Is It May Already?

Looks like two whole weeks flew by while I snoozed (actually sneezed, mostly).

There are a few things going on, but my daily activities don’t lend themselves to photography or blog updates. Examples:

I sat in a spot of shade on the patio, while a hummingbird visited the flowers on my bright red shorts.

Of course I did not have my camera at the time.

 

After two weeks of daily workouts and no pie (okay, minimal pie), this number refuses to get any smaller.

 The scale must be broken.
 

I pulled this dress out of a pile of UFOs from last year, made some progress on it, then ground to a halt again.

It should be cute though, if it ever gets finished.

We have hit our first 100-degree day already, so I’ll just use the summer sun as my excuse ... for everything.

 

Katrina

Pollen Nation

Pollen is here.

 

 

And it’s here.

 

It’s in the water.

 

And it’s definitely in the air.

 

Every tree, shrub, and grass is in flower here.

 So pretty to look at, so painful to breathe.

 

In the early part of the 20^th century, Phoenix was known as a haven for people with allergies and respiratory ailments, due to the clean, dry air. One hundred years and a million people later, we are known for the poor quality of our air, which seems to be comprised mostly of ozone, dust, pollen, and other large and small “particulates.”

I don’t think I’ve taken a normal breath since late February! Zyrtec, which has worked reliably for me for the last ten years, barely makes a dent in this season’s allergies. I’m steadily working my way through the pharmacy shelves, trying a new combination of antihistamine and decongestant every two weeks, hoping for the magic formula.

I studied pollination ecology a few years ago (thus the title of the post, from a very confusing phone conversation with my aunt). One of the many things I did was photograph these microscopic particles. Pollen is actually a beautiful thing, when it’s not wreaking havoc on your nasal membranes.

The pollen was dyed before mounting on a slide, to create contrast between the structures on the outer wall of the grain. Presumably this assists in identification, although I never got very good at the ID part of the job.

If you want to see some really beautiful photos of pollen, just Google “pollen photos” or “pollen microscopy.” You may have seen some in Nat Geo or similar magazines. The pictures taken with electron microscopes (very different from what I used) are fascinating.

I hope you enjoy your flowering season with minimal sneezing and wheezing.

Katrina

The Carnivore’s Conscience

Warning: today’s post may be disturbing to vegetarians or animal lovers.

Warning #2: today’s post may be very long.

As of Saturday, we have approximately 150 pounds of beef in our freezer. While this may seem excessive to you, imagine how shocking it is to me, a former vegetarian.

Alton Brown's beef map, source

How did we find ourselves in such strange circumstances? It was a long road. In the past few years, the Piemaker has gone from the all-American, 3-squares-a-day, meat-based type of diet to a single meal each day consisting of a huge salad. He usually eats a meat dish once a week at the most.

I’ve gone in the other direction. I have come a long way from my Diet for a Small Planet days, circa 1975, when I gave up meat forever (forever turned out to be 3 years) for political and humanitarian reasons.

Today I eat meat regularly, but I do still believe that the mass production of animals for food is one of the most cruel and unhealthy activities that humanity engages in, and that the resulting meat reflects the terrible conditions that the animals endure. I also still believe that the growing population of the world cannot be fed adequately by animal protein and that at some point, if we are to survive, humans will have subsist on plant or manufactured proteins.

That said, if one shifts from a global view to a local view, there is still the possibility for communities in some areas of the world to provide a healthy, varied diet to their populations, if they follow socially responsible food production and consumption principles. Sharing is the most obvious one of these, and is the reason for the success of community gardens throughout the ages. My best example is a simple one: here in the low desert we can grow huge amounts of citrus and some herbs in the winter, while our friends in Northern Arizona have no citrus at all, but they are overrun with tomatoes every summer. Sharing the wealth with each other and many other friends and neighbors creates ripples of benefits through a large community. Soon everyone is exchanging bundles of fruits and vegetables (and once in a while, a plate of cookies!) over fences.

