Technical assistance required … twitter edition…

Special weekend greetings, little birdies! I’m slogging my way through yet another technology-based medium… Twitter. Some of you may have noticed that I’ve had a twitter account set up for quite some time (I’m pattythesnugbug) and at SOME point I managed to set up my Snug Bug Facebook page to talk to twitter… and that was it. I added the twitter feed to the sidebar of the blog, since I thought it was a good way to show my Facebook status updates here, but I never EVER actually went to twitter. Funny side note – also at some point, I managed to set up my twitter profile so I got texts of messages that were in response to one of MY twitter updates (that were actually Facebook updates.) So I would get texts out of the blue that started with an ‘@’ and I’d have NO idea where they came from. It’s true little birdies, I am occasionally befuddled by modern day communication….

A week or two ago, I decided to either figure out how to use Twitter more effectively than just reposting Facebook updates, or I’d deactivate my account. I downloaded a Twitter client for my iPod and started to play with it. I’m beginning to see the charm of Twitter – it’s more conversational than Facebook and I’ve been using it for more fun, transitional stuff than what I put on Facebook.  But I don’t feel like I’m totally GETTING it, so I thought I’d ask all of you! Here are my main questions…

1. who should I follow? I click on people if I see them and recognize their names, but other than that….

2. What is the deal with the @ sign?

3. What is the deal with the # tag thing?

4. Is it a tweet? A twitter update? Something else? Lingo please!?

5. What are good ways to have facebook, twitter and blogger talk to each other? I currently have the Facebook app set up to publish Facebook status updates to Twitter. And I think that blog posts automatically publish to twitter, but that may be due to magic, as I’m not sure how I might have set that up. Sigh.

So c’mon birdies, share your Twitter lore – even if you don’t use it for your blog, all knowledge is worth having, right? Comment below or email me if you have super top secret information that is not appropriate for the general public…

That is all, please resume your weekend nest building!

[Gratuitous baby photo of Lucy when she was a 10-pound-hound]

weekly roundup: what I wore, a special delivery and best of the googles!

Happy weekend, dear manatees! Let’s just jump in and get the what I wore stuff out of the way, shall we?

     

     

Top row: last Saturday through Monday… I hope you all REALLY like my gardening outfit in the center!

Second row: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday: it got cold again, can you tell?

Left: What I wore today!

When I kicked off the new (and improved?) snugbug365 at the beginning of the month, I wasn’t sure how long I’d stick to the daily regimen! I’ve found that I’ve really enjoy it and I’ve stuck with it pretty faithfully - although a couple of shots are ‘staged’ the day after due to bad planning! I’m still trying to decide if I’ll continue into May. I think I probably will – and then most of us will be style blogging during Me-Made-June, right?

Let’s continue with the week’s recap….

 

An awesome birthday present and field trip!

Greetings threstrals! Today was my birthday and Dan and I are winding up a day of birthday fun and adventuring by watching the last Harry Potter movie and computering. I have some fun pictures for you, though!

First of all, I got the most wonderful birthday present from Dan’s mom! She sent a card and a letter with pictures she thought I’d like enjoy, including this adorable picture of her and Mr. Bug when he was just a little baby bug. The best part? The dress is handmade by Dan’s mom! The year was 1972 – isn’t she the cutest, most fashionable thing you’ve ever seen?

 

Tahitian treat! (Kwik Sew 3637)

Greetings tropical hermit crabs! I’ve finished my first summer skirt and shirt combo (remember the bolts of cloth I posted the other day?) If any of you guessed the hawaiian-style Amy butler print with the pink and white striped knit, you win a gold star!

Shoe shopping with Mr. Bug

Greetings ducks! This post promises to be short and sweet! It was a cold and rainy day in Minneapolis and Mr. Bug and I ventured out to go shoe shopping this evening. He needed new running shoes and I tagged along, feeling all virtuous for entering the hallowed man-space called Dick’s Sporting Goods, and just LOOK at what greeted me when I walked through the door!

