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Pending project – for the next Tweed Ride, maybe?

Nov 23rd, 2011 by

IMG_0315 by Meetzorp
IMG_0315, a photo by Meetzorp on Flickr.

Two vintage patterns and vintage plaid flannel should combine to create a really cute outerwear set.

I’m not really a “cape girl,” but for a Tweed Ride, I’d make an exception. Especially if I made the cape with this 1967 Simplicity pattern and could eke a coordinating hat out of the scrap with this Vogue of the same era.

I got inspired by The Slapdash Sewist and her friend Cidell who both used a certain Burda pattern to make capes to wear for the DC Tweed ride.

Now I have a personal and abiding dislike of Burda patterns, which have the most obtuse instructions known to mortal man, but I looked at their capes and realized that, heck, I have something very, very like that in my own library!

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Simplicity 7262 fron 1967. Moreover, I have a great old hat pattern from Vogue from the same era, and it could combine to make a charmingly Sherlock-Holmesey getup, if everything spaces out all right.

It’ll be a good 7-8 months until the next Tweed Ride here in KC, but that doesn’t necessarily deter me. I could and possibly will find excuses to wear this getup just because. It’ll be wool and plaid and green and vintagey and chic. “Why the hell not?” I ask.

Posted in Costumes and disguises, NaBloPoMo 2011, Sewing | 2 Comments »

How I currently feel about NaNoWhatever

Nov 22nd, 2011 by

Bored.

I know I’m not going to hit every day of November due to Thanksgiving, and I am so not even a hair worried.

Ain’t exactly feelin’ it tonight.

So for your amusement, here’s a link to the Uncyclopedia entry in blogs.

Just added a new category: “meh.”

That is all.

Posted in meh, NaBloPoMo 2011 | No Comments »

It’s a beginning

Nov 21st, 2011 by

IMG_0312 by Meetzorp
IMG_0312, a photo by Meetzorp on Flickr.

Just trying out a tank-top pattern on a bit of scrap from a dress I cut out recently (but haven’t assembled yet). Yes, I know the zig-zags aren’t well centered and all that, but I am just finding out if this pattern even fits me and works all right.

If it does, I have a medium-term goal to make some lightweight tanks for layering, as I am always too warm with a whole shirt under my jackets, but I do so love a smart, tailored jacket.

Posted in Fashion/Sewing stuff, NaBloPoMo 2011 | No Comments »

FINALLY finished…my new winter coat!

Nov 20th, 2011 by

I have no excuse other than lazy bastardry. I started this coat only just shy of two months ago. What should have taken maybe two or three saturdays took…well…longer. Mostly because I wasn’t working on it. I got bored of this project about halfway through, and it sat in a box in my sewing room with no lining for the entirety of October. Now, here it is in all its plaidly glory…my new, brown, 100% wool winter coat.

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Why yes, I do believe that it is brown. I seriously doubt anyone who has read this blog much, seen my sewing posts, or knows me in person is even a tiny, little bit surprised.

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Plaid matching carried ’round the back. This was a damn nuisance I do not mind telling you!

My plaid matching efforts went by the wayside with the lining - I had honestly ceased to care by this point.
That’ll be why the lining looks like this. Because I honestly ceased to give even a hint of a shit by the time it came around to cutting it out. So long as it wasn’t off grain, that was good enough for me.

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What have we here?

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In seam pockets, of course!

This coat was made using Vogue’s V8346 pattern, View A, with modifications. I cut the sleeves a little fuller to accommodate the inevitable layers of sweaters that I will definitely wear as winter worsens. I also increased the number of buttons and made actual buttonholes, instead of stitching buttons on the outside and snaps on the inside. That seems like a really stupid way to fasten a coat and I was having no part in such shenanigans.

I built this coat to last. The seams are reinforced with tape, the seam allowances are zig-zagged, the buttonholes are stitched as closely as the old Singer will allow. The whole thing is made of dense and durable wool, and I expect to get just under a decade’s use out of it. When comes the time to replace it, I may use this pattern again, but cut View B next time, which comes to just above knee length.

Posted in NaBloPoMo 2011, Sewing | 2 Comments »

Tomorrow is Cranksgiving

Nov 18th, 2011 by

So get your ass down to the Anita Gorman Discovery Center tomorrow at noon and buy some food for people who haven’t any this Thanksgiving:

Where: Anita Gorman Discovery Center,4750 Troost Ave, Kansas City, MO
When: November 19, 2011 12:30 pm

It’s loads of fun, and for a good cause.

I didn’t take any pictures last year (or the year before, or the year before that, or even the year before that one), but I did in 2007.

Joel took some last year, however.

Posted in Too lazy to classify | No Comments »

In which I think about really dumb thing

Nov 17th, 2011 by

Oh man, I have brainmeats problems.

A month or so ago I read an article online where this guy decided to try recipes or foodstuffs mentioned in The Simpsons.

I laughed myself silly, as you do. Especially over the notion of Corn Nog, which sounds really fucking disgusting. I mean! Almost as bad as fuzzy bread, a creamed corn omelet, some sausage and mayonaise soup, and a carton of milk that’s been left out in the sun all week.

If, like me, you are a little bit of kind of an idiot, you continue to mull over the logistics of Corn Nog and decide that perhaps it could be possible to invent a recipe for a sort of corn-centric, nog-based beverage option that could, if pressed, be called Corn Nog and maybe it could be consumed by right-thinking people who do not hate their own guts.

