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!

Myrtle Beach day 8 / Return to Jersey

This morning I awoke at 6:30. Excellent timing for the sunrise. I took a bazillion sunrise pix which are in my Myrtle Beach 2010 album if you want to see them all.
This gives you the idea.

Here's when it was going up. I wanted to yell to all the people walking away from it "you're missing the sunrise!!!"


And here's the last pic I took:


And here's it's reflected in the slider:


I did the jumble (am stuck on the last word and the puzzle), did all my stretches, got dressed, and packed packed packed. Got out of there and drove to K&W for my final meal, a K&W breakfast (my first of the trip!). Shoney's can be packed on the weekends and by that point I didn't have time to waste.

Believe me, I wouldn't have applied that much syrup to the french toast. But it was good--tasted just like my mom's!

The Myrtle Beach airport was such a zoo. I have visited during the summer previously and never saw such craziness for car rental return or the security line (40 minutes--that's longer than Newark, for a much smaller airport).

Walked back out to the plane and took a pic before boarding. Oh, and while waiting to board I recognized two people who had been seated in front of me on the flight out! They were on the same flight going back.


Got comfortably seated in first class next to an incredibly anxious father who wanted to be seated near his children, who also got seats in first class. In fact, there were 8 children in first class out of 16 first class seats. What lucky kids!

It was disappointing to have the same pretzels as everyone else in coach, though beverages were served in real glasses during the flight. Plus there were drinks served before takeoff, and the Direct TV was free. Speaking of which, I watched a show called "Clean House" which is just another version of the old "Clean Sweep". It has inspired me to do some more decluttering.

I was the first person from my flight to the baggage carousel, and my bag was the fifth off the plane. Went to long term parking and got my car, but when I went to leave the only "green" lane was the EZ Pass lane, and I don't have that. I just stopped my car in front of all the booths. Finally I saw movement in one of the booths for credit cards/cash, but the light was red. I drove up to the booth and the woman said she said she was feeding a bird and forgot to turn the light on.

Now I'm home and have weighed myself to assess the week's worth of food damage, then went grocery shopping. I bought Irish Spring as deer deterrent for my impatiens. I know there's only about 6 weeks left for impatiens to bloom before the first frost, but I think I can get them to bounce back after the feast the deer had about 2 weeks ago. I should photograph them now as the "before" photo. I will Miracle Gro them tomorrow.

I honestly don't know when I'm going to sew again. It might not be for a while!

It is great to be home!

Good night!