Me Made May: Week 3

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May is just moving right along whether I am sewing or not, and actually I am sewing, finally!  I got to my first project of three Saturday night, and I finished it.  I should get a chance to wear it sometime this coming week.  As far as wearing me-made items, it really hasn’t been that hard.  If I had a few more to start with, I would have endeavored to wear more than just one a week.  Most everything I have made, I do wear.  The few that I end up not liking once they are made, I am able to get rid of them pretty easily.

I don’t just make skirts either, I do also have a few dresses and shirts, but the dresses are not warm weather appropriate and I have yet to perfect a me-made shirt.  So you all are stuck seeing another one of my homemade skirts.

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This one is a favorite.  I like to also wear it as an under skirt to add length to some of my not-quite-ankle-length dresses.  And since the material is thin, it is cool and comfy for a hot and humid day, even though it is black.

I have spent a little bit of time browsing through some of the other Me Made May blog posts, and I must say I am very inspired.  There is a great community of homemade fashionistas out there!  I haven’t made it to the flickr page yet, but I am sure there is even more over there.  I have gotten so many ideas just from what I have seen on other sites.  Good work to all of you, fellow participants!  I am looking forward to the rest of your homemade styles as the month goes on.

Fourteen Weeks of Summer

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One week down, thirteen left to go!  This was the first week of our summer break.  The week is nearly over, and considering it is a break, it was very comparable to a typical busy week of school.  We were everywhere this week and I had high hopes of sleeping in, relaxing, and doing not much of anything  – just for one week – it didn’t happen.

So what did happen this week?  Nashville, a start at cleaning house, baby-sitting and grocery shopping.  Then, time spent at the state park, date night, last minute dealings for end of the school-year projects, and now before me, a busier than usual Friday.  It is good to be busy though, so don’t take my previous thoughts as complaints.  It was just a different kind of busy, really my break is from school, not everything else, huh.

There still are thirteen weeks left to go, so I am sure there is room for a lazy day hour in there somewhere.

20130517-081421.jpgWait a second, there was a lazy hour this week after all.  A lazy, happy hour, actually!  Complete with outdoor dining.

I made it to the library also this week.  I have decided that I need more of a gardening education.  Here is the start of my summer reading collection:

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I am gonna do this the old fashion way, by reading books.  And I need all the information I can get.  I started a month ago by setting up  a few new planters, sticking bulbs in the ground and planting some seeds.  Of all of the seeds and bulbs I planted though, not one that was sown into the ground came up.  How is that for discouraging?  The few bulbs I planted in pots came up, so that got me thinking…  I sowed some more seeds into tiny starter containers, and if they make it, I will plant them and see if they grow from there.  So far, I see more than half of the little seedlings popping through in their containers.  I hope they keep growing!

Not all of my gardening attempts this season have been unsuccessful though.  I have several blueberry bushes that are COVERED with fruit, my best looking apple tree bloomed out and has some apples growing on it, and I have a beautiful rose bush COVERED with flowers in the backyard.  There is patience to be learned in everything!

20130517-081453.jpgI could just embrace the beauty of weeds, then my gardening life would be much simpler…

As for sewing this month.  I set my bar low, so I thought.  Three new projects and I haven’t started any of them.  Uh, oh!  Me-Made-May is halfway gone, I better get to it.  I do have all of the materials I need, and I did set up a sewing spot so all I need to do is get with it.  I just have a hard time sitting down to sew when there are other things to be done.  That’s what makes today so busy, I am gonna do all of the other things!

So ends my thoughts on week one of summer break.  All you who are on break from something yourselves, hope you are enjoying it!  And I hope everybody has a wonderful weekend.

So Long Sixth!

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Well, I did a So Long Fifth post last year when we officially got done with fifth grade, so here is a so long sixth post because as of last week, we are officially done with the sixth grade.  Oh, and also, now that this school year is done, I have already taught the grades of English that are to come.  So 7th grade English, I am already a step ahead of you, I’ve been there done that!

We had a great year, and as always, a great end of the year celebration – park day with friends, food, games and presents – It was awesome!  We only have one more school event planned, the end of the year science fair.  It’s only fun stuff for the next week and a half.

