work overdrive!

After about 3 weeks off, work kicked my behind this week! I should have figured it was coming.

For reference, I hold 3 jobs, office manager at my cousin's rocking dance studio over in Oshawa, which involves regular travel between there and home in Toronto (evenings, and not counting dance competitions, which are coming up bloody fast!), Virtual Assistant for the Management Consulting firm I once was full time Executive Assistant for (went home office, this rocks) and bookkeeper for our friend's used bookstore over on Queen West here in Parkdale. Which means, sometimes everything falls on my lap at the same time and makes things a little....hectic.

Example, we are currently prepping for the dance competitions this spring, filling out entry forms, finalizing routines and costumes, that sort of thing. On top of the start of year end recital preparation (ordering the recital costumes, a pretty involved process, and we haven't even done the hip hop costumes yet!) and the regular scheduled stuff. Then, a massive proposal for a municipality came down the pike from the consulting firm, plus I have to make a quick run down to the bookstore to pick up the accounting to get that done!

I did manage to get the pieces cut out for my new dress using Simplicity 5914 from 1973, however I have not yet had the opportunity to run down to the Fashion District to pick up interfacing and I can't find the damned zipper I bought the same day I bought the fabric. I'm hoping to get both those tomorrow, cross your fingers! I really can't wait to get this dress done and on!

(Also, using Christmas money, I picked up Amy Butler's Style Stitches and am DYING to make two of the bags in this book.

Take Flight Handbag and Blossom Handbag

Aren't they amazing? So, I guess when I run downtown tomorrow, I'll be picking up materials for those two (and rooting in my stash in the morning).

I also have a whole upcoming list of sewing projects to share with you, probably this weekend.

If dance competitions and proposals and bookkeeping doesn't drive me insane first.

Lazy, Lazy

I am so terribly lazy with regards to this blog, and I've no idea why. I always have the bestest of intentions with it, and then I utterly forget about it! I promise, from now on I'll try my best to be less negligent of this space of mine.

Since April? Well, let's see...I started a new job, my cousin owns a dance school out in Oshawa, ON and I now am her Office Manager. It's pretty fun, not high stress, the kids are great and I now can say with confidence that I know what a ball change is. Not so sure yet about Kitchycoo.....if that's how it's spelt.

Anyway, since said job is in Oshawa and I live in Toronto, I now commute like mad, resulting in most of my creating being small knitting or crochet projects that I can toss into my bag and pull out on the GO Train. Consequently, I have now become an official Sock Knitter (since socks are small and portable!). In honour of this, I joined the group Sock Knitters Anonymous on Ravelry. Fun group of folks! And some seriously good knitters in there as well. They also have something called a SockDown each month, and I am participating in my second one.

For the first month (you have two months to actually finish any given project you pick up under each month's rules) I decided to knit something I have been wanting to knit since I first picked up the needles to make yards and yards of garter stitch scarves. Severina's Skull Stockings I've got one stocking done, the second is on the needles and I had some difficulty with it. Ok, I had difficulty with the math. She based the stockings on a combination of a 1942 stocking pattern (the top of the stocking) and an Elizabethian stocking in terms of the increases and decreases for the shaping. The numbers she gives are way to big for my legs (which really, made me feel pretty good, since when I cast on initially I was having a Fat Day, you know how those are....). So, I frogged and measured and calculated and cast on again and halfway through found fresh new proof of an accepted fact.

I suck at math.

Frogged again, measured again, including the portion of my leg that I forgot the first time I measured...the very important knee....and calculated again and this time, got it right!



Lovely, yes? I'll get the second one finished as soon as I finish my March SockDown....lacy little ankle socks

My bad

Well, looks like it's been, what, over a year since I bothered to get up off my lazy arse and update this place. My bad. I meant this blog to be something better than I let it be, and now I mean to actually DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!

So I have been busy, just not with blogging. Let's see, I finally managed to get something similar to organizing in my sewing/computer room, the only issue left is to actually maintain that organization, yes? I've stocked up my fabric stash, my yarn stash, my vintage pattern stash, my old clothing stash and my library, I'm really good to go further here.

So let me make a bit of a pledge, yes? I solomly swear to update this blog once a day, even if it's just to say Meh.