Weekend Promenade

This girl... 

 

I love her to pieces!  

I got up early Saturday and had already eaten breakfast when Meri came swooshing in and said, HEY!  Let's go to Ryan's pub and have breakfast there!  

 

I had just eaten...  AND I still had a little bit of work to do on her dress, IF she wanted it to be done for prom, I mean...  I was down to hand sewing on a button, the lining to the zipper and then pull off the three pounds of thread bits.  Oh and press it.

So I took it along with me and while I hand stitched the lining to the zipper, enjoyed a caffeinated beverage while Meri ate a full British breakfast.

This is hers.

The main reason she wanted me along was to pay for the flowers (she was getting paid back half from her date later) and to have me along to pay for some hair supplies.  We got a new curling iron!!  I guess I get to curl my hair some time...  As it IS mine...

When we got home, I started in on her hair.  It took a full hour plus some to get curls in all of it.  The last 20 minutes of it, one of her friends came by and waited patiently for Meri to do HER hair.  So I styled Meri while she started in on Emily's hair.  Meri didn't have much faith me me but after I toyed and teased her hair a while, I had her check my progress.

"Glue it on with hairspray and we're done!" she said.

WHEW!

Then Meri ran to another friend's house for her make up but I waited at the house for some cinnamon rolls to show up. yum...  They were for the breakfast the next morning.

Once they arrived, I headed over to watch Meri get prettied up.

Then back home for me to finish ironing her dress.  What a rush of a day!

"Mom... MUST you document everything????"  We headed to the photo shoot at the park.

 

Almost forgetting the flowers in the fridge.

 She chose orchids, the most expensive of flowers...

 

Here is her group.  What a great bunch of kids!

 

I needed some solo pics of the projects too.  They'll probably accompany the outfits to the fair.

 

Briar looked dashing...

Remind me never to wear this shirt again...  But we got a mother/daughter pic in anyhow.

 

The girls...

 

The guys...

 

Then they all headed off to a fancy schmancy dinner where Meri had made the reservations.

She's growing up too fast!

 

I met up with them at the Grand March later.  Briar's jacket got commented on by the MC!

 

But the kid (was Gaston in the B&B play) behind Meri!  His suit was WOW.  Red, White and Blue.  The MC actually bowed the "I'm not worthy" stance for him when he walked in.  WOW!

Just before the dance, I caught up with Meri and Briar again.  What a dashing couple!

 

And this is Briar's cousin, who came over after the after-prom also.  She was fun!

 

At 3am, I set the alarm and got up to pop a breakfast casserole in the oven, then went back to sleep until the timer went off.  Then made waffles and pancakes for the kids.  Hardly any of them ate any waffles, but Briar's mom's cinnamon rolls were a hit and so was the breakfast casserole that the mom of the above girl, sent.  I also had bacon and fruit and they were pretty popular too.  So I've got several waffles and pancakes in the fridge.  Leftovers are always good.  I may even dig into waffles for lunch today!

The kids were all bleary eyed but still excited about the dance and everything.  It was fun to hear all the stories and their takes on everything.

Anyway, that was prom.  The fire didn't kill the weekend. YAY!

Making Plans and an Egg

The local artist at my mom's nursing home took a picture of my dad and did a rendition of him.  COOL, huh?!

Dad said he was scowling for it.  It might just be his natural resting face.

I thought it kind of looked like a police sketch of a criminal.  JUST a little...

This sketch is NOT my dad.  Just some random sketch online...

Then in my Mom's art class, they did renditions of the rendition.  Dad loved them!  He could very well paper his living room with them!  I'll need to find frames.

and he CAN smile!!!

Leon had a neighbor boy over to play after school yesterday.  They had a blast!  I think the toys are actually still in the fort...  I might need to run out and get them.  I raked while they played.  

Got 3 large garbage cans full of leaves and garden stuff, as well as a huge tarp that looked like a large canoe when I tied the ends up. 

After the bus left this morning, I took them to the yard waste spot in town.

Can you see what I see?  Who knew?!?!  I thought the kids had only missed 2 eggs!  

Turns out three now...  STILL not eating this one.

Here is the dress.  The only things left to do are the 3 hems and positioning the continents on the skirt.  I'm not convinced we're still doing that, but we'll see...

 Day after tomorrow is prom.  YIKES!!!  

