Costuming

I don't get invited to parties. That's not an "Oh woe is me" statement. I'm always uncomfortable at a party, anyway, unless I know people willing to let me hang around with them. I don't do the wander up and commence speaking very well. I can hold my own in a conversation, but initiating it is not something I'm remotely comfortable doing. Plus, as I've aged, the idea of a party where the entertainment is standing around talking while eating and drinking, is not appealing. I far prefer parties where we play games. And, I don't have friends in the area who do parties where I feel comfortable.

So, I read of others' Halloween parties and am happy for them it was well attended and happy for me that I stayed home. But, I'm going to Disney World in October and part of the trip is to attend Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party. I'm looking forward to it.

One of the things you can do is come in costume. That's something of a conundrum for me. I did a minion costume years ago because I had a rheumatology appointment on Halloween, but I haven't dressed up since. I still have all the pieces to do that costume. Then, my friend, Meredith sent me to JoAnn Fabrics by showing me pajamas in minion designs at Wal*Mart. Remember, I came home with two fabrics and a pattern for a shirt. I could wear the minion hat and one of the two shirts I intend to make, maybe get some white gloves. I could keep a crib sheet with me which has "minion speak" on it and reply to comments with minion-ese. All it would cost is the money and time to make the shirts.

In order to get to the shirts, I needed to finish the jacket I cut out last year but never sewed. I'm notorious for grand ideas which never get finished, but I've simply told myself no minion shirt until the jacket is done. I've actually made steady progress on the jacket. I have help.

Every outfit must have cat hair on it.

It goes together fairly quickly, with long seams joining front to back.

The hard part is the trim. It's a wide band which can be in the same color, but is shown with a different color. I decided on black satin. I'm very pleased with the result.

The trim has to be lined. I am used to fusible interfacing; which is easy to apply. But I worried satin wouldn't take very well to the heat and steam needed to properly fuse the interfacing to the stain. I worried that I'd wind up with very distinct iron imprints in the satin. A friend who actually makes costumes said that wouldn't be the main problem. Satin would pucker as the interfacing cooled. So, it was sew-in interfacing.

This brought up another issue. Did I have any? I pulled out the box marked "Interfacing and sewing assists". There was a bit on top in the box, but not nearly enough to put interfacing in all the trim you see. Then, I spied a bag on the floor of the closet. Inside was more interfacing than I needed for a dozen jackets, including sew-in. I'd purchased interfacing to go with the minion shirts, but that's going at the bottom of the pile. I need to use up some of the other pieces I have. Oh the problem of accumulation in the life of a sewer. Do I or don't have have enough interfacing or the right color of thread. Better buy some just in case. I have to stop "just in casing".

I encountered an issue at the neck. I don't know if I didn't cut the right pattern piece or what, but the trim band at the neck was not large enough to go around the neck without making pleats in the jacket neckline. I dug out the pattern and I seem to have cut out the right piece. I tried pinning several different ways, but none of them worked. I decided I needed to cut a rectangle piece to pin across the back of the neck. Digging out the leftover satin, I discovered someone had peed on it. I have no idea when, but the odor was unmistakable. I cut two squares, tossed the rest in the wash, and hand washed the pieces I needed. I sliced the neck piece in half, sewed this extension into the trim and finished pinning the trim to the jacket. The other piece went into the facing of the trim since you use the same pieces for the facing. It fit fine with an additional 3 inches of fabric. With this being black satin, you won't suspect this piece wasn't supposed to be there to begin with.

The next step was to prepare the facing. I did the same thing with the facing as I did with the trim; added the additional 3 inches. I'm sitting in the recliner, Mija purring next to me, and I'm having problems getting the facing to match around the bottom of the jacket. Something is off. I unpin the facing and lay it flat on the table.

When I was pinning the facing pieces together, I twisted one side of the bottom facing when sewing the pieces together. I was quite frustrated and had to set the project aside. How could I have missed this? Taking a seam apart is a problem, but doing it on satin was double trouble. It's easy to make the satin look awful when you have to remove seams. I couldn't cut another piece because the fabric was in the middle of the laundry chute and I really don't know if I can adequately remove the smell. I'm hopeful because there's enough satin to do something else with if I can salvage it. What to do. What to do.

