Running Ramble

I mentioned Andrew's half marathon yesterday. I feel bad that we didn't even try to go meet him at the end, but I'm nothing if not realistic. Getting on the train at 7 a.m. with two kids last Saturday was not happening.

But I did want to go.  Finley and I had fun meeting him in Coney Island last year. That said (and this is no secret), I'm long over marathon and half-marathon training. Andrew gets to literally run away from the house and the kids about three times a week and I get two needy children all to myself. And it's not like he can return the favor--my hobbies aren't mobile.

So there's my rant. Andy tries to be fair, and most often it's just once a week that he totally abandons his family. He'd happily have me at the bar having cocktails to make it up to me, but (shocking, I'm sure) the thought of drinking as much as Andy runs is making my liver preemptively cry uncle.

Speaking of drinking . . .  why yes, those are beers that we're drinking in those pictures up there. Long aside aside, we went to the half-marathon pre-party in DUMBO last Friday. Gwen got to see her first concert (a single guitarist singing covers, but we'll count it) and Andrew and I had 10 a.m. beers.

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Other things on my mind:

The National, Daft Punk and Arrested Development all out within the same week . . . good thing it's a three-day weekend.  We'll be celebrating the unofficial start to the summer holed up in our house staring at a t.v. and listening to (what Finley likes to call) the NPR box.

The cicadas are almost here.  Gah!  And cicada casings no less.  That doesn't squick me out at all, New York Times!

Happiness:

Round One

Remember how I'm trying to make a dent in my fabric stash? Well here you go.

I have many thoughts on this, so . . . bullets:

• I actually wrote that post about my little problem a week or two before I posted it, so it's taken me longer to get to this point than it probably seems.  
• The skirt was my mother's day gift, if you can call it that. I asked Andrew and the kids to get lost last Sunday and I had high hopes of making some progress on this whole endeavor, but the skirt took much, much longer than it should have and I ended up not having a whole lot of fun. Don't feel sorry for me, though. I asked for it.
• As posted, the skirt is based off of Butterick B5285 which I've made a couple of times and posted about once before.  I only had a yard of fabric to work with, though, so I improvised a little bit. I may make it shorter, but otherwise I think it'll be nice for the summer. I still have to sew on a button.
• By the way, the skirt from that old post has gone to the scrap pile. I missed some pattern markings, so things were a little wonky. It's OK, though.  Lesson learned! 
• The top is not the one that I originally posted. That first top is about 70% done, but I am 95% fed up with the dumb fabric it's made out of, so we're on a break.  
• The shirt is the Colette Sorbetto and was a breath of fresh air after the angst that the aforementioned projects caused. This is a free pattern, so you should go and make your own right away.
• The Sorbetto calls for bias tape, which I've not worked with before. I decided to go whole hog and make my own. It's not unlike making facing or piping, which I've done before, but the Colette website has a tutorial for cutting out bias strips that blew my mind.
• I bought the wrong sized bias tape maker so Andrew braved the fabric store for me. You're the best, dear.
• All that said, I think I managed to make the wrong size tape. A little less easy than it could have been, but I soldiered through.
• I probably won't be wearing this as pictured, but I figured I'd get two posts killed with one stone and shoot them together. Actually, I probably won't wear the Sorbetto at all for a while. It isn't the breastfeeding-friendliest.  
• The medal that Yvette is sporting is from Andrew's half marathon on Saturday.  
• There were enough fabric remnants to make me feel like I need to make something else to use them up. Gah. I'm starting to feel like Sisyphus. I already have the seersucker remnant cut out for a baby outfit, and I may use some of the print for the same project, but that'll still leave a yard-plus of the print to be dealt with.  Blimey.  

There's still so much to do and just figuring out what to start in on is enough to paralyze me.  I also may or may not have bought more fabric.  D'oh!

Sunglasses

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Confidential to Megan: OLD!

Remember Those Pants?

Remember how they were supposed to be extra small?  Pattern fail.  

We Saw Some Bikes Last Sunday

We've managed to catch a part of the Five Boro Bike Tour for the past six? seven? years now.  For a time, all we had to do was roll over in bed to see the bikers gasping up the steep hill on the BQE outside our apartment.  At the time, I think it amounted to making us feel really lazy, but now it just sounds wonderful.  Waking up after 10 a.m.?  Watching a bunch of suckers huff and puff up a hill from the comfort of my own bed?  But I digress. . . .

Actually, that hill notwithstanding, I got it into my head that it might be a fun thing to do in the future.  I've seen plenty of kids along for the ride, so maybe one of these years we'll make it a family affair?  Finley liked watching it, anyway, so I think he can be convinced.

But, FYI, whatever you do, don't offer to let him sit on the back of your motorcycle.  That crap will piss him off.

5 Months

This baby has teeth!

The First Thing Is Admitting That You Have a Problem

I think I took this picture wrong, 'cause this seems a lot more daunting in real life.

I guess you could say that I've got a problem with wishful thinking. I usually go fabric shopping with a specific project in mind and then tack on some I'll do something with this someday purchases. And then a couple of months go by and I do it again. Some things get made, most don't. Lather, rinse, repeat. That smaller pile on the left? That's my most recent shopping spree. But I needed that fabric, you see, because just a few days before I'd gone and bought these:

Ten patterns. I think I've mentioned that Vogue/Butterick/McCall's patterns go on sale from time to time?  They were on super-sale a couple of weeks ago. Practically free. So I had to buy them, see?

And thirty whole dollars of free later, I had ten patterns that I needed to justify owning, so I went and bought  that pile of fabric. Because I have fabric amnesia and forgot that I had eighty-seven pounds of fabric in my closet already. (Actually, more. I didn't bother digging everything out for the picture.)

It seems that I've seriously overestimated the amount of spare time that I have.

Anyway, I've decided to set a goal of making a serious dent in this pile by the end of summer/beginning of fall. It's a vague goal, but I'm hopeful that it'll keep me motivated. Another thing I have going for me is how tired I am of my wardrobe.

So I sorted everything out and settled on this for a start:

the stripes are coincidental

A shirt and a skirt that will come in handy with our recently arrived warm weather. I took a picture to seal the deal and then I sat down at the sewing machine and made baby shoes instead.  And they don't even stay on her feet.  Sad trombone.  I'll have to tell you about it later.

But then--THEN--I sat down and started on the shirt. I'll be honest, it's a little slow going--knits and I may not be on speaking terms after this--but I'm going to try and plow through.  Getting stalled is the worst (says the lady who's had a man shirt all cut up with no markings transferred for two months).