Whatever will I do with myself after that?!!!

OH... I've got plans...

Priorities and how to avoid them

 Friday night, we invited my nephew, Josh, up for dinner. SSSN (super secret steak night) and pizza from a local gas station that he and his sisters couldn't get enough of when attending the college nearby...  It takes both to entice him to come for dinner...

And a little au jus for dipping.  I was the only one who did that.  Meri ate before we did, as we were waiting on a couple people and she was chomping at the bit to get going on a road trip.  She was headed to Kansas City with a friend to spend the weekend with her aunt and family.  

Leon wasn't able to attend, so that was a bummer, but Josh enjoyed his marble cake.  The center of it dropped like a black hole and I tried to be creative on how to fill it.

How about a flower?

And he's 21 now, but I didn't have a two candle... Improvisation is key!

It took him a minute to understand it, then he laughed loud.

Part of our gift to him was a huge barrel of cheese balls from Sam's club.  Historically, he's always loved them when we have them at the house during Christmas.  And the last barrel I'd bought for him and dropped off at his house that he rents with several other boys was eaten by the several other boys before Josh got back from a trip...  

He didn't even know about it until he was telling them that he was going to his aunt and uncles for dinner and one of them said, "Is that the aunt that dropped off the cheese balls?"  "What cheese balls?..."

We sent the rest of the cake home with him for his dear roommates.

Not even laced with anything!  I suppose we're heaping coals of fire on them heads... :)

I attended a sewing meeting on Saturday morning and came away with 6 dress manequins for the grad party and a whole bag of fabric from the free table for future sewing.  Oh, and very energized to finish the prom dress and suit/jacket completely.  I did show them at the meeting anyway and got lots of encouragement.

Got Meri to try the dress on when she got back on Sunday and I've got lots of adjustments to make.  It'll happen.  I have CLEAR until Saturday night!!! But it's coming together.  

She and I got her graduation invites ready to mail also, placing the stamps on all of them during a visit with Ada.   Then we went home and made a pan full of mint candies that had been chilling since earlier in the week.  They'll be frozen soon and waiting for the party... If I don't eat them first.

And then, since Meri will be a master chef someday, she made us supper!  Flat Stanley helped out by not jumping into her pan.

Flat Stanley has to get some of his vacay pics printed out for his trip back later in the week.

When Leon got home, he rode his bike down to the corner and back for me, then ran to the corner and back for Grandpa.  He's training for any triathlon that might be coming up when he's older.  Can't wait for the pool to open so he can get his swimming training in!

The weather is beautiful now!  60s and 70s for the weekend and supposed to hit 70s again today!  It's got me geared up for outdoor work.

But I've got to get this dress done first...

Tumbling On and On

So the parts that I ordered for my dryer were incorrect.  I needed to order THESE parts...

They're on their way, but I still have to run towels for almost a whole afternoon until they come...

yuck.

AND it looks like I need to vacuum out the back of my dryer.

With any luck, my dish washer will be back in business by Monday too.

Meri has a campus visit today that I plan to attend with her.  I think it's going to go well and she's going to get excited about college.

Meri's dress is coming along and the suit jacket only needs a button hole and a button for it to be done.

The dress needs the lining sewn in and a hem.  I did the hand stitching on the shoulder bits last night during some ME time.  We'll probably have to do another fitting to get the bodice JUST right.  and that will happen...

Flat Stanley is still stuck on the cabinet until we need him for an adventure.  He almost got one today showing what it's like to be with a little boy melting down because he HAS to go to school and can't stay home with his daddy...  THAT'S always an adventure!  His daddy is just too fun.

Anyway, on to work and on to my own adventures.

Keeping It Classy

I spent a break raking outside yesterday.  We're those people who's yard is all prime for Halloween and Thanksgiving with leaves everywhere and Sedum looking beautifully brown.  Then we're too busy to do anything about it and wait until Spring to do the raking.  

The yards all around look pristine, but ours looks like hell.

So I took a load of yard waste out to the landfill yesterday.  Probably the first load they've seen this spring.  I've got many more to go, but we're taking baby steps.  There is lots to do.

But look what I found in the Clematis plant!  I KNEW there was still a missing egg!

The dye had faded.

I don't dare even ASK if I should eat it.  What with the weather being 5 degrees one day and 60 the next, then back to 32, then up to 57.  Yikes.  It's been crazy, but not uncommon.

I live in Iowa.  If you don't like the weather, wait a day.

The guy for the leaky dishwasher is coming today.  WOOHOO!!!  However I AM getting the swing of washing everything by hand now.  Got it down to a science.

1) fill one sink with soapy water and the other with clear.

2) empty the dishwasher.

3) wash dishes in the right sink and drop them into the clear on the left.

4) load them up into the dishwasher to dry.

5) wash off counters.

done.

JUST like when I was a kid.  Except then, we had about 5 handy maids and someone was drying with a towel and putting away while you did step 3.

We've gotten spoiled.

AND we have a leaky toilet...  It's not around the base, but under the tank.  YUCK.  And here I thought the mat kept getting wet from carelessness of some people...  I apologize.

Our plumber will be by tomorrow and will even install the bidet that I had given Robb for Christmas one year.  It's been sitting there for over a year now and we've been afraid to install it ourselves.

We don't have the best of luck when it comes to using pliers on pipes and such...

The parts for the broken dryer came yesterday and I popped them in.  NOT sure if it's working yet.  It could be that the batch I put in was too sodden to be certain.  I'm doing laundry today so we'll see.

Also, yesterday over my lunch and part of the evening.  I dug out the yards of black satin that I'd gotten from the free table and made 8 table runners for Meri's graduation party.  SO quick and easy to make with a serger!!!!  bingity-bangity-boom.  They're done and I get to mark off one thing on my massive "Do before graduation party list".  

PLUS, I was getting sick of always thinking about prom sewing and needed a break.  Back to that today.  

But won't cloth tablecloths and satin table runners make the grad party classy?  sweet...

Making tracks and other things

The tuxedo jacket now has the interlining in place, edges serged and ready to roll and take shape.

Yesterday's lunch was VERY productive!  

I ate at my desk...

Speaking of food...  My bestie's husband is still a bit under the weather with his cold, so at Robb's request, I made Maddy's favorite chicken noodle soup and Robb ran it over to him yesterday after

noon.  Mike loves it too and now he's got a gallon of it for whenever he wants.

Chicken Noodle Soup recipe

Cook some (3-4) chicken breasts or whatever chicken you want in a crockpot  all day.

Make sure it's deboned, if it's not already.

Pour 2-3 quarts of chicken broth in a large pan.  notice how exact we are?

Add 1 packet of onion soup mix and 1 packet of Knorr's Vegetable soup mix

Add the chicken, torn into smaller bits.

Bring to a boil and then add about 1/2 to 1 packet of egg noodles.

Cook until the noodles are tender.  Serve!

Easy peasy.

THEN also yesterday, Meri was planning on going to a potluck dinner with her entire jazz band at the director's house.  

I'm guessing dinner was over for this shot. Taken from FB...

She was going to make either boxed mac and cheese or Ramen noodles.  REALLY?...  So in his spare time at work, Robb whipped up a lasagna for her to take.  He brought it home and I baked it in time for her to meet up with the other kids to car pool.  

The above picture was her breakfast, made from the leftovers.  Robb makes her breakfast every day during the week so she'll eat SOMETHING before going to school.  And she hates normal breakfast foods, so it's tricky some days.  But lasagna is right up her alley!

And today, it's leftovers...  again...  Ryan just said that he's going to make everything you can with hard boiled eggs today.  

Egg salad sandwiches

Deviled eggs

Scotch eggs

Potato salad with lots of egg in it

Sliced and served with salt or paprika or mustard

Cut up and mixed with mayo, horseradish, etc

Plain with or without salt.  I say with...

I rattled off several options and he's still peeling the eggs.  

Maybe he'll make something up totally new.

Off to be creative!!!!  How have you been creative lately?

Shut Up And Sew

It's been a wild weekend.  When hasn't it been?

On Good Friday, I spent all my spare time making the sample tuxedo pants for Briar, Meri's prom date.  During this time, someone told me something that has made me think heavily all weekend.  I've just realized that I am the laughing stock for some.  The butt of jokes.  Not a good feeling.  

I decided to throw myself into sewing as much as I could this weekend.

I also found out just before Good Friday service that Briar would be at my house the next morning at 10 to try on the sample pants and jacket.  Whoops!  I didn't even have the sample jacket cut OUT yet!

