“Beauty”

Time to rethink “beauty”.

Reddit Users Attempt to Shame Sikh Woman, Get Righteously Schooled

Before I post my latest Mad Men Challenge hilarity I want to talk about our perceptions of “beauty”. Every week there was a new challenge at Sew Weekly and every week I would mumble and cut and create. The point was to do the exercise, create something within the parameters of the challenge and share our process and thoughts. I am tending towards the same schedule now only because I like deadlines and schedules but I give myself a “little” more slack than the once a week deadline I kept to last year.

Every time I go to do photos I clear a chunk of time and make sure my hair, make-up and accessories are in line with my “vision”, just like the contestants on Project Runway, only without the separate hair and make-up crew : ) Heaven forbid if we aren’t all “put together” right?

(These are my own internal ‘rules’, just to be clear)

It’s all about packaging. It’s how we perceive ourselves and how we want to be perceived. I NEVER go to work without makeup on, it’s just the way I function. People tell me I’m “pretty” but I’ve never thought of myself that way. I wasn’t the cutest one growing up, I didn’t have an outgoing personality, the big house, fancy car or whatever else the vapid kids of my generation found important. I didn’t care much but it didn’t make me “popular”. I was smart and I knew in the long run that was more important but it was tough hearing “If you only….” growing up.

Last year the photo above made its rounds on facebook. Here is the story:

‘A Reddit user going by the handle “european_douchebag” posted a surreptitious photo of a Sikh woman with the caption “i’m not sure what to conclude from this.” The user’s apparent confusion stems from the fact that the woman—bound by her religion not to cut her hair or alter her body—has an abundance of dark, untrimmed facial hair. The mind of european_douchebag was SO INCREDIBLY BLOWN by the fact that women have hair on their bodies—and, yes, faces—and that some women are bold, self-assured, and pious enough not to cave to western beauty standards (and gender expectations), there was nothing for him to do but post her photo online and wait for the abuse to flood in.

But then something totally lovely and unexpected happened. The woman in the photo responded:

Hey, guys. This is Balpreet Kaur, the girl from the picture. I actually didn’t know about this until one of my friends told on facebook. If the OP wanted a picture, they could have just asked and I could have smiled 🙂 However, I’m not embarrased or even humiliated by the attention [negative and positve] that this picture is getting because, it’s who I am. Yes, I’m a baptized Sikh woman with facial hair. Yes, I realize that my gender is often confused and I look different than most women. However, baptized Sikhs believe in the sacredness of this body – it is a gift that has been given to us by the Divine Being [which is genderless, actually] and, must keep it intact as a submission to the divine will. Just as a child doesn’t reject the gift of his/her parents, Sikhs do not reject the body that has been given to us. By crying ‘mine, mine’ and changing this body-tool, we are essentially living in ego and creating a seperateness between ourselves and the divinity within us. By transcending societal views of beauty, I believe that I can focus more on my actions. My attitude and thoughts and actions have more value in them than my body because I recognize that this body is just going to become ash in the end, so why fuss about it? When I die, no one is going to remember what I looked like, heck, my kids will forget my voice, and slowly, all physical memory will fade away. However, my impact and legacy will remain: and, by not focusing on the physical beauty, I have time to cultivate those inner virtues and hopefully, focus my life on creating change and progress for this world in any way I can. So, to me, my face isn’t important but the smile and the happiness that lie behind the face are. 🙂 So, if anyone sees me at OSU, please come up and say hello. I appreciate all of the comments here, both positive and less positive because I’ve gotten a better understanding of myself and others from this. Also, the yoga pants are quite comfortable and the Better Together tshirt is actually from Interfaith Youth Core, an organization that focuses on storytelling and engagement between different faiths. 🙂 I hope this explains everything a bit more, and I apologize for causing such confusion and uttering anything that hurt anyone.

And then, THEN, something even more miraculous happened—the original poster apologized:

I know that this post ISN’T a funny post but I felt the need to apologize to the Sikhs, Balpreet, and anyone else I offended when I posted that picture. Put simply it was stupid. Making fun of people is funny to some but incredibly degrading to the people you’re making fun of. It was an incredibly rude, judgmental, and ignorant thing to post.

/r/Funny wasn’t the proper place to post this. Maybe /r/racism or /r/douchebagsofreddit or /r/intolerance would have been more appropriate. Reddit shouldn’t be about putting people down, but a group of people sending cool, interesting, or funny things. Reddit’s been in the news alot lately about a lot of cool things we’ve done, like a freaking AMA by the president. I’m sorry for being the part of reddit that is intolerant and douchebaggy. This isn’t 4chan, or 9gag, or some other stupid website where people post things like I did. It’s fucking reddit. Where some pretty amazing stuff has happened.

I’ve read more about the Sikh faith and it was actually really interesting. It makes a whole lot of sense to work on having a legacy and not worrying about what you look like. I made that post for stupid internet points and I was ignorant.

So reddit I’m sorry for being an asshole and for giving you negative publicity.
Balpreet, I’m sorry for being a closed minded individual. You are a much better person than I am
Sikhs, I’m sorry for insulting your culture and way of life.
Balpreet’s faith in what she believes is astounding.

Holy shit, internet, I don’t even know you anymore! I never thought something would come out of the seeping necrotic abscess that is Reddit that would actually make my day better, but wow. MY HEART GREW THREE SIZES THIS DAY.’

So this woman, with no makeup and merely wearing a t-shirt and yoga pants, is more beautiful than me on MANY levels. She is absolutely right – her kids will forget what she looks like and what she sounds like but they won’t forget her actions and how she’s going to change the world. She’s already changed mine a little bit.

If you want to see the original post you can see it here:

http://jezebel.com/5946643/reddit-users-attempt-to-shame-sikh-woman-get-righteously-schooled

Here is another woman that is looking at society’s prejudices and photographing her experiences.

“Pictures of people who Mock me”.

As Balpreet said “by not focusing on the physical beauty, I have time to cultivate those inner virtues and hopefully, focus my life on creating change and progress for this world in any way I can. So, to me, my face isn’t important but the smile and the happiness that lie behind the face are.”

Why aren’t we, as a society, looking more at the smiles and what lies behind the face? As my daughter says, Time to evolve.

 

Finally…a post and a prize!

