Wow!

It seems that most of my previous posts open with me apologizing for the lack of them, and now I am doing it again! I spent the last month preparing for vacation, going on vacation, and then recovering from said vacation; ditto for Christmas. How nice to come back to three new followers (hello Ginger, superheidi, and Bruce! I love your respective blogs)! And thanks so much to Bruce Partington-Plans of Eclectic Ephemera for giving me my very first blog award! It certainly is nice to know that someone (aside from my mother) is reading this! And now I see that I need to pass the award on to 15 other bloggers, which I will do posthaste! In the meantime, I have completed quite a few projects, but I am having a difficult time getting photographs of them. I have no tripod for my camera, no sunlight-filled rooms in my house, and no one here to help me during the daylight hours except a baby. I'm working on it, though! Until then, the only thing I have to show is a horrible picture of my coat. It was taken inside, at night, with a camera phone...less than ideal conditions, but here it is:



It was originally a huge, double-breasted monstrosity that I got at the Salvation Army for $10.00. But it was 100% cashmere, a lovely cream color, and the right length, so I just knew that I couldn't pass up a deal like that! Of course, I forgot to take a picture of it before I started cutting it up. Since it was so big and I could lap it over so far, I decided to model it after a picture of a '30s coat that I saw somewhere with an asymmetrical closing. I added the buttonholes and vintage buttons, shortened the sleeves, and made the belt out of the extra material. I also changed the collar. I really want to add some fur cuffs and a fur collar, but I haven't been able to find any fake fur in the right color of brown. I'm very pleased with it; what do you think? Or maybe you should reserve your judgment until I get a better photo of it...it really looks much nicer in person!

p.s. Spellcheck corrected my spelling of "judgement" to "judgment", and upon further research I have discovered that many sources say that "judgment" is the American version and that "judgement" is used in the UK. Here is a quote from Common Errors in English Usage:

"In Great Britain and many of its former colonies, “judgement” is still the correct spelling; but ever since Noah Webster decreed the first E superfluous, Americans have omitted it. Many of Webster’s crotchets have faded away (each year fewer people use the spelling “theater,” for instance); but even the producers of Terminator 2: Judgment Day chose the traditional American spelling. If you write “judgement” you should also write “colour.”

I grew up in the US and have always spelled judgement with two "e"s and never spelled color with a "u". Where are you from, and how do you spell it?

Power-sewing, but not power-blogging...

Sorry about the lack of posts lately (something new and different for this blog, eh?); we are going on vacation in a little more than a week, and I have been spending all of my free time (not much with a one year-old) frantically sewing a new wardrobe for the occasion. I have serious lack of winter clothes, so when I was making my packing list, I decided that I really only had one or two appropriate outfits and would need to make 5 or 6 more! Of course, my husband's comment of "Can't you just wear the same thing twice?" was met with stony silence. I have completed one outfit so far, which means that I should have at least...one to show you when the week is up. Teaser: it has a detachable cape!