 

       

[image Golf Skorts]

blogging tips… those pesky photos…

Greetings bloggerbears!! That’s what we call Lucy the hound – puppy bear. Also, Mr. Bug calls me mamabear and I call him papabear… and we tend to add ‘bear’ to the end of all our friends names. Some deal with it better than others – heidibear and cylebear are fine with it, but Dan’s friend Pat seems to ignore us if we start talking about patbear…

In any case bearcubs, I DID get some sewing done today and snapped some photos along the way, but I didn’t really get to the end of the project so I decided to come up with some more blog fluff in lieu of sewing progress.  And what better subject is there than photography for bloglovin’ bears?

Unlike some of my favorite blogs, I don’t really have a very first blog post to pull a sewing picture from – the first posts on the Snug Bug weren’t really about sewing at all. What I DO have, is a photo from my first review on Pattern Review – this picture was taken just over a year ago. Here it is side by side with a photo from yesterday’s post and while I’m certainly no photographer I’ve learned a few things along the way and thought I’d share! I hope that all you of you who are taking the awesome photos out there will chime in with your own advice!

    

The crescent skirt. Revealed. (Sewaholic 1101)

Greetings garden variety gnomes! Easter has come and gone and it was a beautiful day today. Beautiful enough that I nearly didn’t get to this post as I was taking on the seven fierce shrub roses in my front retaining wall beds. I won, although it was close. They’ve been neatly contained and even though my right arm looks like it was attacked by a rabid cat, I look forward to tackling the 20 or 30 remaining rosebushes left on my miniscule city lot… but let’s get down to business, shall we? After grading up the crescent skirt (Sewaholic 1101) last week, I got sewing this weekend and finished my sample for the shop!

weekly round up… what I’m wearing and the week’s best of the interwebs.

It’s Friday night! Another week gone and another week closer to spring. Let’s get the what I’m wearing business out of the way, shall we? Here’s the last week’s worth of outfits…

   

[April 16 – April 17 – April 18]

   

[April 19 – April 20 – April 21]

         

[April 22 – April 22 boots – April 22 coat]

---

Now that we’ve taken a look at what I’ve  been wearing, let’s take a look at what other people are up to. Here’s the top five things that got my heart going pitter pat on the interwebs this week…

Time to take up quilting again??

[image:: film in the fridge]

Ok, owlets… as many of you know, I have not been a quilter in many years. It was fun while it lasted, but I really felt I’d made all the quilts necessary for this lifetime before I turned 27. Egad! I just realized that was 10 years ago! Anyway – I came across these pics this week on the blog Film in the Fridge and have been pleasantly distracted by plotting out a potential almost all white quilt with clever funky blocks. Thanks to whomever mentioned this blog in our blog roundup that was part of the giveaway!

My dream shoes…

[image :: Esme and the Laneway]

Shoe obsession! I already whined about this on my facebook page, but it really warrants a top five mention for the week, due to the amount of time I’ve spent thinking about them... I am in LOVE with these shoes, available from the Australian company Wittner. The good news: they’re on sale! The bad news: shipping from Australia to the United States: $60AUD.

Mixing prints 101…

[image Casey’s :: Elegant Musings]

Since practically all of you listed this as one of your favorite blogs, I’m sure you’re all familiar… but I can’t get over how much I love the mix of print and stripes Casey posted as part of her 30x30 project. I also love the flats, belt, bright red lipstick, elegant ponytail and necklace-as-bracelet…

Favorite new song…

[video :: Sew Misunderstood]

Did all y’all watch Psycho Sue’s video of her awesome original song? It’s super catchy and super rocker girl! She can really sing! There’s also a great message to the song… but this girl can sing!

All I want for Christmas…

[video You Tube]

Sorry folks. I’m really not a “awwwww… I’m gonna forward this cute animal picture to everyone I know” type, but a friend posted this on Facebook and I’ve watched it about six hundred and eighty times. Pygmy goat stampede! I totally know what I’m getting Lucy the hound for Christmas! Perhaps the next giveaway as well??

And with that, I’m signing off for the weekend. I’ve got a little work at the shop on the schedule, some bike riding and about 40 rosebushes to prune!

Grading up my Crescent Skirt!

Greetings owls! Creatures of the night, silent fliers. Possessors of giant eyeballs… I think I need to stock up on an animal encyclopedia – I’m running out of wildlife. Perhaps I’ll do a dinosaur week…

OK, so I almost didn’t post this as I believe Tasia will be going over the very same concepts in the next few days for her Crescent sewalong. Unfortunately for me, I'm rushing to finish up a Crescent skirt as we are adding the patterns to our line at the shop, and I want to have a sample in the store asap! Take that, plus my goal to keep up with blogging and my avoidance of any other sewing task today, and here we are – about to look at pictures of how I graded up my Crescent skirt!

