Lesson 93: Happy Saturday

Darn it's sideways... well here is our cat/dog ruby

Lesson 92: A new segment I like to call, "Pug Therapy"

How do I feel? I feel like screaming, "WHY?????" Grrr....

According to Patrick Star, "Hero worship is unhealthy". I need help.

The sewing expo I went to a few weeks back not only promised to be an awesome day, but I had really high hopes of meeting my blogging obsession Gertie of Gertie's New Blog for Better Sewing. I tried to be realistic about the entire situation. I realized that the expo is a huge event and the odds of my coming across one certain person who was also perusing the stands were very slim. Still I made sure to have my family keep an eye out for her. We never did meet her. But here is the kicker. I later found out from reading her blog that she was at one of the mini fashion shows I attended! She was in the same room as me and I did not even notice her. This may have been because my family sat in the very front row. Oh the agony! So close yet nothing.... She is from New York so I do not foresee this opportunity happening again any time soon.

TODAY I found out that LAUREN CONRAD is coming to Portland for a book signing in 2 weeks!!!! It is on a Wed and an evening event which gives me time to drive down there after work. I was even able to convince Tyler to go with me! (Not that he would have let me go alone). I LOVE Lauren Conrad. I have watched all the seasons of The Hills more times than I can count. I have her fashion book. She is the reason I do cat eye makeup. She is the reason I LOVE my 6 inch heels. I love her style.

After a bit of research I found out that you have to get a bracelet to meet her. These will be given out at 9AM!!! There is no way I can get down there during the day because of work. Once again I come so close to meeting someone completely and supremely awesome and I fall short. I want to cry right now. This has made me completely deflated. Nothing more to say, I will sum up my emotions with an emoticon :(

Lesson 91: Fluff For Your Morning

Hooray for one successful morning. The dogs woke up at 4 AM today with the usual whine, shake, pace, and repeat. Rolling out of bed I let them out, they pottied and it was back to bed. The looks on their faces were priceless.

WHAT???? No food? But I hungee? (that is how dogs talk)

After turning off the lights, they went back to bed! Oh yeah :)

In other news, construction has begun on my jacket. My mom thinks the deep purple fabric I bought won't go with the red and cream dress. We shall see...

Here is Ruby looking out our front window.

How much is that puggy in the window?
The one with the kinkaroo tail.

Lesson 90: It is time for an intervention!

Max has discovered his morning routine. He wakes up from his dog bed and whines until we wake up. If this does not work he will shake over and over rattling the charms on his collar. Once we are up he goes potty and then he gets to eat! After breakfast he and Ruby go back to bed.

This has worked fine until Max started figuring something out. If he wakes up earlier and starts whining he gets his breakfast earlier! First he pushed us to 5AM. The past few days he was sounding the alarm at 4AM. BUT today he pushed me too far! He was up and whining at 2:30AM!!! No way Max! Oh, I took Ruby and Max out but it was right back to bed after that. When he realized that his evil plot had not worked he tried to get me back out of bed with more sighs of despair and collar shaking.

This is why Tyler and I have declared an intervention on the dogs. No more breakfast before 5AM! You are going down dogs! (And by down I mean lay down on your bed and go back to sleep!)

Lesson 89: In a family we share everything

Who did we buy this bed for anyway? (To be fair, not pictured here, is a nice warm fire right next to him)

Last night I made the probably unwise decision to go full force and finish off my dress. This kept me up until 1:45AM ugh... luckily it's Friday today :) Tyler, my partner in sewing, (or at least figuring out patterns etc) helped so much. First I had to figure out how to attach the invisible zipper foot to my machine. Later he helped my decipher some more pattern hieroglyphics. The dress turned out amazing. I love the material weight and feel. My only complaint is that the zipper sticks! Grr. I took a good 20 minutes after finishing the dress to try and unzip the back. I think I got it taken care of... I hope. Pictures of the dress will be posted later. My next project is the jacket that goes with the dress :) I can't wait. The jacket was featured in one of the fashion shows we saw at the Puyallup Sewing Expo and looked so chic and comfy. 