 

First of all I want to say THANK YOU to everyone who has stopped by or sent me an email about the events of the last week. It is comforting to know there is SO MUCH GOOD in the world when it seems like things are askew. Here’s my favorite photo from this past week:

There are so many good people out there doing tough jobs and it continues. I was thinking about all the events that have happened this week and it just made me TIRED. I can’t do anything about most of it, the continuous press coverage is mind numbing. If I could I’d unplug the tv but then I’d miss things like “Cousins on Call” and “West End Salvage” on HGTV : ) Cute guys doing fun projects, how can that be bad? Oh yeah, “The Property Brothers”, let’s throw them in there as well!

So I am finally getting to my update. Let’s start off with the wonderful photo montages that Ms. Tempest Devyne put together for the End of Bowie Sewalong:

STUNNING!! You can see her entire post about it here.

And then my OTHER favorite thing she did, all our animal assistants:

She even gave my Ashton kitty the “prize” for his assistance with my jacket painting! He was NOT happy when we wiped his kitty paws: ( And for the record – this is certainly NOT the first time a cat has “helped” with a painting project and I’m guessing it’s not the last. Most memorable are the tiny prints Stuart left behind when, as a young kitten, he ran across the floor in my sewing room, ran through the paint tray and then kept going. I left some of the prints and put a couple coats of polyurethane over them : )

THANK YOU Tempest for hosting this!!

Now for some nitty-gritty sewing.

The Facts
Fabric
: Skull cotton outer fabric and red cotton lining from stash
Pattern: Butterick 5189
Notions: None!
Year: Modern
Time to complete: 5  hours
First worn: April 2013
Wear again? Every single day!
Cost – Free

Last time I made a bathrobe I had adorable cherry fabric that I have now worn holes in, it was almost embarassing to be seen outside the house. No, I don’t normally go out in public in my robe but I do have a large backyard that I sometimes take a ramble in first thing in the morning. Due to a lack of water and aging plantings the neighbors have better visual access (oh…can you tell I’m at work while writing this?!) so I need to be more circumspect. That, and I just want a new robe.


I cut this out in January. For months I’ve moved it from the dining room table aka my cutting surface, to a chair, to the top of the cat food bin, back to a chair, back to cat food bin…it was just silly. I finally worked on it last weekend, got it all together on Sunday night and sighed a sigh of relief.  It needs a few more washings before the inherent softness of cotton emerges but I FEEL better knowing I have the coolest robe around. Cross another thing off the list of Stuff To Do This Year!

 Most importantly, the cats like it. It was covered in orange Ashton fur yesterday. I also finished the new blanket/spread for my bed but as soon as I put it on the cats staked out their territory. I’d like to have just ONE picture of it so will try this weekend. That was another project I had cut out a while back that was left at the bottom of the heap on a chair.

Now if I can only figure out whether I have time to do a Mad Men dress by Monday, make a vintage-style swimsuit or two for Leimomi’s sewalong and work on my Vicki dress. I’m very excited about my Vicki dress since it will take care of TWO sewalongs at once : )

And FINALLY –

 Thank you Taracat!!

The rules do seem to vary but I’m going to do what she did and answer 10 questions and then nominate 10 fellow bloggers with less than 200 followers and ask them 10 questions. Here goes:

1. How did you get into sewing in the first place? My dad’s mom taught me. My dad was going to Cal Tech getting his Phd. and my mom was teaching so my grandmother watched me. She was a sewing teacher. (Among the MANY things she taught tailoring so I grew up with wool jumpers and silk shirts made from the scraps of her students.) The first project I remember was sewing sequins on a blue/green floral dress. She would thread the needle, I think I was 3 or 4, and then I would poke the needle through the fabric where there was a “dot”, put on a sequin, then a bead and put the needle back through the sequin and the fabric and go on the to next “dot” where the next sequin went. We would sit in her sewing room and watch people make movies outside. Her house was across the street from a very popular church that studios used for a lot of outside shots (she lived in Burbank at the time). When we were working on the sequined dress the crew was sitting on her lawn in their director’s chairs with the thick electrical cables criss-crossing all over everything. They reminded me of snakes. When someone shouted “action” a guy on a motorcycle came down the street and wiped out in front of the house. He got up quick, they put red stuff on him, and then he’d lay back down in the street. Then they all laughed and stood around while he wiped off the red stuff and the dirt. Hey, I was little, I thought it was cool. Maybe that’s why I wanted to work in movies.

2. What is your favourite make/most proud of? Hmmmm….that’s a toughie. It might be the swimsuit I did for the Olympic challenge last year. Not only did I make something that most of us dread but I photographed ME in it WITHOUT doing any photoshopping AND got back into a swimming pool. HUGE step for me. Actually, I’m also proud of the fact that I got over my silly, yet common, fear of seeing myself in photographs. That almost did me in at the beginning of the Sew Weekly year but I sucked it up and evolved. Now, when I look at what people have made, if they’re not wearing it it makes me sad. Clothing on a mannequin is nice and all but there is no life to it, no personality. I like the oufits on bodies : )

3. ..and your least favourite make? I think I’d have to go with the first one that hit the swap bag – the pink dress from last year. Good news is that it went to someone quickly at the swap who ooh’d and aah’d over it. Next to go will be the dress I did for the yellow challenge. I wore it once and meh. Almost everyhing else I’ve worn and like.

4. What has been your favourite moment since starting your blog?  When people I DON’T know commment! I knew I had a few who followed me on Sew Weekly but you never realize how many people are out there until someone pokes their head up and makes a comment! It is just AMAZING how many people are out there doing cool projects and living their lives and making wildly creative stuff. For years I felt like what I did wasn’t cool or fun or appreciated. One of these days I’ll post some stuff about the theatrical stuff I’ve done. Just being recognized form something you love to do is wonderful. The two who surprised me the most are Mary Jane Butters of Mary Janes Farm and Oona from Oonaballoona. There was squealing.

5. What proportion of your garments actually get worn in real life? About 90%. I try not to make things I won’t like and am constantly surprised by what I do like : )

6. What do you do with your sewing fails? Bin? Recycle? Refashion? Some have gone to the Swap we go to every few months, a couple have been passed on to someone who will love them and there are a couple in the “re-fashion” pile. Depending on the fabric they may go into the quilting box if they’re cotton, or the crazy quilt pile if they’re silk.

