Stacyverb

Fall frolicking

I hope everyone's enjoying a beautiful autumn (or spring, for those of you south of the equator).  There have been some lovely days and nights here, and I seem to be spending less time on the computer--thus the lack of blogging.  Let's catch up.

 

What could be more autumnal than a nice crackling fire?  Our friends Kerri and Dave have this fire pit on their back deck, where we celebrated Kerri's birthday a few nights ago.  It was a great evening of friends, fire, good food, and...

 

...pumpkin carving!  Personally, I am terrible at pumpkin carving, so I abstained this year.  I did, however, save the seeds for roasting later.  Mmmmm...pumpkin seeds.

 

On Monday, Anthony and I went out to lunch.  Our work schedules have been out of wack lately, so this was a rare day when we could both be off all day on the same day.  We took advantage of the nice weather and ate outside at Sun In My Belly.

 

Yum!  I couldn't resist this omelette of the day, with chicken sausage and roasted red peppers.  And their biscuits are sooooo good.

After lunch we meandered over to Little Five Points to spend some money at Criminal Records, but on the way we ended up wandering into a Halloween store and, well, this happened:

This might be my favorite photo of my husband, ever.  I giggle uncontrollably every time I look at it.  Not every guy would put on a cowboy hat and gladiator shield and let me take his picture, am I right?  Oh, and he would like you all to know that he was giving the battle cry, "FOR SPARTA!!!!" in a very manly voice when this shot was taken.

 

Moments later, I was viciously attacked by this flesh-eating ghoul baby.  Zombie babies: they're real, and they're hungry.  Beware!

Coupon code for Already Pretty readers

Whew, what a response!  Thank you for all your feedback about my guest post at Already Pretty.  I've been overwhelmed with your comments, emails, etc. and have enjoyed reading everyone's perspectives.

According to my Typepad stats, Stacyverb readership has been up 1400% (!) since Friday.  Whoa.  Welcome, new readers!  I hope many of you will stick around. 

To say thanks for your support, I'm offering a coupon code in my Etsy shop.  Visit the Stacybeads Jewelry shop, pick out some goodies, and when you're ready to check out, enter coupon code APGUEST2011 to receive free shipping on your order.  Get a jump start on some holiday shopping, or treat yourself to something special.  This coupon will expire on 10/31/11.

And if you haven't yet "liked" Stacybeads Jewelry on Facebook, you can do so by following the link at the top of the sidebar.

Thanks again, everyone.  You're fabulous.

My guest post at Already Pretty

Today I'm honored to have a guest post at one of my favorite blogs, Already Pretty!  You can read it here.  Thank you, Sally, for inviting me to write this post.

The return of my sewing mojo?

I put a question mark on this post title because I don't want to get my hopes up, but I'm cautiously optimistic!

In case you missed it, I haven't had much sewing time this year, and the biggest sewing project I did try to tackle turned out unwearable (I haven't given up on that one, by the way, but I don't currently know how to resolve its problems, so I'm hoping fixing it can be first on my list of projects next spring).  I needed to dip my toe back into sewing with something simple.

After completing my Spicy Featherweight, the next wardrobe gap I wanted to close was my lack of a dark brown skirt.  I'm really attracted to the shape of the Beignet skirt from Colette Patterns:

I like how the high waist emphasizes the curve of the hip, and also I like the idea of a waist that's high enough for tucking in a top if I want to.  The buttons and tie belt are cute details, but I think the effect would be somewhat lost on me while I'm sitting in my wheelchair.  So Beignet might not be the ideal choice for me.  However, I do have this pattern in my stash:

It's Butterick 5466, and this is option E: high waist, darts from the waist down to a smooth front, zip up the back, princess seams in back for proper booty-fitting. Ding ding ding--we have a winner!

So I've been working this up in a faux-suede material that is a rich brown color I would describe as "coffee bean."  So far, so good!  It's mostly done except for the waist facing and hem.  As soon as I finish that, I want to make another one in a snakeskin print I scored a while back.  Hurray for using stash, sewing simple basics, and making skirts that aren't my fallbacks McCall's 4783 or 3341!

Finished: Spicy Featherweight

What did I just say yesterday--that I was tired of posting outfit photos?  Well, yeah, but I also said that when I have a new me-made garment to debut, I'll be posting about it.  And I do, so I am. :)

I'd hoped to debut this cardigan during SSS, but the weather didn't cooperate.  But today's the day!

I'm really pleased with this sweater.  It was enjoyable to knit (top-down!  no seams!), and I absolutely love the yarn.  It's very possible that I might make this again sometime in another color.

PROJECT DETAILS:

• Pattern: Featherweight by Hannah Fettig
• Yarn: Cascade Heritage Silk, color 5642
• Needle: US 4 (3.5 mm)
• I did the edging around the front in K1P1 rib instead of stockinette stitch, to keep it from rolling

I should also mention the dress, which I made two years ago but I don't think has ever appeared on the blog.  It's Simplicity 2703, made from a cotton print I bought on one of my trips to Surplus City.  Great pattern, and again, I could see myself making another version in the future.  If I do, I think I'll add a few inches of length to the bottom of it, because it does ride up a bit when I sit in my chair.

Perfect weather for a sleeveless dress with tights and a cardigan.  And this outfit will take me from day to night, as I have a date after work to celebrate eight years of marriage to my sweetie, Anthony (aka Adverb).  We'll be having dinner at this yummy Lebanese restaurant.  Mmmm...tabbouleh....

SSS: Days 28, 29, 30 & Review

Here we go: the last of my Self-Stitched-September photos! 

• Top: Refashioned from self-stitched shirtdress, from this post
• Necklace: Beaded by me

 

I forget what I was laughing about here.  Possibly I was just giddy because it was the penultimate day of SSS!

• Top: Butterick 3344 (OOP) (view A body with view D sleeves)
• Earrings: Beaded by me

 

• Skirt: McCall's 4783, one last time!
• Earrrings: Beaded by me

SELF-STITCHED-SEPTEMBER SUMMARY:

I'm glad it's over.  It turned out to be hard, in exactly the way I thought it would: the continued warm weather meant I had to keep wearing my summer clothes, most of which I'd already showed you during Me-Made-June.  So I got pretty bored, and felt dumb taking pictures of something that was boring to me.  (Of course, the weather was drastically cooler on October 1, and I finally wore something different!)

With all these wardrobe challenges, I always learn something, so what was the take-away from this one?  More than anything, I think it's that I need to make more summer clothes.  Or, really, make "not-quite-fall" clothes that might have similar cuts as my summer clothes, but in richer colors and more autumnish prints.  Our warm weather just goes on so long that I get sick of wearing the same things so many times.

I think this might be my last me-made challenge.  They've served their purpose for me, but I guess the thrill is gone.  This isn't a style blog per se.  I don't particularly enjoy posing for photos every day, or writing descriptions of my outfits every day.

This is not to say that there won't be outfit photos on this blog--of course there will!  Whenever I finish making a new garment, I will definitely be excited to share it with you.  But I won't be posting daily photos of myself wearing some random shirt I made ten years ago.  It's time to move on!

Once again, I want to send a grateful shout-out to Zoe for organizing all these me-made challenges and to my sweetie for taking my outfit photos!