Jethro, Remember when you used to dance awesome?

MY new Red dress!

 I finished my new dress.  I spent over 24 hours (not at one time) trying to perfect the fit.  I'm still not happy with it.  One side is perfect, while the other side is not.  It's weird.  Anyway, at this point I'm blaming all fit issues on the fact that I lost 8 lbs while in the process of sewing it.  Yeah!!  I made my goal for weight loss this month.  I'm now down to my pre-Nicolas weight.  Now, to get down to my pre-Sebastian weight....

Altogether, I think the dress is definitely wearable, if not perfect.  I wish I knew some amazing seamstress that I could take it to, point out all the things I think aren't right and ask for advice.  Learning on your own is not always that beneficial, at least not when it comes to time management.  Oh, and I think all these pictures are a little blurry because my camera lens was dirty.  Just FYI.

President's Day in Houston

I am used to thinking that a holiday from school in the middle of winter meant sledding and hot chocolate.  But playing in puddles out in the torrential rain works too!  It was a fun day.  These pictures were taken after the puddles had decreased in size substantially.  It had been flooding our street practically.

Halloween Videos

Okay, I know my two sisters already posted this.  But here's my Halloween video.  Just because.


Pirates from Kami Latorre on Vimeo.

And here's the premier of my Halloween Video 2011.
Gnomes from Kami Latorre on Vimeo.

I don't know, but it looks kind of blurry/shakey to me.  Maybe I'll try tweaking the compression size. Anyone know anything about that?  Could it be the # of frames/sec or just a bad connection to Vimeo, or is it my actual video.  My video in FCE doesn't look like that to me though.    Ruff.

What I've been up to

This week has flown by.  I've been so incredibly busy.  I started going to a quilting class that ladies in our stake are teaching.  And I made my very first quilt blocks ever.  One turned out with perfectly exact measurements, and one...did not.  I don't think I'll show that one, because I don't care to redo it and they'll probably tell me to.  Quilting is a little too precise for me, I think.
This is the quilt I'll be making though.

I also had a call from a desperate sister, and so I ended up spending several evenings going into late at night working on making a bunch of posters, flyers, signs, t-shirt designs, etc for Amy's kids' school carnival.  But she said she would pay me in hand-me-down clothes, so that's okay.  Amy's clothes have made up the bulk of my wardrobe since middle school and are always welcome!

I've also managed to watch a season and a half of.....

It's probably the best show ever.  Although I miss the 1910's fashion.  1920's are so blah.  I watched the first season right when it first came out on Netflix, and then I missed when the second season was posted on PBS, so I had to wait for it to come out on Netflix.  And then I started the 3rd season finally!  Let's just say that I was sobbing hysterically last night, umm, several times.  

Don't judge me too much for my overindulgence of television this week--I stayed busy almost the whole time!  I also cut out two dresses, one for Isabel and one for Elena. I sewed up quite a bit of my denim quilt, and I spent, seriously, 16 hours or so trying to fit a dress to me.  (So what if it might have gone a little faster if I hadn't been watching Downton!)  I shed a few tears over the fitting too.  But I think I finally have got it!!!!  All my adjustments, and I made notes.  I plan on having a new dress by next Sunday.  Wish me luck!  

If you ever need sewing help, here's a few good sites: 

http://www.afashionablestitch.com (She lives in SLC and teaches sewing classes, I so wish I could take a few!)

http://portialawrie.blogspot.com

http://www.blogforbettersewing.com

Again, what would I do without the internet??!?!?!??  

I planned on making some cute Valentine's Day decorations but a new dress is more important right?  Leo didn't even complain at all about the time I've spent, I think he's excited for me to have a new dress so I don't freak out anymore on Sunday morning when I don't have any clothes that fit.  Well, I do, but they're all winter clothes mostly, and the two week of winter in early January have come and long since passed.  It's in the 70's here!  So, a summer dress will be so welcome.  

And we went and looked at a bunch of houses to buy.  Yeah, that's come to naught so far.  

Oh, and a couple weeks ago I finally made a wonder oven at a stake preparedness class.  And I've used it once and it worked fabulous.    Thanks Lynn for suggesting that all those many years ago.  I never would have done it otherwise, and it's so handy!

And just to liven this up a bit, some cute pictures of Nicolas and Sebastian.

