Brocade

I decided I wanted to make a shirt for myself. I found a pattern I thought would look really nice in a silky fabric and brocade was on sale. How was I to know that it would turn out to be the single, most difficult fabric I've ever tried to work with? I'd had an extremely difficult time with the crepe I tried making a dress out of once, but that was nothing compared to this. The brocade virtually disintegrated in my hands as I tried to work with it.
I can't even adequately describe how difficult this project was. Very, very difficult.
Now I feel like an expert who can make pretty much anything. : )

Elise announced that she wants me to make her a shirt just like this one...
I don't know if I'm up for that just yet. I made her a
white princess dress last year for Halloween (that has doubled as a church dress since then) and I'm about to start making her a Snow White dress for this Halloween. After that, we'll see...



(I know I look kind of pregnant, but I assure you I am not.)

Painting II

Treyton picked up the camera and decided to take this picture all on his own. I had to help him turn it on, but he did the rest.


Shortly after this photo I ended up telling Brian that unless he wanted to replace the carpet, it wasn't a good idea to have me paint the trim. When we painted the walls, we had drop cloths in place. Without them, I can't help but get paint where it shouldn't be.

Painting

Before we were married, I gave Brian a gift card to Home Depot that I specified was to be used for paint. The master bedroom of this house had been painted a hideous shade of lavender by his former mother-in-law. I have my own reasons not to care for the woman, but that was one of the reasons high on his list.

Fast forward 19 months and our bedroom was still lavender. Within the past couple of weeks he developed this burning desire to paint the bedroom and finally insisted that it happen this weekend. I think part of it was our tax refund (the lone benefit of paying spousal support is that your taxable income is significantly reduced and a large refund is likely). Brian had a court hearing earlier this month and it didn't go very well. I think that's the other reason for the sudden urgency in painting. I think it gave him a sense of erasing the past figuratively since it can't be done literally.

Brian had patients this morning until about noon (and, of course, e-mailing the scammer guy). Then we spent the rest of the day emptying the room so it could be painted. I think it turned out quite well. I'll post pictures once everything is in place. I think it'll be even better than before because as everything gets put back, other unfinished things will get done, too. I have valances and curtain rods that have been waiting since... the same Christmas as the Home Depot gift card to be put up. They match the photo display curtain rod (Thanks Carla & Monica) that I made for this room, too.

Best of all, when all is said and done, I will have a permanent crafting area. : ) When he got tired of my stuff scattered all over the house, he put up two folding tables forming an L in the corner. Now those are going to be replaced by cabinets and a counter top. : ) I'm SO excited!!! I've been sewing a lot lately. I made another dress and a nightgown for Elise, then I made myself a blouse that was hands-down THE most difficult thing I've EVER made. I think that one deserves its own post. However, I've already posted more today than I have in the past year so... it'll have to wait.

Good night. : )

Craigslist scam

All I wanted was a tent trailer, for crying out loud in the dark!!!

Brian found a good deal on Craig's List and sent an e-mail. He was afraid it was already sold because the guy didn't respond right away. In all likelihood, the delay was due to the time difference between here and Nigeria...

Brian started getting all these weird e-mails referring to "the product" and telling him he'd have to use this third-party escrow-type service that would guarantee everything was safe. The first thing that caught my attention was that the e-mail said there were no scratches when the ad clearly said there was one "purley" (sic) cosmetic scratch. I Googled the name of the third-party service (Online Outpost) and my browser suggested that I might want to search for "Online Outpost Scam," indicating that there were more than 85,000 hits for that search term. That was clue #4. (Clue #3 was too much irrelevant information (e.g., "I'm a construction engineer.") which is typical for liars to give.)

I immediately called Brian to give him a heads up this was probably a scam. He replied to the e-mail saying he needed to see the trailer in person. The guy replied with pictures, but otherwise exactly the same e-mail. Then Brian said he'd need to talk via webcam. The exact same e-mail was received again (claiming to need a fax number and all kinds of other unnecessary information). The e-mails kept promising that after providing all contact information, then he would receive "confirmation" that the third-party had "the product" in their possession.

At this point, Brian started messing with him and e-mailed asking whether it was a V-6 or V-8. I'm fed up with it though and asked him to stop wasting our time and told him he's a pathetic waste of oxygen who should learn a real skill instead of trying to scam others out of their honestly earned money. "Pathetic waste of oxygen"probably isn't translated in their detailed scam instructions, so from what I've read about this scam on the Internet, I can still expect the same response as all his previous ones: "Please let me know what is your opinion and if you agree to start the transaction."