Facebook

FACE it!  Everybody's on Facebook. And I love it for a certain purpose.  Everybody I know is on it, siblings, cousins, more cousins and long-lost half-brothers-in-law along with dozens of real life acquaintances and some total strangers.  It's not a blog, it's not set up to be one. It's for keeping everybody up to date with birthdays and graduations and baby pictures.  It's for checking in every now and then, to feel reassured about having a few people in life who actually care what happens to me.

I have just three particular friends that I would like to be friends with on Facebook, so they don't miss out on my exciting status updates like, "Yay!  Pizza for dinner!" but they won't join, all for similar concerns. I've nagged enough and don't want to be too obnoxious :-)
So I'll just post this here and leave it for them to see. 

Concern #1--what if I join Facebook and continually encounter someone on there whom I don't want to be reminded of?
That's easy.  When someone tries to friend you ("friend" is a verb now, thanks to Facebook, which means "to add each other to our friends list") there's links for Accept, Ignore or Block.  If you block someone, they will go on your blocked list and you'll never have to see another squeak out of them.  The only way you'd see their name again is if you and they are both on another person's friends list.  In that case, just don't friend anybody who also knows that person--but it shouldn't stop you from joining Facebook in order to keep up with me!  

Concern #2-- if I join Facebook, other people who know me might share information about me that I don't want shared.
Well, yes, that's true.  But if you don't join Facebook, they can still talk about you behind your back.
You see, there's Privacy settings!  You can set yourself up as more or less invisible, even choosing not to allow others to find you when they search for your name.  Then you'll only be able to connect with friends whom you go looking for and add yourself.

Concern #3-- Facebook isn't to be trusted with my private information.
Right.  So don't give them any.  They only require your first and last name, birthdate and email address.  If someone looks in the phone book they'll get more information than that about you.  If they look at your driver's license they'll get more information than that about you.  You're supposed to put your real information, it's de rigueur, so to speak, to use your real first and last name on Facebook like everybody else, but there's people on my friends list who obviously haven't.  The only thing that absolutely has to be accurate is your email address. 

You've heard that people can tag you in embarrassing photos?  But there's a privacy setting to not allow them.

And after all, you can join Facebook and not SAY one single thing!  You can just join MY friends list, and then lurk and listen, and if I post something you like, say "Yay!" in the comments box, and nothing more.


Okay, there.  Done nagging.
See?  Here's what PRIVACY SETTINGS look like.  






Oh, those last few things, I've never entered anything in the boxes  :-)

The blue dress

I read in a book long ago that you can sew clothes even if you have only fifteen minutes a day for it, if you just do one step each day.  The key is to leave the sewing area with everything lying just where it should be, ready for the next step the next day, so you don't have to waste any time finding your place again.That works for me.
Today, I was suddenly done!  I love it when I'm just stitching along, get to the end of a seam and realize that was the last one.
I even smiled at the camera (sort of).

I know this is the design in the illustration of "what pudgy ladies should not wear" but... but... I like it! 

Sarcasm or Irony

I recently saw a t-shirt that said, "Sarcasm is just one of the free services I offer."



I thought I was the sarcastic type, but when I looked up the word, I'm not!


Definition: 

SARCASM: a keen or bitter taunt : a cutting gibe or rebuke often delivered in a tone of contempt or disgust 2: the use of caustic or stinging remarks or language often with inverted or ironical statement on occasion of an offense or shortcoming with intent to wound the feelings

That's not me!  I don't ever intend to wound anyone's feelings.  Of course I do hurt someone's feelings, that just breaks my little heart… hahahaha. 
No, really.  It does.

There’s a better word for what I do.

IRONY: feigned ignorance designed to confound or provoke an antagonist : dissimulation : humor, ridicule, or light sarcasm that adopts a mode of speech the intended implication of which is the opposite of the literal sense of the words (as when expressions of praise are used where blame is meant) : a state of affairs or events that is the reverse of what was or was to be expected : a result opposite to and as if in mockery of the appropriate result *the irony of fate*

IRONY applies chiefly to a way of speaking or writing in which the meaning intended is contrary to that expressed on the surface *beset with confusion and humiliation he said in blunt irony, *I am certainly enjoying myself** but in a more literary or dramatic sense it implies a deeper perception of the discrepancies implicit in life and character or applies to the actual discrepancies (as between appearance and reality, what is promised and what fulfilled, what is intended and what achieved, what seemingly should be and what actually is), applying frequently to a situation in which what results is the direct, often tragic, opposite of what was desired, intended, or worked for *the dramatic irony of the play in which the hero intent upon the greatest good he knows achieves by his very pursuit of it destruction and death* *the patient had sought violent death, but, with the usual irony of life, it was the doctor whom sudden death overcame Havelock Ellis* *an irony of nature that our teeth, which decay so painfully while we live, stop decaying at our death, and outlast all the rest of us Leonard Woolley*
SARCASM applies chiefly to a type of humor intended to cut or wound, often employing ridicule or bitter irony *the satire has become in some instances sarcasm * and heavy sarcasm at that John Woodburn*

Okay, you were dying to have that distinction made, and the confusion cleared up, right? 

I think most people who say they are "sarcastic" are using the word incorrectly.  This is irony: 

Swimwear

We went to a water park recently and I was impressed with the swimwear... some people look carefree in their swimsuits but many looked uncomfortable and just wished they could be a little more covered up!  I saw just ONE girl in a homemade, modest swimsuit.  It looked just like a dress, but with short skirt and short sleeves, made of swimsuit lycra.  She was so comfortable and pretty! 
I decided my daughters must have this.
Bought four yards of nice textured lycra and started cutting.  I have this Kwik-Sew book with a whole bunch of patterns in it, patterns for everything and the book was only like $15.  I used the leotard pattern with short sleeves and just added a skirt, and the pattern for short shorts. 
It came out SO WELL!
I used the serger a lot which made it super easy.  The serger's differential feed means you can set it so the front feed dogs go a little faster than the rear, so the fabric's slightly gathered instead of stretched, and the seams come out perfectly smooth.  It's tough to make knit fabric come out smooth with a regular machine! 

REALLY talented is when you can hold it up and take the picture at the same time  :-)
I actually tried it on myself and it fits me too, just a little tight!  I'm going to get more fabric and make myself one too.  I'm not so important because I'm the one who's in charge of the group, not one of the swimmers...

The dress was too tight at first, because I cut it as for a swimsuit.  You don't want a dress to dip in at the middle back like a swimsuit does.  So I had to slice it open and add a triangle... now it looks just fine.  That's why I bought a floral pattern! 

All done...

Matching shorts. 

Andrea refuses to have her face in the picture  :-) 

Triune Biblical University site up

My latest project, Triune Biblical University  is online.  Check it out! 

the Pleated Dress Project

Big idea I just had to try  :-)
What if I evenly pleat across a width of fabric, sew along the pleats partway down, then cut a dartless bodice shape out of the pleated middle section and let the skirt form naturally?
Here's how it came out.

My calculations of how much to pleat in order to gather the full width into the width of the bodice pattern I was using. 

 

String Quilt Top Done...?

I thought it would be a lap quilt or something.  My husband said he liked it and was it going to be for the bed?  I thought he would hate it!  He's the tidy, organized type. 
Well it would look pretty cool on the bed, wouldn't it!  Just needs to be a little larger  :-)