Our dryer was giving us fits last week so I spent part of Friday working from the laundromat.

So after church and a quick stop to pick up our traditional Good Friday chili dogs (and we may need to change our tradition as they're $3 each now...) (or just cut it down to just one per person next year) I headed home and cut out the sample jacket.

These are the most hideous fabrics in my stash, but wow!  They did the trick! 

I spent three hours on Saturday morning getting the jacket whipped together.  One of the sleeves matched close to the one that he had gotten from the Goodwill, but I went along with the actual pattern for the other sleeve to see if we could tell any major differences.  

Meri could.  We went with the adjusted sleeve.  AND I pinned out some changes in the back, pinned up 3 inches in the length and added a little on the front lapel as well as placed the pockets better.  This could be the best jacket this kid ever owns.  I hope.

Once the fitting was done, I got to work using black dupioni silk, also from my stash.  I used some shiny black satin (from stash) for a stripe up the sides of the legs and the zipper from the sample pants.  I also used some very soft lining for interlining that I'd purchased.  If these pants don't win a ribbon at the State Fair this summer, the judge may very well have been drinking.  They're looking good inside and out...  I just need to do the hem and hook at the waist and a little top stitching and they're done.  

That spot is from my camera, NOT on the pants.

I stopped at that point and started laying out the pattern pieces for the jacket.  The pieces are all ready and adjusted with what we'd decided Saturday morning but I waited until Sunday after church to actually cut them out.  When you need a larger table to cut on, the bed works the best.  You can just push the pins right into the memory foam like one big pin cushion, then cut around with the scissors.  It's not as slick as using the rotary blade, but it's the next best thing.  

One piece I cut out twice.  WHEN will I learn??!!!

Meri was on a DUO call with Maddy and Matthew and I got in on that.  YAY!  They were busy making their very first Easter dinner for two.  Yummmm.

After cutting out the pieces, I got the house in order and worked on Easter supper while Robb went to pick up the boys.  After plotting out Meri's graduation party with her, I even got a little time to run over and see my bestie.  Her husband is sick so it's been kind of lonely at the nursing home without his visits. 

I took her some purple stuffed plastic eggs.

The Easter egg hunt was just before dinner.

Apparently Robb was getting lazy helping me hide them.  He put a whole dozen eggs carton in a flower pot...  REALLY?...  I rehid those.  Then he left a trail on the yard, with some plastic ones breaking open.  He will never be chosen to be the Dibley bunny... 

Leon was diligent to pick up all the pieces.

His dad watched from the porch.  And coincidentally, this is picture # 2 of the 10 photos of him for the year that he allows me to take.  He's keeping track...  

The wedding last June took a large percentage!

We had our Easter dinner at supper time instead this year.  That way Leon and his dad could join us.  Meri had a friend over too and we had a very nice dinner even though I'm thinking of ways the food could have been better.  Oh well, it was edible! with a little salt and horseradish...

Leon worked on a new Lego set that the Easter bunny gave him. (what the heck, he knows it's me) The girls, Ryan, Robb and I played some Jackbox.tv for a little while before Meri needed to get Allison home.  

And a new phrase that Robb created this weekend has stuck and is now a McVal-ism in our household.  I came downstairs wearing pretty random things late last week.  I asked Robb, do I look like a refugee?  He said "No, more like a gypsy with a Penneys card."

I hope you had a wonderful Easter weekend!

Geographical Decisions

Leon and I heard a woodpecker this morning while waiting for the bus.  And after walking around the yard to see which house it was coming from, he soon discovered it in our OWN tree!  That was pretty exciting for him.  He thinks now that the birds love our house.  Not true, but maybe just that one woodpecker.

The prom dress has two layers of the bodice cut out and now I'm at odds with myself trying to decide how to position the bodice on top of the map fabric.  I'm afraid of what it will look like from a distance.

"What is THAT on that poor girls chest?!"

 

Quite possibly Europe.

I also don't want someone to point out where they've been by pointing to her nipple.

The quandary... 

Anyway, the map fabric is above and Meri, Sabrina and I agonized over the rest of the fabrics.  We went back and forth between rows at JoAnns dragging the map fabric over to lay next to various colors, starting with black.  No good there.  She settled on a color that she's always loved, peach.  

The overlay is peach organza.  The actual skirt under the overlay will be eggnog colored crepe backed satin with matching lining.  The peach over the eggnog makes me hungry...

