Kitty vs. Deer

I wish I WISH I could have gotten this in better focus, but it was getting very near dusk when this was taken. I was sitting in my living room when I actually heard the deer in my front yard, pulling leaves. I watched her through the front window for a few minutes, then went out the side door onto the deck. (You can just see the railing in the lower right corner -- hopefully that will give some scale. Zoom in on the picture, it's totally worth it.) The deer was, as usual, quite unbothered by my presence. The cat wasn't even particularly alarmed... and I don't even KNOW that cat. For a brilliant few seconds, they both watched ME as if I were some exotic creature on their turf.

After a little while, the cat crossed across to the right and rolled around in the dirt about 8 feet from the deer. When the deer's grazing took her in the cat's direction, the cat beat a hasty retreat.

I stood out on the deck watching her until it was dark.

The Expo Dress

This dress was kind of a long time coming. Or maybe it just seems that way.

I don't usually discuss projects with people ahead of time, or ask for input. I'm pretty impulse-driven. But when I realized in mid-May that I had actually given myself enough time to make an outfit for the Northern Ink Xposure tattoo convention in mid-June, I asked around for some suggestions. I vaguely believed I wanted to make a dress. I don't know jack about dresses.

I stopped in at two of my usual places, Pattern Review and Craftster to get some input. It didn't take long for me to decide what it was going to be. As of this weekend, I finally finished it.

I didn't put all that much time into actually making the dress. The thing is, I TALKED about it so much that it seemed to follow me everywhere! The dress and the jacket are actually two different Simplicity patterns, which I believe compliment each other well. The fabrics are an Alexander Henry print called "Born to Ride" (yes, really) and a black Italian damask.

The damask is just beautiful, with a woven black-on-black design. Happily, I will be wearing this outfit in the daylight for at least some of the time at the convention, and that's really when the damask looks its best. Oh, and as I have to tell everyone who has seen these pictures so far (I told you I've been talking about it a lot!), the dress fits me better than it fits Heddy.

Skeel

Oh to hell with the formatting. Here are some squirrels! (And a rabbit.)

Argh, Blogger...

Blogger "updated" my template, in the process losing my custom formatting. Who cares? I cares. Now I have to fix the thing rather than posting pictures of squirrels.

The Geek/Crafter Connection

Commercial Patterns Stats:

Patterns owned: 140
Patterns sewn: 26
Patterns on wish list: 119

How I know this: I designed/developed a custom Filemaker Pro database to track my sewing patterns. It includes tech data, photos (from maker sites or my own pics), changeable focus image and a near-infinite notes area. Everything is searchable and indexable.

Yeah. You're jealous. I know.

And yeah. I'm a dork. I know.