A look back on the year and so much has happened.  My boy is growing more and more and it is almost overwhelming!  What am I gonna do when he starts high school?  That is only a few years away…  And on that note, my oldest niece just got done with high school, and I am barely wanting to let myself believe that fact of reality, she was a baby yesterday too.  I know I have said this before, and I am sure I will say it again, but where does the time go?  Please, please, slow down some!

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growing like a weed

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family trips

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new favorites

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school trips

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dog days

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 We are ready for what’s next…

Me Made May: Week 2

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I am a day early with this week’s Me-Made-May post, but I don’t really think anyone will notice.  So, when the month started, I endeavored to wear one ‘me made‘ outfit a week for the whole month of May. This week, I wore two, and finally got my sewing machine set up and running. (I actually got my sewing machine out of storage last week, but then couldn’t find my material scissors ANYWHERE! So there it sat just waiting to be started up until this last weekend when I finally made it to Wal-mart for a pair of scissors. I am kind of surprised that once I bought a new pair, my old pair didn’t mysteriously show up out of the blue; guess they really are lost… for now.)

Okay, enough of that, back to the matter at hand, Me-Made-May. My first outfit of the week, this skirt:

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I have had this one for a while and wear it plenty of times during the year. It came from my most used pattern, I even replaced this pattern because I had lost the instructions many years back, so I now have two of them (and I think the missing instructions did eventually show up). I have made numerous skirts from this and even several pairs of the pants. The instructions are irrelevant at this point, I have this one down, unless I decide to give the shirt a try.

Now for outfit number two. I made this several years ago, and wore it a few times until the ribbon I used for the strap broke. I bought some more to fix it with, then guess what happened? I misplaced it. I promise I am not this absent minded on a regular basis, and also it sounds like I don’t know where anything is, but I do, I guess just not related to sewing projects. I eventually found the ribbon and put it somewhere I knew I wouldn’t forget, but then did exactly that and forgot. So, while I was shopping for material last week I found something to redo the straps with, and finally got it fixed and wore it the next day.

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Now here is my only problem with a lot of the stuff that I make, I use cheap fabric. There was a time when Wal-mart had great $1.00 material. I would buy some every time I went shopping, but then the quality of the fabric went down, and I still bought it. Some of my material, like this orange dress, is very thin and it makes it kind of hard to work with, and even wear without a proper slip of some sort, so occasionally layering is in order.

The bonus to buying cheap material, however, is that it gives me a good first start and I don’t worry at all when I mess up, which happens more often than I would like. But now, I am going for the good stuff – well, the good stuff on the clearance racks. So I am approaching my next few sewing projects with patience and hoping for a good turn out the first time around.

20130512-001648.jpgNew Look 6730

20130512-105718.jpgNew Look 6778

The Thursday Thrift: A Closet Clean-out

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ClosetCleanOut

May is the month that I do my spring cleaning.  Once school is over, I clean everything!  Behind and under all of the furniture, under all of the rugs, in every corner and hidden spot.  This includes my boy’s room and the closets.  I haven’t started the Great 2013 Clean-out yet, but I have started looking through my closet to get an idea of how many trash bags I am going to be needing.  (The trash bags aren’t just for trash, but for the donation pile as well.)

While starting to go through my closet, (I don’t tend to keep trash in there by the way, just unsorted piles of my clothes that haven’t been hanged up, or need to be fixed in some way) I found a few items that I had forgotten were thrifted.  This skirt being one of them.  I also found that I don’t really have any thrifted shirts.  I have pretty good luck finding new shirts for close to nothing on clearance racks, so I don’t tend to look for them when I am thrift shopping.

I have very few thrifted items that didn’t come from the Goodwill, this is another one I found there.  I kind of feel like this is a seasonal skirt, so I usually pack it away for winter with my summer clothes, and it has emerged again from the seasonal tub.

I have worn it with brown and with beige, but never red.  I usually stay away from too much red, but for today, why not?  Now if only I had a pair of turquoise shoes…  Na, just kidding.  I don’t think you will ever find me wearing turquoise, at least not as a main color.  Small amounts like on this skirt will be sufficient.

Does anyone else do a seasonal wardrobe, and stash things away for certain parts of the year?  There really are only a few things I put away when the seasons change, and they are mostly skirts so I don’t get tired of wearing the same ones over and over all year long.

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| Shirt – Merona (Target clearance rack) || Skirt- A. Byer (thrifted) || Shoes – Candies || Necklace – handmade |

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