Double Check Ranch steer having a snack, source

Yes, I am going to get back to the beef eventually.












When I read The Omnivore’s Dilemma a few years ago, it just reinforced many aspects of a philosophy that had been slowly forming in the murky recesses of my mind.

My philosophy basically condenses down to one central concept: I want to know what is in my food and where it came from before I eat it.

As you may know, taking a personal interest in in your own health or that of food animals can make it difficult to eat! We all went through the days when organic vegetables were nearly impossible to find and exorbitantly expensive if available. Now it is the animal products. Cage-free eggs are getting easier to find, but they are three times the cost of regular. Grass-fed beef is available at some grocery stores, but it’s twice the price of the alternative. I think you can only get the pork equivalent direct from the rancher, unless you find a seller at a farmers market.

When I learned that our incredibly talented farming friends were raising steers, I knew it was the best way to for us to go. I visited the animals and saw them running around in the meadow, enjoying their varied grassland. I knew that they were never exposed to illness or cruelty.  The small local processor was able to kill the animals humanely (although this always sounds like an oxymoron). And, because of friends and friends-of-friends, we could all share the cost and get a large amount of food for significantly less than we would pay at the grocery store.

And so, the neatly-wrapped packages stacked in the freezer represent one quarter of a healthy animal that ate good food, got lots of exercise, and had a pleasant, if short, life. Have I made peace with eating him? I am working on it!


What experiences have you had in this brave new world of food sourcing, food scares, and so much food information?

Katrina

An afterthought: I probably should have put this above, but I didn't want to goof up the fomatting.

Here is link to a website which lists grass-fed ranches and similar operations in the US and Canada. It's exciting to see that the number of listings has almost tripled in the last couple of years.

Eat Wild - Find Your State

 

[I don't know anything about these ranches, I just loved the pictures]

Lawton Family Sugar House grass-fed cattle in Massachusetts, source



Fruitland America grass-fed cattle in Missouri, source

Coming Up Roses

In order to quell my impatience over my clumsy hand (still can’t work scissors), I’ve been making plans for the gifts I wasn’t able to finish in time for Christmas. One of them was a special order: a pink rose pillow.

The pillow part is fairly straightforward, mostly a question of size and shape. But the rose aspect is so complex, so multifaceted!


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Will the rose (or roses) be printed, painted, embroidered, appliqued, quilted, or three-dimensional made of fabric petals, gathered ribbons, felt, or some as yet unknown type of design?


source

I got so many ideas I had to start tracking them on Pinterest.  

 

source

 





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fabrics on fabric.com

 

 

So far I’ve experimented with a couple of ideas, and already learned a few lessons! (Hint: check your fabric content before embroidering, as cotton-lycra does not work well for this. LOL)

Katrina

Since I Have Nothing New…

I guess I must have a pretty good life if the worst thing that’s happened to me is being unable to sew for the past two weeks. I injured my hand slightly during one of my gardening frenzies, but it didn’t heal well, so I ended up with a painful, red, balloon-shaped paw that kept me busy with trips to the Urgent Care facility, constantly changing bandages, and the biggest, yuckiest antibiotic pills ever invented.

Fortunately the pain is gone, but I can’t quite bend my fingers yet, so sewing is still off the activity menu for a week or two at least. Frustration!

Since I have nothing new to share, at the risk of making the year-end sewing round-up another dreaded tradition, I’m going to post a few of my favorite sewn things from 2012.

[click on any photo to see larger or,

click on the caption to go to the original post]

 

Orange-Striped Jeans


 

Sailor Pants





Blouse - remake of a dress

Wrap Top - ITY

 

Blue Velvet Skirt

Cactus Skirt

 

Plaid Chenille Coat

40s Blouse & 80s Skirt



40s Dress - Button Print

40s Dress - Floral Print

Shirt dress - Cherry Print


Thank you for sticking with me through 2012 – it was fun! I wish you all a very healthy, safe and happy next year!