7. What would you be doing in your spare time if you weren’t sewing? Animal rescue and/or advocacy, along with gardening and house stuff. Pretty much what I do around the sewing : ) I didn’t sew for a few years, after I left costuming I didn’t have any motivation and then when I started to feel like getting back to it my husband got cancer and there was literally no time. I would do an occasional project-for-pay since cancer ain’t cheap but that gave me little satisfaction. Then Matthew Zachary gave me some great advice “Get busy living, even if it’s just for you” so I did.

8. What is the nicest compliment you’ve received for something you’ve made? “You MADE that??? HOW???” Art jacket at My daughter’s Senior Art Show. And by someone I know that hasn’t seen me in a while : ) None of what I do is rocket science but it’s nice to see the effort appreciated.

9. Do you have any aspirations for taking your sewing further, such as starting up a pattern label, opening a shop? A friend and I have played around with the shop thing for a while. We have a website, Elizabeth Rose Corsets, but I keep making things for ME. We had plans to do photoshoots that never quite materialized and then she got sick for quite a while. In that time I started, and finished, my tablesetting blog (new tablesetting a day for a year with all my own stuff, you can still find it at retrodecosettings.com) and halfway through that I threw my hat into the Sew Weekly ring. Now we may get back to the corset idea but even that has metamorphized. I’m drifting more towards piratey steampunk but using recycled clothing. It’s all very vague. I think I need to just sit and play but there are so many fun sewalongs that come up that it’s easy to be sidelined : ) Then an idea hits me when I’m digging through the sweater racks at Salvation Army, like doing a peacock coat with trousers, vest and shirt, that haunts me in my sleep.

10. Are you a perfectionist or a ‘get it done’ sewist? Both. I’m the one with the motto “Done is Beautiful” and it can be. But if you look in almost all my outfits the seams are overlocked, the zippers are in pretty well. I have a LOT of experience! While watching the first episode of “The Great British Sewing Bee” I had to keep reminding myself that these weren’t professionals in the sense that they had tons of education or experience like most of the Project Runway contestants. (They also don’t whine like the PR people so that was a lovely difference!). Yes, Angie and I could each make a shirt and skirt in 4 hours and between the two of us turn out 4 completed outfits a day when we had to because we HAD to. It wasn’t fun but it was useful, like the time we sewed in the dirt for an outdoor Shakespeare festival. Whenever we get together to sew, like we did for the Gatsby picnic last September, when we start to flag she’ll say “hey, at least we’re not sewing in dirt!” and we laugh and carry on.

So here are MY Liebster awardees:
Vicki at Another Sewing Scientist – when you find weird/icky looking worms in your pond its nice to have a parasitologist to ask questions, and she sews some really cool stuff : )
Lee at The Slow Steady – she’s done a couple sewalongs with me, was a Sew Weekly contributor and puts together AMAZING menus every week! I drool evertime I go to her page!
Tempest at Fanbloomingstastic. If you haven’t met her just go. You won’t be sorry.
Anne at Pretty Grievances. “When I’m not complaing, I sew…” She’s very funny and gives us a weekly update on runway fashions as well as her own travails in sewingland. And us pale skinned red heads need to stick together!
Barbara at Zibergirl Sews. Everything she makes is beautiful and classy.
Adri at Adri Make a Thing or Two. She sews, she knits, she crochets…and she makes it all look fun and easy : )
That’s it for now, I’ve got to get this post up so I can do my Mad Men post! I’ll post others later when time permits. Thank you again Tara!

 And one more thing…

Rochelle from Lucky Lucille has a nifty end-of-sewalong video! Check it out here. As an added bonus I found this article on the Doolittle raiders. If you don’t know who they are then THIS is a must-read : )

An update postponed

Hi all –

I had meant to do a lovely update on the end of the Bowie challenge, a thank-you to Taracat for the Liebster award she gave me (thank you!) and a couple other things.

The events in Boston yesterday floored me. The world has changed again, and while what happened was truly awful with three dead so far, there was an AMAZING amount of good to be seen with people not only rushing into the smoke and debris but those who completed the race running another mile and a half to the nearest hospital to give blood. Whatever your religious or political affiliations here are the words of our President this morning:

 “We also know this — the American people refuse to be terrorized. Because what the world saw yesterday in the aftermath of the explosions were stories of heroism and kindness, and generosity and love: Exhausted runners who kept running to the nearest hospital to give blood, and those who stayed to tend to the wounded, some tearing off their own clothes to make tourniquets. The first responders who ran into the chaos to save lives. The men and women who are still treating the wounded at some of the best hospitals in the world, and the medical students who hurried to help, saying “When we heard, we all came in.” The priests who opened their churches and ministered to the hurt and the fearful. And the good people of Boston who opened their homes to the victims of this attack and those shaken by it.

So if you want to know who we are, what America is, how we respond to evil — that’s it. Selflessly. Compassionately. Unafraid.”

To all of our friends in Boston our hearts are with you. I’m taking some time to shed some tears, say some prayers, hug my family and be quiet for now. Hugs to ALL.

(M) The one thing we all have in common.</p><p>Posted on the Being Liberal fan page.

The Devyne Bowie Jacket

My version of the album cover : )

Fabric: Natural cotton duck, red cotton lining, white cotton all from stash and 2 yards cotton lace
Pattern: Self drafted, based on 18th century jacket
Year:
Contemporary
Notions:
4 bottles of paint, 2 red and 2 blue; blue paint tape, paint brush and foam brushes
Time to complete:
12 hours give or take an hour
First worn:
April 2013
Wear again?
Yes but only for Special Occasions : )
Cost:
$10.93 for paint, $3.26 for lace so $14.19 total

The Original album cover

Ms. Tempest Devyne challenged us to make something “Bowie” inspired this month, so I decided on the Earthing jacket that Alexander McQueen made for him for his 1996-97 tour. Apparently he opened the show with his back to the audience, like this:

What fun, eh?

I had exactly three photos to try to figure out how the jacket went together, this is the second one:

And here is the third:

I found all three of these images on the same blog, exshoesme.com. It’s fun!

Let’s first be clear – I am NOT a 5’10” lean male. I have boobs so I knew the front of my coat and his were going to look a *little* different to begin with and that’s ok. I did BRIEFLY consider binding my boobs but nixed that idea about 2 seconds after I had it. From there on it was full speed ahead with the cutting and painting.

The back was the easiest:

Blue paint-tape taped off all the edges. For the record one of my LEAST favorite colors EVER is paint tape blue. It means something is unfinished and usually gives mediocre results. It worked decently enough on the fabric BUT you can see the way it puckered here, when it got wet with the acrylic paint I used it bubbled so as soon as everything was painted I pulled the tape off, I didn’t let it dry. That worked fine. I had a little bit of bleed-through but not nearly as bad as I do on walls.

