Darn cats !

Current Mood : Fat & Festive

Whew ! All caught up. And when there's a day I can do that, you can rest assured I didn't do much else. Sorry to run so late. I write, every day, but sometimes I simply don't have the energy or the light to take a good picture. And in a blink, a week has gone by. I'm sure ya'll know what I'm blathering on about.

So it was a sort of boring day, but I spent a ridiculous amount of time admiring that image of DracuLaura in the tree. It's nothing special, even I know that, but I was really happy with how well the image and the dress worked out. Dearest Son thought it was funny, a doll in a Christmas tree, so he posed his Toralei in the branches when I was done, and took pictures of his own. I started to remember all the fights through all the years involving cats and Christmas trees, so, today's image. I put up one without words on Flickr, if you're interested.

Speaking of the dress, I wrote Nancy (of NG Creations, the pattern designer) to tell her how much I loved sewing it and I hoped to see more Monster High designs from her soon. She already does patterns for most dolls out there, from Barbie to Crissy to Dora the Explorer. She wrote back - how kind ! - to tell me she's working on another set that should be out before Christmas. Also, she has a couple of guy models now, so I should keep my eyes open for upcoming patterns for the dudes as well. Her Grand-daughter is enamored of MH, and sketches what she wants, and Nancy makes the patterns from there. Isn't that adorable ? She wants a wedding set next...

Speaking of my guy, he got a gift from his Grand-dad today. He's been wanting a DVD player for his room, so he won't have to keep borrowing the living room one whenever he wants to see a library-borrowed Bakugan episode. DFIL had an older combo DVD/VCR device, that just needed a good cleaning - which he took care of today. So now, Dearest has his DVD player, and a working VHS player, too. Which is good, because Friday, his computer's video card went belly-up, and we haven't been able to fix it yet. (sigh)

I'm hoping to sew again tonight, probably a slight alteration to the dress I made yesterday, since I enjoyed it so much. I'm thinking of adding length, since short skirts and long sleeves always seem unbalanced to me, although DracuLaura's looks fine. Ya'll know me, I'm not happy unless I'm altering things to suit my own twisted nature ! 

More boring week - hope yours is more fun !

Current Mood : Lazy and relaxed

Current Image Notes : Lagoona is quite fond of the carousel music box DMIL sent via Beloved Hubby, so I'd have something pretty to look at in the hospital. How thoughtful !

Had to do some quick housework this morning - the oxygen company was coming by to get me (giggle) fresh air. Actually, they have me on a route, every month they take away the used tanks and get me fresh ones, ask if there's any issues or concerns. I wanted to make sure our room was nice and clean, and I know it needed sweeping. So I got it done. They came by mid-afternoon, and took care of everything, even testing out the one tank we thought was malfunctioning. Turned out, it was the valve that was messed up, so they put me down for a new one. Now I know it's an OCD - Oxygen Conservation Device - and they're fairly new, so suffer from some shakedown issues. I still had an old-style valve, so that'd do for now. Only real difference is the older ones go through oxygen faster. But, truth be told, I didn't even use three of my nine tanks.

The house oxygen device - the one that pulls O2 out of the air - gets a lot more use, but I take a tank along whenever I'll be out of the house for more than an hour. We often take two of the three-hour tanks when we have a VA hospital visit ! Just in case.

So that was the big excitement today. Well, not really. Beloved Hubby was home early, and we ended up at TRU again. Nothing new. (sigh) He found a blue MH headband, though, with a skullie / diamond print and a zipper bow, and insisted on getting it for me. It's really cute, but I could only stand a few hours of wearing it and the oxygen tube before my behind-the-ears space started to hurt a bit. Hope I can stretch it out a little from time to time.

He also moved the back porch boxes into a storage shed today, after shuffling some stuff to make more space. My jewelry armoire came inside, after being on the porch until yesterday, so today I did some shuffling of my own in our room for it. Now I can really dig through it !

But it'll have to wait. I have a Halloween costume to make - Tom, of Tom and Jerry fame - and bags to make for the VA, before my next appointment. I need to start sewing, and now !

Getting ready for the week...while enjoying the last of the weekend.

Current Mood : Anticipating lots of fun things to do !

Nice, quiet day today. We had off-and-on rain, which was great to hear, and made the whole house feel cooler and more relaxed. I got all the Monster High doll beds back in order on my nightstand, very glad that I didn't want Clawdeen's new bunks. I got no room at all ! Heck, getting my new Lagoona out of her bubble chamber's gonna take a bit of maneuvering. 

