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Monthly Archives: March 2015

Sunday Sevens 03-29-15

29 Sunday Mar 2015

Posted by STH in Uncategorized

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

cooking, recipe, sewing, Sunday Sevens

sunday-sevens-new-logo

(Sunday Sevens is a weekly post series with seven or so pics of things you’ve been up to that don’t merit a whole blog post.)

It felt like a week full of transitions and adjustments here, with travel plans being reconsidered, and spring giving way to summer (maybe).

On Sunday, I had to do an emergency repair on a certain bear’s most favoritest toy.  Obviously the most important project of the week.

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I spent what felt like forever basting lines in shifty cotton fabric for pleats.  Many, many lines.

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I found this book that I had forgotten about and studied up a bit.  Partner helped with some diagrams and helpful advice.  And loaned me his camera!  Must get out for a walk this week and try it out.

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We had every type of weather except snow this week–a thunderstorm, frost, high winds with blowing dust, record high temperatures . . . .  I hauled out my bins of summer clothing and I’m trying to figure out what to do about it; can I store away my fleece?  should I unpack my tank tops?

While I work on that problem, I put away our comforter and got the spring linens on the bed . . .

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. . . and switched to my summer purse.

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(Both are made from this pattern, which I seriously love.  Super pattern and great bag.)

I took my mother out for another walk on Thursday, and we literally walked to the end of the road.

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I had lots of the cooking mojo this week and was really happy with what I made (with the result that I ate too much, but there’s no need to get into that).

Last night’s dinner was Moroccan Grilled Kefta with leftover brown rice and Spanish Romesco Sauce from the chicken I grilled earlier in the week.  (It was quite an international meal, come to think of it, because we had naan bread with the Kefta, too.)

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My plan for today–in addition to cooking another fabulous dinner–is to get the purple blouse done or close to it.  In addition to all the sewing projects I wrote about yesterday, I’ve had a request for a custom cycling cap, so there’s plenty of crafting to be done.

Have a creative week, everybody!

STH

Photography 101, Day 19: Double

28 Saturday Mar 2015

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cats, photo101

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A selfie of Pooh and me.  😉

Photography 101, Day 18: Edge and Alignment

28 Saturday Mar 2015

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Orkney Islands, photo101, Scotland, travel, UK

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Maes Howe (or Maeshowe), Mainland, Orkney Islands, Scotland.

Spring Sewing Ideas (a.k.a. POST FOR HEIDI)

28 Saturday Mar 2015

Posted by STH in Uncategorized

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Tags

cats, Heidi, sewing

So I have been informed by my bestest BFF that she requires MOAR SEWING PLZ.  And I know I require something a little bit more fun after yesterday’s super-icky post.

So here’s what I’ve got cooking in my brain regarding what I want to make next.  I don’t think I want to use the word “plan” for any of this, though, as I seem to fall in and out of love with sewing ideas pretty quickly.  I make a plan, then I have an idea, or I see a nifty new pattern, and there goes the plan.  So I’m calling this a bunch of ideas, which may or may not happen sometime in the future, unless I get distracted by a shiny object . . . .

THIS one I know is going to happen, as I’ve been working on it all week.

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I saw this pattern last fall and grabbed it immediately.  The fabric is a gauzy crinkled cotton with embroidery.  Nice weight and drape for a summer top, but not as loosely woven as most cotton gauze, and it’s been in the stash approximately forever.  I’m making the pleated version with the collar, but with the straight hem.

Then I want to make a sleeveless shirt with this kelly green “linen look” fabric.

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I think the little tucks in this pattern just look great in a solid color fabric.

I made this pattern last summer out of a cotton pique and I really like it.  What I’m thinking about doing is making the facings–front, collar, and collar band–out of the contrast fabric so that you just get little peeks of it.  I’d also like to make the armhole binding with the contrast if there’s enough of it.

I also may use this seersucker to make a shirt with the same pattern.  I’m not sure, though; I’ve got 2 yards of this one, so I have more options . . . I do like the idea of using this super-goofy fabric (it reminds me of the flowers in “Yellow Submarine”) to make a serious tailored shirt.

(Cripes, I was in a hurry to take these pics before my camera’s battery died, and I’ve managed to get the camera cord in two of three pictures so far.  Now that’s some quality photography.)

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Then there’s this stuff, more embroidered cotton, that I bought last summer.  I’m wanting to do something like this with it, but with short sleeves if possible.

