Facials

I think what it has been for me for just about all of my life, is that I have never had the type of girlfriend with whom I have ever shared rituals with. Makeup, Hair-do's. Manicures, pedicures. I have never spent time shopping, just seeing what there is out there for girls who then turn into women.

Having been so large during such an important time of my life, I missed all of those things and secretly suffered for it. So, I never put an emphasis on femininity. I chose to be simply me however anyone chose to perceive that.

So now, the simple discovery of a facial wash makes me feel feminine because it IS feminine. A friend of mine three weeks ago, gave me a ruby ring. Tiny, gold. I wear it on my ring finger and I keep staring at it because it IS tiny and it makes my hand look so feminine. I feel like I am just recently discovering, at the age of 61, my girlishness, womanishness.

There are people in my life who are telling me that they have always thought me feminine. I am curious. I have been unaware. Is it just that I have never thought about myself as feminine. Maybe I just took myself so much for granted that my attention was just naturally drawn to what was in front of me rather than what was looking back at me in the mirror. I did spend a lot of years not looking in the mirror at all.

OK. So now I am trying new things. Like learning a new sewing technique that I already know but now differently. Making everything new. It is an interesting time of my life.

Trying new things, being new.

The facts

Two truths:

I gave up jogging for my health when my thighs kept rubbing together and setting fire to my panties.


Skinny people irritate me! Especially when they say things like ..."You know, sometimes I forget to eat!"
Now, I've forgotten my address, my mother's maiden name, my keys. But I have NEVER forgotten to eat.

You have to be a special kind of stupid to forget to eat!

Just a laugh for today.

Because this was not my greatest day.

Camera case

When I first got my camera I immediately made a case for it. So, this weekend I was looking for it and couldn't find it anywhere. I hate that when that happens. You just know that as soon as you replace it, the old one will show up, eh!

So I whipped up this cute little case in about three minutes. The ribbon winds around the beautiful button. that's the closure. It is just a tiny piece of fabric left over from a project from the store. I rarely bring home anything from those projects, but I couldn't resist this little piece.

So I am sitting here trying to take a picture of this and I look up. What do you think I see? There on the shelving next to the iron is the first case I made. .....

Dress Two

The fabric is a leopard charmeuse. You can see the beasts peeking through the fronds of palm leaves. There is a lot of piecing in this dress and opportunities to detail aspects of the fabric without being too tacky.


I love how the cap of the sleeves are pleated and then let loose and ending in a tiny band. It would have been over the edge if the sleeve was just gathered at the top. This style made the dress a little more sophisticated being that there is so much gathering in the front and back.


This is the back. There are actually two bands of elastic in this gathering making is comfortable for the body that is fuller to wear. Very thoughtful.



The front detail is all gathered. I used a black charmeuse to make the 1/8th inch piping. The bust gets gathered into the flat top band. There is a slightly gathered middle band. And then a flat lower band from which the skirt is gathered.

What you can't see is that the hem is a shirt-tailed hem which I managed to pull of pretty well. Another point I like about this dress is that there is no fullness on thge sides making is very slimming. This dress could be made in any type of fabric from cottons to silks. Just a great pattern.

Las Vegas Again

It's time again for the International Textile Expo. At least, that is what I think I am sewing for. I am always left in the dark. One day I am working away on all my projects and then the next I am called in and given a pile of fabrics with the directive - Logantex. Logantex is the manufacturer of the fabrics and they are showing their lines and i am to make their model garments. I love doing this but I have two issues:
1 - always last minute
2 - the most boring fabrics

So Julie picked this pattern for this blue knit fabric called "Sophia".
The front is absolutely lovely.


The back has one small issue. I am sure I can correct it, but I have three more outfits to work on first. What you are seeing as a navy trim is actually a black lingerie elastic that is perfect for this dress. It wraps over the edge of the knit and provides a tiny loop on the upper edge. You would never know it was meant for panties.


It looks all crooked here but it just doesn't fit the mannequin well. This is not a very good picture now that I look at it closely. It really looks better in real life. It just needs a little tweeking. It is not a style that appeals to everyone. It is very today, young, and you have to be able to wear dresses without a bra, I think. I have to keep remembering that I can't just make things that I adore.

Big Pores

I have never been one to fuss with makeup and all of the products that so many women invest in when pampering their bodies. Water. Never soap on my face. Just water. At a very young age I began to think that something in soap would only clog my face, so I just never used it. And I have been pretty fortunate to have pretty good skin. For a woman of 61.

But lately, I am not so happy with these pores on my face. Why are they so big? Have they always been like this? I am just not a mirror person. Is there something I should do about this?
So I wrote to Christina and asked in detail what she thought and her suggestion was really simple.

I bought for under $10 some Oil of Olay Regenerist Anti-Aging Deep Pore Cleanser and some small organic sponges. Tonight I have used it for the second time and I have to admit, my face feels really nice.

Why all of a sudden?

I have been noticing people. Women my age, some younger and looking older than me. Some older and looking old. I am looking at them and thinking - I don't want to look like that. Their skin looks almost like it stinks. It looks like it is rotting. I don't want my skin to rot. It may be getting old, but it doesn't mean that it is dying. It doesn't have to be dying.

I am still alive and pretty vibrant, creative, infused, and infusing. I don't think that I should be rotting away just because I am no longer young. That doesn't mean that I want to get all of this surgery done and stuff like that. But I am thinking that I should take care of what I have. After all, I have the type of body that almost never ever gets sick. Pretty healthy. I need to take care of the casing.

I think it started when Beth gave me this dainty little ruby ring. It is very tiny and I keep looking at it on my ring finger and I am constantly surprised at how feminine it makes my hand look. At how feminine it makes me feel - this tiny little ring. It occurred to me that , yes, I have great hands. I don't ever think about that. I just do what I do.

I am feminine. I don't ever think about that. I just do what I do.

I want the experience of that. Now this does not mean that I am going to wear nylons and high heals. But I want certainly to start taking better care of myself like my skin. I don't want anyone looking at me and thinking:

"My god, she's rotting away!"

Most Days

I have this thing with nature, it seems, of late. I don't know, maybe it has been like this for ever, but I have really only noticed it the past year or so. Yesterday was a perfect example. Prediction of rain, possible snow. Some wind. Of all days to have to travel on buses to go to the dentist. Well, maybe I will cancel. I'll get up, look outside. It will be cold, miserable. I have waited too long for this adjustment as it is, what is one more week. But when I woke up, there really wasn't a wind and no rain. So I got dressed and ventured out.

As soon as I boarded the bus, it began to downpour.

When my stop came up to transfer to another bus, the sun was out!

I am sitting in the dentist's chair, waiting for everything to happen and I am looking out into the square and it is pouring out. I am thinking - I am right next door to a Rite Aid and I have been seriously thinking about buying a facial cleanse (another blog entry)... Ah, but it's raining.


I leave the office, and the sun is out! My friend Christina has suggested a product which is not expensive, so I go to the store then to the bus stop. Here's the bus. We are half a block away and it begins to pour!!

The whole day like this.

And today. Last night - Snow. All night on the television, even the mayor of Portland is on telling everyone how he has all of his teams on the ready, to make everyone safe for the snow today. I go to work, I come home, THEN it snows.

I think I have good weather karma.

I also have good parking karma.