It took about 5 days to paint all the parts and pieces, the biggest challenge was the “butt flags” that make those nifty back skirt pieces. I figured Mr. McQueen had used the straight edges of the flags and set them into the side seams, that way you get that triangular-ish piece. I painted a whole lot more flag than I needed and Miss Chloe decided to play with the excess one night : ) I think there may be an instagram pic of that.

It took a LOT less time to sew everything together than it did to do the painting! Let’s face it, there are really only a few seams in the whole thing – 1 center back, 2 shoulders, 2 sides, 2 seams for each “butt flag”, 2 seams in each sleeve, setting each sleeve in and the collar. The entire jacket is lined so I essentially made 2 jackets and then sewed them together around the outside edge. Done. I did paint the collar to match the red of the stripes:

And then trimmed it down and put it all together. I got VERY lucky to have almost the same exact red-colored cotton in my stash, VERY LUCKY, so the whole coat is soft to wear. The painted duck is stiff, at one point I was stitching the center back lining down to the vents and the coat stood up all on its own : ) The cats were FASCINATED.

Ashton liked the paint:

Until we tried to clean his feet:

Doesn’t that face say it all?

He and Stuart left me little presents, I painted around this one : ) That’s why, when you look at the back of the coat, you can see a white circle on one side and not the other. Not very McQueen but it is cute.

Once everything was put together I noticed in the second and third pics Mr. Bowie is wearing a denim shirt that seems to have some fancy lacy cuffs. I’m not a huge denim shirt fan, although I did make one for the Forties challenge last year. I decided to add just some cuffs to the inside of the coat for that bit of “fluff” so I headed to Joann’s for blue lace.

Wouldn’t you know it, after decades of tacky blue and rose lace, that I sold to hundreds of women who put that stuff on photo albums and unsuspecting little girls dresses, they’ve wised up and have NONE! I bought a couple yards of standard cotton lace, came home and found some blue dye and white cotton and plunged the whole lot into a bowl. 10 minutes later I had dyed-to-match lace and, as it turned out, hands. Next time I’ll check to see if there are holes in the gloves : )

I cut out two circles from the cotton –Turns out a Fiesta dinner plate is almost 36″ around. And the small berry bowl was about the right size for the inner cutout –

Threw a quick rolled hem in the bottom edges, slapped the lace on and hand stitched these inside the cuffs. Just like the old days of theater sewing…

Then came time to do photos. I had originally wanted to head out to the Delta, we have a couple places that look quite similar to the album cover. Unpredictable weather and a list of stuff to do around the house precluded a 4-6 hour photoshoot : ( But we headed to the open space for grass and sun and lucked out.

We tucked my hair in the coat, I wasn’t about to cut it short and didn’t have an appropriate wig. No makeup for this iteration of Bowie so I think this qualifies as the EASIEST prep EVER for a photoshoot!

Chloe came along:

And it took some coaxing for her to play. She was more interested in the ground squirrels.

But we managed : )

No, there is no lace around my collar, there was only so much of that stuff I was willing to wear…and I have no super long belt. I’m a girl, one with curves and the less stuff the better sometimes. I’m good as is here : )

You can see kitty paw here.

I feel revolutionary.

Here’s a little closer-up shot of the “butt flags”.

Sleeve and front…

…and the front : )

In amongst all my Bowie painting and sewing my daughter (my photographer) hit quite a milestone, her first Art Show : )

I Instagram’ed much of her artwork, but the photo taken of the two of us wasn’t so hot, I had my eyes closed. Fortunately we had better luck with the real camera instead of the phones:

We’re standing in front of one of her pieces and yes, I’m wearing the jacket I made for the Art-inspired challenge last year. I am VERY proud of her, her work was well received! There is one piece that I didn’t talk about that night-

She calls this “The Strongest Warrior” after Ariel. She wanted to call it “11:26”, the time that Ari died but her classmates said it was “too personal”. I’m not sure I agree with that, I don’t see what’s wrong with making art personal. Neither one of us can talk about Ari or that night without a few tears and Saturday was definitely a time for celebration.

She also managed to snap this pic of Chloe today, I think it’s one of my favorites –

Happy girl : )

And for an added Bowie bonus…

Brittany decided to do Bowie for Halloween this last year!

They were in the city for a party and it was raining. I’m guessing the blingy backdrop was on purpose!

Thank you, Ms. Devyne, for a very fyne time!! Can’t wait to see the rest of the makes. Check out her blog here. It really is fanbloomingtastic.

The Fourth, and final outfit for Sew for Victory : )

Fabric: Sale cotton from Stone Mountain
Pattern: Vogue 8728
Year:
1946
Notions:
1 yard belting & zipper from stash
Time to complete: 
2 1/2 hours
First worn:
March 2013
Wear again?
Yes
Cost:
$15.00 (?)

I didn’t mean to make ONE more outfit..but I did.

The pattern was sitting there, and there was some fabric on another table that was just sitting there, and I really like the fabric so when I saw the pattern I remembered how Barbara had said this was a really easy dress AND it’s from 1946 so I figured what the heck!

This dress was even easier than the one I made last week and I’m serious about the 2 hours to make it. That extra half hour was for shoo-ing the cat off the ironing board several times so I could get the thing pressed and ready for photos. It is FIVE pieces with self-made bias binding around the neck edge. I didn’t really have time for fancy fitting so I cut the size I was according to the envelope, next time I’ll go down a size. Good to note – for those of us with larger-than-standard chests there is PLENTY of ease!

 I wrangled friend Heidi away from her kids for 15 minutes.

We braved the soggy, dripping world first thing Sunday morning, not initially remembering that it was Easter. We were dodging cars and people just trying to photograph the dress against something “tropical”, in reality the plantings at a condo complex down the street : ) I also trotted out the cha-cha shoes-that-hurt-my foot one more time. I think they’re going to have to go to a new home.

I wanted to try doing my hair like my grandmother but you’ll notice I have a red snood and large silk flower in my hair rather than the “toilet bowl” style my grandma is rocking here:

She wrote on the back “Watching the Rose Parade 1945 or 46?”. She said my grandfather preferred her hair the ‘natural’ way, that she was pretty just as she was : ) I’m in awe with how good this looks! We determined that my hair is just too long right now and yes, she used a ‘rat’ to get this look. I have plans for cutting my hair shorter, not short but enough that we may be able to do this then, we’ll have to see.