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This is one of my older patterns–for almost 20 years this has been sitting in the stash!

The sun came out and I was able to get a better shot of the embroidery on the fabric.

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(I have no idea why I have all this long gray fluff on all my clothing.  It’s a mystery.)

And finally, I want to make a simple top with this chiffon-y stuff I bought in Seattle.  The one I have in mind is the black and white one in the drawing, basically a loose tee with a wide neckline and split sleeves.  I went for the simplest style I could find in order to show off the huge, gorgeous pattern (and also because I haven’t sewn with this kind of fabric before and I’m expecting it to be a challenge).  I have a similar fabric in the stash that I’ll use for a muslin to practice on.

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So what do you think?  Do you have other, better ideas?  Tips for sewing with chiffon?  I’m pretty sure that’s polyester, though I’ll do a burn test on that and the green stuff to try and pin it down a little better.

STH

Personal Stories: Invisibility

27 Friday Mar 2015

Posted by STH in Uncategorized

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

emotional abuse, emotional neglect, personal

NOTE:  This is a post about my childhood, as I’m trying to understand some things about my family of origin and how my upbringing has affected me as an adult.  Please feel free to ignore this post and move on if you’re here for the crafting–there will be more of that soon.  Also please note that this post includes possible triggers in the form of descriptions of emotional abuse and neglect.  No nastiness will be allowed in the comments.

There are many things about my family that have been difficult for me to understand and put into words, and one of the reasons for that is that so much in my childhood wasn’t in the form of words.  We all just knew certain truths about each other and the world.  It’s only recently that I’ve started to understand that all those things we thought we knew were actually only my mother’s prejudices and preconceptions.

My mother is mentally ill, with a significant amount of anxiety, especially social anxiety, some very strange ideas and reactions, a hefty dose of paranoia, and very poor coping skills.  By all accounts, her mother was even more severely affected by mental illness, and in many ways her daughter–now a woman in her mid-80s–is still a terrified child who sees dangers everywhere she looks and is helpless to protect herself against them.  She is mostly incapable of expressing affection or any other kind of emotional giving or openness.  Her life has been spent seeking safety, which she finds in her household routines and her sewing and gardening.  I think she also finds safety in the black-and-white way that she thinks.  There’s no complexity or ambiguity in how she sees people; to her, you are this kind of person or that kind, and once she’s established that, she knows everything there is to know about you.

So she knew what kind of people her children were without actually knowing them.  And we children knew who we were supposed to be.  There was the Golden Boy Who Does No Wrong.  There was the Problem Child.  And there was me, who was Second Smartest and No Trouble.  And it was always crystal clear to me that my role was to get good grades, follow the rules, and be quiet.  As I’ve mentioned, my mother doesn’t have coping skills and, I think, finds the world to be generally overwhelming, and there she was with two high-energy children that she obviously didn’t know what to do with.  My father was this huge, terrifying, unpredictable, screaming person that we were not to bother.  For me to speak up, have opinions, or want attention would make me a burden on my parents.  It might mean that my mother would do something inappropriate in response, such as calling someone up and yelling at them for an imagined slight.  It might mean that my mother would invalidate me, dismissing and minimizing any concerns or problems that I had.  It might mean that all four of my family members would join forces to torment me until I cried, then make fun of me for crying.

A certain childhood memory of mine has been on my mind a lot lately.  I remember sitting in my room trying to think of something, a bit of news or something, that I could go and tell my mother so that I could have her attention for just a minute.  I remember walking down the hallway to her sewing room and telling her my thing and her barely responding with a “mmm hmm” and not even looking at me.  And me knowing how much she just wanted me to go away.  Feeling small and worthless and deeply ashamed.  Knowing that my only value to her lay in not being there.

As a young adult, I had to learn to recalibrate my humor.  I thought that making fun of people was what normal humor was, because cruel humor was the only kind of humor I knew.  But more than that, I hadn’t realized that what I said could make a difference, that people could actually hear my words and be affected by them.

Years later, in grad school, I was giving a lecture on Freud and came up with an example on the spot of a (relatively) healthy response to childhood trauma:  the child who feels voiceless and unheard and grows up to be a teacher so that her voice will be heard.  Then I realized I’d just told the story of my own life and had to pause for a moment.  I suddenly saw that teaching was satisfying and healing to me for just that reason.

