Kwik Sew 3740 in progress

Lisette was super sweet and emailed me this morning to make sure I am ok since I haven't blogged for over 2 weeks.  The answer is yes!  After the thrill of PR Weekend Austin, I had some additional vacation time and cleaned and reorganized a bit of my house and prepped for Christmas.


I'm working on KS 3740.  It's my first KS pattern.  Leslie wore, like, 3 different versions of it in Austin and they all looked fab.  Finally, a cowl that doesn't fold into a v, doesn't fall over the shoulders, and isn't too low cut.

I cut a Medium.
At this point Monday night, I could see the shoulders are too big.


SO I cut the shoulders down to a small and then sewed the sleeves in with 5/8 inch seams instead of 1/4 tonight.

I'm not sure...
 

Problems:

•  I'm still hating the shoulders
• I hate the wrinkles in the sleeves
• I need to let out the hip area a bit (I sewed down the sides like a small but need to make it a medium)
• also there is serious swayback pooling (not pictured); maybe I should put some darts back there or a CB seam...
• also, the way the collar is sewn on (and I read the directions multiple times here but maybe I misinterpreted) the raw edge of the collar attachment can be seen.  I'm very tempted to rip out the collar just so the raw edge isn't exposed.

So while I was super enthused about this shirt on Monday night I've lost enthusiasm for it now...but you know me, I beat a dead sewing horse til it revives itself.

Food! Chicken "ziti" from the Prevention 30 minute chicken dinners booklet:
my Christmas tree

my solar powered Christmas lights:

Be well and good night!  (After 10 weeks of light or no ab/pelvic kidney pain, it has returned with a vengeance today. sigh...)

It feels like ages...

...since I've blogged.

First, my NZ bloggers, are you all ok?  I'm looking at you Mary Nanna and Miss Smith.  I read about the earthquake this morning and hope you and your families are ok.

I'm on vacation all this week, to try to help my body heal itself.  Thanks for all your warm wishes, I really appreciate them.  My ab is slowly healing, but it's heading in the right direction!   I wake up just once during the night now, and driving over bumps in the road is not a big deal anymore.  I'm still wearing stretchy gym pants all the time; it's just more comfortable.  The pain is intermittent.

So for being on vacation, I've been doing lots of chores...
Day 1: A set of new grippy tires for my car

Tread, I love thee.
Also, the snow has finally melted to the point I can use the passenger side of my car again, first time after 6 weeks! 

Day 2: I did my taxes and got a haircut.  My new bottom freezer fridge arrived. This is such a huge win for my back. It's so easy to see everything in the fridge, and to put things into and get things out of the fridge. My Brita water pitcher is no longer a struggle.


Day 3: Acupuncture, trip to library, and cooking!  Also walked on the treadmill at the gym and talked with my gym friends.

Grilled cheese and ham on wheat with scrambled eggs and broccoli for lunch:


Chicken cordon bleu from Cook This Not That 2011.  I don't have an official meat pounder thing so I used a sturdy glass jar, it worked very well.


Minestrone from Cook This Not That 2011:


"creamed" spinach made with Greek yogurt.  The left side is done properly; the right side I messed up.


I actually cooked after having dinner last night, so tonight I had the chicken--really good, and that sauce is excellent!  I'll try the minestrone tmw night.

Day 4:
Passport photos in the morning. Lunch with Christine. An afternoon at Joann, the big one in Colonia that I prefer:

I really don't need more skirts, but this one I couldn't pass up.  I bought navy blue sweatshirt material to make sleep pants, but wouldn't a sweatshirt skirt be cute? 
I like the saucy little leggings in 6034 with the rouching. Thanks to Vanessa for featuring this pattern on her blog a few weeks back.  I'm a little worried, though.  The hip on the biggest size in the envelope is pretty much my hip size.  They might be too tight?  but that's just the style--look at the model!!

I think I will actually get to sew a little toward the end of this week.
Finally I bought myself a sewing gauge.

I took a big nap late this afternoon.  So nice!    I hope to have more fun and less chores the rest of this week, but we'll see!!
Hope all is well in your worlds!

Sunday night food

Thanks for your kind words about my non-hernia news!  I am so so so relieved!  I saw my primary care doc on Friday for my annual physical.  He seemed pretty surprised about the pelvic kidney, though it was there on the MRI report I gave him last year on my initial visit to him.  He said it must be pretty close to the front of the body.  I'm still having trouble sleeping through the night so he gave me a stronger anti-inflammatory.  Finally, some drugs!  Normally I am not a drug person but I am ready for them now.  You folks with kids, I don't know how you can work sleep deprived.  It's been almost 2 weeks for me now of non-normal sleep and I don't like feeling like I'm in a daze.

So I find that when I sew in a rush as opposed to sewing at a leisurely pace, my garments suffer as a result.  Tonight, I learned the same lesson with cooking.


That's brown rice pilaf with mushrooms from the Flat Belly Diet cookbook. I threw in the carrots because I have some left over from last week. I rushed the rice with this one and let's say the rice has some bite! also, this truly is a side dish. It needs some more vegetables to bulk it out.


That's Chicken Pad Thai from the same cookbook. Actually this tastes like pad thai, which shocked me! As I was rushing my way through this I thought there would be no way this was going to taste like pad thai.  I wish I had bought those little miniature corn cobs; I didn't think about it til I was cooking. The recipe doesn't call for them but I *love* them. And water chestnuts. Ok, next time! The carrots aren't in the recipe either but I had to use some up!  And I love the smell of limes.  They remind me of when I was little and my dad would drink gin and tonic and let me have a slice of lime.

Oh, and here was dinner last night:

I love scrambled eggs. The broccolini is actually from Olives in Princeton. Isn't the Valentine napkin a nice touch?

I also mashed some sweet potatoes tonight too but forgot to take a picture.  Maybe tomorrow.

My fridge is dying so I have a lot of fridge cleaning-out to do this week!

Here's my Princeton Public Library book pile for this week:


8 Weeks to Optimum Health by Andrew Weil (middle of pile) is fantastic.  I'm really enjoying that one.  That first book on the pile is to balance out all the serious reading I'm doing.

Hope you are healthy and happy, are pain-free, and getting good quality sleep!

Not a hernia!

I saw the surgeon today and she said she does not feel a hernia!  She thinks the small bulge the primary care doctor feels (and that I can feel in the mornings!) is my right pelvic kidney (whose last appearance was on my 2009 lumbar MRI images and MRI report).  She thinks I strained an ab muscle (rectus abdominus, or the "6 pack" muscle), or that the ligaments holding the pelvic kidney in place are strained.  She said the kidney might actually move around a bit since it's not where it's supposed to be.

And she said my ab muscles are strong overall!

She said I'm to rest and listen to my body as far as daily living activities and stretching for back--advice we can all follow!  She says it will take 4-6 weeks to resolve itself, but if it gets worse or doesn't improve, she'll order a cat scan.

I am so relieved!  Thank you to everyone who sent good wishes my way and chanted the mantra of "not a hernia, not a hernia!"  It is very much appreciated!