Slowly but steadily getting more sleep at night, and needing fewer catnaps (or just plain forcing m'self through) during the afternoon. We're all coughing a bit, but it's not too bad. 

Got my new Frankie deboxed - mostly to get her out of that fugly outfit she came in ! I know the tunic-top is supposed to be reminiscent of an early sewing effort - stripes don't match, hem's not even (or even complete), collar's only on one side, and it's in rather garish colors, but I still hate it. I don't know why Mattel was trying to say it was a dress paired with leggings - either way, it was ugly, and even with more clashing red stitching to approximate seams and pockets, they were still tights. I have no idea if I'll ever use either piece again, which gives me three pairs of tights/leggings I don't like - DracuLaura's yellow and pink polka dot crazies, today's hypnotically ugly wannabe leggings, and the red/black/blue argyle ones in the 'Day at the Maul' clothing set. 

She looks so much more sweet and innocent in the second dress provided - you'll get that photo tomorrow. I've noted that a lot of the 'locker' Frankies have nearly all white hair, or at least, they seem to show up that way on fan photography pages. I'm lucky that the one that Target clerk picked out for me has a great mix of black and white. She looks so adorable ! Very much like the first Frankie, but with bangs. Brushed clear of some minor spray, her hair is very soft and almost cloud-like, but it's not that horrible cotton-candy fluff  'angel hair' Mattel used on a buncha Barbies in the early 90s. Thank Everything. 

I love her shoes, they're not half-and-half down the middle gimmick or anything - they look like real womens' shoes from a nice shop. And the colors coordinate with most of the frequently used MH palette, so they're not relegated to 'just Frankie' footwear. Her apron's cute, but I'm not sure how often she'll use it. The belt on her second dress is much too tight, and may need some stretching. What can I say, I like my waist seam covered. 

Somewhere during the re-dressing, I lost her tiny 'silver' ring. I'm sure it'll turn up in the dustpan sooner or later. I was amazed that I hadn't lost the even smaller turquoise 'bolt' ring that came with the 'Maul' set. Her crafted 'Watzit' stuffie is too cute, and  can't help but love her skullie wrist-pincushion. 

Amazingly, her 'Survial Guide' to Home Eck includes a small pattern - with sewing directions ! Now, this was intriguing. Much too tiny to be a pattern for them, I blew it up to 300%, and did a quick paper-fitting. The directions were waaay too brief, I have no idea how this dress is supposed to fit, and it may be that it's not supposed to fit or even be attempted....but later this week, I'm going to. I need a simple challenge to get me back into the sewing arena, and this looks good. And I got plenty of fabric I haven't put away in a few months, ready to go. 

I'd say , tomorrow !, but I got housework up to my chin waiting, but Creative Thursday's not too far out of the realms of possibility...

At least there were lots of new Neflix movies to watch today...

Current Mood : Wheezy

Kept putting it off, but today I had to start those Airsoft patches we've accepted the commission for - they're due Sunday. Beloved Hubby's going to a huge annual Airsoft game at the end of the month, one that's so big, people from other countries attend ! Not counties...countries ! It's all weekend long, too, so he'll be camping out. In an effort to keep some of his costs down, he's trading patches for some equipment, and another set for straight cash. In short, our approximate thousand dollar investment in Brody and all the necessary supplies will net us nearly a hundred bucks ! Seems like a drop in the bucket, but I'll take it anyway !

Did half of the equipment trade one today, and will finish it tomorrow. Then I have Friday and Saturday for the other. We haven't been paid yet, so the sooner I get it done, the better.

It actually works out - we've had thunderstorms all day, and it's really kicking my asthma up. So monitoring Brody for a while is fine, and it gives me a break from laundry where I have to sit for a bit. It doesn't give me any time for doll sewing for the rest of the week, but I already got my doll time in earlier this week.

Got a little laundry done in between embroidery runs. Still having a little trouble with the tension. The bobbin thread still occasionally shows on the front. When I discovered that I'd used 40wt thread in the bobbin, instead of the usual 70wt, I figured winding and using a couple of correct thread bobbins would fix it. Nope. It actually got worse. Not sure what to do, I'm running out of time. Thinking of doing up the last one today with black bobbin thread - 70wt, of course ! That way, if it does appear on the front, it won't be so visible. Most of the colors in this badge are dark, and a slight black edge will probably look good. Better than white does, that's fer sure !

Well, I gotta get back to it. Tonight's gonna be tough, I can already tell. Even leaning back on the sofa makes me gasp, so I'm not anticipating much sleep. At least the rain's due to move on - sunny skies and new hopes in tomorrow's forecast !