I finally decided to use fusible interfacing to save the piece. This is the facing. It won't be primarily visible. This is also along the bottom inside of the jacket. I'm not going for a prize here. I'm going for having it done. So, I cut the facing apart, took a hunk of fusible interfacing and "fused" the two pieces together, after making sure I had them untwisted. The fused pieces didn't pucker as much as I was expecting, thankfully, so they pinned nicely onto the trim.

Once the facing and the trim were sewn together, you need to understitch the facing to make sure it doesn't roll forward. I remember, from my high school sewing days, that understitching was recommended for all facings but you rarely see it in the instructions. This jacket has that step. I clipped the curves and decided the best thing to do would be to pin the facing to the seam to make understitching easier.

In doing this, I encountered another problem, my RA. July was a tough month for me. There were bouts of achy joints. I haven't had it cause problems with my cross-stitch or sewing until now. I would hold the facing to the left, smooth it, and with the right hand, pin it in the direction I was going to sew. The holding and smoothing put more stress on my left wrist than I was expecting. After pinning half of the facing, I couldn't do anymore. The pain was too great. I wound up pinning the rest of the facing over two days and understitching last night.

This is where the jacket is today.

I need to press the facing to the inside. I'm going to add gold braid at the junction of the trim and the jacket, because, why not. That will pick up the gold in the bow ties of the cats. I should be able to stitch down the facing at the same time I attach the braid. The hem on the sleeves is just a simple 5/8 inch hem, but I'm thinking of looking through my trim box to see if I have any black seam binding. I think that would look great. I need to sew a "Made by" label on the neck facing, too.

There's hard pinning upcoming with attaching the braid so I have to be mindful of how my wrists and fingers feel. I really wanted gold piping but that's not made anymore, at least JoAnn Fabrics didn't have gold piping. I didn't want to spend $20 in gas searching for something which didn't exist. I probably could have found it on the Internet, and given how long it's taken me to get this far, I wouldn't have been waiting on something to complete the jacket, but what I got is distinctive.

So now my costume for Mickey's party has changed. I was going to bring this jacket to Disney anyway. I could put a pink shirt under it and wear it with black jeans, which I was planning on packing anyway. Then, I could get black cat ears on a headband. The Halloween costume stores which spring up around the holiday should be opening soon and I'm positive I can get black cat ears.

I don't know what to do. Minion or black cat. Minion or black cat. I guess I see how quickly the minion shirt goes together and how it looks.

Almost done.

Beverage:  English Breakfast tea

Deb

Cooking With Deb

Some years ago, I don't remember how many, my mother sent me a box of recipes.

She'd gotten around to cleaning out her recipe boxes, first of all. Then, she went through her mother's recipes for ones she wanted to save. Finally, she sorted through stacks of recipes from my dad's sisters, given to her over the years and dumped into a drawer. When she was done sorting, she sent what she didn't want to me.

There are hundreds here. I have no idea how old some of these are, but they reflect American Midwestern cooking tastes. The box has sat, unused, in the home office for many years. I was going to integrate these with the recipes I save but it would be such a daunting task, I put it off in favor of doing most anything else.

I like to cook, but the realities of my life are that cooking is not something I do when I get home from work. My stamina is gone so whatever supper is must be something reasonably quick. That doesn't favor good food; let's be honest. Ice cream, crackers, peanut butter sandwiches, dry cereal, tend to be staples of dinner. And a diet like that is not good for me. My efforts to reform my diet fall apart simply because I'm tired.

Then one day, I had an idea. What if I cooked one new recipe a week? I could dive into mom's box and make one new thing. I grabbed a handful and counted recipes, using the date numerator. When I got to #28, I read it to see whether it was something I'd make. It was a fruit cocktail sauce to serve warm with ham. Nope. Counted again and got a recipe for green beans with bacon. You won't find me ever making green beans. I cannot stand them. The next batch of counting yielded this.

Well, this was something I would eat. Plus, I had most of the ingredients. I needed a pastry shell, the sweetened condensed milk and the biscuit mix. Turns out I also needed nuts because all I have, right now, are almonds, but, at the time I made this, I thought I had walnuts.

It's quick to make, but it makes a lot of batter.