This is what we're making.  However the shoulders will not have the sleeves, just a single strap over the top of each shoulder.

So... sew...  I'm pecking away at things.  I've got a month and the suit starts on Saturday.

Therapy & Longer Weekends

So the weekend I was dying for...

Friday night.  Don't remember much of it.  Meri was out.  I think I tried to sew, but then just lounged in the living room with Robb.  Meri was out.

Saturday, spent the morning with Robb.  We had a full English breakfast at the British Pub where Ryan was working.  YUMMM!!!  There was so much food, I couldn't even finish Robb's mushrooms or tomato!  Ryan said he'd eat whatever leftovers we left....  AND he treated us!  I could get spoiled...

Instead of hashbrowns, we got something called Bubble & Squeak.  It was basically mashed potatoes with chunks of cauliflower, carrots and other veggies cooked in it.  OH was that good!  I think we have a new dish for our annual St. Patrick's Day meal!!

Then we ran errands and got back to the house in time to see Meri and several of her friends doing another chef chop challenge.  More chicken, more not enough grease in the pans.  I think the copper pan is done for.  Yes they do wear out with misuse and too much char.

Then they left.  And Robb and I left too.  Meri's Reader's Theater was doing the Beauty is the Beast performance again about an hour away and Robb hadn't seen it yet.  The little classroom was packed.  They did a great job and got all ones for their scores.  That means it was good.  We'll find out today if they get to take their act to All-State.

Afterwards, Meri tried to talk us into running and getting her and her friend Zombie Burgers.  Ummm  That's a half hour or more that way, then another half hour back and then another hour to home.  Don't think so.  Here's some cash, go ask HIS mom to go.  

Well, she turned them down too.  I'm not sure what they ate but we had given Meri Skittles, so she wasn't going to starve.

Got home and I sewed.  Got lots done but in the grand scheme of things, there is still a lot left to do. 

On Sunday, we did some major grocery shopping.  We were running out of lots of things.  Those cooking challenges really use up the chicken.  AND Robb was going to make a brat breakfast casserole for Monday's breakfast at work.  Apparently someone's birthday...  I miss working in a place that has people that don't call you Mom. And has food on random days that you don't have to cook.  Robb got up early to make the casserole and the house smelled wonderful when I came downstairs.  LOTS of dishes but it smelled great.

Robb went with me for a quick JoAnn fabric store run on Sunday afternoon for a zipper that they didn't have.  I purchased the exact one that I needed online in the car afterwards.  Then we dropped off some cheese balls at my nephew's house near campus.  I THINK it was the right house.  and I HOPE he ended up with them.  The sleepy guy that answered the door didn't know where Josh was but SAID he'd put it in his room.  Ummm Ok....  I'll never hear from Josh, so he may or may not have gotten them...

I spent the rest of the day Sunday, getting in a quick visit with my bestie, and having a great talk with Maddy on DUO.  It's better than Skype because I don't have a Skype app on my phone.  She worked on homework for kindergarten and I worked on sewing while we talked.  It was like she was sitting at the next table.  I love hearing about her classroom adventures and how Leon's school antics aren't that uncommon...

Here is SOME of what I worked on.  

The lace color looks off in this pic but it's not that bad in person.  The black string will probably be replaced with something else.  But I had it handy at the time.

The bodice vest thingy is mostly done except for the zipper.  I bought a nylon cheap 7 inch one from JoAnns to make it work for now and will replace it with the sturdier metal 8 inch one I found on Amazon when it arrives.  

As I rewatched a bit of Emma Watson's version of Beauty and the Beast, I noticed that the towel things hanging around her waist are actually bags.  She puts a loaf of bread in one!  hmmm..  So I'll rework that.

The flowery stuff will be the lining of the skirt and able to pull up and hook onto the waist line.

While at JoAnns I also purchased the pattern for the dress that Meri wants for prom.  

The bodice of it will be made with a fabric that has a map on it.  I think.  Not entirely sure yet.  The tapestry map of the world arrived today and I'm not entirely happy with it for a boys suit or a prom dress.  Will probably buy some stabilizer and see if we can make it into something better...

Sigh.  So that was the weekend.  I didn't die FOR it or because of it.  Got a lot of sewing therapy in, so that was good.

Hanging on for the next one!!