Now for your viewing pleasure: Puppy Max and His Rope

Lesson 88: A Lesson in Puppy Parenting

Not that I ever thought parenting was easy, but this week Tyler and I have had a glimpse into the world of the sleepless nights. Since moving into our home we decided it was time the dogs no longer sleep in our bed. The first two nights of Max sleeping in a crate were an absolute nightmare. He has been spoiled his entire one year of life and HATES being confined. Ruby, who usually does well in her crate, got riled up when hearing Max's distress and she too would bark and whine.

Yesterday we came up with the idea of getting them a nice comfy dog bed from Costco. It may be a little big.

This morning I found Tyler sleeping on the bed with the dogs to help them feel more secure. Oh the things we do..... The dogs seem to like their new bed and hopefully this means more sleep!!!

I learned how to make pleats :) (After two books and a Youtube video...). Feeling super motivated I was about to take on the zipper when I realized I had bought the wrong kind... whoops... so here is what I have so far.

Lesson 87: Moving is every bit as stressful as people say... just ask the dogs

This past weekend we finished off our move to the new home!!! Between being uprooted, having to be caged up while people scrambled about and the fact that they are no longer allowed on the bed just about killed off our dogs.

There is a new world order pups and it states that dogs are dogs and don't get to sleep in the bed! (and the fact that they peed on the comforter one too many times did not help their situation).

Max's last night in the apartment... and his last night of sanity!

By the time Sunday came around Ruby was completely exhausted! No matter what position Tyler sat on the floor while setting up the rooms she was able to make some sort of bed out of him. Max was pretty tired too, but I think Ruby was more creative in her solutions to the problem. Max just grumbled and took out his frustration on us.

Finally the dogs found their paradise by the stove on a blanket. This picture was taken moments before they both just crashed. Don't worry I think the dogs will love their new home. There is much more room to run around and they have a yard to go crazy in. :) We are all excited and happy to be in our new home and thanks to our families who helped!

Lesson 86: Simplicity's Cruel Joke

I spent yesterday morning completing the sleeves for my dress. I got stuck and could not for the life of me figure out what I had done wrong. I literally read each step 5 times before I even started and then read word for word as I am completing the step. Finally I ended up calling Simplicity for HELP!

Now... I LOVE Simplicity patterns... I wanted to preface my next statement with that because I think someone somewhere dropped the ball on this one. I will try to explain this as uncomplicated as possible. When you cut out your pattern there is a key stating dark= pattern side down, white= pattern side up. (simple enough). WELL, what I did not realize, is that the steps to constructions are OPPOSITE. When you are actually sewing your garment dark= pattern side up and white= pattern side down. Luckily this is just a stitching error which can be corrected by a seam ripper.

After dinner I announced to Tyler I AM WORKING ON MY DRESS! Phew, it feels much better to be back on track. Tyler helped me set in the sleeves. If you remember from Lesson 44, Tyler had to help with the sleeves to Max's Halloween costume. Once again he came to the rescue. We even pulled the dinosaur costume back out to try and remember how I did it last time. Ha! I swear, putting in sleeves is like those little puzzles where you have two metal objects linked together and the goal is to figure out how to unlink them.

Here is the bodice with sleeves :) (I am holding the unfinished back together)

My awesome drafting engineer husband (which comes in handy for me quite often!)
Max telling us it is TIME FOR BED!
Me attempting to get a picture with both pups.
Meh... this will have to suffice.

Ruby Kinkeroo

Lesson 85: Sine, Cosine, Cosine, Sine, 3.14159 Goooooooo Pi Day!!!

(just a little cheer for March 14th. If you need help Dick from "3rd Rock From the Sun" can help you here)

What? You don't know what Pi day is? Well... neither do my parents.