Speaking of…what is the base of nog? Be it rum or brandy? It is some sort of old-fashioned, sweet, spice-friendly boozage, but which one, I am not sure. Or is it more a whiskey-type of booze? I do not know, though if I were focused on more than telling you about my fantastically stupid ideas, I suppose I could ask Google (I almost typed Boozele) to tell me how to spike my nog.

Anyway, the day after I read about Corn Nog on the Internet, I was mulling it over and had to take a break at work so that I could jot down some rough ideas:


Obviously, this is a pretty rough draft, but I think I could maybe make this thing happen.

I tell you what. If I manage to make a functional, palatable Corn Nog, I will post about it here, with instructions and everything. I totally will.

Oh, and by the way, I amn’t drunk tonight. Just more crazy-go-nuts than usual.

I have also decided that tonight isn’t an “ain’t” night. It’s an “amn’t” night, a contraction of a negated auxiliary verb which is sadly underutilized in spoken English.

Sadly, I’m afraid “amn’t” may be my own, personal “fetch.”

Posted in Art Projects & Making Things, Delight, Distractions, dumb things I have done, Food & Snacks, NaBloPoMo 2011, Notions and Rants, Utter Silliness, Words I Like | No Comments »

Who knew I’d grow up to love bedtime?

Nov 16th, 2011 by

I’m about to post a video clip for y’all, but I’m warning you, don’t bother watching the video. Just listen to the audio and everything will be all right, good, fine, and amusing. The problem with this video is that it is a fan-made-vid/AMV/pathetic-piece-of-shit. It’s one of those things where somebody took an audio track, then “timed” images (or in the usual case, clips of anime shows) to the track. Many of them have roots in fan-fic, “shipping,” and people who speculate subtexts for the dumbest of TV shows.

I hate FMV/AMV/this-bullshit so hard. I consider it amongst the lowest forms of art. That said, and rant aside, this was the only audio track of this monologue that I could find that I could also share on this website, and so you’ll have to overlook the bullshitty stock photography slideshow and just enjoy the magic of Jim Gaffigan’s “Sleep” monologue:

The first time I heard this monologue, it seriously struck a chord. I remember being a kid, and thinking that going to sleep was a total bummer. I wasn’t even tired. It’s still light out. Corri & Kelli get to stay up until 9:00, I swear – ask their mom!

Then, sometime around college, I began to appreciate the gift of sleep. I scheduled my classes so as to leave myself an hour block in the afternoon for napping (2:00-3:00 for preference). I’d sleep until 9:30-10:00 a.m. on a Saturday or Sunday if given half a chance.

I’m not going to lie – I went to bed right around 10:00 every night this week, slept until 6:00, and honestly, could have happily slept on until 7:00-7:30, if it weren’t for those pesky cats and that whole having-to-be-at-work-by-8:00 thing.

Bed’s a great place. It’s warm, I can snuggle up with Joel, and damned if I don’t have some of the most peculiar dreams which I find pretty entertaining, at least. I’d be there right now, you know, if it were possible. Sleeping rules. It rules!

Posted in NaBloPoMo 2011, Notions and Rants | No Comments »

Sunset on the water

Nov 15th, 2011 by

IMG_0298
Kansas City(s) (both of them) are river cities, though much less so than many other river cities. KC hasn’t embraced the riverfront; most of the levies are closed to public access, and the riverfront parks that do exist have traditionally been woefully underutilized. Nonetheless, KC is a river city, and the river plays significant roles in how we live here. Foremost, it is a boundary, between North and South, between KS and MO.

I cross the Kansas or Kaw river every day, twice a day, once on the way to work; once on the way home. I live in Kansas City, Kansas, work in Kansas City, Missouri.
St. John's On The Kansas River
At sunset, sometimes, I admire the reflection of the steeple of St. John’s Church on the water.

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This picture is of the Missouri, off glow-in-the-dark-park, on the night of the First Annual Trashboat Regatta.

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And here is the water, just reflecting the sunset, from Saturday night.

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A view of St. John’s across a very muddy Kaw River, as seen from the Central Avenue bridge.

I guess I didn’t really have much of a story to tell tonight. Just some pretty pictures of the rivers that delineate the cities of Kansas City.

Posted in Kansas City, NaBloPoMo 2011, Photo entries | 2 Comments »

Going down?

Nov 14th, 2011 by

IMG_0148 by Meetzorp
IMG_0148, a photo by Meetzorp on Flickr.

This fire escape is on the back of the old Advance/Rumely building in the West Bottoms. The link above is to a photograph of this same alley in 1951, after the big flood.

And this is the same alley as of last year’s haunted house season.

I was poking around in the alley on Sunday and liked the look of the fire escape, therefore, you see it above.

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This is a different fire escape, sort of in the Crossroads district, which was looking particularly golden and promising near sundown on Saturday afternoon.

I have a set on Flickr called “look up,” and if I haven’t added these two already, I will very, very soon.

Posted in NaBloPoMo 2011, Photo entries, Urban Photo Highlight Rides | No Comments »

Feast o’ Squab

Nov 13th, 2011 by

IMG_0231 by Meetzorp
IMG_0231, a photo by Meetzorp on Flickr.

This is possibly the most amazing photo I will ever have taken.

I lucked into an intimate view of a young red-tailed hawk’s luncheon date with a pigeon.

Posted in NaBloPoMo 2011, Photo entries | 1 Comment »

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