Scenic Route

Well.  After being a Non Blogger for 2 months or so .  Man, where does the time go?  Well, it's gone by in very meaningful ways for me--lots of family & friends, travel, holidays and...PARTIES.  I returned to UB just over a week ago and it has been nonstop party.  Three plus Christmas Day.  So, we have opted (wholeheartedly) for our preferred New Year's Eve celebration tonight:  at home.  Together.  Movies.  Homemade pizza (sans corn and pickles for heaven's sake!).  Oh, and champagne and watching the crazy city-wide fireworks from our big windows. Anyway, before ringing in 2013 and determining to blog more (sigh...sounds familiar) I want to reach out and touch my 5 followers ;) and share some pics.  I think I'll start with most recent and work back. UB is full amazing ice sculptures.  Everywhere.  At -30 F this is no problem Christmas decorating was very simple on both shores.  Very.  Some qu...

Well.  jetlag has certainly sideswiped me this trip home--hence the Blog Gap.  I've been up and running--no, make that up and dragging.  I try not to miss out on anything (and there is SO MUCH not to miss on this side!), but I am certainly operating on just half a cylinder.   Anyway!   My 1st weekend home, the Munchkins' Parental Units invited me along for a trek to Georgetown to view the Colorado fall foliage--ending with ice cream, of course!  We did this pretty much every year when raising the girls.   Then, Kelby & I have a standing date on Wednesday afternoons while his sisters go to dance class.  We rake leaves, we hunt for Pirate Cones ;) , feed the geese back at the pond/lake thing by the courthouse--oh!  This week we went to Home Depot--never had so much fun there!  Kelby just cracks me.  All the time.  A lot. For over half his life, Kelby makes a bee line for a drawer in a dre...

I set out about a year ago to apply my perpetually jet lagged brain to garment sewing for myself again--wanting to learn new techniques and knowing I would have  to learn how to fit my, ahem, "mature" body.   Boy, have I learned....  ...that FBAs are wondermous.  Why did it take so many years for me to catch on?  Countless wadders could have been avoided. ...that still, I tend to make things too big. ...I have narrow shoulders and have great success in making a size smaller in the neck & shoulders than I do for the rest of my bod. ...that my skirt & dress hems look far better just above my knee.  No more church lady look!  Not that I have anything against church ladies--I am one ;) ...that adhesive dots work great on knits to identify the right sides.  Even the Chinese ones found in UB. ...that 1/4" Steam-a-Seam works great for narrow hems on unruly knits.   ...that using grosgrain ribbon for s...

Am writing this in wonderful Incheon Airport, So Korea.  Took the midnight flight from UB last night, winging my way home to Colorado. I both dread and embrace these 2-day trips spanning half a globe and a 15-hour time difference.  Dread because, well, hanging out on planes and in airports for all those hours is a drag.  Embrace because there is something Zen-like in traveling solo on such trips.  I think of it as The Zone.  Submersed in anonymity and the wonderful care of Korean Air and Incheon Airport.   Ahh, Incheon.  Spotlessly clean and incredibly accommodating with numerous rest areas, transit hotels, sightseeing tours around the island and into Seoul, free showers, free water, multiple restaurants and stores, no obnoxious TSA recordings and some of the best massage in Asia.  I try never to miss that.   Anyway.  The is a time to just zone.  Read.  Watch movies or documentaries.  Think.  Doze.  Hold ...

I have been having some fun--and being able to wear the end products.  What's not to love about sewing?  Even the occasional wadder are part of the learning curve, right?  The constant learning--not only new fitting skills and sewing techniques, but the spill over into learning new tech-y things, photography things, blogging things--is something I am really enjoying.  Plus the online sewing community is so much fun. Anyway.  My successes :) Shirt #2 from my TNT  Simplicity 9158 this time in a basic black lightweight stretch poplin from Fabric.com   This time I added a kicky facing.  Next time I might just do a bias binding instead of the facing. Then a black skirt from a great bottom weight knit I found here in UB.  It was a dream to work with and feels great to wear.  It's from Vogue 8750 I really like the curves and fit and the vent in the back adds just enough leg.  Not sure about the length, though.  Sti...