Whirlwind

Whew...what a month.  It's finally caught up to me.  This post comes to you from my couch in the middle of the afternoon on a weekday, where I am snuggled up with my puppy, wearing yoga pants and a fleece sweater while watching episode after episode of the final Fringe season.  Not my normal weekday activity.  I have caught a flu bug that has brought me down - must have picked something up in the airports I traveled through last weekend on my way home from Salt Lake City.

Rewind...I've been busy busy busy this month!  I had a LONG weekend (of the vacation sort) earlier this month in Ottawa, visiting my brother during the final weekend of Winterlude.  We celebrated winter in full force with skiing (of the alpine variety) at Mont Ste. Marie in Quebec, watching the hockey game on TV on Saturday night (a family tradition), skating on the Rideau Canel (a full 5 km!), and followed that up by snowshoeing in Gatineau Park.  The weather was wonderful, sunny and cold - perfect for outdoor sports.  My brother is an AWESOME host, and the food was, as usual, amazing.  Good times!

I was home for a day then traveled out to Utah for work for two full days of training.  Regretfully, there was no skiing this year (SO disappointed!) but I am partially pacified by the thought of skiing in Alberta in the spring.

That brings me to today.  Feeling lousy, but definitely catching up on my sleep today!  And my internet browsing - I've been going through various blog posts of my favs, and getting juiced up for spending some time at my sewing machine.  I'm also being inspired by spring and summer retail websites.

For spring and summer, I've decided to again focus on my core colours of red, black and winter white, with the addition of a few for spring and summer to "lighten" it up, like tan/beige.  Tan/beige makes me look ill if I wear it near my face (unless I'm deeply tanned), but I love the classic look of it so that colour gets relegated to pants, shorts and skirts, or picked up in accent prints.  I need the basics for the summer, like shorts and capris, buttondown shirts as well as a pair of jeans in black and denim.  I also am in desperate need for some work clothes, and think I'm going to focus on dresses since I just can't seem to master the pant fitting battle easily.  I need some buttondowns for the office too.  I need some gratification so I think I will start with a dress or two that I can wear with a cardigan now or at least in the near future.

I've also joined the Ready to Wear Fasters back in December, but since I've done absolutely NO sewing, I really haven't managed to be able to join in with their fun.  That being said, I've also been really "good" and not purchased ONE thing as far as ready to wear clothing goes.  I need to log some serious time with the machine, and I'm hoping to do that this weekend.  I'm looking forward to two full days of fun!!  Now to get rid of this bug!!

There hasn't been much going on over here, not in the creativity department anyway.  I finished all those projects for my kitchen, and then...Nothing.  Nada.  Zip.  No sewing.  Until Friday afternoon anyway.  I was sent home early due to the great winter weather we were having (I'm a skier, and the slopes on Friday night and Saturday were AWESOME!!), but it made for lousy driving and a LOT of shoveling.  And, when I got home on Friday, someone had already blown out my driveway for me!!!  I don't know who you are, but THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!  You are making me very happy when I come home and don't have to do it myself!

Anyway...back to the sewing.  I didn't accomplish anything spectacular, or even anything I can really show here but I did whittle down the mending pile that was threatening to topple off my sewing table.  I can see my sewing machine again!  I  think I will  actually be able to pick up a "new" project and not feel guilty.

I've been doing a lot of yoga lately, and my yoga gear is...dismal at best (10 year old sweatshirts and sweatpants that are 4" too short for my LONG legs).  Fortunately, I do yoga on my own with DVDs and streamed videos on the internet, so no one sees me in my fantastic gear.  A while ago I cut apart a pair of yoga pants that had bit the dust and copied a pattern off them to make my own.  I've made one pair in the past (a year ago already?) but am aiming on making another pair or two for my next project.  I also would like to make some tank tops and some leggings to wear both as exercise gear as well as an underlayer for when I'm skiing.

Not terribly exciting this update, but hang in there.  I can feel my sewing mojo coming back, even as I type!  I am even at home a couple of nights this week, so hopefully I can share a finished project with you soon!