Archive for Completely Off Topic

Bad Blogger! Bad Quilter!

By sporkfoo Published October 9, 2012

So right – I haven’t been blogging…but really its because I haven’t sat in front of my sewing machine in a couple weeks. Work has been terribly busy, I’ve had a horrible head cold, and to top all of that off, one of my bassets got pyometra and had to have emergency surgery. Recovery has been slow, but she finally seems like she is back to her normal self, and she got her sutures out yesterday.

I’m really going to try to get in the studio this evening, but it’s looking like its going to be a late workday. I have two tops that REALLY REALLY need to be assembled. Quite frankly I’m tired of looking at them.

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Back to Life…

By sporkfoo Published September 4, 2012

( This is only a few miles from my house – however other than the AC, we had no damage )

So it’s been a week, and I’m finally getting back to normal from Hurricane Isaac. The power was out for 4 days, and then when it came back on, we quickly realized that the AC did not. So from Friday through yesterday, I basically holed up in my bedroom, huddled up to my portable AC. August in Louisiana slows everything down; the humidity makes you feel like you are moving in slow motion.

The Lug’s cousin really stepped in and saved the day and helped us replace the condenser outside, for a reasonable price to boot. So finally I’m back in front of my laptop, starting a normal workday. Maybe I’ll even get some sewing done this evening – but I’ll probably be cleaning house.

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Someone told me this was International Cosplay Day…

By sporkfoo Published August 25, 2012

So it’s only appropriate that I spend most of the day working on the beginnings of my Halloween Costume. I am a terrible procrastinator, and if I wait until the last minute it will never come together, so I’m starting now. So costume party on Halloween, need something to wear. Now the party I am going to is going to be attended by what one might call … mundanes. muggles. ahem. normal people. So I wanted a costume that could serve me later at nerdier functions – but I didn’t have to explain who I was to everyone. So at some point, I decided to do a steampunk Joker. Now I realize I may have to explain “steampunk” but at least with the green wig and the unmistakable makeup, everybody would know I was the Joker. And with that the costuming began.

So I bought this corset. Made by Damsel in this Dress, this is their Vixen model. I bought it because I basically thought it was versatile for all my pirate / steampunk / renfest costuming needs. And it is orange. I haven’t really decided what I’m going to wear underneath – right now what I’m leaning towards is a turquoise button down.
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I did zero sewing this weekend. So there’s that.

By sporkfoo Published August 20, 2012

I don’t have a picture for this post – mostly because I didn’t sew at all this weekend. Saturday we got hit with the tail end of Tropical Depression Helene, and the lights were going on and off, and I was in no mood to sew anyway. Since Katrina changed everything back in 2005, August usually is surrounded with a certain amount of weather anxiety for me. It’s always there in the back of my head – I’m always calculating the hurricane plan. If I can make it past Labor Day without being waterlogged – I will count this year as a success.

So right. I didn’t sew at all. I also couldn’t really work with the lights going in and out – so I didn’t make much progress there either. Mostly I just snuggled up with the pets and read. It wasn’t the worst way to spend a rainy Saturday.

This evening though, I definitely have a date with my sewing machine. I want to get all my 9 patches done for my Charm Square Quilt. I manged to assemble 3 blocks this morning, but tonight – IT WILL BE FINISHED! My mom finished hers yesterday, so now I’m the one who is behind.

Also as a sidenote – I was invited to a Halloween Party last night, so that is an upcoming project that I have to start thinking about. I’m thinking something steampunky, just because that is fun – either a steampunk Mad Hatter, or The Joker. I am leading towards the Joker because I saw an awesome cosplay of one last week. It was a whole lot girlier than I would do it – but it gave me lots of ideas. I will probably be making everything except the corset / bodice piece. I do have all the hardware to make one somewhere in my closet – but I lack the sewing expertise…serious foundation garments are WAY above my pay grade.

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So about this blog thing

By sporkfoo Published August 17, 2012

I blogged pretty regularly from 2000 – 2006 or so. I had a pretty good readership, active readers and commenters – certainly plenty drama to keep them coming back for more. But honestly, A LOT has changed since then. Everybody seems to want to be a blogger rock star, to make tons of money with their posts with sponsors and give-aways etc. And readers expect that too I think. It’s sort of overwhelming, for someone just starting. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want readers, but I honestly don’t know how one does that without being a blog that is a job. I don’t want my blog to be my job. I certainly am not talking about anything that I can monetize, because I’m a newbie quilter, and a mediocre photographer. What I want is my blog to mark my progress as a quilter. I would like visitors and an online community to talk about what is going on in my quilt life too though.

So can a blog be successful being a personal homegrown thing these days? Without offering free stuff, patterns or organized activities? What marks a blog’s success anyways? I don’t know, but I am pretty good at talking to myself so I guess it doesn’t matter much, really.

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The Terrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.

By sporkfoo Published August 9, 2012

So today’s first drama was waking up to find that my bank account had been phished and somebody bought about 300 dollars worth of porn with my debit card number. This completely set the tone for the day, and I managed to have a very difficult day at work, where nothing seemed to go right, all leading up to me dropping the Lug’s computer and it plummeting to its death on our concrete floor.

Just a hard day all around. Also – do you know how difficult it is to sew with a new kitten ( see above ) all in your business? It’s impossible! Still I got 2 dozen Half square triangles all done for my Swap / Back Door Curtain Project before I gave up. That counts as being a little productive today, right?

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