Katrina

It Seems Like Forever

Wow! I was only away from blogotopia for ten days? It seemed like a month, at least.

It all started when I made a very stupid mistake with one of my medications. I miscalculated my remaining doses, ran out completely, and had to wait more than a week for delivery of more pills. Has this ever happened to you? With hindsight it appears that I am a moron, an idiot, the stupidest person in the world – pick your description – but at the time I was sure that my prescription service would deliver in a day or two, based on past experience. Well, not any more. It took nine business days.

Of all things, I had to pick an anti-anxiety medication to learn this lesson on. Ironically, I wasn’t even taking it for anxiety, but if you ever want anxiety, try undergoing the sudden withdrawal symptoms. This is an experience like nothing else. I was dizzy, twitchy, irritable and weepy. I hallucinated big black shadows moving around and loud crashing noises right next to me. Electric currents buzzed through my head (this is so common it even has a name: “brain zaps”). Five pounds of my body weight mysteriously disappeared. Don’t worry, they came right back. J

Seriously, do not run out of your prescription medication. It is not fun, plus it can be dangerous. I monitored my symptoms and made sure I didn’t experience anything that was actually life-threatening. (Also the Piemaker was hovering constantly, which was mostly aggravating but did result in a delicious sweet-onion quiche and a new twist on Grasshopper pie. Pics later.)  I did finally receive the medication, restarted my daily dosage and am feeling pretty “normal.”

So with all of that, the beginning of my non-blogging week was a bit dull since my vision and my coordination were way off. I stayed far away from sharp objects and heavy equipment, but read some books and watched lots of TV.

I finished a fun series of books by David Rosenfelt about a defense attorney who gets involved in solving murders.   

(first in the series)

The main character is very funny, the writing is clever, and there are several nice dogs who feature prominently in the stories.

I also read an amazing book called Tales of an African Vet by Dr. Roy Aronson.  

Aronson worked in clinics, zoos, and in the field in South Africa and other countries for twenty-five years, and you get the sense that the stories he shares in this book are just a small fraction of his amazing experiences. Great book, worth reading just for the bit on the rhino that knocked its horn off.

A few of my favorite series are back on television, but they’re not making me too happy right now. First, there’s True Blood, which I simply adored in its first season, loved in the second season, and since then have just been waiting for it to return to its former glory.

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I admire Alan Ball’s genius and the way he recreates our world in TB, but either his writers have lost their spark or I’m getting jaded or both. I just haven’t felt very inspired by either the existing characters’ storylines (completely different from the originals in the Sookie Stackhouse books) or the endless parade of new characters in the last couple of seasons. Still, Anna Paquin remains my greatest girl crush of all time so I will keep watching this program for as long as it is on.

Next is The Closer, and I swear my heart rate actually goes up whenever I see one of those “THREE. SHOWS. LEFT.” commercials on TNT. (Only two after tonight!)

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I know it’s silly to get stressed out over a television program, but I am scared for Assistant Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson of the LAPD.

I don’t know whether she is headed for some sort of breakdown, or if she is putting on one of her performances in order to take down a serial murderer, but the whole thing is freaking me out. And obviously we know that in three weeks she will be gone, so something momentous is going to happen.

One of the things that viewers of The Closer will miss forever and ever is the magnificent vintage wardrobe, brought to us courtesy of Greg LaVoi. The man has a historian’s love of clothing, an insider’s knowledge of where to get the best of everything old and new in LA, and on this show, he fully utilizes his opportunity to see magnificent vintage suits and dresses in action on the gorgeous Kyra Sedgwick.


A sample of the vintage delights, source

Mr. LaVoi blogged the wardrobe planning for each episode. There are fascinating insights into how the storyline feeds into his costuming decisions, and how the clothes in turn help the actors develop their characters.

Finally, there is Breaking Bad. 