The regular pie shell couldn't hold all of it. If I make this again, I should try a deep dish shell. The excess, I put in a greased glass dish and baked with the pie.

The pie bakes for 45 minutes. I had no idea how long to cook this so I checked every 10 minutes. At 20 minutes, I pulled it from the oven. I should have left it bake for another 10 minutes. While set, it wasn't completely baked and I wound up eating these with a spoon, not that there's anything wrong with brownie consumption via spoon. The pie came out, cooked through, at 45 minutes.

The smell in my house of brownies baking was heavenly.

It cut well. The brownie had a nice crust to it. You bake the shell first, add the batter and bake again. I had concerns the shell would be overdone, but it wasn't.

It's very rich. The chocoholic that I am can only eat one piece a day. The batter was scrumptious and I wonder how long it would keep to be used as an ice cream topping. Perhaps that's something for a party. I am not ashamed to confess I licked that bowl clean. The addition of whipped cream was a nice touch, but I wish I had vanilla ice cream. THAT would have been outstanding with a slice of pie.

So, the first recipe in this idea was a success. That got me thinking about the box I have in the home office with all the recipes I've saved over 35+ years. There was a teen magazine when I was growing up, called Ingenue. They gave tips on health and beauty, but also on homemaking and budgeting and living on your own. They were rather ahead of their time back then, not assuming you were going to find a guy and get married and jump into the Ladies Home Journal set. I started collecting recipes back then. I have a couple I still make.

When I moved, the stash went with me. Eventually, the addition of other cooking magazines necessitated a filing system for what I was saving. Enter "the box and folder" system.

It started out okay. Label the manilla envelopes with categories and then drop the recipe into that folder. Once a month, grab a folder and read through the recipes, picking a few to try. Eventually, I took to just ripping out the pages and tossing them in the box. I don't remember the last time I actually sorted recipes into the folders. Some of the folders were 25  years old and disintegrating at the edges. What if I combined the two boxes?

That's what I did. I happened to have a box the right size for the cut ones. My saved ones are on the bottom, with mom's saved ones on the top.

All the single sheets are in a stack, to be gone through, assessed, and the recipe I actually want to try cut out and added to the box. The former box was thoroughly examined but the sides are too high to lie down and rest one's chin on so that box has been deemed "recyclable". The old file folders were sniffed but Pilchard decided she didn't want to lie on those. Her current box is to the right. All the folders have been recycled.

I think this will be a lot of fun. I reduced a mess to at least some containment. I need to buy a cake mix for next week's recipe. I expect there will be quite a few 'what the...' upcoming but that's part of the excitement of doing this. It's going to be great exploring what I, my mother, my grandmother and my aunts thought was so good 20-odd years ago that we saved a recipe. Doing this has already got me cooking supper, too. That alone is a victory.

Beverage:  Assam tea

Deb

Got Me

I'm working on a long-term project. I won't start in earnest until the after-Christmas sales, but we'll say it involves a Halloween costume pattern and fabric. As Halloween patterns are on sale right now PLUS I had coupons, I entered JoAnn Fabrics last Sunday with the blinders on to get one pattern and one pattern only.

Yeah, that didn't go so well.

The cat print was on the end of a row of splashy Halloween fabric. The way this particular store is laid out, you're going to see brightly colored, distinctive fabrics when you walk in. In the store where I take my stuff to be framed, I would not have seen this, but I wasn't going all the way up there for a pattern, when I knew my local JoAnn's would have it.

I resisted for about 10 minutes. I actually had to pull up the costume pattern and look at it, to make sure it will do what I need to have done. And then I started paging through the Simplicity book, looking at shirts. I have an ancient camp shirt pattern which I've used for a wide variety of shirts, but I had no idea how much material it took and there was nothing like it in any of the books. There was one shirt I liked mainly because of the location of the pockets. But the variation I really wanted, long torso and elbow-length sleeves, did not have a fabric amount on the back. I'm no good at estimating the amount of fabric needed. Here was this kimono-themed jacket. It's not lined and it's reasonably simple to assemble. There was a variation for contrasting trim. I liked the look of the pattern.