Heidi said “smile” so I smiled : ) Then I turned the tables on Heidi and she smiled:

Pj’s and slippers. She is awesome : )

So there we are, ladies. In a few weeks I made 3 shirts, 2 dresses and a skirt, all from patterns from the 40’s. I can’t believe how much FUN this was! Now I’m wanting to find patterns from each year I didn’t make something from and fill in, then do the 1930’s and 1950’s…

But first there is a Bowie challenge to finish (almost done!) and a Colette challenge to plan for AS WELL as the Mad Men challenge. Don’t forget to check out Rochelle’s AWESOMESAUCE 40’s dress where she re-created the fabric shown on the pattern envelope via Spoonflower : ) I may have to buy a couple of yards for a skirt for summer, because a couple dozen skirts is just not enough <g>

Part Three of the 40’s Sew Along

Fabric: Vintage Rayon from Bruce at the Alameda Flea market
Pattern:
Vogue 2322
Year:
1943
Notions:
Interfacing, 1 bakelite belt buckle and 1 yard belting, zipper from stash
Time to complete:
4 hours
First worn:
March 2013
Wear again?
Yes
Cost:
$25.00

Grab a cup of tea or coffee, this is going to be a long one… : )

First the pattern – easy peasy! The only change I made to it is putting the zipper up the center back since I have a well know dislike of those side zips. Someone asked why they used short zippers on the side and sometimes another short zipper at the top of the back, why not one long zip like they do now. Trust! My grandmother says they just didn’t trust them yet, it wasn’t until the 50’s that the center back and longer zippers came into fashion. It wasn’t until the 60’s that nylon or plastic zippers were produced making them lighter weight and less prone to breaking. I do distinctly remember they were touted as being “heal-able” so if you popped it you had a decent chance of being able to unzip and re-zip.

So just because I can the zipper is up the center back. I don’t have to dislocate my arm to get my dress on : )

Next was trying to find somewhere period-appropriate to photograph this dress in. A short trip to Alameda, on the opposite side of the island from where we go to the flea market, was our destination…

The USS Hornet!

 It only took 16 months to build her in Newport News, Virginia in 1942/43 and a quarter of the construction crew were women. Although she was attacked 59 times she was never hit by a torpedo, kamikaze or or exploding bomb. She served 15 months straight in the front areas of the Pacific as WELL as picked up the astronauts of Apollo 11 (yes, THOSE astronauts!) and Apollo 12. She was a busy lady : )

Now she is a floating museum and National Historic Landmark. What a perfect place for a 40’s challenge, don’t you think?

I wanted to be as authentic as possible so I had a local hairdresser style my hair first thing. Thank you Jill : ) She did beautiful Victory rolls and the key was spraying the living CRAP out of them!! Which was a really good thing since I picked up my daughter afterwards, we went to lunch and then she got her hair cut before we headed to the Hornet. Once there the wind picked up as you can see by the first picture – I was trying to angle myself so I could still see and not look like I was flashing the world : )

You can see the entire skyline of San Francisco off the end of the ship : ) That’s the Bay bridge over my shoulders with the city on the left side.

The flag was pretty much straight out, so it was brisk : )

We took these photos on the landing area. The overall length of the ship is 894 feet and the landing area takes up about half that, seems big walking on it but when you think that they land planes there it shrinks quickly.

My daughter actually lay down on the ground to get this shot : ) Isn’t she a great daughter? You can see a plane on the right just in front of the control tower or “Island”. It’s pretty big but at this angle it looks small.

Now we’re on the OTHER end of the ship, in front of one of several aircraft on display. I liked the grin painted on it and you can see the Island a little better. The wind had died down a little so the dress wasn’t whipping around as wildly. You’ll notice I have different shoes on from the first photo. I REALLY wanted to wear the vintage red strappy sandals but something about the placement of the straps had me taking a step, step OUCH, step OUCH…so the ones I wore to board came back out of the bag. I feel a little dowdy for some reason but at least I could move.

Brittany said other people were surreptitiously taking my picture. If they’d asked I would have smiled for and at them : ) There is one dork picture I’ll include at the end…

Next to the Hornet, lined up CLOSE, are three more ships. There are actually half a dozen other ships in the immediate area but these three are literally as close as you could possibly get them.

Before we head down a deck I had Brittany get a shot of the shirts and vests:

Yes, we started at the purple end : ) When Jim was in the Navy he was a “purple shirt” (fuel) and everytime we watch “Top Gun” I tease him that we see not one purple shirt in the movie. Lots of green (catapult and arresting gear), yellow (aircraft handlers) and red (fire & ammunition guys). Blue are the guys that do the heavy lifting, the grunt work. They work under the yellow guys. It’s a pretty rainbow : )

So down we go to the Hanger Deck. They have tons of exhibits from planes to helicopters to Nasa “stuff” including a flight simulator that all the 9-14 year old boys were dying to try. Both Brittany and I knew better : ) “Star Tours” at Disneyland does me in, a flight simulator just might kill me.

We found another grinning plane and then headed out to the fantail.

I finally gave in to the wind and put on a sweater. The curl is mostly gone out of the back of my hair but the Victory rolls are holding up like champs!

Back inside we had our choice of dozens of exhibits. They had a landing capsule from one of the Apollo missions as well as the Airstream that the astronauts were quarantined in once they returned from space! Complete with 60’s gold upholstered seats they only quarantined three Apollo missions, 11, 12 and 13. They figured out the threat of “moon germs” wasn’t what they thought and discontinued the practice. As we walked into the Apollo exhibit there was a small group of Boy Scouts watching the footage of the landing on the moon. I walked past them and said to Brittany “I watched that live!” and felt really, really old.

We also poked our heads into the exhibit honoring Japanese Americans and their contribution to the war. It made me incredibly sad. One of my dad’s best friends was interred for several years, met his wife in camp. There was a box on display that a gentleman had made from scrap wood as a present to the woman he would marry. This country did a bad, bad thing that I’m still not sure has been rectified.

Just outside the Japanese exhibit is a bike, an unusual bike : )

No note, no explanation, just a two seater, three wheeled WINGED bike : ) I’ll need to take my dad and find someone who can tell me what this bike was used for!

Out front the sun came out and the sweater came off. I borrowed Brittany’s red glasses to go with the red of my red accessories!