Pi= the amount of times the diameter of a circle can fit around the circumference AKA 3.14 (and on from there)

March 14 = 3-14



Pi Day!



How do you celebrate pi day? EAT PIE!



And where do you get the best pie in Enumclaw? The Pie Goddess!



Last night Tyler and I stopped by The Pie Goddess and picked up a Tollhouse Cookie Pie and a Chocolate Cream pie. We took them over to my parents to surprise them for Pi day. They had no idea what we were talking about. First they were convinced I had made the whole thing up. I told them EVERYONE knows about Pi day. To this my mom replied, oh you are on the internet a lot that is how you heard about it. Ha! Love it. But don't even get me started on when I then tried to tell them about Mole Day on October 23!



I was just kidding before by the way, I am sure you have heard of Pi day too. :) Please excuse me for doubting your knowledge of obscure holidays.

P.S. Ruby strikes again! This morning I could not figure out why the zipper on my winter coat kept splitting open. I finally noticed Ruby had chewed off a section of the zipper near the top. I will probably end up taking my coat to a dry cleaner to have them fix the zipper. It must be very exhausting to be her and having to constantly think of new and surprising things to destroy.


And here is Max. :)

Lesson 84: Understitching, Machine Basting and Encyclopedia Britannica

Yesterday I learned understitching and how to machine baste for my dress.

Thank you to youtube. :) Life has certainly become a lot simpler since people started sharing their knowledge via the internet. I was listening to the radio this morning and heard that Encyclopedia Britannica is no longer going to be in print, which is just crazy to think about. I can remember watching the commercials for these books. My older sister even used to say if she had a daughter she was going to name her Britannica... but I digress.... The point is that there is so much more information available to us.

In elementary school, if I had to write a paper on airplanes, I would pull the encyclopedia off the shelf with the letter A and write based on the half page explanation of airplanes. Now a person can google airplanes, watch a video, complete a tutorial and even get a virtual tour of an airplane mock up. Pretty cool huh?

While I do sometimes miss the simplicity of searching through a library to find information, I love learning so many new things right at my fingertips... I will add though that most often I will read about a subject first (like understitching)... then, being completely lost, I watch a video and the light bulb clicks. Ohhhh that is what the book was talking about. (Youtube.... the Heaven-sent tutor for visual learners).

Here are some pictures of the dress in progress...

If you look closely you can see a line of stitching very close to the edge. This is the understitching and it is used to kind of form the neckline and keep the lining in place.

Machine basting is essentially stitching a straight line but with a very long stitch length. This is used for temporary stitches to hold fabric in place (pretty simple). Also you can see the sleeve I am working on.

And the next picture will show the lining of the sleeve that I put darts in this morning in between makeup and hair.

Lesson 83: How to know when it is time for bed.

Pig pile on Tyler! We have very demanding dogs. When it is time for bed they will tell you, most often it is by climbing on you until you get the hint. Max will often add his deep siiiiiigh signifying how fore lorn he is that he is not already in bed.

Here is the bodice with all its darts. The lining is ready to be sewed into the bodice which is my next step.

Lesson 82: Moving On and Moving Out

Yesterday we packed up a bunch of stuff to take over to our new home. I hate packing but I love spending time with my husband. The apartment is an absolute mess which is killing me inside. Next week we will be in our own house which is exciting and absolutely terrifying!

While cleaning out my closet I found Max's 4th of July shirt. He may be a little large for it. :( He reminds me of Gus Gus, Cinderella's hefty mouse friend.

The shirt has been passed down to Ruby which is fitting since she was born on July 4th.

Lesson 81: Where do I sign and where's the crate?

We are in the home stretch now! Today we signed all the final paperwork for buying our home. And just to add a little cheese to the situation I took pictures with Tyler and myself holding the folder with copies of all the paperwork and the pen we used to seal out fates. Don't you love the flag design? Very patriotic :)

Afterward I had to head to work where a patient, upon hearing I am a new home buyer, told me the woeful tale of how he lost his house in the recession. He will never buy another house in the state of WA and by the way King county has the WORST taxes! It is a good thing I don't have children (according to him) they are way too expensive. His parting words of wisdom for me were, "Just remember, nothing is permanent except death and taxes."

