A Very Personal VLOG

Before you decide to watch this I am going to tell you up front that this is NOT a sewing post and this is about my very personal struggles with anxiety, depression, and chronic pain disorder. Its a long video sparked by a twitter conversation the other day. If you do not have any interest in this go ahead, mark as read, and I'll have some happy sewing posts for you soon. (Please note almost finished Tofino's in background). I promise I won't be offended.

I am also posting a number of links below this for those of you that are inclined to read and research.



Something of note, the only reason my initial back injury did not put us in the poor house is because it was covered under worker's comp even after my contract was up. However, after four years they really wanted to get rid of me so that's when the settlement proceedings started. It was a paltry sum of money in the grand scheme of things but it kept us afloat until I was able to get full coverage under my company and not get denied treatment for "pre-existing condition" thanks to the "Patient Protection Act" (aka Obamacare, and anyone who tries to troll political is going to get deleted, that's not what this is about).

"The Spoon Theory" or the origin of the term "spoonies". If nothing else, read this.

Brain scan of depressed and not depressed brain from Mayo Clinic

What SSRI's are and what they do for depression.

General Anxiety Disorder

What is clinical depression?

Serotonin  and Dopamine

Stay Fabulous! XOXO

The Raglan Skater Dress

So y'all know the Skater Dress from KitchyCoo  first debuted for girls, and I really love it. One problem, it was just a little too small for Felicity. Then the Lady Skater debuted (I've made THREE! Will blog later) and its for teens too. But it was too big, except for the skirt. So I had a lightbulb moment. I decided to take her favorite raglan t-shirt pattern and hack it off at high-waist height and add the skater skirt. I had to cut the size 3 and then shorten the size one length by two inches.  It seems Viking Mom has had a Viking Daughter.

DO NOT be fooled by this adorableness. She's a bruiser when you make her mad. 

Thus, the raglan skater dress was born. It suits her broad shoulders very well and I may have to create my own hack for this too. This was the test run made out of a thick cotton/poly jersey blend that I inherited from Mom's stash. I had a moment when I remembered I was suppose to help Mom cut a dress out of this fabric for her and it sparked a short crying fit. But my family and the #sewcialists pointed out using it this way would make her happy. Especially with the added iron-on kitty bling. I'd had the iron-on for so long I forgot where it came from.

Hello Kitty!

See? The iron on gives it just a tiny bit of visual interest. Tractor and farm cats help too. I should mention we took these photos up at my friend D's place. They have lots of animals as D's Mom (its a multi-generation house) rescues animals. Anyway.

The great thing about the Skater Dress is that its perfect for active girls that like to wear dresses. Make it out of a durable washable fabric and you have a play dress you make up from cut to finish in an hour. No joke! Its no wonder these are so popular, it really is a great pattern for a sewing quickie. 

Lets see, how high is this?

Watch this!

WEEEE!

"Little girls, like butterflies, need no excuses" - Robert Heinlein

Lets give horses apple treats!

Ooof, sour apples are sour. Good thing horses like them!

Run! 

Jump for joy!!

And there you have it. I'd say she's pretty happy with the dress.

VLOG2 A Cautionary Tale about Pre-Treating Fabrics.

Yes, that's right. ANOTHER BLOG POST! WITH VIDEO!

In other news I have cut out in five hours two lady skater dresses, a lady skater t-shirt hack, a dress for my daughter AND the Tofino pj pants. I'm taking them all with me to my friends house along with my two main machines. My Brother sewing machine and Singer 4-thread serger.

See y'all later!

Sewing Plans! My First "Official" Vlog

So the still image for this vlog is kinda hilarious. Also, I apparently I like to scratch my upper lip when I'm thinking about what to say next. Who knew? But I'm actually enjoying doing vlogs cause I can use my hands when I talk.

One note, the green denim is from Fabric.com, I forgot to add that part. I was also trying to say the red knit would go well with the gauze.

Patterns mentioned by me:

Lady Skater
Sewaholic Tofino, Thurlow, and Salspring dress.
Cake's Hummingbird
Colette's Hawthorn and Jasmine
By Hand London's Victoria Blazer

Ok, hope this wasn't terribly boring. Tell me what you have planned, please?!

In Which I Say Things Out Loud (Word Meme)

So EONS AGO *dramatic echo*, in internet years, Miss Isis did a thing called "Blog Voices". I've been wanting to do this for ages and ages and finally entered the 21rst century and got myself a nifty HD webcam. This is what I did first. You might have to turn the sound up a bit, I was talking a bit softly in some spots.

After watching myself do this, which was weird, I realize the fact that my parents came from two entirely different parts of the USA comes into play. And if I'm around my southern in-laws, well, I get a thick accent. But years of doing IT work on the phone has made me fairly clear good about enunciation.

And below is the list of questions/words.

List of Words:
Aunt, Route, Wash, Oil, Theater, Iron, Salmon, Caramel, Fire, Water, Sure, Data, Ruin, Crayon, Toilet, New Orleans, Pecan, Both, Again, Probably, Spitting image, Alabama, Lawyer, Coupon, Mayonnaise, Syrup, Pajamas, Caught

List of Questions:

What is it called when you throw toilet paper on a house?
What is the bug that when you touch it, it curls into a ball?
What is the bubbly carbonated drink called?
What do you call gym shoes?
What do you say to address a group of people?
What do you call the kind of spider that has an oval-shaped body and extremely long legs?
What do you call your grandparents?
What do you call the wheeled contraption in which you carry groceries at the supermarket?
What do you call it when rain falls while the sun is shining?
What is the thing you change the TV channel with?

