Current Mood : Flighty and busy !
Yaay ! Blogger's back up, my Wednesday entry's restored, and my fish are soooo *hungry* ! Feel free to feed them, they've felt a bit neglected all day.
Feeling *much* better today ! I still had an odd night, but steroids do that to me for a couple days after I take 'em. I'm exhausted until bedtime, then I'm all jangly, and that translates to unsettled dreams and lots of tossing and turning. But I woke up hungry, and wanted to eat, so I know I'm on the mend. Only the living wanna eat, ya know. Even a zombie knows that.
Got all the big patches done yesterday, and completed a test stitch-out of the second series. There was a bit of space left on the hooped fabric, so I also tested out the tiny Monster High 'MH' logo I digitized a couple weeks back - I think it came out pretty well ! It's about a half-inch by a half-inch, and should work up great for doll clothes. Once I'm done with the Airsoft commission, I can make my own darn sports uniforms, without having to peel off names and other character-specific bits - and not have to darn near destroy the clothes to fix them !
Our 'client', one of Beloved Hubby's Airsoft friends, really liked the stitch-out, so I have the go-ahead to do the rest. My weekend's claimed ! Already done seven of the eleven sets, so it shouldn't be too hard to finish up in the morning. While I got some rest last night, I'm still so sleepy - if Beloved's not working tomorrow, I'm not getting out of bed until I have to !
In between, I got some laundry done, and updated my cardboard bulletin board. I had another box cut down and ready to go, just had to tape it to the first one. My original board was one thin box - recycled Priority Mail package - so push-pins would go right through, and sometimes scratch the wall behind it. Not anymore ! Since I had it down, I also swapped out the fabric - the hot-pink Barbie print had been around for years, but since it's just taped to the cardboard, it was easy to replace with a colorful polka-dot print. It's cheerful without being eye-searing. That bright pink can get on your retinas after a while.
There's been a few 'firsts' with all this embroidery. When we first got Brody, it was easy to see how different his bobbins were from KJ's, my Kenmonre-Janome non-computerized sewing machine. Problem was, while the manual was very specific about using the right size bobbin, it didn't give a model number or size or anything at all. Other than 'using the wrong one can destroy your machine and may invalidate your warranty'. You know, the usual. I found some Brother brand bobbins and figured these were right...but were they ? I even wrote Brother to ask, but they never responded.
Well, today, since the embroidery is eating through bobbin thread, and I'm still kinda light-headed, I over-wound one. Which is also not good. Can lead to tangles and damage to the machine, warranty...yatta yatta. About the only way to fix it was to either unwind the bobbin and throw the overage thread away...or use KJ to wind the surplus thread onto another bobbin. Too bad I didn't have any empty ones. Except for the never-opened package of 'em I bought years ago.
Long story short (too late !), they work great. So now I can use them with confidence. Just gotta make sure to not overfill 'em, no matter how much thread I think I'll need. I also finally learned to leave the embroidery scissors where I think I'll need them, instead of wherever I just was. Sure, it's more fun to cut jump threads in front of a movie in the living room, but since I cut some threads with embroidery still in progress, hunting for the scissors over and over isn't fun at all. Besides, there's trash cans and thread catchers by the sewing machines.
This project will probably also empty one of the first spools of embroidery thread I ever bought, a Coats & Clark 'mini king' spool of black. They're huge, lots of thread on 'em. But I'm burning through it on this one just the same. I can see a bit of the white core in between the threads, so the next set'll probably wipe it out. One less odd-shaped spool to store, so I'm happy.
Since all this embroidery is finally starting to get wearying, I decided to take a break and sew something else. While a set stitched out, I hand-wound a bobbin with elastic thread and looked over the prints stored in the dollhouse. Li'l Miss Makeup was finally gonna get something new to wear - a simple shirred sundress. A couple measurements and about fifteen minutes of sewing later, that's exactly what she got. Photo tomorrow, I promise !
In other MH news, someone found Lagoona's Hydration Station on a shelf in what looked like a Hastings 'toys and trends' section. Price sticker also looks familiar. $64. ! Yikes. I looked it up on their website, and yup, that's their price, but on the site it's a pre-order, for shipping 01 June. I also looked around a bit more. Their price for Gloom Beach dolls is $19. - a considerable markup from $12. at Target and Mal-Wart. I think I'll wait a bit, sixty bucks is a bit pricey. But I got a good look at the box, and look forward to seeing it on shelves, hopefully for around $40. or so. I responded to the entry, since this was on the official FaceBook page, but poof ! Both my comment and the photo of it had vanished. Mattel may be doing a crap job of disseminating their own information, but they sure as all h#ll don't like anyone else doing it without their approval !
Oh that sucks that they silenced you like that. I would be so angry over that. What's the harm in stating the facts? Meh. I want the Hydration Station if it's the right height for other dolls. It would work wonders for a story I am doing, but yikes is right about the 64 bucks. Maybe I am not destined to have it. Maybe there will be a sale some time in the distant future. Fingers crossed. I thought of you today when I was hunting around blogs today and I found a picture of some knock-off Monster High baby dolls. I blogged about them if you want to check them out. http://dashausdermaus.blogspot.com/ But their clothes look so similar to the actual dolls and they, in my opinion, look so cute. I want to collect them all. LOL! Now I just have to find them. Fingers crossed. :-) And glad you are feeling better. I have acid issues that make it hard to breathe sometimes and I know the panic that goes to not being able to get a good breath. So glad you can breathe easier now.
ReplyDelete