Also – I came across a few special issues in my cutting layout – particularly if you are close to my size and are using a 45” wide fabric for your skirt. So stick with me gals! Oops! I mean owls!

Before we get to the relatively boring pictures of wax paper strips – I realized my at-work-shopping showed up in my shots from the cutting table… I cropped it and zoomed it a bit for you guys – sorry the quality’s so wonky.

I became obsessed this morning with an overwhelming and immediate need to amass fabric to make a whole pile of summer skirts, preferably circle skirts, and coordinating knit shirts along the lines of my recent 1980 ruffle shirt. I was inspired by this picture from Casey’s 30x30 project. I’m sure I will eventually copy that look EXACTLY. Until then, I pulled all the knits at the shop that I like (the taller bolts in the back) and then pulled coordinating cottons for skirts. Aren’t they all so fun? I took home three cottons and two knits (I already have one of the knits at home.) I’ll leave you silent hunters of the night to guess what I chose. Now... let’s talk grading.

C’mon over. A sewing tour of the snug bug house. With dogs, plants and mutant lavender.

Greetings aardvarks. Has anyone ever seen an aardvark? I don’t even know what they look like. But let’s save that for another day, shall we? I’m low on sewing blog fodder, so today you all get the previously threatened pictures of my closets. I hope it’s not boring – it was fun to put together!

Before we start on the tour, take a minute to tour the new look of the Snug Bug. I did a spring blog cleaning! Most of the changes are just a bit of a freshen up, but I did take some time to build a dropdown list of finished projects – you can find it on the far right sidebar right underneath the ‘about me’ gadget. It’s a quick way to find a specific finished garment and it’s SUPER handy – at least for me!

And with that, let’s go on a sewing tour of my house, shall we?

It’s that one – with the tuck under garage…

At long last! A Pendrell! (Sewaholic 1001)

Greetings earthlings! I’m pretty excited to FINALLY have some snapshots of the Pendrell to show all ya’ll tonight! I preordered the pattern (along with everyone else) and cut it out a few days after it arrived at my space hut. And there it sat. I’ve finally managed to get one stitched together; from a lovely voile from Tina Givens (alas, we don’t have it posted to our etsy site.) I’m seriously in love with this fabric, as it manages to blend together a dust bowl, 30’s vibe with a totally retro 70’s groove. How weird is that? Without further ado, here it is…

                     

          

Then and now… some summer fun for the kid in me!

Greetings pygmy goats! I think I’m a day late, but I decided to play along with last week’s Sew Weekly challenge “Kidding Around” and make an outfit based on a childhood photo of me. I posted the inspiration photo a few days ago, but here it is again with my ‘now’ photo – 1980 versus 2011. Sigh… nothing like typing that to make you feel your age, right my hoppy small goat friends?

All wrapped up… (Kwik Sew 2954)

Sorry honeybees. I can’t pass up a pun. I’m also a sucker for alliteration and knock knock jokes. Today’s post is all about an easy to sew skirt that has had my heart soaring with the eagles as well as mucking about in the depths with the, oh I don’t know. Mud-wallowing creatures, I guess.

I finished Kwik Sew 2954 today, a simple wrap skirt. A VERY simple wrap skirt. Here’s where the roller coaster ride came in. I made this skirt as a sample for a class I’m teaching at the shop in May. As an aside – we are teaching ALL SKIRT CLASSES in May! How fun is that? Anyway – clearly, a simple wrap skirt was a must to include in the lineup, but I have to admit that this isn’t a style to which I’ve ever been slavishly devoted; like, say…my friend the circle skirt. I picked out the fabric (this awesome birdcage print from Tina Givens!) and set out to give it a try.

Onto the first nice peak of the rollercoast… I checked out Pattern Review. I didn’t spend a lot of time, but the pictures I scanned made it clear that Kwik Sew 2954 was a skirt, not a glorified bathing suit coverup (although, it would be perfect for trips to the beach…) Also, I realized that it has darts, so there IS a bit of shaping. Once I started the skirt, though, I wasn’t so sure. There seemed to be an awful lot of fabric. I finished it up today while working at the shop and, ugh. lowest of low. It appeared to have the same shapeless, blocky, I just wrapped a towel around me vibe that I had associated with wrap skirts.

