How many white outfits does a person really need?

Several, apparently.

I was not going to sew a new white outfit for this year's Dîner en Blanc (which is this Thursday). I mean, who needs a tonne of white easy-to-dirty clothing, right? Well, I bought this slippery polyester pre-pleated stuff last year at Len's Mill Outlet along with the fabric for the Butterick 6582s after the Cambridge Butterfly Conservatory with the thought that it would make a nice skirt. And then sat on it. When I was looking at the pleated fabric prior to making the skirt for my 9-in-6 challenge and thinking how I wanted to make a top to go with it and since I need an event to push myself to finish the outfit... and it's white... and I have a dinner in white coming up... you get the idea.

Totally procrastinating

If you know me in person, you can probably skip the video. Or not. I'm not judging.^* This is part of the Blog Voices thingy, wherein we get to hear how other bloggers sound.^** And I'm sorry for that weird business at the end.



List of Words:
Aunt, Route, Wash, Oil, Theater, Iron, Salmon, Caramel, Fire, Water, Sure, Data, Ruin, Crayon, Toilet, New Orleans, Pecan, Both, Again, Probably, Spitting image, Alabama, Lawyer, Coupon, Mayonnaise, Syrup, Pajamas, Caught

List of Questions:
What is it called when you throw toilet paper on a house?
What is the bug that when you touch it, it curls into a ball?
What is the bubbly carbonated drink called?
What do you call gym shoes?
What do you say to address a group of people?
What do you call the kind of spider that has an oval-shaped body and extremely long legs?
What do you call your grandparents?
What do you call the wheeled contraption in which you carry groceries at the supermarket?
What do you call it when rain falls while the sun is shining?
What is the thing you change the TV channel with?

You can see a list of the other bloggers who have been doing this at the Three Dresses Project.


^*Actually, I'd like somebody who does know me to watch it and tell me if I sound like this. Because, aside from the usual "I don't sound like that" thing, I've never heard myself sound like this. I've listened to recordings of myself, and this is bizarre. The DC says it's a bit tinny and that my voice is more mellow in person.

^**I even created a YouTube channel for this. I might start putting up ukulele videos. We'll see. I'll do it if I can put Lucy in the videos, because I hear that's a thing.

Blame it on the internet

Just as this is not a biking blog, this is also not a sewing blog. I mean, I occasionally sew and then blog about my makes, but the blog is not primarily about sewing. In the past I mostly only made big-ticket items, like Hallowe'en costumes and fancy dresses. Then last summer I stumbled across Lladybird's blog, and I swear she's like a gateway blog because I started following more and more of them. So many great sewing blogs out there. And they were making not-just-fancy-dress-in-all-senses-of-the-word clothes. I started and planning to sew more, and then actually doing it. I challenged myself to not buy any new clothes this year, but only make them. I took part in Me-Made-May. And I started following a bunch of sewers sewists on Twitter.

Pistachio macarons for everybody!

This is a pistachio macaron.


This is also a pistachio Macaron.


This is me, eating a pistachio macaron, wearing a pistachio Macaron.

Any questions?

Bustin' makes me feel swe-e-e-t!

Some music for your reading pleasure:


When I did the LGRAB Summer Games, I had planned to go to Sugar Beach on a Bixi bike but due to time constraints, I turned that into a visit to Harbourfront instead. I also meant to use it as a location for one of my Me-Made-May photos, but didn't. It's taken me two years, but I have finally managed to hang out at Sugar Beach. How?

In which PhysicsGirl manages to hide Green's Theorem

I am happy to say that after a flurry of inactivity, I haven been slowly getting on with my 9-in-6 sewing challenge. I have missed every deadline so far. Of course I have. What was I expecting? Truth is, I have always sewed with a goal in mind: I need this item for that event, and I get it done. That's why the Bombshell swimsuit got finished, and that is how all the other ones will get done, too. But what event would necessitate a tank-top with upside-down equations on them?

Pancake of the Month: Blueberry Cornmeal Pancakes

Friends, it has been over a year since I've had blueberries in my pancakes. This is unacceptable. It wasn't planned at all; I thought I would go on making my usual recipes on non-bloggy weeks, but this has been kind of a not-terribly-good-year on the eating front (stress, thou art a bastard), and the upshot is that I have not had blueberry pancakes in over a year.

This has to stop.

We went to my friends E and L's cottage on Lake Huron again and I brought up the makings for blueberry cornmeal pancakes, including fresh-from-the-farm Ontario blueberries. This is a scaled-down version of the recipe I usually make (from Simply Great Food by the Dieticians of Canada -- it has squash in it and is so very very good).

The result?

This is too much, to remember at night all the foolish things that were said in the morning: P&P #21

Oops! This has been sitting in the draft folder for a month and a half!

Pride and Prejudice, 1995.

So... I may have, in the past, railed a little strongly against the 1995 mini-series. I know I'm in the minority here, and it's possibly because I'm biased for the 1980 version, but I don't swoon over this version. Which is weird, because I know I rewatched it often enough when it first came out. I think that when I hadn't seen it for a few years, some of the things that bother me about it grew larger in my mind and I kind of backed myself into a corner in discussing it until I reached the point where I thought the whole thing was garbage.

I approached this watching with an open mind and I have to admit that I don't dislike this version as much as I thought I did. The not good moments are far outweighed by the good stuff. In fact (glances around, lowering her voice to a whisper) I think it does some things better than the 1980 version.

Va va voom!

You may be wondering how I'm doing on that 9 in 6 sewing challenge. The answer is, er, not so well. I am terrifically behind. I've finished one thing, at least: the Bombshell swimsuit. So I will pay penance by posting a picture of me in my swimsuit on the internet.

Heather Lou from Closet Case Files had a sewalong in June, but despite my having bought the pattern mere minutes after it went live, I didn't get around to buying fabric until late July. At which point it sat for a bit, despite all my planning. I really wanted to take the suit to Lindystock, though, so I finally got off my duff and sewed it up last week. And here we go: