I don’t think I ever mentioned here that I studied Clothing and Textiles in college. In high school I worked in a drapery workshop, and in my 20’s I did some design consulting for an import company, as well as lots of little odd jobs from slipcovers to wedding dresses. I’ve always loved textiles, and while I’m hardly cutting edge in the fashion department, I do love clothes. I haven’t done a lot of sewing for myself the past few years, and I hope to change that as I continue to lose weight and look better. I particularly love the little details that make an ordinary piece of clothing special (like sewing little petals all over a plain old t-shirt) :o). I loved my couture techniques class, and textile science class, and the theater classes where I got to work backstage on various productions. Lately, though I’ve been thinking about one of my very favorite classes: costume history. It’s so interesting how clothing permeates so many aspects of history. Art, religion, industry, it’s all intertwined with what people wore.

As you might expect, I love me a good old fashioned costume drama. I’m currently re-watching one of my favorite of all time, The House of Elliot. It takes place in 1920’s London-one of my favorite time periods, fashion-wise, and one of my favorite places. It’s the story of two sisters left destitute by their father. They start making clothes to support themselves, and eventually open their own fashion house. I was lucky enough to be in London when the V & A was doing an exhibit of costumes from the series. They really were just as exquisite close up as they were on the screen. Watching The House of Elliot again makes me want to make a 1920’s style gown with lots of hand beading and embroidery. One day I think I really will do this, just for fun. 

Another favorite (in a different sense) costume drama, Project Runway started again this week! I didn’t even know they were doing another season so soon. Luckily, my trusty Tivo was on the case and recorded it for me, so it was a nice surprise to come home to on Wednesday. Did they not do a preview show this time, where they show the selection process? It seems like there are more designers this time, and the introductions at the beginning were so quick, there’s no way to keep them all straight. Is anyone up for a PR discussion group? Let’s do it in the comments! I’ll start here.

First of all, super-tan Blayne and his stupid ‘girlicious’ needs to go soon. I didn’t like Christian at first, last season, but the little twerp grew on me, and he is extraodinarily talented, and I loved him and his ‘fierceness’ by the end of the season. I already know that Blayne and his stupid hat and sniffles is not going to ever endear himself to me. And yes, his design was daring, but it was also hideous and I hated it. There was a potholder on her shoulder. A potholder! Not deconstructed or anything, just stuck there. I can’t even post a picture of it because I hated it so much.

The cup dress was so clever, and talk about labor intensive! I loved how Daniel used the rims like piping. I loved Kelley’s skirt of vacuum cleaner bags, how great was it that she dyed and bleached it? I thought the spiral notebook hooks were genius, and I even liked the gold pushpins adorning the waistband, but the coffee filter bodice? That really could have been done differently.

I wish we could have seen more of the pasta dress, I loved the way the skirt moved down the runway, and the ovenmitt bodice was so cute!

I thought the pink candy dress was sort of cute, and I decided to find out more about Leanne. I really like her aesthetic, her designs are so pretty and soft and feminine. She has an etsy shop! How cool is that? I would definitely wear something made by her. Look at this one! The construction is so fascinating to me. I’d like to know where she gets her fabrics, they all drape so nicely. Look at some of her sold items on etsy to see more. 

I thought the judges were right on with the bottom two. I probably would have sent Stella home, just because her trash bag dress looked like…trash bags. At least Jerry put a lot of work into his weird little raincoat, and made a dress to go underneath (although I use the term dress loosely). Maybe if he had foregone the rubber gloves and boots he might have had a chance.

What do you think? Did any designers stand out for you?

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The next step in The Great Living Room Project ™ is underway, although
there were a few hiccups. Speaking of hiccups, Winston gets them all
the time. Should I be worried about this? They only last for a minute
or so, but I’ve never known a dog to have the hiccups so often.

Anyway,
back to the GLRP. I started on some curtains. I’ve had this green
fabric for quite a long time, and I wanted to pair it with some nice,
light, white to keep things bright and sunny. I picked up a pair of
sheers from Ikea for $9.99, thinking they would work well and be
economical to boot. I also originally thought that they would be cute
with long, skinny tied tabs and then I realized that for three windows,
with two panels each, I’d be making skinny ties for the rest of the
year. So, I made one curtain, minus ties, and my economical solution
was economical for a reason. The fabric from the Ikea curtains was too
light, and the grain was way off, so it was a big pain to cut out and
then it didn’t hang right. Back to the drawing board. I have some
natural linen, which I will be using to slip-cover the wing chair, so I
decided to try that. Unfortunately, it was slightly narrower than my
green fabric, of which I was using a full width for each panel, so I
had to piece it together, and I didn’t even have to sew it to the green
before realizing that it was way too heavy and where I had to seam it was just way too stiff. So, on to the next option.
I had a couple pieces of a nice linen-cotton blend. Again, I had to
piece it, but it’s light enough that it doesn’t affect the drape of the
fabric at all, and it’s heavy enough that it works well with the green.
So, I think we have a winner. Two panels are done, except for the
hemming, and the rest are all cut out, so I may try to get one done
each evening.

So, yeah, it’s quite green. I don’t care though, I like it. It’s a
Susan Sargent fabric, from the same line as the fabric on my sofa, so
it works. I’m violating my self-imposed blog rule of no photography of
wrinkled items, but I still have to take them down for hemming, so I’ll
press them all nicely then, and with the morning sun coming through, it’s too dark to see the wrinkles anyway. Eventually I also want to make white canvas
Roman shades for each window. I also need to figure out something for
the window on the front door. Probably something plain and white. I sure wish I could remember where I put my switch plate cover thingie. I’m sure it’s somewhere very safe.