Let me offer my first bit of wrap skirt advice at this point: do not try it on OVER a denim skirt, tank top and cardigan. The results will not make you happy.

Nevertheless, the skirt was finished. There were pictures to take, blog posts to write and reviews to post. I went home and put on some black leggings and a black tank – the better to highlight the skirt, right? Also they very nicely set off my new polka dot wedges, which with a four inch heel are mysteriously as comfortable as flats. What’s the deal? In any case – the all black did the trick (well, and not wearing it over 3 layers of other clothes!) I really like the skirt a lot!

And the winner is…

Nine! Random.org says NINE!! Let’s see… Claire, Jadestar, Jade, Leanne, Evie, Shannon, Taran, Laura… HEATHER!! Heather is number nine and the winner! She is also the lovely author of Sewing on Pins. Graduate student AND, as she pointed out in her comment, one of the early followers of my blog. Back then we were cross stitching and playing an online D&D game. Not really. I just wish it were true! Here’s what she won!

 

Thanks so much for all the great comments! It sounds like there’s a lot of demand for a needle book from A Fashionable Stitch – we’ll have to wait and see what’s next!

I don’t know about all ya’ll, but I really enjoyed reading through everyone’s favorite blogs! Casey’s Elegant Musings, Tasia’s Sewaholic and Gertie’s Blog for Better Sewing were mentioned countless times, as were the group blogs Sew Retro, Refashion Co-Op and Mena’s blog and community, The Sew Weekly. I’ve compiled a list of the rest of the suggestions - hopefully I got ‘em all! There were a few new too me, but they’re all getting added to my google reader! I’ve listed them roughly in the order mentioned in the comments – sorry if I missed something!

Thanks everyone for playing and special thanks to Sunni for sharing her pincushion goodness!

Tanit-Isis Sews

Anna Maria Horner

Male Pattern Baldness

The Sew Convert

K-Line

Yoshimi the Flying Squirrel

Green Apples

Poor Pitiful Pearl

Tea with the Vintage Baroness

Sewingadicta

Stacie Thinks She Can

Quiet and Small Adventures

3 Hours Past the Edge of the World

Project Rungay

Diary of a Sewing Fanatic

Idle Fancy

Pattern-Scissors-Cloth/buzzybeesworld

Two on, Two off

Film in the Fridge

Colette Patterns

Posie Gets Cozy

Erica B.'s - DIY Style

The Daily Skirt

Handmade by carolyn

10,000 Hours of Sewing

Tilly and the Buttons

Did you Make That?

Amanda's Adventures in Sewing

oonaBalloona from kalkatroona

Tany et La Mode

Miss P

Sew-4-Fun

Make it Smirk

Stitches & Seams

kbenco's projects

Lazy Stitching

My Happy Sewing Place/fashions from the past

Tales of a Wannabe Seamstress

Living la Vida Loca

The Sewing Lawyer

Sew Misunderstood Fatshion for Wayward Girls

Sewing on Pins

High Plains Thrifter

Esme and the Laneway

what I’ve been wearing…

Hey there foxes! I have a confession. I’ve got nothin’ for you tonight. Well, nothing photographed. I’ve got a Pendrell ready for picture time, though, so hopefully I’ll get to that sometime this weekend! And I’m working on samples for my classes in May, so there’ll be pictures of those as well… I’m closing up for the week with pictures of what I’ve been wearing in April. You can see from the sweater-love that the weather has stayed pretty chilly here in the great white north. It was in the 70’s last weekend, but they’re threatening snow tonight.

For those of you who are unaware…I’ve been taking a photo of my daily wearables. Some days – notably, the days I’m off from work and home doing chores and sewing – are clearly much more boring than other days!  The pictures, along with details on the clothes, are posted at my ‘sister blog’ snugbug365.

So with that, happy Friday. May your weekend be full of warm weather, flawless stitching and miraculous shoe sales. Mine will be full of working at the shop, hoping for no snow and teaching my favorite class, Sewing Essentials, tomorrow night!