Simpsonize Me!

I love the Simpons, so I had to go Simpsonize myself. So here I am. I stuck my little buddy shot version in my profile.



And to be a little more sewing related, I'm working on a few things. One is a new bag pattern for my collection of sewing patterns. I'm tentatively calling it The Gyspy Bag. I'm going to have some sneak peek pictures up soon of it. I'm also working on updating my patterns webpage and I'm in the middle of turning my popular Diva Mommy Tote pattern into a downloadable PDF file. You will have to tape the pattern together when you print it off, but it's a lot quicker than waiting for the mail to arrive.

And to move to something completely unrelated, I finished Wicked over the weekend. Someone told me it was a difficult read, but I disagree. I couldn't put it down. It was so well written, I kept wondering what would happen next, and every time I crawled in bed to read it, I felt myself drawn back into the world of Oz and reluctant to leave. I also heard long ago it was "a little different" than the musical. Uh, no, it's completely different. The musical is like a paragraph of the book, and it goes in a completely different direction. They are hardly alike except they have the same characters. I love the musical and I think it's the best I have ever seen, but I really loved reading the book. You know when you read a book and you are just hungry to read more, but you don't want it to end? That was how I felt about Wicked (and The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold). I've already started on Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister and I have a hard time putting it down too. Gregory Maguire is just a wonderful writer. I wish I knew how to weave stories the way he does.

Part I Nursing Shirt Tutorial is Up!!

I disappeared for a few days, but I have returned! I had to finish the first module of my distance learning school before I could come back, and now I'm just waiting for my last test to be graded. It has three modules, but the first one is the longest.

Sorry this tutorial took so long, I swear whenever I plan something, life gets in the way...sigh.



So, if you want to learn how to turn a regular t-shirt pattern into a nursing shirt, here is part I. This part shows you how to create the extra pattern piece for the overlay. I have also included the text for part II and part III on sewing the shirt, but I am still working on those pictures, so they will be up very soon, but if you don't need a visual aide (which I require since I'm a visual learner), then you can easily finish on your own.

This particular pattern is how to do the "T-top" nursing shirt style. Basically, it is an overlay that is sewn down the middle of the shirt with one large nursing opening hidden underneath that you simply pull to one side or the other. This style is my favorite to sew and wear because people really can't tell it's a nursing shirt, especially if you use a print. Prints camouflage the overlay really well in this design.

Heaven is called Blue Bell

If you're from Texas, you know Blue Bell ice cream. That is the best stuff in the world. But they have a new flavor, Cake Batter. Oh. my. god. It's heavenly, it tastes just like you're eating cake batter. I just ate an entire pint all by myself. My kids ate it before I could try it, so I picked some up on the way home from a doctor's appointment today and hid one pint for myself. I just finished it. I feel really guilty, but boy was it good.

On another note, my doctor's appointment was to an ENT specialist. I get terrible sinus infections and I've finally had enough, so I found a local one who specializes in chronic sinus issues. I have to go get a fun-filled allergy test next Monday. 36 shots in my arms, won't that be fun. I haven't had an allergy test since I was a kid.

Ouija boards, Pacman, Frogger and more...

I found the coolest website. My kids love it. Complete with a ouija board and tons more.

There are lots of fun 80s arcade games, Pacman, Centipede, even Pong, ton, more. My personal fave is Frogger because if you are hit by the 18 wheeler, the blood gets splattered all over the screen. And there's magic tricks and and Em and I sat here for over an hour doing the optical illusions. Have fun!

a little bit of this and that

I haven't updated in a couple days. I'm working on a few things, and I'm working on updating the waldorf doll sewalong with a downloadable pattern to use and I need to fix the missing pix.

Anyway, other than that life is boring right now, lol. I need to head down to my storage unit and grab some more fabric to finish the last of the nursing tutorial.

And who wants to make boutique applique stuff? I'm going to work on a little tutorial for making professional appliques. Sometimes I just hate the way people applique. I guess you can call me an applique snob, lol. Long ago in a time before Mr. E, I was quite the popular eBayin' boutique overall maker.

ok, now, there was something else I was going to mention, but it's left my brain. Crappity crap crap, I can't remember what it was. Argh.

Oh I got the coolest idea for my little tag obsession. Ya know I'm obsessed about those too? Anyway, so I was looking in this neat British craft magazine I picked up at BN and they have these little family tree type garlands made from those tags into pockets. But my idea is more for kids and very very cute. I'm going to try to whip up a protoype very soon.

Oh, oh, oh!! I remembered my idea I forgot. Who wants to learn how to make clothes for dolls? It's soooo easy. I don't even use patterns. I think this is a great way to teach kids how to design their own patterns. This will be my next tutorial after the nursing stuff.

I think I'm going to post the nursing stuff in phases. Since it's taking longer than I thought, I'm going to do like part 1, part 2, etc. Look for the first part this weekend.

Okeydoke, off to vacuum and clean, I'm having one of my intuitive moments telling me I'm going to get a last minute phone call tomorrow for people coming to look at my house.

The Fifth Ring of Hell...aka...Selling My House

I hate selling a house and this is the first one I've tried to sell. There's nothing like that early morning adrenaline rush when you've been awoken with a phone call from your realtor, "There's a realtor driving around your neighborhood and would like to look at your house RIGHT NOW!!!!!" WTH?? Um, hello, what happened to the - I need at least an hour's warning when you call - discussion we had when I first listed? This happened to be the time I skipped cleaning like a mad woman the night before. The one time I don't vacuum the floors and do the dishes before I got to bed.

So in hopes of finally getting out of here and moving closer to the kids' school (which is 35 miles away), we just lowered the price today by $5k. We have all new floors, ceramic tile, totally new bathrooms, we've painted the entire house, new roof, we've relandscaped, we live on huge a corner lot, I've dumped about 60% of the contents of our home in a storage unit. What more do you people freakin' want? just tell me, I'll do it.

Ok, I'll admit, I'm actually considering buying this. Am I crazy? I don't believe in superstitions, but I'm ready to try anything. Got any spells, chants, meditations, or magical amulets that sell houses, anybody?