The ONE thing I forgot in the car were the bakelite earrings so we did a couple quick pics before heading back to Oakland.

Mena pose : )

I also want to point out that I actually had time to do my nails this week : ) I don’t use much nail polish anymore trying to get away from toxic chemicals. I found a company that makes “3 free” nailpolish, leaving out the formaldehyde, tuolene and dibutyl phthalate (DBP). The very prettty red I have is called “Wild Rooster” and I have to say as far as wear goes it wears just the same as the toxic stuff! You can’t mix brands so if you like a top coat just buy theirs. You can find them here. Yes, they’re a little more than the polishes you might pick up at CVS but look at it this way – they weren’t tested on bunnies so no one died, they’re considered vegan AND they won’t add to your worries of “am I going to get cancer from this”. Win!!

On our way home I put back on the outfit I had spent most of the day in, my “bonus” outfit for the week:

Trying to overcome my it-looks-like-PJ’s phobia I made another shirt. I LOVE the fabric –

I paired the shirt with my pants from my Rosie the Riveter outfit and my vintage blue & white saddle shoes. I wanted to do some sort of Victory garden photoshoot but honestly we were SO tired after traipsing all over a big ship that it was all I could do just to get Brittany home…after we spent some time looking for gnomes.

Yes, gnomes.

Someone has been painting gnomes and mushrooms on scraps of wood and attaching them to power poles all over Oakland. Because the poles are owned by PG&E they got snippy about artwork on their poles and announced they were “removing the gnomes”. Well, that stirred up quite a fuss! Seems the residents of the neighborhoods in which the gnomes now reside LIKED the gnomes so they starting voicing their opinion to those who make decisions at PG&E. Executives backed down and said they’d leave the gnomes alone.

Brittany sees them all the time but I had only read about them. She said there were lots on one street, a street full of artists and galleries so we drove by. We had to park and walk the entire length before we found gnomes! We saw the screws that once held them to the poles but no gnomes : (

He really is only about 4″ total but has the power to make you smile : )

No mushrooms but you get the gist. Cute huh?

Phew. What a day!

As promised (for Vickie), an outtake:

One hair flew across my face and into my eye. Ouch : )

After spending all day Saturday running around I stayed home all day Sunday (except for two trips to the hardware store for wood and dirt!) and dug in the dirt. One of the things I wanted to do this year was try some new stuff in the garden. I finally found my Thai pink tomato seeds on Amazon (as Crystal says they have frickin’  EVERYTHING!) so I’ve started some of those along with Kirin black tomatos, Batwing pumpkins, Tiger striped melons, Dill’s Atlantic giant pumpkins and garbanzo beans. That’s the new and different stuff : )

Because we lost Prudence (one of our chickens) and the little hummer guy this week we buried them together and then planted a red climbing rose on top. I planted some garlic cloves around the rose bush and threw some nasturtium seeds in with the poppies Sue gave me a couple months ago. I figure if I keep planting seeds something is bound to grow! I’m hoping for an AWESOME garden in a few months : )

The one project that is dragging on and on is the back deck. We’re still replacing boards and painting. I laughed today when I looked at it and said “All the work we’ve put in and it’s going to look just like it did a month ago, without the holes and rot.” Such little baby steps forward…

P.S. There are some more photos from the day on my Instagram account : )

Part Two of the 40’s Sew Along

Fabric: Turquoise/red cotton from JoAnn’s
Pattern:
DuBarry 5090
Year:
1940’s
Notions:
Interfacing, 5 buttons for blouse and 8 for skirt, 1 bakelite belt buckle and 1 yard belting from stash, 2 packages pre-made piping from stash
Time to complete:
6 hours
First worn:
March 2013
Wear again?
Yes
Cost:
$17.97 for fabric + $6.22 for buttons so $24.19 total

 

Here is my inspiration shot:

This is the lovely Sydney Ballesteros, she of the Golden Girl of the West blog. I’ve been inspired by her before, most notably last year when we did our Mixed-prints challenge at Sew Weekly. I loved the polka dotted goodness of this dress, along with the piping that made it “pop” and her shoes. I debated for a WEEK about dress vs. separates and finally decided I’d get more wear out of separates.

The blouse part of the DuBarry pattern was missing a few pieces so I ended up using my old standby, New York 1779.  I did try replicating the curve of the collar but honestly, I was still stuck in the “Must Get It All Done This Weekend” mode and didn’t have the patience to work piping around those curves. When I got the facings on and put the shirt on the mannequin it reminded me of men’s PJ’s : ( I kept going because I loved the fabric and hoped that the skirt would tone down the PJ-like feel but I seriously stumbled for a moment.

My daughter and I took these photos at a local monument to War Heroes.

It was originally dedicated to those who died in World War One but in 1954 it was amended to include those in World War Two and the Korean conflict.

It just seemed fitting.

The plaques behind me are the names of those who died (on the right) and the communities from which they came (on the left).

It was a blustery day : ) I had tried to do my hair in a 40’s style but the wind wasn’t cooperating!

My Victory rolls fell down a little and while I liked the polka dotty clips I felt a little Bette Davis in “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane“, my daughter just laughed at me : )

The first two buttons down the front of the skirt are functional, the rest are sewn through all layers. I’ve tried wearing button-up-the-front skirts and dresses for years and I always rip out the bottom buttons. I didn’t even bother making buttonholes for the other 6 buttons! If I were the very precise and remarkable Laura Mae I would do bound buttonholes all around, used or not : ) Seriously, she is amazing.

I pulled out a pair of shiny red shoes I found at Target last year, my button bracelet and a pair of red bakelite cherry earrings to up the red-goodness factor and off we went.

Normally, when we do a photoshoot, we go for about 100 photos to get 4-5 good ones. Sometimes the difference between one I like and one that makes me look like a dork is 2 seconds:

So just for Vickie (because we started including our outtakes last year!), here is the dork one : )

I had every intention of getting this post up last night and had even started it earlier in the day so that when I posted my pics to the 40’s Sew Along Flickr site I’d have this all ready to go. Then the real world stepped in and I spent several hours trying to save an Anna’s Hummingbird last night:

 

Jim had found him in the street last night, unable to fly. While trying to keep out dog away from it he scooped it up and brought it home. The poor thing was exhausted so we let him rest for a while and then I made sugar water and got him to take 2 mls by small syringe. By 9 pm he was bright and perky, comfortable resting in my hand unless he had to poop. Then he moved quickly away, did his business and came right back : ) He sat on the back of my hand as I typed this, moving when he got too warm to the desk top where I grabbed my camera and took this photo of him. (You can see more photos on my Instagram) I snuggled him for another hour, fed him a bit more and put him in a cage in my sewing room to be safe and warm through the night.