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This is another program that had me enthralled during the first couple of seasons. The cinematography (does anyone still use that word?) was incredible, with shots so long you had to look away from the discomfort of the actors, cuts so fast you could barely follow the action, scenes composed with the balance and light of a Renaissance painting, and stark, angry shots of sheer ugliness.

The story was like an ongoing ethics argument – what would you do or not do to protect yourself or your family in dire circumstances? The characters and their actions were believable, and you could understand their “bad” behavior even while disagreeing with it.

Then at some point the tone shifted, and now the characters seem to be bad for no good reason, and I can’t identify or sympathize with anyone. I know, that’s the whole plan of creator Vince Gilligan, and I’m sure he’s going somewhere with this. Still, it is a curse of my personality type that I always need to know why, why, WHY people do things. Even if they are only TV characters.

That was quite a lot of entertainment, so when the freakish drug withdrawal symptoms dissipated somewhat, I ventured back into my creative space and decided to catch up on a few things. I did some pattern archiving, had a conniption fit at the vegetable garden and pulled out the mostly dead plants, and worked through a couple of sewing remakes and repairs. I’ll share all that in some of my upcoming posts!

In the meantime, I’m going to start catching up with all of you, and see what’s been happening out there.

Katrina

Pink Week: To be continued…

I didn’t quite get my last pink thing finished. Here’s a sneak peek:

These fabrics:

  For this pattern:

M4769 from 2005, still in print

Although this dress should be the nicest and most wearable of my pink projects, it has also been the most problematic.

It all started in September, when I got the fabric, cut out the pattern pieces, and started pinning some of them together. I then realized I was not feeling pink for fall, so I put it aside in favor of a million other projects.

Lesson learned #1: Do not cut fabric and set it aside for seven months!

For whatever reason, I had cut a size 12 in the bodice and 14 in the skirt, instead of my usual 14-16. I discovered this only after sewing together the bodice and sleeves and wondering why I could barely move my arms. I was able to reduce the seam allowances all around and release the back darts enough to move, but it’s still smallish. Luckily the skirt is flared, so the smaller size was not a problem for my size 16 hips.

The next problem I ran into was the most confusing collar and facing construction I’ve ever seen.

Lesson learned #2: Read the entire pattern instructions before starting sewing!

For one thing, why does McCall’s want us to interface both the front band and the front facing? If I can ever get the two sewn together, it’s going to be like having a wood plank hanging straight down from my neck. If I had read enough to realize which pieces went with which, I probably would have skipped one layer of interfacing, or used something tissue-thin.

Here is the explanation for attaching the facing to the front and neck:

The entire step takes up less than two inches of the instruction sheet. Couldn’t they spare another inch or two to give a better close-up diagram of that mess up in the corner? And why do they have to have a large dot, a notch, and a small dot all in the same area? (Question for those of you who sew: how do you distinguish your large and small dots on your fabric? By the time I get to the sewing machine, all my dots look like the same.)

While the facing/band problem was enough to put me in the dirt, as The Piemaker likes to say, I also had issues with buttons and lining. I had decided against a lining, thinking of summer comfort, but it is already clear that I will have to wear a full-length slip. That puts the comfort factor on a par with using a lining, so I must ponder the issue for a while. Then there were the buttons, which I swear I bought specifically for this fabric, but which now cannot be found.

Lesson learned #3: Keep project supplies together!

I checked all the button jars, and I even looked at the other things I’ve sewn in the past seven months, to see if the buttons somehow got onto another garment. Still no sign of them. Possibly it’s just as well, because they were pink, and I’ve decided to use shell shirt buttons to coordinate with a greenish-gray belt buckle.

So, while I work on the facing and procrastinate on the finishing details, here's a little preview (ignore that puckered sleeve cap!):

And because I didn’t finish all three pink things this week, here’s an extra bonus – the pink skirt I made a few weeks ago.

Full length (comes to ankle), soft rayon jersey, made with two full widths of fabric sewn together at the sides and with a wide elastic waistband.  Easy and so comfy!