Now, Pam was not around to talk me out of this purchase. I was running errands on this date; groceries, Target, JoAnn, cat food. Probably, both the pattern and the fabric will be around at the end of December, but I could make this and have it for my trip to Virginia at the end of November. I'm going to do the contrasting trim in black satin. I almost bought blanket edging, instead of the satin, but I wasn't sure how it would work around the neck. The pattern piece is curved to accommodate the neck line. Blanket satin is not.

So, I am testament to the power of putting eye-catching items on the end of a row. The gal helping me liked this material as much as I did. I could see this as a vest with a quilted lining, since you can buy quilted fabric now. Add a gold shirt and a bow tie, topping the look off with a top hat and a cane, and you have a Halloween costume. I'd probably wear the vest year-round.

I need to make room on the table in the living room to cut this out and get it made. We won't talk about the boxes of fabric in the closet.

Beverage:  Water

Deb

An Overload of Squee

WARNING! Cuteness alert.

We could, perhaps, file this under "Don't go to the pet store when there's an adoption event going on." That's, maybe, good advice because you never know what you'll bring home, in addition to the Frontline Flea and Tick repellent which was the real reason you went to the pet store in the first place.

Aren't they adorable? Meet Jaina and Jacen. No no. They aren't living with me. Carole and Larry adopted them.

They are not from the same litter but had been fostered together so it was asked if they could be kept together. Carole said there were a number of black kittens and cats. People were cooing over them, but no one seemed to be adopting.

Larry has never been around kittens. All the cats he's ever known have been adults. Other than Tobey, all the cats Carole has known, we had from when they were a year or less old.

There were some anxious moments. How would Faux and Tobey react? There was some hissing, but things have gone remarkably well.

I read where adding kittens to a household of adult cats is better than trying to integrate adult cats into established adult cat homes. That should not deter anyone from adopting if they already have an adult cat. I've often wondered if my girls would like a kitten. An adult cat would be problematic. Pilchard pees outside the box enough as it is. Any stress, anything she doesn't like and she registers it by peeing outside the box. I think the addition of a kitten, while maybe a good idea eventually, would cause her to pee other places outside of the box and I don't want to deal with that.

Carole and Larry got a cat tree.

That's not so much a tree as an apartment building. There are so many levels and places for everyone to lie down and not be in each other's space. Notice Faux on the floor to the lower left. "Meh. I'll not have anything to do with this."

Yeah, about that.

They have the room to provide a good home to more cats. Would that I was closer. There is something energizing about kittens. And, in case you're wondering, the names are Han Solo and Princess Leia's children's names.

Beverage:  English Breakfast tea

Deb

Happy Thanksgiving

I posted this over on House Panthers, the black cat blog to which I contribute once a week. In case you don't pop over there, I'm reproducing it, with some addendums.

For these things, I am grateful.

Noms.

I don't like people food. Mom can have that, except, oh man, when she brings home deli sliced turkey...

I'm thankful for food they aren't interested in.

My sister...

even if we do sit at opposite ends of the recliner.

My family, even if we're all over the Midwest and rarely get to see each other.

Boxes.

I'm grateful for the stuff that comes in boxes. 

Windows, where I can look out but not be out.

Ditto, especially when being out would not be pleasant. 

Places to scratch.

A place to sit with my feet up...

and a cat in my lap or next to me.

Warm places to sleep...

and peaceful places to relax. 

Best of all. I am thankful I have a home with a mom who loves me and my sister.

I wish all kittehs could sit in someone's lap and get chin scratches this Thanksgiving. Some day. Some day.

I'm grateful and thankful for friends and family who have been with me through thick and thin.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Pilchard, Mija and Deb

Beverage:  hot cocoa

Lighting Up

Back in 2005, a guy I knew was moving. He didn't want to take everything with him so he was parceling out some of his possessions to various friends. When he got to me, I took a floor lamp, one whose bulb reproduced natural light.

Over the years, I have gotten a lot of use out of it. It works so much better for lighting the room where the computer is. The overhead light often produced glare on the screen. This lamp didn't and could be moved, due to the flexible neck, to a position that was positive for interior lighting.

But, as with a lot of things, its time had reached an end. The base was the first to crack, around where the pole and the base met.

Gotta love duct tape. I had to be careful when I moved the lamp for cleaning, but the taping kept the pole upright.