I don’t know if any bird experts read my blog, but we have a bit of
an infestation of these little birds. They’ve built little mud nests
under the eaves of our shed, which isn’t a huge deal, but there seem to
be way more birds than nests. There are about 5 or 6 nests, with more underway:

We’ve also found three of them dead in
various places, and it doesn’t seem to be the work of the dogs. Bear
has caught a few little critters in his day, and he enjoys playing with
the corpses and then swallowing them whole (gross, I know, but he’s a
bird dog and an excellent rat catcher, so what can you do?), and we’ve
found the little bodies, completely undisturbed in the middle of the
driveway, where he surely would have found them. I don’t mind a nest or
two, but it’s getting a little creepy how many there are, just flying
around. I’m wondering if I should knock their nests down, so they’ll go
find somewhere else to live. We were thinking that maybe they used to
live in the tree that was cut down last fall. But there are lots of
other trees where we live, so it’s not like our shed is the only
option. Does anyone know what they are? I’m just not sure what, if
anything, we should do. I tried to get a picture of them all flying around when I get close to the shed, which is not easy, but here are a few of them:

They don’t look so creepy there, but trust me, it’s kind of creepy.

Okay, next topic. I did a little cooking this weekend, and have
perfected a wasabi cream sauce, which is so tasty over seared tuna.
Actually, perfected is perhaps a little too grand of a term, I just
took a little sour cream and added some stuff, mixed, tasted, adjusted,
and tasted again. Anyway, if you like sushi, you might enjoy this:

Seared Tuna Steaks with Wasabi Cream Sauce

2 4-5 ounce Tuna Steaks, very fresh!
1/4 c. sour cream
1/2 t. wasabi paste (you could probably use wasabi powder as well)
Juice of 1/2 a small lemon
1-2 t. soy sauce

Make the wasabi cream: mix together the sour cream, wasabi, lemon
juice and soy sauce. Taste and add more soy sauce or wasabi if
necessary. Add a teaspoon or two of water and stir. It should be just a
little runny.

Season the tuna steaks with a little salt and a lot of freshly
ground pepper. Sear for a minute or two on each side. They should be
quite pink in the middle still, although not cold. Slice and drizzle
with Wasabi Cream sauce to serve. If you’re squeamish about rare fish,
or you question the freshness of the fish, it would probably still be
quite delicious if you cook the fish through.

We had this last night with some steamed sugar snap peas and this cold noodle salad from hello yarn and it was all so very delicious.

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The overwhelming majority said turquoise, and because I am basically lazy, I decided to go along with the majority.


I liked the suggestions to paint it the same color as the wall, and if I start hating this, maybe that’s what I’ll do, although I think if I start hating this, that will be motivation to take the time to look and find something I really love. I’ve got lots of little pops of turquoise, yellow and green around the room, so for now this fits in just fine.


Five people actually called me weird and my sconces hideous. It’s okay though, I can take it.

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Progress continues on the living room, but I am having trouble deciding what to do here, so I’ve got a nifty little poll for you. I’m doing this on a budget, so I’m re-using the wall sconces that were here when we moved in. They’re a little too ornate for my taste, and I hated the original antique bronze finish (or was it brass? Either way it was super 80’s country, and not even in a classy Laura Ashley way), so I decided to paint them. And it’s definitely an improvement, I already thing they look cuter and more modern. I’ve replaced the overly ornate glass shades they used to have with cheapo simple white school-house style shades from Home Depot. I just can’t decide how far I should go with the paint. Here’s what I did first:


Just plain turquoise. Then I got out the chartreuse green paint:


I’m not sure which I like better. Or I’m wondering if I should try to tone it all down with a glaze of white or possibly an antique-y brown? Mr. HeyLucy thinks they look like they are straight out of World of Warcraft, and I can kind of see that. I don’t know if that means it’s a good thing or a bad thing in his mind. Anyway, your opinions would be most appreciated!

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I’ve been busy, but I’ll be back with some fun sewing and knitting projects soon. I’m afraid that I must sheepishly admit to a slight shoe obssession, but have you seen all the cute sandals this season? I’m really not a shopper, I hate going to the mall, and I haven’t been very fashionable the last few years. I just didn’t want anyone thinking that I am a totally materialistic person. But…I have been obssessing over these shoes for the last few weeks. I have a Nordstrom gift card that would pay for them, but I also really need some new sandals. Also, I’ve now lost 20 lbs, and I’m going to need some new clothes soon. And they are a bit more expensive than I would normally buy. But gosh, they are so very cute. They didn’t have my size when I first found them, but now they do.

 

What am I going to do? Please help me! It’s a terrible dilemma!

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Ten years ago, when I first met Mr. Heylucy, he introduced me to his kids-two cats and this little mutt. I think those three animals were a little bit like Darcy’s Pemberley, you know how Elizabeth Bennett really starts to fall for him when she sees his house for the first time? I think that’s what happened when I met Reggie and Gigi and Dune. A man with pets as great as these three had to be pretty great too.

Now 16, Reggie has been going downhill for a long time, and we’ve been preparing ourselves for this for the last few months. This morning Mr. Heylucy was finally ready to let his buddy go. And so we went to our vet’s office and held him and petted him while he was quietly put to sleep. Even though we knew it was the right thing, it was so very hard. We’ll have his ashes to bury with his buddies, Gigi and Dune. I hope he’s with them now, and Gigi has thrown herself down in front of him like she used to, so he could lick her all over. We’re gonna miss you Reggie Boinkie-Boink, our little surfer boy and tennis ball lover.

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