In other news, I’ve had a setback in my fight against migraines. During the first half of May, I had 14 (FOURTEEN!) migraines. A lot of pain, a lot of nausea, very little sleep, and extreme frustration. Since I’ve now fallen into the realm of “Chronic Daily Headache”, I have to undertake some measures to stop taking the pain medication so frequently, which means I’ll likely have an interim period of even more migraines. Sigh.

There is a light at the end of the tunnel, since I’m also starting on another preventive medication which I’ve had some success with in the past. We’ll hope that it works again and I’m soon down to a more manageable level.

All this is just to explain that if I don’t visit your blogs as often as usual, or if you don’t see me posting much, it’s just because I’m feeling a bit poopy. I will be back soon!

Katrina

Top Ten Things To Do When You Have a Cold

This stupid cold! I can’t focus on small work long enough to do much reading or sewing, and I don’t have enough energy to undertake any huge landscaping projects, so I’ve just been bouncing around. Here are my top ten things to amuse oneself while sick.

10. Find someone to blame. I haven’t had a head cold for years, and I’m disappointed that my one souvenir from my trip to California is this mess of sore throat, stuffy head and watery eyes. With my recent visits to airports, planes, taxicabs, and hotels, along with sudden close contact with fifty or more people at a party, it’s not too surprising that I picked up a virus, but I’m not happy about it. I think I’ll blame air travel in general.

9. Sleep. This actually should count as items 2 though 9, because it’s practically all I can do. I am such a wimp.

8. Do boring tasks. I’ve paid the bills, vacuumed, done loads of laundry, looked up tax information. Yawn.

7. Organize. Not quite in the category of boring tasks, but not always my favorite activity, either. I reorganized the closets for the umpteenth time. I never quite meet my goal of having all wearable garments in one closet, visible and organized. This time I managed to get all tops, jackets, and pants into one closet, skirts, dresses, and coats into another, and items needing repair into a third. I also did a bit of cleaning and organizing in the sewing room.

6. Shop online. Somehow, I can lose half a day scrolling through vintage kitchenware, fabrics and patterns, and dresses and shoes. So far I’ve resisted the urge to actually hit the checkout button on any of my shopping carts. Good thing I went through all my closets and supplies first!

5. Work outside. I managed to weed three of the four vegetable beds before my energy ran out. Then I decided to inventory my cactus collection. I want to photograph, map and label everything. Some of them I know by sight, others have plant tags around here somewhere, and others are a complete mystery requiring research online and in my cactus books. All this is because a local cactus salvager stopped by my house a few weeks ago and offered to buy some of my specimens. I declined the offer but thought it would be prudent to create a complete record of everything just in case someone decides to collect my cacti without my permission.

4. Play with dogs. My pups are always willing to play or sleep, whatever the situation calls for. Manny the terrier takes things very seriously and understands that I’m not feeling well. He has temporarily abandoned his independent ways and has been sitting on my lap to let me know how much he cares. Dolly the chi mix thinks that continuing her regular antics is the best medicine for me.

3. Drink juice. I can’t taste much with my nose stopped up, but fruit juice is the most delicious thing on the planet right now. I also enjoyed the three grapefruit that our baby tree gave us this year. I’m happy to see it has plenty of green shoots coming out so it can grow big and strong.

2. Plan projects. I have so many things in progress right now: embroidery to finish, cut fabric to sew, zippers to replace. And I can’t stop thinking about linen pants and knit tops I want to make for spring and summer.

1. Eat Pie. I know, you already guessed that one. The Piemaker has been too busy to bake, but we had buttermilk pie and tangerine pie from the backup supply in the freezer. I hope there’s some pumpkin pie in there!

Hoping that you get through cold and flu season safely!

Katrina


(all graphics from The Graphics Fairy)

Stalking: Have Things Changed?