He died before dawn. I’ve sat at my desk all morning in tears. At least he wasn’t stepped on, or a cat toy, or died cold in the rain. Whatever the issue was (injury or illness) he died in comfort. That’s the tough part of animal rescue. I know I’ll outlive all the animals I help but it doesn’t make it any easier. There was no sewing last night so my “extra” week is slipping away but that’s ok.

Part One of the 40’s Sew Along

Fabric: Green/purple cotton from Stone Mountain
Patterns:
Shirt – New York Pattern 1779
Year:
1940
Notions:
Interfacing and 5 buttons for blouse
Time to complete:
2 hours
First worn:
For St.Patrick’s day
Wear again? Yes
Cost:
$14.00

This will be a quickie post, think of it as a warm-up.

Somehow I managed to convince myself that I had one week to get my 40’s pieces done AS WELL as my Bowie outfit for Ms. Tempest. All week long I thought I had to have the 40’s photos done this weekend so I could get Bowie photographed Friday afternoon and have everything turned in on time.

During a conversation Sunday afternoon I mentioned the I was unavailable next Saturday since we’re doing the St. Baldrick’s event and Brittany said “No, St. Baldrick’s is in two weeks, on the 30th.” The lightbulb that went off felt more like an anvil. I took a breath, reconsidered what I was doing and slowed w a y  d o w n…

Needless to say, plans shifted : ) But I really wanted to make this blouse for St. Patrick’s day and am VERY pleased it is done!

The skirt I’m wearing was part of my “Plums, Pomegranates and Persimmons” outfit last fall. It is a 30’s pattern, has no darts in the front and took maybe an hour to make. It is SUPER comfy AND I can ride my bike in it, which means I can wear it to work : )

Isn’t the print cute? I thought so…twice. Apparently I forgot I fell in love with another color version of it for the Gatsby Picnic. Doh!

I’d like to point out the shoes – I found them at a thrift store yesterday for $4.50. They are modern but I loved the brown trim on the green suede and the heel was not only a good shape but good height. I feel pretty cha-cha : )

So now that I have an “extra” week I’ll be able to finish the other pieces, even the one on my “would be nice to…” list! AND we’ve got a special photo session planned that is SO appropriate to the era and theme of the 40’s Sew Along. Awesome stuff ahead indeed!!

Kazz the Spazz!

The Facts
Fabric
: Four different African prints
Pattern: Simplicity 7082 and Vogue 2128
Notions: Not a one : )
Year: Modern
Time to complete: Literally weeks and weeks
First worn: February & March 2013
Wear again? Yes

Total Cost: $50.00 give or take

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yes, there are three patterns shown here but I only used two. My ORIGINAL idea was to make the shirt on the left, Vogue 2056. I made it when these patterns were brand new, late 80’s, and LOVE the origami-like folds and asymmetry, two things that strongly remind me of Kazz.

I had this all planned – go to Stone Mountain and Daughter the first week of February, buy really cool African fabrics as it was the beginning of Black History Month and the selection should be grand and then make really cool stuff : ) I get to Stone Mountain to discover they had 5 pieces of fabric. Five. When I inquired as to the collection the very nice lady apologized profusely and said their shipments had been help up in Mali! Seems that the fabric distribution goes through Mali and the fighting had interrupted little things like fabric export. I went to three other stores with minimal success – I managed to score the purple jacket fabric and red head wrap fabric at Discount Fabrics but they only had 7 or 8 more fabrics than Stone Mountain did.

A couple of weeks later they received their shipment so I ran in, fell in love with the red you see here and cut it out, only to shudder at the outcome.

It started off well and good, there are only three pieces to contend with along with a puzzling set of “match this set of dots to this set”. When I finally got it “right” I put it on and the phone rang. The 80’s were calling and it was an unpleasant conversation. It might have “looked” ok to an outsider but I felt like I was trying to re-create my youth and that was uncomfortable. I wrestled with the blouse for THREE DAYS and finally called it quits. I didn’t want to buy any more fabric since it was tough enough just to get what I have here.

By this time I’m running at least 2 weeks behind and feeling less than good. It’s one thing to blow your own timelines but I’ve got three others coming up fast and feeling overwhelmed : ( Let’s just say it was a dark week.

I took a deep breath, dug out the wrap top pattern and just pushed through. I then called my daughter for photo assistance. She found THIS amazing graffiti mural!

So here we are, on a Sunday morning, in a parking lot in Oakland. I was just in awe of the art behind me!

I wanted something to reflect the artistic spirit that is Kazz. I tied on my headwrap (surprisingly comfy) and posed with pride.

The jacket is really a big rectangle with sleeves. In the last few years I’ve seen tons of sweaters with this similar cut but in 1989 it was pretty ‘cutting’ edge. Kazz is sewing a lot of stuff inspired by the 80’s right now, go check out her blog : )

The pattern is also for knits but this is clearly not a knit. Instead of bands at the bottom I faced all the hems with a lime green print.

And in the grand Kazz tradition I piled on my bakelite bracelets, my huge red ring and some black earrings. The day was BRIGHT so the glasses stayed on : )

People walking by looked at us strangely and hurried on. Ah well.

I was glad I wore my red boots, the “stuff” on the ground was a little questionable : )

This is the center part of the mural. Brittany said when it was first complete the woman was holding a spray paint can but there was some concern as to the message so they painted a water bottle over it.

To the left of the figures is a veggie garden…

…and just above the corn are the credits. The website talks about their different projects – “Oakland, California – Broadway @ 21st Street in Downtown a collaboration with local youth programs that create urban arts and urban gardens. The mural portrays everyday ways that young people in Oakland are choosing healthy alternatives and decisions that protect and conserve water”

The beaver made us laugh : )

You can check this amazing non-profit out here.

Now check out Lee!! She made a Kazz outfit too!!!

I remember she used this fabric in a Sew Weekly challenge last year and I really liked that incarnation but I LOVE this one!

