All sorts of stuff: sewing, cupcakes, flowers, Hal

Thanks everyone who commented on my vacation posts. I know most folks are here for the sewing, so thanks for coming along on my vacation with me!

So! I'm going to the American Sewing Expo in Novi, Michigan later this month. The seminar registration was kind of overwhelming, having to choose all seminars I want to attend up front, but I finally did my homework and plotted it all out. And because I was doing this so late in the game, many hands on seminars were already sold out, which saved me a little bit on registration. I'm attending Fri-Sat-Sun and am really excited about it!

I'm trying to decide what to sew tomorrow...
Dress A, but in which fabric (The "Superman" blue knit? The subdued gray knit? Or the cherries or the owls? The printed fabrics would be for sleepwear...)


Or make dress B, for the third time, but in which fabric? The navy blue? The brown with embroidered flowers? Or well, I don't know what this fabric is officially called, it's some kind of aqua and brown suiting that frays a lot--with piping?


Or the pink shirt, but in blue jet set? Trena recently made it, in red.


Gosh, it's kind of like house hunters! Which one will I choose??

Ok, so here are some flowers from the Farmer's Market this past Thursday. Green eyed daisies (my favorite) and something called purple millet, that smells like maple syrup. Mmmm...

Do you see the shadows of the flowers on the table? So very cool!

A new bakery opened in town, called "L'affaire Bakery". I bought a brownie, cookie, and a cupcake.


And Hal found my missing pattern piece...it's flickering in the wind (it's not like Hal is moving it in the picture):

Robot Surgery & Myrtle Beach postcard

A few weeks back I reported on Upstairs Hal's tumble down the stairs. Thanks for all your warm wishes regarding his recovery! Meanwhile Downstairs Hal's right wheel refused to move after I initially fixed it, and DH (I know for you sewing bloggers, DH refers to Dear (darling? dearest? devoted?) Husband but here it's Downstairs Hal) refused to break free of a tight clockwise circle because of this. After contacting the iRobot support team, I bought a new cleaning module for Upstairs Hal and a new right wheel for Downstairs Hal. I think the total for these two items was in the $70 range. The parts arrived before vacay, and yesterday I performed surgery on both Hals.

Here's the interior guts of Upstairs Hal, while in the process of installing his new Cleaning Module which is green (unlike the old one which is red)



Here's Downstairs Hal without his right wheel:


These surgeries were super duper easy--just unscrewing a few screws, popping the old parts out and putting the new parts in. You do need two sizes of Phillips screwdrivers--your standard average size and a much smaller one.

I also replaced the sidebar brush on each because why not...

Then I annotated my Hals with Sharpie marker so I know what surgeries have been performed and the date (and with that I have officially turned into my father). Of course on the one with the Cleaning Module replacement, I wrote that the "bin" has been replaced. Er, it's not the bin...I have a tendency to do that sometimes (write one thing while fully meaning another).



So what was the success rate:
Downstairs Hal (right wheel replacement): running as smoothly as ever. Surgery was a complete success!!

Upstairs Hal (cleaning module replacement): The good news is he no longer clunks. Bad news is he is still kind of lurching along, and now has a new affectation: he won't go straight across a floor, but rather arcs across in a large sweeping convex curve, like maybe he needs his right wheel replaced too. I think I might just try the new wheel in UH to see if that corrects this problem. So I would say the surgery was a 75% success.

The postcard I wrote to myself arrived today. Does anyone else write postcards to themselves while on vacay?





I had already forgotten the butterflies, so this was a great reminder!!

Len confirmed it is my SI joint that is inflamed and strained. I'm supposed to ice it for two weeks. It sent me scurrying to the internet to read about SI joint pain relief. Note to self: never ever ever read medical message boards again EVER.

Good night!

Running stitches finished: Simplicity 2473 complete

Wow, thanks for your comments about the stitching. Honestly, it's not very uniform, but it passes muster. I freeformed the stitches that you saw in the previous post, but was having trouble with the stitching down the front of the dress--it looked askew and obviously not uniform. So out came my tailor's chalk (my new friend, as piping is now a dear old friend) and I used a ruler to try to line up the stitching of the bodice for where it would go for the skirt.

You can see, I even had trouble with that:


But somehow I made it work, and now it is done--running stitches done, dress ironed, threads cut!

In this picture, I think my lips and jaw look like my maternal (crafty) grandmother:


And in this one, I think my eyes/forehead look like my dad:


I was toying with doing stitches down the back of the skirt too, but it's good to know when to say when, right?



The stitching goes around the back of the neckline and the midriff, but that's all.

So it is done!

In other news: I fixed downstairs Hal (he would only circle around and not break free from a tight circle--I followed the instructions on the iRobot website--very awesome as it revealed that a part of a peanut was stuck in its wheel and was very easy to remove). However, I sadly report that upstairs Hal fell down the stairs. I'm a horrible Roomba mother. I had put a magazine at the top of the staircase. Evidence points to that Hal pushed the magazine along so its cliff censor thought there was solid ground in front of it. Eventually, there wasn't and I heard Hal tumble. I was yelling out "no, Hal, no". It was very dramatic. While he landed on his "feet" and his clean button is green, and he cleans, he makes this horrible thumping noise while running. I went back to the iRobot site, and followed another video which revealed that I have to contact their support team. Part of the diagnostic was to remove his brushes and run him without them--he still makes the thumping noise so something else is wrong. I'm sorry upstairs Hal!

Good night!

random stuff

Guess what did that to my Vogue 8379 front skirt pattern piece! (Not an animal, not a person...) Answer at bottom of post!

So tonight I went to a lecture about foot and ankle problems. I learned that there is so much that can go wrong with feet and ankles. Holy cow.

