What I did Last Summer

This summer was a bit unusual for me, as most summers are spent with desperate wedding deadlines. I have been in the process of retiring from weddings for the last several years trying to stop. This summer I didn't take any custom dresses or major alteration/restyling/restoration projects save for a couple of accessory orders. I spent my summer tying up loose ends; finishing left over custom projects (some have been languishing for years for various reasons), doing some sewing for myself, and of course designing corsets! Here is some of my summer in review:

This is the quilt I started before it's intended owner was born, she is now 8.

Sometimes my fabric hoarding pays off; I had pieces of the original fabric left over to let out two of my favourite sundresses.

I dyed my hair pink.

I actually had time to make a few things for myself:

Firecracker sundress.

Just the hem with my cute sandals (this was after my broken toe finally healed!).

Half circle skirt made out of a bit of fabric I bought on a whim.

I wrote a tutorial on twitter for a friend on how to make a sack dress for the extreme heat. I drew the schematic on the back of an envelope with a dull red pencil.

The sack dress itself with a sash in case you need to leave the house (this is just before I took a trip to the river on a 99+ degree day).

For the seventh summer, I hosted the pre-school for crows outside my kitchen window.

And I met a new bird friend, a Stellar's Jay (and his mate not shown) are regular visitors now, along with some very messy chickadees who like to dump out the feeder to get all the sunflower seeds.

I knitted a shawl and Piper helped (Piper always helps).

I also did a major repair on my hearts quilt, but that deserves its own post. I am ready for fall, well, almost, I have a ton of sewing to do. Luckily, here in PDX it is summer until at least mid-October.

leaving my 'pet' crow

back in the beginning of may i had to stop eating wheat. we had to break up because it just wasn't working for me anymore. in a fit of housecleaning, i pulled all of my open containers of wheat based products: crackers, granola, pretzels, cookies, cereal and emptied them into a brown paper grocery bag with the intention of dumping it in the compost bin. but then i felt a pang of guilt. while a good portion of this food was completely inedible (stale and old) i felt a pang of guilt about throwing it away. the bag was filled 6 inches deep. i went back and forth with myself in my head over whether it would be a good idea to feed it to the birds and squirrels that came to my turret roof to eat the birdseed that i scattered there, and i made my decision. for a couple of days, i threw hands full of this on the roof, but then one morning i just cut the top of the bag off and set the whole thing out on the roof.

a few timid sparrows were the first to visit. then came the squirrels. about a week or two in came the crows. a noisy murder of crows cawing and the choked squawks of the young crowlets drifted in through my kitchen window at promptly 8a every morning. they would fly away quickly if they saw me in the window. then they would perch on the telephone wire and caw reproachfully at me for interrupting their breakfast.

after a month and a half the animals had managed to decimate the pile. i was able to put actual birdseed out again (with a few pretzels for good measure; the crows love pretzels). and i noticed without noticing that the same crow has been coming for the summer. he was a young crowlet. you can tell the babies by their croaky voice. he comes by and is brave enough to approach the window, and leerily peek inside. he is still timid, but he will hang out on the wire outside my window, and we will look at each other for a little while every morning.

now i am about to leave for a week, and my cat is taken care of, but what about my crow. i have grown very fond of this crow, and i would be sad if he didn't return to my roof for pretzels and corn kernels anymore.

(sorry i have no photo, but maybe brent will take one for me when we get back.)