I’m using my vacation time this year to check out the Annapolis BoatShow. I drove up yesterday, 10/8/15, and hit the show early this morning. To be honest, I was almost as excited for the long drive as I was for the boat show. I love long road trips, and this was a great opportunity to chill and listen to podcasts. It was a nice drive with little drama. The only challenge was I-95 closure in South Carolina. But Waze routed me around it without any issue. ...

My plan is a dark vest with a themed lining, long sleeve shirt, and dark pants. To tie it all together, I found these great masks on ebay. The first one is fairly tradition, well made and very comfortable. Thanks seller ktn.cybermart for offering these. The second is just too fabulous! I haven’t decided which to wear yet 🙂 Thanks to Joann.com I found some nice fabrics to work with. I’ll post updates as I start working on the various pieces. ...

Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass. It’s about learning how to dance in the rain. Vivian Greene

Perfect is the enemy of good Voltaire

Kudos to the Supreme Court yesterday ruling correctly that equality is a constitutional right under the law, and not something to be argued about and applied willy-nilly. I know I’m just whispering to the wind, but it is important to keep this point going forward: This fight has never been about religion. Marriage in this country is not restricted to a specific religious sect or group, and likewise, it is not defined by a specific group. ...

I found a really cool green and white stripped seersucker fabric and had to dosomething with it. So I made another shirt using the Hawaiian Classics pattern. I’m really happy with how it turned out. I’m getting the hang ofcollars finally. I also went back and fixed the hems on the first Hawaiian shirt, and now both are very wearable. This learning to sew stuff is fun. Making a shirt is very much an engineering project. It’s turning into a great way to spend my spare time. ...

“What do you think, Joanna, of the person who only does the bare minimum?” Are you wearing the right amount of flair? If you don’t get the reference,please immediately go watch Office Space. I was joking with a friend the other day, that I can’t help think of that scene from Office Space when I see someone wearing religious paraphernalia like a cross pendant. So we coined the phrase, Religious Flair. And yes, I know that these tokens probably mean a great deal to the person wearing them,and they may have great sentimental meaning. And yes, I’m a horrible person for saying all this, but it does creep me out a bit to see people walking around with medieval torture/execution devices around their necks. ...

Time to start a new shirt. I purchased the Hawaiian Classics 220 shirt pattern from the Victoria Jones Collection. This is my first ‘non-beginner’ pattern. The instructions are great, and the construction is pretty straightforward. I did end up making several learning mistakes on the muslin, but the real shirt is going great. That’s the whole point, in my opinion, of the muslin. Yes, check fit and adjust, of course, but I also find it a great learning experience figuring out the nuances of the pattern. ...

Part of the ten year plan is learning some independence skills. For example, I want to be able to repair and create cushion covers and sail covers. This means learning some basic sewing skills and learning to work on a gear driven sewing machine. Enter my beautiful Singer 15-91. What a wonderful machine! I bought it from a sewing machine expert, the-treasure-cellar on ebay, and couldn’t be more pleased. From 1952, this single-stitch machine is smooth and wonderful to work with. ...

Computers are incredibly fast, accurate, and stupid; humans are incredibly slow, inaccurate and brilliant; together they are powerful beyond imagination. Albert Einstein