Being ignored when I speak is a powerful trigger for me, as I have just discovered recently.  It still has the power to make me feel small and overwhelmed with shame.  It can exacerbate my problems with depression and anxiety, to the point where I can’t sleep at night and can barely function during the day.

The ironic twist to all this is that my mother has always seen herself as the helpless victim of every thing and every person in the world.  She will never see, much less acknowledge, the damage that she has done to her children and the scars they carry with them now as a result.

STH

Photography 101, Day 17: Glass

26 Thursday Mar 2015

Posted by STH in Uncategorized

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photo101

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Playing around with some glass objects and candles.

Photography 101, Day 16: Treasure

23 Monday Mar 2015

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≈ 2 Comments

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photo101

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A few of the treasures from my jewelry box.

Sunday Sevens 03-22-15

22 Sunday Mar 2015

Posted by STH in Uncategorized

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

cats, cooking, Hermiston, Oregon, Pendleton, recipe, sewing, Sunday Sevens, Thimbles Fabric 'n' More

Where has the week gone?  I feel like I spent the entire seven days doing boring, unphotographable (if that wasn’t a word before, it is now) things like hauling my mother to medical appointments.  I did finish my sister’s birthday present on time (barely) and I completed the fleece jacket UFO, though, so some productivity did happen in between all the running around.

sunday-sevens-new-logo

(Sunday Sevens is a weekly post series with seven or so pics of things you’ve been up to that don’t merit a whole blog post.)

Sunday afternoon, my honey and I got back from our weekend in Seattle.  I guess it had been a while since we’d spent two nights away from the cats, as Sunday evening and all of Monday were spent with them following me around and yelling at me, resulting in massive cuddling sessions.  It was TOTAL PANIC because their people were gone FOR LIKE YEARS and even though they had plenty of food and water, THEY ALMOST DIED.

Monday afternoon they finally settled down into their usual catatonia.

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Much contemplation of fabric and rifling through patterns happened this week as I played around with spring sewing ideas and did some reading on burn tests and tissue fitting.

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I had some leftover corn tortillas from pork carnitas tacos last week, so a batch of Chilaquiles had to be made.  (Caution:  that recipe is seriously hot–I eliminate the jalapeno and reduce the chipotle chilies to 4 when I make it, and it’s still pretty hot, especially if your sausage is spicy.)

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I’ve got some spring plant plans in the works, as it now appears I won’t be going to Paris with my honey this summer after all.  I’m (mostly) okay with that; it helps that he’s informed me that we’re going to Scotland next summer so that he can do a 1300k bike ride on the western coast.  (As he put it, “I appear to have accidentally signed up for that ride in Scotland; you want to go?  They need volunteers and you can have fish and chips!”  He knows me too well.)

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I spent Saturday helping out with the 300k (180 mile) ride my partner organized in eastern Oregon.  I expected the experience to be rather tedious–hours spent sitting in the car waiting for riders to show up so I can sign their cards?  Um, woot?–but it was actually a pretty fun day.

The ride started at 6:00 in Hermiston, and I got to the first control point at the Pendleton Safeway at 8:00 to meet them.  The whole group of 6 riders showed up at 8:45, then headed out again.  I had a few hours to kill before the next control, so I went to the local fabric shop, Thimbles, Fabric ‘n’ More, to look for fabric for my next gift project.  They didn’t have what I needed for the gift, but I did find a little something for me in their nice selection of quilting cotton and vast notions area.

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Then I went next door to the park and took a long walk along the river.

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Bonus picture of a butterfly just because I like it:

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I was able to finish up the hand sewing on my fleece jacket while waiting in Hermiston for the riders to show up.  Then they were off again, and I headed home.

Have a great week, everybody, and I hope you’re able to do something fun for yourself this week.

STH

Photography 101, Day 15: Landscape

21 Saturday Mar 2015

Posted by STH in Uncategorized

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Tags

Oregon, Pendleton, photo101, travel

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Empty rodeo grounds in Pendleton, OR, wait for the annual round-up.

Photography 101, Day 14: Scale

19 Thursday Mar 2015

Posted by STH in Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

cats, photo101

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Maybe the Fluff Beasts are so absorbed in their mating ritual that I’ll be able to just sneak through here without being noticed . . . .

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Almost there . . . .

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NOOOOO!!!!!

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