Long time no visit! It's been an interesting, hard and cold winter in this household. Tax season started off with a bang and a lot of hours. That hasn't abated much, but now that it's almost over, I'm more used to the odd schedules. Sometimes I open at 8:00 am, frequently I close at 9:00 pm, and the worst for me, sometimes it's closing one night and opening the next morning. I don't get a lot of sleep on those turn arounds, unfortunately. It takes me a while to get to sleep after an evening at work, usually around 10:30 to 11:30 pm before I can drop off. Then in the mornings, due to medications that can't be taken with food, I have to wait an hour before eating. So it winds up I get up around 5:30 am for an 8:00 arrival. AND I'm like a little kid. If I don't get enough sleep or my regular meals, I'm definitely cranky!
This year hasn't gone as planned at all! The Burda blouse I started was probably a wadder. I'm going to try to take it apart and redo as I LOVE the fabric. A beautiful deep red batik heavy-ish cotton. But somehow or another, I got the facings confused with a collar...and enough said. So it's waiting to be ripped apart and hopefully redone. I'm just not sure I have enough fabric to redo. Fingers crossed. I love the fabric and envelope design, so have high hopes if I just have enough fabric left to recut the neck facings.
I started on a new pair of heavy cotton twill pinstripe pants. Then, BAM! I got the Type A flu. I had a flu shot, well they told me it was a flu shot, and if my illness was "minor" compared to what it would have been, good grief! I was down in bed, which I don't do, for a full week, just getting up to eat and use the facilities. After that, it was back to work, but it took me a full month to get back to feeling more or less myself. That was from about mid February to a few weeks ago. I did get the twill pants finished, finally, and they are in rotation. Quick view:
These were a welcome addition to the wardrobe. I've been wearing a lot of my wool slacks made several years ago, but dry cleaning time and costs have added up. It's nice to have something I can throw in the washer and dryer.
All of a sudden, we went from really cold weather to Spring, and perhaps today moving towards summer. I know Southwestern New Mexico winters don't come close to what many of you experience, but for me, coming from California, it's a shock. We had several snow days...of course it melted quickly, and temps down in the 20's, 30's and 40's. Last week we started seeing mid 70's and today it's supposed to be 99 degrees. Big change in a few short weeks.
My fruit trees, all the deciduous trees, my roses, and peonies, are all leafed out and I'm starting to see buds on my items. Exciting stuff! But thoughts of Spring put a longing in my heart for some lighter weight clothing.
Well, this was obviously started a few weeks ago or even a month ago. Tax season is over, I've mostly recovered, and moving ahead. Despite being tired all the time, I generally enjoyed working again. It was very different from my Real Estate Appraisal business, and I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed the income tax business. You get to know a wide variety of people, and learn a lot more about the area you live in.
I've started working on continuing education already, and intend to "test up" several levels until I reach about the status I was before. I doubt I'll go ahead with retaking all the tests to become an Enrolled Agent again due to my age. It's at least a year of intense study and a two day test. Probably not worth it right now.
I did have my "exit interview" with our District Manager this week, and he was very positive about my contributions. To the point where he's asked me to work on a limited basis starting in July through at least the end of October, and we're going to work together on some marketing for this area.
BUT... as all of you out there know, this means a new wardrobe for this area. They want us to look "professional" and in this area through July and August the temps range anywhere from 92 up through 107 or so. Since my summer wardrobe since I've been here consists of shorts and sleeveless tops, they're probably not going to fit the bill.
I started about two weeks ago with a new jacket. Unfortunately the fabric was purchased when the local Hancock's was going out of business so I didn't have enough for pattern matching. But I still love it very much... It's a light to medium weight linen printed with big blue flowers. As I look at the picture, I'm thinking there will have to be something added to the left front in the big white space. But for now... It's a mixture of the front off Burda #6569, added to Butterick #5719. I had the Butterick fitted and like the princess seams and 3/4 sleeves, but wanted the lapel less look for summer.
I have a blue rayon knit tank that will go well under it, and the pants are started. They're a light weight linen bought recently from JoAnn Fabrics when I went with a friend. I figure they may make it tolerable. They're the same Burda TNT pants, but I've switched out the normal pockets for in-seam pockets. Other than that, it's the same old, same old. I don't think anyone notices that all my pants are from the same pattern. They're just pants! LOL
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| Blue denim colored linen pants begun. |
I think this outfit should be done fairly quickly. My plan over the next 60 days is to try to spend 3 hours studying and 3 hours sewing. Hopefully that'll give me at least three summer outfits for rotation. We'll have to see how it goes. I do have a light blue silk that I hope to make into a nice blouse too.
That's all for now, and I hope to be here more often with more finished outfits!
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