I Am Honored...

to have received the coveted Liebster Blog Award from KC at The Sewcratic Method.

Thank you, KC!!!!
Since the creation of this award the available blogs with less than 200 followers are quickly disapearing as everyone immediately clicks over to check them out, so instead of searching for blogs that haven't received it yet, I am bestowing it on the most recent blogs that I have found.* The 5 blogs I chose to award are:

Girl meets wolf
Experiments and Accidents
Cloth Habit
The Muslinette
Sown Brooklyn

Congratulations everyone! Keep sewing and we will keep reading!



Before I even published this email about the Leibster, Diane of The Blue Gardenia gave me the Very Versatile Blogger award! Thank you so much!

My list of 15 bloggers again consists of recent discoveries:

Closet Case Files
Cloth Habit
Experiments and Accidents
Four Square Walls
Girl Meets Wolf
Lucky Lucille
Madalynne
Sewin' Steady
Sown Brooklyn
The Muslinette
DaughterFish
threadsquare
Toferet's Empty Bobbin
True Bias
Zilredloh


* When I discover a new blog, that means I also pretty much read all of their old posts too. So, yes, I've been very busy!

The Good Guy

A stranger reinforced my faith in my fellow man.

Yesterday, I ran out of gas. This was not a surprise as my tank had been working dangerously below empty for two days already. I had overextended myself and was in the red on my checking account, just trying to make it to Friday when my paycheck would be deposited.

However, yesterday after work, I had to pre-pump the gas pedal a lot to get the car to start and in the few moments while I was waiting to pull out in traffic it started to stall. I decided I had to bite the bullet and drove to the 7-11 a block away. As I pulled next to the pump I realized if my ATM card didn't work, I probably wouldn't be able to start my car up again. I knew I had a negative balance but I was hoping (ridiculously hoping, right?) that I could get $5-10 out. Of course, my card was declined at the pump and then declined inside. As I'm telling my story about practically driving on fumes, the guy behind me waiting to buy cigarettes asks "Are you out of gas?" The second after I say yes, he holds out the $20 bill he was about to give the cashier. After I say, "Really?" about three times and stare at him he hands the money straight to the cashier and says to put the entire $20 on my pump. All I can do is stare at his profile incredulously and say "Thank you, thank you so much."

It's not until after I pumped the gas and sat in my car that I realized how I had NO backup plan, no other credit card, and no cash. Without this guy I would have ended up crying in my car for a while. I would have been able to get people to push my car away from the pump, leave it there, and walk the 2.5 miles home but I would first have to beat myself up about it. This has got to stop, I SO need a new job.

So thank you, mystery guy*!! I will pay it forward in your honor.


* Most distractingly, he was also quite cute. ; )

Thank you...and See You Soon

Thanks everybody for the beautiful words about my Good 'N Plenty dress! I was so overwhelmed and touched by how many of you decided to comment to let me know you liked it. Lately, I wondered if anyone was even reading this site. I definitely suggest you all make yourselves one as it really was easy, even though I dragged my feet on mine.

I am finishing up one last wardrobe item and then I'm clearing up my sewing/craft area for a while. I don't like how sewing has become just another thing on my seemingly endless to-do list instead of being something I can't wait to get home to do. So, I'm taking a break. I'll also be taking a break from this blog and from SHELTERhome. I need to devote myself to another higher priority task which involves making more money so that I can pay some bills. I think I was using sewing, blogging, and reading blogs as an excuse sometimes. A very flimsy excuse, at that.

So, I have one last post here (maybe next week) and there is a doozy of a post that I just put up here. If you like the mid-century set decor of Mad Men, how about looking at my break-down of the one set that has not received any Internet love until now...I present to you the very feminine and put together home of young married couple Joan and Greg Harris. How no one else has written about this little jewel box of an apartment beats me. I hope you will enjoy the time and research that I put into it.

By the way, it is my third breakdown of a female TV characters' home, check out my other posts on Mary Richards and Monica Geller-Bing.

Take care, and I hope you'll be around in a month or so for my return because I have some great projects planned on the horizon.

Wish me luck!

Hats Off To You!

Friday, I spent innumerable hours scanning patterns into my computer and transferring them to Flickr in advance of adding them to my Etsy shop. I am not even halfway through the 135 I'm going to sell.

Why don't I just take digital pictures of them, you ask? Well, my camera, the Kodak EasyShare C310, is crap at taking close detailed photos. See?

Which is something you should definitely think about if you bought a digital camera primarily to use on a blog to document specific details of your homemade projects. Oh, well.

What I wanted to say is...my hat is off to anyone who sells patterns on the Internet. After awhile I was tempted to just drop these things off at Goodwill and be done with them. I don't know how you do it while getting new stock in daily or even weekly? I appreciate you all so much more now. Thanks for all you do!

Have a Happy 4th of July!

Thank you SO MUCH Antoinette, Wende, Mme. Chez Shoes, and Smitty* for your kind words the other day.

They truly helped me through a bad night. It's just hard to be reminded just how lonely you are, in like the deepest sense. I have a lot of changes to make in my life (things I really wish I could change, like yesterday, though that's not possible) and sometimes things like this can slow me down. Luckily, I also received help through a late night talk with a friend in Miami that helped me stop crying and to get over that hump.

Today is another one of those days for me where everyone I know is busy doing something and I'm just trying to keep myself busy at home and get some things done.

So go out there and celebrate for me and I hope your 4th is full of fun, food, and friends!