Wa wa waaaa (Debbie Downer noise) Perhaps he was welling meaning... or just venting, but don't tell me all this right after I have signed my life away! Sheesh!

And now for your viewing pleasure, Ruby tries to find her crate in order to get her biscuit.
(notice at the end Tyler drops the biscuit and Max vaporises it)

Lesson 80: A lesson in patience, brought to you by Ruby Kinkaroo

Here is the fabric I picked out for my dress. It is a red and tan sateen and is very soft. I also bought a tan lining fabric. This morning since I did not have to go into work until later I had some time to iron the fabric and the pattern (the iron is not turned on in this picture). There was also a bit of time to pin some of the pattern pieces.

After a while I hopped in the shower to get ready for work. Upon getting out I found that Ruby Destructo had pulled all the toilet paper off the roll. This is her new favorite pass time so I was not too surprised.

What did surprise me came while I was doing my makeup. I heard Ruby in the next room chewing on something (*sigh* We were so spoiled with Max who only chewed on the wall...see Lesson 6)

The sound was the crunch munch of Ruby EATING MY PATTERN!!!! She must have snatched the pattern piece off the back of the chair and gone to town. She literally ate a third of the sleeve pattern. :(

Yeah you missy!

Guilty pug won't even look at her shameful snack.
There is something about a pug face that is always a cross between guilt and remorse.

Don't worry Ruby I forgive you....

But next time you may find yourself wishing you hadn't messed with my sewing pattern bwa ha ha ! In other news....

Tyler and I are still playing Rayman. It is getting HARD. Some of the levels take us forever to complete. I think the game even loses faith in us. After so many times of dying over and over the game will pop up a message saying something like, 'Hey this level is pretty hard, do you want to take a break?' Hahaha.

So tired...

Lesson 79:

Tyler likes to play video games. I play them, but not with the extreme passion of a gamer. He has been trying (very unsuccessfully) to convince me to play games with war, magic, shooting, and lots of dragons. All these games have very amazing graphics of course. But meh....

Tyler is awesome. He really wanted me to play video games with him and when he finally realized there was no way in the world I would be playing any game that actually showed blood splurting onto the screen he changed his approach. He went out and bought a game specifically with me in mind. His selling point was that it is a cartoon where you slap the bad guys. How could I say no?

The game is called Rayman and it is pretty fun. The lesson is, if you want your spouse to play with you, you may have to change the game a little. ;)

On the other hand I don't think Tyler will ever go to a sewing expo with me but that is alright. He encourages me and that is about all I can ask. Here are the patterns I bought from the sewing expo. They are from Simplicity. I saw the girls wearing them in the fashion show at the expo this past weekend. I can't wait to make them :)

Lesson 78: A Sewing Expo, Cowboy, and Dogs

This past weekend my sisters, mom, Quinn and I had a girl's day at the Puyallup Sewing Expo. It was so much fun! We saw a couple fashion shows, took a class, looked at all the booths and we met Suede from Project Runway! I was super shy so Miranda had to be the brave person to ask if we could get our picture with him. Later in the day we came back to the Simplicity booth that he was working at and checked out the patterns for sale. Quinn was flirting it up with and I got to talk to the rep from New York who gave me some tips on the patterns I bought.
So awesome :)

Tyler came home from Arizona on Sunday. He went down there for his grandma's funeral and came back a cowboy.

He was complete with his late grandpa's boots, shirt and hat. Plus he had bought a large belt buckle to complete the ensemble. You can see the herd of cattle at his feet.

After Ruby finishes her meals she likes to parade around the apartment with her bowl.

Snaggle Teeth

Max's signature begging face.

The End