Here are some roses from my "garden"



Dresses I want to make:

(From left to right, I want to make view B and view D).

I'm going to try to fix my Vogue 8379 red dress for both a fake SBA and the length of one of the ties. I should have used Trena's very awesome SBA adjustment (there's the link again for those who didn't get it a few days ago when I first posted her tutorial--thank you Trena for writing it up) but standing in the muslin it seemed just fine, as well as leaning forward. It's the sitting that's the problem.

And here is your answer, it's Hal, my Roomba, who found the pattern piece for me:



Good night!

Surgery on Hal; snow pix

Upstairs Hal was suddenly losing arms from his sidebrush. Downstairs Hal has just 3 arms but Upstairs had 6. And then 5. And then 4. And then 3. Sometimes I found them in his collection tray; other times they were forlorn on the floor.


Last weekend I bought replacement sidebrushes on the irobot.com web site. They arrived this week and I did a little, simple, minor outpatient surgery on Hal. All better:


It took less than a minute, and it has actually made a big difference with how the carpets look!! MUCH better.

I'm thinking of getting the Scooba next.

My backyard on Thursday morning before going to work, taken through the window:



I like the light here. I also realize my duck is dressed for Easter. Poor neglected duck. Well, Easter isn't that far off.

Acupuncture part deux; rare NJ rainbow!

I'm still feeling pretty good. Had another meeting today on a different unsupportive chair; back was not screaming. Things are definitely looking up. Pain was like a 1/2. Knee pain has returned a little. Of course, this morning I did not help it by accidentally whacking my right knee on the corner of the bathroom vanity countertop. I mean, I actually saw the vanity countertop LIFT UP--that is how much force my knee apparently has in upward motion (or how poorly the vanity is held together--you choose). My "boo boo" (as my acupucturist called it) has turned blue/red, is raised and is the size of a quarter. And it sort of hurts. Of course I used my ice packs.

Had my second acu session. Note to self: don't move my leg once acupuncturist has inserted all needles!!! I wanted to show her where the tick bite was--after she inserted the needles--oh, that was painful! She said the muscle grips on to the needle when the leg is moved. I got the message. It was a dumb move (heh) on my part.

Anyway, I think she had about 10-15 needles per side inserted in my feet, calves, knees, hips, arms and one in each ear. This time she played music accompanied by bells ringing instead of birds chirping. It was great. I could feel various muscles fluttering or twitching, which she said is the energy moving through my body. This time I had a warm spot on my forearm, away from any needle. I was able to do my deep yoga breathing without any pain. She then rubbed the lotion on my legs afterwards. I paid up for both visits and made another appt for next Wednesday. I told her that I like her approach and how I didn't have to fill out forms and how she treated me like a human. She said her approach is to be treated as she would like to be treated. She said she started treatments 8 years ago and for her first 5 patients she had them fill out forms, then she abandoned that. She said she gets a clearer picture of what is going on when she asks questions and listens.

I wanted to go walking in Princeton afterward but it started raining! It seems to rain for at least part opf every day, but I don't mind. So I went for a walk around my neighborhood when it started to clear.

A rare NJ rainbow:


As the sun sets on another day:


Best cloud pic for today:


Blurry stream photo:


I have been doing the stretch Len told me to do. I like it a lot because I'm not crawling around on the floor like for the therapist stretches. It involves a staircase, so I can do them here or at work. Turns out a lot of people use the staircase at work...

Oh, and my dad bought a book called "Hacking Your Roomba". Sounds like fun for programmer types!!

Good night!!!

I love my Roomba!

Today's cloud picture

I really don't know what I did today, seeing as Hal, my Roomba, did all the work. I was wondering if it would make vacuum marks on the carpet. I always made the vacuum marks in a fan pattern. Hal does make marks, albeit of a random variety:

This morning I decided to cut the flowers on the rose bushes. I was right next to the white rose bush when I heard an animal rapidly approaching. Usually that sound indicates a dog that made a break for it, but today it was a deer! It came around the corner of my house and kept on running, then turned and ran into the park behind my house. It was really beautiful.

My week in medical review:

Pain level was at a 2 or 3 at the start of the week. I had a head cold so my nose was a mucus producing machine Mon afternoon at work (nice image, huh?) but at least by that point my gums had healed (another great image).

Tuesday night I went to PT. During deep tissue massage she said it felt like "nothing much" on the right side--that was an improvement over previous sessions, specifically the one where she said it felt like the tissue was immobilized. She held the manual traction for longer than usual on the left side. I felt something happen...then later that night and on Wednesday the pain level shot up to a 5. Plus it was dark and rainy and I was miserable.

Miserable. Three Aleeve miserable. Thinking about how much longer I have to live miserable.

Thursday I felt better (3/4) so I went back to PT. She took it easy on me that night, though she did her elbow-in-the-piriformis and deep tissue massage.

Friday I cancelled my Tues PT appointment.

Saturday night I went shopping and bought the Roomba and two new outdoor lawn chairs.

Today I woke up and the right side was hurting. I haven't felt the right side pain for at least 2 weeks now. Interesting. Pain sort of oscillated throughout the day, right side/left side. Remnants of head cold curiously remain.

Thursday I see the orthopedic!! I have about 100 questions for him. I'm going to type them up soon and leave spaces for answers like when I'm interviewing someone for a job. Plus my boss will buy me a good orthopedic chair if I get a doctor's note. Must get doctor's note!!

And how was your weekend?

Open the Bay Doors, Hal

I'm sorry Dave, I can't do that.

I bought the Roomba 530 tonight!

It's charging up (and blinking) overnight.
And it's taking over my living room tomorrow...