Insomnia, take yawn

Here I sit at quarter to two in the morning. W-I-D-E Awake! Not really sure what caused this crazy alertness to set in, but I have bounced around some websites, played some solitaire and have been Facebook chatting with someone I just met at work. Interesting night/morning I guess.

In recent news: I can SEW again!!! My Grandma came over this afternoon to try and diagnose the issues I had been having with the old sewing machine she had given me of hers about 2 years ago. When she got here, we started in right away in project diagnosis. She was positive that I had flipped the fabric the "wrong" way and sewed in on the machine. But when SHE tried it out, she found the same issue I had been facing when it came to the Blind Hem sewing on the machine. You DO have to sew it backwards because the machine is wacked. But the good news is that we figured out how to use the machine to do it anyway, regardless if sewing the right or wrong way. I hemmed a total of 5 pairs of pants tonight - three of them myself, AND I re-covered a pillow that I had been waiting to do for quite some time now.

In other news, is anyone ready for the holidays? Friday during the day - at work, we saw snow flurries flying by the windows and I was a little excited. That, and trying to come up with some sort of "christmas wish list" for my mom and mother-in-law, can prove to get one in the holiday spirit. Did you know the Salvation Bell ringers are already out ringing?! I didn't realize it until I saw them out today!

In workplace news: Last week I experienced a couple firsts. One: I was asked for money from a homeless person while walking to my car, in the skyway, leaving work. That was awkward and boy, can some of those people spin a tale! Not to say that it might not have been true, but still...and then the next day after that, it was a chilly morning, and finding homeless people was like an Easter Egg hunt...there were a few sleeping in some of the most random, "creative" spots, and finding them was a little startling. I can only imagine this is only a start to what will be to come later this year after the snow flies.

Second "first" was venturing out to Shamrocks


OMG. INCREDIBLE burgers and SWEET POTATO FRIES!!! A coworker introduced me to the place and I love it. the atmosphere was great too. They have live bands on the weekends. I am sure it would be fun to check out then too! If you are ever near downtown St. Paul, I highly recommend this place. Delish!

Well, I think that is about all for the quick update! Stay tuned.

-LD

Sew not me...

For the past few years, maybe 5, I have wanted to prove to myself that I can, in fact, sew with a sewing machine. Not just sew in a straight line, mind you, but actually do some "trickier things," like blind hemming pants, or sewing a button hole. These are all things that my Grandma K can do in her sleep and my Grandma N could also do while unconscious, before the Dementia set in. So, take that, two Grandmothers who rock the house at sewing. For real. Grandma K used to sew her own clothes, my aunt's ice skating outfits, and alter clothes for people on  a regular basis. I always went to her to hem my pants. Yes, being short has me almost ALWAYS needing an inch or three off the bottom of most pants I purchase.

I decided to try and be more self-reliant. I purchased my first sewing machine at a Black Friday sale at Walmart. Everything about that previous sentence is wrong on so many levels. But I digress. Right after I got the machine, set it all up, took a class from my Grandma K about sewing and I was off. The machine worked great. Until about the 4th pair of pants I was going to hem, the machine almost literally fell apart on the table. I donated the machine to a charity after thoroughly reading through the manual trying to figure out where I or it went wrong. I never could figure it out or what happened, so I decided to donate it to someplace that might have more than a slight figment of a clue as to what they were doing.

Fast-forward to more recent time after we had moved into our house. Grandma K had been doing one of her routine "house clean-out and donate" bouts, and decided to part with one of her old Singer sewing machines that she wasn't using as much as her new, shiny Husqvarna digital sewing machine. This is the same machine that she first taught me how to sew with, and I was so excited to get it home and start up my dusty "interest." I struggled through a few more pairs of pants and fixing some shirts, but never really got the full hang of it the way my Grandma K could effortlessly hem and press a pair of pants in about 5 minutes. Seriously.


Well, this weekend, I ran over with my bag of dress pants, capris and jeans that I was looking for lessons on how to alter. She helped me do one pair and then I told her that I would take it from there, as I needed to practice so that I could eventually get it. I came home, and tried to pick it up again today on her old machine. Everything looked weird and I became so disappointed in myself that I could not, for the life of me, blind hem a simple pair of pants. I was a failure. But, I am not going to give up! I am going to ask my Grandma if she will come over to MY house and show me on her old machine here, how to do it all. That way, maybe she can watch me and see and correct things that I am doing incorrectly and fix bad habits now, rather than later, if at all.


Well, I am off to enjoy the last few hours of the glorious weekend,
-LD