Princess Dresses and Overcoming Fears

Yesterday I was cruising Walmart with my mom and we happened upon the fabric section.  I have been purchasing fabric from there lately for sun dresses for my youngest daughter and myself.  But yesterday I found some really cute smocked fabrics that were the perfect length for my granddaughter Jayde!

The thing I love best about this fabric, is that it is just one simple seam and you are pretty much done.  I also opted to add some straps because in my mind 4 years old is too young for a strapless dress.

 First I pinned the fabric where I wanted the seam. 

 

 Then simply sew the seam straight.  This particular piece of fabric was a little less than the half yard that I wanted for the dress, so I sewed a fairly scant seam.

 

 

 And further down the dress...

 I then decided to try something I have never tried before.  I wanted to serge the seam.  My wonderful husband found an awesome deal a few years ago at a yard sale.  He got me a Brother 1034D for just $40.  It didn't have the box, but it had the instructional dvd and the guy who sold it to him said his girlfriend had never been able to figure out how to use it.  I spent an additional $75 to have it tuned up and the blades replaced TOTALLY WORTH IT!  But, even after that, I have never really attempted to use it.  My oldest daughter Mariah has always been the one to use it.  So, last night I swallowed my fear and watched a video on how to thread it and gave it a go!

After a few tweaks to make sure I wasn't going to break my thread, and another peek at a youtube video, I was ready to go! 

 I opted to keep the blade in the on position for a neater edge.  It leaves a little pile of scraps and quite a bit of dust.

I loved how neat my seams/edges ended up!  Thread color doesn't matter because they are inside.  

I then used some ribbon that I had laying around and added some straps so she could be comfortable and not worry about losing the dress.

And the final result is...she loves them!!!

 This was a simple project with great results and I learned to use my serger and not to fear it anymore!  Oh...and Jayde absolutely LOVES her dresses!

He got me!

Well, my husband finally got me!  He got me all caught up and involved in another pc game!  It has been years since he got me the first time. I spent several years deeply involved in a game called Asheron's Call.  

I loved it, it drew us closer together...I have missed it for a long time.  I have tried to go back to it but it is just not the same as it used to be.  Or maybe I am actually not the same as I used to be.  Either way it just doesn't work for me anymore.  

 

 Paul has been trying to get me to play Diablo for a long time. Used to be Diablo II and I tinkered around there for a little while, but I never really could get into it.  

I guess the geeks of the world have been waiting around for more than a decade for Diablo III to be released and this is the year.  Paul got in on the beta testing and it kept him pretty busy and out of my hair for a while, and then on May 15th they released the full version.

O! M! B!  You would think Menudo was having a reunion tour!  

He was so excited!  He came home from work on the 14th and ate dinner and went straight to bed, then he woke up at 1:30am so he could download it right at  2:00am when it was released in our time zone.  He played until he had to go to work the next morning.  Sigh...I sure do love that geek of mine!

So, finally I said I would try it.  I really did not think I would enjoy it, in fact, I didn't want to enjoy it!  But, I like it!  I get such satisfaction out of killing all the demons and defeating the bosses.  I like doing the quests because it gives you a list at the side of the screen telling you what to do next on your quest and when you have done it, it marks it off and gives you another item on your list!  I LOVE LISTS!!!

The worst part about D3?  It is a time suck!  I should be doing other things but I'm sitting down on my computer playing a game.  I need to haul my butt outside and clean the pool so we can use it this weekend but I am chained to the computer!  I have started setting a timer so I don't lose track of time while I'm playing.  I didn't set the timer the first couple of times I played and ended up losing about 3 hours each time! 

Okay, now I really want to finish this post and go down to finish my quest, but I am going to go outside and work on the pool.  It has a ton of leaves at the bottom of the deep and I have to get them out of there so we can play!  Then as a reward for all my hard work I will go down and play for 1 HOUR and no more!!! 

Going Slowly

So, the past several times I have started blogging I have gone at it full blown.  It worked for a week, a few days...once or twice, but I just couldn't stick with it.  I would get blog block and not be able to think of anything interesting to post, or I would get busy and not post or I would decide I needed to scrub the bathrooms from top to bottom and therefore did not have time to blog (btw, I hate cleaning, so this is obviously just an excuse to avoid blogging because I'm a big fat coward).  

This time I am going slowly.  I have my blog mentors who are awesome and post daily or at least several times a week and they always have something interesting to say.  I have been trying to be awesome like them.  Well, I have decided that I need to be awesome like me!  I am going to set a weekly blogging goal to start.  I think I need that to keep from getting overwhelmed and being scared of my blog.  I know I can come up with at least one interesting thing a week that has happened.  So, that is my mini goal.  I am not going to be perfect,  I may skip a week or I may blog more than once a week, but I am going to try to be more consistent, but I will forgive myself if I am not perfect.