Well, like everyone else in the summer, we tend to throw the household into ‘overdrive’ because so many things need to be done and can only get done when a) they are in season and b) the weather is warm and dry enough to do them. So, this week has been super busy, starting out mid-week when our eldest daughter called me when I was coming home from work to announce that a local apple grower also had sweet cherries and they were ready to pick and would I like to come along (Would I?!). In Upstate New York, the fruit schedule goes strawberries (and we are just about done with that), then sweet cherries and raspberries, then pie cherries, then early blue berries, then maincrop blues and black berries and early apples, then late blues and early peaches and plums and more apples and on it goes through the fall with apples until nearly November, when all we basically can go out and do ‘you pick’ for is Northern Spy apples which are great for baking. (more…)
Making It
Cary Grant Didn’t Sleep in a Steelers(tm) Jersey
And I’m not going to (and you shouldn’t) either.
I was reminded of this bit of wisdom recently when I started thinking about the trip the DH and I will be making to the UK next month. We will be staying in various B&Bs, the reservations for which have been left in the hands of one of my UK cousins who will be traveling with us for certain sections of the trip. (more…)
Top Ten Things For Your Wardrobe
It doesn’t matter if you read news sites, fashion (or non-fashion) blogs, but I think at least once a week, I see a headline which reads: “The Top Ten… that you must have in your closet this season” (or, next season, or this year, or..).
And it doesn’t matter what it is or what they are touting but I have to tell you when Aunt Toby goes down through those lists of items, invariably, the little voice in her head is saying, “Nope…nope…are they kidding?… nope, that’s another useless item…only on women under the age of 30 who are over 5’8” tall… I’d break my ankles if I wore those…even if I liked that I wouldn’t be able to find it or find it in MY size… nope …and where did she get those clavicles?” (more…)
Sustainable Sanitary Products
Are we sustainable yet?
And now, Aunt Toby is going to discuss something ‘ooky’ – which is personal sustainability. No, not the ‘in the kitchen’ sort – this is the ‘in the bathroom’ sort.
One statistic out there claims that at least 1/3 of all sanitary napkins (or “Kotex” or ‘pads’ if you will) purchased in the US are bought by women who haven’t had a period in a very, very long time. The manufacturers know this – it is not a secret to them. If you look at the packaging, look at the descriptions of the ‘anti scent strips’ or the absorbency ratings that they are putting into the napkins. This is not just for women who feel that their menses have an odor, believe me. This is for women who have one of the forms of incontinence and who are not ready to either move to a more absorbent product or go see their urologist or OB-GYN to start discussing surgical intervention. (more…)
In Search of the Warm Blouse
The dress code (such as it is) in my office is pretty casual: The guys wear chinos or other casual pants with the occasional blue jeans, golf shirts in the summer/casual buttondowns in the winter. On the distaff side, it’s mostly pants all the time, with knit tops and sweaters in the winter. If someone shows up in the skirt or dress, it’s either one of us older types with things left over from the 90s in our wardrobes or someone suspected of being on their way to a job interview. I try to dress a couple of steps up for the only reason that I’m really short and rather round and I feel more formal clothing suits me better. I’d like to wear blouses with my dress slacks in the office but at this time of the year, most blouses are just not warm enough. At that point, I’m starting to layer on a vest, a jacket or sweater and I’ve lost the entire effect. (more…)
Peacoat Done and More Paper Dolls – for pockets
For those of you who followed my last little paper doll experimentpaper dolls for peacoats
to deal with making the changes in my son’s peacoat, here is the final result. (more…)
Using Paper Dolls to Improve Sewing
Sometimes, my eyes are definitely bigger than my ambitions. I wanted to make my son a coat that would be nicer than what he wears for work and he pointed out a coat in this bookMen’s Coat Book that he wanted.
A pea coat. But I wanted to make it a bit more stylish than that (yes, Aunt Toby realizes that the pea coat is a men’s style icon but if I’m only going to get one shot at making my son a coat that he can wear for everything from a concert to a trip to a restaurant, then I want to make it a bit more fashion forward than a pea coat), so I looked through all my Burda pattern magazines and found a man’s jacket with what we’d refer to as ‘princess seams’ (if it’s a man’s garment, do we get to call them ‘prince’ seams?). My son is a bit more narrow in the shoulders than he is in the hips, so having extra seams would give me more fitting spots for him. So, being not the ‘forward thinking person’ that I should be, I just frankenpattern’ed the two of them together, making a new pattern. (more…)
More Wool: A Prince of an Idea
It’s time to ‘fess’ up, as they say. Aunt Toby has never..ever…met HRH Charles Philip Arthur George, the Prince of Wales.
Never.
We just don’t move in the same, as we might say, circles.
But on the other hand, if we did meet, we’d have a lot to talk about.
He’s a organic gardener. Aunt Toby’s an organic gardener.
He believes in good solid architecture. I’m into barns, too.
He’s been a fierce advocate of protecting the ecology for years; moi aussi.
And he believes that the world would be a healthier, happier, warmer place if people wore more wool. (more…)
More Mommy Sewing
Once I got started looking for non-preggo patterns (I should trade mark that) that can work for the ‘in process’ moms, I got more and more ideas, which I thought I’d pass on. One of the advantages of using a regular pattern is that ‘post arrival’, you will still have clothing that fits, looks non-maternity and cute. Here are a few I found today – these are from vintage sites but they are not ancient history fashion-wise; you’ll be able to find ones in the current pattern catalogs that look pretty similar. (more…)
Mommy Sewing
The home sewing ‘market’ has changed a lot in the past 25 years: large numbers of independent pattern designers, some of whom specialize, smaller numbers of local fabric stores (which in the old days used to be staffed by people who actually sewed more than quilts), sewing may (or usually may not) be taught in Home Ec in junior and senior high schools nationally. A lot has gone ‘by the way’ – on the other hand, the Internet has spawned a huge Renaissance in personal sewing with sites and blogs and fabric stores. It’s enough to make you dizzy. (more…)