I'd Like to Thank The Academy and Other Honorable Mentions

First of all, I want to thank everyone for their wonderful comments on my last post, it really brightened my day!

Oh goodness, I have so much to catch up on! Really. I also keep losing all my good blogging ideas or by the time I get time to sit down and write I'm all derpy and tired. And lets not even mention I'm like, a month behind on reading other blog entries. I have been chatty with #sewcialists on twitter, however. And if you didn't know, you can now buy sewcialist swag from SewBrook over on Zazzle.com.

Oh, and I also received a couple of blog award nominations from fellow bloggers. Two of them are Liebster awards, from Cari Homemaker  (Like, LAST YEAR???) and Heather B, I've tagged this one forward before so please excuse me for not doing it again. But if you don't follow these ladies already, should.

However, I also got a "Very Inspiring Blogger" award from Midvale Cottage, IN MAY. Srsly, I'm slackin' here. Side note, she runs an Etsy shop with vintage patterns here.

This award has responsibilities, though, and I'm going to flub my why through it.

1- Display the award and link back to the person who nominated you
2- State 7 facts about yourself
3- Nominate 15 bloggers for the award
4- Notify the winners


Blogs:

Actually, There are so many blogs out there full of wonderful people that I can't even begin to single them out. Instead I'm going to plug ALL of the #sewcialists by saying hop on over to the webpage and check out our blog aggregater "Firehose".  And its not just blogs, its Twitter and Instagram too with anyone that uses the tags #sewcialist and #sewcialists. This is, hands down, one of the best and most supportive corners of the internet and I'm so proud to be a part of this group. You can find it here: http://sewcialists.org/firehose/

Now, for seven facts about myself? Hmm, lets see:

1) I lived in a tent for a year while traveling with the Renaissance Festival when I was 18.
2) I've worked in the Telecommunications, specifically ISP (internet service provider) for 14 years now, but I didn't go to school to learn the trade. It was one of those "I just picked it up" kind of people.
3) Due to a traumatic childhood experience, I hate cantaloupe.
4)I played flute and I went to band camp.
5)My husband married a redhead and all of his female friends are redheads. I'm not sure how this is about me, but I just want to point out I think he's a masochist.
6)When I was a baby they accidentally swapped my bladder with a squirrel's bladder. This is why I have to pee every 15 minutes.
7) I really do *gigglesnort* but I'm told its very endearing.

Ok, that's all folks! Wow, I'm really glad I got that out because I was feeling some serious blogger guilt.

A Mini-Vacation and Other Things

So my little boy turned 12 this past weekend and I'm pouty because he's growing up so fast. But, then on the other hand, I'm proud that he's turning into a fine person, though I'm a bit biased.  The friends we went to stay with in north Georgia live WAAAY out in the country. Like, we have to go down a few dirt roads to get there. They have this huge house that is labyrinth like and sectioned in a way that two families can (and do) easily live there. D (we will call her) parents had bought the land and build the house over many years. In fact, its still a work in progress and what is done is just beautiful. And they also have three horses, four dogs, four cats (possibly more?), and numerous types of nut and fruit trees. And NO CELL SIGNAL.
They have DSL but it can be cranky when 8 people are all trying to connect with wifi on their phones so it was often a game of "Who's got the best connection now". So that, plus the fact that I brought the full memory card for my DSLR is why I have next to no pictures of this place.

So anyway. D has been friends with my husband longer than I've known him, and while we consider her and her family like our family, we lost touch with her. The reasons are unimportant, its just so wonderful to have them all back in our life. They invited us to come out and spend the night after our first dinner date, so we went out this weekend for Simon's birthday. Ds sister made gluten free Portal cupcakes. And well, here's a photo that just kinda sums everything up nicely.

*geek

And yes, that is Derpy and Dr. Whooves. D's sister has a little girl that is the same age as S&F's baby cousin. Because they usually help their grandma with babysitting they are more than adept to keeping small kids occupied and mostly out of trouble. D's sister was beside herself as she's completely unaccustomed to her daughter not constantly wanting attention from her.  She wants us to come visit with the kids more often. I told her I'd be more than happy to do that.

D also had me go over a costuming project with her. She hasn't sewn anything from a pattern in over a decade and she chose this one:  McCall's 6818   We laughed over the fact that of course she would pick something a bit ambitious out of the starting gate. Though I'm excited to help. :) I was hoping to help more while there but I've been fighting a massive UTI and diverticulosis flair up so I spent a lot of time laying down.

Oh, the other thing that happened was one of their succulent plants had its yearly bloom. It was a big deal because you can sit and watch the flower quiver as it opens. The kids were in awe, checking on it every 2 minutes or so (because kids don't sit still very well).

Night Blooming Cereus.

D's Mom picked it and brought it downstairs where we were going over some sewing books. Felicity was sad "I wanted it to fill the room with wonderful smells while I slept" she told me. :)


So, other things. I um. I acquired a lot of fabric recently because #sewcialists are a bunch of enablers. And then Sewaholic released a pattern I had to have. You should buy it too. Then I bought By Hand London's Victoria blazer, and Cake's Hummingbird pattern.

At some point I'll actually sew things. Well I have sewn things! But I haven't blogged any of them. Another pair of Clovers, a few Renfrews, and a Raglan T/Skaterdress hack I made for my daughter, complete with sparkly kitty iron on. I'm sure there was something else but I can't remember right now.