30 Minutes A Day

Following Sumerset's idea, I'm going to try to sew 30 minutes a day. Now, I have tons of time available while she has a family, a job, and she probably cooks. However, I've found I really do a lot better if I have a structured schedule. Thirty minutes to sew, thirty minutes to clean house, and one hour to work on the painting/sheetrock/plastering in my family room. I'm hoping that the 30 minute thing expands, of course. My latest idea is to move my sewing upstairs to the dining room table for cutting out and the kitchen table for sewing. So stupid when I have a lovely sewing room all set up in the basement. The trouble is, I hate to go down to the basement to sew. Silly, huh? I'm working on this Kwik Sew jacket for now. This is just inexpensive fleece from JoAnn's, but it has a separating zipper so a little bit of a learning curve. I wear a lot of warm ups, between tennis and swimming, so I'd like to get very competent at making them, then on to flouncy skirts for dancing class.

More on ballroom dancing

My friends and I went to a ballroom "competition" last Friday (interrupting our regularly scheduled canasta game) and I wanted to post this picture. My friend, the lady in red, is shown from the rear as I don't have her permission to post the photo. She's 73. Her partner is 90.

Wardrobe in a week

WIAW is a little contest thought up by some sewing participants in "Artisan's Guild", a website I follow closely. The idea is, obviously, to sew four garments in one week. Quite a challenge for me, who usually takes a month to sew one thing. (In my defense, I am replastering a fireplace wall and repairing, then repainting, the ceiling and the fireplace.) However, I've moved my sewing machine up to the kitchen table and I plan to cut on my dining room table, thus removing the necessity of going to my basement and sewing. I'm going to participate in this contest and challenge myself to finish two warmup suits (4 garments--two tops and two bottoms). I need them, I have the fabric, and the fireplace will be there for a long time. I anticipate feeling very good about finishing two badly needed outfits and getting rid of those large piles of fleece in my stash. The only problem is I have to put aside the Jalie top I've been puzzling over. I have two of them cut out and can't figure out how to put them together...I hate UFOs and I hate wadders even more. Maybe my brain will work better when I have on a new sweatsuit.

Rambling

I've been reading Ruth's blog, http://www.grancanlife.blogspot.com/ for a couple of years now. She has been going through quite a difficult transition for one so young. It makes me sad that youthful hopes and illusions can be shattered, although of course everyone's is. I think I'm lucky that it took so long for my plans to be changed by fate. However, in the course of things I've found that even though one's plans are changed by outside events, you can twist and shove and push things into place and make them turn out even better. Life is certainly all about keeping on your toes. Perhaps that's why I like to ballroom dance! And speaking of dancing, last night I (again) watched "Dirty Dancing, Havana Nights" and I think I like it even better than the original "Dirty Dancing". I think I need to see both again, just to make sure, lol.

16 Days and Counting

A friend sent me an email today with the countdown to Christmas. It's one of those things, you know? Intellectually I know it's the 8th of December...but...Christmas? That must be weeks away. I've got the Baltimore contigent gifts all wrapped and ready to go to UPS but haven't even started on the rest. Tomorrow I go to the Atlanta Apparel Mart--not for me, but for some friends who have been bugging me to take them. Friday is my regular card playing day. Today I spent with my BFF, who is so ill, and I'll see her again on Sunday. That leaves Saturday for mailing things. I'll post a picture in a few days of the glorious weekend I had with some girlfriends, who very kindly remembered the one year anniversary of Harold's death and wisked me out of town. Fun!

Happy Thanksgiving 2009

A big thank you to any who read and comment on my blog...and Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. I'm not really having a happy day today, as my very dear friend is ill. We had plans for Thanksgiving Dinner, but when I called to check in she thinks she's going to the hospital instead. I may not be having a happy day, but I'm so thankful for my family, friends, and good health.

Ballroom Dancing Class

I won't pretend I'll ever be a candidate for the TV show "Dancing With the Stars" but I've enjoyed ballroom dancing for a number of years. When I was married, my husband was good at "Bar room dancing" but never could unlearn what he knew in order to learn how to do many of the steps...although he did a very nice waltz. Now that I'm widowed I've decided to get back into dancing, in a mild kind of way. I'm lucky that there are a number of classes and practices for senior citizens here in my city. One of the ladies in the class begged me to go with her to an old favorite dance a few weeks ago and I was astonished at how many people I knew from years ago that were still attending. There's another dance this Friday night---there's a dance somewhere almost every weekend---but I declined. Something about being single again, only this time with white hair. Quite a comedown from being asked to dance every dance to dancing just once in awhile. But I still go to class; the excercise is wonderful and there is something about the pattern of a dance that appeals.