeys can have the remaining bits to make something else of their choosing in the future.  Whew!  That’s alotta projects.  Aren’t we lucky?!

And in the mail I also received a lovely gift from G.Marie, in the form of two issues of BurdaStyle that I did not own.  Yay!  I wasn’t even sure where to start with that one, so I picked this duster:

I’ve been wanting a drapey duster pattern forever.  Despite having five or six on hand, not one was exactly what I wanted.  This one is!  Awesome.  I’m working it up now in a reeeeeally cheap heather-grey pucker-knit that I must have bought on sale at Hancock’s… there’s no other explanation for having five yards of it.  Which is fortunate, because this pattern calls for three!  Yikes, that’s alotta fabric, right?  Even I don’t have very many lengths of fabric that would cover that.  If it comes out well, I’m going to buy something prettier and make it up again.

In the meantime, I have multiple projects in the planning stages (as usual) and not a lot in the almost-finished stages (as usual).  I have to make TLo a spring dress and also of course some western shirts.  I have a ridiculous collection of gingham I could use (that’s ten different ginghams!):

but I’ve decided to start with these fabrics from the stash for the western shirts (I already used the bottom fabric to make this skirt):

and this fabric for the spring dress, also from the stash (no pattern chosen as of yet, but something basic to show off the gynormous print – note the seam gauge at the left side of the image):

My mom bought the Evil Monkeys each one of this sweater:

which hopefully will match both their dresses.  We’ll see.  (And no, we don’t normally dress them alike, but both Monkeys insisted they wanted the turquoise… we explained to The Big One that, because she gets hand-me-ups and TLo’s is three sizes bigger than hers, she would probably be wearing this sweater for the next four years.  She didn’t care.  We’ll see how that goes four years from now when she’s still wearing it to school.  I guess you can’t say we don’t get our money’s worth out of a $50 kids’ sweater.)

 

And thus concludes this episode of “What I’m Pretending To Have Accomplished When In Fact I have Accomplished Very Little… Now With Added Gifts!”  Maybe next time I’ll have a wall hanging or a duster or a western shirt or a spring dress to show you.  We can dream.

In Which Aaron Copland Finally Gets His Revenge On Me

In a surprising twist of fate, TLo has become the horse rider in the family and The Big One (initially the only one in the family to express any interest whatsoever in equine species) has pretty much given it up.  It had gotten to the point that The Big One's lack of focus was holding TLo back and TLo now does riding lessons on her own.  She's up to "loping" and is doing the cloverleaf and the poles by herself.  Her teacher thinks she'll place if she competes in shows and she now has started training in how to saddle and care for the horses.

Which means only one thing.

Rodeowear.

You heard me.

Wear.  For rodeos.

 

The mind boggles.

Guess what I just discovered?  There is a surprising dearth of western-wear patterns for children.  Especially girl children. 

I do already have this out of print pattern from KwikSew, which only goes up to a size 7. 

I’m pretty sure TLo the Barrel-chested Barrel Rider wears something larger than a 7.  Even a KwikSew 7.  I could up-grade it.  Or I could take another basic shirt pattern and draft a yoke and add some pointy pockets.

-sigh-

“Pointy pockets”.

I did just buy pearl button snaps.  And I have some satin to make piping. 

I drew the line at fringe.

I'm betting TLo would go for this rose-print-ric-rac-and-pink-pearl-button combo.  Right?  It’s pretty cute (you’ll have to click over to see it close up).

Rodeowear, people.

And in case you’re wondering about Aaron Copland: I had to play “Hoedown” from Rodeo once and neglected to practice.  It’s a finger-twister, people, and I mangled it but good.  Copland was surely spinning in his grave.  Well.  If he hadn’t still been alive at the time. But regardless.  I walked away from the scene of destruction no worse for wear and breathed a sigh of relief. I was Unscathed.

 

Karma.  It’s a killer.

 

A Cup Half Full

Tonight we had two choices at the movies: The King’s Speech or The Eagle.

I suppose the advantage to watching a Hollywood movie about a famous Roman-British historical event with an obsessive-compulsive student of Roman-British history is… if you see it in the movie theater, you won’t have to listen to screams of outrage and watch things like your popcorn being thrown at the tv screen.  Even obsessive-compulsive Roman-British history students feel obliged to maintain some semblance of public courtesy in a movie theater.  The same can not be said of one’s home.

On a completely unrelated note: Channing Tatum.  He’s kinda hot.  For a total doofus.  It’s disturbing. 

Unfortunately, I feel almost exactly the same way about Colin Firth.