One of My Favorite Sites

I love to sew. My mother taught my when I was about 8 or 10, and I've been sewing ever since. It is one of the most valuable things she has taught me (and she's taught me a lot!).

My favorite sewing site is Sense and Sensibility, which is a pattern company. Jennie Chancey, the owner, sells historically inspired (and accurate) patterns for several different eras. I've used several of her patterns. The Regency dress, of course, is the one I've used the most, but I've also made items from her Edwardian apron, the Romantic era pattern, and the Regency Spencer. I love her directions - they make it seem like Jennie is right there, looking over your shoulder, and anticipating your questions before you ask them. Her patterns are the ones that Simplicity produced for their Regency patterns, too!

Now she's got a new deal - e-patterns! For a small fee, you can download some of her patterns and print out the pieces yourself! How cool is that?! Now you don't have to pay for shipping, and you don't have to wait for the pattern to come in the mail. Here's the link to her site and the e-patterns: http://www.sensibility.com/pattern/main/?page_id=50

I have recommended her Regency gown pattern many times to people who wanted to have dresses of that style, and now I think it is great that there is such an easy way to have her patterns in hand very quickly. It was funny a year or so ago to go see a local stage production of Pride and Prejudice and notice very quickly that the women were all wearing dresses made from Jennie's patterns!

One of the other great things about Jennie's site is that she has a fabulous forum. I check out the discussion boards almost every day, and have 'met' many nice women there. They are sew helpful with any sewing questions, whether they are historical in nature as well, and they are so very knowledgeable! It is like The Republic of Pemberley in that there are no arguments, no flaming, and it's all child friendly. In fact, there are some young women on that website that are more capable seamstresses than I'll ever be!

Go check it out! :-)

Veterans' Day

Thank you, to all of you who have served our country and helped protect our freedom. I appreciate you more than I can say.

Ever have those times when you have lots of things you want and need to get done but can't seem to summon the energy or the motivation to actually DO them? That's my problem today. I had a nice lie in this morning (I didn't really sleep that late, but I did stay in bed quite late), and I should have felt quite rested and ready for the day. But, nah. Why not hang around online for awhile? Why not catch up on all the blogs I read? Why not fool around on Facebook for a bit? That's been my day so far. Then, if I don't get much done today, I'll probably beat myself up about it tonight when I'm getting clothes ready for the rest of the week and making sure things are ready to go for the morning.

It's been nice having a long weekend, and the parent teacher conferences went well yesterday (both kids are doing well in school), and the bookfair is all set up and so forth. But I'm still struggling to get more of a routine established. I thought I was doing well to get some laundry done last night, but then DH told me this morning that the drier isn't working. I shall have to call a friend to see if I can throw a load of wet laundry into her dryer today....

OK, I'm really going to go to something now. Yep, I'm going. No, seriously, I am.

In a minute.

One of these days

One of these days I'm going to figure out how to post pictures on here, and then I'm going to bore you to death with projects I've done and so forth. I think I could probably do it without too much trouble. I have, after all, posted pictures on websites. I've even posted pictures on my own long-un-updated website.

Perhaps I'm just too lazy.

Or just too tired.

But one of these days I'm going to do it.

Moose Alley

Little Bug and I saw a moose last night!

We were on the way to Girl Scouts and were running a bit behind, but boy am I glad we were! We wouldn't have seen it otherwise. It was just starting to go into the woods on the left side of the road we were turning onto, and then it turned around and when back across the road and into the woods on the right side of the road. Very cool.

This is the first time I've seen a moose in the wild. I've seen one at the Maine Wild Animal Park, but not like this!

I feel like a real New Hampshire-ite now! lol!

Hum Drum

I don't know how I thought I'd be able to keep up with a blog!!! Or than I had anything too exciting to even say! :-) But here I am, and I am going to make an effort to keep up with it a bit better. I am hoping that things here at home will start falling into a routine now.

The weather has really been great, and the leaves have been gorgeous this year! I'm going to North Conway on Friday, but I think most of the foliage will be gone by then. It's been pretty here, though.

Now that most of the leaves are gone, it's easier to see where the tornado in July left its mark. Suddenly you can see sky where there wasn't any before. Sad. I just yesterday noticed a tree in back of the house that is broken off at the top. It has been dead since we bought the house, but the leaves of the trees in front of it hid the fact that the top had been knocked off in the tornado.

I guess I had better go get my work done for my class tomorrow night! I'll be glad when it is over, truthfully....

Another Monday

I think I need to find a way to get us all to bed a little bit earlier at night. My little Bug woke me up at 3 am this morning because she couldn't get back to sleep, and then after I rubbed her back for a few minutes and went back to bed, I couldn't get back to sleep! Getting up this morning sure was tough, and that messes up the whole morning routine.

Little Bug's teacher is having a baby, and I have started a little blanket for her and the baby, but today we got a little invite to the school shower for her. It's Wednesday! Somehow I don't think the blanket will be done by then! LOL. So I shall have to think of something else to do. Maybe not go and send it later? Go with a small gift and send the blanket on later? Hmm.

I am still fighting with the constant fatigue. I hope it will get easier. I am still struggling with the meal planning thing, too (meaning I haven't done much of it! lol).

Does anyone else wonder what this whole bailout stuff will really mean for America? I hate to be pessimistic, but it sure doesn't look very good for the future of the economy.

Just my wanderings.....

Wool Festival

On Saturday we went to the Canterbury Shaker Village in Canterbury, NH for their Wool Festival.  It was great!!  The Little Guy was a bit bored, and the hubby wasn't super thrilled, but he did enjoy it.

I love it.  I was in Fiber Heaven.  So much yarn!  So many spinning wheels!  So many fiber producing animals!  It was great.  So many things to do with the fiber afterward!  Spinning, weaving, rug hooking, rug braiding, felting, card weaving, inkle weaving.  I would have bought more yarn if I had had time.

We did look through some of the buildings, too, but some you had to be on the tour for, and we weren't there at the right time.

I used to think I had no interest at all in spinning, but now I'm thinking I might want to try.......