It’s simple, it’s swingy and it is Lee : ) From her blog:

“Kazz’s broad spectrum of talents and prolific production of awesome garments, including her recent foray into lingerie, could be a little, um, too impressive, especially in the past energy-sapping week I’ve had.  Very little time to myself lately, frigid late February. . . I’ll snap out of it.  In the meantime, I prefer to focus on the empowering Kazz takeaway:  Do your own thing.  Pump up the volume in terms of fantasy and attitude.  Challenge yourself.  If all you can manage to sew is a rectangle, make it high impact and strut that dresstangle, babe.”

Strut indeed.

Now for slightly boring stuff.

One of the items on my list of “things to do” this year was get the strawberry plants planted. I finally did : )

Amazingly the chickens aren’t interested one whit about what’s going on in the pot. One other item on my list was to get the back porch cleaned off and fixed up.

Oh. My. Goodness. That opened a can of worms. It started with a can of free stain, moved onto a few deck boards needing replacing (a known issue) and has ended up with an almost complete re-build AND a replacement gas line. Sigh…

So just for giggles (and the desperate need to complete SOMETHING)  I submitted a couple of my projects to the Mary Jane Farmgirl connection for my badges. What is Mary Jane? Check her out here. I can explain it more if people want me to, but for now I wanted to get this very late post up : ) Think of it like Girl Scout badges for adults with a farm twist and you’re getting there.

They accepted my work for the Apron badge and sent me a lovely certificate of completion-

My goal was to do 6-8 badges this year, I think I’m up to three and have two more in the final stages. Slowly things are getting done, I just feel like I’ve been walking in molasses.

I’m participating in two other sewing challenges this month, the 1940’s Sew for Victory challenge over at Rochelle and Lucille’s page as well as Tempest’s David Bowie challenge. If you’ve never met Rochelle check her out at Lucky Lucille. Her Lucille looks a lot like Chloe here : )

Now that daylight savings time is here it’s lighter later and life is getting better : ) If I’m going to get these challenges met I’ve got to sew like the wind!

Plaid, buttons and 200,000 fortune cookies

The Facts
Fabric
:Vintage 36″ wide cotton plaid from Alameda flea market
Pattern: Vogue 8811
Notions: A zipper and a button from stash
Year: 1940
Time to complete: 4 hours
First worn: February 2013
Wear again? Already have!

Total Cost: $24.00

First up is the plaid! I found the fabric I used for this dress at the Alameda flea market a couple of months ago. We have a favorite seller who has all sorts of eclectic “stuff”, anything from buttons to charms to paper goods, fabrics, trims and an assortment of stuff that changes month to month. One month Angie beat me to a piece of vintage rayon with a green print, the next month I found this plaid. My original intention was to make a couple of 49er jackets:

 But then the siren’s call of Vogue 8811 became too much and I succumbed : ) It also didn’t hurt that I just discovered Rochelle’s blog Lucky Lucille WITH her Sew for Victory challenge and am I IN!! I LOVE the forties styles, I’ve got half a dozen patterns in my “Make this soon” box so in a fit of inspiration I pulled out the fabric, got this puppy cut out and in a few hours voila! Une robe de finition! (A finished dress!)

(Oh, and the dog…my goodness! Her Lucille looks so MUCH like my Chloe!! I emailed her and we had a lovely conversation about our shared love of our girls!! Not to mention vintage patterns and fashions…)

The only thing I changed about the pattern was the way the skirt was cut – the pattern is a lovely partial circle skirt but I wanted to use that plaid to its best effect so I matched it down the center to form a chevron. It’s not an “even” plaid, it isn’t the same left to right so I had to be careful. Because the fabric was only 39″ wide I wanted to make sure I wasn’t going to end up piecing things and it all worked out great.

I ended up doing a very impromptu photo session with my daughter in the Art Gallery at Mills College. She needed some equipment for a project, I needed some photos so first thing on a Sunday morning I got dressed, loaded the car and headed into the wilds of Oakland : ) I thought we’d just use outside locales to keep it fast and easy but she suggested we look at the latest installation that involved 200,000 fortune cookies!

 According to Brittany there is a spiral cardboard center structure that helps the cookies stay in place. They aren’t glued or lacquered in any way and she said at first the smell permeated the entire building. Now there is just a faint sweet background smell that isn’t at all overwhelming and kind of charming.

The mountain of cookies without me : )

There is a wall of paintings, various version of the cookies. I have to say I like them very much. On the opening night of the show the artist had done some small canvases that were for sale. Now I wish I had been there and bought one : )

 There are several other installations in this exhibit, I have plans to go back but the link to the Mills site has some much nicer photographs : )

The jacket I’m wearing in the first pic is one I found at Rockridge Rags a few years ago. It’s fifties, wool, had 4 different kinds buttons (and yes, they button to form a pyramid) and a couple tears in the lining. It was also $18 and 30% off so how could I resist? I repaired the lining, changed out the buttons and now everytime I wear it people ask about it. One of these days I’ll have to travel to the wall o’ wool at Britex to see if I can find something fabulous for a skirt! 

 And now, onto buttons!! Button, button, whose got the button? No, not the sewing kind but the “I’m working on this fun challenge” kind. In the last week I’ve been able to snag a few buttons that you can now see on my right side bar. Not only did I have to learn how to upload them but also learned a *little* about how they’re constructed.

As a result of all this great poking around I’m now doing the aforementioned Sew for Victory challenge (this weeks outfit is just the warm-up, I have a few other pieces planned!), Tempest’s David Bowie challenge in March, the current Mad Men challenge by Julia Bobbin in March/April but I’m also keeping somewhat current with my own set of challenges, the current one being my Kazz-inspired outfit.

Phew! Fun stuff : ) Let me just say this – I KNOW I work best with light and sun. November to March is never my best time for creativity. I get up at 5am to be out the door, on my bike to BART at 6am. The sun is just rising as we head under the bay into San Francisco and I’m fine with that. I’m an early riser and can literally get more done by 11 am than many people do all day. By the time I’m back home at night and walked the dogs the sun is setting and all I want to do is curl up on the couch. In a week the whole daylight savings time thing kicks in/out and we spring FORWARD, meaning it will be darker in the morning for a while but LIGHTER when I get home so I get more done! Thank goodness!!

 I also figured out how to link up my Instagram account with this blog, am working on my Twitter account and just started adding photos to Flickr. This whole technology thing can get overwhelming…but is still so much fun!

How about you? Are you affected by the seasons changes? And does anyone else find all this technology overwhelming at times or did I just come late to the party?