How interesting that Patti at Not Dead Yet Style mentioned her run-in with a blog stalker the other day. I’ve been pondering this topic for some time, and two other recent events made me decide to write about stalking and related offenses.

First, let me give you some background on my own experiences.
• From the first through eigth grades, I was periodically the target of bullies, both male and female, who took delight in my unwillingness to fight back or speak up for myself.
• During my college years, I acquired two stalkers, former boyfriends who refused to let go. This allowed me and my family to develop a close relationship with the police department, but I would have happily forgone the experience.
• In my 20s I was sexually harassed at work. This was a truly disgusting and demeaning experience, magnified by my then-husband's assumption that I was encouraging it.

Like anyone who has had weird experiences, I often wonder why. I think part of it was the way I presented myself. It still surprises me that with strong female role models all around me, I spent so much of my life being meek and non-confrontational. I was never able to reconcile the two prime directives for female behavior in my generation, politeness and assertiveness. These contradictory modes, combined with extreme introversion, gave me the outward appearance of weakness, in my opinion.

Please, do not think that I subscribe to the “blame the victim” mentality. I abhor even the suggestion of that, and violently oppose anyone who believes that women can in any way cause crimes against themselves. However, I think (and you will tell me if I’m wrong) that women who are physically intimidating or have an aggressive demeanor are less likely to have weirdos parked outside their homes every night or receive threatening letters and calls.

I certainly don’t have anywhere near the problems I had when I was younger, but the occasional nuisance does arise. A few years ago a man approached me at the gym, asked me what I was doing later, and said that he was just in town for that night but he had his truck parked outside. Although I couldn't help laughing at his creepy stupidity, I said no, very clearly, and quickly pointed him out to the front desk to let them know he was bothering the customers. Last week a man followed me all over Jo-Anns Fabrics for almost an hour. After the fourth or fifth time that I looked up to see him hovering and leering at me, I told him to go away, and he did. Note that both of those instances occurred during the day; if it was nighttime, my responses would have been quite different.

Why do I lump all these experiences together? Because bullying, stalking, and harassment all have a similar emotional impact on me, the victim. I start to doubt my own intelligence and/or instincts. I am fearful of overreacting or being thought of as paranoid. And even though I have not been physically harmed, I feel disturbed by the unwanted interaction, and it colors the rest of my day.

What about stalking in the cyber world? There are both similarities and differences with the real world scenarios.

I think the biggest difference is that cyberstalkers feel protected by their anonymity, and this makes them bolder, meaner, more threatening, or cruder in their harassment. Like obscene phone callers, online stalkers are likely to say infinitely more horrible things than they would if they were talking to you face to face. I had a message from a facebook weirdo recently, and although there was a name and photo, it’s unlikely that either belonged to a real person. I did not respond, but dumped him into the spam bin.

The separation provided by cyberspace goes both ways. We can choose to ignore the stalkers, toss them in the spam file, delete them, and go about our business. If they are foolish enough to accost us on a platform with a reporting facility, we can sic the security police on them.

The main similarity between old-school stalking and the online version is that no matter what, we have been negatively affected. Whether it is just a brief inconvenience, or something so ugly that it makes us feel sick, our lives have been touched by something bad and it takes a little time to recover and move on. It’s good to share the experience, as Patti did, so we do not feel alone.

Because of my past experiences, I do not use my real name in my blog. I also do not post pictures of myself here. I like to be able to chat freely about things that interest me without wondering if so-and-so is suddenly going to show up in my comments. I guess I just feel more comfortable having a degree of separation between the real me and the online me.

If someone’s intent on finding me, they can certainly do it, but that’s true of everyone these days. I learned from a quick Google search that anyone can get my personal information including credit report and criminal record (that must be exciting!) for $49.95 or less.

I would like to ask you, dear readers, who I believe are mostly female, what is your opinion on dealing with stalkers? How would you have responded to some of the scenarios I’ve described here? And what experiences have you had with unwanted attention either in person or online?

Katrina