But then, the flexible tube cracked where it met the actual light.

This is simply the age of the plastic and the stress of attachment to the lamp head causing the cracking. I don't know how long he had the lamp before he gave it to me, but 8 years in my possession is a good long time.

I've replaced the bulb in this twice. It's made by Verilux, so I went to their web site to see if the floor lamp had also been purchased there. It had. Based on comparison shopping, buying from the manufacturer was $2 more expensive than buying from Overstock.com, plus I had a better warranty.

The lamp arrived last week. It wasn't explained that this is a "some assembly required" product, so, when the box arrived, I looked at the old lamp and then at the box and wondered how what I had fit into what was shipped. Ah, this is how.

The hardest part of assembly was getting all the pieces out of the box. The pole is attached to the base and the light head. While its construction is very sturdy, you are advised not to pick up the pole and let the base dangle. The base is weighted and you could break some of the cords running through the base. Once you get the pole snapped into the hole in the base, you use a screw to secure the connection. Then you snap the flexible neck into the top of the pole and secure that with a screw. The light bulb (included, huzzah) snaps into the head and the head has a deflector screen which my old lamp didn't have. That snaps into the head as well. Plug the whole thing in and, viola, I have a sturdy, brand new floor light in the office.

Clean up was a breeze. All the packaging is recyclable, assuming you can recycle plastic bags and cardboard. The cardboard is sturdy but it was easy for me to tear the boxes, both the product box and the shipping box, into the right size pieces to fit in the recycling can.

This product comes with my recommendation. If I get half as many years out of the new lamp as I got out of the old one, I'll be thrilled. The old one has been moved into the kitchen where I have lighting issues. I won't be moving it beyond side to side when I clean the floor so I don't have to worry about being electrocuted accidentally by the cracked tube on the neck. When the kitchen lighting issues are solved, the lamp can be tossed and the bulb saved as a spare. As I said, I've replaced the bulb twice. In neither case was it because the bulb had burned out. If you knock the lamp over onto the floor, the bulb will break. I have no idea how long the bulb is supposed to last.

I did have to wait to recycle the box, however.

Of all the places in the living room she could sit...

Beverage:  Berry flavored seltzer

Deb

The Next Batch

Having had some lovely afternoons after work and weekends to get back into the swing of crochet ...

... and finishing the recent sherbet colored scarf, it is time to take stock and move on to the next batch of scarves on the list. The first step was creating a list to ascertain what I have left to complete. The next step was checking to see what was on sale and where so I could maximize my pennies. As I had to make a trip to JoAnn Fabrics, and they sell yarn, that was the place to go. My local JoAnn has been remodeled and, although it's still a small store, seems to have more of a yarn selection than before. I came back with this pile.

I'm drawn to the variegated yarns. I find the finished product looks quite unique. All the yarn was on sale 25% off which made this a not very expensive haul.

I started with the tan color. I foresee a lot of lap time and movie watching in the next few weeks.

Beverage:  Lady Grey Tea

Deb

Branching Out

Blogs are everywhere. I don't remember how I stumbled onto this one, House Panthers, but, in perusing the posts, I've found a blog for those of us sharing our lives with black cats.

I have had a hard time keeping up Deb's Cup of Tea with the goal of a post a day. Lately, I've been really busy and, right now, I'm going through a minor flare-up of my RA which leaves me tired. I have many more posts from the Virginia trip and there are always things I see that become posts in the back of my mind. Yet, a blog written by a number of people who have black cats?

If you've read my blog for any length of time, you know I'm a huge proponent of adopting a black cat. I love, adore, Mija, don't get me wrong, but black cats are so maligned that if I can spur one person to adopt one, giving it a forever home, then that's one cat and one person who is happy and it's worth trying to remember Black Cat Appreciation Day. (PST...August 17th.)

So, I applied to become a guest blogger. My "credentials"? Viola.

Today, I did my first post for House Panthers. I'm giving myself the goal of a post a week. I can, when I'm feeling eloquent and inspired and verbose, write the next week's post and schedule it. I'm thinking Thursdays are a good day.

We'll see how this goes. Maybe it will be more than I can, realistically, do. Then again, maybe it will inspire me.

Beverage:  Water

Deb