Passage of time

Anybody who ever visited us in Paris has had the pleasure of meeting our next door neighbors, who have become our dearest friends over all the years we've lived in France.  While we don't get up to Paris much anymore, they have a vacation home just a couple of hours away from us down here; thus, we still manage to see them from time to time.

Recently, we celebrated his birthday, and I thought you'd like to both see our old friends again plus see a simple little French celebration.

Unlined jacket tutorial

As a complement to the summer dress I just made as part of an ongoing sewing contest, I made this interesting casual jacket.  While I doubt I'll ever make the included dress, I really liked the design of this jacket (trying to see past the model wearing it in my favorite color,  and then I did it in the same thing!) and used this opportunity to try it out.

Again, I thought I would point out some of the techniques I used outside of the typical pattern directions.  Perhaps you may find some of them useful, too.

A summer's dress tutorial

I am in the process of sewing a nine-piece wardrobe for another contest!  After taking a sewing break for a number of years, this time around I'm trying to incorporate a lot of little extras I mostly didn't mess with in my sewing heyday when rearing an active family and trying to keep customers happy. 

I thought I would explain some of those techniques used on the dress of this pattern, Butterick 5619.  I've already made the jacket and the skirt, so now it's time to do something with the dress pattern, too.

Popular pattern participation

Remember the sewing contest I mentioned I entered?  A sewing site I follow has regular contests with various themes, most of which don't interest me or fit my personal needs.  However, this last contest involved using a specific pattern from a specific list, which was a compilation of the most popular patterns from the past three years.  I happened to have three of them, so I entered one item from each.  After a week of voting, the results are in!

Fun with a Plantain Tee

There is currently a contest in progress on the sewing site I enjoy reading, and I decided to participate with a couple of entries.  It is an interesting experience to be judged by others based on photos, so hopefully those photos show all the important information necessary to make a good judgment. 

I thought I would share a little of this particular project, because I decided to have a bit of fun with it.  The pattern is just a simple T-shirt, which I recently made for the first time, so I wanted to do something a little different this time.

A sewing techniques tutorial

My sister has been bugging me to do a sewing tutorial for several years now.  We have been separated by vast expanses of territory our whole adult lives, and she has never been able to take advantage of my "expertise," although it's only fairly recently she's gotten involved in sewing herself. 

While I have a lifetime of sewing experience, I have very little teaching experience, and I've never done one of these now common web tutorials.  As I just made something from both a pattern and fabric that my sister gifted me, perhaps this is the time to take a stab at it.  So, Sister Dearest, this one's for you!

Spring chez nous

As I was working at the bottom of our property yesterday, having to pass the whole front yard, I noticed how spring is on its way.  Most things aren't quite there yet, but I thought what we do have is rather pretty. 

So for those of you perhaps being buried under even more winter snow, I thought I'd show you the promise of what's to come.

Total Eclipse -- Not Quite!

Our area was supposed to get 62%.  I managed this shot two minutes after maximum.  We actually saw it at maximum time, despite the overcast weather, by looking through two CDs together.

But I couldn't get the camera to focus when I put the lens up to them.  I finally managed to hold the CDs far enough away from me so the camera would focus on them and kept it all steady enough it's not all fuzzy! 

Yeah!!!!!!

Putting on the green

Happy St. Patrick's Day to all my faithful readers.  When I was a kid, if you didn't wear green to school, you got pinched.  Do kids do that anymore?  I guess now it would be called bullying.  But I know we always tried not to forget! 

Perhaps that's why I still always think about being green on this date, whether I succumb to the temptation or not.  Now that I'm all grown up, I had some friends over for dinner recently and created my green theme with my table setting (well, yes, I did wear shades of green on my body, too, but not out of fear of being pinched!).

Boardwalk of the stars

How would you like to visit another little corner of the world?  This one is another town in my backyard, some little beachfront area along the Mediterranean coastline.  I participated in a church ladies' retreat there last weekend, we took a little tour during a free afternoon, and I tried to capture a little of the flavor of the area with my trusty little camera.

This time, we are going to take a walk along the Croisette, the name of the boardwalk in the French town twinned with the California city of Beverly Hills.  Welcome to Cannes, home of the famous Red Carpet.