Weird gardening stuff

Houston is weird for gardening.  Not that I know much about gardening in the first place, but on Thursday I spent two hours weeding the front and back flowerbeds.  I shouldn't be weeding in February.  It's just weird.  It is lovely to see the oranges all ripe though.  And actually, all my outdoor flower pots are doing better right now then they have all year.  (Maybe because it's not so hot so I actually go outside to water them??)  And the roses I planted are growing like crazy!!  I can't wait to see them bloom!

 In other gardening news, I found these bugs on one of my plants last fall.  And yes, I never posted it till now.  But I figured out they were Milkweed Assassin Bugs, thanks to the internet.

 I didn't figure it out at the time though, and I killed them.  I shouldn't have, because now I found out that they are actually beneficial bugs and they kill a lot of other nasty bugs in your garden.  They do have a painful sting though.

 About two weeks ago, I was out looking over my patch of garlic (Yes, that's about the only thing growing in my flower beds because I planted a bunch last fall, because I read it's supposed to discourage Japanese beetles, only lately I read something else and it said garlic encourages them.  Errrr.....  I don't know what to believe. ) and I saw this on my lone Zebra Mallow plant!

 This can't be good.

 I cut off the most infected leaves and went and did a bit of research online.  Really what did people do before the internet?

 Apparently, it's Hollyhock rust.  (Zebra Mallows are in the Hollyhock family) and apparently, it's pretty much guaranteed that you'll have rust if you have Hollyhocks.  Ruff.  Anyway, what I did was about the only thing to do, and the plant is still going strong.  Oh, my few tulips are coming up, but the daylilies I planted, while they grew like crazy when I first planted them, don't look all that great now.

 But to end on a happy note, this bloomed in the front flower bed last week.  And I finally know what those scraggily bushes are that are in there---azaleas!  Who knew?  Of course, most azaleas I've seen around are literally covered in blooms and only one bloom came on this random bush (there's at least 5 bushes in the front too).

 See how all alone it is?

Beautiful though.  No wonder people love azaleas.  And in other good news, Elena found the dead snake in our flower beds AFTER I finished weeding, so at least the job was finished.  :)

Projects 101, 102, 103.......

I was feeling a bit underwhelmed after Halloween as far as sewing went.  I did sew two dresses for my nieces, but that was like a week project.  And then after Christmas and all my company went home, I cut out all the pieces for two princess dresses for Elena and Isabel, but then I was stumped on how to do the sleeves and I haven't touched it since.  And well, I guess I worked on my denim quilt a bit, planning it out.  But really that was all.  Not much.

But now...NOW...I feel more like my normal self.  My sewing room is PACKED with projects.  I just started a quilting class, so I making a sampler quilt for that.  Luckily for me, a kind lady in my ward donated to me a bunch of fabric, (really nice designer quilting fabric too!) and then I found some more of it on Ebay, so the quilt will only cost me roughly $45 without batting.  (So do I assume I'll live in Houston a long time and only put in the smallest batting like most of the woman here? Or do I go with something thicker?)  So there's that quilt.  Then there's my denim quilt.  Then there's the two girls' quilts that I could start cutting out.  (Hallelujah for my new rotary cutter, mat and ruler!!!  Thank you Martha for a wonderful Christmas present!) And I have the boys' quilts planned in my head.

Then I have the two princess dresses waiting, nicely cut out, except for the sleeves.  They'll also be the girls'  Halloween costumes. My Halloween costume is planned out in my head, and I'm just using stash fabric so I can start on that anytime.  

I have three dresses for me with fabric bundled up, one dress pattern with fabric for Elena, one dress with fabric for Ana, and two dress  patterns for Isabel and Ana coming via Ebay for our family pictures this summer.  I already have Elena's pattern for her family picture dress too.  But no fabric for any of them except mine.  

Then of course, I have the boys' Halloween costumes in mind.  Ana wants to be a mime again, so that's done.  And I have some embroidery things to do for the little girls' room.  

And two sisters asked me to sew dresses for their girls.  Some of those are for Halloween though, so no rush right?

Ahh, life is bliss.  And really, I don't expect to accomplish all those, but it's good to dream right? And being overwhelmed is how I function best, right? Rise to the challenge and all that.